Birthday Brother & Bali

Saturday November 24^th, 2012

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Allen. Happy Birthday to you! Whoooooo! Older brother’s birthday today! He’s 24 now if I’m correct. This date calls for a celebration! :D

It’s such an honor that my temporary family invited me to join Allen’s birthday lunch. That makes me feel wonderfully part of the family. ^_^ Of course I ecstatically went with good tidings and a gift for the birthday boy! The restaurant was called “Tasty” and its style was a multi-course meal of individual small dishes. Whoooo-weee it was a lot! Yet all of it was SUPER delicious! Oh I want to go back for more! XD Here’s why…

Appetizer of shrimp, bean and a really scrumptious sauce!

Cheesy soupy goodness!

Fruit Salad...

Really tasty soup and breadstick!

Sorbet to cleanse the pallet in between appetizer courses and the main course. Whoo it was a strong blast of lemon for sure!

Nummy Steak!

Creme Brûlée of deliciousness!

Fan-flipping-TASTIC warm hazelnut milk tea. Andrea has fallen in love! If only they had this at easily accessible road side teahouses!

Birthday boy in his new Rockets hat that I gave him.

My temporary host father looks mighty fine in his cowboy bandana!

This is the technique we use to get Xiao Di to take an interest in the food. Just run it up and down a few times, dangle it a little and viola! You have his full attention! So cute!

Family shot together! ^_^

Xiao Di and me!

The meal and company were really fantastic, the best part obviously celebrating Allen’s birthday. Love ya brother! Without parting ways just yet, Chen Mama, Allen and I stayed together a little while but unfortunately Chen Dad, Pi Nan, Yavanna and Xiao Di had to go. After the farewells and hugs, our trio went to a place called “J-Mart.” Chen Mama said it was a single, privately owned store that is similar to a downgraded Wal-Mart. (She’s been to America and our Wal-Mart before ;P) This place basically was for women from hygiene products to under clothing with also toys, pencils, Christmas decorations and more. Only two stories high and medium sized volume (not even close to a Wal-Mart) it was pretty fun browsing through the selection. IT’s the spirit of ‘what new Asian stuff can I find and what familiar American things are there?’ XD

One particular Asian thing has been on my ‘Buy-before-leaving-Taiwan’ list for a bit. It is a very common hygiene product in Taipei that you can purchase at any convenient store and many shops. The trick is finding the best, most desired one. Originally I had the quest to find a checkered one but at J-Mart today, I converted. XD In love at first sight, Chen Mama was kind enough to get me this bad boy!

How awesome is this face mask?! It screams Texas longhorn to me! Plus ain’t it adorable? The store did have a black and white cow print but this one is miles better! Since it’s fabric made, it is re-washable allowing this fantastic baby to last! …I’m such a cowgirl by loving this, huh? XD

Face masks are meant to protecting against catching disease, blocking pollution, preventing others from getting your sickness, hiding an un-make-up-ed face, etc. Based on the types of masks I’ve seen, some look as if they do nothing at all in the disease and pollution department. Nevertheless face masks are very common and a part of the culture. To try that bit of culture and because Allen advised me to have one for riding the subway and bus (that’s so sweet he cares about my health! ^_^) getting a mask of my own was inevitable. So it’s as Asian product with a Texas look. I like! :D

For the second half of the day my host family took me to a place called Bali to see a weekend vacation housing they owned. While waiting outside in the chill to be picked up, I got a little cold with no jacket and middle-sleeved shirt. That is until I made a discovery! Another use of the face mask, a makeshift scarf! By covering your face in cloth and enclosing your hot breath, it did a bang up job of keeping my face warm. The longhorn print made it even better to wear. ;D

Back to Bali, here are some shots with my host parents from the building's rooftop.

The housing my family has is a single room inside a building. So it’s not a house, not an apartment…it’s a…a…a room. :P It includes a kitchen, TV, bathroom and two pull-out bed couches. The building facilities were brilliant! First was a reading area with free tea and DIY-pay-for-coffee. Then an outdoor pool and I think a karaoke area. The best and most fantastic room by far was…drum roll please…A GYM! HALLELUJAH! My prayers have been answered! It gets better. There’s a spa. …Oh ho ho ho Mamacita is going to have fun here! :D

Before all that, Papa, Mama and I took bicycles down a trail lining the river to a night market. Unique from other night markets I’ve visited, this one was more food based instead of shopping for clothing, jewelry, etc. The lively vibe was attracting and had new adventures spread all over the place. We bought several new foods to me along with some old friends. Sorry, no pictures to describe or remember all the food. I didn’t bring my camera or anything for that matter with me. I think one food was like an Asian sugary donut, another being octopus something and then big potato fries. There was more but I just can’t remember all of it, sorry. All were tasty in their own way except for one sample I tried at a food stand. It was heavily salted egg. Not my cup of tea but that’s just fine.

Dessert was sweetened fruit and a shocking, towering ice cream cone nearly a foot tall! And that was the small size the shop offered. Yeah, they get twice as tall, maybe taller. IT’S INSANE! The ice cream is thicker so it doesn’t met as fast and is fairly sturdy to stack with. We bought two cones to share between us three, a vanilla/chocolate mix and banana/strawberry mix. Oh they were good. The fun aspect of eating a giant cone was a primary factor of the dessert. The lightness of the ice cream didn’t make you feel like a thousand pounds heavier afterwards. XD

The biking back to the building helped work off some of the food. What did a better job was taking a family trip to the gym. YES! Andrea approves! Even though it was a light workout since I was a tad unprepared, any sort of exercise was greatly needed for counterattacking against weight gain. At this point the amount I’ve gained in Taiwan isn’t terrible but still not good, so it’s best to pull a full frontal assault on it before it gets out of hand. That’s where the gym comes into play! ;D

Equipped with TVs you can control and various types of equipment, this tiny but effective place was a dream come true. Treadmills, elliptical and bikes, all the normal cardio stuff was there. The machines of great interest numbered to two creations of awesomeness. A horseback riding stimulator (*gasp*) and a booty/hip shaker of wigglyness. OH MY THEY WERE FUN! Y’all should know automatically that the horse riding was a blast for me. XD The machine would move in a bucking motion either triggering butt or stomach muscles depending on the selected mode. Andrea loved this gizzy! The feeling was duplicated for the shaker machine. You stand on this plate which its sides are vibrated up and down rapidly making your hips shake and everything jiggle. It’s like you’ve instantly become a belly dancer. XD The nice thing about this machine is that you don’t really sweat. The not so nice thing is that my right lower leg felt like its front took a sledgehammer directly. Man it hurt! I don’t understand why I felt that pain. Maybe I was standing incorrectly? Either way it felt like an invisible but gigantic bruise had just emerged on my leg. Owie!

Having to drag myself away from the gym, we headed down to the spa for some Jacuzzi action. There was a small indoor area like a pool broken up into three tiny separate sections. One was cold water and the other two hot. Each had a type of water jet/massager thing. My favorite was the hot water jet chair, a reclined seat underwater with water jets attacking from the back down to the thighs. I think I’m a bit too short because my head had trouble reaching its resting place and the chair was longer than I could fit properly into. Regardless, it was nice to just take a breather and relax with a water massage. There even was a tiny sauna to happily step into. I’ve missed these things. Twas fun to visit such a place again. Finishing with a shower, the spa experience was terminated and the time to go back home came around.

It takes over an hour to drive between Nangang and Bali so it’s not a lickidy-spilt trip to take. Sadness since I want to be closer friends with that gym. XD Bali is just a weekend vacation spot and a lovely one at that. I look forward to the next time we can go again!

This has been Andrea Clark with the daily Taffy. Thank you and good night.