It's Tough But Don't Eat The Hamburger!

Monday December 17^th, 2012

I’ll put it like this. I found a food I genuinely don’t like in Taiwan. The fact is I felt sick to my stomach after only eating a third of it. This thing…

Now the bread part is normal and good but the inside is where trouble comes in. Underneath the bun is two ingredients: seasoning and a vegetable. Now the seasoning was somewhat like beads of brown and clear stuff layered of thick. I couldn’t taste it at all because of the intense flavor of the vegetable. Whatever the heck this vegetable is, my stomach and taste buds are not high school sweethearts with it for sure. It was sliced into bits that looked like celery but I know it wasn’t. This stuff had an overwhelming sour and salty flavor as if fermented for an eternity. My host father suggested reducing the filling and so I did. Still no luck in subsiding the taste. Therefore I took all of it off and just ate the remaining bread…or so it would seem. Both the seasoning and veggie had their flavors soaked into the bread. Darn it. I ate all of it out of courtesy but my stomach felt so sick for half of today. Pepto Bismo was involved as soon as I returned home.

At University I totally passed out during class and break. I’m so screwed on sleep right now. T-T

For the part when I was conscious, we played a review game to test over Chinese for next week’s test (basically like a final exam). It was like a board game where you move along the track (square in this case), answer questions and try to finish first. Our class was spilt into two teams, red and blue. Woah this game got intense! My team was always in the lead except for two extremely close calls with the grand battle at the very end. Even so, WE WON! WHOO! The prize was a bag of candy, which we shared with the other team anyway. The type was the mini snack size version of American candy like Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers, etc. It was glorious to taste a Twix and Milky Way again. Babies, you’re delicious!

As a group of four, Brittany, Mika (girl from Japan), Maxime (boy from Belgium) and I went to a dumpling shop. I’ve already been there twice before and I wanted the creamy corn/carrot/egg/whatever it is/soup. My stomach still wasn’t feeling well so soup was my best bet. And rejoice because this was the first time I ate this soup without burning my tongue. It only took me three times to get it right. XD

A trip to the General Merchandise store took place for some items. First paper for a craft I plan on concocting in secret. ;) Hygiene stuff…and THIS!

HOW CUTE! It’s a coin purse! I’ve seen this several times before and my eye is always on it. I just know I’d regret not getting it if it suddenly went out of stock. Plus…future America cosplay accessory? *wink wink* ;D

Hey, when walking at Tatung I saw a ‘penny’ (actually $1NT but it looks and has the value of a penny) on the ground. Did I pick it up? Nope. Now you must be asking ‘Andrea, why didn’t you pick it up?’ Well friend, it’s because there’s a Chinese superstition that picking up money will result in back luck since the previous owner might have thrown it away due to the bad luck it might hold. So I’ll follow the superstition because it’s my job to adapt to the different culture. But in America, I’ll continue to pick up best coins and bills. ;P

Lastly I must say, Taiwan weather is so temperamental! One night it’s freezing, another I’m sweating. One morning demands a jacket while later that same day I’m boiling in the afternoon. Then those scenarios can be totally flipped! Then add the factor of rain in and oh my gosh this constant changing is getting old. How the heck should I dress for the day?! Taiwan weather…like a teenager with raging hormones. XD

See y’all later. Bye!