Day Of Yummyness, Cuteness and Gorgeousness!

Sunday February 3^rd, 2013

I had a good day filled with loveliness! First off my friend Amelia, an exchange student from Ohio, joined me in church today. She’s in my Rotary district but she lives on a small island, a plane flight away from Taipei. Because the island is so small there’s not as much of a variety of things like Taipei has, an English church being one of those.

Also there is a lack of American style food on her island and she developed quite a craving for some. Therefore I took her to my beloved ‘Apple Diner’ to quench that craving. Maxime (a Belgium guy) and Mariko joined us for the lunch. Twas delicious just like last time and Amelia became satisfied, the whole goal of the trip. Yay!

Afterward I located a famous bubble tea stand known to be overly delicious. You could tell it was a good place just from how ridiculously long the line was. White chalk on the ground outlined where the line was supposed to serpentine around. This reason why such a crowd gathers to wait in line is in the ingredients used. The place uses condensed milk and black sugar for the tapioca pearls. It’s the black sugar aspect that made this drink so memorably wonderful. Really, twas scrumptious! You should definitely try it out if you ever visit Taiwan because you won’t find it anything similar anywhere else!

For my Super Junior friends. Don’t you love this phone advertisement? XD

Our group of four walked around awhile before deciding to head to Ximen for a bit of shopping before we had to go home. First I led us to a previously visited K-Pop store. The selection was a bit disappointing compared to last time but I can’t expect to be surprised every time. So what-evs, that’s that.

The next place I took my friends to was the anime store ‘animate.’ It had a new stock! Whoo! And some good stock twas it! My purchased treasures:

Hetalia playing cards of cuteness! I like them but they were a bit dissatisfying when I unwrapped them at home. I expected each card to have a different picture or character much like other playing card decks my host father gave me. But no, each suit of card had the same character/picture on it. Meh, it’s still cute though and cheap. ;) Which Hetalia fans want to play cards with me when I get back? ;D

…oh yeah…these are ADORABLE!!! Unfortunately the stock didn’t hold several key characters *cough*DateIeyasuMitsunari*cough* but I absolutely adore these! I shall love them and kiss them oodles and oodles! ^_^

I would like to highlight a little fact regarding today. I…am an awesome navigator! I found four places total, Apple Diner, the famous bubble tea place, the K-Pop store and the animate store all of which I vaguely knew their location but not 100% certain. Yet I found all four on the first try, no rerouting or long way around, just pure fantastic-navigating-ness. BOOMSHAKALAKA! Seriously, that’s a real accomplishment for me and a recordso far, finding four places in one day!

The last activity our merry group did before departing was a discovered artist stand that painted rainbow Chinese calligraphy out of your English name, or so the sign said. It wasn’t calligraphy per say but rather Chinese symbols forming letters. Nonetheless it was BEAUTIFUL! The man painting each of our names was so cute as he spoke a little English to describe each aspect of the art. He handed out a pink sheet that labeled each symbol and its meaning so his dialogue followed along the lines of “Number 17 lucky bird, lucky bird. Boy bird. Girl bird. Love each other.” It was really cute. ^_^

These were the artist’s tools for his painting. At the bottom is a small dish and brush for writing in black. Everything else was rectangular blocks patted on painted soaked sponges. The rectangular brushes could have up to three colors on one. Pretty cool!

Here is Mariko’s one that’s still in progress. Gorgeous, no?

And c’here is mine! Andrea! Can you say breathtaking?! I LOVE IT SO MUCH! It’s so beautiful and only cost $100NT ($3.3US) There are so many symbols incorporated on it and he also painted my Chinese name in the top right section. I ADORE the dragon that forms the ‘N’ part of my name. I’m really glad that Amelia talked me into doing one because I fall more and more in love with it the more I gaze at its exquisiteness. Mommy, Daddy, we’ll need a frame for this when I get home. XD

Want a challenge? Let’s play iSpy! I’ll list all the symbols included in this painting and you can try and find all of them! Good luck!

-Boat

-Diamond

-Sun

-Bat

-Dragon

-Rainbow

-Butterfly

-Fish

-Bamboo

-Gold Fish

-Bamboo Shoot

-Bird

-Peach

-Love Heart

-Sea Gull

-Carp

-Lotus

-Orange

Back at home Grandmother made a Taiwanese sweet. I like to think of it as a Taiwanese cupcake! Seriously you bake it in a cup/bowl! …A bowlcake? XD It’s basically just sweet bread that bakes into a peaked shape as shown. The texture is more condensed but the taste is not very sweet or sugary. I think it’s tasty. It’s easily made from a mix that you can buy. I wonder if an Asian market back in Texas might have the same thing. That is one of the many reasons I look forward to prancing around one when I get back in search of familiar foods.

The mix for the bowl cakes.

Well that’s it for this day. I hope everyone had a good day and will follow with a good sleep. Good night all!