New Kinds of Bun Exploration + Anime Yet Again!

Monday March 4^th, 2013

Making my way down the University hallway, my ears were graced with a lovely morning sound coming from the classroom. Immediately I knew whom the maker way. Famous for being a singer/guitarist among the exchange students, Maxime was singing and playing away some lovely songs. I just took my seat and listened to his talent, nearly singing along with him. What a great way to start the week!

University class was good and I learned several Taiwanese culture aspects. Want to hear?

Firstly people in Taipei usually ignore their neighbors. Yeah, just avoid them if possible. Quite different from America’s bake cookies and bring them to new neighbors huh? My teacher explained to me that avoiding neighbors is for avoiding potential annoying people. There’s no need to ask neighbors to watch your pet or get your mail when away on a trip because here, the police do it for you. Whaaaat? The police?! I know right? XD In Taiwan you can call the police ahead of time before your trip and they will come take care of your mail and house. Pets are put in kennels, which are really cheap (maybe roughly $3US a day) and they send frequent pictures of your darling to you in order to show how they’re doing. Pretty cool huh?

Random note: my uniform…its been overflowing with static…allllllll day. The clothes crumpled inwards sticking to your skin and zapping tingles of electricity all over. What kind of sorcery is this? Does cold weather do this to clothes? Btw, Taipei’s weather was indeed chilly today. An appreciated change of weather for a chica who likes a shiver now and then. ^_^

For lunch Garret, Maxime and I ate out together at the nearby dumpling shop. They ordered dumplings but I went to a stand around the corner to try a food I’ve had my eye on for months. This stand doesn’t have any seats close so I just bought the food there and ate at the dumpling shop with my peeps.

Selling three different types of this square-shaped food, I chose one of each along with a cup of soymilk. Each item only cost 12NT, so 48NT altogether ($1.6US). Based on this sign and if my translation is correct, the top one is a meat bun, the middle a spinach bun and the bottom a cabbage bun.

This is what they look like unbitten into. These mimic a traditional meat bun but smaller, square and different texture. Compared to the meat buns my host family often gives me for breakfast, these doo-dads have a more condensed bun as well as being what I think is pan-fried (based on the Chinese sign I saw). They may be even pan-fried and steamed since it seemed for steamed than pan-fried. Either way, this different type of bun was super yummy. I quite enjoyed every single bite! The soymilk was good as well, being sweet but not overloaded with sugar. For the meat bun, the meat was in the form of a round ball with some juice included inside the bun that gave a pleasant spurt of flavor with the nibbles. I can definitely see myself eating this again, perhaps in the same week. ;) If you ever see this kind of bun, I highly recommend giving it a shot.

The lunch crew! Garret on the left and Maxime on the right. We have a joke going on about how ridiculously fast Maxime scarfs down his food. So we gave him the challenge of finishing his food the same time on Garret, a slower eater, finished his. I believe it took Maxime a lot of consciousness to do so but he accomplished it with flying colors! Good job man! ;)

Back in high school land, the substitute history teacher asked me a random question out of the blue. “Can you show us the difference between an English and American accent?” O.O Um…hehe…what? XD I’m not at all talented in the accent department but I wanted to do as the teacher asked. I nearly opened my mouth and started an Australian accent before I mentally slapped myself and flew across the world to the correct country. Off the top of my head ‘cup of tea’ came to my mind as a big different. At least I knew how to do those three words correctly in an English accent. Afterwards I got to thinking…how do you do a proper English accent? My interest was caught and got me watching a video about it later. XD

Right after school I took the subway to the Underground Mall paradise of every anime lover. XD I had a list of things I wanted to buy previously seen last time but pushed to the back of my mind for contemplation and research. After nearly a week of mulling it over I didn’t wait any longer. Off I went to purchase two PS3 games and the remaining four Sengoku Basara figurines of the same type the three I earlier bought. I felt really uncomfortable purchasing so much all at once because I’m very much a savor when it comes to money but here is my philosophy on it. I don’t expect y’all to fully understand but I really adore the Sengoku Basara world. So being a fan I would love to buy related merchandise. The only way to buy such things in America would be online with being overpriced and shipping fees as well. In Taiwan it’s the opposite therefore this is a rare opportunity for me to indulge in such a comparative lower cost.

Shall I give an example? As of now the PS3 ‘Sengoku Basara 3 + Utage Double Pack’ is roughly $106US on amazon.com. In Taiwan I bought it for $52US. Incredibly cheaper, much? XD So instead of paying overpriced for an imported game, I only pay the normal PS3 game cost when bought in Asia. It’s this kind of chance that I must take advantage of before going back to the USA otherwise I know I’ll regret it forever. Plus the red envelope money I received should be put to use, am I right? ;P

So I navigated around the underground mall and purchased the desired items, leaving the area happily rocking with Sengoku Basara music. Even though my left earphone/bud randomly decided it wanted to die and not work properly anymore, nothing could damper my spirits. I’ll save the long monologue of why it made me so exceptionally ecstatic and how much it means to me because I don’t think you peeps are interested in something like that. :P

Quick note: earlier I told my host father about the unbelievably expensive Ishida figurine I saw and how I was looking for it in Taiwan. He sweetly offered to look online for a cheaper one, which he did today. The results, he found one for 4000NT ($134US). …WHY CRUEL WORLD?! WHHHHHHYYYYYY?! T-T ...*sniff*…*sighs and composes self*… Nonetheless I appreciated his kindness to search for me. One of the many ways my host family is so kindhearted. ^_^

With a chilly wind blowing through Taipei, I bid y’all a chilly goodnight! :)