Sunday March 24th, 2013
Think I went to church today? Well, nope. Rotary meeting
with host father’s Rotary club. It seems like I last went to church ages ago.
XD Oh never mind cuz I’m still as much as a Christian as before. ;) Even if not
my own Rotary club, Rotary meetings should be attended if an opportunity comes
up to be respectful. So that’s what I did.
Leaving at 9:40 to take the bus, we arrived at a Cantonese
restaurant called “Yi Bin” at 10:30. Members filed in and all sat down in a
crowded room with six or so rotating tables squeezed in. Today’s speaker was a
Rotary member called Uncle Wine and for a good reason. Either wine is part of
his job or just a dedicated hobby but his whole speech today involved wine.
Wine, wine and more wine. Numerous different wines were poured for everyone to
taste test all the kinds he lectured about.
The German exchange student girl said that there’s a saying
back in Germany that translates to, “Never drink beer before 4:00” with the
same rule applying for wine. So she found drinking so much wine at this time a
bit weird. What amazed me is that each
time when a new bottle of wine came around even though I clearly stated I don’t
drink wine, people kept trying to give me some. They are super persistent even
if you say you don’t like wine, which I realized is the same tenacity when it
comes to food. Except you can’t courteously turn down food like you can wine,
the reason why exchange students can easily gain weight in Taiwan.
The wine sermon extended all the way more or less to 12:30.
I say “more or less” because Uncle Wine would continuously get up to talk about
yet more wine throughout the lunch. But when his main speech ended, the food
started to be served and brought in one dish at a time.
These were a few favorite appetizers to snack on during the
long speech out of the total six. Peanuts, cheese cubes and some kind of
unknown yet tasty, addicting fruit. I think those cheese cubes were my first in
Taiwan because cheese isn’t normally eaten alone. Here you eat it in a larger
food, like toast sandwich. After eating it now I kinda miss eating cheese
again. …Soon!
First dish was an assortment of meat. Don’t ask me what each
was cuz I have no idea nor did I sample each type. XD
Another dish was shrimp sliced down the middle on top of
thick rice noodles. The brown stuff plopped on top was garlic and too much of
it, overpowering the food disagreeably. Once scrapped off it was a lot better.
Some sort of meat bun. Though meat based it had a sweet tang
to it almost passing for a dessert. Twas nummy.
Can’t quite figure out what this is. It has a crunchy, flaky
covering with the underneath based being either taro or yam. Whatever it was it
was purple and squishy. Not bad stuff. I liked the decorations of thin orange
slices lining around the plate. No one wanted them and it would’ve been a waste
not to eat so I happily snacked on several. Why not, eh?
Sure there were more dishes but I only snap shot a few. Many
were dug into immediately after being served so a photo wasn’t warranted.
All the food was served and the exchange students had to
give a speech. That’s a requirement for the club’s own exchange students
(a.k.a. not me) but they still made me. Fine sure I’ll do it but I really
didn’t know what to say and even when I did go up many people didn’t even
listen. Therefore I just b-s’ed something really short and awkwardly put down
the microphone. Out of my life.
Earlier I made it clear to my host parents that I had a
mountain load of homework to attack today (not because of procrastinating) and
needed to not stay long for this meeting. This club’s Rotary meetings are
notoriously long so I asked what time we would be back home. When they told me
at 2:00 I winched at the lateness. Therefore they said we could leave early at
1:00. Well when 2:00 rolled around with no sign of the meeting dispersing, I
asked to go back on my own. With permission, I left and took the bus back home.
Have I ever shown you the inside of what a Taiwan public bus
generally looks like? Well here ya go. There’s differences in all of them but
my bus (bus #212) has four rows of seats with four in each, a standing area
with bars and hanging grips to hold onto and several ‘priority seats’ meant for
elderly, children, pregnant and injured people. There’s two doors on the right
side and a pay gizzys in the front where you alight. Tada, now you’ve seen the
inside of a bus!
Back at home I took a nap to subdue my tiredness before
work. I awoke a couple hours later to quite a disturbance. It sounded like a
war was taking place outside my window. There were BOOMS and BANGS! The
sounds must’ve been fireworks but could’ve easily passed as 18th
century cannons. It’s like a medieval alarm clock. XD
Homework, homework and some more homework. Nothing much
else. I already discovered this in America but I’ll tell you a little fun fact
about myself. In order to successfully study, I need music or background noise
of some kind to rule out utter silence. One sound that’s quite effective is
Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood Multiplayer matches. No joke, that’s what works
for me. Hearing Templars battle it out somehow maximums my study sessions. So
that’s what I did tonight. That and a few cups of Lipton Jasmine tea made it a
good study time. Whoo! :)
A new week approaches. I hope it’s a good one for all of us.
Adios amigos!
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