Indian Starbucks & Chinese Fan Culture!

Monday April 22^nd, 2013

As of late, host grandmother has often awoken later than usual resulting in several close calls regarding breakfast. More than once I thought I would have to leave without some like today. It was really close but she came through even though I missed my normal bus. One thing I look forward to back in America is being able to make my own breakfast again so I can have control over when and what I eat.

At 7-Eleven I purchased a bottle of water and remembered to take a shot of the tea egg pot so y’all could have a visual reference. Ta-da! The liquid is warm, not boiling and all the eggs are so tastefully steeped.

University didn’t have any special features. We were just told of a random but mandatory speech on May 9^th that requires us to speak for three minutes in Chinese. So far there is no set topic to talk about so anything is up for grabs. Personally I really want to something, anything other than about Taiwan. Every single speech I’ve spoken or heard has always been about Taiwan. Frankly I’m tired of always hearing students talk about how they like pearl milk tea or went to this place or such and such suck-up-to-Taiwanese stuff. It always will follow along the same vocabulary so we don’t learn much anything new.

With this being said I really want to something that doesn't focus on Taiwan. Perhaps a subject involving the entire globe or something non-country specific. Problem is, what? And even if I figured out what, there is a good chance I don’t know the Chinese words required to carry it out. This speech is just too short notice and is going to end up stressing me out. Hopefully I can come up with a topic quickly and get it over with.

Lunch was a surprise today. With Jeanne (the French girl) and Maxime, we walked down a long street to eat at a favorite Indian restaurant of Jeanne’s. I had never been even close to this area so it was all new sights for my eyes. The appearance of the restaurant calls for a giggle or two, don’t you think? It’s like an Indian version of the Starbucks logo. XD

Now I’m a newb when it comes to Indian food. I’ve had it before but my knowledge about this cuisine’s whereabouts is close to zip. Luckily the menu was in English and Jeanne suggested a couple favorite dishes. I chose the “fish masala” and went in expecting the majority of the plate to have fish on it. I love fish.

Then this was brought out…my first thoughts were ‘where the heck is the fish?’ and ‘why do I have a Mount Everest of rice on my plate?’ Quickly I learned that fish masala was code for fish curry. Curry is in my vocabulary, not masala. Curry I know is mostly rice with sauce drizzled on. The thing is, I’m not comfortable with eating a dish that primarily is based on rice. If I eat rice at all, it’s in very tiny quantities (my host family finally understands that I don’t really like rice so they don’t push me to eat it anymore, yay). Anyway on this plate is the mountain of rice, pile of shredded cabbage (?), small quantity of corn something-something and the bowl of sauce. A few pieces of fish were submerged in the sauce, which answered my question of where the heck the fish was. And the sauce was perfect! Not bland though not spicy, it was an incredible flavor that had a kick but not enough to set fire to your tongue. I really enjoyed it! Consuming some rice (5/8 of what was given) for that sauce was so worth it! Andrea’s Indian Cuisine Knowledge level: +3 points!

Eating at the Indian restaurant came with a sacrifice, missing naptime. No biggie though because I simply slept through the first high school class even though I don’t like to do so in respect to the teacher. But I needed it and the teacher was impartial to snoozing students. Therefore, why not?

At night I was Skyping with my sis, educating her with my new nutrition knowledge, when my host parents came in and said they had something to give me. That something was actually three things, two of them related to the National Palace Museum and one that I’ll show you now.

A BEAUTIFUL traditional fan! Oh Lordie I LOVE THIS! For those of you who know, I feel in love with fans when on my exchange in Spain. Those things are lifesavers from the heat, eye-candies in every way and just all out fun to whip open and closed. I do indeed love Spanish fans but my love extends to traditional Chinese ones as well. It hasn’t been exactly a walk in the park to find a true one that’s appealing. Out of the blue, my host family gave me one tonight. Perhaps they remembered how I like them and traditional Chinese cultural objects. Regardless, this was so super kind-hearted of them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!

Something interesting regarding gift giving in Chinese culture lies in a bit of taboo in the name. The Chinese word fan (“shan”) sounds like “san”, which means ‘to scatter or to loose.’ A bride traditionally gives their parents a fan to symbolize that she is leaving them for her husband. Therefore to jump through a loophole so they could give me the fan, I ‘bought’ it from them. They merely asked for 1NT (3 cents) to swerve around this part of Chinese culture. Just a tiny but fascinating new fact I learned today. AND I get a stunning fan? It’s a good, good night! ^_^

Speaking of good night, well…good night! Sleep tight! :P