Photo Printing Success + Taiwanese Snack Tasting

Wednesday May 1^st, 2013

We’ve entered the month of my return! Goodness me time does fly by! Less than a month will be nothing then! I must make the best use of my remaining time. Onward and outward! :D

New habit I’ve developed this week, eating a tea egg in the morning. Just a little something enjoyable that’s healthy almost like a supplement to breakfast. Mmm, nummy. I love my eggs. ^_^

First four classes were just reading and a short nap. That’s pretty much it. Whoop…

For the past times I’ve eaten at the underground buffet at high school, I’ve always been charged the same amount of $50NT ($1.67US), which is a normal lunch allowance for student school meals. Those times I’ve loaded the provided box up to a sizeable amount. At this buffet, the price isn’t based on weight but just a lady that eye-spots it. Today when I went to the same buffet with the same lady yet less in my box, she had the gall to charge me $65NT. Confused, my hand already had $60NT to which she quickly snatched away before I could stutter out a word. Two words: RIP OFF! Seriously? Even 60NT is overpriced for a buffet box. Heck at the other buffet I got a hearty meal for 40NT. How the heck did she ramp up my smaller selection by 15NT? The prices haven’t changed…why, just why? …unamused. (Btw, I’m critical on it because my lunch allowance only gives me a little leeway that is quickly taken away with such prices, which is not a good thing obviously).

The book I finished reading was “Dr. Atkins’ New Diet Revolution.” Yet another fascinating nutrition book that followed the same principles as the last but more geared toward motivating people and laying out eating plans. Reading about such science is so intriguing and I can’t wait to try it out for myself when back in America. If you think such a book might be interesting, I fully recommend you give it a shot! ;)

MUHAHAHA! I HAVE GONE FORTH AND CONQUERED! FINALLY! The prolonged, persistent problem of printing photos has been solved! Remember me trying the photo machine at FamilyMart but had confusing as heck problems? (It wouldn’t recognize any of my pictures) Well I thought ‘Screw convenient store machines, I’ll see about finding a shop solely dedicated to photos.’

So I did. On the way to/from Tatung high school, there is a dual shop of “Konica” photo service and the Taiwanese lottery. Thinking I would have to work out my wishes by personally talking to a worker, I studied a bit of vocabulary before hand (like ‘print photos,’ ‘inches’ and ‘centimeters’). Thankfully none of that was needed because it had a working photo machine. Turns out there was nothing wrong with my pictures or USB because it smoothly recognized everything. The FamilyMart machine was just a piece of busted dookie. Before I knew it, I finished ordering the pictures, got a receipt printed out and gave it to a man who said they’ll be ready in an hour. With no good way to chew up an hour, I opted for picking them up tomorrow. In 24 hours I’ll see if I can finally get what I attempted a while ago, reminiscing photos to give my host families in a photo album.

To start attacking the snack load my classmate gave me, I decided to try an interesting looking roll. The outside seems to be a layer of seeds, either that or nuts of some type. They are glued together to the main body by some sweet but sparingly used ingredient.

Taking my first bite, all I could think of at first is ‘IT’S STUCK ON MY TEETH!’ With some prying and cleaning, I managed to get the substance off of my teeth. It sure was clingy! Looking inward, it resembled hard white Styrofoam but less concentrated. Tasted like it too, flavorless. Upon touching, it just crumples. No, this snack was not to my liking. After one small bite I was done and didn’t eat anymore. Both texture and flavor weren’t  appetizing so why eat more?

To make up for this strange snack as well as taking in the fact that I didn’t exactly eat a snack since the previous was only a bite, I elected to try another Taiwanese food. The package advertised the clear English of “Pumpkin” and “Brown Sugar” to give an appreciated description of the contents. So time to rip this sucker open! Inside was a bar that reached roughly a 2.50inch length. Took the first bite and…

Delightful! The brown sugar and pumpkin combination was scrumptious! It’s a great balance of ingredients so that the taste is not light but not heavy. It’s juuuuuuuust right. ;) Also there’s a pleasant crunch to it. Man, I actually really like this! And if the nutrition label is right, it’s not too bad of a treat! Good job Taiwan! I fully approve! ;D

I gave a large twisty, windy pretzel looking thing to my host family, which leaves one other snack from the trove kindly given to me. Perhaps I’ll give it a whirl tomorrow! More experimentation and exploration! Whoo! Fun! :D

Sweet dreams one and all. Bye-bye!