What's In Our Pantry?

Thankfully, our apartment has a kitchen. We've stocked our pantry with all sorts of local delicacies. Here's a sampling of what we've got:
(You can click on the photo for a larger view if you can't read the package)



If these aren't seriously delicious, I'm returning them on the grounds of false advertising.



Sometimes everybody needs a little fiber. These taste very similar to the whole grain pasta sold in the States.



Hey! I recognize that guy!


Just like home.



These are moon cakes... Everyone eats these during the Moon Festival. They're.... uhh... interesting. I was in a grocery store recently and the clerk offered me a moon cake sample. She said, "it's beef" so I take a big bite. "...and pork!" Uhhh, thanks.


The name says it all.


Seaweed crackers with chocolate in the middle. Sounds yuki to me.


What is Job's tear, you may be asking yourself. I'm asking myself this question too.

Oh, by the way, while eating these don't forget to make a "healthy beautifully wish".


Seaweed crackers with cheese filling. Not a pleasant combination. Personally, I think the nana club sounds like a gang of third graders who make fun of their classmates.


These packets turn your plain oatmeal into those flavored oatmeal packs. (You know, apple cinnamon, maple brown sugar...) Pretty tasty. Hey, it's got that Quaker guy on it, you can't go wrong!

***NEWSFLASH***
Heather has just informed me that they have other flavors -> vegetable, mushroom, seaweed and some other assorted flavors we cannot decipher. Vegetable oatmeal? Maybe you can go wrong.
***END NEWSFLASH***


Usually I prefer my apple soda with chemical ingredients, but I figured hey, what the heck? I'll try it!


I've been staring at the asparagus juice every time we go to the grocery store. I had to try it! I'm waiting for a special occasion... I'm just not sure what occasion is actually special enough. Please reply with your suggestions.

Music

Phil and I went to a vegetarian restuarant in Puli last Friday. I had a really good baked curry vegetable rice dish and Phil had a noodle soup dish that he normally gets. There are a lot of Buddhists in the area and because of this, there are a lot of vegetarian restaurants. While we were there, we noticed that they definitely like English music. Here is the list of songs (in order) that they played while we were there.

1. Seal's "Kissed by a Rose"
2. A jazz song
3. Deep Forest
4. A Doors song
5. (I think) Fools Garden "Lemon Garden"
6. Bette Middler "Some say love, it is a river"
7. Engelbert Humperdinck "The Last waltz"

We unfortunately had to leave after that, but just wanted to share.

Taichung Trip

View Larger Map


Heather and I took a trip to the nearby city of Taichung this weekend. It's about 1 1/2 hours from our apartment. The scenery along the way is beautiful... the mountains rise up all around you and are often shrouded in mist. Amazing.

We started our adventure with lunch at "Herb House", an all vegetarian restaurant. These are a lot more common than you might think. Apparently many (all?) Buddhists are vegetarian. I had a "macaroni rice" dish that had a suspicious lack of macaroni. (I didn't find a single piece.) It was good though.

Them we checked out the National Museum of Natural Sciences. We were undoubtedly the oldest people there without kids. It was fun though and even us "old" folks were able to learn some cool science stuff. I will soon be attempting to make a water sphere lens for my camera. (Now were can I get my hands on a glass sphere around here? Hmm...)

An image made with a simple lens

Frozen Shadows

We then moved on to the Rain Forest Conservatory. This place is really cool. It's a giant greenhouse about 200 feet tall in the center. They have all kinds of plants that I've never seen. Some were really interesting and beautiful.

The biggest greenhouse I've ever seen

In the afternoon we checked into Chin Hua Hotel. Pretty fancy. We were pretty excited about the shower curtain and tub. No water on the floor!

That evening we went to 一中路 (Yi Jung Road). This place was nuts! There were so many people I felt like I was at a rock concert. There were tons of vendors selling food, beverages, clothes and trinkets. I picked up some sweet expanding chopsticks. Heather was more than excited to see "Salsa Mexican Soft Taco" stand. She immediatly ran to it and ordered one. It wasn't exactly what I would call authentic Mexican, but not too bad nontheless.

The chaos on Yi Jung Road

"Salsa Mexican Soft Taco"

We wrapped up the evening with some delicious barbecue from a street vendor.

A barbecue stand

The next morning we swung by CostCo, which is rather exciting because they have American food and other items that are unavailable anywere else in Taiwan. We got four bags of tortillia chips! Awesome! Sometimes it's the simple things. We decided to head home after this as a hugh typhoon was headed our way and we were hoping to beat it back to our apartment, which we did.

Overall it was a pretty exciting weekend!

Motley Crew

Here's part of our team. From left to right:

• Megan from TN - Girl's Dean
• Moriah from CO - 4-6 grade teacher
• Heather from TX - Science and Math teacher (you might recognize her)
  
• Esther from Taiwan - Vice Principal
• Holly from WA - 3rd grade teacher
• Cory from WA - ESL teacher, married to Holly
• 1/2 of Jeremy from NY - Principal

Here we are riding the bus back from an exciting evening out in the big town of Puli. (actually Puli is kind of small, but around here, it's pretty much a big deal)

Milk Tea, actually Chocolate Milk Tea

I received an Email from Elizabeth at church and it was great hearing from her. I decided that I would dedicate this blog to her and you will understand why shortly.

I love Milk Tea, especially Chocolate Bubble Milk Tea. I finally figured out how to say it in Chinese (I am not going to even attempt writing it the English version of chinese) and I can actually recognize a few words. To say Tea, you write 茶. To write Milk, you write 牛奶. I have not figured out Chocolate yet, but will shortly. I will soon be able to read the tea stands!

Also, our small town of Yuchih (it probably has 3 small grocery stands) has about 10 tea stands. So far, I have only tried milk tea from 3 tea stands. I will soon try them all. At one stand, they laugh everytime I try to order Chocolate Milk Tea. Oh well...

Milk Tea, though, is served cold. At our house, we have yellow tea, which is absolutely wonderful hot. When I come back, I will definitely be bringing some back for everyone to try. I will also post pictures shortly.

New Wheels

Check out our new car! It's a 94 Honda Civic.



The coolest part is pretty obvious... the magenta paint job. It also sports other amazing features such as 12 horsepower, approximately 5 miles per gallon and extra dim low beams/one working high beam (super handy on those dark nights when there are scooters all over the place). It has a four speed automatic transmission. I do wish it was a stick, but hey, you can't always have it all. It needs a little work, but mostly minor stuff. Replacing the air filter is number one on my priority list. It's coated with dirt and black junk. I'm thinking this may have something to do with the excellent fuel economy. The actual job of replacing it is the easy part. Getting my hands on a new one, well that's a different story. I have no idea where there is an auto parts store around here. I even went so far as to consider having one shipped from the US. This turned out to be impossible as this is a slightly different model than the one they sold at home. (the filter is a completely different shape).

Despite it's few flaws, it's extremely handy to have. We live off campus (about 4 miles away), so it was really necessary. Our international driving permits should be arriving shortly thanks to my parents, so before long we should actually be driving legally! Until then, my boss told me "if you get pulled over, just pretend you don't speak Chinese". No problem.

Insomnia

We've just finished a four day weekend thanks to typhoon Sinlaku. After much tea drinking, most of which was unavoidably late in the afternoon or evening, (the Taiwanese love to drink tea, and love to share this caffeinated beverage with others - ie: Heather & myself) Heather and I have stayed up till 1:00 four nights in a row. I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning but I cannot sleep. A late night photo shoot was definitely in order. Here are the results of my insomnia: