These Women are Super Awesome

The plastic fake Burberry tote. The pink foofy short skirts. The headbands and black pantyhose and gold beadery and glitter.

They are AWESOME. When I am a woman of a certain age, I want to be as awesome as these women, rockin' the gold sequins.

And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

I'm on a boat (Dragon Boat 2010 - Bitan Edition)

OK, not me. I wasn't on any boat. But here are some photos from our day spent on the river at Bitan enjoying the Dragon Boat races. We aren't big fans of the Dajia races (too citified - too many people, too crowded, too blah, same-old-same-old) and didn't think we'd make it to Zhoumei in time. Longtan is too far, so Bitan it was.

It was a good trip: easy to get to by MRT (Xindian station, turn left on exit), crowded with a festival atmosphere but not too crowded, local enough, politicians everywhere campaigning for upcoming elections, good food (we had delicious aboriginal mountain pig and disgusting corn dogs, and hey, Taiwan beer on tap at 10am) and good company (we hung out with some Amis aborigines cheering for their tribe's rowing team).

That's how he rolls.

It was really hot. And humid. I'd do the same if I were a kid.

Head of a dragon boat.

This guy, whose house is in the woods across the river, was protesting the cutting down of forest along the river to create Bitan park and the view from the (frankly hideous) apartments beyond. It destroyed his view. I can't say I disagree, but Bitan Park is also nice. It's just those horrid apartments...

Two teams - one Amis, one I think a women's team, competing.

Getting ready to go.

...and that's how *he* rolls...

A team after their race was done, having lunch on the steps.

Part of the stage show included drummers and lion dancers, as well as a professional drink mixer and two really bad live singers.

DOG IN A BAG!! 好可愛喔！

Hey, let's have the Cub Scouts sell straw insects in front of the Beer on Tap truck. Uh huh. (The beer was nice and cold and as crisp as Taiwan beer can be, btw).

This was from before we discovered the Beer Truck.

The flag capturer has one job. Guess what it is.

Drumming show at about 10am.

...and that's just how *I* roll.

A women's rowing team. We saw lots of teams of all or mostly women, which was refreshing.

The Elixir of Life!

Ambrosia! The Fountain of Youth! Nectar of the Gods!

I have found it! Come one, come all, and taste the divine!

The chips are also good (mmm - Pinoy favorites) but what I mean is the Come Buy Chocolate Pudding Milk Tea (加布丁巧克力奶茶). It's milk tea - you know, that overly sweet, cornstarch-tacular concoction so popular in the summer - but with chocolate. And pudding. (The vanilla-dark caramel flavor that is so popular here and marketed as "creme brulee" - as if).

I think I can make it even better though. I am going to see if I can get chocolate caramel - or chocolate almond, or chocolate hazelnut - milk tea. Oooh, chocolate caramel hazelnut milk tea!

Then I'll start by adding tapioca pearls, so it'll be chocolate caramel hazelnut pudding pearl milk tea.

Then...coconut jelly!

Chocolate caramel hazelnut pudding pearl coconut QQ tea!

Or I could see if I can get almond jelly instead and get chocolate coconut pudding pearl almond QQ tea with a shot of caramel.

I know.

You think I'm crazy.

But this stuff is so inexcusably sweet even in normal forms that I think it hardly matters: if I'm going to drink it in the first place (which I do, but not often) then why not amp it up to ridiculous proportions?

Burma Street

To get to Burma Street (Huaxin Jie - 華新街), take the MRT to Nanshijiao (南勢角), leave by Exit 4 and turn right on Xingnan Road right out front (興南路). Walk for about 7 minutes, through a weird intersection with Nanshan Road (南山路). When you reach Huaxin Jie, it'll be obvious: turn left through the two entrance pillars made to look like the domes of Southeast Asian temples. There's a Cafe 85 on the corner.

Last Saturday dawned dreary and rainy (ah, Taipei) so after my thing in Zhonghe, we decided instead of going too far afield that we'd hunt down the famous, yet elusive "Burma Street" in Zhonghe. Apparently, there are many such streets where people of a certain ethnic extraction establish businesses and restaurants in Zhonghe, including a Korea Street that we now have to find.

We took our friend Aliya's directions and made our way there with growling stomachs - and me with a broken purse (the strap snapped). We were not disappointed: store after store and restaurant after restaurant serving up Burmese food to Burmese immigrants*, blasting Burmese music (mostly Western-style rap...in Burmese) and selling Burmese groceries.

Doing our usual reconnaisance, we found a popular place with a crowd of locals - by locals I mean Burmese people - sitting 'round a table drinking and shooting the breeze with no particular plans to leave: if they like it, it must be good, right?

And it was! We got two kinds of noodle ("Give us your most popular dish...what's the most...Burmese?") - one was like a Taiwanese thin noodle (麵線) and the other was like a dry stir-fried ramen (炒拉麵), but with different flavors. There was a sour vegetable in the thin noodle and the stir-fry had a coconutty peanut flavor accented with fried garlic and dried scallions and, I think, a hint of lemongrass. The owner, deeply amused at the two foreigners asking for "the most popular/most Burmese" thing on the menu, gave us a free dessert - a fluffy bread similar to a Singaporean prata or Taiwanese onion pancake, but sweet and dipped in sugar. We also got a cake that the group of locals was eating, which seemed to be pan-baked, topped with what looked like white poppy seeds and delicious, though not astounding.

The milk tea was more Indian than anything else, and there were free refills of regular (non-milk) tea. There was a menu in Chinese and Burmese (for those of you who can read Chinese but have no idea what to order in Burmese - and they seemed to be the same stuff) and the owner has been here for over 20 years and can speak quite good Chinese. Other restaurants seem similarly well-equipped for us non-Burmese-speakers.

Oh, and the whole meal came to less than 200 kuai for 2. Yay!

We also stopped at a grocery and picked up some cooking supplies that are far cheaper there than at Jason's (fenugreek seed, kaffir lime leaves etc) as well as some unfamiliar snacks ("Saltcheese" crackers, V-cut "Pinoy Adobo" potato chips, something reeking of garlic etc.)

All in all, a good day. I recommend checking it out.

*interesting how those of us from developed countries are "expats", but those from developing ones are "immigrants". As Brendan says, "that's because they'll more likely stay here and make their kids do well at school. We're more likely to go home someday." Fair enough.

Guest Book Card Box Finishing Dilemma

So I picked up this old tea leaf box in the antique/secondhand market near Guting:

I have no idea about it, except that it's about 100 years old but not a "valuable" antique. The owner of the shop told me as much: these things are apparently pretty common.

Thing is, none of my students or friends has ever seen one. So how common could they have been if everyone looks at it like..."huh? What's it for?" "It used to hold tea leaves, at least that's what I was told"..."Oh, cool!"

So.

Our plan for this thing is to polish the brass latch and rings, refinish it with a red paint or stain (?), fix the chips and black paint, repaint the line of gilt (almost certainly not real gold) and come out with an object that can be written on with gold, silver and copper paint pens. Then, use it as the card box at our wedding, as well as the guest book. People can put cards in it, and then sign it in gold, silver or copper ink (or leave well wishes or even small drawings). We'll then finish and seal it to keep as a memento. Like this:

But.

I really do not know anything about this. So, can anyone in the big fat Internet tell me more about the box we've got, so I'll have a better idea of where to start?

Much appreciated!

Zhaozhao the Hutt

I realized that I haven't posted any pictures of Zhao Cai, our pudgy, annoying, affectionate, neurotic fattypants in awhile. So, here ya go. Here's Zhaozhao posing with some tent-card signs I made for our wedding, for our cardbox/guest book and teapots for brewing tea as well as ginger after-dinner candies from Indonesia.

"It can't see me if I don't move!"

It's been humid recently and, at times, hot. Zhaozhao reacts to this by sleeping.

"I can haz Internet bedz for sleepin"

On cold/cool days, he finds the nearest warm thing to cuddle up next to, as we are so cruel as to refuse to turn on the space heater for him when it's not that cold. He likes to crawl under the covers with Brendan at night, and during the day, the warmest machines to sleep on are the wireless router, above, and our ancient Toshiba.

Enjoy!

I am a huge fan of this blog post.

I'm not exactly an off-road cyclist, or even a long-distance cyclist. I have a little city girl bike that I take on the back lanes of southern Taipei (I think once or twice I've gone north of Ba-de Road, but I do cycle in Wanhua occasionally and that takes parts. I think I deserve some cred for that). Usually I ride it down to Jingmei Riverside Park and get some exercise biking up to Machangding Park and back, stopping to pet the occasional tiny dog on the way. The only danger on that bike lane is the occasional ojisan walking down the lane slapping his hands together to facilitate the flow of qi, turtles that come out after dark, and renegade tiny dogs.

(I love the tiny dogs. So?)

It's safe enough that I've even been known to listen to my MP3 player while riding it, as cars aren't allowed.

Anyway, regardless of this, the post above is a hilarious roll-call of bad driving in Taiwan, and the cars that bad drivers use to endanger us all. Ah, the blue trucks. Taxis, yes. I agree about the Cefire but I think Benzes and Beamers are just as dangerous.

And, y'know, taxis are fun. They can do anything. 6pm, in Xinzhu Science Park, need to make it back to the High Speed Rail station in 25 minutes? (This is doable at 10pm, but 6pm? You'd have to be suicidal *and* on drugs to attempt it in rush hour traffic) - tell the driver. He'll say "可能來不及喔!" (Oh, you probably won't make it!) But you know what, 9 times out of 10 he'll get you there. (The 10th time, you end up at a strange tunnel of light).

Plus, bonus! Get 'em talking about politics. They love to talk about that. I have heard so many amazing opinions on things from taxi drivers. It's like pulling political opinions out of a hat. It's like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get.