5.04.2008 a little drive to Heping Dao 和平島

A little road trip to Heping Dao 和平島. Ocean, bare-handed fishing, crabs, "sea cockroaches", bumper boats, beautiful views, cliffs, mushroom-shaped rocks, cute kids, good day.

4.27.2008 I love that this sign is necessary....

While biking along Taipei's beautiful riverside bike trails this afternoon I spotted this.

No vendors, ok.
Don't throw trash on the ground, ok.
No bonfires, ok.
Don't make a farm... huh??

Apparently there's a big issue with farmer-squatters in Taipei :)

4.22.2008 That's horrible! Candy advertising.

I can hear my friend Amanda's voice in my head "That's horrible". Ok if you have never seen the Japanese anime "Grave of Fireflies" and plan to at some point you should probably stop reading here because the rest of this is going to contain spoilers.

It's really hard to disguise what a geek I am when so many things in Taiwan cater to my inner geek. There was a time when I was a huge fan of anime. I haven't watched any in a long time but to me the master is and always will be Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is well known for Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away (won an oscar) , Castle in the Sky, Howl's Moving Castle (oscar nominated), and my favorite Nausicaa.

Miyazaki's heaviest work is a movie called "Grave of Fireflies". It's set in Japan during WWII. Setsuko and Seita are a brother and sister who are left homeless after losing their mother in an air raid. They temporarily live with an aunt's family but after she starts to steal their food, supplies and manipulate them they leave and live in an abandoned shelter.

The movie ends up being unbearably depressing. It's pretty amazing for an animated movie to be able to steal the award for "the most depressing movie I've ever seen" considering I watch hundreds and hundreds of movies but I've never watched anything that has left me with such a lasting sick stomach and broken heart. I've seen all kinds that gave me a few hours of feeling in need of a Xanax but NOTHING and I mean NOTHING can ever top the pain of this movie.... and if it can I don't ever want to be exposed to it.

*BIG SPOILERS START HERE*

So if you haven't seen the movie and never intend to, basically here's how it goes: due to lack of support and a country in disarray from war Setsuko and Seita are unable to properly nourish themselves. They have a meager amount of food. The big brother does all he can to comfort his little sister and keep her spirit light. He captures fireflies and puts them in a jar so she can have some light at night and something beautiful to look at. He tries his best to find what food he can. One of the items that his sister Setsuko has aside from a ragged doll is a tin full fruit candies. We've all had these before. Hard as rock and they taste more like fruit flavored cardboard than anything else.



In the end Setsuko begins to starve to death. She sucks on her candies for comfort and when they are gone she fills the tin with water and drinks the colored water flavored by the candy residue. Finally when delirium takes over and she's dying her brother finds her sucking on small marbles that she had put inside the tin:

So knowing all this, and having seen the movie. Who in their *right* mind would think that this is a great advertising scheme????? I laughed in awe and horror and then (of course) had to buy them when I found the tin.

That's right kids, for just 50NT you two can enjoy fruity flavored treats in our cute little tin, but unlike Setsuko there is no reason to starve, just ask your mom to buy some more! Har har har.



Or like someone is going to be watching the movie and at the end think "Wow, those candies sure looked delicious. Man, where can I get those???"

It was painful just searching for videos on youtube to demonstrate that this is the same tin and the same candies that Setsuko had for the purpose of the entry. I can't believe anyone thought this was a cute way to advertise candy. But I guess they made me buy it, didn't they?

Movies this traumatizing really should come with a warning. Regardless it's a piece of art and Miyazaki is a master.

Labels: anime, Only in Asia

2.17.2008 logic defying sighting

I exited 7/11 one morning this week and started on my way to work. As I was walking I noticed a blind woman walking in front of me. From what I could tell she was completely blind. She was walking slowly but efficiently with a cane like the one pictured above. Something was puzzling me and I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then the fog lifted and I noticed she was wearing high heels.

First of all high heels aren't easy to walk in. I can imagine being blind, and especially in Taiwan, where the roads are bad, people are pushy, and people are stupid enough to drive their scooters at high speed on the sidewalks that you would want to at all times ensure your physical safety and prevent yourself from falling however possible. Secondly, no matter what anyone says heels are NOT comfortable and there is absolutely no reason to wear them except for aesthetics.

I'm not trying to be politically incorrect here, I have a deaf sister and I'm sensitive about these things but I still found it baffling.

I told one of my co-workers the story and he chuckled with an "only in Taiwan" response and shared with me how when he was in the Philippines over the (lunar) New Year holidays he saw a Chinese girl walking down the beach with an umbrella and wearing stilettos on the sandy sandy beach.

My only guess is she wasn't completely blind but the way she was using the cane makes me she think she was, or it's just a simple desire of normalcy in someway?

Labels: Only in Asia, taipei, taiwan

2.05.2008 Shrimp fishing, one more thing I'm not good at...

... but at least I'm better than Han.

Unlike Andres shrimp fishing experience, Bubba would not be proud. Two hours spent shrimp fishing and all I caught were two shrimp... but the upside is that I caught two more shrimp than Han.

This Chinese New Year holiday has really stunk for me. First of all I'm not sitting on a beach getting a tan and a massage, second the weather is AWFUL... cold cold cold and rain rain rain. Even the mini heater isn't cutting it (there's no indoor heating in Taiwan for those of you who don't know). Lastly, this is the SHORTEST Chinese New Year holiday I've had in Taiwan and the first unpaid one. Typically I've gotten two weeks off but this one is a week and a few days. It's unpaid because now I work hourly instead of salary so that = no pay.

As if all of these things combined aren't reason enough to make someone feel sorry for themselves just when I was coming out of my last illness, the one I wrote about in the previous post, on the eve before my last half day of work before the holidays my body decided to explode on both ends. I got food poisoning. Without getting into the gory details I'll sum it up by saying it was volcanic food poisoning... I didn't know how I was going to make it to the hospital without a bag taped to my head and a diaper on my butt but thankfully I made it and spent the next 24 hours hooked up to an IV being stabbed by nurses whenever I started to make a retching noise... and needless to say missing my last day of work before the holiday. sigh.

So understandably (at least I hope) I've been miserable and kind of a princess. It's like I'm relapsing into culture shock because everything is annoying me and I find myself complaining about "Taiwan things" more than I usually do. Somewhere between me saying that this is the worst New Year holiday ever for me and me crying over my BBQ salmon last night Han caught on why I'm so miserable this week. So he launched his own mission to entertain me. Being the good boyfriend that he is and knowing how to keep me happy he made me try some things I've never tried before.

The first was snooker, which he's been dying to try. It took me about 5 minutes to hate it. As if it wasn't bad enough to instantly be the world's worst snooker player, we had to be surrounded by people who look like they've been playing since they were in diapers. I have no idea how long our one game took but if it's any gage one of the tables next to us was able to finish 4 sets in our 1. Oh well the good news is after playing snooker last night I was actually pretty good at pool tonight and didn't get bored of it as fast as I usually do (note: I'm convinced the only reason we played pool after fishing is so that Han could beat me at something again, because that's what he's used to)... regardless Han is going to have to find a new snooker partner because his pleas to play again aren't going to work on me.

Today was another miserable wet day and despite the weather Han took me out for a drive up a mountain close to the National Palace Museum. On our way up we noticed an indoor shrimp fishing place. I'd seen these before, both in passing, on tv, and mentioned on Andres blog last week but I'd never tried. Han asked if I'd be up for trying it on our way back down. Seeing as it was so wet and cold outside it seemed like a great idea.

I'm not sure what Han aspired to when we walked in but neither of us have fished for shrimp before, I'm pretty sure Han has never fished at all. We were geared up by the old men who worked there and away we went. I'm still blaming our lack of eye wear. We're both pretty blind but don't do anything about it. I wear contacts occasionally and Han wears nothing ever. I'm pretty sure if we'd been able to see our bob floaty thing we'd have had more success. In total I caught 2. It would've been 4 if 2 hadn't slipped off when I was swinging them in. Han had 2 or 3 that got away. The old guys tried to coach us but it didn't help. One of the men who refills the pool with shrimp threw a couple of live ones into my catch bag shaking his head. Sympathy shrimps.

When you finish fishing the fun doesn't stop there. You actually get to cook & eat what you catch. Seeing our poor catch of 2 fished out + 2 sympathy shrimps one of the men who worked at the place gave us 4 more sympathy shrimps to cook and helped us impale them, alive :(. Next we rolled them around in sea salt and put them in the BBQ. Han thought he beat me because he was able to get more sympathy shrimps than I did.

I never really found a big difference in sea salt and regular salt when I lived in Canada the way I did with freshly ground pepper vs regular but duuuude that salt was good and those shrimp were good!!!

I'm thoroughly convinced that if I wear my contacts next time I could be a shrimp fishing grand master like the young guy sitting next to me who caught 20!!!!! His line was on fire! To be truthful the ones I did catch, and almost caught, I didn't even realize were on the line until I pulled it in to check if the bait was still there. I fed more shrimps than I hooked :(

Oh well, it was surprisingly fun and way better than sitting around feeling sorry for myself.

I still can't believe that this place is open 24 hours. Seriously, who needs to catch shrimp at 4am???!!! and who would want to eat it then??!

Oh and for the record... getting back to the food poisoning. I wish I could chalk it up to some big gastronomical adventure in Taiwan like duck feet, or chicken hearts or something exciting but the truth of the matter is all I'd eaten all day was a sub from SUBWAY!!! To anyone living in Taipei I STRONGLY recommend that you don't eat at the Subway on Roosevelt Road Section 3 close to the intersection of Roosevelt & Xinhai. I've gotten a tiny bit sick there and I thought it was by chance and avoided the chicken after that. This time it wasn't even chicken. I'm suspecting the caesar sauce but I was SICK. Like I was sure I was going to die and if I didn't get help I was ready to jump out a window it was so bad. So yea... subway good, subway on roosevelt bad. Be careful. Go to Haas down the road close to Shida. Much safer bet.

Labels: gastronomical adventures, shrimp fishing, taipei, taiwan