Thanksgiving in a foreign country was not the lonely, depressing day that one could imagine. It was just like any other day in Taiwan...but the weekend was extra fun thanks to a reunion of expat friends.
Thursday was Thanksgiving; and Thursday are my busiest days...so that worked out in my favor. I had classes as usual, but it was a school-wide exam day, so I sat and watched Scrubs on my laptop for most of the day. After school, since cheer practice was cancelled, Vince and I went to Chiayi City to find me some warm clothes. I didn't get much. I did get a really cute coat for really cheap, though! I was excited about that. I didn't realize that it was Thanksgiving until we were sitting in a little shack eating dinner. We had "ma jea mien" and "Show long bow" which probably was the best meal I've eaten in Taiwan thus far. The first one is a bowl of noodles with a sauce on top that is porky and there's a big piece of lettuce in it. It's amazingly delicious. The other one is similar to a dumpling. It has a ball of pork on the inside, and a little soupy deliciousness when you bite into it. The outside is like a thick noodle substance, not quite a bread. The entire thing is round and about the size of a 50 cent piece. It's really good with shredded ginger on top and dipped in soy sauce. I would eat this every day if I could find a place in my town that makes it. I was sitting and enjoying my meal when it dawned on me. I looked up and said in quite a loud voice (even for me!) "OMG it's Thanksgiving!" Vince gave me his cute little smile and was like, Oh yea I know! Lol! Knowing him he probably planned for us to do something fun just because it was Thanksgiving. He's a good friend! After we ate, it was time to rush me to dance class. I was so full and satisfied, I didn't want to exercise...but I definetely need to any chance I can get. So, I went to dance. Typically Miranda, Eve, and I hang out after class, but we were all tired...so I went home and went to bed.
The next morning was Thanksgiving night back home, so I decided to make some calls before classes. Again, it was a testing day, so I didn't have class until 11:20. I called Dad and had a nice conversation, then decided to call my grandma, Mema. She practically lives at my uncle's house, so I called over there...and (if you know anything about my family, this should not be a surprise) of course, I interrupted game time! Just the fact they were playing one of our traditional games made me long for Pennsylvania a little bit more than before. I could hear a jumble of laughs in the background that were a mixture of so many people that I couldn't identify just one laugher. I love that. My Aunt, Ann, answered the phone and was surprised to hear from me! It was nice to chat with her for a second. Then, Mema was put on the phone and told me how the game was going (lol). The biggest surprise was Mema told me my brother had just gotten there that day, so I got to talk to him too! I shouldn't be surprised that he would drive there with no prior plans...that's just how he is :-) So, even though it was a brief conversation with Pennsylvania...it was so great to hear everyone and think about game time with the family.
The real celebration came on the weekend.
On my way to Taitung to stay with Julie and Sarni, I stopped in Kaohsiung to have a dinner date with Damien. Things between us were a little distant the last few weeks, so I figured this would either make it or break it....
He met me in the train station at Kaohsiung park looking so handsome! He had gotten a haircut, wore a nice sweater, and even put on cologne for me! I could tell he made an effort to make this a nice date night! He's too cute! He ate at Smokey Joes...the first time I had ever been there. Tex-Mex is one of my favorite kinds of foods, and the fact that I got FAJITAS pretty much made me the happest girl ever. They even serves a lime in my Corona! YAY! We had a great conversation over dinner, then walked around the city for a while. We got to the train station about a half hour before I had to leave, so we got some drinks and sat down for a while. During those 30 minutes we had the closest conversation that we've ever had. I learned so much more about Damien, and can understand his personality more because of that. We talked about the relationship and how we feel about it, about family, about individual future plans, etc... It was so nice to be able to just sit, relax, and talk face to face! I was extra sad when I had to say goodbye in the train station. With him being so busy in the Navy, I never know when I will see him next...so goodbye is always difficult.
The train ride was much worse than the goodbye. First of all, I didn't get a seat. I bought my ticket too late, so I had to stand. After about an hour, I was WAY sick of standing, so I went to the back of the train. Next to the bathroom, there were some young boys sitting, so I figured it was okay to sit here. Well, the only space for me was by three large black trash bags. I figured I knew the answer, but I asked anyway..."Is this garbage?" And the boys nodded their head. Wow, how humbling....huddled up shivering on the back of a bumpy train sitting between large bags of garbage. I felt like a refuge or something. Soon I fell asleep. My dumb buttocks woke me up and I became angry for how I was traveling when I paid the same amount as the people all cozy in a seat. I decided to take a little walk. Before long, I found an empty seat, and asked if I could sit there. For the last hour of the 4 hour trip, I was able to relax in a comfortable bumpy train seat. I tried to rest so that I would not be dead when I arrived at 11:40, but I was sleepy when I met Julie at the station. We had planned on going out, but once I got to their place, we all had something to drink and our conversations took over until about 2:00 when we decided to go to bed. It was a nice evening.
The next morning we took our time getting up and around. We decided to go to the hot springs for the day. What a great idea. After eating a yummy breakfast at a whole foods restaurant, we hopped on scooters and took off for about 40 minutes until we arrived at the hot spring place. When I imagine hot springs I think of a waterfall and shallow, rocky water with warm bubbles coming out of the earth...many people scattered around relaxing in the steam. Well, this was nothing how I imagined it. It was mad-made pools and well kept. The only thing was, the heat of the pools was from nature and the water came straight from the mountain...there were no heaters. The first pool we went to was a large pool divided into three sections of depth and heat. The first one was shallow and the hottest, then warm and knee deep, then the biggest was waist deep and the temp of a pool in July (still a little chilly). We hung out in these pools for maybe an hour, then ventured over to another section. This was the coolest part. There were all these different sections of one large pool with massaging jets. One for feet, one place where you could recline and get a body massage, a shower head that massaged the head and neck, etc.... this was fun going from place to place and becoming surprised when we hit the on button and got blasted with water. The final section of pools were the herbal soaks. Three pools sat next to one another: one yellow (Chinese healing medicine), the middle was purple (ginseng for energy), and the last was pinkish (lily for relaxing). We tried each one, but the purple was the favorite of both me and Julie. Before heading back home, we all tried the steam room (couldn't inhale it was so steamy) and the sauna (not too bad...I liked this!). Then, it was back on the scooters to find some lunch.
When we got back into town, we went to this cute little cafe called Oia. I felt like I was in an american cafe - it was so cute, had couches, and a tv, and some western food choices. I got a waffle with strawberries...it was...AMAZING! Tony and Julie got cream puffs and went nuts over then, Sarni got a coffee, and James got a waffle with honey. We all agreed it was time for a nap.
Around 5:30, Julie woke me up and told me I had an hour to get ready before we had to meet some other local expats for dinner. We had reservations for an aboriginal restaurant at 7:30. We met up with some other girls and one guy, and they seemed pretty cool. It's nice that the whole expat community had contact with one another and did things together. I know in my county there are supposibly 200 expats, but I've only met 6. I guess they have a group and do things together, but I've never looked into it much...
Anyway...our caravan (or cara-scooter) of 8 headed toward the mountain, and about 30 minutes later came to an outdoor eating venue of an aboriginal tribe. It was all made of bamboo, and had a stage in the middle where we would see dancers first, then kids playing on the rope hanging from the middle. Because we made reservations, our food started coming out as soon as we sat down. Because it was our Thanksgiving (for the 4 Americans at the table) we brought two cans of cranberry sauce (mailed from Indiana...thank you Sarni's mom) and some corn on the cob, compliments of Julie's hot pot. Just having those two small touches made thanksgiving and home so near. It was the perfect touch. For dinner, I had quite a bit of chicken, some mushroom soup, lots of cranberry sauce, a piece of corn, a few vegetables (I did'nt care for our selection) and home-made rice wine (not too much!). The conversation with people from all over the world (of our small group there were 2 Germans, a South African, 2 Canadians, and 4 Americans. It was great to share our tradition with other foreigners, and teach them why the holiday is important to us.
After dinner, we went back to Julie's house and were waiting for it to be late enough to go out. They wanted to take us to a night club that had really cool entertainment. We were all sitting on Julie's bed chatting, then Julie's phone rang and she went into the living room to talk on the phone. I decided to call my step mom. I talked to her for about 15 minutes, and in that time, James had drifted in and out of sleep. When we were all off the phone, the girls from the restaurant showed up and everyone was in the living room. James and I were still in Julie's room just chatting, and soon our chatting became sleeping (lol). Grandpa Yonts. When I heard the front door close when everyone was going out, I decided to move to my own bed. Wow, what a party pooper. We crashed at 11 while everyone else was just starting their night. Oh well, I felt great the next day and they were probably dragging!
Sunday morning we had breakfast then hit the highway for some oceanside scenery. Tony and Julie took us to this great little beach with tons of scenic photo ops. We took some pics, some silly pics, then headed to the marina. Took some more pics, then headed back. We had lunch at a place called Chicago and it featured some foods from around the world, including Chicago style pizza (or so they say). My food came first and in Taiwan customs, you eat when you are served. So, while everyone sat there salivating at the mouths, I finished my meal. Once their meals came, I was the one bored and sitting there. I don't like this custom, but it's just how things are run in this place! Julie luckily glanced at her watch and noticed it was 1:40. My train was at 2:10. There was no way I was going to make it...and I pretty much knew that. We rushed back to the house to get my stuff...then to the train station where I had 7 minutes to spare. I tried to get a ticket and was denied. There was no standing on this train. Don't know why. So I got a train for 4:00 and went back home. Hello again everyone! lol! So for the next hour and a half, Jules and I decided to go around and try to find some Christmas decorations for me. We weren't very succesful. Earlier in the day we went to a stationary store and I got some decorations, but I wanted more. I will continue to look in my town today. We made it to the train station in time, and I got a seat to call my own! Well, for the first hour and a half. At one stop, I was tapped on the shoulder by a mother and daugther and pretty much kicked out of my seat. I guess my ticket was only reserved until this particular seat, then it was standing for the rest of the way. You wouldn't believe how upset I was. I didn't want to repeat the trip there! So I stood there staring at the mom and daughter trying to ESP into their heads "this is our stop...let's get off so Kate can have her seat back!" Well...my ESP fairy was out of whack that day...because once we hit Kaohsiung, not only did the mother and daughter not leave, but about 93827594y65 more people got on the train. We were packing in the standing room only aisle for a good 45 minutes. People even attempted walking around. Everytime I had to squeeze next to a seat to let someone by I wanted to scream at them. "are you crazy! There's no room to move here people, just stay where you are!" But that wouldn't do any good. I would just look even more crazy than I already look to these people! So I sucked it up and stood...and stood...and stood. After all the people got off after Kaohsiung, a few seats opened up and I had about an hour to relax before my stop. It was later than I was expected to get back, but I figured as soon as I got on the bus, I would be home in no time. But, the next bus to my town was in 45 minutes.....so that added another hour on to my already 4.5 hour trip home. I walked to mcDonalds, was given the wrong order, and ate it while I walked back to the bus station. Luckily, and surprisingly, the bus was on time, and I got home around 9:30 pm. I had planned on cleaning my room, doing laundry, etc.... but I was beat, so I took a shower and went to bed. I always hate waking up Monday morning exausted...but today was one of those Mondays. When my alarm clock went off, I actually thought it strange that I sent it since it was the weekend...oops...no it's not...time to get ready for school.....
Thursday was Thanksgiving; and Thursday are my busiest days...so that worked out in my favor. I had classes as usual, but it was a school-wide exam day, so I sat and watched Scrubs on my laptop for most of the day. After school, since cheer practice was cancelled, Vince and I went to Chiayi City to find me some warm clothes. I didn't get much. I did get a really cute coat for really cheap, though! I was excited about that. I didn't realize that it was Thanksgiving until we were sitting in a little shack eating dinner. We had "ma jea mien" and "Show long bow" which probably was the best meal I've eaten in Taiwan thus far. The first one is a bowl of noodles with a sauce on top that is porky and there's a big piece of lettuce in it. It's amazingly delicious. The other one is similar to a dumpling. It has a ball of pork on the inside, and a little soupy deliciousness when you bite into it. The outside is like a thick noodle substance, not quite a bread. The entire thing is round and about the size of a 50 cent piece. It's really good with shredded ginger on top and dipped in soy sauce. I would eat this every day if I could find a place in my town that makes it. I was sitting and enjoying my meal when it dawned on me. I looked up and said in quite a loud voice (even for me!) "OMG it's Thanksgiving!" Vince gave me his cute little smile and was like, Oh yea I know! Lol! Knowing him he probably planned for us to do something fun just because it was Thanksgiving. He's a good friend! After we ate, it was time to rush me to dance class. I was so full and satisfied, I didn't want to exercise...but I definetely need to any chance I can get. So, I went to dance. Typically Miranda, Eve, and I hang out after class, but we were all tired...so I went home and went to bed.
The next morning was Thanksgiving night back home, so I decided to make some calls before classes. Again, it was a testing day, so I didn't have class until 11:20. I called Dad and had a nice conversation, then decided to call my grandma, Mema. She practically lives at my uncle's house, so I called over there...and (if you know anything about my family, this should not be a surprise) of course, I interrupted game time! Just the fact they were playing one of our traditional games made me long for Pennsylvania a little bit more than before. I could hear a jumble of laughs in the background that were a mixture of so many people that I couldn't identify just one laugher. I love that. My Aunt, Ann, answered the phone and was surprised to hear from me! It was nice to chat with her for a second. Then, Mema was put on the phone and told me how the game was going (lol). The biggest surprise was Mema told me my brother had just gotten there that day, so I got to talk to him too! I shouldn't be surprised that he would drive there with no prior plans...that's just how he is :-) So, even though it was a brief conversation with Pennsylvania...it was so great to hear everyone and think about game time with the family.
The real celebration came on the weekend.
On my way to Taitung to stay with Julie and Sarni, I stopped in Kaohsiung to have a dinner date with Damien. Things between us were a little distant the last few weeks, so I figured this would either make it or break it....
He met me in the train station at Kaohsiung park looking so handsome! He had gotten a haircut, wore a nice sweater, and even put on cologne for me! I could tell he made an effort to make this a nice date night! He's too cute! He ate at Smokey Joes...the first time I had ever been there. Tex-Mex is one of my favorite kinds of foods, and the fact that I got FAJITAS pretty much made me the happest girl ever. They even serves a lime in my Corona! YAY! We had a great conversation over dinner, then walked around the city for a while. We got to the train station about a half hour before I had to leave, so we got some drinks and sat down for a while. During those 30 minutes we had the closest conversation that we've ever had. I learned so much more about Damien, and can understand his personality more because of that. We talked about the relationship and how we feel about it, about family, about individual future plans, etc... It was so nice to be able to just sit, relax, and talk face to face! I was extra sad when I had to say goodbye in the train station. With him being so busy in the Navy, I never know when I will see him next...so goodbye is always difficult.
The train ride was much worse than the goodbye. First of all, I didn't get a seat. I bought my ticket too late, so I had to stand. After about an hour, I was WAY sick of standing, so I went to the back of the train. Next to the bathroom, there were some young boys sitting, so I figured it was okay to sit here. Well, the only space for me was by three large black trash bags. I figured I knew the answer, but I asked anyway..."Is this garbage?" And the boys nodded their head. Wow, how humbling....huddled up shivering on the back of a bumpy train sitting between large bags of garbage. I felt like a refuge or something. Soon I fell asleep. My dumb buttocks woke me up and I became angry for how I was traveling when I paid the same amount as the people all cozy in a seat. I decided to take a little walk. Before long, I found an empty seat, and asked if I could sit there. For the last hour of the 4 hour trip, I was able to relax in a comfortable bumpy train seat. I tried to rest so that I would not be dead when I arrived at 11:40, but I was sleepy when I met Julie at the station. We had planned on going out, but once I got to their place, we all had something to drink and our conversations took over until about 2:00 when we decided to go to bed. It was a nice evening.
The next morning we took our time getting up and around. We decided to go to the hot springs for the day. What a great idea. After eating a yummy breakfast at a whole foods restaurant, we hopped on scooters and took off for about 40 minutes until we arrived at the hot spring place. When I imagine hot springs I think of a waterfall and shallow, rocky water with warm bubbles coming out of the earth...many people scattered around relaxing in the steam. Well, this was nothing how I imagined it. It was mad-made pools and well kept. The only thing was, the heat of the pools was from nature and the water came straight from the mountain...there were no heaters. The first pool we went to was a large pool divided into three sections of depth and heat. The first one was shallow and the hottest, then warm and knee deep, then the biggest was waist deep and the temp of a pool in July (still a little chilly). We hung out in these pools for maybe an hour, then ventured over to another section. This was the coolest part. There were all these different sections of one large pool with massaging jets. One for feet, one place where you could recline and get a body massage, a shower head that massaged the head and neck, etc.... this was fun going from place to place and becoming surprised when we hit the on button and got blasted with water. The final section of pools were the herbal soaks. Three pools sat next to one another: one yellow (Chinese healing medicine), the middle was purple (ginseng for energy), and the last was pinkish (lily for relaxing). We tried each one, but the purple was the favorite of both me and Julie. Before heading back home, we all tried the steam room (couldn't inhale it was so steamy) and the sauna (not too bad...I liked this!). Then, it was back on the scooters to find some lunch.
When we got back into town, we went to this cute little cafe called Oia. I felt like I was in an american cafe - it was so cute, had couches, and a tv, and some western food choices. I got a waffle with strawberries...it was...AMAZING! Tony and Julie got cream puffs and went nuts over then, Sarni got a coffee, and James got a waffle with honey. We all agreed it was time for a nap.
Around 5:30, Julie woke me up and told me I had an hour to get ready before we had to meet some other local expats for dinner. We had reservations for an aboriginal restaurant at 7:30. We met up with some other girls and one guy, and they seemed pretty cool. It's nice that the whole expat community had contact with one another and did things together. I know in my county there are supposibly 200 expats, but I've only met 6. I guess they have a group and do things together, but I've never looked into it much...
Anyway...our caravan (or cara-scooter) of 8 headed toward the mountain, and about 30 minutes later came to an outdoor eating venue of an aboriginal tribe. It was all made of bamboo, and had a stage in the middle where we would see dancers first, then kids playing on the rope hanging from the middle. Because we made reservations, our food started coming out as soon as we sat down. Because it was our Thanksgiving (for the 4 Americans at the table) we brought two cans of cranberry sauce (mailed from Indiana...thank you Sarni's mom) and some corn on the cob, compliments of Julie's hot pot. Just having those two small touches made thanksgiving and home so near. It was the perfect touch. For dinner, I had quite a bit of chicken, some mushroom soup, lots of cranberry sauce, a piece of corn, a few vegetables (I did'nt care for our selection) and home-made rice wine (not too much!). The conversation with people from all over the world (of our small group there were 2 Germans, a South African, 2 Canadians, and 4 Americans. It was great to share our tradition with other foreigners, and teach them why the holiday is important to us.
After dinner, we went back to Julie's house and were waiting for it to be late enough to go out. They wanted to take us to a night club that had really cool entertainment. We were all sitting on Julie's bed chatting, then Julie's phone rang and she went into the living room to talk on the phone. I decided to call my step mom. I talked to her for about 15 minutes, and in that time, James had drifted in and out of sleep. When we were all off the phone, the girls from the restaurant showed up and everyone was in the living room. James and I were still in Julie's room just chatting, and soon our chatting became sleeping (lol). Grandpa Yonts. When I heard the front door close when everyone was going out, I decided to move to my own bed. Wow, what a party pooper. We crashed at 11 while everyone else was just starting their night. Oh well, I felt great the next day and they were probably dragging!
Sunday morning we had breakfast then hit the highway for some oceanside scenery. Tony and Julie took us to this great little beach with tons of scenic photo ops. We took some pics, some silly pics, then headed to the marina. Took some more pics, then headed back. We had lunch at a place called Chicago and it featured some foods from around the world, including Chicago style pizza (or so they say). My food came first and in Taiwan customs, you eat when you are served. So, while everyone sat there salivating at the mouths, I finished my meal. Once their meals came, I was the one bored and sitting there. I don't like this custom, but it's just how things are run in this place! Julie luckily glanced at her watch and noticed it was 1:40. My train was at 2:10. There was no way I was going to make it...and I pretty much knew that. We rushed back to the house to get my stuff...then to the train station where I had 7 minutes to spare. I tried to get a ticket and was denied. There was no standing on this train. Don't know why. So I got a train for 4:00 and went back home. Hello again everyone! lol! So for the next hour and a half, Jules and I decided to go around and try to find some Christmas decorations for me. We weren't very succesful. Earlier in the day we went to a stationary store and I got some decorations, but I wanted more. I will continue to look in my town today. We made it to the train station in time, and I got a seat to call my own! Well, for the first hour and a half. At one stop, I was tapped on the shoulder by a mother and daugther and pretty much kicked out of my seat. I guess my ticket was only reserved until this particular seat, then it was standing for the rest of the way. You wouldn't believe how upset I was. I didn't want to repeat the trip there! So I stood there staring at the mom and daughter trying to ESP into their heads "this is our stop...let's get off so Kate can have her seat back!" Well...my ESP fairy was out of whack that day...because once we hit Kaohsiung, not only did the mother and daughter not leave, but about 93827594y65 more people got on the train. We were packing in the standing room only aisle for a good 45 minutes. People even attempted walking around. Everytime I had to squeeze next to a seat to let someone by I wanted to scream at them. "are you crazy! There's no room to move here people, just stay where you are!" But that wouldn't do any good. I would just look even more crazy than I already look to these people! So I sucked it up and stood...and stood...and stood. After all the people got off after Kaohsiung, a few seats opened up and I had about an hour to relax before my stop. It was later than I was expected to get back, but I figured as soon as I got on the bus, I would be home in no time. But, the next bus to my town was in 45 minutes.....so that added another hour on to my already 4.5 hour trip home. I walked to mcDonalds, was given the wrong order, and ate it while I walked back to the bus station. Luckily, and surprisingly, the bus was on time, and I got home around 9:30 pm. I had planned on cleaning my room, doing laundry, etc.... but I was beat, so I took a shower and went to bed. I always hate waking up Monday morning exausted...but today was one of those Mondays. When my alarm clock went off, I actually thought it strange that I sent it since it was the weekend...oops...no it's not...time to get ready for school.....
No comments:
Post a Comment