It's not really hard to work six days a week, I guess, but it does get kinda old to have something to do nearly every day. It feels more like every day than when I was working 8 to 5, five days a week. Given the option, which we weren't, I'd rather have four days off and a couple of Mondays down the line. It seems like two days off would be much better than an entire week.
Like I mentioned in the last blog, Marie and I haven't had any luck finding places to go in Taiwan. They're all ridiculously expensive, like $500 for a couple of train tickets and a room, 'cause we started looking so late. Bummer. But we went for a long walk yesterday. It was good to spend some time wandering around the city where we don't normally have time to go.
This's at the south edge of Taipei proper. After this park is a river and then the metropolis becomes another city. I like that they carved a walkway through these rocks just for the sense of adventure.
Marie started to take this photo 'cause she wanted the cityscape, but I threw out my arms and she suddenly wanted to teach everyone back home Chinese. This shape is the symbol for "da" or big. It doesn't always mean big, but it usually sounds like "da."
This's "ren" or person. We have pictures like these, cartoons of people in these shapes to help us remember the shapes, though they're meant for little kids. But the symbols come from the idea of people. Someone walking meant person. A person with his arms opened wide means big.
On another subject, Marie's Aunt Lorre asked if we'd thought about when we might come home. We have talked a little. Mostly for my sake, I think. Thinking about home, and thinking about going home has helped me get through some of the culture shock.
Right now, we're thinking about leaving in October and spending some time in Europe and then coming home in time for next Christmas, BUT, that's if the economy cooperates at least a little. We have jobs here with a living standard that's close to what we're used to (even if the hot water's kinda erratic and the summer humidity is staggering) and we're saving a fair amount of money. So this's a question we won't really be able to answer until sometime this summer. But we will certainly tell everyone when we've settled on a plan.
Finally, another fun goof.
Marie and I argued about taking this picture. She didn't want to, saying we had enough mistakes. I said we should, 'cause it's funny and we rarely have the camera when we see these. I won. I had the camera. We didn't eat there, even if we could be confident they wouldn't serve us feet.
We were taking this walk on Lunar New Year's Eve day, which we've been told is like Christmas Eve for all the family get-togethers and eating and such. They don't give presents in big boxes with ribbons, instead they give red envelopes, frequently with money or other certificates.
Many shops were closed yesterday, tho' many, like in the U.S. were open. We stopped at a food shop and like a pro Marie asked, "Nee yo dan bing ma?" Which means, approximately, you have dan bing, right? I swear the guy blinked in shock. I don't think he was surprised to see caucasians (or as I've come to call us, more "cauc" than "asian") but I think he was shocked to understand Marie. There are lots of non-Chinese speakers wandering around using bad Chinese. He repeated, "dan bing" and she nodded, and then he said "yo" meaning yes, he had dan bing.
Dan bing is a pancake and egg kinda thing with a little sauce. It's very good, and it was perfect snack after a long walk. It was warm too. Funny tho', Marie's latte was 90 NT, two dan bing were 30 NT, together. Hmmm.
So, hopefully, I'll write several times this week. Lots of time, and we'll have time to see some of Taipei we've only been meaning to see.
No comments:
Post a Comment