soccer 2

oh i saw a soccer game on saturday. russia v holland. i was tired and the game was boring. without england, i just don't care that much. it certainly isn't worth staying up until 5am and eating crap bar food just to make the minimum charge.

i shouldn't complain...

...because the past couple of days there was no rain. Although it was around 100 degrees and humid and standing in the sun felt like standing in fire. But the stupid typhoon which killed lots of people in the philipines is missing taiwan, we just get some rain and lightning but no day off. I should be happy - I'm not looking for massive devastation or anything. I just can't help remembering all the typhoon days i had when i got paid by the hour and needed the money, and the more i needed it, the more they came. and now that i'm on salary, not one. and most of the holidays have fallen on weekends. that just sucks. i have a lot of stress at work right now, with a performance for my kindergarten approaching, and other things approaching, and i could really have used a day to relax. but no.

soccer

I still haven't been able to see a damn European game. And unless I stay up late tonight (unlikely) I won't get a chance until the final. I was hoping to call in sick, but because of the kindergarten graduation ceremony we are preparing for, I really can't call in sick without screwing myself over (I need the practice). My only hope is a typhoon comes and they cancel school on monday. Come on Typhoon!!!

every day it rains

I used to blame keelung for the never ending rain. But all of north taiwan is unbelievable. There hasn't been a completely dry week this year. I'm almost positive about that. It always rains here.

This past weekend I smoked cigars and drank scotch with some friends and tried unsuccessfully to
see the spain/sweden game.

Here is a picture of me being silly at the aquarium in Kenting. Note the Doraemon T shirt and ugly red sweat pants.

puppet show

Here's a recent picture of me in front of a puppet show at the top of the mao kong gondola.

Someone offered to buy my blog for $50 this week. I guess that's what happens when you don't update for 7 months. Of course I'm tempted. But I'm also unsure why he thinks there is value in the blog. Where is the value? In the name? In the content? I don't get much traffic, of course, since I update so infrequently. But the very fact that he offered me money makes me unsure about selling. There must be some way to make money with this, I guess. Interesting.

In other news, I'm learning some basic vietnamese f0r my trip. Makes taiwanese seem easy.

no promises

well, i'm leaving my ymca job in the end of july and hoping to start full time studenting this fall. In between i'm hoping to sneak over to vietnam to see and then back to the east coast of the usa to see the family. Lots of stuff needs doing between now and then, yay. maybe i can post a bit more.

t's

One of the most popular tshirts here has a red apple on it and says "Algebra is for lovers"

Nian gao

So here is my nian gao. I hope you can see the shape, which I enjoy. It's a little bit noodle like, but more solid and chewy from the sticky rice. The mushu at this place is fresh and delicious. You can see in the front that I got some taiwanese style pickled cucumbers on the side prepared with chili, garlic, and sesame oil alongside some sweet vinegar. It's crunchy and a nice counterpoint to the chewy nian gao.

Fried beef noodles

And here are the fried noodles with beef. On this day, my boss ate this but kindly allowed me to take a photo. You can see cabbage and onions and carrots which give it a nice flavor along with the beef.

fresh noodles.

They make their own noodles at this place. Basically that means that they keep this big hunk of dough under a towel until they need it (no pun intended). After kneading it, they cut it into a big pot of boiling water to cook briefly before they whisk it away to the back to be fried. You can see a flying piece of noodle near this guys curved blade if you look closely. The noodles are slightly uneven, which gives a texture i quite like.

Here are the small plates of side dishes that are available at this place. I usually get a kale type thing that has been sauted with garlic and chili and something sweet. They always have a variety of green things along with some tofu, noodles, and maybe a few pig's blood related items.

Food near my new job

So, I have a new job now and a few new places to choose from for dinner. The job provides free lunch for me, but it's pretty simple stuff. Maybe I will get some photos up of that soon. But today we are looking at one of the two places I like that I have discovered. This one has excellent, homemade noodles and Nian Gao. Nian Gao is made from sticky rice flour which is steamed into cakes and cut into oblong shapes. It is famous in a Korean style, but I get it here with mushu (mushrooms and pork).

Merry me!

i can't resist. someone was asking his girlfriend to merry him by dancing with cheerleaders and mascots during the break. it was a little embarassing to see him dance, but his future wife probably thought it was sweet for him to humiliate himself for her. hope you can see the sign clearly.

Coors girls

One of the joys of Taiwanese baseball is cheap beer brought to you by pretty girls. Here, Michael and I pose with our beer girls, one of whom seems to have a halo. I abhor coors generally, but what the hell.

companeros

Note my ridiculous yellow noise makers and suave black shirt from Thailand (perfectly matching the black and yellow coloring of the victorious elephants). Seated next to me are Michael (teacher from New Jersey of cuban descent - gave me his family's recipe for black beans), Dan (from Canada), and his girlfriend Rebecca (from Taiwan).

bows

At the end of the game, the losing team (losers!) applauded and bowed to their fans to thank them for their support. I was sitting with the losers as my yellow team enjoyed their triumph.

my baseball lunch box

Because the fried tofu wasn't enough, I also ate this "lunch box" at the game. It's pai gu fan (pork cutlet rice). On the left you can see a yellow thing (pickled radish - tastes sweet) next to a hard boiled egg (brown because they cook it in some stock with spices). On the right are pieces of sea weed tied in knots with carrots (salty - not the best version of this I've had), next to gray bamboo shoots (they have an interesting vegetal flavor) and a kind of pickled cabbage in the back (salty, this stuff shows up a lot. you might remember it on my gua bao).

drums and flags

without seeing my video, it's hard to understand the cacophonous nature of sound at a taiwanese baseball game. I bought stupid plastic horns that can be used to bang together or yell into like a bull horn or make terrible trumpet sounds with. The taiko drum and the marching band drum combine with the plastic noise makers to make a tremendous racket, over which the distorted mike pumps crazy cheers in mandarin. These pics show one of the drummers and the flag waver for the brother elephants. By the way, in the color sympolism here, yellow can sometimes mean perverted, which just adds to my enjoyment of the "think yellow" signs.