Saturday, August 8, 2009

we watch seinfeld and eat

before we moved over here, i traded in a grip of cd's, and got enough enough store credit to purchase the entire seinfeld series. we've been watching a couple of episodes each day (in order of course) and i find myself making references that only allison gets, which is pretty fun. we just finished the first season and there were a couple we hadn't seen. we'll probably watch seinfeld and six feet under (again) for the next few months when we're bored.

after some heavy rain and wind two days ago, yesterday, the big bad typhoon got scared and turned into a tropical storm that consisted of a little bit of wind and some oregon rain. we were a little disappointed, but it was still fun to say we lived through a typhoon. our "buddies" from school (they are actually our designated buddies that are supposed to take us around, but seem to be treating us like friends) invited us over to hang out with them because they assumed we would be bored sitting in our apartment all day with the rain and wind shutting most shops down. they were right because at 8:30 am i turned to allison and said, "whoa, this is going to be a long day, isn't it?" when they picked us up, i thought i'd be all smart and wear my new little rain jacket. boy am i an idiot. i should have realized that taiwan humidity plus gortex gives you the feeling of walking in quicksand, so i took the sweatbox off pretty quicklike. they ended taking us to save and safe to buy a tv. picking the tv out was the easy part, but the credit card was a different story. after 23 minutes, four calls to the bank, and three different people helping us, we were able to walk out with our nice flat tv. we've hooked the computer up to the tv and we are now able to watch big seinfeld people instead of really tiny seinfeld people. oh... and we have the wii hooked up, so get ready to lose at woods golf and mariokart online! we also hung out with them today for a while and went to a bookstore at the mall. allison bought elmer, revolutionary road, and eat, pray, love and i bought life of pi and the book of lost things, which sounds like a lot like the neverending story, which i'm reading right now, but a little more serious (all in english, just in case you were wondering). we scouted out cars (we're going to get a nissan march, just in case you were wondering. four door for sure, but not sure what year yet) and couches. we're going to meet them for drinks after they have dinner tonight in the part of town called "little europe." annnnnd, last thing, they are incredibly nice and let us borrow one of their cell phones for the weekend in case we need something. ps - we're going to get the new iphones soon. we're both excited, so don't tell us if you hate them.

setting up the tv

someone on facebook (marie!) commented on one of my statuses and said something about me talking about food a lot. yes, i like food. i like to eat it, talk about it, dream about it, and think about it. anyways... we stopped at a little food cart a few seconds from our place yesterday afternoon and i decided it was time to be brave and order something. i pretended to look at what they had to offer while i thought about how i would act out and say what i wanted. the couple behind the cart waited patiently and were ready when i looked up from the food (which is all skewered up and ready to be reheated. most of it is prefried). as i looked up, i decided to bust out some chinese. that didn't take too long because i only know three or four words. i said tofu in chinese, and the guy acted out, "oh yes, we have tofu, here, you should sample this!" it took me 2.83 seconds to realize he was shoving a ball of deep fried chicken in my face. i did the chicken dance and then shook my head and finger. sidenote: sometimes i feel like when we interact with people here, we're all cavemen and we don't have a language to use. everything is done with our hands, grunts, and facial expressions. just give me a club and i'll be set. after that, i quickly handed them a piece of paper that has something to the effect of "can we please have two dishes with vegetables or tofu," that someone from school had written for us in chinese characters and i said "tofu" again in chinese (which is like saying "dofu" but with an italian accent). he smiled and pointed to the tofu that had just a little fried batter on it. we ordered two of those and a skewer of green bell peppers, which they heated in oven thing, slathered with dank sauce, and sprinkled with some spicy goodness. only cost 30 new taiwan dollars, which is roughly one dollar in the US. also, real quick, we had japenese food for dinner friday and it was amazing. it is really close to our apartment. the best part was when we walked in there were about eight taiwanese people in their mid-twenties that looked over and keep saying "hello!" and "welcome to taiwan!" to us. i didn't pass up the opportunity to head right over to their table and say, "hello! you speak english?" i think they were too shy to say yes because they kind of laughed and said no and raised theyir glasses to me. hopefully we'll see them again so i can make new best friends. we will post pics of our favorite restaurants later and take you to them when you come visit us. remember... we have extra bedrooms here! (that is an open invitation, just to let you know).

cart snack on allison's new plates

i'm in the process of making a layout of where we live and what is around us on google maps that i'll share once i get done. if you have any questions or want to know anything specific, feel free to leave a comment and one of us will get back to you. also, we do have our address now, so if you want it, let me know. feel free to send us yours if you want to get a postcard from taiwan! have a great day!

what we do

ps happy birthday robyn bird!!!!!!

6 comments:

  1. Yeah Food! (My wife and I are always thinking about, talking about, dreaming about and planning our days around FOOD too.)

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  2. I love hearing about all the food! I am also an huge food fan! Allison your toes look great in the picture! Where do you get them done! Also, I love your new plates! I would love to get your address and I will send you ours on FB!

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  3. Love, love, love this blog! You should write a book!

    (And I feel honored to have received a very personal shout out from you!)

    PS. Shoot me an email with your address when you get a sec!

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  4. look what you're missing!!

    http://photos.oregonlive.com/oregonian/2009/08/knitters_gather_to_break_world_5.html

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  5. Brett: food is an everyday adventure for us so far!

    Heather: my toes are still done from when we all went... not the slightest bit of wear! I think I emailed you our mailing address, let me know if you didn't get it.

    Robyn: we hope you had a great birthday!

    Drew: I did at one point start to knit... I only did a scarf that is still sitting at home waiting to be finished

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  6. I'd recognize those painted toes anywhere. The Sock Summit is awesome, Allison. Leslie met me there today for a walk through...thousands of knitters in their woolly wonders.

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