Going up?

For when cars are just too lazy to take the stairs:

This parking system adds a whole new dimension to remembering where you parked.

so wrong (but i ate it) and rambles

ever since i watched andrew zimmerman's crazy ass food show about taiwan, i have wanted to try stinky tofu. there are two different kinds (from what i've seen and heard about). one is the fried stuff, that isn't too bad, and the other stuff is wet, and from what i can tell, uncookedish and nastier than mr. nasty himself. i've told quite a few people back home that i intend to try and down it, and even promised d-mac i'd send him a video of it. well... we went out to the japanese restaurant (one of the two restaurants down the street from us) and decided we'd be brave and try and tell the nice kind of english speaking waiter/manager that we wanted to try some fried tofu. allison wasn't a huge fan of the soggy marinated tofu we had last time. i'll eat anything, so i was ready for something new. note to self: if someone ever describes food in a game of charades, and then put their fingertips in front of their upper lip, make an ugly face, and move their fingertips down and back up a few times, just pray to whatever god you believe in that allison IS NOT on your team. she goes, "i think he is trying to tell us that it is going to be spicy! we should get it, you like spicy." true story - i like spicy food. see: mad dog 357 (drew likes it too. on his burritos at lunch). soooo... we order the "spicy" tofu, some water spinach (we think... we're still not sure what it is actually called), two orders of noodles, and some water. we always order extra so we can take it home. all of that cost about $9 US.

out comes of the food! well, not all at once. in taiwan, they don't you make you wait around for one dish, they just bring it out as it is done. first we got our noodles (udon, i think), and then our veggies, which are amazing, and we're eating along, and we're enjoying our dinner, and allison still thinks she is going to like the tofu, and i'm excited for spicy tofu. slowly, the waiter makes his way towards our table and i know, without a doubt, that HE knows he wasn't making the "this is hot face," because now that i think about it, i know he wasn't making the "this is hot face," the - stick your tongue out and pretend like you're sweating look. plates goes down, chopsticks from both sides of the table reach out to partake in the wonderful japanese spicy tofu we're about to enjoy. unfortunately for allison, i decided to set my piece down for a second so i could get a drink. i'm about two seconds behind her on the "whoa, this isn't spicy, this is sewage" train, but it hit me just as quick. in allison's defense, some of the peppers in the dish were incredibly spicy, but we all know now the hand motion for super stinky tofu. allison did finish her one bite and i ended up eating half of it that night and the other half the next day in the faculty lunch room (and once that stuff is reheated, it smells as bad as it tastes). however, here is the weird thing about it. 80% of the time you're chewing it up, it tastes amazing, it's just the other 20% of the time it is in your mouth, you feel like you're gnawing on gelled sewage that has been lightly fried with a hint of seasoning. overall, the meal was pretty good. i'd order it again, but wouldn't expect a kiss from allison for the following three hours.

the not so spicy stinkiest of the stank tofu
(and this isn't even the bad stuff!)

other ramblings:
- we bought our car! it is a 1998 nissan verita but everyone thinks it is a 1958 and it is pretty swanky (thanks to our teacher friends who spent a long time on a saturday driving us around. and we ended up getting the first one we looked at)
- allison drove home for the first time the other day and did an amazing job
- the actual driving part isn't bad, it is when you have to stop at a light or turn. that is when the scooters decide to close in
- i've ran more red lights in the last three days than i have in the last 27 years
- the lines on the roads here don't mean anything (at all)
- we have our furniture all set up. wireless internet all set up. allison has her iphone up and running. skype is perfect. the wii is in place. and i have a multi-regonal dvd player going.
- the no-see-'em mosquitoes love allison. a lot. i'd say the ratio of bites for allison compared to jeremiah is easily 23:0
- i finally finished the ishmael triology. going to teach a few of the concepts this year i think. starting back up on the neverending story. finish any good books lately? let me/us know!
- when you fill your tank at a gas station, you get a free bottle of water and/or towels to wipe your hands off with (all self service)
- it is amazing how many older people, like 75 year olds, are hopping on scooters and riding their bikes around compared to in the US. it just amazes me.
- i did receive my ARC card, which means i now have a bank account, a chop, a chinese name (jerry), and a stamped international drivers license. however, allison's ARC card was missing her last name and the first letter of her first name, so her card should be here soon!
- goodbye megan. taiwan already misses you!
- and that's all i can think of. if you have any questions, comment away. hope to hear from you soon. later!

ps here is what the good stuff looks like from our local thai yum (or thai yun?) don't remember

(currently listening to the doves album - kingdom of rust. great.)

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!!!!!!