This past weekend I experienced two new things ... a typhoon and Moon Festival. The typhoon hit Taipei (in the north) and the eastern coast pretty hard. Hsinchu is on the northwestern coast and was still affected. I decided to participate in Moon Festival festivities (which included a bbq) and so I defied the weather announcers and went to Taipei with a friend, Mick, who is a very skilled driver and knew the roads well. Mick is Taiwanese and ... he lived in Argentina for 6 years (and the US too) so he speaks great Spanish and English!
We went and had a bbq at Mick's friend's house which is on the middle of a mountain that sounds like 'yummy' (I think it's like Yangming?!?). Apparently the mountain is pretty famous ... has lots of rich people living on it. We had the bbq on the 4th floor of Singer's house ... it was open and the typhoon was going on right in front of us!!
The food was SOOOOO delicious. I ate so much I seriously thought I was going to burst. Here is some squid ... I had never seen it be grilled before ... and so I preceded to flip out when the tentacles starting moving (which apparently is just them contracting ...).
Here I am eating the squid. Man, I'm getting hungry just looking at the picture! Singer is in light blue ... he lives at the house with his wife, his parents, his sister and her boyfriend.
Singer's mom reads palms. She was amazing. She knew a lot of stuff about me just through examining my palm!! And she couldn't have known it before because we couldn't really talk due to the language barrier. Mick kindly translated the reading for me. It was really interesting because it was done with a Taiwanese spin ... she kept quoting Confucius and her suggestions had to do with upholding traditional Taiwanese values like 'saving face' and the importance of being part of a community, not too independent. I learned too that if someone reads your hand it is important to give them something in exchange, no matter how much or how little. This concept exists in Ecuador too ... the give and take.
So, yes, the car did break down. Too much water got in the engine. This is Mick sucking out the water with the straws! Well, here he's just posing for the picture, but he really did suck out the water and spit it on the ground! Kinda gross, but it got the job done! We were able to get back to Hsinchu just fine :)
We went and had a bbq at Mick's friend's house which is on the middle of a mountain that sounds like 'yummy' (I think it's like Yangming?!?). Apparently the mountain is pretty famous ... has lots of rich people living on it. We had the bbq on the 4th floor of Singer's house ... it was open and the typhoon was going on right in front of us!!
The food was SOOOOO delicious. I ate so much I seriously thought I was going to burst. Here is some squid ... I had never seen it be grilled before ... and so I preceded to flip out when the tentacles starting moving (which apparently is just them contracting ...).
Here I am eating the squid. Man, I'm getting hungry just looking at the picture! Singer is in light blue ... he lives at the house with his wife, his parents, his sister and her boyfriend.
Singer's mom reads palms. She was amazing. She knew a lot of stuff about me just through examining my palm!! And she couldn't have known it before because we couldn't really talk due to the language barrier. Mick kindly translated the reading for me. It was really interesting because it was done with a Taiwanese spin ... she kept quoting Confucius and her suggestions had to do with upholding traditional Taiwanese values like 'saving face' and the importance of being part of a community, not too independent. I learned too that if someone reads your hand it is important to give them something in exchange, no matter how much or how little. This concept exists in Ecuador too ... the give and take.
So, yes, the car did break down. Too much water got in the engine. This is Mick sucking out the water with the straws! Well, here he's just posing for the picture, but he really did suck out the water and spit it on the ground! Kinda gross, but it got the job done! We were able to get back to Hsinchu just fine :)
1 comment:
Sil, that mountain barbecue of Doom sounds like a good time. Good thing you had a good driver who knows how to suck water out of motors... That sounds like a very useful thing to know how to do. I definitely should learn that in case Barb ever fills up with water.
So what did you end up giving his mother in return for the palm reading? Some of your squid?
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