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Published: April 12th 2008
I'm about to head out to Yuanlin for a few days to visit Janice and Paul. They're here teaching English for the next year. Yuanlin is supposed to be completely different from Taipei city. I'm taking the train there and I'm a little bit nervous about it since I think I have to change trains once along the way.
The past couple of days have been really fun. Yesterday Landy took me to see a Chinese doctor for acupuncture. I've had it done a few times over the last few months in Toronto and it's about 80 dollars a session at home. Taiwanese people don't have to pay for it- it's covered under their national health insurance. It was only 12 dollars for me.
The doctor started off by taking my pulse. He didn't speak any English so of course Landy had to translate for me. He said he could tell that my period was coming this week and that I had some kind of allergy that was making me nauseous lately. He also said that I was about to get a cold. It was a little bit creepy. Then he started cleaning the inside of my ears out
My new favourite snack- dried plums
Yes, they look like bird turds but they actually taste really yummy.with a kleenex. He scrubbed really hard- it kind of hurt. I was expecting needles but instead he started to take tiny beads and pushed them into different spots in my ear. I'm supposed to keep them in for a week. I'm glad I have long hair, they look really weird.
I also got some herbs that I have to take for the rest of the week. They come in little packages that look like tea bags and they taste disgusting. I hope they work- I really don't want to have a cold on my flight to Hong Kong on Tuesday...
After the doctor's, Landy and I went out for dinner. We carried an open bottle of wine across the street to the restaurant, which was nice. I wish I could do that at home. Landy ordered since the menu was entirely in Chinese. For the most part, it was pretty normal food- pork, beef, spinach... but we also ate chicken cartilage. Who knew you could eat that! It was.... chewy. Honestly it wasn't that bad once I got over what I was eating. We also ate tiny fishes that were full of caviar. Not the best thing
We actually ate these
They were full of caviar and tasted super fishy. Don't think I will be missing this dish when I go home. I've had since I've been here, but it was interesting.
After dinner we got ready and went out to "Luxy"- the luxurious sexy nightclub. I love how english is used here. It was really cool to hang out with Landy's friends. It seemed like everyone was born here but grew up somewhere else... the States, Costa Rica, South Africa.... I loved the mix of accents.
Anyway, I should get to the train station. It's pouring rain outside and I'm not looking forward to carrying my 20 kilo bag around. I probably won't be able to write again until later next week from Hong Kong.
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