Freedom for an hour + afternoon fun

---

This morning I woke up early, 7am ish?

This is going to sound pathetic, but I woke up and looked at my new cellphone, wishing someone would call me...

Ring, damn it, ring!

And of course no one called. You losers. Call me!!

I wanted to get online and check email, upload my pix, so I tippy toed to Guava's room. His door was locked. $@%^!.

By then I was wide awake, out of bed, internetless, and still craving fruit and all things fiberous...

I think Guava heard me giggling his doorknob; he came out a couple of minutes later. We watched cartoons until about 8am, and that's when it hit me. If he's awake, he could buzz me back in if I went out by myself.

I know, this is so stupid, why am I all of a sudden needing to be chaperoned (sp) everywhere I go?

I told Guava I was going out and I copied down the house number, you know, just in case I get lost (though I wasn't planning on going that far).

Man, it was so nice to breathe the fresh (psha) Taipei air and know that I was free.

I headed to the fake 7/11 and bought myself an overpriced yogurt drink. If I can't have fruits and vegetables, at least give me some nice bacteria. :-/

35 NT, approx $1 USD. But oh it was soo worth it. See, that's me looking all smug with my drink, and still wearing the same shirt. Where else can you buy happiness with a buck? (I'll let you know when I get to Thailand).

There was no over priced fruit at the fake 7/11 so I went over to the "south gate market". I bought a scroll of dried squid first for $200 NT/kg. I haven't decided what to do with it, eat it now-ish or take it with me on my trip. But who cares, I wanted to buy it so I did.

Then I hit the jackpot of fruitstands.

They had everything piled in mountains: apples, oranges, grapes, pears, peaches, plums, things that I only know taiwanese/chinese names of... Fiber, I want fiber. No, I don't want the banana.

In hindsight, I think I was a bit too excited and the fruit lady could tell. She definitely overcharged me (none of the fruit piles had prices).

I bought a honey tangerine (?) for 32 NT. (almost a dollar).
This is what I've been reduced to. I get the shakes when I see fruit. Oh... My precious...

I went out of the market and was walking around and savoring it and taking photographs when my aunt called me. My hour of freedom was ending and I headed back home.



* * *

Ok, a break from bitching.

I had fun in the afternoon. We all went to (my bad chinese translation here) "diluted water" and walked around near the water. SBA and CU were trying really hard to be hospitable, and I was trying very hard to be a gracious guest. They paid for everything and made me extremely uncomfortable. I wanted to buy Tina this really cute little ding dong chopsticks/spoon holder thingie for her bag lunches but SBA took it out of my hands and put it back b/c yesterday she got me a free one. :-/

We ate a lot. I felt ... gross. The euphora of the honey tangerine had passed by that point. I really appreciate their thoughtfulness when they ask me if I want this and/or if I want that, the problem is I never know what the right answer is.

PS. I'm wearing a different shirt now.

---

Photos

Me. Smug. W/Yogurt
Ooo la la!

Playing with a bowl of water
By rubbing the handles just right, the vibrations make the water jump. (zoom in and you can see the droplets).