Indulgence

After spending the last 8 months indulging myself in new and old cultures I’m suddenly finding it very difficult to not indulge myself in every small thing. Take, for example, work last night. I ate a small apple strudel before customers arrived, a few chocolate Andes mints, half of a piece of chocolate cake, cream tomato sauce pasta, rice, two pieces of chicken, a cup of southwestern 4 bean soup, tortellini pasta, and a little cupcake. Not to mention during the day I ate a piece of my brownie-Reese’s-cookie creation. Oh my god so many calories.

In the past I could resist temptation. However, being exposed to new things meant I had to try them. Gaining weight was a small matter, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Now that I am  back in the States, though, I want to get back to eating healthy and right. Exercising more is also important. I want to lose some of that flab on my waist and thighs. Problem areas. BUT indulgence is still having its way with me. I just want to eat eat eat.

Stay tuned to see who wins this battle. Katherine vs. the munchies.

Food

Chinese food is delicious. Food in general is delicious. I can’t say that I’ve never met a food I didn’t like before, because I’m pretty picky and I have come across dishes that I don’t like but eating. Ugh, so yummy. I should probably write a more focused post on some of my favorite dishes at another time, but right now I’ve taken over my mom’s computer while she’s making dinner. I’m going out to dinner with an old friend from middle school at 8.

Home cooked food is the best.

A Different Perspective

I don’t know how much people know of Taiwan, seeing as how I’ve been coming to Taiwan since I was little. I wonder what images Taiwan brings to mind for these people. Do they think of the countless restaurants and food carts? Do they imagine the bright lights of a night market, the pushing and the heat? Here are some of the things that Taiwan has meant to me on this trip.

Beef Noodle Soup: This particular soup is not spicy and is not the one that is normally associated with Taiwan. However, it was the first beef noodle soup I ordered in Taiwan at the Taipei Main Station Underground Mall and it was delicious. Beef noodle soup is incredibly popular in Taiwan, usually braised with soy sauce and tomatoes to make a dark broth and is usually a little spicy, because Taiwanese people like their spicy foods.

Shuang Ho Hospital: I’m interning at Taipei Medical University. The school has three affiliated hospitals. This is one of them. Taiwan’s hospitals are incredibly clean and have great facilities. Of course, I have never been in a hospital in America so I can’t compare, but compared to the rest of Taiwan, they are top notch. Shuang Ho Hospital especially, since it is very new, built back in 2000 something. Their facilities are also quite something. It is such a large hospital, and they’re currently working on building a second building behind what is in the picture, so it will be even bigger!

Raohe Night Market: Though not my favorite, this night market evokes more of an emotional memory for me. Ever since I was little this was the night market we would always go to on a trip back to Taiwan. This market contains more food stalls than some other nearby night markets, and the food is quite delicious. Most Taiwanese delicacies you can find among these food vendors. This one also has small games for children and adults to play, such as fishing! [A favorite among children.]  My most vivid memory of this place is pulling up to the night market in a taxi with my parents and aunt. The whole trip would pass as a blur but once we pulled up everything was brightly lit. Something pungent always hits the nose first when the door opens but the next big thing are the people. Especially as a child, seeing that many people [who are all taller than me] was exciting and yet scary at the same time.

Pavilion of Dreams: The culmination of advanced technology in Taiwan is on exhibition at the Pavilion of Dreams. As you walk into the pavilion you are handed your own personal wristlet. This wristlet allows you to personally interact with the exhibit via RFID [ I believe]. Anyway, after the first big flower show [as pictured] you pick one of five dreams that you want to grow from [I picked career]. Then you capture the flower that is given to you [I was given a leaf…] and proceed through the exhibit! There are different visual displays as well as physical interactions, etc. It’s a little difficult to describe. At the end your flower [leaf] transforms due to your interactions and choices throughout the exhibit. The flower gains some characteristics from some other flowers and then floats away into the “stream of life”. You hand in your wristlet and get a printout of your flower’s end result. Here’s mine:

I kid you not, this started out as a heart-shaped leaf. Look at how it grew!!

Taipei 101: Last but not least [for now], the biggest symbol of Taiwan. Taipei 101 has the world’s fastest elevator, bringing you to the top in an earpopping few seconds [don’t know the amount]. I plan on visiting it soon and watching the sunset from the tippy top but until then here’s a picture of the building [that I took myself from the hospital’s 13th floor!] You can see this building from all over the place in Taipei.

My trip in Taiwan is half over, but that means there’s still more to come!

Things that Begin with the Letter F

Our fridge is broken. Just the fridge. [Okay, I suppose the full name is refridgerator, which begins with the letter r, but everyone calls it a fridge anyway.]

Our flat has a fridge and freezer combo, those things that have the fridge on top and then the freezer on the bottom. We’ve had some issues with the thing but it’s always been good to us. Until yesterday. A little after noon when I went to make my lunch, as I was taking my cheese out of the fridge I noticed it was very soft. And warm. So then I just stuck my hand in and noticed that I wasn’t cold in any way. I touched some more things in the fridge to confirm [sorry guys, just the plastic though] and everything was room temperature, or warm. The fridge was broken! So then I opened the freezer and, strangely enough, our freezer was freezing. It was so cold, in fact, that there was frost on the little plastic drawers. Wow, really cold. And here our fridge was stuck in limbo.

So we decided to let it be, hoping it would turn itself back on but by dinner time it still hadn’t so we called maintenance [since we live in university housing] and they said that someone would be out to look at it soon. My flatmate who called failed to ask when “soon” was. We’re still waiting.

Because our fridge now cannot hold anything, we mostly stuck the meats and stuff in the freezer, but left the fruits and veggies, hoping that the maintenance people will be here “soon” to assess the situation. Which meant to me that I just needed to eat my fruits and veggies [which I’d just bought the day before] faster than I would have liked, so I made myself some bowls of fruit throughout yesterday and today.

Although I suppose it was a good thing I chose to eat my fruit because it was wonderfully sweet, but not too sweet, and because the weather was nice out, it just made it seem a little closer to summer.

Close Up

Hopefully the fridge people will come look at the fridge tomorrow! I also asked the housekeeper if I could get a box from them to ship my books home but she told me to come back tomorrow morning, so hopefully I can get a box tomorrow morning too!

Sometimes you kind of have to wonder

all those quiet people who stay in their rooms all the time or who keep to themselves, are they having fun? are they enjoying their college life, supposedly the best years of their lives? or do they wish to have done things differently, to be a little more than themselves? or is it just better to be silent and hang in the back?

who came up with mushrooms and cheese?

about those things that lurk in the back of your mind, all those things you wanted to say, all the thoughts you ever had about that boy or that girl or that teacher, what happens to it all? does it go forgotten in the recesses of your mind that is the pit of our existence, or do you someday dredge it up?

could you be that person wearing the loud clothes or that person smiling and laughing with everyone or maybe that quiet one sitting on the bench reading by themself?could you be any of these people that aren’t you? and what would it be like?

should I eat this with my hands and look like a slob or eat this using a fork and knife and fail miserably at it?

milk or cream?

if it is more acceptable to yell out the answer or to raise your hand and wait to be called on?

do people live this messily in their own homes or are they just doing this because no one is nagging at them to clean up after themselves? or are they just being lazy?