Later that evening Yuxuan (Li is her surname) and I went and visited with her neighbors who were also extremely hospitable and very interested to talk with me. I made some tea for them and we stayed up late chatting, they were very keen on talking about my Chinese studies and taught me some new characters to see if I could write them (they were very complex ones). The next day we made jiaozi with yuxuan's family (jiaozi are Chinese style potstickers that are usually fairly small and are most often boiled). I offered to make that dough for the wrappers, Yuxuan's parents were surprised that I knew how to make them (I don't think they quite believed me at first) but I told them that I had worked in a bakery for a long time so I knew how to do it. We made a couple hundred at least and gave some to the neighbors, they were very good.
Here I am making the dough and receiving a jiaozi making lesson from Yuxuan's dad.
This is Yuxuan, her mother, her father and her younger brother.
I spent a day or two in Taipei after returning from Yuxuan's and we went to a bar that serves Belgium beers. It was a nice place and the beers were decent but some of them were a tad old and had gotten over fermented and skunky. I pointed this out to the owner who was sitting at the bar, he admitted that some of them where a little old (I don't blame him it's probably quite expensive to import beers to Taiwan). He let us try a brown ale that was from 2006, I think it was from his private stock, and it was exceptionally tasty (and very strong to boot). Later we got to talking about beer and his experience of it in America, he was quite an amiable fellow.
Yuxuan took this picture of us chatting.
The next day we went to a book store and I bought a bunch of kids books in Chinese
to help me practice when I get back. I sent them back by mail to the states along with a bunch of tea, the international shipping prices are pretty good here.
Here I am in the book store reading the hungry hungry caterpillar in Chinese. I was reading it out load and the little girl sitting next to me was giving me these funny looks.
Yesterday I took the train down to Gaoxiaong and then the bus to Kenting which is way way down on the very southern tip of Taiwan. This morning I took the ferry out to Lanyu (which means Orchid Island) which is the southern most island off the coast of Taiwan in the pacific. It's fantastically beautiful here and there aren't too many people here which is nice. I can smell the ocean coming up off the beach as I sit writing this in the cool evening breeze. I'll post more of the pictures I took today later but here is a taste.
Well that's it for now It's getting late here and dark so I should go home before I get attacked by wild dogs or billy goats (just kidding though there are a lot of goats here). I'll leave you with a cup of tea!
-Nate
