August 20th Carol Says:

Sunday, August 20—Carol

I can’t believe it’s been another whole week! Every day is just stuffed it seems. We’ve had lots of new experiences and Bill is just so happy teaching at TAS, his blood pressure must be down a lot, I know mine is! We walk constantly, almost always before or after dinner exploring the neighborhoods, to provision, to school, to really almost everything unless it’s really out of the question distance-wise, and then we mostly bus and MRT.
It’s getting easier to figure out, but we do keep our handy-dandy home address written out in Chinese and laminated in our pockets, just in case we have to fall back on a taxi if we get lost. I have even struck out on my own for a 3-hour ramble. Yesterday I took a quick afternoon nap and awoke to find that Bill had gone on a 3-hour jaunt of his own—no watch band repair—but the discovery of a hardware-type store a little closer than the big B&Q Home Depot store which does require transport!

Bill has introduced me to the delights of “bubble milk tea”! Believe it or not, it is iced tea with milk and sugar served with a LARGE straw, which is used to suck up the giant black balls of taro tapioca which are cooked and served in the bottom! What a wild sensation, it’s really good, but it apparently has lots of calories so it won’t become a regular habit. Our friend Lesley says that when she was in the States she found a place in Boston that served it and so of course they told her friends that it was frog eyes in it, because that’s just what it looks like!

Friday night we bought our first Asian artifacts and we are so excited. We found a small polychrome chest which is now the lamp table between our chairs and a gorgeous lamp which was made by the owner of the gallery. It is a old carving about 16’’X 9’’of a dragon and a flower which is now surrounded by a small thin metal frame and topped with a large rectangular shade of shirred silk. It is just wonderful, and even a couple of things help to make our place look now quite so bare. I am still working on a coverlet for the bed, and a few other things, like curtains.

We actually took our courage in our two hands and went out to a real Chinese restaurant on Thursday night for dinner. We were the only non-Asians in the place, and they kindly found a menu with some English on it, so by hook, crook and good will on their part managed to put together a locally acceptable meal. It was fantastic and only worries me that we will be really spoiled when we get home. The surprising thing is the number of dishes that are ordered by the other diners. Depending on the number at the table, course after course just keeps arriving, with everyone sharing tastes of everything. We are absolute pikers by comparison!! Things all smell great and look so beautiful. It is very visual as well.

To sort of revitalize the balcony garden plants which we inherited from the previous tenants, it was time to make a pilgrimage to the smaller WenLin flower and garden market. It is a grouping of several, perhaps a dozen, garden shops and vendors all lined up next to each other. Compost, peat moss, and some hand gardening implements were the goal, but 2 orchids and a red ribbon dracaena found their way into the purchase, and when I returned from retrieving one of the orchids found Bill loading a 4-foot orange tree complete with about 24 5-inch green oranges into the taxi! We earned our dinner last night lugging all of that through the park, up the stairs and through the apartment to the balconies. This morning we transplanted several, did a bunch of weeding and feeding and things look much different.

Today we spent a wonderful afternoon at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. The admission is about $1 each, so with the bus rides, all told, it puts the day at $4! It is a huge, very modernistic building with primarily changing exhibitions, although one of our favorite, about landscape, was created totally from works in their permanent collections. We were simply entranced. The variety of the works, from ultra-modern performance and interactive pieces, to an installation of very whimsical and thought-provoking pieces about attitudes toward life in urban environments, specifically Taipei, were so much fun and really engaged the museum goers in the process, it was not at all a passive observational experience! We cried “uncle” after about 4 hours, so are glad there’s more to see.

Well, one last comment. This week I was approached on the street to audition for a Taiwanese TV commercial! They were looking for an older foreign couple for a car commercial. They wanted to know if Bill might be interested, because as they showed me the script, it involved the older couple driving, then kissing, and the young salesman in the back reacting. The young producer asked me if I would feel more comfortable if I could “make mash” with my own husband?!? Unfortunately, Bill is prohibited from such activity by his contract, and now that I’m a legal, work-permitted substitute at TAS as well, I may be as well, so we declined with thanks. However, she e-mailed me yesterday asking if I would be available for a shoe commercial! Who knows, my true calling may yet to be revealed! My sister has probably not stopped laughing since I told her!

Our best to everyone, we miss you all. We’ll write again soon. Bill tried to get pictures on this weekend, but did too many and the attempt failed. We won’t give up, we’d love to share the beauty. For now, the words will just have to try…..