The curse of yum: I ate my first dragonfruit! One morning I stumbled upon a fruit stand very close to my apartment. I browsed the wares, selected a few mostly unknown objects, and gladly paid the small fee for such prizes. The next morning, I woke up and was experiencing some digestive troubles. Around noon, I decided I was quite hungry and needed breakfast, in spite of the continuing mild discomfort. I selected the most interesting object of the bunch
(which was, unknown to me at the time, the dragonfruit). Upon peeling the husk and digging in, I decided to look online and see if I could determine what this fruit was, as it was pretty good. After some googling, I found some images that matched what I held in my hand...so, I had found dragonfruit, a treat I had heard of from Corey. I continued to peruse it's wikipedia page as I obliterated the mildly sweet pulp. Nearing completion of my meal, I reached the end of the wikipedia page and saw (like a scene out of a juvenile movie), to my horror that it "...has natural laxative properties and for many people may cause gastro-intestinal discomfort and diarrhea." Great. Like throwing water on a grease fire. Needless to say, it was a fun afternoon.
Fight for that discount: My first haggling experience. Yesterday, Yaling accompanied me to help with the process of buying a refrigerator. We headed to a lane by Guting Station that is full of places selling, buying, and repairing secondhand appliances. Perfect! So, we stalked up and down this lane, questioning each vendor on what mini-fridges they have available, price, shipping possibilities, etc. Eventually we settled on a place that a good-sized fridge for only 200NT more than a very mini-indeed fridge. They could ship it for 500, but he recommended that we take a taxi with it instead, which would only cost us 200. Thus, the haggling began. Yaling, bless her soul, is (self-admittedly) not the most imposing person, but she did her best to play the game of we-want-it-but-not-that-much, while I played the part of the tight-ass, tight-wallet foreign guy. It was rather odd...at home, Corey had me used to (well, attempting to, on my part) conspiring/insulting in public via Chinese...and in Taiwan, I have to keep reminding myself to do the opposite with my cohorts. Anyway, eventually he agreed to lower the price about 100NT, pay for 100 of the cab, and give me a 3-month warranty. Now, I can actually have cold water, milk, etc.
Milk map: Today, I decided to raid the nearest grocery store to stock the new-old fridge. I shot off an inquiry to Yaling, who told me closest grocery store was by her house...which meant far enough to be out of my familiar neighborhood and but not so far as to be an easy MRT trip. Fortunately, Yaling was nice enough of to gift me with a quality map:
After jotting down an even more abbreviated version onto a more portable medium, I journeyed forth...after stopping for some tongyoubing and hongdou cakes, of course. Anyway, the journey itself went off without a hitch. I only had enough money in my wallet for milk and cereal (my main objective..thanks alot mom/sister for making me miss it)...which was probably a good thing, as hauling back loads of groceries will prove more difficult.
That's all for now, hope your days are proving to be even more exciting (gosh, how).
om nom nom... CEREAL!
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