(no subject)
Taiwan still ROCKS.
The week went pretty well, all things considered. "All things" including that nearly everything I said had to be translated, which meant things went at a VERY slow rate. Plus they kind of begged me to teach using the Chinese interface rather than the standard US English, so I had to put that photographic memory of mine to very solid use since every menu item and every button was in a language I can't even read, let alone translate. Luckily, the photo-memory came in very handy and did its job quite well. They were very pleased to be able to use the system in their own language, but it sure did stress me out! We had a good time though - they brought me all kinds of neat little local treats, which was cool. I brought them mini-snickers 'cause I know my coworkers in India love them and always want us to bring them with us when we visit the Hyderabad office.
Every day of training ended with applause which was odd for me, but rather nice. And when I said "Good Morning" every morning, they actually offered back the same phrase. Americans have lost that courtesy. Somehow it almost registered as flattery.
The client-provided lunches have been interesting. Monday's offering was a creepy "spaghetti" thing with odd ingredients tossed in - most of them vegetable-ish in nature, though some seemed kind of meat-ish, which probably means pork. Tuesday was "Chinese," which equated to a quarter of a fried chicken, rice, pickled veggies and pickled fried tofu - somehow, that part was my favorite, which was quite shocking - and pickled cabbage, plus some other ingredients that were completely unidentifiable, but apparently non-toxic. Oh, and there was a little "dessert" item on Tuesday - a deep-fried Taro ball (taro is basically an Asian version of a yam) - which was SO yummy!! Today we had Pizza Hut, but it was definitely not your average American Pizza hut. They had a "supreme," a "Hawaiian," and a seafood pizza, plus an order of chicken wings and an order of "meatballs." I put quotes around the aforementioned because they were not at all what an American would expect of things so named. The meatballs were like what you would find inside beef dumplings - little balls of meat with all the yummy Asian spices that make dumplings so tasty. And the seafood pizza was something I couldn't pass up, even though I'd NEVER consume such a thing in the states. Even living by the ocean, I distrust seafood when not served up as...well, seafood. If you put it on stuff, I start to sweat a little. So this thing had shrimp, baby scallops, crab, and SQUID!! on it. And it was outstanding! I loved it!! Go figure. I'll probably never indulge in such a thing again, but I'm glad I decided to partake today - it was like nothing I'd ever tasted before.
We also got coffee/tea service ordered in every morning and afternoon. I played it safe the first time around and just got a latte, but that afternoon I saw something called a "rose latte" on the menu being passed around and had to put my name by it. It was SO good! It pretty much tasted like rose-water in my latte, but was just sweet enough, and just rosy enough that I adored the combination. :)
I've explored the downtown area a bit and found some interesting things to bring home. All of them of a "gastro" variety since I'm such a foodie. During my wanderings, I seem to get a lot of stares, most likely due to my being a great big Anglo. I tower over these people in a way somewhat reminiscent of middle-school when I could see over everyone's heads without perching on tippy-toe - in fact, without perching at all. I've also noticed very few white folks wandering the streets, so I must *really* seem to be an anomaly. :)
Today I wandered into a "Beauty store," which surprisingly enough is a convenience store somewhat akin to a 7-11. I wandered around and looked at all the strange stuff they have. An entire aisle dedicated to instant noodle bowls!! Half an aisle of "beauty" products, which included some scary-looking facial peels, condoms, sanitary products, some frighteningly pink makeup (it's cool for young girls to look like total clowns - almost Japanese street-style, but slightly subdued), and hair products that made no sense to me at all. Then came the refrigerated bits. I've never seen so much tea!!! With our meals at work, we've been offered what they call a "yogurt drink," which is actually very yummy and not yogurty at all - apparently it has the same live cultures in it that yogurt does, so I'm guessing that's why it translates to "yogurt." I never imagined that there could be more than one or two varieties until I hit this neat little "beauty" store - there was a whole row in a very wide fridge case full of the stuff. I wish I could bring it home, but I'm rather certain that it wouldn't survive the trip, and customs probably wouldn't be thrilled either - they might not be pleased with my little foodie bits as it is, but that's not stopping me from trying! I fear I'll be frequenting the International District quite a bit in the near future, as I've become hooked on quite a few new and interesting items over here. Especially the yogurt drinks.
Tonight, I had an amazing dinner. The hotel has several very nice restaurants, one of which (Toscana) is renowned throughout Taipei as one of the best restaurants in town. I decided to skip Toscana, which I found out is so very renowned because of its US beef. Since I can get that at home, I decided to dine at Yi Yuan (Chinese) instead. I actually enjoyed dining alone tonight, which is rather out of character. I think it's because I was the mysterious American woman or something...whatever... So I got Australian scallops sauteed in "XO sauce." I still don't know what XO sauce is - I imagine it has something to do with an XO cognac - but I loved it. It was SO good. Slightly spicy with scallions, shallots, hot peppers, and some other light flavors like sesame oil and rice wine vinegar or something. And the scallops were absolute perfection!! So delicate, but SO yummy & full of flavor!! To make the deal even sweeter, the scallops were served on a bed of perfectly-steamed sugar snap peas. I don't think it could have been any better. It seemed to be the one thing on the menu that I desired that I definitely couldn't make at home - I don't think we get scallops from Australia in Seattle - so I had to go for it. Even the portion size was ideal - about 8 scallops, all about the size of a 50-cent piece. And NOT served over rice as in America - *real* Asians prepare/serve/eat their food very differently than us goofs in the States. I'll remember that meal for a long, long time.
Now I'm sitting in the bar again since they allow smoking here, but not in my room. Plus they have a couple decent ports on their wine list, so since it's on the company's dime, I'm living it up. Sort of... It's interesting to hear conversations is several different languages going on around me. American business men loudly gibbering about work, probably trying to sound important, but too ignorant to realize that those they're trying to impress probably don't speak much English. And definitely don't speak that incredibly annoying dialect of the American Businessman. Or maybe they're a little sloshed. I'm sitting next to a table where a Spanish man is speaking with some Asian folks, so the broken English and stammering is distracting enough that I've found myself grinning somewhat accidentally while writing this.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with my time tomorrow. I may purchase a new suitcase so I can check my laptop and the goodies I'm bringing home. I may do the museum thing. I may see if the hotel recommends anything in particular. I'd love to get out to the coast - I hear the East coast is amazing. Checkout is at noon, and my car won't be around to pick me up until late evening, so I'll have a whole day to wander. I wonder where I'll wander.
I suppose you'll have to find that out upon my return. :)
I may be out Saturday night, but it's hard to say just yet. Since I'm leaving Taiwan at 11:00 PM, and then arriving 15.5 hours later at just a couple hours later than when I left (what??), I know I'll have a rough time sleeping that night so that I'm back on Seattle time Friday. By Saturday, I'm hoping to be just fine, as I seem to adjust rather well once I've had a chance to go to sleep and wake up at the same time as those around me. I may just want to be home for a while...feels like I haven't done that much lately, especially over weekends...
Ok, it's close to 9 AM Thursday morning in Seattle, but it's almost midnight Thursday night here in Taipei, so I think it's time to step away from the laptop and sleep my last night's sleep in Taiwan. I definitely want to come back here in future travels...though it definitely seems sweeter when it's on the company's dime! ;)
The week went pretty well, all things considered. "All things" including that nearly everything I said had to be translated, which meant things went at a VERY slow rate. Plus they kind of begged me to teach using the Chinese interface rather than the standard US English, so I had to put that photographic memory of mine to very solid use since every menu item and every button was in a language I can't even read, let alone translate. Luckily, the photo-memory came in very handy and did its job quite well. They were very pleased to be able to use the system in their own language, but it sure did stress me out! We had a good time though - they brought me all kinds of neat little local treats, which was cool. I brought them mini-snickers 'cause I know my coworkers in India love them and always want us to bring them with us when we visit the Hyderabad office.
Every day of training ended with applause which was odd for me, but rather nice. And when I said "Good Morning" every morning, they actually offered back the same phrase. Americans have lost that courtesy. Somehow it almost registered as flattery.
The client-provided lunches have been interesting. Monday's offering was a creepy "spaghetti" thing with odd ingredients tossed in - most of them vegetable-ish in nature, though some seemed kind of meat-ish, which probably means pork. Tuesday was "Chinese," which equated to a quarter of a fried chicken, rice, pickled veggies and pickled fried tofu - somehow, that part was my favorite, which was quite shocking - and pickled cabbage, plus some other ingredients that were completely unidentifiable, but apparently non-toxic. Oh, and there was a little "dessert" item on Tuesday - a deep-fried Taro ball (taro is basically an Asian version of a yam) - which was SO yummy!! Today we had Pizza Hut, but it was definitely not your average American Pizza hut. They had a "supreme," a "Hawaiian," and a seafood pizza, plus an order of chicken wings and an order of "meatballs." I put quotes around the aforementioned because they were not at all what an American would expect of things so named. The meatballs were like what you would find inside beef dumplings - little balls of meat with all the yummy Asian spices that make dumplings so tasty. And the seafood pizza was something I couldn't pass up, even though I'd NEVER consume such a thing in the states. Even living by the ocean, I distrust seafood when not served up as...well, seafood. If you put it on stuff, I start to sweat a little. So this thing had shrimp, baby scallops, crab, and SQUID!! on it. And it was outstanding! I loved it!! Go figure. I'll probably never indulge in such a thing again, but I'm glad I decided to partake today - it was like nothing I'd ever tasted before.
We also got coffee/tea service ordered in every morning and afternoon. I played it safe the first time around and just got a latte, but that afternoon I saw something called a "rose latte" on the menu being passed around and had to put my name by it. It was SO good! It pretty much tasted like rose-water in my latte, but was just sweet enough, and just rosy enough that I adored the combination. :)
I've explored the downtown area a bit and found some interesting things to bring home. All of them of a "gastro" variety since I'm such a foodie. During my wanderings, I seem to get a lot of stares, most likely due to my being a great big Anglo. I tower over these people in a way somewhat reminiscent of middle-school when I could see over everyone's heads without perching on tippy-toe - in fact, without perching at all. I've also noticed very few white folks wandering the streets, so I must *really* seem to be an anomaly. :)
Today I wandered into a "Beauty store," which surprisingly enough is a convenience store somewhat akin to a 7-11. I wandered around and looked at all the strange stuff they have. An entire aisle dedicated to instant noodle bowls!! Half an aisle of "beauty" products, which included some scary-looking facial peels, condoms, sanitary products, some frighteningly pink makeup (it's cool for young girls to look like total clowns - almost Japanese street-style, but slightly subdued), and hair products that made no sense to me at all. Then came the refrigerated bits. I've never seen so much tea!!! With our meals at work, we've been offered what they call a "yogurt drink," which is actually very yummy and not yogurty at all - apparently it has the same live cultures in it that yogurt does, so I'm guessing that's why it translates to "yogurt." I never imagined that there could be more than one or two varieties until I hit this neat little "beauty" store - there was a whole row in a very wide fridge case full of the stuff. I wish I could bring it home, but I'm rather certain that it wouldn't survive the trip, and customs probably wouldn't be thrilled either - they might not be pleased with my little foodie bits as it is, but that's not stopping me from trying! I fear I'll be frequenting the International District quite a bit in the near future, as I've become hooked on quite a few new and interesting items over here. Especially the yogurt drinks.
Tonight, I had an amazing dinner. The hotel has several very nice restaurants, one of which (Toscana) is renowned throughout Taipei as one of the best restaurants in town. I decided to skip Toscana, which I found out is so very renowned because of its US beef. Since I can get that at home, I decided to dine at Yi Yuan (Chinese) instead. I actually enjoyed dining alone tonight, which is rather out of character. I think it's because I was the mysterious American woman or something...whatever... So I got Australian scallops sauteed in "XO sauce." I still don't know what XO sauce is - I imagine it has something to do with an XO cognac - but I loved it. It was SO good. Slightly spicy with scallions, shallots, hot peppers, and some other light flavors like sesame oil and rice wine vinegar or something. And the scallops were absolute perfection!! So delicate, but SO yummy & full of flavor!! To make the deal even sweeter, the scallops were served on a bed of perfectly-steamed sugar snap peas. I don't think it could have been any better. It seemed to be the one thing on the menu that I desired that I definitely couldn't make at home - I don't think we get scallops from Australia in Seattle - so I had to go for it. Even the portion size was ideal - about 8 scallops, all about the size of a 50-cent piece. And NOT served over rice as in America - *real* Asians prepare/serve/eat their food very differently than us goofs in the States. I'll remember that meal for a long, long time.
Now I'm sitting in the bar again since they allow smoking here, but not in my room. Plus they have a couple decent ports on their wine list, so since it's on the company's dime, I'm living it up. Sort of... It's interesting to hear conversations is several different languages going on around me. American business men loudly gibbering about work, probably trying to sound important, but too ignorant to realize that those they're trying to impress probably don't speak much English. And definitely don't speak that incredibly annoying dialect of the American Businessman. Or maybe they're a little sloshed. I'm sitting next to a table where a Spanish man is speaking with some Asian folks, so the broken English and stammering is distracting enough that I've found myself grinning somewhat accidentally while writing this.
I'm not sure yet what I'm going to do with my time tomorrow. I may purchase a new suitcase so I can check my laptop and the goodies I'm bringing home. I may do the museum thing. I may see if the hotel recommends anything in particular. I'd love to get out to the coast - I hear the East coast is amazing. Checkout is at noon, and my car won't be around to pick me up until late evening, so I'll have a whole day to wander. I wonder where I'll wander.
I suppose you'll have to find that out upon my return. :)
I may be out Saturday night, but it's hard to say just yet. Since I'm leaving Taiwan at 11:00 PM, and then arriving 15.5 hours later at just a couple hours later than when I left (what??), I know I'll have a rough time sleeping that night so that I'm back on Seattle time Friday. By Saturday, I'm hoping to be just fine, as I seem to adjust rather well once I've had a chance to go to sleep and wake up at the same time as those around me. I may just want to be home for a while...feels like I haven't done that much lately, especially over weekends...
Ok, it's close to 9 AM Thursday morning in Seattle, but it's almost midnight Thursday night here in Taipei, so I think it's time to step away from the laptop and sleep my last night's sleep in Taiwan. I definitely want to come back here in future travels...though it definitely seems sweeter when it's on the company's dime! ;)