Weekend Work and Laundry

It's been a good weekend for everything but laundry.

Yesterday morning it was overcast but not very threatening, so I optimistically did laundry and hung it out on the covered mini-balcony outside my window. Just after I left the house, it suddenly started raining, HARD, with thunder and lightning. It didn't really seem worth going back though...

I walked to school and almost ended up suffering food malaise and being a hungry ghost. But then I just ended up walking into a big dumpling place. I like it when they have the kind of menu you can write on... it feels like you can think more about what you are going to order... I ended up with a delicious light mushroom soup and these dumplings. Also a dish of pickled cucumber and turnip, not pictured, because I had already eaten them up by the time the rest of the food came and I thought of taking a picture. It was a great light meal on a rainy day!

I could kick the coffee habit, now that my attempts to make coffee in my room have failed so sadly. But actually, it's fun finding a different place to have coffee every day. Ikari, in one of the student buildings on campus, was very cute. Not a lot of character or anything--I'm assuming it's a Japanese chain--but it actually had a pretty good space. Also, I got this piece of black cherry cake and it seems like the girl specially picked out the one with the "8" on it to give to me. Eight is a good luck number in Chinese, but honestly, not all the slices had eight on them. I also saw a 9 and a 3. So it gave me a good feeling that she gave me the 8. ^_^

I was soaking wet by the time I ate this, by the way. It was the kind of pounding rain against which an umbrella is but a feeble defense. I was not especially unhappy about this though. My timbuktu backpack is not as waterproof as it used to be, but it mostly kept the wet off my stuff...

After coffee I went to check out the library. It was nice! I spent time looking up some books, which turned out to be NOT easy. But it was productive. It's a good library, and I browsed the shelf of recent secondary stuff relating to me research, finding some very interesting things that I hadn't been aware of. I figured out how to make photocopies. I even checked out a book! I know these pleasures seem pretty nerdy, but I am who I am. I managed to work on my manuscript a little too, though the library was really crowded and there were no free desks. Memories of Beida... It wasn't as crowded as that, though. There were some couch seats not yet occupied by slumbering students...

I got a little lost on the way home and ended up walking through the university farm. Charming little waterwheel!

This one seemed a little too eerily reminiscent of those X-Files episodes where the bees infect you with black oil. Maybe it was just the time of day or the desertedness of the area or something...

I felt good about having such a productive work day, but also a little lonely at dinner time. I went down to the night market, not feeling very hungry or interested in food or anything. But someone had sent me a list of 40 Taiwan snacks and I decided I am going to try to try them all. It helps to have a to do list!

So as I was wandering around, I happened to see a place selling cōng zhuā bǐng 蔥抓餅 (flaky scallion pancake, #14) so I decided to give it a try! It was awesome, like a cross between nan bread with croissant, plus scallions folded into it. I had mine with pork and egg. Chewy (QQ) and delicious. This is not a very good picture, but here is the lady who was making them...

After that I had two little waffle-like "mahjong cakes" filled with cream. There was a guy on the very edge of the market making these cakes. It was a lonely spot, but there were 3-4 people standing there, then I stood there, then two more people came and stood there. You decide to go somewhere because others do--it's a really funny, unstable sort of system. I like to feel like I contributed to a good few minutes for the underdog mahjong cake maker. They were called mahjong cakes because they were shaped like mahjong tiles I guess.

I finished with a cup of guava juice, which was thick and fresh and not very sweet. Yum. Total: NT95, a three dollar dinner.

When I got home, the thicker items of my laundry were damp and nasty, of course, and with that sour bacterial smell. I threw those on the floor...

This morning I woke up late and had an e-mail from my pal summoning me to a work date at 11. So I jumped up and got going. We went to a place called Cafe Bastille near NTU. It was nice! Bustling on a Sunday, but good free wifi and places to plug in. Good coffee too: they had proper brewed coffee, not as over-roasted as Starbucks, and served it in a little pot. ...Of course, it cost the equivalent of FIVE DOLLARS, but they are obviously 賣環境 (selling the atmosphere).

I got some good editing done because, you know, when you have a pal sitting next to you, you feel too embarrassed to procrastinate. Specially if it isn't someone you know too well.

Here's another shot. I'm not sure which of the two was better.

Later, we had lunch sets. At NT250 ($8+), they felt hideously expensive in contrast to my lovely string of $3 meals, but they were tasty. They came with soup, entry, drink, and dessert. My friend had short ribs and I had lemongrass fish. Mine was delicious (I didn't taste hers) but took an inordinately long time--they brought it out about half an hour after hers. This led us to have an entertaining conversation about conflict aversion (mine), and my lack of inclination to complain. She actually complained a bit on my behalf. (I of course said she should go ahead and eat without me.) But she had the slightly reproachful unemotional Asian complaint style down perfect. I can't complain without scaring people. So I am happy to just accept whatever comes to me. It's my one skill. Anyway, I'm not sure what to recommend regarding Cafe Bastille. I guess just don't get the lemongrass fish, even though it is delicious? Apparently they have to go catch the fish first? Later a third person joined us and she ordered curry. That came really quickly, as had the short ribs. So who knows. It was a fluke.

It was a quirky sort of place. Had this Trainspotting-related sign on the wall. It rang a bell--that must have been a monologue from the movie maybe?--but I didn't remember it in detail at all. The poster has several typos, but I was amused anyway. Oh the 90s. Definitely my generation, but what was going through our heads!?

Also, it was funny to see this sign in a coffeeshop which had a startling proportion of little kids in it. But maybe they can't read bad words in English yet at that age? Oh yeah, and the coffeeshop also served imported beer, but like imported beer everywhere here, terribly expensive.

I came home in the late afternoon because it was such a sunny hot day, thought I might manage to do my laundry. Put the coins in the machine, pressed start, and thought nothing more of it. Went out half an hour later and it was flashing some sort of error message. So 40 more NT had to go in, and half an hour more passed. By this time it was getting on toward dusk. Still pretty hot out, though. I'm just not sure about the humidity. Not having driers really sucks. No rain forecast for tonight or tomorrow, though, so fingers crossed...