feeling better

i've had a much better time this week after getting over my chest cold. i've started to pick up my routine of swimming again. my appetite has also started to come back so that my lunch at the cafeteria is about $45NT instead of $29NT. i didn't notice it at the time, but i'm really surprised at how little i was eating.

last weekend i took a day trip with amanda to beitou to check out some hot springs. it was really nice and relaxing. we found a hot spring where you could stay as long as you wanted for $40NT. they had several pools of different temperatures with the hottest being 45C and the coldest being 20C i think. after that, we went to xindian to see a performance where her roommate/landlord issac was performing. it turns out that issac is the street performer i saw a while back who performs with the ring. the show also included a live band and a clown, who thought it would be funny to take some guy's big umbrella (it was drizzling that night), give him a tiny umbrella, and hand me the big umbrella to hold (although i had a raincoat on) until he was done with his performance. the show ended with three performers dancing and doing some stunts with fire.



afterwards, issac and his wife magda invited us to dinner at a vegetarian restaurant with many of the performers from the show. i don't remember all the dishes, but one that i really enjoyed was called 三杯素肉 (sanbei surou). i also sat next to the clown who had given me the big umbrella to hold, hahaha.

this week we had our midterm for chinese class. i half-heartedly studied for a day and a half before concluding that i was already well prepared for the test. i spent most of the night before the midterm making my first mashup with the lite version of ableton live i have, doing grizzly bear vs. cypress hill. i also made a cheap video with a picture of gizmo so that i could upload it to youtube. after finishing it, i was laughing so much that i thought i had lost my mind.

the midterm was okay and there weren't any surprises on it. i think many of my classmates were also a bit worried at first before realizing that it wouldn't be so hard.

the next day, our class had a day trip to 華陶窯 (huataoyao), a garden and ceramic studio, and 北埔 (beipu), a hakka village. it was my first time getting out of taipei since i've been here. i brought a book thinking i'd read to pass the time on the bus trip, but instead we had a tour guide who talked pretty much the whole way, keeping us entertained by playing bingo. i won a little key chain in the shape of taiwan with a map of all the counties on it. the bus ride was nice. looking out at all the green hills along the way, i couldn't help but miss my car a little bit. i would love to take a springtime road trip here.



華陶窯 was such a beautiful place. we learned a little bit about how they make their ceramics and were able to play with some clay ourselves. i was surprised when they told us that they would fire our clay pieces and mail them to us. a lot of the students made some really creative pieces. i saw a piece shaped like a toilet. i'm not sure if he intends to use it as a cup...

after 華陶窯, we went to a place in 北埔 to make our own 擂茶 (leicha), a traditional hakka tea. we were given a big bowl with sesame seeds and some other nuts to grind as part of making our tea. we had no idea about this at first, so we started to eat the nuts, thinking they were snacks to go with the tea. after eating some, we learned what the bowl was for and that there was a contest amongst all the students to see who could grind the bowl the fastest. our table tried very hard but somehow it didn't really work out for us. still, the tea we made was drinkable. later on, i was able to taste a properly prepared 擂茶 from a vendor on the street.

what a nice day. it was good to get out of taipei and even better to get out of class.