Sing Song

In regards to the things we've done lately, I'm neither disappointed nor satisfied. I've gotten to try a lot of new foods since I've been here, but I'm missing Kaohsiung favorites that I'm used to eating. There is not a single restaurant that has gotten my attention. The only plus would be that I've found several small stands that sell exceptional snacks. Particularly, the fried sweet potato, steamed pork bun (gua bao), green bean and grass jelly milk, shrimp dumplings (shao mai), and pickled cucumbers. But these are not items that I can eat as a meal, so I will continue to look!

This past weekend, a lot of students went to Hualien for a weekend trip, but I decided to stay behind to 1. save money, 2. meet up with Miya, and 3. catch up on some sleep. They estimated the trip to be 2,000NT (not including food and activities), but the total ended up being close to 5,000NT. For this alone, I'm glad I opted out. In addition, Miya only had a couple of days off work, and since she plans on taking trips with her family later on, I knew I didn't want to miss out on a day of hanging out with her. We had a really good time eating lunch and shopping together. I didn't realize how much I missed her and her company until I was able to chit chat with her again. And as for sleep, I definitely caught up. Especially in comparison to how little sleep the Hualien kids got.

I also think I'll make a trip every weekend to Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (Soy Milk King). I can not believe how much food I can get for $3. I went again this past weekend at around 3 in the afternoon (after waking up at 1pm). I ate lunch, saved the rice roll for dinner, and didn't eat another meal for the rest of the day. The only downside would be that the meal as a whole is very oily. But other than that, I'm so thankful that it's only a 30 minute walk from the dorms.

And my favorite purchase of the week has to be my new shoes. Another pair, in case you didn't know. I needed more walking shoes because the Vans have two very noticeable holes that seem to catch people's attention. So I knew that I should invest in a pair of Taiwan's infamous fake ones. I found fake Keds/Vans for only $13 and I'm more than impressed. They're very comfortable, and I find them to be more fashion forward (in design) than my Vans. Not to mention, they're not faded, with holes, or smelly.