Zhou - The answer to all ailments

Have I not learned anything in AOM school? Zhou (congee) is the answer to everything! Everything.  It's taken me 4 days since this wind heat to finally get a nice hot bowl of bland zhou. Feel instantly better.

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Next Stop - Thailand! Sawadee ka!

Orange you a lime?

Stopped by the market to pick up a lime to make limeade for my cold. Small green round fruit, right? Well, got home, only to find out it was a tangerine. Don't be fooled. Tangerines in Taiwan are green. And they can be small, like a lime...
http://www.omg-facts.com/Science/Oranges-Are-Green-Not-Orange-When-Grown/52278

How are you going to know  if qing pi is really qing pi and not chen pi?

U bike, I bike, let's bike

UBikes! First 30min free. Every time. Still super cheap after that.
Ah, so this is what it is like to bike and cruise in a city without hills!

Must say, was a bit stressful at times with all the peds, motorcycles, and other bikers, but you adapt pretty quickly - if not, figure out which streets have the nice wide open sidewalks, or follow other bikers to open a pathway ...reminds me of in China, where we would wait to cross the streets with the wise old man.  

Reliving the Taiwan campus life

Da-an district - where I spent most of my time last time I was here, studying and doing yoga in the park. Shida University has a great mandarin learning program if you are ever interested! It's also the school my mom went to :) I failed to visit the main campus last time, so that is what I did yesterday.

Shida University

Shida Unversity

Da-an sen lin gong yuan (forest park)

Giant Rubber Ducky

Traveled to the Kaohsiung, Taiwan, the southern end of the island for a week to see family...and I guess I scored - got to see a giant rubber ducky, the huang se xiao ya too- not sure why but I guess it's on tour and all should pay it a visit. It sure was giant. http://rubberduck-kaohsiung.tw/english/1.asp

Remember seeing someone in China with a duck backpack. Now I get it.

Grandparents are cool

Nainai's fav place - A Buddhist temple.

Inspired to practice calligraphy

Dropped Nai Nai (paternal grandma) off to calligraphy class - she takes 3 classes/week. Still a xue sheng (student) at 90 (ish?) years! I think I'll continue to be a student too with no distress.

Also worth mentioning, the whole car ride there she was patting her meridians, massaging LI4 hegu, and doing her eye exercises.

One of Grandma's earlier works

A notebook I stumbled upon

Waigong (maternal grandpa) and the uncles were playing mahjong all day till the evening for three days! Yima aunt tells me this is why Waigong is so sharp in the mind and why also mahjong is becoming popular in the West.

He also lives on the 4th floor with no elevator!

Happy 94 Waigong!

Now, I just wish I could understand you more than 50% of the time through that thick Guangdong accent...it's often funny, that I know.

Rando Thoughts, Lessons, and Pending Questions

1. Washing machines are a luxury. Dryers are surplus (or shi) and a tad wasteful (at least in warm sunny cities).

2. Why Asians hold a strict "no shoes in the house" rule and wear slippers instead. I used to think the rule was overly OCD and that slippers were silly and funny looking. Then recently when brought to this world of Chinese Medicine, I thought the slippers were to protect the "kidneys," and that the no shoes rule was still OCD. Now, I am certain that both are used conjunctively because the streets outside are just gross and all shoes are "squatter-shoes."

3. Why Asians are stereotypically stingy in the US. In China, common denominations are 1 yuan, 5 yuan and 10 yuan = $0.17, 0.84, 1.67 respectively. 20Y and 50Y are large bills = $3.33 and 8.33. The largest bill is a 100Y = $17. Every yuan makes a difference --ie. every USD dime makes a difference. A bottle of water should be around 2 yuan. If they ask for 4Y, an extra 34 cents, you are being ripped off.

Just saying.

4. Think the secret to pain-free longevity is a combo of tea, hard beds, parks, and qigong.

Zi teng lu, Wistaria House

Zi teng lu, Wistaria House

5. My little nephews love (may be too strong of a word) vegetables. I took a pic of him eating broccoli (or as they call it, hua hua tsai cause I thought it was adorable and its not common to see 2 year olds chomping on their greens. I thought this may be representative of all Asian kids, but my cousin claims its just them, that they are the special ones. 'course.


6. Clarify the names of all your relatives before you see them. Not everyone is a simple Uncle Joe or Aunt Mary ---nope, everyone has their own special name depending how you relate to them. Are they maternal or paternal? Are they younger or older? etc etc. Whenever I am introduced to someone for the first time, the relatives around me congregate for a moment to figure out how I should call him or her. I finally decided to Google this. What this site explains isn't even comprehensive! http://www.expatintaiwan.net/family-names/

Had dinner with a bunch of relatives. I think I should draw a family tree.

7. Pending question --Why for ex. at restaurants, are you not just given one sufficient paper towel or napkin, but instead, a box of tiny thin tissues? Not sure which is more consuming...

8. Pending question 2 --Would I look different if I grew up in Asia, if so how so and by how much?