Wo yao wan fei pan

Peggy just taught me the title - I want to play frisbee!
[Post edit: with tones, it's wo(3) yao (4) wan(2) fei (1) pan (2)]

But before I could play, I had to pass the time away. I walked down the road in search of my dad's favorite somewhat-nearby dou jiang place. I had looked before, but knowing the pin-yin name of a restaurant isn't really helpful (yong he dou jiang). My mom sent me the Chinese name (and slightly improved directions) and I was able to spot it. Because of the heat, I ended up with a cold tian dou jiang and a tasty bing and then a fan tuan to go. It took about 25 minutes to walk there, which is the time it takes to walk from the Nanjing Dong Lu MRT to the Daan station. There are closer dou jiang places, but this one is supposed to be superior. Since I haven't had the neighborhood one, I can't give a comparison, but I'll tell ya it sure hit the spot! I had the fan tuan for lunch and it was the best fan tuan I've ever had!

Afterwards, I walked down the road to Taipei 101, which I had visited before with Tuyet in March. She had gone up top (the tallest building in the world) and gave me a report on her return. It was still early in the morning, so they hadn't opened yet. I took a left and noticed a parade and drumming in the distance. In front of the Taipei Discovery Center, there were huge crowds of people carrying baskets of food and playing drums and walking into the building. Some were carrying signs (which I couldn't understand) and nearly everyone had a shirt that said "Hakka Speaking".

Inside there was clearly offering tables and a stage set up for something as well as an orchestra playing in the back. Everything was in a foreign language so I stepped out to continue on. I went to Eslite mall which also wasn't open yet, so I turned back. I had the choice of going straight towards Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall, another place Tuyet and I had visited in March (and that I had really enjoyed - lots of different exhibition rooms filled with art and history), or back to the Taipei DC, which I hadn't seen before. At this point it felt like I was in a live PC game - a weird combination of King's Quest, Myst and Mario Brothers - where you have the option of exploring different alleys and buildings and interacting with people - and hope you are making the right choice to get a big pay off.

I went back to the Taipei DC and felt like it was the right choice right about when I saw this enormous pig cut down it's underside laying flat on a cart being rolled across the street. It was huge, disgusting, and completely eye grabbing. I followed it in where they put it next to the major offering table and flipped it over. I could see a little tuft of black hair on top, and its mouth held on to an apple. How quaint.




I ended up exploring the Discovery Center and it was well worth it (free). Some of the exhibits had English, and there was a lot of information on the history of Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty, to Japanese rule, to modern day life. They even have a neat-o theatre with a 360 view wall and rotating base - the 10:30 am show was on the Formation of Taipei, starting with the geologic events that created the island. The special exhibit on the 2nd floor was about Education in Taipei. I find museums around the world so interesting - in the U.S. it's often times hands off with No Touch signs. Here, you could touch a piece of one of the old gates that used to wall the city and there was a pile of rollerskates on the floor that kids would try on and roll all over the room - this to be an example of how exercise is a part of education.

Replica of Beimen (North Gate) - the real one was made of bricks - this one is made up of 2000 pineapple cakes!

I'm getting tired, so here's the sped up version:

• went to the Eslite bookstore around the corner and got sucked into reading the Taiwan Living Guide and a really delicious looking magazine called Taiwanese Cuisine
• went to the fields near Ding Xi station to play ultimate with the Taipei team
• accidentally joined the Taichung team and was overwhelmed by the number of Chinese on the team - where were all the expats?
• got pointed to the Wai-guo ren (foreigner) team warming up on another field - ahh, there's all the whiteys
  
• played a scrimmage with the Taipei team against a combo of the Taichung team and another - about 30 of them and 10 of us
• met one of the ulti player's (Tom's) student (Stanley) and his gf (Christina) and joined up with Jon and Rebecca (ulti players) for dinner at a Korean restaurant. Unlike in America where we us an approximation of the Korean names, everything had it's own chinese name. Bi Bim Bop is called something that roughly translates to "hot stone [something something - boy I have a terrible memory]". Tom also shared some of his mua-chi (mochi) and another mysterious item that I didn't try - but looked like jelly wrapped around a prune (mei-zu???)
• explored the basement of the Breeze Center - food galore - gosh I wish someone would pay me to eat here. I might just need to get a job so I can start splurging. I've been limiting myself to $1.50 or less meals.
  

Chinese version of Of Mice and Men