While washing the one cooking pot I own, I made a mental observation that I found so witty that I figured this would be a good time for a blog post. I went to the Xinbeitou hot springs on Saturday with Andrew and my new friend Jesus (pronounced "Hey Zeus!") from Madrid. After thinking about this experience, I realized I felt like I was trapped in a zoo exhibit. The hot springs had a tall fence around them, and there were a bunch of tired-looking and slow-moving people laying around, occasionally going into the water just because there's not much else to do. Don't get me wrong, it was very nice and relaxing but sort of funny to think about too. It only cost 4o NT (slightly more than $1) to go for two and a half hours. After our good soak, we went to a night market. This was my first visit to a night market, an attraction very popular in Taiwan. It was very crowded and loud. It basically felt like being at the Boardwalk in New Jersey. We did get some pretty good teppanyaki though. The food at these night markets is definitely the main attraction, but they also offer a lot of random merchandise and carnival-esque games.
On Sunday morning, I met with Brooke, a lady in my building who is either retired or really rich because she does not work. She is going to teach me Chinese while I help her with English. We spoke for almost two hours at a little cafe right near our building. It was a very productive session and hopefully we'll meet at least once a week. When we met at 10 AM, I told her I only had until 11:30 before I had to leave. At around 11, she asked me if I was hungry so she ordered me some soup. The kitchen was just getting ready so they told me it would be a few minutes. At about 11:32, they brought the soup out to me and the waitress made a point of saying "please eat the soup very slowly." So I get this soup late, I need to leave but I just received a gift, and I can't communicate very well to who I'm with anyway. It was a pretty comical experience. And to add to it, Kelly called me in the middle of it and I answered the phone like a nervous wreck. I'd also had a latte so that didn't help matters...when I have caffeine, I tend to get a bit hyped out. I made it to my next destination on time so the cafe fiasco wasn't really that bad.
That next destination was Beitou where I met Andrew and his roommate Dan for another Hash run. It was 28 C during the run, which is roughly 82 F so it was a fairly toasty day, but not too humid. The hash itself was ok. It did have an Easter theme so there were about 15 eggs hidden on the course. I got one and received 50 NT off my dinner so that was cool. I could have had a ten minute conversation with a man named Sheepshagger also, so I was faced with a tough choice, hence why I took the money. On the run, there was a vicious dog we had to squeak by which was a little scary, as well as a woman farming some vegetables that angrily yelled at every person that went by. Ryan, a fellow hasher also from Colorado, was bitten on the run by another dog and had to be taken to the hospital for some shots. The bash afterwards was a lot of fun. The highlight was on the way home though. At around 10, roughly 20 hashers got on the MRT and started singing very loudly and acting obnoxiously. A few observers were amused, especially one random Taiwanese guy that joined in the fun but for the most part people looked annoyed. Security was called and we got off the train, and then got back on the next one. Once I got back to the main station, I bought a package of peanut M&Ms to get change for the bus back to Linkou. Only in Taiwan...
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