I'm trying to gather my thoughts after a whirlwind weekend. On Friday night, I met up with Nicole DeBoom, Kelly's boss. Nicole was in Taipei for the week on business. We had the pleasure of visiting the Shilin Night Market. This is one of the bigger night markets in Taipei. It felt a lot like the boardwalk in Atlantic City. They sold everything you could possibly imagine for under like $3. Well maybe not that cheap, but it had the feeling of being cheap. Nicole had to buy a bag and she decided to go to the place that had the motto "The Best Place to Buy Trendy Bags." How could you beat that? I saw one T-shirt that I found extremely strange but I really regret not buying it. On it was a cartoon baby with multiple piercings and tattoos, and a bunch of graffiti in the background. Oh, and it also had a mohawk. There was a funny part in the night where the vendors who had blankets out in the middle of street suddenly packed up all of their belongings and ran off. I think the police were on the way because something seemed fishy. Speaking of fishy, there were plenty of stalls where you could fish for crawfish and little guppies. It looked cute. You could also buy puppies, kittens, piglets, and bunnies. This was by far the most inhumane pet store I'd ever seen. All of the animals looked very unhappy. I guess it's legal but it seemed sketchy. Apparently the reason why there are so many stray dogs in Taiwan is because lots of people like to buy puppies but once they get too big, they let the dogs go. Since most people live in apartments, they can't fit them. Food-wise, I saw much more of the usual but Nicole was quite impressed because she's not quite the Taiwan-native like I am. This was actually the first time I saw fried squid on a stick for sale. Needless to say, we did not order that.
On Saturday, I woke up at 1 PM trying to recover from my week and late Friday night. I went into Taipei with my friend Chris at around 3 and we went and played drums at a studio for 3 hours. It was a lot of fun! We only had one kit to share between us so we started messing around with sharing the drums at the same time. I played the bass drum, snare, high hat, and crash cymbal while he played the other drums. This was awesome and something I'd never done before. Unfortunately, as I type now I notice the 4 blisters that formed on my hand. One started bleeding. I have to post a picture because I'm very proud of myself and how hard we were rockin'. After that, we met Kelly (Chris' GF) and Jade (co-worker) at a concert venue nearby. We saw a guy named Bob Log III. This guy was quite the character. He came out on stage wearing a fighter pilot's helmet and a suit. The helmet had a phone glued onto the front of it that worked as a microphone for him. After the first song or two, he stripped off the suit, revealing a one piece, shiny gold jumpsuit beneath. He played blues guitar, combined with a drum and cymbal that he played with his feet. He really was a one-man band. The highlight of the night was probably when he got into a life raft and the crowd carried him around as he played guitar and sang in his one-piece jumpsuit.
Yesterday, I went on another hash run in Guanxi. This was a gorgeous run that unfortunately took about 2.5 hours each way to drive to. The day turned out to be much longer than I wanted it to be but that's ok. The run was gorgeous! It was a very remote area south of Taiwan, and we hardly saw any houses or people. I brought my friend Tony. He is a guy I met in my building last week who's a doctor at Chang Gung hospital in Linkou. He's a really nice guy and his significant other is in Australia for one year so we're both going to share each other's pain together. He was a little nervous about the whole hash run so I ended up staying with him most of the time. Perhaps he was nervous because I told him about how people get lost and taken to the hospital after the run. Oh well, he said he wanted to go again. He said he might even bring his friends. But yeah, the run was awesome. We did some river tracing through the most pristine jungle rivers I've seen yet. I saw large shrubs with huge white flowers on them, like orchids. The hillsides were also covered with trees with what looked like large white, cherry blossoms on them. We also ran through an aqueduct that crossed a river.
It was a long weekend and I am feeling it now. This week is already off to a big start though...I'm going golfing with my doorman Mr. Pong on Wednesday so that should be interesting. It's his second time ever playing golf. And I learned some more names at school today...Spark (boy), Hanson (boy), and Waynnie (boy). At this point, if a kid named Wildcat walked into class one day, I would not be surprised at all.
Monday, April 27, 2009
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Pandas and Deodorant
Yesterday I went to the Taipei Zoo with my K3B class. It was a lot of fun even though it did rain basically the entire time we were there. The kids were adorable because they all wore practically identical raincoats. They were all adult-size plastic bag ponchos so they dragged on the ground all the time and a kid tripped on one every five minutes or so. We were able to see about five exhibits in the five hours we were there. It was difficult coordinating 90 kindergarteners. The biggest miracle of the day was that we didn't lose any children. For some reason the zoo was packed even though the weather was horrible, and there were tons of other school kids there wearing the exact same raincoats. So all the kids looked the same when they wore their hoods. It was pretty funny to see. I put pictures up of that so that'll give you a better idea. My co-teachers also bought me a panda visor. They are absolutely obsessed with pandas in Taiwan. At the zoo, that was the main attraction. The gift shop was FULL of pandas. Even the food court at the train station in downtown Taipei has a store devoted entirely to pandas.
Tonight, two funny things happened. The first being what happened to my guitar. So as I previously posted, I inherited an old guitar from one of my teachers at school. The bridge was peeling off of it so I bought some wood glue in an attempt to fix it. This morning, I bought a set of nylon guitar strings. I put them on tonight, and as I was tuning and tightening the strings, I started to hear a creak and then BAM! The bridge ripped right off the guitar! It was a little scary but I re-glued it in a last ditch effort to save the guitar. I feel weird about just throwing a guitar away so I'm doing what I can to salvage it. It's like trying to revive a dead horse by beating it with a stick.
The other highlight was my grocery shopping experience tonight. On the walk there, I saw a pile of rubble where a building used to be. In this building had been the bank that my school had told me to get a bank account at and it's where the school has an account too. So not sure what happened there, but it's a pile of rubble and that was pretty funny to see, considering just three days ago it was still operating. Once I got to the store, I picked up my eggs and Froot Loops, the usual health foods I procure. Then I needed some new deodorant. I went to the aisle where I thought it would be and scoured the shelves with no luck. I went up and down every aisle of the store. All the while I was thinking "man, this is going to be embarrassing to ask where deodorant is, plus I don't know the Chinese for it anyway." After taking another whiff of my shirt, I decided I would not leave the store without deodorant. I went to one of the workers and said "excuse me, do you have (in perfect Chinese of course)..." and then I paused. I wasn't really sure what to say, so I lifted up my arm and pretended to put deodorant on. The man gave me a puzzled look. Then I used my other hand and motioned that something smelled bad. He was an excellent charades player and took me back to the same section I was originally looking at. He motioned to a shelf of spray bottles. Initially, I had thought "maybe they just don't use deodorant here" but oh wait, they do, it's just a spray. Tomorrow morning I'll let you know what I thought of my first spray-on deodorant experience.
Check the pictures too! I added about 30.
Tonight, two funny things happened. The first being what happened to my guitar. So as I previously posted, I inherited an old guitar from one of my teachers at school. The bridge was peeling off of it so I bought some wood glue in an attempt to fix it. This morning, I bought a set of nylon guitar strings. I put them on tonight, and as I was tuning and tightening the strings, I started to hear a creak and then BAM! The bridge ripped right off the guitar! It was a little scary but I re-glued it in a last ditch effort to save the guitar. I feel weird about just throwing a guitar away so I'm doing what I can to salvage it. It's like trying to revive a dead horse by beating it with a stick.
The other highlight was my grocery shopping experience tonight. On the walk there, I saw a pile of rubble where a building used to be. In this building had been the bank that my school had told me to get a bank account at and it's where the school has an account too. So not sure what happened there, but it's a pile of rubble and that was pretty funny to see, considering just three days ago it was still operating. Once I got to the store, I picked up my eggs and Froot Loops, the usual health foods I procure. Then I needed some new deodorant. I went to the aisle where I thought it would be and scoured the shelves with no luck. I went up and down every aisle of the store. All the while I was thinking "man, this is going to be embarrassing to ask where deodorant is, plus I don't know the Chinese for it anyway." After taking another whiff of my shirt, I decided I would not leave the store without deodorant. I went to one of the workers and said "excuse me, do you have (in perfect Chinese of course)..." and then I paused. I wasn't really sure what to say, so I lifted up my arm and pretended to put deodorant on. The man gave me a puzzled look. Then I used my other hand and motioned that something smelled bad. He was an excellent charades player and took me back to the same section I was originally looking at. He motioned to a shelf of spray bottles. Initially, I had thought "maybe they just don't use deodorant here" but oh wait, they do, it's just a spray. Tomorrow morning I'll let you know what I thought of my first spray-on deodorant experience.
Check the pictures too! I added about 30.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
AIR Hash
Yesterday I participated in the Taiwan AIR Hash, which means the "All Island Run." I think there were eight hashing groups in total there. It was epic. There were about 300 people running. It started in Kaohsiung at the southern end of the island. The climate there was much drier and warmer. I think it was about 85 degrees and fairly humid at the start of the run. The hare's name was Crocodile Dundee, a 62 year old Englishman who has climbed K2 and done other things of that nature. His skin was like a crocodile's and evidence of how much time he had spent outside adventuring. In other words, I figured this was going to be an intense run.
About three minutes into the run, we got to the first check. It turned into a real traffic jam because no one could find the next trail for at least 20 minutes. During that time, I did wander through a huge banana grove which was pretty cool because I had never seen one. Banana trees are big! Someone finally yelled ON ON and I could see my fellow hashers in the distance on the other side of a fairly large river. I had to bushwhack through a meadow with grass seven feet tall, with tons of spikey vines intertwined within it. Those vines made sure to cut the front of my legs about 100 times. After a few river crossings, we started winding around the bases of "Moon World." This is a region in Kaohsiung that is composed of very dry, steep hills of clay. The tallest ones were probably around 100 feet tall. We had to go through lots of wet clay that must've taken some peoples shoes right off. Then we had to climb two walls that had to be scaled with a running start. After that, we went straight up one of these hills. This was a sight to behold, and hopefully pictures of it are posted online. The scene looked like a bunch of ants scurrying around on the moon. The climb up the hill took about 2 minutes because it was basically like rock climbing and very slippery. At the top was a quarter-mile long stretch of barren desert. Then we started winding through the jungle again and crossed a few rivers before getting to a quarter-mile long "lake" of wet clay. That was pretty funny to cross. It was as slippery as ice. Then we had to cross another river before winding through the jungle once more. The run ended with a few large descents and ascents of staircases that traversed four hills. In all, the run took about one hour and 45 minutes, as well as many peoples desires to return to the hash.
This hash was by far the most extreme one I've done yet. Crocodile Dundee definitely lived up to his reputation. Apparently he lives in a house five miles away from anything and you have to walk to it to get there. He was pretty out there, and after the run he was wearing a leopard-print vest and a funny hat. See the pictures for a better description. The run ended by a large noodle-making factory that was pretty interesting to see. Overall though, this hash was very exciting and unique. A grand time indeed!
Our group was kicked out of the bash at the end. One of the hashers thought it would be a good idea to light his shoes on fire, and then other hashers starting dragging limbs out of the brush and adding them to the fire. The fire got going pretty well for about 10 minutes before it was extinguished and we were asked to leave the premises of the restaurant. We had a five hour ride back, during which a hasher's parents met the bus on the highway and brought us three cases of beer. It was a long day. I left my apartment at 6:45 AM and got back at 1:15 AM. One highlight of the morning when I left was that I rushed to get to Taipei by 8 AM, only to get the bus and have it drive back straight through where I live. Oh well. I actually almost missed the bus. It was literally pulling away but the back door was still open so I had to catch the bus and jump on. I was only four minutes late too. The hashers are a more punctual group than you might think.
Today, I got my first authentic Taiwanese foot massage. It was pretty fun but I'm not sure why I'd do it again. I went with two other teachers from school. My big toe was very sensitive and they told me it had something to do with my nose. I'm not sure what that meant. I also had the lady next to me ask if I could teach her English and she kept asking how much but I didn't know how to answer in Chinese. She couldn't even ask me if "can you teach me English?" She just said "English?" while pointing at me and saying "how much?" It was another classic language barrier moment. She left me alone after realizing I had no idea what was going on. The other great part of the massage is that my masseuse was talking to her friends nearby and they kept looking at me and laughing. She asked me about ten things in Chinese, all of which I responded to with a blank stare. My Chinese classes are going well but not that well. I did overcome a language barrier today when I walked to the nearby hardware store where I was able to procure a new fluorescent light for my bathroom, as well as some wood glue to try and fix a guitar my friend gave me. With a lot of pointing and a lot of money, you can go a long way in Taiwan with not a lot of knowledge. Remember that kids!
About three minutes into the run, we got to the first check. It turned into a real traffic jam because no one could find the next trail for at least 20 minutes. During that time, I did wander through a huge banana grove which was pretty cool because I had never seen one. Banana trees are big! Someone finally yelled ON ON and I could see my fellow hashers in the distance on the other side of a fairly large river. I had to bushwhack through a meadow with grass seven feet tall, with tons of spikey vines intertwined within it. Those vines made sure to cut the front of my legs about 100 times. After a few river crossings, we started winding around the bases of "Moon World." This is a region in Kaohsiung that is composed of very dry, steep hills of clay. The tallest ones were probably around 100 feet tall. We had to go through lots of wet clay that must've taken some peoples shoes right off. Then we had to climb two walls that had to be scaled with a running start. After that, we went straight up one of these hills. This was a sight to behold, and hopefully pictures of it are posted online. The scene looked like a bunch of ants scurrying around on the moon. The climb up the hill took about 2 minutes because it was basically like rock climbing and very slippery. At the top was a quarter-mile long stretch of barren desert. Then we started winding through the jungle again and crossed a few rivers before getting to a quarter-mile long "lake" of wet clay. That was pretty funny to cross. It was as slippery as ice. Then we had to cross another river before winding through the jungle once more. The run ended with a few large descents and ascents of staircases that traversed four hills. In all, the run took about one hour and 45 minutes, as well as many peoples desires to return to the hash.
This hash was by far the most extreme one I've done yet. Crocodile Dundee definitely lived up to his reputation. Apparently he lives in a house five miles away from anything and you have to walk to it to get there. He was pretty out there, and after the run he was wearing a leopard-print vest and a funny hat. See the pictures for a better description. The run ended by a large noodle-making factory that was pretty interesting to see. Overall though, this hash was very exciting and unique. A grand time indeed!
Our group was kicked out of the bash at the end. One of the hashers thought it would be a good idea to light his shoes on fire, and then other hashers starting dragging limbs out of the brush and adding them to the fire. The fire got going pretty well for about 10 minutes before it was extinguished and we were asked to leave the premises of the restaurant. We had a five hour ride back, during which a hasher's parents met the bus on the highway and brought us three cases of beer. It was a long day. I left my apartment at 6:45 AM and got back at 1:15 AM. One highlight of the morning when I left was that I rushed to get to Taipei by 8 AM, only to get the bus and have it drive back straight through where I live. Oh well. I actually almost missed the bus. It was literally pulling away but the back door was still open so I had to catch the bus and jump on. I was only four minutes late too. The hashers are a more punctual group than you might think.
Today, I got my first authentic Taiwanese foot massage. It was pretty fun but I'm not sure why I'd do it again. I went with two other teachers from school. My big toe was very sensitive and they told me it had something to do with my nose. I'm not sure what that meant. I also had the lady next to me ask if I could teach her English and she kept asking how much but I didn't know how to answer in Chinese. She couldn't even ask me if "can you teach me English?" She just said "English?" while pointing at me and saying "how much?" It was another classic language barrier moment. She left me alone after realizing I had no idea what was going on. The other great part of the massage is that my masseuse was talking to her friends nearby and they kept looking at me and laughing. She asked me about ten things in Chinese, all of which I responded to with a blank stare. My Chinese classes are going well but not that well. I did overcome a language barrier today when I walked to the nearby hardware store where I was able to procure a new fluorescent light for my bathroom, as well as some wood glue to try and fix a guitar my friend gave me. With a lot of pointing and a lot of money, you can go a long way in Taiwan with not a lot of knowledge. Remember that kids!
Monday, April 13, 2009
Is Dinner Ready Yet?...In Good Time
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...
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...
Monday, April 6, 2009
Your Wish Is My Command
Could you take out the garbage?
"Your wish is my command!"
This is the new sentence I'm supposed to be teaching my students this week. I don't think I've heard anyone say this, at least not seriously.
Well, a lot has happened since my last post so here it goes...I just posted about 25 new pictures of the beach I went to on Saturday. I went with Andrew and two of his El Salvadoran friends to Beishawan beach, which is probably 30 or 40 miles north of where I live. It was pretty much the perfect day. I'm guessing it was about 70 degrees with bright blue skies. We went to a "surfing" beach with 1-foot tall waves. After laying on the beach for about two hours, we went to eat at a restaurant overlooking the beach. We ate cheeseburgers and drank Heineken. It felt like I was in Hawaii basically and I'm already ready for the weekend again, and it's only Monday. I'm sure you all feel really bad for me.
Yesterday, I went on the China Hash run in Pingsi. This is a town southeast of Taipei where they hold a massive lantern festival annually that I've heard is a must see! It was a very beautiful and mountainous city, covered in lush foliage. It did rain the whole time during the run but that made it more interesting. The bus I took to the hash actually arrived late so our group of about 15 had to play catch-up the whole time. The run was kind of a mess but it was quite the experience. We had to cross at least a dozen rivers, scale a wall of mud six feet tall...I had a half-dozen moments where I looked around and thought to myself "what am I doing here and where am I anyway?" It was a very memorable experience overall, much like every hash run. Two of the guys in the group got lost and we're gone for over 3 hours in the pouring rain. Luckily, they made it back just before dark.
One thing I brought back from the hash that I was not aware of at the time was a little leech that was hiding in my sock. When I did my laundry today, it wandered out of the sock and onto my hand. I freaked out and shook it off. It landed on the floor and I took a picture of it. Then I threw it into the trash can. An hour later, to my surprise I saw the same leech by my front door after it had squirmed all the way across my apartment. I threw it out the window so I probably won't see it again.
The other highlight of the hash was what occurred on the way to the Bash. Our bus had to go through a VERY narrow street and a tail light on our bus hit a truck parked on the side of the road. We got out and surveyed the damage and decided to press on. About two minutes later, a guy had his car parked across the road, blocking all the traffic in both directions. He was apparently the owner of the truck we hit. He was also extremely intoxicated. A fairly lengthy argument ensued with about 15 locals. The man threatened to call the cops on us even though he had driven drunk to block us. He got back in his car and drove for about 30 seconds before stopping again and blocking the road once more. The second argument was much shorter and then we were finally on our way. It was pretty comical.
After the Bash, I bummed a ride from a Taiwanese guy in his Volvo. He also gave me two betel nuts, which were interesting. They tasted kind of funny but I can see how they are all the rage here. After trying to wrap my mind around the day, the driver put Akon on the radio as we drove 90 minutes home...it's amazing that in the most unfamiliar places, you can still find familiar things. Enough you say? Your wish is my command.
"Your wish is my command!"
This is the new sentence I'm supposed to be teaching my students this week. I don't think I've heard anyone say this, at least not seriously.
Well, a lot has happened since my last post so here it goes...I just posted about 25 new pictures of the beach I went to on Saturday. I went with Andrew and two of his El Salvadoran friends to Beishawan beach, which is probably 30 or 40 miles north of where I live. It was pretty much the perfect day. I'm guessing it was about 70 degrees with bright blue skies. We went to a "surfing" beach with 1-foot tall waves. After laying on the beach for about two hours, we went to eat at a restaurant overlooking the beach. We ate cheeseburgers and drank Heineken. It felt like I was in Hawaii basically and I'm already ready for the weekend again, and it's only Monday. I'm sure you all feel really bad for me.
Yesterday, I went on the China Hash run in Pingsi. This is a town southeast of Taipei where they hold a massive lantern festival annually that I've heard is a must see! It was a very beautiful and mountainous city, covered in lush foliage. It did rain the whole time during the run but that made it more interesting. The bus I took to the hash actually arrived late so our group of about 15 had to play catch-up the whole time. The run was kind of a mess but it was quite the experience. We had to cross at least a dozen rivers, scale a wall of mud six feet tall...I had a half-dozen moments where I looked around and thought to myself "what am I doing here and where am I anyway?" It was a very memorable experience overall, much like every hash run. Two of the guys in the group got lost and we're gone for over 3 hours in the pouring rain. Luckily, they made it back just before dark.
One thing I brought back from the hash that I was not aware of at the time was a little leech that was hiding in my sock. When I did my laundry today, it wandered out of the sock and onto my hand. I freaked out and shook it off. It landed on the floor and I took a picture of it. Then I threw it into the trash can. An hour later, to my surprise I saw the same leech by my front door after it had squirmed all the way across my apartment. I threw it out the window so I probably won't see it again.
The other highlight of the hash was what occurred on the way to the Bash. Our bus had to go through a VERY narrow street and a tail light on our bus hit a truck parked on the side of the road. We got out and surveyed the damage and decided to press on. About two minutes later, a guy had his car parked across the road, blocking all the traffic in both directions. He was apparently the owner of the truck we hit. He was also extremely intoxicated. A fairly lengthy argument ensued with about 15 locals. The man threatened to call the cops on us even though he had driven drunk to block us. He got back in his car and drove for about 30 seconds before stopping again and blocking the road once more. The second argument was much shorter and then we were finally on our way. It was pretty comical.
After the Bash, I bummed a ride from a Taiwanese guy in his Volvo. He also gave me two betel nuts, which were interesting. They tasted kind of funny but I can see how they are all the rage here. After trying to wrap my mind around the day, the driver put Akon on the radio as we drove 90 minutes home...it's amazing that in the most unfamiliar places, you can still find familiar things. Enough you say? Your wish is my command.
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