Testicle and "Racial" Harmony in a Single Bowl

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Trip Start May 30, 2009 Previous
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  Taichung, Taiwan
Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Well, we made it! After a fourteen hour flight, an hour and a half long bus ride to Taichung, and getting yelled at by an impatient bus driver as I attempt to load my luggage into the underside of the bus, we made it!

We met Joanne, the nice lady who is renting us the temp apartment, at the bus stop where we got off.  It was the SOGO bus stop which is a popular department store and is very close to where we will be spending the first two months.  We waited at the bus stop for just a few minutes before she arrived and we piled our luggage into the vehicle and on top of us and underneath us and we took off toward the apartment, needless to say it wasn't the most comfortable ride but it got the job done.

They showed us the apartment, which we liked and it is just what we were looking for, and agreed on the rent and they proceeded to show us the laundry facilities and the front desk where there is a security guard

First days in Taiwan

.  We met them and they seemed really nice. 

From there Joanne, who's real name is Tzu An, took us to her family's noodle house.  They have a very popular and successful noodle shop about ten minutes by car.  We walked into an older, run down and unacceptable according to American health standards restaurant and sat at the nearest wooden topped table.  As we walked in we went right past a cabinet full of strange looking meats and Tania inquired about there origin and what part of the animal, and which animal these chunks of flesh are from.  They explained that they were pigs snout, small intestines, goose liver and kidney, pigs' ear, and the most popular large intestine.  Fresh into a new culture I couldn't start this journey without promptly asking for them to bring whatever they thought and surprisingly Tania played along without much pushback.  A few minutes later they brought us over a plate of ALL the stuff we saw in the non-cooled holding chamber, now it was all chopped up.  As we figured out what each was again, I sampled each.  First, I thought that I should jump right in with the pigs' ear.  It was in the shape of a ¼ of a moon and had a thicker layer of awkwardly tough cartilage stuff surrounding an inner gelatinous substance that reeked of a cultural experience.  It was not my favorite but not all that bad either.  I moved on to the intestines and others until we came to our favorite which was the goose liver, it was magnificent

First days in Taiwan

.  We then tried a bowl of the special noodles the shop was famous for, and they were delicious, with a beefy broth, soft noodles and spinach or some other green included. MMM.  Just a few words about our landlord too, they are awesome.  They spent the entire first day with us making sure we were acclimated.  They  took us to the store to get the most of necessary supplies and showed us all the best places near our home for the internet and alike.  It would not have been possible without their help! Wednesday they are taking us to the night market.

It has been quite the eventful two days in Taichung.  Today we went to the day market which is an indoor space setup this everything from chicken testicles (black and white in the same bowl, no traces of racism in Taiwan), clothes, fresh meat hanging everywhere, the most sweetest of fruits and many other things that I have no idea what they were.  It was a truly unique experience.  We bought some fruits and looked around for a while until we were full and headed back home.  We spent the rest of the day getting our internet setup at Starbucks and shopping around the city.  It was a great second day in Taiwan.

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First days in Taiwan

First days in Taiwan

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