Diners

Dear All,

I just got back from supper out with 3 of my friends and fellow teachers. I got to try an Alpine Burger (veggie of course and, for lack of better word, slightly soggy, but still good). The meal came with 2 sides, a drink and of course, the monstrous burger sandwiched :D between two pieces of fluffy, sunflower-sprinkled round buns. It was quite something. My hot chocolate came with a marshmellow and cream and enough sugar to send me spinning. It was great!

Thankfully I went with friends, or I might have just been starting my meal now... let me explain... Last time we had a holiday I agreed to meet up with two friends at the stop after the main station in Taipei, so we could go to yet another burger restaurant together.

I had been to this place twice so I was quite sure I could make it. How hard can it be, there are only 3 or 4 main metro lines and as far as I could remember, I didn't have to change trains. So I figured I would be fine.

So I hopped onto the first train that sped up to the platform, and happily found a seat and relaxed, proud of myself for doing the trek alone. I was listening to music, observing the children around me, feeling independent, when I decided it was close to my stop and I should start looking at the station names.

The really nice thing about Taipei is it is pretty much a bilingual city, and you can find almost every sign with an English translation, so it's quite easy to travel around. So I was reading the running commentary at the top of the train doors, looking for my station name, and I didn't recognise the next station's name. So I decided it must be coming up and settled back down to wait.

2 stops later a small figure with a wilting black backpack ran to the train doors and hopped off onto the platform at lightning speed - that was me - and looked around in bewilderment... how in the world did I get on the orange line when my train was supposed to go from red to green? My worst fears about my sense of direction, or lack of it, were looming up in my mind and taunting me.

Long story short, I made it safely back, after making a u-turn where I found the train going back the way I came, and from there made it to my station and my waiting, and hungry friends :-P Lesson learned: there are two trains that share the same line that goes through the station by the school. One goes on to the yellow line, a far-out place, which I found out was a little less populated. It has a yellow line on its digital display outside... which of course I didn't see.

And the other train goes onto the green line, and has a green line on the digital display on the outside... with my luck, or lack of it, I naturally took the wrong one and, while I would have been fine, I had to make the one mistake that would send me to who-knows-where, on my own, while my friends wondered how I could stretch a 20 minute trip into an hour :P and end up in a completely different location... I tell you, it takes talent, not everyone can get lost quite so easily. But that's another story.

I just realised I have not been sharing much of the cultural experiences I have been having, so I will try and do more of that. One cultural experience I have absolutely delighted to discover (thanks to one of my wonderful housemates) is the fresh fruit juices they have at the night market! I am officially hooked and am catching up on my fruit servings I have been neglecting. The guava juice - tastes like guava! I feel like I'm eating guava! it's amazing! And the mango...well guess what that one tastes like! :D it is my other favourite... sigh... some things I will definitely treasure while I am here!

Until next time, for some more experiences,

- R