4/19-4/20      Gin is In, Easter Sunday and More Taiwan Logic

 

        Ginger SMS’ed about going to VS for clubbing; I got it as I was walking home tired, from a third-day-in-a-row tutoring (every Friday night) so it sounded good to me.  She came over and we headed out, when I found out it was an all-ABC party hosted by the guys she’s doing a website for.  Stella and Christina are actually our connection with them, so the guys at the door (there was a long line outside, which we discreetly slipped out of) let them go in first, then turned to us and looked as if he wasn’t going to let us in:  “I’m really, really sorry, but…” when suddenly Ginger piped in, “I’ve met you before, I’m the one doing your website.”  Then he apologized and immediately shooed her in (me following at her heels:  “OK, I’m sticking with you”).

 

       

        Saturday was a Fulbright luncheon; we were expecting it to be some networking event or to listen to some directors talk about the end of our year, but it was just arrive sit and eat.  Another big buffet including Mongolian BBQ.  Exclusive as we Jr. scholars are, Niclas, Shawna, Brian and I sat together.  Brian had a huge black and blue eye and Niclas was chatting casually with him for a while, they both ignored my repeated, “Whoa!  What happened to your eye?  What happened?”  for awhile.  Finally Brian said, “Did you hear about those anti-war protestors outside McDonalds, they were just randomly going around punching Americans, and I walked by and got hit.”  I gasped, “Oh my GOD!  Are you serious??”  He said Just kidding and they all laughed at me while I hit him.  Turned out his umbrella got caught in his bike spokes while he was riding and he tumbled over.  After that he kept trying to give a different reaction when people asked about his eye:  “Huh?  Is there something wrong with my eye?” 

 

         Sunday:  Happy Easter!  I groaned when the alarm went off at 7:30AM but got my ass out of bed since I haven’t been going to church all year.   I met Brian at Grace Baptist, the huge church across from TaiDa University (NTU), where they had a joint Chinese-English service that was pretty impressive.  They had five different choirs, each wearing a different color robe, and a full orchestra in front.  Brian said, “What a great Easter service” and I said, “You mean they don’t do this every week?”

 

        That night he and I went to see “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” at the CKS main concert hall, my first time there.  It was actually very well-done, and fun and interesting to hear it in Chinese.

 

        Afterwards we got pearl milk tea and hung out in front of SOGO to watch it close.  When it closes, all the staff line up outside and bow to the customers walking out, yelling “Guangling!”  The first time it happened to me I was really embarrassed and wished they’d stop bowing.  But Brian loved it so much he actually took his friends visiting from the U.S., there at closing time to experience it.  Then, the clock stuck the hour and the characters came out to the tune of “It’s a Small World.”  I always see people crowding around the clock when it approaches hour to see this, and always wondered why they were so fascinated; it looked like the dumbest thing.  But now seeing it up close, it was actually pretty intricate; the characters each do some special action or dance and wear an ethnic costume.  Brian pointed out that on the Small World ride at Epcot Center, all the countries have mostly people, except when you get to Africa, then it’s mostly jungle animals.  “Isn’t that a little racist?!”

 

        We got to talking about Taiwan Logic stories.  When I was at TGIFriday’s I wanted the regular sundae, but the brownie sundae (cost a bit more than the regular) had 3 brownies in it and I just wanted a regular with 1 brownie.  We had to explain this multiple times, the waiter ran to “ask” and came back several times, and finally told me I had to order the brownie sundae with all 3 brownies, they couldn’t take off just 1 because the 3 are “stuck together” and if they “take 1 off, what would they do with the leftover two?”

 

He said once at Yoshinoya, he ordered a set meal that came with a drink.  But he didn’t want a soda, just water.  When he asked for just water, the cashier looked confused, went back to “ask,” and said they couldn’t give him a cup of water because the “cups cost money and it was a waste.”  So instead, they gave him a BOWL of water—because the plastic bowl “could be washed.”