Chinese New Year/Valentine's Day 2010

新年快樂！Happy Chinese New Year!

First day of the new year, and also coincidentally Valentine's Day!

Celebrating CNY was an entirely new experience for me... I've never really celebrated it before to be honest, or at least, not that I can remember, so imagine my surprise when I found out that there are like.. rules to this kind of thing! (Couple days before you spend with Dad's side of the family, couple days after with Mom's)

Mostly all everyone does over CNY is just get together and eat, eat, eat. Talk about my kind of holiday! The only thing is, it's kind of like "required" to bring a gift to whoever's house it is that you're going to. Now usually I'd just grab a bottle of wine and be done with it, but here in Taiwan the rules are a little different... traditional gifts include:

1. Fruit
Yeah, totally weird right?? Apparently it's actually considered a really nice gift if you bring fruit, which sounds so so weird. But when I went to the grocery store I realized why: fruit is FREAKING EXPENSIVE like damn. one (quite very) large asian pear cost like $12US. YES. $12 for ONE pear.

2. Preserved fish eggs
Think caviar but like dried.. and flattened into something that looks like the shape of lungs. I tried some last night actually, no bueno. Not my thing.

3. Dried sausages and mushrooms
Asians, always practical, right?

4. Various CNY foods including something literally called 年糕 (phonetic: nian gao) or "Year Cake" haha so original... anyway these CNY foods (I can't remember any more off the top of my head haha) are particularly eaten during CNY because their names have something to do with prosperity, good luck, etc.
For example, it's typical to eat fish (the whole fish, not just like... salmon meat) on CNY eve because of a saying in Chinese: 年年有餘 (phonetic: nian nian you yu), meaning "Year after year there will be excess," in other words, you will never be wanting. The last character ("yu") is pronounced the same as the word for fish, so Chinese people eat fish, but typically leave some on the plate for the next day, or the "next year." Get it?

Anyway, Momma Li told me to bring fruit, so I did.. except of course I had no idea what I was doing so I stood in the supermarket for a good 30 minutes trying to figure out which priced basket to bring, if it was enough, if it was too much, if I should get something other than fruit, which kind of fruit to get... WHAT A HEADACHE!

But I must have done well because all parties were extremely surprised that I even brought something at all... not sure if that's a good or bad thing.. haha

VDAY------->
I celebrated Valentine's Day with true love this year, my best gal Miss Daniela Huang :) haha we had a FEAST of Asian food, then got crepes, then almost got doner kebab (turned away bc they were closed, tragic), then got Burger King fries and onion rings instead.

We spent the whole night chatting, walking around Taipei in our tights and boots and coats, window-shopping, laughing and gabbing away as usual :) then we stepped into an arcade for some real date-like activities.. nothing says bonding like shooting dead zombies together, right??

What a lovely Valentine's date, just goes to show, boys really are unnecessary these days, huh? ; )

HOT SPRINGSSSS :)

First day of the new (lunar) year (HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!) and I wake my butt up at freaking 9 AM after a day (yes, not just one meal) of feasting the night before... what a miracle.

Now, under normal circumstances, I'm sure you all know there are few things I would force myself out of bed at 9 AM for, especially during vacation.. but the invitation to a free hot springs session sounded like a good enough reason for me! :)

Soaking in the hot springs is apparently a very popular pasttime here in Taiwan! I guess it's good for your body, and good for your skin? Anyway, my family invited me to join them and I mean, a) I couldn't come up with a good excuse for why I'd be busy on a Sunday morning at 9 AM and b) hot springs, why not, right?

So anyway, they pick me up this morning and we drive up into the mountains on the outskirts of Taipei in a place called Wulai, and the weather was beautiful: clear blue skies, lots of green on the mountains, wide rivers... almost like back home except more tropical.

The place we went to was called Spring Park Spa & Resort, it was suuuuuper nice! I went into the public hot springs... and er, yes it was nude. But I mean, hey, whatever, we're all girls right! haha So it was really awesome: there were five pools: one freezing, one cool, one warm, one hot, and one hot outside right by the river! It was so pretty!

There was also a sauna, a steam room, shower facilities, a "resting" area where you can get massages and facials, they even had really nice face and hair products! For $30US you can pretty much stay in there as long as you want (the only thing is you can only go in and come out once... so if you get hungry tough luck.)!

Mm, in summary, it was super fun and I definitely hope to be going back sometime soon! :) A new Taiwan experience with good results, love it!

My First End-of-the-Year Office Party!!!

Also known as "wei-ya" in Taiwan, these are pretty much legendary. I'd heard about these from various (working) friends of mine here in Taipei, a night of getting absolutely hammered with all your co-workers and bosses, eating and drinking and singing kareoke and other drunken shenanigans.

So naturally I was super pumped when I got invited to the office wei-ya this year! (Especially when I heard it was being held at the Shangri-La, one of the most expensive hotels/places to eat in Taipei) In my head I was like "Heck Yes! I'm going to see all these people so insanely drunk, it will be hilaaaaaaarious! Plus, free yummy food?? Count me in!" right?

Until I found out a couple things (conveniently after I had already accepted the invitation):

1. Our wei-ya is always themed. And costume is required.

2. Nobody drinks at our company's wei-ya because the president and his wife don't drink

3. Everyone is required to perform

I was like ".......what." I very quickly calculated the costs vs. gains of this ordeal, and ended up deciding that good food was worth pretty much anything, so I didn't make up an excuse of why I could no longer make it.

For the performance portion, I let the other people in my group decide what to do, because hey, I know nothing about the Taiwanese sense of humor. They ended up deciding to do a re-enactment of Swan Lake (yes, the ballet) with a boy dressed as a swan and a girl dressed as the prince. Storyline: prince chases swan princess for awhile, then a cowboy comes in a shoots them both, then we all danced to a weird cowboy song by Jay Chou (super famous singer here). HAHAHA I know. Sounds so random. And it was.

Anyway, whatever, we came up with it literally the day before the wei-ya. And hey, we ended up winning 1st place (translation: $20 in my pocket)!!

To get back to the story, I dressed as a black cat (not so original, but minimal effort) because it was animal-themed, and we all walked from the office to the Shangri-La on Wednesday for the party!

In short, it was good, clean fun :) I got to see my bosses dance: bellydance, the congo, you name it. The food was excellent--great salad bar, and let me tell you, good, normal salad is not easy to come by in Taipei! Buffet style. HEAVEN.

However, slightly embarrassed when I kept going back for plate after plate, and my co-worker looks at me and goes, "You're still eating??? Aren't you full???"

To which I awkwardly reply (with another forkful on its way to my mouth), "Um... yeah.... well................ it's not everyday I get to eat such a great meal!" slash, I didn't have the guts to tell her I just have like eating...... haha

All in all, it was a great experience! I walked out with about $50 and a full tummy, definitely a win-win situation, what more can a girl ask for? :)

my little cousin & i