The menu at the place where we got lunch was mainly just a list of different kinds of noodles, without specifying what was on them. When I asked the lady what the noodles came with (vegetables, or meat, or what), she said "oh, vegetables, meat, everything." Huh. We ordered 3 random kinds and figured we would just try whatever it was. It turns out that the lady was not kidding. Not only did the noodles have the standard green leafy vegetables and little bits of meat, but there were also mushrooms and oysters and shrimp and squid and little octopi and something gross-tasting that turned out to be liver. Wow.
My very own mother, about to eat a small octopus
After lunch, we moseyed on up to the High Speed Rail station to buy our tickets to Taipei, then came back and took a bus to Yang Ming to meet up with Patty. This was good practice for Mom and Dad, who would be taking the same bus by themselves to get to school the next day. We met Patty at school, where she gave my parents presents: a Kit Kat and a rose made of bath salts for my mother, and Hello Kitty chocolates for my father. (You know how he loves that Hello Kitty!) We got some tea and had plenty of Patty-bonding before heading back to the area where I live, where Mom slept while Dad and I tried once more to get an electronic dictionary. Unfortunately we ran out of time, because we had to get down to Sizihwan Bay to meet the Ryans and Gered's host family for dinner. We ate delicious Thai food, and then went to see some fireworks down by the Love River (it's still Lantern Festival, so there are fireworks every night). There may have been fireworks in the shape of hearts. Nothing is too cute for Taiwan!
The next day, my parents came to Yang Ming to do a little Show and Tell-type thing with my classes. They brought in some pictures to pass around, like a picture of me in 5th grade, or a picture of our house in the snow. (Patty tells me the students think 5th-grade me looks like Hermione) Afterwards, the floor was opened for questions from the students. "Your father's hair is white, and your mother's hair is black, so why do you have yellow hair?" "Did Rebekah do anything funny when she was little?" (leading to the story about the time I painted myself yellow) One class ended in a giant free-for-all when the students decided that they all wanted my parents' autographs in the front of their English textbooks. Then, in true Taiwan fashion, we took a big group picture:
On the way to teachers' class, Mom and Dad accidentally got snagged by Dragon, who invited them into his office for tea. "Your parents! Very young! And very health!" he told me. Yes. My adult students were waiting outside the principal's office, too afraid of Dragon to come in, so I extracted my parents and we went to our normal, principal-free classroom. We still got in some Dragon bonding time, though, because after teachers' class, we went out to lunch with Dragon, Jeforly, and Patty. It was a time of excessive dumplings. Dad really enjoyed talking to Dragon, who is a pretty funny guy once you get past his incoherence.
Dumplings with my silly administration:
From left: Dragon, Jeforly, Me, Mom, Patty
After getting stuffed to the brim with dumplings, it was time to meet some of my Little Angels for a tour around the school. In the afternoon, Mom and Dad got to meet my extra-precocious band class, who used their second period of English class to perform some of their new pieces for us. There was one piece that they had never played all the way through, but they wanted to try for us. The teacher discouraged it, warning them that they were just asking to lose face, but they insisted, and they actually did a pretty good job. My band kids would put the UTS band to shame.
The last place to go was my second teachers' class, where in a show of real Taiwaneseness, several teachers presented various gifts to my parents. Presuming that my parents hadn't tried much Taiwanese food, one woman brought a basket of Taiwanese fruit (wax apples, guava, or zaozi, anyone?), and another brought a box of some kind of gelatin snacks. I think Dad had already reached his lifetime quota of gelatinous foods in Asia, but he tried some anyway. Nobody brought stinky tofu or anything made with internal organs, but they definitely considered it! The most curious present was a pair of Santa Claus cell phone charms made out of beads. How...seasonal.
That night, we went to hot pot and then a night market in an attempt to get the full Taiwanese Experience. Taiwanese markets are not as stressful and bargaining-intense as Chinese ones, but they are just as crowded and even more full of delicious snacks, which we were sadly too full of hot pot to try. You have to get hot pot when you are in Asia, because America is way too litigation-happy for restaurants where they serve you raw meat that you cook by yourself. Too bad, because it's pretty fun, plus most hot pot places are all-you-can-eat. Bonus!
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