First dinner in Taiwan

Wow, no internet. But I guess it helps me concentrate on my exchange. Anyway, I have Internet now, so I'll update!

August 22, 2009

After an 18-hour flight filled with film classics such as I Love You, Man, Monsters vs. Aliens and New In Town, my plan finally landed in Taipei airport. Then there was struggle with the immigrations officer, but that was cleared up after half an hour. Finally, I tried to retrieve my luggage from one of the carousels, but my luggage wasn’t on it. I frowned, then looked around the airport. Of course, I wasn’t at the right carousel. Once I had my luggage (and no luggage cart, I might add) I made my way into Arrivals where The District Governor, a Rotex from Canada, my counselor and my first host parents were waiting.

I felt bad because my Chinese isn’t very good and it was difficult trying to communicate to my host parents. This is where it all started. So, anyone who went to Austria in April will remember that my stomach doesn’t do too well after flights. I lose my appetite completely. I told this to my host mom as she placed a bowl of sliced apples and apricot milk in front of me, but I don’t think she really understood until dinner.

So, I take a shower because I’m pretty wiped from the plane and hot and sweaty (Taiwan is like Animalia, hot, humid and smelly, plus there are way too many scooters, which doesn’t really have anything to do with Animalia) and I wanted to get clean. As soon as I step out of the shower, my host dad announces that we’re going out for dinner. I can’t say I was surprised, it doesn’t look like there’s a stove in their tiny kitchen and it’s my first night in Taiwan. I told him, again, that I really wasn’t hungry, but he just smiled and we all went out anyway.

I was looking at the menu, which, by the way, was all in Chinese, when the waitress came to take our orders. I told her I wasn’t hungry, but she didn’t understand me. (It wasn’t until later when I remembered ‘wo bu e le’, which means ‘I’m not hungry.) Instead my host parents started making suggestions to me and I decided on a soup that would look like I had eaten what I really hadn’t. They smiled and pushed the menu up my nose again and told me to choose something else. I decided on fish, to humour them. No sooner had our orders been taken, a waiter was headed towards our table with what looked like an entire shrimp, face still intact, covered with peppers, string beans and this weird sauce. I ate most of it, not the peppers, and then the waiter took our plates away. I assumed now we would be having the main course. Wrong. The waitress returned with a plate of fruit for each of us. By then, I was starting to feel sick to my stomach, so I told my host parents, but they just smiled. I ate some raisins and watermelon, then they encouraged me to try the pineapple and starfruit, so I did, I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Our plates were taken away once again. Surely, now it was time for the main course. I felt like I was going to throw up. But no, wrong again. A small souffle-like thing was placed in front of each of us. I stared at it until my host mom peeled it off the edges and dunked it into the bowl, which was filled with soup. The soup I had ordered. Of course this was the main course! I just had to eat some and I was home free! I got up from the tables as the waitress took our plates away, but a waiter stopped me and placed a steaming hot metal plate in front of me. It was the fish. Okay, now I knew for sure that this was the main course. It came with a side of noodles. I ate about two noodles and told my host parents I felt sick. They took pity on me this time and my host mom took me home.

I feel so terrible for not eating anything. My body is so weird. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.