Busy Days and Fun Nights in Kaohsiung

This past week has been a blur of work and going out.  Monday night I cooked up some tilapia (fish) that we had gotten at a gourmet store.  It turned out well and it was good to know that there are some things that we can have at home here.  With the language barrier it's actually easier cooking and eating in (as long as we've got some food in the fridge) rather than eating out like it would be in the US.


Then again, on Tuesday night we went out to a brick-oven pizza place, and it was delicious.  We're still mainly walking everywhere, but the distance doesn't seem too bad.  Taxis can get kind of expensive and the subway, while great, is somewhat limited.


On Wednesday night we went out with many of the other teachers for some bowling.  Apparently the bowling alley is open 24 hours and it looks like it has been that way since the 60's.  It was fun to hang out with our coworkers outside of school and relax a bit.  We hadn't had dinner yet though, so we only bowled one game before getting some dinner at a nearby pub.  The food there was okay, but I don't think Erin will be getting their quesadilla again.


After work on Thursday we were invited out to dinner with Jana (whom we share a taxi to school each morning) and her husband Joe.  They had found a good local restaurant with some servers that spoke English.  The food was delicious and we are grateful to Joe and Jana not only for picking us up in their car, but also showing us such a good place.


By Friday after school we were ready for a drink so we met up with most of the staff for happy hour at a bar called The Lighthouse.  Again it was fun seeing everyone outside of work.  Plus this place actually had good quesadillas which made up for the ones Erin had earlier in the week.


Saturday was busy as we got up and went out to Starbucks to start our day.  We followed that by a trip up to a mall for some grocery shopping at a specialty shop called Matsusei.  By specialty I mean it was kind of like Trader Joe's back in the US.  We were able to find several items that we're more familiar with.  By the time we had walked back with our bags through the humid weather we were ready for a dip in the pool.  It's always so refreshing and peaceful that we always tell ourselves that we'll go more often.  To finish the night off we went to the local night market filled with a wide variety of food stalls, carnival-style games, and tons of people.  By this time I was exhausted and just wanted to go home.


One reason I wanted to get to bed early was because we were meeting our friends at 6:30am and going for a hike up Monkey Mountain.  You can see pictures from our hike here:

MonkeyMountain

After our hike we set off in search of brunch.  It was 10am, but the places we tried were closed.  We finally ended up waiting for a place called "Bagel Bagel" to open at 11am.  I had seen a sign outside for "Classic American Brunch", but when I tried to order it they informed me that it wasn't served until 2pm - 5pm on weekdays.  Disheartened, I was still able to get some tasty bagels.  The morning seemed to typify life abroad: there are great adventures and new things to see, but don't expect to get brunch in the morning...or something like that.