Stayed in for a Day

Greetings from Atlantis,

That sums up about how I feel today. It seems like it has been raining for eternity here, and it has really dampened my mood. I woke up to rain this morning and now I am chilling for the evening. The common denominator is rain. I don't mind a good little rain every here and there, but when it seems to always be raining then everything is down right depressing. It might just be all the energy that I have burned during the week combined with the rain, but I didn't have the motivation to go out today. On the other hand I did get in a lot of Chinese practice today, especially in polishing my vocab and grammar skills. Yeah I know I am most certainly a nerd. I forgot about breakfast and just recently had I guess a lunch/dinner in order to study for most of the day. I got in some quality work and I thought that you might want to take a break from all the long posts since it is the weekend. Anyway, I had a request to answer so I will go ahead and get it over with.

Today I had the chance to visit the McDonald's here which conveniently is located almost right next to me. You are probably thinking that I eat there all the time, but I don't. I really don't like fast food all that much, so it never really occurred to me to even eat there becasue so many eating places here are very cheap (actually cheaper than McDonald's) and pretty good. But since I didn't feel like going far I decided to run in for a bite to eat. The first thing that struck me was the simplicity of the menu. Now when I think fast food I think of a really long menu with a thousand different choices now, but here there was a single list of options that ran across the menu. Something like 6 different meal combinations and then kids meals. So I ordered a double quarter pounder (with cheese) meal or rather I asked if I could have the number 3 meal option. I have no idea how to say that first thing in Chinese! I got through the order pretty easily because thankfully it was vocab that I knew pretty well. My order came out pretty quickly and I headed up to the dining area.

I will need to make sure that I explain this part well. The fast food restaurant here is not like in the US at all. In the US you have a few people that dine in, but mostly you have the few people the grab and go. Here it is more like a cafe, a place where you can socialize, relax and study. You see students with laptops and computers, a group of like elementary school kids playing with there toys from the happy meal or an older couple drinking in the atmosphere. You really don't get the feeling that this is in any way shape or form a fast food restaurant. It was such a warm and friendly atmosphere I forgot all about the time I spent studying Chinese today and simply relaxed and contented myself with people watching.

The best thing about this place though was easily the food. One reason that I have not really liked fast food was simply that the quality had gone down, while prices had gone up. Fast food is no longer cheap and convenient. It's just convenient when there isn't time to cook. The fried that came with the meal were so crispy. The first crunch surprised me. It was so audible I had to look around to see if anyone else had heard it. Then I tried another. It was the same as the first, with a delicious crunch that could be heard 'round the world. Without even thinking I grabbed my cola and took a sip when I realized that I forgot to ask for no ice (and yes I know how to say that in Chinese as well!). However, it didn't matter as I realized that there was only a few ice chips in it anyway so I really had so much more cola than I expected. And then it came time for the final piece. I had to try the burger. I slowly sank my teeth into it and realized that it was probably the most disappointing thing on my tray. It wasn't bad don't get me wrong, but when you get used to having well seasoned grilled burgers anything less simply taste a little bland. It definitely tasted better than the McDonald's burger that I tried in the US before leaving so I guess it was a plus too. But I continued on in my paradise devouring and watching.

A nice gentleman came over and asked in Chinese if I was using the chair opposite me and if he could borrow it. I didn't understand all of what he was saying, but from his gestures I figured it out and responded that he could take the chair. He was slightly surprised that I could speak Chinese and unfortunately blasted me with a phrase that I could only make out was that I was the subject. Thankfully I have the phrase: I didn't understand what was said and that I only speak a little Chinese. These two phrases I have found are extremely important. First it impresses whoever you are talking to that you can speak there language and second it lets them know that you are very limited so that they will either a. slow down for you or b. start speaking English. He spoke English and actually thought that I spoke Chinese pretty well.

Taiwan actually has quite a few English speakers here so it hasn't been as bad when I have gotten lost and needed directions and couldn't understand some of the roads that were being mentioned or when a person was simply speaking too fast for me to keep up with. So I highly recommend learning a little Chinese before coming to Taiwan because a little will take you a long way and I think it makes many of the locals like you more because you seem less foreign.

Anyway that's all I have for you today. Not much really, but you are probably getting tired of reading anyway. Until next time my friends.