06.18.2008 (Day One)

Taipei summers are humid and hot, and notorious for simulating the effect of stepping into a city sized convection oven. The heat finds a way to activate every sweat gland in your body.

Da Yi and I felt as energy-sapped as these two dogs.












So we self medicated with the antidote to Taiwanese heat exhaustion, bao bing.

My default combination consists of black jelly/jello like stuff (edit: grass jelly!), green bean, something called white mushroom ( i don't think it's really a mushroom), sometimes tapioca balls, refreshingly cold shaved ice, topped with a splash of creamy milk. It may look questionable, but is really delicious.

But my respite was brief. Da Yi soon began to read off the characters written on these paper lanterns at the bao-bing restaurant. I had no choice but to take out my notebook and copy down each word to memorize it. I am to take every opportunity to learn as much as I can this summer. As I was trying to remember characters with the Chinese alphabet-of-sorts, I realized how much I had forgotten from my years of Chinese school classes which had always been attended with a now regretted half-serious attitude.

A young boy, probably just out of school, sat at the next table with his father. His backpack without a doubt contained books that I could not read. Between my continuous questions about word meanings and my aunt's exaggerated gestures towards those exploited red lanterns, our impromptu lesson drew many confused looks. Being only able to speak the language makes me feel akin to an dumb, ignorant country bumpkin who was never taught his/her "letters". It can't get much more embarrassing than having your cousin loudly read off the menu at restaurants for you when you are an adult and already look and talk like a Chinese person.

Classes start July 1st. This will be a very humbling two months.