Sunday Funday, September 4, 2011

I want a bloody mary..or a strawberry mimosa..Those were my first thoughts waking up. I sound like an alcoholic. But It was just so nice out and with weather like this on a Sunday in the city, I’d be at a beer garden. It was really hot, but sunny and beautiful and anything’s better than rain! I woke up super early and then decided to go back to sleep until 10am. Allison mentioned she was going to get their internet working at their new apartment and when that happened we would skype. Then woohoo! Her and Nick have internet! She called me and gave me a tour of her and Nick’s new place.  She said that he’d be back from work pretty soon and sure enough, he came in during my apartment tour. It was about 10:30pm for them, 11:30 am for me. Nick made a giant pitcher of margarita for him and Allison and it looked so refreshing. I basically talked to them for an hour and a half and it was like we were just hanging out at their new place, drinking a whole pitcher of margarita, except they had to drink my share of the margarita so I’m guessing they were pretty buzzed. They lived abroad in Italy for a year in college and didn’t have some of the same communication capabilities I’m fortunate to have now. Nick said that he would sometimes only talk on the phone once a month with mom and dad. They were pretty entertaining to talk to.

I got off the computer with them at 1 and got ready to go out for the day. I decided to kind of dress cute because it’s a weekend..and I’d be going out to dinner, just not with any other humans. I walked over to the night market and Sam was right, it is NUTS on the weekend. Just a sea of people all around me. I stopped by a stand that had blenders and straws and I got excited that it would make the same awesome juice I got on Friday after school. I was going to ask the guy what fruit they have but before I can get 4 English words out, he just right away laughs and nervously say “no..uhhhh hehe…no.” It’s annoying, I don’t expect you to speak English, just look at my expressions and my hands pointing to fruits, and take a wild guess what I’m asking. This girl next to me spoke a tiny bit of English and I was like “can I mix the fruits, can I have bananas and this?” So she told him and wallah, drink was up in 2 minutes. I walked further into the crowds because I was on a mission to get to that cool mall. It’s across from a TGI Fridays which cracks me up. I have to go there soon. Maybe I’ll surprise the staff there and sing the Friday’s birthday songs. I miss waitressing. The mall was packed and I took my time and went through almost all 9 levels. The only ones I didn’t walk through were the 2 floors for men. I stopped in the “Working House” store which is like a Linens and Things or Bed bath and Beyond. I got a real soft bath towel, two coffee mugs (one for home one for school) some Snyders’s honey mustard and onion pretzels (because..those are awesome and they’re randomly selling them in a home good stores,) and a candle holder even though I was advised by Chiao and Sam to not have candles. The very top floor had these 3 restaurants and I knew one of them was Thai food because Joe from the school was showing me the website on Friday.  I was so excited and the host thought it was a little strange that I was by myself but Nick and Allison said I shouldn’t feel weird to go by myself because I’m obviously a foreigner, who else would I go with? 

I sat at this real cute booth and the menu looked great. They had 5 beers for really cheap.  The waiter came around and spoke a tiny bit of English but was getting very embarrassed to use it and he would forget a word or a phrase for something and then get all shy and laugh at himself, and finally I was like, “It’s ok it’s ok! I know what I want.” So even though no one else in the restaurant had a drink, I got a beer and I got the Thai egg rolls for an appetizer and then I couldn’t decide between Spicy Chicken Stir Fry or the Spicy Green Chicken Curry,  so I asked him what he liked better and he said the curry because it had more sauce to cover the rice, and that was a good suggestion because I hate when there’s not enough sauce on the rice and the rice gets all dry. He tried suggesting to me a new thing on their menu that was a shrimp pancake or something and he tried so hard to explain it in English so I should’ve just ordered it, but I already ordered two things. The beer was really good, it was from Thailand and it was called Singha. The waiter started to pour the beer for me and was like, shaking! I don’t know if he was nervous or what but he was so nice, he’s like “If you need anything, my name is Derick.” The meal was amazing. It came out all at once and it was so good. And I had this big silver stand next to my table that held a pot of white rice,  so if I needed more rice it was right next to me. I think the people here think it’s strange that I use chopsticks when there’s forks and spoons at the table too. At the night market the other night, this lady who gave me my food saw that I was eating it with chop sticks and laughed and ran up to me with a cheapy spork. I continued to use the chopsticks because they were sturdier. In this case, I like to use them because it slows me down when I eat. Otherwise, I’d scarf the whole meal down and I definitely wasn’t in a hurry. He wrapped every little thing up for me and I got so angry at the fact that I still don’t have a fridge to keep my leftovers in.  He brought over a comment card for me to fill out and I was like, “Well..it’s going to be in English! Is that ok?” and he was all happy and like “yes yes of course, thank you.” I wrote that it was my first time and that I’ll definitely be back. Derick suggested an entrée for me and it was delicious. I left him an extra tip on top of the 10% they automatically get and a guy ran out with it to give to me and I was like, “no that’s for Derick.” He seemed super confused and I know that they don’t tip here, but they have to understand when people leave tips right? I hope Derick got it.

I was kind of on a search for a coffee maker for my apartment and didn’t have any luck, but I did stand in this ridiculously long line for the Starbucks downstairs because I wanted to buy Joe coffee. I got him some Autumn blend. It’s probably shitty compared to what he drinks, but it says it was bold and he likes bold. I stopped at 86 degrees which is a bakery that’s popular in Taiwan and I got a slice of some chocolate cake.

Once I got home, I decided to eat my leftovers already because I don’t have a fridge and the food was too good to let it go to waste. I attempted to do more laundry but I must’ve pressed the wrong buttons because it was in there for a few hours and it just spun with detergent all over it, and no water. I got really excited at first because I was like “Oh my god it does dry them too!!” No, that wasn’t the case. I took a little trip over to 711 to buy some necessities like water, vitamins (because Mom keeps hassling me to take them) a lighter for my rebellious candle use, a box of green tea, sugar, floss, and chapstick. My apartment is by these two really nice apartment buildings that I just realized are homes for the elderly. They’re so cute and they always come out really late at night and set up card tables and play games outside. I wish I could communicate with them. At night I just watched the latest episode of Jersey Shore on some sort of illegal tv site. I wanted to punch the screen when Ronnie and Sam were fighting. I hate them. Another week of school is on its way!