We finally tried durian for the first time last night. The reputation of the fruit had been scaring us off. Finally, Stacy worked up the courage to buy some.
Durian is a tropical fruit that looks very strange. From the outside, it’s like a football with spikes all around it.
Once you open it, the fruit is very sweet, and has the soft, custard-like consistency of a very ripe banana or a sugar apple.
But the smell! Oh, my heavens, the smell.
Durian is the stinkiest fruit in the world. It’s impossible to describe the smell. Combine rotten milk with no-so-fresh fish, then add freshly-chopped onions and jasmine flowers, and you get the general idea.
There is a reason that Singapore has a law forbidding durians on the subway. I now understand and fully support this law.
When you eat it, it isn’t bad. As I wrote, it’s very sweet. But the sweetness is combined with a sharp bite, sort of like eating raw onions.
Ian and Evan each managed to take one bite, then declared that they had been there, done that, and had had enough.
We wrapped up the scraps in double-thick plastic garbage bags, but the whole apartment still stinks of durian. I can’t wait until the garbage truck comes tonight. Usually the boys grumble about taking out the garbage, but I guess that they will be happy to get this out of the apartment as quickly as possible today!
We went to Yuanshan, a village near Yilan city, to see a mountain lake and eat interesting food. It turns out that the most interesting thing was Stacy getting stuck in a hammock, and the the trip gave us the scariest mountain driving of our lives.
The restaurant had hammocks outside, where people could enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountain. It was cool up there, and the hammocks were comfortable.
Taking a quick nap in the hammock
This doesn't look comfortable, but Stacy insisted that it was.
Stacy experienced a slight “hammock malfunction” and needed some assistance getting out. Ian jumped to the rescue. It was not a pretty sight. “Luckily,” Evan was on-hand to capture the moment.
Heave, ho!
There is some serious road construction going on up the mountain. The construction zone is just over 2 kilometers long, and the road, which is narrow already, was made even narrower in parts by construction vehicles. Scary scary scary ride.
Hoping that the mountainside doesn't slide down onto us.
Less than a car's width between the cement truck and a plunge to the valley below.
…well, OK, I have to admit that putting the bike light on my glasses and pretending to be a Borg was my idea. But Stacy insisted on filming it, and she made me post it here.
This has NOTHING to do with Taiwan or with teaching EFL. But if you know me, you know why this video happened…
You do not have to watch this video. In fact, you probably shouldn’t. This is your official warning.
We’re impressed with the quality of dental care in Taiwan. The dentists here really know their stuff. Stacy needed a root canal (again), and her dentist managed to save a tooth that was almost dead. She’s going to need some more dental work, too, unfortunately. The description of the procedure is pretty hair-raising. The dentist will pull out the tooth, scrape out some stuff, then plant the tooth back in her jaw. It sounds like landscaping in your mouth.
Not only are is the quality of work good, but it’s so much cheaper than in the US. Stacy’s root canal cost about US$300, a fraction of what it would cost in the US. Stacy’s really happy with her dental experience (as happy as one can be with a root canal). She says that the procedure didn’t hurt a bit. Who’d have thought?
There was an interesting sory on last night’s news about graduate school in Taiwan. It seems that Taiwan is producing too mny PhDs. Enrollments in PhD programs have grown by 250% over the lat ten years.
At the same time, as the population shrinks (Taiwan has the lowest birth rate in the world), the need for PhDs is shrinking. On average, there are 50 applicants for every university position in Taiwan.
Newly-minted PhDs my have to look to Hong Kong and China to find job opportunities.
Last week was the birthday of the god of the underworld. The Dong Yue Temple æ±å¶½å»Ÿ in Yilan had a huge multi-day celebration, which included a parade of huge statues that danced through the streets and into the temple.
I am working on a video montage of the celebration, but until it’s done, here’s a small taste of it. The celebration wasn’t nearly as creepy as this video might suggest. It’s a joyful celebration.
Evan: I know that God has decreed that I must spend a certain amount of time with the most stupidest people on the planet, but why does it have to be NOW?
Now that the weather is warming up, it’s time to start enjoying a local treat, shaved ice 挫冰.
If you’ve ever made snow ice cream by putting syrup on clean snow, then you have some idea about this food. You use a machine to shave a bowl of snow from a block of ice, which may be made of plain water, sweetened water, or even frozen milk (my favorite). Then you choose what you want on it.
I like traditional and simple: sweet mung beans ç¶ è±†. Evan likes mango.
You eat it with a spoon, like ice cream. It’s a great way to cool down on a hot day. And because it’s ice-based, not cream-based, it has a lot fewer calories than ice cream.
This is a super-deluxe ice: chocolate syrup, sweet red beans in the middle, and a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the top.
