Saturday, January 22, 2011

For the Love of Phlegm!

Well sorry for the lapse of blogging. Both Jeremy and I have been sick. I was just starting a blog post about Jeremy getting bronchitis, when it hit me too. Bronchitis and the flu. So this may not be the adventure story you were all looking for, but here’s what it’s like to be sick in Taiwan!

Like all suspicious and budget-conscious Americans we were wary of going to a hospital uninsured...but Jeremy's cold had definitely turned to bronchitis so we had to go a doctor. These are the choices: there are traditional Chinese health clinics on nearly every corner, some neighborhood doctors that practice western medicine and of course the big Hospitals.

My mom took Jeremy to her little neighborhood clinic while I was working. The receptionists didn't speak any English at all but were according to Jeremy 'super cute anyway'. He had about 20 min wait to see the doctor. Not bad considering the typical waiting time at the ER in the states. The doctor himself spoke excellent English and determined in short time that yes Jeremy had bacterial bronchitis. They didn't have the same brand Jeremy usually got in the US but he prescribed an antibiotic equivalent of Azithromyacin, plus like 6 other ‘over the counter’ things like decongestants, vitamins etc. Real western medicine ++. Yey!

The clinics here are the pharmacy as well. Instead of multiple bottles of pills they divvied up the pills into individual does that are packaged together in these long strips. He had to take one packet every 12 hours. So within about an hour Jeremy got to see the doctor and got all of his medication in one spot. Don't you just hate trying to find a pharmacy in the middle of the night when you are sick as a dog? Ugh!

We have no insurance here. Price of total doctor visit plus antibiotics, decongestants and vitamins etc...$36 US. I don't want people talking politics on here, but just give that a moment to sink in. $36. No Joke.

The next week it was my turn to get sick. I avoided the doctor even longer, but I finally let my mom take me. The regular clinic was closed for ‘afternoon siesta time’ so we went to the Hospital at Yaming. Unfortunately they wouldn’t admit me because I had forgot my passport up the mountain. So we went back to Tien Mu and my mom took me to her neighborhood clinic when it opened again at 4pm (midnight my time – wahhh). The doctor determined I had bronchitis and influenza (yey me) and gave me packets of pills to take 3 times daily, plus some extra good ones to help me sleep. For the next 7 days I felt awesome! Well actually I think I described it as “I feel like a brick of butter that has been left on a hot stove top and I fear that any movement may turn me into a liquid that will melt away” or “my head seems to floating above my body in a cloud of pink marshmallow goo.” I did not need the sleeping pills.

So two thumbs up for good doctors here. Chiropractors…I’m not a fan. My mom has been taking us to her chiropractor/massage guy (she’s got a bad knee). He has really helped Jeremy with his back. My mom’s knee is much better when she goes regularly. But I went once and was in so much pain afterwards I could barely lay on my back for two days. And I got sick. The chiropractor visit coincided with me getting really sick. I know it may help me eventually…but I don’t think I can do it. It was worse than the most brutal derby game I’ve been in. No thank you!

I am however a fan of the hot springs. I was working up a healthy migraine one day when we were supposed to meet my mom’s friend Joseph for lunch. It was just serendipity that he wanted to go to the hot springs, and had brought bathing suits for all of us. That was heavenly. Back relaxed, headache cured all for about $1 admission fee. Love it!

This is the train station to Beitou where the hot springs are.


My mom and Joseph on our way to the hot springs. Who packs a bathing suit, and spares for friends 'just in case' of a stop at a hot springs? Awesome


This is the one we went to. There are huge hot springs resorts all over in Beitou, but this one is very cheap and super clean. They kick everyone out every hour to drain and scrub all the pools. They go from scalding hot at the source at the top, to cold pools near the base of the hill. This is just before cleaning time on our way out.


Jeremy being impressed by the cleanliness of public restrooms here...


The school girls seated here were openly staring and giggling at Jeremy as we were leaving the hotsprings. It was so cute!


After Beitou, Joseph wanted to take us out for mango ice cream...all the way to Ximen! It's the 'young people's' district. So we finally discovered where the cool people hang out.


Here's the 'very famous' shaved ice made from milk imported from New Zealand, and mango. The frozen milk was lighter than fresh cotton candy. Joseph is from Japan, and this place is so well known even in Japan that he was pointing out graffiti from Japanese tourists that had been there before us.


If you are looking for it, here's the front of the famous dessert place.
Cuteness!


Jeremy's week of pills from the doctor's office. All in neat little packets.


Eating at the Shebaba again.


Here's a close-up of what the pill packets look like. The traditional Chinese doctors use the same system, but just fill them up with whatever herbs or whatever they are giving you. It's very convenient and easy to remember to get the right dose at the right time.


We spent a lot of time at my mom's house. Sweet kittens make staying in bed all day much sweeter.


My mom bought a kumquat tree. Jeremy was just getting over his bronchitis here, but was a good sport and carried it home from the market for her.


And here's me...not being a good sport at all. Go away and let me sleep!

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Up the Mountain

This last week Jeremy and I have been getting settled in at our place up the mountain. He wasn’t feeling very good the last few days and so I ventured into town on my own a few times. I nearly found myself in tears yesterday after a barrage of instructions and pronunciation tips from my mom and her friend who were just trying to teach me how to say ‘left’, ‘right’ and ‘go straight’ so I could give a taxi driver instructions to our house here. Three little words, 30 minutes and I thought I was going to cry. You try and say “(d)Zuo dzou”!!!

Yesterday I also had quite an adventure trying to get to town. First I read the schedule wrong and missed the bus down the mountain. I didn’t actually figure it out until another seemingly panicked woman at the bus stop was asking me about the schedule. That’s when I realized it went down at 9am not 9:10 and the next one wasn’t due for an hour! I was supposed to meet someone at 10 so I panicked too.

This lady and I were able to communicate enough to decide we could share a taxi to the Jintan station. But of course we couldn't find a taxi! Finally she flagged down a guy in a passing car who gladly drove us both all the way down the mountain. I would never hitch a ride in Medford, much less a huge city…but here it was no big deal. It felt totally safe and small town even though I couldn’t understand a lick of what either one of them were saying.

When we got dropped off we missed the bus to the MRT by seconds and the next bus wasn’t due for 20 min. So we shared a taxi to the train station and she insisted on paying! The taxi driver had better English than the lady and we soon determined that he had met my mother before too. He remembered her from four years ago when she had broken her foot in the states visiting me and couldn’t afford to get it put in a cast there. So when she got back her foot was still broken and he took her from her house in TienMu up to the university and she had him wait for her while she went up to MingChuan and then take her back home.

After getting off the train at Shilin I missed the 601 bus by seconds and had to take the 224. Not really knowing where it went to I got off too early and had a 20 minute walk uphill to my final destination. I arrived 47 minutes late. Always with the late! UGH! I am paying more attention now and have decided to make a concentrated effort to learn the Chinese characters for the bus stops I need! It was a really bizarre day.

Anyway, here are some photos of recent jaunts around town and around our neighborhood up at Pingdeng Li. This is the little river we cross between our house and the closest 'town'.



Lots of little vegetable farms and plant nurseries up here.

Well it's hard to tell from this picture, but the cherry blossoms are just starting to bloom. In another week or so this place will be flooded with hikers up to see the blossoms for Chinese New Year.


There are bunches of little shrines all over the mountain up here. This little one is the closest to our house.


I've taken to carrying incense around in my backpack just in case I want to check out a temple or shrine while out on a walk.


The police dept in Pingdeng Li, accross from where we wait for the bus.


An afternoon painting with my mom.

Food is generally very cheap in Taiwan...unless it's imported. Yes, you can get bing and raineer cherries here...but that box is $2000NT or approx $60 US!!!


I went for a walk around our neighborhood when the sun came out one afternoon. Scooter envy.


Cutest little bamboo grove.


Enjoying the sun and the views.


The exteriors of most buildings here are stone or tile. Up the mountain it rains so much, even the tile gets worn down over time.

Just a short walk up the hill from our house is Yamingshan National Park! Beautiful walking path up to a waterfall. I didn't make it all the way...and am waiting for another sunny day to try out more paths.

Our little garden plot. Has an avacado tree, a passionfruit vine, some roses and rosemary. The impatience have taken over everything else here. Hope to plant some veggies or more flowers here in the spring.

Beautiful rainbows in the valley going up and down the mountain this day. Managed to catch a blurry picture of one even from the moving bus!


My mom took me to her favorite art supply store here. Bigger selection of oils and painting mediums than Central Art in Medford. Oooh drool....


There are vegetarian restaurants everywhere in Taipei now. This little spot called the Vegetarian kitchen is right next to the Shilin MRT station. Their set meals like this one that my mom and I shared are about $100 - $120NT. So we both got lunch for about $4 US. This meal had spiniach greens, a kimchee salad, bitter gourd, imitation chicken, mixed rice, a bowl of potato soup and this fruit that they call 'dates' but is actually very similar in flavor to a wax apple. Sweet, light and super crunchy. We also ordered a side dish of gingered yam greens. Just what I needed for my cold.


Here's the imitation chicken I had. Looks like chicken...tastes like chicken. It was really good.


Rockin' my iPod on the 40 minute ride back up the mountain.


Another shot out the window of the bus. It really is about 10 degrees cooler up the mountain than down in the city below. Not pleasant right now...but I know it will be.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Hungry in Taipei

On a Saturday morning after being up all night Jeremy and I were sleep deprived and HUNGRY. An ordinary 'super nacho cheese flavor' bag of Cheetos yielded not one but two giant lumps of cheese goo sans-Cheeto as Jeremy and I decided to adventure out into the city to locate a certain authentic Mexican flavored taco stand in Taipei. We found out about this place called MACHO TACOS off another blog called HungryInTaipei.com. In desperate need of some comfort food for the sick Megan we head out.



First leg of the trip, catch the red line down to Taipei Main Station.


View of some apartments from the MRT platform. Because it's fun to look into your neighbors wash room. They couldn't make these buildings any closer..


We got off the blue line at SYS Memorial hall and spotted our very first Burger King! Yey.


Cute baby in piggy outfit.


Crazy cute VW Bus. We saw a couple of these today. Don't know where they came from! COOL


Garbage truck.


After almost an hour on the MRT and a long walk we actually managed to locate MACHO TACOS. Time 1:30pm. Status, nearly dead and starving...restaurant...closed. We got all the way there and they don't open until 6:30. The gate was up and so I poked my head in to ask when they open. The were prepping the food and it already smelled sooooo good. They guy told me in perfect English that they will start opening for lunch next week. Major bummer


Yeah...


So instead we decided to check out a tried and true American favorite. Pizza Hut! Here's the sign above their doorway. Look familiar? Oh yeah egg and BBQ pork is my favorite combo too!


Jeremy sitting down at the pizza hut. Nice salad buffet behind him.


Yes they actually do serve boiled egg, broccoli, sesame seed and pork or bacon pizza. Standard at the buffet. Must be a big hit.


Or if you'd rather, there is also Korean Kim Chi BBQ Pizza or Mexican (Spicy) Pizza, and some purple one...who knows. We ordered from the menu...but I had to look.


Success! Plain cheese deep dish pizza and Taiwan beer. So much for the diet. Beer and pizza for every meal. This was so good I can't even describe. Jeremy ordered two beers off the bat. The waitress was very confused. And another round...


Window shopping at the Doc Martin's store.


Cuteness everywhere.


Cuteness! Everything is super cute after no sleep, pizza and two Taiwan beers.


Oooh, I found a skate shop. Turned out to be in line skates only though. =(


After we made it back to the MRT we decided to get off one stop early to see if the Shilin Night market was open. A few of the shops were just getting set up.

Hey dad - it's THE CLAW.


Yeah, you would be in claw heaven. There was isle after isle after isle of electronics stuff, stuffed animals, and then...and then...and thenandthenandthen


This juice shop was open and the guy who spoke really good English talked me into ordering a juice with that weird white lumpy fruit that he called a beet, and pineapple and maybe starfruit? I couldn't tell what the last one was. "Very healthful!", he said. It was also quite bitter. But I needed the vitamins and drank it up.

The food vendors inside the main Shilin Market getting started as the sun goes down.


Deep fried crabs anyone?


Or snails?
These guys would fry up any number of meat or tofu type skewers for you...


Here's me as we leave the main indoor market where most of the food vendors are. Down the street all all the way between the Shilin MRT stop and Jintan is the night market. It's about 4pm and just getting going!


Here's the start of the market as you get off at Jintan.


One of the side streets as it all comes to life.


Candy coated strawberries, mini apples, plums and roasted tomatoes.


Cute is as cute does! I want this whole outfit!

Travis, shoes for you.


The sign says 'WOW Frog eggs', but I know from last time we were here that this is actually a very good organic juice stand. You can totally tell from the sign right?

More food vendors along the street.


This is along the main road ZhongShan Bei Lu that parallels the MRT tracks. Jeremy and I went to the movie theater right here to see the new Studio Ghibli film. I have got to learn some Chinese stat. It was so bad. We didn't know the name of the movie. I couldn't say tickets. I said somthing about Ghibli and pointed and the girl behind the counter just STARED at me. Went to the girl at the entrance to ask her. She just shouted something in Chinese to the other girl, probably like "oh god, do you understand these people? I don't know what they want. Ignore them and maybe they will go away." Finally some pointing at a poster and handing money to the girl at the counter worked. It turned out to be almost $9 per person and the whole movie was dubbed in Chinese with no subtitles. Ah well. The picture was very crisp and beautiful.


You can find an assortment of very cool t-shirts with English writing on them! Just grab stuff from Google, put on shirt and $$$$


The real reason Starbucks changed their logo. there are about 50 chains in Taipei with a very similar logo...


Enjoy a whole squid if you're really hungry! I'm so glad I ate at Pizza Hut first. Some areas smelled really good, and then there was stuff like this that was just scary and did not smell fresh. Ugh!

Stuff yourself too much at the Shilin Night market, and you will have a food baby - like this guy. We got home after the movie at about 9pm...which is essentially 5am Saturday morning for you peeps back in Medford. Yeah we can still party! Wild Friday..or is that Saturday night. Whooho!