Our apartment

Today we moved into our new apartment!! Its pretty sweet, Erin took some pictures so you guys can check it out. It came fully furnished (we’re still waiting on our TV and refrigerator though) and its only $330/month ($10,000 in TWD). We settled on this one after spending yesterday with our cute but cut throat bi-lingual negotiator, Patty. We looked a few others but all were loft-style, which we thought we wanted at first. After seeing this one and its two-level set up, we knew his one would better serve our needs. During the apartment hunt we stopped for a bite to eat with Patty, we figured we would treat because she’s been working so hard to help us. Little did we know what was in store…

Stinky Tofu is a Chinese delicacy that is pretty much self-descriptive. At first whiff I thought I stepped in a horse turd, but I didn’t. This stuff smells, bad. But, in all truthfulness, it didn’t taste that bad. After all, it is just soy. But the big surprise came later on as I was biting into a piece of meat. I’ll admit, I didn’t know what kind of meat this was, just that it was meat. But thanks the perfect timing of my curious, sweet and innocent little girlfriend the mystery meat was soon to be revealed. As I was chewing and swallowing the tender, but chewy piece of meat Erin so eagerly asked Patty “what is this?” To which patty responded “ eet ees pig…not the stomach, but after the stomach…” After listening to her try and explain while at the same time gesturing with her hands, I swallowed my mouthful and came to the realization that I had just eaten some pig intestine. Awesome. I guess I it could’ve been worse, but there was a reason I didn’t ask what we were eating. There’s a reason this tofu stinks, and its not because its mixed with meat that we would normally eat. So upon further inquiry, Erin found out that not only is this delectable little dish made with pig intestine, but a healthy hunk of frozen pig blood as well. At that point Erin was pretty much over experimenting with foods and ordered a bowl of rice, which I happily helped her finish.

After a long day of apartment hunting and food tasting we called it a day and headed back to our hotel.

Today we ventured off on our own after we signed our lease. No Patty, just the two of us out getting some stuff for the new digs. Nothing too exciting happened while were shopping. We picked up some polka-dotted sheets and a mattress pad. The next bit didn’t come until later on when we decided to grab a bite to eat again. We went into a little restaurant, there’s pretty much one in every couple hundred feet. This one seemed to specialize in seafood and last time I checked, pigs don’t swim. The woman who worked there was kind enough to come out and show us how much each of the items in the pictures cost. She didn’t speak English but she pointed to the pictures and wrote down the price. After I pointed to one of the items we decided to get, thinking it was chicken, she walked in and began pointing to the different meats behind the counter. When she got to our meat she began speaking and hopping in place. After a minute I figured out that she was telling us we just ordered frog. Erin quickly canceled that order and we decided to take another glimpse at the pictures. Finally after passing up the frog, crawfish, squid, crab claws and other seafood delights we decided to order a shrimp dinner. It was delicious. Then we went to a McDonalds, which was also delicious.

Monday we don’t have anything we have to do so were going to take the day and do a little sight seeing. We’re thinking Taipei 101, but were not sure yet.