Number 10

Shuiguo, otherwise known as fruit. This may seem like an uninspiring topic for a countdown. Especially for a post that cracks my top 10. But it’s not. The fruit here is seriously good. Fruit is one of Taiwan’s largest exports. People travel to Taiwan just to eat the fruit. This aint the stuff they sell at Wal-Mart.

First step: Find the fruit

This is fun in itself. Sure you can buy fruit at the grocery store, but why would you? On street corners throughout Taiwan are fruit stands that vary in size and variety. But one thing is for sure, it’s fresh. None of that spray ripened fruit. Most fruits you buy last only a few days before going bad. But who cares, the stands are so convenient and cheap that stopping by once or twice a week is no big deal. You literally just park your scooter anywhere you want on the side of the road and there you are.

Second step: Decide what to buy

This is the hard part. How can you possibly make a decision? It’s all so good. (Well most of it) Opportunity cost comes into play here big time. What can I live without? Ill let you decide. Here are just some of the fruits I can remember right now.

-Pineapple, much sweeter than the stuff in America

-Apples

-Watermelon, both red and yellow. The yellow would be perfect for a Mizzou Tailgate.

-Oranges

-Mini-bananas, a quarter the size of a real banana, double the flavor.

-Kiwi, both green and gold. Gold is much sweeter than the green.

-Honeydew

-Passion fruit. Grows all year. We actually have an enormous passion fruit vine right outside our school that we can munch on.

-Lychee

-Guava. A Taiwan favorite that I only kind of like compared to the other fruit on the list.

-Star fruit

-Dragon fruit. Big fan!

- Wax apple. Many of the teachers at school love this. It’s just okay to me.

-Custard apple. Called Buddha head fruit and isn’t awesome

-Papaya. Best in papaya milk

-Pomegranate. Best in tea

-Grapes

-Nectarines

-Peaches

-Taiwanese plum. So yucky!

-Strawberries

-Durian. Oh Durian. Loved by few. Repulsive to most. This stinky fruit isn’t allowed on subways, or in most hotels. It literally smells awful. I triple bagged it and it still reeked. But surprisingly I kind of like it. It is a custardy texture and is mildly sweet. Any trip to Southeast Asia isn’t complete without eating Durian.

-Many others I am forgetting

But none of those compare to this next fruit. It tends to give me a slight allergic reaction when I eat too many, but that doesn’t stop me. In fact I am eating one right now. This fruit is good anytime, anyplace, in anyway. My particular favorite is on Shaved Ice. (A wonderful dessert that deserves it’s own blog post) The fruit that I am talking about is of course the Taiwanese Mango. So sweet and succulent that your mouth wants to explode when you eat it. Freaking good! I wasn't a fan of mango's when I left home. Now they are my favorite fruit. They are just so good here. Lucky for me, it’s mango season right now.

What’s even better is that all of this fruit is good for you…well, maybe not Durian. Chicks don’t dig it.

A mid-sized roadside fruit stand. 

MIZ!

Mango's on the left, Wax apple on the right.

Starfruit

Nighttime shot of the city

Clearest day I can remember in Taiwan. Not a bad view

My 4th Graders

Number 11

Tea

To think of a Taiwan without tea is like thinking of Kansas City without BBQ, maybe worse. Tea is as essential to the identity of Taiwan as anything else. It beats out temples, it beats out night markets, it beats out lanterns, and it even beats out rice. To me, Taiwan is tea.

 Am I overstating the importance of tea to a culture? No, I don’t believe I am. Kids drink tea from the time they are able to walk. Every morning and afternoon working people drink tea. You go for a haircut, you are offered a tea. You go out to eat, tea obviously comes with the meal for free. Drive down any street for more than a minute and you are likely to pass a tea shop or 10. At 7-11 there are maybe 6 different options for pop compared to the 100+ options for tea. It’s not an obsession. It’s a way of life.

Okay, so what’s the big deal about tea? It’s just tea. America has tea, and it didn’t change my life. Well, let me tell ya. American tea is like kansas football when compared to Taiwan. It’s no good and nobody cares. Taiwan has perfect conditions for growing all different varieties of tea. High mountains, a humid and sunny climate, and soil that will grow anything. Some varieties of tea only grow here such as oolong green tea. Bubble milk tea originated minutes from my apartment.

Original Bubble Tea. It's yummy milk tea with  chewy Tapioca type balls in it

That brings me to my next point. Milk tea. Oh! It’s what rain is made of in Heaven. Every sip is a little bit love entering your body. It tastes like happiness. When I leave Taiwan, my life with be empty. I will have a void. A void that can only be filled by Milk tea.

I have a tea at least 6 days a week. Nearly all of them were purchased at The Tea Shop by my school. The tea girls have not only provided me with a delicious boost of caffeine but have also taught me most of the Chinese that I know. I’m basically fluent in Chinese at a tea stand. I can order 20 or more different types of tea. The level of sugar and ice you want. All in Chinese, no English needed.

So how long will it be before I miss Taiwan tea? About noon of my first day back. That’s why Tea is number 11 on my countdown.

The Tea Shop

Oh the options

Me and a couple of the tea girls

Check back next week to find out number 10.

(Also, I went to Alishan national scenic area over the weekend. Check Facebook for pictures.)

Top 12 Things I will miss about living in Taiwan

Well, I have entered the homestretch for my time here in Taiwan. With around 12 weeks left in the country  I am starting to realize just how much I will miss this place. Everyday there seems to be at least one moment where I just can't imagine leaving. Naturally that got me thinking about what I will miss most about my life over this past year. So I decided to do a countdown/ranking list.(Everyone likes countdowns and rankings, right?) This will serve many purposes, it will; help everyone countdown the weeks until I come home, summarize the highlights of my year, and help me cope with the realization that I have to leave.

So here it is. With 12 weeks left, I present you with my Top 12 things I will miss about Taiwan.

#12 The Language

I know many of you wont understand this. How could I miss living in a country where I can't read or write hardly anything. Language barrier is probably one of the biggest reasons Americans ignore Asia as a travel destination. At first, I definitely agreed. I constantly avoided certain situations just because I could not communicate with people. I ate the same things over and over just because I couldn't read menus or ask any questions. There were times when traveling was very overwhelming because of the language. I am not sure when things changed for me, but they did.

Now I can handle at least 75% (or more) of daily situations by speaking and understanding Chinese. I can't have a conversation in Chinese, but I know all of the essentials. I can not remember the last time not knowing Chinese prevented me from doing something. It takes time to learn to live this way, but it is actually a lot of fun once you get it. Besides the rush of speaking another(and very difficult) language, there are other benefits.
-being able to talk about people without fear of them knowing what you are saying.
-having everyone come up to you and try to speak whatever English they know.
-getting out of tickets just because the police officer can't speak English.
-Lets be real, in America I suck at talking to girls. Here, no one notices because they only understand half of what I say. For some this would be a negative, but not for this guy.

Will it be a relief when I return to The States and am able to say whatever I want to whoever I want? Sure. But not knowing everything that is said around me makes life much more interesting.

I will post #11 sometime next weekend. I will try to get pictures to go along with my posts from now on.

Go Royals!