After a day and a half away from home, I felt like the Pope when I returned to the outskirts of Taipei. I actually wanted to kiss the ground. Maybe it's age. I have no idea, but traveling just totally sucks. Traveling with a group of Taiwanese coworkers - while I love them as friends and coworkers - is a nightmare. The trip was to a hot spring resort in Miaoli. Gordon couldn't come so Catherine and I went together. The first ten minutes were fantastic until the Kareoke book was passed about and two girls decided that now was the time (9:30 in the morning) to take up singing awful songs to a video of lovers running around Taipei. OK, the video playing on the TV sets on the bus were pretty funny. I kept thinking what a cool job it would be to be a girl or guy in these videos to the KTV songs. Most of them were shot in the 80s and are just tacky as hell, but it would be nice to put on my resume. So, they were singing for about an hour at a volume that couldn't go any lower. It was physically painful to listen to them sing.
First stop. Toilets. Second spot a really nice nursery that had a restaurant were our group had booked a reservation for the afternoon. I was going to eat there, but there was nothing that I could eat being served. Everything was either covered in a sweet sauce or not something that I eat. I had my food, so I just tucked into it. Catherine ate a bit, but this proved to be a bad thing but I'm getting ahead of myself.
Back on the bus we headed toward our next stop. A strawberry tourists trap. Around a large strawberry laughing teenagers took pictures of one another, people pretended that they were eating it, and I looked on with this totally jaded "What's the big deal?" look. Catherine had a good time. She ran around with my boss' granddaughter and played with gravel. I bought some strawberry filled eggroll cookies for my neighbors and Catherine's school. My coworkers ate deep-fried strawberries, chocolate covered ones and other things that actually made me physically sick to watch them eat. I'm not trying to act as if I'm superior just because I don't eat that stuff, but it is amazing how much people can put away in such a short period of time. I should know about this, but after almost four years of not being severely obese, it's hard to watch. They're normies around the food and can eat these things, but I still see it as being poison. This is a good thing on my part.
Back on the bus the world of strawberries didn't end at the big strawberry at the side of the road. Next stop: the strawberry field. This was my first time picking strawberries and it was pretty nice. A bunch of annoying teenagers gathered around Catherine and a part of me want to tell them to go play in traffic, but I can't seem to be rude. Catherine is cute (I'm her mother so I will always say this.) but these kids annoy the crap out of me. They act as if they've never seen a non-Chinese kid before. I think the next time this happens and they start saying how cute and wanting to take pictures with her, I'm going to run up to them and act as if it is so cool to see a Chinese person and that I want my picture taken with them. Maybe I'll even start touching their hair and slanting my eyes. I'm not a racist, but it is starting to really piss me off how some people just have no barriers.
Well, we picked strawberries and then got back on the bus. The hotel was about an hour away and was pretty nice. Catherine and I took a shower and just relaxed for a bit before heading down to dinner. Within minutes of getting down there, Catherine was so tired that she didn't eat a bite and wanted to go back up to the room. I attempted to get food that I could eat, but getting food that is abstinent isn't the easiest thing when no one really listens to what you're saying. So, we went upstairs, I ate my cheese, wheat germ, and salad and we went to bed. At ten o'clock Catherine started throwing up. All night long it didn't stop. I slept about three hours, got covered in puke and just wanted to cry because I hate seeing her in pain, but we made it through. The next morning she was a bit better, but by the afternoon she was week and started throwing up again on the way back. Yesterday was also Catherine's 5th birthday. I don't know if it was something she ate, but I'm presuming it was. During one of the stops when Catherine was sleeping in the bus, I went inside to heat up my food in the microwave of one of the restaurants. I got a firsthand look into the kitchen and was so totally disgusted that I don't think I'll ever eat out again. It wasn't just nasty, it was by far the most disgusting place I've ever seen. I almost sent a text message to my friend who was actually eating the food there to not even touch it. Next trip. I'm packing food for Catherine as well as myself.
OK, it's lunchtime and I'm starting to get a little hongry (yes, that's the spelling for how I'm feeling). After having a few days of meals that weren't that great, I'm having some of my favorites today.
Off me go.
No comments:
Post a Comment