Strange Ways

Last Sunday I was just goin to get some lunch when I heard these two girls talking behind me. One said to the other (in Chinese), "are you hungry?" and I actually understood what she was saying so I turned around and said (in Chinese), "yea! I'm hungry!" Then we started talking (all in Chinese) and they invited me to go to lunch with them. But when we got to this vegetarian place one of the girls asked me if I had a girlfriend and I was like, "no," and so she was like, "ok, then you go on a date with my friend now," and then she just left me with the other girl! It turned out to be all good; one interesting moment came when the girl didn't know the word "Jewish," so i explained it this way: i held up three fingers, and pointed to one and said "Muslim," pointed to one and said, "Christian," and pointed to one and said, "Jewish," and then she got it. We exchanged digits (but didn't arrange visits).

That reminds me of when I was eating at another vegetarian buffet and I started talking to this elderly Taiwanese man and he ended up inviting me to his house right then and there. I was a little apprehensive, since in the U.S. I would never go to the home of some old dude I just met (I'm not tryna go out on some "Silence of the Lambs" tip). But I went anyway. It was totally worth it when we went to his house and he had me sing karaoke for him, and I (ironically) chose the 1950's song "Diana," which goes, "I'm so young and you're so old/this my darling I've been told" and then he had me teach him the lyrics in English.

Lastly, two cool things:

1. I got acupuncture. They stuck what looked like these incense candles in my back and then hooked them up to these Frankenstein-style electric nodes. It didn't hurt, but felt weird. It was actually covered by my Taiwanese health insurance under, "traditional Chinese medicine."

2. I went to a Taiwanese ashram for disciples/devotees of Supreme Master Ching Hai. They're really into vegetarianism, so we basically just ate and meditated all day. Nice way to spend a Sunday.

Various pics from Taiwan University for the Performing Arts, this festival in Jiaosi, plus this hike I went on. I could say more about all of those, but I done took up enough time.