bitter melon, cheese, egg and sausage sandwich!
［苦瓜，奶酪，雞蛋和排骨腸三明治］

i’m not trying to boast but i’m the sandwich master. surely there are others out there but we should all take pride in our creativity. i love bitter melon. bitter melon raw is not bitter enough.

on a side note, a 12-pack of cheese is equal to five or six big bowls of noodles. just one bowl gets you full. when you can take the time to get the spices right on your sandwich and in your salad, you should know you got it better than a whole lot of other people.
［一包十二片奶酪的價錢折合五大碗麵條。吃一碗麵就能吃飽。到一個人能夠講究他喝的吃的的時候，他應該知道自己已經比很多人富有。］

what i’ve been missing. a salami sandwich, a salad with peaches, carrots, cucumbers and cherry tomatoes topped with oil and vinegar. yes, olive oil. i had a grilled cheese sandwich yesterday and a pb & jelly sandwich today. hehe…it’s been too long.

i’ve been in china almost three years but this to my memory is the first time to make my own salad and sandwich. wow… last week i saw a classmate’s section of the third floor refrigerator packed full of her goodies. i wanted to do the same. on sunday i went to the grocery store again. i bought 400RMB ($58) worth of groceries. that’s insane because if i ate what i usually do, something chinese, that could last me over a month (breakfast, lunch and dinner)!

NTS: do not shop at the grocery store in wangfujing anymore. wal-mart has got to be cheaper.

olive oil is the price of two people eating a good meal with a couple of drinks. (遥遥头) cereal, deli meat, cheese, spices, i haven’t stocked up on thee things before. back home though $50 at the grocery store wouldn’t open my eyes. but it’s been so long since i’ve done so. i kinda feel like i spent too much. 环境会改变人

anyways..

The weather was beautiful today. I couldn’t sit at home. I called up three friends. Didn’t reach any of them, so I headed out by myself. Took my bike on the metro from CKS Memorial to Guandu station. Got off and started towards Danshui.

My first stop was Guandu Temple (關渡宮). This temple is huge. It’s built into the side of a hill. There’s a long cave that leads to one of the temple’s 10 gods that are worshipped. Also, there’s a park on top of the hill where you can find some nice views of the river.

I made it to Danshui around 3:30pm. I’ve walked along the boardwalk and old street before. I came upon the Danshui Church founded by George Leslie Mackay. He was a missionary from Canada that started a clinic in 1872. The clinic has been restored and on Sundays there are some young people around to introduce the clinic, the church and George Leslie Mackay’s story. They made part of the clinic into a small cafe and they serve tea and coffee for free.

I told them I wanted to eat 刮包 (gua bao). They asked me why. I said because it taste good and it’s like a Taiwanese hamburger. They suggested I try 阿給 (A-Gei). It’s thin mung bean vermicelli noodles wrapped in tofu (豆腐包冬粉), steamed and then served with a special sauce. I had it before and didn’t take a liking to it. This time I did. You can see the lines in the photo. There’s one for eating inside (内用區) and one for take away (外帶區) and they’re always busy. They sell three things, 阿給 30NT), steamed pork buns (大肉包 15NT) and fish ball soup (魚丸湯 20NT). That’s it. This shop is next to Wenhua Elementary school and is called Wenhua A-Gei (文化阿給).

I feel like I’m writing for Lonely Planet. I need to cut down my blog writing time. I rode my bike 25km (15mi) today. It’s bedtime.

The last picture I took because I always get a kick out of mothers in Taiwan stopping their kids as they walk along the sidewalk to pull up their boy’s pants, well above their waist. I missed the pulling up action but you can see the height of the pants. So, you know why when some men in Taiwan wear their pants way up high like Urkel, they’re either the ones that always listened to mom or just used to it.

Oh, I forgot to say that I rode home from Danshui along the Danshui River and part of the Keelung River. Riding along the riverside at night is nice.