茶碗蒸

 I'm home... at last.

Back in Taitung, where I was born and raised until I was 8, after 3 days of wandering around the sky and various places in NZ and Taiwan... and hurling my nearly overwight luggage (stuffed with health supplies and coffee beans) around like a slab of metal... it was a mission indeed.

But yes... what have I been doing since I got back 2 days ago?? I've been practising my deteriorating Japanese with my Grandma - an interesting process since my vocab is somewhat limited and after we've talked about how hot the weather is, what our plans are for the weekend and where we went for exercise that morning... our conversation seems to stop there. No!! I wish my japanese was heaps better....(tears)

Speaking of exercise though... I've been doing hard-core training with my loving parents (well, not really hard-core yet... since I've only been back 2 days hrhr). Being dragged out of bed at precisely 5:50am every morning and being forced to step into the humid and suffocating environment... God, who knows how long I can last. But the bike ride yesterday morning was pretty okay - the slopes themselves weren't too bad - well according to my dad they were still "beginner's level" - and I actually managed to keep up with my dad most of the way. (<-- although it was difficult since he would frequently make a sharp turn onto a faint trail in the bushes or swerve onto an obviously pedistrian only pathway...)

And the swim this morning in the biggest swimming pool in the world - 1000m x 100m - or otherwise known as "Artificial Lake" (人工湖) - was excellent... the water was cool, refreshing, and very clean, with moss and fish of all kinds as an attractive bonus. It was simply amazing dunking your head into the water and watching herds of fish swim below you. Also there's none of that disgusting chloride smell that makes people nauseous - the water in the pool is completely natural spring water that bubbles out from the ground. The only downside, however, is that there are no lifeguards since it's more technically a lake rather than a pool; plus the water is actually very deep (5m at its deepest) therefore both my dad and I had to strap a floatie around our waist in case of an emergency. (I was a little annoyed when some of the middle-aged men by the pool eyed me suspiciously and asked my dad "can she swim?"... what the hell?? Do I look like I can't float or something!?) But nevertheless I have to say... the experience was wonderful and I hope to swim further than the 400m I did today in the future. I so want to swim the length of the pool and see the giant fish that my dad saw today!

And of course I've been keeping up with my daily treadmill walks at night accompanied by the old TV (secretly chuckling at any Arron Yan or Evan Yo ads that pop up every now and then), then there's the marathon that's coming up this weekend... I have a feeling my body is going to turn into jelly (or something very close) soon.... but nevermind, I shall solidify it by stuffing my face with an adequate amount of breakfast (hmmm maybe 3 people's serving instead of 5?). Mwahahaha

Anyway, sorry Jenn.... I meant to take more photos but I keep forgetting my camera (man I'm getting old). But don't you worry! I shall return to every single restaurant I've missed at least five more times XD And I'm getting a haircut tomorrow but not a makeover (I don't want to risk getting my scalp burnt off while perming my hair in Taitung). Miya - I hope your packing went well and you are on your way to Japan... don't sleep through another emergency landing though haha XD