For a truncated weekend, it felt very long and very full. Cass and I had the dubious honour of proctoring, then sorting and grading 100 plus admissions tests on Saturday. Great hordes of middle and high school kids, most accompanied by their parents, invaded the school cafeteria at 8am sharp on Saturday morning. Brigadier Braggett had them marshaled to different exam venues (because of the vast numbers, then Lance Corporal Cassy whipped her troops into shape for 3 hours or so, while I put my raw recruits through some basic training at a venue across the road, a reclaimed bus depot of all places. Space in the school proper is at such a premium, even on weekends, that we were forced to search out other venues.I don’t know how this army analogy started, but I’ll take it through to its conclusion (quickly!). After said recruits completed the tests, we dismissed them and then retired to our own barracks, complete with huge slabs of test supplies. With military precision, we then began the mammoth, sorting grading and sorting again task, before we hand off the accumulated package on each soldier through to our comrades in the Humanities departments of both divisions. These officers will then give the final say, and the school’s Field Marshall will either invite the raw recruits to join us for many years training and hard work, or discharge them as unfit at this time, with a chance to re-apply for active service next year. Enough!
To cleanse the mind, we ventured out on Saturday evening after our grading marathon for a quiet dinner out. We didn’t really get it, as the place we taxied to was booked up and we decided to try our luck around the night market district, which we were pretty close to. After a few abortive attempts, (my rudimentary Chinese not quite up to a full on menu explanation!), we stumbled upon the quirky and unusual “Orange” café. We’d had a coffee here once before, but not a meal. It was fantastic and cheap as chips…speaking of which, we were served proper wedge style chips (skins on) for the first time here in Taipei. We gave all the meals and accompaniments a big thumbs up then headed into the seething cauldron of the Saturday night Shilin night market.
A great mix of the latest and greatest and most kitsch and bizarre, every stall and shop front holds something to look at. Apart from products, the night market district is home to lots of street vendors of weird and wonderful food, as well as a massive building that houses literally hundreds of food stalls selling shaved ice and oyster omelets ( two of Shilin’s specialties) right through to pig hearts and various other awful offal offerings! It’s certainly an eye opener and we’ve also decided we might have been here a long time as we walked past the pungent odours wafting from the stinky tofu stalls without blinking! We caught the train home and I bought a raincoat (for camp this week: yuk) at the $NT39 store (about $1.50), then walked home in some light rain.
Today, Sunday, we saw Spiderman 3 and found it to be the same exciting mix of effects and action as the other two. As superhero franchises go, this one is by far the best we reckon: it really never misses an opportunity for a self deprecating laugh, which breaks the movie up nicely. We ended up heading back the to Lion’s Foot Sri Lankan restaurant for lunch where, after eating another exquisite meal we told the chefs that it was as good as, if not better than the meals we ate on the beach at Hikkaduwa…they were stoked!
We’re gearing up for yet another busy week: exams and reports loom again and all the attendant hassles. Photos are of our Tienmu Sri Lankan experience today in their lovely outdoor courtyard with tinkling fountains, plants and decorations, me on a wave and one of the two of us at Yingge pottery village a few weeks back.