Halloween

Hey All!

This was a fun week filled with two different exchanges, one in my area and one to Taidong (or Taitung, as it is sometimes rendered) which is the southernmost city in the mission. It's as far away as possible from the mission office and is also an area that our mission president served in back when he was a missionary in Taiwan. It was a really fun time where we did a lot of street contacting. Taidong has sidewalks which is something my area really lacks and it was fun to walk around and talk to people!

We also had a Halloween party with the Hualian wards and English classes Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and I pulled out my go to church party game where I tape a bunch of small paper cups on a wall or something and people have to throw ping-pong balls into them for prizes. It's way simple and easy (to put together) but actually pretty hard to do so eveyone gets addicted to it. Always a hyped game. For the party us Elders came dressed as various flavors of milk (Taiwan is really into flavored milk such as watermellon milk, papaya milk, fruit milk, apple milk, malt milk...etc.) It was a pretty funny costume. The sisters told us they were going to be Hogwarts houses, and needed ties in the colors for each of the houses, so we gave them ties and then low and behold they came as us- the Elders. They made fake name tags and everything. Tricked us way good. 

Halloween is a good example of a phenomenon in Taiwan I would like to call "American Holiday Commercialism Trying Really Hard To Plant Seeds By The Wayside." It happens with a few holidays but the most notable are probably Halloween and Christmas. This phenomenon is characterized by random Holiday themed things being sold and occasional decorations but with no true purpose behind them because no one celebrates those holidays. As a result it never really feels like a holiday and it's kind of just a check box passing when the day is over. Kind of a weird experience I wasn't anticipating before I came to Taiwan. 

Which gets me on another point, now that I am training and helping someone get to know Taiwan for the first time, it reminds me of the times I was first introduced to Taiwanese things. Especially food. Taiwanese food is delicious but sometimes it takes a while to get used to. Here are some good examples of possible first and long term reactions to Taiwanese food:

冬瓜茶 (Winter Mellon Tea) 

First - This drink kind of tastes like melted candles mixed with graham cracker essence

Long term- This drink is the elixar of life and insanely sweet

麥茶 (Barley Tea)

First - this is tasteless bitter water

Long term- this is a refreshing lightly sweet drink

珍珠 (boba?) or really any food thing in a drink

First - why do I have to chew my drink?

Long term - I want to add this to everything I ever drink for the rest of my life!

酸辣湯 (sour spicy soup) 

First - This litterally looks and tastes like vomit

Long term - This is a great soup with a really unique taste and texture (although sometimes it's actually really weird. Usually if it has some sort of blood product in in you should pass)

麻醬麵 (sesame past noodles)

First - This is just noodles with bad peanut butter on it

Long term - This is just noodles with good peanut butter on it

燙青菜 (boiled vegetables)

First - This is vegetables...

Long term - This is Vegetables!!!! (in a happy way)

紅/綠豆湯 (red or green bean soup)

First - Why are we eating slightly sweet watered down baked beans?

Long term - This is the best dessert soup ever

Taiwanese cake

First - this is the driest cake in the universe

Long term - at least its cake!

臭豆腐 (stinky toufu)

First - this food stand smells like diapers, can we leave?

Long term - Wow- that is some good coleslaw/sourkraut stuff on top of this weird toufu

Pretty much the majority of the other stuff

First - This is amazing!

Long term - This is still amazing!

That's a pretty inclusive list of many of the main staples of missionary Taiwanese food. Still need to get Elder Gibson to try 臭豆腐 (stinky tofu) though. A member told us a good place to get it at some point. I'm hyped.

Hope you all have a good week,

Elder Neilson

Elder Zhao and I eating curry on exchanges (that's one food that is good from the first time you try it)

Exchanges with Elder Peterson in Taidong where we had the one drink without coffee from Starbucks which is really expencive but all the missionaries like getting once in a while because of its amazing American milkshake-iness.  

Our milk carton costumes (apple, papaya, chocolate, and watermellon)

The sisters pretending to be us for Halloween

A Starburst miracle