In the morning the GF, the Woodland Creature and I took the MRT down to Shilin for the first of our Chinese lessons. Shilin is in the next ring in towards Taipei, a proper city neighbourhood, with a mix of international shops/ department stores and small hip cafes on the other. We stopped first for a breakfast of egg rolls and scallion pancakes (the latter very good, but as usual a slightly more stodgy version of a paratha). The class itself – well, it was certainly a contrast to my Spanish lessons in three different countries. It took place in a tiny windowless room with just room enough for 4 chairs and a teacher – the fourth chair was occupied by another teacher who may be our instructor in the future but it wasn’t clear. The teacher herself was a large, loud woman who went through the book at great speed, clearly her mandate was to teach the textbook rather than ensure we learned. Very different indeed from my Spanish lessons where the environment was always comfortable and beautiful and there was no real interest in teaching from textbooks (aside from the one in Costa Rica where I swiftly stopped taking the lessons). I’ve paid in advance for three weeks, but will see if I want to continue afterwards, as this is not really a style I find particularly engaging.
After this disheartening start, we went out in search of lunch. I had had a work call, which was delayed to the afternoon, so I went along with the other two and the Woodland Creature navigated us to a Hakka restaurant where we ordered what we thought was a dish of bamboo shoots, some grilled aubergine and stirfried intestines with ginger. We got the intestines and the aubergines, but the bamboo shoots turned out to be a massive tureen with a gigantic lump of meat – a whole pork belly, as it turned out – and bits of bamboo around it. It’s hard to tell whether it is simply that the menu name was misleading (to us – who were unfamiliar with it) or if Google Translate’s instant translation left out that vital detail.
Anyway. Lunch was had, then the GF and I went on for coffee while the Woodland Creature returned to the flat. We had some nice lattes and an excellent slice of sponge cake, simple and perfectly executed, and then returned for my call.