day 45_Happy Halloween!

Sunday has been nice. The weather here today is gorgeous. Not chilly enough to need a scarf, and the sunshine is too pretty to be accurately captured in a photograph ~ lovely. It's the kind of day when you don't just open the blinds, you open the windows. :)

I went grocery shopping today and bought food for breakfast(s). If you haven't noticed, I eat out a lot here... but so does everyone else. I think it is part of the city's culture. Nonetheless, I was thinking breakfast would be the easiest meal for me to eat at home on a budget (no pots/pans/cooking utensils required), so I stocked up on lowfat milk, cereals, and juice this afternoon. Question of the day - If I were a granola bar in a Chinese grocery store... where would I be?! [or would I even be there at all???] I had no success in answering the question, but I did find a store that is probably the local equivalent to Wal-Mart... which fills a void that I have been missing! Until now, the shops I've found have always been expensive department stores, or extremely cheap stores - if you buy a pan for $2 are you really expecting it to hold up? You usually get what you paid for... Anyways, it was nice to find a middle ground and somewhere that I can go to when I actually need something specific!

Aside from shopping, I walked some more - I am totally a pro - and hunted for hints of Halloween in Taipei. Let's face it, Halloween is definitely an American holiday, but I did find a few small tastes of Halloween here and there...


Halloween candy display at a grocery store

Here is the Halloween candy display at a nearby grocery store. What's that? Don't see anything you recognize? Are you surprised? [They do have a much larger candy aisle with just everyday candy elsewhere.]

Window decorations at an international language school

Storefront of English pub "The Tavern," decorated for Halloween

Aside from the few glimpses of orange and black here and there, I get the impression that Halloween is mostly celebrated by Western bars (like the one in the pic above), mostly to attract pretty girls with skimpy costumes... right... so being that I wasn't really feeling up for that sort of party [I could hardly hold myself back - yeah right!], I passed on the opportunity for 'free admission, no cover, discount drinks' for all women in costume Saturday night. Actually, I can't believe how little I have had to drink here! Sake once, a mojito once, and one beer... I think that is all I've had in 45 days! Let's just say, drinking is practically a widespread hobby in Dallas among the young folks. I have cut back significantly, and the only part I really miss is a nice cool margarita on a hot day :) I think Halloween next year could be really fabulous. I could show some people a really good time and I think it would be a blast. Costume contest, scary movies, bobbing for apples, a pinata w/candy (why not, it's sort of a Texan twist!), food that looks like brains and eyeballs... the Works. So, here's hoping that by then I can plan a big bash and show some Taiwanese friends what a great Halloween party really looks like! :D