Day 25
Today is an important day. I can't leave Taiwan until I have it in my luggage. It's delicious black bean sauce and Do Ban Jian. There is this one vendor at the morning market that comes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday year after year. My mission is to locate him and stock up on a year's supply of it.
I can't leave Taiwan without these sauces or tea or red somen, everything else I'd say I can forgo but not these three things.
I went down a street and wondered if he still does business, not finding him I felt I needed to find a different alternate vendor to buy my stash from. I shopped around and the problem was it just didn't taste as good. On top of that it was more expensive. The good thing was I was not rushed for time, and I was shopping by myself and I can walk, and I had time, I can be patient until I checked every corner, every stall. Finally after many streets and endless stalls, I came across the vendor. Still had the same set up with the same exact sauces and items as years past. I was so thankful and glad I didn't rush and give in and bought the other ones. I was so glad to see him. I bought 8 bottles.
I also bought Taro and Daikon cakes, freshly made, soft and delicious. I bought enough to share with my uncles and aunties to eat after our hotspring soak. Yes hotsprings again! As it turned out, they ditched me, never even showed up. I ended up eating the goodies by myself after the soak at the library water lily garden next to the hotspring. People who passed by wondered why I was such a loner eating by myself and reminded me food tasted better shared with others that I shouldn't choose to be alone. Thanks for the reminder. Taiwan is wonderful because of it's community, anyone seen alone, single- brings out concern for bystanders.
I waited for the glass shop to open to pick up my glasses. I love them. All day today while I wore them I had trouble gauging where the ground was when I stepped. I was off on the depth and wondered if the stigmatism correction was put in place.
I bought instant noodles, flavors they don't have in US without preservatives, vegan too. Yum, no nutritional value at all and lots of calories, who cares! They are as healthy as chips! People stare at me at the bus station with the quantity I bought and inquired if there was a cheap sale for hording so much at once and wanted to know where the sale was. People don't shop like we do at home for the week. They shop for the day at most two. Everything is fresh and not massively stocked at home, there just isn't the kind of space for storage or the need to do so
I went to the brush calligraphy store to buy a brush, a big brush. Unfortunately the artist's mom fell ill and he is at her bedside taking care of her. So I came across his wife instead and it was a much different experience and I didn't enjoy as much. I still bought my brush, but he wasn't around to personally hand engrave it. Might as well, since I didn't have a verse created in my mind yet. Ya, the wife did not inspire it out of me. A bit disapointed, but I am still happy with my quality brush.
I bought another one with engraved Bodhi Dharma on it. This one was expensive for the hair on the brush not for the bamboo or the engraving. It was not a finely crafted engraving and the famous artist did not personally engrave it himself, it was a generic engraver done in China by a random worker probably at some sweat shop. Still, I bought it for the bamboo engraving. The artist would have been insulted by this, I'd probably be regarded a superficial calligrapher who doesn't know her stuff. Regardless, I wanted a Ven. Bodhi Dharma engraving on my bamboo brush. I am happy with it. They only had a fine size brush tip left so I was stuck with it and bought what they had. I would have been super happy if they had the Bodhi Dharma engraving on my medium brush tip one, then I would have bought one not two. I did not need another fine tip brush but I don't have a Bodhi Dharma fine tip brush! Now I do!
