We had many visitors over the last couple weekends. Our friends from Korea came in herds to join us for our annual LOTS celebrations. LOTS means, Ladies on the Sauce for those who do not know already. Our LOTS leader decided to fall in love and move to England, so she was not with us. We love you Jackie O'Koozie! Another member was not able to make it...We love you too Mama Jugs! But, most were there and we made the most of it. We had great times with Betelnuts, cockroach huntings, snake watchings and watching the guttings, free Stellas, lots of alcohol and power outages. Holly (Carolyn, Smokey) came to Taipei on the previous Saturday and hung out all week. Zeta and Randy (Ryn and Adam) came on Thursday and Jigs (Jana) came on Friday. As you notice we all have fake names. It's part of the celebration. For LOTS, you are given a name and can not go by any other name the entire night. You are also blessed with great nationalities and occupations and even an instrument that you play. This annual celebration was handed down to us by Jackie (Amy) from San Francisco and it is a well known tradition with her friends there. It is a funny night out and many laughs were had.
Back track a little to Friday night. We went to a night market called, "Snake Alley." It's the normal market selling the normal markety things. Hats, clothes that you don't want, sunglasses, keychains, knickknacks and snake blood. Yes, snake blood! I'm sorry to say that I did not try it that night, nor did my friends, but we saw many snakes, both dead and alive. A couple weeks ago when friends were here they did take the shot of snake blood, and Tanya was included in that group. She said it wasn't bad, but this is after many drinks, so anything tastes good then!!! I will try it one day, that day just wasn't the time. We did see a huge python on the floor with a poor, little guinea pig beside it just waiting for its time to go. I wonder what that poor thing was thinking, or even better, what was the snake thinking? We saw gutted snakes hanging from chains, obviously being drained for the blood. The Chinese think that the snake blood gives many things to a person, including virility and strength. We did see many people drinking it. Now, on to the Betelnuts. Betelnuts have been around here for ages and not really sure where they originated or the story behind them. They are prepared with many different things and look kind of like a nut wrapped in a leaf. You have to bite off the top and then chew it. It's a big wad to be chewing and it tastes like crap, but I guess you get used to it. You chew until you have to spit and then do so. After that, you just swallow the rest of the saliva. It turns your mouth a brilliant shade of orange and is very fashionable...Ha! They are pretty disgusting, but they do give you a nice buzz and wake you up a bit. The buzz is a weird one, not very easy to explain, but it felt like I swallowed a golf ball for a bit and a big heat rush in the head! They are seen all over Taipei, sold in little carts on the streets. I have noticed many of my bus drivers and taxi drivers with orange grins, so I'm guessing it's still a popular thing around here.
Saturday was LOTS day and we started it out with a blackout. It was nice and hot in the apartment while we began the days drinking and card playing. We did end up getting the power back on and all got ready to go out. We had some fun at a few bars and ended up at The Ministry of Sound later that night. It's a famous club from London. Jigs got on stage with the DJ and we all boogied the night away in the hip-hop room.
Sunday was spent in different ways. We began the day with a bit of cockroach hunting in our apartment. Victoria and Tanya adopted a lizard from a student a couple of weeks ago and the poor thing doesn't like the maggots they bought him. His name is Che' by the way. So, every now and again we would find a baby cockroach and throw it in his cage/box/tank. He was getting really skinny and we could tell that he was starving to death since we haven't fed him in awhile. Why wouldn't he eat the maggots? They were living in a bottle in our living room! Gross! Victoria and Jana went out to the park in search for bugs and came home empty handed. Someone joked to look under the sink for cockroaches and there they were, stuck in a bag!!! So, it was a process of getting the damn cockroaches out of the bag and into a bowl, then into the cage. It was so hilarious! The cockroach would escape the bowl and everyone would scream and run around until the bowl was secure over the cockroach again. We finally succeeded in feeding the lizard the cockroaches in the end. Thank Tanya and Jana for that one. It's not my lizard...I am not chasing cockroaches around. But, who would have thought I would have spent my Sunday actually trying to catch cockroaches??? Always surprises in this household!!
We also lucked out on Sunday night and the bartender at the bar we were eating dinner at actually begged us to stay and drink free beer. This never happens!!! What a great ending to a great weekend.
PS...The lizard was given back to it's original owners on Monday. No more cockroach hunting for these girls!!!
