What to Do When As a Saskatchewan Roughriders Fan

Well, if you're a Riders fan, but you don't really want to watch the game AND you happen to be in Taiwan, what do you do?

Go get a hairwash, of course.

It was a wonderful day yesterday. I spent the afternoon at a spa - a present from my beloved husband for, I guess being pregnant and giving birth :). It was amazing, and I was treated like a princess. The people at Aveda said I should come back regularly to 保養, basically, maintaining my health. I nodded, saying that if I could, I would. Unfortunately, the Aveda Spa doesn't go well with a missionary budget. They proceeded to tell me that there was a special this month. Very nonchanantly, the sales guy said that I could buy a certificate to use for any treatment for only 40,000NT ($1,334 CDN), I would get an extra 20,000 NT free ($667 CDN). Great deal - if only I had 40,000 NT kicking around.

So after my spa day, we went to the Muir household for a Roughriders party. We had a great meal of spaghetti with SAUSAGE (a luxury here), then the game started. All of us women left for the hair salon, had massages and hair washes (for 150 NT, or $5). On our way home, Holly was telling me about this new food stand, so we went to check it out. It turned out to be a 滷味 (Lu-wei, which is a cooking method/marinade) stand. I was already full, but just wanted a small snack, so I ordered a couple of items. Holly felt bad that we were ordering so little, so she ordered a couple more items. I then asked what certain items were, and the owner decided to throw in a bunch of the food for us to try. We proceeded to ask him about other things, like the dumplings that were listed on his wall. He told us that those would be the best dumplings we've ever tried, and they were all natural and free from MSG. Janice's husband can't have MSG, so she got excited about it. The guy, which turned out to be the owners' father, ran into the back and pulled out a bunch of dumplings - "on the house," he said. So, here we are 20 minutes into this quick stop at the stand, and he suddenly figures out we're from Morrison. So he tells us, "我是Amen!" (Meaning "I am Amen.") We guessed he was trying to tell us he's a Christian too. When I asked him how he became a Christian, he said his parents were as well. I'm not sure how much he believes because he also told us his main business was selling cigarettes & alcohol. I never got a chance to ask either because the food was ready. Before we could leave though, we somehow ended up asking about the sauce he was cooking the food in and whether that had MSG. Before we knew it, he was asking us to come back tomorrow to drink the water he uses for the soup base because it was something akin to miraculous. And somehow, somewhere along the line, he also thought Janice's husband was having indigestion or heartburn or the like, and sold us Rinitadine (or Zantac) for 10 NT.

So, with dumplings and several bags of other food in hand, and a pack of Zantac for good measure, we departed - only 10 NT poorer.

Oh. And the Riders won the game.