Weekend Duty = Lots of Food

This weekend I was on duty with the kiddos. Every teacher has weekend duty about once every 6 weeks or so and this past weekend was my turn. Normally it is sort of a drag to have to spend more time with children on your weekends when you've already seen them for so much time during the week. However, with a positive attitude it can actually be kind of fun...and delicious!

Saturday afternoon we took the kids to a nearby town called Lugang about an hour and a half away. The only thing to really do there is walk up and down the streets and eat, so I found some students willing to hang out with me and let them lead me to their favorite spots. It was the best choice I've made in a long time; two of my 10th grade students led me around the entire time and ordered all of the best food for me. I even got them to haggle with a keychain making man to get me a pi keychain for 60NT! (= $2) Best purchase of the weekend, hands down.

Saturday nights we generally take the students to a local night market which has a large department store nearby. Normally, I spend my time on Saturday night duties in the department store because they have a bookstore on the 10th floor that has some English books and a grocery store in the basement that sells lots of Western food. However, the point of night markets is to walk around and buy cheap things and eat good food and I felt as if I was missing out. So this weekend I decided that I would get the true night market experience so again I convinced some students to take me around and show me the good eats.

These kids did not disappoint! First we had some weird/awesome assortment of dumpling type things that the kids picked out for us (a fellow Minnesotan coworker and I got to go to the night market on duty together this time). Then we moved on and had real milk bubble tea (I know the difference now because the real stuff is amazing) and followed it up with green onion pancakes (not our first in Taiwan...) that were to die for. All in all, that day I probably consumed more street food than I have since attending the Minnesota State Fair last year and it was great! Weekend duty isn't so bad when you use your students as translators to experience the best that Taiwan has to offer from it's street vendors!