What is this?

這是什麼

What is this?

I successfully purchased guava and oranges at the market this morning.  After handing over my money, the lady pointed out these and I could tell she wanted me to buy them.  I asked what they were, and she told me.  The problem is I can ask, "這是什麼", but I can't understand the answer. She showed me with her hands that they need to be peeled.  I told her "No", and then a man drove up on his motorcycle and motioned to them.  He bought a big bag.  Nothing like peer pressure to get me shopping.  So here I am with 4 of them.  I'll keep you posted when I figure them out.

Other news on the language front:

I've been ordering coffee all wrong.  When I order from our regular lady at 7 Eleven, she always hands me Taylor's black coffee and I hear her say, "Monsieur."  I thought maybe she thinks we are French and that that particular cup of coffee is for monsieur.  Well...............that's not the case.

I've been asking for "Yi bei latte" (one latte) and "Yi be hei kaffei" (black coffee).  I've been to Taipei 5 times and I just learned this week that I should be ordering "Yi bei na tia kaffei" (latte) and "Yi bei mei shi kaffei" (American style coffee).  When my lady hands me Taylor's coffee, she is not speaking French, she is saying "Mei shi".

I've been a little discouraged in my language acquisition.  I'm at the point in our trip where, it seems too hard to try to talk outside the house.  Speaking Mandarin is much easier in Portland, in my class or with my two study partners, Anni and Ty.  I have been thinking I should just give up and go back to knitting.  Then I remembered, I'm learning Mandarin so I can speak to this guy.

Solomon and Professor Dennen at David's office at Chihlee University.

Street Fruit

We were walking with David and Chia the other day, making our way to the MRT station to take the train back to our apartment.  Before we made it to our destination we saw a man on the sidewalk with  boxes of pineapple and Mandarin oranges.  Chia wanted to buy a few pineapples.  However, the price of an entire box of pineapple was too good to be true: $200 TWD ($6.17 US).  But an entire box?  The salesman was charming and before we knew it he was packing the pineapple into bags and tucking them into David's duffel, and giving us each bags to carry.

Then  Chia noticed the Mandarins.  Of course it was a deal to buy a box of oranges. We turned that deal down and got half a box for $50 TWD ($3.08 US).  Now we had more fruit.  Chia was carrying Soup as well so all our hands were full.  But, what a deal and all the fruit is so delicious.