Dinner with the Pastors

I was mistaken. It wasn't lunch, it was dinner! And WHAT a dinner. We went to a hole in the wall Italian place that was recommended by the president of the Shoufeng chapter of Mennonite Hospital. Apparently, there's a seafood chowder bread bowl that is to die for. At 2 PM, Pastor Chao was summoned to an IRB meeting. (Yeah, she's IRB. hiss!) At 5:30 PM, she calls Pastor Mei Hua and whispers shadily that the meeting is running along, we should go first. So Pastor Mei Hua and Pastor Judy whisk me off on their motorcycles. We get there, and the place is pretty small. It looks pretty fancy too. I looked at the menu and I said "Oh holy shit." Everything was above 230 NT (about $7-8) Ok, that's nothing in the US, but that's expensive in Taiwan!

The first course was a salad. Nothing special but I liked the sauce. Some sort of orange caesar dressing. While devouring this, I realized that I've started to like tomatoes. I'm getting OLD. The whole time we're eating, we're joking about how we have to chew each bite for five minutes so we could stall until Pastor Chao arrives.
The next course is a purple sweet potato soup. I thought it was taro at first, but it tasted kind of like sweet potato bisque. Very good.
I was too cheap to order the seafood chowder bowl (I was being treated, had to be polite.) Instead, I got the Smoked Chicken Pasta bowl. MUCH better than I anticipated. I even ate the slices of garlic it came with. Made me really really crave some pesto pizza. Mmmm.
This is the seafood chowder bowl. Both Pastor Mei Hua and Pastor Judy ordered it because it's the restaurant's signature dish. It was really cute to watch them drink the soup while gently sawing away at the bread. hahaha. Also, when they were ordering it, they said "We have to eat it. What if Zhu Ge (the president) quizzes us on how good it was?" Wahahaha. Chinese people and their manners. Teehee.

Anyways, until then, Pastor Chao had NOT shown up. It's almost 7 now. We're more than half way done with our meal. At this point, I thought it would be a good time to take a bathroom break. I excuse myself, walk over to the bathroom, open the door, and stare aghast. It's a SLIPPER SQUATTING TOILET. IN A FANCY RESTAURANT. Who DOES that?? Pastor Judy sees me turn pale and scuttle away from the bathroom.

"What's wrong?"

"Squat."

"Excuse me?"

"It's a squatting toilet."

"...So?"

"I...don't know how to use them."

"..."

"WAHAHAHAHA."

She then grabs me, tells Pastor Mei Hua to stay put, and whisks me to her motorcycle. I keep on insisting I can hold it but she glares me down and tells me that that sort of behavior increases my chances of getting bladder infections. No really, that's what she said. It's kind of drizzling at this point, but we jump on her motorcycle and drive to the doctors' dormitories which is a little ways up the street. We pound on the door shadily until someone lets us in. Then Pastor Judy begins to call people asking if they're home and where they live. While we're waiting for the elevator, she looks at me and says, "You really don't know how to use a squatting toilet? They're more sanitary!" At my doubtful expression, she suddenly pulls a deep squat, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DORMITORY LOBBY. I'm like "OH, dear!" She's all smiling like nothing horribly embarrassing is transpiring: "Just like this!" (sigh) Gotta love the Taiwanese. I ended up going to Pastor Cai's place to use the bathroom. They were all laughing at me. I'm pretty sure that's what they are going to remember me for in three years.

When we get back to the restaurant, Pastor Chao STILL hasn't arrived. It's 6:58 PM. Dinner was supposed to be at 5:30. Apparently, the really old dude came in for the IRB meeting and we all know the thing about really old dudes. Blahblahblahblahblah. I felt really bad for her because she had't eaten lunch either. ): Anyways, she came at around 7:15 and ordered the seafood bowl too. Her reason? "Zhu Ge is going to ask." hahaha.

The meal came with coffee too, but I wasn't terribly impressed. This is the creme brulee. The layer of carmelized sugar was really good but the pudding underneath was too flan-y for my taste. Still, overall a very good dinner.

When it came time to pay, Pastor Judy and Pastor Mei Hua put the money on the table and look over at Pastor Chao.

Pastor Chao: "Heh. heh. Do they take card?"

They all glare at her. Then Pastor Chao turns to me, "Hey Abby, can I borrow 1000NT?" hahahaha. I'm pretty used to this because Pastor Chao never carries cash. She always borrows money from me and returns it the next day. I find it hilarious. The other Pastors are all yelling at her because they're like "We're supposed to be treating her!" hahahaha.

After dinner, we went over to Pastor Judy's house to see her son. I taught him two years ago during ADVENT. OH MY GOD. Kids grow so fast! In two years, he went from a cute little boy to a little man with a deep deep voice. D: He's still cute though. haha. And apparently, he's quite the smart one. I was actually pretty happy to see him again. I remember him in particular because when I started giving the altar call, he knew more about Jesus than I did. haha "Jesus is the Son of God who came down to forgive our sins..." in CHINESE, nonetheless. Turns out he's a PK. Now it all makes sense. haha. They live above a CHURCH for Chrissakes. hahaha.

I come back home and I tell Dr. Liu and May about my pee ordeal. They both immediately drop into a squat: "Like this!" D: I'm like "WHAT IS WITH YOU TAIWANESE PEOPLE??" And May even goes so far as to take her pants off to demonstrate. wahahahaha. I'm like "GOT IT. PLEASE PUT THAT BACK ON." Lesson of the day: Never tell Taiwan people you don't know how to pee squatting unless you want to be thoroughly mortified.