Since my dinner on saturday was great (see 7/31's post) I of course had to finish it off with dessert at my favorite place for a smile, Yogurt Art. The food was made even sweeter by my plan being a complete success. Allow me to explain...
The whole reason I was out that day is because I needed to get the workbook for my next Chinese textbook (yay for improving!). This also had me looking at my bookshelf and all the old novels I have that I will never read again. Taiwan has a few restaurants/lounges aimed at expats which have a "take a book, leave a book" policy, but as I don't have time to read much anymore, I decided against going to get some new books. Also the type of people who usually hang out there are a bit..slimy, so always a pleasure to avoid those places.
Instead I decided to cash in. There are a lot of second hand book stores in Taipei, especially around the bigger universities. I'm talking about ones that look like normal book stores and have cafes in them, not so much like the one from 4/22's post. There is also a sort of market which is solely for second hand books, but with more actual modernized used book stores popping up, this market has become smaller and smaller.
Anyway my plan was to sell some books and then use that money to get some frozen yogurt. I had sold some of my larger books before, so I remembered just how little money they give you. But I figured it would be enough to treat myself to some frozen yoghurt, and what's better than free frozen yoghurt? Well my stack of seven books got me $4.50, so i splurged and got $4.43 worth of frozen yoghurt. This unfortunately is not so much, as of course it's expensive in Taiwan, however since it's self service and you pay by weight, I was actually very proud of myself for being so close to the goal price.
While I enjoyed my free dessert and smile, things were not all great in paradise. I mentioned before that something happened to a shipment of Fruit Loops in Taiwan, so they have spoiled and taste terrible. You can tell by the off color they are in the picture (they taste even worse than their awful color). I have mentioned this to workers here several times but as they don't really know what fruit loops should be like, they don't get it. Or perhaps more simply, in Taiwanese business it would be bad to throw away something and lose that money when you could still sell it, regardless of it's bad or not.
Which I guess is ok. I just always fear that people will go here, get this topping, hate it, and never come back. But perhaps it just sours the good name of fruit loops instead. This is a bit sad in their own right. If people don't eat fruit loops, than how will they experience the trials of their breakfast food tearing the roof of their mouth to shreds.
