Taiwan Stardom!

I had a totally Taiwan moment on Monday. Mike (another foreign teacher) asked me to be his pretend girlfriend for the day in a hot pot commercial! It was definetly one of the most interesting days I have experienced since being in Taiwan.

Since I forgot to bring my camera with me here is a picture of Steph and I eating hot pot when she came to visit.

All Mike and I had to do was eat hot pot and act like it was delicious (which it is not) and then cheers all of our Taiwanese friends. We did that for about 15 takes and then had a bunch of pictures taken for a newspaper ad. The Taiwanese actors spoke little or very little English so it was pretty funny trying to have pretend conversation with them while we were filming. Mike and I would say things like "mmmm this onion tastes so good". Fast forward to take 15 "mmmm this onion still tastes so good". The Taiwanese actors and director had no idea what we were saying. I am pretty sure that it didn't matter and they will probably just dub over the sound with some cheesy Taiwan music.

After eating the hot pot for 2 hours we were filmed being given a tour around the restaurant. You can put anything you want in the hot pot. Delicious items including stomach, lung, congealed pigs blood, squid balls, processed mini weiners, liver and whole squid with eyes intact. Doesn't that make you want to hop on a plane, come to Taiwan and try this exceptional local meal?

The newspaper advertisement comes out on Friday and the commercial is going to be played in movie theaters in Chungli (the town south of us) probably in the next few weeks. To sum it all up it was a fun and different way to make $50 and I hope to do it again soon.