A whole month just flew by.
Day 36: Wed., 7/30
- Mah Jong day! We, being a culturally comprehensive class, decided to learn mah jong. Well, half the class learned; the other half got right to it.
- Now every time somebody "pong"s the card, I'm seeing "PWN!" in my head.
- We kind of anglicized it.
- Drew trees in Chinese painting class. You do a whole bunch of dots, draw branches, let it dry, blot it all into one connecty mess again, and draw a few lines of grass at the base to ensure a lack of floatage.
Day 37: Thurs., 7/31
- Final exams!
-...were alright.
- Tai chi - more translating, more shifting of strength/weight/chi/The Force; can now defend my self against guys who try to attack me by 1) trying to capture me by hugging, 2) leaving their toes vulnerable for stomping, or 3) attempting a slow, ponderous sidekick. [As in a kick that goes sideways, not a glorified minion.]
- We celebrated after class by going to the South Park area, which is actually just a wide strip of shops with an outdoor sitting plaza-esque area, and lots of Shin Kong Mitsukoshi-ish malls and shops. Had some food (there's no way to go wrong with won-ton soup. Well, at least where we ate. It was really good, anyway.)
- Went to the massive arcade level and spent a bunch of cents playing air hockey and video games and weird basketball throwing games which are actually very good for developing arm strength. I definitely felt my lack of arm strength after one round.
- Did a huge group photo-booth picture; they call them "da tou tie" or "big head sticker", literally translated, here. You go in front of a green screen, pick your background colors and whatnot, then you get to edit it (draw funky neon lines, add words, whatever) and choose your size and print out a sheet of the photobooth pictures in sticker form.
- That's more arcade-ing than I think I've ever done in my life.
- Went shopping round the other streets for a bit, looking at various electronics and memorabilia and standout deals. A lot of the smaller shops straight-out tell you that their value is in their service, not their awesome prices. Those places have been around forever, and are great for those who live a bike ride away, but not as much use to the once-in-ten-years traveler.
- That said, most places can definitely perform basic services for free if you just ask. (My only experiences fall in the 'adding additional chain to a necklace' and fixing glasses [and gifting you cases and cleaning cloths, yay] and watches range, though.)
Day 38: Fri., 8/1
- Last day of class:
- Sang a bunch of popular Chinese songs.
- Went out as a class, along with both teachers, to the little soup dumpling place that is all kinds of awesome. On Dong-an Road for anyone who ever treks to Tainan and wants some great food, albeit a tad pricier.
- Ended up playing rounds of mah-jong together till 5pm (skipping calligraphy) and then saying our goodbyes.
- Aww. Goodbye people I'll never see again unless I visit Russia or Hong Kong or Australia or Canada (again) or Japan (later) or Taiwan (again, again) or other states in the U.S.A...
- It was a great program and a great class, anyway.
- We have a slideshow our teacher put together for us that's pretty cute though, so I'll never have to forget what everyone's...made-up Chinese names are. Or what they look like. Not that I would've, especially with the ones with Facebook.
- I'll stop here and just say I'll miss Cheng Kung University and all the friendly people.
- Went out to get a haircut after (friend of the family hair-stylist, and therefore a better deal) and loved the whole hair-washing/massage thing that always costs extra in the U.S. and therefore never do. Also enjoyed the ability to actually seem to communicate my thoughts to the hair stylist, considering most haircuts end up with me doing weird hand gestures and trying to guess how many inches I want off.
- It went smoothly anyway, and the price was all kinds of awesome.
- I'll now drop my general silent comparison of haircut-getting and dentist visits. (Dentists seem to feel that you should be able to answer their questions when your mouth is full of pointy metal things and spit. It's the whole feeling painfully misunderstood during the process, but ending up a bit healthier and shinier at the very end thing.)
Day 39: Sat., 8/2
- Went to a restaurant that is historically themed, with old-style school desks pushed together as the tables, all intact with the chalky line down the middle of each desk that would separate the boy from the girl, since boys always sat next to girls, and the girls were supposed to be all "Hey, you can't cross this line!"
- The fire alarm went off, demonstrating the wonder of fire exits, as everyone rushed to the front door despite many back and side exits.
- Fine, I did it too. But I was facing the front, so technically...
- Well, it was a false alarm.
- Then it went off again, and no one moved.
- Also a false alarm. Apparently the dishwashing takes place within an elbow-knocking distance of the fire alarm?
- The tofu happened to be a bit sour, so they made it up to us with free desserts.
- Really, all in all, it was a pretty cool restaurant, though.
Day 40: Sun., 8/3
- Finished the 1,000 piece puzzle my cousins and I have been working on for around 3 days (with a long hiatus between the first day and this weekend).
- Let's not speak of the cheating.
- Anyway, it's a pretty view of the Manhattan Bridge.
- Packed, packed, bought some bread, played some badminton, packed, ate some bread, ate some fruit, packed...
- Last day in Tainan!
Now leaving for Kyushu, Japan! Southwest island area, birthplace of porcelain, home of hot springs and, well, a lot of things.
Laptop-less till Aug.10, when I get back; will update then.
Sayonara!
Monday, August 4, 2008
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Days of Tainan (Week Three)
Tainan, even compared to the rest of Taiwan, is really food central. The joke here seems to be that if you close your eyes while walking, every 5 seconds you can look up and still see a food place right there. The other joke is that dating prospects here are pretty much the exact opposite.
Commence Week the Third:
Day 29: Wed., 7/23
- Learned to draw rocks in Chinese painting. Just remember: for rock texture, draw your ridges from the rock's outside edge inward and upwards at a 45+ degree slant, then shade the sides of your ridges in correspondence to the side of the rock its on. Shade the bottom of the rock darker, and lightly brush in the rest. If doing multiple rocks, be bold with your shadowing.
- Angle it a bit, pencil in some distant birds, and it becomes a mountain.
- Because who really cares about a rock?
- Played some frisbee, just to get in a real college campus feel.
- Had some really good green pea soup from a famed Tainan green pea soup place. It had jellyish things (think bubbletea bubbles, but clear) that looked exactly like ice cubes, and every time I scooped one I felt like I was getting some kind of bonus, because it was like having an edible gummy ice cube.
Day 30: Thurs., 7/24
- Half the class was out this morning, whether interviewing or gone or sleeping in.
- Decided to go my own way for lunch, since I was craving the kong pao chicken fried rice from last time. Also got a coke there, except that it was in a glass bottle and quickly became an insurmountable challenge. The nice lady who was really busy nevertheless saw me struggling and taught me how to use a bottle cap opener. Yeepers.
- Learned some Chinese idioms, slang, vernacular whatnot. Here's some vaguely English ones:
520 = "I love you."
K = "to read", or "to hit."
LKK = "old-timer"
LBT= person who wears brand-name clothes
- Second half of class was spent learning Chinese chess. One hour is not enough for one game, but at that point we were reduced to me moving my knight and him moving his king away, me moving my knight, him moving his king away, wash, rinse, repeat.
- Went to tai chi. Here's the latest translation snippet:
Teacher: "Ni bu yao zen de zho se ge dong zhua [does elbow-heart-stabbing thing on someone's shoulder]...in we hwe zang zen tu shue."
Me: "Don't try this actual move on someone's heart...because they'll probably start coughing up blood."
Classmate: "Can you show us that thing with the elbow again?"
Me [to the teacher]: "Ni ke yi zai ge wo men can ne ge...elbow...dong zhua ma?"
Teacher: "Uh..."
Me: "Elbow. [pointing at elbow]. Zai yi tsi."
Teacher: "Oh! Hoa! [proceeds to demonstrate scary elbow move on Classmate]"
Classmate: [frowns and backs away]
- Sigh.
- Went to check out that huge other department store thing (it's this huge cylindrical blue building you can see from just about everywhere), and found out that it only goes to, oh, 6 floors, and the other 10 or 20 or whatever are completely useless because of some money conflict from some time back. It looks like some giant landmark building and is a complete waste.
- All of the reconstruction around here is seeming a bit redundant. They tore up a whole stretch of university sidewalk the other day. The only thing I can see happening is it being replaced by a slightly redder, brickier sidewalk.
Day 31: Fri., 7/25
- Biked to school, learned a few Chinese-netspeak additions (5201314 = I love you forever; OTR = head-meet-floor, or OTH. I feel like I should know this. I love making little people out of letters).
- Had an egg-covered curry rice for lunch. A lot of dishes here involve throwing an egg over everything. Then again, the eggs are the freshest of eggs. Most are sitting out in boxes; they don't need to be refrigerated because they never even went through that step. Straight from the market. The 'early market', as opposed to the 'night market', is where you get all your fresh produce; veggies, fruits, maybe even a great deal on a shirt or two.
- Improved my calligraphy a bit.
- Had dinner at the in-hospital restaurant. Excellent meal.
- Biked home. I'm getting better at dodging cars and not being freaked out by motorcycles squeezing past impossible spaces, and managed to get home surprisingly fast.
- That doesn't actually help me, since it was recently pointed out to me that eating one thing of bread (best breakfast food ever, still) takes 20 mins. of biking to burn off.
Day 32: Sat., 7/26
- Had a relaxing day, went to an afternoon market (these are on weekends, in the same place as the night markets, except you can get flowers and other foodstuffs), swim-cap buying (the hair-covering thingers are required before entering public pools), swimming (apparently the pool/area has been renovated a lot recently, it was really nice), going out to a Japanese restaurant, bit of rain, typhoon warning again...
Day 33: Sun., 7/27
- Visited a cemetery of sorts, weaving through huge stone monument-like dedications to the deceased, along with rows of smaller polished stone tombs to get to my grandparents' tomb.
- Found my name etched on the back, along with the rest of the family's.
- Got a first-time look at my mom's parents in the photos on the stone.
- I'm seeing a definite parallel with the stone used in these cemeteries and the reflective stone of that Vietnam veterans memorial.
- Went to Evergarden for dinner, a restaurant in a hotel building, then wandered around to some performance building near it. Saw a poster; Paul Potts will be here!
- ...In October.
- While my aunt and uncle hurried back to watch Fantastic Four ("It's 9:00! buy some popcorn, let's get back!"), I filmed my cousins doing reenactments of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.
- It's plain to see...the evil inside of me....is on the rise. Sorry, can't help myself. It won't get out of my head.
- Ended the day finding out tomorrow has been announced as a national 'typhoon day', kind of like a snow day, with all schools and offices and whatnot closing until further notice.
Day 34: Mon., 7/28
- Typhoon Day; outside of gusty rainy wind, Tainan wasn't hit too badly, so we mini-roadtripped to Kaohsiung, a big tourist hit for their national park land and beaches and markets and closeness to Taiwan's southernmost point.
- We went to the Dream Mall, which has a big TV screen installed in the side of the building and a ferris wheel on the roof (the woes of visiting on a rainy day means we only got to stare up at it from beneath the glass ceiling.
- Went to IKEA, which wasn't too different from my IKEA visits in Taoyuan, except that there was a huge sale going on.
- Went to Costco. Filled to the rafters with shoppers and not-so-filled with samples. The few samples there were required lining up; and the lines were long.
- So we lined up.
- And got our little dried seaweed wrapped bit of rice, and bought a box of Costco muffins (only difference being that one of the main flavors here is almond-mango).
- Other differences: the Costco here is two stories and the little eating area doesn't sell churros and pizza.
Day 35: Tues., 7/29
- Back to class, in which I learned that we'd be having final exams, a transcript, and a mini going-away party.
- Other things I learned include the following:
> KTV (karaoke) hangouts are the main party place. Most have adhered-to guidelines that make it non-negatively-connoted, especially to parents. [The thought of rephrasing that brings loopy ropes to mind, so use your powers of selective reading.]
> Bars/pubs are hangouts for tired old people.
> College girls who smoked were considered progressive.
> College guys who smoked were considered people to stay away from.
> Public smoking is less of an issue now, what with the $2000NT per smoke fine if you're reported smoking by anyone.
We're also away from the social pressure of saying "Bless you" here. A sneeze is just a sneeze.
Things are good.
Last three days of class coming up.
Commence Week the Third:
Day 29: Wed., 7/23
- Learned to draw rocks in Chinese painting. Just remember: for rock texture, draw your ridges from the rock's outside edge inward and upwards at a 45+ degree slant, then shade the sides of your ridges in correspondence to the side of the rock its on. Shade the bottom of the rock darker, and lightly brush in the rest. If doing multiple rocks, be bold with your shadowing.
- Angle it a bit, pencil in some distant birds, and it becomes a mountain.
- Because who really cares about a rock?
- Played some frisbee, just to get in a real college campus feel.
- Had some really good green pea soup from a famed Tainan green pea soup place. It had jellyish things (think bubbletea bubbles, but clear) that looked exactly like ice cubes, and every time I scooped one I felt like I was getting some kind of bonus, because it was like having an edible gummy ice cube.
Day 30: Thurs., 7/24
- Half the class was out this morning, whether interviewing or gone or sleeping in.
- Decided to go my own way for lunch, since I was craving the kong pao chicken fried rice from last time. Also got a coke there, except that it was in a glass bottle and quickly became an insurmountable challenge. The nice lady who was really busy nevertheless saw me struggling and taught me how to use a bottle cap opener. Yeepers.
- Learned some Chinese idioms, slang, vernacular whatnot. Here's some vaguely English ones:
520 = "I love you."
K = "to read", or "to hit."
LKK = "old-timer"
LBT= person who wears brand-name clothes
- Second half of class was spent learning Chinese chess. One hour is not enough for one game, but at that point we were reduced to me moving my knight and him moving his king away, me moving my knight, him moving his king away, wash, rinse, repeat.
- Went to tai chi. Here's the latest translation snippet:
Teacher: "Ni bu yao zen de zho se ge dong zhua [does elbow-heart-stabbing thing on someone's shoulder]...in we hwe zang zen tu shue."
Me: "Don't try this actual move on someone's heart...because they'll probably start coughing up blood."
Classmate: "Can you show us that thing with the elbow again?"
Me [to the teacher]: "Ni ke yi zai ge wo men can ne ge...elbow...dong zhua ma?"
Teacher: "Uh..."
Me: "Elbow. [pointing at elbow]. Zai yi tsi."
Teacher: "Oh! Hoa! [proceeds to demonstrate scary elbow move on Classmate]"
Classmate: [frowns and backs away]
- Sigh.
- Went to check out that huge other department store thing (it's this huge cylindrical blue building you can see from just about everywhere), and found out that it only goes to, oh, 6 floors, and the other 10 or 20 or whatever are completely useless because of some money conflict from some time back. It looks like some giant landmark building and is a complete waste.
- All of the reconstruction around here is seeming a bit redundant. They tore up a whole stretch of university sidewalk the other day. The only thing I can see happening is it being replaced by a slightly redder, brickier sidewalk.
Day 31: Fri., 7/25
- Biked to school, learned a few Chinese-netspeak additions (5201314 = I love you forever; OTR = head-meet-floor, or OTH. I feel like I should know this. I love making little people out of letters).
- Had an egg-covered curry rice for lunch. A lot of dishes here involve throwing an egg over everything. Then again, the eggs are the freshest of eggs. Most are sitting out in boxes; they don't need to be refrigerated because they never even went through that step. Straight from the market. The 'early market', as opposed to the 'night market', is where you get all your fresh produce; veggies, fruits, maybe even a great deal on a shirt or two.
- Improved my calligraphy a bit.
- Had dinner at the in-hospital restaurant. Excellent meal.
- Biked home. I'm getting better at dodging cars and not being freaked out by motorcycles squeezing past impossible spaces, and managed to get home surprisingly fast.
- That doesn't actually help me, since it was recently pointed out to me that eating one thing of bread (best breakfast food ever, still) takes 20 mins. of biking to burn off.
Day 32: Sat., 7/26
- Had a relaxing day, went to an afternoon market (these are on weekends, in the same place as the night markets, except you can get flowers and other foodstuffs), swim-cap buying (the hair-covering thingers are required before entering public pools), swimming (apparently the pool/area has been renovated a lot recently, it was really nice), going out to a Japanese restaurant, bit of rain, typhoon warning again...
Day 33: Sun., 7/27
- Visited a cemetery of sorts, weaving through huge stone monument-like dedications to the deceased, along with rows of smaller polished stone tombs to get to my grandparents' tomb.
- Found my name etched on the back, along with the rest of the family's.
- Got a first-time look at my mom's parents in the photos on the stone.
- I'm seeing a definite parallel with the stone used in these cemeteries and the reflective stone of that Vietnam veterans memorial.
- Went to Evergarden for dinner, a restaurant in a hotel building, then wandered around to some performance building near it. Saw a poster; Paul Potts will be here!
- ...In October.
- While my aunt and uncle hurried back to watch Fantastic Four ("It's 9:00! buy some popcorn, let's get back!"), I filmed my cousins doing reenactments of Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog.
- It's plain to see...the evil inside of me....is on the rise. Sorry, can't help myself. It won't get out of my head.
- Ended the day finding out tomorrow has been announced as a national 'typhoon day', kind of like a snow day, with all schools and offices and whatnot closing until further notice.
Day 34: Mon., 7/28
- Typhoon Day; outside of gusty rainy wind, Tainan wasn't hit too badly, so we mini-roadtripped to Kaohsiung, a big tourist hit for their national park land and beaches and markets and closeness to Taiwan's southernmost point.
- We went to the Dream Mall, which has a big TV screen installed in the side of the building and a ferris wheel on the roof (the woes of visiting on a rainy day means we only got to stare up at it from beneath the glass ceiling.
- Went to IKEA, which wasn't too different from my IKEA visits in Taoyuan, except that there was a huge sale going on.
- Went to Costco. Filled to the rafters with shoppers and not-so-filled with samples. The few samples there were required lining up; and the lines were long.
- So we lined up.
- And got our little dried seaweed wrapped bit of rice, and bought a box of Costco muffins (only difference being that one of the main flavors here is almond-mango).
- Other differences: the Costco here is two stories and the little eating area doesn't sell churros and pizza.
Day 35: Tues., 7/29
- Back to class, in which I learned that we'd be having final exams, a transcript, and a mini going-away party.
- Other things I learned include the following:
> KTV (karaoke) hangouts are the main party place. Most have adhered-to guidelines that make it non-negatively-connoted, especially to parents. [The thought of rephrasing that brings loopy ropes to mind, so use your powers of selective reading.]
> Bars/pubs are hangouts for tired old people.
> College girls who smoked were considered progressive.
> College guys who smoked were considered people to stay away from.
> Public smoking is less of an issue now, what with the $2000NT per smoke fine if you're reported smoking by anyone.
We're also away from the social pressure of saying "Bless you" here. A sneeze is just a sneeze.
Things are good.
Last three days of class coming up.
Tuesday, July 22, 2008
Days of Tainan (Week Two)
Week Two in Tainan. Bring on the heat. Bring on the AC. Bring on the vocab terms.
Day 21: Tues., 7/15
- Lost a new student, gained a new student. A Russian guy we had lunch with last Friday joined our class today. I was looking forward to Russian-accented Chinese, which didn't happen. Despite the internationality, everyone's English is much more accented than their Chinese (no Chinese accents though, only 'American' accents). Whether that's due to precise schooling or a lesser degree of accent-able-ness, I don't know.
- Had dumplings and potstickers for lunch, plus some 7-11 takeout. Found out that ordering take-out at the dumplings place would've been about 10 times faster. Generally food service here is really fast (whether fast food or no), but I guess the lunch rush meant taking a big group of friends to the indoor sitting area with the AC puts out the assumption that we don't mind waiting an extra half hour while all the other customers are served.
- Played badminton.
- Lost.
- Bought really good bread. The bakeries here are all worth a visit. Especially since most have really...unique...cake designs.
- Ate really good bread.
- Had dumplings and noodle soup for dinner.
- Finished off a foodful day with some fresh peaches. Mmm.
Day 22: Wed., 7/16
- Lunch at a place with really good kong bao ji ding fried rice. Repeated previous non-take-out-ness and waited for a while before the food came. These places always seem to be extremely understaffed and overflowing with customers come lunch hour.
- Learned to sing some Chinese songs in the post-lunch session of class. (Apparently there's plenty here: www.wretch.cc/blog/stumbling. I recommend starting with the song called "I don't know how to sing" like we did. It's nice. Catchy. Easy to badly sing.)
- Chinese painting class started today. The teacher speaks 13 languages and was invited to be part of some exclusive Beijing art exhibit during the Olympics. Art is his hobby.
- Learned that the concept of 1 and 0, 'something' and 'empty space' is important in Chinese philosophy and art. The example used was that friendship without a bit of distance is no good, just as the white spaces in the painting can show promise or having places to go, the other point being that if you plan on drawing out everything, you might as well take a picture of it.
- Drew my own version of empty space and random scribbles, which inevitably turned into distant mountains and a big river.
- Drew some little flying birds to fill the empty space up a bit.
- Drew a big, pretty tree. The teacher added big branches. It began to look like an actual, very pretty tree.
- Went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant called PaPaYa. Big dinner-y portions, proportionately more expensive. Largest portions I've seen in a while. Good green curry.
- Dinner buddies: a middle-aged German man, a friendly girl from Maine, a talkative guy from California, and Paul from Tai Chi. Conversation was 98% English, a bit of German, and some Chinese on the side.
- Began reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. Am beginning to understand sister better.
- Apologies for the many grammar lapses in this blog.
Day 23: Thurs., 7/17
- Tai chi again, except indoors because of the rain.
- Pseudotranslating went something like this:
Teacher (in Chinese): "Even girls can use this position and have strength."
Me (in English): "Even weaker people can use this kind of strength."
*Demonstrates on me, showing that the cool stance we've been learning means we've turned into immovable rocks. Or very unsteady ones, when he chooses to demonstrate his own offensive move.*
- We've learned about 25 moves in our tai chi routine and began learning the practical importance of some of the more mystifying movements. Demos are fun.
- Key points: Use your chi, your will, not your arm strength. Everything is in the legs and waist, and once you move your chi to different parts of your body, you can push anyone over with a light push of your strategically positioned hands. It's kind of cool to feel yourself being pushed over with what feels like no strength used at all.
- And is also an important aspect of Chinese culture, and all that. A very equal-opportunity kung fu. Very relaxing.
- Sat down and realized the area was swarming with mosquitoes. (It's less noticeable when concentrating on one's tai chi form.)
- I now have 12 mosquito bites. On each leg. It's a bit gruesome.
- Went to a great hotpot dinner place, which I've been hearing recommended for a while. It's called the "tsou tsou guo", or basically the "very smelly hotpot", their famous item. Don't forget to try the chunk of duck blood in the hotpot. Supposedly even better than the pig's blood.
Day 24: Fri., 7/18
- Typhoon alert. Spent the day watching torrents of rain gust around the window sills and water seeping over the floor of our fifth floor classroom.
- Ordered in for lunch.
Thing of note: Nobody tips here. But food-wise, free delivery is offered at almost every store. They will bike you a cup of juice to make about [U.S.] 30 cents on that beverage. Power to the customer, but sucks for some of those seriously understaffed, overworked little food shops that we love.
- Calligraphy class. I am truly awful at calligraphy. I lack patience and grace with a brush. I can't get the freaking thing to draw a straight, unfuzzy line.
- The people next to me experimented with Korean and English, and eventually settled on drawing flags with the brush. I drew a bird. A splotchy, ungraceful but conveniently fluffy bird.
- Parts of Taiwan are severely flooding. Because of all the [likely contaminated] rainfall, water's been shut down all over the city.
- Braved the rain [apparently along with many lines of people] and had really good 'little broth dumplings [shao long tang bao]", basically like those little steamed dumplings except with a bit of soup inside. Really, really good.
- I also love the fruit here. All of my fruit allergies have failed to surface. I could live here just for the fruit and the bakeries and the streets of affordable shops. If only it weren't for the mosquitoes. And the heat. And the traffic. And the inability to communicate in the right language.
- Additional [less relevant] Taiwan observations of today.
Day 25: Sat., 7/19
- Exclusive, one-time (mornings only) opportunity! FISH. Every part for breakfast. Apparently another famed food place, get your fish balls, fish soup, fish stomach and intestines right here!
- Yeah, that was my breakfast.
- A few more photo albums, linked on the sidebar (right), [ETA] from badminton tournaments to to bridges to tai chi and tombs, "Tainan Snapshot Central."
- Shin Kong Mitsukoshi of Tainan, bigger, just as expensive, and with massage chairs! And more samples than Costco. Lots of 'biotea' and pastry bits.
- More bread! More green mango ice popsicles! More singing! More rain!
- More historical sites; we're living in the central district of Tainan. Tainan is very historical. The former narrow horse road alleys are more prominent here than Taipei, as are the random ancient arches and pretty rooftops.
- Visited Cheng Kung Temple, and learned the sordid history of proud suicide that trails it.
- Visited Confucius Temple. More honoring the famed dead. Just don't go to these temples during lunch break, or the tour guides won't be there to show you around. Make your experience worth the dollar you pay. (Well, free for Tainan residents, so the alternative is to steal someone's ID).
Day 26: Sun., 7/20
- Got up early to go to church. They gave me a free book, made me stand up to be applauded, and got a bit up close and personal praying for me to come back and pray.
- I'm never going back.
- The purpose of it all was so that I could go with the whole family to a lamb restaurant.
- I dislike lamb. A lot.
- Had lunch at a place that believes in cooking all parts of lamb, and only all parts of lamb, stewed or sliced or seasoned in various ways. What with requiring a reservation and whatnot, it's considered a pretty good place. They made the lamb almost palatable. Mm.
- Met my mom's older brother (RIP) 's wife and two sons. They have an iguana and severely stained walls, and are a nice bunch. One son's off to the army, this week I believe.
- Walked to a nice little ice dessert place, where they sell crushed ice drizzled with syrupy sugar topping various gummyish dessert scoops of your choice. They have it in the U.S., possibly in a Chinatown in California for a ridiculously expensive price. So, get it here. It's everywhere.
- We played mah-jong. I re-familiarized myself with it and had a streak of beginner's luck and won lots of money. The agreement here is that the winner of the most money treats everyone to dinner, though, so I didn't win that much.
- I should add that the general considered age of adulthood here is 20. Most families that I've experienced are pretty lax about sampling alcohol. Smoking doesn't seem as much of an issue, though the healthy living placards are everywhere. Gambling....I'll have to check up on that. I think my grandpa was a police officer who specifically dealt with illegal gambling.
- Pizza Hut for dinner. Pizza and Pepsi. Hmm. That and the Wii on the side made it almost like home. Where I would be sitting on the couch, probably sleeping half my summer away. Ah. Life is good.
Day 27: Mon., 7/21
- Started the day off writing a last-minute essay on my recollection of Taiwan when I was last here, over ten years ago. Feel free to compare.
- Said goodbye to a classmate forced to leave early due to plane ticketing issues. Had a mini farewell photo montage with a playback of our class singing a Chinese song in the background.
- Had a Subway-ish lunch, except not Subway, because Subway and Starbucks seem to have closed down in many new and exciting ways in Taiwan, compared to more popular '85.C' coffee and 'bien dan (lunch as a quick rice/meat/veggie combo)' places.
- Had ourselves a 'bien dan' dinner.
Day 28: Tues., 7/22
- Went shopping at "Focus," a 12 or 13 story department store mall type thing. Bought a couple dresses, again for 90% off. It's really only affordable when it's 90% off.
- Shopping is convenient here mostly because whole streets are selling comparable items; one street has all the digital stuff, one street has mostly food, one street is lined with shoes. It makes asking for directions easy, too. ("Where can I buy a Ch/Eng translator?" "At that street, which sells everything electronic, across from the Tainan station.")
- Went to the night market again, and tried more probably less healthy food. I only say that because it tasted so good. And was undoubtedly fried.
- Our second teacher found out we were getting tests and homework everyday in our first class, and now seems to feel she needs to start thinking about giving us a test, or *gasp* homework.
- I don't think she realizes the vocab games we play (so, so intensely; it's like half Egyptian Ratscrew, half character recognition testing) put us under more pressure to learn the stuff. And is more challenging, because it's the harder class, material-wise, anyway. In fact, most of the terms we've been learning lately are apparently so obscure they aren't recognizable to the native speaker without some extra clarification.
- Yay, us.
Day 21: Tues., 7/15
- Lost a new student, gained a new student. A Russian guy we had lunch with last Friday joined our class today. I was looking forward to Russian-accented Chinese, which didn't happen. Despite the internationality, everyone's English is much more accented than their Chinese (no Chinese accents though, only 'American' accents). Whether that's due to precise schooling or a lesser degree of accent-able-ness, I don't know.
- Had dumplings and potstickers for lunch, plus some 7-11 takeout. Found out that ordering take-out at the dumplings place would've been about 10 times faster. Generally food service here is really fast (whether fast food or no), but I guess the lunch rush meant taking a big group of friends to the indoor sitting area with the AC puts out the assumption that we don't mind waiting an extra half hour while all the other customers are served.
- Played badminton.
- Lost.
- Bought really good bread. The bakeries here are all worth a visit. Especially since most have really...unique...cake designs.
- Ate really good bread.
- Had dumplings and noodle soup for dinner.
- Finished off a foodful day with some fresh peaches. Mmm.
Day 22: Wed., 7/16
- Lunch at a place with really good kong bao ji ding fried rice. Repeated previous non-take-out-ness and waited for a while before the food came. These places always seem to be extremely understaffed and overflowing with customers come lunch hour.
- Learned to sing some Chinese songs in the post-lunch session of class. (Apparently there's plenty here: www.wretch.cc/blog/stumbling. I recommend starting with the song called "I don't know how to sing" like we did. It's nice. Catchy. Easy to badly sing.)
- Chinese painting class started today. The teacher speaks 13 languages and was invited to be part of some exclusive Beijing art exhibit during the Olympics. Art is his hobby.
- Learned that the concept of 1 and 0, 'something' and 'empty space' is important in Chinese philosophy and art. The example used was that friendship without a bit of distance is no good, just as the white spaces in the painting can show promise or having places to go, the other point being that if you plan on drawing out everything, you might as well take a picture of it.
- Drew my own version of empty space and random scribbles, which inevitably turned into distant mountains and a big river.
- Drew some little flying birds to fill the empty space up a bit.
- Drew a big, pretty tree. The teacher added big branches. It began to look like an actual, very pretty tree.
- Went out to dinner at a Thai restaurant called PaPaYa. Big dinner-y portions, proportionately more expensive. Largest portions I've seen in a while. Good green curry.
- Dinner buddies: a middle-aged German man, a friendly girl from Maine, a talkative guy from California, and Paul from Tai Chi. Conversation was 98% English, a bit of German, and some Chinese on the side.
- Began reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. Am beginning to understand sister better.
- Apologies for the many grammar lapses in this blog.
Day 23: Thurs., 7/17
- Tai chi again, except indoors because of the rain.
- Pseudotranslating went something like this:
Teacher (in Chinese): "Even girls can use this position and have strength."
Me (in English): "Even weaker people can use this kind of strength."
*Demonstrates on me, showing that the cool stance we've been learning means we've turned into immovable rocks. Or very unsteady ones, when he chooses to demonstrate his own offensive move.*
- We've learned about 25 moves in our tai chi routine and began learning the practical importance of some of the more mystifying movements. Demos are fun.
- Key points: Use your chi, your will, not your arm strength. Everything is in the legs and waist, and once you move your chi to different parts of your body, you can push anyone over with a light push of your strategically positioned hands. It's kind of cool to feel yourself being pushed over with what feels like no strength used at all.
- And is also an important aspect of Chinese culture, and all that. A very equal-opportunity kung fu. Very relaxing.
- Sat down and realized the area was swarming with mosquitoes. (It's less noticeable when concentrating on one's tai chi form.)
- I now have 12 mosquito bites. On each leg. It's a bit gruesome.
- Went to a great hotpot dinner place, which I've been hearing recommended for a while. It's called the "tsou tsou guo", or basically the "very smelly hotpot", their famous item. Don't forget to try the chunk of duck blood in the hotpot. Supposedly even better than the pig's blood.
Day 24: Fri., 7/18
- Typhoon alert. Spent the day watching torrents of rain gust around the window sills and water seeping over the floor of our fifth floor classroom.
- Ordered in for lunch.
Thing of note: Nobody tips here. But food-wise, free delivery is offered at almost every store. They will bike you a cup of juice to make about [U.S.] 30 cents on that beverage. Power to the customer, but sucks for some of those seriously understaffed, overworked little food shops that we love.
- Calligraphy class. I am truly awful at calligraphy. I lack patience and grace with a brush. I can't get the freaking thing to draw a straight, unfuzzy line.
- The people next to me experimented with Korean and English, and eventually settled on drawing flags with the brush. I drew a bird. A splotchy, ungraceful but conveniently fluffy bird.
- Parts of Taiwan are severely flooding. Because of all the [likely contaminated] rainfall, water's been shut down all over the city.
- Braved the rain [apparently along with many lines of people] and had really good 'little broth dumplings [shao long tang bao]", basically like those little steamed dumplings except with a bit of soup inside. Really, really good.
- I also love the fruit here. All of my fruit allergies have failed to surface. I could live here just for the fruit and the bakeries and the streets of affordable shops. If only it weren't for the mosquitoes. And the heat. And the traffic. And the inability to communicate in the right language.
- Additional [less relevant] Taiwan observations of today.
Day 25: Sat., 7/19
- Exclusive, one-time (mornings only) opportunity! FISH. Every part for breakfast. Apparently another famed food place, get your fish balls, fish soup, fish stomach and intestines right here!
- Yeah, that was my breakfast.
- A few more photo albums, linked on the sidebar (right), [ETA] from badminton tournaments to to bridges to tai chi and tombs, "Tainan Snapshot Central."
- Shin Kong Mitsukoshi of Tainan, bigger, just as expensive, and with massage chairs! And more samples than Costco. Lots of 'biotea' and pastry bits.
- More bread! More green mango ice popsicles! More singing! More rain!
- More historical sites; we're living in the central district of Tainan. Tainan is very historical. The former narrow horse road alleys are more prominent here than Taipei, as are the random ancient arches and pretty rooftops.
- Visited Cheng Kung Temple, and learned the sordid history of proud suicide that trails it.
- Visited Confucius Temple. More honoring the famed dead. Just don't go to these temples during lunch break, or the tour guides won't be there to show you around. Make your experience worth the dollar you pay. (Well, free for Tainan residents, so the alternative is to steal someone's ID).
Day 26: Sun., 7/20
- Got up early to go to church. They gave me a free book, made me stand up to be applauded, and got a bit up close and personal praying for me to come back and pray.
- I'm never going back.
- The purpose of it all was so that I could go with the whole family to a lamb restaurant.
- I dislike lamb. A lot.
- Had lunch at a place that believes in cooking all parts of lamb, and only all parts of lamb, stewed or sliced or seasoned in various ways. What with requiring a reservation and whatnot, it's considered a pretty good place. They made the lamb almost palatable. Mm.
- Met my mom's older brother (RIP) 's wife and two sons. They have an iguana and severely stained walls, and are a nice bunch. One son's off to the army, this week I believe.
- Walked to a nice little ice dessert place, where they sell crushed ice drizzled with syrupy sugar topping various gummyish dessert scoops of your choice. They have it in the U.S., possibly in a Chinatown in California for a ridiculously expensive price. So, get it here. It's everywhere.
- We played mah-jong. I re-familiarized myself with it and had a streak of beginner's luck and won lots of money. The agreement here is that the winner of the most money treats everyone to dinner, though, so I didn't win that much.
- I should add that the general considered age of adulthood here is 20. Most families that I've experienced are pretty lax about sampling alcohol. Smoking doesn't seem as much of an issue, though the healthy living placards are everywhere. Gambling....I'll have to check up on that. I think my grandpa was a police officer who specifically dealt with illegal gambling.
- Pizza Hut for dinner. Pizza and Pepsi. Hmm. That and the Wii on the side made it almost like home. Where I would be sitting on the couch, probably sleeping half my summer away. Ah. Life is good.
Day 27: Mon., 7/21
- Started the day off writing a last-minute essay on my recollection of Taiwan when I was last here, over ten years ago. Feel free to compare.
- Said goodbye to a classmate forced to leave early due to plane ticketing issues. Had a mini farewell photo montage with a playback of our class singing a Chinese song in the background.
- Had a Subway-ish lunch, except not Subway, because Subway and Starbucks seem to have closed down in many new and exciting ways in Taiwan, compared to more popular '85.C' coffee and 'bien dan (lunch as a quick rice/meat/veggie combo)' places.
- Had ourselves a 'bien dan' dinner.
Day 28: Tues., 7/22
- Went shopping at "Focus," a 12 or 13 story department store mall type thing. Bought a couple dresses, again for 90% off. It's really only affordable when it's 90% off.
- Shopping is convenient here mostly because whole streets are selling comparable items; one street has all the digital stuff, one street has mostly food, one street is lined with shoes. It makes asking for directions easy, too. ("Where can I buy a Ch/Eng translator?" "At that street, which sells everything electronic, across from the Tainan station.")
- Went to the night market again, and tried more probably less healthy food. I only say that because it tasted so good. And was undoubtedly fried.
- Our second teacher found out we were getting tests and homework everyday in our first class, and now seems to feel she needs to start thinking about giving us a test, or *gasp* homework.
- I don't think she realizes the vocab games we play (so, so intensely; it's like half Egyptian Ratscrew, half character recognition testing) put us under more pressure to learn the stuff. And is more challenging, because it's the harder class, material-wise, anyway. In fact, most of the terms we've been learning lately are apparently so obscure they aren't recognizable to the native speaker without some extra clarification.
- Yay, us.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Week One in Tainan
Tainan is recommended as a great place to live, learn, and all that. The people are nice, the shops are walking-distance, the area is relatively clean, and there's schools a-plenty.
Compared to Taipei, it's a bit more conservative, as most southern regions are, and the entertainment seems a bit more limited.
My first week in Tainan:
Day 12: Mon., 7/7
- Learned the awesomeness of biking in Taiwan.
- Learned the almost dead by biking-ness of Taiwan.
- Saw recycled glass used in glittery sidewalk bricks.
- Met more of my family; another set of aunt/uncle/2 cousins
- Am currently staying on the 4th floor of their 5-floor security gated home.
- First day of my National Cheng Kung University summer session small-group Chinese language class.
- Schedule: 'Easy' class 10:10 - 12:00 (lunch break), 'Hard' class 13:10 - 15:00, optional classes 15:00 - 17:00.
- Am now relearning my language. Having minor difficulties.
Day 13: Tues., 7/8
- Second day of class. with a few people switching in and out as they adjust to different levels. My class is slightly more advanced speaking/listening, but intermediate/easier reading and writing.
- Final tally includes 4 guys, 4 girls; 4 from the U.S., 1 from Australia/Hong Kong, 1 from Canada, and 2 from Korea, from a 17 yr. old to a couple 20-somethings.
- Am astounded by the streetfuls of clothes and shoe shops that don't end. Food places too.
- Went to a restaurant and had a big hotpot dinner. Hotpots are like freakish boiling bowls they place in front of you to cook your own food, and splash each other with burning oil when you throw large pieces of vegetable in.
- The best part was the sour plum vinegar ice beverage thing. I heart free refills.
- The dessert was also splendid. All 3 of them that I sampled. The rose petal soup thing, the obligatory mango pudding thing, and some other fruit thing I don't remember.
- Mom got a free ceramic cup as a birthday special.
Day 14: Wed., 7/9
- First day of Wednesday's optional class, Chinese painting.
- Sat around for half an hour, chatted with a girl from Japan.
- Office aid came in and announced the teacher wouldn't be here today.
- Played a bit of badminton.
- Went home.
- Celebrated with a taro root birthday cake for my mom's half-a-century-ist.
- Was yummy.
- Planned out a possible week sojourn to Japan.
Day 16: Thurs., 7/10
- First day of Thursday's optional class, which is Tai Chi.
- It was thrilling in its own slow, effortless way.
- Until the part where no one seemed to understand the instructor's Chinese, and I somehow ended up being the appointed translator for the class.
- The class went something like this (ignore the made-up pinyin):
Instructor: "Tai chi shi kung fu de zwai kun shing de suh soo."
Me: "Um. Tai chi is the most...something...form of martial arts."
Instructor: "Tai chi shi tuh bieh de fan mien shi hun mang han may youn li chi."
Me: "Tai chi is unique in that it uses slow movements and little strength."
Russian girl: "*translating the English into Russian for her friends.*"
Russian classmates: "Ohh."
Then the instructor does a demonstration and asks for questions/comments.
American dude: "So how'd he push that person over the second time?"
Me: "Ta wen, ning zhen muh twai dow na guh zhen?"
Instructor: "Wo shi youn chi de fan mien (points at head)."
Me: "He...used a tai chi move? Or...mental strength?"
Older Lady: "He said chi."
Me: "Oh! He used chi. Like, the energy. Yeah."
- Was asked out to lunch by American Dude, aka Paul. Accepted.
- Went shopping, bought clothes.
- Was really excited by museum-ish half of the bookstore complex thing.
- Saw lots of CosDeCarp zoology-related fossils and such.
- Brief nostalgia (yay, Zoology!).
- Got free bath salts for purchasing lots of clothes.
- (Can't go wrong with a 90% off sale.)
Day 17: Fri., 7/11
- Expected the many 7-11's around here to announce some kind of 7/11 sale.
- First time biking to school, about 20 mins. of morning hyper-traffic-awareness.
- Class entertains, what with the games and personal questions and dynamics and challenge.
- Went out to lunch with Paul, who's beginning Chinese here and plans to live in Taiwan for a year. Discussed American politics, particularly Obama vs. McCain, which just seems so...distant.
- Had a field trip to Anping, which is an ancient district of sorts.
- Had some famous shrimp rolls.
- Went bowling with my classmates. Second or possible third time ever bowling for me.
- My goal was 60 points.
- Got very close.
- Played another round.
- Failed goal.
- Went with classmates and teacher to the "yie shi' or famous night market thing, open about 7pm to 1am on Mon.,Tues., and Fri.
- Was there till a bit past midnight, sampling really good food and playing really dumb games, and having a great time.
- Got lost trying to go home.
- Ended up with a long lecture on memorizing addresses and street names, which I now know. So that's good. Though I still occasionally forget to stay on the right-side crosswalks, and end up with many fast-moving vehicles moving in my direction.
- :(
Day 18: Sat., 7/12
- National university badminton tournament!
- Badminton is one of the most intense and entertaining sports to watch, tournament-style, imo.
- I spent, oh, 6 hours on the sidelines, cheering for people who wore cool jerseys.
- My uncle is the university badminton coach and badminton professor person. Even wrote a book about badminton.
- Am now spending a lot of time 'round the badminton courts.
- Went to a celebratory after-tournament buffet-style dinner at the BOSA Egyptian restaurant.
- Awesome food.
- Two more helpings of awesome food.
- Got a bunch of free badminton gear, which for me can double as tennis gear. Yay.
Day 19: Sun., 7/13
- Watched badminton finals.
- Got more random promotional gear, like nutrition tablets to put in water.
- Biked around.
- Made good use of umbrellas.
- Had lunch.
- Had lunch-style dinner.
- Entertained small cousins.
- Am getting back in touch with my 6th grade self.
- Am amazed at the range of issues that can induce sisterly squabbling among the cousins.
Day 20: Mon., 7/14
- Back to class!
- Have yet to lose a vocab game thing.
- Working very hard not to lose; losers have to sing songs in Chinese.
- Have issues with the 'sing' part; the rest follows.
- Doodled turtles and weird cliffs all over my essay.
- Realized I had to hand in the essay.
- Had lunch with classmates.
- Was no different from yesterday's lunch. Except quieter.
- Went shoe shopping.
- Bought shoes, a necklace, and a computer mouse.
- Saw a totoro keychain and adorable dust bunny (Spirited Away / Totoro-style). Really wanted it.
- Was gifted an eraser.
Compared to Taipei, it's a bit more conservative, as most southern regions are, and the entertainment seems a bit more limited.
My first week in Tainan:
Day 12: Mon., 7/7
- Learned the awesomeness of biking in Taiwan.
- Learned the almost dead by biking-ness of Taiwan.
- Saw recycled glass used in glittery sidewalk bricks.
- Met more of my family; another set of aunt/uncle/2 cousins
- Am currently staying on the 4th floor of their 5-floor security gated home.
- First day of my National Cheng Kung University summer session small-group Chinese language class.
- Schedule: 'Easy' class 10:10 - 12:00 (lunch break), 'Hard' class 13:10 - 15:00, optional classes 15:00 - 17:00.
- Am now relearning my language. Having minor difficulties.
Day 13: Tues., 7/8
- Second day of class. with a few people switching in and out as they adjust to different levels. My class is slightly more advanced speaking/listening, but intermediate/easier reading and writing.
- Final tally includes 4 guys, 4 girls; 4 from the U.S., 1 from Australia/Hong Kong, 1 from Canada, and 2 from Korea, from a 17 yr. old to a couple 20-somethings.
- Am astounded by the streetfuls of clothes and shoe shops that don't end. Food places too.
- Went to a restaurant and had a big hotpot dinner. Hotpots are like freakish boiling bowls they place in front of you to cook your own food, and splash each other with burning oil when you throw large pieces of vegetable in.
- The best part was the sour plum vinegar ice beverage thing. I heart free refills.
- The dessert was also splendid. All 3 of them that I sampled. The rose petal soup thing, the obligatory mango pudding thing, and some other fruit thing I don't remember.
- Mom got a free ceramic cup as a birthday special.
Day 14: Wed., 7/9
- First day of Wednesday's optional class, Chinese painting.
- Sat around for half an hour, chatted with a girl from Japan.
- Office aid came in and announced the teacher wouldn't be here today.
- Played a bit of badminton.
- Went home.
- Celebrated with a taro root birthday cake for my mom's half-a-century-ist.
- Was yummy.
- Planned out a possible week sojourn to Japan.
Day 16: Thurs., 7/10
- First day of Thursday's optional class, which is Tai Chi.
- It was thrilling in its own slow, effortless way.
- Until the part where no one seemed to understand the instructor's Chinese, and I somehow ended up being the appointed translator for the class.
- The class went something like this (ignore the made-up pinyin):
Instructor: "Tai chi shi kung fu de zwai kun shing de suh soo."
Me: "Um. Tai chi is the most...something...form of martial arts."
Instructor: "Tai chi shi tuh bieh de fan mien shi hun mang han may youn li chi."
Me: "Tai chi is unique in that it uses slow movements and little strength."
Russian girl: "*translating the English into Russian for her friends.*"
Russian classmates: "Ohh."
Then the instructor does a demonstration and asks for questions/comments.
American dude: "So how'd he push that person over the second time?"
Me: "Ta wen, ning zhen muh twai dow na guh zhen?"
Instructor: "Wo shi youn chi de fan mien (points at head)."
Me: "He...used a tai chi move? Or...mental strength?"
Older Lady: "He said chi."
Me: "Oh! He used chi. Like, the energy. Yeah."
- Was asked out to lunch by American Dude, aka Paul. Accepted.
- Went shopping, bought clothes.
- Was really excited by museum-ish half of the bookstore complex thing.
- Saw lots of CosDeCarp zoology-related fossils and such.
- Brief nostalgia (yay, Zoology!).
- Got free bath salts for purchasing lots of clothes.
- (Can't go wrong with a 90% off sale.)
Day 17: Fri., 7/11
- Expected the many 7-11's around here to announce some kind of 7/11 sale.
- First time biking to school, about 20 mins. of morning hyper-traffic-awareness.
- Class entertains, what with the games and personal questions and dynamics and challenge.
- Went out to lunch with Paul, who's beginning Chinese here and plans to live in Taiwan for a year. Discussed American politics, particularly Obama vs. McCain, which just seems so...distant.
- Had a field trip to Anping, which is an ancient district of sorts.
- Had some famous shrimp rolls.
- Went bowling with my classmates. Second or possible third time ever bowling for me.
- My goal was 60 points.
- Got very close.
- Played another round.
- Failed goal.
- Went with classmates and teacher to the "yie shi' or famous night market thing, open about 7pm to 1am on Mon.,Tues., and Fri.
- Was there till a bit past midnight, sampling really good food and playing really dumb games, and having a great time.
- Got lost trying to go home.
- Ended up with a long lecture on memorizing addresses and street names, which I now know. So that's good. Though I still occasionally forget to stay on the right-side crosswalks, and end up with many fast-moving vehicles moving in my direction.
- :(
Day 18: Sat., 7/12
- National university badminton tournament!
- Badminton is one of the most intense and entertaining sports to watch, tournament-style, imo.
- I spent, oh, 6 hours on the sidelines, cheering for people who wore cool jerseys.
- My uncle is the university badminton coach and badminton professor person. Even wrote a book about badminton.
- Am now spending a lot of time 'round the badminton courts.
- Went to a celebratory after-tournament buffet-style dinner at the BOSA Egyptian restaurant.
- Awesome food.
- Two more helpings of awesome food.
- Got a bunch of free badminton gear, which for me can double as tennis gear. Yay.
Day 19: Sun., 7/13
- Watched badminton finals.
- Got more random promotional gear, like nutrition tablets to put in water.
- Biked around.
- Made good use of umbrellas.
- Had lunch.
- Had lunch-style dinner.
- Entertained small cousins.
- Am getting back in touch with my 6th grade self.
- Am amazed at the range of issues that can induce sisterly squabbling among the cousins.
Day 20: Mon., 7/14
- Back to class!
- Have yet to lose a vocab game thing.
- Working very hard not to lose; losers have to sing songs in Chinese.
- Have issues with the 'sing' part; the rest follows.
- Doodled turtles and weird cliffs all over my essay.
- Realized I had to hand in the essay.
- Had lunch with classmates.
- Was no different from yesterday's lunch. Except quieter.
- Went shoe shopping.
- Bought shoes, a necklace, and a computer mouse.
- Saw a totoro keychain and adorable dust bunny (Spirited Away / Totoro-style). Really wanted it.
- Was gifted an eraser.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Taoyuan Week's End
Another hectic half-week began in Taoyuan and ended in Tainan, which essentially draws a straight line from Taipei to the south end of Taiwan ("nan" is south).
Day 8: Thurs., 7/3
- Have seen (well, heard) lots of cicadas, but have yet to see a cockroach, despite their infamy.
- Bussed to the 12-story Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store. Lesson learned: Department store shopping is really expensive. We ended up shopping 'round the street vendors outside anyway, though it always pays to ask around or check twice for quality out there. (The Taipei Mall was also a lot cheaper, especially the older downstairs shops.)
- Mom flew in, so now I'm no longer on my own in Taiwan.
- Had a headache most of the day...apparently it's unwise to not blow-dry your hair before shutting yourself in with the air conditioner. Something about getting your scalp cold.
- My (rather young) grandaunt visited, leading to a turntable dinner at "Mama's Kitchen," the big highlight of which was the "ten-ingredient rice." The rice is cooked with a bunch of beans and other grains listed on a big poster. Personally, I liked the soup that had bubbletea 'pearls' with bacon.
- The un-highlight was me unknowingly eating the pig's blood dish.
- It's gross.
- Well, it's kind of like tofu.
Day 9: Fri., 7/4
- Went to the government office thing (right around the corner from my grandparents' Taoyuan residence), and got my Taiwan citizen ID. Woo. It involved waiting around a lot, signing my Chinese name, getting photos taken, and paying a couple hundred Taiwan bucks.
- Currently it's about $1 US = $30.4 TN, you do the division. -A calculator's handy to have when shopping, btw, or know your 30's times table really well. Also remember fractions and percentages are opposite; if the sign says "2 zuh" that means 80% off. 3/4 is said " 4 fen zhi 3.)
- Breakfast was takeout from Countryside, which we've eaten at multiple times. It's a nice little breakfast place, with everything from chocolate sandwiches to healthy (and really good) burgers.
- Juice in Taiwan is awesome.
- Fruit in Taiwan is doubly awesome. There are giant fruit markets - I recommend trying everything. Even the usual stuff, like pineapples. Especially that and mangos, if you're there in summer, since those are in season and really, really sweet.
- Took a whole bunch of free buses back to the Taoyuan downtown area, with the big department stores (Tonlin and Shin Kong). Taipei has the best free bus network. Learn the characters for 'free' and go to any bus sign that has it, and you're all set for transportation around the city.
- Biking is also great. The whole "healthy living" slogan is very much the current thing here, so many train systems work to accommodate people bringing bikes on board.
- Bring an eating buddy, go to Tonlin, floor B2 (food court) and get yourself a fresh mango shaved ice. It's worth it. Then go to a market and buy some green mango popsicles...they're already my favorite popsicles ever. They're very much fruity, mango chunks and all.
- Lunch demonstrated the whole "food is cheap" concept firsthand - for 4 people with a bunch of little dishes and 4 main dishes, the bill came to about US $7. This was the Sheng Jia Noodles Restaurant next to IKEA; ambience was a bit lacking, but the food's decent.
- Dinner (the non-stop food thing becomes a bit much at this point; walking everywhere or standing on the free buses - more like hanging on for dear life while the world swerves and brakes - helps.) again at the 'Da si shi' or 'Big Four Like'. Really good 'jiow' dumpling thingers and the little plate of raw papaya with ba-sheng fruit sauce is a new personal favorite.
-Happy July 4 for the U.S.-ers!
Day 10: Sat., 7/5
- Got dropped off by the Taoyuan train station, and ended up at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi again. Had a really good lunch at "Off Time"; for a decent price, we took the "shared main course" option which comes with additional individual salad, soup, appetizer, dessert, and drink for an extra $5 U.S.
- The restrooms in the Shin Kong apparently won quite a few "cleanest restroom" awards. They are well worth a visit; we ended up hanging out in the restroom waiting room because it was so nice.
- Went to a mini outdoor late-night festival; a lot of these are always around, and are usually worth checking out for fun. There's just a bunch of vendors and makes me think of a combined flea market venture and late night snacking.
- Last day in Taoyuan until I return in mid-August.
Day 11: Sun., 7/6
- Got dropped off at the THSR: Taiwan High Speed Rail. It's bullet-train-ish (about 300 km/hr), and the fastest but most expensive mode of long-distance transport in Taiwan, barring planes.
- Free busing is provided to and from the HSR to promote its usage.
- This means if you aren't riding it during rush hour, don't get conned into buying a seat ticket, buy the cheaper 'any free spot' ticket, which is farther down in the train but you'll most likely still get a very comfy seat. It still cost about $30 U.S. for Taoyuan to Tainan, the 2nd to last stop.
- Get a window seat, the scenery is wonderful. It also goes by really fast; crossing half of Taiwan took about 20 mins.
Tip: On public transportation, don't lag. Bus drivers, trains, cars - nobody waits for people to slowly get up, drag their luggage out, and leave a bus. If your stop is next, get to the front of the bus asap, or you may end up on a really long ride to nowhere. Even if you're 90 years old with rheumatism, it's not gonna wait. That said, if you do look 90 you're guaranteed a seat as per the courtesy (younger people automatically lend their seat to the ones that look like they need it), unless the bus is already filled with 90-year-olds, which pretty much did happen on the public bus I was on before.
- Arrival in Tainan, 1:30pm ish.
Day 8: Thurs., 7/3
- Have seen (well, heard) lots of cicadas, but have yet to see a cockroach, despite their infamy.
- Bussed to the 12-story Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store. Lesson learned: Department store shopping is really expensive. We ended up shopping 'round the street vendors outside anyway, though it always pays to ask around or check twice for quality out there. (The Taipei Mall was also a lot cheaper, especially the older downstairs shops.)
- Mom flew in, so now I'm no longer on my own in Taiwan.
- Had a headache most of the day...apparently it's unwise to not blow-dry your hair before shutting yourself in with the air conditioner. Something about getting your scalp cold.
- My (rather young) grandaunt visited, leading to a turntable dinner at "Mama's Kitchen," the big highlight of which was the "ten-ingredient rice." The rice is cooked with a bunch of beans and other grains listed on a big poster. Personally, I liked the soup that had bubbletea 'pearls' with bacon.
- The un-highlight was me unknowingly eating the pig's blood dish.
- It's gross.
- Well, it's kind of like tofu.
Day 9: Fri., 7/4
- Went to the government office thing (right around the corner from my grandparents' Taoyuan residence), and got my Taiwan citizen ID. Woo. It involved waiting around a lot, signing my Chinese name, getting photos taken, and paying a couple hundred Taiwan bucks.
- Currently it's about $1 US = $30.4 TN, you do the division. -A calculator's handy to have when shopping, btw, or know your 30's times table really well. Also remember fractions and percentages are opposite; if the sign says "2 zuh" that means 80% off. 3/4 is said " 4 fen zhi 3.)
- Breakfast was takeout from Countryside, which we've eaten at multiple times. It's a nice little breakfast place, with everything from chocolate sandwiches to healthy (and really good) burgers.
- Juice in Taiwan is awesome.
- Fruit in Taiwan is doubly awesome. There are giant fruit markets - I recommend trying everything. Even the usual stuff, like pineapples. Especially that and mangos, if you're there in summer, since those are in season and really, really sweet.
- Took a whole bunch of free buses back to the Taoyuan downtown area, with the big department stores (Tonlin and Shin Kong). Taipei has the best free bus network. Learn the characters for 'free' and go to any bus sign that has it, and you're all set for transportation around the city.
- Biking is also great. The whole "healthy living" slogan is very much the current thing here, so many train systems work to accommodate people bringing bikes on board.
- Bring an eating buddy, go to Tonlin, floor B2 (food court) and get yourself a fresh mango shaved ice. It's worth it. Then go to a market and buy some green mango popsicles...they're already my favorite popsicles ever. They're very much fruity, mango chunks and all.
- Lunch demonstrated the whole "food is cheap" concept firsthand - for 4 people with a bunch of little dishes and 4 main dishes, the bill came to about US $7. This was the Sheng Jia Noodles Restaurant next to IKEA; ambience was a bit lacking, but the food's decent.
- Dinner (the non-stop food thing becomes a bit much at this point; walking everywhere or standing on the free buses - more like hanging on for dear life while the world swerves and brakes - helps.) again at the 'Da si shi' or 'Big Four Like'. Really good 'jiow' dumpling thingers and the little plate of raw papaya with ba-sheng fruit sauce is a new personal favorite.
-Happy July 4 for the U.S.-ers!
Day 10: Sat., 7/5
- Got dropped off by the Taoyuan train station, and ended up at the Shin Kong Mitsukoshi again. Had a really good lunch at "Off Time"; for a decent price, we took the "shared main course" option which comes with additional individual salad, soup, appetizer, dessert, and drink for an extra $5 U.S.
- The restrooms in the Shin Kong apparently won quite a few "cleanest restroom" awards. They are well worth a visit; we ended up hanging out in the restroom waiting room because it was so nice.
- Went to a mini outdoor late-night festival; a lot of these are always around, and are usually worth checking out for fun. There's just a bunch of vendors and makes me think of a combined flea market venture and late night snacking.
- Last day in Taoyuan until I return in mid-August.
Day 11: Sun., 7/6
- Got dropped off at the THSR: Taiwan High Speed Rail. It's bullet-train-ish (about 300 km/hr), and the fastest but most expensive mode of long-distance transport in Taiwan, barring planes.
- Free busing is provided to and from the HSR to promote its usage.
- This means if you aren't riding it during rush hour, don't get conned into buying a seat ticket, buy the cheaper 'any free spot' ticket, which is farther down in the train but you'll most likely still get a very comfy seat. It still cost about $30 U.S. for Taoyuan to Tainan, the 2nd to last stop.
- Get a window seat, the scenery is wonderful. It also goes by really fast; crossing half of Taiwan took about 20 mins.
Tip: On public transportation, don't lag. Bus drivers, trains, cars - nobody waits for people to slowly get up, drag their luggage out, and leave a bus. If your stop is next, get to the front of the bus asap, or you may end up on a really long ride to nowhere. Even if you're 90 years old with rheumatism, it's not gonna wait. That said, if you do look 90 you're guaranteed a seat as per the courtesy (younger people automatically lend their seat to the ones that look like they need it), unless the bus is already filled with 90-year-olds, which pretty much did happen on the public bus I was on before.
- Arrival in Tainan, 1:30pm ish.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Taiwan: Taoyuan Week
The first week in Taiwan flew by (I'm counting last Thursday 6/26, boarding the plane, as Day 1). Here's a recap:
Day 2: Friday, 6/27
- 6:30pm arrival in Taiwan
- Meeting the family: Two adults, two tirelessly hyper small children.
- Sleep space: a whole bedroom and bathroom...on the 23rd floor.
- Stare at breathtaking cityscape view.
- Stare some more. See the photo links (right).
- Dinner at the "Japan Cookroom" where I learn my first lesson in Taiwan life:
Food portions are reasonable. As in, there's lots of small plates of food, and there's no forced overeating involved. Also, the food's really cheap. And wicked good.
Day 3: Saturday, 6/28
- Lesson the Second: Breakfast is wholesome. The fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day means the available options include hamburgers and pasta.
- That said, I had the fried egg/Chinese carrot cake thing at a LaGuardia. Twas great.
- Spent the day at a Ceramics Museum Festival. The big highlight was a stamp-each-location map; the full collection of stamps = a mysterious prize.
- The prize was pencils.
- Bought some adorable ceramics, including chopstick holders and a bird whistler thing.
- New discoveries:
Laundry is everyday. Dirty clothes never sits around, and 2 outfits can last a long, long time.
Exchanging presents is a staple.
Gas stations are all full-service. Car washes are also fun.
Showing shoulders is too sexy.
Kids want everything. Parents oblige 90% of the time. Especially since 90% is 30-cent trinkets.
Plug adapters (grounded to not) are essential.
It's all about motorcycles.
Pig's blood is a delicacy. Take that, Spike.
Day 4: Sunday, 6/29
- Went on a bit of a country road drive.
- Saw lots of flowers and leaves.
- Learned that everyone knows every agricultural product by its flowers and leaves. ("This will grow into xkca which tastes like xkcb when you cook it with xkcc and smells really good!")
- Saw an ancient retreat rectangle house thing. Lots of doors and words and wells. (see photos)
- Went shoe-shopping. That was the foreign experience of the day. Got gold sandals.
- Saw a big bridge. Didn't get to walk it.
- Went to an ancient street with ancient street type vendors, where I ate the...
- Best things ever: fried mushrooms and purple yam pancakes.
- Dinner with grandparents at a great place that I very roughly translate as "Big Four Like" with the usual many small plates of very good food. To continue my butchering of rough translations, the "little-grain soup" was excellent.
Day 5: Monday, 6/30
- Went via MRT (mass rapid transit) to the Taipei Mall area. MRT is exactly like it sounds. There's bajillions of people and it waits for no straggler. Taiwan's all about streamlining everything down to the fast-walking. I love train-bus type things.
- The mall was full of really great deals. Shoes for $3, food for half that, trinkets under 50 cents. Suffice to say, much shopping was had. It was almost...enjoyable.
- I never use such positive terms in conjunction with shopping.
- Spaghetti for dinner.
- The diners are all really straightforward. Along the street there's the noodle soup-selling diner, the hamburgers-selling diner, the spaghetti-selling diner. Menus are simple and all have pictures of the few dishes offered. Seating areas fit just enough for a couple families at a time.
Tip: Don't try going on the Taipei gondola / Taipei zoo on a Monday. That's not a work day for them.
More important tip: Buy an umbrella over here if you ever come. Warding off the sun doesn't take sunscreen; everyone (well, the guys less so) carries umbrellas 24/7. It works wonderfully, and is also handy for all the sudden rainstorms.
Day 6: Tuesday, 7/1
- Went shopping (again!) at the "Love to Buy" mall. I really need to start using pinyin.
- Walked the kids to their English class, then to a traditional Chinese drumming class.
- I now know the basics of traditional Chinese drumming. (1 beat/pause = "jump (XO)", two quarter-note beats = "walk (XX) ", two eighth-note beats = "run (XX close together)"
- Now you know what I know.
Day 7: Wednesday, 7/2
- Went to a traditional market, with fresh fish and chickens and squid. Very fresh. They might as well have been alive. They probably just were.
- This is where the "every part of the animal is eaten" becomes a little upfront and personal. Saw all kinds of fun bits that used to make up a happy little pig.
- Took a nice walk 'round a park after a big noodle-soup dinner. Ate really cute junk food and chatted about my high school life.
- Life is a tad bit healthier now than then, I've realized.
Well, today is officially my last day alone in Taiwan, and I think in another 5 minutes I'm going with my aunt...on another shopping trip.
Day 2: Friday, 6/27
- 6:30pm arrival in Taiwan
- Meeting the family: Two adults, two tirelessly hyper small children.
- Sleep space: a whole bedroom and bathroom...on the 23rd floor.
- Stare at breathtaking cityscape view.
- Stare some more. See the photo links (right).
- Dinner at the "Japan Cookroom" where I learn my first lesson in Taiwan life:
Food portions are reasonable. As in, there's lots of small plates of food, and there's no forced overeating involved. Also, the food's really cheap. And wicked good.
Day 3: Saturday, 6/28
- Lesson the Second: Breakfast is wholesome. The fact that breakfast is the most important meal of the day means the available options include hamburgers and pasta.
- That said, I had the fried egg/Chinese carrot cake thing at a LaGuardia. Twas great.
- Spent the day at a Ceramics Museum Festival. The big highlight was a stamp-each-location map; the full collection of stamps = a mysterious prize.
- The prize was pencils.
- Bought some adorable ceramics, including chopstick holders and a bird whistler thing.
- New discoveries:
Laundry is everyday. Dirty clothes never sits around, and 2 outfits can last a long, long time.
Exchanging presents is a staple.
Gas stations are all full-service. Car washes are also fun.
Showing shoulders is too sexy.
Kids want everything. Parents oblige 90% of the time. Especially since 90% is 30-cent trinkets.
Plug adapters (grounded to not) are essential.
It's all about motorcycles.
Pig's blood is a delicacy. Take that, Spike.
Day 4: Sunday, 6/29
- Went on a bit of a country road drive.
- Saw lots of flowers and leaves.
- Learned that everyone knows every agricultural product by its flowers and leaves. ("This will grow into xkca which tastes like xkcb when you cook it with xkcc and smells really good!")
- Saw an ancient retreat rectangle house thing. Lots of doors and words and wells. (see photos)
- Went shoe-shopping. That was the foreign experience of the day. Got gold sandals.
- Saw a big bridge. Didn't get to walk it.
- Went to an ancient street with ancient street type vendors, where I ate the...
- Best things ever: fried mushrooms and purple yam pancakes.
- Dinner with grandparents at a great place that I very roughly translate as "Big Four Like" with the usual many small plates of very good food. To continue my butchering of rough translations, the "little-grain soup" was excellent.
Day 5: Monday, 6/30
- Went via MRT (mass rapid transit) to the Taipei Mall area. MRT is exactly like it sounds. There's bajillions of people and it waits for no straggler. Taiwan's all about streamlining everything down to the fast-walking. I love train-bus type things.
- The mall was full of really great deals. Shoes for $3, food for half that, trinkets under 50 cents. Suffice to say, much shopping was had. It was almost...enjoyable.
- I never use such positive terms in conjunction with shopping.
- Spaghetti for dinner.
- The diners are all really straightforward. Along the street there's the noodle soup-selling diner, the hamburgers-selling diner, the spaghetti-selling diner. Menus are simple and all have pictures of the few dishes offered. Seating areas fit just enough for a couple families at a time.
Tip: Don't try going on the Taipei gondola / Taipei zoo on a Monday. That's not a work day for them.
More important tip: Buy an umbrella over here if you ever come. Warding off the sun doesn't take sunscreen; everyone (well, the guys less so) carries umbrellas 24/7. It works wonderfully, and is also handy for all the sudden rainstorms.
Day 6: Tuesday, 7/1
- Went shopping (again!) at the "Love to Buy" mall. I really need to start using pinyin.
- Walked the kids to their English class, then to a traditional Chinese drumming class.
- I now know the basics of traditional Chinese drumming. (1 beat/pause = "jump (XO)", two quarter-note beats = "walk (XX) ", two eighth-note beats = "run (XX close together)"
- Now you know what I know.
Day 7: Wednesday, 7/2
- Went to a traditional market, with fresh fish and chickens and squid. Very fresh. They might as well have been alive. They probably just were.
- This is where the "every part of the animal is eaten" becomes a little upfront and personal. Saw all kinds of fun bits that used to make up a happy little pig.
- Took a nice walk 'round a park after a big noodle-soup dinner. Ate really cute junk food and chatted about my high school life.
- Life is a tad bit healthier now than then, I've realized.
Well, today is officially my last day alone in Taiwan, and I think in another 5 minutes I'm going with my aunt...on another shopping trip.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Airport Day
First destination: Boston. Or more specifically, Logan Airport. Second destination is the San Francisco Airport, then onto Taiwan, via the Taipei (technically Taoyuan, near Taipei) Airport.
Airport day means clocking 20 hours of flight time, along with the following:
- Reading Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There", all the while realizing I've seen the movie anyway
- Starting Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Dreams", wondering if I should relate to Codi or Hallie
- In-flight TV:
- "The Office" Episode about making a commercial that I've already seen
- "How I Met Your Mother" Only identified it by the fact that Alyson Hannigan's in it
- "Monk", and "Psych" which I'd never heard of before, but enjoyed a lot more than "Monk"
- In-flight movies:
- Ignored two showings of "The Bucket List"
- Watched the end of "Mad Money" which wasn't the greatest moral, "Definitely, Maybe" with really cute penguins, and "Spiderwick Chronicles", which was freaky when the boy's dad turned into a monster and the boy was going to kill him, but I'm a bit hazy on those details.
- Watched "La Misma Luna" 1.5 times, was great Spanish practice ("Under the Same Moon") and had a really catchy song about how Superman is like an illegal Mexican immigrant
- In-flight food: Everything from ramen-style cup noodles to meatloaf with mashed potatoes and a cheerfully over-salted turkey-swiss cheese sandwich (they ran out of pasta primavera, naturally)
Also, some random person requested a switch to an aisle seat, so on the SanFran to Taipei flight I got a great window seat and happened to sit next to a person who not only lives a city away from my hometown, but has a mutual good friend. Twas a good time, and the best part?
The jetlag never came.
Airport day means clocking 20 hours of flight time, along with the following:
- Reading Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There", all the while realizing I've seen the movie anyway
- Starting Barbara Kingsolver's "Animal Dreams", wondering if I should relate to Codi or Hallie
- In-flight TV:
- "The Office" Episode about making a commercial that I've already seen
- "How I Met Your Mother" Only identified it by the fact that Alyson Hannigan's in it
- "Monk", and "Psych" which I'd never heard of before, but enjoyed a lot more than "Monk"
- In-flight movies:
- Ignored two showings of "The Bucket List"
- Watched the end of "Mad Money" which wasn't the greatest moral, "Definitely, Maybe" with really cute penguins, and "Spiderwick Chronicles", which was freaky when the boy's dad turned into a monster and the boy was going to kill him, but I'm a bit hazy on those details.
- Watched "La Misma Luna" 1.5 times, was great Spanish practice ("Under the Same Moon") and had a really catchy song about how Superman is like an illegal Mexican immigrant
- In-flight food: Everything from ramen-style cup noodles to meatloaf with mashed potatoes and a cheerfully over-salted turkey-swiss cheese sandwich (they ran out of pasta primavera, naturally)
Also, some random person requested a switch to an aisle seat, so on the SanFran to Taipei flight I got a great window seat and happened to sit next to a person who not only lives a city away from my hometown, but has a mutual good friend. Twas a good time, and the best part?
The jetlag never came.
Friday, March 28, 2008
The Green Jay
The Green Jay is a tropical bird with a tufty blue head, black throat, yellow belly, and pale green wings. It does not at all resemble the wintry-patterned Blue Jay. The two are birds of a common family and class, but vastly different home and call.
I'd like to try a little something different...
Welcome to OR GREEN JAY.
I plan to drag up the all the little things I see that make a home away from home, home in another country, so disorienting. I plan to post photos and lists and say "Who knew?" a lot, and ponder on how different countries could be totally different if people pointed out the little things.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Questions? Feel free to comment.
I'd like to try a little something different...
Welcome to OR GREEN JAY.
I plan to drag up the all the little things I see that make a home away from home, home in another country, so disorienting. I plan to post photos and lists and say "Who knew?" a lot, and ponder on how different countries could be totally different if people pointed out the little things.
Thoughts? Suggestions? Questions? Feel free to comment.
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