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.