Hey Folks,
I hope this entry finds you all safe and sound, warm and indoors and away from the weather! Even though I'm sure you are already getting sick of the cold and the snow, I wish I had some. Just a little.
Does that make me crazy? I don't think so. There's just something fundamentally strange about not having any snow, freezing rain, or even ice on Christmas. I'm wearing sandals and shortsleeves as I write this next to my open window. It's around 70 degrees and sunny here, in Taiwan and as nice as it is...it's also kind of odd.
I just don't feel jolly in weather this warm.
That's not to say that there aren't any Christmas decorations around, there are surprisingly plenty. Department stores are playing Christmas music and there are huge displays of fake wreaths, lights, garlands, and ornaments. There's even a tree in the lobby of my building. This is considerably more than I ever anticipated; Christmas is a definitively western holiday. Christmas trees and lights and all that stuff seems really out of place here, without any snow. The only snow I know of is high up in the mountains to the east of me.
Imagine a five hour traffic jam of cars filled with people that are going to see snow, and willing to wait.
Yes, that actually happens. That may seem strange to us, but look at it in the reverse: What would your reaction be if palm trees sprouted all over New Hampshire and the temperature never dropped below 50?
I know, I know, sounds nice. And it is, to a certain point. Yes it's sunny and warm, no there isn't any snow, but to me that has made a familiar holiday into something foreign. Makes me homesick, to be honest. I think it's the tradition that I'm used to: snow, zany shopping trips to the mall, family time, holiday food (oh dear lord what I would do for some pumpkin pie and egg nog). But I think it's good to do that, to step outside the familiar and experience things in a new way. That sounds a little redundant as I'm living in a foreign culture on the other side of the planet...but I think it especially applies to days like this.
So, reflect on that which you have and probably take for granted. Maybe your tree isn't perfect, or the turkey got a little burnt, or the weather is cold and wet, but you are home. You have your families and friends, you have good food and familiar surroundings, the good feeling of giving of being selfless, at least more than usual. And look at it this way: I'm nine thousand miles from home, from friends and family and all that I hold dear. Take a moment and be thankful, because I am. And that's really what this day is all about.
Have a safe and happy holiday. I'll keep my eyes open for any fat guys in red sweat suits.
Merry Christmas!
-Nik
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Road trips and festivals and rashes, oh my!
Hey Folks,
This past week has been quite an adventure for both good and bad. First, the bad.
Tuesday night, December 2nd, I was conducting and oral exam for one of my upper levels classes. My head itched like mad and I was trying to figure out exactly why when my wrists started to itch. "How bogus!" I thought and pulled my sleeves back to look. Red welt-like spots grinned up at me with malevolent smiles. Bug bites, wonderful. How the hell...
Tuesday night, December 2nd, I was conducting and oral exam for one of my upper levels classes. My head itched like mad and I was trying to figure out exactly why when my wrists started to itch. "How bogus!" I thought and pulled my sleeves back to look. Red welt-like spots grinned up at me with malevolent smiles. Bug bites, wonderful. How the hell...
Then my elbows itched, then my shoulders, knees, and legs. Something was definitely wrong. Fifteen minutes of itchy misery passed and then the bell for break time sounded and I had ten minutes of free time for investigation. I bolted down to the teacher's bathroom and stripped my shirt off. A circus of raised welts surrounded by red, puffy skin marched its away from my fingertips to my neck and from my thighs to my waist. Fifty minutes of class to go.
Awesome.
Awesome.
As soon as class ended I bounced from work and zipped back uptown to Jon and Miki's. They were both rather horrified at my plague like condition and Miki took me to the neighborhood pharmacy for some goodies. I got some pills and ointment and they helped a bit, but not enough. I spent the next three days barely sleeping and watching the evil red horde of itchiness spread across my body, fade, and then spread again. I missed three days of work and then finally went to see a dermatologist. He was a nice fellow that spoke fantastic English; he also gave me some awesome drugs and a shot of anti-histamines and steroids. Did I mention that my hands and feet had both swelled to the point where it was painful to make fists? Lovely.
Anyhoo, after three days of mutiny my skin called it quits, for the most part anyway. I'm still not sure exactly what made it so angry. Both the doctors I saw said it was some sort of allergic reaction, and a systemic one at that. At least it wasn't a disease or a virus, aye?
On Friday night I was still unsure as to what my weekend was going to be like. My medication was working wonders and Miki, Jon's Taiwanese roommate for those of you who don't know, had invited Jon and I to accompany her to Puli, her hometown, for a festival. This particular festival only happens once every twelve years and I figured that if I was doomed to be itchy I might as well do it somewhere else.
We stayed at Miki's brother's house and I must say it was rather odd to be in bed and heading for sleep at midnight on a Friday night. I guess that makes me a city slicker. Weird.
The festival itself was very...strange. Miki told me that it was in some way centered around a large swine. This particular swine was chosen, I think, and then given the utmost care to get nice and enormous for the festival. A party for a huge pig? Sure, why not? I'm sure there is more to it than that; I'll work on getting the info. It was still very interesting walking around the dozens and dozens of tables covered with offerings to people's ancestors. In Taiwanese culture appeasing your dead relatives is a very important part of life, especially when there are festivals or holidays. Food and gifts are lined up on tables and incense and fake money are burned to transition the goods to the afterlife. That, at least, is my understanding of it all.
There must have been thousands of paper laterns all around Puli. They lined all of the major streets and big clusters of them looked down on the festival grounds. These looked like big parking lots that were filled with people, offering tables, and huge castle like constructions that severely abused every primary color possible.
And there were pigs. Dead ones. Yum.
These poor guys must have been slaughtered just in time for the party. I believe these were also part of the offering system as they had chinese characters painted on their sides. They were gutted and strung up on wire frames (see my flickr or facebook photos) with fruit or a beer can stuffed into their mouths. Tasty. Definitely not something I could find at Market Square Day or a state fair.
What really caught my attention though, was the atmosphere. It reminded me of American Thanksgiving, and rightly so, everyone was eating! And I mean everyone. I have never seen so many tables covered in food in my entire life. Every shop that had enough space for a table had one. Every, shop. I went by a hair salon, complete with those magic helmets that old ladies use to dry their hair, that had a big round table plunked down right in the middle and beseiged by hungry Taiwanese people. I think the only places I didn't see tables with people eating were bathrooms, and big-chain convenience stores.
The food itself was...interesting. The festival is Buddhist I believe, so all the traditional dishes are supposed to be vegetarian. Jon and I met Miki at her grandfather's place to chow down. I missed the lobster but not the bamboo. Yes, you can eat bamboo, just don't ask me how to prepare it (it reminded me of soggy chicken, but not necessarily in a bad way). Pig's heart, duck liver (I think), and all kinds of other assorted goods. Jon pounded more than a few shots of Galleon(sp?) which is some kind of atrocious tasting Chinese/Taiwanese liquor, at the behest of Miki's boozing relatives. Everytime they wanted to toast and drink, which was very often, they would raise their glasses and look at Jon and say "Hello, happy!"
Down the hatch.
After dinner we cruised over to the main festival ground to see that big ol' swine I mentioned earlier. Tons of people, tons of offerings and incense. Really cool traditional music was being played live on stage; you know, the stuff with that violin sounding thingy that you always associate with Eastern stuff. As for the huge pig...I'm still trying to wrap my head around the dimensions of it. As you can see in the photos it's huge. The pinapple is stuffed into its mouth and as for the rest...your guess is as good as mine. I seriously doubt the thing could move under its own power before they snuffed it.
Still puzzling over the big pig Jon and I wandered a bit. We found some carnival games and he proceeded to throw baseballs at a tic tac toe board until he punched out three in a row to win the stuffed Batman. As if we didn't stand out enough he has to carry a two foot tall teddy bear version of the Dark Knight.
Ah, that reminds me. Right after we saw the big pig two local girls, perhaps of highscool age but no older, approached Jon with a camera. He of course assumed they wanted a photo of themselves in front of the pig. Nope. They wanted pictures of themselves with the strange looking foreigner with yellow hair and huge eyes. I came over in the midst of it and they insisted on taking pictures with me too. Of course this is also after we walked around a park near a school and little kids would see us and yell "Waiguoren!", which means "foreigner" in Chinese.
All in all I had a great time and I'm looking forward to going back to Puli for Chinese New Year. I have a feeling that the Galleon will be flowing strongly for that trip and I'm rather dreading it. Galleon tastes like old gin. Yuck.
Next time: All the stuff I promised yah last time but didn't do this time. I'll throw in some photos of Chinese characters and sentences I can write too, how's that? For now, you take care you crazy kids. Enjoy the snow, I won't be seeing any. Hah!
Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Puli is the geographical center of Taiwan and I have the photos to prove it!
-Pig's heart is chewy but delicious.
-The weather in Taichung is still in the 60's and low 70's.
-Traffic jams can occur near mountains in cold weather because of people driving to see the snow, not to escape it.
-I saw people paragliding off of a cliff face above the city (photos).
-After seeing two doctors and getting meds from both of them I only spent $10 US.
-Socialized healthcare fucking owns (see above).
There must have been thousands of paper laterns all around Puli. They lined all of the major streets and big clusters of them looked down on the festival grounds. These looked like big parking lots that were filled with people, offering tables, and huge castle like constructions that severely abused every primary color possible.
And there were pigs. Dead ones. Yum.
These poor guys must have been slaughtered just in time for the party. I believe these were also part of the offering system as they had chinese characters painted on their sides. They were gutted and strung up on wire frames (see my flickr or facebook photos) with fruit or a beer can stuffed into their mouths. Tasty. Definitely not something I could find at Market Square Day or a state fair.
What really caught my attention though, was the atmosphere. It reminded me of American Thanksgiving, and rightly so, everyone was eating! And I mean everyone. I have never seen so many tables covered in food in my entire life. Every shop that had enough space for a table had one. Every, shop. I went by a hair salon, complete with those magic helmets that old ladies use to dry their hair, that had a big round table plunked down right in the middle and beseiged by hungry Taiwanese people. I think the only places I didn't see tables with people eating were bathrooms, and big-chain convenience stores.
The food itself was...interesting. The festival is Buddhist I believe, so all the traditional dishes are supposed to be vegetarian. Jon and I met Miki at her grandfather's place to chow down. I missed the lobster but not the bamboo. Yes, you can eat bamboo, just don't ask me how to prepare it (it reminded me of soggy chicken, but not necessarily in a bad way). Pig's heart, duck liver (I think), and all kinds of other assorted goods. Jon pounded more than a few shots of Galleon(sp?) which is some kind of atrocious tasting Chinese/Taiwanese liquor, at the behest of Miki's boozing relatives. Everytime they wanted to toast and drink, which was very often, they would raise their glasses and look at Jon and say "Hello, happy!"
Down the hatch.
After dinner we cruised over to the main festival ground to see that big ol' swine I mentioned earlier. Tons of people, tons of offerings and incense. Really cool traditional music was being played live on stage; you know, the stuff with that violin sounding thingy that you always associate with Eastern stuff. As for the huge pig...I'm still trying to wrap my head around the dimensions of it. As you can see in the photos it's huge. The pinapple is stuffed into its mouth and as for the rest...your guess is as good as mine. I seriously doubt the thing could move under its own power before they snuffed it.
Still puzzling over the big pig Jon and I wandered a bit. We found some carnival games and he proceeded to throw baseballs at a tic tac toe board until he punched out three in a row to win the stuffed Batman. As if we didn't stand out enough he has to carry a two foot tall teddy bear version of the Dark Knight.
Ah, that reminds me. Right after we saw the big pig two local girls, perhaps of highscool age but no older, approached Jon with a camera. He of course assumed they wanted a photo of themselves in front of the pig. Nope. They wanted pictures of themselves with the strange looking foreigner with yellow hair and huge eyes. I came over in the midst of it and they insisted on taking pictures with me too. Of course this is also after we walked around a park near a school and little kids would see us and yell "Waiguoren!", which means "foreigner" in Chinese.
All in all I had a great time and I'm looking forward to going back to Puli for Chinese New Year. I have a feeling that the Galleon will be flowing strongly for that trip and I'm rather dreading it. Galleon tastes like old gin. Yuck.
Next time: All the stuff I promised yah last time but didn't do this time. I'll throw in some photos of Chinese characters and sentences I can write too, how's that? For now, you take care you crazy kids. Enjoy the snow, I won't be seeing any. Hah!
Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Puli is the geographical center of Taiwan and I have the photos to prove it!
-Pig's heart is chewy but delicious.
-The weather in Taichung is still in the 60's and low 70's.
-Traffic jams can occur near mountains in cold weather because of people driving to see the snow, not to escape it.
-I saw people paragliding off of a cliff face above the city (photos).
-After seeing two doctors and getting meds from both of them I only spent $10 US.
-Socialized healthcare fucking owns (see above).
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
A lotta ins, a lotta outs, a lot of what-have-yous...
Nimen Hao, wode hao pungyo!
Err...um, sorry.
Hello, my good friends! I hope this entry finds you all doing well and staying warm, I've heard of snow around those parts...yikes.
Speaking of cold weather, I actually had to wear a jacket today for the first time since I came to Taiwan. Up until about a week ago it was still warm enough for shorts and sandals! But, there has been a dramatic shift in temperature and a steady wind has kicked up; combine that with driving at 60km/hr on my scooter and you've just entered jacket country! I'm one of the last, I think. When I was still driving in a t-shirt I saw many a local wearing legit winter coats and gloves and stuff. Reminds me of early autumn back in the US of A, really early autumn. Though, I don't expect any eminent snowfall.
Things have been going very smoothly out here in the freaky-freaky future. I've discovered the wonders of cheap, SUPER cheap bowling. $4US got me shoes and two games on a regular night, not special or anything. Score. I bowled a respectable 153, putting me an easy thirty pins ahead of my foreign cohorts and into the records books...sort of. The bowling alley itself was a treasure straight out of 1979/1980. Complete with mysterious water stains in the drop ceiling tiles and the hordes of older league bowlers all wearing the same maroon polo shirts. Just don't drink the punch.
One of the secretaries at my branch bid us, and Hess, adieu so a bunch of us went out to a sweet Hot Pot restaurant. For those of you not in the know, Hot Pot is a restaurant where you cook your own food in a pot of boiling hot water. Sounds boring, I know, just hear me out. First, this particular place was buffet style with just about everything you could want; beef, lamb, chicken, every kind of seafood possible, tofu, dumplings, noodles, etc. Massive selection, complete with like 20 things to mix and combine for dipping sauce type stuff. I grabbed a plate of lamb and an assortment of raw fish, prawns, dumplings, and a few things I could not identify. My fellow teacher, Kyle, split the pot with me. Our pot, like any big cook pot that just came into your mind, was big and metal but divided down the center. On the right was a yellowish curry, on the left something involving tomatoes. Now, isn't that a little more exciting? I wasn't too thrilled with the tomato hot pot, but that curry one rocked my world. Everything that came out of it was delicious.
Which leads me to my next happenstance.
The table adjoining Kyle and I held a few natives and Sue, another American teacher. Their hot pot consisted of regular flavor or whatever you call it, which i didn't try, and the good and spicy one. I munched a few things from the spicy side at the behest of my head CT Phoebe (CT= co teacher). It was after my fifth plate or so from the curry pot that Sue placed a black, rubbery lump in front of me. It was a little smaller than a twinkie and it glistened wetly. I poked it with my chopsticks and it quivered ominously.
"Just try it," Sue said. I looked at it dubiously.
"Don't tell me what it is," I said.
The lump was soft and came apart easily into an edible bit. It looked like tofu, only black. It quivered kind of like tofu. Hmm...
Ah what the hell, this stuff is part of why I came here anyway, right?
To tell the truth it didn't have a whole lot of flavor, but it was oddly textured. Similar to rubbery tofu but definitely different. I chewed thoughtfully, trying to decide if I liked it or not.
"Want to know what it is?"
"Sure, but I would have eaten it anyway," I said. What could it be? I thought. Weird eggs? Some rice concoction? Pig fat? Hoofs? Eyes? Brains?
"It's duck's blood."
I swallowed.
"Oh."
Ah, Taiwan. It wasn't that bad, for those of you that just cringed and made an "ew!" face. Not that I'm saying I'm going to go searching for it.
Other news. Chinese class is going really well, I'm one of the better students in the class and I have a lot of fun whenever I go. I'm learning as quickly as I can but it's pretty hard, though interesting. Shui jiao, pronounced Shoe-way jaow, can be said several different ways. The funniest of which are sleep, and dumpling. Imagine the look you would give someone if they ordered "Ten sleeps please, to go." I must also say that writing Chinese characters is really fun; it's really more like drawing than writing, though. Very satisfying to have a character come out nice and neat and proportioned. Soon I'll be able to write sentences that don't consist of "I want this" or "Who is she?" I think once I get the sentence mechanics down a little better the vocab will be easier.
Next time: My Chinese name and how to say it, how to curse in Chinese, some of my favorite Chinese-English direct translations, and some photos of the kids I teach.
Until then, stay safe you crazy kids. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-It's considered healthy to eat the bones of animals.
-Tuna for breakfast is badass.
-Turkmenistan is a crazy, crazy place.
-The ex-President of Taiwain is under arrest for corruption and money laundering.
-Taichung means "Middle City."
-According to some Chinese KTV song, Happy is a verb.
-Persimmons look like tomatoes, and I never knew that.
Err...um, sorry.
Hello, my good friends! I hope this entry finds you all doing well and staying warm, I've heard of snow around those parts...yikes.
Speaking of cold weather, I actually had to wear a jacket today for the first time since I came to Taiwan. Up until about a week ago it was still warm enough for shorts and sandals! But, there has been a dramatic shift in temperature and a steady wind has kicked up; combine that with driving at 60km/hr on my scooter and you've just entered jacket country! I'm one of the last, I think. When I was still driving in a t-shirt I saw many a local wearing legit winter coats and gloves and stuff. Reminds me of early autumn back in the US of A, really early autumn. Though, I don't expect any eminent snowfall.
Things have been going very smoothly out here in the freaky-freaky future. I've discovered the wonders of cheap, SUPER cheap bowling. $4US got me shoes and two games on a regular night, not special or anything. Score. I bowled a respectable 153, putting me an easy thirty pins ahead of my foreign cohorts and into the records books...sort of. The bowling alley itself was a treasure straight out of 1979/1980. Complete with mysterious water stains in the drop ceiling tiles and the hordes of older league bowlers all wearing the same maroon polo shirts. Just don't drink the punch.
One of the secretaries at my branch bid us, and Hess, adieu so a bunch of us went out to a sweet Hot Pot restaurant. For those of you not in the know, Hot Pot is a restaurant where you cook your own food in a pot of boiling hot water. Sounds boring, I know, just hear me out. First, this particular place was buffet style with just about everything you could want; beef, lamb, chicken, every kind of seafood possible, tofu, dumplings, noodles, etc. Massive selection, complete with like 20 things to mix and combine for dipping sauce type stuff. I grabbed a plate of lamb and an assortment of raw fish, prawns, dumplings, and a few things I could not identify. My fellow teacher, Kyle, split the pot with me. Our pot, like any big cook pot that just came into your mind, was big and metal but divided down the center. On the right was a yellowish curry, on the left something involving tomatoes. Now, isn't that a little more exciting? I wasn't too thrilled with the tomato hot pot, but that curry one rocked my world. Everything that came out of it was delicious.
Which leads me to my next happenstance.
The table adjoining Kyle and I held a few natives and Sue, another American teacher. Their hot pot consisted of regular flavor or whatever you call it, which i didn't try, and the good and spicy one. I munched a few things from the spicy side at the behest of my head CT Phoebe (CT= co teacher). It was after my fifth plate or so from the curry pot that Sue placed a black, rubbery lump in front of me. It was a little smaller than a twinkie and it glistened wetly. I poked it with my chopsticks and it quivered ominously.
"Just try it," Sue said. I looked at it dubiously.
"Don't tell me what it is," I said.
The lump was soft and came apart easily into an edible bit. It looked like tofu, only black. It quivered kind of like tofu. Hmm...
Ah what the hell, this stuff is part of why I came here anyway, right?
To tell the truth it didn't have a whole lot of flavor, but it was oddly textured. Similar to rubbery tofu but definitely different. I chewed thoughtfully, trying to decide if I liked it or not.
"Want to know what it is?"
"Sure, but I would have eaten it anyway," I said. What could it be? I thought. Weird eggs? Some rice concoction? Pig fat? Hoofs? Eyes? Brains?
"It's duck's blood."
I swallowed.
"Oh."
Ah, Taiwan. It wasn't that bad, for those of you that just cringed and made an "ew!" face. Not that I'm saying I'm going to go searching for it.
Other news. Chinese class is going really well, I'm one of the better students in the class and I have a lot of fun whenever I go. I'm learning as quickly as I can but it's pretty hard, though interesting. Shui jiao, pronounced Shoe-way jaow, can be said several different ways. The funniest of which are sleep, and dumpling. Imagine the look you would give someone if they ordered "Ten sleeps please, to go." I must also say that writing Chinese characters is really fun; it's really more like drawing than writing, though. Very satisfying to have a character come out nice and neat and proportioned. Soon I'll be able to write sentences that don't consist of "I want this" or "Who is she?" I think once I get the sentence mechanics down a little better the vocab will be easier.
Next time: My Chinese name and how to say it, how to curse in Chinese, some of my favorite Chinese-English direct translations, and some photos of the kids I teach.
Until then, stay safe you crazy kids. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-It's considered healthy to eat the bones of animals.
-Tuna for breakfast is badass.
-Turkmenistan is a crazy, crazy place.
-The ex-President of Taiwain is under arrest for corruption and money laundering.
-Taichung means "Middle City."
-According to some Chinese KTV song, Happy is a verb.
-Persimmons look like tomatoes, and I never knew that.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Don't Tread On Me
Hey Folks,
This entry is going to take a bit of a break from my normal Taiwanese story-telling, and rightfully so considering the events of the last 24 hours or so.
It has been quite interesting viewing the American election from this far away and surrounded by people that are not from the USA. Literally the whole world has been watching, waiting to see who would be next to lead the most powerful nation on Earth. I hope they have found the result as pleasing as I have.
After eight long years under Mr. Bush, I really can't say that I'm sorry to see him go.
For nearly a decade America's foreign policy has been used like a hatchet instead of a scalpel and our image abroad is horribly tarnished. The theory of trying to meet with other nations on the premise of "do what we want or we won't talk to you" is just plain idiotic. Combine that with W's inability to form a complete sentence and an approval rating that made even Richard Nixon look good and you've got a recipe for disaster. So, it's no surprise that things have turned to such an ugly hue these last few months(I believe James Carville called it "the economic cataclysm"). I couldn't follow someone that made me ashamed to say I was an American because of how he presents my country to the world.
Can you blame me? Eight years of that man and all the bullshit he represents and now...no more. There is something about Barack Obama that I can find faith in, that I believe in. I have never said that about any politician ever. Watching his victory speech today was wonderful, I was captivated. It was the first time in a long time that I felt truly patriotic, truly happy to say "Yes, I am an American" without fearing the stigma of a cowboy hat-wearing, beer swilling, gun carrying hedonist. Being an American is about more than that and Obama reminded us all, especially today, what that is: we are a country together. It brought tears to my eyes seeing the people gathered in Grant Park, Ill. Every age, every ethnicity, every gender, together for one common purpose. I saw hope, genuine hope and it was overwhelming. It was as if they were all saying "Finally, something, someone, we can believe in. Something we can trust, someone to give us hope."
It was beautiful.
Now, I'm no political expert, I'm not a pundit, I don't have a political science degree or even a respectable grasp on politics in general, but I know what I saw today. Today I saw history. Not the first black president of the USA, it goes deeper than that. Today I saw the culmination of people willing to band together for something greater than theirselves, something more grand and meaningful. A campaign for the ages. The US has seen ups and downs of every nature and in many ways it will always be divided. But today I saw a different America than the last eight years. Today I saw what it could be, what it should be, what it wants to be: a place of prosperity, of unity, of hope. A place of peace. In those people's eyes I saw a yearning for something better and the dawning realization that maybe, just maybe, the door has been opened and the path revealed. Perhaps just a glimpse, but its a start nonetheless.
Forgive my paraphrasing and editorialising but Obama said it right when he said that yes I won, here I am at the finish line and the highest office in the country; and all because of you. We won today, together. But it doesn't stop here, the hardest part still lies ahead and we musn't shrink from the hardhip of that road. We have a duty to each other and to the world to rebuild our country piece by piece, and make it whole again. I agree. It won't be easy, it won't be immediate, it won't be convenient; but I think that's ok, I think America is ready for the challenge.
Today I saw the recognition of that and the willingness to try. That ironclad American ideal of work, of sweat and blood and tears to get the job done and it seems to surface right when we need it most. Today I saw the hope for a better future, for a better world, all we need do is try. And alongside that hope, I saw pride. A deep, human pride that shouts of accomplishment, of resilience. "Yes we can" became "Yes we did."
And now I say:
"Yes we will."
Here's to four years of hope.
--n
This entry is going to take a bit of a break from my normal Taiwanese story-telling, and rightfully so considering the events of the last 24 hours or so.
It has been quite interesting viewing the American election from this far away and surrounded by people that are not from the USA. Literally the whole world has been watching, waiting to see who would be next to lead the most powerful nation on Earth. I hope they have found the result as pleasing as I have.
After eight long years under Mr. Bush, I really can't say that I'm sorry to see him go.
For nearly a decade America's foreign policy has been used like a hatchet instead of a scalpel and our image abroad is horribly tarnished. The theory of trying to meet with other nations on the premise of "do what we want or we won't talk to you" is just plain idiotic. Combine that with W's inability to form a complete sentence and an approval rating that made even Richard Nixon look good and you've got a recipe for disaster. So, it's no surprise that things have turned to such an ugly hue these last few months(I believe James Carville called it "the economic cataclysm"). I couldn't follow someone that made me ashamed to say I was an American because of how he presents my country to the world.
Can you blame me? Eight years of that man and all the bullshit he represents and now...no more. There is something about Barack Obama that I can find faith in, that I believe in. I have never said that about any politician ever. Watching his victory speech today was wonderful, I was captivated. It was the first time in a long time that I felt truly patriotic, truly happy to say "Yes, I am an American" without fearing the stigma of a cowboy hat-wearing, beer swilling, gun carrying hedonist. Being an American is about more than that and Obama reminded us all, especially today, what that is: we are a country together. It brought tears to my eyes seeing the people gathered in Grant Park, Ill. Every age, every ethnicity, every gender, together for one common purpose. I saw hope, genuine hope and it was overwhelming. It was as if they were all saying "Finally, something, someone, we can believe in. Something we can trust, someone to give us hope."
It was beautiful.
Now, I'm no political expert, I'm not a pundit, I don't have a political science degree or even a respectable grasp on politics in general, but I know what I saw today. Today I saw history. Not the first black president of the USA, it goes deeper than that. Today I saw the culmination of people willing to band together for something greater than theirselves, something more grand and meaningful. A campaign for the ages. The US has seen ups and downs of every nature and in many ways it will always be divided. But today I saw a different America than the last eight years. Today I saw what it could be, what it should be, what it wants to be: a place of prosperity, of unity, of hope. A place of peace. In those people's eyes I saw a yearning for something better and the dawning realization that maybe, just maybe, the door has been opened and the path revealed. Perhaps just a glimpse, but its a start nonetheless.
Forgive my paraphrasing and editorialising but Obama said it right when he said that yes I won, here I am at the finish line and the highest office in the country; and all because of you. We won today, together. But it doesn't stop here, the hardest part still lies ahead and we musn't shrink from the hardhip of that road. We have a duty to each other and to the world to rebuild our country piece by piece, and make it whole again. I agree. It won't be easy, it won't be immediate, it won't be convenient; but I think that's ok, I think America is ready for the challenge.
Today I saw the recognition of that and the willingness to try. That ironclad American ideal of work, of sweat and blood and tears to get the job done and it seems to surface right when we need it most. Today I saw the hope for a better future, for a better world, all we need do is try. And alongside that hope, I saw pride. A deep, human pride that shouts of accomplishment, of resilience. "Yes we can" became "Yes we did."
And now I say:
"Yes we will."
Here's to four years of hope.
--n
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Orchid Island Day II
Howdy folks,
Day II of OI, as promised, sits below. Forgive any mistake or incoherencies, I woke up on my couch at 6am this morning with no pants on and a light wallet; life in the city.
On Saturday morning I woke up for the day around 8am or so, and crawled out of the tent into the hazy tropical morning. The air was still cool from the night before and a good wind was blowing from the north. Fresh air always makes a hangover feel better. On the ground less than ten feet from tent was Jon, slumbering peacefully in his sleeping bag after a night in the open air. Delightful.
Within thirty minutes or so the rest of our six person crew was up and ready for another day. Breakfast, we heard, was to be had at place in the next village down the coast to the south. No showers for us, we were on vacation! Five minutes on the scooters brought us to one of the nameless groupings of shantys and three story concrete fortresses. A black stray dog sat disconsolately on the front steps of said breakfast establishment, afflicted with what looked like mange and a small armada of flies. It seemed that everyone else that was touring the island got there right before we did so we didn't see our food for about an hour. I passed the time sitting on the side of the street watching the stray dog beg for food and pry open old food boxes with practiced ease to get at the tasty bits inside.
Then it was back to the home base for a few for a nap and some frisbee. Jon and Jay drove north the harbor village and rented us some snorkeling gear from the only snorkel guy there was. Back down to the beach and across to the coral reef. At first I thought the reef at the far end of the beach was bed rock, the bones of the island jutting out and down into the sea. But, once I got closer it became clear the formations were, now, fossilised coral. Walking on top of that stuff was what I've pictured alien planets being like: sparing vegetation only in select places, razor sharp coral beneath my feet, and the turquoise ocean slamming into the reef, coral spideres skittering across its sheer surface like creepy spiders (shudder). We strutted around for around half an hour looking for a place to jump in and explore the reef under the water and hoping the tide wouldn't come in and wash away our stuff.
Eventually, success. Of course, the water was fantastic again, if a little surgy. In my photos I have online of the campsite, that huge boulder thingy on the right side of the sunset photo, that's where we snorkeled. Right next to the behemoth and all around the area between it and the reef. Nice. I'd say my days snorkeling in the Florida Keys were much better as far as stuff to see, but this was still pretty cool. Some seargant majors, a grouper or two...pretty much the only fish I could identify. Jay and Allie swam out past the behemoth to the ocean side and then quickly came back as the current picked up quite a bit; nothing ruins a good vacation than a nice, strong rip tide. We stayed closer to the shore/reef...except Brian. He was a bit away from the group and didn't hear the news. For a few scary minutes we thought he was gone for good until Jay spotted his snorkel coming back around the corner. Jay went out to make sure Brian got back ok and the rest of us stayed behind...much to our disappointment. On his way out to Brian Jay came across a manta ray about eight feet across; thats a big guy ladies and gents, considering most of us saw fish no bigger than a softball. Some guys have all the luck.
After the snorkel it was nap time, some snacks and recouperation time. Lunch was ordered in the harbor village in a small restaurant with a menu that Jon couldn't quite decipher despite his prowess with Chinese. So, we reverted back to what all of us did our first few weeks in country: smile, point, nod. It worked. I got noodles of some kind with some beef bits, reminded me of linguine. Allie's noodles looked like alien seaweed or soggy fiber optic cables only with the glow.
No thanks.
Rested, eaten, energized, ready to rock 'n roll. It was back on the scooters and this time we turned our eyes north with cameras on our backs and snorkel gear in hand, just in case a spot looked particularly inviting. Which none of them did. The very second we rounded the bend to the north side of the island we got hit by the wind, which went from a nice breeze to a snarling animal in a blink of an eye. As this was a pretty nice day for the most part it wasn't surprising that there were considerably fewer villages out here. If this was a nice day, what's it like on a bad day? I've been through two typhoons and even in the heart of a city it was a bit scary; I can't imagine enduring the unbridled fury of such a storm in a hovel made from sheet metal and driftwood boards held down with rocks. There were also less scooters and combined with the fewer indigenous people, the north side of OI felt much more wild, almost jungle like. We stopped here and there to take in some sights, one of which was a big cave mouth that led to a dank interior with water dripping from the ceiling. A wooden cross jammed into a pile of rocks lurked in the rear of the cave, which branched off in a few other directions. I've seen how this movie ends, the curious dude with the sarcastic wit and nice camera is the first to go...wait, that's me!
Back out into the sunshine, thank you very much. We saw a lot of goats on the north side but they were usually pretty distant, sitting or prancing about high up on those crazy steep slopes they call home. The ocean up here would have been a snorkeling nightmare so we bagged that idea and headed home. Dinner was at the Epicurean which had English menus, score! A bottle of beer and some fried pork chops later I was feeling pretty great. Some whiskey sent me to bed; almost outside on the grass, but I left that to Jon. Too bad it started raining so he had to crawl into the tent at around 2am. I was the only one to wake up for a possible sunrise on Sunday morning so I went back to sleep as it looked cloudy anyway.
A morning swim, a dreadful tasting motion sickness pill called "Bomit," no I'm not joking, and it was back onto the ferry at 10.30am. The ride back to the mainland was considerably better than the way out. I stayed up on the top deck for awhile to say good-bye to Orchy, which slowly disappeared into the hazy distance. I saw some flying fish popping out the water as the boat motored for Kenting. Very strange animals. How come there aren't birds with gills or fins?
Then...then it was time for another maniac driver. I think there is a secret lunatic-driving school somewhere and all these guys could be professors. Instead of our driver from two days before we were picked up by two cabs, one of which already had two people in it. Shady. And definitely the scariest car ride on the planet. Emily drives her car with her knees and I never got that used to it but this cab driver...holy shit. For one thing he had those terrible, mossy, red teeth that comes from Betel Nut addiction. For those of you in the know he could have been an asian version of the Baron Harkonnen...fat (rare for Taiwan), ugly, and weird. I had to ride shotgun and sit right next to him. Joy. No big deal, except we were driving 120km/hr at least the whole way and he used the break down/scooter lane to pass at least a dozen cars with considerable regularity. Smoky and the Bandit comes to mind, this guy was driving like his pants were on fire. Holiday traffic sucks just as much here as it does back home and we hit a pretty good amount, lengthening out ride to a bit over 2 hours, even at lunatic speeds.
I had been placed in charge of counting how many betel nut's Captain Lunatic ate while we drove. Although I dozed off a few times I counted around eight or so. Keep in mind, betel nut is very similar to chewing tobacco and we were in the car for over two hours.
He didn't spit once.
Getting bus tickets from Kaohsiung (Gaow-shung) was like being at the circus. There must have been thousands of people all trying to get out of Kaohsiung in the next few hours and every bus was full and/or had an 80 person waiting list just to ask for tickets. Yet, Jon still found tickets...what a guy. Some weird flower lady street-urchin type pulled him to a booth and we scored tickets for a bus to Taichung. Right, cool, another good chair and an easy ride.
Hah.
The seats filled first, then the aisle, and then there were people sitting in the baggage area on the bottom level of the bus (seats are on 2nd level). Did I mention the ride to Taichung was five hours or so because of traffic and endless stops at nameless bus stops that could almost be put into the arm-pit areas of Los Angeles? At least I had a seat.
Next time: Halloween in Asia, yea they 'celebrate' it here too. Cheese, and how much I miss it. And other things of note I can't think of just now. Give me a break I didn't really sleep last night :D.
Take care of yourselves, as always.
Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Thai food is really spicy.
-Mindless gameshows are just as mind numbing even if you can't understand what anyone is saying, or what they are doing, or anything else.
-Driving a car in Taiwain should be Jason Statham's next movie: Death Race II.
-Shrimp chips are weird!
-The temperature here is still around 28 when I go to bed at night, which is still in the 80's for you English system types.
Day II of OI, as promised, sits below. Forgive any mistake or incoherencies, I woke up on my couch at 6am this morning with no pants on and a light wallet; life in the city.
On Saturday morning I woke up for the day around 8am or so, and crawled out of the tent into the hazy tropical morning. The air was still cool from the night before and a good wind was blowing from the north. Fresh air always makes a hangover feel better. On the ground less than ten feet from tent was Jon, slumbering peacefully in his sleeping bag after a night in the open air. Delightful.
Within thirty minutes or so the rest of our six person crew was up and ready for another day. Breakfast, we heard, was to be had at place in the next village down the coast to the south. No showers for us, we were on vacation! Five minutes on the scooters brought us to one of the nameless groupings of shantys and three story concrete fortresses. A black stray dog sat disconsolately on the front steps of said breakfast establishment, afflicted with what looked like mange and a small armada of flies. It seemed that everyone else that was touring the island got there right before we did so we didn't see our food for about an hour. I passed the time sitting on the side of the street watching the stray dog beg for food and pry open old food boxes with practiced ease to get at the tasty bits inside.
Then it was back to the home base for a few for a nap and some frisbee. Jon and Jay drove north the harbor village and rented us some snorkeling gear from the only snorkel guy there was. Back down to the beach and across to the coral reef. At first I thought the reef at the far end of the beach was bed rock, the bones of the island jutting out and down into the sea. But, once I got closer it became clear the formations were, now, fossilised coral. Walking on top of that stuff was what I've pictured alien planets being like: sparing vegetation only in select places, razor sharp coral beneath my feet, and the turquoise ocean slamming into the reef, coral spideres skittering across its sheer surface like creepy spiders (shudder). We strutted around for around half an hour looking for a place to jump in and explore the reef under the water and hoping the tide wouldn't come in and wash away our stuff.
Eventually, success. Of course, the water was fantastic again, if a little surgy. In my photos I have online of the campsite, that huge boulder thingy on the right side of the sunset photo, that's where we snorkeled. Right next to the behemoth and all around the area between it and the reef. Nice. I'd say my days snorkeling in the Florida Keys were much better as far as stuff to see, but this was still pretty cool. Some seargant majors, a grouper or two...pretty much the only fish I could identify. Jay and Allie swam out past the behemoth to the ocean side and then quickly came back as the current picked up quite a bit; nothing ruins a good vacation than a nice, strong rip tide. We stayed closer to the shore/reef...except Brian. He was a bit away from the group and didn't hear the news. For a few scary minutes we thought he was gone for good until Jay spotted his snorkel coming back around the corner. Jay went out to make sure Brian got back ok and the rest of us stayed behind...much to our disappointment. On his way out to Brian Jay came across a manta ray about eight feet across; thats a big guy ladies and gents, considering most of us saw fish no bigger than a softball. Some guys have all the luck.
After the snorkel it was nap time, some snacks and recouperation time. Lunch was ordered in the harbor village in a small restaurant with a menu that Jon couldn't quite decipher despite his prowess with Chinese. So, we reverted back to what all of us did our first few weeks in country: smile, point, nod. It worked. I got noodles of some kind with some beef bits, reminded me of linguine. Allie's noodles looked like alien seaweed or soggy fiber optic cables only with the glow.
No thanks.
Rested, eaten, energized, ready to rock 'n roll. It was back on the scooters and this time we turned our eyes north with cameras on our backs and snorkel gear in hand, just in case a spot looked particularly inviting. Which none of them did. The very second we rounded the bend to the north side of the island we got hit by the wind, which went from a nice breeze to a snarling animal in a blink of an eye. As this was a pretty nice day for the most part it wasn't surprising that there were considerably fewer villages out here. If this was a nice day, what's it like on a bad day? I've been through two typhoons and even in the heart of a city it was a bit scary; I can't imagine enduring the unbridled fury of such a storm in a hovel made from sheet metal and driftwood boards held down with rocks. There were also less scooters and combined with the fewer indigenous people, the north side of OI felt much more wild, almost jungle like. We stopped here and there to take in some sights, one of which was a big cave mouth that led to a dank interior with water dripping from the ceiling. A wooden cross jammed into a pile of rocks lurked in the rear of the cave, which branched off in a few other directions. I've seen how this movie ends, the curious dude with the sarcastic wit and nice camera is the first to go...wait, that's me!
Back out into the sunshine, thank you very much. We saw a lot of goats on the north side but they were usually pretty distant, sitting or prancing about high up on those crazy steep slopes they call home. The ocean up here would have been a snorkeling nightmare so we bagged that idea and headed home. Dinner was at the Epicurean which had English menus, score! A bottle of beer and some fried pork chops later I was feeling pretty great. Some whiskey sent me to bed; almost outside on the grass, but I left that to Jon. Too bad it started raining so he had to crawl into the tent at around 2am. I was the only one to wake up for a possible sunrise on Sunday morning so I went back to sleep as it looked cloudy anyway.
A morning swim, a dreadful tasting motion sickness pill called "Bomit," no I'm not joking, and it was back onto the ferry at 10.30am. The ride back to the mainland was considerably better than the way out. I stayed up on the top deck for awhile to say good-bye to Orchy, which slowly disappeared into the hazy distance. I saw some flying fish popping out the water as the boat motored for Kenting. Very strange animals. How come there aren't birds with gills or fins?
Then...then it was time for another maniac driver. I think there is a secret lunatic-driving school somewhere and all these guys could be professors. Instead of our driver from two days before we were picked up by two cabs, one of which already had two people in it. Shady. And definitely the scariest car ride on the planet. Emily drives her car with her knees and I never got that used to it but this cab driver...holy shit. For one thing he had those terrible, mossy, red teeth that comes from Betel Nut addiction. For those of you in the know he could have been an asian version of the Baron Harkonnen...fat (rare for Taiwan), ugly, and weird. I had to ride shotgun and sit right next to him. Joy. No big deal, except we were driving 120km/hr at least the whole way and he used the break down/scooter lane to pass at least a dozen cars with considerable regularity. Smoky and the Bandit comes to mind, this guy was driving like his pants were on fire. Holiday traffic sucks just as much here as it does back home and we hit a pretty good amount, lengthening out ride to a bit over 2 hours, even at lunatic speeds.
I had been placed in charge of counting how many betel nut's Captain Lunatic ate while we drove. Although I dozed off a few times I counted around eight or so. Keep in mind, betel nut is very similar to chewing tobacco and we were in the car for over two hours.
He didn't spit once.
Getting bus tickets from Kaohsiung (Gaow-shung) was like being at the circus. There must have been thousands of people all trying to get out of Kaohsiung in the next few hours and every bus was full and/or had an 80 person waiting list just to ask for tickets. Yet, Jon still found tickets...what a guy. Some weird flower lady street-urchin type pulled him to a booth and we scored tickets for a bus to Taichung. Right, cool, another good chair and an easy ride.
Hah.
The seats filled first, then the aisle, and then there were people sitting in the baggage area on the bottom level of the bus (seats are on 2nd level). Did I mention the ride to Taichung was five hours or so because of traffic and endless stops at nameless bus stops that could almost be put into the arm-pit areas of Los Angeles? At least I had a seat.
Next time: Halloween in Asia, yea they 'celebrate' it here too. Cheese, and how much I miss it. And other things of note I can't think of just now. Give me a break I didn't really sleep last night :D.
Take care of yourselves, as always.
Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Thai food is really spicy.
-Mindless gameshows are just as mind numbing even if you can't understand what anyone is saying, or what they are doing, or anything else.
-Driving a car in Taiwain should be Jason Statham's next movie: Death Race II.
-Shrimp chips are weird!
-The temperature here is still around 28 when I go to bed at night, which is still in the 80's for you English system types.
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
10/10 Vacation
Hey Folks,
I hope this entry finds you all as well as can be considering the state of affairs back in the US. Good ol' W. sure is leaving a whopper of a problem for our next president, aye?
I'll get right down to it, last weekend was bloody fantastic. October tenth is a holiday here in Taiwan and celebrates the conception of the country, I believe. Anyway, all of us teachers had a nice long three day weekend to enjoy ourselves, from Friday to Sunday. As Saturday is a work day as well over here, for most it was a welcome break (I have the rarity of Saturdays off). Believe you me, we took full advantage of our time off.
Thursday night, the 9th, I got out of work around 9pm and motored straight home, grabbing a box of fried noodles on the way. I wolfed down my dinner and then hurriedly packed a bag, grabbed my camera and by 10:30 I was back out the door. It was a short drive over to Jon's place where I met up with three more of my fellow travelers. Brian, an Aussie, always seems to have a beer in his hand and smile on his face. Lauren, South Africa; and, of course, the Jon9000 himself. We took a cab to the bus station and met up with Allie and Jay, two more teachers. Then came the bus.
Ah, Taiwan.
For a little more than $10 US I got my own enormous, electrically reclining seat on a bus with only 17 other people. I had my own TV where I could watch television, movies, and I think there were some video games of sorts. I even got my own blanket. Delightful. If a bus could be first class, this was it. Jon sat next to me and around midnight we departed for our three hour ride to Kiaohsiung (pronounced G-aow-shung). We nursed a bottle of whiskey and reminisced about the good old days, napped a bit. Around 3am we arrived outside downtown Kiaohsiung and hoofed a short walk up the street to a 24 hour Mos Burger. For those of you that just said to yourselves "What the hell is Mos Burger?", it's a Japanese fast food burger joint. Beef and fried fish sandwiches, an awesome teriyaki chicken sandwich...and some other weird stuff I don't want any part of. How the hell do you make a 'rice burger'?
We spend the next two and a half hours here, playing cards, eating some food and waiting for our driver to come pick us up. Now, I know the word 'driver' may conjure up some images of a limosouine or something, but it was anything but that. First of all he was 30 minutes late and he drove a beat up blue van. Inside of which the very back seat, the one I shared with Allie and Lauren, broke after five minutes on the road. It wasn't surprising, really, this guy drove like a lunatic. I know that I've mentioned how crazy the drivers are here in the past, but this dude was something else. I saw some cool landscapes as he drove us from Kiaohsiung to Kenting, but he ws driving so fast I couldn't take any decent pictures. I heard that it was a two hour drive to Kenting, so when he picked us up at nearly 6am I was worried we would miss our 8am ferry.
He drove it in 50 minutes.
The ferry harbor was pretty cool, a lot of boats the likes of which I've never seen before. Wind power wind mills sat in the hazy distance just beyond green hills. The ferry itself seemed pretty solid, if expensive ($30 US each way). I didn't expect much in the way of sea sickness unless we hit some serious chop out on the open water; which we did. It was a very long two hours out to the island. Luckily I brought my mp3 player so I could put on soothing music and try not to think about my stomach, or food, or fluids, or the dozens of Taiwanese people around me all vomiting into plastic bags. But, once we got there and I stepped off the ferry...wow.
Never in my life had I been so overwhelmed, so moved by a landscape. I dare say that I was on the verge of tears at its beauty; something I had been waiting for and wanting to see my whole life. The sea was a deep, cobalt blue, with patches of rich turquoise closer to shore. Grayish black coral reefs marched out of its briny depths to meet the bottoms of several mountains that seemed to rise right out of the water. I have no idea how tall they were, but their amazingly green bulk dominated the island.
We grabbed our rental scooters, filled up the tanks and headed off down the only road for a weekend of good times. I hadn't ridden on a scooter without a brain bucket until then and it was strangely liberating, if a little scary. We camped literally in the yard of a school, setting up our tents in the grassy area inside the outdoor track. Lunch was had at one of the few actual restaurants on the island, in the village between us and the harbor. I say village because that's what it was, not a town. Roosters and stray dogs wandered the dusty streets between concrete homes and ranshackle tin sheds. A few pigs even strutted around, just for good measure. Did I mention there are also wild goats everywhere else?
I think this was the first time that I had been swimming in any ocean in October, and it was glorious. The beach was nice...but very different than what I was used to. It was mostly cobblestone instead of sand and there was a lot of driftwood, a lot of trash, and even a dead goat that probably got caught in the last typhoon. However! The water was absolutely wonderful, nice and warm and clear as glass. For awhile I sat in a sheltered cove area with fish the size of my palm swimming around me while I chewed the fat with Brian. During his story about his discovery of an amazing American drinking game that invloves solo cups and ping pong balls, a few goats waltzed by, stopping now and then to size us up.
After our dip we spent some time exploring the island, scootering around and taking photos of just about everything. At one point we were going down a stretch of road in between villages and in the short grass on the shoulder I saw a huge crab. As we zoomed by it gnashed it pincers at me as if to say "Yea you better keep going pal!" But we didn't. I made everyone turn around so I could snap a few pictures of my new, surly friend. Right after I jumped off the back of the scooter and pulled my camera out a local dude in a wet suit and life vest screeched to a halt right behind us. His whole face was lit up like it was Christmas and he kept saying "Hao suh! Hao suh!", which with the Taiwanese accent means "Good to eat." He's the dude in my Flickr and Facebook photos who is holding the crab up for us to see. Once he figured we had a good look at it he said thank you to us, popped the boot (trunk space under the seat), dropped the crab inside, shut it, then zoomed off. What a guy.
That night around 11 of us gathered on the same beach and made a driftwood fire that we enjoyed and then let burn down. Good hot driftwood coals grilled up our pork, whole fish, and prawns. It was a cool night on tropical island in the South Pacific Ocean, with the moon shining down, a beer in my hand, a belly full of awesome food, and another two days of vacation. The waves lapped gently against the rocks and I stared at the stars, and smiled, not a care in the world.
Next time: Day 2 on Orchid Island (Lanyu for you googlemappers). Snorkeling around the reef and when we thought we lost Brian. Why the north side of the island feels way more tropical and the stuff we saw there. The trial of trying to get home and yet another lunatic driving us around.
Take it easy, kids. Keep it real. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Wild goats are cool.
-Crabs on Orchid Island remind me too much of spiders.
-It's apparently a good idea to have a cooking show on TV during a 2 hour ferry ride in rough seas.
-There are eight mountains over 400 m high on the island, the tallest mountain is Mt. Hongtoushan (552m) (Wikipedia :P)
-Rented scooters come with an empty gas tank.
-Most people on the island are farmers that grow Taro or are fishermen.
-All cats have three names.
I hope this entry finds you all as well as can be considering the state of affairs back in the US. Good ol' W. sure is leaving a whopper of a problem for our next president, aye?
I'll get right down to it, last weekend was bloody fantastic. October tenth is a holiday here in Taiwan and celebrates the conception of the country, I believe. Anyway, all of us teachers had a nice long three day weekend to enjoy ourselves, from Friday to Sunday. As Saturday is a work day as well over here, for most it was a welcome break (I have the rarity of Saturdays off). Believe you me, we took full advantage of our time off.
Thursday night, the 9th, I got out of work around 9pm and motored straight home, grabbing a box of fried noodles on the way. I wolfed down my dinner and then hurriedly packed a bag, grabbed my camera and by 10:30 I was back out the door. It was a short drive over to Jon's place where I met up with three more of my fellow travelers. Brian, an Aussie, always seems to have a beer in his hand and smile on his face. Lauren, South Africa; and, of course, the Jon9000 himself. We took a cab to the bus station and met up with Allie and Jay, two more teachers. Then came the bus.
Ah, Taiwan.
For a little more than $10 US I got my own enormous, electrically reclining seat on a bus with only 17 other people. I had my own TV where I could watch television, movies, and I think there were some video games of sorts. I even got my own blanket. Delightful. If a bus could be first class, this was it. Jon sat next to me and around midnight we departed for our three hour ride to Kiaohsiung (pronounced G-aow-shung). We nursed a bottle of whiskey and reminisced about the good old days, napped a bit. Around 3am we arrived outside downtown Kiaohsiung and hoofed a short walk up the street to a 24 hour Mos Burger. For those of you that just said to yourselves "What the hell is Mos Burger?", it's a Japanese fast food burger joint. Beef and fried fish sandwiches, an awesome teriyaki chicken sandwich...and some other weird stuff I don't want any part of. How the hell do you make a 'rice burger'?
We spend the next two and a half hours here, playing cards, eating some food and waiting for our driver to come pick us up. Now, I know the word 'driver' may conjure up some images of a limosouine or something, but it was anything but that. First of all he was 30 minutes late and he drove a beat up blue van. Inside of which the very back seat, the one I shared with Allie and Lauren, broke after five minutes on the road. It wasn't surprising, really, this guy drove like a lunatic. I know that I've mentioned how crazy the drivers are here in the past, but this dude was something else. I saw some cool landscapes as he drove us from Kiaohsiung to Kenting, but he ws driving so fast I couldn't take any decent pictures. I heard that it was a two hour drive to Kenting, so when he picked us up at nearly 6am I was worried we would miss our 8am ferry.
He drove it in 50 minutes.
The ferry harbor was pretty cool, a lot of boats the likes of which I've never seen before. Wind power wind mills sat in the hazy distance just beyond green hills. The ferry itself seemed pretty solid, if expensive ($30 US each way). I didn't expect much in the way of sea sickness unless we hit some serious chop out on the open water; which we did. It was a very long two hours out to the island. Luckily I brought my mp3 player so I could put on soothing music and try not to think about my stomach, or food, or fluids, or the dozens of Taiwanese people around me all vomiting into plastic bags. But, once we got there and I stepped off the ferry...wow.
Never in my life had I been so overwhelmed, so moved by a landscape. I dare say that I was on the verge of tears at its beauty; something I had been waiting for and wanting to see my whole life. The sea was a deep, cobalt blue, with patches of rich turquoise closer to shore. Grayish black coral reefs marched out of its briny depths to meet the bottoms of several mountains that seemed to rise right out of the water. I have no idea how tall they were, but their amazingly green bulk dominated the island.
We grabbed our rental scooters, filled up the tanks and headed off down the only road for a weekend of good times. I hadn't ridden on a scooter without a brain bucket until then and it was strangely liberating, if a little scary. We camped literally in the yard of a school, setting up our tents in the grassy area inside the outdoor track. Lunch was had at one of the few actual restaurants on the island, in the village between us and the harbor. I say village because that's what it was, not a town. Roosters and stray dogs wandered the dusty streets between concrete homes and ranshackle tin sheds. A few pigs even strutted around, just for good measure. Did I mention there are also wild goats everywhere else?
I think this was the first time that I had been swimming in any ocean in October, and it was glorious. The beach was nice...but very different than what I was used to. It was mostly cobblestone instead of sand and there was a lot of driftwood, a lot of trash, and even a dead goat that probably got caught in the last typhoon. However! The water was absolutely wonderful, nice and warm and clear as glass. For awhile I sat in a sheltered cove area with fish the size of my palm swimming around me while I chewed the fat with Brian. During his story about his discovery of an amazing American drinking game that invloves solo cups and ping pong balls, a few goats waltzed by, stopping now and then to size us up.
After our dip we spent some time exploring the island, scootering around and taking photos of just about everything. At one point we were going down a stretch of road in between villages and in the short grass on the shoulder I saw a huge crab. As we zoomed by it gnashed it pincers at me as if to say "Yea you better keep going pal!" But we didn't. I made everyone turn around so I could snap a few pictures of my new, surly friend. Right after I jumped off the back of the scooter and pulled my camera out a local dude in a wet suit and life vest screeched to a halt right behind us. His whole face was lit up like it was Christmas and he kept saying "Hao suh! Hao suh!", which with the Taiwanese accent means "Good to eat." He's the dude in my Flickr and Facebook photos who is holding the crab up for us to see. Once he figured we had a good look at it he said thank you to us, popped the boot (trunk space under the seat), dropped the crab inside, shut it, then zoomed off. What a guy.
That night around 11 of us gathered on the same beach and made a driftwood fire that we enjoyed and then let burn down. Good hot driftwood coals grilled up our pork, whole fish, and prawns. It was a cool night on tropical island in the South Pacific Ocean, with the moon shining down, a beer in my hand, a belly full of awesome food, and another two days of vacation. The waves lapped gently against the rocks and I stared at the stars, and smiled, not a care in the world.
Next time: Day 2 on Orchid Island (Lanyu for you googlemappers). Snorkeling around the reef and when we thought we lost Brian. Why the north side of the island feels way more tropical and the stuff we saw there. The trial of trying to get home and yet another lunatic driving us around.
Take it easy, kids. Keep it real. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Wild goats are cool.
-Crabs on Orchid Island remind me too much of spiders.
-It's apparently a good idea to have a cooking show on TV during a 2 hour ferry ride in rough seas.
-There are eight mountains over 400 m high on the island, the tallest mountain is Mt. Hongtoushan (552m) (Wikipedia :P)
-Rented scooters come with an empty gas tank.
-Most people on the island are farmers that grow Taro or are fishermen.
-All cats have three names.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Here we go again
Hey Folks,
This new entry is long overdue and seeing as I don't have class today I figure it's about time I wrote it. Last time I told you about typhoon Sinlaku and the craziness that came out of its visit toTaiwan. Well, typhoon Jingmi is outside my window right now, hanging around like an unwelcome guest. Yesterday the wind was gusting anywhere from 70-100mph+ depending on where you were. I personally witnessed this as me and a couple other guys sat at the "typhoon checkpoint"; a picnic table outside the OK mart down on the street. Crashes and bangs in the distance were frequent, tree branches flew by us a few times, and a scooter tipped over. The sign for the Ji- pai dude (deep fried chicken breast) was shaking and shucking and jiving in the ridiculous wind the whole afternoon to the point where we moved the table in case it fell over.
Which it did about two hours later.
I spent a good hour standing in my bedroom with my camera ready, staring out my windows for anything wild. I got a few photos worth mentioning, like the dude up the street who was arc welding steel framework behind a billboard to keep the rest of it upright (some was already lying on the sidewalk). I guess he got paid enough money to stand on a second story roof in the middle of the worst typhoon of the year in the howling wind and driving rain. Kudos to him.
Aside from that I just saw a lot of debris floating around/kicking around the streets. A few nut bags were out on their scooters, having to slow down and stop every fifty feet so the wind didn't level them like a linebacker on a busted screen pass. There were a couple times something went zipping by and crashed into a roof or a building nearby and all I had time to say was : " What the heck was that?" Things that aren't bolted to the ground tend to move rather quickly in a typhoon.
Anyhow, no classes today! Which is nice in the respect that I get to be lazy and lounge around and not really worry about work...but then again that money I don't make and a Chinese class I miss. Oh well.
Two posts ago I promised some new stuff and I have yet to deliver, so here it is! A few weeks ago I was scootering home from work when I got to a police roadblock. These are not uncommon, especially on weekends as they aim to nab drunk drivers and other scum that inhabit the city, if they can. This roadblock was like any other, except for the fact that one of the three cops standing in the middle of rush hour traffic was casually cradling an M16 assault rifle in his arms. For those of you not in the know, click the following link:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/247464/2/istockphoto_247464_m16_assault_rifle.jpg
Yea. Big gun. Ah, the little differences from back home.
Now, the market. It was a weekend afternoon and Jon and I had just had lunch at Fingas, a western style restaurant that allows us to keep our sanity by offering delicious cheeseburgers and the like. Jon wanted to make guacomole and I assented that was a good idea. I followed him down a few side streets and across a canal or two and we were there. Now, I remember seeing farmer's markets back home, usually in the fall to sell apples and corn and butter. But this...this was a completely different animal. Besides the loads of fresh veggies (which make AMAZING guac) there was a whole host of other crazy stuff. Big plastic bins with bubbling water in them housed hundreds of live prawns, which people were purchasing by the bag full. Want some chicken? Sure thing, just choose which one you want from the cage and they'll behead and de-feather it for you right on the spot. Squid? No problem, choose the one you want and the hulking Chinese guy weilding the meat cleaver with eerie precision with dice and bag it up for you. There was any kind of fish you could want, thousands of live clams, tofu, freshly made dumplings, and then the jello weirdness. I'm still a little out of the loop as to what its made out of, but it looks like regular home made Hi-I'm-Bill-Cosby-Let's-Make-Dessert kind of stuff. Except the really dark red kind is made out of blood.
I don't think you can get that one at Hannaford.
Very cool place. Makes me wish I had a kitchen so I could cook.
Ah, yes. Late night Taiwanese TV. Now, I know most if not all of you have witnessed what comes on a lot of channels late at night back in the U.S. and A; even if you won't admit it. Ads for girls, those cheesy sex-talk hotlines, male enhancement pills etc etc. Here, it's not too different...at least in some respects.
Now, bear in mind I don't watch this stuff, really, but its always good for a laugh.
Here, late night TV consists of really graphic male enhancement pill commercials. I mean explicit stuff. As in, the dude is sitting on his bed looking mopey and his wife/girlfriend (always way younger than him) is also looking morose. But, fear not! Pop this magic pill and all will be well. These commericals are as close to softcore pornography as you can get. Not much nudity, really, but lots of under-the-covers humping and focused in camera shots on the girl's face. Really weird. Not quite as odd as the adds for girls, though. These are similar to stuff I've seen back home, except on a much lower budget. They usually consist of an emaciated asian girl who is either scantily clad and walking along a lake front or something, or dancing really, really awkwardly in what looks like someone's basement with a strobe light and some sheets hung up. Weird. And funny because they always look so damn serious about trying to be sexy, and they aren't. One of these days I'll have to get Jon loaded enough to call one of the numbers. Now that would make for a good blog entry.
In general, things are going pretty well. I'm usually the first to get to work and the last to leave, and I don't think that has gone unnoticed. I'm becoming steadily more comfortable with the curriculum material, which is awesome because now I can focus more on classroom management. It's an interesting feeling when I see a student spacing out and all I have to do with stand next to their desk, and instantly, *pow!*, they are so engrossed in their books you'd think their life depended on reading it. I also just recently discovered that I can have them redo parts of their homework if they really botch it, instead of just penalizing them points. Nice.
I'm going to update my Flickr stuff today too so check that out.
Next time: Why Australian football is kickass even if you don't fully understand the game. The bakery near my work and the craziness/deliciousness within. The car accident I witnessed, and anything else of note that happens until next time.
As always, you take it easy campers. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-McDonalds delivers.
-Almost no one here eats cheese.
-I've lost 20 pounds since I got here.
-Spiderman 3 is one of the biggest, multi-million dollar piles of rubbish I've ever seen.
-I can count to 20 in Chinese.
-Betel nut trees are really horrible for the environment as they have extremely shallow roots which in turn cause erosion and mud slides.
-Taiwan's national sport is Baseball.
This new entry is long overdue and seeing as I don't have class today I figure it's about time I wrote it. Last time I told you about typhoon Sinlaku and the craziness that came out of its visit toTaiwan. Well, typhoon Jingmi is outside my window right now, hanging around like an unwelcome guest. Yesterday the wind was gusting anywhere from 70-100mph+ depending on where you were. I personally witnessed this as me and a couple other guys sat at the "typhoon checkpoint"; a picnic table outside the OK mart down on the street. Crashes and bangs in the distance were frequent, tree branches flew by us a few times, and a scooter tipped over. The sign for the Ji- pai dude (deep fried chicken breast) was shaking and shucking and jiving in the ridiculous wind the whole afternoon to the point where we moved the table in case it fell over.
Which it did about two hours later.
I spent a good hour standing in my bedroom with my camera ready, staring out my windows for anything wild. I got a few photos worth mentioning, like the dude up the street who was arc welding steel framework behind a billboard to keep the rest of it upright (some was already lying on the sidewalk). I guess he got paid enough money to stand on a second story roof in the middle of the worst typhoon of the year in the howling wind and driving rain. Kudos to him.
Aside from that I just saw a lot of debris floating around/kicking around the streets. A few nut bags were out on their scooters, having to slow down and stop every fifty feet so the wind didn't level them like a linebacker on a busted screen pass. There were a couple times something went zipping by and crashed into a roof or a building nearby and all I had time to say was : " What the heck was that?" Things that aren't bolted to the ground tend to move rather quickly in a typhoon.
Anyhow, no classes today! Which is nice in the respect that I get to be lazy and lounge around and not really worry about work...but then again that money I don't make and a Chinese class I miss. Oh well.
Two posts ago I promised some new stuff and I have yet to deliver, so here it is! A few weeks ago I was scootering home from work when I got to a police roadblock. These are not uncommon, especially on weekends as they aim to nab drunk drivers and other scum that inhabit the city, if they can. This roadblock was like any other, except for the fact that one of the three cops standing in the middle of rush hour traffic was casually cradling an M16 assault rifle in his arms. For those of you not in the know, click the following link:
http://www.istockphoto.com/file_thumbview_approve/247464/2/istockphoto_247464_m16_assault_rifle.jpg
Yea. Big gun. Ah, the little differences from back home.
Now, the market. It was a weekend afternoon and Jon and I had just had lunch at Fingas, a western style restaurant that allows us to keep our sanity by offering delicious cheeseburgers and the like. Jon wanted to make guacomole and I assented that was a good idea. I followed him down a few side streets and across a canal or two and we were there. Now, I remember seeing farmer's markets back home, usually in the fall to sell apples and corn and butter. But this...this was a completely different animal. Besides the loads of fresh veggies (which make AMAZING guac) there was a whole host of other crazy stuff. Big plastic bins with bubbling water in them housed hundreds of live prawns, which people were purchasing by the bag full. Want some chicken? Sure thing, just choose which one you want from the cage and they'll behead and de-feather it for you right on the spot. Squid? No problem, choose the one you want and the hulking Chinese guy weilding the meat cleaver with eerie precision with dice and bag it up for you. There was any kind of fish you could want, thousands of live clams, tofu, freshly made dumplings, and then the jello weirdness. I'm still a little out of the loop as to what its made out of, but it looks like regular home made Hi-I'm-Bill-Cosby-Let's-Make-Dessert kind of stuff. Except the really dark red kind is made out of blood.
I don't think you can get that one at Hannaford.
Very cool place. Makes me wish I had a kitchen so I could cook.
Ah, yes. Late night Taiwanese TV. Now, I know most if not all of you have witnessed what comes on a lot of channels late at night back in the U.S. and A; even if you won't admit it. Ads for girls, those cheesy sex-talk hotlines, male enhancement pills etc etc. Here, it's not too different...at least in some respects.
Now, bear in mind I don't watch this stuff, really, but its always good for a laugh.
Here, late night TV consists of really graphic male enhancement pill commercials. I mean explicit stuff. As in, the dude is sitting on his bed looking mopey and his wife/girlfriend (always way younger than him) is also looking morose. But, fear not! Pop this magic pill and all will be well. These commericals are as close to softcore pornography as you can get. Not much nudity, really, but lots of under-the-covers humping and focused in camera shots on the girl's face. Really weird. Not quite as odd as the adds for girls, though. These are similar to stuff I've seen back home, except on a much lower budget. They usually consist of an emaciated asian girl who is either scantily clad and walking along a lake front or something, or dancing really, really awkwardly in what looks like someone's basement with a strobe light and some sheets hung up. Weird. And funny because they always look so damn serious about trying to be sexy, and they aren't. One of these days I'll have to get Jon loaded enough to call one of the numbers. Now that would make for a good blog entry.
In general, things are going pretty well. I'm usually the first to get to work and the last to leave, and I don't think that has gone unnoticed. I'm becoming steadily more comfortable with the curriculum material, which is awesome because now I can focus more on classroom management. It's an interesting feeling when I see a student spacing out and all I have to do with stand next to their desk, and instantly, *pow!*, they are so engrossed in their books you'd think their life depended on reading it. I also just recently discovered that I can have them redo parts of their homework if they really botch it, instead of just penalizing them points. Nice.
I'm going to update my Flickr stuff today too so check that out.
Next time: Why Australian football is kickass even if you don't fully understand the game. The bakery near my work and the craziness/deliciousness within. The car accident I witnessed, and anything else of note that happens until next time.
As always, you take it easy campers. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-McDonalds delivers.
-Almost no one here eats cheese.
-I've lost 20 pounds since I got here.
-Spiderman 3 is one of the biggest, multi-million dollar piles of rubbish I've ever seen.
-I can count to 20 in Chinese.
-Betel nut trees are really horrible for the environment as they have extremely shallow roots which in turn cause erosion and mud slides.
-Taiwan's national sport is Baseball.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Into the Maelstrom
Hey Folks,
Things have gotten a little crazy around here on account of Typhoon Sinlaku making landfall over the weekend. Friday was a more or less normal day of class, a bit windy and just a smattering of rain after the sun went down. Well, maybe more than a bit windy. I stood next to an open window in my apartment with a sock in my hand to test the breeze that was coming in (har har get it? wind sock) and it was horizontal and flying around like an epileptic in a disco.
Friday night I went out with a bunch of other Hess teachers to Jogoya, a restaurant on the 11th floor of Taichung Central, a mall type place. I parked my scooter in the basement, expecting I could get it the next morning/afternoon. Dinner was a bit pricey, 636 NT per person ($1US = 30NT) but holy cow was it worth it.
All you can eat, all you can drink. Score.
My boss Shaun and I were the first to arrive and after we got our table he showed me around. There was a massive sushi bar, complete with green noodles, tuna, sailfish, tilapia, oilfish, prawns, snails, and a ton of other stuff I couldn't identify. I re-discovered how much wasabi reminds me of napalm as I mowed these delightful treats of raw fish (the oilfish was far and away the most amazing sushi I've ever eaten), and then we moved on to the fried food. Fried cuttlefish, pumpkin, taro, chicken, and crabs. Yea, crabs. Picture all those little guys you find when you go tide-pooling on the coast that got their claws ripped off and then deep fried. It reminded me of eating crunchy paper, so not that great.
Several more plates of food, including raw oysters, and many, many pitchers of beer later we were asked to leave because they were essentially closed. A short cab ride later and I was at Jon's place with a six pack of Taiwan beer and the rest of the night ahead of me.
I woke up around seven or eight the next morning because the windows were shaking and there was this weird whining howling noise. After going to the window I realized the crazy noises were the wind and rain screaming around the concrete frame of the apartment building at 40 or 50km/hr. Trees danced like lunatics at a rave and rain flew horizontally as if fired from a gun. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Sure, back home I'd seen my fair share of heavy thunderstorms, but this was a completely different animal. No lightning or thunder but my god these clouds were pissed at something.
After lunch I was standing in front of a small doctor's office, after I watched Jon get acupuncture needles inserted into his flesh, enjoying the gusting wind and not really minding the light spray that was coming around the corner. That's when the woman in her yellow poncho appeared, lightly stepping over a deep puddle onto the slick sidewalk tiles. As soon as she did so the wind magnified ten-fold and with mounting horror I watched her slip and slide and skate her away across the ground, trying with all her might to get purchase with her soggy sandals. She was almost at a running speed when she ate shit. She didn't hit the concrete pillar like I thought she was going to, but it was a near thing. Both feet kicked out in front of her and she went down like a sack of potaters. And all I could say was:
"Holy shit!"
She got up and walked away but man, it was brutal looking. Anyway, we spent the afternoon watching British CNN and napping before dinner. A few more hours of drinking followed in celebration of our Typhoon weekend. It was about 3am when most of the beer and all of the whiskey was gone that Jon proposed we go outside. Sure, wind and rain would be fun. But, Dave took it a bit further:
Why not go for a swim?
...
Sure.
I borrowed a pair of shorts from Dave and everyone else changed their clothes and then we headed outside, into the maelstrom. We hopped the gate, out of sight of the security camera, and stripped down to our swimming clothes while trying in some fashion or other to keep at least one article of clothing somewhat dry in the driving rain. The water was fantastic, not nearly as cold as we anticipated; I thought it was warm, but I'm also used to swimming in the Atlantic ocean.
This was one of those moments that I still get from time to time, where I look around and say "Wow, I'm really here." Rain drilled down on top of the pool, whipped to and fro by the angry, howling wind. Hanging lights in the garden around the pool swung back and forth and gave only the faintest illumination on the water. There is nothing quite like drunkenly swimming in an outdoor pool at 3am in the middle of a typhoon with several of your friends.
Oh, stop worring, the water was only chest deep.
Another night on Jon's couch and then breakfast at Early Bird, a really bitchin western-style restaurant. It had been almost two months since I had eggs and toast with a good smattering of tobasco and ketchup...I might have heard angels singing.
Then, I had to get my scooter, which was still parked in the basement of Taichung Central. Supposedly the typhoon is on its way out of town, but it's beating us up before it leaves. The rain was coming down in big sheets of cold drops, once in a while driven by gusts of an angry, howling wind. Every street had standing water on it, there were puddles the size of station wagons everywhere, and in the middle of it all was me. And my scooter.
Rain gear only does so much when its already pouring and you're driving 40km/hr into an equally strong headwind, splashing through puddles and trying to navigate through an army of taxi-cabs. In other words, by the time I got home I was soaked. Well, not entirely; a had a big dry patch on my shirt, but my left pant leg looked like I had an "accident." If I inherited free rain gear with my scooter, am I allowed to complain about the holes in it?
On account of my last entry being an enormous caffiene induced rant, I'll keep this one a bit shorter. Next week I'll touch on the stuff I promised, I just thought some Typhoon Sinlaku news from me would be more interesting than the lunatic kid named Alex with the coke-bottle glasses and a piss poor disposition. I'll get to him later, along with the other stuff.
So for now, stay safe kids, and dry. I need to go see if the chicken guy is open downstairs so I don't have to eat cold noodles from OK mart for dinner. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Raw oysters are weird.
-Stewed snails are awesome.
-Typhoon Sinlaku actually had two "eyes" at one point.
-American movies that are shown on TV here frequently have violence cut out, but not profanity.
-When eating it is considered acceptable to raise your plate/bowl to your mouth and shovel food in.
Things have gotten a little crazy around here on account of Typhoon Sinlaku making landfall over the weekend. Friday was a more or less normal day of class, a bit windy and just a smattering of rain after the sun went down. Well, maybe more than a bit windy. I stood next to an open window in my apartment with a sock in my hand to test the breeze that was coming in (har har get it? wind sock) and it was horizontal and flying around like an epileptic in a disco.
Friday night I went out with a bunch of other Hess teachers to Jogoya, a restaurant on the 11th floor of Taichung Central, a mall type place. I parked my scooter in the basement, expecting I could get it the next morning/afternoon. Dinner was a bit pricey, 636 NT per person ($1US = 30NT) but holy cow was it worth it.
All you can eat, all you can drink. Score.
My boss Shaun and I were the first to arrive and after we got our table he showed me around. There was a massive sushi bar, complete with green noodles, tuna, sailfish, tilapia, oilfish, prawns, snails, and a ton of other stuff I couldn't identify. I re-discovered how much wasabi reminds me of napalm as I mowed these delightful treats of raw fish (the oilfish was far and away the most amazing sushi I've ever eaten), and then we moved on to the fried food. Fried cuttlefish, pumpkin, taro, chicken, and crabs. Yea, crabs. Picture all those little guys you find when you go tide-pooling on the coast that got their claws ripped off and then deep fried. It reminded me of eating crunchy paper, so not that great.
Several more plates of food, including raw oysters, and many, many pitchers of beer later we were asked to leave because they were essentially closed. A short cab ride later and I was at Jon's place with a six pack of Taiwan beer and the rest of the night ahead of me.
I woke up around seven or eight the next morning because the windows were shaking and there was this weird whining howling noise. After going to the window I realized the crazy noises were the wind and rain screaming around the concrete frame of the apartment building at 40 or 50km/hr. Trees danced like lunatics at a rave and rain flew horizontally as if fired from a gun. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Sure, back home I'd seen my fair share of heavy thunderstorms, but this was a completely different animal. No lightning or thunder but my god these clouds were pissed at something.
After lunch I was standing in front of a small doctor's office, after I watched Jon get acupuncture needles inserted into his flesh, enjoying the gusting wind and not really minding the light spray that was coming around the corner. That's when the woman in her yellow poncho appeared, lightly stepping over a deep puddle onto the slick sidewalk tiles. As soon as she did so the wind magnified ten-fold and with mounting horror I watched her slip and slide and skate her away across the ground, trying with all her might to get purchase with her soggy sandals. She was almost at a running speed when she ate shit. She didn't hit the concrete pillar like I thought she was going to, but it was a near thing. Both feet kicked out in front of her and she went down like a sack of potaters. And all I could say was:
"Holy shit!"
She got up and walked away but man, it was brutal looking. Anyway, we spent the afternoon watching British CNN and napping before dinner. A few more hours of drinking followed in celebration of our Typhoon weekend. It was about 3am when most of the beer and all of the whiskey was gone that Jon proposed we go outside. Sure, wind and rain would be fun. But, Dave took it a bit further:
Why not go for a swim?
...
Sure.
I borrowed a pair of shorts from Dave and everyone else changed their clothes and then we headed outside, into the maelstrom. We hopped the gate, out of sight of the security camera, and stripped down to our swimming clothes while trying in some fashion or other to keep at least one article of clothing somewhat dry in the driving rain. The water was fantastic, not nearly as cold as we anticipated; I thought it was warm, but I'm also used to swimming in the Atlantic ocean.
This was one of those moments that I still get from time to time, where I look around and say "Wow, I'm really here." Rain drilled down on top of the pool, whipped to and fro by the angry, howling wind. Hanging lights in the garden around the pool swung back and forth and gave only the faintest illumination on the water. There is nothing quite like drunkenly swimming in an outdoor pool at 3am in the middle of a typhoon with several of your friends.
Oh, stop worring, the water was only chest deep.
Another night on Jon's couch and then breakfast at Early Bird, a really bitchin western-style restaurant. It had been almost two months since I had eggs and toast with a good smattering of tobasco and ketchup...I might have heard angels singing.
Then, I had to get my scooter, which was still parked in the basement of Taichung Central. Supposedly the typhoon is on its way out of town, but it's beating us up before it leaves. The rain was coming down in big sheets of cold drops, once in a while driven by gusts of an angry, howling wind. Every street had standing water on it, there were puddles the size of station wagons everywhere, and in the middle of it all was me. And my scooter.
Rain gear only does so much when its already pouring and you're driving 40km/hr into an equally strong headwind, splashing through puddles and trying to navigate through an army of taxi-cabs. In other words, by the time I got home I was soaked. Well, not entirely; a had a big dry patch on my shirt, but my left pant leg looked like I had an "accident." If I inherited free rain gear with my scooter, am I allowed to complain about the holes in it?
On account of my last entry being an enormous caffiene induced rant, I'll keep this one a bit shorter. Next week I'll touch on the stuff I promised, I just thought some Typhoon Sinlaku news from me would be more interesting than the lunatic kid named Alex with the coke-bottle glasses and a piss poor disposition. I'll get to him later, along with the other stuff.
So for now, stay safe kids, and dry. I need to go see if the chicken guy is open downstairs so I don't have to eat cold noodles from OK mart for dinner. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Raw oysters are weird.
-Stewed snails are awesome.
-Typhoon Sinlaku actually had two "eyes" at one point.
-American movies that are shown on TV here frequently have violence cut out, but not profanity.
-When eating it is considered acceptable to raise your plate/bowl to your mouth and shovel food in.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Ni Hao,
First and foremost, my flickr photos are up and the URL follows for those of you that haven't seen it: http://www.flickr.com/weissinternational.com, or just click the purdy flowers over yonder. ---------->
Check it.
Compared to my first two weeks in Taichung, the last has been rather mellow, which is a nice change. Nearly a month of teaching done and I'm feel fine. Today was payday; a very fine day as my funds have started to run a bit low. A small paycheck (only two weeks or so) is still better than no paycheck at all.
New news.
I finally took a trip outside the city and into the country that surrounds Taichung. Yikes. I thought the city roads were pretty crazy because of the endless amounts of scooters and cars filled with people that can't drive; not to mention buses and maniacal taxi drivers. But let me tell you, if driving in the city is stressful, driving on a mountain road in Taiwan could make your hair fall out. There were six of us between three scooters and a motorcycle that morning, slightly hungover and hungry for adventure. The trip out of the city was fun, a few nutty turns and such through traffic that made staying in a group rather difficult. But once we got out of the city proper, traffic lightened and I thought "Nice, easy street here I come. Bushes and flowers to see and some winding roads."
Hah. That is when the fun began.
The roads were narrower than Hank Hill's urethra and totally without a scooter lane, or anything resembling one. I was driving close enough to cars that I could have grabbed a wing mirror without extending my arm more than a few inches away from my handle bars. A few inches of cracked pavement separated me from the dense green depths of the Taiwanese jungle that was whizzing by at 60km/hr.
And that was right outside the city.
After 10 minutes or so we took a few turns and motored up what I thought were some steep hills, and then coasted down the other side. That is when the road mirrors began to appear. Some corners were so sharp, traffic driving in the opposite direction had one of those big round mirrors to look into as they came up to the corner, like the ones you see in drug stores that usually have a camera behind them. I liked to think that the other drivers actually used them, instead of whipping around an almost 45 degree corner at speed with me on a 125cc scooter buzzing my way around from the other direction. After that, was the switchback. Going down the other side of the mountain we first ascended from the city side was a switchback road. It wound it's way down the hill side at probably 55 degree downslope (I'm estimating), that usually ran for about 50 feet before turning into a 180 degree turn to go back the other way. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Those fun bubble mirrors are on every corner providing at least an illusion of some kind of safety. Oh, by the way, minimal guardrails and people were passing each other as they went down, myself included.
After that it was no problem, just a few jungle roads that had been half-washed away, literally, by the last typhoon and some jockeying with nutty car drivers for position to hit some patches of pavement that looked more like moguls from Sunday River than an actual road. Scooters do not have very much in the way of shocks. My innards were thoroughly jiggled, shucked, and jived.
At long last we arrived at our destination, Lavender Cottage Farm. Brandon, our point man on the motorcycle and a nice fellow from Texas, told me that LCF used to be just a farm for the pungent herb, lavender. But then, a few of the more savvy employees built a gift shop and cut a few paths around the lavender bushes. Add in a coffee shop on top of the hill and a pretty good restaurant with nice outdoor seating and you've got yourself a picture perfect Taiwanese tourist trap. Aside from that cynical view of financial gain and prudent business practice, it was a very, very lovely place. The most vibrant shades of purple, ahem lavender, that I had ever seen were absolutely everywhere. We had lunch, delightful, and then toured around. The farming part of the place was a hill that had lavender bushes planted all around it like delicate purple stripes. Stone walkways (see photos on Flickr) threaded their way around and up and down the hill to allow tourists, foreign and domestic alike, to stroll their merry way all over the hill. At the top was the wishing tree. A normal enough looking tree, but with all the small pieces of parchment covered with Chinese wishes on them pinned to it and an ancient looking bell, likewise surrounded by wishes, it very special feel to it. Palm and betel nut trees were planted all over the surrounding hills apart from the chaos that is the real jungle.
Cool place. You could make your own lavender soap jar thingys and buy all kinds of knick knacks and keepsakes and what-have-yous. I lasted about two minutes in the gift shop; it was like being rolled into a lavender candle, too much for this cat to handle.
Oh, funny story. There was a misting device that sprayed misted water and I told Jon to use it to cool off. Little did we know it was lavender scented, and bees love that smell, and Jon hates bees. Nothing like watching an adult shriek like a girl and and walk farther and farther away from everyone else as I said "Still on your head man, still there, still there, still there..."
I killed a couple to make him feel better, mostly because I got to clout him one on the knoggin when I did it.
:D
Anyhoo. Awesome trip overall. Some really great mountain side views of the country even though it was a smoggy/hazy day.
Sushi express. SE is a food chain out here that is unlike anything I have witness in the States. You sit on basically a bar stool with a counter in front of you with water dispensers and a cup and some chopsticks. By the way, the Taiwanese always server warm or room temperature water as it does not inhibit your Chi, as cold water does. Not quite as refreshing.
Above your little counterspace is a conveyer belt that winds it serpentine length in a big funny shaped loop, with the sushi chef in the middle. On the belt are all sorts of different kinds of sushi, fish and rice, something brown and weird looking with something green and funny smelling, potatoe salad (CRAZY sweet tasting), prawns, soups, and jello of the likes you've never seen. All slowly marching past you, just waiting to be plucked and devoured. Granted, the portions are small, its sushi, but really good. Payment is done by the plate, which isn't nearly as expensive as it sounds. Each plate costs just over $1 US. I remember paying anywhere from $15-$20 for sushi at Sake in Portsmouth back home...you'd have to be SUPER hungry to put down that many plates at SE. Unless you're paying for someone else buy then, hey, that's your problem.
And now, the convenience of convenience stores. In Taichung, and Taiwan at large, there are three major convenience stores: Ok mart, Family Mart, and 7/11. All have pretty much the same stuff as the others, though I've found 7/11 has actually sanwiches, albeit bad ones (or just plain weird). You can purchase beer, spirits, or wine at any time day or night. A lot of clerks offer to open your bottle of beer for you before you leave the store. Here, you can also pay your utility bills, mail things through UPS, get phone card minutes, and a bunch of other crazy shit that I'm forgetting right now (its almost 3am give me a break :D). You can pay parking tickets too, I think.
Oh yea, every reciept is a lottery ticket and every two months they release new numbers. You can win anywhere from $200 NT to a few thousand (six bucks US to like 50ish). In essence, everyone becomes a gambler. I myself have a drawer in my desk, right beneath my typing hands, that is filled with crumpled reciepts from all over the city. $200 NT is enough for a six pack of Taiwan Beer; who doesn't like free(ish) booze money?
You would be hard pressed to drive more than a few blocks, in any direction, on any street, and not hit a convenience store of some variety. From any point in the city mind you. When I was in Taipei for training if I were to stand in the intersection in front of my hotel I would have been able to point out no less than 5, and that's just within and easy sight range.
Now that is convenient.
As you know, I own and drive a scooter; here and there, everywhere, to and from my work. The weather since I've been in country as been marvelous: hot, humid, and sunny; summer weather. Since I only got three months maybe of that back home, its been rather nice; even if I sweat through my clothes on occasion. I have an air conditioner but I refuse to use it; AC I can get back home. Anyway, I guess I had been rather lucky with the weather the last few weeks I've been scootering the 20-30 minutes to work. It had either rained in the morning or the late afternoon after I was already in the classroom. But last week...
Heh. Not so lucky.
It had rained on and off all morning but had quit for quite some time. I took the opportunity to try and catch the window and make it to work. At first it was just a light rain, a sprinkle. No problem, I thought, barely anything, I won't get that wet. Two blocks later I hurriedly pulled over and donned my rain jacket, a festive purplish bluish thing with a floppy hood and some weird Chinese company logo on the breast. The previous scooter owner had left them for me, thank goodness. Ok then, coat on, protected. HA! Two more blocks once my pants were soaked I pulled over under and over-hand to put on the rain pants of the same color. By now its pouring, and I'm still 10 minutes from work in optimal conditions. Lovely. I hit every red light from there to my branch and I had to drive much, much slower than usual. Road paint is extremely slippery when wet. Nothing like feeling rain water pooling under your heels as you watch people in their nice, dry cars sit next to you at a stoplight, completely at ease. Oh yea, my rain pants have holes in them around around mid thigh, right where everything higher than my legs drips down. Sweet.
I arrived at work, soaked. I had to park in a puddle that was a few inches deep right near my branch but it didn't matter, my feet were soggier than day old cereal anyway. Of course after all that the rain worsened. In the gutters the water had to be at least six inches deep. Foot traffic stalled for a good hour or so as no one wanted wet feet and there were deep puddles at every alleyway between buildings. There was simply no place for that much water to go that quickly; seeing real typhoon rain in a month or two is really going to be something, especially if I'm driving through the middle of it.
Thankfully, that day at work my boss Shaun, a nice British chap, gave me a pair of dry socks and let me wear his shoes. What a guy. (He offered his crocs but I said I'd rather teach in wet feet than put a pair of those ghastly things on.)
Next time: My new class of kids that are wicked smaht and that one wild kid that keeps it from a perfect class. The roadblock police presence and the guy with the M16. A market near Chongde road, and the insanity within. And, late night Taiwanese TV, and how hilarious it really doesn't mean to be.
Right, well I'm off for now. I think that's enough to keep you kid's busy for a little while. Im f'ing blitzed on passion-fruit black tea and I think I'll be watching the sunrise as its 3.30 and I'm goin strong. Yikes.
So, farewell for now my little pigeons. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Caffiene gets me WIRED.
-In Taiwanese public schools it is still acceptable to discipline kids with physical force (NOT at Hess, where I work).
-Hess students are given English names, but they are frequently repeated and some classes can have up to three Andy's or Judy's or Peggy's.
-Taiwanese mattresses, like the one next to me, feel like slabs of stone. But are better than the floor. But no by much.
-Pale skin is considered beautiful in Taiwan. When most women are outside, especially on scooters, all skin is covered by clothes, detachable sleeves, and a face-mask (cloth ones like you'd wear to do carpentry or something).
-A cockroach half the size of a penny just crawled down the mirror behind my computer screen and when I tried to smush him he teleported to the floor. Those fuckers are fast. (He has since been smushed).
First and foremost, my flickr photos are up and the URL follows for those of you that haven't seen it: http://www.flickr.com/weissinternational.com, or just click the purdy flowers over yonder. ---------->
Check it.
Compared to my first two weeks in Taichung, the last has been rather mellow, which is a nice change. Nearly a month of teaching done and I'm feel fine. Today was payday; a very fine day as my funds have started to run a bit low. A small paycheck (only two weeks or so) is still better than no paycheck at all.
New news.
I finally took a trip outside the city and into the country that surrounds Taichung. Yikes. I thought the city roads were pretty crazy because of the endless amounts of scooters and cars filled with people that can't drive; not to mention buses and maniacal taxi drivers. But let me tell you, if driving in the city is stressful, driving on a mountain road in Taiwan could make your hair fall out. There were six of us between three scooters and a motorcycle that morning, slightly hungover and hungry for adventure. The trip out of the city was fun, a few nutty turns and such through traffic that made staying in a group rather difficult. But once we got out of the city proper, traffic lightened and I thought "Nice, easy street here I come. Bushes and flowers to see and some winding roads."
Hah. That is when the fun began.
The roads were narrower than Hank Hill's urethra and totally without a scooter lane, or anything resembling one. I was driving close enough to cars that I could have grabbed a wing mirror without extending my arm more than a few inches away from my handle bars. A few inches of cracked pavement separated me from the dense green depths of the Taiwanese jungle that was whizzing by at 60km/hr.
And that was right outside the city.
After 10 minutes or so we took a few turns and motored up what I thought were some steep hills, and then coasted down the other side. That is when the road mirrors began to appear. Some corners were so sharp, traffic driving in the opposite direction had one of those big round mirrors to look into as they came up to the corner, like the ones you see in drug stores that usually have a camera behind them. I liked to think that the other drivers actually used them, instead of whipping around an almost 45 degree corner at speed with me on a 125cc scooter buzzing my way around from the other direction. After that, was the switchback. Going down the other side of the mountain we first ascended from the city side was a switchback road. It wound it's way down the hill side at probably 55 degree downslope (I'm estimating), that usually ran for about 50 feet before turning into a 180 degree turn to go back the other way. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Those fun bubble mirrors are on every corner providing at least an illusion of some kind of safety. Oh, by the way, minimal guardrails and people were passing each other as they went down, myself included.
After that it was no problem, just a few jungle roads that had been half-washed away, literally, by the last typhoon and some jockeying with nutty car drivers for position to hit some patches of pavement that looked more like moguls from Sunday River than an actual road. Scooters do not have very much in the way of shocks. My innards were thoroughly jiggled, shucked, and jived.
At long last we arrived at our destination, Lavender Cottage Farm. Brandon, our point man on the motorcycle and a nice fellow from Texas, told me that LCF used to be just a farm for the pungent herb, lavender. But then, a few of the more savvy employees built a gift shop and cut a few paths around the lavender bushes. Add in a coffee shop on top of the hill and a pretty good restaurant with nice outdoor seating and you've got yourself a picture perfect Taiwanese tourist trap. Aside from that cynical view of financial gain and prudent business practice, it was a very, very lovely place. The most vibrant shades of purple, ahem lavender, that I had ever seen were absolutely everywhere. We had lunch, delightful, and then toured around. The farming part of the place was a hill that had lavender bushes planted all around it like delicate purple stripes. Stone walkways (see photos on Flickr) threaded their way around and up and down the hill to allow tourists, foreign and domestic alike, to stroll their merry way all over the hill. At the top was the wishing tree. A normal enough looking tree, but with all the small pieces of parchment covered with Chinese wishes on them pinned to it and an ancient looking bell, likewise surrounded by wishes, it very special feel to it. Palm and betel nut trees were planted all over the surrounding hills apart from the chaos that is the real jungle.
Cool place. You could make your own lavender soap jar thingys and buy all kinds of knick knacks and keepsakes and what-have-yous. I lasted about two minutes in the gift shop; it was like being rolled into a lavender candle, too much for this cat to handle.
Oh, funny story. There was a misting device that sprayed misted water and I told Jon to use it to cool off. Little did we know it was lavender scented, and bees love that smell, and Jon hates bees. Nothing like watching an adult shriek like a girl and and walk farther and farther away from everyone else as I said "Still on your head man, still there, still there, still there..."
I killed a couple to make him feel better, mostly because I got to clout him one on the knoggin when I did it.
:D
Anyhoo. Awesome trip overall. Some really great mountain side views of the country even though it was a smoggy/hazy day.
Sushi express. SE is a food chain out here that is unlike anything I have witness in the States. You sit on basically a bar stool with a counter in front of you with water dispensers and a cup and some chopsticks. By the way, the Taiwanese always server warm or room temperature water as it does not inhibit your Chi, as cold water does. Not quite as refreshing.
Above your little counterspace is a conveyer belt that winds it serpentine length in a big funny shaped loop, with the sushi chef in the middle. On the belt are all sorts of different kinds of sushi, fish and rice, something brown and weird looking with something green and funny smelling, potatoe salad (CRAZY sweet tasting), prawns, soups, and jello of the likes you've never seen. All slowly marching past you, just waiting to be plucked and devoured. Granted, the portions are small, its sushi, but really good. Payment is done by the plate, which isn't nearly as expensive as it sounds. Each plate costs just over $1 US. I remember paying anywhere from $15-$20 for sushi at Sake in Portsmouth back home...you'd have to be SUPER hungry to put down that many plates at SE. Unless you're paying for someone else buy then, hey, that's your problem.
And now, the convenience of convenience stores. In Taichung, and Taiwan at large, there are three major convenience stores: Ok mart, Family Mart, and 7/11. All have pretty much the same stuff as the others, though I've found 7/11 has actually sanwiches, albeit bad ones (or just plain weird). You can purchase beer, spirits, or wine at any time day or night. A lot of clerks offer to open your bottle of beer for you before you leave the store. Here, you can also pay your utility bills, mail things through UPS, get phone card minutes, and a bunch of other crazy shit that I'm forgetting right now (its almost 3am give me a break :D). You can pay parking tickets too, I think.
Oh yea, every reciept is a lottery ticket and every two months they release new numbers. You can win anywhere from $200 NT to a few thousand (six bucks US to like 50ish). In essence, everyone becomes a gambler. I myself have a drawer in my desk, right beneath my typing hands, that is filled with crumpled reciepts from all over the city. $200 NT is enough for a six pack of Taiwan Beer; who doesn't like free(ish) booze money?
You would be hard pressed to drive more than a few blocks, in any direction, on any street, and not hit a convenience store of some variety. From any point in the city mind you. When I was in Taipei for training if I were to stand in the intersection in front of my hotel I would have been able to point out no less than 5, and that's just within and easy sight range.
Now that is convenient.
As you know, I own and drive a scooter; here and there, everywhere, to and from my work. The weather since I've been in country as been marvelous: hot, humid, and sunny; summer weather. Since I only got three months maybe of that back home, its been rather nice; even if I sweat through my clothes on occasion. I have an air conditioner but I refuse to use it; AC I can get back home. Anyway, I guess I had been rather lucky with the weather the last few weeks I've been scootering the 20-30 minutes to work. It had either rained in the morning or the late afternoon after I was already in the classroom. But last week...
Heh. Not so lucky.
It had rained on and off all morning but had quit for quite some time. I took the opportunity to try and catch the window and make it to work. At first it was just a light rain, a sprinkle. No problem, I thought, barely anything, I won't get that wet. Two blocks later I hurriedly pulled over and donned my rain jacket, a festive purplish bluish thing with a floppy hood and some weird Chinese company logo on the breast. The previous scooter owner had left them for me, thank goodness. Ok then, coat on, protected. HA! Two more blocks once my pants were soaked I pulled over under and over-hand to put on the rain pants of the same color. By now its pouring, and I'm still 10 minutes from work in optimal conditions. Lovely. I hit every red light from there to my branch and I had to drive much, much slower than usual. Road paint is extremely slippery when wet. Nothing like feeling rain water pooling under your heels as you watch people in their nice, dry cars sit next to you at a stoplight, completely at ease. Oh yea, my rain pants have holes in them around around mid thigh, right where everything higher than my legs drips down. Sweet.
I arrived at work, soaked. I had to park in a puddle that was a few inches deep right near my branch but it didn't matter, my feet were soggier than day old cereal anyway. Of course after all that the rain worsened. In the gutters the water had to be at least six inches deep. Foot traffic stalled for a good hour or so as no one wanted wet feet and there were deep puddles at every alleyway between buildings. There was simply no place for that much water to go that quickly; seeing real typhoon rain in a month or two is really going to be something, especially if I'm driving through the middle of it.
Thankfully, that day at work my boss Shaun, a nice British chap, gave me a pair of dry socks and let me wear his shoes. What a guy. (He offered his crocs but I said I'd rather teach in wet feet than put a pair of those ghastly things on.)
Next time: My new class of kids that are wicked smaht and that one wild kid that keeps it from a perfect class. The roadblock police presence and the guy with the M16. A market near Chongde road, and the insanity within. And, late night Taiwanese TV, and how hilarious it really doesn't mean to be.
Right, well I'm off for now. I think that's enough to keep you kid's busy for a little while. Im f'ing blitzed on passion-fruit black tea and I think I'll be watching the sunrise as its 3.30 and I'm goin strong. Yikes.
So, farewell for now my little pigeons. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Caffiene gets me WIRED.
-In Taiwanese public schools it is still acceptable to discipline kids with physical force (NOT at Hess, where I work).
-Hess students are given English names, but they are frequently repeated and some classes can have up to three Andy's or Judy's or Peggy's.
-Taiwanese mattresses, like the one next to me, feel like slabs of stone. But are better than the floor. But no by much.
-Pale skin is considered beautiful in Taiwan. When most women are outside, especially on scooters, all skin is covered by clothes, detachable sleeves, and a face-mask (cloth ones like you'd wear to do carpentry or something).
-A cockroach half the size of a penny just crawled down the mirror behind my computer screen and when I tried to smush him he teleported to the floor. Those fuckers are fast. (He has since been smushed).
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Workin' Man
Hey Folks,
The word 'busy' is defined by www.dictionary.com as:
1. not at leisure; otherwise engaged
2. to keep occupied; make or keep busy
Yea, I've been busy. With nearly two weeks of actual in-classroom teaching experience under my belt now, I'm feeling pretty good. Much better than the intense stress-fest of my first few days, where planning for every lesson felt like an emotional and academic Armageddon that lasted all day. I might even say that I'm really beginning to enjoy teaching
The kids...ah the kids. On the whole I would describe the kids that I teach, ranging from age 5 to age 13 or 14, as very hard working and sweet. On the whole. But, as we all know, we are only human and there are of course those select few that I have termed "monsters." Now, that word might be a tad misleading. Even some of the monsters are very smart and when I call on them in class or get them for an oral test they do quite well. But when you are playing a review game and the little puke in the front row screams "teacher MEEE" for every question, and during break he won't stop prodding you or trying to take your white-board eraser, and no matter what you throw against him in paper-scissor-stone you lose; patience comes in short supply.
Yet, standing in the front of that classroom with sometimes up to twenty or so Taiwanese kids looking at you with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension...its very invigorating. I am in command, so to speak. Teacher Nik rules the classroom, but not with an iron fist. I try to make it fun but...sometimes you just can't get a dozen ten year olds to get excited about has and have requiring PP-verbs and proper verb tense agreement.
It just doesn't happen. Well, unless you offer less homework for more class participation. Suddenly everyone wants to contribute. Weird.
Overall I'd say that the first few days were the worst. I had a lesson or two completely bomb and my CTs (co-teacher/chinese teacher) woulod just sigh and thank me or give a smidgen of advice. I think it was the complete newness of it all, of not knowing or having any idea what it was going to be like once my lesson got going that had me stressing out worse than a drug courier trying to pass customs. Training left me feeling aquainted with teaching, and even some of the material, but totally unprepared to actually step into the classroom and have people learn from me.
Now some fun stuff.
The first story I heard about the apartment complex that I am now a resident in was about another Hess NST (native speaking teacher ie. English speaker) and a local man by the name of Mr. Lin. Allegedly the teacher, we'll call him Ted, invited a girl up to his aparment to chill out. However, said girl was only 15 compared to Ted's 23 or 24 years of age; she was also Mr Lin's god-daughter. I am still unsure if Mr. Lin is an actual Taiwanese gangster type or just a neighborhood hoodlum, but I am very sure that I would never mess with him. Sure he stands under five and a half feet tall and is rather thin, at least by Western standards. He also knows Taekwondo and has a massive callous on the middle knuckle of both hands and is roped in small but firm muscles. He's one of those tiny dudes that you see eating bullets or flipping cars over on reality clip TV shows. Oh, his teeth are also stained the color of blood because of his addiction to Betel nuts, a local favorite. Think chewing tobacco with five times as much kick. Anyway, Ted almost got pulped by Mr. Lin and I'm sure a few others. But an eyewitness told me they talked it out and nothing actually happened to anyone, Ted or the girl or Mr. Lin.
I've met Mr. Lin and he loves Americans and I tried to teach him some more english. I think I'm on his good side.
My bathroom. Ah, yes. My apartment came furnished with a bed, a closet, a desk, a coffee table, a couch, a chair, a tv, a tv stand thingy, and a fridge. Very nice, right? I have no kitchen. I have no bathtub. I have no shower stall. I'll try and get some photos on facebook (flickr albums to come for those of you without FB). Picture a smallish bathroom shaped like a rectangle. Near the right side and on the wall you face from the doorway there is a sink with a mirror above it (no medicine chest). To the left of that near the other side is the toilet. Between these two is a shower head, mounted straight to the wall with a drain in the floor beneath it.
Yep. Pretty normal for this side of the world. I have a squeegee like you see at gas stations for windsheilds, only i use mine for the floor. I'm considering an upgrade to a mop.
New news!
I'm offically a resident of Taiwan as I am an ARC carrier. ARC = Alien Resident Card. Now I can open a bank account, try and get scooter insurance, and lots of other things those tourists can't do.
Ah yes, my scooter. 125cc's of Taiwanese mayhem. I average around 40-50 km/hr on it and I have no intention of finding out its maximum speed; at least not yet. My daily commute consists of two major roads, a shit-ton of stop lights, bus doding, and wondering why no one else wears a big helmet like I do. As I've told many of you already, driving in Taichung makes Boston look like a country road cruise. Here, people in cars or on scooters will pull out of a side street and onto a major thoroughfare without even glancing at oncoming traffic. Weaving in and out of tiny spot between cars is also commonplace as is having small children or even pets sit or stand between their legs as they drive break neck speeds through rush-hour traffic.
Yikes.
But, so far no major complications. I'm not sure if my IDL (international driver's license/permit) is still technically valid, so I'll have to get my scooter license real soon. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about it though, my head NST has been here for four years and owns a scooter and a motorscycle and is without a license for either. If I happen to get pulled over, the chances of the cop (who would also most likely be on a scooter) speaking English are pretty remote. Then I would feign total ignorance, maybe start crying. Hey, if it works for girls in the USA maybe it works for guys here.
Now I have to go grade some well attempted but horribly written free-write essays from some of the older kids. For those of you whose grammar or spelling I've corrected in the past (all of you?) you can only imagine how much red pen I want to put on these papers. Grr.
Keep it real kids, take care of yourselves. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Next time: Photos of the city will be on Flickr, web address to follow in next entry. Food: Sushi Express and the awesomeness of Tappunnaki (sp?). The wonder of the covenience store in Taiwan: what you can do or get there and how numerous they really are.
Fun Facts:
-It is illegal for people to park their scooters on the sidewalk in Taiwan. Everyone does it anyway.
-The temperature has been 90-95+ everyday since I got here.
-It is acceptable to have a tiny box truck with loud speakers on it blaring some advertisement in chinese at top volume drive around the city like a mobile billboard at 8am every day.
-The garbage trucks play music.
-Recycling is a law here because there is no more landfill space.
The word 'busy' is defined by www.dictionary.com as:
1. not at leisure; otherwise engaged
2. to keep occupied; make or keep busy
Yea, I've been busy. With nearly two weeks of actual in-classroom teaching experience under my belt now, I'm feeling pretty good. Much better than the intense stress-fest of my first few days, where planning for every lesson felt like an emotional and academic Armageddon that lasted all day. I might even say that I'm really beginning to enjoy teaching
The kids...ah the kids. On the whole I would describe the kids that I teach, ranging from age 5 to age 13 or 14, as very hard working and sweet. On the whole. But, as we all know, we are only human and there are of course those select few that I have termed "monsters." Now, that word might be a tad misleading. Even some of the monsters are very smart and when I call on them in class or get them for an oral test they do quite well. But when you are playing a review game and the little puke in the front row screams "teacher MEEE" for every question, and during break he won't stop prodding you or trying to take your white-board eraser, and no matter what you throw against him in paper-scissor-stone you lose; patience comes in short supply.
Yet, standing in the front of that classroom with sometimes up to twenty or so Taiwanese kids looking at you with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension...its very invigorating. I am in command, so to speak. Teacher Nik rules the classroom, but not with an iron fist. I try to make it fun but...sometimes you just can't get a dozen ten year olds to get excited about has and have requiring PP-verbs and proper verb tense agreement.
It just doesn't happen. Well, unless you offer less homework for more class participation. Suddenly everyone wants to contribute. Weird.
Overall I'd say that the first few days were the worst. I had a lesson or two completely bomb and my CTs (co-teacher/chinese teacher) woulod just sigh and thank me or give a smidgen of advice. I think it was the complete newness of it all, of not knowing or having any idea what it was going to be like once my lesson got going that had me stressing out worse than a drug courier trying to pass customs. Training left me feeling aquainted with teaching, and even some of the material, but totally unprepared to actually step into the classroom and have people learn from me.
Now some fun stuff.
The first story I heard about the apartment complex that I am now a resident in was about another Hess NST (native speaking teacher ie. English speaker) and a local man by the name of Mr. Lin. Allegedly the teacher, we'll call him Ted, invited a girl up to his aparment to chill out. However, said girl was only 15 compared to Ted's 23 or 24 years of age; she was also Mr Lin's god-daughter. I am still unsure if Mr. Lin is an actual Taiwanese gangster type or just a neighborhood hoodlum, but I am very sure that I would never mess with him. Sure he stands under five and a half feet tall and is rather thin, at least by Western standards. He also knows Taekwondo and has a massive callous on the middle knuckle of both hands and is roped in small but firm muscles. He's one of those tiny dudes that you see eating bullets or flipping cars over on reality clip TV shows. Oh, his teeth are also stained the color of blood because of his addiction to Betel nuts, a local favorite. Think chewing tobacco with five times as much kick. Anyway, Ted almost got pulped by Mr. Lin and I'm sure a few others. But an eyewitness told me they talked it out and nothing actually happened to anyone, Ted or the girl or Mr. Lin.
I've met Mr. Lin and he loves Americans and I tried to teach him some more english. I think I'm on his good side.
My bathroom. Ah, yes. My apartment came furnished with a bed, a closet, a desk, a coffee table, a couch, a chair, a tv, a tv stand thingy, and a fridge. Very nice, right? I have no kitchen. I have no bathtub. I have no shower stall. I'll try and get some photos on facebook (flickr albums to come for those of you without FB). Picture a smallish bathroom shaped like a rectangle. Near the right side and on the wall you face from the doorway there is a sink with a mirror above it (no medicine chest). To the left of that near the other side is the toilet. Between these two is a shower head, mounted straight to the wall with a drain in the floor beneath it.
Yep. Pretty normal for this side of the world. I have a squeegee like you see at gas stations for windsheilds, only i use mine for the floor. I'm considering an upgrade to a mop.
New news!
I'm offically a resident of Taiwan as I am an ARC carrier. ARC = Alien Resident Card. Now I can open a bank account, try and get scooter insurance, and lots of other things those tourists can't do.
Ah yes, my scooter. 125cc's of Taiwanese mayhem. I average around 40-50 km/hr on it and I have no intention of finding out its maximum speed; at least not yet. My daily commute consists of two major roads, a shit-ton of stop lights, bus doding, and wondering why no one else wears a big helmet like I do. As I've told many of you already, driving in Taichung makes Boston look like a country road cruise. Here, people in cars or on scooters will pull out of a side street and onto a major thoroughfare without even glancing at oncoming traffic. Weaving in and out of tiny spot between cars is also commonplace as is having small children or even pets sit or stand between their legs as they drive break neck speeds through rush-hour traffic.
Yikes.
But, so far no major complications. I'm not sure if my IDL (international driver's license/permit) is still technically valid, so I'll have to get my scooter license real soon. Don't you worry your pretty little heads about it though, my head NST has been here for four years and owns a scooter and a motorscycle and is without a license for either. If I happen to get pulled over, the chances of the cop (who would also most likely be on a scooter) speaking English are pretty remote. Then I would feign total ignorance, maybe start crying. Hey, if it works for girls in the USA maybe it works for guys here.
Now I have to go grade some well attempted but horribly written free-write essays from some of the older kids. For those of you whose grammar or spelling I've corrected in the past (all of you?) you can only imagine how much red pen I want to put on these papers. Grr.
Keep it real kids, take care of yourselves. Many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Next time: Photos of the city will be on Flickr, web address to follow in next entry. Food: Sushi Express and the awesomeness of Tappunnaki (sp?). The wonder of the covenience store in Taiwan: what you can do or get there and how numerous they really are.
Fun Facts:
-It is illegal for people to park their scooters on the sidewalk in Taiwan. Everyone does it anyway.
-The temperature has been 90-95+ everyday since I got here.
-It is acceptable to have a tiny box truck with loud speakers on it blaring some advertisement in chinese at top volume drive around the city like a mobile billboard at 8am every day.
-The garbage trucks play music.
-Recycling is a law here because there is no more landfill space.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Moving forward...
Hey folks,
Where to begin? Well, my third and final teaching demo went pretty well, my observer (an experienced NST) gave me high marks. I thought that it could have gone much better and I obviously had a place or two to improve, but I hit all the right spots- I did what they taught me to do.
Others were not so lucky.
In the last training group, the one the week before mine, one person got let go before training ended. Three people got the axe from my group of 46; one of whom was my hotel roommate. I wasn't kidding when I said this training was super-intense. You either learned their methods or, like my roomy and two other unfortunates, got sent home. Numerous other people got pulled out of lecture and 'spoken to' about their performance(s). Words said varied from person to person and it was a tense day or two as I sat in the 5th floor lecture hall of the main Hess building watching my comrades get up one by one and spend five or ten minutes 'outside.' Fortunately, my turn never came.
Now the fun stuff. For our last day of training the trainers asked us to dress up a bit and look nicer than the usual casual dress. So I dug to the bottom of my sixty-pound suitcase and pulled out the only button down shirt I had. Raisins didn't have that many wrinkles.
The majority of the day was spent listening to a guy from the main office talk to us about 'Our Company Policy' and blah blah blah. Boring. But after that...oh man.
The president of the Hess organization lives on the top floor of the main office building in Taipei. He likes to stay connected to the business and I guess living on top of it is as good a way to do that as any. The function room area was the most luxurious place I have ever seen in person. Picture a squarish room about fifty feet across made completely out of mahogany. Leather chairs and couches sit lazily in small groups around glass topped coffee tables covered with snacks of both western and eastern cuisine. A fancy asian-like lattice work wall splits the room in two and from the entrance you can just see the grand piano and the dining room table that had to be 12 feet across. There was a bar on the left side next to the private dining area (two chef's live in the building to cook for el' presidente).
Free drinks, free food, and a magnificent view; I felt like one of many young-bull stock brokers who just conquered the Dow Jones and was being treated to a soiree courtesy of the Big-Man. To think just three weeks ago I was lifting wooden tables for a living...not too shabby.
And then, KTV.
For those of who not from this side of the world, KTV = Karaoke Television. Forget the lonely mic stand in the corner of any local bar attached to a tiny tv with some drunken sorority girl belting out Bon Jovi in between sips of her sex on the beach. This place was a completely different animal. The lobby was easily as nice as any five-star hotel, complete with marble floors, doric columns rising fifty feet to the ceiling, and a massive crystal chandelier. Half a dozen employees in white button downs, gray vests, and black pants patrolled the lobby smiling and once in awhile chattering into their personal radios (wired with mono-headphone).
There were about a dozen floors and each and every one had suites of varying sizes that were all dedicated solely to drinking and terrible amateur singing. I'd say there were probably six or so suites per-floor; you do the math.
We also had our own private server to bring us drinks and snacks while we butchered every song we could think of. Which leads delightfully into my next point.
Beer.
Now, back home, as you all know, things are pretty strict about booze. Liquor from the state run stores, no beer after 11, no open containers, etc. Not so in Taiwan.
After myself and around 30 or so of my fellow teachers (trainees no longer!) found our KTV room (9th floor) we obviously opted to drink. But, why pay NT $200 for a six pack of small cans of Taiwan Beer? Or three times that much for a bottle of Absolut? Because its convenient that its served to us right in the room?
Nay. We vowed not to succumb to such lazy thoughts. So we walked back out of Partworld, the KTV Joint, and went across the street to the Family Mart (think 7/11) and bought a bunch of beer and liquor. I was drinking one of my several Taiwan Beer tallboys as I walked back into Partyworld and back up to our room.
What a country.
Several hours of singing ensued thereafter, lots of Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, and just about everyone else. I'll have to get some pictures on Facebook so you can really appreciate the insanity of 30 drunken people venting two weeks of stress while belting out 'American Pie.'
It was an early morning to catch my bus to Taichung, where I currently sit writing this. Thankfully, my home in Taiwan is much different than the capital city. Don't get me wrong, there are still absurd amounts of billboards and flashing lights and you can't walk more than ten feet without passing a food vendor of some kind, but it's still very different.
I'll sum it up: Less crowded, less polluted, less expensive, less humid.
Good times.
I met my HNST, head native speaking teacher, and a few other Hess folks once I got into the city and we went to lunch. I had three other dudes from my training group with me and we dined in a lovely Japanese style restaurant with a coy pond and huge walls around the dining area made of those lengths of beads from the doorways of any hippy's apartment.
The rice they described to me sounded awesome: similar to risotto (a personal fav of mine) with chicken in a sweet and sour glaze. Ah, good. Tasty.
Too bad they forgot to mention the rice was spicy and hell and stuffed inside a goddamn squid. At least they sliced it into nice even pieces for me.
Tentacles are very, very chewy.
Next time:
My apartment: The story of an NST (not me), a Taiwanese gangster, and one big misunderstanding. How I will shower without a shower. And the nerve-wrackingness of actually coming to terms with the fact that I'm a teacher, of children.
Fun Facts:
-Stinky-tofu tastes just as bad as it smells.
-Sushi-express is both cheap and really delicious (NT $35 per plate).
-Many Taiwanese kids are in school for twelve hours a day.
-Hoegaarden is available at 7/11 but is almost $3 US per bottle.
-August is Ghost Month.
-Many Taiwanese apartments come furnished, but without kitchens.
-Bus drivers sometimes get lost when taking you to your branch city and deem it necessary to do u-turns in the middle of busy intersections, while hordes of confused natives on scooters stare at the mortified foreigners riding in the back of the bus.
Where to begin? Well, my third and final teaching demo went pretty well, my observer (an experienced NST) gave me high marks. I thought that it could have gone much better and I obviously had a place or two to improve, but I hit all the right spots- I did what they taught me to do.
Others were not so lucky.
In the last training group, the one the week before mine, one person got let go before training ended. Three people got the axe from my group of 46; one of whom was my hotel roommate. I wasn't kidding when I said this training was super-intense. You either learned their methods or, like my roomy and two other unfortunates, got sent home. Numerous other people got pulled out of lecture and 'spoken to' about their performance(s). Words said varied from person to person and it was a tense day or two as I sat in the 5th floor lecture hall of the main Hess building watching my comrades get up one by one and spend five or ten minutes 'outside.' Fortunately, my turn never came.
Now the fun stuff. For our last day of training the trainers asked us to dress up a bit and look nicer than the usual casual dress. So I dug to the bottom of my sixty-pound suitcase and pulled out the only button down shirt I had. Raisins didn't have that many wrinkles.
The majority of the day was spent listening to a guy from the main office talk to us about 'Our Company Policy' and blah blah blah. Boring. But after that...oh man.
The president of the Hess organization lives on the top floor of the main office building in Taipei. He likes to stay connected to the business and I guess living on top of it is as good a way to do that as any. The function room area was the most luxurious place I have ever seen in person. Picture a squarish room about fifty feet across made completely out of mahogany. Leather chairs and couches sit lazily in small groups around glass topped coffee tables covered with snacks of both western and eastern cuisine. A fancy asian-like lattice work wall splits the room in two and from the entrance you can just see the grand piano and the dining room table that had to be 12 feet across. There was a bar on the left side next to the private dining area (two chef's live in the building to cook for el' presidente).
Free drinks, free food, and a magnificent view; I felt like one of many young-bull stock brokers who just conquered the Dow Jones and was being treated to a soiree courtesy of the Big-Man. To think just three weeks ago I was lifting wooden tables for a living...not too shabby.
And then, KTV.
For those of who not from this side of the world, KTV = Karaoke Television. Forget the lonely mic stand in the corner of any local bar attached to a tiny tv with some drunken sorority girl belting out Bon Jovi in between sips of her sex on the beach. This place was a completely different animal. The lobby was easily as nice as any five-star hotel, complete with marble floors, doric columns rising fifty feet to the ceiling, and a massive crystal chandelier. Half a dozen employees in white button downs, gray vests, and black pants patrolled the lobby smiling and once in awhile chattering into their personal radios (wired with mono-headphone).
There were about a dozen floors and each and every one had suites of varying sizes that were all dedicated solely to drinking and terrible amateur singing. I'd say there were probably six or so suites per-floor; you do the math.
We also had our own private server to bring us drinks and snacks while we butchered every song we could think of. Which leads delightfully into my next point.
Beer.
Now, back home, as you all know, things are pretty strict about booze. Liquor from the state run stores, no beer after 11, no open containers, etc. Not so in Taiwan.
After myself and around 30 or so of my fellow teachers (trainees no longer!) found our KTV room (9th floor) we obviously opted to drink. But, why pay NT $200 for a six pack of small cans of Taiwan Beer? Or three times that much for a bottle of Absolut? Because its convenient that its served to us right in the room?
Nay. We vowed not to succumb to such lazy thoughts. So we walked back out of Partworld, the KTV Joint, and went across the street to the Family Mart (think 7/11) and bought a bunch of beer and liquor. I was drinking one of my several Taiwan Beer tallboys as I walked back into Partyworld and back up to our room.
What a country.
Several hours of singing ensued thereafter, lots of Billy Idol, Michael Jackson, and just about everyone else. I'll have to get some pictures on Facebook so you can really appreciate the insanity of 30 drunken people venting two weeks of stress while belting out 'American Pie.'
It was an early morning to catch my bus to Taichung, where I currently sit writing this. Thankfully, my home in Taiwan is much different than the capital city. Don't get me wrong, there are still absurd amounts of billboards and flashing lights and you can't walk more than ten feet without passing a food vendor of some kind, but it's still very different.
I'll sum it up: Less crowded, less polluted, less expensive, less humid.
Good times.
I met my HNST, head native speaking teacher, and a few other Hess folks once I got into the city and we went to lunch. I had three other dudes from my training group with me and we dined in a lovely Japanese style restaurant with a coy pond and huge walls around the dining area made of those lengths of beads from the doorways of any hippy's apartment.
The rice they described to me sounded awesome: similar to risotto (a personal fav of mine) with chicken in a sweet and sour glaze. Ah, good. Tasty.
Too bad they forgot to mention the rice was spicy and hell and stuffed inside a goddamn squid. At least they sliced it into nice even pieces for me.
Tentacles are very, very chewy.
Next time:
My apartment: The story of an NST (not me), a Taiwanese gangster, and one big misunderstanding. How I will shower without a shower. And the nerve-wrackingness of actually coming to terms with the fact that I'm a teacher, of children.
Fun Facts:
-Stinky-tofu tastes just as bad as it smells.
-Sushi-express is both cheap and really delicious (NT $35 per plate).
-Many Taiwanese kids are in school for twelve hours a day.
-Hoegaarden is available at 7/11 but is almost $3 US per bottle.
-August is Ghost Month.
-Many Taiwanese apartments come furnished, but without kitchens.
-Bus drivers sometimes get lost when taking you to your branch city and deem it necessary to do u-turns in the middle of busy intersections, while hordes of confused natives on scooters stare at the mortified foreigners riding in the back of the bus.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Greetings from the future!
Hey folks,
I apologize that it's taken me almost a week for my first entry on here, I'm sure you are all curious as to how the adventure is going.
Well, getting here was the easy part.
The first thing that struck me about this country was the smell. As soon as I stepped out of the sliding glass doors into this place of blazing sun and endless humidity the odor of the place assaulted my nostrils like a German machine gun squad. It wasn't necessarily a bad smell, but nor would I want to bottle it up; it just smelled. I think a lot of it was pollution because it's not so bad anymore and the airport is a good 30 minutes away from downtown Taipei. Then again, maybe I'm just used to it.
My first night in Taiwan I spent in a hostel called the Taipei Backpacker. It was small and quite clean and had a friendly staff. Did I mention it was wicked cheap? One night ran me $16. I shared a room of rickety bunk beds with a few chaps from Hess ( my employer). Steve, who is from South Africa (and whose accent reminds me of Albert for those who knew him), and Brian, a well traveled young man from Seattle, Washington. We stayed up late shooting the shit and comparing how screwed up our comparative countries are. There was also some random guy in glasses and an annoying nerd from California that never shut up.
The next morning we ran into another Hessian and had our photo taken in the main room of the hostel for the photo wall. The new guy's name was Peter and he happened to be my hotel roomy for the duration of training. He's a very pleasant fellow, 27 years of age from New Castle in New South Wales, Australia. He's confirmed to me that two past times of his country are drinking (a lot) and gambling.
Training. How could I sum up that one word? Stressful? Hmm. I feel like a kid who went up to the cockpit to see the pilot and now I have to land the plane in a typhoon before we run out of fuel and the pregnant woman in the lavatory gives birth.
Yea, overwhelmed.
We started with the Kindergarten curriculum and it took two days and then we had to make a lesson plan for 4 different sections because we didn't know which one they were going to have us teach. Doesn't sound too bad?
Try and solve a rubix cube with your feet, and then you'll know what its like. Oh, and you only have 4 hours to figure out how to solve 4 cubes. Goodluck.
Even though I still feel like the trainers are spoon-feeding us our lessons, I'm looking forward to completing training and heading to my branch city. I'll be heading about two hours to the SSW to Taichung City, which is the third largest city on the island with just over a million people. From what I've read and heard here Taichung is less humid than Taipei, cheaper, and less crowded.
Sign me up.
I'll try and get some photos on here as soon as I can, my CDROM is busted so I can't install my camera's software to take the photos off the camera. I hope this entry was at least entertaining, I trained for 9 hours yesterday until about 7pm and then I prepped my lessons until about 1am. Then I got up at 6am and worked on 'em some more and then demoed for an observer and then trained until 6. So yea.
I'm tired.
Next time I'll touch on street life and look, and the beer situation (which is gooood). I'll try and make that one not so rough draft. Until then, many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Most people here don't obey traffic laws.
-Scooters are everywhere.
-All crosswalks are on pre-set timers and stop traffic in alternating directions every few minutes
-Chicken hearts are very delicious.
-The tap water is undrinkable.
-I had a cabbage salad with big pieces of tentacles in it.
-Buildings here are made of concrete and most people's balconies type areas are covered with iron bars. I assumed the bars meant "Whoa, bad neighborhood," but in reality it's because of typhoons sending debris into the air. Cozy.
-American Hip-Hop is very popular here, as is Karaoke.
-I can get a big meal from a street vendor for $2 american. Score.
-I can't walk more than 2 blocks in ANY direction from the hotel and not hit a 7/11. They are everywhere.
I apologize that it's taken me almost a week for my first entry on here, I'm sure you are all curious as to how the adventure is going.
Well, getting here was the easy part.
The first thing that struck me about this country was the smell. As soon as I stepped out of the sliding glass doors into this place of blazing sun and endless humidity the odor of the place assaulted my nostrils like a German machine gun squad. It wasn't necessarily a bad smell, but nor would I want to bottle it up; it just smelled. I think a lot of it was pollution because it's not so bad anymore and the airport is a good 30 minutes away from downtown Taipei. Then again, maybe I'm just used to it.
My first night in Taiwan I spent in a hostel called the Taipei Backpacker. It was small and quite clean and had a friendly staff. Did I mention it was wicked cheap? One night ran me $16. I shared a room of rickety bunk beds with a few chaps from Hess ( my employer). Steve, who is from South Africa (and whose accent reminds me of Albert for those who knew him), and Brian, a well traveled young man from Seattle, Washington. We stayed up late shooting the shit and comparing how screwed up our comparative countries are. There was also some random guy in glasses and an annoying nerd from California that never shut up.
The next morning we ran into another Hessian and had our photo taken in the main room of the hostel for the photo wall. The new guy's name was Peter and he happened to be my hotel roomy for the duration of training. He's a very pleasant fellow, 27 years of age from New Castle in New South Wales, Australia. He's confirmed to me that two past times of his country are drinking (a lot) and gambling.
Training. How could I sum up that one word? Stressful? Hmm. I feel like a kid who went up to the cockpit to see the pilot and now I have to land the plane in a typhoon before we run out of fuel and the pregnant woman in the lavatory gives birth.
Yea, overwhelmed.
We started with the Kindergarten curriculum and it took two days and then we had to make a lesson plan for 4 different sections because we didn't know which one they were going to have us teach. Doesn't sound too bad?
Try and solve a rubix cube with your feet, and then you'll know what its like. Oh, and you only have 4 hours to figure out how to solve 4 cubes. Goodluck.
Even though I still feel like the trainers are spoon-feeding us our lessons, I'm looking forward to completing training and heading to my branch city. I'll be heading about two hours to the SSW to Taichung City, which is the third largest city on the island with just over a million people. From what I've read and heard here Taichung is less humid than Taipei, cheaper, and less crowded.
Sign me up.
I'll try and get some photos on here as soon as I can, my CDROM is busted so I can't install my camera's software to take the photos off the camera. I hope this entry was at least entertaining, I trained for 9 hours yesterday until about 7pm and then I prepped my lessons until about 1am. Then I got up at 6am and worked on 'em some more and then demoed for an observer and then trained until 6. So yea.
I'm tired.
Next time I'll touch on street life and look, and the beer situation (which is gooood). I'll try and make that one not so rough draft. Until then, many days and pleasant nights, say thankya.
Fun Facts:
-Most people here don't obey traffic laws.
-Scooters are everywhere.
-All crosswalks are on pre-set timers and stop traffic in alternating directions every few minutes
-Chicken hearts are very delicious.
-The tap water is undrinkable.
-I had a cabbage salad with big pieces of tentacles in it.
-Buildings here are made of concrete and most people's balconies type areas are covered with iron bars. I assumed the bars meant "Whoa, bad neighborhood," but in reality it's because of typhoons sending debris into the air. Cozy.
-American Hip-Hop is very popular here, as is Karaoke.
-I can get a big meal from a street vendor for $2 american. Score.
-I can't walk more than 2 blocks in ANY direction from the hotel and not hit a 7/11. They are everywhere.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)