Taiwan Teacher

Taiwan Drivers are not terrible: Discuss.

2011-10-21T09:09:00.002+08:00

So... lots of foreigners say that drivers in Taiwan are crazy. And, OK, they are. But I would also argue that they're extremely skillful.

To wit: the scooter road test, while not terribly challenging, does require you to balance your scooter at very low speeds, and stop, which are the only 2 challenging things about driving a scooter. The car road test is crazy: back up through an s-curve, and parallel park in a space 6 inches bigger than your car? Them are some skills.

The best advice I ever got about driving in Taiwan was, forget your Western notions of right-of-way. There is no right-of-way; you just avoid hitting what's in front of you, and people behind you avoid hitting you. That worked for me- no scooter accidents in 3.5 years of scooting in Taiwan.

But the drivers (on scooters and in cars) could drive within inches of another car, without hitting them. They could tailgate within inches, and not hit anyone. They could negotiate the inscrutable "zebra intersection". All while navigating around an absurd collections of vehicles and pushcarts.

I'd say Taiwan driving was a very Zen experience- you had to stay in the moment, if you wanted to survive.

Do you agree? Or do you think Taiwan drivers really are terrible?

2011-10-19T09:08:00.001+08:00

Things I Miss About Taiwan

2011-03-03T13:44:00.002+08:00

Pretty much what I expected. They include:

Bike rides. Just being able to hop on a bike, ride for half an hour in one directions and assuming you stay on the right side of that big annoying river that was north of me, being able to find your way back. Here there's cold, potholes, piles of slush, and weirdly enough, I seem to get more lost here than I did in Taiwan. In Taiwan the mountains were always to your east. Except for those few days when the smog obliterated them, you had a built-in compass.

Pools. Cheap, plentiful, with hot tubs and plenty of people who swam slower than me.

Fruit. I saw a pomelo at Trader Joe's the other day and almost bought it. I never bought a pomelo in Taiwan- random people always gave them to me.

Fresh tofu. At the corner store.

The kids. I'm a substitute teacher here. I admit it now: those 6th-graders I taught in Taiwan were not rotten.

Filling up my tank for $4 and it lasted all week.

Topping up my pre-paid cell phone with a $9 card and it lasted more than a month.

Plenty I like about being back, of course. Those things include: ovens, furnaces, English!, driving a car on a rainy day, the Steelers, English!, my family, English!, snow, my friends, snow days, races that you can register for in English and hear the announcements in English... and did I mention I can read everything everywhere? Cause it's in English?

2010-12-22T07:12:00.005+08:00

It seems like I have more readers since I've pretty much stopped writing my blog. The short story is, I'm back in the US and had plans to do a couple dozen posts of old vacation photos and stories, more for my own benefit than anyone else's (because I have a horrible memory, and soon Taiwan will basically be a vague blur punctuated by some stinky tofu).

Thanks for reading!

What to bring, what to buy there

2010-12-09T23:04:00.004+08:00

A few people have asked me about this. You can get most things you need in Taiwan, between regular department stores like Carrefour and occasional trips to foreigner-catering places. But a few things you either can't get or would have to look really hard for during your first few weeks:

~ a flat sheet. They just don't use them and you just can't buy them. Don't bother bringing a whole set of sheets, as they won't fit, but you'll be happy to have a flat sheet.
~ cold medicine. You will get sick, and cold medicine technology in Taiwan is kind of stuck in the 80s. So bring your Nyquil and Aleve Cold & Sinus.

~ Reese's PB cups, York Peppermint Patties. If you like them, bring a bag. They're tough to find. Snickers, Twix, M&Ms and Doritos are all at your local 7-11.

~ an electric blanket if you like them and you're going to be there during the winter. I didn't have one but there were nights I wished I did.

For the ladies:

~ All the shoes you'll need, if you wear anything bigger than an 8. You can buy Birkenstocks and there are a few specialty shops for shoes but they're expensive. And bring comfortable shoes.

~ All the clothes you'll need, if you wear anything bigger than an 8, or are above maybe 5'6". I'm 5'8" and a 10 (US) and I just barely didn't fit into the biggest size in stores. There are big-ladies shops but tend to fit an Asian body, and are usually too short or just awkward-looking.

~ "feminine hygiene" these products are also stuck in the 80s. You'll be able to find good ones after you've shopped around but it's nice to have a supply when you first get here.

What to buy here:

~ A puffer jacket. When it's 50 degrees and drizzling you will want to be bundled up. These are easy to buy in any size.

~ Glasses. Relatively cheap and easy to get, and there are eyeglasses stores everywhere.

~ Prescription medicine. Bring a months' supply to tide you over, but even without health insurance, it's easy to get at pharmacies. You can't get everything at every pharmacy but ask around and you can find a place to buy everything from allergy medicine to birth control pills to Xanax over the counter, probably cheaper than you paid for a co-pay in the US.

~ vitamins, shampoo, soap, face wash, toothpaste, makeup.... Basic recognizable brands (Colgate, Dove, Pantene, Cover Girl) are all here and there's usually enough English that you know what you're getting. Department stores like Sogo have all the expensive brands and Body Shop. There's also a few brands I didn't know of in the US that are natural and sulphate-free, readily available at Carrefour and Watsons.

Loudspeaker Advertising Trucks

2010-08-25T08:23:00.002+08:00

One thing I won't miss in Taiwan is the advertising trucks. They're typically a small blue truck with a loudspeaker, sometimes with an advertisement on the side. They usually play a recording telling about what they're selling (most common seems to be cram schools, but also lots of restaurants, stores, stuff like that), then a little snippet of music- kids' songs for cram schools, pop music for other ads.

They're a curse on the roads, because they tend to drive very slowly in the scooter lane, forcing you to maneuver around them. They're also a curse when I'm at home because I can easily hear them on the 7th floor and they tend to drive around my neighborhood for about 1/2 an hour.

Here's a recording of one from my apartment window. Don't be jealous of my view. You can see the truck go by pretty early on but still hear it for the whole video.

Thunderstorms

2010-08-24T18:21:00.002+08:00

Remember when I said Taiwan seldom gets thunderstorms? I don't know what I was talking about. I think since I said that, we've gotten late-afternoon-thunderstorms about 5 times a week here in Taichung. It also seems like Taipei doesn't get them as often, so there goes (again) the whole Taichung-weather-is-better thing.

And they are some crazy shake-the-building type of thunderstorms. Usually pretty short and they do make for some cool nights. Also good for washing away all the crud in the air & on the ground from people frantically burning ghost money- I think it's the end or the beginning of Ghost Month. The ghost money is doing double-time.

TTJ bus (a cool thing for Taichungers)

2010-08-23T20:36:00.002+08:00

This service has been around for a while but I never posted about it. There are some free busses going around Taichuing, called "TTJ".

I haven't found an English map on the web, but you can find a Chinese map of all the routes here: http://www.ttj.tw/en_route.html

They run every 10-15 minutes and are nicer than most of the pay busses I've been on. The bus drivers are friendlier too and will tell you where to get off if you can tell them or show them where you want to go. The bus does flash the next stop on a display at the front of the bus in both English and Chinese; some of them make announcements but I don't think those are bilingual.

I've found it to be a pretty slow way to travel if you're going a long distance on the weekend, because of so many people getting on and off. But during the week they're not crowded and as fast as a normal bus.

There's also an option on Google maps where you can search for your starting point and destination and get it mapped out by public transportation. I've found this really helpful if I need to go to a part of the city I'm not familiar with. If you can recognize street names and places in characters it's not a bad way to get around on occasion!

Gettin' it together

2010-08-22T21:26:00.002+08:00

Q: So have you started packing yet?

A: Dude, I've got almost a week.

Q: You're selling everything, right? So what are you sleeping on?

A: Hahaha. Of course I still have my bed.

4 years after I started to get rid of everything back home, 3.5 years since I got off the plane with 2 suitcases, and it's time once again to get rid of an apartment full of stuff. It's actually going OK. Moving is always stressful and moving to another city (much less another country) is moreso because you've got the selling/ packing/ throwing away, plus all the good-bye dinners and coffees and dou-huas, plus sadness plus wanting to get in one last epic bike ride... plus other life things that have nothing to do with moving that have kept me busy these past few weekends.

But... it's all going pretty well. The only things I have that are worth more than I'd take out of an ATM machine at once are my 2 bikes, both of which are half-sold now, and if all goes well will be all-sold soon. I've had a few people who have come to buy one thing and then treated my apartment like an artfully arranged store with limited inventory, so I've gotten rid of a few more things. Now it's just a matter of pinning down who wants the rest of the stuff.

I actually feel a lot sadder about leaving here than I did about leaving the US- I've realized it's because I knew I'd go back there someday and see everyone again. But I'm working on enjoying the time I'm spending with my friends and not being sad about the time I won't spend with them. I know I'll be happy when I get back to the US, but it might be a sad plane ride!

And... I have one of my two suitcases packed! And 18 suitcases worth of stuff to fit in the second one. But we won't think about that now. We'll just be happy about that one suitcase.

communication gap

2010-08-18T19:45:00.002+08:00

I wanted to get a new pair of glasses before I come home (by the way, are big nerdy 80s glasses back in style in the US?). So I parked in an area with a bunch of eyeglass shops and started looking. Eyeglass shopping is a bit challenging because a large percentage of the eyeglasses are very cute. And I am not a cute person. Also even seemingly non-cute glasses have overly cute arms on them.

So at the first place, they asked me if I needed them to read. That was a bit of a blow. I said no, I need them to see...uh... far away things. Looked around a while, went to the second place, found an awesome pair of sunglasses- and again, do I need them to read. Who uses sunglasses to read? And do I really look like I'm close to 50?

I took a detour to the Sogo Department Store to buy a new tub of Clinique All About Eyes, which I had run out of and I thought I could last until I got back home but seriously people. Everyone had been asking me lately if I'm tired (nope, just out of the good eye cream) but I needed to do something about this reading glasses thing. The 3rd eyeglass place, they spoke English and realized right away I don't need reading glasses, so I was happy and figured that just goes to show you how awesome that eye cream is.

Back to the second place to take care of business and get those sunglasses, and after an extended conversation and some blank looks... it turns out the phrase for reading books (du shu) sounds an awful lot like the word for your vision prescription. Oh.

Things I'll Miss About Taiwan #2

2010-08-15T21:28:00.003+08:00

Gettin some respect when I tell kids to be quiet!

Back home:

It's 12:30 in the morning. Darn kids out on the street making a crazy ruckus.

Me: "It's really late. Could you keep it down."

Darn kids: "Hahaha! Did you hear what that lady said!"

Taiwan:

It's 11:30 at night. Cute kids out in the tiled area that separates the apartment building making a ruckus. My shouts of "be quiet!" from the 7th floor didn't work, so I went outside.

Me: "Do you know what time it is?"

Kid: "sorry, sorry, auntie."

Me: "Where are your parents?"

Kids: (run in fear)

Now that's what I'm talking about.

Hong Kong Day 2

2010-08-12T19:42:00.001+08:00

For my second day in Hong Kong, I made my way to Lantau Island. It’s easily reached by subway, but I took my hotel’s shuttle to Tsim Tsa Tsui (?) and caught one of the frequent ferries to the Central Ferry, then rode another one to the town of Mui Wo on Lantau Island. This island is pretty cool- it has Disneyland, the airport, an old fishing village, amazing beaches and amazing hikes. And an outlet mall.

The town of Mui Wo didn’t have much going on- I failed to change some money (small banks don’t take Taiwan $$) and went to a grocery store to stock up on food for the day, including…

OK, my self-photography skill are poor, but those are salt & vinegar potato chips, baby! At regular potato chip prices! Also water, nuts and a coke, all of which I needed as the day went on. I got a quick lunch from a stand at the pier, then caught a bus to Tai O, the old fishing village.

The houses there were built on stilts over the water, but really it was only the porch that was over the water and you couldn’t see them that well. Lots of shops selling dried fish and whatnot. There were also people offering boat rides, which might have been cool, but the busses only ran once an hour and I didn’t want to spend much more time there. Also on the boats supposedly you have a chance at seeing pink dolphins which are only found in Hong Kong. But I feel bad about chasing endagered species so I don’t know. Having a bus to catch made it an easy decision. By the way there were really clear bus routes and schedules at all the tourist stops so you knew when the next one was coming.

My next stop was PoLin. The ride there passed some beautiful beaches and really rural areas. I was going there for the hike to Lantau Peak and the cable car ride down the mountain, not for the giant Buddha and monastery- but seriously, how cool is this picture? Me and my sense of composition. :) I guess the Buddha weighs as much as a jumbo jet!

After a little time at a gift shop I started searching for the trailhead for the Lantau Peak trail. Things got a little confusing and I ran across an Australian couple who seemed to think I was on the right path. But I walked ahead to find this blocking the road:

Yes, I grew up around cows. Yes, there were

Technorati Tags: Hong Kong,travel

other people around. And I figured the chances were, those guys were pretty tame. But… see those horns? I turned around and ran into the Australian couple again… I guess several paths interconnected but soon enough I saw a sign pointing me to my trail.

This is the view from partway up. It was slightly rugged, though there were steps in places. It was HOT (if you go, I’d recommend doing it in the morning, when the sun will be on the other side of the mountain) and steep. The guidebook said it would take over an hour to reach the peak and it took much more than that. There weren’t many people on the trail but enough that I felt safe. Most were other tourists. I stopped and had my chips and soda at one point- glad I had it!

There were also people week-whacking the trail. This turned out to be really helpful- I’d say less than 20% of the trail hadn’t been weed-whacked yet but it was some tall grass to walk through. No snakes in Hong Kong, right?

As I got near the top some clouds started rolling in, as you can see in the picture above. I ran into some girls from New Jersey who seemed content with the view near the top and decided to turn around. I considered it but I figured if you’re going to climb 1.75 km, might as well climb 2. I ran into the girl at the bottom of this photo, who is a Hong Kong native and spoke English. So she helped me take a picture at the top! And then the clouds started to roll away so we got to see all around- the guidebook said you could see to Macau on a good day, but then I looked at a map and realized Macau is really close. It was so clear, we could see all of Hong Kong and over to China. I had always thought that the entire east coast of China is just one line of factories, but I was wrong!

Can’t seem to find all the pictures I took but this is overlooking the airport and another part of Hong Kong I believe. In the other directions you just saw mountains and a beautiful lake.

After a short rest my new buddy and I started down the mountain. I planned to take the cable car down from the Buddha and then the subway back to the hotel. Except I got there at 6:02 and the place closed at 6! Such a bummer. And all the food stands were closed too- it had been such a busy place earlier and it was like a ghost town! So I took a loooong bus ride with my new buddy, but it was all I could do to maintain a little bit of pleasantness cause man was I hungry and thirsty. The outlet mall had food options- I chose a grocery store which was set up like a maze- I was this close to sitting down and eating my turkey apple salad first and paying for it later- and I was too beat to do any outlet shopping. It looked like a regular mall anyways. Overall this island was very cool, although I’d plan things differently if I had it to do again. Oh well. So amazed that there were so many beautiful and wild places in Hong Kong! I honestly think I could spend a few days on this island just hiking and beaching.

Penghu video

2010-08-09T20:41:00.001+08:00

A 1-minute intro to the beach for those of you who don't like to read!

Penghu Day 2

2010-08-09T20:23:00.004+08:00

OK, Penghu was beautiful. By far the nicest beaches in Taiwan.

On Day 2 we had some breakfast, and did a little bit of shopping, and then split up- 2 went for a glass-bottom boat tour, and Jessica and I went to a beach to hang out and later have surfing lessons. She wanted to surf and we randomly saw a Chinese flyer (that did say “Surf Club” or something in English) and we read enough to see that they offered surfing lessons, and had a name and cell phone number of a foreigner. We called him in the morning and he told us to come to Shan Shui beach, and the waves would be best around the high tide at 3 pm.

We got a taxi to take us to the “Fenggui blowholes” (cool rock formations) then drop us at the beach. We wound up getting the same taxi driver from the day before (I didn’t recognize him because I was in the back) and he was like, “Yesterday, there were 4 foreign English teachers who went snorkeling. Do you know them?” Uh, we are them! It was a pretty funny taxi ride. At one point he said he was over 60, and I said he only looked to be in his 40s. He was all happy so I asked (jokingly) if he could give us a cheaper fare. “If you tell me I look like I’m in my 20s, it’s free!” he said.

The foreigner told us that beach umbrellas and pizza were available at the Penghu Surf Club, but it was so hot and the sun was so strong that we didn’t want to walk around looking for it. We found a place that had umbrellas to rent and basic Taiwanese food and they were the least friendly people I’ve ever dealt with. :) No matter, we got an umbrella and a quick lunch and headed to the beach. It was around noon and the umbrella was awesome. There was hardly anyone on the beach at this point. We went in the water for a while, and relaxed for a while. The beach was great, with no rocks or coral, and the water was very clear. Pretty enough that some people came to take wedding photos! In Taiwan they take photos in their wedding clothes early and then give out pictures at the actual event. Still, I can’t imagine getting sand on such a pretty wedding gown!

After a while the crowds started to pick up but the waves didn’t. Behind the beach over a flood wall there were some vendors setting up so I would occasionally go to get more cold water and then I got a snack that I thought was some mysterious sea creature. It turned out to be a kind of fried sweet-potato pancake. Well my poor Chinese skills got me delicious food for once. But as soon as I got back under the unbrella this dumb dog came up to us, thinking it would get my food. I had to eat my snack away from our blanket and encouraged the dog to go away in both English and Chinese, much to the amusement of the other beach-goers. I had to go throw my wrapper and drink away so she wouldn’t lay by our towels and stink it up.

In the meantime, as the sun made its way across the sky, our umbrella began to cast more and more shade. A family with 2 little boys kind of camped out at the edge of our shade, which was no problem at first because they were cute. Later though it got awkward. Many little kids just wear their underwear at the beach but in this case their underwear quickly go wet so the parents took it off, leaving us with 2 half-naked boys playing in the sand 3 feet from us. And it was the wrong half that was naked.

When they left, the other 2 made it back from the glass boat and onto the beach. Even before they came, these 2 Taiwanese guys, in jeans and t-shirts, started standing at the edge of our shade, staring at us, and discussing us in Chinese. My efforts to get them to go away went from glaring at them, to asking them to leave, to having a rather poetic Chinese exchange in which I extolled the virtues of looking at the sea, the mountains and the many Taiwanese people instead of at foreigners, and finally to moving our umbrella so that it was between us and them, at which point they just moved so they could keep looking at us. Happily the sun was going down and it was soon time to leave anyways.

After a quick shower at the hotel we walked over to a restaurant we’d seen last night- “Havana Bar & Grill” with 6 choices of thin-crust pizza and lots of choices of coctails, with a bilingual menu and English-speaking manager. Quite delightful.

Greetings from Hong Kong!

2010-08-03T21:16:00.002+08:00

1. Everyone speaks English.
2. I can understand more Cantonese than Taiwanese.
3. Holy smokes is everything expensive.
3a. Um, Western food everywhere? Like I'd have to go out of my way to get something other than a Cobb salad and crepes?
3b. I cry a little inside when I think about how much I spent on water yesterday.
4. Having fun and have figured out how to spend only moderate amounts of money.
5. Public transportation is convenient and easily understood (unlike in Pittsburgh and Taichung). But mostly expensive (see 2).
6. Except the Star Ferry across Victoria Harbor, which is apparently one of the 25 things to do before you die? That is 2 Hong Kong Dollars... which is more than it sounds but still way less than an American dollar.

Out for the summer, out forever!

2010-08-01T18:59:00.002+08:00

School, that is!

Now, whenever I hear a Taiwanese kid whine, I can just ignore them. :)

One crazy-fun thing was participating in a "water fight" on Thursday- this involved, well, a good hour of running around the basketball courts throwing waterballoons and being shot with squirt guns. Amazingly no kids were badly injured. I gotta say, though, when a water balloon doesn't break when it hits you, man does it smart.

The other thing about Water Fight day- remember how when you were a kid playing in a pool for a while made you super-hungry? I thought I'd gotten over that because swimming laps now doesn't make me super-hungry. But man the water fight made me hungry. And I have been an eating machine ever since. Like I wake up at 5 am starving and eat my breakfast then go back to bed, then wake up at 7:30 and have to eat again. It's nuts. Today I went out to eat with a bunch of people from my congregation and we had to wait a bit for a table and I was like, sorry, gotta go to 7-11 and buy some almonds. They were like, here's a piece of candy! Um, no.

After lunch I invited them to go for ice cream and being Taiwanese people they were like, "Aren't you afraid you'll get fat?" well, yes. But I'm still hungry!

Hope that will go away soon. Honestly it's kind of tiring even procuring that much food. Tomorrow early early I got to Hong Kong and then a few days on the island of Penghu. I am quite unprepared for this trip. I have a hotel and a barely-read guidebook that made me realize that Hong Kong is not 10 square miles. But I think it'll be OK.

Frizzle-frazzle

2010-07-28T21:05:00.003+08:00

Rar. This day drove me crazy.

First off, it's been raining relentlessly for 2.5 days. Started on my bike ride home on Monday and hasn't really stopped. Which has led to 2.5 days of wearing my raincoat to drive my scooter which has led to 2 days of heat rash in... well... whatever you call the armpit of your elbow and knee. The crook? Man do I hate heat rash. That is some misery.

Then, all of the activities I did with my students today seemed to involve them screaming. Not a big deal, they were having fun, but I think my patience- level was up to here by the end of the day. Also I bought these dumb Merrell shoes and my feet are killlling me- don't know if it's because they're a mens size or because my feet aren't made for them? Had some things to do after work, including a haircut (fail).

So I took my ugly hair to Caves bookstore to buy a travel guide to Hong Kong and possibly some other books, because it has the biggest selection of English books around. It's actually quite a nice place and like I said, tons of English books. Except it has 4 floors and every time I go they have moved the English books. The clerk directed me to the fourth floor and in spite of the fact that I can ride my bike 100 miles in a day and just be a little sore afterwards, walking up four flights of stairs is a bit of a stretch for me. Turned out the fourth floor only had English teaching books, but the third floor had regular English books. Picked up the only travel guide they had to Hong Kong (hint to Caves: better to have 5 guides for Hong Kong and 1 for Honduras, rather than the other way around)

Then I went to look at the novels and there were a Taiwanese boy and girl- teenagers- sitting on this little bench, talking rubbish in Chinese. "Hello, I am a foreigner. Are you?" "No, I'm Taiwanese!" "Really! But I am a foreigner." They were sitting right in front of one of the bookshelves, so I told them, "There's another seat over there." "Thank you, we're very comfortable here," they said. Fine.

I moved a little past them and they started up in English:

Boy: "Your English is very poor."

Girl: "No, your English is poor."

Boy: "I know because I am a foreigner... I come from Vancouver, Canada. The weather in my hometown is seldom sunny."

OK, in spite of sore feet, ugly hair, and a dayfull of screaming 4th-graders, I had to laugh at that.

Then I went to a pretty nice vegetarian restaurant nearby, that even has an English menu. Except this tableful of brainless girls kept taking pictures of me with their cameraphones and talking about me. Daft girls.

Then I got some gelato. Very random but there's some delicious gelato to be had in that neighborhood. Salted caramel gelato. Man was that good.

"Summer Camp"

2010-07-23T19:56:00.002+08:00

So what I'm teaching is my school's optional summer session, which this year is called "Little Boss." Basically they're learning about things like advertising and marketing which is more fun than it sounds.

One hurdle I ran into is that 2 British teachers designed the curriculum, and it's all in British English. So, we were meant to watch some "adverts", which I hadn't pre-screened, and the students were to fill out a worksheet about each one. This first one, when it was over, the kids asked "Teacher, what was it about?" and I said, "I have no idea." We watched it a few more times and eventually I figured out that it was for some sort of beverage. I also had to ask some British teachers if "This sing-song high school isn't about dreams" (the first line) was meant to be a joke. (It is. The whole thing is meant to be a joke.)

Then we've got a pretty inexplicable Mr. T commercial. Sorry, advert. I can understand Mr. T better than I can understand a thick Scottish accent, but the kids were more about the physical humor. Also it's quite funny to see young Taiwanese imitating a speed-walker and shouting mumbles that vaguely resemble Mr. T's (Ah pih a fu is how it came out).
Finally, another British advert- took me a couple of tries to figure out it's about tea, although I still wouldn't stake my life on that...

Now I wonder how the students who have British teacher can ever understand a word I'm saying!

Workin' for the man again

2010-07-23T18:25:00.002+08:00

I was somehow filling up my days as a lady of leisure without really accomplishing anything, but one of the teachers at my old job had a scooter accident and broke her leg very badly, so I'm filling in until the end of the month. It's a more fun summer session but it's still kicking my butt. Part of it is coming in without really knowing what's going on and then teaching 6 periods everyday. But it's mostly fun and the kids are grade 3-4 which is my favorite age.

Then it's fly to Hong Kong... fly back to Taichung and 2 hours later fly to Penghu (an island btwn Taiwan and China) then back here to clean out my apartment. Over the course of 3 weeks. Which will still be tough for me.

Keepin' Legal

2010-07-19T12:48:00.000+08:00

Because my work permit gets cancelled when I no longer work, I have to either leave the country and come back as a visitor, or stay and pay a fine, which oddly is much less than even the cheapest airplane ticket out of the country. But I'm a little wary of having some sort of 30-day overstay stamp in my passport, and anyways it would be nice to see something in Asia other than Taiwan.

I had thought to go to a beach/ resort area somewhere in Southeast Asia but it turns out everywhere is either rainy (Thailand), expensive (Bali) or has hotels with machine-gun wielding guards (the Philippines). So it looks like it will be Hong Kong for me, and I'm actually getting kind of excited about it. I think I will get to stay at a pretty nice hotel with a very nice pool and there will be plenty to keep me busy as a tourist. And it seems like English is quite popular there so I won't have too many problems, since they speak the "wrong" kind of Chinese there. :)

Figuring out when exactly I need to go has been a bit of a test. My big problem is that my work visa doesn't technically expire until September, but it will be cancelled at some point, so I have to somehow be able to show the people at the airport that when I come in it's not on my work visa, but on a visitors visa. I'm not doing anything shady or illegal but it's very hard to find information online or even to get a good answer when you call somewhere.

So I spent the better part of a day trying to sort things out- I needed a form filled out at work, then I went to the immigration office in Taichung, but they said I had to go to the immigration office in the county, which fortunately is in Fong Yuan. When I went there I filled out a form and wanted to ask some questions, but instead my form got sent back to someone in the back office and then they had me pick up the phone and my old boss was on the line... I was like, "I have no idea why I'm talking to you!" It was pretty confusing but by the end I understood that at some point, my work cancellation would go through, at which point they would call my old boss and she would call me, and then I could go to get an extension until I go to Hong Kong. And when I told them the date that I wanted to go to Hong Kong, they said that will probably be OK, but they have no way of knowing. Ha!

That same day I tried to do my taxes. I tried to go to a tax office in Taichung because for some reason it takes way longer for those of us who do our taxes in Fong Yuan to get refunds. But they said I had to go to Fong Yuan. Then it turned out that I have to wait until a few days before I leave for Hong Kong to do my taxes, for some reason.

So I didn't really get anything fully sorted but at least I got a slightly clearer idea of everything. And sadly I got a sunburn on my arms from all that driving because at a stoplight these two Taiwanese girls were like "Look at that foreigner, wearing her arm tubes! Where did she even buy them? No one wears those anymore!" And I was embarassed so I just wore my "driving gloves". Memo to myself- don't listed to snotty Taiwanese girls. My arm tubes are awesome.

2010-07-19T02:39:00.002+08:00

One of the benefits of getting ready to leave Taiwan is being treated to lots of going-away dinners. :) This evening I was eating with 2 Taiwanese friends and when I finished they asked if I wanted cake. "No, I'm full," but I told them I wanted to come back some other time to get... and I showed them a picture of the chocolate fondue on the menu.

They thought it looked like the most disgusting thing ever- it turned out because the fondue pot really does look like a hot pot pot, and the idea of cooking meat and veggies in chocolate is, well, disgusting. I explained that you put fruit and cake in it. (The picture was really small!) They said, won't it be to sweet? I said, sure it's sweet, but you share with your friends, it's OK. I said maybe I would invite people after our meeting on Friday night. "No, you have to eat it in the afternoon!" they said. "If you eat it at night you'll get fat." Hmmm...

Later we got on the subject of drinking ice water, always controversial. I said that in the heat of the summer, if I'm out and about for too long I have to take some time to go in air-conditioning and drink water. "But not ice water!" they said. "Yes," I said. I told them my old Taiwan bodies are different than American bodies thing, and they seemed to buy it, but later the one told me, very seriously, "If you're going to drink cold water, you really have to be careful. Please, be careful."

So no cold water and no chocolate at night. 2 things I won't miss about Taiwan.

the pharmacy

2010-07-09T23:07:00.002+08:00

This stupid cold just keeps coming back. I had a wicked sinus headache on Monday; fortunately, most of the medicine here has its English scientific name so you can just write down the name of what you need (sudafed! or pseudeophedrine) and go to the pharmacy down the street and get it.

The poor pharmacist and I were definitely speaking to cross-purposes. He speaks a very "educated" Chinese, and you know, my head hurt. So he said something, and I didn't understand it at all, so I said OK. Then he said something that seemed like tomorrow, and I said I didn't understand, then he said something else that had something to do with the second time, and I started to think about how you have to sign papers in the US to say you won't make crystal meth out of your sudafed, and I thought maybe he was saying he could only sell it to me my second time there, so I said, "I've been here before! Last year, I bought... uh... I don't know how to say." Then he said something else, and I said, "Can I just buy one?" And we stared at each other blankly.

It turned out he was saying that the pills he had, had the sudafed ingredient plus something else. Ah! So I bought them at last.

I would kill for a fudgecicle

2010-07-08T17:16:00.001+08:00

Frozen, chocolate, but not creamy... they just don't have them in Taiwan.

I know, I should be enjoying my last few weeks with fresh mango and papaya... and fresh pineapple milkshakes and watermelon juice... and tea! The tea stands!

But I want a fudgecicle.

Beginning of the End

2010-07-04T19:04:00.002+08:00

My last day of work was Saturday- blech- a 6-day week. Since I had 6th-grade students, they graduated last Wednesday and haven't had to come to school since then (?!?) but I did do a lot of subbing. Last week was a busy week life-wise and I'm still under the weather so I was completely beat by the time I got home at 9:30 on Saturday night.

I'm looking forward to a couple of days of sleep and cleaning and then hopefully can do some subbing but we'll see. I might just be a lady of leisure for the next couple of months.

I will be making at least one trip out of Taiwan to keep myself legal, now that my work permit is expiring. Not sure where yet- Hong Kong and Bali are the frontrunners.

It's finally gotten obscenely hot. I'd thought I was more used to the summer heat but it turns out all the rain kept things cool. It's in the 90s pretty much all day and barely gets below that at night. The "feels like" is always something like 104 during the day. The sun is just so darn strong. So I've got to start preparing frozen water bottles for when I go out and get my system of fans going a little better. Lots of time to do that tomorrow! And I do have AC in my bedroom so I've been spending a lot of time there...

2010-06-28T19:39:00.002+08:00

Seriously, people. You know why I came to Taichung of all places in Taiwan? Because the Lonely Planet said it had the best weather and least pollution in Taiwan. And really, I could always comfort myself with the idea that if it was raining in Taichung it was certainly raining in Taipei.

But this is what the weather is like all the time now. In case you're not up on Taiwan geography, Taichung is the county about 1/3 of the way down that's kind of wide east-west and short north-south, with a similarly shaped block (Taichung city) inside. Another way of identifying it is that it's always covered in rain while the rest of the island is dry. To further identify it, you can look for the county that is partly cloudy except for my commute into work in the morning and then all stinking evening every evening.

Also, in case you were wondering, doing a triathlon is not a good way to recover from the common cold. Consider yourself informed.

Weekend Wetness

2010-06-27T17:19:00.002+08:00

I did another triathlon on Saturday, at a place called Shimen Reservoir up north a ways. It was a bit of a bummer because on Wednesday night I started to come down with a cold and wound up taking a sick day on Thursday. I debated not doing the triathlon but I had plans to go up with a friend and a hotel room with a deposit I wouldn't get back so I decided to go for it.

It's been crazy rainy and thunderstormy so I was relieved that we had beautiful weather for most of the weekend. The hotel was in kind of a crazy place- we got a taxi from the High Speed Rail station and he got extremely lost- but the people were super-friendly.

The race started at 1:30 which is such an awkward time. I still wasn't feeling great and took a half-dose of cold medicine. The race went OK- I blew the swim as usual :( My poor friend, Irinka- I asked her to count the women who came out of the water before me, thinking I might not blow it this time, and I came out and she was like "34!" ha. Now I'm not a bad swimmer in the pool but the combination of adrenaline, people all around me, and very cold lake water just takes my breath away. I had wanted to go in the water beforehand to get used to it but they wouldn't let me, oh well. I did swim in the lake for a while afterward just to practice and convince myself someday I'll be able to do this, and I had no problem, even going a little faster than my slowest speed. If I could ever practice swimming in a lake it would be different but there is almost no where to swim in Taiwan. Even the places where we have triathlons don't usually have beaches- you can only swim on the triathlon day. Many Taiwanese think ghosts live in the water so there's not the same beach atmosphere there is back home.

But I passed about 10 women between the run up to the bikes and actually getting on my bike and leaving the transition area, and about 10 more on the bike. My stomach wasn't feeling so great, which was a first for me during a race, but I think it was just all the cold junk I was breathing in, plus the heat. I wasn't too happy with my run either- a few women passed me and I just couldn't keep up. Anytime I'd try to go faster my stomach would refuse. So it goes. Don't know what my performance was overall but I think I might have stayed in the top 1/3 overall. I figured if my swim and run were great there was a chance at me getting 5th place but of course that's a big if!

One awesome thing was that they were handing out watermelon afterwards! It was funny because Irinka asked if I was hungry and I said no, my stomach isn't doing well, but then when I saw the watermelon I was like, "That's the only food I could keep down right now!" I couldn't even handle water. Anyways, we went back to the hotel, went for a little walk on a path in the woods but it was so crazy hot and humid, then had dinner and some beer on a nice patio with a view.

Sunday we got to do some hiking. There turned out to be some pretty nice trails near the hotel. At first they were just roads with lots of stands and karaoke machines but then it became an actual path- not just stairs, which is kind of a novelty- and had some beautiful views. But it was crazy hot and humid. I had sweat pooling on my arms- like forming droplets that didn't go anywhere. Happily near the top there was a place with ice cream and cold drinks. The way down was easier of course but my clothing was pretty much soaked through when we got back to the hotel.

We got back just before it started pouring, although I couldn't have gotten much wetter. We got packed up quickly and took a taxi back to the rail station. This driver knew where he was going but seemed pretty eager to find himself a wife on our ride- poor Irinka was up front with him and he kept telling her she could come back and he'd be her personal tour guide, that she needs to get married soon, and how much money he makes from his army pension. Being the good friend I am I just laughed the whole time but he was not deterred.

I rode the regular train back from the high speed rail station- the regular train is so dumb about bikes, you can take them on the "local" trains that stop at every stop but not on the faster ones unless you go through some process that's inscrutable even to my Taiwanese friends and most of the railroad employees- so that was that. Although I balanced my bike on top of my rolling carry-on it was still wicked hot and humid and I wound up pretty much sweating through another shirt.

I had been thinking that I'm used to the Taiwan heat now but now I think it's just been unusually cool this year.

Managing Expectations

2010-06-22T21:01:00.002+08:00

Taiwan isn't known for its thunderstorms- we often have thunderstorm-strength torrential downpours but not much thunder and lightning. The one we got last Thursday, when I was teaching, was definitely out of the ordinary.

But the few days we've gotten US-style late afternoon thunderstorms. Yesterday I had planned to run after work, and we got a brief shower while I was still at work, but I checked the radar and it looked like the thunderstorms had moved through. On my way to the bike path to run, it was windy and crazy clouds were blowing through but I decided to run and chance it. And if you get caught at all in the rain without a raincoat, you quickly get as wet as you're going to get, so I planned to do my full run whatever came.

About 10 minutes into it it started to rain and 20 minutes in (out of only 35- I have a triathlon this weekend!) it started to really pour. Soggy shoes aside, it's kind of pleasant to run in the rain- much cooler! And of course I wasn't worried about getting wet for the rest of my scooter ride home. It didn't really start thundering until I was on my scooter, which was good- I don't mind rain but I prefer not to be outside for lightning.

I rode my bike into work today, figuring that we couldn't have late-afternoon thunderstorms 3 days in a row. Around 4 I realized that probably wasn't true, as it started thundering and started to look really ominous. I'm not a fan of riding in the rain, because it's more dangerous for me and the other road users to stop, and also harder for everyone to see, but I resigned myself to a slow careful ride. It turned out that although I saw rain to my east and west, I just got a little drizzle and a lot less humidity. It was awesome. When I got home I was the happiest person.

Things I'll Miss About Taiwan #1

2010-06-20T17:48:00.002+08:00

Naps.

Naps on a bed I had back home, but I love that here it's appropriate to just take a nap wherever, whenever. On a park bench? On your scooter in a shady spot? Why not?

I've never done either of those but yesterday, for example, I went to a picnic in the middle of a long day. I basically sat in a chair, stretched my legs out, and fell asleep. No one bugged me. No one thought it was rude. And I was a much happier girl when I woke up.

Kaohsiung, Day 2(a)

2010-06-14T20:57:00.001+08:00

After a pleasant breakfast at our hotel, where they humored me by bringing me peanut butter to replace the eggs, we headed out to see Lotus Lake, which seemed to be one of the must-sees in Kaohsiung.

We took the subway to the northern part of the city, and then, because it was already hot and we had all-day passes for all the public transport, decided to take a bus to the lake instead of walking. We weren’t sure how far it was from the subway but knew it would take a little while to get there.

The bus turned out to be less simple than we’d imagined. First of all, I didn’t know how to say Lotus Lake in Chinese, but we asked people which side of the street we should stand on to get to the “big, famous lake” and they directed us there. The bus driver made us get off at a bus depot that wasn’t near a lake, and we wound up walking around quite a bit but then found the lake.

It was pretty, but as we walked around the lake, we found that nothing was matching up with the map. There were even maps posted near the lake that matched up with nothing on our maps of Lotus Lake. Except sometimes something would seem like it could match up. (If you’re already a step ahead of me here, bear in mind that it was really really hot out.)

Danyall decided the only way to figure out where we were was to ask a local. Unfortunately our maps were only in English, so we could only use words. She asked an old man what the thing behind us was called. I translated his answer: “It’s a temple.” Not so helpful.

After circumnavigating the lake, we stopped for a rest in some shade and I looked at our city map. I started to get a bad feeling as I looked at it. There was a “Lion Lake” in the northeast part of the city. I went to look at the sign at the gate- sure enough, it said “Lion Lake” in Chinese.

We started to walk but I said if we saw a taxi I’d gladly pay for it. I was a little through with lakes in general at that point. Happily we found an off-duty taxi who took pity on us and $200NT later, we were at a hotel near the actual Lotus Lake to have lunch.

Even the short walk from the hotel to Lotus Lake was crazy. There was a concierge who spoke English and he told us how to go, but we got to point where the only way we could get to the lake was by diaganolly crossing 5 lanes of traffic and a set of railroad tracks with some overhead construction. We went back and asked the concierge if there was another way to go, because that seemed kinda dangerous. “No, it’s extremely safe!” he said. So we gathered our courage and forged on.

Proof that we actually made it! The lake itself was pleasant but not particularly nicer than the lion lake we’d left. There were a lot of temples along it which is nice if you like temples. We didn’t spend an over-long amount of time there.

After that, we trekked back to the MRT stop (no busses this time!) and went back to our hotel. Danyall rested in the room while I went to the beach. In retrospect I wish we’d have spend more time at the beach- it was really beautiful and the water was quite warm. There were huge ships going in and out of the harbor too.

This picture pretty much sums up the Taiwan beach scene. 4 families’ worth of little kids, some in bathing suits and some in soaking wet tighty whities. All watched over by one Vietnamese worker while the moms sit back under shade umbrellas somewhere.

I did see some kids going pretty far into the ocean, even letting the waves go over their head. Usually Taiwanese people are afraid of ghosts in the water so I thought that was really cool. Then their mom came over and started talking to them in English and it turns out their dad is a Westerner. I chatted with that family a while and we wound up seeing them a couple of more times during our trip.

Watched the sun set, not too shabby. Then we showered and prepared ourselves for a night on the town. But that’s a whole other post.

Rainy Days & Weekends

2010-06-12T19:57:00.002+08:00

It has been awfully rainy here. There are supposed to be "plum rains" that last from April until early summer but we had beautiful weather for most of that time- it really depends on the year. My first year here it poured every day for like 2 months. This year it has been really nice until the last couple of weeks. We've had a couple of days of OK weather but mostly it's drizzly, rainy, and humid.
Thursday we actually had some real thunderstorms. The kids at school were all freaked out, as we seldom get a really good one here.
This afternoon it kind of cleared up- the sun was almost breaking through- so I decided to go for a ride on the bike path. Usually I know better than to ride my bike on the bike path after 6:30 am on a weekend, because it's so crowded, but I guess I thought I was the only person who knew itt was nice outside so it would be fine. Ha! I'm pretty sure the bike path is more dangerous than the roads. Little kids swerving while their parents laugh at the crazy foreigner who goes off the path to avoid running over their progeny, people swerving 3 abreast, teenage boys trying to race me and ridiculing each other for failing, people riding one-handed while smoking... I know this is how it will be but I just have to remind myself every now and then, I guess. Still it was great to be out. I had also forgotten how much the lack of sun affects my mood!

Long Time No Blog

2010-06-08T21:18:00.001+08:00

Yeah, sorry about that. I can't think of too much to write about.

Bad Romance

2010-05-23T18:21:00.002+08:00

One of the pasttimes of kids in my school seems to be making horrible noises. For instance, they like to imitate car alarms in a place in the hallway that echoes particularly well. One of my classes likes to make noises that sound like an asthmatic duck gasping for air; the other just likes to sing really high. If you know me, I don't like noise and I don't like high-pitched noises. Thus I am often heard to stay, "Stop making horrible noises!"
Lady Gaga has become the bane of my existence, because somehow all of my students know her songs (and I didn't until some teachers pointed out where my kids were getting their horrible noises from). The thing is they do it almost unconsciously- like there is a lull in the class, some students start chatting, and then some boy whose voice is changing starts up with "gaga oohlala."
Also I guess my students never actually learned the word horrible because I came into the classroom the other day to find this written on the board: "No whorable noises." Well, none of those either, please.

The Zen of Swimminig

2010-05-23T14:50:00.002+08:00

Swimming lessons have gotten a little weird. I know it's partly due to my misunderstanding the Chinese sometimes, but it's also due to my swimming teacher being obsessed with me relaxing when I swim. Like the other night, he was telling me to do some drill at a very slow speed, and I said I'd try. he said, "You have to stop trying, and start doing." Like Yoda?
Then he said that a bunch of people from the swimming school would be going to Sun Moon Lake. There is an annual swim across the lake, and I thought maybe that's what he meant, and I said I'd like to go, and asked when it was. "When you think you're ready to go, you can go," he said. I asked a few more questions but didn't really get beyond that point. Like I asked if a bus would be going there (often a group will rent a bus to go somewhere) and he said, "Think about it." Um, I didn't mean a metaphorical bus... Maybe I missed the point of some Chinese proverb but it was a very odd.

Kaohsiung Part 1

2010-05-15T21:46:00.005+08:00

When my friend Danyall was here, we left Xiao LiuQiu to spend a couple of days in Kaohsiung (crazy old-school spelling- it's more like Gaoshung I think), the 2nd-biggest city in Taiwan. I'd only ever passed through there on my way somewhere else but from the subway or the windows of a bus, it looked like a great place to visit. We got rooms at a nice hotel right next to the beach.
Our first day there was rather inauspicious. We wound up taking a taxi from the port to our hotel- somewhat at my insistence, as I didn't want to walk far through the heat- it was actually a van with a few other people. We got dropped off at our hotel just fine, then went to get our bags, which we'd left at the train station.
One of the things I thought was so cool about Kaohsiung is that is has a bike-share program- swap a card, ride a bike, then return it to a number of conveniently located spots around the

city. There was a bike station right near our hotel and we decided to ride to the subway station to save time.

Yeah. You see how Danyall is hot and frazzled? That's cause we got to the subway stop, which had 2 exits, and circled the station a few times without seeing the bike dock place, asked a few people where it was, finally found it at the other side of a speedy 4-lane road from the subway... I think this would be a convenient thing if you lived there and had a card to use (if you do, it's free for the first 30 minutes) but since we had to use credit cards to pay like $1 for the first 30 minutes, even bike nerd me was willing to walk for the rest of our time in that city.

The subway was pretty easy to negotiate, and we got our bags, and I was hungry but I knew the train station had a Starbucks and figured a quick sandwich would be great. Except the Starbucks had closed since I was there 2 months ago. On the way back to the subway we did find a MosBurger with a very friendly worker so that cheered us up, or at least held back my low-blood-sugar anger. Did I mention it was really hot in the south of Taiwan? Like, really, really hot.

There are only 2 lines of the subway and we did have to switch lines. This was not a problem on the way to the train station. Somehow on the way back I led us in the wrong direction and we fought our way through crowds of people and even walked the suitcase up a flight of stairs to realize that we needed to be back where we came from. This is me, banging my head against the wall when I came to that realization.

We were, however, rewarded with this sign, advertising help for blind passengers:

OK, maybe our blood sugar wasn't totally stabilized because we found that hilarious. I also got to eavesdrop on some other passengers talking about us in Chinese: "Look at those foreigners! They're so tall!" "Yes, but it's because they're wearing high heels." "The one is, but the other one isn't. And even without the high heels, they'd be very tall." (This was funnier because the word for high heels in Chinese is actually tall shoes, and because of something that happened the next day.)

We made our way back to the hotel and decided that since we are old, 8 pm wasn't too early to stay in, enjoy an adult beverage each (purchased from 7-11, cause we're classy like that) and get ready for a fun day on Thursday. And this was the view from our window:

Improvement!

2010-05-12T21:04:00.002+08:00

Ha! I just made a hotel reservation. On the phone. In Chinese. And even convinced the guy that the triathlon I'm coming for is on Saturday, not Sunday- that in fact there are 2 days of competition.
This might not sound overly exciting considering that I've been here for 3 years and communication isn't that scary of a thing for me anymore. But phone conversations have kind of been the last fronteir. The lack of visual feedback, the fact I can't pantomime the words I don't know, and of course the fact that the other party can and does hang up on me sometimes... and for some reason hotels are the worst. And of course the inexpensive ones are the ones where they can't speak English. But I did it!

Customer Service

2010-05-10T20:15:00.002+08:00

So, on the one hand, there are a lot of ways in which customer service here is much better than back home. I've mentioned before that a salesclerk will gladly follow you around a store, showing you things you can buy, and many businesses are willing to fix stuff for free (glasses, scooters, bikes) if there's no parts involved. Even when there are, bike stores seem to only charge for the cost of parts- buying a new innertube for my bike tire costs as much as having the shop fix the flat for me. And if there's ever more than one customer in front of me at a place like Carrefour, I consider that a major inconvenience.
On the other hand, sometimes customer service is mystifyingly bad. I didn't realize this until I read about it on another blog, but having a place actually apologize for something they screw up is pretty rare. They'll say sorry for things like it took a while to make your tea, but not for important stuff. Like that fruit you brought was rotten? Well, it's not quite mango season yet. Um, how about sorry, here's a free mango? But you don't even get a sorry.
Tonight I was getting a massage and it was quite nice- the lady didn't seem interested in breaking blood vessels, knots were being undone, and then halfway through this extremely high-pitched noise accompanied by the sound of slightly arrythmic snapping rubberbands started. After a few minutes I asked what it was, and she said a laser (luckily laser in Chi nese sounds a lot like laser in English). I said it was pretty terrible. She said the laser person only came there once a month, so it didn't happen that often. Anyways, this sound went on and on. I pretty much can't overemphasize how awful it was. I asked if we could move to another room, she said that wouldn't be convenient. I asked if we could turn the music up, she said no. Finally I said I was going to leave because I couldn't stand it, and she just said, "Well, it's not usually like this." Um, okay. When I left they charged me for the massage and were like, "If you want another appointment, just call!" Never a sorry. Grrr.

Maybe I shouldn't admit this

2010-05-03T21:24:00.002+08:00

So I'm breaking into a new pack of Andes Candies and for the first time in my life, realized that's not some weird spelling of Andy but is in fact the Andes mountains. And that explains the mountain on the logo.

Never stop learning.

Delightful Day

2010-05-01T16:08:00.002+08:00

I rode a bike for the first time in almost two weeks and it was just lovely. The weather is perfect- high 70s and sunny- and I went with a friend on the bike path and let her set the pace. It was slow, and I didn't care. I couldn't do this everyday, but it was so nice to just ride for fun.

Be Veg! Go Green! Save the Earth!

2010-05-01T09:53:00.001+08:00

This imperative-filled, English-seeming slogan has been popping up a lot in Taiwan, especially outside vegetarian restaurants. The idea is that being a vegetarian a couple of days a week will lower the CO2 it takes to feed you, vegetarian dishes generally requiring much less CO2 on the back end. (Though it depends where your tofu comes from, according to what I read.) I think this part-time vegetarian thing is a thing in western countries, too, or it may just be a thing on the hippy websites I frequent. :)

2010-04-29T21:49:00.003+08:00

How stinkin' cute is this sign? If I had kids I would totally send them for music lessons at this school. Also, gotta love the fact that the last fruit creature's head is dhurian.

Swimming advice, life advice

2010-04-26T22:18:00.002+08:00

Let me preface this by saying I think my swimming teacher is great. We've gotten to where we can mostly communicate, we can joke around a little, and my swimming has improved a great deal. For a while there he was trying to teach me random basic Chinese (like after I'd say "Teacher, good evening" he's explain to me what they meant).
Tonight we talked about me learning the breast-stroke but it turned out that needed a follow-up conversation after class, as he started me swimming one-armed back and forth across the pool. Honestly I wasn't too excited about that as, well, it's kinda boring and I'd done that drill on my lunch swim. Anyways he stopped me and said I was too tense, I should relax. Um, okay. Another lap and he stopped me, he was all "It's not a competition! Relax!" So I swam very slowly and then he said, "You're going slow, but you're still not relaxed!" Ha.
So the 2 ladies in the lane and I were awaiting our further instructions, and he talked more about why I should relax. I told him this isn't a swimming problem, it's a life problem- my muscles are always tense and it's easy to say relax but I can't do it. So he says, "That will lead to a ???" I didn't understand the Chinese. So we looked to the lady who speaks English and she said, "a tragic death." Ha!
So the rest of the lesson was pretty much a wash- everytime he came over to me it was more relaxation advice. "I know those kids at your school make you angry. But you have to forget them, just enjoy your exercise!" So cute. After class I usually read a while to wait for all the crazy parents to clear out of the shower area but he came over and discussed relaxation with me. I tried to convince him that if not being tense is the only way to being a good swimmer, I should give up now. I did not convince him of that, but I think I convinced him to start teaching me breast-stroke next time. As I got ready to go he said, "Go home, and listen to music for 1/2 hour. Next time I'll ask you to make sure you do it!" Nothing like talking about how I need to relax to make me more tense! :)

Getting my scooter fixed

2010-04-26T12:46:00.000+08:00

Occasionally I hear foreigners complaining about getting "the foreigner price" for stuff, like getting stuff fixed or buying stuff at the traditional market or taxis. Honestly, this stuff is all so cheap compared to back home that I seriously wouldn't care if they marked it up 20%, but I really think this has never happened to me. If anything, I've found people go out of their way to be helpful- like once in Taichung the taxi driver got lost and didn't make me pay the full meter; on the occasions that I buy meat and veggies at the market they usually give me free stuff, etc.
I've mentioned before that just getting them to fix stuff- like shocks or springs or whatever, and speedometers- that aren't strictly necessary to the functioning of the scooter is kind of tough. I guess they don't want to rip me off but I guess scooters are pretty non-luxurious to start with, so I don't mind paying a little extra for "luxuries" like a working suspension.
The scooter guy I go to now, near my apartment, is so funny. He always insists that I stay and then shows me piles of crud that fall out of certain parts of my scooter, or some barely-hanging-together part that only becomes apparent after he's unscrewed 3 layers of innards, and says things like "It's so dirty!" or "If that would break, it would be really dangerous!" I've found the best course of action is to act really shocked and thank him for showing me. This time I did get him to let me leave with the promise that I'd come back later. I told him, Whatever there's a problem with, just fix it. You're very skillful, I trust you. He was like, you don't want me to call you and tell you what's wrong? No, it's OK, I said. Just call me when it's done. He did save the old parts to show me. I'm like, charge me extra, I don't care, just don't show me all this stuff! Haha. Cause seriously it's so cheap.

Recovery

2010-04-24T20:46:00.000+08:00

Somehow in my mind, I'd planned to race 300 km on the bike last weekend, do a couple of days of easy swimming and walking to get the blood flowing the the legs recovered, then swing right back into triathlon training.
Then, all week I've been asking myself, "Why am I sleeping so much? Why am I so hungry all the time? Why do my limbs feel like lead despite all the stretching? Why is it so hard to run so slow?"
Finally it started to occur to me- you bike 300 km at a pretty fast pace (for you). No matter how much you eat the right proportion of protein and carbs, and go for easy swims, that's gonna take a while to recover from. I realized that, time and heart-rate-wise, it was comparable to doing a half-marathon one day and a marathon the next, as opposed to a couple of long bike rides. I realize it's nowhere as brutal on the legs and the rest of the body as actually running for 11 hours over 2 days would have been, but it's fair to say I pretty much shredded my legs.
So. I'm letting myself sleep and eat! Until Tuesday. Then enough's enough.

Bike race? Check.

2010-04-19T19:48:00.005+08:00

I did the Tour of East Taiwan this weekend, which was 130 km down the east coast and then 170 km up. I finished!
I rode on a bus with a team sponsored by this factory in Fong Yuan. There were only 3 girls on the bus- me, another foreign teacher from my school whose boyfriend was doing the race, and a Taiwanese girl. They had meals and lodging all planned out and the organization was pretty impeccable- the hotels were nice and the food was great.
I ate a lot of this (delicious poached fish with lots of herbs), which I think is my favorite food in Taiwan.
This is a picture of my wave and me before the start. There were 5 waves (I think?) that left every 5 minutes. Mine was the last- all the women, and men maybe over 40 or 50?

As I mentioned before, bike racing is a different breed from running races and triathlons. I knew that there was a zone (I think around 15 km?) where the pack could only go a certain speed, and when that zone ended if you weren't with the pack you were pretty much sunk. It turned out there was a scooter in front pacing us and then all of a sudden it was gone and uh-oh, no one was around me. Well, there were a few people way behind me and a few people way in front. I spent about an hour going as hard as I could to catch up with some other racers. Ideally, in a bike race you'll ride in a line because for each person after the leader, you have to work less hard to maintain the same speed because of the draft. But at most I think I ever got working with 2 other people. Men generally let me draft them as long as I wanted but it never seemed to work when I tried to take a turn leading (pulling, it's called). Women seemed to want to stay the heck away from me, which might have been a racing strategy but since we were basically duking it out for last place in our division, that seemed odd. Also I don't know how to correctly express things like "Do you want to work together?" in Chinese. I tried to convince 2 guys that since we were always together we should help each other, and the one just said, "You can stay behind me if you want." Um, OK.
Overall though after the first hour it was fun and the scenery was absoutely amazing- mountains on one side and pristine ocean on the other. When I could look up!
I finished that day in around 4.5 hours. Had a great sleep and didn't feel too bad the next day. On Sunday I managed to stay with the pack a little longer and it was the same thing- sometimes finding people to work with, sometimes not. I kept chanting "I'm extremely lucky to have this guy's wheel" to remind myself not to pass people I was drafting. I ate and drank more the second day which helped a lot. I made 2 stops at 7-11 to get water and sports drink which was good- the team had vans that gave out water and stuff but I guess since I was by far the slowest member it didn't work for them to supply me. No big deal as a few extra minutes on my time didn't matter; I'm just glad I didn't pass up the few 7-11s in the hopes that the team van would come. I did fall off a nice pack of people to stop at one 7-11 but that's life.
The second day I feel went better than the first. I guess I had clearer expectations of what it would be like. It was also quite pretty but not quite as beautiful. I finished in about 6.5 hours, for 170+ km. Oh, yeah, and it rained pretty hard during the time we were all in the pack together so everyone got filthy. Here's me after the finish, and then later in a hotel room where we got to shower before the bus ride home, sporting my dirt uni-brow.

I finished 3rd or 4th from the bottom of my division (women 30-39) both days. There were over 30 women in my division. There were definitely men coming in after me, though, even men from later waves.

So, will I do another bike race? Probably not. I knew going in that it would be tough, but I had a weird obsession with doing this, mostly because I knew it would be a beautiful course. (And I'd still love to bike the east coast- taking 2 days between Hualien and Taitung would be no problem and really enjoyable.) But to improve- even to be in the middle of the pack- I'd have to invest a lot more money than I'm willing to invest in a bike, and invest a lot of time finding a team and training with them.

Also, I just didn't like the vibe of bike racing. In triathlons, you're competing but it's easy to chat with people as you're waiting to start and cheer people on whether they're passing you or you're passing them. I'd heard that bike racing isn't all sunshine and smiles but I wasn't prepared for how un-sunshiney it is. I'm sure it's more fun if you have a team you're friends with, but there wasn't much friendliness on the course. On the second day in the pack at the beginning, I overheard 2 people chatting in English and one said, "This is pretty annoying. If you have no chance at winning, why are you even up here now?" But you had to be with the group unless you were willing to go 12 km an hour and have no one to work with the whole race. I'm sure comments like that get made in running races and triathlons too, but there's a lot more positivity to drown it out.

And I guess I always thought that I don't really need cheers and spectators when I race. But the triathlon 2 weekends ago didn't have many spectators, and the bike race had almost none (at least by the time I raced around) and I realized I do need that- it really does make me smile and smiling doesn't make me work harder, but it does make me enjoy working hard. There was no one cheering as I crossed the finish at the bike race- not a soul, just a volunteer basically pushing me out of the way. Again, I realize that this isn't a problem with bike racing- real racers thrive off of that more competitive atmosphere- just a problem with me and bike racing. It's funny, on a triathlon forum and triathlate was complaining about a bad experience at a bike race and a cyclist wrote, "That's how bike races work. Suck it up, buttercup." It's a funny phrase but, you know, I don't want to suck it up. I guess I like the smiles and sunshine.

So, overall, I did enjoy that weekend but I see no need to repeat it. Also my team was very nice and supportive- I even told them that after the last person before me came in, they could drive out and pull me off the course so I didn't waste anyone's time, but they were like no, if you can finish, finish! It also turned out we had to wait a good while for the faster memebers to pick up their awards. But anyways. Back to triathlon.

Seasons changing

2010-04-14T19:03:00.002+08:00

When you bike back and forth to work, you really notice those extra few minutes of sunlight on the end of each day. At the beginning of the semester I turned on my blinky lights at the tail end of my ride home; now I can ride slowly and run an errand and still beat the sun home.

I do a long (about 2-hour) ride through the mountains into work once a week. When I took the picture further down the page, obviously the sun hadn't quite risen when I started my ride. Now it's already getting light out when I wake up. And the cute playful street puppies I always saw in a certain spot are now less cute half-grown dogs. (I guess they're not street puppies if they're on a mountain road, but they're not strays either because they didn't stray from anywhere- they were born on the streets, without an owner. Anyways.)

Resort-top-terrible

2010-04-10T19:24:00.004+08:00

The triathlon was not what you'd call my finest day. I guess, on the one hand, I did exert myself really hard and even wound up with what I believe to be the first and second asthma attacks of my life. And I met some nice people. And got some very cheap shirts for cycling.
On the other hand, it was a brutal course- the bike was narrow, windy, steep and windy; the run was just steep and hot. I also got extremely confused about what I was supposed to be doing a number of times. One of the poor volunteers said, "Most of us have never been here either, so we don't know where things are!" Ha.
(Oh, and the final insult to injury- the race shirt totally doesn't way West Lake Resortopia in English.)
2-day bike race next weekend??????
Update: Turns out I was 12/38 women! Top 1/3, baby! And only 2 places from the key $500 NT the last few of the top ten finishers get. My run and bike were 6th and 7th fastest, so that's encouraging. My swim was... not last. Yeah. Also I think the run was longer than a 5k, as the fastest man was over 25 minutes and the fastest woman was near 30. So I'm not overly sad about my 35 minute finish there.

The Triathlon Cometh

2010-04-08T22:18:00.002+08:00

This Saturday I get in a taxi to go to my triathlon, which starts at 1. I'm pretty excited- I'm swimming much better, and I had an awesome bike and run yesterday. Just hope they are all as awesome on Saturday! The bike course is right up my alley, too- basically down an 8 km hill, then up a small hill, then turn around and go back- meaning it ends with an 8 km climb. Aside from the fact that I'm a wimp about going down hills, it should be fun.
Also, although it's been rainy and chilly this week, it's supposed to be sunny and 85 on Saturday! A little hotter than I'd like but oh well.
Now time to get some sleep!

Ways in Which the Taiwan Railway is better than Delta Airlines

2010-04-06T21:08:00.002+08:00

I went to Green Island for the 3-day weekend, which was delightful except for getting there and back- I rode an overnight bus to Taitung then took the ferry, and rode a train back that wasn't supposed to be overnight but almost was. :)
I left Taitung a little after 5 and was supposed to get to Fong Yuan around midnight- it was a slower train but there aren't too many choices for that journey and the faster train was sold out of seats when I bought my ticket about 10 days ago. I figured a seat on a slow train was better then standing on a fast train. Which is usually true, but not last night!
After a couple of hours the train stopped and they started making announcements. I wasn't too concerned although I couldn't understand the announcements, but then a man from further up the car came back and translated for me. So nice! We kept in communication throughout the night. It turned out the engine/ locomotive was broke down and we had to wait for another one. We did, then stopped for a while at a small station waiting for a fast train to pass us. We'd only been going for a few minutes when we stopped again- I guess a train derailed further up. After a long wait, we wound up getting on city busses to ride up to the next big station, PingDong- about a 30 minute bus ride- to get on another train. By then it was almost midnight and I was thinking about trying to get a hotel room in Pingdong or up in Kaohsiung, but the wait was almost non-existant for the train and there were no more problems. I slept most of the way home and we got to Fong Yuan around 3:30- my biggest worry was getting my scooter out of the alley where it was parked, but I was perfectly safe.
Although it was tiring, of course, I was really impressed with the way the train people handled everything. They were constantly making announcements, and even a few times they announced what they thought would happen, then came back and said they had to do something differently. They also explained what was going wrong and ended each announcement with "Sorry to waste your precious time" (the only part I could understand!). They refunded our tickets and when we got on the new train, they gave out bottles of water and let us choose a baked good from 7-11 (they had big boxes and you just grabbed one).
I kept thinking about the difference between this and the many problems I've had with Delta airlines, where the employees have proved to be rude, ignoring your questions or snarling at you, unconcerned about the hunger and exhaustion of its passengers in the case of long delays, and unwilling to accept blame or to offer sincere apology or to offer even token financial compensation for delays which are often caused by their equipment or employees.
It was just so refreshing to see what could have been a very frustrating situation handled with professionalism and care.
Pics from Green Island soon!

Jan-Feb Receipt Lottery

2010-03-29T21:03:00.003+08:00

Since so many people find my blog when searching for the receipt lotter, here is the link, in English, to the winning numbers for Jan & Feb:
http://english.etax.nat.gov.tw/wSite/ct?xItem=63987&ctNode=11647
My explanation of the receipt lottery is here:
http://tawian-teacher.blogspot.com/2009/02/receipt-lottery.html

Little Liu Qiu, Part 3

2010-03-27T20:10:00.010+08:00

The theme of Day 2 on Little Liu Qiu was Hot.

We bought a pass to 3 tourist attractions for NT$100 each. I think we only went to 2.

First up was the Beauty Caves. These were mostly boardwalk footpaths and stairways heading to some small caves:

There were also some nice views of the water.

But we were already wilting a little.

And yes, my outfit is entirely inappropriate. To be fair, those are linen pants. But I was quite unprepared for the heat.

After that it was onto the "Pig Ditch", which sounded unpromising but turned out to be a number of short, interlocking hiking paths up the side of a hill. The map promised walks of 20-50 minutes for each path; each one generally took us a few minutes, even with stopping to comment on how unbearably hot it was.

There were, however, some spots that were difficult for foreigners wtih backpacks.

There was a perfectly-located ice cream stand. I was quite excited. But I couldn't quite eat the whole thing.

Since the ice cream stand doubled as a betel nut stand, I got a close-up of betel nut being processed. They take the actual fruit, put on a glob of lime (the chemical, not the fruit) and roll it in the green leaf. I'm not sure if the leaf comes from the betel nut trees or not.

Then, it was back to the port for our ferry back to the mainland.

Overall, it was a nice place. I liked that it wasn't such a hike to get to, like Kenting seems to be. There was a nicish beach and snorkeling that I didn't take advantage of- oh, well. It also seems to be set up with bike routes on all the major roads. I'm not sure if I'd want to bike there, though- honestly the English maps were all incomprehensible, and Dany and I are pretty good map-readers. I didn't see any Chinese maps that were any better, but they may exist.

Lousy Mongolian sandstorm

2010-03-22T12:57:00.002+08:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100320/wl_nm/us_china_environment_sandstorm

It's not as bad here as it is in Beijing but it's definitely noticeable. My voice is very hoarse. I guess you weren't supposed to exercise outside yesterday? Lousy 2-hour bike ride.

soul cake

2010-03-20T12:33:00.002+08:00

I've gotten pretty good at deciphering my students' Chinglish. Some of the smartest kids in my class make the craziest sentences, because they're really trying to express their thoughts in English but sometimes if they don't know a phrase or idiom, they just use a Chinese pattern with English words. Sometimes this works; sometimes not so much. (I struggle with the reverse in Chinese, of course.)

So here's the sentence I got using "midst": "The godfather stood midst the children and gave them soul cakes."

I know godfather- that's the direct translation of what they call priests in Chinese (and no, elementary school students don't quite get why it's so funny to call the priest "The Godfather".) It took a few minutes of conversation and this kid explaining a move he'd seen until I finally understood- soul cake is a Communion wafer!

Cute, eh?

metric mania

2010-03-18T22:04:00.002+08:00

All right. I can convert from fahrenheit to celcius in my head, as long as I have 20 seconds to do it, and going back and forth from miles to kilometers is no problem. I can almost think in kilometers now, like how fast is fast in kilometers, whether you're driving, biking, or running.
But. Today I was trying to figure out how tall someone who's 183 centimeters tall is in inches. And I kept coming up with way too tall. Then I tried it on myself to test my equation- and it didn't come out right. I was off by about 6 inches. I went back and forth with easy numbers, I made sure I was multiplying feet to inches right, I eventually broke down and used a calculator. All this went on during my last class, and my run, and my swim class. It got to the point where I wondered if I was going insane because the numbers just didn't work out.
Then I finally got home and got on the internet and, what do you know, there are 2.54 cm to an inch, not 2.2.
And just typing that, I realized 2.2 is the kilograms to pounds conversion.
Who ever invented metric, anyways? :)

Racing

2010-03-17T20:45:00.002+08:00

I have been a neglectful blogger lately. Partly I have been busy, partly I have been lazy.

Big excitement, though- I will do the Resortoptastic Triathlon on April 3, and I'm just gonna put it out there- I will come out of the water in the middle of the pack. (That means finishing the swim not in last place, for those of you who don't know triathlon-ese.)

And it looks like I will get to do a cycling race April 17-18- "The Tour of East Taiwan." It will be intense. 300+ km over 2 days. But I've been obsessed with it for a while, and you can only join if you have a team, and of course I don't, but I randomly found out about a company centered in Fong Yuan that will let any old schmuck join their team, a policy I highly support. Bike racing is a whole new league of crazy as good riders ride inches from the person in front of them at super-high speeds. But I will not do that. I will ride feet behind other people at moderately high speeds. I hope. I am not totally committed to this yet but I hope it works out.

Finally, I had secretly signed up for the half-marathon in Fong Yuan (as opposed to the marathon I had to drop out of training for) with the lame goal of being lame and run-walking it in 2:59 since 3 hours is the cut-off. But then I realized it's in the middle of my only 3-day weekend left in Taiwan and I think being lame just to get a t-shirt that says "Huludun Caring for Women & Children Half-Marathon" isn't worth missing out on a little vacation.

Happy Armiversary!

2010-03-13T20:40:00.002+08:00

It was March 13, 2009 when my arm got in the way of a car door, and ten days later it still looked like this:

Today I have a mere hint of a perma-bruise on my arm, which is easily mistaken for a very cut bicep. Um, yeah.

Seriously, though, it's amazing what our bodies can bounce back from.

In other news, Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad! (Cause their anniversary is my armiversary.)

pics from biking & running

2010-03-07T21:58:00.000+08:00

Left, the sunrise on my early-morning bike ride last Fri. I took it on my camera phone so it didn't come out so well but you could see each layer of mountain so clearly. And then I biked up them. And then to work. And had 5 minutes to shower. :I

2nd picture is betel nut trees and the sky at dusk reflected in a recently-planted rice field. Again a poor-quality photo but it's something I've been wanting to capture for a while.

also, random life updates that will only be of interest to people who know me:

~ swimming lessons are going OK. My translator doesn't seem to come anymore but I am still learning. I am swimming almost 20% faster, but still really slowly. But I realized that if I ran or biked 20% faster after a month I'd be jumping for joy.

~ so, it's hot now. Like wear-shorts-and-sweat-hot. Like don't go running in the middle of the day lest you stop sweating and your heartrate drops dramatically and uh-oh, I'd better stop running hot! But it will be rilly cold next week.

~ school is going fine. Students are not driving me so crazy now. We definitely needed a break from each other.

big earthquake...

2010-03-04T20:38:00.002+08:00

... that I totally didn't feel because I was on my scooter on the way to work. I guess I hit the lights right because I wasn't stopped when it happened.
It was a 6.4 in the south, looks like it felt like a 3 here. From what I can tell no one died. I did see some of the news (in Chinese) and it seemed to show some fiery infernos and collapsesd houses, and some roads that were out, but it's certainly nowhere near what happened in Haiti or Chile.

Little Liu Qiu Part 2

2010-03-03T20:00:00.002+08:00

The ferry ride over was easy- around 20 minutes and no seasickness. It’s common in touristy areas to have an old woman (“ama”) harrass you into buying/renting/doing something, and as soon as we got off the ferry, ama was there to offer us scooters. I gave Danyall a quick lesson and we were off! She did quite well once she got the hang of it.

The ama took us to see a hotel room which was OK and not too expensive, but she was kinda driving us nuts and I had a few numbers written down from the Little Liu Qiu website (which is the best tourist website I’ve seen in Taiwan, hands down). A few phone calls and a quick scooter trip later, we found a very cute hotel right next to the water (although it was kind of on a cliff) where we each got our own bed! Here’s the view from our patio:

Looking all the way across to mainland Taiwan! Here’s another view, I think maybe from a different point on the island?

We rode our scooters around kind of randomly- the island is small but has a lot of roads that all seem to interconnect, and maps and direction signs proved to be not terribly helpful. But basically we were never more than 15 minutes from our hotel and never had to worry about being lost, even though we never really knew where we were!

The famous “vase rock” and a shot of beautiful waters:

Me, imitating Dany’s slimming model pose:

The model-free view from the pagoda (there are these little pagodas all over that aren’t a temple in that no worship is conducted there, they’re just there for… rest? I don’t know).

The sun sat on our day…

We had planned on having BBQ at our hotel, but when I called to confirm that we would come they were like “It starts in 10 minutes! Get here now” so we settled for a very Taiwanese meal of fried noodles, cabbage, and papaya milk. Dany had been beginning to think I never eat Chinese food!

Then it was back to the hotel. We relaxed a while in the chairs overlooking the ocean, then headed to bed early. The hotel people knocked on our door and told me about some special excursion to the sea that would take place at 11 pm. It was free and we would see something special. OK, I didn’t totally understand everything they said. They were so surprised when we said we were too tired. They also kept bringing us stuff- weird Taiwan soup which I did eat, and fried blood rice, which uh we didn’t.

Little Liu Qiu- Part 1

2010-02-24T13:48:00.000+08:00

I gave Danyall a few choices for short trips in Southern Taiwan, and she chose this island of Xiao Liu Qiu because it would be a chance for her to ride a scooter.

We rode the High Speed Rail down to Kaohsiung- I am quite the HSR addict as it's faster and also so much pleasanter than the regular rail, in that there are no random Taiwanese people without seats standing over you and coughing.

From the HSR station we made our way to a bus station near the Kaohsiung Train Station. We had to ride a bus to the port town of Dongguan and then a ferry to Little Liu Qiu. It was pretty easy to get a ticket to the right place and we only had to wait a few minutes for the bus. When we got on a man had a little discussion with the bus driver and then asked us (all in Chinese) if we're going to Little Liu Qiu (yes) and told us that the bus didn't go to the port, just to the bus station, and did we know how to get from there to the port? (no) So he said he'd take us to the ferry place. I said he was too polite, we don't want to trouble him, etc, but he was very nice and insisted he'd help us. It was funny, I heard him on the phone later telling someone he'd be a little late because he was going to help some foreign friends (waiguo pengyou, which is what they often call us foreigners).

So we got off the bus and he was like "Follow me!" We walked after him at a pretty fast pace and arrived at a bank. Apparently he was a boss there and told two workers to take us to the ferry terminal. This kind of random helpfulness is not entirely without precedent but a little over the top even for Taiwan. There wasn't much discussion- by the time I figured out what was going on our bags were on scooters and we were being beckoned to jump on the back. The south of the island is a little different from the north in that they don't really believe in things like "helmets" and "traffic laws." But I think they took it easy for our sakes!

Here's Danyall with our drivers in their bank uniforms- I'm sure they had a funny story to tell about their workday when they got home- "So we were having fun because our boss wasn't there- and they he showed up with these 2 enormous foreingers and told us to take them to ride the ferry..."

Later I'll tell you what happened when we actually got to the island. But seriously, having Danyall here reminded me of how darn nice Taiwan people are.

Sabotage!

2010-02-22T23:15:00.000+08:00

So, I somehow managed to lose both of my bathing suits- one during the week and a half between my trip to the south of Taiwan and today; one between the end of Monday's swim class and my house.

I thought this was my subconscious's way of telling me it doesn't want to swim anymore. And it did force me to skip one swim class, but I outwitted it by buying a new bathing suit at the pool and still got in a slightly shortened lunchtime swim. I just hope my subconscious learned its lesson, or at least starts to communicate in ways that don't require me to spend money.

The proof is in the pudding, and...

2010-02-22T21:13:00.002+08:00

Misery & Company

2010-02-18T21:27:00.003+08:00

People. That is the temperature in my apartment.

I'm so glad my friend from the US visited last week. Cause this week is as bad as weather can get in Taiwan: cold cold cold and rain rain rain.

Actually the bad weather started to roll in on Saturday while she was still here- I took a perverse pleasure in the fact that she was cold and miserable and said so. Yes, 55* and rain is awful! It got warmer and nicer for her last day here on Sunday, though.

Tuesday another friend came down from Taipei to spend a few days here. My promises of hiking and bike paths turned into movies and space heaters, although we did venture out for a few hours each day. I felt like the world's dullest host especially since I woke up with a sore throat and earache today. She convinced me to stay home and rest instead of going out so it was a full day of movies and naps. She seemed to have fun though and since it's equally miserable in Taipei, I guess it was nice to be under a blanket in a different apartment for a while.

Also I saw my breath today! First time in Taiwan for sure.

nearing the end of the mini-break

2010-02-13T09:44:00.002+08:00

My friend Danyall is visiting from the US so yes, I've been MIA from the old blog. Should have lots of posts about our time together- including an 8 am superbowl party, my first trip to the top of Taipei 101, her first time riding a scooter and the mayhem that ensued, sweating in the south of the island and freezing in the north... lots of fun and I'll be catching up on lots of sleep soon, I hope!

The Nicest Thing I See

2010-01-29T22:40:00.002+08:00

Usually when I ride my bike home from work I see a couple walking together at a certain point. The husband is missing one leg and it must be a pretty recent thing; he's usually wearing a sweatsuit and has one of the pant legs tied up. He's on crutches and they're both walking along slowly, with big smiles on their faces. It makes me happy to see them looking so happy.

Nov-Dec Receipt Lottery numbers

2010-01-27T19:27:00.002+08:00

Here's the link for the latest reciept lottery winners:

http://english.etax.nat.gov.tw/wSite/ct?xItem=62585&ctNode=11647

After a few months of getting nothing I hit one for $200. I guess it's a good thing I don't play the real lottery!

More Swimming Lessons

2010-01-26T20:43:00.003+08:00

Being a glutton for punishement, I've signed up for swimming lessons! Long-time readers may remember that I did this a couple of years ago, before my first triathlon, and they really didn't help me, between the language barrier and the fact that I wasn't really being taught anything that would help me swim in the triathlon. At that point I couldn't swim 750 meters any way but backstroke. I used a DVD called "Freestyle Made Easy" that basically breaks swimming down into very tiny pieces and you master each tiny piece before you move on. It took me 3-4 months until I could swim more than 50 meters of freestyle without wanting to die; then all of a sudden I could swim 1000 but sloooowly. (If you know anything about swimming, I've gone from 2:45/100m to about 2:25/ 100m. Yeah, that slow.)

I'd seen an English sign for a swimming school near my school so I went to ask about lessons. There was a lady there who spoke English but the coach didn't. I took a trial lesson last week and it went OK- there were a few people in my group who spoke English and were willing to translate.

The next day I went back to ask some more questions and sign up. My coach was there and he said, "There are 3 points where you need to improve: your kick, your stroke, and your breathing." Ouch! I signed up- the thing I didn't like is that there's about 200 people, mostly little kids, getting changed and taking lessons at the same time, and I couldn't really handle all the kids staring at me and trying out their English. (Usually I'm patient with this, but after 8 hours of working and an hour of swim lesson, I don't want to talk to 20 different kids.) So I asked if I could leave the lesson 15 minutes early and shower, but still pay the same money. They were like, no. We talked a while and finally I was like, "If I get out of the pool after 45 minutes and get in the shower, will someone stop me?" Finally they said I could do that. Oh, and the poor English-speaking lady had written down 2 notebook pages of things she had prepared to say to me! So sweet!

I had my second lesson tonight. It really was helpful- I'm such a visual person that I just need to be shown, not really told what to do. The other students only had to translate a little. :) And the teacher said my kick is "hao bang"- basically the highest form of praise in Chinese. Yah!

Getting pulled over

2010-01-25T22:18:00.003+08:00

This was a pretty awesome experience. There are random traffic stops pretty often in Taiwan, esp. at night. Some policemen will stand along the side of the road and wave a glowing stick to tell people to pull over. I've been in a car that got pulled over, but usually they don't seem to pull over scooters.

Tonight as I drove home I saw one up ahead and they waved me over- maybe because I was kind of by myself, not in a group of traffic. But I hadn't done anything illegal! I had just turned off a side street. Right away the policeman said, "Oh, sorry!" in Chinese, which seemed like a funny way to start things off. So I said, "It's OK! What do you need to see?" He asked if I had a license, and I said yes, and started to stand up to get it out of the seat. He said to sit down and then said a bunch of stuff I didn't understand. I said sorry, I don't understand, and then they just waved me on.

I'd heard that this happens- I've actually heard of foreigners getting pulled over for speeding or running a light and when the policeman sees they're a foreigner, he just waves them off. Kinda makes me wonder why I went to the trouble of getting a license! Just kidding.

Water Machine

2010-01-23T20:31:00.000+08:00

You're not supposed to drink the tap water in Taiwan. A lot of people have in-home filtration systems but they're kinda pricey and quite complicated and you have to, you know, change the filters sometimes which is a bit of a committment for me. A friend of mine boils her water but that's also a pain and I find her water give me indigestion.

Bottles or jugs of water are not too expensive (a 1.5 liter bottle is a dollar US at 7-11 and a gallon jug is about $2.50; sketchy Carrefour brand water is $7NT per liter) but I drink tons of water and I decided a couple of years ago to avoid bottled water as much as possible and bring my own reusable water bottle. Fortunately, there are water machines all over. It is basically $1NT per liter, but in practice most machines only take $10 coins so I fill up 2 5-liter jugs. There is this style and also some that look like a gas pump.

Under the Weather

2010-01-23T16:08:00.002+08:00

I woke up last Saturday with a killer sinus headache which turned into a cold by Monday. On Monday after work I went to the doctor- my regular ENT clinic- but I didn't see my regular guy; instead I saw a doctor who proclaimed it the common cold and prescribed 3 days worth of antibiotics along with a decongestant. I didn't take the antibiotics because, you know, 3 days of antibiotics.

I still felt miserable on Thursday- mostly sore throat and sinus pressure- so I went to the clinic again to find out when my regular guy would be there. He wasn't but the female doctor I'd seen on Monday was standing at the front desk and said she could see me and I felt rude to not be seen by her. She said it's a sinus infection and gave me a different antibiotic- I asked her about taking it for a full course (like 10 days) and she said I only have to take it "as long as symptoms persist" (uh, really?) but that I should come back in 3 days to get more. Since 3 days from then would be Sunday she game me 4 days worth of medicine. And it's a different antibiotic than the one she originally prescribed so I'm glad I didn't take that one.

This misusing antibiotics thing is so frustrating. I know part of the problem is that the National Health Insurance only pays for 3 days' worth of medicine per doctors' visit, and many Taiwanese people correlate the quality of care with the number of pills they get (I get 4 pills! You must be a great doctor!) The pharmacy is usually attached to the clinic so maybe there's some financial incentive for them to give out more medicine, I'm not sure.

But most doctors in Taiwan went to med school in the US or somewhere else overseas, and all of them have to know "medical English" to keep records (their records are usually bilingual) and it's not like the taking-a-full-course-of-antibiotics things is cutting-edge medicine. You'd think the NHI would either pay for a full course of antibiotics, or require that doctors prescribe a full course and then have patients pay towards them (which would also stop people from demanding them pointlessly, and encourage the patients to take them properly.)

So that's my rant. But on Monday, I will be able to see my normal guy who seems to have a clearer grasp of the standards of care.

I have been taking the antibiotics because I think it is a sinus infection, and I still don't feel great. Part of the problem is that I've only gotten one full nights' sleep in the last 6 days- I've woken up either because my throat hurts so much or because I can't breathe, and I was up a little late because on Wed we had our end-of-year (the Chinese year) banquet and I had to go to get my red envelope (with my end-of-year bonus.) I did have Thurs & Fri off from work and while I had plans on Thurs I did rest on Friday. Today I tried to keep to my normal schedule but I just don't feel good. I skipped a BBQ my congregation is having which makes me said but it's about 1/2 drive from here and I couldn't get a clear idea of when it was happening or what exactly we'd be doing/ eating. Normally I can kind of roll with things but when I feel kind of miserable anyways I knew I wouldn't have fun. Then I rented 2 movies both of which are unwatchable (one because it has ghosts in it, one because of obscenity- the movie descriptions are all in Chinese so I can just guess from the pictures on them that they're romantic comedies. Which they were, just not the kind I can watch.)

Oh well. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and I will be teaching 2 weeks of "Winter Camp" which consists of learning about Broadway plays with a class of 6 4th-graders. Nice change of pace.

Engagement Party

2010-01-21T20:22:00.002+08:00

On Sunday I went to an engagement party for my friends Amanda and Jeff.

Engagement parties are a pretty big deal here- from what I gather, the engagement party is hosted by the bride’s parents for their friends. Her dad is the head of something (a farmer’s association? I couldn’t quite figure it all out) and invited tons of people- I guess there were 120 tables each of which held 10 people. I’m not sure if they were all full but it was close.

It was in a place that I always thought was a fruit warehouse, and in fact there were stalls selling fruit near where the party was. You can see how the tables just go on and on! I was sitting with some of their junior high school classmates near the front- one of whom I knew and some of whom spoke English.

Here they come around with their parents to toast with each table. I’ve heard that whiskey is often used for toasts. I’m always nervous at one of these banquets (weddings or work things) because I don’t toast and don’t plan to down too much between toasts. But in fact it’s never been an issue- here everyone was drinking tea and while there was a bottle of whiskey at our table no one even opened it. (Although one couple took it home afterwards- LOL!) You can see some people dressed up and others didn’t. There was a random Taiwanese grandma at our table too.

The food was pretty typical of these kind of banquet things- dishes brought out at 5-minute intervals that the whole table shares. There was a burner on each table to cook some of the dishes or keep them hot. The pot in the front of the picture had chicken soup with a whole chicken in it- feet and heat included. I let the other sample those parts but the "normal" parts I had were quite delicious. There was also a kind of seaweed cone that had salad in it that took special skill to unwrap. A few people tried to help me but to no avail. :) On the right is a sushi plate that also had some fried seafood of some kind and a whole raw fish chopped up into big chunks. Later they put that in the cooking pot. As you can see it’s pretty artfully arranged.

Near the end came the gigundous shrimp. This was a little too intense for me. I have seen lobsters that weren’t much bigger. They cooked them then went to town on them. I declined my portion- one thing I’ve learned to do quite well in Chinese is express my fullness!

I’ve mentioned before that when the food is over at a Taiwan party, the party’s over. No dancing or anything. I think some people were going back to Amanda’s house to hang out but I was coming down with a cold so I went home.

The Movies

2010-01-16T00:53:00.000+08:00

I've only gone to the movies a handful of times in Taiwan, but I've enjoyed each movie I see. That might be because I get to hear 90 minutes of English spoken by native speakers, and I can bring a beer from 7-11 into the movies with me. But I digress.

It's a little hard to find a movie to go to, as the theaters do play some Chinese language and some Japanese movies, and then a lot of the movies out involve cartoons, imaginary worlds, or fighting, none of which I'll watch. Except Star Trek, I watched that. It just can't be an annoying imaginary world.

It seemed like Sherlock Holmes fit my criteria of a watchable movie, so I told a couple of friends I'd find out what time it was playing. And then I found another obstacle to my watching movies in Taiwan. At the theater in Fong Yuan, I could attend a showing of Avatar at half-hour intervals, or see some scary demon movie at convenient times. If I want to watch Sherlock Holmes, I have to go at 8 or 10. In the morning. Seriously? After noon, it's all Alvin and the Chipmunks.

I think I'll wait for the DVD.

Safety first!

2010-01-11T19:36:00.001+08:00

Taiwan has changed so much since I got here. Like, a lot of 7-11s now have bathrooms, and chairs where you can sit, and lattes made with actual milk and actual coffee beans, not powder! Also all of a sudden there seems to be a desire to keep its citizens alive.

First, we’ve got the signs at Betel Nut stands. It’s not too close-up as I feel kinda skeevy about taking pictures at betel nut stands. (just google images for Taiwan betel nut stands if you want more info.) Anyways, it basically shows bloody lungs from smoking and some other kind of death from chewing betel nut. Fun fact: the beverage being advertised at the bottom apparently contains alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine. And we wonder why there are crazy drivers.

Then, we’ve got the wear-your-helmet properly initiative- ie, on your head with the strap tightened. There used to be a lot of men who would drive around with a helmet on but the strap unbuckled- all the inconvenience, none of the safety. Even I didn’t totally tighten mine, but I do now. (There’s a chin cup that your chin’s supposed to be in.) The great part of this poster is how they exactly capture the kind of guy who doesn’t wear his helmet properly- he’s generally driving fast, leaning back and to one side, and chewing betel nut, and looks like anything else on the road is just, well, inconvenient to him. I’ve even seen the traffic cops who direct traffic at major intersections during rush hour (although they only blow their whistles and raise their sticks to go with the lights, but I guess it keeps people obeying the lights?) motion to people to tighten their helmet straps. The first time I saw it I thought he was looking at me and giving me the cut-of-your-head sign, and I shrugged with the what-did-I-do sign, and he shook his head and pointed to the guy next to me and made the tighten-your-helmet-strap sign again. Who needs fluent Chinese when you can have a conversation like that?

Last, we’ve got my personal favorite, the don’t die in an earthquake sign. It’s one of two versions that are posted next to most elevators. While I can’t read most of characters, I imagine the captions are, from top left: 1. “Hello, spitting security guard? What’s happening?!?” 2. “Stuck in an elevator with my boss… of all the days to forget to wear a skirt!” 3. “Gah! My skirtless twin has been crushed!” 4. Well, it’s self-explanatory, except that the Chinese characters for exit say “Safety door,” and I just want to brag that I can totally read that.

searchin' for me

2010-01-11T18:20:00.000+08:00

So if people google something and come to my blog, I can see what they googled. Most times it's something about the Taiwan Receipt Lottery (or Taiwan lottery recipe, as one recent googler googled) or Soapy's Choice (remember that post?) Recently, I've gotten a few about how flippin' cold it is. My favorite one was Taiwan...why...now...so...cold. That was seriously what they googled.

(By the way, because I know my blog readers never tire of reading about the weather, this weekend was so nice! Like 70 and sunny! But tomorrow it will get cold again. But I have 3 warm sweaters so I'll only have to wear one of them twice to work this week!)

Bye-bye running

2010-01-10T21:30:00.000+08:00

The treadmill run went OK, and today I decided to try for an hour on the bike trail. I was smart enough to plan to run 15 minutes away from my scooter and back, then 10 minutes away and back, then 5 minutes away and back, so that if my sore spot started to hurt I could stop at any point. I was afraid that I wouldn't be smart enough to stop if it hurt, and I was very happy for the first 25 minutes, until it really did start to hurt. But I was smart enough to stop! And officially end marathon training. But I will be a Resortopitastic triathlete come April. Indeed.

Runnin' again

2010-01-07T20:03:00.002+08:00

I did a slow run on the treadmill today and don't feel any horrible pain. We'll see how I feel tomorrow. I'm slowly accepting that I might not be a marathoner. Also, I realize this is insane, but one of the cool things about the marathon I was going to do is that it's called the "Hulutun Caring for Women and Children Marathon," which to me is like the best marathon name ever. One thing that is lessening my sadness about mabye not doing that is that there's a "West Lake Resortopia Triathlon" I could do the following weekend. Which, let's admit, a Resortopia Triathlon? Best triathlon name ever.

In other news this pool near my school is extremely awesome. It has two huge lap pools, plus countless hot tubs and saunas, plus treadmills and weird gym equipment, and if you but a book of tickets it costs like $3 per time, which is less than any other pool I've seen!

Finally, the weather is still cold but I no longer feel so miserable all the time. Part of it is that I've finally caught onto dressing appropriately- basically in 3 layers. Also I bought a pair of semi-footed leggings for under skirts and get this, I bought the large instead of the XL! That is an exciting moment in Taiwan. To even buy something that fits is exciting but to fit into a large... LOL... it's cause for celebration.

avoid the flu

2010-01-03T20:34:00.002+08:00

This is such a good article! Really good information on specific things to eat to keep up your immune system.

Boost your immune system

Now this is ridiculous

2010-01-02T20:15:00.002+08:00

I know I complain at length about the cold... but you know those little chemical heating packets that hunters use back home and maybe you buy to use when it's like 0* Fahrenheit outside? They totally sell them in 7-11 and all my kids use them in class.
And actually I felt a little hot today, even on my scooter! No need for Good King Wencelas song. But it's going to be 16 this week! Do you know what that is in fahrenheit? COLD!

culture shock. again.

2010-01-02T20:04:00.002+08:00

Or I guess at this point it's no longer shocking- is there a word for cultural annoyance?

Maybe there's a board game for ex-pats in here somewhere- like you take 3 random weird things that the culture that you're in does and try to find a scenario where all 3 happen at once.

Tonight, it was the old ladies who clamor for my recyclabes; the belief that the acid in acid rain will make you bald; and the prediliction for stating hurtful things as fact.

It was raining and I decided it was a good time to take out my garbage, since the old ladies who clamor for my recyclables wouldn't be out clamoring. I had underestimated the efficacy of giant umbrellas and the desirability of my recyclables.

"Blah blah blah," said Friendly Taiwanese Grandma in Taiwanese.
"Yes, it's raining," I said in Mandarin, following my habit of delivering possible non-sequiturs in Mandarin.
"You should use an umbrella, or something something hair," said Grumpy Woman, in Mandarin.
"Oh, you're right, but my hair doesn't look so good, it's OK," I said, following the custom of gently ignoring advice while deprecating yourself.
"But after the rain, it will look even worse," said Grumpy Woman. (OK, I took some liberties with the translation, and it could've been translater more nicely, but... ouch. Like, really, ouch.)

a little song

2010-01-01T23:03:00.002+08:00

Seriously, this winter is killing me. I remember it being this cold for like 3 days before. Today it was actually kinda warm- I even went for a hike in only a long-sleeve t-shirt- but tonight it's really cold again.

I've taken to wearing a mask on my scooter and that has helped. But that makes me fog up my helmet because I always sing a song to the tune of "Good King Wencelas" which I learned because it was in "Teaching Little Fingers to Play" (my first piano lesson book) and I had no idea it was a Christmas song until I was an adult.

Anyways, it goes:
Cold cold cold cold I am cold
Driving on my scooter
Though there's no snow round about
I am very cold-ah

Brightly shines my scooter light
But I am so cold-ah
But soon I will be at home
And I will be cold there.

End of a decade?!?

2009-12-30T21:01:00.002+08:00

This is only the second holiday season I've spent in Taiwan (I spent two visiting home), and even though I don't celebrate them, it's weird to not have that way of signifying time is passing. Random Christmas carols notwithstanding.

This week the other teachers keep asking each other what they're doing for New Years and I'm like, it's New Years? Who knew. I just knew we had off on Friday. :) And, because I only read the weather, and exercise and recipe sites on the internet, I was caught off-guard when I did stumble upon some articles that attempt to sum up the decade. I totally missed that moving onto 2010 is kind of a thing. And what will we call it when we talk? '10? Weird.

Sorry if this is pointless. It turns out not jogging reallllly messes with my brain. But my stress fracture (or, hopefully, "stress reaction") only hurts now when I really press on it, so that's a good sign. Come to think of it, maybe I shouldn't press on it really hard?

Tofu 101

2009-12-29T18:37:00.001+08:00

When I was home, some friends and family asked me about tofu- what it tastes like and how to cook it. This is just to answer those questions- if you’re a vegetarian or if you’ve cooked with tofu, this is probably overly simplistic, and there’s much better information on the internet on cooking with tofu.

I eat it a few times a week- I seldom ate it back home but I got into it because I was a little scared of the meat when I first came here, and I developed a taste for it. Back home you can get all different kinds, but here I just buy fresh tofu that would be considered firm or very firm. In that form it’s just a white block- you can eat it raw, or fry or bake it. It does absorb flavors more than meat does, especially spicyness, so add hot stuff sparingly.

If you’re just getting into tofu, I recommend frying it. To fry it, I cut it into cubes (I don’t have to “drain” it but you might have to if it’s not fresh)

Also, please don’t be sickened by my cutting board. :I

Next, I dredge the cubes in flour and cornstarch (do it gently!) then fry them, then just set them aside.

In a separate dish, I make a veggie stir-fry with a spicy sauce- use what recipe you want or find one on line. I serve it over rice. Add the tofu right before serving and stir gently to get the sauce on it, so it stays crispy and doesn’t break.

Bon appetit!

If you don’t mind the texture of tofu, you can bake it for a healthier version. I cut it into rectangles and you can put on any flavoring- I like BBQ sauce, or a mixture of ginger, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar, honey and curry powder. Lots of possibilities- basically anything you’d put on chicken or fish. You can marinate it or just slather.

Then bake on a foil-lined, lightly oiled baking sheet- I’d say around 350 for 20 minutes? Just check on it- there’s no “done-ness”, it just makes it a little crunchy. Until of course it gets burnt. Or, if you’re me, bake it in your trusty crusty toaster oven.

The end product: with a side of veggies, it’s perfect for your low-carb lifestyle!

(Ha ha, just kidding- I had a side of sweet potato fries from the street vender.)

Happy Weekend & a Bummer

2009-12-27T18:52:00.002+08:00

I left on Thursday after work and met 2 friends in Kaohsiung- the big city in the south of Taiwan- and stayed overnight there. I think it's a pleasant and convenient city and I'd like to go back.
Anyways, we left in the morning for Kenting and spent 2 days there. It was really nice- it was actually hot enough to go in the ocean on Friday (although when the sun went behind the clouds it was cold.) The ocean is so beautiful down there. We did a little hiking but it was crowded so we just hung out at the ocean (also found a "closed" beach that was empty and had lots of chairs for sitting- we figured we'd stay until someone told us to leave but no one ever did) and ate Thai food for every meal. It was nice- English menus everywhere, the girl at our hotel even spoke English.
So, it was nice to get away. Now comes the Bummer.
I have been upping my running with a secret goal of doing a marathon in Fong Yuan in early April, which seemed like a fitting finale to my time in Taiwan and a celebration of my "hometown" here. I actually started doing triathlons because my body just couldn't handle too much running, but my running was really good in preparation for my last triathlon (no shin splits or other major pain) and I slowly added mileage and eventually started to follow a program that has you running 3 days a week.
Then I started getting pain in my lower shins that would hurt more after I ran than when I ran. I randomly found a blog that described my exact symptoms and then "turns out it's a stress fracture" (which is when you get a tiny hairline crack from repeated stress- usually in the lower leg or foot- basically from running too much and your muscles tire out and the bone starts absorbing most of the impact.) Then I found a things on runner's world website where you can click where you hurt and find out what injury you have, and sure enough, stress fracture. Finally this weekend I was reading a new book I got that has more about the marathon plan I was following and I started to admit to myself that maybe I have this stress fracture. I even didn't do my long run while I was in Kenting.
Today I went to the bone doctor (gotta love Taiwan- why not go to a specialist for $5 on Sunday afternoon) and just told him I have persistent pain in this one spot- nothing more. "Do you exercise a lot?" he asked. "Um, yeah." "What kind?" I even listed my exercises as swimming, and biking, and some running, to throw him off the track. "Do you run more thank 20 k every week?" he asked. "Yeah." And right away he said it's a stress fracture or maybe just a pre-fracture (they don't usually show up on x-rays.)
So, I'm doing no running for 2 weeks, and then if the pain is totally gone I can try a little running and if it's not, 2 more weeks off. I can still bike as long as it doesn't hurt and of course swimming is fine. So the marathon is probably out- we'll see but I don't want to just fracture my leg more. (It is less scary than it sounds- they're not uncommon among runners and it's not as bad as a real broken bone.) I could do a half-marathon or a 10k in Fong Yuan that same day but that doesn't seem like such a symbolic conclusion to my time in Taiwan. (which will technically end in the summer but the marathon could have symbolized the beginning of the end?) In the meantime I will work on strengthening my muscles and losing a little more weight, both of which will help when I do start running again.
:( I know it's not a big deal and I'm not like super-depressed but it is a bummer, espeically because I was so careful and totally following all the rules about how not to get injured. Oh, well.

Christmas Break

2009-12-23T21:09:00.002+08:00

I have Friday off so I'm headed down south for a 2.5 day weekend (coming back early Sunday.) So happy! Also, it's not super-cold now! In fact, at lunch time, in my sweater, polar fleece and winter coat, I actually felt hot.

Huge scary earthquake!

2009-12-19T21:07:00.003+08:00

Another big shaky one. Okay, it still didn't knock anything off the shelves. It did cause a precariously placed DVD to topple to the floor.

My first thought was that it's too cold to evacuate the building. But I grabbed my phone and keys and stood in the doorway, and listened to my neighbors laugh at each other for being scared. Thus I concluded it wasn't serious. But I think it's always better to stand in the doorway and be ready to go if it gets worse.

(update: If you want to see a list of recent earthquakes and their magnitude, go to this website: http://www.cwb.gov.tw/V6e/index.htm. It wasn't loading last night- I assume too much traffic!- but it lets you see the magnitude at the epicenter, and, if you click on the earthquake, a map of what it measured in different areas around Taiwan.
This one was still a 4 for me but I guess a strong 4? I think it's the strongest one I've felt. It was a 6 on the east coast and caused some toppling but I think no loss of lives. I only saw pics in a Chinese paper, and my character-reading of the article consisted of "Hualien... earthquake... no... night.")

Sports Day

2009-12-19T19:02:00.001+08:00

turned out to be really fun!

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Christina, I can maybe guess why that student is dressed up as a cow, but why are you dressed up as an obese homeless person?” Funny you should ask. I am, in fact, a member of the Taiwan baseball team, with 4 layers under my jersey including a wool turtleneck, and a scarf that my mind knows is ugly but my heart loves, for some reason, and ski gloves. Cause my goodness, it is so cold. I can’t even explain it. So cold.

These girls are dressed as Taiwanese aboriginals. My other class was the American baseball team, so another of my students dressed up as… well… you can figure it out, right?

Each grade was something- there were basketball players, surfers, and little second-grade matadors!

There did turn out to be lots of sports- relay races and a game where kids walked on paint cans attached to strings- mostly things kept moving and it was fun to watch. Near the end there were some parents vs. staff races and I was in both. The first was a relay race and the second was where you had to walk side my side with a globe between you without touching it. The teachers won the relay race but came in last for the globe thing- I think because of the drastic height differences between the foreigners and Taiwanese!

But it wasn’t all cuteness and smiles…

Yeah. I’ve tried to think of some way to make this funny and… it’s just not.

Later I had a Bible study and went with my student to a free (outdoor) concert- gah- but it was quite entertaining. A xylophone orchestra, I guess you’d say? OK, I think I’m getting a little too used to Taiwan culture because I think a little xylophone orchestra was quite the pleasant way to

spend an hour.

Now I’m sitting in my apartment, next to the space-heater, in head-to-toe polar fleece. Yes, I’m wearing a polar-fleece hat, and polar-fleece slippers. I had seriously never worn polar fleece before I came to Taiwan. I remember discussing it once with a friend and saying “It’s the kind of thing ugly people wear.” Maybe it’s true but it sure is warm and it doesn’t grow mold like “natural fibers” do in Taiwan. I’m also sipping hot water. Yes, I’m very used to Taiwan.

The Fake One

2009-12-19T18:31:00.000+08:00

Taiwan is pretty much filled with knock-offs. As I mentioned before, it's hard to find fake Adidas, but you can sure find something with Adidas stripes that says "Asidas."

My students love to joke about these, and mock each other for wearing them, and calling it "Made-in-China." Totally missing the fact that many of their night-market finds were made right here in Taiwan, and that Made in Taiwan isn't exactly the symbol of quality in the developed world (although seriously, it was like 30 years ago that they were famous for exporting junk, and now the only thing you have that was made in Taiwan is your (nice) flat-screen electronics and maybe a (nice) bicycle... but I'll stop defending Taiwan for now)

They told me that at the department store, "If you buy a Made-in-Italy LV, you get a Made-in-China LV for free." At first I thought it was crazy Chinglish but here they were talking about Louis Vuitton bags.

aww...

2009-12-18T10:57:00.001+08:00

We're reviewing plurals in class. Especially weird ones like sheep and children.

So what do you call more than one German?

Germen, of course!

Christmas & Sports Day

2009-12-17T19:01:00.002+08:00

Christmas decorations everywhere. Christmas songs playing at school. At Carrefour. At the pool. By the sound-truck that's advertising the new restaurant near my apartment. In my head. Being whistled by me. Oops.

Then there's Sports Day. This is an annual tradition at most schools, whatever the word is that means once every two years at my school (bi-annual and semi-annual both mean twice a year, right?) In theory it's about sports. In practice... wow. Yeah, there's a lot of practice.

See, everyone has to march. And every class does a cheer that's really elaborate. And there are hosts who banter bilingually. And then relay races. Then exhortations. Then awards.

Our Sports Day is on Saturday, and we've had 3 practices. From what I understand that's not many- many public schools have half a dozen. It's kind of fun but it's just funny how much Taiwan is all about pageantry and not really about fun. My kids even spent half an hour practicing the relay race. Also we dress up in uniform-type things. Mine fits so I'm happy. And we get off Christmas day to make up for sports day so I get a 3-day weekend and I'm going to the beach so I'm really really really happy!

facebook inferiority complex

2009-12-12T18:19:00.000+08:00

I just read about this new phenomenon- basically, people spend so much time reading perky facebook updates (or blog updates) that they feel bland or depressed in comparison... and of course post perky updates of their own.

I guess no one wants to tell The Internet that they've made poor choices that make them unhappy. Also I feel like negative posts on my blog get a little too much attention- what is just a regular run-of-the-mill bad day becomes something much bigger. I do make a somewhat conscious effort to share the bad with the good but even then the bad is usually presented humorously.

On the one hand you could say that it's good that revealing yourself on the internet kind of forces you to look at the positive... but I guess we have to be careful to take the bad with the good in realy life and with our real-life friends?

Back to our regularly scheduled Life in Taiwan soon... :)

Kids these days....

2009-12-10T21:03:00.000+08:00

So I'm teaching Social Studies, explaining to the students that we'll go to the library to research a country in Africa. "You'll use the encyclopedias," I said.
"Teacher, what's an encyclopedia?"
So I started to explain it, and eventually one of the students broke in: "Like Wikipedia, but a book!"

Yeah.

(They did think encyclopedias are really cool, after I taught them how to use them. Now they spend their breaktimes looking up "funny" words like gorilla and peanut.)

slackers

2009-12-09T20:18:00.002+08:00

Every week we have "Daily Life Vocabulary," which is meant to be, well, English you use in daily life, but sometimes it's a little random. Like this week we had words about school, and it included words like slackers.

I usually have my students write a conversation using some of the words. So the one girl comes up to read hers, and it starts out with a teacher and student talking...

Teacher: Give me your homework, or you'll have to go to the staff room.
Student: But the bell rang! I don't want to be tardy!
Teacher: Shut up, slacker!
Student: Today we will have Weekly Assembly.
Teacher: I told you to shut up!

I cracked up and made the mistake of telling the class why I was laughing. Now every time I tell a kid to stop talking the class bursts out with "Shut up slackers! I told you to shut up!"

(Disclaimer: although my students do imitate me sometimes, I don't tell them to shut up! I tell them to be quiet or I'll throw them out the window. But they know I'm joking.)

Fruitfly retreat

2009-12-02T21:16:00.002+08:00

I got a couple of emails with fruitfly remedies- basically they all invovle trapping them in vinegar, and they work! Thanks, everyone!

Fruitfly invasion is killing my soul!

2009-11-30T20:21:00.004+08:00

Seriously, there are like 327 of them in my kitchen, and a good hundre elsewhere in my apartment.

My kitchen is more assiduously clean than it's been since I moved in but still they are there. Also, when I spray them with Lysol, they don't care.

I have stepped it up to weird gel- like ant poison, but I'm trying to avoid cockroach spray as I feel it's very poisonous and probably cancer-causing and should be reserved for cockroaches.

ah, Taiwan...

2009-11-27T22:30:00.000+08:00

yeah, you know what's great? It's 10 at night and I realize I have no bananas for tomorrow morning. And I forgot to pay my electric bill. So in 5 minutes, I walked to the late-night fruit stand, went to 7-11 to pay the bill... all done!

Warmin' my heart

2009-11-26T19:02:00.000+08:00

Sometimes my students are just so mean (especially now that they're 6th-graders) and sometimes they're just so sweet. We just had a speech contest yesterday, which we've been preparing for for over a month. There are two kids in my one class who are just born hams and were pretty much shoe-ins to win from our class and go to the final round. (In fact, I lobbied to let 3 kids into the final round so everyone else would have a chance.) That whole class did really well- I was proud of them. Even the shy kids made a real effort to be audible and add some intonation.
Today the two shoe-ins were trying to get me to tell them who the winners from our class are (which won't be revealed until Friday) and the one girl who's won every year told me, "I don't think it's me. I don't think I did very well." I asked her how she'd feel if she didn't go to the final round, and she said, "It's OK. I don't really deserve it, and it will give some other people a chance." Can you believe it? It really made my day to hear that. (And we're sending her through, but not because of that!)

dried pork

2009-11-25T18:39:00.003+08:00

I've mentioned this a few times in my blog. I don't really understand it at all, but basically they dry pork so that it becomes very dry and fluffy and expands in your mouth- kind of like cotton candy but not sticky- and use it as garnish on all kinds of things. They put it on congee (as on today's snack, pictured), in sushi rolls, on vegetables, in layered cake.
Sometimes it's called "pork floss" which doesn't sound much better. This is one of those culture gaps- I've never seen a westerner who thinks it's good, and never seen a Chinese person who thinks it's gross, or can even understand how we'd think it's gross. Also they have an innate understanding of what to put it on.

warmin' up

2009-11-19T18:30:00.002+08:00

Yeah, I finally got out my winter clothes (which actually is not much of a production- take the suitcases that hold them off the shelf? yeah) and found that wearing appropriate clothes for the weather makes a big difference. I also got out my hot water bottles- boy are those a good invention.

It's still a little dicey as I wound up way overdressed today- thus I remembered that unless it's for sure going to be freezing, wear a few layers instead of a bit turtleneck sweater. Oh. But having a winter coat for the scooter- so genius!

Winter

2009-11-14T22:41:00.002+08:00

I forgot how cold 60* is. Yeah, I know, it's actually cold in America. But I'd forgotten that you actually have to wear a sweater, and a jacket, and sandals really aren't an option, and also you should wear socks. Also on a scooter it's really really cold.

No big deal, I just have to get in the habit of bundling up! And wearing the good old layers as there's always a chance it'll be 80* on any given day.

Happiness is...

2009-11-13T22:00:00.004+08:00

... that google maps now has tone marks for the pinyin on its maps of Taiwan! You have no idea how awesome this is.
See, it's extremely helpful if you say the tone correctly when you're asking for or giving directions, 'cause then the Chinese person understands what you're saying. But no maps ever include the tones in their Romanization, and neither do the street signs (if they even have romanization at all), so unless you know the characters (ahem), you're stuck. Usually you can figure things out as long as you pronounce the name of the road pretty well, but it's really nice to see the tone marks.

Yay!

oof. and duh.

2009-11-10T18:56:00.003+08:00

So we're in the middle of two months of gorgeous weather here- 80s and sunny almost every day. It's to the point that I took my rain gear out of my scooter because at most there's ever a 20% chance of rain. I heard some rain-like noises on my windows this morning but brushed them off and when I got on my scooter, darned if it wasn't raining! I did have a rain jackets so I stayed half-dry on the way to work.

I kind of didn't want to admit that it was raining and I kind of had forgotten that you need to take it easier while driving in the rain, especially on the tile and marble that makes up the entranceways to most buildings. Like my school.

So I got my temperature taken, zipped on in the gate and proceeded to totally wipe out- my scooter just slid sideways and fell over with me on it. The guard and my boss both rushed over and luckily I'm fine- just a bruise on my knee and one on my foot. They made me go to the nurse and she gave me baby ice packs. :) I just feel like I keep doing things that are like, idiot. Of course you know better. I think I need to pause once an hour and ask myself, "What's a stupid thing you would've done when you first got to Taiwan because you didn't know better, but now you do know better?"

I was afraid the run commute home would become another one of those things I should've known better than to do, but I made it totally fine! Yay!