Tea, Drageoke, and Maid Cafes. What more could you want?

I have now officially recovered from my cold! Just in time too, as I am to sing in a karaoke competition, in drag, on Friday! I call it drageoke. I expect this term to become widely used to refer to karaoke sung while in drag. So spread the word, loyal readers! Any lapses in my description of the past several days are likely a result of my abysmal memory.

As a result of my sickness, my exploration during the past couple days has been limited. On Saturday I barely left my room, only to eat and when I got restless from being kept inside for so long. I wanted to go out Saturday night but I decided against it, since I still was not fully recuperated. Luckily, I was recovered enough to practice our drageoke song that evening.

On Sunday many of us went to karaoke (the non-drag kind). It was a lot of fun, as we were able to eat, sing, and drink non-alcoholic beverages for up to six hours. But of course, it is not easy to sing songs for several hours on end, so we tired out after about four hours and moved on to other plans. But I did sing several Chinese songs, which greatly impressed the two Taiwanese students with us! After karaoke two of the guys and I headed to Taipei 101 to drink tea at a tea shop that has become one of our favorite places. Though it's in Taipei 101's shopping mall, it's actually rather peaceful (situated at the edge of the central area on the fourth floor) and inexpensive (a pot of tea is about 200 NT or $6, but can be refilled as many times as necessary). So we stayed there, chatted for a couple hours, then returned to campus. Later that night a Taiwanese friend brought me strawberries, which were quite delicious!

Note on the weather: Some of you may have read about sandstorms impacting China and Taiwan. Perhaps I misunderstand the word "sandstorm" (I picture Star Wars Tatooine weather), but that isn't quite what happens here. Rather, the whole city becomes shrouded in what looks like brown fog, but is in fact particles of dust (not sand). It's really bad for your lungs, cars, buildings, et cetera. In Chinese they call it [沙塵暴], or "dust storm". This is more accurate. Due to desertification in Western China, strong winds have carried sand and pollution far to the east, so when we left Taipei 101 the city was shrouded and the air smelled very dirty. I have heard that the situation is even worse in Beijing. Yet another reason why I don't like the city. Sadly, while today's weather was fairly clear, the dust storm conditions are predicted to return tomorrow along with lower temperatures. The strange weather conditions hitting the US of late haven't missed Taiwan either, they just manifest themselves differently.

Global climate change: Something interesting I've noticed while here (but also in Xiamen) is that there are virtually no "global warming skeptics". It's definitely a cultural thing, but Taiwanese and Chinese people seem to lack the stubborn contrariness that Americans so often possess. If scientists say that the global climate is changing, they don't search for excuses to deny this widely-accepted fact. Anyway, I digress.

Yesterday I rested for most of the day (other than classes). I had tutoring for two hours, where we discussed Taiwanese novels and certain characters that are put at the end of spoken Chinese to express mood. They're very complicated and my tutor was unable to explain them. That evening I again practiced the song with my two co-singers. Hopefully we'll be ready by Friday and sing fairly on-key. But regardless, I'm sure that my drag performance will win us major creativity points, and that's 1/4 of the total score.

Today was a lot more exciting. Class, however, was tremendously boring. In morning class we spent approximately 2 hours learning four Chinese idioms. That's a rate of 8 characters learned per hour. It has become more and more evident that this class is too easy for me, but it is unfortunately too late to switch again. Afternoon class consisted of asking follow-up questions to Friday's lecture, which I missed due to sickness. Thus today was an utter waste of time as far as school is concerned. But after class the fun began!

A group of us went to Ximen-ding [西門町], a shopping area, with the goal of buying costumes for drageoke. Near the subway exit, we found two girls dressed like maids handing out advertisements for a maid cafe. This excited my flame dame to no end (she's a former otaku), so we went there for dinner. All of the waitresses were dressed in Japanese maid outfits, and the decor consisted of Japanese anime women dolls, wall paintings, and pictures, most of them wearing little clothing. Pretty exciting.


Looks like Nurse Joy from Pokemon Centers. But has guns.


The workers at the maid cafe. In uniform.

Finally, we got to the goal of our mission, a Cosplay store where I found most of my drag outfit. I'm sure there will be pictures of it on Friday, so you'll just have to wait 'til then. My goal is to look like a Japanese pop singer. Finally, we headed back to campus, and saw a tea shop that we have been meaning to visit for weeks. We popped in, had a nice chat with the employee, a girl who had just graduated from college but was now working at the family tea shop. We tried two kinds of tea: baozhong [包種] and baihao wulong [白毫烏龍]. Baozhong is a lightly oxidised tea that is between green and wulong, and baihao wulong is a kind of wulong that produces a deep gold-colored tea. Both were good but I decided to buy some of the baozhong. It's a famous Taiwanese tea (I hadn't heard of it while in Xiamen) and has a very smooth flavor.

Until next time! Sorry for the relative lack of pictures, after arriving and settling in I reverted to student mode, so I don't carry my camera with me as much. Starting next week is spring break (April 1 - 5) and, while everyone else is planning to travel Taiwan, I may actually stay in Taipei and do some exploration that I normally don't have a chance to do. After all, I want to visit the zoo, go to the top of Taipei 101, visit Danshui at sunset. Plus, travelling is rather expensive and I'd have to find lodging, where here it would be free.

St. Patrick's Day: A Ginger's Tale

So I'm trying to keep updating this about once a week if not more often, and since I've caught some form of respiratory infection (probably/hopefully just a cold), I have plenty of time to write now. Several of the other Americans are going out this evening but I opted out so I could rest and hopefully recover. We're all going to go to karaoke (which they call KTV here) on Sunday afternoon so I definitely don't want to miss out.

I think I posted last on Monday. This week was occupied by the normal classes, and the routine Thursday test. I did fairly well, though I have a tendency to accidentally not write the second character of many phrases. As my high school Chinese teacher said, I am "迷迷糊糊" [mimihuhu], which means "careless" and is also (perhaps) wordplay on the phrase "馬馬虎虎" [mamahuhu], meaning something is alright, neither great or awful.

On Tuesday, I and a couple of the Americans went to Shilin Night Market [士林夜市], the most famous of Taipei's "night markets". These wondrous places consist of many shops and vendor carts that set up at around 5 PM and stay open until late at night. There is food, souvenirs, and clothing at low prices and of questionable quality and origin. Also, you can haggle there! In short, they are wonderful places to eat while window-shopping. I finally found the delicious chuanr [串儿], or seasoned kabobs, that I had been craving since coming back from mainland China. As a northern Chinese specialty, they are hard to find in Taiwan.

I also I went with my flame dame to visit Carrefour. She needed to buy some supplies and I found a nice leather wallet for just $150 NT (just under $5 US)! I think I enjoy shopping here a lot more than in the US, mainly because things are so much cheaper.

On Wednesday night, several of the Americans went to a bar to hang out, play cards, and celebrate St. Patrick's Day the drinking way. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately there was another large group of Americans who were very loud, very drunk, and very irritating. We came back fairly late but luckily, having an afternoon class means that I can go to bed at 3 AM and still get 8 hours of sleep.

Thursday began my illness. I think/hope it's just a cold as my symptoms have included cough, runny nose, fatigue, a slight headache at times, and lack of appetite. I had my test and then went to hang out with a Taiwanese friend. We ate dinner (corn dumplings and wonton soup) and were going to venture into the city but I decided it would be more prudent for me to get some bed rest, so I headed back to my dorm. Today has been more of the same. I went to my early afternoon class but my throat was so congested that I couldn't speak very clearly or loudly, and so I talked to one of the CIEE coordinators to check on seeing a doctor as well as getting out of class for some rest.

This evening I went to the clinic and saw a doctor, who gave me lots of medicine (four different pills to take 3x a day, one pill to take 2x, and two other medicines to take as necessary). My afternoon rest had me recovered to the point where I could speak again and had some energy, so I decided to go with some of the other Americans to eat dinner near Taipei 101 (it's actually fairly close to campus, and was lit up blue today). We then parted ways and I headed back here to rest more and do laundry.

The karaoke competition (or, as my flame dame calls it, Drageoke) is on Friday morning so I hope to be better very soon so I can prepare the song and the outfit I'll be wearing.

Exploring Taipei

My last post was on Wednesday. As always, I have been trying my best to fill up my time with either exploring, interactions with Taiwanese people, or both. I'm starting to have a somewhat more regular (though still rather small) group of Taiwanese friends, and it's great to hang out with them so often.

On Wednesday (after writing this), I went to Jhongli [中壢] with my flame dame and we met some of her friends there. They were all really friendly and we ate at a hot pot place that was quite tasty. Overall I had quite an enjoyable time. Plus, I bought a white belt!


Taipei Train Station, waiting for the train to Jhongli.


Holding our train tickets. Not that you can read them from the picture.

On Thursday, we had our language class (including a Chinese test) followed by CIEE class. A guest lecturer came in and spoke to us about 228 (remember that? If not, go back to my 228 entry and look now :-P) as well as the status quo between Taiwan and China. Interesting stuff, and he had an interesting teaching style. Plus, many of the relevant events occurred at Jinmen Island [金門島] (also known as Quemoy), which is a highly disputed area due to its extreme proximity to mainland China, specifically the city of Xiamen [厦门]. For those of you who don't know, Xiamen is the city where I spent my last semester. Thus, if Taipei is my "Taiwanese hometown", then Xiamen is most definitely my "mainland Chinese hometown". It is somewhat surreal to think of my two study abroad destinations as at war, as little as 60 years ago.

After CIEE class I headed down to meet a couple of my Taiwanese friends, and we went to eat at a place which had some form of mixed soup and thick noodles. It was pretty good, but not my favorite thing ever. After that we went to Gongguan [公管], a part of Taipei City which contains National Taiwan University (Taida [台大] for short) as well as a side-street with several gay cafes and shops. We went to a gay cafe, ordered caffeinated drinks, and talked for a while. After that we walked around Taida, which has a really beautiful campus and lots of the flowers were in bloom. The two friends I was with eventually got into an extremely heated argument about Taiwan's independence, so the remainder of the night was somewhat less comfortable.

Today (Saturday) was fun as well. My flame dame and I went to a buffet place which, considering it was a buffet, had really decent food, and then headed to the Jianguo Flower Market [建國花市]. This market is similar to a farmer's market in the United States, except that virtually everything sold is related to flowers or plants. It was really beautiful and we drank some tea. Next to the flower market is a jade market, which operates on a similar idea; virtually everything sold is related to stone, whether it be carvings, bracelets and necklaces, or teapots. I bought a cool necklace that is made of glass shaped into a snake, inside the glass are gold and black patterns (I was born in the Year of the Snake), and a square red stone calligraphy seal (I think it is carnelian but I'm not sure). I really enjoyed haggling over the price! I got the $700 seal for only $600! (Yes, I know I was probably still ripped off, but bargaining can be a lot of fun).

After that we found our way to a barbecue place [燒烤], which was all-you-can-eat, and devoured just about everything on our table. Finally, we headed back to the dorms after a long (and rewarding?) day.

Also, there's a karaoke competition for the Chinese Language department. Me and one of the other guys in the CIEE program hope to participate, but we were looking for a girl to join our singing team. My Chinese teacher has repeatedly suggested that I should dress in drag and sing the female part (and I haven't even come out to the class yet). Apparently she thinks I'd make a very pretty girl. O_o. I found it really amusing and I thought readers might as well. Also, I'm sort of contemplating the idea, after all it could be fun!

Late Night Blog Update

This post may be brief (at least for now) until I add to it later. After all, it is 1:30 AM here as I'm writing this. But for now, a brief description of the past five days and some photos!

On Friday I had classes, then went with my grrlfriend to a club to meet bunches of foreigners. It was a lot of fun because I met lots of people and had my fair share of alcohol. I'm told that I become British when I get drunk. Also there was a dancing pole and I managed to hang upside down from it briefly! I expect the pictures to be up on Facebook soon. Then when I apply for jobs I will regretfully untag them.

Saturday was a lazy day. I slept in really late and stayed in my room much of the day. It wasn't that I had a hangover (I drink so much water and soda that I am never dehydrated or hung over), just that going out to bars is rather draining and I was sore from the pole dancing. I had my first Taiwanese ramen. It was just as good as mainland Chinese ramen!

On Sunday I went to a movie with a couple of the other Americans and one of the Taiwanese "ambassadors" in a theatre near Taipei 101. I didn't realise that the movie we were going to was a football movie :-\ but it wasn't too bad for all that. After the movie I was ravenous (having not eaten yet), and I actually managed to find gyros/kabobs! They were amazing, especially since I had been craving them for the past week. Then, well fed, we went to a tea shop in Taipei 101's mall. It was really nice and I got many opportunities to practice my Chinese.

The past two days have been so-so. My class is still rather too easy for me, but soon there is a free Taiwanese (Min-nan) language class, so I'm excited about that!

Oh also regarding food: yesterday the grrlfriend and I ate at a hot-pot place called Shabu-shabu. It's pretty much the most amazing thing ever. Hot pot is already delicious, but at this place you pay a mere $8 or $9 USD (290 NT) and you get all-you-can-eat meat, veggie/mushroom/noodle/other add-ins and sauces, Haagen-daaz ice cream, and access to a soda fountain. So pretty fantastic. Then today the group ate at a Thai restaurant for a "Chinese language dinner", where everyone was supposed to only speak Chinese. The food was good, but our table didn't get to order enough so a couple of us went to another restaurant afterwards which has really good fried noodles.

Hopefully there will be more excitement to come, and possibly more updates on this post!


Taipei 101 during the day. It was cloudy, so the top of the tower is not visible.


The Falun Gong marching. I don't know much about the Falun Gong, mainly because this religion is banned in mainland China (where I spent my last semester). But anyway, there was a long parade of people dressed in yellow, holding signs and playing drums.


Taipei 101 at night. The lights are purple, since we visited on a Sunday. The tower changes the color of its lights depending on the day of the week (ROYGBIV starting on Monday).

Beginning Classes and Social Life

I think it's been about three days since my last post. And, as always, a LOT has happened since then.

There have been two earthquakes in the past couple of days, but they have been almost imperceptible here in Taipei. I know a lot of people in the US have heard of the powerful earthquake that hit Kaohsiung/Gaoxiong [高雄], in the south of Taiwan. It was a magnitude 6.4, or about one-fourth the strength of the 1989 San Fransisco earthquake (a 6.9). The latest count is 64 people injured as a result.

Classes have also been rather stressful. As you may remember, I was placed into intermediate-mid (2-2 level), which proved to be far too easy on Monday. So on Tuesday I switched into intermediate-high (2-3 level), but again I felt that the material was far too easy. I attempted to switch again, but the teacher didn't want me to move up and thus I had to navigate the bureaucracy, have the CIEE people make some calls on my behalf, and so on.

At any rate, I eventually ended up in advanced-low (3-1 level). This class is certainly closer to my level than the other two were, but I think it's still too easy. However, I have gotten tired of bureaucracy and moving around so I think I'll just stay with this one. It's an afternoon class, which is great, and it is high-level enough that I won't feel insulted if I have to stay here. I was really annoyed that, after ten years of study, I was AGAIN placed into an intermediate class, though my Chinese ability (while not fluent or even close) is certainly better than so-so.

CIEE class has also begun, but as it only meets twice a week, I will have to see how interesting it turns out to be.

On the extracurricular front, I have been to two club meetings already. Last night (Wednesday) was the tea club meeting. The club members continuously prepared tea and dispensed it around the table, and we played a couple of ice-breaker games. It looks like it will be a really cool club, and since I love tea I plan to go as often as possible. Tonight I went to the tongzhi club meeting, though it was really more of a dinner to meet people. Everyone seemed really friendly, though I arrived late (due to CIEE class ending late) and so I was rather intimidated by all the Chinese-speaking when I got to the restaurant with River. As with all ice-breaking activities there was food, games, and laughing at the expense of others involved. I had intended to go to the Aikido club meeting on Tuesday but other plans ended up getting in the way of that. What plans? You'll soon find out!

Weekend Happy Fun Excitement!

Two days later. Saturday was a day of relaxation. The group went to Jiufen but I decided to stay here, write a blog post, and generally relax from all the group activities and walking of the past week.

Sunday was alright. It was 228, a holiday I explained in my previous post. For this holiday we went to the 228 Memorial Park (yes, there is a park named just for this day). We went through the 228 Museum, which is free admittance on 228, then got to watch the annual ceremony unfold.


Modern art statue or something. It looked like it needed a hug.

We were allowed somewhat "backstage" so we got to sit on a bunch of short stools with our view blocked by bunches of bodyguards. Roughly half of the time, the speakers (including the President) were using Taiwanese, which is not a dialect of Chinese that I am capable of understanding.


The front display at the ceremony.


Mayor of Taipei (left) and President of the Republic of China (right). Both appeared and spoke at the ceremony.

After this we took bunches of group pictures. I'm not sure why everyone wants a group picture on their camera. What with the internet and all, it seems like we could take one, maybe two group photos and then share them via internet.

I then went with one of the other students (a year-long student) to get food at the nearby Taipei University Hospital's food court. It was alright. Then I headed back to Zhengda to get ready for my dinner and hangout plans with a couple of the Taiwanese gays.

These activities were lots of fun. We went to a nice sit-down restaurant, then walked to the lantern display at the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial. Schools and groups from all over had built giant lanterns in interesting shapes, and they were all on display. Sadly, as my camera is incapable of functioning at night, I do not have photos. After that we went back to campus and bought some beers and sat and talked for several hours. My day finally ended at 1 AM when I walked back up the mountain to the dorm.

Today classes started. I was originally in an intermediate-mid class (2nd year 2nd level of three) but as I had suspected, it was far too easy. So my teacher is allowing me to try an intermediate-high class (2nd year 3rd level). We'll see if this class is also too easy, but I don't think they like to move people up too much at one time. Then I had dinner with my grrlfriend and now here I am in my dorm room again.

I have spoken to some of my readers about even more details and new interests, and you may be wondering why that isn't on here. Once things are more set, I will consider including that information as well. After all, this promises to be a great opportunity to compare cultures! ^_^