The past week has been fairly boring and has blurred together. Probably as a result of me getting sick again. It started last Monday (about when I posted last) as sinus soreness for a couple days. Then it transformed into sneezing/runny nose symptoms. Then it became vigorous coughing fits. Finally it has become a headache and slight fever. Hopefully it'll resolve fairly soon, because as a result my past week has been fairly homebound. I went out with people on Friday and Saturday nights but unfortunately due to my serious coughing and fatigue I had to call things off early.
Hoping I get well soon! I sincerely hope I have more interesting things to write about (and pictures to post) next week. And I think I will, because we're supposed to go to Yingge [鶯歌] next weekend. It's an old town in Taipei County that is also famous for its pottery and porcelain ware.
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Maokong Gondola Photos
Maokong Gondola station sign.
The area that was destabilized by an earthquake. They had to move one of the columns because the foundation of the old one had eroded.
Gondola cars on the cable.
The view from a Maokong tea shop overlooking Taipei city. Taipei 101 can be seen as well.
The inside of the tea shop.
The night view from the gondola.
The Joy of Midterms, and Maokong
The past week has been dominated by midterms. We had a written test on Thursday and a spoken test on Friday, so most of the week before that was devoted to preparation. The written part was somewhat difficult, but it also contained material that our class had not covered. So we will see which parts the teacher counts and which parts she doesn't. The spoken part was very easy for me. We were to read aloud from the book and then answer questions, but as the topic was Chinese tea, an aspect of the culture that fascinates me, I was extremely prepared.
We returned from spring break on Tuesday. I cannot remember what I did on Tuesday or Wednesday so it must not have been very interesting. On Thursday we had the test, then that evening I again did language exchange with my Japanese classmate. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I learned a good bit.
After the exam on Friday, I went to the night market for a delicious steamed bun and pineapple cake snack, and met my flame dame and a group of other foreigners at a hookah bar. The group had snacks and drinks and smoked hookah. It was a very pleasant evening and I got to meet several new foreign friends.
On Saturday I went with a couple of the other CIEE students to Gongguan [公館], where one of the French students at Zhengda owns a crepe restaurant, and I tried Qingwazhuangnai [青蛙撞奶], a milk drink flavored with sweetened mesona [仙草] pearls. Mesona is a type of grass that is often fried and set as a jelly, but it can't be found easily in the US. It has a sweet caramel/lavender/licorice flavor that is good in small amounts but quickly becomes too much. On our way back to Zhengda me and one of the other students decided to go back to Maokong, which you may remember from earlier has a lot of tea plantations. The cable car up to Maokong was recently reopened after a pillar had to be moved to avoid earthquake-caused erosion. The ride up the mountain is very beautiful (it offers a view of much of downtown Taipei and the setting sun), though the air was very hazy due to pollution. The ride takes 20 minutes, and as we arrived the sun was setting. So we found a tea shop and sat and drank Oriental Beauty [東方美人] tea. Pictures of this will hopefully be posted soon.
Later that night, two CIEE girls, a Taiwanese gay student, and myself went to a gay bar downtown. Because one of them owed me a drink and I had a free entry ticket, I was able to get in and get a drink for free! As a young foreigner, I was almost immediately popular there. No later than a minute after I got to the dance floor, a group of five or six Taiwanese guys had said hi and welcomed me to join their group. They even bought me a shot of tequila! An hour or so later, we regrettably had to leave, but not before some excitement! I gave one of the guys my phone number and he says he hopes we'll keep in touch ^_^. As we left I was glad to hear that all of my companions had also enjoyed their time, and we went back for a late bedtime.
Today was a day for resting. I ate delicious beef noodles for lunch. I can't quite figure out exactly what they flavor their broth with, but it's delicious. After that I came back to do laundry, so now all my clothes are clean! I ate dinner with my flame dame (sweet and sour fried cabbage, mixed seafood and pork, and pineapple fried shrimp) and then headed back to write this after a Skype call with my grandmother.
Regarding Japanese: though I am fascinated with the language, my unique situation has caused me much frustration. As a Chinese major, I am familiar with the characters that are used commonly in the Japanese language but not with their pronunciation.
For example, from a news article title: [72億ドルの貿易赤字] means "7.2 billion dollar trade deficit".
It is written nearly the same in Chinese: [72億美元的貿易赤字].
Unfortunately, I don't know how to pronounce any of those characters in Japanese. My reading abilities far exceed my speaking abilities. The lopsided nature of my ability is very annoying because it means that I don't often learn new meaning, just new pronunciations of written words I can already understand.
We returned from spring break on Tuesday. I cannot remember what I did on Tuesday or Wednesday so it must not have been very interesting. On Thursday we had the test, then that evening I again did language exchange with my Japanese classmate. It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I learned a good bit.
After the exam on Friday, I went to the night market for a delicious steamed bun and pineapple cake snack, and met my flame dame and a group of other foreigners at a hookah bar. The group had snacks and drinks and smoked hookah. It was a very pleasant evening and I got to meet several new foreign friends.
On Saturday I went with a couple of the other CIEE students to Gongguan [公館], where one of the French students at Zhengda owns a crepe restaurant, and I tried Qingwazhuangnai [青蛙撞奶], a milk drink flavored with sweetened mesona [仙草] pearls. Mesona is a type of grass that is often fried and set as a jelly, but it can't be found easily in the US. It has a sweet caramel/lavender/licorice flavor that is good in small amounts but quickly becomes too much. On our way back to Zhengda me and one of the other students decided to go back to Maokong, which you may remember from earlier has a lot of tea plantations. The cable car up to Maokong was recently reopened after a pillar had to be moved to avoid earthquake-caused erosion. The ride up the mountain is very beautiful (it offers a view of much of downtown Taipei and the setting sun), though the air was very hazy due to pollution. The ride takes 20 minutes, and as we arrived the sun was setting. So we found a tea shop and sat and drank Oriental Beauty [東方美人] tea. Pictures of this will hopefully be posted soon.
Later that night, two CIEE girls, a Taiwanese gay student, and myself went to a gay bar downtown. Because one of them owed me a drink and I had a free entry ticket, I was able to get in and get a drink for free! As a young foreigner, I was almost immediately popular there. No later than a minute after I got to the dance floor, a group of five or six Taiwanese guys had said hi and welcomed me to join their group. They even bought me a shot of tequila! An hour or so later, we regrettably had to leave, but not before some excitement! I gave one of the guys my phone number and he says he hopes we'll keep in touch ^_^. As we left I was glad to hear that all of my companions had also enjoyed their time, and we went back for a late bedtime.
Today was a day for resting. I ate delicious beef noodles for lunch. I can't quite figure out exactly what they flavor their broth with, but it's delicious. After that I came back to do laundry, so now all my clothes are clean! I ate dinner with my flame dame (sweet and sour fried cabbage, mixed seafood and pork, and pineapple fried shrimp) and then headed back to write this after a Skype call with my grandmother.
Regarding Japanese: though I am fascinated with the language, my unique situation has caused me much frustration. As a Chinese major, I am familiar with the characters that are used commonly in the Japanese language but not with their pronunciation.
For example, from a news article title: [72億ドルの貿易赤字] means "7.2 billion dollar trade deficit".
It is written nearly the same in Chinese: [72億美元的貿易赤字].
Unfortunately, I don't know how to pronounce any of those characters in Japanese. My reading abilities far exceed my speaking abilities. The lopsided nature of my ability is very annoying because it means that I don't often learn new meaning, just new pronunciations of written words I can already understand.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Zhinan Temple
The roof of Zhinan Temple, containing the Chinese characters "Zhinan", meaning "south-pointing".
Today was the first day that wasn't rainy, though the weather still wasn't great. But, as the weather has prevented me from going out much in the past two days, I seized the opportunity to do some more exploring. I chose to go to the Zhinan Temple [指南宮], a Daoist temple near Zhengda campus. It's merely a five to ten minute bus ride from the stop outside the university.
The view from the temple entrance on the mountainside.
There is a rumor associated with Zhinan temple; namely, if an unmarried couple goes in together, they will break up. There are a couple stories behind this, one of the most prominent being that the Daoist master to whom the temple is dedicated, Lu Dongbin, harbored unrequited love for one of the Immortal Goddesses, and so he is jealous of lovers. The temple is located on a mountainside, and the path up to the temple is very steep and requires visitors to climb hundreds of stairs.
Despite this, even many older Taiwanese people were making their way up the temple to pray. I met a nice old man who seemed surprised that a foreigner would go to Zhinan temple, and explained many parts of the temple to me in English.
Now, I am no stranger to temples. I have visited several in mainland China, Tokyo, and even a couple already in Taipei. But I had never visited one that was so wholly devoted to Daoism. Most of the temples I have been to focused on Buddhism, local gods, or a mixture of local religion. So it was interesting to see in what ways this temple was different.
One difference was the presence of trees with ribbons tied to them.
As a placard explained, different color ribbons correspond to different things. As you might be able to guess, yellow (by far the most common) corresponds to wealth and wishes to earn money.
Another unique thing I saw was a fountain, also devoted to raising money.
There were also statues of the sixty Taisui, agents of the Daoist "Jade Emperor". He sent the generals out to help him rule over mortals, so each of them has been given command of one year out of the sixty-year cycle. There are prayer bells held by golden dragons, the walls are made of gold-colored tiles, and there was even a Coca-Cola machine in the temple.
However, even at this most Daoist of places, there was some syncretism. The adjacent temple building, still part of the Zhinan complex, is devoted to Buddhism. It contains Buddhist statues and many Buddhist motifs, such as elephants marked with the samsara, the wheel of reincarnation.
Candles shaped like lotus blossoms, a Buddhist symbol.
It was interesting to go to a Chinese temple and see so many unfamiliar things. I feel as though I learned a lot about the differences between Daoist and Buddhist religious practice, and I got lots of cool pictures too!
Tomorrow we resume classes so I'm not sure when I'll have another good chance to explore so much.
Zhinan Temple Photos
Adorable kitty that was wandering around the temple! As you all should know, any adorable animal immediately gets a photo taken.
The entrance to Lingxiao [凌霄], the temple containing statues of the Jade Emperor and the Three Pure Ones.
One of the side towers of the Daxiong Buddhist hall [大雄].
Burner where people light incense. Some people also buy candles to light and set there, presumably donating fire to the temple.
A Taisui statue [太歲]. This is the statue for my year, 1989, known as [己巳] in the ancient Chinese counting system.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Taipei Zoo Photos
As my lovely facebook ex-wife Missy reminded me, koalas are not bears, they are marsupials! Meaning they live here, in Australia. Which I drew myself. Apparently map-drawing is the useless talent that my classmates all know me for, so here is an example.
Raccoons. They aren't native here so people think they're adorable and special.
Tapirs. I still can't decide if they're cute or just weird-looking. It's the noses.
The tiger. While I wish I could have taken a picture without a child's reflection in it, the kid refused to move. After no less than three minutes of trying to get a kid-free photo, I decided that this would look really artistic, and took the picture anyway.
Plants and flowers designed (presumably) to look like how a child might draw a bunch of animals. But in real life, I'm sure the green koala would have attacked and killed all the others. Koalas are vicious animals!
A really cool flower. I'm not sure what it is, but I thought it looked really neat.
Camel. It was actually really close to the viewing area, it probably could have licked (or spit on) any of the visitors.
Taipei Zoo and Hookah Cafe
Yesterday I went to Taipei Zoo with one of my gay friends! It was a lot of fun, though the weather was a little bit too warm and sunny for me. The Taipei Zoo is located very near NCCU, and also near Maokong (the cable car works again! But more on that when I actually go in a couple days), so it makes for a very convenient excursion.
We went to the gate to buy tickets, but for some reason they wouldn't sell me a reduced-fare student ticket because, even though I am a student, I am not a "real" student because I study Chinese. Strange. So instead I got to go through the gate and swipe my Taipei Public Transit "Student Easycard" for entry, where I was still charged the reduced student price. Apparently I was enough of a student for the computer :-P.
Our first destination was the Koala Exhibition, where there were a couple of koala bears. Pretty neat, I guess. They weren't moving, though, so for all we knew they could have just put stuffed koalas in the trees and claimed they were real. Then we saw the pandas! Every child's favorite animal (other than the beloved totoro, of course). There were only two, and they were also sleeping.
Panda. Sleeping. How exactly are they useful again?
We stopped by the "Panda Shop", a souvenir shop full of everything panda that could be imagined. There were panda hats, pillows, keychains, sweaters, chairs, and of course giant stuffed pands. And what zoo trip would be complete without hearing Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart", the main promotional song from Disney's Tarzan, playing in a souvenir shop?
We then saw the nocturnal animal hall where we saw one of the rarest and most special animals in the world. That's right, the raccoon. Because raccoons aren't native to Taiwan, most Taiwanese don't know that, in the United States, they're dirty garbage-eating rodents. After this was the tropical animal area. Then the African animal area, complete with lionesses, rhinoceroses, impalas, and various primates.
Our nearest animal relatives!
One of the other exciting attractions is, of course, the elephant. These two elephants put on quite a show for all the spectators, though. While elephant 1 was eating, elephant 2 reached between 1's legs and rubbed back and forth, eliciting laughter among the (mostly female Taiwanese) audience. Such sublime majestic creatures, these!
Bad, naughty elephants.
We decided to go to the reptile and amphibian house as our final stop, then returned to campus. Then: hot pot, my perennial favorite food here! I've already been to about 5 or 6 different hot pot places and the one near NCCU is by far the best. So needless to say, I was quite pleased to return to "Shabu-sen", as it is called [しゃぶ鮮]. Nearly two hours later we returned to the dorm.
But my day was not complete! It turns out that my beloved flame dame is not leaving until midnight tonight (Friday), so she suggested a trip to a hookah cafe. Most of you in Chapel Hill probably already know what hookah is, but for those of you who don't, it is tobacco that has been flavored, often with honey and fruit. It is smoked through a tube, which draws the smoke through some water, thus filtering it and making the smoke less irritating. I had never smoked a hookah before, so I thought it would be interesting to try it, and it was really neat. Before we left the hookah cafe, I was already able to blow smoke rings (like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland), causing my flame dame to be quite jealous. And that ends my yesterday. More news and pictures soon!
We went to the gate to buy tickets, but for some reason they wouldn't sell me a reduced-fare student ticket because, even though I am a student, I am not a "real" student because I study Chinese. Strange. So instead I got to go through the gate and swipe my Taipei Public Transit "Student Easycard" for entry, where I was still charged the reduced student price. Apparently I was enough of a student for the computer :-P.
Our first destination was the Koala Exhibition, where there were a couple of koala bears. Pretty neat, I guess. They weren't moving, though, so for all we knew they could have just put stuffed koalas in the trees and claimed they were real. Then we saw the pandas! Every child's favorite animal (other than the beloved totoro, of course). There were only two, and they were also sleeping.
Panda. Sleeping. How exactly are they useful again?
We stopped by the "Panda Shop", a souvenir shop full of everything panda that could be imagined. There were panda hats, pillows, keychains, sweaters, chairs, and of course giant stuffed pands. And what zoo trip would be complete without hearing Phil Collins' "You'll Be in My Heart", the main promotional song from Disney's Tarzan, playing in a souvenir shop?
We then saw the nocturnal animal hall where we saw one of the rarest and most special animals in the world. That's right, the raccoon. Because raccoons aren't native to Taiwan, most Taiwanese don't know that, in the United States, they're dirty garbage-eating rodents. After this was the tropical animal area. Then the African animal area, complete with lionesses, rhinoceroses, impalas, and various primates.
Our nearest animal relatives!
One of the other exciting attractions is, of course, the elephant. These two elephants put on quite a show for all the spectators, though. While elephant 1 was eating, elephant 2 reached between 1's legs and rubbed back and forth, eliciting laughter among the (mostly female Taiwanese) audience. Such sublime majestic creatures, these!
Bad, naughty elephants.
We decided to go to the reptile and amphibian house as our final stop, then returned to campus. Then: hot pot, my perennial favorite food here! I've already been to about 5 or 6 different hot pot places and the one near NCCU is by far the best. So needless to say, I was quite pleased to return to "Shabu-sen", as it is called [しゃぶ鮮]. Nearly two hours later we returned to the dorm.
But my day was not complete! It turns out that my beloved flame dame is not leaving until midnight tonight (Friday), so she suggested a trip to a hookah cafe. Most of you in Chapel Hill probably already know what hookah is, but for those of you who don't, it is tobacco that has been flavored, often with honey and fruit. It is smoked through a tube, which draws the smoke through some water, thus filtering it and making the smoke less irritating. I had never smoked a hookah before, so I thought it would be interesting to try it, and it was really neat. Before we left the hookah cafe, I was already able to blow smoke rings (like the caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland), causing my flame dame to be quite jealous. And that ends my yesterday. More news and pictures soon!
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Pre-Spring Break
A week later. And what an eventful week. Pictures will be posted soon, or whenever my laziness subsides enough to upload them from my iPhone's camera.
Friday was drageoke! Quite exciting! Two of the girls in our travel group helped me get dressed and prepared for my performance, then it began. My singing partner started singing, then I came out, singing, on stage to laughter and loud applause. We finished our song and were loudly applauded again. While we didn't win a prize, our performance was without a doubt the most entertaining one. I'm pretty sure that pictures (and video) can be seen on my Facebook.
On Saturday I went to the Taipei 101 tea shop yet again, for more delicious Oriental Beauty tea. I spent several hours there with a gay Taiwanese friend. It was really fun and relaxing. On Sunday the two of us went many places across Taipei, including an old theatre called the Red Building [紅樓] near Ximen, which is located near many of Taipei's gay bars. We wanted to go to an open-air market, but apparently it was not open. After this we went to the Taipei Modern Art museum in north-central Taipei. Modern art isn't really my thing but it was alright. There were a lot of photographs and not-very-realistic paintings. Perhaps I'm unsophisticated, but I prefer the paintings that look more like reality, as I think it's impressive to directly and accurately render a scene onto canvas. After the museum closed I parted ways with my friend and met with my flame dame. We met another gay friend of hers and went to the bars near Ximen. It was an interesting experience, and not all bad, but unfortunately I was the recipient of some undesired flirting.
On Monday evening I went out with a couple of the guys in the group to Raohe [饒河] night market, which seems to have an even larger selection of cheap (and male) clothing than do Shilin and Shida, the other two major night markets. While I only bought one shirt, it was a very interesting place that I intend to return to. Unfortunately, my clothing was not new when I first left America for Asia in August, and so it is wearing out even more here. Thus I have had to buy some inexpensive clothing already.
Nothing particularly interesting happened on Monday, or yesterday morning. Last evening, my flame dame's Japanese friends (who spent the weekend in Taipei) were preparing to return to Japan. So we went out to a combination barbecue-hot pot place. While I don't mind barbecue, I greatly prefer hot pot. So while the others ate barbecue and a little bit of hot pot, I almost exclusively ate hot pot. This turned out to be a very wise decision, because this morning I recieved two text messages from the others saying that they were suffering from food poisoning. At barbecues here, people cook their own meat. As many people may not be familiar with what meat looks like when it's done cooking, and as the tongs are used both to put raw meat on the grill and to take cooked meat off, it is easy for contamination to occur. While I am very glad that the hot pot system is much more safe, I hope that my two friends feel better very soon!
Today was the last day of class before the break, which is why I am writing this post this evening. This evening I ate mediocre vegetarian food with my flame dame, who is still recovering from her food poisoning, and met my classmate (an adorable Japanese girl) at the library for a language exchange. She wants to practice more English and I want to practice more Japanese, so we hope to be mutually beneficial teachers. After about three hours, I went to a bar with some of the other Americans and about four Taiwanese graduate students, for a last night out before everyone disperses for the break. After this, we returned to the dorm and here I am.
As far as I know, spring break is always held from April 1 to April 5, in observance of Qingming Festival [清明節], or tomb-sweeping day. This is a traditional Chinese holiday during which celebrants return to their families and ancestral homes, and sweep the gravestones of their ancestors. It derives from the strong influence of ancestor worship in China and areas it influenced. More information on the festival is sure to come, as I love learning and reporting information.
Many of the foreigners (and even some Taiwanese), who do not face these family obligations, use this time to travel around the island or to other locations. While there is much in Taiwan I want to see, I am also frugal and so decided to stay in Taipei and visit areas I haven't seen yet. So general plans include, in some order:
Going to the top of Taipei 101 (should be done on a very clear day or night)
Riding the Maokong cable car up to the top of the mountain, drinking and buying tea
Visiting the Taipei Zoo
Seeing Danshui (the area at the mouth of the river)
I am sure that I will come up with further plans, but these are the things that I want to ensure I get done over the break. Good news! There will be many more pictures this week, as this is a departure from "student mode" so I will be carrying my camera around much more often.
Friday was drageoke! Quite exciting! Two of the girls in our travel group helped me get dressed and prepared for my performance, then it began. My singing partner started singing, then I came out, singing, on stage to laughter and loud applause. We finished our song and were loudly applauded again. While we didn't win a prize, our performance was without a doubt the most entertaining one. I'm pretty sure that pictures (and video) can be seen on my Facebook.
On Saturday I went to the Taipei 101 tea shop yet again, for more delicious Oriental Beauty tea. I spent several hours there with a gay Taiwanese friend. It was really fun and relaxing. On Sunday the two of us went many places across Taipei, including an old theatre called the Red Building [紅樓] near Ximen, which is located near many of Taipei's gay bars. We wanted to go to an open-air market, but apparently it was not open. After this we went to the Taipei Modern Art museum in north-central Taipei. Modern art isn't really my thing but it was alright. There were a lot of photographs and not-very-realistic paintings. Perhaps I'm unsophisticated, but I prefer the paintings that look more like reality, as I think it's impressive to directly and accurately render a scene onto canvas. After the museum closed I parted ways with my friend and met with my flame dame. We met another gay friend of hers and went to the bars near Ximen. It was an interesting experience, and not all bad, but unfortunately I was the recipient of some undesired flirting.
On Monday evening I went out with a couple of the guys in the group to Raohe [饒河] night market, which seems to have an even larger selection of cheap (and male) clothing than do Shilin and Shida, the other two major night markets. While I only bought one shirt, it was a very interesting place that I intend to return to. Unfortunately, my clothing was not new when I first left America for Asia in August, and so it is wearing out even more here. Thus I have had to buy some inexpensive clothing already.
Nothing particularly interesting happened on Monday, or yesterday morning. Last evening, my flame dame's Japanese friends (who spent the weekend in Taipei) were preparing to return to Japan. So we went out to a combination barbecue-hot pot place. While I don't mind barbecue, I greatly prefer hot pot. So while the others ate barbecue and a little bit of hot pot, I almost exclusively ate hot pot. This turned out to be a very wise decision, because this morning I recieved two text messages from the others saying that they were suffering from food poisoning. At barbecues here, people cook their own meat. As many people may not be familiar with what meat looks like when it's done cooking, and as the tongs are used both to put raw meat on the grill and to take cooked meat off, it is easy for contamination to occur. While I am very glad that the hot pot system is much more safe, I hope that my two friends feel better very soon!
Today was the last day of class before the break, which is why I am writing this post this evening. This evening I ate mediocre vegetarian food with my flame dame, who is still recovering from her food poisoning, and met my classmate (an adorable Japanese girl) at the library for a language exchange. She wants to practice more English and I want to practice more Japanese, so we hope to be mutually beneficial teachers. After about three hours, I went to a bar with some of the other Americans and about four Taiwanese graduate students, for a last night out before everyone disperses for the break. After this, we returned to the dorm and here I am.
As far as I know, spring break is always held from April 1 to April 5, in observance of Qingming Festival [清明節], or tomb-sweeping day. This is a traditional Chinese holiday during which celebrants return to their families and ancestral homes, and sweep the gravestones of their ancestors. It derives from the strong influence of ancestor worship in China and areas it influenced. More information on the festival is sure to come, as I love learning and reporting information.
Many of the foreigners (and even some Taiwanese), who do not face these family obligations, use this time to travel around the island or to other locations. While there is much in Taiwan I want to see, I am also frugal and so decided to stay in Taipei and visit areas I haven't seen yet. So general plans include, in some order:
Going to the top of Taipei 101 (should be done on a very clear day or night)
Riding the Maokong cable car up to the top of the mountain, drinking and buying tea
Visiting the Taipei Zoo
Seeing Danshui (the area at the mouth of the river)
I am sure that I will come up with further plans, but these are the things that I want to ensure I get done over the break. Good news! There will be many more pictures this week, as this is a departure from "student mode" so I will be carrying my camera around much more often.
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