I've left Taiwan and gotten back to Cary. I miss the city, friends, and boy like hell but I think I'll make it. However, as my life does not promise to be exciting, I will not continue to post on this blog until I prepare to depart for Taiwan yet again. So far I'm looking at leaving on January 4th, thus arriving on January 5th, but we'll see what happens.
Thank you all for reading and I hope to see most of you in person! Otherwise, until January!
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Monday, June 7, 2010
Final Post
Well I guess it's about time to write a final post from Taipei. I fly out tomorrow morning at 10 am, so I have to leave the city at 6 am to get to the airport.
I hate to be melodramatic, but it really does feel like I'm going to leave part of my heart behind. I love this city, the friends I've met here, and most recently the wonderful guy I have to leave behind.
I'll write more this evening but right now I'm at a public computer and people are waiting...
-2:34 PM
I'm sleeping at his apartment tonight. I really don't want to leave. I have thought many times about just not getting on the plane, but I don't have any choice about staying here...
I just have to keep my head and my spirits up while on the plane... it's going to be one of the most emotionally draining 22 hours of my life, but after that I'll be home with all the silver linings that Cary has to offer... food (particularly Mexican), free rent, comfortable beds, family, friends, et cetera.
I also have resolve. It may be small solace, but I keep telling myself: I WILL be back in Taipei come January. I don't care what it takes or what I have to do. I am determined to come back here to the city and people I love so much. So if you are ever in the East Asian neighborhood in 2011 or any year thereafter, let me know!
-12:35 AM
Woke up and I'm feeling worse than ever. In 40 minutes the taxi will pick me up and I'll be dragged away from this city and leave this wonderful guy behind for 6 months. Thinking a lot about just skipping the flight ><. Probably won't but fuck I wish I could just run away and stay here for two months.
-5:30 AM
I hate to be melodramatic, but it really does feel like I'm going to leave part of my heart behind. I love this city, the friends I've met here, and most recently the wonderful guy I have to leave behind.
I'll write more this evening but right now I'm at a public computer and people are waiting...
-2:34 PM
I'm sleeping at his apartment tonight. I really don't want to leave. I have thought many times about just not getting on the plane, but I don't have any choice about staying here...
I just have to keep my head and my spirits up while on the plane... it's going to be one of the most emotionally draining 22 hours of my life, but after that I'll be home with all the silver linings that Cary has to offer... food (particularly Mexican), free rent, comfortable beds, family, friends, et cetera.
I also have resolve. It may be small solace, but I keep telling myself: I WILL be back in Taipei come January. I don't care what it takes or what I have to do. I am determined to come back here to the city and people I love so much. So if you are ever in the East Asian neighborhood in 2011 or any year thereafter, let me know!
-12:35 AM
Woke up and I'm feeling worse than ever. In 40 minutes the taxi will pick me up and I'll be dragged away from this city and leave this wonderful guy behind for 6 months. Thinking a lot about just skipping the flight ><. Probably won't but fuck I wish I could just run away and stay here for two months.
-5:30 AM
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Hualien Photos - Taroko Gorge
Taroko Gorge. This has to be one of the most impressive natural sites I've ever seen, next to Yellow Mountain [黃山] in mainland China. I'll let the pictures hopefully speak for themselves.
Hanging bridge over Swallow Grotto [燕子口], one of the famous tourist sights
The river at the entrance of the park
Golden bodhisattva statue at the temple near Tianxiang [天祥], a small town about one-third of the way into the gorge
Bridge to the temple in Tianxiang, looking up at the mountains
Debris from recent rockslide, requiring the road to be detoured. These occur very frequently in Taroko Gorge due to the incredibly steeply-angled mountainsides
Rockslide. Not quite so recent (as can be seen by the small vegetation growth)
Mountaintops. Because we rode mopeds we were able to get further than most tour buses, which cannot continue past Tianxiang
Hualien Photos - Hualien City
So as I mentioned last time, I spent Wednesday through Friday in Hualien [花蓮], an eastern Taiwanese city known for its beautiful beaches and mountains. It's also the most common gateway to Taroko Gorge, which is a deep gorge carved into the mountains by the Liwu [立霧] River. It is famous for its sheer sides and the abundant marble found in the gorge.
Hualien is fairly large area so it's difficult to get around without some form of transportation, be it taxi, bus, car, or moped. So the other two Americans and I decided to rent mopeds for Wednesday and Thursday, and we used those to drive around Hualien and Taroko Gorge. Dangerous? Perhaps. But it was a lot of fun and mopeds can get to places in the gorge that tour buses cannot reach. Definitely worth it!
Here are photos of Hualien itself, and I will post photos of Taroko Gorge in a separate entry.
The scooter I rented to ride around Hualien and Taroko Gorge
An ancestral hall in Hualien city. Looked impressive but there wasn't much inside
Mountains behind an airbase (hence the barbed wire fence in the foreground)
Pacific Ocean
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Pre-Hualien
Instead of going to Sun Moon Lake with the study abroad group (as I had plans last weekend which involved seeing off my Japanese classmate, baking cheesecake, and lots of time with a guy), I am instead travelling to Hualien (花蓮) on the eastern coast of Taiwan. It's supposed to be a beautiful region. I will leave tomorrow on the train at 9:55 am, and should return to Taipei on Friday at 10:35 pm. I will make sure to take lots of pictures!
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Da Vinci Exhibit
Today I went to Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall [中正紀念堂] for the first time, and it was very impressive in the same way that nationally significant sites in most nations are. It evokes the feel of the National Mall in Washington, or Tiananmen Square in Beijing, or Buckingham Palace in London. It is a very patriotic place for Taiwan.
The Hall itself is the blue-roofed building pictured above, with the stairs leading into a room that contains a statue of Chiang Kai-shek, an early leader of the Nationalist Kuomintang Party in China [國民黨]. The KMT fought with the Chinese Communist Party for decades, eventually being expelled from mainland China and settling in Taiwan.
The surrounding area is also very beautiful, as it contains two orange-roofed buildings (used as theatres) facing eachother and a large gate.
However, as much as I am fascinated with politics and the political history of Taiwan and China, I did not visit just to see the patriotic sights. I was actually there to see an exhibit on da Vinci, which has been running for months but concluded today. Unfortunately, due to museum rules, there are no pictures of the museum itself.
It was a very interesting exhibit. Interestingly, it didn't focus on da Vinci as the painter everyone knows him as, though there was a section which showed high-resolution photographs of the Mona Lisa and it had reproductions of such famous paintings as The Last Supper and Virgin of the Rocks. The main focus of the exhibit was da Vinci as the inventor. The exhibit showed pictures of his sketches and had built models based on these sketches. Unfortunately, there were far too many people there...but as I'm in East Asia I really should expect that by now!
After the exhibit I returned to campus to bake cookies for the international food sale that's been going on this week. While I had to make the cookies in a toaster oven (again), I think they turned out fairly well and judging by their previous popularity I expect that this batch will also sell out.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Approaching Departure
There are a lot of updates in the past week. Some of which I shall post here and some of which you will have to ask me personally if you want to know =D.
The most major update, and thus the first one, is regarding my return to North Carolina. I looked into extending my flight and it would cost me $400 US. Additionally, to avoid visa troubles, I would have to fly out of the country, stay a night, and then return, a trip that would also be fairly expensive. Thus, it is much more feasible for me to leave here at the end of the CIEE program on June 8th and just save up to come back here soon.
I have signed up for fall courses sufficient to attain my B.A. degree, so that I can graduate in December and return here as soon as January. While this may seem like a strange decision, I actually want to teach English here and most schools in China and Taiwan begin their year after the Chinese New Year (February 3rd next year) and thus pre-CNY is a good time to look for a teaching job. And I want to return to Taipei as soon as is possible, thus I WILL return here in January no matter what I have to do to attain that goal. I've seen too many of my good friends with big dreams get bogged down in North Carolina after graduation, working minimum-wage jobs at local food establishments, and I refuse to allow that to happen to me.
If I recall, my last post was some time last Tuesday. Classes since then have not been noteworthy at all. My grades remain the same regardless of how many or few errors I make on tests, but now we only have nine days of class left! As this semester has been an academic waste of time, I'm glad that it's nearly over, but I am really loath to leave Taipei. I've really come to love it here, and it feels so intimate, active, impulsive, friendly, and like home. I have met many wonderful friends here and learned so much (outside of the classroom). But goodbyes and reminiscence is for another time.
On Tuesday evening the CIEE group went to karaoke. Unfortunately, this sort of activity is best meant for a group of people smaller than ten. Otherwise, people pick songs and then have to wait upwards of 45 minutes to sing a song due to the backlog of requests. Moreover, karaoke here is such that people will pick songs they are good at and then sing solo to demonstrate their ability. I still really enjoyed myself, even singing multiple Mandarin songs! The first song I sang was "我要快樂" by A*Mei, a famous Taiwanese aboriginal singer, and everyone applauded my singing =).
On Thursday night I went out with my dame and a couple of other friends to celebrate one of their birthdays, or something like that. Only it was actually a secret plot to reunite a DIFFERENT friend with her boyfriend, who had flown in from the US without telling her so he could surprise visit her. Quite romantic and cute and sweet and all that =D.
On Friday night I went bowling with some of the Americans. I was surprised to find a bowling alley in Taipei, but I guess I should expect such an international city to contain almost anything imaginable. The computer and the pin setting-up device were both incredibly archaic, however, requiring manual reset of the pins at times. I won the second game, getting a strike and two or three spares. The first game I did not win though, as I had to remember how to throw the ball correctly. Or that's the story I'm sticking to, at least!
Tonight I baked cookies! The last time I tried to bake here, I was thwarted by an oven that looked functional but in fact was not. This time, I had to make do with baking in a toaster oven. While it took a few tries to find a method that worked, I finally began making batches of cookies to sell at a bake sale here that starts tomorrow. It was a lot of fun and I absolutely relished the chance to finally demonstrate my dessert-making abilities!
Impressions on gay acceptance: Yesterday I walked around Taipei for several hours, holding hands with another guy, without a single glare or snide comment directed at us. Even in Chapel Hill, when I held hands with my ex, we were glared at and more than once had rude comments shouted at us. This even in Chapel Hill, a supposed liberal paradise. I also recently saw a cute lesbian couple carrying a little boy in Taipei 101, with similar lack of reaction from passersby. The contrast with American attitudes is striking. Why can't Americans get this right?! It's alright by me if someone thinks gays are weird or whatever. Many older Taiwanese probably do, after all. But unlike their American counterparts, these Taiwanese are polite and civil, thus they don't make the public an unsafe place to be gay. This is an incredibly important concept. In the US I am afraid to hold hands with men I date because I instinctively try to avoid conflict. Thus I don't want to invite the blatant reproach and verbal attacks that so frequently come. I should not have to fear doing the same thing that straight couples do every day without a second thought, but the nature of American society mandates that I fear to show who I am. Taiwanese culture, which is conservative in many respects, does not instill such a deep fear in me, and thus I am freer. I cannot speak for Taiwanese gays but I get the sense from my friends here that they don't have to face this same fear.
Finally, pictures will come soon. I apologize for the lack of photos lately, I just don't carry my camera with me at most times because I like to go around Taipei without a bag of stuff, and it's begun to rain almost every day here and I don't want it to die of water exposure. However, my friends DO have cameras, and once they post pictures on facebook I shall grab them and put them here for you all!
The most major update, and thus the first one, is regarding my return to North Carolina. I looked into extending my flight and it would cost me $400 US. Additionally, to avoid visa troubles, I would have to fly out of the country, stay a night, and then return, a trip that would also be fairly expensive. Thus, it is much more feasible for me to leave here at the end of the CIEE program on June 8th and just save up to come back here soon.
I have signed up for fall courses sufficient to attain my B.A. degree, so that I can graduate in December and return here as soon as January. While this may seem like a strange decision, I actually want to teach English here and most schools in China and Taiwan begin their year after the Chinese New Year (February 3rd next year) and thus pre-CNY is a good time to look for a teaching job. And I want to return to Taipei as soon as is possible, thus I WILL return here in January no matter what I have to do to attain that goal. I've seen too many of my good friends with big dreams get bogged down in North Carolina after graduation, working minimum-wage jobs at local food establishments, and I refuse to allow that to happen to me.
If I recall, my last post was some time last Tuesday. Classes since then have not been noteworthy at all. My grades remain the same regardless of how many or few errors I make on tests, but now we only have nine days of class left! As this semester has been an academic waste of time, I'm glad that it's nearly over, but I am really loath to leave Taipei. I've really come to love it here, and it feels so intimate, active, impulsive, friendly, and like home. I have met many wonderful friends here and learned so much (outside of the classroom). But goodbyes and reminiscence is for another time.
On Tuesday evening the CIEE group went to karaoke. Unfortunately, this sort of activity is best meant for a group of people smaller than ten. Otherwise, people pick songs and then have to wait upwards of 45 minutes to sing a song due to the backlog of requests. Moreover, karaoke here is such that people will pick songs they are good at and then sing solo to demonstrate their ability. I still really enjoyed myself, even singing multiple Mandarin songs! The first song I sang was "我要快樂" by A*Mei, a famous Taiwanese aboriginal singer, and everyone applauded my singing =).
On Thursday night I went out with my dame and a couple of other friends to celebrate one of their birthdays, or something like that. Only it was actually a secret plot to reunite a DIFFERENT friend with her boyfriend, who had flown in from the US without telling her so he could surprise visit her. Quite romantic and cute and sweet and all that =D.
On Friday night I went bowling with some of the Americans. I was surprised to find a bowling alley in Taipei, but I guess I should expect such an international city to contain almost anything imaginable. The computer and the pin setting-up device were both incredibly archaic, however, requiring manual reset of the pins at times. I won the second game, getting a strike and two or three spares. The first game I did not win though, as I had to remember how to throw the ball correctly. Or that's the story I'm sticking to, at least!
Tonight I baked cookies! The last time I tried to bake here, I was thwarted by an oven that looked functional but in fact was not. This time, I had to make do with baking in a toaster oven. While it took a few tries to find a method that worked, I finally began making batches of cookies to sell at a bake sale here that starts tomorrow. It was a lot of fun and I absolutely relished the chance to finally demonstrate my dessert-making abilities!
Impressions on gay acceptance: Yesterday I walked around Taipei for several hours, holding hands with another guy, without a single glare or snide comment directed at us. Even in Chapel Hill, when I held hands with my ex, we were glared at and more than once had rude comments shouted at us. This even in Chapel Hill, a supposed liberal paradise. I also recently saw a cute lesbian couple carrying a little boy in Taipei 101, with similar lack of reaction from passersby. The contrast with American attitudes is striking. Why can't Americans get this right?! It's alright by me if someone thinks gays are weird or whatever. Many older Taiwanese probably do, after all. But unlike their American counterparts, these Taiwanese are polite and civil, thus they don't make the public an unsafe place to be gay. This is an incredibly important concept. In the US I am afraid to hold hands with men I date because I instinctively try to avoid conflict. Thus I don't want to invite the blatant reproach and verbal attacks that so frequently come. I should not have to fear doing the same thing that straight couples do every day without a second thought, but the nature of American society mandates that I fear to show who I am. Taiwanese culture, which is conservative in many respects, does not instill such a deep fear in me, and thus I am freer. I cannot speak for Taiwanese gays but I get the sense from my friends here that they don't have to face this same fear.
Finally, pictures will come soon. I apologize for the lack of photos lately, I just don't carry my camera with me at most times because I like to go around Taipei without a bag of stuff, and it's begun to rain almost every day here and I don't want it to die of water exposure. However, my friends DO have cameras, and once they post pictures on facebook I shall grab them and put them here for you all!
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Apologies for the delay
Things have become really busy here all of a sudden. Not due to my Chinese class, but due to all the other activities I've had to do. There has been teaching English at the middle school, two language exchanges with Japanese friends, regular hanging out with Taiwanese and foreign friends, trying to find tutoring jobs, and karaoke. We only have three more weeks of language class so things are starting to speed up. So basically I'm writing off the last two weeks as a wash at least as far as this blog is concerned, hopefully I'll soon be back on track with the photos and witty commentary you've all come to love!
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Sickness, continued
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.
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
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.
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.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
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.
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.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
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).
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).
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