The weather all last week and over the weekend was amazing, clear blue skies, comfortably warm with a cool breeze...just beautiful. It made me realize that I love living on a tropical island.
Today I woke up to grey skies and a blast of cold air as I walked out the front door of the building, it was as if we skipped the gentle autumn and was slammed by winter overnight. The tropical island melted, and I was suddenly taken back to where I was around this time last year, freezing my heiny off in northern Europe...brrrrrrrrrrr!!!
Oh well. Next week I am going to Kenting at the southern tip of the island, which is supposed to have SoCal weather all year round. Hello sunshine!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
That Time Before Noon
Thus far, I've been very fortunate in having the ability to pretty much get my first or second choice of class times, and since I am so NOT a morning person (as many of you know), I've been able to get classes that start at 10am or later. I had a 12:20 class last quarter, which meant that I could sleep in relatively late, but not necessarily sleep more hours because I tend to stay up very late.
Since the start of the new quarter last week, I've had to get up really early for an 8am class every morning. Don't think I didn't already try to switch to a later class, because sadly, all of the 10am classes were already full. What to do but continue to go to my 8am class, which despite the fact that my brain is still asleep, is a pretty interesting class on Chinese idioms. We get out at 10am, and there's still quite a bit of morning left to enjoy.
At home, I usually have some buttered toast (sometimes with blueberry jam) and a mug of tea for breakfast. Lately, I've been rushing out the door trying not to be too tardy for class, which leaves very little time for toast and tea, so I decided I'd start treating myself to a Taiwanese breakfast of 飯團 or stuffed rice balls (a large glutonous rice ball stuffed with various pickled vegetables, Chinese donut for crunchiness, and a few other things) and warm cup of fresh soymilk...mmmmm!!! I walked over to the park and strolled with my cup of soymilk (having already wolfed down my rice ball on the walk over to the park a block away), watching the old people doing tai-chi, listening to the chirping of the birds, walking on the little stone path, breathing in the crisp morning air before it gets adulterated by the day's bus and scooter exhaust, and basking in the warm sun.
I then walked over to the traditional market, all abuzz with grandmas and grandpas poking and picking from the colorful vegetables and fruits in plastic crates. The lady at my favorite vegetable stand tries to sell me a little plastic bag filled with green snap peas, a few slices of carrots, and mushrooms, all ready for the wok, but I refuse. Instead I buy a few potatoes, a large onion, and some shiny red and green bell peppers. At the fruit vendor, I buy some bananas and spot some orange persimmons (looks a bit like an orange roma tomato). These persimmons are RIPE, the skin so soft you can feel the squishiness of the meat inside. It's very important to only eat them when they are ripe, otherwise they will leave your mouth with the foulest grainy aftertaste that can't be washed down with water. On the way home from the market, I notice that one of the persimmons was accidentally squished and bleeding into the plastic bag, so I sat at the edge of the park and consumed it - the sweetness and juiciness was sublime, and the best part was the slimy gelatonous innards, makes me salivate just thinking about it.
Wow, this is what morning feels like!
I'm pooped and could really use a nap before lunch...zzzzzzzzzzz
Since the start of the new quarter last week, I've had to get up really early for an 8am class every morning. Don't think I didn't already try to switch to a later class, because sadly, all of the 10am classes were already full. What to do but continue to go to my 8am class, which despite the fact that my brain is still asleep, is a pretty interesting class on Chinese idioms. We get out at 10am, and there's still quite a bit of morning left to enjoy.
At home, I usually have some buttered toast (sometimes with blueberry jam) and a mug of tea for breakfast. Lately, I've been rushing out the door trying not to be too tardy for class, which leaves very little time for toast and tea, so I decided I'd start treating myself to a Taiwanese breakfast of 飯團 or stuffed rice balls (a large glutonous rice ball stuffed with various pickled vegetables, Chinese donut for crunchiness, and a few other things) and warm cup of fresh soymilk...mmmmm!!! I walked over to the park and strolled with my cup of soymilk (having already wolfed down my rice ball on the walk over to the park a block away), watching the old people doing tai-chi, listening to the chirping of the birds, walking on the little stone path, breathing in the crisp morning air before it gets adulterated by the day's bus and scooter exhaust, and basking in the warm sun.
I then walked over to the traditional market, all abuzz with grandmas and grandpas poking and picking from the colorful vegetables and fruits in plastic crates. The lady at my favorite vegetable stand tries to sell me a little plastic bag filled with green snap peas, a few slices of carrots, and mushrooms, all ready for the wok, but I refuse. Instead I buy a few potatoes, a large onion, and some shiny red and green bell peppers. At the fruit vendor, I buy some bananas and spot some orange persimmons (looks a bit like an orange roma tomato). These persimmons are RIPE, the skin so soft you can feel the squishiness of the meat inside. It's very important to only eat them when they are ripe, otherwise they will leave your mouth with the foulest grainy aftertaste that can't be washed down with water. On the way home from the market, I notice that one of the persimmons was accidentally squished and bleeding into the plastic bag, so I sat at the edge of the park and consumed it - the sweetness and juiciness was sublime, and the best part was the slimy gelatonous innards, makes me salivate just thinking about it.
Wow, this is what morning feels like!
I'm pooped and could really use a nap before lunch...zzzzzzzzzzz
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Japanese English
(this photo was taken in San Francisco, not Japan)
Not sure if you know this, but there is a fair bit of English in Japanese, although when uttered we may not always know it because it may not sound like English. More amazingly, a few words that I thought were Taiwanese (a dialect of Mandarin Chinese) turned out to be Japanese, which in turn were derived from English!
How the heck did this happen, you may ask. The Japanese occupied Taiwan for 100 years before the Nationalist Party took over after World War II. During their occupation, Japanese was the official language and it was taught in schools during my grandparents' time. From exposure to the West and rapid modernization, a number of English words made it into the Japanese lexicon. Words such as radio, coat (pronounced coh-toh), names for newfangled items that were never before seen in the East and for which there were no names in Japanese, were adapted from English names and became so ingrained into Japanese culture that it was disseminated as part of the Japanese spoken in colonial Taiwan.
Two of my Japanese friends love to teach me Japanese English, and we giggle uproariously as we exchange pronunciations. Oftentimes, stressing the syllables slightly differently and/or removing the "u" or "o" sound added at the end of the word will give you the original English word. Here are just a few:
sebu-m-elebu = seven-eleven (7-11)
stah-baku-ss = Starbucks
maku-donaduno = McDonald's
beginah-zi-lahku = beginner's luck
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