If you've read parts I and II of this Taiwanese Christmas, you already know by now that I have been sick for a few weeks now, and I am sick of being sick.
So a lovely friend was inquiring about my health, and suggested that I go see a Chinese medicine doctor, and recommended her clinic, which was recommended to her by another friend. Hmmm...I'm thinking...Chinese medicine and Jean don't go well together. To me, Chinese medicine means ingesting large quantities of black pellet-sized pills that smell foul, drinking dark potions that taste extra bitter and smell foul, lots of little needles poking you and smelling foul, messy salves made from tree bark and caterpillar eyes that smell foul, and a little bit of witchcraft by a foul-smelling old Chinese man with an untrimmed, bleach-white mustache. However, I've been taking Western medicine and nothing seems to be working. I tell myself I try to be open-minded and give this a try, besides, Taiwan has some of the best Chinese medicine doctors in the world and people have been practicing it for thousands of years.
Ok, so yesterday I went to the clinic recommended by my friend. It was bright and not smelly, very tastefully decorated, and the staff were very courteous. The doctor examines me, asks me about my symptoms, and asks if I've taken Chinese medicine before. I tell her that I haven't. She says the medicine is a little bitter, so she'll add some sugar into it to make it more palatable. I leave with little packets of brown powder which I'm instructed to dissolve in hot water and drink four times a day. Ok, totally manageable.
I sat down for the first dose, dissolving the brown powder in a bowl of hot water. It looked murky, and had a faint herbal smell. I drank it, the first sip tasted a bit foul, not particularly bitter nor sweet, a mild earthy flavor. I finished the remainder with a second sip. It wasn't so bad, actually, tastes vaguely similar to this soup I like.
I've had 3 more doses since, and the flavor gets more palatable each time. It seems to be working, as last night was my first restful night of sleep in what seems like a long time. This morning, I woke up feeling renewed and rejuvenated. I'm still not 100% better, still coughing, but already with less frequency and intensity compared to yesterday. I am hopeful, and keeping my fingers crossed, that I will be mostly back to normal by New Year's Eve.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Taiwanese Christmas, Part II: Dope Fiend
The next day (Christmas Day), I'm on the bus heading over to the hospital, and a litany of "what if" questions plagued my mind - What if I have the swine flu? What if I gave my students the swine flu? Will they quarantine me at the hospital? Will they make me wear a face mask in public for the rest of my life? Will they make me wear a big "S" on my clothes to mark me as a victim of the swine flu? Will my lungs collapse? Did I wait too long to see a doctor, will I need an iron lung? Maybe this is why I've avoided going to the doctor's for so long, there is comfort in ignorance.
My doctor examines me, looks at my chest x-ray, and tells me that my lungs look normal, I just have a bad cold, and that I should drink more water. It's really very good news, I’m not going to die from swine flu, no iron lung, no scarlet letter, no ostracization, just good clean water to flush out my system and wait for the coughing to go away…and yet strangely I felt a bit disappointed, for surely my body aches and heavy coughing are signs of a more serious malady. I walk out of the doctor’s office, and seconds later the nurse calls me over to give me my prescription and bill. Just for good measure, the doctor wrote me a prescription for meds that will help with some of my symptoms.
Now, I've heard that the Taiwanese feel like they need to get a prescription every time they go to the doctor, to make them feel like they've actually seen a doctor. There's a social addiction to getting prescription drugs, and this is no coincidence considering that prescription medications are heavily subsidized under the national health insurance system. I go to pick up my prescription, and am greeted with a small mountain of drugs. Holy moly! I’ve gone to the doctors in the States with a bad cold, and all they do is tell you to take Sudafed (that you can buy over-the-counter), drink plenty of fluids, and get plenty of rest. In Taipei, I feel like I've hit the motherlode - four different prescription drugs including an allergy medication, packets of yellow citrus-flavored flu powder, green tablets, and two bottles of this brown liquid that contains opium.
For two days now, I’ve been drinking the opium mixture from a little measuring cup. I can’t tell how much of my recovery can be attributed to this brown liquid, but I can honestly say that it doesn’t taste very good, there’s a distinct earthy flavor and slight bitterness that cannot be masked by the sugar additives. I also doubt I will be converting my bedroom into an opium den anytime soon. But at least I am feeling a little better than I did yesterday, which is a good sign.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Taiwanese Christmas, Part I: Be Careful What You Wish For
For a few weeks now, I've been whining to whomever has the misfortune of being in my company about having to work on Christmas day. While the Taiwanese love Christmas, and some will even engage in gift and greeting card exchanges, it is still just another working day.
Having grown up in a Christian country, I have grown accustomed to looking forward to the holidays with rapt anticipation driven primarily by the lure of precious days off from school and work. I have never, ever, ever worked on Christmas day. This is the time of year when hordes of expats and English teachers fly back home to be with their families, advertising months in advance for someone to sub for their classes. Having no such elaborate repatriation plans this year, I did not make arrangements for a sub, and so it was that I reluctantly resigned myself to the fact that Christmas Day will be just another working day for me this year. It will be yet another very Taiwanese "first" for me.
So yesterday (Christmas Eve), I woke up in the morning feeling weak, achy, and coughing up a storm, the way I've felt every morning for almost a week now, having caught a bad cold two weeks ago. I've been coughing so much that the muscles on the sides of my abdominals are sore, and I feel a pinch of pain with every cough and every breath. Some days, I wish I could crawl into a hole and curl up into a fetal position, and this was one of them. I like to start these days off with a hot bath, it helps with the muscle aches and puts me in a much better mood. This illness has tested my dedication to the limits, the deep coughing and bodily discomfort has been creeping in gradually for the last two weeks now, and it is miraculous that I haven't called in sick yet. Still, there's something to be said about going to work, it gets me out of the house and forces me to interact with other human beings instead of being locked up in my room feeling anti-social.
When I went into my classroom, I discovered that my students had arrived early and transformed the white markerboard into a holiday mural with colorful stars, Santa in his sleigh, presents, even a Christmas tree with a real candy cane hanging on it! These are some of the sweetest, most creative kids I've had the pleasure to teach, and it put a big smile on my face. Then at the end of my classes, my boss came up to me and told me that he's approved my request to take tomorrow (Christmas Day) off, and that he's arranged for a substitute for me, now go see a doctor and take care of myself. Yay!!! I get my wish after all, but I sure wish it was under better circumstances.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Payday
The teaching job has been keeping me pretty busy, I'm finishing up on my second month now, and I'm getting a better feel for the job and my new life. Man oh man, I am rediscovering the joys of payday! But in Taiwan, even payday takes on a different twist.
Taiwan has a very sophisticated banking system, which in many ways is much more secure, hi-tech, and convenient than in the States. For example, all the ATM/debit cards have the gold chip, which is more secure than a magnetic strip. Bought something online? Avoid getting your credit card number stolen by hackers by simply requesting for the package to be sent to your nearest convenience store and paying for it when you pick it up, and while you're at it, you can pay your phone bill. All of the government-run post offices also have banking services that allow you to pay utility bills. Wire transfers can be done quickly and easily through ATM machines. Swiping debit cards are all the rage, and you can simply swipe the EasyCard debit card when riding public transit (including trains) in the Taipei area, and even use it pay for a visit to the zoo.
Despite all of these advances, Taiwan still remains largely a cash-based society for everyday transactions. Many shops and vendors deal only exclusively with cash, and some places will charge a service fee for using your credit card (credit card companies charge a fee to vendors, and the vendors pass this onto the customer). When I bought my laptop over a year and a half ago, I remember thinking I that I would just charge it, but to my surprise, the shop did not take credit cards! "Most people don't carry that much cash around, how do you expect your customers to pay for a computer?" I asked the clerk. His reply: "They withdrawal cash from the ATM machine downstairs." I guess the ATMs in Taiwan don't have the same daily limit restriction as back home.
So I suppose it is not all that surprising that, when payday came around, my boss handed me a white envelope filled not with a simple check, but a thick wad of cold, hard cash.
Taiwan has a very sophisticated banking system, which in many ways is much more secure, hi-tech, and convenient than in the States. For example, all the ATM/debit cards have the gold chip, which is more secure than a magnetic strip. Bought something online? Avoid getting your credit card number stolen by hackers by simply requesting for the package to be sent to your nearest convenience store and paying for it when you pick it up, and while you're at it, you can pay your phone bill. All of the government-run post offices also have banking services that allow you to pay utility bills. Wire transfers can be done quickly and easily through ATM machines. Swiping debit cards are all the rage, and you can simply swipe the EasyCard debit card when riding public transit (including trains) in the Taipei area, and even use it pay for a visit to the zoo.
Despite all of these advances, Taiwan still remains largely a cash-based society for everyday transactions. Many shops and vendors deal only exclusively with cash, and some places will charge a service fee for using your credit card (credit card companies charge a fee to vendors, and the vendors pass this onto the customer). When I bought my laptop over a year and a half ago, I remember thinking I that I would just charge it, but to my surprise, the shop did not take credit cards! "Most people don't carry that much cash around, how do you expect your customers to pay for a computer?" I asked the clerk. His reply: "They withdrawal cash from the ATM machine downstairs." I guess the ATMs in Taiwan don't have the same daily limit restriction as back home.
So I suppose it is not all that surprising that, when payday came around, my boss handed me a white envelope filled not with a simple check, but a thick wad of cold, hard cash.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Hello Kitty and Dinosaur
Too cute! This is from one of the spelling exercises in this class.
I've recently gotten a job working as an English teacher at a "cram school" here in Taipei (for those of you not acquainted with the term "cram school," it is a privately operated school where parents send their children to after their normal school. Most children in Taipei get shuttled to cram school in the late afternoons, many of them to English cram schools where the kids get a linguistic boost).
I spent my first two working days teaching 4 and 5-year-olds about colors and hair, then Typhoon Morakot hit and I got a day off, and then I was assigned to teach some older kids.
One of the new classes I'm teaching consists of a half a dozen or so 6- to 8-year-olds, all really cute, one token girl in a class of super energetic boys! First day of teaching them, I split the class into two teams, and they offer up names for their teams -- Hello Kitty and Dinosaur -- big mistake! They form two lines, and all the boys naturally go to the Dinosaur team line, even the ones I've assigned to the HK team, while the little girl is beaming and standing in the HK team line. I realize my mistake and erase the names, and the little girl tugs at my skirt and eagerly points at her pencil case, asking if I could rename the team Cinnamaroll. It was soooooo cute, but no, Cinnamaroll is just another HK name, so ultimately, I named them Noodles and Dumplings.
I don't allow them to pick their team names anymore, but I try to come up with silly ones, like Stinky Feet and Stinky Tofu. Food names are pretty safe, but animal names can incite a debate amongst the kids about whose animal is fiercer, plus food is not gender-specific so we don't end up again with 5 kids scrambling for the Dinosaur team and one little girl representing Hello Kitty.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Morakot
We had a doozy of a typhoon last weekend, the worst flooding in 50 years. Last Friday was declared a Typhoon Day, which means people were highly encouraged to stay home from the dangerously strong winds and pouring rain, eat ramen and play mahjong (although I heard all the cool kids went to the movies or KTV - that's karaoke in private rooms for the uninitiated).
Taipei experiences the fewest clear sunny days and the greatest seasonal temperature variation compared with the rest of the country. The trade-off for crappy weather is that Taipei doesn't flood often (although when it does, it's bad, like really bad), whereas many small towns in central and southern Taiwan are frequently reported to flood during even moderate typhoons. Morakot seemed to have an axe to grind with the mountainous central regions and the south, but Taipei was back up and running by Sunday with little trace of the nastiness that just swept past us.
It wasn't until I watched the news that I saw for the first time the devastation, and realized that those of us in Taipei were extremely lucky. I checked in with my aunt who lives in the southern city of Tainan, and she reports that other than experiencing a water shortage, there was no flooding in her city, and that she and the family are all doing well. The severe rains resulted in sedimentation of Tainan's clean water supplies, so they've been forced to shut off the water every other day in order to carry out with the cleaning effort. My aunt and her family have been living off bottled water for the past week, and while they still manage to take showers, they've been hand-washing all their clothes instead of using the washing machine in an effort to conserve water.
I want to thank everyone for your concerns, and assure you that my relatives and I are all doing well.
I should think this has made the rounds by now, but if you STILL haven't seen it, here's the famous footage of the hotel that collapsed into the river (not to be confused with the apartment building that collapsed in China, pre-Morakot mind you).
Village Buried by Mudslide
Treacherous Rescue Effort
Google Morakot Map -- my sister loves the little dancing bananas in places where people have been rescued
Taipei experiences the fewest clear sunny days and the greatest seasonal temperature variation compared with the rest of the country. The trade-off for crappy weather is that Taipei doesn't flood often (although when it does, it's bad, like really bad), whereas many small towns in central and southern Taiwan are frequently reported to flood during even moderate typhoons. Morakot seemed to have an axe to grind with the mountainous central regions and the south, but Taipei was back up and running by Sunday with little trace of the nastiness that just swept past us.
It wasn't until I watched the news that I saw for the first time the devastation, and realized that those of us in Taipei were extremely lucky. I checked in with my aunt who lives in the southern city of Tainan, and she reports that other than experiencing a water shortage, there was no flooding in her city, and that she and the family are all doing well. The severe rains resulted in sedimentation of Tainan's clean water supplies, so they've been forced to shut off the water every other day in order to carry out with the cleaning effort. My aunt and her family have been living off bottled water for the past week, and while they still manage to take showers, they've been hand-washing all their clothes instead of using the washing machine in an effort to conserve water.
I want to thank everyone for your concerns, and assure you that my relatives and I are all doing well.
I should think this has made the rounds by now, but if you STILL haven't seen it, here's the famous footage of the hotel that collapsed into the river (not to be confused with the apartment building that collapsed in China, pre-Morakot mind you).
Village Buried by Mudslide
Treacherous Rescue Effort
Google Morakot Map -- my sister loves the little dancing bananas in places where people have been rescued
Friday, July 31, 2009
The Pickers
Maybe it is the notion of cultural taboos ingrained in me over the years that makes me think the ordinary habits of people in my ancestral homeland are rude and sometimes outright disgusting, or maybe it is my germophobia and abiding hatred of all germs, real or psychologically fabricated, that makes me particularly sensitive. This next matter is not for the faint of heart -- that's right, I'm talking about public nose-picking.
I'm sitting in the air-conditioned post office on a hot day, waiting for my number to be called so that I can pay my health insurance premium. There's a woman sitting in front of me, reading a pamphlet and casually digging into her nostrils with her pinky. No, not just for a brief second or two, this was an indulged, leisurely cleansing exercise, after which she rubbed her fingers together and let it drop to the floor. GROSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Yes you're waiting, and yes you're bored, but that does not entitle you to flick your boogers in public!
In fact, this is not an isolated incident, a lot of Taiwanese will pick at will, especially when riding on public transit, something about being in a public space must induce these people to empty out their bodily wastes. Even hard stares won't keep them from digging for gold, and believe me I've tried. I know that noses have to get cleaned out, but apparently it is too much to ask people to do it in private, preferably with a tissue, and wash your hands with soap afterwards!!!
I decided to dig a little deeper, and googled "nose picking habit" to see what I could find:
Sorry, I had to get this out of my system.
I'm sitting in the air-conditioned post office on a hot day, waiting for my number to be called so that I can pay my health insurance premium. There's a woman sitting in front of me, reading a pamphlet and casually digging into her nostrils with her pinky. No, not just for a brief second or two, this was an indulged, leisurely cleansing exercise, after which she rubbed her fingers together and let it drop to the floor. GROSSSSSSSSS!!!!!! Yes you're waiting, and yes you're bored, but that does not entitle you to flick your boogers in public!
In fact, this is not an isolated incident, a lot of Taiwanese will pick at will, especially when riding on public transit, something about being in a public space must induce these people to empty out their bodily wastes. Even hard stares won't keep them from digging for gold, and believe me I've tried. I know that noses have to get cleaned out, but apparently it is too much to ask people to do it in private, preferably with a tissue, and wash your hands with soap afterwards!!!
I decided to dig a little deeper, and googled "nose picking habit" to see what I could find:
Sorry, I had to get this out of my system.
Monday, July 27, 2009
Due Bu Qi
On June 5th, the second day I had arrived in California, I took the 22 bus from Santa Clara to downtown San Jose to meet up with my friends for the First Friday and Sub Zero art event in the SoFa district. Upon getting off the bus, I started walking towards Second Street, then realizing my mistake, I turned to head towards First Street, and in doing so nearly bumped into a man who was walking behind me. I uttered an involuntary "due bu qi," the same phrase and in the same tone that I have been accustomed to uttering when accidentally bumping into strangers on the subways of Taipei. Thankfully, I 1) didn't say it very loudly, 2) the guy didn't appear to hear or notice, and 3) upon realizing my error, my subsequent embarrassment was short-lived. I'm not in the land of "due bu qi's" anymore.
I hadn't been in an English-speaking country for 15 months, and my mind has been brainwashed. Over the course of my month-long stay, English came back to me in spades, and although every once in a while it still takes me a bit longer to find the right word, I was, by the end of the month, a fully conversant and functioning American English-speaking American. Conversely, this meant that my Mandarin went by the wayside, seeping out of my brain like a sieve.
My second week back in Taipei, I met up with two good friends for drinks. We arrived at the bar an hour before they opened, but the bartender invited us to sit and wait inside, so we sat and chatted and enjoyed the peace before they turned up the music and one must resort to shouting to carry on a normal conversation. They weren't serving alcohol yet, but that didn't matter, my Mandarin was already noticeably slower, a bit slurred with uncertainty, and my grammar and word choices basic. The bartender, himself an Indonesian with near perfect Taiwanese Mandarin, thought it was amusing that a grown person could talk like a child, and then refused to believe me when I said I was American (which is another story altogether). In spite of this, he was very nice about it and I don't resent him for the comment because it was the truth. I have reverted back to simple, elementary Mandarin, and my thick accent had also come back. It takes a bit longer for my mind and my mouth to form the words, and then there is the uncertainty of whether or not I was making the right sound, using the right tone, choosing the right words.
I feel like I'm in a bit of a linguistic netherworld right now, trying to brush up on my Mandarin, going through the chapters of an old textbook and marvelling both at how much I've forgotten and how much I've managed to retain. Maybe being bilingual means that our fluency fluctuates like the cycles of the stock market, and eventually it will even itself out, find the right balance in the dance of supply and demand. At any rate, I hope I don't find myself saying "due bu qi" on the streets of San Jose again, because it would be like trying to sell hard-boiled tea eggs to people who want omelettes (or frittatas, for that matter, mmmmmmm...frittatas).
I hadn't been in an English-speaking country for 15 months, and my mind has been brainwashed. Over the course of my month-long stay, English came back to me in spades, and although every once in a while it still takes me a bit longer to find the right word, I was, by the end of the month, a fully conversant and functioning American English-speaking American. Conversely, this meant that my Mandarin went by the wayside, seeping out of my brain like a sieve.
My second week back in Taipei, I met up with two good friends for drinks. We arrived at the bar an hour before they opened, but the bartender invited us to sit and wait inside, so we sat and chatted and enjoyed the peace before they turned up the music and one must resort to shouting to carry on a normal conversation. They weren't serving alcohol yet, but that didn't matter, my Mandarin was already noticeably slower, a bit slurred with uncertainty, and my grammar and word choices basic. The bartender, himself an Indonesian with near perfect Taiwanese Mandarin, thought it was amusing that a grown person could talk like a child, and then refused to believe me when I said I was American (which is another story altogether). In spite of this, he was very nice about it and I don't resent him for the comment because it was the truth. I have reverted back to simple, elementary Mandarin, and my thick accent had also come back. It takes a bit longer for my mind and my mouth to form the words, and then there is the uncertainty of whether or not I was making the right sound, using the right tone, choosing the right words.
I feel like I'm in a bit of a linguistic netherworld right now, trying to brush up on my Mandarin, going through the chapters of an old textbook and marvelling both at how much I've forgotten and how much I've managed to retain. Maybe being bilingual means that our fluency fluctuates like the cycles of the stock market, and eventually it will even itself out, find the right balance in the dance of supply and demand. At any rate, I hope I don't find myself saying "due bu qi" on the streets of San Jose again, because it would be like trying to sell hard-boiled tea eggs to people who want omelettes (or frittatas, for that matter, mmmmmmm...frittatas).
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
A Whirlwind Vacation
I spent much of the month of June back in my homeland, beautiful California, and stayed just long enough to watch the Fourth of July fireworks. Here were some of the things I really looked forward to, and can now check off on my "to do" list:
- chillin' with good friends
- sit on a giant steel rocking horse and hold on to dear life
- see Spamalot! (the Broadway musical, not the Spam-lover's convention)
- eat Mexican food, lots of it!
- see the beautiful green rolling hills, cheerful wildflowers, and stunning California coastline
- go "hotel camping" with the sleeping-on-hard-ground adverse siblings
- have a slice of Zachary's deep dish pizza dripping with gooey cheese and tomato sauce
- watch someone get bitch-slapped by cheese
- wear a Hawaiian shirt with (blackmail) photos to prove it
- go beaching and witness a gay Jewish wedding on the beach
- belt out The Killers while joyriding with my BFF
- eat a gardenburger
- attend a wedding wearing a sari
- see Wicked, the musical
- drink lots of good ol' California wine
- get henna tattood
- enjoy an afternoon of shoe shopping at DSW
- eat some flaming cheese...yummy!
- eat a giant ice cream sundae at Ghirardelli Square
- experience 4th of July under the fireworks on a boat in SF bay...hooray for Independence! Fraternity, Equality, Liberty! (oh wait, not that last bit)
Thursday, April 9, 2009
"Indonesians Don't Read Maps"
I was told this by an Indonesian. Why am I telling you this? It is good advice if you ever find yourself traveling with an Indonesian, that's why. Here's how it all began...
On my last school trip to Taiwan's East Coast back in February, I met and made a lot of friends, two of whom were a Korean girl and an Indonesian girl (they were already friends before coming on the trip), and the three of us became fast friends. We had a holiday coming up the beginning of April, and in passing, I had told the Korean girl that I was contemplating several destinations for a quick vacation, one of which was Seoul. The Korean girl then talked to the Indonesian girl, who by chance was also thinking of going to Seoul, so she contacted me and asked if I would like to plan a trip together. Sure, I replied, why not!
As the trip progressed, I came to realize that there are very stark differences between how Indonesians travel and how Americans travel. This was going to be a very interesting cross-cultural adventure!
Take photography, I love taking photos as much as the next person, and recently bought a very cool little camera that takes awesome photos. My photographs are intended to document the interesting, the beautiful, the bizarre, the candid, and the funny, so I take very few photos of myself unless there's an opportunity for a funny pose. Plus, if I see something truly beautiful, I tend not to want to ugly it up with my mug in the middle of it. Also, I care a great deal about getting a good shot, and will spend the time to find the right angle and getting the settings on my camera just right for the perfect photo.
My Indonesian friend, on the other hand, had to have her face in every picture she took, so every few minutes she would ask if I could take her picture with this or that. It was a bit annoying after a while, but I did eventually get used to it. When asked why she felt the need to have her picture taken constantly, she replied that it's an Indonesian thing. Indonesians don't often travel outside of their country, so when they do, it's a big deal and they want to bring home proof that they've been to all these places, especially any background with something written in the local language. I can understand this, but I thought it was such a pity that this massive volume of self-portraits were all taken using a very bare-bones digital camera that had no mode settings (I didn't know these types of cameras still exist!), plus my friend was totally oblivious to what little bells and whistles it did have, such as the ability to zoom in and out (I discovered this when I asked her to take a photo of me with my camera and saw her running back and forth to get the shot in frame, ignoring my plea to use the zoom knob), and being able to do digital macro shots for small details. I also thought it was a pity to go on vacation and come back with a bunch of not-so-great photographs, but it didn't seem to bother her very much, all she really seemed to care for was being in every single picture.
Indonesians also don't like to be alone, don't like travel alone, and think it is weird if others go solo, like there is something wrong with them. This, she explains, is because kids live with their parents well into adulthood, move out only when they get married, so they are never alone. When they go out, they always have someone with them, it's scary when they're by themselves, and wandering in a foreign country alone is unheard of. Wanting solitude is foreign to them. Not wanting it once in a while is foreign to me.
Now about the map thing...turns out that when they are in a pinch, Indonesians will read maps, but they generally just ask people on the street. How do you know the people on the street are giving you good directions? You ask someone at every block, practically. It would drive me nuts to not even bother to try to find the way yourself or to try to get a sense of where you are on the map, to be so completely reliant and at the mercy of others. The poor sense of direction could also be an Asian thing, with streets so densely packed, I suppose your internal compass can get turned on its head sometimes. In the end, my friend did learn to consult the map more, it didn't help her sense of direction any, but at least she was learning to be more self-reliant. I, on the other hand, learned that strangers can indeed be more helpful than a map sometimes.
Curious about my pictures? Check out my Seoul Photo Album
On my last school trip to Taiwan's East Coast back in February, I met and made a lot of friends, two of whom were a Korean girl and an Indonesian girl (they were already friends before coming on the trip), and the three of us became fast friends. We had a holiday coming up the beginning of April, and in passing, I had told the Korean girl that I was contemplating several destinations for a quick vacation, one of which was Seoul. The Korean girl then talked to the Indonesian girl, who by chance was also thinking of going to Seoul, so she contacted me and asked if I would like to plan a trip together. Sure, I replied, why not!
As the trip progressed, I came to realize that there are very stark differences between how Indonesians travel and how Americans travel. This was going to be a very interesting cross-cultural adventure!
Take photography, I love taking photos as much as the next person, and recently bought a very cool little camera that takes awesome photos. My photographs are intended to document the interesting, the beautiful, the bizarre, the candid, and the funny, so I take very few photos of myself unless there's an opportunity for a funny pose. Plus, if I see something truly beautiful, I tend not to want to ugly it up with my mug in the middle of it. Also, I care a great deal about getting a good shot, and will spend the time to find the right angle and getting the settings on my camera just right for the perfect photo.
My Indonesian friend, on the other hand, had to have her face in every picture she took, so every few minutes she would ask if I could take her picture with this or that. It was a bit annoying after a while, but I did eventually get used to it. When asked why she felt the need to have her picture taken constantly, she replied that it's an Indonesian thing. Indonesians don't often travel outside of their country, so when they do, it's a big deal and they want to bring home proof that they've been to all these places, especially any background with something written in the local language. I can understand this, but I thought it was such a pity that this massive volume of self-portraits were all taken using a very bare-bones digital camera that had no mode settings (I didn't know these types of cameras still exist!), plus my friend was totally oblivious to what little bells and whistles it did have, such as the ability to zoom in and out (I discovered this when I asked her to take a photo of me with my camera and saw her running back and forth to get the shot in frame, ignoring my plea to use the zoom knob), and being able to do digital macro shots for small details. I also thought it was a pity to go on vacation and come back with a bunch of not-so-great photographs, but it didn't seem to bother her very much, all she really seemed to care for was being in every single picture.
Indonesians also don't like to be alone, don't like travel alone, and think it is weird if others go solo, like there is something wrong with them. This, she explains, is because kids live with their parents well into adulthood, move out only when they get married, so they are never alone. When they go out, they always have someone with them, it's scary when they're by themselves, and wandering in a foreign country alone is unheard of. Wanting solitude is foreign to them. Not wanting it once in a while is foreign to me.
Now about the map thing...turns out that when they are in a pinch, Indonesians will read maps, but they generally just ask people on the street. How do you know the people on the street are giving you good directions? You ask someone at every block, practically. It would drive me nuts to not even bother to try to find the way yourself or to try to get a sense of where you are on the map, to be so completely reliant and at the mercy of others. The poor sense of direction could also be an Asian thing, with streets so densely packed, I suppose your internal compass can get turned on its head sometimes. In the end, my friend did learn to consult the map more, it didn't help her sense of direction any, but at least she was learning to be more self-reliant. I, on the other hand, learned that strangers can indeed be more helpful than a map sometimes.
Curious about my pictures? Check out my Seoul Photo Album
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The East Coast
We took a class trip to the east coast, including Taitung, Hualian, and Taroko Gorge National Park. The beautiful (but not necessarily breathtaking) scenery was notable, but the most memorable part of the trip was the vegetarian table.
There were a handful of us vegetarians, and as most of the meals were family-style, we veggies had our own round table complete with lazy susan. The school feeds us really well, and us veggies had the benefit of having only half the people of the other tables, which means there was always plenty of the special "fake meat" dishes to go around. At lunch on the second day, we had immitation "fatty pork" with celery, fruit salad in tomato cups, veggie "mutton," and a couple of other really yummy and innovative dishes, and it garnered a lot of interest amongst the carnivores. During the meal, various carnivores would hover around our table and try some of the dishes, with very interesting facial expressions, and often beckoning to their carnivorous comrades to come try our food. For ourselves, we designated one of our own to be a guinea pig, and the rest of us would guage her expression in deciding whether or not to try the dish. It was really fun. This would happen again at dinner, then lunch the next day, and it was so much fun that we had the most adventurous food.
Here are some photos, but only if you remember to control your salivating.
something that looks like tofu, but it's not
the most mouth-watering veggie mutton
veggie fatty "pork" with celery
typical meal, it's not complete until the lazy susan is full
There were a handful of us vegetarians, and as most of the meals were family-style, we veggies had our own round table complete with lazy susan. The school feeds us really well, and us veggies had the benefit of having only half the people of the other tables, which means there was always plenty of the special "fake meat" dishes to go around. At lunch on the second day, we had immitation "fatty pork" with celery, fruit salad in tomato cups, veggie "mutton," and a couple of other really yummy and innovative dishes, and it garnered a lot of interest amongst the carnivores. During the meal, various carnivores would hover around our table and try some of the dishes, with very interesting facial expressions, and often beckoning to their carnivorous comrades to come try our food. For ourselves, we designated one of our own to be a guinea pig, and the rest of us would guage her expression in deciding whether or not to try the dish. It was really fun. This would happen again at dinner, then lunch the next day, and it was so much fun that we had the most adventurous food.
Here are some photos, but only if you remember to control your salivating.
something that looks like tofu, but it's not
the most mouth-watering veggie mutton
veggie fatty "pork" with celery
typical meal, it's not complete until the lazy susan is full
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Snacks That Wouldn't Do So Well Outside Asia
Here are some interesting snack foods I stumbled across while shopping at a 24-hour big box retail megastore today:
Sardines and Peanuts
Shrimp Broad Beans
What's weirder, the fact that Asians love fishy snack foods, or that I could buy these at 4 am?
Sardines and Peanuts
Shrimp Broad Beans
What's weirder, the fact that Asians love fishy snack foods, or that I could buy these at 4 am?
Friday, February 13, 2009
Island Life
Hi Folks,
I've just added a bunch of links to photos from this past year or so. Check out the links under the "Island Life" heading on the right.
Cheers!
I've just added a bunch of links to photos from this past year or so. Check out the links under the "Island Life" heading on the right.
Cheers!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Setting the Sky on Fire
Lunar New Year is the biggest holiday in Taiwan, and traditionally it is celebrated not just for a day, but for almost a whole month ending with the Lantern Festival held on the 15th of the new Lunar Year.
I went on a school trip this past Saturday to get the full Lantern Festival experience. Our first destination was the Hakka (you remember the Hakkas from my last post, right?) exhibition in Sansia, a small town 40 minutes south of Taipei, where we learned how to make Hakka-style glutinous rice dumplings (they're like mochis, but without the filling, mmmmm....mochis) by rolling glutinous rice flour dough until it is fat and round (the Chinese really have an obsession with all things round, which is considered a complete and perfect shape), then they are boiled in a big wok, drained, then dumped into pots of sweet and savory soups. What I loved about the event was that, before any of us played around with the dough, the organizers asked us to go wash our hands as there is nothing more disgusting than eating dirty dumplings! Oh, and our dumplings were pretty tasty too!
Glutinous rice dumplings we rolled
Savory glutinous rice dumpling soup
Next, we drove to Pingxi (or Pingshi), the poster child for the idyllic small town in the mountains, connected to the rest of Taiwan by a rail line and winding mountain roads; it is the town that time forgot, with small bridges that ford the stream, and narrow ancient lanes filled with shops selling pointy straw hats, straw baskets, and straw brooms bound together with twine (I resisted the urge to buy straw merchandise, but it is giving me some ideas for Halloween). This town is so cute, it could not be made any cuter with the addition of large dopey-eyed kittens or fluffy bunny rabbits wearing large glossy bows. Tourists daytrip here on the weekends, but it is otherwise so quiet a my friend once told me that the residents work the weekends and take the weekdays off!
Pingxi is also famous for the sky lanterns during the Lantern Festival and Qi-xi (Chinese Valentine's Day). I teamed up with a new friend I met on the bus ride over, and using thick magic markers, we wrote our hopes, dreams, and prayers on the shoulder-high paper lanterns. The President of Taiwan was also there, standing on a platform about 15 feet away from us, writing on a giant lantern with a calligraphy brush and lucky red ink. Then the inflation process begins as a volunteer lights the paper inside the lantern, waiting for the cavity to fill with hot air, the outdoor lights are turned off, and finally a hundred or so lanterns are released en masse into the night sky. It is believed that the higher the lantern flies, the better your chances for the gods to read and grant your wishes. We watched and tried to keep track of our lantern, but it blends in with the other soft orange dots. It is one of the most amazing light shows ever, even beats the laser light show in Hong Kong hands down! (Pingxi sky lantern release video 1, video 2)
President Ma writes on a sky lantern
Throughout the evening, small private lantern releases were occurring all along the streets, so that at any given moment, the sky was dotted with little bits of glowing paper like large drifting stars. The eager beavers released their lanterns before it got dark, while the inexperienced ones watched their glowing globes full of wishes for the coming year go up in flames as their lanterns get caught in the power lines.
Oh, and an odd thing happened that day too, I met two other girls (both students at my school) who shared my Chinese name, last name and all - one came up to me on the bus and introduced herself, the third we both ambushed on the street. We should start a club.
I went on a school trip this past Saturday to get the full Lantern Festival experience. Our first destination was the Hakka (you remember the Hakkas from my last post, right?) exhibition in Sansia, a small town 40 minutes south of Taipei, where we learned how to make Hakka-style glutinous rice dumplings (they're like mochis, but without the filling, mmmmm....mochis) by rolling glutinous rice flour dough until it is fat and round (the Chinese really have an obsession with all things round, which is considered a complete and perfect shape), then they are boiled in a big wok, drained, then dumped into pots of sweet and savory soups. What I loved about the event was that, before any of us played around with the dough, the organizers asked us to go wash our hands as there is nothing more disgusting than eating dirty dumplings! Oh, and our dumplings were pretty tasty too!
Glutinous rice dumplings we rolled
Savory glutinous rice dumpling soup
Next, we drove to Pingxi (or Pingshi), the poster child for the idyllic small town in the mountains, connected to the rest of Taiwan by a rail line and winding mountain roads; it is the town that time forgot, with small bridges that ford the stream, and narrow ancient lanes filled with shops selling pointy straw hats, straw baskets, and straw brooms bound together with twine (I resisted the urge to buy straw merchandise, but it is giving me some ideas for Halloween). This town is so cute, it could not be made any cuter with the addition of large dopey-eyed kittens or fluffy bunny rabbits wearing large glossy bows. Tourists daytrip here on the weekends, but it is otherwise so quiet a my friend once told me that the residents work the weekends and take the weekdays off!
Pingxi is also famous for the sky lanterns during the Lantern Festival and Qi-xi (Chinese Valentine's Day). I teamed up with a new friend I met on the bus ride over, and using thick magic markers, we wrote our hopes, dreams, and prayers on the shoulder-high paper lanterns. The President of Taiwan was also there, standing on a platform about 15 feet away from us, writing on a giant lantern with a calligraphy brush and lucky red ink. Then the inflation process begins as a volunteer lights the paper inside the lantern, waiting for the cavity to fill with hot air, the outdoor lights are turned off, and finally a hundred or so lanterns are released en masse into the night sky. It is believed that the higher the lantern flies, the better your chances for the gods to read and grant your wishes. We watched and tried to keep track of our lantern, but it blends in with the other soft orange dots. It is one of the most amazing light shows ever, even beats the laser light show in Hong Kong hands down! (Pingxi sky lantern release video 1, video 2)
President Ma writes on a sky lantern
Throughout the evening, small private lantern releases were occurring all along the streets, so that at any given moment, the sky was dotted with little bits of glowing paper like large drifting stars. The eager beavers released their lanterns before it got dark, while the inexperienced ones watched their glowing globes full of wishes for the coming year go up in flames as their lanterns get caught in the power lines.
Oh, and an odd thing happened that day too, I met two other girls (both students at my school) who shared my Chinese name, last name and all - one came up to me on the bus and introduced herself, the third we both ambushed on the street. We should start a club.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Mythbusters
A full week off to celebrate the Lunar New Year, and I am deeeep into my holiday gluttony of parking myself in the living room armchair and glaring absent-mindedly at the glowing screen for hours. I've stumbled upon a show called "Mythbusters," and fear that I am fast becoming a Mythbusters groupie.
The show primarily looks at Hollywood stunts and tries to recreate them to see if they do in fact produce the same results. For example, in the "Pirate" episode, they buried a guy neck-deep in sand to see if he is able to claw himself out. As motivation, and this is the best part, they gingerly placed three live crabs near the guy's head. I don't remember which movie this is from, but apparently this was supposed to be a surefire way of slowly killing the poor victim. Unfortunately, the myth was busted as the guy crept his way out an hour later. Experiment number two had the same concept, bury a guy (a different guy) in sand, but this time they've added water to the sand to simulate waves washing over the sand. Now THIS could kill, as the added pressure of the water in the sand made it hard to breathe, and near impossible to climb out of the human sandpit.
There's another set of experiments in this episode where they aim a cannon loaded with forks, nails, a bottle of wine, steak knives, and a peg leg at a pig carcass dresssed in a red-and-white striped shirt, but that's another story.
While utterly pointless, I have to give them credit for making science and engineering fun, at times hilarious, and incredibly entertaining.
The show primarily looks at Hollywood stunts and tries to recreate them to see if they do in fact produce the same results. For example, in the "Pirate" episode, they buried a guy neck-deep in sand to see if he is able to claw himself out. As motivation, and this is the best part, they gingerly placed three live crabs near the guy's head. I don't remember which movie this is from, but apparently this was supposed to be a surefire way of slowly killing the poor victim. Unfortunately, the myth was busted as the guy crept his way out an hour later. Experiment number two had the same concept, bury a guy (a different guy) in sand, but this time they've added water to the sand to simulate waves washing over the sand. Now THIS could kill, as the added pressure of the water in the sand made it hard to breathe, and near impossible to climb out of the human sandpit.
There's another set of experiments in this episode where they aim a cannon loaded with forks, nails, a bottle of wine, steak knives, and a peg leg at a pig carcass dresssed in a red-and-white striped shirt, but that's another story.
While utterly pointless, I have to give them credit for making science and engineering fun, at times hilarious, and incredibly entertaining.
Monday, January 26, 2009
A Very Hakka New Year
I just came back from the best Hakka Lunar New Year ever!
My Aunt invited me over to spend Chinese New Year in her hometown of Hsinchu (literally "new bamboo") County, about an hour and a half's drive south of Taipei. We met up for lunch, and then drove down along with two other aunts (my aunt's younger sisters) and a Presbyterian minister. Hsinchu county has a large Hakka population -Hakka or "guests" are a minority group with their own culture and language, but are otherwise physically indistinguishable from other ethnic Han Chinese people (like myself).
A highlight of some of my "firsts":
新年快樂 (xin nian kuai le)! Happy New Year!
My Aunt invited me over to spend Chinese New Year in her hometown of Hsinchu (literally "new bamboo") County, about an hour and a half's drive south of Taipei. We met up for lunch, and then drove down along with two other aunts (my aunt's younger sisters) and a Presbyterian minister. Hsinchu county has a large Hakka population -Hakka or "guests" are a minority group with their own culture and language, but are otherwise physically indistinguishable from other ethnic Han Chinese people (like myself).
A highlight of some of my "firsts":
- Drank several shots of the notoriously potent Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor (a sorghum-based liquor that has around 50% alcohol content). The first sip tasted sweet and fragrant in my mouth, then a ferocious after burn down my esophagus. Luckily, I've discovered a clever trick to drinking this moonshine -- if you keep drinking, it won't burn as much.
- Drank traditional Hakka tea called "lei-cha," which requires grinding ingredients (green tea powder, sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, rice) to a powder with a large wooden mortar and pestle, grind grind grind, then add a little water, grind some more, add more water until the restaurant guy deems the mixture has the right consistency, then pour the thick green concoction into small bowls, add sweet stewed red beans and rice puffs, and drink with a soup spoon. Surprising good and filling!
- When I embarked on this little Lunar New Year adventure, I thought to myself, "gee golly, I sure hope I get to see a molecular accelerator research facility!" My wish was granted. The place looked like a scene out of a spy movie, I half expected Dr. Evil to step out, or James Bond to run through the facility, creating havoc with random gunshots aimed at blank-expressioned enemies ill-trained in the arts of spy capture.
- Traditional new year's breakfast: perfectly pan-fried daikon/turnip (a long, white radish) cakes, long-life long green leafy vegetable, fresh cubes of cold tofu with soy sauce, grow cupcakes, and sliced braised tofu.
- We drove to the small town of Beipu, where we gorged on traditional Hakka dishes in a historic Ch'ing dynasty converted courtyard house: starter of mochi (glutinous rice ball) rolled in sweet peanut powder, savory glutinous rice dumpling soup, fried rice, pan-fried thin rice vermicelli, bitter melon with salty eggs, fatty pork on a bed of salty preserved cabbage, stir-fried crisp grassy vegetable, potato leaves stir-fried with garlic, eggs pan-fried with preserved pickles, salted pork on a bed of shredded radish, Hakka-style stir-fry with celery, tofu, and meat, mammal intestines (pig or cow I think, I am not an expert on animal innards), and a few other meat dishes. I'm a fan of Hakka cuisine now.
新年快樂 (xin nian kuai le)! Happy New Year!
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