Did I mention that Beijing winter weather tricked us? It’s been obscenely cold the last two or three days, with a light snow fall for the last two. The snow is nothing compared to what we see in upstate New York, but the air is very dry and adds an extra (and unnecessary) bite. To add to this unpleasantness, our classrooms aren’t heated. They only heat them when class is in session and because we hold our class at a different time than most of the campus, our rooms aren’t heated. I’m fairly convinced I have a mild to moderate form of arthritis since after 3 hours sitting in that room my knees won’t bend.
With my return to China also comes “Lady”. It’s the thing first and most often shouted to me by hawkers when I go through markets. When did I become old enough for “Lady”? One lady in the silk market used “Pretty girl” instead and I much prefer that title. Oh well. It doesn’t make me look at their stuff if I wasn’t going to in the first place. I’m good at continuing to walk on by. Clarissa was telling me how she got stuck for ten minutes in one place, coming up with every excuse to try to escape including the fib that she has four children. I don’t think it did her any good with speeding up her exit.
Tram and Georgia tried their hand at bargaining on our first visit to the Silk Market. Georgia wanted a sweater/hoodie and when they explained it to me, Georgia went to get one and some how Tram was sucked into it too and bought something. They’re still not quite sure how. They thought they might have been jipped so we came up with a plan to figure out if the price was good or not. I went into a stall that sold jeans on the pretense of looking for some and while I was chatting and making friends with the seller girls I asked them if they thought my friends paid too much. They said that they got the sweaters for very cheap and the quality was good. They thought it might be because they look Chinese that the seller didn’t put the price as high as for “normal” foreigners. Our trip was a success and I managed to get away without buying anything…though the fire engine red pants looked attractive on the hanger…
More fun stuff occurred when we went to the bathroom in the subway station (and by we, I mean them). In this particular subway the bathrooms were pay-for porta potty, like the ones in Europe. The ones in Europe are nicer for the money you pay, hands down. Anyway, I didn’t see how it was set up but while I was waiting outside the alarm started sounding for Georgia’s unit. Apparently what she thought was the flush button was actually the emergency call button. It was amusing in the extreme, especially since one of the subway workers ran over and Georgia came out confused.
This recent Valentine’s Day saw a slew of people in the streets selling bundles of flowers or single roses. The culture of dating, flowers, and chocolate is fairly recent here (my generation) but it seems to be off to a good start. We saw one guy carrying a very unmanly bouquet of Tigger-topped flowers.
The biggest benefit to this study abroad venture (aside from improving my Chinese) is the vast amounts of free time we have. I don’t think I’ve had this much free time since before I started high school. We start class at 09:00 and end at 15:00 with group trips scheduled for the first half of Saturdays. I almost don’t know what to do with myself since our classes don’t really extract that much time for homework. To fill this void, I have taken up the guitar, this time for serious. I hope to learn how to play at least somewhat before I return. In addition to guitar I found a nice podcast that explains English grammar. It’ll serve me for explaining stuff to my friends who think English is screwy and illogical and help me write better papers (fingers crossed).
I found a music store just outside the school area. The first time I went I went just to look around and price check. I liked what the guy had and it was within my price range so I came back the next day and bought a cheap guitar. Today I returned again and paid for some lessons. At 5 USD a lesson, it’s got to be one of the cheapest opportunities for me to learn some stuff on guitar I’ll ever get. Plus, the guy is pretty cool.
There’s also the added benefit of being treated like normal student and not the way they treat us in class. What I mean is that in our classes we’re taught and treated like American students. With my guitar teacher, I’m pretty sure I’m treated like how a Chinese student would be if they were to take guitar lessons. We’re so soft on our students. Don’t use red pen. You don’t want to hurt their self-esteem or imagination, etc etc.
Learning an instrument in a foreign language trends to create a few more barriers than perhaps there’d be if I were to be learning from someone who spoke English, and I’m sure it makes me seem a lot thicker than I really am (seeing as I’m super slow when numbers are spoken to me) but it’ll be good practice. My lesson today was a little surreal, but I did learn several good things that I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to stop and realize they even exist if I did it entirely by myself.
Something about me screams “American” as I’ve had two people guess where I’m from correctly without any sort of context to do so. Maybe it’s my clothes or my accent. I’ve also been told that Americans are very expressive people compared to most others, so that might be it. Whatever it is, it seems to denote where I come from rather effectively. I’m wondering if I can dress up to be from somewhere else convincingly. I think I’ll try Mongolian…complete with a fur hat.
Friday, March 27, 2009
February 12, 2009: Beijing, China
Up until today I would have said that Beijing winters are wonderful. It wasn’t so cold (perhaps the onset of an early Spring?) and it was quite dry. Dry climates agree with me because I don’t have to worry about my hair. It falls nicely flat when it dries, or stays in whatever I marshal it into. Humidity is not my friend.
As for the pollution, my previous time in Beijing was a little limited (since I spent most of my time in Yantai) but it seems generally cleaner now. Ignoring all the powder from the massive amounts of firecrackers that went off for New Year, I can see blue sky most days. This continues to shock me since I went a full week over the summer without seeing blue sky or the sun.
Today breaks the trend of nice weather. Morning dawned exceedingly gray and foggy and the afternoon had a strange sort of rain. More like mist that happened to also be rain sometimes. One of our professors said that the rain might/would turn into snow a little later on. It might have already hit the ice stage since we were sorta sliding around on the street while we walked to class. It might have also just been the wet smooth stones.
I understand the need for precipitation in China with the drought going on and all, but if it has to rain, could it at least be just a tad warmer? As in being unable to see my breath when I breath inside a restaurant?! (I must admit, the insulation of that restaurant was sorely lacking. But it was Korean so we can’t blame Chinese construction.)
Speaking of ice, Tram and I went ice skating yesterday on the on-campus lake. Even the minor issue of her being unable to ice skate was easily rectified. You could either rent skates for 10 yuan or rent a chair for 20. The best way to picture the chair would be to imagine a metal fold out chair that probably could only seat a ten year old nailed down onto a plank of wood. This wood than had two sled like blades on the bottom. They also gave you poles maneuver with but I ended up pushing her instead. She might have been better off pushing herself since during one of my attempts to spin her around really fast, I ended dumping her out of the chair. It was really funny.
We also found the Chinese equivalent of Walmart (though they have those here too). It’s a store called Carrefour. We were wandering around and chatting when a guy ran past, stopped turned around and was excited to see us. More preciously, he was excited we could understand and speak English. He was desperately trying to buy a cell phone and didn’t know any of the necessary vocab. I’ve never met someone so happy that I could speak English (and I have met some people who are quite happy about it).
Classes are going well. A little simple at the moment, but I’m not sure if they’re just finding where were are or what. We have lots of free time and while it pains me to admit it, I’m a week ahead in my reading courses. Hence, I decided to spend my time as productively as possible. So far I’ve only explored the area immediately around the school, but as soon as I find the subway stop, I’m off to the far corners of the city!
As for the pollution, my previous time in Beijing was a little limited (since I spent most of my time in Yantai) but it seems generally cleaner now. Ignoring all the powder from the massive amounts of firecrackers that went off for New Year, I can see blue sky most days. This continues to shock me since I went a full week over the summer without seeing blue sky or the sun.
Today breaks the trend of nice weather. Morning dawned exceedingly gray and foggy and the afternoon had a strange sort of rain. More like mist that happened to also be rain sometimes. One of our professors said that the rain might/would turn into snow a little later on. It might have already hit the ice stage since we were sorta sliding around on the street while we walked to class. It might have also just been the wet smooth stones.
I understand the need for precipitation in China with the drought going on and all, but if it has to rain, could it at least be just a tad warmer? As in being unable to see my breath when I breath inside a restaurant?! (I must admit, the insulation of that restaurant was sorely lacking. But it was Korean so we can’t blame Chinese construction.)
Speaking of ice, Tram and I went ice skating yesterday on the on-campus lake. Even the minor issue of her being unable to ice skate was easily rectified. You could either rent skates for 10 yuan or rent a chair for 20. The best way to picture the chair would be to imagine a metal fold out chair that probably could only seat a ten year old nailed down onto a plank of wood. This wood than had two sled like blades on the bottom. They also gave you poles maneuver with but I ended up pushing her instead. She might have been better off pushing herself since during one of my attempts to spin her around really fast, I ended dumping her out of the chair. It was really funny.
We also found the Chinese equivalent of Walmart (though they have those here too). It’s a store called Carrefour. We were wandering around and chatting when a guy ran past, stopped turned around and was excited to see us. More preciously, he was excited we could understand and speak English. He was desperately trying to buy a cell phone and didn’t know any of the necessary vocab. I’ve never met someone so happy that I could speak English (and I have met some people who are quite happy about it).
Classes are going well. A little simple at the moment, but I’m not sure if they’re just finding where were are or what. We have lots of free time and while it pains me to admit it, I’m a week ahead in my reading courses. Hence, I decided to spend my time as productively as possible. So far I’ve only explored the area immediately around the school, but as soon as I find the subway stop, I’m off to the far corners of the city!
February 09, 2009: Beijing, China
Our semester has finally gotten underway (after 3 weeks of completely paid for vacation)! I never thought I’d be so glad to give up traveling for schoolwork. We had our first classes today, and honestly it doesn’t seem nearly as intensive as classes I’ve had before (the summer program I went to last summer really ruined my perception on how long the average Chinese class should last).
Class begins at 9am with Professor Wang from the University and lasts until 11 (except on Wednesdays when class ends at 10) and then we have Professor Ying. The morning is followed by a lunch break and then our director teaches one of the two culture classes depending on the day. We finish by 3pm every day, except maybe Fridays…so we have plenty time to get out and around. Too bad I’m still more tired than I have any right to be.
Currently it sounds like there’s a war going on outside thanks to the non-stop fireworks and crackers that have been going off since nightfall. We’re told its going to last all night since it’s the last day of New Years. It’s actually kind of nice. I imagine if they were real rockets it wouldn’t be so nice, but as I know that they’re just gunpowder with lights it’s ok. The biggest downfall of all this celebration (aside from the noise) is that there is a thick layer of soot in the air. Makes everything seem just a little more polluted than it actually is.
Even so, Beijing is mostly like I remember it. It’s not as clean as when the Olympics were going on, but we could see blue sky when we landed on Saturday. The others have mentioned that the tap water smells. Personally I could care less since the shower is hot through my entire shower.
Funny story. Tram and I did laundry yesterday which badly needed to be done. The tricky thing about it is that there is no dryers in our dorms. People can either choose to have their laundry done for them (which includes the drying) or do it themselves and hang it. Seeing as just to have one piece of “undergarments” washed and dried costs 10 kuai, we went for the do it yourself. Readied with string and hooks we went to stringing our room full of Christmas lights in the form of colorful clothes. It kinda worked for a while…under the weight of the clothes pulled the sticky hooks from the wall. I happened to be sitting under them when the first strings came down. I looked like a clown, but at least none of the clothes hit the tile floor (the Chinese don’t believe in carpeting as far as I can tell). The other strings followed shortly after but we preserved and finally found a way to hang our clothes without them all falling down.
We had a similar experience setting up a bank account. If you want to pretend you’re a celebrity, go to the bank. They stamp everything, make you sign your name everywhere, and you hand over all the money you have.
The first time we went to open Chinese accounts we failed entirely to communicate effectively with the woman at the desk. It wasn’t that we didn’t understand her (which made us feel a little better about ourselves), the problem lay in the fact that we didn’t know our address, phone number, or number of our director. We had been told we really only needed our passports. After trying to fill the forms out (which we couldn’t read) we gave up and went to go get our director for help. Now we have debt cards with a cute green cow on it.
Everything is cow-ifed. Our director went and bought a humidifier for her room and guess what it was? Yes, a cow shaped humidifier. It even had swiveling horns. This is easily blamed on this Chinese Year being the year of the Ox (or Water buffalo if you’re Vietnamese). Too bad I hate cows.
Class begins at 9am with Professor Wang from the University and lasts until 11 (except on Wednesdays when class ends at 10) and then we have Professor Ying. The morning is followed by a lunch break and then our director teaches one of the two culture classes depending on the day. We finish by 3pm every day, except maybe Fridays…so we have plenty time to get out and around. Too bad I’m still more tired than I have any right to be.
Currently it sounds like there’s a war going on outside thanks to the non-stop fireworks and crackers that have been going off since nightfall. We’re told its going to last all night since it’s the last day of New Years. It’s actually kind of nice. I imagine if they were real rockets it wouldn’t be so nice, but as I know that they’re just gunpowder with lights it’s ok. The biggest downfall of all this celebration (aside from the noise) is that there is a thick layer of soot in the air. Makes everything seem just a little more polluted than it actually is.
Even so, Beijing is mostly like I remember it. It’s not as clean as when the Olympics were going on, but we could see blue sky when we landed on Saturday. The others have mentioned that the tap water smells. Personally I could care less since the shower is hot through my entire shower.
Funny story. Tram and I did laundry yesterday which badly needed to be done. The tricky thing about it is that there is no dryers in our dorms. People can either choose to have their laundry done for them (which includes the drying) or do it themselves and hang it. Seeing as just to have one piece of “undergarments” washed and dried costs 10 kuai, we went for the do it yourself. Readied with string and hooks we went to stringing our room full of Christmas lights in the form of colorful clothes. It kinda worked for a while…under the weight of the clothes pulled the sticky hooks from the wall. I happened to be sitting under them when the first strings came down. I looked like a clown, but at least none of the clothes hit the tile floor (the Chinese don’t believe in carpeting as far as I can tell). The other strings followed shortly after but we preserved and finally found a way to hang our clothes without them all falling down.
We had a similar experience setting up a bank account. If you want to pretend you’re a celebrity, go to the bank. They stamp everything, make you sign your name everywhere, and you hand over all the money you have.
The first time we went to open Chinese accounts we failed entirely to communicate effectively with the woman at the desk. It wasn’t that we didn’t understand her (which made us feel a little better about ourselves), the problem lay in the fact that we didn’t know our address, phone number, or number of our director. We had been told we really only needed our passports. After trying to fill the forms out (which we couldn’t read) we gave up and went to go get our director for help. Now we have debt cards with a cute green cow on it.
Everything is cow-ifed. Our director went and bought a humidifier for her room and guess what it was? Yes, a cow shaped humidifier. It even had swiveling horns. This is easily blamed on this Chinese Year being the year of the Ox (or Water buffalo if you’re Vietnamese). Too bad I hate cows.
Jan. 31-Feb. 06: Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China
Before we got to Hong Kong, I didn’t have too many assumptions about it. I knew it was an island that had been a colony of Britain and was a very metropolitan area. Impressive isn’t quite the right word for how the city appears when you’re first driving through it. Everything is taller than you can crane your head back to see and when evening comes, everything lights up. It’s like the whole city is part of Disney World instead of just a small corner island.
I can’t help but think that it’s a city within itself, straining with all its might to reach the sky. It’s hard to decide if the 50-80 story buildings and mile long bridges or the blue water and green mountains are more impressive. I didn’t think it’d be so green and colorful. They should consider taking down the blinking lights. Compared to the bay and mountains around them, it only serves to make the buildings look cheap.
What was similar to my thoughts, but still surprised me was how the Hong Kong students viewed themselves. After talking with them about Hong Kong for about 5 minutes, I quickly picked up something close to distain for the mainland. When I asked them if they considered themselves Chinese they told me yes…but no. They were Hong Kong. Hong Kong seems to be like the Vatican. Self-reliant, tiny, part of something bigger yet with a strong sense of we’re better than most everything else.
Macao was much the same as Hong Kong, but even more commercial. I never thought of Macao before this trip really. Certainly not as the Las Vegas of the world. It makes me sad. The drive for money overshadows much of what can be a beautiful place with very distinct culture. Granted, they have both of that too, but when the big things people mention first are casinos, I find that sad. Museums are ok too, but much of that is dead history. We put things in museums because they are unique as the last of their kind. No longer practiced. Something to be remembered but not taken seriously.
I liked both Hong Kong and Macao and had fun there, but the greenery was the appeal, not the nightlife. It’s too much to hope for a reverse trend with the demand for money dictating life, but at least they also recognize that their geography is special and worth appreciating.
I can’t help but think that it’s a city within itself, straining with all its might to reach the sky. It’s hard to decide if the 50-80 story buildings and mile long bridges or the blue water and green mountains are more impressive. I didn’t think it’d be so green and colorful. They should consider taking down the blinking lights. Compared to the bay and mountains around them, it only serves to make the buildings look cheap.
What was similar to my thoughts, but still surprised me was how the Hong Kong students viewed themselves. After talking with them about Hong Kong for about 5 minutes, I quickly picked up something close to distain for the mainland. When I asked them if they considered themselves Chinese they told me yes…but no. They were Hong Kong. Hong Kong seems to be like the Vatican. Self-reliant, tiny, part of something bigger yet with a strong sense of we’re better than most everything else.
Macao was much the same as Hong Kong, but even more commercial. I never thought of Macao before this trip really. Certainly not as the Las Vegas of the world. It makes me sad. The drive for money overshadows much of what can be a beautiful place with very distinct culture. Granted, they have both of that too, but when the big things people mention first are casinos, I find that sad. Museums are ok too, but much of that is dead history. We put things in museums because they are unique as the last of their kind. No longer practiced. Something to be remembered but not taken seriously.
I liked both Hong Kong and Macao and had fun there, but the greenery was the appeal, not the nightlife. It’s too much to hope for a reverse trend with the demand for money dictating life, but at least they also recognize that their geography is special and worth appreciating.
February 03, 2009: Hong Kong, China
Note! Cheese cake tastes like good cheese cake here, but tiramisu does not. Go to France or Italy if you want tiramisu, not Hong Kong.
February 1, 2009: Hong Kong, China
Hong Kong! It’s quite a pretty thing to look at, though I’m not entirely sure about just walking around it. It’s kind of a big city and when I say kind of, I mean extremely. They’ve packed all these people and buildings on this tiny amount of space and NONE of it is flat. I didn’t know that Hong Kong is actually a series of variously sized islands and only one of them is actually named Hong Kong.
We got to Hong Kong yesterday. Our last day in Taiwan included a visit to a Confucian temple, Longshan temple again with the whole group, and a museum of modern art that I actually liked. They had some seriously weird stuff in it though. I’ll spare you the details.
Our flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong presented some people with difficulties. We were told that each bag (of 2) had a weight limit of 20 kilos (44lbs). When we got there it turned out that we were limited to a total combined weight of 20 kilos. This was a problem for some of the girls who had packed just the international limit of 50lbs each bag. I heard that some had to pay up to 100 USD in overweight fees. I didn’t have to pay anything since I packed light and managed to stuff enough of the heavy stuff into my carry on.
We’re staying at Robert Black College, party of Hong Kong University (HKU). It’s pretty nice and we had a welcome presentation/snacks with some of the students. They were pretty neat and later we went up the Peak and had dinner with them. The Peak is the place where you can see all of the lower Hong Kong city. We had to take a tram to get up there (I think you could walk if you really wanted to…) and I swear that at times it was going up a 90 degree angle. If you think of the incline on a roller coaster, you have a pretty good idea of how it was.
We’re going to have dinner with them and dessert afterwards. I rather dislike the Chinese idea of dessert. Red beans (even if they are sugary) and tofu are not my idea of dessert. The ice cream is creepy too. Weird flavors like red bean (they are obsessed with it), green pea, and corn are not my idea of tasty. However, there are an abnormal amount of bakeries in the area with cheese cake and tiramisu galore so I’m satisfied.
We got to Hong Kong yesterday. Our last day in Taiwan included a visit to a Confucian temple, Longshan temple again with the whole group, and a museum of modern art that I actually liked. They had some seriously weird stuff in it though. I’ll spare you the details.
Our flight from Taiwan to Hong Kong presented some people with difficulties. We were told that each bag (of 2) had a weight limit of 20 kilos (44lbs). When we got there it turned out that we were limited to a total combined weight of 20 kilos. This was a problem for some of the girls who had packed just the international limit of 50lbs each bag. I heard that some had to pay up to 100 USD in overweight fees. I didn’t have to pay anything since I packed light and managed to stuff enough of the heavy stuff into my carry on.
We’re staying at Robert Black College, party of Hong Kong University (HKU). It’s pretty nice and we had a welcome presentation/snacks with some of the students. They were pretty neat and later we went up the Peak and had dinner with them. The Peak is the place where you can see all of the lower Hong Kong city. We had to take a tram to get up there (I think you could walk if you really wanted to…) and I swear that at times it was going up a 90 degree angle. If you think of the incline on a roller coaster, you have a pretty good idea of how it was.
We’re going to have dinner with them and dessert afterwards. I rather dislike the Chinese idea of dessert. Red beans (even if they are sugary) and tofu are not my idea of dessert. The ice cream is creepy too. Weird flavors like red bean (they are obsessed with it), green pea, and corn are not my idea of tasty. However, there are an abnormal amount of bakeries in the area with cheese cake and tiramisu galore so I’m satisfied.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Random notes and thoughts about Taiwan
Talking to a recent Colgate graduate in Taiwan, she called Taiwan “America Light”. It’s kinda true but then some things are just exaggerated to the extreme. Like 7-11’s. There’s quite possibly a million of them on this island. According to the always-right Wikipedia, Taiwan has the highest concentration of convenience stores anywhere in the world and many will be right across the street from the last one. It’s almost an economic mystery to me how they all manage to stay in business. Then again, this one of the most densely populated places in the world.
Taiwan also has one of the lowest birthrates in the world apparently. Going of second hand observations, I’d say no to this since we saw toddlers everywhere. Though I’d probably have to say most of them looked to be only children. Another odd thing with all the babies everywhere was the lack of pregnant women. I mean, babies have to come from somewhere right? So if there’s all these babies, where are the pregnant people? I managed to spot one pregnant lady the last day we were in Taiwan, but that was it. Seems like there ought to be more. Maybe they stay inside.
If most people only have one child, wait until late(r), or none at all, they seem to shower all that unused affection on their small dogs. Every small dog wears clothing and most are usually carried from place to place. Some even ride in strollers. The last entry about moving through crowds might help explain why the dogs are carried. In some areas you can’t see the ground and a small dog would easily be lost.
The clothing concept is not foreign to me since I’ve dogs wearing shirts before. What’s a little strange is these dog clothes have back leg coverings. It’s like a huge gasty accessorized sock with four leg holes that they put these creatures into. We met a nice little hot dog in a bumblebee suite. That was a pudgy little dog.
Not all dogs are so lucky to be carried around and wear clothing. There seems to be an abnormal amount of loose/stray dogs on this island. These are much more ratty and seem rather oblivious to people in general. They sleep soundly in the middle of any kind of foot traffic and can be found nearly anywhere. They all need a good bath and brushing. I didn’t see so many cats, only a couple here and there. Maybe all the stray dogs ate them…
I think these next observations might be just an Asia thing and not so much a Taiwan thing, but museums have been done to death. One of my pictures focuses on the tourist advertisement for the Museum of Drinking Water. Not only have they been done to death but museums strictly contain Chinese things. If you go to a museum in America there’s stuff from all other countries and cultures, and Europe is pretty similar in featuring stuff from other areas. China/Taiwan has only China/Taiwan stuff. I attribute this to having an abnormally long history and being more than capable of filling an entire building with their own history. Not to mention Taiwan sees itself as the preserver of “authentic” Chinese tradition (aka, the old things weren’t destroyed during the Cultural Revolution like they were in China).
Another thing you won’t find in most art museums is the color purple. Pottery is a lot of color, especially blue and white, or red and white, but almost nothing is purple. Light greenish purple can sometimes be spotted but a deep violet is hard to spot. I guess the technique just wasn’t there. A shame really since that’s really the only color I would like on a vase. Chinese art is very much not my favorite type. In fact, art in general is pretty wussy. Unless it’s a good marble carving. Marble sculptures are impressive.
Moving to a different tangent, people love to eat bread filled with meat or sweet things here. It’s the same in China too. Just something about a bread filled steamed bun seems to get people excited. There’s an abnormal number of variations you can do with bread filled meat. I find it rather bland because most of its tasteless steamed bun bread or filled with pork. Neither inspires me to eat more than I have to.
And red beans. What is with the red beans? Red bean soup, red bean ice cream, red bean paste, red bean bread…the list goes on! They’re just red beans cooked with enough sugar to make you a diabetic but they’re EVERYWHERE. I like them well enough, but sometimes you’ve just got to say no to red beans. I find it questionable that the stray dogs don’t want to eat it.
[The following is a homework assignment on which we had to turn in our thoughts on Taiwan. Most of it has already been stated in different ways already but it had to be put into a more stuffy way to present as homework]
Jan. 19-Jan.30: Taiwan, Special Administrative Region of China
I must admit that starting out our trip to Taiwan was not my favorite idea. Taiwan had always seemed like a trouble maker to me, something I can’t stand. Maybe it’s not the “right” way to think, but I prefer falling in line and if I disagree I’ll do it on my own time. All I knew prior to coming was that it was an island and its defense was contracted out to the U.S. Getting there and meeting the people reminded me of what I should have known all along- a country’s image is not representative of its people.
Perhaps it was part of Taiwan’s somewhat unique history of never being…by itself, if you will, that makes it seem like a conglomeration of several places at once. When it was referred to as “America Light”, at first it seemed like that wasn’t giving enough credit to Taiwan and its people, but the longer we were there the more it seemed to be an accurate description. There were recognizable stores everywhere- most notably 7-11, store procedures like America, and everyone could speak English (which they did whenever we wanted to communicate to our unending frustration).
Even the lecture on politics did nothing but remind of America. They have a rather giant divide between the two main parties, which I found remarkable similar to Democrats and Republicans, and they have the North-South disparity and resentment feelings.
There were of course, some differences to be found. I’m inclined to think that people treat their dogs like children (or in some cases in the place of children if the birthrate is anything to go by) with the dressing in clothing and carrying around. Some of them even would ride in strollers! Coming from a doting dog family, I understand where they’re coming from, even if I find it mildly excessive.
The style of eating and type of food still had the atmosphere of being abroad, for which I am quite grateful. There’s (almost) nothing worse than going on vacation somewhere far away and eating something you could’ve had at home.
I left Taiwan much less hostile to the area, but it didn’t really feel like Asia to me (I think it was the abundance of Western style toilets). It felt like the midway point between East and West, just enough of each for everyone to fooled into thinking they’re home.
Taiwan also has one of the lowest birthrates in the world apparently. Going of second hand observations, I’d say no to this since we saw toddlers everywhere. Though I’d probably have to say most of them looked to be only children. Another odd thing with all the babies everywhere was the lack of pregnant women. I mean, babies have to come from somewhere right? So if there’s all these babies, where are the pregnant people? I managed to spot one pregnant lady the last day we were in Taiwan, but that was it. Seems like there ought to be more. Maybe they stay inside.
If most people only have one child, wait until late(r), or none at all, they seem to shower all that unused affection on their small dogs. Every small dog wears clothing and most are usually carried from place to place. Some even ride in strollers. The last entry about moving through crowds might help explain why the dogs are carried. In some areas you can’t see the ground and a small dog would easily be lost.
The clothing concept is not foreign to me since I’ve dogs wearing shirts before. What’s a little strange is these dog clothes have back leg coverings. It’s like a huge gasty accessorized sock with four leg holes that they put these creatures into. We met a nice little hot dog in a bumblebee suite. That was a pudgy little dog.
Not all dogs are so lucky to be carried around and wear clothing. There seems to be an abnormal amount of loose/stray dogs on this island. These are much more ratty and seem rather oblivious to people in general. They sleep soundly in the middle of any kind of foot traffic and can be found nearly anywhere. They all need a good bath and brushing. I didn’t see so many cats, only a couple here and there. Maybe all the stray dogs ate them…
I think these next observations might be just an Asia thing and not so much a Taiwan thing, but museums have been done to death. One of my pictures focuses on the tourist advertisement for the Museum of Drinking Water. Not only have they been done to death but museums strictly contain Chinese things. If you go to a museum in America there’s stuff from all other countries and cultures, and Europe is pretty similar in featuring stuff from other areas. China/Taiwan has only China/Taiwan stuff. I attribute this to having an abnormally long history and being more than capable of filling an entire building with their own history. Not to mention Taiwan sees itself as the preserver of “authentic” Chinese tradition (aka, the old things weren’t destroyed during the Cultural Revolution like they were in China).
Another thing you won’t find in most art museums is the color purple. Pottery is a lot of color, especially blue and white, or red and white, but almost nothing is purple. Light greenish purple can sometimes be spotted but a deep violet is hard to spot. I guess the technique just wasn’t there. A shame really since that’s really the only color I would like on a vase. Chinese art is very much not my favorite type. In fact, art in general is pretty wussy. Unless it’s a good marble carving. Marble sculptures are impressive.
Moving to a different tangent, people love to eat bread filled with meat or sweet things here. It’s the same in China too. Just something about a bread filled steamed bun seems to get people excited. There’s an abnormal number of variations you can do with bread filled meat. I find it rather bland because most of its tasteless steamed bun bread or filled with pork. Neither inspires me to eat more than I have to.
And red beans. What is with the red beans? Red bean soup, red bean ice cream, red bean paste, red bean bread…the list goes on! They’re just red beans cooked with enough sugar to make you a diabetic but they’re EVERYWHERE. I like them well enough, but sometimes you’ve just got to say no to red beans. I find it questionable that the stray dogs don’t want to eat it.
[The following is a homework assignment on which we had to turn in our thoughts on Taiwan. Most of it has already been stated in different ways already but it had to be put into a more stuffy way to present as homework]
Jan. 19-Jan.30: Taiwan, Special Administrative Region of China
I must admit that starting out our trip to Taiwan was not my favorite idea. Taiwan had always seemed like a trouble maker to me, something I can’t stand. Maybe it’s not the “right” way to think, but I prefer falling in line and if I disagree I’ll do it on my own time. All I knew prior to coming was that it was an island and its defense was contracted out to the U.S. Getting there and meeting the people reminded me of what I should have known all along- a country’s image is not representative of its people.
Perhaps it was part of Taiwan’s somewhat unique history of never being…by itself, if you will, that makes it seem like a conglomeration of several places at once. When it was referred to as “America Light”, at first it seemed like that wasn’t giving enough credit to Taiwan and its people, but the longer we were there the more it seemed to be an accurate description. There were recognizable stores everywhere- most notably 7-11, store procedures like America, and everyone could speak English (which they did whenever we wanted to communicate to our unending frustration).
Even the lecture on politics did nothing but remind of America. They have a rather giant divide between the two main parties, which I found remarkable similar to Democrats and Republicans, and they have the North-South disparity and resentment feelings.
There were of course, some differences to be found. I’m inclined to think that people treat their dogs like children (or in some cases in the place of children if the birthrate is anything to go by) with the dressing in clothing and carrying around. Some of them even would ride in strollers! Coming from a doting dog family, I understand where they’re coming from, even if I find it mildly excessive.
The style of eating and type of food still had the atmosphere of being abroad, for which I am quite grateful. There’s (almost) nothing worse than going on vacation somewhere far away and eating something you could’ve had at home.
I left Taiwan much less hostile to the area, but it didn’t really feel like Asia to me (I think it was the abundance of Western style toilets). It felt like the midway point between East and West, just enough of each for everyone to fooled into thinking they’re home.
January 29, 2009: Taipei, Taiwan
Yah for Taipei again! It felt like coming home when we ended our bus tour, even though we’ll only be here two more days.
Our last stop on the bus tour was Taroko Gorge, the place that apparently represents Taiwan best. It’s kind of a big deal. It was gorgeous (hah! Get it? …I know, very bad) and the story of the road’s construction through it was almost as impressive. It was dug out by hand for most of the way since when it was being built Taiwan’s infrastructure and technology was pretty nonexistent. For one section of 200 meters, 2000 people were injured or died. This is why I won’t work in construction. Even if working a big rig would be something work bragging about.
Tram and I are known unofficially as the White Twins. I’m Big Twin and she’s Small. Reason being I were my white hoodie every single day and she also has a white hoodie she wears nearly every day. They’re both Aeropostale too. We also happen to always be in the same place at the same time and bicker about every possible thing. I think we were a good match as roommates.
Yesterday we went to Taipei 101, a giant building that they love to talk about. It’s one of those engineering marvels that get included on Discovery Channel programming once in a while. The elevators take you from floor one to 89 in about 40 seconds. Does anyone else think it’s frightening to think how many meters per second they have to be moving? Elevators = one of Kaela’s irrational fears. I blame it on watching a movie where the cable snapped when I was a child. I don’t remember any of the rest of the movie or even if I watched anything other than that scene. We also went to Memorial Museum of Art. I remember nothing other than there’s a lot of pottery and some gold stuff.
Today we went to yet another museum, the National Palace Museum. Again, I remember nothing. I guess art just isn’t my thing. The coastal part of the northern island was more interesting to me. It was absolutely packed. Which wasn’t so bad of a thing when you were out in the open, but down the street where all the street stalls and shops were made for a living sea of people. I can see over their heads. The small children reach my knees if they’re lucky. I feel like Godzilla.
I can even move like Godzilla. See, there’s no such thing as “space” here. If there’s a gap, someone will be in it before you can even think about moving into it. The result of this is a cultural norm of shoving, esp. in crowded market places. You just walk where you want to walk and if there’s no gap (no matter what size. A gap is defined as visible space between people and objects) you make the gap. I make gaps rather easily and if my class mates walk behind me close enough they can just file in behind. Most of the others still move like Americans in crowds, polite like. I find it refreshing to be able to plow through without having to worry about decorum. The only rules are Don’t hesitate and Don’t take it personally. Trampling young children is probably discouraged, but not ruled out entirely.
Dinner was at Professor Ying’s house (he gave the lecture on economics earlier on) where we met his family. His wife and nanny(?) made the meal. All of it from scratch. Oh so so good. We were all suitably impressed. Have you ever made lasagna noodles from flour? I imagine it’s not quite so easy…
As a side note, there was actually enough for all of us. We eat like starving wolves. The four boys easily tuck away as much as all eight girls eat. We call them the human garbage disposals. Before we even finish our meals, they’re always eyeing our table for leftover food. It can be a little unnerving. I hold the title for fastest eater on the trip. If we have single servings of food, I will win that race every time. It only looks like I don’t win when we group eat because they have stamina where I have speed. I haven’t choked on a fish bone yet, but it’s a definite possibility (since they don’t debone anything here).
Professor Ying has two daughters and after his wife gave a rather informal lecture on the healthcare and educational system in Taiwan I had the older one teach me Chinese Chess~checkers. It must have been the prelude to adult checkers cause I’ve played that before and this was a little different. A bit easier, but impossible for me to play without asking lots of repetitive questions. You had to remember which piece was stronger or weaker so you could kill other pieces, which is hard to do when you are looking at Chinese characters. She said I was harder to play than her Dad, which makes me feel pretty cool. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t go easy on her either. Watch out David VanB, I’m coming for you! (Yes, my self-confidence is boosted when I can beat a 7 year old. Except I didn’t beat Professor Ying’s daughter…)
Our last stop on the bus tour was Taroko Gorge, the place that apparently represents Taiwan best. It’s kind of a big deal. It was gorgeous (hah! Get it? …I know, very bad) and the story of the road’s construction through it was almost as impressive. It was dug out by hand for most of the way since when it was being built Taiwan’s infrastructure and technology was pretty nonexistent. For one section of 200 meters, 2000 people were injured or died. This is why I won’t work in construction. Even if working a big rig would be something work bragging about.
Tram and I are known unofficially as the White Twins. I’m Big Twin and she’s Small. Reason being I were my white hoodie every single day and she also has a white hoodie she wears nearly every day. They’re both Aeropostale too. We also happen to always be in the same place at the same time and bicker about every possible thing. I think we were a good match as roommates.
Yesterday we went to Taipei 101, a giant building that they love to talk about. It’s one of those engineering marvels that get included on Discovery Channel programming once in a while. The elevators take you from floor one to 89 in about 40 seconds. Does anyone else think it’s frightening to think how many meters per second they have to be moving? Elevators = one of Kaela’s irrational fears. I blame it on watching a movie where the cable snapped when I was a child. I don’t remember any of the rest of the movie or even if I watched anything other than that scene. We also went to Memorial Museum of Art. I remember nothing other than there’s a lot of pottery and some gold stuff.
Today we went to yet another museum, the National Palace Museum. Again, I remember nothing. I guess art just isn’t my thing. The coastal part of the northern island was more interesting to me. It was absolutely packed. Which wasn’t so bad of a thing when you were out in the open, but down the street where all the street stalls and shops were made for a living sea of people. I can see over their heads. The small children reach my knees if they’re lucky. I feel like Godzilla.
I can even move like Godzilla. See, there’s no such thing as “space” here. If there’s a gap, someone will be in it before you can even think about moving into it. The result of this is a cultural norm of shoving, esp. in crowded market places. You just walk where you want to walk and if there’s no gap (no matter what size. A gap is defined as visible space between people and objects) you make the gap. I make gaps rather easily and if my class mates walk behind me close enough they can just file in behind. Most of the others still move like Americans in crowds, polite like. I find it refreshing to be able to plow through without having to worry about decorum. The only rules are Don’t hesitate and Don’t take it personally. Trampling young children is probably discouraged, but not ruled out entirely.
Dinner was at Professor Ying’s house (he gave the lecture on economics earlier on) where we met his family. His wife and nanny(?) made the meal. All of it from scratch. Oh so so good. We were all suitably impressed. Have you ever made lasagna noodles from flour? I imagine it’s not quite so easy…
As a side note, there was actually enough for all of us. We eat like starving wolves. The four boys easily tuck away as much as all eight girls eat. We call them the human garbage disposals. Before we even finish our meals, they’re always eyeing our table for leftover food. It can be a little unnerving. I hold the title for fastest eater on the trip. If we have single servings of food, I will win that race every time. It only looks like I don’t win when we group eat because they have stamina where I have speed. I haven’t choked on a fish bone yet, but it’s a definite possibility (since they don’t debone anything here).
Professor Ying has two daughters and after his wife gave a rather informal lecture on the healthcare and educational system in Taiwan I had the older one teach me Chinese Chess~checkers. It must have been the prelude to adult checkers cause I’ve played that before and this was a little different. A bit easier, but impossible for me to play without asking lots of repetitive questions. You had to remember which piece was stronger or weaker so you could kill other pieces, which is hard to do when you are looking at Chinese characters. She said I was harder to play than her Dad, which makes me feel pretty cool. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t go easy on her either. Watch out David VanB, I’m coming for you! (Yes, my self-confidence is boosted when I can beat a 7 year old. Except I didn’t beat Professor Ying’s daughter…)
January 26, 2009: Hualien, Taiwan
住你新年快乐！牛年对你好了！Happy Chinese New Years!!! May the Ox treat you well!
I’m going to compile a few days into this entry as I can hardly remember what happened on which day. That’s the downside of cramming so much activity into a short time span. You don’t even remember what you did after breakfast.
The last two days were spent in a city called Kending. On the first day we started with taking a group photo under Big Pointy Mountain. Isn’t it a lovely name? Apparently, from some angles you see it as a sharp pointed mountain and from other’s its nice and rounded. We’ve been working on coming up with a translation that sounds a little more regal…
There was lots of scenery but the highlight for me personally was when we ran into another tour group following our path. They were students of some sort and were chatting (loudly) among themselves. We knew that they were talking about us because A) we can speak Chinese too and B) even if we didn’t, the word for foreigner is a word everyone who enters the country learns first. I don’t mind people talking about us, but it wouldn’t serve them well if they thought that they could do that to every foreigner they ran into now would it? I accidently got caught up in their group at some point and asked in Chinese (hopefully eloquently) what grade level they were. The boy responded in English, looked confused, and then dismayed while the rest of the group laughed quite a bit. Moral of the story- you never know who can understand you. If you wouldn’t speak about them when they can understand you, don’t do it if they can’t.
Later that day we went to a village with replicas of the original style of homes that the aboriginals lived in. They looked very similar to the Chinese style homes I was already familiar with. There was also a bridal sedan chair in one of the court yards, so we put Ellie in it and made the boys carry her around. It was funny. She looked terrified (that they’d drop her), which was appropriate- brides were supposed to weep the entire way from their parents home to the grooms for some cultural reason .
The next day was full of stuff seeing. We went to maotoubi. Literally cat head nose. It’s the southern most point of Taiwan and is called that because of a rock in the ocean that apparently looks a bit like a cat. There’s some debate about that though. Personally, I think it looks like a fish.
We went and rode around on a Go Cart track for a little bit. That was fun. Gunning a car as fast as you can go, even if it is a go-cart, and then whipping around a corner is awesome. I will of course not try it in a full size. I’d have to pay for the damages. Maybe if I didn’t have to pay…
We also went to Eluanbi where we saw the lighthouse fortress. Previous attempts to light fire stacks to warn ships of the shallow coast had been put out by natives because they were afraid of them. The British decided that a proper lighthouse needed to be build and fortified against attempts to put it out. You can count on the British to put fortification into everything…even a lighthouse. There were even holes in the wall to place guns and cannons, although there was never any firing done.
We left there and went to Taitung to stay at a hot springs hotel for the evening. It was nice enough, but I personally liked Kaohsung’s hotel better. They had better soap.
Girl bonding is pretty amusing, though I’m not allowed to tell what it was. It’s a secret J
There was the sporadic sound of firecrackers in the evening but I slept like a dog (I accidently wrote “god” the first time I typed this entry, haha.). Today is New Year’s but we don’t see a lot of evidence of it. If I think about it, there’s not much life in America on New Year’s Day either, aside from TVs showing the Macy’s parade…talk about a shopping culture :P
Today we went to the Siaoyeliou and Sansiantia Nature Reserves, as well as a place where there was a bunch of Caves and Buddhas/various Gods. At Sansiantia we watched a fisherman reel in a fish up the bridge we were standing. The fish looked like a barracuda and had a long jaw full of teeth. He takes out a pair of things that could be pliers or those scissor wrenches and the naïve girl in me thought he might be pulling out the hook. Nope, he snapped off the upper than lower jaws with it. I wish he hadn’t thrown them over the bridge though. It would’ve been cool to have some of those teeth.
At the Buddha caves we saw more scenery and walked around. We’re all going to have a million pictures of the coast that all look exactly the same. We also saw a monkey and tried Betel nuts. Do not ever eat them. EVER. It was a less than pleasant experience. They taste nasty and make you feel like there’s cotton shoved down your throat. Old people love chewing them. I think its cause when you’re old you lose more of your sensitivity to things and this is strong enough for them to enjoy. That or they’ve gone senile.
We also went to an Ami cultural village and saw some traditional dancing. Very much like what you might be able to do in the States with our Native Americans. It feels a little like they’re whoring out their traditions so people can gawk at it and buy silly trinkets. I think that’s just me though. Geoff was included in a mock marriage ceremony and carried the girl around on his back with the help of a little tiny chair (real Ami guys were supposed to make a chair on their back using their arms and hands). Poor boy didn’t know what he was getting into when he was invited upstage. I suspect this might be true for guys in every culture.
At least our boys didn’t have to hike up a vertical mountain with a girl on their back.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
January 23, 2009: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Today we got exercise! And by exercise I mean bone numbing excruciating difficult upward mountain climbing. You think I’m exaggerating, but it’s only by a little. Our director told us in an email that we’d be going on a hike. We pictured some sort of nature walk with a little bit of uphill walking. Nooooo….we climbed up on all fours on occasion with the aid of ropes tethered to trees. As we continued up we steadily lost more and more members of our parties. The view at the top was pretty impressive though. We could see most of the school on that side (but none of the city. There is a GIANT wall of green plants that separated the entire school from the city) and the harbor.
Speaking of harbor, did I mention that the Marine Biology department has one? Their own personal harbor. And their own boat? A 20 ton boat.
Later we took a tour of China Steel Corporation, one of the Steel companies of Taiwan. It was cool, but not as cool as it could have been since they weren’t producing anything during the New Year holiday. The area where it’s built is literally a small city. They’ve got everything they need including a fire department, hospital, and movie theater. The downside is that there’s 99 guys to 1 girl (steel production, duh). I’m not sure how men who work there manage to socialize with the opposite gender. With that sort of ratio, women might be like Martians to them.
For dinner we took a ferry across the strait about 5 minutes to Cijin where Tram and I broke off from the main group. We ate and then poked around a few shops. In one of them the owner was very helpful and chatty with us and told us we should see the Night Market then promptly circled it on a city map and gave it to us for free. People are so friendly when you are obviously bumbling around like an idiot (at least here). We hit the night market and Tram went bonkers for the street food. It was amusing to watch. I personally liked the stick with sugar engulfed strawberries (though the tomatoes were no good. Who eats sugared tomatoes for dessert?!).
Taiwan seems to like us. We like it back.
January 22, 2009: Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Trains go fast-ish. Bullet trains go faster than I want to think about riding in. We went to the train station to catch a train to Kaohsiung, which is about mid-way down on the West coast. The whole ride only took us about an hour and a half. The trip was informative as Tram began my Asian boy band education via her iPod. It’s like watching the Backstreet Boys all over again. Only with strangely painted eye makeup and matching hairstyles.
This trip is the vacation within the vacation. We’re taking a bus tour all the way around the island back to Taipei and stopping at certain points to see scenery and various sites. It should be pretty neat. Few people live on the West and Southern Coasts and more of them are aboriginal peoples.
In Kaohsiung we stayed at National Sun Yatsen University, another breathtaking campus. Seriously, if I wanted to go to school to enjoy the area around me, I might move to Taiwan. They’ve got a beach <2>
We had two lectures while we were there, one on econ and one on Taiwan’s political history (which is just messed up and confused). The econ lecture was fascinating to me, which is frightening, and I want to take an economics class next semester. I think it might come in useful eventually.
Time for the thirty second Taiwanese history lesson!!! Taiwan (population: 23 million & second most densely populated country) was found by Portuguese in the mid-16th century. They called it Formosa (the beautiful island. Very original of them). The Dutch bullied the Portuguese off the island and made it a colony from 1622 to 1662 when the Ming Dynasty took the Island for the burgeoning Chinese empire. In 1895 Taiwan become the spoils of the Japanese when they won the Sino-Japanese war. In 1945, after the end of WWII, Taiwan was returned to the Republic of China and in 1949, the Nationalist Party limped over the Strait of Taiwan after being beaten by the Communists. In 1951, Taiwan was a major base for the United States during the Korean war. The icing on the cake is that the aboriginals of Taiwan have been jipped throughout the entire story, what with the murdering and the uprooting (the major theme of the world it seems).
Is it obvious as to why this country/area has identity issues?
Political system is fun too. They have five branches of government compared to our three. There’s the standard Executive, Judicial, and Legislative, but also Examination and Control branches. The Examination branch recruits civil servants and is in charge of determining public servant’s benefits and responsibilities. The Control branch assesses government officials and offices and ensures no fraud. I’m sure it’s somewhat effective since the Taiwanese seem to love talking about how their previous President is now in jail for fraud and money laundering.
There are two main political camps (even though there’s over 100 officially), the Pan-Blue camp and Pan-Green camp. Tram wanted to know why they were called blue and green, a valid question. Apparently, it’s the color they choose for their representative flags XD. Pan-Blue is dominated by the KMT and is rather pro-China. Pan-Green is all about Taiwanese specialness and is run by the DPP, Democratic Progressive Party.
Taiwan is unfortunate to only have 21-23 countries officially recognize it as a country and most of those are poor Central and South American countries. Officially doesn’t mean that there isn’t ways to bend the rules (which most countries seem to do on a regular basis) so Taiwan has a pretty good handle on exporting goods. Some people think that Taiwan and China have a strained relationship, which has been true in the past but currently the relationship is doing quite well. For example, direct flights from Taiwan to Chinese cities have begun in this last year for the first time. Some reasons for this change include the fact that America has become rather friendly/reliant on China and is also the main purchaser of Taiwanese goods. Hence, it’s a good idea to also be friends with China. Secondly, the new president is from the Pan-Blue camp and is working to tie the mainland and the island together. So far so good.
For the rest of the evening we took a brief trip to the (black sand!) beach and had dinner. I stayed in and went directly to bed, but apparently some of my classmates had an adventure to the 7-11. Taiwan has the highest density of convenience stores anywhere (as stated by Wikipedia) and we literally pass one or its Asian variant every 100 meters or so. This might be why the biggest disease problem in the country happens to be diabetes.
January 21, 2009: Taipei, Taiwan
Today we had a tour of Shih Hsin University (they specialize in communications). The school is in a phenomenal location- literally in a valley and the buildings are built on staircases. You had to walk through a tunnel to get to the school from the street. It felt a little like walking into to Dinotopia (if you’ve seen the movie). Sadly, there were no dinosaurs around. Just a bunch of Chinese students eager to meet us. We’ve had welcomes like we were Prime Ministers and Presidents everywhere we go. It’s going to be a let down when we finally come back to the States and aren’t special anymore. L
We were there for a while, what with the tour, lecture on Taiwan’s educational system and improvements (which started awkwardly for us since we had to introduce ourselves in Chinese. Let me restate that none of us have confidence in ourselves speaking Chinese. Though I complimented their campus, so hopefully that earned me extra points).
Lunch was also with them at a nearby restaurant. I sat by the guy who was in charge of our visit and rather important on campus. It’s been happening more than occasionally on this trip so far. I figure it helps them remember me and I get more information than the people sitting elsewhere. Yay for networking! Anyways, he was very nice and I was rather pleased with the fact that he didn’t know my English name, only my Chinese name (but knew the English names of the others of us at the table).
Two students offered to take Tram, Becky, Tina, and I to a nearby temple for folk religion. We’re going to visit it as a group later on, but we won’t get the inside version of what’s actually going on like we did with the girls. Like everything else even vaguely Chinese, religion is mad confusing. No body actually know’s what’s what because there’s a lack of distinct guidelines. This temple was used for popular folk religion. Lots of incense and bai bai-ing (the Chinese equivalent of kneeling for prayer. Only you don’t typically kneel…only sometimes…). You could ask the gods for good health, prosperity, help with your studies, children, and finding significant others. I declined to request a boyfriend but Becky and Tram did. Now Tram wishes she didn’t after I reminded her she might get a boyfriend while she’s in China.
Not much else to mention except we found dark beer flavored ice cream (which was disgusting. But maybe that’s because I find dark beer disgusting in general) and Tram and I did laundry. Lots of trekking up a flight of stairs and riding the elevator back down (because we were both too dense to figure out how to open the stairwell door from the inside). Not to mention the dryers were ineffective so we ended up laying out all our clothes on every available surface to continue drying. It looked a little like a bomb blew up and very precisely scattered clothing. Which may be against the definition of what bomb aftermath is…
Monday, January 26, 2009
January 20, 2009: Taipei
I feel like I’ve had one long day since I left my house punctuated with bouts of sleeping that don’t last long enough. I guess I am just as susceptible to jetlag as anyone else (even though I’ve at least mentally convinced myself that I will not succumb. I call it will power. Others call it denial.).
We had breakfast at a bakery before we went back to the school for more presentations on music. Eating breakfast is almost more of an adventure than dinner. At least at dinner I can understand what meat is in a dish and the basic method of preparation. Breakfast is just shooting blinding in the dark and hoping I like whatever pastry/gruel I’m eating. Alas, today was a least than fortunate morning in that regard.
Today’s music history and demonstrations started with video clips of traditional Taiwanese nose flutes. Yes, nose flutes. Vertical nose flutes are completely unique to the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, though horizontal flutes can be found other places at well. I’m not entirely sure I’d ever want to try someone else’s nose flute…
A graduate student came in and played the Pipa for us. It’s a stringed instrument very similar to the Sitar (Middle East) or the Lute (Europe). I think it might be my favorite Asian instrument (I still like the Southern style of music better). Strings are better than wind or brass, not that I’ve really seen a brass Asian instrument yet.
The other instrument we saw was the Zen, another with strings. It’s more a flat board on legs with many strings that you pluck/strum/vibrate. If you’ve seen Hero with Jet Li there’s an old man playing a Zen in one of the fight scenes (in a courtyard while it’s raining). We got to try it ourselves. I was first since everyone always looks like a deer in the headlights the moment you ask someone to put themselves on the spot.
For lunch, we met some graduate students from the University who were going to be our language partners. We found this idea to be rather stupid, even though we really liked the people. We’re only going to be here another day after all and not see them again after this afternoon. But whatever.
We went to a restaurant called Ding Tai Feng (they have a couple of branches in America) that apparently is famous for its dumplings. It was quite crowded and we had to wait a bit before we could get a table. The food was worth it though. There is a type of dumplings that are very good and if you get a chance should try them. They’ve got “soup” in them. A normal rounded dumpling with some sort of filling but also flavored broth. It’s amazingly good.
I got to practice some of my Chinese with the grad student sitting next to me and the professor at our table. I wish more people would just talk Chinese continuously to us like that. It really helps it come back. My Chinese is a little worse than it was this summer, tone and pronunciation wise, but I think that’ll be helped soon enough. I know more words so the range of discussion I can hold is greater, even if I sound like an American. Meh, that’s probably not so bad considering I am.
After lunch we went to an Art/Calligraphy lecture. All the lectures have been very interesting so far and this was no different, even though I’m not much of an art connoisseur.
Chinese writing is probably older than 3,000 years (the earliest dated piece of writing is already pretty well thought out) and has gone through some evolution through the years. Characters are based on pictures and there is/were five major scripts (only one of which I have any capability reading): seal, clerical, standard, running, and cursive. Only standard and running are commonly used for writing.
What I got most from that lecture was what makes a good calligrapher. I know it’s hard-I had a class in it over the summer, but it still didn’t explain why some people were so impressed with some calligraphers that they were nearly considered gods. She never said it explicitly but I gathered that the impressiveness is in how well an artist can get the nuisances right. The skill it takes to make the very small adjustments in a perfect stroke is rare to find. Also, because characters have a definitive pattern in the way which they must be written you can follow the artist stroke by stroke and compare different strokes of the same kind to each other. This allows you to judge whether the artist was in a hurry, calm, etc. Basically you can get to know the artist.
Professor Bien arranged for us to hang out with some of our language partners from lunch in the evening for karaoke. We had free time in which we all clung to our beds and then met them to go to wherever we went.
The Chinese take karaoke very seriously. We went to a spot that could’ve been a hotel with the multiple floors, chandeliers, glass doors etc. It might have been a hotel that was converted later on. You also get a party room for your own and can order drinks and snacks. The book that displayed the songs you could choose was enormous but the section for English songs was itty bitty. Most of them were rather old (Bob Dylan, Scorpions, and things I remember from the 90’s) but there was also an obscene amount of Britney Spears. Some of the songs were pirated and we always knew which songs was legit vs. not by the music video that would play the words of the song. If it was pirated it always ended up being some vaguely creepy Australian white women in a shirt that was too short looking off into the distance or swiveling around. Sometimes there’d be a guy around too.
I think most of us sang at least part of one song and after we made it back to rooms we pretty much went straight to bed. I think it’s going to be a trend.
We had breakfast at a bakery before we went back to the school for more presentations on music. Eating breakfast is almost more of an adventure than dinner. At least at dinner I can understand what meat is in a dish and the basic method of preparation. Breakfast is just shooting blinding in the dark and hoping I like whatever pastry/gruel I’m eating. Alas, today was a least than fortunate morning in that regard.
Today’s music history and demonstrations started with video clips of traditional Taiwanese nose flutes. Yes, nose flutes. Vertical nose flutes are completely unique to the aboriginal tribes of Taiwan, though horizontal flutes can be found other places at well. I’m not entirely sure I’d ever want to try someone else’s nose flute…
A graduate student came in and played the Pipa for us. It’s a stringed instrument very similar to the Sitar (Middle East) or the Lute (Europe). I think it might be my favorite Asian instrument (I still like the Southern style of music better). Strings are better than wind or brass, not that I’ve really seen a brass Asian instrument yet.
The other instrument we saw was the Zen, another with strings. It’s more a flat board on legs with many strings that you pluck/strum/vibrate. If you’ve seen Hero with Jet Li there’s an old man playing a Zen in one of the fight scenes (in a courtyard while it’s raining). We got to try it ourselves. I was first since everyone always looks like a deer in the headlights the moment you ask someone to put themselves on the spot.
For lunch, we met some graduate students from the University who were going to be our language partners. We found this idea to be rather stupid, even though we really liked the people. We’re only going to be here another day after all and not see them again after this afternoon. But whatever.
We went to a restaurant called Ding Tai Feng (they have a couple of branches in America) that apparently is famous for its dumplings. It was quite crowded and we had to wait a bit before we could get a table. The food was worth it though. There is a type of dumplings that are very good and if you get a chance should try them. They’ve got “soup” in them. A normal rounded dumpling with some sort of filling but also flavored broth. It’s amazingly good.
I got to practice some of my Chinese with the grad student sitting next to me and the professor at our table. I wish more people would just talk Chinese continuously to us like that. It really helps it come back. My Chinese is a little worse than it was this summer, tone and pronunciation wise, but I think that’ll be helped soon enough. I know more words so the range of discussion I can hold is greater, even if I sound like an American. Meh, that’s probably not so bad considering I am.
After lunch we went to an Art/Calligraphy lecture. All the lectures have been very interesting so far and this was no different, even though I’m not much of an art connoisseur.
Chinese writing is probably older than 3,000 years (the earliest dated piece of writing is already pretty well thought out) and has gone through some evolution through the years. Characters are based on pictures and there is/were five major scripts (only one of which I have any capability reading): seal, clerical, standard, running, and cursive. Only standard and running are commonly used for writing.
What I got most from that lecture was what makes a good calligrapher. I know it’s hard-I had a class in it over the summer, but it still didn’t explain why some people were so impressed with some calligraphers that they were nearly considered gods. She never said it explicitly but I gathered that the impressiveness is in how well an artist can get the nuisances right. The skill it takes to make the very small adjustments in a perfect stroke is rare to find. Also, because characters have a definitive pattern in the way which they must be written you can follow the artist stroke by stroke and compare different strokes of the same kind to each other. This allows you to judge whether the artist was in a hurry, calm, etc. Basically you can get to know the artist.
Professor Bien arranged for us to hang out with some of our language partners from lunch in the evening for karaoke. We had free time in which we all clung to our beds and then met them to go to wherever we went.
The Chinese take karaoke very seriously. We went to a spot that could’ve been a hotel with the multiple floors, chandeliers, glass doors etc. It might have been a hotel that was converted later on. You also get a party room for your own and can order drinks and snacks. The book that displayed the songs you could choose was enormous but the section for English songs was itty bitty. Most of them were rather old (Bob Dylan, Scorpions, and things I remember from the 90’s) but there was also an obscene amount of Britney Spears. Some of the songs were pirated and we always knew which songs was legit vs. not by the music video that would play the words of the song. If it was pirated it always ended up being some vaguely creepy Australian white women in a shirt that was too short looking off into the distance or swiveling around. Sometimes there’d be a guy around too.
I think most of us sang at least part of one song and after we made it back to rooms we pretty much went straight to bed. I think it’s going to be a trend.
January 19, 2009: Taipei
This day was possibly the longest I’ve had ever, even longer than the 3 in 1 day I had yesterday. Our director, Gloria Bien, is attempting to keep us from having a chance to sleep and give in to jet lag. She was wildly successful today.
But before I get into the long and short (though there’s nothing brief in it) about what we did today, allow me to explain what this trip is in more detail as well as who’s with me.
Including our director, there’s a total of 13 (Go Colgate!) of us on this study group. There’s me, Tram (my roommate), Clarissa, Georgia, Becky, Tina, Ellie, Lauren, Ned, Eric, Geoff, and Gary. Thirteen people may not sound like a lot, but when you move in a pack, it’s cumbersome and terribly awkward being a giant group of foreigners. I like them all thus far, though I’m sure everyone will get on everyone’s nerves at some point during the semester. It’s only inevitable with the nature of this trip (small, rather exclusive). Tram’s pretty cool to room with. We verbally abuse each other on an hourly basis but it’s fun- like a game of one man up. It keeps you on your feet having to think up a contextually appropriate insulting response.
Way to go Colgate for diversity. Of all of us, we have four people with some kind of Asian descent, the brown West Indian (me), and an African American. Sadly none of us are blond. A real shame in my opinion. We’ve already run into the phenomena of Chinese people assuming that Geoff, Gary, Tram, Ellie, and Georgia understand/are Chinese. They can’t decide if they like it or not. I don’t think I’ll run into this probably. Go European heritage!
Chinese New Year’s is on the 26th or 27th so all the students are currently on vacation. We can’t start our classes in Beijing until a little while after New Year’s so our study abroad will begin with a two week vacation trip in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I don’t really know yet what our schedule is while we’re here. After Hong Kong we’ll head to Beijing for most of the rest of the semester, though we have a trip planned to Shanghai and Hangzhou as well as a week off for Spring Break.
Last night we didn’t crash into bed as soon as we walked in, but it was pretty close. We unpacked just the tiniest bit and checked our emails. We had to be up in time to eat and move out to our lecture on Taiwanese and Chinese tradition musical instruments. You’d think that 3 hours would be a long time to listen to presentations, but it was all very interesting. The mini demonstrational concerts we received was definitely a help in keeping the interest there.
The first instrument that we saw was a giant stick-looking Pestel used to grind millet by the Thae. Apparently the aboriginals used it functionally for a while before realizing that the thumping could be turned into functional harvesting AND music. We got to handle several and try our hand at thumping in the front courtyard. Bluntly, cumulatively we have absolutely no musical talent.
Next was the Huqin, or erhu as I better know it. It’s a two stringed instrument that creates that is often played in a pentatonic scale (five notes) that most people associate with Chinese music. It’s got a round shaped sound box made of wood with one side cover with [snake] skin. The neck is typically made of cow bone. Wood in China means bamboo 99.99% of the time. Just so you know.
The two strings are played with a bow of horse hair. First crafted in the Tang Dynasty, this instrument has gone through some changes, but it mostly the same as it was in the beginning. The graduate student performing it for us explained that it can do nearly everything any other stringed instrument of comparable size can do, ex: violin. She then proceeded to play a concerto which sounded remarkably like a violin. It’s also amazing at imitating animal sounds. She had it twitter like song birds, bark like a sick dog, and whiney like a horse.
The Erhu is a great example that simplicity sometimes is best. With only two strings it manages to do everything you could really ever need an instrument to do-sound good, sound bad, and sound like an animal.
Another student demonstrated the Dizi (笛子), the Chinese traditional flute, in its different sizes. It started out as a bone flute not too long ago… only about 9,000 years ago. Unlike our flutes, one flute plays one key so players end up carrying a lot of different sized flutes, which they may switch mid-song if need be. The two main categories the flutes fall under are the Bandi and Qudi, northern and southern styles respectively. I like the Qudi much better. Northern style music is all this high, bright, fast, and borderline hysterical nonsense. Probably because life was/is rather difficult compared to the south. Southern style is slower, more methodical where you can actually hear notes that aren’t trying to make your ear drums bleed.
The whole thing was just awesome and now I’m inspired. Not inspired enough to go and learn one, but enough that I’ll buy a pirated CD of good classical music when I reach Beijing. Along with several dozen pirated movies. I’ll probably have a few of the new ones before you get to watch them in theaters.
We had lunch at some Vegetarian place. It was cool, but nothing terribly special remains in my mind other than what really ought to have been meat wasn’t. Or maybe it was. You never can believe what people tell you…
Following lunch we went back to the University where we were giving a briefing and tour of the Mandarin Training Center (MTC), one of the best learn-Chinese programs in Taiwan. Several high profile people are alumni including the current Australian Prime Minister. I would have been more impressed with someone like Will Smith. Who cares for foreign politics? Just kidding.
They explained their program and were super nice to us. To fully display how they help their students learn Chinese language and culture they included us in a make-certain-New Year’s-type-of-food workshop. Fangao and Anguiguo to be exact. Those names as much to me as they do to you I’m sure. Like every other candy, dessert, and food in general, Fangao and Anguguo are made of rice at the most basic level. Fangao is a thing you pour into a pink or red cup as full as possible. The top will “explode” when you bake it and the more it explodes, the better your future fortune and luck will be. Anguguo is a red sticky rice paste rolled around red bean paste and put into a flat mold shaped like a turtle. The turtle is supposed to symbolize longevity and fortune.
In addition to having no musical talent, none of us will be master chefs. All of our turtles ended up looking like it swallowed a fish that was too big for its stomach. We can’t even blame confusion since everything was first spoken in Chinese and then English. What I can blame mine on is exhaustion. Halfway through the wave of tired bowled me over like a dead fish (lovely metaphor right?) and all I could think about was sleep. But alas, we must continue to drag ourselves through this endless day.
Continuing on, we now leave to meet Dr. Steven Bradbury, an American who’s been teaching here in a Taiwanese university for the past 11 years. He specializes in poetry, but doesn’t teach it here since there’s no infrastructure to teach that sort of thing. Ironic considering the great poets of Ancient Asia. We went to Mei’s Tea bar and hung out there for several hours while he talked to us about various things about Taiwan and poetry.
After we finished at the tea bar, Professor Bradbury took us to the night market near the school. My experience there consisted of walking down the main street for about one minute, ducking into a diner (I refuse to use the word restaurant to describe most of the places I eat at. It doesn’t convey the right message) that had noodles for dinner with Bien and eventually the rest of the study group (who stumbled in later because we gravitate towards even when we actively try to avoid it) and heading back to the dorms. I plan to look at it again later when I’m not stumbling like a drunkard.
Soon I’ll put down some of my initial impressions of Taiwan, but since I’m (still) tired and this is already pretty long, I’m gonna call it a night.
But before I get into the long and short (though there’s nothing brief in it) about what we did today, allow me to explain what this trip is in more detail as well as who’s with me.
Including our director, there’s a total of 13 (Go Colgate!) of us on this study group. There’s me, Tram (my roommate), Clarissa, Georgia, Becky, Tina, Ellie, Lauren, Ned, Eric, Geoff, and Gary. Thirteen people may not sound like a lot, but when you move in a pack, it’s cumbersome and terribly awkward being a giant group of foreigners. I like them all thus far, though I’m sure everyone will get on everyone’s nerves at some point during the semester. It’s only inevitable with the nature of this trip (small, rather exclusive). Tram’s pretty cool to room with. We verbally abuse each other on an hourly basis but it’s fun- like a game of one man up. It keeps you on your feet having to think up a contextually appropriate insulting response.
Way to go Colgate for diversity. Of all of us, we have four people with some kind of Asian descent, the brown West Indian (me), and an African American. Sadly none of us are blond. A real shame in my opinion. We’ve already run into the phenomena of Chinese people assuming that Geoff, Gary, Tram, Ellie, and Georgia understand/are Chinese. They can’t decide if they like it or not. I don’t think I’ll run into this probably. Go European heritage!
Chinese New Year’s is on the 26th or 27th so all the students are currently on vacation. We can’t start our classes in Beijing until a little while after New Year’s so our study abroad will begin with a two week vacation trip in Taiwan and Hong Kong. I don’t really know yet what our schedule is while we’re here. After Hong Kong we’ll head to Beijing for most of the rest of the semester, though we have a trip planned to Shanghai and Hangzhou as well as a week off for Spring Break.
Last night we didn’t crash into bed as soon as we walked in, but it was pretty close. We unpacked just the tiniest bit and checked our emails. We had to be up in time to eat and move out to our lecture on Taiwanese and Chinese tradition musical instruments. You’d think that 3 hours would be a long time to listen to presentations, but it was all very interesting. The mini demonstrational concerts we received was definitely a help in keeping the interest there.
The first instrument that we saw was a giant stick-looking Pestel used to grind millet by the Thae. Apparently the aboriginals used it functionally for a while before realizing that the thumping could be turned into functional harvesting AND music. We got to handle several and try our hand at thumping in the front courtyard. Bluntly, cumulatively we have absolutely no musical talent.
Next was the Huqin, or erhu as I better know it. It’s a two stringed instrument that creates that is often played in a pentatonic scale (five notes) that most people associate with Chinese music. It’s got a round shaped sound box made of wood with one side cover with [snake] skin. The neck is typically made of cow bone. Wood in China means bamboo 99.99% of the time. Just so you know.
The two strings are played with a bow of horse hair. First crafted in the Tang Dynasty, this instrument has gone through some changes, but it mostly the same as it was in the beginning. The graduate student performing it for us explained that it can do nearly everything any other stringed instrument of comparable size can do, ex: violin. She then proceeded to play a concerto which sounded remarkably like a violin. It’s also amazing at imitating animal sounds. She had it twitter like song birds, bark like a sick dog, and whiney like a horse.
The Erhu is a great example that simplicity sometimes is best. With only two strings it manages to do everything you could really ever need an instrument to do-sound good, sound bad, and sound like an animal.
Another student demonstrated the Dizi (笛子), the Chinese traditional flute, in its different sizes. It started out as a bone flute not too long ago… only about 9,000 years ago. Unlike our flutes, one flute plays one key so players end up carrying a lot of different sized flutes, which they may switch mid-song if need be. The two main categories the flutes fall under are the Bandi and Qudi, northern and southern styles respectively. I like the Qudi much better. Northern style music is all this high, bright, fast, and borderline hysterical nonsense. Probably because life was/is rather difficult compared to the south. Southern style is slower, more methodical where you can actually hear notes that aren’t trying to make your ear drums bleed.
The whole thing was just awesome and now I’m inspired. Not inspired enough to go and learn one, but enough that I’ll buy a pirated CD of good classical music when I reach Beijing. Along with several dozen pirated movies. I’ll probably have a few of the new ones before you get to watch them in theaters.
We had lunch at some Vegetarian place. It was cool, but nothing terribly special remains in my mind other than what really ought to have been meat wasn’t. Or maybe it was. You never can believe what people tell you…
Following lunch we went back to the University where we were giving a briefing and tour of the Mandarin Training Center (MTC), one of the best learn-Chinese programs in Taiwan. Several high profile people are alumni including the current Australian Prime Minister. I would have been more impressed with someone like Will Smith. Who cares for foreign politics? Just kidding.
They explained their program and were super nice to us. To fully display how they help their students learn Chinese language and culture they included us in a make-certain-New Year’s-type-of-food workshop. Fangao and Anguiguo to be exact. Those names as much to me as they do to you I’m sure. Like every other candy, dessert, and food in general, Fangao and Anguguo are made of rice at the most basic level. Fangao is a thing you pour into a pink or red cup as full as possible. The top will “explode” when you bake it and the more it explodes, the better your future fortune and luck will be. Anguguo is a red sticky rice paste rolled around red bean paste and put into a flat mold shaped like a turtle. The turtle is supposed to symbolize longevity and fortune.
In addition to having no musical talent, none of us will be master chefs. All of our turtles ended up looking like it swallowed a fish that was too big for its stomach. We can’t even blame confusion since everything was first spoken in Chinese and then English. What I can blame mine on is exhaustion. Halfway through the wave of tired bowled me over like a dead fish (lovely metaphor right?) and all I could think about was sleep. But alas, we must continue to drag ourselves through this endless day.
Continuing on, we now leave to meet Dr. Steven Bradbury, an American who’s been teaching here in a Taiwanese university for the past 11 years. He specializes in poetry, but doesn’t teach it here since there’s no infrastructure to teach that sort of thing. Ironic considering the great poets of Ancient Asia. We went to Mei’s Tea bar and hung out there for several hours while he talked to us about various things about Taiwan and poetry.
After we finished at the tea bar, Professor Bradbury took us to the night market near the school. My experience there consisted of walking down the main street for about one minute, ducking into a diner (I refuse to use the word restaurant to describe most of the places I eat at. It doesn’t convey the right message) that had noodles for dinner with Bien and eventually the rest of the study group (who stumbled in later because we gravitate towards even when we actively try to avoid it) and heading back to the dorms. I plan to look at it again later when I’m not stumbling like a drunkard.
Soon I’ll put down some of my initial impressions of Taiwan, but since I’m (still) tired and this is already pretty long, I’m gonna call it a night.
January 17-19. (The 18th went the wayside with the time zone change): Various
I am back in China…kind of. If you ask Americans what Taiwan is, they’ll say a separate country. If you ask Taiwanese, they’ll also say it’s a different country. If you ask all of mainland China, Taiwan is China. Personally, I haven’t decided. China is an ambiguous place in general. The places within the defined borders are so vastly different from each other and people can’t always communicate with each other (even though technically, it’s all one country).
Anyway, the flight was obscenely long this time. Over the summer when I went, I had a direct flight from JFK to Beijing which totally only about 13 hours. This time I had a connection in Detroit (where I met up with four other classmates) to Osaka and then to our final destination of Taipai, Taiwan. In total it took us 27 hours of travel. It should have taken only 25, but for some reason I still don’t understand, we sat on the tarmac in Detroit for two hours. Once we got to Taipei we took a bus to National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), the place where we’ll be staying for a while.
We don’t know much of where exactly we’ll be staying or doing yet, but we’ll spend two weeks (including Chinese New Year) in Taiwan, take a flight to Hong Kong and spend a few days there, before finally going to Beijing to start our classes.
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