Not My Job

The Taiwan International Animation Festival is going on now. I went to see one of the series yesterday. The theme was Monsters - Not So Scary. It began with a short about these cute little creatures, entertained by a set of monster like version of the characters. Two fall in love, become separated, and finally reunited after a tragic accident. Quite imaginative with both character design, lighting and camera angles. The last one was also quite memorable with 3 very grumpy claymation figures. When the grumpiest of all swats a fly, he transforms into a colorful, bright, cheery fellow - coming off as insane to the other two. He then spreads his joy to the second creature and they find comfort in their shared joy, much to the 3rd's complete discomfort. Finally, the third succumbs, yet surprisingly remains grumpy. The wonderful ending shows that he too is also quite joyful inside, but only showing a disgruntled face. It's quite funny and enjoyable in the way it's shown the viewer.

The Festival is being shown on three theatres in the Shin Kong Cineplex near the 西門 (Ximen) MRT station. It was my first visit to that neighborhood and so I wandered around for an hour exploring the different streets and alleyways. It looked like a bad tourist trap, with lots of carnival like things, a massive cluster of cell phone shops, and expensive but teenager-ish looking clothing stores - including a section dedicated to second hand (二手) clothing and hip-hop wear. I did spot a gem among the rough - there were about 20 people in front of one little food shop, either eating or waiting in line. By far the most popular spot, so I jumped in line and ordered what everyone else was having. It was a delicious steaming hot bowl of noodles, mixed with oysters, a little soup and some spice. [Post edit: This noodle place is called Ah-Chung 阿宗 (a-zong)]

After the movie I walked around the 2-28 Peace Park...which in comparison to 大安 (Da'an), is much more open, and as a result, more noisy as well (from the nearby traffic). I then walked north and west, passing some night markets all the way home. It was quite a long walk and my feet were beat by the time I got there.

I got a call from Dan reminding me of a Puppeteer group's party at his place (he's got 5 other roommates in his 100 year old house - something always seems to be going on over there). So I headed on over to meet the mostly French-speaking folks. Low and behold Elodie showed up! The same woman I had met at the Chen house in 林口 (LinKou). It was nice to see her again - she's one of those instantly likable people. Her husband Matthew also showed up a little later. Again, when the French folk found I knew some French they asked me to use it. Even the slightest effort to call up French words causes the equivalent of a train wreck to go on in my head. I swear the Chinese and French are kept in the same compartment in my brain, and there's only room for one. My recall ability only gets worse and worse - Chinese just comes flying out of my mouth! I suppose it's a good thing that Mandarin is more natural for me now, but I am sad that I've lost all fluency in French.

I met another woman who's been in Taiwan for years, recently moved to Taipei and only just starting formal lessons in learning Chinese (her original goal when moving here). She's been teaching English the whole time and continues to do so now. Another man told me all about the films he's screening in the next 5 months in Taipei - most sound foreign. Another woman, German, but from the Netherlands, runs her own production company and travels around the world collaborating with people and putting on shows.


As usual it was freakin hot out. These poor guys, all dressed in black, had to stand around all day holding these little bottle of free sample Zero Cokes and HOLD their pose! Meanwhile a cute woman in front handed out little cans on a tray for tasting. They certainly drew my attention, and I tried the coke (which was gross), but I'm glad THAT is not my job.

Da Run Fa

I had to laugh yesterday when I found out the real name of what I've been calling "Da Lu Hua". This is the giant hypermarket I went to with PoPo a month ago. Now that I know that she can't say the F sound and replaces it with H, and that the R and L are commonly interchanged, the real name of Da4 Run4 Fa1 and her approximation of the name Da Lu Hua makes sense. No wonder no one knew what I was talking about!

I've also cleared up the difference between her saying "niao" and her meaning of "niu" (bird vs ox).

Yesterday, for Confucius' Bday, my class went out to Luo 先生's restaurant, Cosmopolitan. He bought us all drinks and appetizers and desserts. I got the Eggplant Pepper Linguine, but was disappointed that it only came with half of one tiny eggplant. The desserts were VERY tasty though. The He siblings couldn't make it b/c they were going to Green Island. However, one of 張 (Zhang) Lao Shi's previous students came to join us. 他是法國人 (He is French). From Bordeaux in fact, where I just was in May this year. We got to practice a lot of Chinese listening and speaking which was nice.


Luo 先生 mentioned that his restaurants host a Language Exchange night the last Sunday of every month. 2 hours dedicated to Chinese and English. There's one coming up this Sunday that will likely be at Cosmopolitan, but possibly at the other restaurant closer to Nanjing E Rd MRT on Fuxing N Rd called Brass Monkey.

Blink

I just finished reading Blink by Malcolm Gladwell. I'm back at the Taipei Public Library, waiting near Shida for a track workout. I had hoped to find another book he's written - The Tipping Point, but I couldn't find it. I still can't read very much in the library - I looked the book up in the catalog (in English) but the libraries are listed in Chinese and I can't tell which one I'm at. The other problem is that the books are very much out of order. If you have a call number, be sure to browse the shelves above, below and even next to the one where it should be. In fact, I often see books that are off by 100's, so if you have the patience, you might just want to scan the whole section.

Back to Blink. I liked it - an easy read with lots of interesting cases in it. He mentions some online tests you can take (5-15 minutes) at https://implicit.harvard.edu. I took a few to see how I would compare - I did end up out of the norm for one test, where I ended up associating Asian Americans with America more so than Europeans. I would attribute this to 1. me being Asian 2. having spent most of the last 12 months in Asia or with Asian people. However, on some of the other tests regarding other races, genders, etc, I did just as poorly as the average test taker, which was eye opening for me. I like Gladwell's suggestion of seeking out positive associations to change your Blink attitude. I just have to figure out what negative associations I have and then find out how to reverse them.

Another interesting book I read the other week was about using computers in Language Education (I forgot to write down the author and title). The book was from the early 80's when computing speed and space was still extremely limited. But even worse than that was the limitations of the software designers, in creating very one dimensional programs, that ended up not being much better than putting a student to sleep in the classroom with a boring drill lesson. I'm not familiar with how things have developed in the last 20 years, but I know ShiDa still uses books that suffer very much from the same problems that he discusses in the book. I have the CD that comes with Practical Audio-Visual 1, and it is just a reading of the text. We watched part of the VCD in class one day, and it was mildly entertaining in how bad it was. I like the idea of interactive learning, encouraging practical use over memorizing grammar rules, and increasing listening skills. Of course it all depends on intent - I'm not sure I had much intent for French when I was a kid besides fulfilling a language requirement. I definitely came out with reading and writing skills. I went to France and could read books from the library but it was hella hard to listen to conversations. Now that I'm in Taiwan, I have a stronger preference to learn listening and speaking, along with some reading, and the traditional method is not conducive to that. Luckily, Zhang Lao Shi takes time each class to have conversations with people and I find this vastly improves my listening and speaking skills.

A Few Good Men

We're hoping a few good men will attract more women to the ultimate field. Not that men-crazed women are really the best suited for ultimate. I'd probably go after soccer players. But that's beside the point. Here are a few of Sunday's players trying to look their best. Dan hosted a BBQ, which is a traditional activity for celebrating the mid Autumn Moon Festival. However, Stanley tells me that when he was a kid, the only tradition was eating moon cakes (yue bing). But then somebody started advertising the absolute need to BBQ about 10 years ago and now everyone does it. Go figure! (In the pic, we're about to dig into some delicious grilled vegetables along with fish and sausages. It was nice to have a pile of veggies that weren't fried!)


On Tuesday, John and Becca took Tommy and I to Wulai for some hiking. This was my first hike in Taiwan and I wasn't sure what to expect. So I did what I would have done in the US - wore some sturdy sneakers and brought water. It wasn't what we were expecting. We paid $50NT to take this mini train along the side of the mountain, and then ended up walking along a wide paved path. Granted, it was surrounded by trees and waterfalls. But there were lots of people with bags of McDonald's and fires to grill their lunches. A bit different. At the end of the path, there was a booth to charge $80 NT for access to what we presumed was a longer, wider, paved path ahead. We decided it wasn't worth it and turned around.

On the way back, Tommy noticed this tiny little sign on a very narrow path going up the mountain. Becca assured us it didn't say anything like "DANGER! Turn back now", so we decided to see what it was about. The whole path was extremely narrow, but clearly maintained. We went up and up, nearly slipping off the path down the steep hill at times, but all made it safely -- to the middle. That's when we decided we had had enough - what with not knowing where it was going and for how much longer and starting to get hungry for lunch. I enjoyed the walk and learned more about the past lives of my three ex-pat companions. It seems most people here have an interesting story, and I quite like the variety.

On our way back, there were bigger crowds of people by the waterfalls. We stopped to get some Grilled Goodness - I got something that looked like fishcakes, but tasted very QQ (instead of like fishballs).

Aboriginal carving in Wulai


My second poster promoting Renegade Province Ultimate - 6 people interested so far!

Demolition

On Thursday, I paused as I was leaving the apartment, noticing that I could see in through the window across the street - I could see a family sitting on a couch in a very nice living room. Their curtains are usually closed.

Friday I woke to the sound of a building being demolished. It went on all morning, nearly deafening at times (It's really not great background noise for a phone interview). When I returned home after school, the whole thing was gone. The destruction and removal process was amazingly quick and thorough. My grandma said they were going to build a new apartment building like the one behind it (though I can't be sure I translated that right).

Today, I joined John, Becca and Dan to the east coast. The intent was to go surfing. They brought their own boogie board and we rented a couple full sized boards for us to share. However, I didn't get to that point, b/c I soon realized the water was too powerful for me. After a while, everyone came out of the water - the waves were coming in one after the other too quickly. Because of the typhoon on Tuesday, what was once a nice sand beach was now a very stony beach. As the waves came in near the shore, rocks would pummel into your legs. Further out, this didn't happen, but your ability to reach sand bottom was unreliable as the bottom floor had been dug up by the storm.

We came back to Taipei and enjoyed a late lunch/early dinner at a Din Tai Fung-like place, just a little further down YongKang from the more famous dim sum place. I had mixed feelings about the meal - the cha siu bao were terrible, but the luo buo gao was good. The xiao long bao were OK, and the zong zi and bamboo were excellent. Afterwards, we enjoyed a Jumbo Mango Ice from the other famous place in the area - Ice Monster. It was enjoyable, but I still think a good ripe mango beats it. Though, on a hotter day, the ice mound might have hit the spot more. There are a lot of antique stores down the road (combined with some caged chickens) - which reminded me of being in France with Brianne and exploring the antique shops there. It was interesting to see the Taiwanese version of the same thing - including old photographs, posters and porcelain.


We demolished this Mango Ice


Dude, how does this guy sell ANYTHING!?

The Lost Bao Zi

Monday night my cousin came home and told my grandmother that he didn't have to go to work the next day, nor would I have to go to school, because of Typhoon Day. Popo came in to tell me, but I missed her saying the word for 'typhoon' and thought she didn't know what she was talking about. Of course I would go to school the next day. She insisted, so I asked my cousin and he explained. I realize now I need to pay more attention to each word that Popo says. I think I've started glossing over things.


Advertising is everywhere - this was the lid on Monday's mango juice

So yesterday was Typhoon Day. I ended up studying a lot (the new Chapter 3 words took a long time to memorize), researching travel options, napping and eating. That about sums up my day.

Today, I went into class and Luo Ke Rei mentioned Teacher's Day next Thursday. He suggested we invite our teacher to dinner after class. We all agreed it was a good idea and plan on taking her out next Friday. I had been meaning to organize a group lunch, so this works just as well. I also found out that Li Juan is vegetarian (because she follows yi guan dao). Good thing I didn't invite her out for niu rou mien!

Oh, before class, I went to my local bao-zi shop and got some of my favorites. I took the bus to school and let them cool off on the ride. I forgot my EasyCard at home, so had to use coins. As I was using one hand to put the coins in, I must have hit my other hand holding my umbrella and the bag of bao zi. Once the money was in, I noticed my bag of bao zi on the floor! Aye-ya! I quickly picked it up and noticed that one was missing! I quickly looked around but couldn't find it - so just quickly left the bus. 2 bao zi isn't quite enough to fill me up, so I went to a nearby shop that I had tried out on Monday.

On Monday, I had ordered a jiu cai dong-xi (can't remember what it's called...but I've had it before, and it's very tasty). The guy realized I couldn't really speak zhongwen, so he proceeded to point to things to help me out. He asked if I wanted some dou jiang by lifting the cover off the large vat and showing me the contents. He asked, silently, if I wanted that or the one in the fridge. I said Bing Dou Jiang. I then spotted a fan tuan off to the side and pointed that I wanted that too. All was well. I enjoyed my meal and at the end he gave me the hand signal for six to indicate I had to pay $60 NT. (The sign for six is to close all your fingers except for thumb and pinky.)

So today he recognized me and didn't say a word and just started doing the pointing thing. It was slightly disappointing. I want to hear people use Chinese so I can get used to it! He seemed to refuse to speak. I sat down and saw him not speaking to a Taiwanese woman. I began to wonder if I had ever heard him speak - perhaps he is mute and I shouldn't be disgruntled with his silence. This theory was dispelled when I went up to pay for the food and heard him speak in a clear voice to someone else. However, he does seem to point to things when he can instead of speaking. So it isn't just me.

Since I had already eaten a couple bao-zi I just wanted a little something to fill me up. I ended up getting a bread thing I'd never seen before...but then I spotted the lo-buo-gao and ordered that too. It's one of my mom's favorite dishes and I haven't had it yet in this visit to Taiwan. Then he convinced me to get a bing dou jiang...I was thoroughly stuffed by the end of the meal.

However, the guy I saw there on Monday seemed to have a larger appetite than me. I saw him come in to the room with a steamer basket filled with about 10 little bao-zi. Looked like he was going to finish them all in one sitting! I might try them next time I go. They seem to have a lot of variety (noodle dishes, dumpling soups, sao bings, mantous, etc).

Dan, one of the ulti players I met on Sunday, and I were discussing haikus on Sunday at dinner. Here is one.

Delicious Fan Tuans...
How did I live without you?
You will make me fat.

I probably would have ordered a fan tuan as well if I had seen any. I saw him rolling fresh ones as I was leaving. Dangerous.

After class today, I met Stanley and Christina. Stanley is a student of an English teacher ultimate player, Tom. It was our scheduled language exchange. We met at Rich Coffee, on Minsheng E Rd (which has free wireless!), where Christina works. We must have talked for hours - I had so much fun. I didn't really know what to expect, but it turned out really great. At first I practiced a little Chinese with him, and then we switched to English. I would use my Chinese at times if I felt like I had the vocab to say what I wanted. By far, his English is better than my Chinese. Anyways, I learned a lot about him and he seems an interesting fellow. Christina is super nice as well, so I like spending time with both of them. Towards the end, we played the "Detective Game" -- where one person gives you a scenario and you need to ask yes/no questions to figure out the puzzle. The one he gave me was...

A man walks onto a bridge and sees a sign that says "There is no grass in the water." He jumps into the water, committing suicide. Why?

Boy, it was tough. Stanley gave me a couple hints to keep me going and I ended up solving the puzzle. I then gave him the first one I ever learned...

A man is dead in a room. How did he die?

Then Stanley gave me another...

A blind man takes a train to a hospital, gets an operation that lets him see again, and proceeds to return home by train. Before he arrives, he commits suicide. Why?

I puzzled this one out on my own. I love these kinds of puzzles, and it seems they like them too. I am going to have to rack my brain for the other ones I know for next time.

OK, and now to practice some of my Chinese...

誰 喜歡 包子?
我 很 喜歡 包子!
我 de 姐姐 叫 道. 她 lives in (zai?) 法國. 她 先生 是 英國 人. 他 不是 日本人.
天氣 太 熱!
ming tian 我 去 上 課 可是 li bai 一 我 不 去 上 課.

And that's because it's the Mid Autumn Moon Festival.


My set meal at Rich Coffee, and a sandwich in the background


Christina

Upcoming holiday

I went to ultimate today - tons of fun. There were twice as many people there as last time, and more women! We threw around, did some drills, and then scrimmaged for a long time. I also played with some kids, including Kolita (?), an adorable little first grader - which was just about as much fun as playing disc. We threw discs to each other and did single handed juggling, and then blew bubbles and did different styles of whistling. I miss my nieces!

Afterwards a handful of us went out to dinner to a Singapore Curry restaurant, off of Roosevelt, near Taipower Building MRT. Stanley and Christina joined us - they were the 2 Taiwanese friends of Tom that I had met the previous time. During our dinner discussion, Diana pointed out that next weekend was a long weekend and she wouldn't be at practice. Oh man, I totally forgot! Time flies. She is going to Hualian to Taroko Gorge and around. I was trying to figure out how to tag along, but even they didn't get train tickets and plan on doing the Standing Only option. That doesn't sound so exciting to me (3 hour train ride), so I'll have to figure out something else to do.

Oh, and after dinner, I was talking to Noah about ultimate I've played in Seattle. It's always hard to describe the Trouts. Uhhh, we're a competitive but not really competitive team. We mostly have a lot of fun. Turns out he knows Glenn and Lexy! They were his captains years ago when he learned how to play. How cool is that?! A bit of home for me.

Lin Kou 林口

Yesterday, Tina's brothers drove me and 2 of their coworkers to their summer house in Lin Kou (林口). It was an amazingly beautiful house - a huge estate just a 45 minute drive from Taipei. We entered through the gate, passed by the horses, a tennis court and got dropped off between the main lodge and the outdoor BBQ deck. It seemed surreal to find such a peaceful, countryside place so close to crowded, city-like Taipei. There was a huge pool (with pleasantly warm water), an exercise room, and a coffee house. Inside the main room, there was even a mahjongg room, where I sat next to Nicole (one of my carmates) to watch her strategy against 3 others. I picked up some of the rules - exchanging pieces, calling "Pong", some winning hands (requiring a pair) and a draw (when there are 16 pieces left to draw from). However, it was so fast paced that I couldn't keep up completely or always determine their strategy. (It seemed to be an elegant game and I'd love to learn how to play.)

I spent most of my time with a group of Frenchmen - Guillaume, Justine, Julian, Elody (?), and Matthew. Listening to them made me realize I only have room for one foreign language in my head. As my Chinese progresses, my French is slowly going to the wayside. When they realized I could speak a little, they asked me to say a few words - every time I thought of something I would want to respond in Chinese! I can no longer conjure French verbs, never mind conjugate them correctly.

Good food, good wine, good company - made for a pleasant Saturday evening. I owe a big thanks to Tina's brothers, John and Fudy, for letting me come along...and to Tina for convincing me to go!

Notes

Terms used at home
Ah-mi-to-fu
Formerly a bodhisattva, after many good deeds became Amitabha. In Chinese, pronounced Emituo-Fo. Once a king, renounced his throne when he learned of Buddhism. Repeating his name 10 times will get you into his Pure Land on rebirth.

Bai Bai
Bow with hands together, pay respect, worship

Tone practice
Peggy sent me this great link for practicing tones in combination: tone samples I've added it to my Helpful Taiwan Links post, as well as a few other links, under the Learning Chinese section. Keep the tips coming!

Random picture

While waiting for a bus, this guy was off to the side cutting up some food into big squares. At one point he went over to the left side where a container was roasting over a fire, turned to us and said something in Chinese (which I didn't understand), and then proceeded to pull open the top...at which point a very loud explosion of air and fragrant smell came out (guess he was warning us before the big boom). I was already too full of muachi and other goodies to find out what this stuff was. Perhaps next time. Notice how the whole contraption is connected to his motorbike.

Class update
Zhang Lao Shi realized we spent too much time on BoPoMoFo in the first week to be able to keep up with the "one chapter a week" guideline that ShiDa has. So we sprinted through Chapter 2 in just a few days. This brings our writing vocabulary to 53 words.

One of the words we learned was 太 (tai4), which means "too". When doubled as 太太, it means wife. A sample sentence is "Ta shi4 wo3 tai4tai", at which point, Zhang Lao3 Shi said that we must use the feminine form of 'ta': 她. This led to a discussion of gay marriage, which Zhang Lao Shi said doesn't happen. Ke4 Rei4, another American, said it was legal in some states in the US. Zhang Lao Shi could barely believe it. She asked Li4 Shan if it was the same in Paraguay and Rini about Indonesia. It was clear from her attitude and tone that she didn't approve. Interesting cross cultural exposure. Though, to be fair, there are plenty of people in the US who feel it's not right either.

According to wikipedia, in one poll 75% of Taiwanese thought gay relations are acceptable. However, a law proposed in 2003 to legalize gay marriage was rejected. So far, no Asian country recognizes same-sex unions.

Mangoes
Yes, mangoes get their own heading. I still have a very large mango for breakfast as often as I can. I can no longer find the smaller sized ones. These big ones are almost too filling. I now look for the smaller of the giants.

as big as my hand, with thin seeds and lots o meat!

Ting Bu La

Last night, I went out with PoPo to throw out the garbage. However, we were too late and the garbage men had already come for pick up. So we walked down the street and PoPo ended up talking to a restaurant owner for a while, mostly in Taiwanese. Occasionally she would use Mandarin or point to me so I knew she was talking about me. Another man there helped translate from Taiwanese to Mandarin and sometimes to English if I really didn't get it. PoPo was on a roll with the woman, so I decided to ask the man what was on the menu. He told me about their specialty dishes and some of the desserts they had. They were both very friendly so I decided to return for lunch the next day.

So that's what I did today. I had some Ting Bu La and then polished off a Hua Sheng Dou Hua (peanuts with cold tofu dish). The Ting Bu La reminded me of something else I've had in Taiwan - mostly because of the sauce. Underneath was a hodgepodge of unknowns - I'm guessing Tofu, Fishballs and Rice-somethings. It was tasty.


In class today, another girl showed up. She's from Indonesia (Yin Ni) and can speak Chinese. She only got to Taiwan 3 days ago and has to jump into our Chapter 1 test tomorrow - including the use of BoPoMoFo, which she never learned. She seemed to catch on pretty quick in class, so she either has an excellent memory or already has the basic reading background that most of the rest of us are lacking. After class, I went over BoPoMoFo with her so that she would be better prepared tomorrow. Oh the other good thing for the rest of us is that she barely knows English - so the teacher is forced to use Chinese to explain things to her - and the rest of us are forced to use Chinese as well to communicate with her. Spending about half an hour with her after class already improved my Chinese.

Example of my Chinese knowledge (speaking and reading)

我 是 美 國 人. Lao Shi 是 中國 人. 你 姓 什 麼? 你 叫 什麼
您 貴姓? 妳 好
他 是 英 國 人 媽?

I am American. Teacher is Chinese. What is your last name? What is your first name?
What is your last name (with respect)? Hello/How are you?
Is she British?

Toneless, Singapore, Home

Friday's class was a bit rough for me. Normally I can hear other people's mistakes (and sometimes try to help them understand). But this time, it was me making a mistake and I just couldn't hear it. I could understand the teacher's explanation but didn't think she really gave me enough detail to understand how to fix it. The drill was to say everyone's name. Their Chinese name. Maria's is Guo1 Li4 Shan1. And try as I might to get the 4th tone, Zhang Lao Shi kept saying I was doing 3rd tone! Aye-ya! It was incredibly frustrating. One is because I couldn't hear it - I swear I was doing 4th tone. If I said it slow enough I could get it, but who takes 5 seconds to say a person's name? When I tried to speed it up Zhang Lao Shi said I was changing it to 3rd tone. She made me say it at least 20 times, of which 18 times was wrong. The other frustrating part is that I always thought 1st and 4th tones were easy - it was 2nd tone that's hard. Now I go messing up one of the 'easy' tones. It's hard to write about tone experiences - I really need some audio recordings.

Anyways, other than that, class was ok. The other Japanese girl didn't show up -- but I had seen her downstairs before class, so I don't think she was sick - she must have switched classes. Then another Asian American girl came in, but left after half the class. So it looks like it might just be the 5 of us: Luo2 Ke4 Rei4, Guo1 Li4 Shan1, He2 Kai3 Nian2, He2 Pei Qi, and me.

I rushed off after class to catch my flight to Singapore on JetStar. They didn't give me any trouble about my luggage - the website says limit of one carry on item limited to 7 kg. I was truly borderline and had my laptop in a separate bag, and they let me take both without even checking. It wasn't a full flight by any means and I had a full row to myself, which was nice to lie down in.

We got to Singapore about 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I got through immigration in just minutes and then caught the last MRT into downtown. I met Shaykat at his hotel just off Orchard. Very posh. So different from my last visit with Christina and Indhu staying at a hostel. We caught up a bit (I arrived after midnight) and then got a bit of sleep before needing to get to the field by 7:15!

When we woke it was raining and surprisingly cold with the breeze. Everyone sat under tents waiting to see if the lightning was enough to call off the games. Luckily there wasn't any thunder and so we were safe to play. Games in Singapore rain mean lots of turnovers and lots of mud. I'm glad it was raining Saturday b/c today the sun was coming full force and I felt like a roasting chicken.

Roberto, whom I had met in March at the BKK hat tourney, hooked me up with his Hong Kong friends so I could play with them (the Taipei renegade team didn't put in a bid - though the Chinese Taiwan team did). Bummer for Roberto he hurt his shoulder so we didn't get to play together again. But the mixed team I was on had a great captain (Tim) and some really fun players. It was a nice experience to play a team tournament in Asia.

Saturday night Shaykat and I checked out Chinatown so I could get a cha siu bao and he could get har kau (prawn dumplings). We stopped by Jing Jing Cafe, where Christina and I had enjoyed amazing desserts last time - but it had turned into a Huo3 Guo1 place! Gone was the 100 selection dessert menu. I was so disappointed. Next to seeing Shaykat and playing ultimate, that restaurant was probably the number 3 reason for me to go to Singapore. Aye ya!

One complaint about the tournament: not enough food or water. Perhaps I've been spoiled by North American tourneys with the abundance of bagels, cream cheese, animal crackers, and fruit throughout the day. And I know that I've been spoiled by the BKK hat, with their fresh cut pineapple, watermelon and other tropical fruits (not to mention sideline massage pads). But I was expecting a little more from the Singapore Open - like some breakfast and lunch and more water! Especially in this heat. To their credit, we did get a free disc, towel, dinner and drinks. And it was pretty awesome to get that many teams in one place. Talking to the HK folks, field space is at a premium there, and so the HK tourney next month will only be able to field 12 teams...not the 27 teams that came to the Open this time.

Another highlight of the tourney was seeing a bunch of people I had met earlier in the year while traveling - including some Vietnam folks (Jeigh, Anne and Lester) and some Hat folks (Dan, Rachel, and Jeff). And of course, I met a bunch of new people, including the Perth folks that Shaykat picked up with. A lot of people have spent time in Taiwan and knew some of the people that I met at pickup 2 weeks ago. One guy even said that Mikey (one of the nicest guys I've met in Taipei ultimate) taught him how to play the game years ago.

I left the fields early to catch my flight back. I did a basic rinse of the mud off my legs and arms, but I'm afraid I still smelled something awful. I didn't really notice it myself until I woke up after napping on the plane - then the smell of mud and other icky bits really hit me strong. I can only imagine how miserable my row partner must have been. But that's ok, because she stretched out and touched me with her feet - I'm going to call it even. Oh, on the Singapore end, JetStar made me check in my bag (which weighed in at 8.9 kg with my laptop in it).

Returning to Taipei was like a breath of fresh air - or really, of refreshingly cool air. I think it was good to go to Singapore just so I could feel like it wasn't so hot here. The humidity in Singapore is much worse - it feels good to be home.




Erica, Nicky, Frances, Emiko, Elaine, Wilkie, Jin, Barnaby, Nicole, Bay, Stephan
Missing: Jake, Rob and Ryan, Becca

My First Earthquake

I should be asleep in bed...and I was just about to go to sleep when the floor started shaking, things in the house were rattling, and when it was over, a lone dog barked. PoPo didn't seem to think much of it, "just an earthquake". But it was my first one!

Since I should be sleeping, thanks to Peggy for being online with me for my first experience. And for tracking purposes, there's this really cool site with up to date info in case you're ever in one and want to get online and see how big it was: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww You can report on your experience of it. Mine is here.

Supposedly 6.3 and 67 miles from Taipei. Needs confirmation from a seismologist though.

OK, seriously, past 2 am now. Going to sleep.

A Night with Tina

I was fortunate enough to get to spend another night with Tina before she heads back to the US. I joined her, her mom and their friend at a fabric place near Di Hua and Nanjing W Rd. It's just northwest of the Zhongshan (中山) MRT stop and a couple streets east of the river. On the way, I walked down Di Hua with Tina from MinSheng and got to see all the traditional herb shops (dozens of them all next to each other) as well as some classic styled buildings.

We got to the fabric shop and I'd nearly suggest bringing a compass. This place is HUGE - it's easy to get lost. Though we only walked around one floor, apparently there was another floor just upstairs. This reminded me of the shopping area that Tuyet brought me to in Da Nang where her aunt works. Only this place was way less crowded and ALL dedicated to fabric (in Vietnam the lower floor had food and other stuff). Again, I had the desire to have a job so I could get some income to buy some fabric and a sewing machine and get working on some projects. If I could get access to Peggy's old blog site, I might even be inspired to do some hand sewing.

I was pretty much disoriented as soon as I walked into the fabric shop. In fact, we ended up taking one too many turns and one of the shop owners called us on it - "What are you two looking for? You've already walked this way!" Afterwards, we walked around the neighborhood a bit and then caught a cab to another area. We ended up on MinSheng W Rd again at Yuan Huan Night market. Tina's dad joined us at a small table.

They ordered about a dozen plates (5 of which are shown here - Taiwanese oyster dish, pork, beef, chicken, and thickened soup). We happily ate most everything, while protected from the rain under a tent. I wasn't always sure what was going on, but we ended up getting up and getting drinks - my first mango juice - and it was divine! Surprisingly, we sat down at another table and got more food! This time just one dish - another type of soup. We got up once more and walked down the street to a dessert place - they have dou hua, which Judy had pointed out to me last week. Tina's parents got the ice version, and Tina and I shared a dou hua. Another excellent dish! I think I like dou hua better than ice. We got peanuts and da (大) hong dou (big red beans). Yum yum, I'm looking forward to having more.

Tina and I spent the rest of the night walking around the neighborhood. While she did some shopping, we stopped in interesting stores and she pointed out her favorite places to eat and hang out. Since she pointed out so many places, it was a bit much for me to remember everything. I managed to get a picture of the restaurant signs that I want to try - the forefront one (behind the cow) has excellent dumplings, and the one with the chicken on top is also good. I probably wouldn't have known we were walking through a red light district except for Tina pointing it out. It certainly wasn't as obvious as in Amsterdam!

We also stopped by the former US consulate building turned movie theatre. It was recently renovated/semi-restored, after being in a poor state ever since the US abandoned it when they agreed China is the governmental power. It's got a small Eslite bookstore in it and a cafe (which according to Tina is a good date place). The theatre runs independent films - we couldn't tell if they were dubbed in Chinese or kept in the original language with subtitles. I figure it's too hard for me to watch a foreign language film with Chinese subtitles since I can read about 15 words in total. But if it's Mandarin/English language or with English subtitles then it'd be worth it for me to check it out.

I need to go back to the area and try another Taiwanese dish (ou-wa mi shua, an oyster noodle dish...so far I've only had ou-wa jian ??), a mian cart, and look through some of the malls (which apparently have Taiwan brand clothing - otherwise I'd avoid shopping in a mall). PartyWorld for KTV (private karaoke rooms) is also nearby.

On my bus to and from school, there are 2 TVs. Sometimes there is a segment called "Daily Phrases". It's a cartoon to teach people English phrases. Yesterday's was "Today is not your day". Today's was "Leave it to me". They set up somewhat silly cartoon scenarios and people use the phrases over and over. At the end they have the English subtitled with the Chinese. This isn't as strange as the show I keep catching parts of - I can't tell what's going on. It's another cartoon and the kids tend to say "My neck hurts". I always get on the bus or off the bus before completing any episode.

I've had another 2 days of classes. Yesterday there were only 5 people in class, when previously there were 9! One of the Japanese girls dropped to a lower level, the Canadian went up a level, and I don't know what happened to the other Asian girl who popped in for the second half of class on Tue. The American TLI guy apparently was sick, so he was thankfully there again today. It seems like the class might settle on the 6 of us which lao shi says is an excellent number. She feels that 8 is too many.

We got to writing today - we learned stroke order for 5 words: 我, (wo3 = I) 你 (ni3 = you), 妳 (ni3 = you feminine), 他 (ta1 = it/he), 她 (ta1 = she). We were also tested on listening skills for sounds and tone by writing in BoPoMoFo. It was challenging. I can write BPMF from listening but I'm an incredibly slow reader. It's much faster for me to read the pinyin in class to keep up. However, the BPMF is handy to correct some of the more ambiguous pronunciation challenges, where I tend to use the incorrect English interpretation of the pin-yin instead of the actual rules of the letter combinations.

As you can tell from this post, I've figured out how to input traditional Chinese characters using the built in IME (Input Method Editor) in Windows XP. I have the option of using various keyboards and either using BoPoMoFo or PinYin. I tried both and as BPMF is still rather new to me, pinyin is much faster, so I'm using that for now.

大 安 (Da'an) Park
I walk through this park on my way from the Main Public Library to ShiDa MTC
I didn't go today though since the library is closed on the first Thursday of every month.

First Day at ShiDa

There were 8 students in my class. The breakdown is as follows:

• 2 women from Japan, one of whom can speak English
• 1 woman from Canada, on scholarship, who has taken an intensive course, but using pinyin
  
• 1 woman from Paraguay, who's taken 4 months of Chinese, native language is Spanish but she can speak English too
  
• 2 people from SoCal, male and female
  
• 1 man from America, who's been living in Taiwan for 4 years. He was at TLI and learned how to speak+listen, but not how to read+write
• me

We went over Bo Po Mo Fo initials and finals and practiced writing them. It was interesting to hear which sounds gave certain people trouble. Our assignment was to continue to practice writing them and memorize the initials. We need to be able to write the character correctly when she says an initial sound tomorrow.

I entered the initials into quizlet.com, which was recommended to me by Matt via Peggy. So far, I love this as a study method! This is a general purpose online flashcard program. Feel free to use my set: Bo-Po-Mo-Fo initials. You may need to create an account, but it is free. The nice thing is that there is a study mode, a learning mode, a game mode and a test mode. It's nice to feel like I'm not producing extra garbage by creating 21 flashcards out of real paper.

Speaking of which, the garbage situation here is intense. Taiwan has goals of eliminating land fill usage by getting everything recycled. Because of this, special general use garbage bags cost you by volume. But you can bag recyclables in just about any old bag for tossing. PoPo is in charge of bringing out the garbage to collection, which happens 5 days a week (not Sun/Wed). Since JiuJiu recently replaced all the lights in the apartment, there was a lot of old lamp fixtures sitting around for a while. PoPo had a little trouble getting the garbage men to accept them. I couldn't understand how she got rid of them in the end (out of my vocab range) - she either found someone who wanted some of the parts, or bagged the glass for recycling and threw away the rest - or maybe something else altogether. I have no idea.

Because of the strict recycling policies, it's rare that you see a garbage can on the street. So if you get edibles to-go (such as at a night market, or even a bubble tea drink), you're forced to carry the plastic bag or cup it came in until you find a way to dispose of it. Sometimes the busier night markets have a bag, but for the most part, I have to wait until I get home to throw things away. It sure makes me more aware of my purchases and ways that things are being wasted.

My other accomplishment of the day was getting a cell phone. I decided to go almost as cheap as possible - which is to say, I stopped in about 10 different cell phone stores and asked for their cheapest cell phone. This ranged from NT $1200 to $2500 today. I went with something at $1600 for name brand recognition and a partial warranty. It's got Bo-Po-Mo-Fo characters on it, so I can continue to study on the go! (Details: Just under US$50 for a Sony Ericsson J210i - a no frills phone - just talk and text - no camera, FM radio and other junk I won't use. There were Nokia phones for cheaper, but I've never liked the looks of them.)

The Culprit

Last night I went to ShiDa Night Market for the first time. It's just south of NTNU and near NTU. I noticed this little stall first because of its long line. So I grabbed a number and waited with them.

It was a long wait because there was such high demand. You could order 1 for $7, 5 for $30, or 12 for $70. Some people ordered multiple boxes. It didn't make sense to wait for so long and only get 1, so I got a small pouch of 5. While waiting, I got to see the process of making them. Three people on the end each have their own cabbage bowl. They grab some pre-measured dough, shape it, add cabbage, some pork and then more cabbage. They then quickly bao them up and toss them into a pile. The bao-placer takes them from the pile and carefully arranges them onto the pan. The bao-cooker also helps place them, and manages oiling and peppering the bao. She also puts them in the bags. The number-caller takes care of orders and money. During wait times (while the bao are cooking), she breaks off pieces of dough for the bao-ers. Sometimes the bao-cooker helps do this too.

I also tried a red bean bao-zi (hong dou) and a yam mantou (excellent). I still haven't found a place that sells fresh made cha-siu bao. I might just have to fill up in Singapore. I ended with an almond milk with small bubbles drink.

Any one of these things could have been The Culprit. I ended up with some severe cramps, a heat wave and then vomiting today. I spent most of the day in my room, either suffering or sleeping. I think it was a case of food poisoning - whether it was from a night market item or just the water at home, or even something from days ago, I can't be sure. I am feeling better now, so no need to worry. I felt better enough by evening to go on a walk with PoPo to Liaoning St. She always gets excited to see her favorite foods, and we ended up getting loads of fruit from one of the markets. I was surprised when she picked out SEVEN custard apples - but she was so happy about them I didn't stop her.

Celebrity Lookalikes

I've spent entirely too much time on the internet looking for my celebrity lookalike. I was actually doing productive research on just the right cell phone to get when I got distracted by MyHeritage.com This was a site that Larry had told me about in Colorado that I'd been meaning to check out for while.

I didn't get any of the Bollywood stars that his friends got, but I did get a few surprises. Of course, it depended on which photo I uploaded. Here's what one of my photos matched...

http://www.myheritage.com

The Asians seem like an obvious choice, but I can actually understand why I end up matching to an old white man as well. When I did the morph option and chose reference points, I noticed that I usually have the same creases and chin shape from smiling as the celebrities. Here's another set of matches...



In less goofy news, I tried Mister Donut and had one of their popular donuts. As Judy describes it, they are very QQ - that is to say they have a chewy bite to them, unlike any American donut I've ever tried. I tried the Pon De Kokuto and Kinako. They were surprisingly tasty - very airy and 'QQ'.

I had a quick walk through Da'an park as it started to downpour. I ran into the library and waited it out. I read a New Yorker, including a moving article about people suffering from Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome. Many with the genetic disorder are self destructive, to the point of biting their fingers and lips off. They tend to say and do opposite of what they want to, sometimes terrifyingly so, even to themselves.

Reading articles like these always makes me ponder the wonders of the brain. I went up to the English language section and picked out a book from the science section. Parkinson's: A Patient's View by Sidney Dorros, is an autobiography about his early onset of Parkinson's and the myriad of treatment options he went through. He discusses the decision making process, the struggles, the successes, the mistakes as a guide for others to learn from - including anyone who is diagnosed with the disease, works with patients, or is friends with someone. It's a compelling read, including personal accounts of what his wife and four kids went through in a twenty year span from diagnosis to publication.

Dorros references Oliver Sacks quite frequently throughout the book, including quotes from Awakenings. I bought that book years ago and let it sit on my bookshelf for a long time before packing it up in a box now in storage. I've enjoyed several of Sacks' other books (The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat, Migraine, An Anthropologist on Mars) and hope to get to it someday.

Being unemployed in a country where I'm nearly illiterate, mute and deaf has some benefits. I finally feel like I can sit down and just enjoy reading for a while (in English of course). Other times I wonder if I should be using this time to study Chinese more. My goals for the next year aren't as clearly defined as they could be - certainly I'm here to spend time with PoPo and learn more about the family history, learn how to speak and read Chinese, and get in shape. But that still leaves time for much else. I need to find the balance of enjoying Taiwan and enjoying other things in life. We'll see.