FIA: Flu in Action (and trip to Jiufen)

Its been too long. I really apologize for that. The reason for my hiatus was I caught the stomach flu last Sunday and really didn’t start recovering until Thursdays. I missed a whole day of classes just being ill and half of my Chinese class on Thursday going to a nearby clinic. I’m pretty much over it now, but it was a frustrating experience with classes and work and being tired which brought about a special sort of homesickness. BUT….

Before I got sick, Us (SVSU students) and my roommates went to Jiufen. It was a mining town until the 1950’s (Taiwan travel guide). We went to Gold Mountain first were there was a mining museum and also a Japanese style home. It was a summer home for Emperor Hirohito (super fascinating) and we climbed the stairs to the related Shinto shrine. Blake actually counted… almost 400 steps or something like that. At one point about halfway up we were seriously pointing fingers at “who’s idea it was” to climb up the mountain, but we did make it. And the view was worth it.

 




After going back down and having a sort of desert (the soup part was great because it was cold and sweet… the tofu-like stuff I didn’t like at all) and that’s when we did the museum. There were lots of little gold sculptures and jewelry and a diagram of the mine. There was even this big bar of gold that you could stick your hand in the container and touch (to what point, I’m not sure).

Then it was into Old Street. Lots of shops and lanterns and it was very crowded. The shops sold everything from children’s toys to traditional clothing. I managed to find unique little handmade Christmas gifts for my two littlest cousins. I got them Ocarinas, which are sort of like little flutes… they’re animal shaped (don’t tell them, Ari’s is a bright blue duck and Davis’ is a little turtle). The guy that made them could play “My heart will go on” from Titanic on a duck shaped one. Super impressive.  The other thing I bought… I couldn’t help it. We were in a handmade puppet shop and the upper wall was lined with characters from Hsi Yu Chi (The Journey West) as well as a few Three Kingdoms (Guan Yu and Lu Bu were the two I recognized) and I found one. They had a really cute monkey king, so I asked the shop owner to get him down for me in Chinese using his Chinese name: Sun Wu Kong. She gave him to me for $40 off for knowing who he was.

I found out that seems to happen that way with me. Some of my friends have tried to bargain with some shop owners. Blake was successful with a small bracelet and unsuccessful with a Ocarina. Kaitlin was unsuccessful with a necklace (I could tell by the shop owner that that wasn’t going to work). I didn’t really try to bargain, if it was too expensive it was also likely to be a few shops down for cheaper anyway, but for using my Chinese to check prices and say the names of characters and things. Besides my Monkey King I also got money off the Ocarinas I bought. I paid him in exact bills I should not have received change but I did and quite a bit. I told him in Chinese but its says 100NT each and tried to give him the money.  He told me in English that I was polite and cute so take the money and go *in a pat on the head sort of voice*.   Often waiting my turn and asking in Chinese got me farther than bargaining.

The last place we wanted into was a small building full of handmade masks. Apparently it was supposed to be like 30NT to get in, but the old guy let us wander for free and take pictures (my roommate says she thought it was because we were obvious foreigners and kids). They were all really interesting and a few disturbing. I asked in English what they were for. The owner said he collected them from an artist that could supposedly see spirits and most of the ones inside were spirits he’d claimed to have seen. So as not to go mad, he made them into masks. Again I was rewarded for my knowledge. I was caught by the front (where they’re were masks of celebrities and even some US presidents) taking a picture of the masks behind the door.  The owner wandered over to me, “do you know who they are?” I smiled and replied, “sun Wu Kong, Hsuan Zang and the others from Journey West”.  “Good Girl,” and he pulled the plaque with out with them on it so I could get a better picture.

 

 

 

After that we were all so ready to go home. Exhausted and maybe a little dehydrated. It was all completely worth it. I can completely see why Hayao Miyazaki wanted to draw there. Why he wanted to capture some of Jiufen in animation. Its really a beautiful place and so different from Jingmei and the other places I’ve been.  

So it Begins...

The rest of my weekend was pretty uneventful. It got rained out, with a typhoon that passed by the southernmost coast of Korea and we got of the outer edges of it. Sunday I spent getting some housekeeping type things done.

Yesterday I had my Cultural Criticisms and Analysis class. It is going to be so great!! It puts literature in the context of the time it was written and uses the styles of great minds of the time to analyze it, super fascinating. The next best part, slides in English and professor dictates them in Chinese, so I listen to Chinese and read the English (yes!!). The text book was kind of expensive, but not too bad. I get to do a project on Carl Jung, he’s a psychologist who discovered universal archtypes for legend and folklore, *sigh <3 <3* (we’re supposed to talk about the era so Freud too *shoves his pages under table*).

After that I had to go to the English Corner where I will work the rest of the semester. I had orientation with a Professor out of the English Department named Donovan. He’s British I think, there’s an accent but he’s lived in Taiwan for a while so it’s a little fuddled and a lot of his textbooks for teaching English are in British English. He was great, he gave us a lot of material to get started (games, puzzles, books, techniques). Also he’s a graphic novel fan, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore…etc. I knew it XD. He told me that Taiwan doesn’t have western comics in Chinese… no Batman, X-men, Sandman, V for Vendetta, From Hell, Strangers in Paradise none of it in their native language… they have to buy them for high prices in English from an international bookstore in Taipei… What is this?! Stan Lee, Jim Lee what are you doing with yourselves (my mom was like, “Lorin, its your true calling…” lol)?! Donovan offered some of his graphic novels to share with my English Corner students if I promised to take care of them (*is super touched*).

So today was another day of Chinese. It was great per usual, even if a little review. My professor is very particular about pronunciation and it can difficult at time, but that’s good. She should be harder on us that have had some Chinese already. I realized how bad my listening skills were today, we had to dictate tones… my tones were off on a few… If my professor at SVSU saw that sheet… *que tears*.  I like it though, I want to be sure I’m understood and my fellow students here at Shih Hsin just tell me how wonderful and cute my Chinese is. We had homework to write our numbers one to one hundred… that was a bit grueling just because it took a while. I’m going to listen the CD some and practice on critical listening… maybe even ask my Taiwanese friends on campus to say random numbers and words for me to dictate.

First full day of work was a little awkward. I sort of expected it, I was just getting to know the students. I also wasn’t as prepared as I could have been, but my students were surprisingly talkative. I just would start slow and introduce myself and maybe even throw in a little Chinese and they’d loosen up pretty quick. My first students were late and so embarrassed. We just made sure that they knew the time for next week (no worries really). My second pair asked the tough questions. They wanted to know about American partying. I was pretty plain, there are students that do. There are some who do it safely and on the weekend and are semi-responsible. There are also crazy parties like in the movies, but those students get bad grades and aren’t successful (students reaction: O,O!). That was my opinion on the subject, I won’t lie but I won’t condone it either. They asked about holidays too. That was fun to talk about and really interesting. I learned about the moon festival that happens next week (they barbecue and watch the moon and eat moon-cakes and have family get togethers). My last students were English majors and had some pretty tough classes (history of western civilization in English?!). I told them to go ahead and bring their homework if they needed help to which they were really grateful. Though I think Greek and Roman mythology should be taught (and the text read) in Chinese, that way the students can really appreciate and enjoy it, instead of spending the class worrying about just understanding it because understanding culture is just as important as learning the language *knowing nod*.  It was so sad when they told me that mythology is hard and boring (I wanted to cry).

It was a good start, I think. I just tried to get them relaxed and talking. Many of them felt better after I told them that it was fine that their English was bad, because “我的中文是不好” (my Chinese is bad). Also knowing that I brought a dictionary for them to look up words and that they could try and use Chinese to communicate a little so I could tell them the word in English. Jordan assigned his students homework already, a collage about themselves XD. Kaitlin and Blake seemed to be having a good time too. 

I can’t wait for the Halloween Party (can we just skip the welcome party and do that? Just kidding). Kaitlin is going to pumpkin carving. I have talked to students on campus (I still need to talk to Lily, our boss, about it)… I brought a deck of my tarot cards with me… many of them are really interested in this western form of fortune telling. I want to do like a witch costume or something and do tarot readings for students. It would be so fun! I could even talk about the history a little.

My homework is beginning to pile already. I can feel it *sideways glance*. I have a dictation test in Chinese on Thursday. I have definitions to memorize for pop culture on Friday. Translation is going to be super tough. I am going to start having readings for Cultural crit. and presentations in that and pop culture pretty quick.

 

I tried to translate some of the Liar Game comic I bought…. and it didn’t go very well…  I had to look up characters by radical and stroke order and it took forever! I realized that picking the easier of the books I bought wouldn’t be as important as picking the one I really wanted to work on. It will take me all semester to do one.  I really want to translate Night Fangs (previously miss titled in my last entry as Fang Bloods, herp derp), since it’s a novel unlike anything in the US. I’ve watched the live action TV show for Liar Game and I know a bit about Sherlock Holmes. So I think the vote is for Night Fangs (besides there’s little character bios and extras I can translate in it too).

Books!

Well, sorry for the delay in post. I got going on the novel I'm working and couldn't stop. (For those that know Darien... I forgot how much of a brute he could be). Things are looking up here, even if its been raining all day.

I've worked out an independent study and gotten the go ahead. I don't have all the details yet, but I did go out and buy a dictionary and three chinese books (two  teen novels and a comic). So I am sooo excited for that. If my Literature Critiscims and Analysis class works out on Monday I'll be good to go for credits.

Pop Culture is an awsome class and taught in a mix of a lot English and Chinese (highly recommend for American students studying here). The professor is hilarious. I can't believe that when were discussing western comics... he randomly brought up "Boy's Love" comics (comics about same sex relationships). I was pretty stunned. We have  a few translated in America and they were popular with like middle school and high school girls for a while. He told me he was just curious if I knew about it and "just so you know they're very popular here with girls too". The class (mostly girls) were in fits of giggles as we left the class. Our first presenetation has to be about a subculture and I'm thinking Steampunk. We have to connect it all to marketing, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I think it'll be a fun class.

On to the rest of Friday. We went to Taipei 101 (the tallest building in Taiwan and one of the tallest in the world) unfortunately I forgot my camera (T_T). We had dinner at Din Tai Fung, it was a super nice restaurant (they brought a little stand for my bag so it wouldn't have to go on the floor) with like a 30min. wait to get in. Its famous for its dumplings. Well worth the wait too and they had rose tea (which was amazing). Blake and Jordan had me try a sip of Taiwanese beer and I'm glad they liked it... but it was not my thing (not big into alchohol) *sticks out tongue*. Jordan got a hold of the bill and paid for all of us (five total), talk about generous. We argued about it for a while XD.

After that we headed to Eliste, the premiere international bookstore in Taiwan that's world famous according to my roommates. I bought my books there (the only english-chinese dictionary the school bookstore had was on CD...). I bought the dictionary, a sherlock holmes teen adventeure in chinese, a fantasy novel called Fang Bloods (monster hunters in hong kong to my understanding), the first Liar Game comic and one more. The last one wasn't for translation as much as just because I couldn't pass it up. It was a bilingual version of Alice in Wonderland with HUGE illustrations! Blake bought a ton of comics and Jordan bought some pleasure reading books.

Jordan and I and the Taiwanese student with us Candance went home via the MRT. Kaitlin and Blake went to a club and sounded like they had a good time meeting new people and dancing (see their blogs for that XD). I think it really made Blake's birthday to go do that.

After I got home, my roommates were still up. I fangirled a little with Daisy about Liar Game (it has a live action show with Shota Matsuda). Its a thriller about about a girl conned into a dangerous back mailing game and a man (Shota Matsuda's character) sent to jail for conning con men ends up helping her. Then we went through my Chinese textbooks and I was translating what I could with everyone (which for the beginning chapters was a lot). I love how energetic and good natured my room mates are, its so much fun and so contagious.

Oh today we found a video/comic rental place. I think I may use it, if I need any films or comics to use at the English corner (though I still haven't seen a single American comic since I've been here no Batman, Avengers or Sandman or anything). It was pretty neat, although small there were a lot of students sitting around reading comics. They had some novels too (but no Fang Bloods).

Other than that its been a writing stories and drawing sort of day. Though its just about time to start thinking about dinner and studying....

P.S.
Heard Def Leppard
in the restuarant at breakfast
made my day!

Some Kinks in the System

Well I know its been a day or so since my last entry. I hope the last one wasn’t too confusing, word to the wise  ‘Jet lag doesn’t have to occur when you arrive, if you ignore it long enough it’ll return a few days later with a baseball bat’. But on to other things… I’ve had two days of classes and there are a few thing that need to be addressed.

First class was devastating to the morale of the group here. We figured an intro to English Translation would be a beginner class and good for our majors (those of us in International Studies). I figured translating poetry, children’s passages things like that. It was vastly different it was a high level Chinese class that was working with intermediate English translation, sample paragraph below:

“Facebook is supposed to be a social network, but the truth is, most people I think who use  it-myself included- spend so much time online tweaking our profiles and writing graffiti on other people’s walls or poking them that we never leave our computers to actually interact perhaps it was bad form to check one’s facebook in the middle of the workday, but, I walked in on Bob Ramirez tooling around with his myspace page and I realized that there was very little he could say to me without being a hypocrite”

My translation looked like this:
“Facebook 是 supposed to be a social network, 但是 the truth 是, most 人 我覺得 who use  it-我 included- spend so much 點 online tweaking 我們 profiles and writing graffiti on other 人的 walls or poking 他們 that 我們 never leave 我們的 電腦 to actually interact perhaps it was 不好form to check one’s facebook in the 中 of the 工作日, 但是, 我 walked in on Bob Ramirez tooling around 給 他的myspace page 和 我 realized that there was very 小 他could 說to 我 without being a hypocrite”

Phrases like “tweaking, tooling around, graffiti and hypocrite” were lost on me. Most of the Taiwanese students translated flawlessly. Imagine how Kaitlyn felt. I was pretty overwhelmed. The professor was wonderful and suggested that we take lower level Chinese classes first. I was too embarrassed of my scrawled hand writing (and the fact that I used the simplified character for men 们) to show her my sheet and just explained to her what I knew. (I also mentioned I could have done more with a dictionary… but she gave me a look that said it wasn’t something students do).

Most classes are full now and many of the English taught are not English taught as much as about English as a language for example: Take English 101… that would be a simple class in the US about writing papers and proper grammar and such. Here it is similar, but the students are fluent Chinese speakers and are beginning their English classes. So naturally it would be taught mostly in Chinese, trying to help the beginners learn English. Why has this not been a problem in previous years?

My theory from speaking with professors and students is thus. First of all SVSU normally sends students for Winter semester, this means that the fact that semesters starting earlier and end a little later doesn’t matter because of Christmas break before and summer break after. Secondly, the marketing and PR classes are English taught meaning that Business and Political Science majors wouldn’t have too many problems finding classes (but international studies and education are another matter).

This is where we are running into some problems, we need 12 credits here to stay a float (stay full time and keep financial aide) according to SVSU. Most classes are full and Chinese taught. So if we do get other classes they maybe in marketing and not useful to our majors, one and two, if we get into any other ones at all. There is currently only Consumer Culture left open.

I have Mandarin (which was a wonderful class, though today was a bit of review), popular culture (which I talked with some Taiwanese students, its part of the marketing department so its mostly English taught to their knowledge) that class is tomorrow. Literary theories and criticisms had an English course description… but many of the western lit classes are in Chinese mostly… so I am nervous about it. If I have to drop that I’m not sure what I’ll do. I’ll have to take anything I can get and hope it doesn’t screw up my work schedule too much.

Its frustrating, but its not really any in particulars fault. There was just miscommunication on both sides about the program and the classes. It’ll likely turn out alright in the end, but these things are important to note for future SVSU students interested in the program. If problems are not discussed and discussed constructively how can they be fixed?

We’ll work through it and the people here are all wonderful and oh so patient (I was late to Chinese today … got mixed up looking for the class… wu laoshi was nothing but wonderful and Jordan thanks so much for the call and the concern). Thanks to Jennifer too for all her heard work. She’s our student coordinate and is working really hard to get all this worked out.

Cultural Exchange

First things first, I heard that the Chinese class at SVSU has seen this so...
你们 好！Hey guys, I hope you find this helpful and fun!

There are somethings I jotted down on my notepad that I haven't had a chance to talk about. Little cultural differences and quirks, things that maybe important to anyone back home at SVSU interested in studying in Taiwan. Today was orientation and sort of a take it easy day... only a few pictures and definitely some time to think before classes begin tomorrow.

So first thing, snow. We think about like the southern states as being hot, but every once and while states like Texas get snow. Many of the Americans I talked to before coming to Taipei said the same thing, they probably get a little once in a while. X that, when my roommates asked about Michigan being cold and I said snow... the reception was "SNOW!!!" and an excited bout of Chinese. So snow is a huge deal, it does not happen around here. They get rain instead.

Next thing was the question "What is Mighigan known for?" There are the Great Lakes, the Mackinaw bridge, farming (some) and the fact that its shaped like a glove. The biggest thing I thought of was... the auto industry, cars. "Detroit Motor City" comes to mind. General Motors (GM) didn't seem to make much of an impact (they didn't seem to know what I was talking about) so Ford came out of my mouth next. Similar reaction to snow. My mom back home mentioned that a Ford plant opened in Taiwan not long ago, so I can now imagine why.

Recycling is big deal and not like in the States. We talk a big game, but its really been implamented here. Its just a part of everyday life. The McDonalds nearby has three bins inside: one for trash (like left over food), another for like paper and card board and then a spot to dump left over liquids from your cup before you put it in the recycle bin. Our dorms have it and many of the smaller stores seem to have it too. They're pretty shocked that the US is not as up on recycling (many areas don't have it or you have to pay lots of money to have it done... save for cans and bottles we just take those to the grocery store were there are machines). I'm not sure why we don't do it in the US more, its pretty simple. Kaitlyn was really the one who helped bring this to my attention (her dad works for recycling), so thank you to her for that.

Also I was reminded of when Professor Liu's wife spoke during our class about healthcare in China, particularly for women after childbirth. There was a lot of concern for hot and cold espacially in shower/bath form and liquids drank. I've witnessed a similar sort of thing in everyday life here. At Longshansi we were given an herbal tea to drink for our health and it was cold. The big thing was last night when my last two roommates were unpacking, I had just returned from taking a shower not long before. "Did you bring a hairdryer?" truth was, I hadn't... packing made it so I didn't bring one and truth being I didn't own myself.. I had borrowed one previously. They informed me that it wasn't good for my health to let my hair air dry, I would be okay for now... but in the winter they both offered me use of their hair dryers. Which really isn't that strange, right now it is (a hair dryer in this heat?)... but as far as winter, our dorms don't have heat. So its like not going out with a wet head in cold weather back home, you can catch cold.... 

Then there's my interests. Back home knowing about anything in Asian pop culture: music, movies, animation in particular carries a pretty potent stigma. At first it was just those that were really into the Japanese animation (anime) and extremely obsessive that had any problems... but it spread to those into the music and tv shows (dramas) as well. Mostly Americans that aren't into it (or claim not to be) vs. those Americans into one, two or all three areas. Here, no stigma. Actually, to the contrary students have found it very exciting and even flattering that I would listen to Taiwanese music and watch Taiwanese and Chinese film (even if some of films are a bit old... XD). That was refreashing and exciting to be able to offer American music and film knowledge and discuss something of what I knew of their pop culture as well without the misconception of if you like apples you must like oranges (if you like chinese movies or Korean music you must be into Japanese animation like creepy into Japanese animation). It makes almost... no sense, but in America this stereotype exists. Its unfortunate because it closes a lot of minds to new things.  I'm very happy to be able to discuss Hollywood, Kelly Clarkston, Katy Perry, One Direction and then Lee Hom Wang, Fahrenheit and Jay Chou all in one conversation.

 

Oh Orientation. It went well. We have us four students from the US, two from Hong Kong and two from Korea. The English Corner was my favorite part of the day. We met Lily and Peter two older adults that will be assisting us. We worked out our sechdules (yay for having classes all before noon, I didn't have to change my schedule at all) and discussed what we'd be doing. It is not tutoring like we often think of it in the US. Tutoring often times in the US is when students bring in homework or a test and get study help, maybe some extra practice and that's about it. Here, its almost like having another mini-class. We're expected to come up with activities and maybe a theme almost like a teaching plan. Not what I expected, but I like this better.




We were asked to come up something we're passionate about, like a hobby that we enjoy to share with the students maybe once or twice a week in the corner. In the past students have taught cooking, dancing and drawing. At the moment I seriously considering American comic book art. Its something unique to our country and is super popular in film right now.

  

 

Chill

We took it easy around here today, had lunch in the cafeteria for the first time. It was good. You pay by the weight, which I was warned about, but it was cheap still. Cheaper than some of the other places I've been taken to eat and still good. I'm a little worried about when it gets busier... I need to listen closely because I won't want to hold up the line.

After that we found an atm that would let us get out money with our US debit cards... low and behind 7 Eleven had it. It was one off campus though, the one on campus doesn't have an atm >_<. Its good to know, I'll feel better about money after I buy books and after I start working in the English Corner.

I spent the rest of the afternoon, relaxing. I watched Mars (Zhan Shen/戰神) subtitled (both  traditional Chinese and English) for the the most part. It amuses my roommates that I'm watching it. They often comment over my shoulder about how handsome Vic Zhou is XD.

Then at 5:30 my roommate (who took us out yesterday) returned and we left by bus for Gongguan. We went to a music and video place since I've been wanting to get some music while I'm here. I was super excited. The store had Japanese and Korean music as well and almost all of it was decently priced. I could have easily dropped a ridiculous amount of money there. They had L'ar~en~ciel's newest album with a ton of extras for like $15 (US). I exercised a bit of will power and left with only two CDs by Taiwanese artists that I enjoy. After that we walked past Taipei University (looked pretty big and pretty nice) and through the night market in that area. I had a potato thing that was sort of like a hash brown with cheese and bacon (apparently you can only get it in that particular night market).

 

    

Then it was time to go home. I've now met all my roommates (the other two arrived today, one this afternoon and one this evening), both are wonderful. Tomorrow is orientation at 10:30 am (super stoked for that).

Use of Mandarin: Success!!

Today my roommate and her friends met us for lunch. I had spicy dumpling soup, it was huge bowl. It was so spice my nose started to run and I coughed a few times (it was sooo good though). I had a sweet tea with it called Mai cha (cha being tea). Jordan and Kaitlin had noodles, those looked good too. After that we got some milk tea and took the bus… That was an adventure, it was a lot bumpier and rougher ride than the MRT. 

We took the MRT to Longshan Temple. It was beautiful. I did make my first cultural mistake here T_T. It was very crowded because its Ghost month and besides that Longshansi is very famous. I was trying to keep up and was  a little overwhelmed trying to see was going on. At the door way (not the gate, the first door) you’re supposed to jump over the step for good luck and to let the gods know that you’ve arrived… I stepped on the edge of the step… ><. It was corrected at the end when we came back through and I made a good on it.

We had a handful of sticks of incense that we lit and went around to all the local deities in the temple. You bow three time with the incense and say a prayer, and repeat if necessary. Then you take one of your sticks of incense and throw it into a big pot near the shrine area and repeat for each deity. It was hot and there was a lot of smoke, because it was so crowded with people making offerings. I held the incense up like one of my roommate’s friends told me too. I was so afraid of burning someone with the ash from the incense I ended up burning myself a few times as we went around the whole temple. It was pretty intense.

Then Kaitlin and I threw two red moon shaped stones three times to get a red thread (lol). For those that don’t know its like the red thread of fate in Japan. You tie the red thread around her wrist, finger or bag and its supposed to aide you in finding love. Same thing in Taiwan, the stones were in front of the deity in charge of love. My thread is in my bag, Kaitlin tied hers around her wrist XD. After that we drank an herbal tea that was supposed to be for health and said to be good for staying cool. It was 89 degrees with 60% humidity today… so it felt more like 98 according to weather.com and I believe it. The tea tasted different, you could really taste the grassy/dirt flavor of the herbs and a bit of mint I think.

After that we went to Ximen, a popular shopping district. It had a big movie theatre and a lot of stores. We went into one called Uniqlo, it’s a store from Japan. Jordan was excited it to see, he shopped at the store in Japan before he arrived in Taiwan. It sold a lot of flannel shirts and jeans and jackets and vests, that sort of style. There was a really cute pair of shoes, but they were around the equivalent of $70 US dollars, I don’t have that kind of money to spend on clothes right now, not with gifts to buy, music I want to get and not to mention school books. Which clothes and shoes cost that much in brand name stores in the US, but yeah… I’m watching my budget.

Having to explain that was different. A lot of things are cheaper than in the US and by a lot, but brand name clothes and especially imports from like America and Japan and other places are still expensive and I’m still a struggling college student and like I said I have other priorities. I would rather buy a few CD’s for less money and maybe a movie or a book.

We stumbled upon a free concert while we were there. The singer’s name was Yen-J. He’s pretty famous and popular in Taiwan. A few of the students I know that weren’t with us, said we were lucky to have just happen upon him singing. He had a nice voice.

 

 

We also watched a street performance. He rapped about people in the crowd, it was really good and entertaining. I could understand some of the first one, talking a guy with pants too tight (kuzi) and a few random words. The last one was really fast, I couldn’t catch a word of it other than the few mentions of CD and EP. My roommate was wonderful and did some translating for us. He was talking about how he had been doing this for seven years (wow!) and was trying to get into music it sounded like, oh and he had a facebook (lol). He was pretty talented I think.

After that we went to the Ximen Red House, it’s the oldest building around. The first floor was like a museum with displays of the building over time and the upper levels were like art and crafty type stuff. Super interesting.

 

Then it was time to go home to Jingmei, we went through the night market to get food. I tried another sort of milk tea instead of using black tea (hongzi cha) it was a different kind. Dinner was a sort of omelet with like a deep fried breading of a sort on the outside (reminded me of an elephant ear in looks without the cinnamon and sugar) and was egg and scallion and lettuce inside, it was very good.

I was able to use lots mandarin today, I even remembered to say bu hao yisi. Kaitlin and I were going through shang (up) and xia (down) on the escalators in Uniqlo with some of the native students we were with. I asked where things were and tried new words. I got complimented on my Chinese and that meant a lot. I can’t wait to keep learning more!

 

MRT and Beyond

Today we met with our student coordinator and a student who travelled abroad to our own university last fall, but first we had to take the Subway on our own. So Kaitlin, Jordan and I started our first day without a guide (for at least the beginning).

We started off early and ate breakfast at a store called Mei & Mei. It was like supposed to be a western style breakfast joint (I think). It was more like a parody of American foods, spaghetti and eggs… my ‘humburger’ had tomato and lettuce but some sort of sauce that was like syrup or honey but not quite. It was good but different (I didn’t have the spaghetti eggs…). We stopped at a convenience store to buy water to drink while we walked (it was a good idea too, its so hot here).

Then we looked for the MRT station (subway). It found it without too much trouble and found our way to Zhongshan with no problems (its illegal to drink and eat on the subway so they are VERY clean). We arrived a half hour early and went to some of the stores like Macy’s but on a grand scale. One store had the first floor was just make-up with people getting make-overs and buying things. There was a magician being video-taped by a news crew. Upstairs was brand name clothes and you know what? Too cute! All of them, very modest and light and some a little punky and some a little lacy. Kaitlin and I couldn’t stop looking… I should have brought less clothes!!  Not all of them were that expensive either.

 

Then we met up with our guides for the afternoon. We weren’t sure what we were going to be doing in Zhongshan, not even when we walked into a restaurant. I was nervous because I hadn’t ate much before and wasn’t very hungry. We had to wait 20 minutes, because the place and very popular and although multiple floors was full. I was in for a pleasant surprise, it was bubble tea!! REAL bubble tea, not like the stuff I had back home in Michigan that was in like a fast food cup where they mixed like coconut and oreo flavors and you could green tea instead of milk tea. This was in glass with the pearls (tapioca) in the bottom (not mixed or ground) and milk tea and it was so good. Bubble tea is a very famous thing from Taiwan. We ate Pig’s blood in a spicy sauce (see picture) the sauce made it good without that, it would have been dry and not very tasty. The other thing was a desert called mashu (umlaut U) and it was like mochi (pounded rice in Japan) but with caramel sauce and peanuts. I really like that.

 

 

 

we went to a park and saw a statue of a soldier from the Han Dynasty. He went to the great wall to be a soldier and his parents wanted him to be loyal and patriotic and it was tattooed on his back. Our student coordinator and friend didn’t remember his name, but it was neat story. We joked about it being Liu Bei or Cao Cao when we saw it. Also got on the subject of Jet Jaguar and Godzilla (lol).

 

We took the MRT back to Jingmei, the area school is in. I was able to get more important groceries (shampoo and conditioner, toothpaste, water, sandals for in the showers, a bin to put it all in (and a wet cloth) because it all gets wet when you shower, a little trash can) it looked like so much I was so worried about the cost when I got to the counter. It was so cheap! It was under $20 (US) it would have never been that cheap to get all that back in Michigan. The bin alone may have been $15. Conditioner is more expensive than shampoo that was interesting and of course all the American brands were expensive, I’ve got a new shampoo to try (the ingredients were in both Chinese and English, same basic ingredients as my shampoos at home). Then dinner was McDonald’s. My parents both worked for McDonald’s when I was little so that was nice and it wasn’t expensive like I hear about in China. Not at all. They don’t sell pop at a lot of restaurants and other places, so the coke tasted especially wonderful and it was cold (unlike the luke warm water in my bag).

Then back in my dorm, my roommate returned with her friends. They wanted to try their English if I wasn’t busy. Turns out Daisy my roommate is very shy and was worried about saying things wrong. I tried some Chinese out and they used English, it was great. One of the girls, Stephanie, her Chinese name was Qilin after the mythical beast the Kirin. Super interesting! We talked Chinese music and movies and some Hollywood ones too. Tomorrow we’re going with Kaitlin and Jordan to Longshan  temple 龍山寺.I'm really happy that Daisy’s friends helped to get us talking. We talked about Korean music too, DBSK goes by  Tong Fang Xian qi東方神起 (my favorite group who sadly broke up what last year… T_T) and Super Junior (I’m not the only one who thinks they have too many members).  Also one of Daisy’s friends (I can’t remember her name T_T) she’s a Chinese major and offered to not only help with my Chinese but half-joked about teaching me Tai-chi (she better be careful I’ll take her up on that XD).

Also I need to remember the word excuse me its bu Hao yisi不好意思. Its so crowded in parts of Taipei and it was in Zhongshan. It was terrible mumbling excuse me in English and dui bu qi對不起 which means I’m sorry and isn’t the same thing…



Day 1 Continued: Out and About

So my day yesterday started at like 3:30 am when we were served the complimentary breakfast, I got Chinese porridge with fruit and tea (very good). I also forgot to mention that unlike the Delta plane (which had regular TV, but movies and other stuff had to be paid for). I was able to watch Viral Factor (Nicholas Tse and Jay Chou) and Avengers for free while I chowed down. I slept awkwardly for most of that flight, but I dreamed so I had to have somewhat slept.

But onto the rest of the day after I got unpacked…
It took forever to get my internet up and working so I could contact friends and family. I’ve still even this morning on the second day only seen one of my three roommates. The one is very nice, she helped me get my internet working. I really need to try some of my Chinese with her, I think the language barrier between my student coordinator and I speaking English to her when we first arrived at like 6:30 was a bit overwhelming. We’re probably both kind of shy too.

So Kaitlin and I went and took some pictures together (they’re available on her and my facebook). I realize today I was more tired than I realized. I look more than half a derp as far as facial expressions in those pictures (lol). I didn’t see any geckos yet, but Kaitlin has a nice picture of one.


The bookstore was awesome. I was super tempted to buy a Taiwanese pop magazine, but the artists were Korean (Junsu was on the cover and Big Bang as well as others were listed). Korean pop music is very popular here like everywhere else. I heard Break Out! by DBSK while walking past a store  (its mostly sung in English and I was so tired I just starting mumbling along while our the Chinese student with us looked around … herp derp). Jay Chou was the on the news, Miranda the Chinese student taking us around and I ended up talking music and actors for a while. Apparently, Fahrenheit is still pretty popular here. Nicholas Tse is known more for acting like I thought.

I bought a phone and toilet paper, the top items on my grocery list. I totally forgot about toothpaste and shampoo (borrowed some) among other things. We shopped at a department store called A Mart, the first floor is like Sam’s, and the second has a McDonalds and is more like Wal-Mart otherwise. The toilet paper is different it comes in like little napkin packages instead of rolls so you can take it with you. Miranda seemed to find it amusing that we were confused by it.

We saw so many places my head was kind of spinning, Miranda showed us the big bank that will exchange currency for us (if necessary), A mart, two different ways to go off campus, where to buy our phone, places to eat, the mountain that’s a national landmark (I’ll have to ask Miranda the name again), bus stops (warned not to take those until my Chinese is better and I know street names) saw the MRT station and saw part of the night market being set up among other things.

Dinner was interesting, it was sort of a buffet look. Where you picked your food from the buffet first and then paid for it. It was cheap and I ate a ton (didn’t think about food again until then, our student coordinator was not happy about that… ><). My eyes were bigger than my stomach, besides the heat and being tired. I felt bad and tried to keep eating. Miranda told me it was okay and not to worry about it. I always thought it was rude to waste food, so I was very relieved when she said something. Kaitlin learned not to stick her chopsticks in her rice (its for funeral rites), Miranda was very polite about telling her. She also told us that it was especially worse being that it’s the “Ghost month” right now, food is also on sale for the month because of it (offering to ancestors maybe? I’ll have to ask).

So it was a big day. I had a hard time staying awake at 6pm when we returned to the dorm. Luckily my roommate returned with some friends and although I didn’t really say anything I was happy just to have some distraction to keep me awake  and I talked to my parents about my day a little. Bedtime ended up being ten. I slept like a rock until 9am. So adjusting to time was that hard, though I didn’t realize until today that yesterday was rougher than I thought (don’t usually sleep that deeply).

Oh I almost forgot to mention, they had club tables out, just like we do in the US. There was a lot of music clubs (choir, guitar, jazz, etc), karate, cosplay  it looked like (a girl dressed as Miku and a book with tradional costumes on the table behind her), manga (the girl drawing was really good, her art was beautiful), a table top gaming (saw some magic cards and a war game with characters I didn’t recognize, but Wu Xia by the looks of it) and others I couldn’t identify. The school newspaper stood and talked to us for a little while, got a copy of the newspaper and they were handing out tomato juice (which I’ve always avoided, but its actually pretty good.

Arrival

 

I arrived in Taipei at 5:15 am their time. The airport had a lot less security than both Detroit and San Francisco, but was a little harder to navigate. The language barrier blocked was my threshold guardian for this morning. The younger woman running around immigration was wonderful and patient with my stupid English questions and my broken Chinese ones. A few of the older workers just seemed to want me out of security and customs more than anything (which ultimately is fine with me).

So although a little embarrassing and confusing, I was able to get my baggage, go through security and call my student coordinator via payphone pretty quickly. Then it came time to find the driver from Shih Hsin University. There was a man in a white dress shirt and pants wandering the terminal and asked me something very quickly in Chinese. Over and Over. I kept trying to tell him I didn’t understand in English and Mandarin. I offered all sorts of phrases in Chinese the name of my university, I needed help finding … “insert driver in English”…

To which he promptly said, “I’m driver!” and started rattling off his price. An older gentlemen with gray hair working the airport floor rescued me. I was starting to snappy and the guy didn’t leave me alone, the older man said some things in irritated Chinese and told me my driver would likely be on the other side of the room with sign. He was very interested in the fact that I was from Michigan and studying at Shih Hsin.  I found my driver with FIRST NAME MIDDLE INITITIAL AND LAST NAME in big capital letters.

Driving through Taipei, affirmed that, yes Taipei is a big city, but did I mention HUGE! We drove like between 30 and 45 min. (like from Lapeer to Miller Road) and we were still in the same city. At first I was rather reminded of Boston, lots of tall buildings very close together. Then things got … unusual…

On one side of the highway was tall, very urban buildings and business and apartments and then to my right was rolling hills with nothing but trees for the most part. It was uncanny. Then I began noticing building scattered among the trees, some looked like shrines, others more like apartments and a restaurant? Then city side, a series of stout buildings looking like the trees were growing on them, a wall of leaves.  Like some post-industrial painting.

I grew nervous after the driver turned around once and we turned what looked to be a large almost like alley way, I had read about Taipei’s lanes and this was obviously one of them. I didn’t expect the gate of Shih Hsin to be surrounding by other buildings nor did I expect after settling into my dorm to see an immense amount of crowded foliage out my window.

It was all very Daoist seeming to me. Taipei as a city is very one with itself that way. Its city and its natural surroundings intermixed with a sort of rhythm. Not at all what I pictured, I pictured something like my home school where there are corn fields and orchards and then a few streets over, rather abruptly, is the business district. 


As far as my dorm, its cool, though getting that large suitcase up the stairs was interesting (no elevator). Its lucky my room is only on the second floor. I live with three other girls who I have only met one of, she helped me with my internet and I didn’t catch her name before she left. I was provided with a comforter and pillow and also a pillow case and a matching case for what I can only describe is similar to a tatami mat if not one. There are way more shelves than I have books (its so sad…) and enough closet space for my clothes and to put my carry-on (and probably my back-pack but I like it within reach).



Its hot and humid, but the summer is almost over here and we’ll get at lease down in the 70’s (normally, here’s hoping) and I’ll be a bit better off (there is a ceiling fan, but I’m sure how to get it working).  I agree with the Starks of Game of Thrones, Winterfell!! But my dorm is more than enough otherwise.

I’m super excited about the plants and wildlife despite the heat. One of the other students from my home school saw a swarm of geckos on a wall yesterday. Lots of colorful flowers too.

Also the currency rate that $1 to 33. Something NT is ridiculous. Same student got a decent dinner and dessert out to eat for 40NT. Word to the Wise, “watch spending anyway, times like these is when its gets out of hand. Lots of little things equal big things…”  I have to watch what I buy anyway, my luggage and carry-on were pretty close to the weight limit.