Asian Voyage

A REAL Ice Cream Sandwich

2009-06-11T08:49:00.000-07:00

Italians know how to do Ice Cream, or more specifically, gelato. Ice Cream sandwiches in America are, by comparison, punny. It is made with sweet, choclate-chip bread with powdered sugar on top and three heaping scoops of gelato.

The plains of Italy are GORGEOUS

2009-05-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Our destination after the mountains was Taranto, a coastal city. We didn't run into too many problems on the way there, but I did realize driving here has changed the way I drive. We were getting close to Taranto and we were in stop and go traffic. As we neared a stop light the car in front of me was rolling along slowly past a gas station. I saw that the light was green and thought that the car must be planning on turning into the gas station so I hit the gas and pulled around the car in front of me. As I did so the light turned red and the cars in front of me stopped, so I couldn't make it all the way in front of the car I passed, but instead I was kind of caddy-corner. As soon as I stopped I realized I had just been a major asshole, although the car didn't even honk. The next day while we were driving Anson started laughing because I was swearing at the car in front of me (it decelerating as it approached an on ramp ... something I found/find very counterintuative). I even peeled out once when going around a curve. Although, I've also found American traffic frustrating since I've been back I think if I hadn't adapted to Italian traffic at least a little I might not have been able to hack it. I'm sure the same is true of Anson although he's always been more comfortable with speed.

Anywhoo, when we made it to Taranto we parked on the edge of town and started looking around. We quickly stumbled upon a sort of Italian flea market and, before long, Anson found something he wanted to buy. A deck of numberless cards, they simply used symbols. It was only one euro so he bought it right out. We continued on through the crowd browsing. We passed some neat pipes, a sword, and a variety of other interesting things but didn't get any of it. We did, however, discover that Anson's deck of card only had 40 or so cards. They had had another deck or two so we decided to go back and see if we couldn't get one of those and, between the two of them, make a full deck.

This is one of the more, in hindsight, embarrassing language/culture experiences I've had. Anson, after reading a long history of cards, found out that there were only supposed to be 40 cards in the deck. Now the odd, suspicious, sidelong glances they gave us as the looked for the other deck of cards made sense. It makes sense because ... they thought we were crazy. They didn't end up finding another deck of cards so Anson and I set out for our next objective, food.

Anson kept asking for hamburgers and hot dogs in the hope that he would get something crazy and unique and Taranto didn't disappoint. When he ordered his hot dog they asked if he wanted french fries. He did. After a few minutes they served him a hot dog, cut in half long-wise, on a sub with fries sandwiching it on either side. It turned out to be very unique and also very delicious.

After dinner we began our evening search for a campsite. This evening however, we were looking to poach. We wanted something by the road, without much traffic or light. Preferably flat and without grazing animals or trash. It took us a lot of slow driving on back roads and some guts-ing up but we found a suitable place. We didn't find out until after we were laying down in the tent that our spot wasn't as flat as it had looked but we both slept well.

The next morning we got up at 7 and headed out. After getting breakfast we began our search for some archaeological ruins on the coast south of Bari. These too took some searching but these too we found in the end. They turned out to be spectacular. It was a village and burial site that were ~2000 years old. It was neat to see and we even got to walk inside some of the tombs and a large storage chamber. The coast in the areas was particularly

beautiful. It was rocky, which was neat because you could see where the ancient villagers had used the cliffs as a quarry.

By the time we left the ruins it was time to begin our daily ritual of looking for somewhere to eat. After almost an hour and one false start (we thought a pizzeria was open but, upon entering and talking with the management, who were there cooking, we found out it wasn't) we were hungry and frustrated with the whole thing. Just as we were starting to head back to the car to drive somewhere else, we saw a Chinese restaurant. Italians may take 4 hour lunch brakes but I was pretty sure Chinese didn't. We walked into the restaurant and, indeed, someone immediately came out and took us to a table. The food was good and I got to practice my Chinese ... always a bonus.

After a refreshing lunch we left and made for our next destination, the Castellana Grotte. They turned out to be stunning caves but very commercialized. We couldn't even take pictures inside because the city owned the digital rights and would not stand for anyone else trying to usurp them. The cave tour culminated in the 'White Cave', a truly stunning room where the water creating the formations was pure of certain elements leading to completely white stalactites and stalagmites. Another interesting thing in the caves was the effect of the lighting. Previously nothing grew in the caverns because it was dark but now, around the lights, algae was growing. Apparently in some parts of the cave the air was even being turned more acidic by human breath, leading to stalactites being destroyed by the constant dripping of water, instead of created. It was sad and made me wonder what the caves would be like in 20 years.

When we got out of the caves we found that we had gotten a parking ticket. It was a bummer but the main problem was that we didn't know how to pay it. I ended up taking it back to Bologna and asking my Spanish class what to do with it. Then Anson and I took a field trip to the post office, what my class/teacher had recommended, and paid it there. Immediately, however, our concern was to get our car washed and get to Bari. A guy on our tour of the cave was ''backpacking'' around Southern Italy so decided to give him a ride to Bari.

On the way we stopped at a car wash. We had to ask for directions but then we got it figured out and got the car reasonably clean. Anson didn't think it was a big deal but I was paranoid about getting a huge charge after we turned the car in for 'cleaning' (I, so far, haven't). Driving into Bari proved somewhat stressful but we found a parking garage and pulled in there. The parking spots were so narrow that parking was almost more nerve wracking than driving had been but we

made it.

Our main exiting event of the evening was stumbling upon some giant soccer celebrations. We literally rounded a corner and suddenly were confronted by a big screen TV and hordes of people watching, yelling, drinking, and generally carousing. This seemed a little more intense than we were quite ready for so we did our best to skirt most of it, only stopping to get gelato. On the way back to the car we stopped at a Tabacchi (smoke shop) where Anson bought another deck of cards. It wasn't until now that we began to realize the decks were only supposed to have 40 cards, and the used deck he'd gotten hadn't been short at all. It was just Italian.

We had to wake up early the next morning to drop off the car and catch our flight, so we just decided to spend the night in our car. The flight back was uneventful except that the passengers broke out into song a couple of times. The right soccer team must have one the night before. The trumpets sounded again on our landing, promting another round of song. We had made it back to Bologna.

The mountains of Italy are AMAZING

2009-05-19T05:53:00.000-07:00

I woke up early (I thought) but Anson was up over an hour before me enjoying the sunrise. It was fully light by the time I woke up and we walked down to the beach again to stretch our legs. It was sunny, but chilly and pretty windy. However, I had wanted to swim in the Mediterranean and I knew this was going to be my last chance on this trip so I went back to the car and changed into my swimsuit. On the way back to the beach Anson advised me to just run straight in so, once we made it there, I sprinted straight in. It was cold but shallow. I swam out about 10' but it didn't get any deeper so I just waded around a little.

Our campground had showers on the way back in and I started to use one of them before I realized they actually had hot showers too. So I went and tried to use one of those but unfortunately they weren't free. Thus, I trudged back out into the wind and stood under the shower head. I took a deep breath before turning it on full blast. It was as cold as I expected so I scrubbed off quickly and headed back to the car. We cranked up the heat and headed off.

This day of driving was characterized much less on navigating by map and much more on which mountains we thought we could make it to by taking which roads in our immediate vicinity. By heading towards the steep cliffs, we made finally arrived at Castel Mezzano. The castle part had been built onto/into the rock itself and probably would have been a pretty good fortification. A modern addition that Anson and I were much more interested in was the zip line. It stretched from the top of the highest peak at Castel Mezzano, all the way across the valley, to a mountain on the other side (www.volodellangelo.com). It was, unfortunately, closed. Anson and I looked for food, an occupation that was beginning to become quite tiresome, and, not finding any, moved on.

Since coming to Southern Italy I had been reminded more than once of Taiwan and now, as Anson and I navigated down the mountain on steep, debris ridden, and frequently one lane (due to landslides) roads the resemblance was overwhelming. In Naples moped use was almost as high as Asia, and I had even seen a family of 5 riding on one moped, something I had thought was distinctly Taiwanese. Squatter toilets and toilets without seats were also in regular use and, furthermore, families that owned restaurants seemed to also use them as their home. The food was even cheaper too. Now, driving along these roads with Anson, I was reminded of driving along Taroko Gorge with my dad the previous year. It was more surprising than anything else.

Either Taiwan is advanced or Southern Italy is behind. Possibly both.

After more driving and many split-second navigational decisions we ended up in Tricario. We were still looking for food but we couldn't see anything open so we kept driving. It had started to rain but the scenery was still spectacular. We were in a type of deciduous forest and we began to see stock animals.

When coming down from Castel Mezzano we had driven through some sheep in the road. Now we saw large grey cows that, at first glance, looked a little like elephants. Only at first glance though. We continued driving when we suddenly saw a restaurant sign on our left. Anson swung the wheel and we pulled up short in a parking space.

Our fist impression on entering the restaurant was that it was probably nicer than what we were looking for but we were seated quickly so it didn't seem like we had much choice. The restaurant was bustling with people, I guessed they were the after church crowd. After a moment the waiter came up to take our order and we quickly found out that he spoke English. And his name was Alfonzo. They didn't use a menu for lunch, instead they just had some things that they recommended. Anson chose lasagna and then it was my turn. Anson told him I was vegetarian (better to get that out early) and his response was not heartening. "Oooh, that is not good, we only work with meat at lunch." Because I had had a good experience yesterday with spinach I decided just to ask for that, or perhaps mushrooms. "I aint got not spinach, I got mushrooms, but I aint got no spinach." I asked for a small pizza but that request was also denied. Apparently they don't do pizza at lunch. Alfonzo then suggested a plate with mushrooms, peppers, and cheese. It sounded good to me so I agreed.

After he left we observed the decor of the restaurant. It turned out that there was a picture on the wall next to our table, of a whole pig being roasted. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by the "we only work with meat at lunch" thing. Alfonzo turned out to be very nice and he frequently stopped by our table to talk. He turned out to be a very interesting guy, having lived in Liverpool and London for 6-8 years all told. No wonder his English was good.

Before too long he came out again, this time bringing our food. Anson's lasagna was pretty straightforward and apparently, very delicious. My plate was a bit of a surprise but ... I guess that should have been expected. There were two large (3-4" x 1" x 2 ") pieces of cheese, one mozzarella, which was tied in a knot, and the other was provolone (I think). I also had peppers, and eggplant. The best though, was the mushrooms. I think it is common to cut bell peppers in half, then pack the halves with something and bake them. I had not thought that this could be done to mushrooms but indeed, although they weren't cut in half first, the tops were stuffed and they turned out very delicious. Alfonzo had also talked us into getting some bruschetta (baked bread with tomatoes, olive oil, and spices). Jeannie and I had made it once in Bologna but this was vastly superior, I think because of more oil and more salt. Although eating the two pieces of cheese was sort of intense (it was just a lot of cheese) the meal overall was fantastic. Anson got coffee afterwards and it too was delicious. The best was yet to come, however.

While talking with Alfonzo before, it had come out that Anson and I were driving around and camping where we could. As we were paying, Alfonzo asked if we had a specific camping destination for the night and, when we said we had none, began advising us on camping in the area. After some discussion he said we could camp there if we wanted to. There would be live music at the restaurant and that they served pizza (among other things, they just assumed, correctly, that we would want pizza) at dinner. Suddenly, there were two short and squat (not fat, you could just tell that they enjoyed their cooking) old people wearing aprons appeared. I assume that they were the proprietors of the restaurant and the ones behind the idea to let us camp at their restaurant.

This whole situation again illustrated how helpful, possibly overly so, the Italians were. We hadn't even asked for directions, let alone any advice on where to camp. However, we had gotten camping advice and more, we had gotten a free place to sleep, with the side offer of more good reasonably priced food and some live local Italian music. The chefs were still by the table, looking friendly and concerned. They spoke swiftly to Alfonzo. Turns out they offered to let us sleep inside the restaurant. We would, of course, have to wait until everyone left, at midnight or so, but then we could make ourselves at home. Sort of.

The offer was tantalizing, especially since it had just started to rain and, although we would probably sleep fine in a wet tent, it does kind of suck. We discussed our options and decided to keep moving. It wasn't that we didn't want to sleep there, it was that we were in the mountains and we were pretty sure that if we went out of the mountains it wouldn't be raining.

Pompeii and Sorrento

2009-05-18T06:43:00.001-07:00

We got up early (Anson actually got up really early and saw the sun rise on the beach) and went to Pompeii. First, though, we had to stop to pick up more supplies. We had seen signs for a large grocery store (we had actually stopped at it but it was closed). We pulled into the parking lot at 8:30 and found out it didn't open until 9, so we decided to wait. By the time o'clock had rolled around there were 50 or so people waiting to get into the store. Most of them had carts and the atmosphere was sort of like the beginning of a race. People were not really 'jockeying' but more moving around slowly to try to gain a better position. As soon as the security guard opened the gate those in front shot out on their shopping errands. After Anson and I had gotten our groceries we headed off towards Pompeii.

Although it was beautiful, and really cool to be able to walk around in that old of a place, it was sort of like a museum. Ie. it was really neat at first but after a while became a lot less exciting. Due to poor planning on our part we didn't bring in food and, because they didn't sell any inside Pompeii, we ended up leaving sooner than we would have liked. After Anson got lunch and I got gelato we walked around to the front and, to our surprise, they let us back in. Having been satiated, we enjoyed our round two entrance a bit more.

Because we were let in again, it was almost 4 by the time we left Pompeii, so we decided to begin making our way south, in preparation for heading inland (and back towards Bari) the next day. In Sorrento we stopped again for food and, to our surprise, we actually found a kebab restaurant. Anson ordered one of those but, because they are supremely meaty, I looked for something else on the menu. I saw savory looking baked goods in the display case and something that had spinach in it on the menu. For some reason (probably wishful thinking) I assumed that they were the same thing but, just in case, I asked if the menu item had meat in it. It did. (I found out later that the menu item I was asking about corresponded to the plate of spinach with sausages on it in the display case. Duh! it had meat in it.) I then asked if the delicious looking item in the display case had meat in it. It also did. After a couple more minutes of talking I began to realize that this experience was exactly what Anson had been talking about when he said 'When you ask an Italian a question, it is not just a question but a problem that needs to be solved.' I had brought up eating spinach and it was rapidly becoming clear that they were going to make sure I ate some spinach, if that was indeed what I wanted. I did my best to convey that that was what I wanted so they nodded and asked me to sit down. By this point Anson was well into his kebab and when, by the time he finished it they still hadn't brought out any food, we began to wonder if I had actually ordered anything.

It was foolish for us to doubt and moments later they brought out ... a steaming plate of buttery, cheesy, salty, oily, and generally delicious looking plate of spinach. I answered in the affirmative when he asked if I wanted bread. Moments later he returned with bread, which I quickly used to sop up the oil and butter. It was, perhaps, a little to salty but overall good and, most importantly, it was very very Italian.

After dinner we continued moving south and began to keep our eyes out for a campsite. We were not too excited about the possibility of paying 20 euros to camp so we tossed around the idea of just camping on the beach. However, as we drove along the coastal highway we started to see prostitutes on the side of the road. This only further contributed to a general air of shadiness so we ended up paying to camp in a gated campground by the beach. After we got set up we went for a walk on the beach, which, while nice, mostly reaffirmed our decision not to poach camping.

Heaven Help Us

2009-05-10T02:59:00.001-07:00

The only excitement that the morning brought was trying to get onto the autostrada (highway). Anson and I had to ask at a gas station to figure it out but, just FYI, you take the ticket when you get on and give the ticket (and the corresponding amount of money) when you get off. Also, unless you are going roughly double the speed limit, you are treated as a 'grand-ma', dangerous at worst and humiliating at best. For example, as best we could figure out the speed limit on the autostrada was 80 kpm. Although we were doing around 130-140 we felt almost like snails as we were repeatedly sped past. We did our best to take it in stride.

Our destination for the day was Naples. Thanks to the convenience of the autostrada we made it there by about 11:30 and we stopped on the outskirts for lunch. It turned out to be a nice calm before the storm. Traffic had been somewhat crazy on the way into town but manageable. There was one main road with 2-3 lanes on it depending on how the aggresive drivers felt and how small their cars were. There was also a lot of jockeying within the stop and go traffic, which was

somewhat nervewracking, but mostly harmless if you just let other people sort themselves out.

As we got further into town, however, things got much worse. The streets became more and more packed with cars, honking increased, and any forward progress seemed based on how willing you were to cut off the guy next to you in traffic. In some places traffic was completely stopped and people were getting out of their cars to shout. Then, suddenly, traffic was moving a little more and Anson and I came up on what looked like a sort of roundabout. I have done my best to accurately recreate how the street sign looked, although I was stressed at the time and didn't get much chance to ponder its intricacies because there were many cars behind me, all rip-roarin ready to go.

Furthermore, although all I really remember is that it was a confusing jumble of circles, my model is probably more simple than the real thing was because mine is just one road going in a wierd sort of cursive J while the real sign probably depicted more than one road.

Anywhoo, because there were cars behind me rarin' to go, Anson and I had no real objective inside Naples to see, and the sign would have been a terrible indicator even if we had known which way to go so ... I went right. I don't know if any other direction would have been better but I do know that I certainly would not got right again. We ended up getting funneled up-hill onto narrower and narrower streets with progressively more pedestrians. They eventually became so thick on the road that I could barely move forward.

Nudging is a sort of theme in Italian driving. Anson and I had begun to notice its use at intersections in alleys (where there frequently are no signs indicating right-of-way) or when merging onto heavily trafficed roads. People just keep merging out until the oncoming cars actually have to swerve to miss them, then finally one car slows down and they make it out. It is more dubious in alleyways because cars sometimes begin to nudge out right as one is coming up on them.

So we had begun to notice the nudge and, seeing as pedestrians were thick as flies, I decided to try to nudge through them. I eventually made up to another alleyway. I was forced to stop again, but this time not by pedestrians. There was a car (car A) coming out of an alley to my right. It wanted to turn left onto the street I was on, but another car (car B) wanted to turn into the alley it was coming out of, and had pulled so far foward that it couldn't pull out. Before I clearly understood the situation I had pulled forward far enough so that we were all basically stuck. Fortunately there was a member of the local police force there to help us out. I had previously wondered if we were doing anything wrong by driving in an area with so many pedestrians but either, we weren't or this police officer didn't care. He just got car B to back up so car A could pull out. It was then my turn and the only place I could go (not that I particularly wanted to) was up the alley car A had just come out. The police officer waived me on so I started to nudge forward.

I immediately ran into a wall of pedestrians. I honked, but all that got was one or two looks and 0 people willing to move so I could go. The police office again stepped in to smooth out traffic by stopping the pedestrians. I had to drive over the curb to get into the alley but destiny appeard to be forcing us in that direction so I drove on.

Car B had pulled in behind me so even as the alley narrowed and steepend I was forced to drive on. The alley ended in a sort of dead end. There were two guys standing in front of me with not way to go on in that direction. One of them pointed off to the right, where there were two other narrow alleys basically going back in the direction we had come. I took the left one in hopes that it would get us out of the maze. As we drove past him the guy shouted that we should turn left at the end of the alley. We did make it to the end and turn left, but the way there was not only really narrow, but also littered with debris such as a mattress and a car engine.

The left at the end of the alley pushed us further uphill but we ended on an actual two lane road that wasn't a tiny alley. The sketchiest part of the drive was over although traffic remained so thick and the mopeds in the other lane were nudging so aggresively that I hit one with my mirror. The mirror bent out of the way and the mopeder seemed not to notice so I refrained from yelling at him to get in his on lane. We finally made it down somewhere and (hallelujah) found a parking place. It seemed to good to be true since we had not only seen none up to that point, but we had also seen regular double parking, leading me to believe that there were no available parking spaces in the whole city. However, there it was so I pulled in. Ah!! Heaven helped us!! We made it through Naples on what was the heaviest traffic day in 10 years. (I found this out later from Niccola, the dad in the famliy Jeannie babysits for.) Apparently spring had come late and it was European Labor Day so everyone in the country had gone to the coast.

Beacuse it was Labor Day very few of the shops were open and, after walking around for a while, we decided to head on out of Naples. We briefly considered going out to one of the nearby islands but decided to check out the castle overlooking the harbor instead. Alas it was closed so we contented ourselves with looking at the outside before getting back in the car and heading down the road. It was about 3 so we decided start thinking about a campsite, in which vein we decided to head towards Sorrento. We stopped for food once and Anson got an Italian style hamburger. The traffic continued to be bad the whole way but it was all pretty mellow compared to what it was like in Naples. Once, traffic was slow and I let another car in front of me. The driver did not even wave a thank you but instead turned away and honked once, teaching us a little more about the acceptable uses of honking.

We finally saw a sign for camping so we swung off the road to the right and began driving down a narrow and steep road. At the bottom we found the advertised campsite and turned in. I steeled myself for another conversation in broken Italian and got out of the car. I went over to the proprietor and (I'm pretty sure) said "I would like ... (dramatic pause for effect) ... CAMPING!" He responded, somewhat disappointingly, in English, so we got everything taken care of pretty quickly. Although the campsite was more expensive than the one we had stayed at the night before, it was very nice.

There were orange trees everywhere and some roses and it was generally a very pleasant place to be. After Anson and I got set up we walked down to the beach, then up to the next town (Vico Equense) for dinner.

I LOVE ITALY!!

2009-05-08T07:00:00.001-07:00

We neared the runway. The wheels touched down and I heard a sudden noise. Music. Trumpets playing triumphally. Many of the passengers broke out in applause. As Anson and I grinned and looked at each other inquisitively, wondering why a normal plane landing warrented such celebration, a voice came on over the intercom and annouced happily that we had arrived on time. Furthermore, so the annoucement said, Ryanair flights were ontime more than 90% of the time (the best record in Europe) and that because of this, and the cheap fares, we should continue flying with Ryanair. A damn fine argument if I've ever heard one.

Anson and I had decided, while he was visiting me, to fly to Bari (on the Adriatic in southern Italy) and there rent a car. Now that the flight was on the ground, the next thing to do was rent the car. It took a little bit of waiting and some finagling, involving going to another rental place, but we did get a car rented. Now came the fun part ... driving. We drove straight out of the parking lot and ran smack into a roundabout. We took it and went straight back into the parking lot. We took a break, got our bearings more firmly settled, and headed back out onto the open road. The roundabout didn't manage to foil our exit this time and we headed for our first destination, an old castle built by the Holy Roman Emperor Federick the Second in the

mid 1200's called Castel del Monte. Getting there didn't prove too terribly difficult but it was a sort of sink or swim experience.

Anson was driving first and had had no chance to familiarize himself with the road conditions of Italy (a quasi complete lack of obeyed traffic laws). Although he was able to swim fabulously, avoiding all collisions and managing to pass a bike while being passed by a car in the other direction and being flanked by two parked cars, we did have to take an early brake. I went into a grocery store to get some supplies and Anson headed into a cafe for a sandwhich. After I got the groceries I decided (having brought the map into the store with me) that asking for directions would be good. The supermarket seemed to have a slight excess of staff and when I pulled out my map they materialized from all directions to provide assistance. I pointed to Castel del Monte on the map and did my best to communicate that I wanted to know how to get to the road that led there. I think they got it but none knew which road to take, so my cashier led me out of the store.

We headed across the street to what looked like an abandoned gas station. There was nothing inside the store and all the pumps were wrapped up in paper. There turned out to be a middle aged man sitting in a plastic chair out front with his hands in his pockets, apparently not doing anything. The cashier began to talk to the man and show him the map. A near by German Shepard stood up and barked liesurely.

The man began to speak to me rapidly in Italian. I gathered that we were looking for highway 95, that we should take a couple turns, and that there would be railroad tracks involved at some point. With these directions in mind, Anson and I headed back to the car. I decided that I loved Italy and asking for directions. I hadn't understood most of what transpired but everyone had been friendly, and it seemed like I had learned some things that would help us get out of town.

We headed off in the indicated direction and did take some turns and find some railroad tracks. We crossed them, but ended up pulling a U-ey (an art we would become practised in over our trip) and heading back into town. We had a map of the country which was reasonably detailed, showing major roads and some secondary ones. However, it completely lacked maps of cities; something that turned out to be a serious deficit. We did devise a strategy to cope with it which was, although not perfect, certainly adequate. We just drove around turning onto the roads that were bigger than the one we were on until we were on a road large enough to have signage directing us to the next town. Many of these towns were not on our map, but we usually could make an educated guess, and we always ended up somewhere.

After a few detours, we made it to Castel del Monte. It was neat to see but ... perhaps not as neat as one would hope. You couldn't even get on the roof. So we kept moving, heading north towards the Gargano Peninsula, the so called 'spur' of Italy. We stopped along the way in Barletta and ended up finding another castle. This one was much more like a fortification and less like a hunting home. Although we were able to get up on the roof, this castle seemed to have been partially turned into an office building. We checked out the dungeons too, where we stumbled upon an echo chamber. All in all, the second castle was much more fun to see, but after a bit we decided to keep moving.

Our destination for the night was Manfredonia and, without too many wrong turns, we made it. We were starting to get hungry but, in what was going to be a trend for the trip, there were no stores open. It was about 6 pm, which is earlier than many restaurants open but, we hoped, not too late for the tourist information office to be open. So we went there. The front door was locked, but the lights were on, so Anson and I hesitated outside the door wondering if there was anyone still inside. A man rounded a corner in the building and came over to open the door. He said something I didn't understand, so I just sort of looked back at, smiling stupdily. He repeated it, and I guessed that he was asking what we wanted. I don't know how to express 'can' so I asked where it was possible to eat. Then I rubbed my fingers together to indicated that money was a consideration. Here our man started to show his true mettle. Anson later observed that when you ask an Italian for something they treat it as a problem to be solved instead of a simple inquiry. This observation was to be proved again and again over our trip, but this first time was one of the best examples. Our man didn't just point us 50" down the street to a random cafe. He wanted to get us the best possible Italian food we could while meeting our cost considerations. He also wanted it to be easy for us to get to. Immediately, after I asked the question our man stepped outside the door and began to ponder. We could see that we were in for something good.

After thinking for a moment our man invited us inside. He took us back to his office and offered us seats. While looking at his office we realized that he was a city employee, i.e. he didn't even work for the tourist office, but he just wanted to help us out. He did most of the talking and a lot of repeating, but I gathered we were supposed to go to 'Leclerc'. I asked if it was a city. He said no but then got up and went to a map in the corner of the room. He then began to ascern where we had come from, where we were going, and where we were going to sleep that night.

During my time here, my Italian has progressed significantly from nothing to ... descent tourist Italian. I can ask where things are, how much things cost, make sure that there is no meat in foods, and that sort of thing. However, my Spanish has gotten a lot better and whenever my Italian breaks down I try to slip in a Spanish word or two without anyone noticing. If that doesn't work I resort to English and more enthusiastic gesticulations. If this doesn't work ... I repeat myself a few times with different inflections and gesticulations. Between all this I can usually get my point across, and I actually enjoy it, partly because I think its just sort of fun and challenging in and of itself, and partly because I am putting myself in their shoes. I can only guess at how crappy my diction is, and it makes me laugh to think about asking someone the Italian equivalent of 'wheeere is posseble eating?'.

Our man also seemed to enjoy communicating and definitely one-upped me with the gestures. We where planning on heading to Naples the next day. When he found out he took his glasses off and rested them on a table. He looked deep into my eyes and slowly raised his hands towards his face. He gave Anson the same penetrating stare. Then he started to smile, pulled down his bottom eyelids, continuing to stare at us and smile happily, and said slowly 'o c c h i a p e r t i'. Then he took his hands down from his eyes and held them in front of his chest with the fingers of one hand spread wide and the other hand in a fist. He said something in Italian and then, whistling slowly, he began to close the fingers of his open hand one by one until it too was a fist. He then pulled his eyelids down again and repeated 'occhi aperti'. Apparently, Naples was dangerous, and we should not only watch out for people stealing things but keep our eyes open. Ah, the joys of communication.

These two warnings were repeated frequently thoughout our whole interaction. Indeed, they were repeated frequently enough that, when we did get to Naples, I was really worried about our car getting stolen. Our man continued questioning us and seemed concerned about where we were going to spend the night. We told him we were planning on camping and managed to gesticulate across that we had sleepings bags. Also tent is 'tenda' in Italian so ... we got that idea across too. He recommended against camping because of the weather and told us to sleep in our car in the parking lot just outside. I'm pretty sure he said he would have let us sleep there except that he might get fined. After 'discussing' this some more we moved back to where we would eat.

He said 'Leclerc' again and then wrote it down for us. 'Le cle rc' He held up the piece of papers and read slowly for us emphasizing the spaces so we would be doubly sure to understand. He went on to discribe this place to us. Apparently it was a mall of sorts but there was a good restaurant there that was not only cheap but was also very good. Our man began to expound the virtues of this store, good pasta, good meat, lots of fruit, good appetizers, and on and on. I'm fairly sure that he said he'd go with us, except that he had work to do. I told him I was a vegetarian but that Anson could eat the meat dishes. A few days later I was thinking about it and I'm pretty sure I called Anson 'she' on accident a couple of times, but our man didn't make a fuss about it. Our man continued to talk about Leclerc and even wrote down directions (frequently repeated) on the same piece of paper that he had written the name on.

When we finally left, our man walked us out and shook hands with us. He pointed to the parking lot and told us we could sleep there if we wanted and it would be safe. We could close our eyes without worrying there. As we walked back to our car, Anson and I shared our mutual astonishment at how nice our man had turned out to be. He certainly wasn't the first Italian to be nice to me, but he genuinely tried to help us find a place to eat good Italian food. Despite how good his directions were we still took a wrong turn (although we noticed it quickly) on the way there. In the parking lot we got honked at for stopping at a stop sign, reminding us to keep on our toes.

We were quite hungry by this point, but when we went into the mall we were quickly disappointed. We saw a restraunt dead ahead. It was, however, all shut down. A small sign on one of the doors explained, it was closed for renovations, but only for one day. Our man must not have known. We walked around the corner and found a pizza place. We would've thought this was the place our man meant, but when I had mentioned pizza he had shaken his head, disappointed. Pizza, he informed us, was okay if you were in America but in Italy ... :( ... we should eat good pasta. We ended up eating pizza anyway, but ... at least we tried to follow his advice.

We camped at a roadside campsite and were on the road early the next day.

Vacation and Spring Time

2009-04-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

The hallowed holiday of Spring Break had come to Jeannie's school. She and I combined our interests and crafted a trip wherein we would backpack from Lecco to Mandello del Lario, to a house a classmate of Jeannie's rents out. The trip was, initially at least, stalled by one of the last things humanity has not yet learned to control, Mother Nature.

Either we haven't found the right website for weather or the meteorologists in Italy are especially crappy but they are consistently wrong. I mean, I know that everyone talks about how bad people are at forecasting the weather, and everyone likes to poke fun at their local weather man. However, I usually like to cut them a little slack because ... they are predicting the future. The ones here, though, can't even get the present right. I lost all confidence in them when once, earlier in the year, Jeannie checked the weather and informed me that it was 9 degrees Celsius (48 Fahrenheit) and snowing. I knew this for a boldfaced lie because I had just been outside (the sun was out and it wasn't snowing) and so it took me a minute to catch the incongruity. Jeannie had to help me but I finally caught it ... it can't snow when its that warm.

Anyway, the weather was forecast to rain the whole week of our vacation. I am highly skeptical of the weather service here but as the time neared for our departure, and I realized that we weren't that well prepared for rain (I didn't have a pack cover and Jeannie didn't have anyway to keep her feet or legs dry), I began to get nervous about the forecast. Furthermore, we had had a string of beautiful, blue-bird, days an I was worried that we were due for some rain.

My worries turned out to be ill-founded. The sky, as far as we could see from the train, was again blue and the temperature was warm. The train ride to Lecco was about 4 hours and we wanted to get there with enough time to do some hiking so ... we got up at 5 am. Our train left Bologna at 7 and, after a short connection in Milan, we got to Lecco at about 11. I couldn't find any maps before we left so all we knew was that we would, hopefully, find a tourist information office and it would, hopefully, have some maps which we could use to hike from Lecco to Mandello del Lario.

In Lecco our first reconnaissance only revealed what seemed like a dozen travel agencies. They, however, only had maps for remote destinations. We kept on, though, and we finally found the tourist information office. It turned out to be a goldmine and receptionist was perfect for her job. She was super friendly and when I asked if we could camp anywhere, although she said most of the land was private, she still recommended we give it a shot. "They aren't going to come and put you in handcuffs, and if they try to you can always say you don't speak Italian." In the end, gave us maps and advice o'plenty, and sent us happily on our way.

The plan she had laid out for us was incredibly simple. 'Walk through this piazza to the newspaper stand. Buy 2 bus tickets. Take bus number 1 to the last stop.' Buses have always been a mystery to me and the system in Taipei was complex enough that I never took the bus more than a 10 times the whole year I was there. Bologna's bus system, though it is smaller, isn't much better, and I don't really use it either. In this light, it was refreshing to be taking bus number 1, especially in a town that appeared to only have about 5 bus routes. Added to that was that the weather, despite forecasts of doom, was sunny and warm.

In Italy hiking appears to be rather different than in the US. In the US, for the most part, the trails are not steep, steep, or really steep, but there are usually trail construction standards and even in the extreme the gradient of the trail is limited by how steep dirt can be before it just erodes itself away to a lower angle. Trails could be steeper if they were on rock, but rock is usually not part of hiking paths. Italy, however, appears to have devised a couple of ways to circumvent this.

I had heard of one called, Via Ferratta before. It is basically iron rungs attached to the rock, resulting in a ladder. The other kind I was less familiar with but my impression is that it is for lower angled rocks and it is basically just a chain handrail. The tourist information advisor had initially suggested we take a couple of trails that left immediately from Lecco. However, upon further investigation, she found that these included sections of Via Ferratta, or at least required equipment. We weren't quite prepared for Via Ferratta, especially because this was Jeannie's first backpacking trip.

So, our advisor had chosen a new trail, which she said was 'facile' (easy). She said it only took a couple of hours and, as our bus zoomed up a large hill, it confirmed my suspicion that our hike would be a walk in the park. Because our plans mostly involved taking it easy, resting, eating, napping, resting, taking it easy, and eating an easy hike seemed to fit the bill perfectly.

However, after the bus driver pointed us in the direction of the trail and we got started, we soon found that 'facile' was not going to be as easy as we had thought. During one of our eating/resting breaks we examined the map and found out that, to our surprise, 'facile' was intermediate level difficulty. The easiest was 'elementari' and the hardest (usually requiring equipment) was 'impegnativi'.

Although the trail was steep (much steeper than we'd expected), we managed to make it up it and the views were stunning. We were heading for the 'Piani Resinelli' which is a small city and had

prompted my question about where we would camp. We ended up finding a camping spot on the downhill side of the 'Piani Resinelli' and, though we could see a couple houses from our tent, we were reasonably well secluded. Furthermore, we hadn't seen more than 10 people the whole day, including walking through a small town and asking two women for directions.

I was a little worried about cooking dinner with my stove because I had had to procure some gasoline from a local gas station and, because I didn't do enough research before hand, I was only somewhat sure that I had gotten the right kind of gas. Furthermore, when testing out my stove before we left a small fireball had erupted from the stove when I lit it and, even more distressing, the fuel bottle had leaked and the fireball had caught it on fire. Most distressing, however, was that, because I had decided to do this test on our stove top (it seemed like a fire-durable surface), I was also worried about the cabinets catching on fire. I had managed to keep anything from getting burned, but the stress from the incident had kept me from doing anything more mentally strenuous

than listening that whole afternoon, and I was nervous about using the stove again. Fortunately, although the flame was dirty, there was no fireball and our pasta boiled up right nice.

The next day we hiked down into Maggiana Crebbio and thence on to Jeannie's friend's house in Mandello del Lario. From then on we, continuing our trend, mostly spent our days resting and eating, with regular walks down to the lakeside before or after meals. Other than that only a couple interesting things happened.

The first interesting thing was: we tried to cook pizza. We decided while we were hiking that it would be pleasant to cook ourselves a pizza. After ascertaining that the house had an oven we went to the store and bought all the fixings. We then prepared one pizza without thinking to pre-heat the oven first. When we tried to do this we found out that something was wrong with the oven. Gas would come out but it wouldn't light. So I reached in with a lighter and lit it. The problem appeared to be solved but we decided to ask the neighbors for help just in case (I was still gunshy of possible fireballs). The neighbors proved of little help when she tried to use the timer to light the stove, then told us that it 'non funziona'. So, we thanked her and smiled and said we'd figure something out. After she left I took another look at the oven and found another heating unit on the bottom, that I had not lit before. We had not smelled gas, but I tried lighting it a couple of times, to no avail. Because we already had a pizza prepared we decided to go ahead try to bake it, lighting the oven by hand. We, lacking a pizza pan, had prepared the pizza directly on the rack. When we first put it in the ends of the pizza had flopped down and the ingredients were falling off of the pizza. In a moment of brilliance and idea sprung to me, "We'll prop up the ends with crackers!!" We we put crackers on the bars of the rack and under the ends of the pizza so that they couldn't fall down. However, after a couple minutes of backing the dough (store bought) was in the phase where its hot, but it hasn't been hot long enough to have baked into something firm. Which meant that the whole pizza was sinking through the bars.

We took it out of the oven. We decided we didn't really want pizza, we wanted a calzone more. To this end, we decided to roll the pizza up, put it on a plate and bake that. This went off about as well as one could expect and we ended up with a pile of dough, mozerella, spinach, mushrooms, olives, and tomatoe sauce. We put it back in the oven and crossed our fingers. Meanwhile we had prepared a second pizza in a 11" x 6" x 2.5" rectangular pan, which was probably more suitable for baking maccarroni and cheese but ... beggars can't be choosers and we didn't have anything else to work with.

Now commenced a long period of waiting broken only by trips to the oven to see how our pizza was doing. In short, the pizza-come-calzone ended up getting burned on top so we took it out and spread it around into more of a pizza-pie. It still got burned and, in another stroke of brilliance, we decided to flip it, so we took all the hard/burned pieces and flipped them over revealing the doughy-mozzarellay center. At this point we decided to start using a timer and cycling the oven: on 2-3 minutes and off 2-3 minutes. We also decided to put in our second pizza, on the next-to-bottom shelf with the pizza pie beneath it. Everything still burned. Just before we were about to give up we had our final stroke of brilliance. We could 'fry' the good pizza to cook the dough on the bottom. This worked ok but by this point we were both full from testing dough to see if it was cooked and we weren't really hungry. The upside of all this is that the fiasco was so ridiculous that we couldn't help but laugh. Also, we had basically had plain pasta for dinner the night before so this was a step up from that.

The second interesting thing that happend was that: we discovered we have become gelato snobs. The logic goes like this: gelato is an inherently Italian creation and so it must, naturally, have the worlds best gelato. Within Italy Bologna has, with the only exception, perhaps, of some places in southern Italy, the best gelato. Furthermore, within Bologna Jeannie and I have scouted out the majority of the gelato places and we happen to live a quarter mile from the place that we believe is the best. This is also subject to debate but the place we like (La Sorbetteria) is recognized to be very good, if not the best. Therefore, Jeannie and I live only a few minute walk away from the best gelato place in the world. This has obvious benefits but one of the drawbacks is that mediocre gelato doesn't really cut it anymore. So in Mandello del Lario, after the second time we got warmish, sugary, and bland gelato we just gave up. I feel sort of bad about being a gelato snob but ... the best is just so good.

Friend Festival!

2009-04-02T02:44:00.000-07:00

We had a full house this weekend. Kathryn (a friend of Jeannie's from her undergrad) got here, from Japan, on Thursday night. Jeannie and I busted out our Italian cooking skills and made eggplant Parmesan. Jon (pronounced 'yon') and his girlfriend Meredith (Jon was visiting her while she studies in Geneva) got here on Friday morning at 5:30. So I got up at 5:10 to go meet them. I was 10 minutes late, but I had planned on that cause I figured either their train would be late or they would be dazed enough not to really care. And in the end their train was late.

We spent most of Friday eating pizza and gelato. I tried a new flavor (La Maria) which has rum in it and is incredible. In the evening we went to see a blues band at Jeannie's school and after that we went to a sort of local 'bar', for lack of a better word. It is a basement apartment that some of the professors at the University of Bologna own/have permission to use. Every Friday night these professors play classic American rock for a couple hours. Its b.y.o.b. which is sort of nice, but its also really smoky. This is even more unpleasant because smoking is banned in all bars and restaurants in Italy (which, in itself, is miraculous because there are so many smokers here, they even have cigarette vending machines on the streets.)

On Saturday morning my friend Ben (who I went to the Fireworks Festival with) came in from London. All 6 of us decided to go up to San Luca, a basilica on a hill. Apparently it is featured in the climactic ending seen of a John Grisham novel but we went because there are portico's the whole way (it was sort of a rainy day) and there are excellent views from the top.

Jon, Meredith, and Kathryn all left on Sunday. Ben (who just finished his semester) and I took this opportunity to sleep till about 1. The rest of the day, as per its start, was really lazy but we did make one important decision. We were going to go to Venice on Monday. We got up at 6:30, had eggs for breakfast, and headed for the train station. Its 2 hours by train to Venice and we got there a little after 10. Neither of us knew much about Venice, and the little that we did know was gleaned from a 4 year old travel guide while we were on the train. Apparently the site to see is Piazza San Marco and San Marco's Cathedral. Maps were out of our price range (2 euros) but we had read that you can take water buses to see these things. We decided against this in favor of walking and following discreet yellow signs.

In Bologna the streets are mostly on the narrower side and the buildings are mostly on the taller side. This, in combination with the porticoes (ie. covered sidewalks), go a good way towards preventing the average pedestrian from seeing the sky and completely prevent him/her from getting his/her bearings on anything. Basically, unless you know your way around, things can be a little confusing. Venice is similar, but about 5 times worse. There are lots of nice, wide streets but some of them are only as wide as a normal sidewalk, but with buildings towering up on either side.

Anyway, we got 'lost' a couple of times, although there are limits to how lost you can get, ie. if you go to far in one direction, you'll just get to the ocean. We stopped once at a grocery store to get supplies (bread and cheese) and once to sit by the canal and eat our supplies, but we did make it to a major thoroughfare near San Marco's. So we sat down to snack a little and enjoy the sunlight. Because the alleys are too narrow to let in much light every one that walked out of an alley immediately crunched up their face and went into full squint, which was very amusing to watch. We did get bored after a while, so we walked down to check out the cathedral. It was crowded. Ben rated his desire to go in as a 3, which decreased to a 2 (on a scale of 1 to 10) after seeing the line, so we decided to walk around some more.

At this point, the fates aligned. It was after noon, we found another grocery store, and a large piazza with nice benches. And the sun was still out, or at least trying to peak through the clouds.

So we bought some beer and sat on the benches. We spent most of our time talking about how much we loved Italy and Venice. We found all sorts of good reasons to love Italy, delicious coffee and food being a couple. Another was that all Italians all seem to be really friendly. I hadn't had a conversation, with an Italian, in English yet (I even found out there were no free maps in Italian) and Ben, who had only gotten to Italy 2 days before, could order coffee without the host slipping into English (something that frustrated us to no end in Taiwan).

The one reason that surpassed all the rest, though, was how happy and mellow everyone seemed to be. By just sitting on a public park bench and drinking beer Ben and I were doing something that would get us arrested in the States. And, despite the fact that it was early Monday afternoon, there were crowds of other young people drinking and singing. One group even set up a sort of gauntlet that reminded me of something I had read the Iroquois Indians or medieval knights used to do. One guy wearing a wreath of leaves as a sort of crown ran through a sort of tunnel of his friends while they all slapped and hit him. When he made it out he tumbled to the ground, but everyone was laughing and having a great time (I later found out that the people wearing wreaths had just graduated). These groups often broke into loud song, but despite their antics the worst looks they got from passersby were just 'Ah, look at those young kids ... I remember when I used to be young.'

So basically, we were enjoying ourselves. At the 3rd beer we realized that this was basically the same thing that we had done in Taiwan, ie. drink beer outside and talk. However, the reason we drink beer outside and talk is ... it's a lot of fun. We kept hanging out until we got hungry and then we went in search of cheap food. The rest of the day was mostly uneventful except that we didn't get a train back to Bologna until 11:30 and we almost missed Bologna when we got there. The train had sat for almost an hour in a station along the way so I assumed it was going to be late and set my alarm for later than our original arrival time. We ended up getting to Bologna early and sitting there too, which was fortunate because it gave me time to deliriously open my eyes, stare at a sign that said 'Bologna' for 5 seconds while the information processed, then rush off the train.

My Apartment

2009-03-21T07:16:00.001-07:00

I previously mentioned how sketchy my shower is ... so here're some pictures, although I don't know if they do it justice. Its like showering in a big rectangular bowl. Every time I move it reminds me of slab climbing because thats the kind of climbing where the rock isn't vertical so it is, in theory easier. However, what the rock lacks in vertical-ness it makes up for in a corresponding lack of handholds. So you have to move carefully and place your feet delicately. I feel like that almost everytime I shower. The other pictures, as you could probably guess, are of the bedroom and kitchen.

Hooray for the International Atomic Energy Association!!!

2009-03-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

We were in Vienna. We got off the subway at the 'Stephansplatz' station, with the intention of seeing St. Stephans cathedral. The station was indeed well placed because the escalator we rode to the surface put us out about 30 feet from the front door. The cathedral, in all its gothic majesty, loomed up in front of us. Much of the stone was black (presumably from age and mold) giving the cathedral an even more powerful presence. Apparently the building has been under construction almost continuously since the 1100's and, true to form, one tower was still under construction. The inside was just as formidable with thick pillars rising to the dark recess in the arched ceiling.

Jeannie and I were in Vienna not to see St. Stephans cathedral, but to attend an Austrian Ball. The two of us, and Jeannie's entire class had arrived in Vienna that morning after an all-night bus ride from Bologna. The entire trip had been organized by Jeannie's Austrian classmates. They had bought the tickets to the ball, booked hotel rooms for the 200+ students and partners in our group, and rented 3 big busses to get us there. Jeannie and I had chosen to book our own hotel room for two reasons. The first was, to save money, and the second was, because we like to do our own thing.

I'm pretty sure that Jeannie and I are basically the perfect travel partners, which is lucky cause we're going to get married. We share an ~hour long tolerance for museums and a sweet tooth. Additionally, we both like walking and hate spending money. These trends have made themselves felt in recent trips to Florence and Rome. We usually see maximum 4 sites per day and spend the rest of the time walking around looking for gelato, falafel (so far, all the European cities I've been to have Bangladeshis by the dozens making cheap kebabs and falafel; except the ones in Bologna don't seem to make good falafel), cheap beer and sites that don't cost money to see (like parks, cathedrals, or old buildings instead of museums). We also spend a lot of time walking from restaurant to restaurant trying to find a good deal.

The only difference to our travel in Vienna was that instead of looking for gelato we looked for 'sachertorte'. Torte just means cake and sachertorte is a traditional Viennese chocolate cake with fruit thrown in in a delicious way. Also, because it was cold and we were running on very little sleep (the bus seats were smaller and more uncomfortable than airplane seats) we spent more time in coffee shops relaxing.

After we saw St. Stephans cathedral we moved on to the Hofburg (the Imperial Palace and the former center of the Holy Roman Empire). For our one museum of the day we toured the Imperial Suites and got to see the very rooms from which emperors had coordinated their empires. We managed to make it for about an hour and a half in this museum (we had gotten the audio guide for free so we had to get out money's worth out of that). After a gelato stop in the afternoon we went back to the hotel to take a nap before the big evening of the ball.

Vienna is a very agreeable and progressive city with wide pedestrian friendly sidewalks, bikes everywhere, and some completely car-free streets near the cathedral. They even have bike stoplights. Another aspect of this progressive attitude is aggressive government support for the arts, specifically modern art. Apparently the city government frequently buys art and, periodically, puts on themed displays. One of these exhibits was kind enough to invite our entire group (all 200 something of us) to a cocktail reception.

We had to be there at 6 pm and we were almost on time. However, we (or at least I) ran into a hitch when getting ready. I was dressed and I looked in my suitcase to get out my shoes. I didn't see them. I swore. I dumped everything out on the bed. I swore again. Apparently the dress code for this sort of thing was very strict. I quote from the ticket ''Ladies: Formal evening dress or national costume Gentlemen: Dinner jacket/tuxedo, smoking, formal evening attire with bow tie (no neckties!)

or national costume" Everyone had made a big deal about the bowties and I assumed that sneakers were not a part of 'formal evening attire'. However, by the time I found out that all I had were tennis shoes and boots it was about 5:45. Jeannie and I decided that I should just wear my regular shoes (fortunately they are black) and hope for the best.

At the cocktail reception our friends assured us that they didn't notice my shoes and that if it came down to it we could just get a few girls with long dresses to walk in front of me. Someone else suggested that if I got turned away Jeannie could go in and find another guy with black shoes and bring them out to me, so that I could wear them in. I found this particularly funny because that's what people do with drivers licences to get under-21-year-olds into bars. Despite the number of excellent and creative solutions proffered by our friends, no one hassled me when we went in. Although this was a weight off my shoulders, I still felt a little like an idiot for wearing running shoes to a formal ball but then again ... meh, aint no thang.

The place was hoppin. The ball was at the Hofburg and, although it was in a different wing than the Imperial Suites, its seems likely that we were dancing in the very rooms where emperors and empresses had previously danced. Anyways, Jeannie and I went into the bar area and ran into a couple of our classmates. Apparently the opening ceremony was about to kick off, so Jeannie and I decided to go see that. We saw what looked like the main room, walked in, and found ourselves feet from the main stage.

I think the opening ceremony was about an hour and a half long but here is the short of it. The ball was hosted by the International Atomic Energy Association (a UN organization) and the head of that organization was retiring. So there were a number of speeches (including one by the head, a Nobel laureate), 1.5 opera pieces, some traditional dancing, a performance by a mariachi band, and a waltz by the young debutantes to kick off the dance.

After the opening ceremony, which seemed to fly by, we made our way to the bar again where we paid an exorbitantly high price for a glass of wine and a beer. Luckily, the bread was free. So we loaded up on that. Additionally, the Austrian Ball Committee (aka the Bologna Center Austrian students) had fundraised to such an extent that they were able to provide multiple glasses of champagne for everyone. Needless to say, we had a lovely time.

There was live music in every room of the palace- we stopped by the swing, rock, and reggae rooms. Unlike some of our more energetic classmates who were closed down the palace, at around 2 am we were ready to call it a night.

We both slept very well and were ready for another day of sightseeing by the time we woke up. The first thing we did was go to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's house. Well, one of them. Mozart never lived anywhere for more than two or three years. It was interesting to see how he lived. He apparently made tons of money, but spent it more quickly than he could make it. By seeing the place, I had hoped to imbibe some of his musical talent, but alas, I still can't play the violin. It was really neat see how a genius like Mozart created music and lived.

After that, we wandered around Vienna for the rest of the day, going into various coffee shops and enjoying (or not) various good (and bad) desserts. We finished our day with delicious Austrian beer, and the first and only Taiwanese vegetarian restaurant in Vienna. Which, interestingly enough, is not staffed by Taiwanese. After talking to our server some I asked which part of Taiwan she was from and, in an awkward turn of the conversation, she pointed out that she was from southern China. So that's weird.

Addendum to Post 2

2009-02-18T23:57:00.000-08:00

I forgot to write the funniest part of the story about having dinner with Jeannie's babysitting family. So here it is: Jeannie and I are vegetarians and our vegetarianism was a semi-frequent conversation topic. Niccola (whose English is actually pretty good) has gotten the words 'vegetarian' and 'vegetable' confused. Therefore, whenever we talked about being vegetarian and Niccola needed to say something like 'So how long have you two been vegetarians?' he would instead say 'So how long have you two been vegetables?'. It made the whole night a lot funnier (although not until after we'd left). Also, Jeannie and I didn't have the heart to correct him so, if we go over for dinner again, we will almost certainly get called vegetables repeatedly.

The High Life: Eating Gelato and Riding My Bike

2009-02-06T06:04:00.000-08:00

I've been enjoying myself so far. I ate gelato the first day I was here but I didn't really like it. It was too creamy and sweet for me, which was kind of a bummer because Jeannie eats it pretty much everyday. We kind of decided though that beer was like my gelato. Jeannie could eat gelato with lunch everyday and not think about it and I could drink a beer every day with lunch and not think about it (if money grew on trees that is). Anyway, gelato has been growing on me since I found the 'Sorbetteria'. Its not quite as creamy (which makes sense because we ate at the 'Cremeria' the first time) so I like it much more. You get two flavors every time and so far I've tried white choclate (fantastic, way better than vanilla), dark chocolate (darker than the darkest chocolate bar I've ever had ... almost too dark for me), strawberry (delicious in small quantities), Dulce de leche (caramel, and officially my new favorite flavor), vanilla with pine nuts and caramel, and this other flavor I don't remember the name of that was made with ricotta cream and had little candied fruits in it, which I wasn't the hugest fan of. Anyway, strawberry with white chocolate was my favorite until I found out about Dulce de leche.

Aside from eating gelato, I've also been able to get out riding my bike, and I even went on one overnight trip. It was during Jeannie's finals week so I decided to make myself scarce and I had been wanting to do an overnight shake down bike trip for a while so I went for it. I had bought a map a while ago and using google maps (very detailed and helpful) in combination with my map I planned out a route. If all went well, I would bike out in a large circle and stay on mostly small roads.

I had been planning for weeks about how I would pack for an overnight trip (I have a rack on my bike but no panniers) and I finally ended up bungeeing my tent on top of the rack and Jeannie's small backpack (good because it has a stiff plastic frame) to the side of the rack. I figured my sleeping bag would be to bulky to attach to the rack so I decided put it in my backpack, carry my backpack like normal and call it a poor mans pannier. Once equipped with my route (street names written on paper with my map as backup) and once my bags were packed I set out.

I retraced part of my route from my last biking trip so I was on pretty major roads. I went through a couple round-a-bouts, which I was a little nervous about, but which really weren't that bad. I was also excited to pass a Carrefour (because I'm always excited about cheap food buying places). Anywho, I started to keep my eyes out for my turn off (Via Gesso). I almost missed it because it was a one way road going onto the street but I looked back after I had passed it and sure enough, it was Via Gesso.

Via Gesso turned out to be a beautiful interlude in my trip. The sun was shining, the traffic had died off, and I was surrounded by fields (if only on one side). After this short rest, however, Via Gesso emptied back onto a large road. It was only a two-lane but traffic was just buzzing along and there didn't appear to be a shortage of large trucks either. I didn't really see any other options so I waited for a lull in the traffic and then rode on, while keeping a sharp eye out for my next road (Via Lavino). Google maps had made it look like Via Gesso just turned into Via Lavino, so perhaps this was Via Lavino. There had been no street sign at the intersection. I decided to stop and look at my map. During my planning I thought it would be prudent to choose a road that was on my map. Now, sitting by the side of the road looking at my map I realized that route I had chosen, while being, theoretically on the map, was not labeled. I found out later that I was on the right road, but because my map didn't label the road I was on, I was clueless about where I was. I decided my only option was to keep riding and keep looking for Via Lavino. After a while I saw a sign for Via Lavino. I was thrilled and quickly turned off the main road. Via Lavino turned out to be a muddy dirt road. I decided moderate traffic was preferable to mud on a road bike and turned back to the other road.

This proved to be a good decision because I quickly saw another 'Via Lavino'. This one, however, appeared to lead to a small factory so I again avoided it. I ended up seeing 12-13 more Via Lavninos. After a while I saw one that was only about 30' long and just led to a house. I started to wonder if Via Lavino wasn't actually Italian for 'driveway' and somehow google had mislabeled something. After I got back I tried to translate 'via lavino' and apparently it means 'wash away' (at least according to www.google.com/language_tools). Traffic had been gradually dieing off and the vineyards had been becoming more common so I decided just to keep with the road I was on.

The road had been going slightly up-hill almost the entire time but now it began to steepen. It continued to steepen until I had shifted into my lowest gear. This, unfortunately, caused my rear derailleur to hit the spokes on my back wheel, so I stopped to do some maintenance. Once that was sorted out I moved on. I passed through one small town and had to get off and walk a couple times, but I finally made it to the top of the hill.

I hadn't left Bologna until about 2 and by the time I made it to the top of the hill it was exactly 5 so I started looking for a good campsite. I was surronded by fields with small copses of trees interspersed therein. Despite the abundance of 'No Trespassing' signs (they were put up on posts about every 20') I decided to camp in one of the small copses of trees. I was pretty close to a road and, because I didn't want to have an awkward confrontation with a possibly irate Italian farmer (and possibly one or more of the dogs I could hear barking) I didn't set up a tent right away. I hadn't planned on setting up my tent at all but, during the night I noticed that there were no stars out. I got worried about getting rained on and figured, because it was dark I probably wouldn't run into any Italian farmers, so I set up my tent.

In the morning after I had broken down camp I realized that I had a flat tire. I attributed this to the fact that the spot I was camping in would, in the summer, be a narly patch of brambles so my front tire must just have gotten caught on a stray thorn. I walked out to the road and set about changing my tire. I had never actually changed a tire before but this experience turned out to be glorious. The sky had cleared up and the sun was shining down warming my bones. I was (thanks to yesterday's climb) on one of the highest points around so the view was beautiful. And, aside from cold fingers, the tire changing went off without a hitch. There were even birds chirriping melodically in the trees.

After I got my tire sorted out it was, both literally and figuratively, 'all downhill from there'. I bundled myself up, rolled down the hill. By the time I had to peddle much again I was halfway to Bologna and I used the rest of the ride back to think of ... Lessons Learned: 1. You aren't as strong as you thought you were and biking uphill with food and a tent is harder than you thought it would be. 2. Maps suck (I kind of already knew that) but writing road names on yours would make it a lot better. 3. Poaching camping is as sketchy and unenjoyable as you remember it being, especially because you don't speak any Italian.

Hair Cut!!!

2009-02-06T05:44:00.000-08:00

I had to put it in pony tails because I was donating it to locks of love and they want it to be in a handy donateable format. Also, I look pensive in the next to last picture because I had just heard a 'snip' and then Jeannie say "Whoops! maybe could have done without that" But then she laughed and I figured it was ok.

Biking!

2009-01-27T06:34:00.000-08:00

I almost hit a pedestrian the other day. She was very apolegetic though. I was cruising along in the (I think) bus lane and she stepped out in front of me. I slammed on my brakes but still came up right beside her. Then she noticed me and started apologizing fervently. I didn't realize until I was biking away that I hadn't even said one word. I would have said "I'm sorry" but I don't eve know how to say that. I really only know how to say please, thank you, and your welcome. And 'Preggo' means please and your welcome, so I pretty much only know two words.

Anyway, not discouraged by my last almost-accident while biking, I got a littel stir-crazy today and decided to go on a longer ride. I glanced at a map decided to head south-east (sort of towards Florence) and try to get out into the mountains. On my way out of the city I passed the stadium where, I deduced from the masses of riot police loitering around, there was a game going on. I later confirmed this with Jeannie, apparently David Beckam was there, which I guess explains the riot police.

At one point I had sort of a Taiwan flashback. There was a line of cars at a stop light and I went ahead and pulled up all the way to the front. Cause I'm on a bike and I get special privaleges. After I had been there for a second a moped pulled up beside me. Then another one pulled up in front of both of us. Then a Mercedes pulled out into the intersection and stopped in front of all of us. I realized I probably should have been wearing a helmet. The light turned and I pulled out into the intersection. I was in the center of the intersection and it seemed much more prudent to be on the right side so I decided to merge. I looked over my right shoulder to check for traffic. All I saw was my hair. I looked again and saw mostly hair but it seemed clear and I was starting to lose intersection so I went ahead and moved over. Apparently I don't just need a helmet, I need haircut too.

It seemed to take a while to get out of the city but once I did the mountains were very scenic. I could even see, off in the distance, snow on the hills. I only consulted the map once after I made it out of the city. However, after I saw two bikers ahead, I quickly disregarded the knowledge gleaned from the map though, and decided to follow them. I turned too late and missed them but, after a brief period on a road, albiet a 2 lane road, with higher speeds than I would've liked, found my way out into the mountains. It was gorgeous, quite, and virtually car-less ... everything I had wanted. Unfortunatley it was only about an hour before dark and I felt like I should turn around so I didn't make it far enough to be turned around by snow (which had sort of been my vague goal.)

On the way back I saw 2 more bikers turn into the same road that I had followed bikers down before, which leads me to believe that there is either a good biking trail down there. That or some kind of wierd commune where a bunch of bikers live. I also ran into a police road block near the stadium on the way back. Really it was just a small car and one cop blocking off half of the road, but I was worried that he wouldn't let me pass and that we would have an awkward half Italian and half non-communication conversation. So, doing my best to smile nicely, in hopes of avoiding any awkwardness, I biked past. The cop, however, didn't even appear to notice me. The reason half of the road was blocked off quickly became apparent. It was filled with busses, presumable those of the football team. I did my best to ride along unperturbed with busses towering over me on my one side and traffic zooming past on my other side. I ended up making it home without incident.

Other interesting tidbits:

Our kitchen is tiny. Tiny enough in fact, that I can touch both of the sidewalls at the same time. There are benefits to the tiny kitchen though. For instance, if I sit in the right spot at the table I can reach the sink, the food cabinet, the refrigerator, and the oven without getting up. So thats pretty handy. Heck, if the kitchen was any smaller I could do all my cooking from a sitting position.

Post 2

2009-01-21T06:32:00.000-08:00

In some ways a lot has happened since my last post, but in other ways nothing has really happened. I am going to be taking Spanish and I now have the textbook for the class but it isn't actually going to start until mid February so, right now, I don't have anything that I have to do. I usually go to school with Jeannie in the morning and apply for jobs in the DC area or read. Then I come home in the afternoon and practice playing the fiddle because, if I'm going to go play on the streets in the spring to try to make an extra buck, I figure practicing is really just like increasing my job skills. So that has been the more boring/routine part of my life.

Jeannie babysits here and she and I had dinner with her babysitting family last Thursday, which was one of the more interesting things. It was actually very enjoyable and, although the couple's English isn't perfect, there were no real problems in communication. Both Nicola (husband) and Federica (wife) have very good senses of humor. Federica had already given Jeannie an Italian name (apparently Italians have a hard time with the 'j' part of the name) and she also wasted no time in giving my own Italian name, Gaspare, so I felt like the evening was off to a good start. Also, when they were asking why I chose to study Chinese, I paused before answering and so Jeannie stepped in and said "Jasper enjoys challenging things." This was a perfect set up so after a moment I pointed out shrewdly "That's why I'm dating Jeannie!", which Nicola and Federica had both been thinking, so I knew they had good senses of humor.

From talking with Jeannie I knew that their child (Matilda) wasn't entirely planned and that, although he loves her very much, sometimes Nicola doesn't recognize that he can no longer do all of the things that he wants to. This was illustrated clearly at dinner because he was, apparently, staging a major offensive, the goal of which was moving the family to the UK or the USA for a period. Although it was clearly doomed to failure, I felt out of a sense of fidelity, that I should support him. So when he started jovially using me as an example of someone who travels frequently, I did my best to go along. Federica, on the other hand, continually rejected all his attempts even though some of them, being able to make more money in other countries for instance, didn't seem entirely unreasonable.

Hearing Nici and Fede (as they refer to each other) tell the story of how they met, turned out to be another high point of the evening. Apparently they were both going to a summer retreat at a school in Sicily. Nicola and a friend didn't get to the campus until very late and there were no rooms left. The desk clerk asked if they would mind sharing a room with two girls. (At this point in the story Nicola opend his arms wide, shrugged his shoulders, and smiled in the worldwide gesture of "Of course we wouldn't!") So the clerk gave them the key and they went up to the room. Federica and her roommate were out on the town at the time, so Nicola and his friend had time to scout it out. Nicola began looking around the room, trying to find out what he could about his soon to be roommates. He noted that one of the girls had huge shoes ("A tall girl," he thought). The same girl also had skinny clothes ("A thin girl," he thought). But the thing that caught his eye most was a book by the German philosopher/scholar Goethe ("A smart girl?!?!?!" he thought). At this point, Federica and her friend returned from their night on the town. They had been warned at the front desk that two men would be sharing a room with them, so they, rightfully so, stormed off in a fluster to reclaim their room. As Federica said, "We were girls! We couldn't stay with boys!" Federica decided she would do all the talking (because her friend was shy and Federica is a better talker). When she got to the room she threw open the door and found Nicola. To her chagrin she accidentally blurted out "Che buono!" (so beautiful) after which she quickly slammed the door. And the rest was history.

Another fun point of the weekend was a birthday party Jeannie and I went to on Saturday night for one of her classmates. The most interesting thing was that he lives with two Italians, which opened up the possibility of a real cultural experience. This revealed itself later when it came time for cake. I saw one of the Italians put what looked like a piece of bread (presumably cake) in a bag and pour white stuff on it (presumably sugar) and start to shake it. "This is great Jasper, you're getting a cultural experience." I asked Jeannie what was actually happening. "It's a traditional Italian birthday cake where they put bread and sugar in a bag and shake it. DUH!"

Part II: Italy

2009-01-07T06:08:00.000-08:00

I made it, without any hiccups, to Italy: the land where wine is cheaper than water, where dogs go to the bathroom on the sidewalks (and more importantly no one cleans it up), and where, once you get in the bathroom, there are directions on how to get to the toilets. The directions aren't just printed out on paper and taped to the walls, they are engrave in the tile. And you know when you get there because behind the toilet there is a tile that says 'here' and behind the urinals the tiles say 'these are the toilets'.

The trip over was very enjoyable and worked out, basically, completely perfectly. Jeannie and I were worried about how we would get my bike back to her apartment but, to our surprise and good fortune, my bike had been left in Munich. So we went on into Bologna and bought some gelato, which was delicious, like ice cream but richer. After gelato we went to school because, hopefully, the airline was going to ship my bike straight there. Alas, I still had to fill out a customs declaration and fax that in, which we got done the next morning (Monday). The bike came Monday afternoon and I carried back home and put it together Tuesday, which was pretty exciting. Before I left Idaho I bought a rack for it, with the idea of Jeannie being able to ride around on the back. Success! Jeannie had to babysit Tuesday afternoon and, thanks to my help, she got there 10 minutes early. And I popped a wheelie once because Jeannie was sitting on the back. Then I rode over to the grocery store to pick up some beer and eggs but, to my disappointment, it was closed. This, however, wasn't entirely unexpected because Italy celebrates Christmas on the 6th, so I tried to make it back home a new way. I did get lost, but just before I was about to turn around and go back the way I had come, I saw a familiar street sign, which led me straight to my front door. Overall the I'm very excited about bike riding in Italy. The one ride I've had so far was very enjoyable not only do I see loads of other people biking around, but some streets even have bike lanes, making the whole enterprise a lot safer than I had originally thought.

I also have some interesting things to relate about Jeannie's apartment. 1st of all, the shower is a death trap. It is similar to a normal shower in that there is a bathtub attached to it, however, the bathtub is about 1/3 as big as a normal bath tub. It is also tiered so that about halfway from the spigot to the back of the shower there is a step. The dangerous part is that the whole thing is curved. So, its sort of like showering in a big wet bowl, with little lateral maneuverability. Everytime I have to turn my body, I wish there was a handle to grab onto, but there isn't, so I just put my palm against the wall and hope that if I lose my balance there will be enough friction between my palm and the wall to keep me from tearing down the shower curtain in a last ditch effort to prevent my fall from being a rib breaker.

Another interesting thing about Jeannie's apartment is the radiator. Basically, it sounds like a waterfall. I've lived in rooms before that had radiators and none of them sounded like this. Also, it's barely warm to the touch, although if we leave it on constantly it somehow seems to keep the room liveable. However, the combination of the waterfall like noise and the luke warm surface of the radiator lead me to believe that basically there is just hot water running through the radiator, which warms the metal, which warms the room. This seems horribly inefficient; however, I don't really know anything about radiators so if anyone does, I would welcome any knowledge you might have on the subject.

A Good Ol' Taiwanese Adventure

2008-05-29T23:58:00.000-07:00

I've been stuck in Taipei for a long time, and so my girlfriend Jeannie and I decided to try to have an adventure. We perused a guide book and asked some of our friends and decided to try to go to Green Island (from all reports a tropical snorkeling paradise). We made this decision on Wednesday, and on Thursday Jeannie went to book us train tickets down to Taidong. The first boat out to Green Island left at 8 am, so we were going to have to take the 3 am train so we could make it down in time for the boat (its about a four hour train ride). While Jeannie was going to book train tickets I called a couple hotels on the island to try to reserve a room. The first hotel was booked, and at the second one the woman who answered just kept yelling '喂' (Hello in Chinese), so, after doing some yelling of my own, I gave up on that. I got in touch with Jeannie and found out that, somehow, the 3 am train was completely sold out. We were both confused at this turn of events, but took it as a sign that we shouldn't go to Green Island. Apparently it wasn't meant to be.

Further perusing of the guidebook revealed that there was a waterfall not to far south of Yilan, so we decided to head there on Saturday. The train station we needed to get to was so small that only a few trains went through it a day. The first one left Yilan at 10 am, so we decided to take that (it was, after all, a marked improvement over 3 am). We made it to the train station with plenty of time, and were sitting waiting on the platform with our tickets at 9:55. Somehow, we were having such a jolly time waiting on the train that we managed to miss it completely. It stopped, people got off and on, and then it pulled away. As it was leaving Jeannie stood up and said, "I hope that isn't our train", which I think was really just a nice way of saying "Damn it. How did we miss our train? We were right here!" To be fair, the train did pull up to the side of the platform that we weren't facing, but on the other hand, ITS A TRAIN! It was too early in the day to give up, so we decided to go to the next nearest station and walk the rest of the way.

There was a train to Nan Ao in about 25 minutes so we went back to the platform and waited. A few minutes before it was scheduled to arrive we decided to go ahead and stand up, just to be able to keep a better eye on our surroundings, and lessen any chance that we might miss this train too. The train arrived on time, we got on, and then double checked with the conductor, just to make sure. Our original plan was to walk to a "Recreation Farm" (just like a National Park or Forest campground in the states) where we could rent bikes, then ride them to the waterfall. We figured out that we could get to the same farm by walking from Nan Ao, though it might take a little longer. However, we were in good company, and the scenery was spectacular. Nan Ao is a costal town where about three or four mountain valleys all converge onto a small plain and beautiful beach. Not only were we in sight of awesome mountains, but we were walking 'through' (we were on roads, but the only traffic was the occasional old person on a bike wearing an Asian style straw hat) fields and the weather was beautiful. And it was quiet, an incredibly pleasant change from Taipei. We had no map and only a vague idea of the direction we needed to go, however, we did see a bridge that looked promising and decided to head for it. This meant stepping off of the main road and actually walking through the fields. I was worried for a moment about encountering someone with a shotgun yelling at us for trespassing, but who are we kidding, this is Taiwan. No one except the police (and maybe a few hunters) have guns and people are just more mellow about everything anyway. And we were still on a small path, so it didn't seem like we were hurting anything.

After following the path to its end, we found out that it didn't actually go to the bridge. It got us close, but we would have had to wade through a field and maybe a stream too. It wasn't worth it, so we turned around and re-traced our steps. It turned out that the road we had been on led us straight to the bridge too, and, once we got to the bridge we found signs for the 'Recreation Farm' so we knew we were on the right track. It only took us about 30 more minutes to get to the place, however, once there we had a little trouble renting bikes. We saw a group of guys sitting in the shade and as we walked up, one of them got up and approached us. I asked about renting bikes. He said no. Well dog my cats. I laughed (trying to be friendly) and asked again. "There are really no bikes?" Apparently there were bikes, loads of bikes in fact, but they were all broken. I kept pressing to get him to rent us some bikes and he kept resisting, but letting in slowly. After a little he took us back to a shed, and sure enough, he had about a room and half of bikes, all in sub-par shape. I had hoped that there might be one that fit me, but I that dream was destined to dye. It seemed like we were going to be lucky to get a bike at all. The guy we were talking to started poking around in the rows of bikes, checking to see if the tires had air and whether or not the brakes worked. He found one after a while, not only did it have air in the tires, but both brakes worked, or at least were passable (though we would find out later that it pulled pretty hard to the right). He said there was another bike out front for me, which was in good shape, except that only the back brake worked.

By this time, the guy had really warmed up to us (I think he just didn't want to give us bikes at first because he was partly worried about us getting lost and partly worried about the bikes getting stolen and/or broken), and inquired where we were going. We told him the waterfall we were going to and he was somewhat surprised and somewhat pleased. He got out an old map that looked like it had been drawn out, then photocopied about a dozen times so that not much was distinguishable, and began to give us directions to the waterfall. We got ready to leave, and I was somewhat hesitant because I had assumed that we would have to fill out some paperwork or put down a deposit or something, but after a moment the waiting got awkward and he was giving no sign of asking for anything, so we rode off. We went back the way we had come, and decided to stop off at the beach along the way. After a short detour we got into the meat of the trip, heading straight into the mountains.

As we got closer to the mountains the jungle began to surround us, and the clouds dropped down to meet us. And everything got noisier. Apparently it is some sort of frog, but whatever animal it is, it sounds almost exactly like a fire alarm. A loud whining noise of varying volume that goes for quite sometime, but finally seems to fizzle out, presumably as the frog runs out of breath. It is sort of a creepy noise at first, but after a while you sort of get used to it.

On our ride up the valley we had only been passed by one car, so we didn't think there were many people around. And it was starting to rain, so we hoped that would scare other people away. Alas, it was all to no avail. We came upon a shed with a small plaque that said "Jinyue Waterfall", so we parked our bikes there and kept on walking up (the road was dirt and gravel now). We passed a group of 6-7 people coming out, and met about the same number hanging around near some pools below the waterfall. We were greeted in English (as per usual despite the fact that we live in a Chinese speaking country) and they immediately layed in, asking where we were from, and what we did in Taiwan. They were having a good old fashioned BBQ too, and asked if we wanted any food. I was somewhat disgruntled that there were hordes of people around the waterfall and I can't seem to get spoken to in Chinese despite the fact that I'm in Taiwan. AND, I was sweaty as hell and wanted to go swimming, so ... I wasn't as nice as I could have been, and just brushed them off. The water did feel great though. I loitered around in some of the pools at the bottom before deciding to head up to check out the higher waterfall. As I was slowly making my way up a new Taiwanese guy came up and asked if I was going to the upper pool. I said I was, and he said he'd take me up to see it. So I stood up and followed him from rock to rock to the pool immediately at the base of the waterfall. It was gorgeous. The water wasn't actually falling, 'rolling' would be more accurate, but it was still pretty to look at. The waterfall itself wasn't very long, only maybe 20-25' but the pool at the base was large, a dark turquoise-ish color, and completely empty.

Swimming towards the waterfall was like swimming in one of those little rectangular pools that people get in their houses, with an electric current. I kept swimming toward the waterfall and kept never getting there. The water was cold though, and felt refreshing after the bike ride up. After a moment my guide asked me if I wanted to jump in. I had seen a rope swing a little higher up and made a mental note to myself on how sketchy it was, so I asked once to confirm there was no real danger. The guy, naturally, denied any, so I got out and followed him up to the next higher rock. It turned out we weren't using the rope swing anyway, just climbing up and jumping in. He went first, jumping straight towards the base of waterfall, and I followed suit. It was fun. And I didn't get hurt. I didn't even touch the bottom. I decided to quit while I was ahead and headed back down to Jeannie. It turned out to be a good time to leave because, despite the fact that it was starting to rain, more and more people were showing up and any hopes of solitude we'd hoped of having were being destroyed.

The ride back down was enjoyable, though on some of the steeper hills I had to get off and walk, what with only having one brake and all. The ride back to the 'Recreation Farm' was uneventful except for once, when I had to ride my bike into the grass to get it to slow down, and not thinking that she had two working brakes, I yelled to Jeannie to pull off too, which proved to be a stupid decision on my part, because then she was stopped in the exact place I had wanted to cruise through on my way to the stop. I managed to narrowly avoid tragedy by taking a sharper angle into the grass and heading partway up a hill. My bike came off worst and it really only got a twig caught up in the spokes. Once we got back to the farm we both parked the bikes in front. I was expecting this would be when we had to pay, but after loitering for a second, the guy hadn't asked for money, and I damn sure wasn't going to volunteer, so we smiled, thanked him graciously, and walked away.

Jeannie is a vegetarian too (major score) and within minutes, we had already planned out a good all you can eat vege buffet to go to and gorge ourselves when we got back to Yilan. Jeannie had scoped out the train times for the ride back, and knew we could make it to one just after it opened for dinner and get to the food before it had been sitting for too long. Then, before we were out the gate, the guy we'd gotten the bikes from pulled up on a motorcycle and offered us a ride. I was at first confused about how we'd all fit on, but he scooted really far forward, Jeannie squeezed in behind him, and I got on the back. There nothing for me to put my feet on except the exhaust pipe, and not only would that only have worked only for one foot, but it just seemed like a bad idea anyway. I also almost bottomed the shocks out, just by sitting on it (and did bottom them out a number of times before the end) which created and contributed to the general atmosphere of precarious-itude. It seemed like the only thing I could do was hold my feet up, hold on to the sides of the seat, and cross any fingers that weren't holding on. The turns were the scariest part, but the whole thing was also kind of hilarious, and we did end up making it without trouble. He dropped us right below the bridge that the train tracks ran across, so we headed under them, and towards the train station. Jeannie got checked the train times she had written down, and we found out that we had about 45 seconds before the train left. We started running, but the train was leaving as we got onto the platform, so we gave up and stopped to catch our breath. The next train actually came in about an hour, so missing that one wasn't too big of a deal. We decided to go get a couple beers to make the wait easier and make fantasizing about all-you-can-eat vegetarian buffets less part of our conversation. We did finally make it to the buffet, and it was glorious. All in all it was an amazing day.

A Taiwanese Baseball Game

2008-05-29T19:50:00.000-07:00

I went to a Taiwanese baseball game the other day. It was the Whales (pink and green uniforms) versus the Elephants (yellow uniforms). However, they were all wearing pink hats, and they even used pink bats at some points. The best reasons for the pink accessories we came up with were, it was mother's day weekend, and they were just trying to show some motherly affection? We got there a little late but the game was just starting, and it really got of to a thrilling start. No one scored until the fifth inning. Apparently they were pretty evenly matched teams.

For a little background of the game, they were both corporate teams, one played for China Telecom, and I don't remember the other one. I know Taiwan is really stoked off of baseball, to the point of having a picture of a celebrating little league team on the 500 NT bill, but, just judging from how much people follow the corporate league, I don't think there is an actual professional league.

Anyway, one of the main differences I noticed about the game was the approach to encouraging players, and the appropriate noise level. At all the baseball games I can remember going to in the states, the announcers played the cavalry charge and aggressive music and the crowd got rilled up, but all before the batter stepped up to the plate. Then the batter was given a courteous silence, so he could concentrate on hitting the ball. However, there were no announcers here, and the Taiwanese fans didn't start making noise until the batter was about to swing. I can only assume that their motivations were the same (wanting the batter to do well), but it was interesting to see different implementation strategies. The music (or noise) used to encourage the players also highlighted differences between cultures. I think Americans are pretty big fans of the cavalry charge, but the Taiwanese people had a drummer. And not like some 15 year old rapping out a peppy beat you could jig to. No, there was a drum large enough to boil small farm animals in, and a dude with two hammers sounding out the call to battle. It was impressive and motivating, but alas, the weren't too creative with the beat, and after the second hour it got pretty old.

It was the Elephants who finally scored in the fifth inning, and from there the game was over. They scored again in the sixth inning and the poor whales never had a chance to come back.

My Bicycle

2008-04-03T00:44:00.001-07:00

My bicycle and I are beginning to have a long, and some might say sordid, relationship together. I got it for 1500 NT (New Taiwan Dollars), or about $50, which I thought was a good deal. When I first got it I was very excited about it, despite how small it was (while riding my knees came to within about 3 inches of the ends of the handle bars). It had a bell and stickers with pink flowers, and it was such a vast improvement over walking everywhere. However, it didn't take it long to loose the bell (I think the bike got hit by a car while it was parked), the flower stickers started to fade, the basket got messed up, the hubs started to rust, the breaks started to get sketchy, and the wheels started to get more dented than the outside of a pineapple.

One day while I was riding to class the chain broke, so I grabbed it and put in my basket, then sat down on my bike and pushed it, just like the Flintstones, the rest of the way to class. It was a little demoralizing, but also hilarious, so I think it worked out OK. After class I went to get the chain fixed, and it was 200 NT for a new one.

My next bike breaking while I'm riding it adventure happened one Saturday night when I was riding to meet Luke at the subway. We had just had dinner, and I had ridden it home as quickly as possible, which involves standing up and wrenching back on the handle bars, in order to put maximum force on the pedals. I was only at home for a little bit, then Luke texted me and told me to meet him at the metro. So I rushed out, grabbed my bike, and proceeded to sprint away on it. I think I made it to my metro station in under a minute, which is really good time. However, while I was riding I started to notice that the bike handle bars were a little loose. I assumed the nuts were loosening a little bit, and that I could sort it out later. After I got to the metro station, I realized I didn't have my pass with me so I decided to rush one station further up to meet Luke before he got on, and borrow his pass. I jumped back on my bike and sprinted away again. The handle bars seemed a little looser, but I didn't think anything about it. I had to stop for a crosswalk, and as soon as my light turned green, I started wrenching on the handlebars to try to get up to speed again. I guess I wrenched a little too hard because I tore the handle bars off. I could no longer steer and, fortunately I hadn't gotten up too much speed, so the bike quickly fell over. I ended up standing and unhurt because while I'm riding my feet are only about 6 inches away from the ground. I looked around to see if anyone had seen me, which, of course, people had. Then I went to pick up my bike and see what had happened. I had indeed torn the handle bars free from the frame, but they were still bolted into the front stem. So while they were attached to the bike, they were completely useless for their main purpose of guiding the bicycle. So I stashed it and ran on to meet Luke. It was 300 NT for a new handle bar, raising the overall amount of money I'd put into fixing the bike up to 1/3 of its original value.

After I tore off the handle bars I thought the worst was over. However, as you may guess, I was wrong. Alonzo got here about 2 weeks ago, and last Friday I gave him a ride on the back of my bike. All bikes either have a rear rack or pegs, and most people take full advantage of these tools to ferry their friends around. I wanted to be able to ferry my friends around too, so when I bought my bike I asked if the back stand was strong enough to hold a friend. Naturally the salesman said it was, and I believed him. To make a long story short, Alonzo was sitting on the back, and we hit a curb wrong and the back tire bent up like a taco. Neither of us were hurt, and the situation was initially very funny, though possibly more so to Alonzo than to me. Alonzo carried the back end, I steered the front, and we headed off for the bike shop. When I'd bought my bike they told me I got free labor there, so always to bring my bike back to them if anything happened. Ben had also bought his bike here, and he had had a very poor experience with the owner, so I was a little dubious about the place, however, aside from the chain breaking, I had taken my bike there for a couple other small things, and they'd always been helpful to me, so I decided to take my bike there. Apparently it was going to be 600 NT for a new wheel. That seemed a little steep, and I wasn't ready to fork over that much money without a fight, so I went back on campus and stole another bike.

Now, I want to say, that although I did steal the bike, I'm pretty sure no one was using it. I get to school at 7:00 am everyday, so I pretty much have my choice of parking spots, and I park my bike in the same place everyday. This bike is always there and, a few days before, it had fallen over. I noticed there was not even any air in the back tire, so I just kind of pushed up against the bike rack, and left it there. It had not been touched since then. Aside from there being no air in the tires, I feel like the strongest piece of evidence that it was abandoned was that the sticker allowing it to be parked on campus was from last year. Also, not every morning, but on some mornings I see big flat bed trucks carrying away old abandoned bikes, so I figured if I didn't take it away, they would. So, overall I didn't feel to bad about taking it.

It turned out not to matter because the wheels were a different size, and not compatible anyway. This led to another decision, could the bike I'd stolen somehow be made to work, or could they somehow be combined to make one workable bike. No parts could be salvaged off of my bike to make the other bike whole, and making it whole without parts from my bike was too expensive, so I was basically in the same situation. At this point, the shop owner offered to sell me a used bike. I rode it around the block once, but it was pretty sketchy. Only one of the breaks was good, and the peddles were plastic and brittle and I was afraid they were going to break off (which was what had happened to the bike Ben bought here).

I haggled with the guy some, but could only talk him down to 800 NT (from 1000 NT) with the trade in of the two bikes, which I wasn't willing to pay. So Alonzo grabbed the stolen bike, and I grabbed my old bike and we walked away. While I was haggling with the guy, I ran into one of my classmates, and she recommended I go to the bike on campus. Apparently it was cheaper there, and they weren't as devious and cheating as this guy. So Alonzo and I headed there. Because Alonzo and I each had to steer our own bikes now, it was more difficult to walk along and steer with one hand, while holding the back tire off the ground with the other, so I (only sometimes) just pushed my bike along, while the back tire dragged. After I'd been doing this for only about 150 yards at most, Alonzo and I heard a loud hissing sound, and looked down to see the air rushing out of my back tire. Apparently dragging the bike for about 3 minutes was enough to wear through the tire and tube. After that I didn't drag it anymore.

After we got to the bike shop on campus I found out it was going to be 450 NT for a new wheel. Score. That was significantly cheaper than the other place, and these guys were nice. Then, they turned my bike over and found out that I'd need a new tire and tube also, which immediately doubled the price. Learning this was a lot like a slap in the face. 3 minutes of weakness was going to cost me about $15. IT WAS GOING TO COST ME FIFTEEN US DOLLARS FOR PUSHING MY BIKE ACROSS A WIDE STREET.

I asked if they had any used bikes. Nope. It was a hot day my backpack was heavy, and I was sweating just standing there. I decided to stash both bikes on campus, and go home. After we stashed the bikes Alonzo and I went to the Welcome, where Alonzo got a pint of ice cream and I got a beer. Then we went to a near by park, and consumed our rewards for a moderate lenght afternoon of mild stress and discomfort. I'd never drank beer in this park before, and it was actually really nice. For one thing, because I got beer from an actual grocery store instead of a convenience store, like normal, I had more options, so I got something I don't normally drink. And it was good. The park was also full of little kids playing and it was really enjoyable to watch them. They didn't have to worry about paying 15 dollars for not carrying their bike, and them not worrying helped me not to relax. After I finished my beer and Alonzo finished his ice cream, we went home and I took a nap.

I had a sort of vague plan of leaving the bikes there over the weekend and then sorting it out Monday morning. However, things sort of piled up, and I ended up leaving them there for a whole week. During that time, I decided I was just going to have to man up, and pay the 900NT. It was cheaper than buying a new bike, and it was the environmentally sustainable thing to do. So I went back today grabbed my bike, and carried it over to the bike shop. The guy said again it was going to be 900NT and asked if I could pick it up tomorrow. I said that was alright, and then, for good measure, asked if he had any second hand bikes. Apparently there was one, and after a little searching (in large clumps of standing bikes), he found it. And then I decided to buy it. It was on 700NT and was an environmentally sustainable option. And I think its bigger than my old one, and the seat is certainly more comfortable, so I think I actually came out on top of the whole deal. Everything went perfectly. And I'm going to put the bike I stole back in its place tomorrow morning, so I won't even have stolen a bike, just borrowed it for a couple days.

THE CRAZY TRAIN. Part II

2008-03-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

Well, It was 2 in the morning, we were kind of drunk, and had just gotten kicked out of a temple. Fortunately the festival was still going on, so we didn't feel to forlorn. Since the elementary school was our fall back option for a place to sleep, and this seemed like an excellent time to go for the fall back option, we started to move towards the elementary school. We weren't walking for long before we ran into a large group of people, and another temple. We stopped at the temple, with some vague hopes of being able to sleep there, and ended up talking to some more Taiwanese high schoolers. We again broached our problem of having now where to sleep, and the kids threw out some options. One even pointed at himself, but I think he was just doing it as a joke, or to make himself look better in front of his friends, because it never went anywhere. Some of the kids were chewing betel nut, and offered us some. Ben took one, and started chewing, and I refused at first, but after a while a kid came up and shoved one in my face, so I accepted. We kept chatting and chewing betel nut for a while, when suddenly we realized fireworks were about to go off behind us. People around us (mainly the high schoolers) didn't seem to concerned, and weren't weaning full protection, so we didn't panic too much, though we did turn our backs, while carefully looking over our shoulders.

After the fireworks were done, the high schoolers started to move on, and we moved in to check out the temple in slightly more detail. It turned out to be small, and given our record of success, we decided not to ask if we could sleep there. We started moving back towards the elementary school, chewing on betel nut (which causes incredibly heavy salivation), and spitting out huge red globs of spit (I know its disgusting, and I know this doesn't make it OK, but, all the native Taiwanese people do the same thing, so overall, I don't feel too bad about it.) It didn't take to long for the betel nut to get old, and we spit it out before we made it to the school. Once we got there, we did another perfunctory search to find someone to tell/ask to sleep there, but to no avail. We scouted around for a good place to sleep, and decided on a patch of ground near the track. We stashed out stuff here, and deciding it might be hard to fall asleep on the cold ground, headed off to the nearest convenience store (fortunately less than 100 yards away) for a nightcap. It was cold, and we were worried about not being warm while sleeping, so we jogged to the store. As Ben was buying his beer, in the spirit of trying to be warm, I decided we should get some chocolate, and eat that too. To my good fortune, they had Milo bars for only 8 kuai (a screamin' deal) so we got two of those, to help wash the beers down. Then we headed outside, and sat down near the elementary school to have our last, hopefully very conducive to sleep, 'meal'. After it was over, as per our instructions earlier, we left our beer bottles on the ground, and jogged back to our piece of ground. Just as we were putting on our moped helmets for sleep, we realized someone was walking around the track, and for a moment we were worried it was a security guard, coming to try to kick us off of the school grounds, but the person paid us little heed. It must have just been someone out for some late night exercise, and they ended up not being alone. Due to a number of factors such as: being cold, having my camera in my right pocket so that every time I laid on my side it was jabbing me in the thigh, sleeping on some rocks, and having my backpack laying on top of me, I didn't sleep very well. Because I didn't sleep very well (and also possibly contributing to this) I noticed that there were people exercising almost all night long. The first person was there when we went to bed (at close to 3), and when we got up at 6, there was a whole group of people out running or walking or exercising in some way. I've gotten up early to exercise before too, but I was still surprised to see people out all night long.

As we started stretching and moving to try to warm up, one of the exercisers made his way towards us. As he passed us he said something in Taiwanese, and I responded by telling him (in Chinese) we didn't understand Taiwanese. He smiled and (what appeared to be) a look of comprehension spread across his face. Then he said something else in Taiwanese. We just smiled and nodded, and he went on his way. After dusting ourselves off, we decided to head to the nearest 7-11 to get something warm to drink. We went back to the same one we'd bought beer from the night before, and not only did they have warm things to drink, this particular 7-11 was equipped with a short bar and a few stools, so we decided to stay a while. Interestingly enough, the same guy was working now, as had been working when we came in the night before, and I think a quick recap from his point of view is in order.

Two foreigners run excitedly into his store at 2:30 am and grab beers. One buys his beer, while the other peruses the candy selection, then yells excitedly (because I found the good deal on the Milo bars), and buys his beer and two candy bars. Then they leave. 3 hours later they return (not running and maybe even shivering a little) with dirty clothes and blood shot eyes, buy coffee, then slump down on some stools for about 30 minutes before leaving, looking only mildly more energized.

I bet that store clerk has an interesting opinion of foreigners.

We stayed in the 7-11 for a while, and we hoped that by the time we'd left, it would have warmed up some outside, but we were disappointed. After we left we began searching for someplace to eat breakfast. Before to long we found a Danbing (sort of thin pancakes with onions in it, and an egg place fried on top) store, so we stopped there. As a sort of reflection of the group mentality of Taiwanese people, I think the vast majority of them only ever order two danbings. I almost always order three, and whenever I do, it is almost certain to cause a stir. Not only does the cook as one or two more times to make sure I know what I'm doing, but I also frequently get stares from other customers. This danbing place was no different, the cook asked twice if I actually wanted 3 danbings, and a couple old women who were waiting on their food to be cooked, cast shocked and curios sidelong glances at me. The danbings were good though, and we got some soymilk to accompany them.

During breakfast we made some priorities for the day. 1: Secure some form of transportation (preferably leaving at 2 am ish) back to Taipei. 2: Fritter away time until crazy fireworks, preferably by napping. After we finished breakfast we set out to accomplish priority one, so we headed back to where we'd gotten dropped of last night. The bus stop had a sign projecting from the building and, right underneath that sign was a booth. So we approached the booth, and only after a minute of so of looking at the menu for the booth did we realize it was a stand selling waffles, and that all the bus stop was made of was the sign. So we started looking at the sign. While we were discussing our options I saw another sign a little further down the street that pointed to the harbor. I thought it would be neat to see the harbor, so I interrupted Ben in mid-sentence, and broached the idea to him. He seemed excited about it, and we set off immediately, talking about our surprise that we were actually that close to the ocean. After walking for about 15 minutes, we realized we had no idea where we were or even where we were going. We had only seen one sign, and it was pretty vague. It felt sort of like, what I think being ADD would feel like. We just saw a sign to the ocean, thereupon we immediately dropped all plans and departed (without even realizing we'd dropped any other plans) for the ocean.

We began to realize that the combination of: being exhausted, hopped up on caffeine, having no difficult goals for the day, no where to go to accomplish these goals, and no where to go when we weren't accomplishing these goals, led to a very interesting state of mind. This mindset in turn let to various feelings of exhaustion, hilarity, and complete satisfaction with where our lives were at at that point in time.

Back to the story, we didn't know where we were or where we were going, so we decided to ask for directions. Normally this isn't a difficult process, but we do hem and haw a little to find someone friendly looking to ask, or we have to think about how to phrase the question, but now there was no beating around the bush. We turned to the person nearest to our physical position when, which happened to be some guy on an old motorcycle. He said we were about 20 km from the ocean, so we immediately dropped all thoughts of going there, and headed back the way we had come. On the way (we were getting back on track with 'our priorities') we decided to take a bus back to the larger town with the train station, and try to secure transportation from there. A woman was waiting at the bus station when we got back, and she told us it was just a few minutes until the next bus, so we got in line. After a short bus ride back to Xinying we headed to the train station to look for the tourist information center. The train station and bus station were on opposite sides of a traffic roundabout and both stations had their own set of taxi drivers, who, despite having seen us a number of times, took every opportunity of us walking past, to avidly sell their wares (a taxi ride to the fireworks festival). Their approach was to communication involved a lot of yelling, or just loud noises indicating fireworks, accompanied by gestures of explosions and soaring rockets. It was interesting at first, then it got old, then it got interesting again because they were so dedicated and oblivious to our apathy in their taxi rides.

At the train station, the tourist information center didn't open for 30 more minutes, so we were at a slight loss. However, we took this opportunity to go to the bathroom, and clean up a little, and Ben called his landlady to tell her he wasn't going to be in Taipei that day (something had gone wrong in his apartment, and they needed him to be there while they fixed it). It turned out that Ben's landlady was coming to the festival, and was driving down as he talked to her. We wondered if we might be able to get a ride back with her, Ben had said she was nice.

After getting cleaned up we decided to move on to goal 2 for the day, so we asked the station manager where the nearest park was (our plan was to go there to nap for a while). The station manager was happy to tell us that there was one, just right outside of the station. We walked out, only to discover that the 'park' he was talking about was just a monument inside the roundabout. As soon as we found this 'park' we were stoked. It was perfect. Not only were the marble benches around the monument not covered in dirt, but they would warm up with the sunlight, hopefully creating some sort of oven in which we could warmly bake ourselves. And if that got too crazy, there were a couple patches of scraggly grass (actual grass, not just dirt that looked like grass, like where we slept the night before) underneath trees, so we could seek refuge. We really were really excited about this 'park' for about 45 seconds until we realized IT WAS A 20 FOOT BY 20 FOOT CIRCLE IN THE CENTER OF A ROUNDABOUT. We still liked it, but we decided to keep looking for another place, and to hold this as a fall back option. So we headed off down the road. We explored a couple groups of trees in hopes of finding a little park somewhere, but they were just houses with gardens. After walking for a little bit, we saw a sign for the local 'Cultural Center'. We got excited about that, and were about to run off towards it (it seemed like we might be able to sleep at a 'Cultural Center'), when we remembered the dangers of following random signs, so we stayed the course. We did get off track a little bit when we ran into an internet cafe, and stopped to check our emails. It was kind of an intense place because all of the computers had huge chairs in front of them. They were obviously the sort of chairs made for 15 hour stretches playing the same video game. We almost passed out here, but Ben was in favor of finding a park, so as we were leaving we asked directions to the nearest park. Apparently it was just through a couple stop lights, then take a right and we were there. So with these hopeful directions, we set of again. On the way we came upon a truck parked by the side of the road, and right after we passed it we saw another copse of trees of to the right, so we went to check it out. The benches in this park were too short, and there was no grass in between the bamboo, so we decided to move on. Because of circling around a little in the park we ended up behind the truck, so we had to walk past it again, and as we walked back towards the road, we picked back up the same conversation we'd been having before spotting the park. It all worked out so that, as we were passing the truck for the second time, Ben was saying almost exactly the same thing he had said the last time we passed the truck. It was sort of like deja-vous, except that the same thing had just happened, I didn't just think it had just happened. It was a little creepy and funny, and probably made more so by the mental state we had going.

Shortly after that we finally made it to the 'Cultural Center' (even though for a while we hadn't know that it was our goal, we made it there anyways). It was truly amazing. It had a lake, and two or maybe two and a half football fields worth of open grass fields, and trees, and a hill, and a lake, and an island, and nice modern art glass structures, and small elk looking statues. Truly unbelievable. My skin still tingles thinking about how awesome it was.

We decided to go to the hill for our nap. It was actually a very small hill, only 10-12 feet tall, and also pretty small in circumference, but it gave us the illusion of having some privacy while we slept. So, the glorious moment had finally arrived. The sun was out, and it was warm, and the day was truly beautiful. I didn't sleep with my moped helmet on at first, but instead used my jacket as a pillow. However, our hill was right next to the lake, which had a fountain in it, and when the wind shifted, we got sprayed with the mist off of the fountain. In the end, I put the helmet on, and now, not only was it an amazing pillow, I put the face mask down, and it kept me from getting awoken by fountain spray hitting me in the face.

After 2 hours of glorious relaxation and napping, we woke up. We hung out on our hilltop for a little longer, but it was a little after noon, and we were both hungry so we left. On the way back to the train station we passed a dried noodles store, and stopped there for lunch. As a testament to our mental state, and the slowness of my mental capacities, I grabbed a bottle of spice to flavor my curry soup a little, and as I was grabbing it, I thought I saw a fly on the wall. It took me 20 seconds of staring at the wall to figure out that it was just a discoloration in the fake wood grain finish. Ben and I never lacked for something to talk about, but this meal was more characterized by slow eating, and slowly ranging thoughts. After lunch we walked back to the train station. We were walking in the road, going against traffic, and at one point a middle aged man driving a moped, went for about40 seconds without looking at the road in front of him. He was just staring off to the side, presumable looking at someone he knew, but because he wasn't looking, he was slowly swerving towards Ben. He finally looked back to the road and straightened his course, but at no point in the whole process did he ever seem to be worried about the consequences of driving one direction and looking another.

We made it back to the train station OK, and went straight into the tourist info office. The woman was very helpful, and found a bus that we could take back to Taipei. She called a couple people to check schedules, and then she asked us if we wanted to make reservations over the phone. We did, and so she made another call, and then handed the phone over. I was surprised, and not ready, but it was already ringing so I didn't have much of a choice. I made the reservation OK, and then woman on the phone asked me what my last name was. Without thinking I gave her my Chinese last name, and she scoffed a little. At the time, I thought she scoffed because my name is maybe a little less common, but shortly there after I came upon a much more likely situation. She knew full well I was white, and wanted me to give her my English last name. It all worked out though. After the phone call, the tourist information woman wrote down the name of the company we had just reserved tickets with, and then we took our leave. We decided to go in search of a second lunch (hopefully we'd be really full, thus aiding in an afternoon nap). We found a place that had vegetarian lunch boxes for pretty cheap, so we got a couple of those, and tried to head back to the paradise we'd found in the morning. We got lost immediately. Because we wanted to find a different restaurant for our second lunch, we went a different way back (to see new restaurants). We did indeed see new restaurants, but we also got lost. We struggled with admitting how lost we were before finally asking at 7-11 how to get to the 'Cultural Center'. While Ben was asking directions, I walked down a different alley, to see what I could see, and I actually ended up seeing some very interesting things. After Ben got out of the 7-11, I brought him back to the same place, and asked what he saw. He confirmed what I'd seen. We were in the background of the view we'd seen earlier from our hilltop at the 'Cultural Center'. We were seeing now, the backs of buildings we'd seen the fronts of earlier. This matched up with the directions Ben had gotten, so we headed off, and got to the park in no time.

Because we were approaching the park from a different direction, we had cause to check out some of the glass structures. Apparently they were also solar heaters, not only heating water, but also exporting electricity. The 'Cultural Center' was already badass, but this pushed it to a whole new level, which I didn't even really know existed before. After checking out the solar structures for a little while, we went over to some picnic tables by the lake to eat our lunch. The lunch was actually really delicious, but things started to go a little bad at this point. It was just singing really, but it was incredibly terrible singing. There was an amphitheater in another corner of the park, and there were a couple of people who were belting out some old Chinese opera. I will admit, I can't sing myself, and I recently had to have it explained to me what an octave was, so I'm generally not much of a reliable musical critic. However, Ben is, so I'll just use the analogy he made to explain the situation. This singing sounded like: Someone had gotten really drunk. They were so drunk they passed out. Then one of their friends poked them with a stick until they woke up, handed them a microphone, and told them to start singing. It was a song they were familiar with, so they knew the words, but they were pass-out drunk, so their singing ability was in the toilet. Basically, no rhythm, pitch, or tone, and far too much random quavering. And someone was playing with the echo machine, randomly adding in an echo affect.

Mostly we just laughed at the music, and our lunch was good enough to almost make up for it. There was one tough thing about the lunch though. The soup. It was in a little cup, so it needed to have a tough lid, or else it would spill out, but this lid was a little too tough. At least for us right then. And the reward of getting the lid off (the soup) was disappointing, but in a really amusing way. The soup was just, clear liquid, a piece of carrot, an unidentified white vegetable, and a date. I guess they were just trying to keep it simple.

After lunch, it was nap time again, but this time we decided to sleep on the back side of the hill, to keep out of the wind, which not only changed the temperature and made it hard to get comfortable, but also sprayed water on us. And we could prop ourselves up against the side of the hill, for a little change of position. We ended up having noticeably less privacy here (we heard a number of people comment on us as they walked past) but it was a dynamite place for sleeping. Somehow we still got a little bit of spray from the lake, but much less, and leaning up against the hill was also dynamite. It was more comfortable at first, and then when I finally decided to lay down, it made laying down much more enjoyable. We woke up at about 5:00 pm, about 30 or so minutes before sunset, and decided we'd better get going. Although we had reserved tickets, we still needed to pick up the paper copies, and we also had to make it back to the Yanshui (the town that had the actual festival). So we packed up our stuff (and by 'packed up our stuff, I mean, we put on our shoes, and grabbed our moped helmets), and left our beautiful park. On the way back we stopped to buy a couple of towels, because, although, we already had some, it seemed like a good idea to grab a couple more.

At the bus station, we tried communicate that we only needed to get to the other bus station (the one with the bus back to Taipei, it was half way in between Xinying and Yanshui). We'd hoped that if we could communicate this, we could get discounted tickets, because we really only needed to get half way, but we had a hard time with the communication, and in the end they said they knew where we wanted to go, but we still had to pay full price for the tickets. As we were boarding the bus the ticket cashier made a point of telling the bus driver where we needed to get off, which made things simpler for us. Sure enough, when we were about half-way there, the bus driver stopped and yelled something unintelligible, which we assumed was for us. Normally when you get off the bus, you have to give the driver your ticket, but we'd hoped this time, we wouldn't have to, because we weren't actually at our destination yet. If we didn't give him our tickets, we might be able to flag down another bus (they were pretty common between the two cities) and ride the rest of the way, thus getting the full value out of our tickets. (In hindsight, this seems like we made a huge deal out of this, because we would have only been saving about 25 cents, but I guess it is the principle of the matter.) Anyway, somehow, while we were getting our tickets out to give to the driver, the driver said something, and we became the but of a joke for the whole bus. I have no idea what it was, because he said it in Taiwanese, but whatever it was, the whole bus thought it was funny.

So we were a little disgruntled when we got off the bus, and we didn't find the bus station immediately, which made us a little more disgruntled. When we did find the bus, we went inside, and I told the cashier we had reserved a pair of tickets, and my last name was 葛. She said they didn't have a system where you could reserve tickets. I was confused, and looked over at Ben, who seemed just as confused. We decided to abandon the reserved tickets, so I asked the woman if she had any buses going back to Taipei in the early morning. She did, and so we bought the tickets. Major Score. At this point in the day, we had accomplished both of our priorities. The previous day, we had been a little worried about how to get transport back, but mostly we were worried about how to fritter away an entire day without getting bored. The first goal was easy, and we had made light work of 'frittering away our time'. Now all we had to do was eat something, get a little drunk, and get shot at by fireworks.

We still had to make it to Yanshui, so asked the cashier if there was a bus station near by where we could catch a bus to Yanshui. There was no such station, and she told us that we would have to take a cab. We were pretty strongly against this option, but in the interests of being open-minded, we went outside, found a taxi driver, and asked how much it would be to get to Yanshui. The answer was, about 6 times as expensive as the bus. We haggled a little but the driver was having none of it, so we started walking. At first it was a haggling strategy, but the taxi driver didn't call after us, lowering his prices, so we kept walking. We also had vague hopes of flagging down a bus to Yanshui, but after not too long, we decided it was only about 2 km, and we should just get a beer and walk. So we did, and it was amazing. The moon was out, and beautiful, and fortunately the traffic wasn't to heavy, so we felt like walking along the road/highway wasn't too dangerous. Another benefit was that we got to walk through the outskirts of the festival, instead of being dropped off right at the center of it.

We really got to see everyone doing there own thing. Most people were just shooting off fireworks in the middle of the street (which was still cool to see, cause fireworks are pretty), but we passed a couple guys swinging a string of fireworks around their heads, as the fireworks were going off. Which was also neat to see. At one point, on the walk in, Ben stopped to find somewhere to pee, and gave me his beer. So I was left standing beside the road, watching the traffic go past. I stand out enough already, but standing by the side of the road, double-fisting beers got me more than the normal amount of stares, and covert looks. But when Ben got back, we decided to roll with it. We decided to purposefully make ourselves the butt of the jokes, and smile and laugh right back. So we stood there for a while, drinking and smiling at people, but we soon realized that the traffic wasn't really that thick there, and so we moved on. Before we got shot at by fireworks, we still needed to check the local bus schedule, to make sure we could make it to the other bus station in the morning to catch our bus. The sign at the 'stop' wasn't clear, so we decided to ask the women at the waffle store.

By this time, Ben and I were a little drunk, and this could prove to be a hindrance to the conversation, but in the end, it proved to be a huge advantage. It was one of the most fluent conversations I've ever had in Chinese. We ended up finding out that the buses quit running at 8 or 9 at night, so we'd have to find another mode of transport back (either walking or a cab), but we ended up talking to the women at the waffle stand for a long time. We talked about the festival, and mine and Ben's schools, and I was making jokes with some words that people don't really say anymore (cause a couple of my textbooks are from the 50's), and everyone was laughing. It was great and proved a fortuitous omen for the whole evening.

After we finally left the waffle place, we went to eat a big dinner before continued drinking. After dinner, it really was go time. We knew the fireworks started at 10, and somehow we had frittered away most of the time since we'd awoken in the park, and now it was about 9. We only had one hour, and we had lots of things on our do list, so we set off to the nearest 7-11 to make a run at the first of our objectives. We were both pretty full from dinner, but given our time frame, we had to start chugging liquids. First, we both chugged about half a liter of water (not only to mitigate the after effects of drinking, but also because we were about to put on multiple layers of clothing, and it would probably be hot in the press of the crowd), and were going to keep going, when we realized it wouldn't hurt to have some for later. Next, we each pounded a can of coffee, nicknamed 'Double Dregs' last year because it is loaded with 2 times the normal caffeine amount. Our last beverage of the evening was beer, but before we moved on to it, we made clear what had to be done during the rest of the night. Not Die. So we made sure that before we got into the actual fireworks danger zone, we would throughly protect our throats and eyes. And with these precautionary statements out of the way, we walked back towards our old trusty Elementary School, drinking our beers on the way. When we got to the Elementary School, we changed clothes, and got on our protective gear. In addition to the towels we'd picked up in Xinying, we also each got a pair of cotton gloves, while we were walking from the bus station. On the bottom, I had on hiking boots and a really old pair of Carhartt jeans. I had brought one towel from home, and I tucked this down the front of my jeans, so it made a sort of loin cloth (but only in the front) to protect my crotch. On the top, I had my old black jacket, and over that I was wearing a sweater (I had planned on wearing the jacket on top, but last night someone had advised me that the nylon was not a good material for resisting fireworks, so I wore the sweater on top). Our moped helmets were full-face helmets, but they didn't have a chin guard, so I taped the other towel along the bottom of the face mask, for neck protection, though I was also wearing a scarf. When things got really serious, I also pulled my hood up over the top of the helmet, so the back of my neck was also protected. Ben was also wearing Carhartts, in addition to a pair of cargo shorts (on underneath). He was also wearing two layers on top, with a scarf, and towel taped to the moped helmet. We felt like we'd accomplished our goals of making sure that both throat and eyes were protected, so we stashed the rest of our stuff under a tree, and took off.

It was really hot and steamy to wear the helmets with the face masks down, so on the walk back to where we thought the show was getting started, we carried our helmets underneath our arms. It was the most empowering thing either of us had ever done. Our excitement for this event had been building up for weeks (even longer for Ben, because he'd heard about it the previous year, where as I had only heard about it a few weeks earlier). We had gotten our hopes up on the way down, and the previous night, they were at first disappointed (to find out the real ho down wasn't until tonight) and then bolstered (because we got a preview of the awesomeness to come). Now we where here, the excitement was beginning to come to a peak, and we were fully, completely, 100%, WELL PREPARED. Carrying our helmets underneath our arms not only highlighted this fact, but seemed to make the occasion that much more amazing. We both felt like we should be carrying swords at our waist's, as we walked into battle.

As we neared the area where there had been the concert the night before, and where we assumed the events would kick off tonight, we found it empty. This was a little confusing, but we pressed on and quickly found what we were looking for, a huge field, overflowing with people, and a stage with someone talking. We found out from people outside the field, that this was indeed where the event was about to get kicked off, and that they were going to start as soon as the person finished talking. We decided we had enough time, so we sprinted away (still carrying our helmets under our arms) to the nearest 7-11 for one more beer (only the kid sized one) before things got started. We ended up missing part of the opening fireworks, but they were magnificent enough that we could still appreciate them from outside the 7-11. As the were finishing, we ran back over to the field, only to find people streaming out of it. We asked one middle aged man where everyone was going, and he said he was going home. Interesting. We asked someone else what was going on with the festival (we had heard it went until 3-4 in the morning), and they said just to follow the flow of people, and we'd find it. A lot of people seemed to be heading into an alleyway, so we ran that way. We soon found out that all of those people were going to their cars, and going home, so we turned right, to swing back around. We passed a fire truck, with a few fire-fighters hanging around chatting, so we stopped to talk to them. They were very friendly and told us again, just to follow the stream of people, and that they didn't know exactly where the festival would be or when. So with vague ideas of following streams of people, we sprinted off again. This time, however, we weren't disappointed and we found the right stream of people to follow. Pretty quickly we meet up with a group of college students, and start hanging out with them. The conversation is great, and we chat it up, as we slowly move along with the procession.

OK, I think a breakdown of the main attraction is in order. The whole scheme of the festival is, basically to get shot at by fireworks. Everyone who is interested gets suited up, and makes a sort of parade out of it. Everyone who isn't interested stays the hell out of the way, so they don't get hit by stray fireworks. There are 4 or 5 carts, sort of rectangular cubes, maybe 7 feet tall, but only 3 feet by 3 feet square. They are on wheels, with one pole mounted on each side, making a handle in the front and back. Inside the rectangle is an alter, with a Buddha or some other sort of religious idol. Everyone follows these carts around, and every so often the carts stop. When the carts stop, another cart is rolled out from a store in the area. These don't have much in the way of handles, and are much larger. Still about 7 feet tall, but maybe 8 feet long by 3 or 4 feet wide. The sides of the cart are covered with red paper, upon which Chinese is written. The red paper is then torn off, and burned in a pile in the street, revealing racks of fireworks pointing into the crowd. At this point, the people tending the carts with idols in them, start to shake them, which is sort of creepy, and also makes an odd creaking noise. The shaking combined with the creaky noise take the amount of ambient intensity to the whole next level, which is really saying something because having racks of fireworks pointed into the crowd made things pretty intense already. Then everyone starts to push in, and sort of jump up and down, and move side to side. At this point, we become part of the group mentality, and jump and move ourselves. Vaguely moving in this way makes the whole thing seem less dangerous, and we sort of don't have a choice anyway because the crowd is so tight. At some points, I am unable to move, which makes things scary again, because I don't feel like I have any retreat. Then the fireworks start to go off. At first they go off the top of the cart, but then the sides start to go to, and the carts are shaking, and everyone is jumping around a little, and fireworks are screaming around in all different directions, and I bet if we'd looked up it would have been beautiful, but I think we had other things on our minds. Then the fireworks are over, and everyone gives thumbs up and high fives all around, and maybe even a hug or two. Then someone comes and takes the cart away and the procession moves on.

We hang out with the college kids for a while, but then we get separated from them in the crowd, so we move on. However, there is no shortage of people to talk to, and in the press of the crowd, there is always a fresh face. People just stare at us because we're tall and white, and because we're so close to them, and a little drunk, it is really easy to say "Hey, is this your first time coming to the festival?", and then we're off in conversation. I don't remember how many carts full of fireworks they rolled out to shoot into the crowd, but I'm pretty sure it was more than five. Ben, somehow, caught a firework to the leg (it left a mark, but no burn) and I got hit in the face mask once (which, interestingly enough, was sort of my goal or expectation for the evening). Aside from the carts and everyone doing there own thing (which was still going on, even with the parade), there were a couple of other types of fireworks. One was strings of fireworks that just exploded brightly, powerfully, and noisily, and upon which some people thought it was a good idea to dance (as they were exploding). Ben and I did abstain from this particular brand of tom-foolery. The other type was not dangerous at all (at least compared with dancing on top of exploding fireworks), and was actually very pretty. Long strings of sparkler like things were pulled up into the air, creating a beautiful waterfall of sparks.

So, once we found the parade the evening consisted of, talking to people, getting shot at by fireworks, watching people dance on fireworks, actually enjoying the beauty of the fireworks, and drinking the occasional beer. Although the excitement for the festival had built up to an impressive high, the festival itself had fully, completely, 100%, LIVED UP TO ANY AND ALL EXPECTATIONS. Everything had gone entirely perfectly. There were many opportunities for Ben and I to turn the experience in to a crappy one, but our mentalities were so similar, that any difficulties we encountered we rolled with. We honed the 'go-with-the-flow' mentality to the point of being willing to sleep on marble benches in the middle of a roundabout. The bus driver made fun of us, and at first we were disgruntled, but later we opened ourselves up to ridicule, and tried to use it to open up conversation with strangers. The number and quality of conversations we did have with strangers, who, if we hadn't spoken Chinese, would have had no way to talk with us, and the incredibly rewarding feeling this gives. The sheer randomness of the majority of the things that happened (such as: the possibly drunk stranger who didn't kick us out of the temple, but seemed genuinely sorry for it having happened; the random security guard who almost forced us to drive his moped after we'd been drinking, and who wanted us to pick him up some special bowling ball the next time we where in the states; the random old couple who decided it would be a good idea to go sing some old Chinese opera style karaoke in the park; the cornfield in the middle of the city; or the random guy at the temple asking if I was Dutch, then upon finding I wasn't, leaving the area; or the wild pack of family dogs, see above photo), but how everything still seemed to come together perfectly. The festival would have been amazing by itself, but all these things combined to make the experiences in either Ben's or my life. And it wasn't even over yet.

Our bus left at 1:50, so as the time neared 1, we began to separate ourselves from the parade. Things were starting to wind down anyways, and we ran into some Australian girls on the outskirts of the danger zone, so we stopped and talked to them for a while. We'd taken our helmets off, but this turned out not to be the best decision because, in some ways, the outskirts were more dangerous. The stray fireworks were a little more crazy, and there were still some people doing the crazy firework dance. We realized time was getting short, so we ran off in the direction of the bus stop. Somehow we had gotten on the wrong side of the procession, and we had to press back through the crowd to get where we needed to go. The carts were starting to shake again, so we knew things were about to get serious. We donned our helmets as quickly as possible, and pushed through the edge of the crowd. Once to the other side, we took our helmets off, and started to jog. The Australian girls had pressed some betel nut on us, so as we ran, we spat out huge globs of red spit, and tried not to choke on what we didn't spit out, while we panted for breath. It was still a nice run though (we were carrying our helmets under our arms again), and we grinned at each other as we jogged along. We contemplated, only very briefly, jogging all the way to the bus station, but it was already 1:30, so we got a cab. We told the driver the name of the bus company the woman at the tourist info place had given us, and he drove off. When he stopped the car, we found out that we were at the wrong place, though we were very close to the station we'd bought our tickets from. We told the driver to pull over to the other place, but at the same time, we realized that the place we'd just stopped was where we had made phone reservations. Apparently, we'd been dropped off at the wrong place earlier, but since we didn't pay for the reservation, it didn't seem to matter. At the correct bus stop, we shed our layers, and had a victory beer. Our bus came, and we got on it, but there weren't two empty seats, so Ben had to sit in the front of the bus (where he chatted it up with the driver), and I sat in the back. I was staring around, dazed and tired, and realized that we weren't supposed to have beer on the bus. Oh well. The bus was moving now, and no one had told us, either because no one really cares, or because we're white foreigners. On the ride back they played 2 movies on the bus, "The Constant Gardener" about aid work in Africa, and some Lindsay Lohan move. Both seemed very out of place. I made a mental note to add them to the list of random things that had happened. About half way back the bus made a stop, and Ben came back and sat next to me. We had a little pep talk, then the bus started moving again, and he went back to the front.

At about 5:30, we got into Taipei. We were worried about the subway not being open because it was so early, but by the time we made it there it was 6, and the trains were running. We had a little touching parting company moment as we each went to our separate train lines. As I ate breakfast, I watched the morning news, and saw reports on the festival. Apparently only 18 people had been injured. They had some random coverage of mostly nude people (just wearing helmets and bathing suits) standing on carts getting dragged around and shot at by fireworks. I wondered where it had taken place. They even had a couple token interviews with white people, one heavyset guy with inch thick foam padding taped all over his body, and another random guy. After breakfast I rode my bike to school. It was the same that it always is, just a regular ride. I wondered if any of the festival had even happened. It all seemed so different with the two familiar cross-walks and the short on campus bike ride to get to school. The sun was shining and during my first class, I stared out the window, and thought about calling Ben in the afternoon, to see if he didn't want to grab his moped helmet, and find a park in the city to nap in. Or better yet, find another festival somewhere in Taiwan, grab our moped helmets and a little money and head there. We could sleep later. Ben and I had talked about this some, and I fantasized about it in class. A whole new style of traveling. Just money, the clothes on your body, a moped helmet, and an open mind. Maybe a towel too. Then you just go, and everything else would sort itself out. I haven't yet had a chance to implement this new strategy, but I do know that the results the first time were unbelievable.

I feel like we really lived.

THE CRAZY TRAIN. Part I

2008-02-22T00:27:00.000-08:00

I met Ben at the train station at 1:45 on Wednesday. We got the important stuff taken care of first, and Ben gave me my new full-face moped helmet. I strapped mine onto one of the straps of my backpack, under one of my arms, while Ben just carried his. Why were we at the train station in the early afternoon with full-face moped helmets? Fortunately not to go riding mopeds. There is a festival in southern Taiwan called "YanShui Beehive of Fireworks". Ben heard about it last year (one of my teachers had also brought it up in class once), and apparently its just a huge fireworks festival, except not all of the time the fireworks are pointed upwards. We'd found websites with clear pictures of how much protective gear was necessary, and a full face helmet seemed like a must, along with at least two jackets, and probably some gloves for good measure. Most of the other pictures of the event were crappy and unclear, but showed people dancing crazily, backlit by fireworks. We had also read, in the guidebook on Taiwan, that about 100,000 people showed up last year, and they also set off the longest string of fireworks in the world (something like 6-8 kilometers long, and it took 40 minutes to go off, or something absurd like that, I forget exactly). So we had our hopes pretty high for the festival, and I want to say up front, the were not disappointed. This was one of the most incredible experiences of my whole life, and while the fireworks were only a part of it, they provided a build up and the reason to do everything else we did.

With that many people going to the festival we were worried about all the public transportation being taken already, so we had bought train tickets the day before. On the ride down we napped a little (I was already tired from my classes, which are getting really intense), and I did a little homework (in my original plan, I would leave after class on Wednesday, and get back before class on Thursday, and aside from being tired, I would be well prepared and in class). As we got closer to our stop we began to be a little worried about the lack of people. We had found one website that said the dates for the festival were "20th-21st", so were were pretty sure it was tonight, but the train had empty seats. If 100,000 people were coming to a festival starting in a couple of hours, we expected that not only would all of the seats be taken, but that there would be no standing room. We hoped that a bunch of people would get off at our stop, to give us a little confidence about being in the right spot, but we the time came, we got off with not more than 20 other people. One of my teachers said she'd heard there was a free bus shuttle service so we asked about the ticket taker about this. He laughed at us and told us to go with the taxi drivers, who were in the background making gestures and noises that clearly indicated 'Fireworks Festival'. I'm not that big of a fan of taxi drivers, and so I asked where the bus station was. There was a round-about right outside the station with a monument in the middle (remember the monument, it'll be important later) and right on the other side of the round-about we found the bus station. From the woman at the ticket counter we found out conclusively that indeed, part of the festival was today, but the bigger part was tomorrow. I had mis-interpreted the calender. I thought it meant that the festival started on the night of the 20th, and went until the early hours of the 21st, but really it indicated that the festival was on 2 days. We were now presented with a decision. Whether or not to stay until tomorrow. While we were thinking we got tickets to Yanshui, where the festival would actually take place, and sat down to wait. We were chatting a little, and wondering (as usual) how we would know which bus was ours. So, I didn't notice immediately when a woman snuck up behind me to look at my ticket. I was a little creeped out (she never really said anything) but apparently she had taken pity on us, and was just looking to see where we were going, so she could tell us which bus would be ours. Even if the woman went about it differently that I would have expected, that was one problem solved. After a couple minutes a bus pulled up and the woman (who had stepped away to wait by the gate) began waving excitedly, so we walked over and boarded the bus. There were only about 10 other people on the bus, which, again, made it seem like tonight's celebrations were going to be a lot less packed that we had expected. While the bus ride was short, it built up further anxiety about the size of the festival we were going to. The bus was riding through small towns for the most part, but there were no people out at all. Even as we got closer, all of the streets remained disappointingly empty.In the afternoon the idea had occurred to me 'What if the need for moped helmets is all a big ruse?' Taiwanese are really big into the group mentality, and I started to wonder if we weren't encountering a situation where one person wore a helmet once, and even though they weren't really necessary, everyone started to wear one, and it would never occur to anyone that they might not actually need to wear a helmet, which would be pretty disappointing.

We had hoped that if we just got ourselves to the town, everything else would sort itself out, and I guess in the end it did. We were only at a loss for what do for a shot period, because the woman had taken a Taiwanese couple under her wing, and was leading them away talking about the fireworks festival, so we just decided to keep following her. After a while we got to somewhere with a stage and a bunch of stalls that was looked distinctly more like a festival, the Taiwanese couple broke off from her, and Ben and I moved in to try to figure out what was going on. In short: the big crazy event where fireworks get shot at you wasn't until Thursday night, and there were no hotels in the area (this seemed unlikely, and I've since come to find out that I might have asked for the wrong type of hotel, for example, there might have been motels, but no hotels), but there was a temple we could try sleeping in. Also, from teaching English last year, Ben knew that any English teachers can sleep at any public school in Taiwan, so if it came down to it, we could say we were English teachers and sleep at an elementary school. We felt like we ought to decide pretty soon if we should stay for the real deal the next night. Ben didn't really have anything to do the next day, and I felt like I would never have an opportunity even remotely similar to this one again in my entire life, so skipping school for one day didn't seem like a high cost to pay. So we decided to stay and do what we had come to do, get shot at by crazy fireworks.

After deciding we were going to stay our only goal was to find a place to sleep, so we headed off to find an elementary school. The nice woman had given us directions, and following those, we headed off through the night market. On the way we had an opportunity to try new foods, and I got something which most strongly resembled fried coleslaw. They shaped it into big rectangles on the griddle, then put corn and spices on top of it to serve it, and overall it was actually pretty good. We finally made it to the elementary school, so we looked around for someone to ask if we could sleep there, and if we could stash our stuff there (aside from our helmets, Ben only had his helmet and an extra jacket, but I had some food and a textbook too.) We didn't find anyone to ask, so we headed back to the main area. There was a stage set up for the event, and a band playing when we got back, so we went over to listen. Most music in Taiwan is a unique sort of pop, which I'm not a big fan of, but this band was actually playing legitimate music (and it was an all girl band), so we moved closer to the stage. Almost everything about the concert from the stage back, seemed pretty American. The band had American style, movement, volume, and they played at least one American song. But everything in front of the stage was distinctly Taiwanese. 1st of all, there was a 10-15 foot gap between the stage and the audience, the group in front of the audience looked like they had been brought out of the retirement home to enjoy some activities other than bingo, and mostly everyone else just looked sullen and bored. Ben and I were standing near the front, but off to the side, out of the way of the old people. A separate announcer came up between bands, and immediately announced that there were 2 foreigners standing off to the left. Then he pointed at us. I was taken a little aback, but Ben threw his hand into the air, and rolled with it. Everyone applauded for us and, interestingly enough, we got generated more excitement and applause than the band had. The announcer then asked us (in broken English) where we were from, and I was about to answer in Chinese, but Ben was on the ball again, and happily returned (in good English) that we were Americans. At this point, the announcer translated what had happened into Chinese and Taiwanese. The announcer asked us a couple more questions, but then the next band came on, and we became a regular part of the crowd again. As the band came down off stage, we decided to go talk to them, but things got off to a bad start when Ben asked if they could speak Chinese and instead of an emphatic 'Yes', the girl he'd asked only responded with 'A little'. I had heard that people preferred to speak Taiwanese in southern Taiwan (because there is more anti-China sentiment, and they want to be more independent and different), but we would come to find out this isn't entirely true. We talked to the band for a little while, but never managed to get away from the awkward start. The temple we were hoping to be able to sleep in was only a few feet away, so right before we parted company, we told the girls we were thinking about sleeping in the temple, and asked what they thought. This was the first time in the evening when we told strange Taiwanese people about our lack of a good place to sleep, and then hoped they would invited us back to their house to sleep, or somehow arrange something more comfortable than the cold ground at an elementary school. Every time our hopes skyrocketed, and almost every time they crashed back to Earth. So, the girl band set the trend for the evening by nicely sidestepping the issue, and Ben and I were left to go check out the temple to see if we really could sleep there.

The whole thing turned out to be a lot less like a temple than I had imagined. The nice woman had told us we might be able to find a place to sleep on the second floor, so we went straight up there first. I had expected a large empty room with an alter at one end, some carpets on the floor, ornately decorated pillars, incense, and a flat piece of marble where we could sleep. What we actually found was a hallway with closed doorways on either side, just like you would expect at any regular hotel (except that the floor was marble, and the outside looked what a temple should look like). We walked to the end of the hallway, and ran into a sign pointing towards (as far as I could tell) county cultural records. So we went downstairs to find someone who might be able to help us get this sorted out. Downstairs we found a large history exhibit, and after a moment, we found a security guard. We told him our problem and, after pondering for a moment, he just left. We were a little confused, and we felt a little abandoned, but we sat down to wait for someone else to come. About 5 seconds later the security guard came back in. Apparently we were supposed to follow him. This time we followed him out, where he pushed us off onto someone else, who quickly gestured us over to another, older, set of people and pushed us off onto them. It didn't take us long to figure out that there were no rooms in the temple, but the told us that, indeed there was a hotel down the road a little way, so we decided to go check it out. Although the town we were in was a lot smaller than Taipei, it was still obviously a town, and I wouldn't have even called it rural. So I was surprised when we passed a cornfield on the way out to the hotel. It seemed really out of place.

It turned out to be a hotsprings hotel, and it would have been about 30USD a night for each of us. As soon as we found out how much it was, there was never any option of staying there, and we talked about it later, and we don't really even know why we asked. It would have had to be a pretty cheap hotel room to be able to compete with a free piece of ground at the elementary school.

After we got back to the main plaza, we went and picked up a schedule to try to figure out what fireworks were happening, and when. While I was reading the schedule, Ben got ogled by some high-school kids, and beckoned them over. We asked them what was happening and when but they had no more idea than we did. We also broached the problem of not having anywhere to sleep and we came to find out that there was a college somewhere around, and we might be able to find a place to sleep there. We broke off from the kids, and started walking through the night market, towards the college. On the way some a little girl offered us a free sample of some orange juice. We drank it and it was delicious, and afterward we went to hand the little paper cups back to the little girl. She just stared at us, so I asked her what we should do with the cups. She said "Just throw them on the ground, then it'll be alright." I looked at Ben and he looked at me. Then we both threw our cups on the ground, and I'll be damned if it wasn't one of the easiest things I've ever done. No wonder people litter.

After going a little farther we stopped off to pick up a beer, and ask for directions. Apparently the college was only about 20 feet from the 7-11 we bought booze from. We walked on and quickly found the front gate of the college. We approached the security booth, trying to hold our beers as discretely as possible, to ask if they had a place we could sleep for the night. Things got a little crazy right away because as the security guard saw us, he immediately stood up and saluted (which might have been more reasonable from someone in the military, but this guy clearly wasn't). The security guard was short, with short black hair, and a easily noticeable paunch. He was also chewing betel nut, which holds chewing tobaccoe's place in Taiwanese society. Betel nut looks like a peeled acorn might. They're small, white skinned, and they usually come wrapped in a small leaf. You bite off one end, then just chew on the other end. It gives you a tiny little buzz, and (in my opinion) tastes a little like meat. It also turns your entire mouth, all your visible teeth, and your spit ... a pretty bright color red (and if you keep your eyes open you can see big red spit spots all over the streets).

We were beginning to notice that betel nut is a lot more common in southern Taiwan and especially in rural areas. This security guard confirmed the stereotype and had a mouth full of red stained teeth. After saluting us, the guard walked over to the window and we started to talk. Things got carried away pretty quickly. The guard right away asked if we'd come back to study (they're in between semester break was about over), and something else I didn't understand. I started to explain what we were doing, but then the guard started rolling with his own train of thoughts. He asked us when the last time we'd been back to the states was and when we'd be going again. Then he started telling us about bowling. Apparently he's pretty good at it, and had been to the states to compete, but he didn't do well because in America they spin the ball, so the path from hand to pins is curved (or something like that, I also thought he might have said that American lanes are slanted), so he didn't do as well. Then he got to the real point of his story. Apparently he was in love with a certain bowling ball that you could only get in the states (now you see why he was so intent to know our America related travel plans). We were never able to get out of him if it was one particular ball, or a whole series of balls, but apperently they (or it) were 40 years old, and incredibly important to this guy. We were trying to be friendly but this was getting a little out of hand, so we drew the conversation back to whether or not we could sleep in a building somewhere on campus.

As soon as he found out we were there to watch the fireworks, and not to study he immediately tried to loan us his scooter. Just for a quick recap here, we are 2 strangers, not even students at this University, both drinking beer, and not even asking for a scooter. So we follow him as he rushes out of the security booth and over to his scooter, which he proceeds to start. It is a kick start, and after stomping on the lever the first time (without getting it to start) he looks up to tell us that it's easy to start and only takes one kick. After the fourth or fifth kick he gets it started. We realize that this is a bad idea, and again emphasize that all we want is a place to sleep, so the guard rushes back to his booth. In the interim a stranger (I assume his friend) has taken a spot in the guard house. He's definitely not a security guard and actually looks like he's done a lot of drugs in the last 20 minutes. He is also chewing betel nut. As we come in the guard kick this guy out of his seat, and points to 2 chairs we could sleep in. We politely demur, saying they are too small, and so he heads back outside. We follow dubiously as he goes over to a van and lays down the seats for us to sleep in. The van is parked right beside a building, so we ask if there is somewhere in there we can sleep. Apparently there is some sort of pack of wild dogs that roams around inside the building, and it wouldn't be safe for us to sleep there.

Creepiness alarm bells go off all over the inside of my head, and we start to extricate ourselves from the situation. I tell him, this looks OK, but that we still want to see some fireworks so we don't want to sleep now. We figure out what time he gets off work too, to give the story some more semblance of truth and reality. Then we take off (on foot, with no moped). We thought we might be able to get to the fireworks (we could see them going off in the distance) by going through campus, but the guard told us it wasn't' so, and we had to keep heading down the road. So, following his advice, we headed on down the road. We weren't really near very many buildings now, but there were still a fair amount of traffic on the road. After a few minutes we came to another road and took it right, towards the fireworks. After a couple more minutes we finally made it somewhere, though it did seem a little dubious. Basically it was a sketchy couple groups of loitering guys chewing betel nut and looking surly, but we figured we're a lot bigger than they are, and we were drinking (which I feel gave us good street cred.)

As a side note here, one of the beautiful things about Taiwanese fireworks is that everyone does there own thing, usually in addition to publicly funded displays. While we were walking in the streets this sometimes made things more intense because fireworks could be getting shot off from all around you, but right now it was just nice because there were two separate areas of the sky that were regularly filled with beautiful fireworks. We chose one group and headed that way, finally making it to another temple, and a little rural town square. There were a lot of people loitering, but here there seemed to be more of a family crowd, or at least the sketchier looking people were just teenagers, so we decided to hang out here for a while. After a while Ben noticed that, where as before we had been surrounded by people in normal street dress, now the only people in our vicinity were wearing thick clothes and helmets. We hurriedly put on our helmets, and just in time too because fireworks started going off right beside us. We weren't prepared, but I turned my back and wrapped my arms around my neck to try to shield the important parts. Fortunately, it didn't last very long, and there were a lot of better prepared people shielding us from most of the intensity.

After hanging out there for a while we got approached by a 20 something Taiwanese girl, dressed up in full protective gear, and asked if we wanted to chat a little. Ben and I didn't hesitate before whole-heartedly agreeing. We both thought she just wanted to talk to us, but we were soon mistaken as she beckoned on the camera crew. I had see a guy walking around earlier with a firework-proof camera, but now he was accompanied by: a guy with a light, a interviewer, and some sort of all around guy who wrote down our names at the end of the interview. The guy talking didn't have any super specific questions so we just chatted a little bit. I asked where he was from, and when he said 'Japan' I jumped at the opportunity to ask someone, who, for all I can tell is a native speaker, how his Chinese got so good (apparently he also lived or lives in Taiwan). He didn't think it was quite as funny as I did, but we kept on chatting. They were with a news channel in Taipei, but I didn't ask which one. After a little bit the girl who had first talked to us gave the interviewer a couple of other questions to ask, but the interview was still pretty short overall.

We decided to go check out the temple and see if we couldn't sleep in this one, or they might be able to recommend somewhere for us to sleep. There was a large string of fireworks laid out on the patio in front of the temple, and we stopped to ask a guy standing there what time they were going to be set off. Our communications problems became apparent right away when he told us they hadn't been set off yet. We tried again, but the conversation only went downhill from there, though we finally did figure out that the fireworks were going to be set off shortly. There were a few people sitting in the temple looking out at the fireworks so we grabbed a couple chairs and joined them. After a moment one of the women started talking to us, and it soon became apparent that we were looking for a place to sleep. We talked a little more, and told here really all we needed was a place to lay down. She told us we could lay down there. Major Score. We chatted with her for a little while longer, then stashed out stuff there, and went back out to enjoy the fireworks.

Pretty soon a truck pulled up, and we chatted with the driver for a while. Each side of the back of the truck had a large board attached to it that looked like it had previously been used for advertising, but now it was old and worn. There was also a ladder in the back that you could use to get on top of the bus, and there was someone up there but I don't know what they were doing.
Anyway, for whatever reason, the guy parked the truck there for a while and so we chit-chatted. While we were chatting they set off another one of the 'beehives of fireworks' and it definitely increased excitement for the next night. It looked like a solid sheet of sparks (from the fireworks flying into the crowd) were coming off of the cart. Just after that we talked with a couple random people who were participating in tonight's beehive of fireworks, and one guy showed us where a hole had been burned in in the finger of his gloves. Although the gloves weren't that thick, seeing that only further increased anticipation of the next night.

We kept chatting it up with people and watching fireworks (although somehow we missed the really long one that was laid out in front of the temple) until about 1:30, when we decided we ought to further finalize our floor space in the temple. I went back in, in search of the woman who'd previously authorized us, but she was no where to be found. One of the same guys from earlier was sitting in the temple, so I thought he might work there, and asked him if we could sleep there. He, indeed, was just enjoying the fireworks like everyone else, but he did say that the woman in charge was around somewhere so I kept hanging out, awaiting her return. While I was waiting a Taiwanese man came up and asked if I was Dutch. I understood him the first time, but the question was so unexpected that I had to ask him to say it again. Sure enough, he wanted to know if I was Dutch and, after I told him I was American, he seemed satisfied and left. The woman never did show up again, and by this time, Ben and I were starting to get a little tired, and ready for bed. So, we started to get ready. Earlier we had devised an incredible, ingenious strategy for making our sleeping circumstances more comfortable. Wear our moped helmets to sleep. Not only would they provide further insulation, but they would serve as a sort of built in pillow. Whichever direction we turned our head, it would still be propped up by the moped helmet. So, because we were sleeping in our clothes, and hadn't brought tooth brushing materials, all we really had to do to get ready for sleep was put on our helmets.

We sitting around, wearing our moped helmets, and decided to try to talk to the last guy in the temple, to see how OK it was for us to sleep there, but we ran into problems right away. His Taiwanese was a lot better than his Chinese, and though he could understand what we were saying, and make coherent sentences of his own, he had a hard time doing it. He asked us a few times if we spoke Taiwanese, but I guess he finally believed our assurances that we couldn't. We did manage to make clear to him that we wanted to sleep there, and he continually assured us that we could. He was telling us it was no problem, right until the moment we got kicked out. The guy we had had communications problems with earlier (we asked him when the fireworks were going to go off, and he told us they hadn't yet) came in and told us we had to leave. We told him that we had been assured earlier in the evening that we could stay there, but he just kept repeating that they were closing, and so we had to leave. We argued a little bit, but it didn't seem like we really had any ground to stand on, so we got our stuff and left. The other guy followed us out, and seemed genuinely helpful and sorry that we had to leave. We walked out into the street, and found that the street crews were already at work cleaning up the leftover from the fireworks. It was pretty much a crew of somewhat old women with brooms, who swept all the paper rubbish into one pile and then let it on fire. Because it was made from fireworks leftovers, it became a sort of exploding bonfire as the fireworks that hadn't gone off earlier went off in the fire. I was a little cold and went to warm myself by the bonfire, but the nice stranger pulled me away, and went back to trying to think somewhere for us to sleep or a way for us to sleep in the temple, or something. He had seemed in complete control of his faculties when we were sitting in the temple talking, but now he seemed really drunk. He just kept saying "Hold on, let me think", and stumbling around. We were hoping to get invited back to his house, so we could have a warm piece of floor to sleep on, but after a while he just kept stumbling so we thanked him for his help and took off.

My New Year's Celebration

2008-02-13T05:02:00.000-08:00

We got ten days off for New Years, and I had had grand plans of going backpacking, or at least leaving Taipei, but in the end I didn't do much exciting. The weather has been pretty crappy for a while (basically almost always cold rain), but I'd heard that the southern part of Taiwan has much nicer weather. I planned on going down there, and even found a hotspring on the east coast of the island that I'd have to hike in to (I hoped this would reduce the number of people I encountered) and if it turned out that there were too many people, then there were other hotsprings in the area that didn't have official trails to them, but which probably had 'paths' and I thought they might be less crowded. All of this turned out not to matter because I kept an was keeping an eye on the weather and saw that rain was forecast for the area of the hotspring. I thought about it and decided that I could go and if it did rain, the hotsprings would always be there, but in the end I decided I could hang out in hotsprings all day, and I wouldn't die, but it would probably get old after a while, and I probably wouldn't be that comfortable. So I scrapped the whole idea.

Some highlights from the weekend and the first part of the week are:
1. Actually went out to bars for first time this year, and got to know some classmates other than Luke.
2. Found a bar that sells Irish Car Bombs for a decent price, then spent the next day terribly hung over (actually I only had one car bomb, but it was a highlight of the night).

Jerry invited me to spend New Year's Eve (Wednesday) with his family, and naturally I took him up on it. In the morning I went to get eggs because I knew the woman I buy my eggs from was about to close up for a few days. The first time I ever bought eggs from her, she burst out laughing when I spoke Chinese, but that must have just been a weak moment because I think she's actually really nice. A stranger came up to me the other day while I was buying eggs (to talk to me because I'm American) and chatted at me for a long time (apparently he was 70 and his head had been opened twice and he was a soilder and construction worker when he was younger but now teaches some thing to do with the oceans, or something like that) and after he left the woman I buy my eggs from asked me if I knew him, so I launched into the whole story, and we chatted for a while. She asked if I had been back to the states since I'd been here and, when I said I hadn't, she asked where I had been for a while. Then I realized I had gone to Thailand, and that was what she was talking about. It was nice to realized I'd been missed by the woman I buy eggs from. Anyway, on New Years Eve when I bought eggs from her she threw in a small cake-like muffin with the eggs. It was neon pink, really good, and very moist (I think it had been steamed). So that made my morning.

After I got back I took the bus to Jerry's house, early enough to watch the end of a movie with him. Then we drove over to his Uncle's house were the shin-dig was going to take place. Right as we got there they were finishing up a small ceremony with the food. They had it all laid out on a table, and I assumed it was all for us, and we were about to start eating. Then Jerry's dad told me it was for the ancestor's so then I thought it was their's. Then, after they finished the ceremony, they started taking the food downstairs, and I realized the food wasn't completely for their ancestors. It was the ancestor's for a little while, then when the ancestors got done with it, it was ours to eat. Among the goodies were: a whole fish (aside from spicing and cooking it there appeared to be no preparation at all, it was served with the head, tail, and skin on, which was fine, but serving it turned out a little difficult because flaky fish is hard to pick up with chopsticks), a whole pig thigh (I think the skin was still on), and a whole duck (which had been feathered, but all it's appendages were still attached). I, however, couldn't eat any of those so they whipped up some veggie dishes for me, such as: bamboo slivers, cabbage, brown hard boiled eggs (I'm pretty sure they were boiled in tea, giving them the brown color), some sort of green beans, and something else which was good (and had been ok'd as vegetarian) but which I couldn't hazard a guess as to what it was. One of the best things were some beans. They looked exactly like black beans (same shape, size, and color), but were sweet. Deliciously sweet.

The actual meal was pretty interesting, if nothing else it was the most crowded around a table I've ever been. We (I think there were about 12 or 13 total) were sitting around a circular table, about 5' in diameter. Basically, everyone got their own bowl, and just grabbed anything they wanted (and could pick up) with their chopsticks. I did fine with everything, but I had to get some help with grabbing the hardboiled eggs, I'm not quite that adept yet. The table itself, aside from being surrounded with people, was also completely covered with food. When they brought out the special vegetarian stuff there was barely room to put it, and I ended up with no room to put my bowl, which was OK, because I spent most of the time shoveling food into my mouth (in a polite manner).

After dinner we went into the other room, started watching TV and eating some more. At first they brought out some unique peanuts, which were delicious. They were like no peanuts I'd ever eaten before. From the outside they looked like regular peanuts (except some of them had 4 nuts per shell), but when you cracked open the shell, instead of the individual nuts being wrapped in little red paper like substance, they were wrapped in little black paper like substance. And more importantly they were sweet. After we about polished off the peanuts, they brought out some plum tea, oranges, apples, and cherries. All in all it was an amazing feast.

After Jerry dropped me off at my house in the evening the fireworks began, and they continued, fairly constantly, for the next 3-4 days, regardless of the time of day or night. Apparently not all of the fireworks are just nice to look at, they are also to scare away the demons of the New Year, and because of this, some fireworks dropped all pretense of being pretty, and were just really loud. Because the fireworks kept going so long, and were pretty consistent, sometimes at night it felt like a war zone. Except a war zone without terror or danger, just lots of loud noises.

On Sunday night I went down to Yilan (about 1.5 hours away from Taipei, on the west coast of the island) for a Toga Party. Last year Luke taught English in the area, with a Fulbright program, and still had some friends there. The party not only gave me the opportunity to wear a toga (a personal first), but I got to see the fireworks from the roof of some friends' apartment building, which was very enjoyable, and sort of exciting because almost all of the fireworks were set off by regular people so they were coming from all directions. If you saw a flash, you had to turn as quick as you could to try to see the actual fireworks.

On the way back to Taipei, the next day, we stopped at a hotspring. It was the first commercial one I'd ever been to, but it was pretty cool. Before we went, Ben described it as a 'wonderland' and I think it completely lived up to the description. Basically, everything they had from saunas to hot tubs, came in a bunch of different flavors. They had the regular fruit flavors like orange, but the also had flavors like 'Chinese Medicine', 'white liquor', 'milk', and surprisingly 'sulfur' (which was neon yellow, but didn't actually smell very much like sulfur). They also had a 'hot rock' (a hot rock that people lie on, pretty straightforward really), a small heated fish pool (which people sat in and got nibbled on by fish), and a killer water slide in to a hot tub (which I went down twice before stopping to read the sign at the top that says you have to be under 140 cm, which I was disappointed about because I'm about 190 cm).

I was not ready.

2008-01-30T05:55:00.000-08:00

Well. I knew that my room was really dirty, but I got a big slap in the face the other day. I had cooked rice the night before, and I left it in the rice cooker to cool down (so it didn't heat up the inside of the fridge). Anyway, I forgot to put it away before I went to bed, and what is worse, I also forgot to put the lid on, so it sat open all night long. In the morning after I woke up, I went to get some rice for breakfast and as I spooned out the first I a cockroach scampered out from under the pot, and headed for underneath the TV. I had only been awake for moments, and I was really not ready to see a mouse sized cockroach (it wasn't that big but the only 'vermin' I've had experience living with before have been mice, so I thought this was a mouse at first too) run out from underneath what would soon be my breakfast. Because he was under the TV, I didn't feel like I had much hope of a successful attack, so I finished making breakfast, and retreated to my couch. I had been eating for a few minutes when I saw him slowly, maybe even casually, making his away across the floor. I grabbed the first thing that came to hand, Freedom of the Hills (700 page fatty 'bible' on how to climb) and tossed. It was a beautiful high arching rainbow shot, that landed squarely. Actually, as I threw it, I thought I might have missed, but then I realized that I hadn't seen it make any last minute sprints for cover, and that the book was propped up on something. So I went and stepped on the book for good measure, and heard the poor fellar crunch. I wasn't ready for the crunch either, but I probably should have expected it. I think it sort of comes with the territory. It wasn't until a few hours later (while I was in class) that I realized the cockroach had probably been running all over my rice, pooping or peeing or eating or whatever it is cockroaches do. It made my stomach turn, but I experienced no real stomach aches or troubles of any kind. Later I talked to my one-on-one teacher about it, and apparently cockroaches are fairly common here. I asked her if cockroaches carried diseases like ticks and mosquitoes, and she said that some did. Apparently when she was a kid, her parents told her, whenever she killed a cockroach, to always be sure to close her mouth, to be sure none of the guts sprayed into her mouth. So I went home and sanitized the cover of Freedom of the Hills. Just for good measure.

Home

2008-01-25T00:25:00.000-08:00

I made it back to Taiwan without any troubles, and it was really good to be back. I think partly because it is my home now, and partly because I can function here. Going to places where I can't speak any of the language made me realize that, while my Chinese isn't fantastic, I can function. Right after I got into the airport I asked someone for directions to the bus station right away, just so I Chinese to someone. And on the bus ride to Taipei I talked to the woman who was sitting beside me for about 45 min. After I got home and cleaned up, I went out and got some food. The food was delicious and incredibly satisfying because I ordered it all in Chinese, and there was no pointing or sub-par communication. And I got a steaming bowl of soy milk, which was amazing because it was cool outside.

The first week after getting back I was swamped with homework, partly because my classes are a lot more intense this semester, but also because I skipped the first three days of school, so I was having to make up for that. I'm taking 'Talks on Chinese Culture', 'New Radio Plays', and a news class. The news class is the favorite because although the articles are short and in a textbook, they were all written by a journalist for regular Chinese people to read, not by a teacher for students to read. 'Talks on Chinese Culture' is really interesting too though, because the texts are all about more substantive topics (last semester they were all crappy short dialog's just designed to use the vocab for the lesson). And I'm getting to learn all kinds of fun new words like 'feudalistic' and 'UV rays' and 'consciousness'. And some words we don't have in English like 'universalality'. So thats cool.

Climbing in Laos ... Yeaahhh.

2008-01-15T02:13:00.000-08:00

We got into Vang Vieng at about 2 in the morning. We walked across a gravel field (which later turned out to be the airfield) and found someone awake in the back of a guesthouse. He turned out to be the owner, and put Alonzo and I in his room, and Jessy and some Australian guy who we met 2 minutes before at the bus stop, in another room. (This picture is from the multi-pitch I talk about later.) The roosters started going at about 5:30 or 6:00, and I slept through it for a while, but between that, feeling weird sleeping in the hotel owners bed, and having to pee, I got up at about 7:30. Alonzo got up to, so we went out to look around. We knew there was climbing here, and had some idea of the topography from the bus ride down the day before, but the reality was stunning. The scenery was gorgeous with big steep hills of land everywhere, many of which had sheer rock faces on the sides. We finally made it out climbing a little before noon. Everyone here is out to make a buck (which I can't really hold against them), but I try to avoid getting taken in by every little scam. So we walked through the river to keep from having to pay the toll over the bridge. Then we just kept walking towards the mountain, through some rice paddies. Along in here we picked up some kids. They couldn't have been more than 3-4 years old, and just kept running up behind us, slapping as high as they could reach (usually butt or backpack) and then falling over in hysterics. They asked for money too, but mostly they fell over and laughed. Except for one kid. I didn't see it happen, but I had hung back to take some pictures, and the flock of kids followed Alonzo and Jessy. When I caught up there was one kid crying his eyes out, and Alonzo trying to comfort him. Apparently he was just running full out, and took a digger. Right onto his face. As we got closer to the mountain the kids headed back home, or wherever it is they hang out. Then we found the 'guide' (aka, last scam before we get to the rock). It was $1 each, and he took us to the climbing. It wasn't actually terrible, because it probably would have taken us a long time to find it, but then again, they could use signs.

The rock was great though. There were only about 8 climbs at this one spot, and we did most of them. And the view from the top of some of the climbs was really spectacular. We climbed until just before dark and timed it just right, so that we caught the sunset from the rice patties. It was one of the most amazing sunsets I've ever seen. It started really beautiful, and just kept getting more and more so. Then Alonzo noticed some bats coming from a hill on the right and streaming over the setting sun. They kept streaming out for 2-3 more minutes, while the sunset peaked. It was unbelievable.

With the sunset, the moon rise, the scenery here, and from the bus last night ... I pretty much fell in love with Laos right away. Because we had climbed most of the routes there, we had to go to a new place the next day. There were quite a few in the guidebook, and we decided that the 'Sleeping Wall' looked like a good place to go. We were in the mood for some adventure, so we decided to walk out and try to find it.

The guidebook said it was 2 km north of town, which didn't seem that bad, because we assumed that we knew where the end of town was. But after we'd been walking for a while, we began to realize that there wasn't a very distinct edge to the town, so we weren't really sure where we should begin estimating the 2 km before our left turn. After a while, we found a dirt road that seemed like it might be right. There was a very bleached old sign that seemed like it said something like the guidebook said it should, so we turned off there. I don't think we really believed it was the correct road, but we knew we would have to cross the river eventually, and walking along (or possibly through) the river seemed a lot more pleasant than walking beside the road, so we headed off. We passed a couple houses, and one playing loud (and in my opinion sub-par) Asian music. After passing a couple forks we finally made it to the banks of the river. We could see some rocks on the other side, so we dropped down the shore. We stumbled upon a bamboo platform with a man selling beer. We decided to stop and enjoy a Beer Lao and the scenery. The beer was warm, but the scenery was nice, and after we had been sitting talking for a while the guy gave us a delicious orange. After we finished our beers, we asked the guy for directions, and he pointed down the river, back towards town. We waded out into the creek, and down stream, looking for a place to stop. After a couple hundred yards we came to another stream side bar, and they had a little ferry service, so we got a shuttle across. We were looking for the 'Sleeping Wall', and we ended up finding the 'Sleeping Cave'. It was absurdly overhanging, and there were some bolted routes but most of them looked really dirty. We climbed one, but there was a stream flowing through the bottom of the cave, so it was hard to find a good place to belay. And the climbing was just as dirty as it looked. We decided to head back to the bar to relax. After all, it had been a hard day. I mean, we must have walked at least a mile and a half. And then did one and a half climbs. Definitely time for another beer. We walked back, and past the first bar we came to. Our goal was a second one, about 100 yards farther down stream, that looked like it had a pretty sweet rope swing. Right as we got to the second bar, we stumbled upon the 'Sleeping Wall'. There was one canyon, and another face, both tucked right behind the second bar. After we saw the climbing, we got excited again, and decided to climb more. Climbing here was certainly a different experience from the climbing yesterday. Not only was it harder and shorter, but there was mediocre European techno blasting from the bar (there were a few French climbers there to, and they got there first, so I guess they got to choose the music). There was even a campfire, and a slackline (tight-rope made from webbing). It was just a lot more of a social scene. The rope swing turned out to be as cool as it looked. It was fun, and there was really no room for hesitation. The bamboo platform they had built up to swing from, was really rickety, so it was scarier to stand there than it was to jump. This bar had a free shuttle, so after cooling off in the river, we headed home. It turned out that the road we had chosen was actually the right road, we had just turned off too soon.

Most of the rest of the time in Laos was well spent. One of the main tourist things to do is tube down the river, stopping frequently at bars along the way to get drunk. When we rented the tubes the company wrote their initials on our hands, in big black water-proof letters, so no matter how drunk we got, we would still know where to return the tubes. They are clearly experienced with foreign tourists.

We followed some friend's advice, and waited until the early afternoon to get started. This turned out to be a mistake because we ended up coming back after the sun had gone down, and the water wasn't that warm. At the put in, there was an Organic Farm that supports fair trade, shade grown, local agriculture, and all sorts of dandy things like that, with much of the profits going back to the local community (westerner's also go there to volunteer, and feel good about themselves for being socially responsible, and helping indigenous communities). The Organic Farm wasn't above opening a bar at the put in, so people could start the day off right, and one of these clever foreigners had made a sign that said "Please, Drink for the Children". So we stopped and had a shot of some sort of banana liquor. For the children. Then we set off. The first bar we passed had a zip-line, which would have been neat to try, but we saw a couple other people try it, and when they got to the block on the wire (to keep them from zipping all the way to the end of the line) they hit the block with force, which swung their legs up and most of them ended up doing a flip into the water. It looked sort of fun, but it looked like you got flipped pretty forcefully into the water, which was more than we wanted. All of the bars had people standing on the banks with bamboo harpoons, to throw to the lazy foreign tubers, so the lazy foreign tubers could get dragged to shore. The next bar we passed was advertising free whiskey shots, so we flagged down the harpoon man, and he tossed out the piece of bamboo and pulled us in. The whiskey sign turned out to be false advertising, so we walked down to the next bar, where there seemed to be more people.

Indeed there were more people at the next bar. It really reminded me of crappy hip hop clubs in Taiwan. The music was absurd and too loud, there were the young drunk people dancing and making fools out of themselves, and the place was even complete with older people sitting in bamboo huts looking sullen and bored. There were a couple exceptions though. One was volley ball courts. The other was the huge rope swing. We decided to get some drinks and sit down, and the most well advertised drink is the so called "Bucket". Naturally, in the spirit of trying new things, I decided to get one. Sure enough, it was a bucket, first filled with ice, then half filled with whiskey, then a Pepsi and energy drink for taste. It really wasn't bad. Alonzo and Jessy both decided to try the rope swing, but I was starting to get sick, and was already wearing my long john shirt to stay warm, so I didn't think the rope swing would be a good idea. After they did the rope swing we headed down stream again. I think we stopped for one more beer, but mostly it was a long, cold, mildly buzzed float back to town. We got our tubes back to the right place (thanks to the engravings on our hands) and went to get warm and clean. There is a little island in the river, just near town, and coincidentally it is packed with bars, so we went there to ring in the New Year.

Midnight didn't take very long to arrive, and after the countdown was over, I realized I had a little fever, and my throat hurt so I left. In the end, it turns out that drinking a lot wasn't a sure fire cure, and actually probably negatively affected my throat. So I took a couple days off from climbing. At one point, we were eating, and Jessy asked how I was doing. "I've got a fever, my throat hurts, and my nose is completely stuffed up, but I know if I try to blow it, it will start bleeding." (I'm pretty sure I just had strep throat, but for some reason it was accompanied by nose bleeds every day for over a week. For a few days, they were like clockwork, coming within a few minutes of each other. Every morning, unprovoked, at about 8:30.) So, I slept a lot, and towards the end I got some throat lozenges, and it sorted itself out.

That Thursday was my last day in Laos, and there was a multi-pitch I wanted to do before I left. The cliff was behind the 'Sleeping Wall', and was easily visible, so we didn't think it would be that hard to get to. This proved not to be the case, and the approach turned out to be one of the most intense one's I'd ever done. The main difficulty at first was finding out where the trail was, but after 3-4 false starts, we finally got the right one. Shortly thereafter, the trail truly got sketchy. It was through a jungle, but the sketchy part was the rocks we were walking on. The way they formed, it was basically like a bunch of knives laid down with the sharp edge facing the sky. Then we walked along these sharp edged rocks (they were sharp enough to make noticeable gashes and holes in the soles of my shoes, just from 40 min. of walking on them) balancing and hoping they didn't break (though you could see where previous pieces had broken off). Most of the time you could see down through the gaps between the slivers of rock, maybe 8 inches or a foot to the ground, so that if a sliver did break, you would actually fall a little. Mostly I think we were afraid of getting a knee-cap shorn clean off. All in all it still wasn't as terrifying as a couple of the moped rides. After we made it to the cliff, we ended up getting on the wrong climb, but the one we did was fun, and the view's were beautiful, so it was OK.

On Friday I departed Laos. The first bus ride was 4 hours, down to the capital of Vientienne (the capital of Laos). Then I got a tuk tuk down to the border, where I encountered some difficulties. After I made it through immigration, I was immediately targeted and a woman tried to sell me a bus ticket into Thailand. I figure the first person to try to sell you stuff is the most expensive, so I always say no right away. In hindsight I think the woman was running the only 'public' bus system, and was probably just trying to be helpful. After the tuk tuk ride, I only had about $2 left (in Laotian currency) and for some reason, I thought that I had to spend it all, or maybe it would be a good idea to spend it all before I got any Thai currency. So I shopped around, and found some interesting boxes of cookies and bought them. That was the point where I realized my mistake. I should have first bought transport away from the spot I was (no town really, just a border crossing with some stores), then gotten food. Border control was pretty loose, and I had seen an ATM in Laos before I crossed over, so I walked around the border checkpoint, and back into Laos. I was surprised how easy it was just to walk back in. Anywhoo, the ATM didn't take VISA cards, so I was faced with a real predicament. No money, and no way to get money. And I had to pee, but they charged for the bathroom, and I didn't think they would except cookies as payment. I walked back into Thailand, and found a taxi driver I had briefly haggled with before buying the cookies. I think this was the peak of my haggling success, especially since I didn't actually have any money. We bartered back and forth, with neither of us moving. I expected him to come down gradually, but after we chit chatted for a bit, he just yelled to some of his fellow cab drivers, and someone appeared who was willing to take me to the train station for my price. I'm pretty sure the guy who took me used his own personal truck. It certainly didn't seem like a regular cab. And he ended up having to loan me some money so I could make it through immigration on the Thai side. THEN, the other cab driver had lead me to believe there was an ATM at the train station, but there wasn't so the guy drove me to an Tesco where they had an ATM, so I could get money. I was really grateful to the guy, but at the same time, the train station turned out to be about 1/4 mile away from the border crossing. I think I could have walked there in 20 min, so I'm pretty sure the guy still came off with a big profit. And from the looks of his truck, it didn't seem like he was hurting for cash. I had been worried some about the travel, because of still being a little sick, but the train ride to Bangkok ended up being great. I was in the sleeper car, and I had previously been warned to try to get a lower bunk, because it minimized the rocking of the train. When I bought my ticket there were none left, so I got the top one. It was good though because it's been a long time since I was little enough for my momma to rock me to sleep, and I ended up really enjoying the rocking of the train. After the train got in, I had to catch a couple buses to get out to the airport. On the second one, just like clockwork, my nose started to bleed. Fortunately, I had come prepared, so I tilted my head back so the blood ran down my throat, the fumbled in my bag for some tissues, which I pressed to my nose, and waited for it to sort itself out. After I got to the airport, it was just a long wait for my plane to leave. Then a short flight back to Taiwan. I did see a bunch of Eastern Europeans, with a fetish for taping their baggage closed. Lord only knows why, but a few of them used a whole roll of tape just to make 2 really thick bands of tape around their bags. Whatever the reason, the did seem to enjoy taping their luggage closed, so I guess it was alright.

Laos ... Yeahhh.

2008-01-07T04:38:00.000-08:00

1st of all. Alonzo has posted more pictures. Go to www.snapfish.com use the email address
azm13@hotmail.com and the password gonzo

Alonzo, Jessy, and I left Chiang Mai on Christmas Eve. The moped terror peaked for me the day before we left. We went to look for the bus station so we could get tickets for the next day. Alonzo was driving, and the traffic was kind of heavy, and there was more swerving than normal (because we didn't know where we were going) and the line between the shoulder and the road was much more distinct (which is important because the shoulder also serves as the moped lane). Merging from the shoulder over onto the main highway was the sketchiest part of it all. I've crashed on my bike more than once because I didn't take the turn sharp enough and my tires kept going forward while my body went sideways. I was thinking about every single time as Alonzo made the transition over. Every muscle in my body was tensed up, but Alonzo made it over smoothly and we made to the bus station and got tickets for the 8:00 am bus tomorrow.

We caught the bus up, and they played some really crappy American horror/sci-fi movie. It made me wonder whether or not the actors know that their movie is being played on a tiny TV on the bus from Chaing Mai to Chaing Khong. Anyway, Chaing Khong is right on the border with Laos, so as soon as we got there we took a ferry across (the Mekong) to the Laos side, and promptly got shafted by the Laos government officials. I knew we were going to have to pay 35 USD to get a visa, which is a little steep, but I though "Meh, What can ya do?". I was however, mistaken. Americans have to pay that much if they have US cash. If they are going to pay in Baht (the Thai currency), they have to pay 1500, which is about 50 USD. At first I honestly thought the man had made a mistake with the calculator (silly me) and so I did the conversion, and pointed to the new number on the calculator. He took the calculator back (On a side note, calculators are used really extensively here, for haggleing, to make sure everyone involved is sure of the numbers. They get some crazy huge calculators too, with 2" tall number displays.) and typed 1500 back in, then pointed to it. Then he smiled. His smile was the worst part of the whole thing. It said "I know you're getting shafted. And you know you're getting shafted. And your friends? They're going to get shafted too, because who carries around US cash in Thailand? So you can argue all you want, but you're going to pay the extra money, and I'm not going to loose any sleep over haven given you the shaft. Sucker." It was the most infuriating smile I've ever seen. And to make it worse, I didn't have enough cash on me, because I hadn't planned on needing much Baht in Laos (they use Kip there). So I fought a little more, and punched some more numbers into the calculator, and they told me that I could go back to Thailand if I wanted to, to get out more cash. What I really wanted to do was to spit on his little smile, then run back to Thailand where I would be out of reach (hopefully) of his retribution, but instead I borrowed a little money from Alonzo, gritted my teeth, and payed.

After we left, our next task was to bater passage on a slow boat down the Mekong. We hoped to be able to get started that day but, apparently only one boat leaves every day, and we had missed it, so we got a hotel room. Then we went down to the pier and bartered passage on the slow boat the next day. Score. Our boat left at 11:00, and we showed up at about 10:20. The boat was already mostly filled, and most of the occupants were tourists. There were some chickens on the roof, and one or two Laotian families but the vast majority was European tourists. On that note, I have some good news. Europeans are assholes too. I always hear about what a bad reputation Americans have abroad, as being loud and rude and obnoxious. Well, 1st of all, because everyone was speaking English, I feel like a lot of the rude Europeans could easily be mistaken for Americans, and give us a bad name. Second of all, I kind of feel like Americans are made out to be the only assholes, but that is just not the case. Some of these Europeans were unbelievable. The Mekong was beautiful though. We were on it for two days, and I watched the scenery go past for most of the time. We stopped for one night in a very small town supported, as far as I could tell, entirely by the tourist boat stopping there every day. It was kind of sad because the people there have such a strong incentive to hawk and sell! sell! sell! That night was the first I've ever slept under a mosquito net and I was glad of it, but not because of mosquitoes. I heard something (I assume some sort of Asian rat) crawling around on the head of the bed, and I don't know if the mosquito net kept the rat from crawling on my face, but it certainly did make me feel better. At the end of the second day we passed a few cliffs, some in the distance, but some right on the river. It made me excited about climbing, because, while the climbing in Chiang Mai was good, it wasn't terribly scenic. This looked like it was going to be. One of the cliffs on the river had a cave, which had been turned into a temple. Sweet. We got into Luang Pra Bang at about 5:45, and we hoped to be able to get a bus down to Vang Vieng (where the climbing is). I had actually lost hope because we got in later than I thought we would, but there was one leaving at 7:00, so we got tickets, then grabbed some dinner, and some sort of little Lao bunny cookies that tasted a little like lemon. Alonzo and I sat in the next to last row, with Jessy sitting in the row behind us. I had the window. The sun had been down for a while by the time the bus started to move, and after a little I got to see the moon rise. It was a dark red at first, then gradually lightened in color going through orange, until it became its normal bright off-white. It wasn't quite full, but it was still bright and the moonlight scenery was incredible.

Since Alonzo and I have been traveling together I've wanted to climb on top of almost all of the different forms of transportation we've taken. On the train we had huge, 4' x 4' windows that it would have been easy to climb out of. I felt around above the window, and there was a sort of gutter going above the window, so I climbed part way out and found out it would have been easy to get on top. I scouted out a descent too. There was a ladder down in between the cars, though once you got down the ladder it might have been tricky to get back inside the train. I was also a little worried about low hanging electrical wires, or electrical wires which were some how connected to the train. I ended up falling asleep, so didn't climb on top.

Then I wanted to climb on top of the boat down the Mekong too. I could have gotten away from the European tourists drinking and smoking, and enjoyed the scenery more. Part of the time, floating down the river I did stand on the bumper going around the edge of the boat, so my shoulder was at the level of the roof, and my whole body was outside the boat. Getting onto the roof would have been easy from there, and I might have done it, but there was a sign clearly proclaiming that it wasn't allowed, and I got yelled at a couple of times, just for standing on the bumper. The bus was a different story though. The window I was sitting beside was huge, but only about half of it opened. I felt around above it and found another sort of gutter, and pulled my torso out. They used the roof for some baggage storage, so there was a railing going around the edge. I lowered myself back into the bus, and began amassing testicular fortitude. There were no technically difficult climbing moves. The lights were off in the bus. Alonzo was asleep, and most other people either were, or would be soon. I didn't feel like I would be missed, and after a while someone in the front of the bus started throwing up (the road was pretty windy), giving me another reason to get out of the bus. The bus had to slow down going up hills, and eventually had to stop to shift down to first gear, so I even had a good opportunity when the bus wasn't really moving. I could just slip out the window, and onto the roof. Then really enjoy the view, and the experience (I've discovered I'm a real slut for a unique experience). I egged myself on for a long time, and finally opened the window and got completely outside the bus, with my hands on the rail around the top. Then I realized, "What am I doing?". I climbed back inside the bus. Before, I had thought the most difficult part would be the beginning. Actually opening the window. I was very demoralized, and realized I must not have fully been committed. Naturally, in hindsight the whole thing seems stupid and rash, but I still kind of wish I'd made it on top. As it is, I've got a cool memory, but riding on top of a bus at night through Laos, during the full moon would have been an incredible experience.

Climbing ... Yeaahhh.

2007-12-23T02:50:00.000-08:00

My momma has only ever made me promise her two things. The first one was to never join the military, and I've got that one on lock down. Definitely not planning on joining the military any time soon. The second one was to never get a motorcycle, and unfortunately I had to fib a little on that one. To get out to the climbing area here you can either catch a ride with the local climbing shop (in which case your arrival and departure time are scheduled and you are running around with a lot of people all the time) or you can rent mopeds and drive your own self out to the crag. Naturally we decided to drive our own selves out. Overall it wasn't too crazy, although I was normally in a healthy state of terror (just to keep things safe). They drive on the left side of the road here, so that took a little getting the hang of, but all the Thai drivers are pretty considerate, and I'm pretty sure they are used to stupid foreigners so they just kind of wait until you sort yourself out, then they go on their way.

Alonzo and I rode together and rotated most everything. One of us would rent, and the other would pay for gas, and usually I drove in the morning and he drove at night. Driving in the city was arguably more dangerous, but I think felt safer because we weren't going so fast. Mostly we didn't go to fast on the highway either, but one day we went to visit an elephant reserve, and we left Chaing Mai a little late, so we hauled ass on the way down there. I don't know if we were actually speeding or not because I couldn't read the street signs, and it hadn't even occurred to me until the second day that there might even be a speed limit, or that speed was something we should be concerned about. Mostly we just kept with the stream of traffic.

We ended up making really good time down to the elephant reserve, but it didn't matter too much because they had pretty regular elephant shows (we had thought they only had one). The show was pretty neat. They had the elephants do a sort of re-enactment of the work elephants used to do, which was logging. Then they had the elephants paint a picture. One painted a freestyle picture, and the other one painted some flowers (the people there had taught him how). We also went to see the elephant dung paper factory while we were there. Apparently they can not only make paper out of elephant dung, but they can also make bio-fuels if they ferment it right. So that was pretty neat to see. This was the only day Alonzo and I didn't share a moped, and on the way back we took it a lot slower. It was nice to be able to enjoy it, though it was still a little terrifying. We stopped at a roadside stand and got some strawberries, then turned off on a random road and happened to find a temple. So we stopped there and ate the strawberries. It was pretty cool. Needless to say it was some sort of a Buddhist temple. The statues were humanoid but had vague resemblances to a cat, and there was leopard print cloth draped around them. To top it off there was a cat living there by itself. I think it was the friendliest cat I've ever met. After we went polished off the strawberries we went up the hill and found a whole monastery. We only saw one monk, but he told us to show ourselves around. It was a pretty beautiful place.

Most of the other days we went climbing. The climbing here is all really good and not too crowded. There is a cave adjoining one of the cliffs and we saw in the guide book that there was a climb inside, so we went in to check it out. There was one or two short climbs near the entrance but the one we were interested in was farther back. It was a two pitch climb, roughly 5.11d in difficulty, which is out of my league, but a couple of the other guys we were with wanted to give it a try. Basically it was the kind of climb that makes me wish I was a better climber. It just takes a really cool line, looked amazing, and was really really exposed (which means that it is really obvious how far it is to the ground). The climb was fairly overhanging and was basically already 100' off the ground when it started, so as soon as you started climbing there was nothing between you and the ground but air. When I found the guys, they were already started. Conrad was sitting on a ledge 100' off the ground (the starting point) belaying Jessy, who was another 100' up, about 10' past his last bolt, standing in between two stalactites, staring down into the vast emptiness of the cave. After sitting for a minute I realized Jessy was looking for another bolt because he wasn't sure where the route went next. He ended up finding one right above his head (and after he clipped that one he found another down by his thigh). The second pitch traversed right out of the cave, then over the opening to the anchors. It wasn't quite as intense looking, but still made me wish I was a better climber.

Other highlights were finding a waterfall one day after climbing, and going to a Thai cooking school. The day we went to find the waterfall, we had originally planned to go to a hot spring, but we found out that there were about 3 different fees just to get into the area, and that there might be another fee to actually sit in the hot spring. We were also unsure about whether or not we'd physically be able to sit in hot spring because of the size of it. There was a lot of miscommunication going on. Our fall back plan was to go to the waterfall, so we set off. The drive was a lot more beautiful and got us back into the mountains. Alonzo was driving so I got to take in a lot of the view. After driving for a while we had to stop and ask for directions. A truck was driving past and Alonzo had the guidebook, so he spearheaded the initiative. While Alonzo asked directions, I commented to Conrad that they were pretty ballsy, trying to get information like that without any knowledge of the language. He laughed and said it was easy. All you have to do is point at the waterfall in the guidebook, then point down the road to the left and to the right. Touche. It really is that simple. The guy Alonzo asked even spoke some English, so he came away with more information than just a direction. We ended up finding the ranger station (really just a family's home, but they opened the gate for us and let us in) and the trailhead. The sun was setting as we walked in, which was beautiful, but also a little distressing because I hadn't brought my flashlight. At one point we came to a fork in the trail. We chose the left fork and kept our fingers crossed. The trail dropped steeply into a canyon and it seemed like we had chosen the right path. After a little further the creek crossed a stream, and right after that we found the waterfall. I had wanted to swim before, and there was a good pool at the bottom of the fall, and I could have swam but due to time constraints I didn't. It was a nice waterfall. We took a couple pictures and then hurried back.

Alonzo drove the first half of the way back, then I took over. This was the most terrifying ride of the trip. Nothing really special happened, it was just pretty intense overall. When we finally made it back and I stepped off the moped for the last time (that day), I heaved my first ever true sigh of relief. The stress of the ride back didn't even compare to anything else I've experienced in my whole life. Hands down. Tests and school are nothing. Climbing isn't even very scary compared with the ride back.

Anywhoo, the cooking school was fun (and we didn't have to ride mopeds out to it, which was a bonus). The chef teaching us kept making terrible jokes, and then laughing really hard, which made his jokes funny. I guess it was a testament to how important a good delivery is. And I learned how to make mango sticky rice, a delicious concoction involving mango, sticky rice, sugar, coconut, and salt. Unbelievable.

I kind of wanted wrestle with the trunk of an elephant, but since I'm pretty sure the elephant could rip me in half like a phone book, this is as close as I got. And the elephant spit on me a little.

One other neat thing about Chaing Mai was the Frog Women. There are a few night markets in Chaing Mai, and they are all saturated with Frog Women. They sell little wooden frogs, that have been hollowed out in the middle, and carved ridges on their backs. You take a stick and rub it along the ridges on their backs and it makes the frogs 'ribbit'. And the Frog Women push these things like there weren't no tomorrow. They've got a good system too, the whole Frog Woman union, that is. They all wear fakey little outfits with a red on black design that I though looked a little Peruvian. They also wear very interesting hats. The hats look a little like the Pope's hat, but smaller. They have high fronts (similar to the Pope's hat), but square, with a color scheme to match their jackets, and little silver bangles hanging off. And all of the women are shorter than 5' 4". Actually it is a little odd, because they really all are really short. Anyway, when you first walk in you get attacked by a few of the older more experienced ones. If you make it past them, then there is another rank of younger pretty Frog Women waiting inside the gate. They attack next. And each individual attack isn't easy to fend off either because there are so many stages of it. They use the frogs to lure you in, but once you've told them you don't want a frog, they are ready with a horde of other trinkets to push on you. See, they all wear those little rack that hang off in front of them, like hot dog salesmen in baseball stadiums. The racks are full of more frogs, and other trinkets, and they've got necklaces and bracelets hanging off of both arms which they push at you and point to. I really do like the Frog Women though. They're constantly making the frogs go 'ribbit' so they create a sort of nice atmosphere, and they are so stalwart and determined. Almost none of them ever smile, or even speak. They just point to the frogs and necklaces and stare at you. It is fun to watch them haggle other people too, but sometimes they notice me and start walking towards me. I shake my head 'no', but I think that is a mistake because it just encourages them. If I shake my head then I've responded in some way, and they have an opening.

Thailand ... Yeeaaaahh.

2007-12-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

One of my roommates from school (Alonzo) is spending a few months in Thailand climbing, and, because my school gets a few weeks off for Christmas, I'm going to meet and climb and catch up. He was planning on meeting me in the airport, and we had formulated vague ideas about meeting next to any columns with 'A' or '1' on them, for lack of a better landmark. So when I made it through customs I was a little concerned about actually meeting up, but as I was walking past lines of people Alonzo stepped up beside me. Then commenced a festival of hugging. At first we hugged cause it was good to see each other. Then we hugged because Brian (another roommate) had asked me to give Alonzo a hug for him. Then we hugged again because Brian had also asked me to tell Alonzo to give me a hug for Brian. Then we hugged again, just for good meAsure. Then we headed to the hotel.

After breakfast the next day we caught a bus to the train station. Here is such a contrast from Taiwan. There you can scan a magnetic card to pay for the trip, and the buses have TV's on them, and doors that open and close. The buses here have wooden floors, and the no real doors and a woman that comes around to collect the change for the bus fare. And our bus driver was wearing a pair of really dirty flip flops and his toes were about 3-4 inches long.

Anyway, we made it to the train station OK and we got tickets on the next train to Chaing Mai. It didn't leave until 2:30 in the afternoon, so we killed some time and tried to find a place where I could withdraw some money. We didn't find one so we went back to the train station, and put our stuff down. I went to make some more rounds on different ATM's and when I came back Alonzo had made a new friend. Or a new friend had made Alonzo. A middle aged Thai woman (with poor English) was trying to communicate. She seemed like a scammer but, I wasn't quite sure what her scam was, so I talked to her some too. She also had a ticket on the 2:30 train to Chaing Mai, which was a little dubious, but after talking to her for a few minutes, we grabbed out bags and went to get on the train. After I put my backpack in the rack above the seats, I went to get out my book, and found out that my tube of toothpaste had busted open, and green apple toothpaste exploded everywhere. I was disappointed and I cleaned my book off, but decided to wait until later to clean up the rest of it. Alonzo and I had the seats at the beginning of the row, and just as we started to sit down a man came around, and turned our seats to face the ones behind us. I thought this might be a little awkward, because then we would be staring at the people in front of us for a lot of the 12 hour ride, but then the man turned those seats too, so now Alonzo and I were sitting in the back of the car instead of the front.

The train ride wasn't too fast and was a good opportunity to see the countryside. It also provided a good opportunity to try real Thai food because people were walking past pretty regularly. And they walked past about a dozen times, so you could really scope out what it was first, and decide whether or not you wanted any. We ended up getting something that I thought was noodles, in part because a middle eastern guy across the isle got some too giving Alonzo and I a good opportunity. So we got some. It looked like fiber glass, and was a little scary to eat, but it was made from sugar cane, and tasted like cotton candy. It was pretty good, and we talked with the middle eastern man some. Later on we saw the crazy woman coming towards us on the train, and we pretended to be asleep until she walked past, but she outsmarted us and came right back after we stopped pretending so, we had to talk to her.

It got a little weird when she started leaning on my knee to support her as she sat down in the isle. It still wasn't clear what she wanted, but I wasn't cool with her using my leg as a backrest, and my thigh as an armrest, so I started to ignore her and try to read. Then I made an ass out of myself. Because I was ignoring her the woman shifted her attention to the middle eastern man beside me, and started haranguing him. I thought I should offer some friendly advice, so I said maybe if he said something in Arabic she might get confused a leave. My assumption he spoke Arabic wasn't completely baseless. I had seen him reading a Lonely Planet guidebook earlier, and it looked like Arabic. He'd also been talking to the girl beside him in what sounded like Arabic. Even though my assumtion had some basis it proved to be completely false. After I gave him my little tidbit of advice, he smiled and said he didn't speak Arabic. So I felt like a jackass, but he was really friendly about it. I made some excuses, and went back to reading. The woman ended up leaving, and Alonzo introduced himself. The couple was actually from Israel, and they had been reading and speaking Hebrew. They were really nice, and gave us some fruit.

After a while it got dark, and we couldn't look at the scenery anymore, so we went to sleep. It got really cold on the train and I pulled out my blanket, and Alonzo and I huddled together for warmth. The train got in at a little after five in the morning, and Alonzo and I caught a 'tuk-tuk' to a guesthouse called 'Same-Same'. Thai people have their own sort of English, and one of the common expressions is 'same-same'. I don't know why they say it twice, but they almost always do. Anyway, we made it to the guesthouse ok, but it was still only 6 in the morning, so we just loitered around out front. I tried to clean the toothpaste out of my bag, but it didn't work to well.

Well ...

2007-12-06T22:42:00.001-08:00

I've been living here for over two months now, and I hate to say this, but I still think a lot of Asian people look a lot alike. I even thought I saw Jerries mom working at the grocery store the other day. At first I was surprised, then worried because I owed her money, and I didn't have any on me to pay her back, then I realized it wasn't her.

And another thing. Up until this week I thought all the restaurants I ate in were very clean with no problems, just like the states. But earlier this week I was eating lunch and saw a rat running across the floor. I'm pretty sure it wasn't a pet rat either, though it did seem pretty accostomed to having the run of the place. And just yesterday I got served a piece of honey toast with ants on it. While I was debating whether or not to take I could get my money back for it, or whether or not I could eat it and get my money back for it, one of the people at my table took all the ants off. Now that there were no ants on my toast my options were a lot more limited. I couldn't very well take a peice of toast up there with no ants on it, and say that there had been ants on it, and I wanted my money back. So I just ate the toast.

This afternoon I got an opportunity to try the Taiwanese version of chewing tobacco (I don't think it has as many negative side affects, but it does turn your mouth red temporarily). There is a nut (very similar to an acorn) wrapped in a small leaf. You bite the end off the 'acorn', spit that out, then put the rest in your mouth and start chewing. It wasn't bad really. I thought it tasted a little like meat. I had swallowed a couple mouthfulls of spit before I asked my teacher if that was ok or not. Apparently you can but most people don't. So I spat out the rest of the 'mouth water' (chinese for saliva). Overall it wasn't terrible, but I don't think I'll be buying it for myself any time soon.

Thanksgiving

2007-11-27T02:31:00.000-08:00

My school got two days off for Thanksgiving, so I decided to go backpacking. When one of the typhoons came, a couple months ago, I had rented a book on the Taiwanese mountains from the library, and picked out one that looked gorgeous. Then I found a store, and got a good topo map, figured out from the map some nearby cities and was pretty much ready. I tried to figure out the bus schedule to Lu Shan (the town I needed to get to) but because there are so many different bus companies, there isn't really a good internet website for the bus schedules. So I decided to skip my last class on Wednesday so I could get an early start and then wing it, and hope things turned out OK. I kind of wanted an adventure, and I went by myself, so I expected to have one. I had thought that getting to the trailhead would be the most difficult part, and once I got to the trailhead I would be home free. However, I was mistaken.

I took a train to Taichung, and when I got there, I just went in to the visitor services office and asked how to get to Lu Shan. They checked all the bus schedules, and quickly wrote up a little schedule. There were buses going leaving every fifteen minutes for Pu Li, so I caught the next one of those. The bus looked really nice on the inside, all the chairs were green leather, and even had those little triangular blocks on either side of your head, so you can just lean your head to the side and nap. I was excited about them, until I sat down and realized they were too low, and pushed my shoulders forward. So I had to slouch down, and press my knees either into the isle, or into the seat in front of me.

After the bus got to Pu Li, I got off and waited at the bus station (for about an hour) for the next bus to Lu Shan. At Pu Li I was already in the mountains, but they started to get serious once I headed out for Lu Shan. It was getting dark, but I caught glimpses of jagged ridges, and I started to get excited.

We pulled into Lu Shan at 8:00, which was basically the trailhead (at least according to the map). I had some vague sort of hopes of being able to camp somewhere, or stay without paying, but these were quickly dashed. I got solicited right away by a couple guys from one of the hotels, just waiting around at the bus stop. I told them the hotel was too expensive for me, and the asked if I wanted to camp. Naturally I said yes, and they told me there was a spot down the way where I could camp, but I was pretty unclear about the whole situation. I walked about 100yds down the road and got solicited by a couple more guys from the same hotel. I told them it was too expensive, and they asked how much I was willing to pay. I have no idea about the hotel market in Taiwan, so I decided to start low at 100 NTD (about 2.50 USD). They all burst into laughter, and a couple other people who were walking past stopped to watch. So now it was the main guy I was talking to, a couple of his co-workers, and a couple of strangers, all come to watch the foreigner. After they quit laughing I asked him how much the cheapest place was. 600 NTD. I've camped in city parks before, but I don't really enjoy it and 600 isn't that much so I decided to stay there. The main guy took me over to the cheap hotel, and the 'clerk' there showed me to my room. Then he gave me some hot water, and left.

Thursday morning (Thanksgiving, though I didn't get realize it until Friday), I got up early, had granola for breakfast, and went downstairs. The 'clerk' this morning was an old man, and so I gave him the key, then asked for some water. I was pleased with my decision to stay at a hotel. Flush toilets, free clean water, and best of all I could ask for directions to the trailhead. The old man had to get out a magnifying glass but he seemed to now where we were on my map, and how to get to where I wanted to go. That was as far as giving directions went, and was the point when the fiasco started. There were two trails leading out of the city, and he told me that everyone else took the one that I didn't want to take. I wasn't sure I would be able to get directions out of him because he seemed adamant that no one used the trail I wanted to use. The other one would have been OK too, but it would have taken an hour longer, and just seemed like too much effort.

Then the 'clerk' from last night joined the old man (I think they were a father-son duo), and now it came out that I didn't have a permit. Before I left I had heard from multiple people that you had to have a guide to go about 3000 meters, and I knew that I didn't want a guide, so I had disdained the whole process, and anything to do with guides or permits. The two clerks started making it sound like people got lost and were never found again every other week on this trail, but what really scared me was this stamp they kept going on about. They claimed that if I got caught in the backcountry without this a permit, someone would put this stamp on my passport, and when I went to other countries they might not let me in because they would know I was a bad egg, and didn't get backcountry permits. This worried me because I've already bought my plane ticket to Thailand for Christmas break, and I really want to go see Alonzo (school roommate I'm meeting there). They told me I could apply for a permit, but it would take at least 3 days, and so I might as well go back to Taipei. This was very frustrating because the weather was gorgeous and I really just wanted to go backpacking. Not only that, but they had gotten my name and passport number early on so it seemed like if I were to leave now without a permit these two clerks would call the police on me, and I would be certain to get caught and stamped. Bastards. They told me the next bus out of town left at 9:30 so I had about 40 min to decide. So I left, and went to see if I could find the trailhead on my own. After walking for a bit I decided to give one of my teachers a call and see what she thought of the situation. She had never heard of the "hey other countries look, this guy didn't get a backcountry permit in Taiwan" stamp, and told me that the permit process could be completed in one day, and she thought I ought to go do that. I didn't think that my prospects of success were good because even if other people could get the permit sorted out in one day, I didn't know if I could. I think a lot of Taiwanese people think that us white people are little better than children, and it is a miracle we make it through every day. The benefit of this is that most Taiwanese people are really nice and willing to help foreigners who managed to make it across the ocean to get here. However, I didn't think this helpfulness would extend to letting a white guy go alone into the backcountry.

It turns out I was mistaken. I caught the bus at 9:30 and got of at Wu She. I had to go to the Police Station to get the permit, and when I walked in the guy at the front desk knew right away I was in to apply for a permit, (I think the backpack tipped him off) and he told me to stash my stuff in an adjacent room, and go upstairs. I had to ask for directions again on the second floor, but I got pointed in the right direction. As I walked into the room, another guy followed me in and immdeiately took me under his wing. He went and got the papers, and I started filling them out. Part way through the form filling out the guy found out where I wanted to go, and told me it would take 6 days. Then he got excited and showed me some pictures of somewhere he had just gone, and told me he would take me there next time I came back. He suggested, because my plan would take six days, that I just go back to Taipei, but I voiced my feelings about going back to the city. So, we settled on a much more simple trip. Hike in, camp at the same place for two nights, then hike out. I didn't want to press for an itenerary that sounded more interesting because I didn't want to get sent back to Taipei, and in the end I think the more relaxing trip was better. There was only one problem with the new plan. The original trail I had planned to hike left straight out of the city limits, but this one required a long drive in (with no public busses). However, the police man wasn't about to let this get in my way. He said he was going to go asking around to see if anyone else was going in there, and I think he told me if that plan didn't work he would take me up there himself. I'm not sure exactly, but I know there was a backup plan. I ended up not needing the backup plan because my policeman friend found some other people heading to the same place, and he talked them into letting me ride along.

I stashed my backpack in the back of their gear van (they were biking in) and got into a car with a stranger. As I did so, it occured to me that getting into cars with strangers isn't always the best idea, and I might ought to be concerned about it. I wondered why I wasn't concerned, and then realized that I had sort of expected to be getting into a car with a stranger. I tried to prepare very well for this trip, and I even brought along a piece of cardboard and a marker, in case I needed to do any spurt of the moment hitchiking. The stranger driving the car was, not surprisingly, very nice and we talked for a while then I just enjoyed the drive. When we got to the trailhead I grabbed my pack and left, looking forward to enjoying some quite and scenery. I stopped to pee beside the trail, and was immediately interupted by mopeds coming down the trail from the other direction. My hopes for a wilderness experience hadn't been especially high but they were shattered all the same.

The trail was pretty sketchy too, but that didn't stop the fellows on mopeds from shuttling gear in and out to the hostel (my destination). Most I didn't see the mopeds again until much later in the day, and I was able to enjoy most of the hike in solitude. The mountains were gorgeous, and the weather was pretty perfect. As I came around the last ridge the wind picked up, and the temp dropped noticeably. There was no one else in the hostel when I got there, so I just set up my tent in the field out front, then had dinner and went to bed. After I had been in my sleeping bag for a while I heard the bikers arrive, then the mopeds, then I heard them crank up the generator. I managed to ignore it and slept well.

In the morning someone came to check up on me. They were worried cause they hadn't seen me the night before, and I hadn't gotten out of my tent yet. Sweethearts. So I got up and had breakfast. The weather was beautiful again, though there was still a cold, moist wind blowing off of the ridge behind the campsite. The ridge had been covered in cloud the day before, and was again today, though the rest of the sky was completely cloudless. After breakfast I set off to climb Nan Hua Shan (the mist covered ridge behind the campsite). The hike was gorgeous, and the trail quickly led above tree line pretty quickly. About the same time the trail ducked unto the cloud, where it was colder, and much wetter, but it was still beautiful. Bamboo had replaced the trees, and in some places the bamboo overshadowed the trail. It wasn't bad if the trail was flat or uphill, but there were times when it went downhill steeply and it was overgrown. So I crept along hoping I wasn't putting my foot in a hole, or on a slippery pebble just waiting to tumble away as soon as I weighted it. I managed to make it through, if slowly. (It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but I'm waist deep in bamboo. The trail stretches off behind me.)

Since I had come onto the proper part of the ridge the wind had picked up, and I was too wet to stop and hang out in the wind. I didn't regret that most of the time, and I found a couple spots where the trail dipped beside the other side of the ridge and was out of the wind. I took advantage of these spots to stand and relax, watch the clouds get blown past, and know that if I were standing there it would be really windy and loud. But I wasn't standing there, so I could really enjoy the calm and complete quite.

The actual summit of Nan Hua Shan wasn't terribly exciting, just a higher bump on a ridge. The view of the fog was the same. When I made it to the pass on the other side there was a monument ("Spreading Light Over the Land Monument") and a small informational sign with a picture of Nan Hua Shan. It looked very beautiful, and was neat to think about what it would look like, but my view wasn't terribly remarkable. Shortly after I left the pass I walked back into the sunlight, and was able to shed a couple of layers. Being inside the fog is beautiful in its own unique way, but there is just no replacement for real sunlight.

The American slogan "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing well." I think the Taiwanese version would be "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing with about 50 other people, all together." I got back to camp at about noon and there were already a few more tents up out front. In the afternoon I left again to get some peace and quite, and read by the trail for a few hours. When I went back to camp there were 5 or 6 more tents up and a bunch of people inside milling around. I talked to the bikers a little bit (they had gone on a day hike too, but had climbed another mountain in addition to Nan Hua Shan). I read some more inside but dinner time was rolling around and things were starting to get intense. People were starting to use multiple little single burner stoves to hold up a pot the size of my torso and cook oodles of rice and different kinds of meat. I went outside and had my dinner of vege chicken nuggets and some kind of mayonnaise/salad dressing. The mayo was pretty gross, but I wanted some extra calories to keep me warm in the sleeping bag, and all the butter they have here was imported from Europe so the mayo seemed like the more eco-friendly choice. Even though it was colder, I was hanging around outside mostly now because I was afraid if I loitered inside too much I would get wrangled into eating someone else's food. This isn't really that big of a problem except that all of my food that I don't eat, I have to carry back out, and furthermore I was full already. Standing outside ended up not being far enough away because I still got wrangled into eating other peoples food. I was licking my bowl out, and I think one of the bikers inside saw me thought I was doing it out of hunger (I've had this bowl for 6 years, and I always lick it out, just so I don't get food everywhere). In any case Xiao Fei, one of the bikers, brought out some soup and poured some into my bowl. It was delicious, and it was warm, making it leaps and bounds better than vege chicken nuggets and mayo. Xiao Fei insisted I come inside and take a seat so I obliged. I finished the soup, and Bo Shun (the guy whose car I'd ridden in) told me to stay around for more. I told him I'd already eaten, but he told me not to worry, we still had two hours left. It seemed as though I was in for it. I didn't know what was going to happen in two hours (my main timekeeper, the sun, had already set) but I did know I didn't want to be eating for the next two hours. I pleaded vegetarian some, and managed to get away with a little bowl of spaghetti. The biker group consisted of three Taiwanese guys and 2 british guys. Xiao Fei and Bo Shun were friends and I think they had just met the other Taiwanese guy because of this trip. I'm not to clear. The other Taiwanese guy spoke some English and he had brought along the two Brits. The Brits Chinese was terrible, so I got to serve as an impromtu translator for a while, but when the clutch moment came I didn't know the word for the kind of seafood they were having with the spaghetti.

I did get to talk with Bo Shun for a while. He was nice but I especially liked him because he didn't beat around the bush at all. When I introduced myself I gave him my full Chinese name, but he just told me Chinese people don't like that long of names. Also, because not that many people have my same last name (Ge), and because I'm a big guy they could just call me Little Ge. I was fine with that. All of my teachers call me my two given names (JingYan) but it was nice to spice things up a little. He also invited me to his house, but more importantly, he explained why. Apparently helping white people is some sort of status symbol. So, by helping me and showing around his town he'd be getting a leg up on the community totem pole. And I'd be getting shown around a new place, and I might get a place to stay and some free meals. Everyone wins. I've kind of had that impression before, but it clarified things a lot to have Bo Shun explain things to me.

I asked Bo Shun what they did after dark at the hostel and he told me there was some sort of party. I wanted to see it, but my stomach was too full and I just wanted to lay down. So I did. In the morning there was a cold wet wind blowing through camp, so I just threw everything in my bag and left. I knew the bikers were going out today, and I wanted to get a ride back to the bus stop with them, and since all they had to do was roll down hill, I felt like I needed a good head start to get to the trailhead at the same time.

On the hike out I passed what seemed like over 100 people heading in to the hostel. When Xiao Fei passed me on the trail I commented on how many people there were. He said that there had been 70 people there the night before, and there were indeed well over 100 heading in tonight. He said the hostel was expecting close to 200 people, camping and staying inside. Its no wonder those two guys at the hotel couldn't get there head around me going by myself. The Taiwanese like to camp by the hundreds.

The bikers did get to the trailhead a little before I did, but I wasn't too far behind. Right after I got there Xiao Fei handed me a beer, and a handful of M & M's. I don't know how well they mixed, but they were both good to have. Bo Shun was going to give me a ride back to a bus stop, and he was ready to go pretty soon, so I threw my stuff in his car and we left. I hadn't finished my beer, but he said it was alright to drink in the car so I just did that. I don't know if I'd say my mind got blown, but driving back was certainly an interesting experience. The initial road was just a series of steep switchbacks, in very quick succession. The steepness or quickness of succession didn't seem to slow Bo Shun at all. On the contrary I think it might have made him want to go faster. Anyway, for whatever reason he was rallying his car down this road. It occurred to me again that I didn't really know him that well, but my options seemed limited so I just sat, sipped beer, and tried to enjoy the ride. He ended up wailing his car a little bit, where some concrete had fallen down, making a sort of extended pot hole. He slowed down after that, but by then we were at the end of the switchbacks anyway, so it didn't really matter too much. (You can see the switchbacks in the foreground.)

Bo Shun and I talked a little on the way back, and we got to the bus stop pretty quickly. We exchanged info and shook hands. There was a bus waiting at the stop, so I headed off. Back to Taipei.

The Monk Part 2

2007-11-14T01:24:00.000-08:00

I ran into the monk today after school. I was standing next to the stairs talking to one of my classmates as he came up the stairs. He was showing some other Thai people around, and decided to take them here. We talked for about an hour, and it was really satisfying because I didn't ever have to stop the conversation to ask what a word was. We did have one little glitch because the word for province and tone are the same except they have different tones. So I asked him how many tones the Thai language has, and he said 74. I was incredulous, but we finally got it sorted out. Thailand has 74 provinces, but the Thai language only has 5 tones (Chinese has 4 or 5 depending on how you count, most people say it only has 4). We talked about excersise some, and I asked him what he did. He said he runs up and down stairs, and does yoga. I asked him how he learned yoga, and he said he went on the internet just like everyone else. I just thought it was funny, a Buddhist monk from Thailand surfing the internet finding out how to do Yoga.

"To Install"

2007-11-07T00:53:00.000-08:00

In class today we went over the word for 'to install'. In Chinese it is really similar to the word for put, except for that it is specfically to put inside something. My classmates and I were having a hard time, so my teacher got out all kind of props, and had a sort of festival of putting things inside other things, and taking them back out, then putting them back inside again. She got a towel from somewhere, and for a while that and a bag were her main props, then she broke into her tupperware stash, and it started to get crazy.

On the way home from school, I saw someone sending text messages with their cell phone, and riding their bike at the same time. This isn't the first time I've seen it, and everytime I think about how reckless it is. Then I remembered I had to send this guy a text message, so I pulled out my cellphone and started biking and texting at the same time. Things were going well enough until I pressed end instead of the 'd-e-f' key, and lost the message. I decided it was too much trouble, so I re-stashed my phone.

A miracle happened the other night. In my rice cooker, I had been only cooking 2.5 cups (I don't think it is an actual cup measurement, my rice cooker just came with a cup, and I fill it up 2.5 times) of rice each time, but I would always have to make 2 batches. So, I decided to up the ante and cook 5 cups of rice in one go. Things got off to a rough start when I wasn't able to put the last 1.5 cups of water in the pot because it was already full to the brim. Furthermore, the pot usually has 2 lids on it, and this time one wouldn't fit on because the pot was too full, so I was a little worried about rice overflowing everywhere, but I decided to press on. The rice took so long to cook that I forgot about it, but then I heard the click when it turned itslef off, and I remembered. 1st of all, my rice cooker never turns itself off. I mean ... it is supposed to, but it never has in the past. Anyway, after it cut off, I went over to check it out, and found that the rice had filled up exactly to the rim of the pot. It couldn't have been any more even. I checked it and the rice was cooked, so I started spooning it out into my tupperware. I was worried that I would come to the point where I had dug deep enough and I would come to water that hadn't been evaporated, but I never did. The rice was perfectly cooked.

Saturday Number 2

2007-11-05T01:53:00.000-08:00

One of my classmates just moved into a new house, so she had a sort of house warming party last night. For a while it was just Luke, Lauren, and I. Then a couple Norwegians (our classmates) showed up. It was pretty cool to talk to them. One of them kept going on about Dr. Ron Paul M.D. (I think that was his name, but I forget exactly), a candidate for the next presidential election. Lars was super stoked because America has a serious candidate for the presidency who wants to reintroduce the gold standard. After that we talked about how fu&*ed the American political system is, and then a bit about the Norwegian political system. My mind got blown again, but not quite so much as before. It was just a really unique experience.

Tonight I went out with the French girls again. It was pretty funny overall. Luke had other dinner plans, so he couldn't serve as the translator, and we had to communicate ourselves, which was a challenge. While we were eating dinner they asked me why I was a vegetarian, and I was pretty sure that last time I had told them it was because beef production is inefficient, so I decided to switch it up and tell them that it was because cows produce so much methane, and contribute to global warming. I felt pretty confident that they would have heard of global warming, so I tried to explain in English, but we caught a snag right away when they didn't understand 'warming'. I managed to get everything across (I think) and went on to explain how cows tied in to the whole scheme. I didn't say the word 'methane' because I was pretty sure they wouldn't know that one, but after I had explained for a while Estelle came out of left field and wrote down 'methan' on a piece of paper. I was stoked, and at the time I though she knew the English word 'methane', but in hindsight I think the English and French are just really similar here.

After we finished dinner we went out to 'Underworld'. It sounds like a crazy dance club, but it is really just a regular bar, in the basement. The music was some sort of combination of heavy metal and electronica. Estelle and Alice both hated it, and I liked it at first but after listening for a while it sounded more and more like noise. The band quit pretty early, so we were able to talk for a while. I think overall everything went well.

We are able to communicate, as long as nobodies in a big hurry. And they've both got a good sense of humor, so if communication ever breaks down completely everyone just laughs.

Saturday

2007-11-02T01:18:00.000-07:00

I took the bus on the way to Thai boxing. The subway stop I get off at is the 'City government' stop, so I assumed it would be the same one and I got off there. Indeed, I assumed wrong, and I got off right at Taipei 101. I looked at it for a bit, because the last time I saw it it was dark out, and raining so I couldn't get that good of a view. After I had seen my fill, I walked off in what I thought was the right direction. I think I was going in the right direction for a while, but I got lost, and when I found myself I was two metro stops back towards home, so I just took the metro there.

On Thursday I had invited Martin to come out with Luke and I to Oldie Goodie, and he seemed interested. He still was today, and we went over to his house for drinks before we went out to OG. He and Luke talked about the Middle East mostly, but I think keeping up with the news is just depressing, so I didn't have anything intelligent to add. I felt kind of bad because Martin might rather talk about something other than political issues all the time, but I guess it comes with the territory.

OG was great, and Luke mustered sufficient testicular fortitude and asked the lead singer for her unber (which she gave him). So thats cool.

Friday

2007-10-31T03:11:00.000-07:00

Someone ran into me as I was riding my bike to school. I was passing another biker on their right, and I was mostly past them, then they turned and ran into my rear wheel. It didn't shake my balance, so I kept riding, and looked back to see if they were ok. They had put their foot down, but they seemed to be alright. I wondered whose fault it was, and naturally I decided it was theirs.

It was raining, and a little cold so they were wearing a jacket. They had the hood on, and the drawcord pulled tight all the way around so they had no peripheral vision, which I think was what caused the accident. There are no real 'rules of the road' on campus, and a whole lot of people ride bikes, so it is a little crazy at class changes, especially at intersections, where there is a constant flow of bikes in one direction, and the people who want to cross just have to get up the gumption and go.

After school I went climbing. Earlier in the week, I met another girl in my same program who wanted to go climbing too, so we met at one of the metro stations. She had forgotten to bring gym shorts, so she went to buy some, and I tagged along. At first we found a lot of those pants girls wear with things written across the ass. Things like 'slut' or 'hot' or 'pink' or 'cheerleader', or meaningless enticements like that. Well, the Taiwanese took it to the next level. Lauren found a pair that said 'Surrealism'. All I really know about surrealism, is that it sounds intense, so I looked it up. Goodgle found this on Princeton's website: "a 20th century movement of artists and writers (developing out of dadaism) who used fantastic images and incongruous juxtapositions in order to represent unconscious thoughts and dreams". I'd say writing surrealism across the ass of girls pants represents an 'incongruous juxtaposition' if I've ever seen one.

Climging was good. We climbed for a long time, and there were some fun routes up. Afterward, we went to a night market in the area. We walked around for a long time, and I finally found some honey peach smoothie (my favorite drink in Taiwan), which I was stoked about because I haven't been able to find very many places in Taipei (none near my home) that sell it, so the more I know about the better. There were a bunch of places that sold Stinky Tofu, but it is really hard to eat, so we held out, and finally found a good vegetarian place.

I Met a Monk at Lunch

2007-10-31T02:30:00.000-07:00

I met a monk at lunch. I was eating in the school cafeteria, and he sat down beside me and we started to talk. He was really interesting to talk to and I took this opportunity to ask him about what he can eat. When I first got here Jerry had told me a little about vegetarians here, but I was still unclear. Basically all Taiwanese vegetarians are vegetarians because of religion, and so their diet is, in some senses, more strict than mine. The main difference I know about is that they can't eat garlic. I was curious, so I asked this guy about it. He said that they try not to eat garlic, but that they aren't allowed to cook for themselves, so they really just eat what is served to them.

We talked for a while, and I found out how intense his schedule is. He lives at a temple farther south in Taiwan, so it takes him 2 hours each way to get to class every day. He's taking 22 credits too so he is almost constantly doing homework. I forget how long he said he slept everynight but it wasn't very much. And he hasn't been back to Thailand (his home) in three years. Certainly a pretty sparse life. He does have a cell phone though.

I went to Thai boxing in the evening. One of the other guys who goes works for the state department as a Foreign Service officer, and I got to talk to him tonight. I heard about the Foreign Service earlier in the summer, and one of the only things I knew about it was that it is incredibly competitive. Around 25,000 people apply and they only select 80-90 new officers each year. My momma asked me why it was so competitive and I had no idea, but I got to find out tonight. Martin has been with the foreign service for a little less than 20 years, and has spent about 15% of that time getting paid to study languages. He's studied Korean, Japanese, French, and now he's in Taiwan for 2 years getting paid to study Chinese. Then he'll go to Hong Kong for 3 years, then he can retire. Not a bad deal.

He also got to serve in Paris for 2 years, and he told me about the competition for a posting like that. There might be 100 other people who want to go Paris and have put their names on the list. So now, you are competing with only 100 people, and the reward is getting to live in Paris for 2 years. However, of those 100 people, only 10 might be calling and talking to people and actively getting after the position. So then, you are only competing with 10 people to live in Paris for 2 years. And you don't have to pay for your housing. Definetly pretty slick. The catch thing is that you'd have to move every 2 years. So it would be hard to make any lasting friendships, which is a pretty big drawback.

Martin and I talked about all this on the bus ride back from thai boxing. He lives at the other corner of the NTU campus, so I caught the bus back with him to see if it was more convieneint than the subway. I still don't know if it is more convinient, but it is a lot cheaper. I could cut my travel costs in half if I start to use the bus system all the time. When his stop came around, I thought I could cut down on my walking time (I left my bike at the metro stop, past my apartment in the other direction from where the bus was heading) so I waited a couple of stops. I got off when I saw something familiar, and managed to find my way onto campus where I could get my bearings. It was about 11:30 at night, and I was shocked at how many people there were still on campus. I saw women standing by themselves, not concerned at all for their safety, and people sitting around talking, or strolling casually around. There was even a big group of people next to the time telling bell, playing some sort of game. From the number of people out I would have guessed it was a sunny Sunday afternoon, but indeed it was a slightly rainy Thursday night.

My Neighbors

2007-10-26T00:26:00.000-07:00

When I moved into my apartment my landlord told me that there were two french girls living in the apartment next to mine (I think he told me as a sort of incentive to rent the apartment). I had heard them out in the hallway one day, and went out to introduce myself. There was actually only one there, and we talked a little, but my French is non-existent, their English isn't great, and neither of us are that good with Chinese, so communication was difficult. It was a little awkward, but we talked for a bit, then I headed back to my room.

Last week I ran into both of them downstairs, and we talked a little more, then earlier this week the first one I met, Alice, said that the three of us ought to go out to dinner sometime because we were neighbors, and so we exchanged numbers. I sent her a text earlier in the day, and the same thing happened the first time I texted Luke. She had no idea who the text was from (I hadn't said because I had given her my number so I thought it would show up on her phone). We got it sorted out, and decided to meet in the hallway at 7:30. Luke lived in France for a year, and so I invited him to come along and meet the french girls too.

Luke showed up thirty minutes early so he went out and grabbed a couple of beers so we enjoyed them while waiting for 7:30 to arrive. At 7:30 we all congregated in the hallway, then headed out. Luke and I had talked a little about where to go, and just decided to walk south (there is a night market pretty close, and the vege buffet is that way to), so we headed off. The vege buffet was closed already, but we found a Vietnamese place pretty quickly and decided to eat there. The conversation wasn't the most thrilling I've ever experienced but we were able to communicate, and if I ever couldn't get anything across in Chinese I could just ask Luke and he either knew it in French or could explain it. After dinner when Luke paid, then we went outside and the Alice, Estelle, and I settled up with Luke.

It blew my mind. Standing outside a Vietnamese restaurant in Taiwan with my new friend Luke and two good looking French girls with whom I can barely communicate. My mind gets blown a lot more frequently since I've been here. Everything is so similar, like the river Luke and I drove beside on the way to the waterfall, and the Lochsa in Idaho. And people, one of my teachers and one of the managers at the camp I worked at in England. Their personalities are really similar, both work-aholics, generally nice, with a good sense of humor, and they even have similar haircuts. But everything is so different too. Getting to go out to dinner with these girls, and have such a melding of languages (Luke was starting to mix French and Chinese saying two thousand in French and 5 in Chinese). Anyways, it was crazy, and really made me think about communication. It's really intense if you stop and think about it.

After we walked back, Luke suggested we ought to go get a bottle of wine so he and I went to the 7-11 and grabbed one. We went to their apartment and drank and talked. Luke and I tried to explain the phrase 'shallow and pedantic' to them, but I don't think it made it across. We also tried to explain the concept of 'the shit'. If something is shitty, it is a bad thing, but if something is 'the shit', then it is superior to all else. I don't know whether or not they understood, but it was fun trying to explain.

Tuesday

2007-10-26T00:16:00.000-07:00

I ate a flower today. I've found this cafeteria on campus, which not only has a vegetarian buffet, and is cheap as all get out, but I usually get full when I eat there. Furthermore, the food is good, but they also always have soups (which come with the meal). They have a sweet one, and a regular filling one, and I always get the sweet one. Today, it was dragon eyeball, and there were little flowers floating in it. So I ate one. It tasted fine, but I felt bad for destroying something so beautiful. When it was floating, all the petals were perfectly evenly spaced apart, and it was just flowering at the exactly appropriate degree. And then I ate it. I don't think the pleasure or nutrition of eating it was worth destroying it, but it was certainly better than throwing it away.

In the evening I went climbing. The last time I went I had to quit because my fingers started hurting. They had even hurt for the next couple of days afterward, but I was hoping they wouldn't hurt tonight. I was disappointed, but I think I managed to keep it from getting to out of hand. I went with one of my classmates, and a couple of her Taiwanese friends, so I got to know them, which was good. I brought all of my climbing gear (rope and other stuff) to Taiwan, and they have a car, so I think I might be able to get out with them.

Monday

2007-10-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

I learned the difference between Chinglish and Englese today. I had thought that my little western version of Chinese was Chinglish (that was what my teacher in the states had told me), but today I was corrected. Chinese people speak Chinglish when they try to speak English, and English people (or Americans) speak Englese when they try to speak Chinese.

The mystery of how my bike got beaten up last time was solved today. It definitely got hit by a car. I know because I saw my bike get hit by a car today. I had parked in front of the bank to get some money out, and as I was walking up the steps I heard a crash, and turned around. There was a big truck stopped, and my bike laying down at the front corner of it. A man jumped out of the cab and apologized. I smiled and say 'no worries'. I was actually a little worried (I don't know because my bike had already lost the bell, which I was most attached to), but I didn't want to say so. I think bikes are just less valued because their are so cheap. Which makes sense. My bike wasn't really hurt though, the basket got bent a little, but not quite as bad as the first time.

Here are some pictures of my bike and I. I took the first one while I was riding, but my arms aren't quite long enough to get the whole bike and I in one picture.

Long Distance Moped Trips

2007-10-22T23:54:00.000-07:00

I went downstairs to meet Luke at 9:30. We were planning to go to Wu Lai today, on his moped. He texted me and told me he'd been up late talking with his mom (about style), and 10:30 would be better, so I went to the library for a bit, and researched travel to Thailand. At 10:30 I met Luke, and we took off on his moped for Wu Lai. I had previously ridden on Kuan's moped, but I think Luke's isn't quite as nice as Kuan's. It is little, and maroon colored, and the rear shocks bottom out when we go over a bump. It took us about 40 minutes to make it there, but it was a beautiful drive. Taipei is in a basin, so we started to gain elevation right after we left the city. At one point it really reminded me of Idaho, because we were driving alongside a river with steep slopes on either side. To get to one of the good backpacking places in the area, you take Highway 12, which runs between two national forests for most of the way, and also follows the Clearwater River, then the Lochsa (a famous whitewater river). These rivers have carved out a deep canyon, and it is a really scenic drive, travelling between steep pine covered slopes, with a beautiful whitewater river flowing beside you. Riding on Luke's moped through this canyon, following this turquoise Taiwanese whitewater river flowing between steep, densely vegetated slopes really reminded me of Idaho.

We drove past the waterfall (the main attraction), and parked the moped near the town-like area. Luke quickly stumbled upon the main food item, 'mountain pig on a stick'. Basically long, fatty, greasy hot dogs (presumably made of pork), and so he got one of those. I held out for a rice filled bamboo stick, and some dragon eyeball (little grape like fruits, that are mostly see through) smoothie, and some honey yam. We wandered around the city for a bit eating different things and looking around. There were a lot of people on bikes, and a lot of them had nice regular bikes, but about 50% had tiny ridiculous little circus bikes. They had about 12 inch wheels, and the frame would usually come to about 15 or 16 inches, then they'd have a 3 1/2 foot long seat post. Then the people would deck them out with accessories like a rack, and panniers, and water bottle holders, like they were going to bike around Taiwan with their tiny little bikes.

After we finished looking around the city and eating delicious foods, we headed back to get the moped. On the way there, we passed a man, yelling advertisements for his restaurant. He yelled something which I didn't understand, but Luke repeated it, and the guy grinned and yelled something else, which I also didn't understand, and Luke also repeated (I came to find out later that Luke also didn't understand.) Then he said in Chinese 'come look, there are quite a few'. Luke and I walked cautiously over, and he gestured to a group of white people eating inside. It seemed as though he was trying to tell us, look this place is "White People Approved", or look, these people are white, and you are white so you must want to eat with these other white people. We politely turned him down, and rode the moped back to the waterfall.

It was a nice waterfall, but there wasn't a whole lot to do. We walked down to the viewing platform, and viewed it. Then we took some pictures and left. The ride back was a little scary. I think Luke was in a hurry to get back, and get some homework done, so he was driving a little faster. The shock also seemed to bottom out a little more easily, but I was mostly scared going around corners. It is all fine and good for one person to lean into a turn, but when two people have too, it gets a little more dubious. One person can keep their center of balance just fine, but when two people with two different centers of balance lean, it would seem fairly easy for them to lean at different angles, and cause chaos. However, my fear was for naught, and we ended up making it back with no trouble at all.

I proceeded to eat some, because the bamboo stick with rice in, hadn't really filled me up. After eating, the same thing happened as yesterday, and even though I felt overwhelmed with homework, I couldn't muster the motivation to get up, so I napped for about 2 hours. I'm getting a little concerned. I like a good nap every now and then, but I think I might be getting carried away.

In the evening I went and bought a computer. A guy I met at Thai boxing offered to take me to this electronics warehouse/blackmarket/graymarket/wholesale store where computers and electronics were cheaper. I had expected a large room, or possibly big open shelters with lots of tables, kind of like a farmers market but with electronics. It was actually a whole lot of regular sized stores , and one or two bigger stores all selling computers or electronics, and all right next to each other. I shopped a bit, and ended up deciding on an IBM. Hopefully it will make things a little more convienient.

Here is another picture of the waterfall.

Breakfast

2007-10-22T00:48:00.001-07:00

I got ambitious and took a picture of my breakfast (choclate almond milk, bannanas, rice, tofu, and cinnamon.) I even tried to make a smiley face with the cinnamon, but I think it actually looks kind of scary. Oh Well.

After breakfast I went to Thai Boxing. Great as usual. After I got back, I showered quickly and wolfed down a PB&J sandwich, then headed off to meet the Taiwanese Wilderness Society guy at 1:00. I found the place ok, and ended up a couple of minutes early. A few minutes after one, the secretary came out, and said Mr. Xie was still on the road, so she sat down and talked to me. She asked a little about me, but we mostly talked about what the Taiwanese Wilderness Society does. I didn't understand it all, but inferring was easier than normal, because I think they do a lot of the same things that American NGOs do, like going into classrooms and giving talks on the environment, trying to conserve native species when people put in new roads, and working with existing land management to more effectively protect what is there already. After a while Mr. Xie got there.

When I was at Thai Boxing in the morning, I asked David (the instructor) about travelling to and in Thailand (he travels there frequently). So we talked about Thailand for a while, and he and another guy both said that Thai is a lot easier to pick up than Chinese. They also said that if the Thai complement you on your Thai language skills, it really is a complement. As opposed to in China and Taiwan, where if your Chinese is fluent the people don't complement you, but if your Chinese is bad their complements are profuse. After I had been talking with Mr. Xie for a while, he began to complement my Chinese, which was kind of disappointing because I thought we had been communicating pretty well (and I'm pretty sure David is right about the Chinese, I'll know my language is good when people stop complementing me.)

I took a nap in the afternoon. I didn't want to, but after I eat, I'm so comfortable, and I lack the movitation to get up off the couch. So I just move the other stuff off the couch, and lay down. The couch is terribly short, and I have to drap my legs around at different angles, but I'm so comfortable from eating that I doze right off.

In the evening I went out to dinner with Luke and his friend Levi. They showed up on Luke's moped, and I had to follow on my bike, so I just took it out into the street (fortunately there wasn't much traffic) and kept up as best I could. We made it to the Indian restaurant without event, and after parking moped and bike we walked over to the restaurant. There was a bit of a ruckus outside, with a huge pink truck advertising some sort of food, and a small crowd of people in pink shirts. Furthermore, there were two polices officers standing in the doorway. I was a little concerned about what was going on, but when we walked up one of the police officers grinned jovially, and beckoned us inside, so we took that as a good sign and went in. Apparently some of the people in pink shirts had broken something at the Indian restaurant, and somehow the police had gotten involved. The menu was printed in Chinese, but it also had Hindi words in roman script, which (for the most part) meant little more to me than the Chinese. We decided what we wanted to eat, but after waiting for a while they never came to take our order, so we left. We crossed through a night market, then headed to an Italian restaurant (I haven't eaten cheese in ages, so I thought this would be a good place to go). Tipping at a restaurant is not the norm here, and I think it makes a difference in the service. The Indian restaurant was slow, and at this Italian place we had about five different servers, and the woman who took our order just wrote it on the palm of her hand. The food was good though, and the conversation was interesting. Luke is concerned about his 'style' so he spent a lot of the time asking Levi about different articles of clothing, and how they matched together, where to buy what, what kind of fit you're looking for and all of the things related to style. I put in my two cents every so often, but mostly just listened and laughed.

After dinner Luke and I went to Oldie Goodie again. It was just as much fun as last week. We're starting to be regulars. We talked to one of the singers in the band for a while, and the bartender knew what drink I wanted when I came in. I didn't even have to order.

Swear Words

2007-10-20T02:44:00.000-07:00

I have the same teacher for the last two class periods. I really like her. She is the oldest teacher I have, and shes written her own textbook, and taught in America, and every summer she travels to Panama to teach Panamanian teachers how to teach Chinese. Anyways, we go off on terrible tangents pretty regularly, and today the tangent was 'swear words'. She taught us well though, giving us the proper usage for each one, and I took good notes. "This one goes before the verb, and this one is like 'f*%k' and can be slung in anywhere in the sentence, and this one is something you call people." Most of them were just combinations of words we already knew, like 'turtles egg' is a rude thing to call people (like the a word, but worse), but she wouldn't write the character for one of them. She just told us the pronunciation, and the meaning, and usage. She didn't say it either, she would just say a sentence, and when the word would come up she would just purse her lips and nod her head, to signify 'the word'. I asked her for the word you use when your car's gas tank is on the left side, but you pull up to the right side of the pump, or when you are trying to make over easy eggs and you break the yoke. She said I could use 'gan' (the one she didn't give us the character for), but she emphasized that I should use it quietly to myself. It shouldn't take long before I break a yoke and I'll be able to use that one. Previously the only word I knew was 'rotten cake', which just kind of means, 'crap' or 'shoot' or 'darn', but now I've got a full repertoire.

I went out to dinner with Luke. We went to a vege buffet, and we got there about6:30 and the place closed at 7:00. Pretty much the only vegetarians in Taiwan are Buddhists, and I guess they eat early. After we ate, we wandered around a night market for a while and talked. I spent ages looking for a place that sells honey peach smoothies (the delicious beverage I had while helping Jerry), but to no avail. Luke and I finally decided to go see a movie, and after we bought our tickets I asked the ticket vendor if she knew of any place that sold honey peach smoothies. She pointed right across the street, and so I went there and ordered, but I got peach ice cream, not a peach smoothie, which was good, but it was a little expensive, and the quantity left a little something to be desired.

After I finished the ice cream we went into the movie. We went to see Lee An's (he did Brokeback Mountain) new movie. It's English name is 'Lust and Caution'. All of the speech was in Chinese, but it did have English subtitles (in addition to Chinese subtitles), so I was able to follow the plot. It was really intense. It kind of made me not want to see any more movies here because the last ones I saw were scary horror movies, and this one has a gruesome scene of a man getting stabbed to death. Overall it reminded me of '1984' (by George Orwell), and I think it was good, but I don't know if it will make it in the states because there were a couple scenes of hardcore porn. I think that he definitely could have gotten his point across with out the stabbing scene, and the two porn scenes.

Also, I got bored in the afternoon, and made this video. It's just a little tour of my room.

葛先生

2007-10-18T23:59:00.000-07:00

I got called 葛先生 for the first time today. 葛 (Ge The e is pronounced like you got punched in the stomach. Like in father.) is my last name, and the other two characters just mean mister. So I got called mister Ge for the first time today. Needless to say, I was excited about it. I had called the Taiwanese Wilderness Society to try to get in touch with Mr. Xie on Monday, but he was out of the office. I called on Tuesday but he was in a meeting, so I called back after 5:00, but he was still in the meeting, so I left my Chinese name, and number. Today they still hadn't called me back, so I called again today. After I asked again to speak with Mr. Xie, the woman I had been talking to asked if I was 葛先生, and I said I was. She said something which I didn't understand completely, but I think meant that he was out of the office a lot. Dr. Wu (the professor I met in Taichung) had given them my English name when he recommended me, so I wasn't sure if they knew that 葛先生 and Jasper were the same person, so I told the secretary my English name, told her I wanted to do some volunteering, and asked if there was any other way I could get in touch with Mr. Xie. She asked me to leave my number and she would get back to me, then we hung up. A few minutes later, she called back and asked if I could come by on Saturday afternoon, at 1:00. So now I've got an appointment, and I'll just have to wait and see what happens then.

I went to pay the rent today. I had gone to the bank yesterday to transfer money, but they close at 3:00, which I didn't expect so I came later, and didn't get in. Anyway, I went today, right after class got out, and got helped pretty quickly. I only brought the piece of paper the landlady had given me. It had the account number and bank, but not the branch number of that bank, and so the teller had to call in the teller next to her for backup. The were talking in Chinese and the backup teller asked the other one what information I had brought. The backup teller recognized me from previous visits, and the next thing I knew my Chinese ability was (briefly) the subject of their conversation. The main teller helping me said that I didn't understand very much. Which was ironic because I understood what she said? I think the other teller knew I could at least understand that because she didn't agree to heartily. I sat quietly while they continued talking, knowing that this only further contributed to her belief that I didn't understand a whole lot. It was an interesting situation to be in, but I'm sure calling her out wouldn't have been the right solution. The two tellers did get everything sorted out, and I payed my second months rent.

In Moscow, I had to ride the bus to get to my Chinese class. It was usually the same driver, and after a while I started to say hey to him when I got on and off the bus. After a while I looked at his name tag, and found out his name was Patrick, so I began to attach a whole personality to him, based on the fact that he drove a bus and his name was Patrick. Once I saw him at the Co-op buying food, and that opened up whole new realms of his personality. All of this is important because now I have a new person who I start becoming friends with on the most vague sort of level. I see him almost every morning. He stands in an alley, next to a car elevator, and if a car needs to get out, he stops traffic for it. When I bike past there are usually no cars coming out, or traffic to stop if there were, so he just stands there waiting, holding his baton with both hands behind his back, and keeping a vigilant eye on the alley. I started to say hey to him a few mornings ago. The first time I caught him off guard but he managed a small smile and a nod. I got a little worried cause he was gone for couple of days, but he was back this morning, and he was ready. I said good morning, and he went for the full smile and nod and say good morning combo. It made me absurdly happy, and I laughed to myself all the rest of the way to school. Now I can start to attach a mostly meaningless personality of trivialities, which are, almost certainly, all wrong. I'm pretty stoked off the opportunity.

My bike had picked up a creak, and I lived with it for a while, but it was getting out of hand, so I took it back to the same place I bought it, to see if they would fix it. The guy recognized me right away, which I was impressed about, because it had been a few weeks since I'd been here, and I'd gotten a haircut in the interim, but nonetheless he seemed glad to see me. I don't know the word for creak, but I managed to get my point across and the fixed it without a problem. He also straightend the basket and handlebars. It is probably a good thing that he got the handlebars straightened out, but it felt really weird after riding with them crooked for so long. Hopefully my left knee won't hit the handlebars so easily anymore.

The Welcome

2007-10-17T01:50:00.000-07:00

The grocery store I shop at is called Welcome. I've been there everyday this week (since Sunday) looking for egg coated peanuts. They are another one of the things I have tried that have turned out to be delicious. I was a little dubious at first, but they make regular peanuts the tinniest bit sweeter, and I think they add a bit of protein too. I still haven't been able to find them, and so I've gotten a couple of replacement snacks. The first is watermelon seeds. I usually spit them out when I eat actual watermelon, but I thought the processing might make them better. I thought right, the processing does make them better. They are licorice flavored, and they actually taste pretty good. The only downside is that they are just as hard to chew after the processing as the are straight out of the melon. To some extent this makes them a good snack for studying because you don't have to be constantly putting something in your mouth. The other snack I've gotten is a couple packs of what could be the most delicious peanuts I've ever eaten. They are pretty oily, and so the salt really sticks on them. In addition to the salt, there is just a hint of garlic, and an occasional big fatty piece of it (the first one I ate I was a little concerned about, because I thought it might be the appendage of a small animal. I thought about taking it back out of my mouth, but I pressed on and got a big taste of delicious garlic.) In my wandering around the Welcome, I've also found a couple different kinds of milk. I had been drinking good old-fashioned cows milk, but now I've found almond milk, and another kind which is either soy or rice milk. I'm still not sure.

On another bright note, I bought "Dune" yesterday. I've never had a favorite book before, but I'm starting to think that it is my favorite. It almost makes me want to change my goals for my Chinese from "be able to function in a professional work environment", to "be able to read and understand Dune at a reasonable speed". I had been looking, in a vague and not very dedicated way, for the book, since I got here but I hadn't been able to find it. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier, but I finally realized I ought to just look up the word for 'dune' in my dictionary, then search for it on a library computer. So I did that, and it came up with a few results. After going to the appropriate section of shelves and looking thoroughly for a few minutes, I was unable to find it. I realized it might have been checked out (In my excitement to find the book, I hadn't payed very close attention to anything but the call number.) I looked at the computer again, but I got confused, then I got scared, so I left, and went to a bookstore. I found it right away in the bookstore, so I bought it and took it home to peruse. I wasn't able to get a whole lot from it, and this morning in my individual class I got my teacher to go through and underline all of the names in pencil so I don't go through with a dictionary and waste hours trying to figure out what the word for button, the word appointment mean together (they mean New York, just so you know. It is the pronunciation that is important, not the meaning.) Even if knowing which characters are names won't help me that much, but I get a real kick out of the names, because they are all switched over phonetically. It's kind of a fun guessing game to, because my teacher would say the Chinese pronunciation of the name, and I have to guess which person or place it is.

I almost forgot to say this but the title isn't completely literally translated. There is the word for Dune, and then 'magic castle'. So the new name for one of the most masterful works of fiction in the past 50 years is "Dune: Magic Castle".

General Announcements

2007-10-17T00:01:00.001-07:00

Thanks to some serious teamwork by Aunt Sally and Jessica (a friend of hers, and the family, who is also Taiwanese) I've not only gotten my address sorted out but I also have a couple of solid dictionaries (I finally have one that I can look up English words in, so now I can start to get down really everyday vocab words like 'almost', that we haven't gone over yet in class.) Just for everyone's information my address is:

Room 405, 4F, No. 4, Alley 244, Lane 2, Sec. 3, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan

My phone number is 0919644954. The whole thing you have to dial from the states is 011-886-919644954. I'm pretty sure. Skype is, I think, the cheapest way to call. I don't really understand it, but you use a computer to call a regular phone, and I think you need a headset too.

Also, I love it when people post comments. I pledge from now on, that if people post comments, I will respond to them, so we can have a regular old conversation (To post comments, you click on where it says "# Comments". Then you type what you want. I think to actually post it you have to have an account, but I don't imagine they're hard to create.)

Anywhoo, not a lot happened on tuesday. I went to class in the morning, then studied and wrote this in the afternoon. Then had a delicious tofu log and peanut sauce sandwhich for dinner. Then went to kick boxing. It was the most enjoyable part of my day. I like it more and more every time I go. We worked on a lot of defenzive moves today, then towards then end of class, we sparred some, and got to practice the defense we had learned. One of the blocks is for when someone goes to kick you in the thigh. You raise up the leg they are aiming for and turn it outward, to try to get their ankle joint to hit with your shin bone. Shin to shin contact usually happens anyway, and it is terrible (though we were wearing pads during the practice and sparring, I can only imagine how terrible it would be in a real fight). I really learn so much every time I go, and there is always so much more new that I can learn.

Monday

2007-10-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've lived in my apartment for about a month now, and I had started to wonder how I was supposed to pay the rent. When I signed the contract, the landlord had told me he that I needed to transfer the rent, and that he would give me an account number. Tonite I took the trash out before going climbing, and when I came back to my apartment to grab my gear, and old woman was waiting for me. She is the apartment manager, so she gave me the account number, and told me how much the electricity was (I had been wondering about that too, I'd heard that the bill just came in the mail, but I'm still a little unsure of where my mail comes to and how to get it.) So now I don't have to worry about that anymore.

After she gave me the info, I grabbed my climbing gear and went to the bouldering gym. I had felt pretty good Friday, but today my tendons in my fingers started to hurt, so I had to stop. It was good though, because I'm starting to get to know some of the other climbers. Not a whole lot else happened. One of my classes is starting to move more quickly, and so I'm getting busier with school.

Sunday

2007-10-16T00:49:00.000-07:00

I slept in, then went to the library after breakfast. When I was parking my bike I went to put the kickstand down with my foot (I leave it down a lot, but if I turn too sharply it makes a terrible scraping noise, so I had put it up). Anyway, as I was putting it down the tip of it got caught in the front hole of my shoes (those rubber gardening shoes, AKA "Crocs"), and I didn't want to start a tear in the front of the shoe (that was what had happened to my last pair, and it was just a downward spiral), so I tried to deicately remove my shoe from the kickstand. While trying to extract my shoe off of the kickstand I lost my balance. I couldn't throw my foot down for stabalization, and in the process of finding my balance I knocked over both of the bikes on either side of mine, but I finally managed to get my shoe off of the kickstand without tearing it.

In the afternoon, the kickboxing place had open gym, so I went in and practiced for a while. I wanted to get a lot done in the afternoon, but after lunch I couldn't bring myself to do anything but take a nap and be generally worthless. I read "Catch 22" some. I'm pretty sure it is bad for my Chinese, but I want to finish it. Especially because I'm to the sad and depressing part now, and if I quit part of the reason would be because it is so depressing, which would be a poor reason. So I pressed on through, and managed to finish it before bed.

While I was cooking dinner I had the radio on. The mostly play Chinese songs, but an English song came on. It was one that I had heard in England a lot, and everytime I hear it it reminds me of the time I spent there. It was really surreal to hear it now, tucked in between Chinese songs. It reminded me more strongly of all of the good times I had in England, and the fact that now I'm having my second international experience, and listening to the same song. It made me both really happy, because it reminded me of England, and sad because I was the only one who was in England with me, so I had no one to share the experience with me. It was just incredibly surreal all around.

Culture Shock

2007-10-15T23:53:00.000-07:00

I would call what I experienced as Distance Shock, but it may have been some Culture Shock as well. I would describe it as the most terrible form of claustrophobia. Not necessarily being home sick, but knowing that if I was, there isn't a single thing (within the realm of reason) that I could do about it. Once, my mom called me, and her phone card cut her off in mid sentence, and I just felt naked. It was late here, so I couldn't go out and try to find a calling card, and even if I did I wouldn't have a land line to use it with (I'm pretty sure I can't use one with my cell phone), my cell phone can't make international calls, and I couldn't get access to a computer to email because it was so late. There was no real way I could get back in touch with her.

The fact that there are Asians everywhere, and everyone speaks Chinese could have had something to do with my periods of sadness, but I'm certainly used to it now. It still amazes me how many people are out during class changes, and especially how many people are riding bikes. There were a lot of people between classes at U of I, but usually only for the few classes in the morning, and not nearly as many people ride bikes. Here there will be as many people out at 7:00 at night as there are at 9:00 in the morning, and most are on bikes. It did occur to me that part of the reason people don't ride bikes as much in Moscow, is because pretty much all of the Univeristy is on some level of a big hill. The edges of campus are flat, but to get to most of the buildings on campus, you have to go to some level of a hill, and people just might not be willing to do that. Here the whole campus is flat, so you never have to exert yourself biking.

Anyways, any sadness I felt was never too prevalent, and it usually just hit me when I woke up, and first remembered where I was. However, I'm pretty sure I'm passed it now because I woke up this morning stoked. I was excited because I thought that I had woken up just before my alarm went off, because the sun was up, and I was well rested. Now I think I woke up because my alarm was going off, but I was happy about it at the time. After I got up, I put some rice on to boil. I eat rice at almost every meal. For breakfast I usually have rice, with tofu, cinnamon, honey, and milk stirred in. Sometimes I even add bananas. Its actually really delicious, and tofu and rice are not only cheaper than dirt, but they also make a complete protein, so it's pretty good all around. I usually eat out for lunch, but for dinner I usually have tofu log and rice sandwiches, or eggs and rice, or sometimes rice and peanut powder sandwhiches (its almost like a good old PB&J, but not quite). I hope I don't become allergic to it.

After I finished breakfast, I took off for the subway, and headed to the main train station in town. I was going to Taichung today to meet the Director of Graduate Environmental Studies at National Taichung University. When I got to the train station, I tried to use one of the automated machines to buy my train ticket, but after I selected Taichung as my destination, it asked me for a further destination, and gave me another long list of Chinese town names, which really confused me, because I only wanted to go to Taichung. So I abandoned the machine and got in line to buy a ticket from a real person. I told him I wanted to go to Taichung, and he asked if a train leaving in 5 minutes was OK. I said that it was, so he printed the ticket, and told me to hurry. I got a little nervous and hurried upstairs to find my platform, then jumped on the first train that I saw. Once I was on the train, I looked at my ticket, and found out that I was on the right train, but on the wrong car. I was trapped in the middle of the aisle, by people trying to get into their seats, so I waited, then jumped right off again, and went to find the right car. Everyone else was on the train already, which made me a little more nervous, but I made it on OK, and the train took off right after I sat down. It was satisfying to have successfully caught the train, and it reminded me a lot of England, because I took trains all the time there.

When I got to Taichung Dr. Wu (the professor I was going to meet), came and picked me up at the train station. It was good to finally meet him, because we'd been in email contact for a couple of months already, and person to person is just less awkward than email. He took me to his office at the University and we sat and talked for a while. After we had exhausted the topics of mutual interest, he gave one of his friends at the Natural Science Museum a call and we headed over there. After he parked, we went into a side door, into an office where we got little visitor badges that insured VIP treatment during the rest of our visit. His friend came and got us and took us into a back door, through an unfinished area, and out in the bug exhibit, then into the main hallway. Dr. Wu and his friend then had a quick conversation in Chinese, and we headed over to the IMAX. His friend went over to the reserved ticket counter, and got us two tickets for free, and then we headed to the front of the line, and straight into the theater. I asked Dr. Wu what the movie was about, but he said he hadn't really been paying attention, something about Africa. We ended up getting to see two, the first on a probe sent to Jupiter, and the second on Dinosaurs in both Africa and Patagonia. It was all in Chinese, but I understood a little bit of it, and even when I didn't understand it was still cool to see IMAX. I'd forgotten how intense they are. You can get nauseous if you're not carefull.

After it was over, we looked around the museum a tiny bit, then headed back to Dr. Wu's office. On the way, I told him that my goal for my Chinese is to be able to function in a professional work environment, and that I thought you could spend an awful lot of time in the classroom, and still not be able to do that. Therefore, I would like to start volunteering, and was there anyway he could help me find a good place to volunteer? He asked whether I would prefer to work in an academic environment, or a practical one. I said practical, so when he got back he called the PRESIDENT OF THE TAIWANESE WILDERNESS SOCIETY (an organization with over 10,000 members). He told him that he had the student of a friend, who was here studying Chinese, and who wanted to do some volunteering. So the president said he would give it to Mr. Xie, and I should call him on Monday.

Networking, I think, is the best invention ever. Sam Ham (who is technically a professor in my department at U of I, but whom I've never met), recommended me to another professor whom I'd never met (Dr. Wu), who in turn recommended me to the President of the largest NGO in Taiwan, and it looks very promising that I will start volunteering there.

Taiwanese grad students seem to have it more difficult that American grad students. When Dr. Wu and I were first talking, a girl came in and dropped of some sweet snacks, and offered to bring us some coffee or tea. I really truley thought she was a secretary of some kind, but after she left, Dr. Wu said that she was just one of his grad students. While we were visiting the museum, they had gone out and bought meals for us, and they were waiting on the table when we returned. While we were eating lunch the same grad student came back in and asked if we needed anything else. They were really nice, and Dr. Wu seems to have a pretty good set up going on.

After we finished lunch in the afternoon he had a meeting to go to, so he asked me if I wanted to be taken back to the regular rail station, or if I would prefer the bus, or high speed rail. I said whichever was more convenient for him, so he took me to the high speed rail station. The place looked more like an airport than a train station. It had a huge lobby, with 35 or 40 foot ceilings, and massive steel girders making great sweeping curves and arches. The ticket counters, and the turnstiles were all dwarfed by the size of the building. I can't imagine how high the electric bill is to keep a place like that at a comfortable temperature. The high speed train was a lot smoother than the regular speed, and took about half as long, although it was twice as expensive.

I went out with Luke in the evening. We both only wanted to go out for a little while, but we ended up staying until the bar closed. I hope people don't think I'm shallow, but I feel pretty confident that most people like looking at good looking members of the opposite sex. Anyway, there was a band, and the lead singer was really good looking (and she could sing), so Luke and I just sat, and drank beer, and looked and listened, and talked in the intervals between songs. This was also my first experience with Taiwanese "Beer Girls". I learned from Luke that there is a whole industry of women who's job it is to promote one brand of beer at a bar on a given night. Tonite the beer was Blue Girl. Not only was the girl cute, but if you bought three you got a free pair of dice, and a Blue Girl cup, so you could play craps. The beer wasn't good enough for me to buy three (and I didn't really want to start playing craps any time soon), but I liked the beer girl anyway. I'm pretty sure she only had the job because she was cute (and I think she knew that), but she had the sort of attitude, "I may only have the job becasue men like to look at me, but damned if I can't try to do a good job anyway." So I bought one beer, but I really prefer dark beer, so that was enough for me.

Friday

2007-10-15T00:13:00.000-07:00

I went climbing again today. There weren't as many people there, which was nice, because it is a pretty small gym. It's not really different from American gyms though. Everyone is friendly, and people that are better than you give you advice on problems you can't do, and you try to help people on routes that you've already climbed. And every so often everyone will start working on one route, and everyone helps everyone, and encourages everyone, until the first person gets it. I met a Spanish guy who had actually shopped around, and gone to about 6 different climbing gyms in Taipei, and he said he had heard this one was where all of the good climbers in Taipei go, so I guess I just got lucky choosing the second one that I went to. I also ran into one of the guys I had worked with when I was helping Jerry build the climbing wall. We talked a little bit, and I met another guy at the wall too. After talking to him for a bit, he started talking in English and I didn't really notice, so he asked if it was OK for him to talk in English, and me to talk in Chinese. So, like good a good freedom loving American, I decided to restrict other peoples freedom, and I asked him to speak Chinese too. And like the good freedom loving Chinese person he was, he let me restrict his freedom, and he returned to speaking Chinese. I feel rude when I have to ask people to speak Chinese, but almost everyone tries to speak English (I think I've said this before, but every Taiwanese person who passes through the public school system gets six years of English). People are always really nice about though, and everyone who I've asked to speak Chinese always obliges.

Another thing that is sort of annoying is a sort of reverse condescension. The other day after I bought some groceries the teller held her hands together palms up, with the receipt and change pinched under her thumbs, then bowed as she handed it to me. I know she doesn't do that to Taiwanese people, because I saw here help the people earlier in line. It just seems like an unnecessary farce. Later, I talked to one of the guys at kickboxing about it, and he pointed out that they could just be intimidated, which I guess is a legitimate point.

Thursday

2007-10-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

It's getting cooler and so I slept with the windows open last night. I slept well, except that in the morning I woke up to a cat fight. Not two women yelling at each other, two real cats . It sounded terrible. I kept wishing an old person would go outside and separate them. I don't know why I specifically wanted an old person to do it. Maybe because when I used to get up early and run I'd always see old people out stretching, or walking, or doing Tai-chi, or Qi-gong. Anyways, the cats eventually sorted it out, and I fell back asleep for a bit.

Classes were pretty normal, and afterwar I went to get a haircut. My hair had been starting to get on my nerves, and then we learned haircutting vocabulary, so I decided to set off and try my new skills. The first barbershop I found was on the second floor, and when I walked up there, just seemed to be someones apartment. There was a sign downstairs that said the place was on the second floor, but there was no sign on the second floor. There were just two apartments, and I didn't know which door to knock at. I was a little freaked out anyway, after seeing those two horror movies yesterday, then coming into this empty apartment building, trying to find a barbershop that wasn't there. After a while, I knocked at one of the doors. A man in a wife-beater and boxer shorts came to the door and told me the barbershop was across the hallway. So I knocked at the other door, but no one answered. I was happy to leave unscathed.

I found another barbershop just down the street, and it wasn't creepy at all. There was an empty chair, so I got served right away. The woman asked what I wanted and I told her that I wanted it even all around. She repeated 'all around' a few times, and I just repeated it back. I felt like she understood that I wanted all of the lengths of the hairs to be even. Then she asked how long I wanted it, and held her fingers about an inch apart as an example. I said I'd like it a little bit longer, and she moved her fingers apart a little. I felt like this meant that she understood how long I wanted it. After we'd gotten that sorted out she started cutting away.

All of the barbers I've been to in America pinch your hair between their fingers, then cut it, but she just lifted it with a comb, and then cut. It seemed a little haphazard, but I didn't want to say anything, and probably couldn't have if I'd wanted too. It soon became apparent that she seemed to be cutting haphazardly because she was cutting haphazardly.

This was where I figured out that she had disregarded all of my instructions, and was giving me the haircut she thought looked best. So I got a regular neat, everyday hair cut. Now all I need is a good suit and a nice watch, and I'll be able to start heading into the office every morning. She even shaved my neck. It is a good haircut, but I was frustrated that she completely disregarded everything I'd said. I'm sure she understood because afterward, she kept telling me how much better it looked, and how you could see my face now. It was kind of like "Aren't you glad I made the right decision for you? If I'd done what you said, you would look so much worse right now!" On the bright side, she did wash my hair. She really scrubbed it too, and the whole thing was almost worth it for the scalpal scrubbing I got. Nothing beats a good head scratching.

After the haircut I went and bought some tupperware, and a proper kitchen knife (I had been using a little pocket knife). When I got home, I took the knife out of its package and started playing with it. I didn't have anything to cut, and so I just had my hand in a loose sort of a fist, and was rolling the handle around in palm. I wasn't really paying attention, and the corner of the blade rolled into the first joint on my thumb, and cut a little gash. It occured to me that this didn't bode well for my future relationship with the knife, but it wasn't a bad cut and was fine after I slapped some triple anti-biotic ointment on it.

That night at kick boxing I met Emilio. He was from Spain (I couldn't figure out which part), and I think he might have been a gangster. He was stocky, a solid 6 inches shorter than I am, and I only outweighed him by about 10 pounds. He was bald, with ears that stuck out, and a bulbous nose. He was only in Taipei for three days, I didn't ask doing what. And he already knew how to fight. Well enough that it might have been his job. I liked him though. He worked hard, and punched and kicked harder than a lot of the other people do, but he was always very nice about it. It made me think, what if he was a gangster. He could be really nice now, but when he has to break peoples' legs', that's when he gets serious. I don't know. It was a good session though. I like the class more and more every time I go.

Double Tens Day

2007-10-13T03:25:00.001-07:00

October Tenth (10/10) is the anniversary of the founding of the Peoples Republic of China, so we didn't have school. I had wanted to get up early, but kept resetting my alarm, and until I finally got up. I made some rice, and had breakfast, before going to meet Aijin at 9:45. We were going meeting some Taiwanese people, and going to see a movie. We met up with them, and on the way stopped to get a mid morning snack. A couple of them got egg sandwiches, but I had just eaten, so I bought a piece of peanut butter toast, and some rice milk tea. We had a bit more travelling to do to get to the theater, I was hungry, and it was a delicious piece of toast so I ate mine on the way. No one else did, and I have since found out that Chinese people view eating and walking at the same time as uncouth. I believe that this stems from the general enjoyment of sitting around eating and talking. Why walk and eat if you could sit and talk and eat?

One of the girls we were going to see the movie with loves watching movies, and goes by herself a lot, so she had already seen all of the 'happy go lucky' kinds of movies. The only one she hadn't seen was this horror movie from Thailand, so we went to watch that. The spoken language was Thai, and there Chinese subtitles, but no english. Which wasn't really that bad because it wasn't too high of a dialogue movie, and if I couldn't catch any of the meaning from the subtitle, then I could always just look on screen and see what was happening. I don't like watching scary movies, and so I haven't seen too many of them, but I think this one was the scariest I've ever seen. It was about a pair of Siamese twins. One of them falls in love with this guy, and he falls in love with her to. Their love just makes the other twin bitter, and she comes back to haunt the happy twin. I think it was a clever strategy to take an already socially uncomfortable subject, Siamese twins, and make a horror movie out of it. They certainly succeeded too.

This movie turned out to be a buy one get one free, and we got to see another Thai horror movie in the same theater, right after the first one. This one had English subtitles, so I was able to follow the plot. It was really scary too, about a girl who is in the top of her freshman medical class. This rich guy bets his friends he can seduce her, and so starts trying, and he succeeds. They have sex, she gets pregnant, has an abortion and dies. Then she starts haunting her apartment. In the end she kills the guy who had sex with her, a couple people he had sex with in the interim, and her father who sexually molested her.

The combination of these two movies not only freaked me out about living alone, but made me not want to look at women at all. The fist movie made me not want to make friends with women, because it might hurt one of their friends, who might or might not go crazy, but I'd still be hurting her. The second movie made me never ever want to touch a woman.

After we left the theater, we went and got some lunch, and after lunch we went and got some smoothies, and sat down in the smoothie place. We basically just sat and ate and drank and talked from about 2:30 when the movies got out, until about 9:00. I think this kind of thing is more in keeping with what most Taiwanese people do. All the girls we were eating with were freinds of a girl Aijin is trying to date, so it was sort of like an interview session with these three Taiwanese girls questioning him about life the universe and everything. There was that, and Aijin likes to talk a lot anyway, so I mostly just listened, but it was interesting, and funny cause they were grilling Aijin.

Before bed I was worried about having nightmares, so I listened to happy American music and looked at pictures from school on my ipod. It was kind of intense because I basically relived most of my college career to date in only a few minutes. Then I stood up and I was back in Taiwan. I didn't have nightmares.

Tuesday

2007-10-12T00:16:00.000-07:00

I've tried a lot of different things since I've been here. One of the first times I went to the grocery store, I wanted to get some peanut butter, but it is really expensive, so I didn't get any. Then in the refrigerated section, I saw small rectangular containers of something that looked like peanut butter, but was had a little more red, and a little more green. I had no idea what it was, but I bought some anyway. Turns out it is basically a soy sauce spread. I put it on a sandwhich with rice the first time I ate it, and I couldn't force myself to finish eating it. This was partly because the loaf of bread I had bought was really sweet (almost like angel food cake), and the contrast was terrible. I thought I might be able to eat it if I just deluted it a lot, but I haven't been able to eat any since then, even though I found regular tasting bread. I also found some pretty terrible candy. There is a grocery store right across the street with bulk bins, selling different foods, and a lot of different types of candy. Naturally I tried to buy the cheapest stuff they had, while still getting something good. I also was trying to get something that wasn't pre-packaged, as a lot of the candies were. I found two things. The first was about the same shape and color as a dried apricot, but it was completely dry, a little smaller, and had a splotchy white coating which I assumed to be sugar. Despite its good looks, it tasted like sand, and had the consistency of fruit that rotted, and then sat in the sun and dried out. The other candy wasn' too bad really, and tasted a lilttle like licorice. It was shaped into little brown balls, about the same diameter as a quarter, and also had what looked like a sugar coating. It was pretty chewy, and good enough to eat, but I don't think worthy of a repeat buy.

Today was different though, and I stumbeled upon a real gold mine. Fake meat log. One of the things I really miss about not eating meat is salami, especially for backpacking. Its high fat, high protein, cheaper than dirt, and basically dosen't go bad. Now I've got a solid alternative. Fake meat log. Its probably not as fatty as real meat log, but that might be a good thing. I sliced off a couple rounds, and fried them up to make a sandwhich, which was where I found the second goldmine of the day. Some sort of spicy peanut sauce. They had a whole rack of hot sauces and barbeque spices at the store, but this one said it was ok for vegetarians, so I grabbed it. It really mixes well with the tofu meat log, and so I fried up a couple of sandwiches for dinner, before going to thai kickboxing. I like the class more and more ever time I go. I took kung fu in high school, and I think about that and compare it to this, and kung fu just had so many frills.

A New Climbing Gym

2007-10-11T23:32:00.000-07:00

One of my teachers had helped me find the website for the climbing/backpacking club on campus, and I had gotten their office number in the Student Activity Center. After class got out I went by to see what I could find out. I found the office ok, and low and behold, there was a club member there. At first, I thought she was there just to talk to strangers about the club, but I think she just had a break in between classes, so she was hanging out in the office. Whyever she was there, she was really helpful and answered all of my questions. She even got out a couple photo albums that I could look at. Then she told me that the club was going climbing tonight, and I was welcome to go if I wanted to. She gave me someones phone number and told me to be at Gongguan metro stop at 6:30, then call this number. So I did. The guy I called told me to wait. So I waited. Then he texted me another phone number, and a name, Keke (but with a lower 'e' sound, not like Kiki). I couldn't get my phone to call Keke, but, just as I was becoming frustrated, Keke came up to me, and everything was resolved. We waited a little on one other guy, then found out he was already on his way there, so we headed on too.

Keke was a nice guy, but we weren't able to communicate much because what Chinese I have failed me completely tonight. I think it was a combination of reading an english book all weekend, and there is just a lot of jargon that isn't in the regular Chinese curriculum. I did manage to find out that Keke is a physics major and he just started climbing because he thought it was a cool thing to do. He reminds me a lot of one of my friends from college (Zev), who is a Microbiology major, and started climbing for very similar reasons. They even smile in a similar way.

This gym dosen't beat around the bush at all. Its a small gym designed for training and little else. It is on the second floor, in what probably used to be an apartment, but someone decided it would be better as a climbing wall. It is one rectangular room, about 10 feet high, with about 2/3 of the walls set up for climbing and covered in holds. Roughly half of the cieling is covered in holds, so you can go from one side of the room to the other, without touching the floor. There is another room that has pads, and has obviously been used for climbing in the past, but right now I think they are chaging the holds over.

I talked to a couple other people from the club, but not too much. This was the first time I've been completely unable to communicate, in any way. My Chinese isn't that good, and my grammar is frequently poor, and I very frequently don't know the word I'm looking for. But I can always communicate. I have to work at it, and it takes a lot more time, but I've always been able to get my point across, even if I do have to use long complex and roundabout explanations. I wanted to tell this guy, "I think I could get it if my foot would stick on that hold." The concepts of 'get it' and getting my foot to 'stick on that hold' were the most difficult. I managed to get across 'get it', but I was at a complete loss as to how to say, 'stick'. I tried saying 'not move up or down', and 'not move up' and 'not move down', but all were to no avail. It occurs to me now that I could have tried to say that I didn't want my foot to fly, but I didn't think of it at the time, and even if it had, whether or not my companion would have understood is a mystery.

However, I like the gym a lot, and if I keep going back, I will certainly learn all of the jargon.

Sunday

2007-10-11T17:57:00.001-07:00

I wanted to get a lot done today because yesterday had been so worthless, so after I ate breakfast I went over to Luke's house where I had left my bike and my umbrella. The typhoon had pretty much moved on, but on the walk to Luke's house I could see the aftermath. Whole strings of mopeds blown over like dominoes. One of those big vertical signs, the kind that only stick out a couple feet from the building, but are about 10-15 feet high, had blown over. Quite a few of the ornamental trees that grow in square of cement free sidewalk had blown over.

As I got to Luke's house, I looked for my bike. It was not blown over, laying on the ground as I expected. In fact, it had been moved across the street, but probably not by the hurricane. My umbrella was missing, and Luke said, his roommates had had a party the night before, and it was likely someone had walked off with it. He gave me another one to make up for it (they had a communal umbralla pool), and I think I came out on top. My old umbrella had a plastic sheath you could slid over it when it was closed, but it the whole thing was pretty flimsy. My new umbrella was a lot sturdier, and a much more fitting color (the old one was a cornflower blue, but my new one was a much more masculine navy blue).

I took my new umbrella and headed for the library to try to get some work done. I found out the library was closed, but I rode around on my bike for an hour or so looking for some building I could go in and do work. I found one that had a fairly constant stream of people going in and out, but you had to have a card, and a password to get in. I thought about loitering by the door, and waiting for someone to leave, but I lacked sufficient testicular fortitude, so I left and rode my bike around campus some more looking for another place to work. I got desparate, and even thought about going into KFC or Starbucks to get a table, but I ended up just going home and reading "Catch 22" somemore. In the evnening I got bored, and went out for a walk down Roosevelt (the road I live on). I stopped in at a grocery store, to see if they had anything that the one I usually shop at dosen't. I looked for a long time, but didn't see anything, so I bought some candy and left. I had stashed my umbrella in the rack outside the door, but when I went out, I couldn't find it. This was the second time my umbrella had been stolen. I found out about the first time this morning, and less than 6 hours later, someone stole my second umbrella. I loitered for a bit, looking for my umbrella (there was a very large mass), but I couldn't find mine. I didn't want anyone to think I was looking for a good umbrella to steal, so I went up the stairs a little, and scoped it out from there. I stood, eating my candy, and trying to decide what to do. Eventually I decided to go and look once more for my umbrella. I still didn't find it, so I gave up the search. (I rode my bike back the next day to look for it, in case someone had returned it, or in case it had been hidden. I was still unable to find it.) So I had to walk home in the rain, but I was under awnings most of the time, and it wasn't raining that hard, so I did ok.

Typhoon #2

2007-10-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

I have since learned that "Big Wind" isn't completely accurate. There is a sort of a negative connotation, like too big, or too much. Just a little FYI.

I spent the whole day hungover, which wasn't really so bad because this typoon was a lot bigger than the other one, and it probably wouldn't have been a good idea to leave the house even if I hadn't been hungover. I had planned ahead though, and had checked out some books from the library. I got two books in Chinese, one was a kids book on a specific national park somewhere. It was pretty good because it would have a paragraph in English for each Chinese paragraph, so I could compare notes. The other was a great big picture book on the mountain ranges of Taiwan, which had a lot of good information, and also very beautiful pictures. I also got one English book, which was deffinetely a mistake, and is detrimental to my Chinese. I got "Catch 22", and read that for most of the day. It really is a funny book, and I was glad I had something to read that didn't take too much mental effort.

I'm seriously thinking about not going out to much anymore. Plenty of people think that when they're hungover, but I have another good reason. Good, traditional Taiwanese people don't go out and drink, in the same way that regular American people do. There were a whole lot of foreigners at the club last night, and the people that weren't foreigners were pretty westernized, and certainly dressed like western people dress. I think 'going native' is a worthy aspiration, and it would certainly help my Chinese, and if I'm truly going to 'go native' I'm going to drink less. Another big reason is how much money I could save. Lots of people work so that they can have money to spend on going out and having fun. I've already done the work, and now I just want to save they money. By saving money, I think I could be a lot more comfortable when I leave Taiwan and stop having a 'Taiwanese Voyage', and start having a real 'Asian Voyage'.

Friday

2007-10-08T01:52:00.000-07:00

I went out to dinner with Luke today. I've neve met a Luke that I didn't like and this Luke is not exception. We spoke English, which was probably bad on general principle but to be fair it would have taken a very long time to get to know him as well as I do know. I had gone out to lunch with him (and others), four or five times, and all I really knew about him was that he liked spicy foods. And I only knew that because he slathered hot sauce on his food, and if there was no hot sauce on the table, he always asked for some. Now I've come to find out that he's already graduated, and is pretty sure he's going to go to grad school in international environmental policy, which is something I'm interested in too. He had wanted to go try this place that is famous for its stinky tofu, and apparently cooks it differently than anywhere else, but we were unable to find the stinky tofu place, so we had Thai food instead, which was delicious. After dinner we walked over and looked at Sun yat-sen Memorial, and then went over to Taipei 101.

You definitely could climb it. I think you could even protect it. The first part is relatively low angle, and I think it would be kind of like a ladder. After that the tower is built in 8 or 10 sections that angle outward. It would be overhanging, but the corner of the building is knotched in, so I think you could stem your legs out, and get pretty good rests. There are big symbols pasted onto the building at intervals. They aren't very close together, but I think you could sling them, and use that for protection. You might be able to get in other stuff too, its hard to say.

After seeing Taipei 101 we decided to go out somewhere. So we both went home, and got ready, then I went over to Luke's house. I've thought before that you could live here without learning any Chinese at all, and Luke's roommates are a perfect example. They've all been living here for over two years, and none of them have any language skills beyond "Can I have a beer?". I don't think they've put a lot of effort into learning the language, but also, so many people want to speak English. They learn English for 6 years in public school, unless the family is rich, then the kids start learning even earlier. When I introduce myself, most people give me an English name. The local dialect of Chinese has numerous English words in it. T-shirt and cool, are both in regular usage while okay and bye-bye are more common than their Chinese synonym. It is beginning to become somewhat frustrating.

Anyways, Luke got spruced up, and we headed out to the bar. Luke has already been in Taiwan for one year, and so he spearheaded the choice of bar. We were going to WAX, which I had just heard the night before was one of the trashier bars in town. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it once, which turned out not to be entirely true. This was the first time I'd been carded since coming to Taiwan. These guys made a big deal out of it too, like the only reason I'd come to Taiwan was because I couldn't drink legally in the states, and they were damn sure going to make sure I could drink legally here. The did accept a North Carolina drivers lisence, which was fortunate, because I wasn't about to bring my passport to the bar with me.

I had heard correctly and WAX was a shady sort of place. It was in the basement for starters. Secondly, I think it was the loudest place I've ever been to. I put toilet paper in my ears, but about half way through the night it fell out. The next day I noticed a ringing in the ear the TP had fallen out of. I feel bad for people that go there regularly. I don't think it would take that long to get permanent hearing damage. Most of the clientele was pretty shady too. Dressed like americans, with sports jerseys, big nylon bandannas, ear rings, and a sullen expression on their faces. As far as I can remember, they also played exclusively American music. The most dubious thing was the reserved tables. The were there for people who have money, and want to use that money to make themselves feel better. The kind of people who want to lord over the crowd at a dirty, 500$NTD all you can drink bar, where the most popular form of dress is gangster. The kind of people who's friends are friends because of fear, not because of love.

All those things didn't stop me from wanting to dance, and Luke had already started, so I waded out in it. As soon as I started dancing I started laughing. I think sometimes I dance, and laugh because of joy, but this music wasn't that inspiring of joy. I think I laughed because people are funny looking when they dance. Not that there is anything wrong with that. I'm sure I'm funny looking when I dance too, but I can't watch myself, so I watch other people, and they make me laugh. There were a lot of foreigners at this place, but there were a couple of Indian guys really going getting after it. They were leaning pretty far back, keeping their arms straight, while quickly moving them up and down, and their torso side to side and up and down. They were really going to town to. They got an A for effort, and I don't know about style or effect.

It was an all you can drink bar, so like a good American, I abused the "all you can ..." privelege and drank too much. At 3:00, I left and ran all the way home, just as the Typhoon was getting started. Before I got left, I did notice one thing. While I was dancing they played one song by the "Black Eyed Peas". I don't remember which one, but I know it was one we used to play at small parties we had in the house I lived in at school. A year and a half ago, 15,000 miles away, in the small living room of a small college town, I was dancing to this same song. And now here I was, in a seedy, basement level club, surronded by dancing Asians, but dancing by myself. I was stoked off it though. It brought back memories of home.

More Rain

2007-10-05T00:42:00.000-07:00

It rained for my first 2 weeks, give or take, and then it was sunny for about a week, and now the rain has started in again. So today I got to ride my bike while holding my umbrella for the first time. My bike getting beat up actually helped, because the left handlebar is now closer to my body, and I had my umbrella in my right hand, so it was generally easier to steer. Which was lucky, because with the rain, came the wind as well, and the umbrella served as a sort of wind trap swining around this way and that. Sometimes I had to point it forward (if I was biking into the wind), and sometimes I had to put it off to the side. I always wanted to keep it pointing into the wind, because it was a pretty crappy umbrella, and I was afraid of what would happen if the wind got carried away and turned it inside out. After a while I realized it wasn't really raining that much, and so I closed it and made it to class without event.

I try to be a vegetarian here but it is hard. Partly because I don't understand what I'm ordering a good part of the time, and partly because I don't think that people understand why I'm doing it, which would make the whole thing pointless. Going back to not understanding what I'm ordering, today at lunch I was pretty sure I did. I could read every word, and the dish was named "Five Flowers Homestyle Food" or "Five Flowers Dish of Politeness" or something like that. I was 100% sure about the five flowers part, and I recognized the other characters, but one apparently had more meanings that I had thought. Anyway, five flowers seemed a promising name for a vegetarian dish, so I ordered it. When it arrived there were big fat chunks of beef strewn about. Since I ordered it, I ate it, and it was good, but now I know not to order 'five flowers something something'.

In the afternoon I went to the library for a while. It got dark, and I decided it was time to go home. As I left the library, I went to grab my umbrella, and I though someone had stolen it, but I just forgot what color it was. So I grabbed it and headed out to my bike. The wind had picked up more (apparently there is another typhoon coming in this weekend. The first I heard about it was when my individual class teacher told me to call ahead because we might not have class tomorrow.) I opened my umbrella and started riding my bike home. I made it to the crosswalk over New Student road without any problems, where I waited for the light to change so I could cross. As soon as the light changed a man in a uniform started blowing his whistle vigorously and loudly. It seemed to me he was blowing his whistle with far too much gusto, and I wanted to harangue him with a number of questions such as: "Who are you?", "Where did you come from?" (That was the first time I had seen, the man. I think he just comes out at night, when traffic is heavier), "Why are you blowing you whislte so loudly? Can't you see that everyone you're signaling to is within ten feet of where you are standing, and would certainly be able to hear you if you blew less loudly?" and most importantly "Do you think we couldn't perform the simple function of crossing the crosswalk without you blowing your whistle and waving your batton so aggresively?". But I didn't ask him any of those questions because the were mostly rhetorical, and I really just wanted to cross the street. So I ingnored the man and set off shakily into the intersection. I made it about halfway across without hitting anyone, when the wind gusted, and my umbrella suddenly turned inside out, throwing me off balance. I turned the handlebars, but I kept peddling too, and as I turned the handlebars, my left knee hit the left handle bar (the one that was bent closer to my body) and swung the bike back around the other way. I was forced to put down a foot and stop. As soon as I stopped the umbrella flew right side inside again, and I decided to have done with this umbrella business, so I closed it and rode on my way. Due to my consternation with the whistling man I got a late start, and stopping in the middle to close my umbrella put me further behind. The green man walking on the electric sign turned into a red man standing before I got out of the intersection, but no cars honked at me so I think I made it through alright. I left my umbrella closed for the rest of the trip home, and the jury is still out on its overall usefullness.

I had some sandwiches with rice, tofu, and peanut butter powder for dinner. Almost like a good old PB&J sandwhich. Afterwards I went to my first Muay Thai class. It was pretty good. The teacher is an English guy, but he's lived in Asia for the past 6-8 years, and I think he knows what he is talking about. We just practiced a couple of different types of kicks. He made an analogie between the human leg and a baseball bat, you just swing it in from the hip. So that was cool. I really do think it will be good training. He seems to train in a smart way too, which is good, because I don't want to hurt myself.

Poor Bicycle

2007-10-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

My bike got the crap beat out of it a couple of times today. I understand the first time, but the second time is a real mystery. I left my apartment early to go run, and saw that my bike had fallen over. I picked it up, and nothing appeared harmed, so I rode off to the park. On the way I realized that the cover on the bell had fallen off, so it wouldn't ring. This was a real blow. I really like the bell. It was such a happy bell, I never rung it at people, for warning or anything, I just liked to ring it every so often. It was still really early though, and I hoped if I made it back quickly enough, I could beat the street sweepers, find all the pieces, and I could put it back together. When I came back, I forgot to look for it right away, and wend and ate breakfast first, but I did remember to look for it before I left for class. I found one piece, but not the bell itself, so still no ringing. Now it only makes a despondent click when the thumb catch falls back into place.

The second beating I found out about after class. I came out to ride my bike home, and it had fallen over once more, but this time with some damage. The basket is bent up, so instead of a nice square-ish shape it is more of a triangle, and the handle bars are turned at an angle, so that the left side is closer to my body than the right side. I tried to try to fix either of these problems by banging on different parts of the bike, but after hitting it for a few seconds, and nothing happening I gave up. I figure the crappier my bike looks the less likely it is to get stolen.

I have been told (by reliable Taiwanese sources) both, that their are no thieves in Taiwan, and that Taiwan has lots of theives, and I should watch out. My own judgement is that there are not very many thieves, and I should only watch out for my stuff in crowded places, like night markets. On campus the accepted bike locking stragety is a lock through the spokes of the back tire, so if anyone tried to ride it it would destroy the spokes. Within this, most people go around the whole back wheel, and through the spokes, but quite a lot of people also just put a lock around the one or two spokes, and maybe the supports for the rack, then call it good. The moral of the story is that no one acutally locks their bikes to anything, and that you could just drive through campus at night and fill the back of your truck with bikes. But no one does.

People are even more lenient with umbrellas. The whole city goes on the honor code. Whenever it rains people use umbrellas, but they can't bring them into stores because then the inside of the store would get all wet. So everyone leaves them at the door. At the library on campus (on rainy days) there are well over one hundred umbrellas outside the door at any given time. Anyone leaving any store with umbrellas at the door could just take one that they liked the look of and be off. But no one does.

This is the Craziest Shit Ever and it Blows My Mind

2007-10-02T17:52:00.000-07:00

The other day in class one of my teachers said she had previously had another student in her class that liked climbing, and was from NC too, so she gave me his number (He's now a grad student at NTU). We had lunch today, and I found out he's from Tuxedo, NC. About 45 min or an hour south of Asheville. He worked at a couple of camps in Western NC too. He's a few years older than I am, but if he wasn't we might have known some of the same people. And now we meet in Taiwan. Far Out.

Other than that nothing much else happened. I did decide that I just love a good challenge. I think that might be part of the reason I wanted to study Chinese. My individual class is consistently really intense. We work on my pronunciation a lot, and I usually do bad at it, but I'm grinning and laughing the whole time. I really enjoy it.

Interesting Indeed

2007-10-01T02:41:00.000-07:00

I saw a robot on the way to the library this afternoon. At first I thought it was one of those signs that tells you how fast you are going, but as I got closer I saw that it was indeed a robot. It was kind of shaped like a big trash can, with a blue plastic hull, and where the opening would be to put in trash, there was a computer monitor and I think there were a couple video cameras above that. My main clue that it was a robot, was that around the base in yellow letters it said "NTU Robot" (NTU is National Taiwan University). I wanted to look at it a little more, but I was scared and confused about why there was a robot in the middle of the street so I kept going.

Before that I had spent a couple of hours looking for a place to buy envelopes. The post office doesn't sell them, and I biked around for ages, but didn't see a sationary store or anything similar to that. I did, however, buy nice electric pan. It's pretty deep, and non-stick coated, and came with a free spatula. I already had an electric wok, but the heating is uneven and I couldn't cook eggs. Now that I've got this, I think my kitchen is basically complete. Except for tupperware. I think I need some tupperware.

I also went out to lunch with one of the teachers. He had substitute taught in one of my classes the other week, and just seemed like a nice guy. His name is Golden Dragon. Or something like that. His last name is gold, and while someones last name has it's own meaning and isn't just a last name, I think people usually ignore the meaning of the last name, and only attribute meanings to the two given names. But one of his given names definitely is dragon, and I don't know what the other one is, but I bet its cool too.

Later on that night, I ended up finding a place that sold envelopes, right across the street from my house. I think it might not have been open when I first went by, but regardless, its a pretty sweet store. In addition to envelopes, I got a broom and a toilet brush and some toilet cleaner. The store has a bulk bin section, which I'm really excited about, but its hard to tell how much things are because I'm not familiar with the measurement increment. They mostly have candy, but they've got nuts, and dried tofu too. So that's pretty cool.

I had my first experience with Taiwanese trash service today. There is a notice out in the hallway saying what I needed to do with my trash, but I had been unable to completely decipher it. I went out to look at it a couple of times, and had gathered that I needed to take my trash somewhere. After I had figured that out, I had bad visions of me walking around Taipei for hours with a bag of trash asking for directions, so I got scared and quit trying to figure out what to do with my trash.

My trash bag had reached capacity, so I finally took the notice down, and brought it into my room, and sat down with my dictionary.

I have to say, I think they've got a pretty awesome set up going on. First of all, all of the trash trucks play ice cream truck music, so you know where they are, and can hear them coming. It is important to know where they are because you have to meet them to give them your trash. Everyone gets a time and a place (I think mostly where the alleys intersect with the main roads. I only have to take my trash about fifty feet.), and they have to bring their trash and recycling out to that spot. The recycling comes through first, and as far as I can tell they take everything. They even take organic stuff, like fruit peels and egg shells. They must just have a huge compost pile somewhere, cause I bet 2.6 million people create a lot of organic garbage. After the recycling truck comes the garbage truck, happily playing its music. Everyone goes up and throws their garbage in their own selves, its not just one poor guy handling everyone else's trash. Its a really cool thing to see, because it's sort of like a mass exodus. People come out of everywhere, in their bathrobes and slippers, or whatever, sometimes carrying a dog in one hand, but always bringing little bags of trash.

Searching and Finding

2007-09-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

Two of the guys I met last weekend at the camp took me to find the climbing wall today. I was looking forward to finding out which building, around Beitou, had a climbing wall secreted away inside. The correct answer was none of them. I hadn't been able to find the climbing wall because there was no climbing wall at the Beitou stop. Or at the New Beitou stop. The climbing wall was at a completely different metro stop, two or three stations closer to town. The climbing wall was at the 'Beitou Sports Center', which was where I made my first mistake. I thought since it was at the 'Beitou Sports Center', it must be in Beitou, but indeed not.

I think these guys just came to show me where the wall was. One didn't climb at all, and the other went up once and called it good. After we finished climbing they took me to another night market, the Shi Lin night market. It is a lot bigger than the Shi Da night market (the one close to my house), and there are many more options for food. We got an egg/seafood dish which was pretty good. Then a drink which had 'frog eggs' in it. They weren't real frog eggs, and they tasted kind of starchy, like they were made from some sort of flour. After we had gotten the 'frog egg' drink we were walking over to go look at the rest of the night market, when we passed a vendor selling candied fruits on a stick. Xiao Chen and Zhi Yuan insisted I try some so I bought one. I chose the one he said was similar to the apple, but I could have gotten tomatoe, strawberry, or a couple other unidentifables. There were four little 'apples' on the stick, and the whole thing had been dipped into some sort of red sugary dip. It had solidified so that it was kind of like a tootsie roll pop, except with four 'apples' at the center instead of a tootsie roll. I started to feel like a kid at a fair. I had a sweet drink in my left hand and a stick of candied fruit in my right hand. Furthermore, the dynamics of the fruit stick were such that, in order to eat any of the fruit I had to smear red syrup all over my face. Now not only were my hands full of candy, but my mouth and cheeks were smeared with red sugar. I think a good time was had by all.

Underworld

2007-09-29T00:36:00.000-07:00

Classes passed without event, except that one of my teachers has heard of Asheville. To be fair, the town isn't so famous that it made it all the way to Asia. She's taught in America, and she probably heard of it then, but I was still surprised. One of my class mates had heard of it too, but he goes to school in D.C. so thats not actually that crazy either.

Aijin had heard of this bar called 'Underworld', so we decided to go out there tonight. We got there at 11:00, and right after we walked in the band packed up and left, so we followed suit. There was another bar near by Aijin wanted to go to, and though we had heard that it catered mostly to westerners (a drawback), we went in to see for ourselves. There were quite a few westerners, and it was obvious looking at the drink menu who they catered to. As far as I can tell the drinks of choice, in most places, are sake and a couple of other types of clear liquor, whiskey, and beer. This place had all the different little mixed drink shots, and everything was written in English. I didn't like the bar that much but tequila shots were buy one get one free, and I'm just a slut for buy one get one free things, so I had 2 (total). Then we left. The last place we went to had an English name (Oldie Goodie), but we were the only people with white faces there, and there was a band, so we stayed. The bad was pretty good, but it really hilarious. They kept playing Chinese remakes of classic American songs. They played one that originally has Spanish lyrics, but they had changed these to something else entirely. A guy at the bar we had been talking to told me that the new song lyrics were neither Chinese nor Taiwanese, and they certainly weren't English or Spanish. Whatever they were it did sound good, and this place had pretty cheap beer, so I was stoked. Aijin and I closed out the bar, and throughout the night I learned the words for drunk, alcoholic, and rude. When they were telling us the word for rude, Aijin went to do something (I don't remember what) that would visually illustrate the concept of rudeness. He ended up hitting a glass onto the floor and breaking it, and everyone yelled at him. Yeah.

Thursday

2007-09-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

I found the library on campus. They have a lot of books and manuscripts in Asian languages, but they also have and absurd amount of English literature. They not only subscribe to the "Mark Twain Journal", but also to the "Mark Twain Circular". Maybe they just like Mark Twain. The library doesn't have as many computers as the University of Idaho, but U of I must just be that badass. There is one thing this library has that U of I doesn't, and that is an elaborate security system. They have huge metal doors poised to fall down (between support pillars) to surround the books. I don't know if it is to protect against fire or theft, but either way, they are ready.

Ai Jin, Luke, and I went out to dinner with Iris and her friend Shirley. Ai Jin and I had met Iris the other night after eating dinner, when they were playing that teletubbies games. Dinner was good, and I was able to follow most of the conversation. Both Iris and Shirley are English students (basically all of the Taiwanese people we've met have been English majors), but Ai Jin doesn't beat around the bush at all. He calls everyone out, and tells (or asks, depending on who they are), not to speak English. (He even told me that we shouldn't eat with anyone who speaks English, and I could care less what they do, but in the interest of going with the flow, I agreed with him.) All of the Taiwanese people are really good about it and speak Chinese, though some of our classmates still speak English. I found out that most people studying English get to choose their own English name. Some people choose really wierd names that aren't English at all, like Yapple, or Abboz, or something crazy. I also learned that the name Jasper is really common here. I've even seen a couple bikes with Jasper written on them in big letters, and I almost bought one, but when I went to the store, they didn't have any left.
I had heard that Chinese people love to eat, but this was really brought home to me when I learned that Irises favorite thing to do is to try to find new restaurants with her friends. It's definitely a big city pastime, but it sounds like fun.

After dinner Iris and Shirley left, and Luke went running. Ai Jin and I stumbled upon another welcome party, similar to the one with the teletubbies game. All I noticed at first was a huddled circle of people all staring at something in the center, and every so often they would all scream of cheer. I thought they were playing dice, or had staged and organized wasp vs. spider showdown, but it was just a massive game of paper-rock-scissors. I think money was somehow involved, but I'm not sure. We watched for a bit, but it got awkward and we left.

Class Again

2007-09-28T03:04:00.001-07:00

My individual class was intense. It was like having formal voice training. And I couldn't get my voice to do any of the things she wanted it to do. She just kept saying 'do ray me fa so la te do', and trying to get me to chime in at do, or ray, or somewhere in there. I think it was helpful though. I learned more of the secrets of the third tone.

After all my classes were over I went and bought a bike, and let me tell you I'm stoked off it. It is way too small for me, and is geared pretty low, but it is sweet. It has a basket in front, and rack in the back that people can sit on, and it has a bell, and a big fat comfy seat, and two solid brakes. And I could have gotten a pink one, but they had a gray one too so I got that. It doesn't even have any pink writing. Only pink flowers, and it only has a few of those. And I got a screaming deal on it. It was only about 50 USD, and I got it new (or at least its not very used, and they put some packaging on it to make me think it's new). I think it is more the type of bike a little kid would be stoked off of, but basically its pretty similar to every other bike on campus (of which there are thousands. This one campus puts both of the other towns I've lived in too shame, and I thought I lived in towns with lots of bikes. Bikes are everywhere, and people are not shy about riding two people to one bike. If a bike dosen't have a rack for people to sit on, then its got pegs for someone to stand on) It's a really cool bike though. I really like the bell. Every time I ring it it makes me laugh. And sometimes it rings by itself if I go over a bump, and that makes me laugh too.