We got 2009 first!

Happy New Year! And we get to say it first! Nya nya nya.

This's kinda what the big New Year's event looks like. This link isn't this year, that's not posted yet, but close enough. We did not go see this mammoth display of pyrotechnics. The traffic, and I mean the people traffic, was just amazing. I left for Cat and Cyndy's at about nine at night, and I almost couldn't squeeze into the metro car. It's usually only that bad at rush hour, and I don't think I've ever seen it that bad way out where we live. Just nuts. And much worse closer to Taipei 101 (the building in the middle of the fireworks).


















But we had fun with Cat and Cyndy, Georgia and Fay. Pizza and munchies and a couple of drinks. It was a pleasant evening, at least a little due to not having to go to work tomorrow. And I'm a even happier 'cause I have an easy class on Friday so it's easier to go back to work.

And Christmas was a lot of fun, too.


















We decorated a little and cooked a lot. Marie made a really good chili, and we had a ton of sugar in various forms.


















This's a better shot for the lights. The lights and the little tree (the little fiber-optic thing behind Fay) came from a guy I'm tutoring. He just showed up with these decorations, which was great 'cause I wouldn't know the first place to buy stuff. I suppose I could've gotten something at Carrefour (said Jalla-foo in the local lingo, don't ask me why, no one knows), but I don't think we would've spent money for something we might not use again. So that was a pleasant touch.

It hasn't been all Christmas spirit here, tho'. Marie had an unsettling experience with the local view of Christmas. She was at Carrefour for last-minute ingredients on Christmas Eve (we had to work that day) and when she was at the store that evening she saw they were taking the Christmas decorations down. "On to the next sale," as she put it.

But in spite of any cultural confusions it's been a good holiday season for us. I got Marie a big, fluffy robe; new, semi-fluffy towels; and several bars of expensive soap. I found a Lush right next to the metro near my school, for all your skin needs. Really, all of them. Some in several forms.


















This's a game we played at the party. Three people would reach into a box, and by touch alone they had to find a specific object among 30 or so other things while the other two were trying to find it. It was a cute game. I think the box even mostly survived.

So happy holidays from this side of 2009. We hope to hear from people when you get up.

It gets pretty cold here at night, down to sixty degrees

Oh, where to start. We would certainly like to say Merry Christmas to everyone who takes the time to read our little journal. I'm also sorry I haven't written more in the last several weeks. We have been pretty busy and I've been sick again in the last week.

I think I read somewhere about people taking "biodiversity" vacations to other parts of the world so they could get sick, so they'd be better prepared for the coming pandemic. That's kinda what this's beginning to feel like. I've been sick more here in four months than I have in a couple years back in Seattle, or even in a college dorm. I just hope we're not bringing bugs home, or that we have to go through a disease adjustment period and spend six months getting the diseases we missed by being here for a year.

But school actually makes it easier to be sick. Five days out of six, I only have to be really energetic for two or three hours of teaching, the rest is just planning, so being sick and working isn't so miserable as having to go to the office for eight hours.

But we're actually spending some time working on being Christmassy here. We're having a big group Christmas party here in a couple of days, so we're figuring out how to make some of our favorite foods. And this guy I tutor has even given us a huge string of lights and a little fiber optic tree, so our place has begun to look like it's Christmas.

Oh, and thank you very much to family who sent money for presents. That's really terrific of you all. I'm sorry we can't offer more than this appreciation. Even our Christmas cards are late. But maybe a few photos will make up a little. Next in our line of inflatable animals:


















How perfect is a blow up reindeer right now?
























And how do you tell it's Christmas in Taiwan? We're wearing vests! It's running high sixties and low seventies lately. We've been told this's abnormally warm, but normal is about fifty, so not much different.

Oh, I just had a roadrace yesterday, the ING marathon. I only did the 9k race tho'. I haven't been training for even a half, tho' yesterday would've been perfect for it. It was sunny and about 17C even at 7:00 in the morning. I do hate early morning races. But this one was pretty good.













I lifted this photo from someone else's blog. It's just to give an idea that it was really crowded. I kinda went in blind, 'cause I don't speak enough Chinese yet, and there were a reported 27,000 runners and it seemed like there were another 27,000 hangers on, so it was probably the largest race I've ever been involved in. Many, many people is my point. But I'll give 'em credit, there was no check-in. I asked at an information stand and the guys spoke a little English but when I said "check in" a guy said, "no check in" and another one leaned over and said, "just run!" which I thought should be their race motto.

We got these little chips to tie to our shoes so whenever we crossed the starting line we'd have our own personal timer running, which was a good thing 'cause over the commotion and noise, noise, noise I totally didn't hear the start. Apparently they started the marathon, the half, and the 9k all at the same time. I started 15 minutes after the gun according to the clock over the starting line. I haven't been able to find results online, but I'm not concerned. My late start meant that I was behind like 17,000 people who were slower than I was, or something. I spent about 6k dodging in and out of walkers and really slow runners. It felt like I added another kilometer in dodging.

Even tho' they closed down a major road, like six lanes, there were people across the entire road, and I will say that there wasn't any system of slower people to the right or anything. I'd have to slide around slow people left and right. It reminded me of burst training we did in high school cross country, 'cause I'd have to jump through a hole between runners before someone filled it.

Oh, but it was hilarious to see on the front of the half-marathoners' bibs, 21.0985k. Absolute accuracy, I guess. It wasn't so much a race for me as an event that was interesting and yet confusing and weird to be a part of. It was both frustrating and fun.

And we've seen some of the local concept of Christmas.


















This was after an acapella Christmas show, replete with Christmas tap dancing. Marie might give a better version of this 'cause I thought there would be something like Christmas carols, but they were more like pop love songs that used the word Christmas. It was nice to see decorations, and after the show they had a tape of other Christmas carols, so if I squinted just right it felt like Christmas in Arizona, which I quite like. So there was something like Christmas.


















These gingerbread things are in lots of bakeries, for instance. But this event has given me at least a little understanding of two things: one, I don't wanna know how badly we screw up holidays we try and put on from other cultures, like Chinese New Year; and the other is, I suddenly feel very bad about how Christmas all but obliterates Hanukkah as one of the next most prominent holidays.

Not to belabor the point, this's just something I'm learning; I don't mind the inflatable reindeer and the holiday decor outside Starbucks. That's like home, they're trying to sell something, I get that, and it does help feel like there's a change in the seasons. But I think going to something like the acappella show which I had an idea for, something I thought was just for the sake of the season, and it turned out to be something completely off, something the local pop culture had usurped to make it different than every other event; that was hard. I won't bother to suggest how someone in the U.S. might act differently, 'cause I don't know how to explain it, but it made me think. It made me a little homesick. More even, I think, than not seeing any trappings of Christmas at all. And just to be clear, I'm not complaining about it. This's the sort of thing I expected to find out. And I'm a little surprised I haven't felt homesick more before this.

Besides, we've had other times where we feel very comfortable and glad we're here.


















Like this trip to Xindian (Shin-dee-an) a couple weeks ago, which is south of Taipei but accessible by a longish subway ride. And again, you can tell it's December by the hoodie Marie is wearing, but hasn't zipped up. It was a perfectly comfortable day. I was surprised there weren't more people out.


















This's on the bridge that's behind Marie. All the little boats you can see below me are little peddle-paddle boats people can rent and tool around in. We decided to just sit and enjoy the sun and relative lack of people. We've been in Taipei long enough that the number of people you see feels like a real respite from crowds.

And now, a linguistic lesson. I just learned that Taipei is actually said "Taibei." I'd heard Taibei a lot but had assumed that the b-p switch was a lack of distintion. I don't think Chinese speakers really hear a difference between s and sh and I'd assumed it was the same with the p-b sounds. But it turns out, it's a mistake that's the result of some idiots who created a language now named after them Wade-Giles. The problem is, it uses consenants that make sounds Chinese don't have to fill in for sounds they have that we don't. So while Chinese doesn't have much of a P sound, they have a couple of B sounds. So you have to know the Anglicization of the language and that the rules state the P makes a B sound to correctly pronounce Taibei. So all of the western world uses this system 'cause it's been around since the 1900s, but we all impose our English understanding of letters on the spelling of Taipei, saying a P instead of a B. This's something akin to the entire eastern world walking around saying "New Zork" or something 'cause they can't be bothered to get it right.

Obviously, this's something people would have to deal with on their own. You'd have a regular conversation like, "Where are Marie and Keith again? They're in Taibei. You mean, Taipei. No, Taibei is the correct pronunciation." And the rest of the conversation would be determined by how certain the person is that you're wrong. So it's up to you how much you want to try and change the world when the opportunity arises.

And we had a fun evening a couple of weeks even before Thanksgiving where we got dressed up and went to a friend's place for an evening.


















This's Katy and Rowan's place. It's not big, but it's pleasant. That's Rowan on the left and Katy in black. I just wanted to point to why Marie was all dressed up.
























Marie brought this great dress with her all the way from Seattle (then to Nebraska, then Virginia, back to Seattle, and finally to Taiwan) and she was thinking she wouldn't have a chance to show it off.


















This's walking home very early on Sunday. It's really quite safe. We don't even have a choice after midnight. We have to take a cab; the MRT shuts down. We usually walk a few blocks home for simplicity. But our neighborhood is pretty quiet and reasonably well lighted.

This reminded me that someone asked about how clean it was here, and I said it was about as clean as any big city. And that's true to a point. In the core where businesses and offices reign, it's about the same as a big U.S. downtown, but in the more residential areas, it's not quite so good. The streets are where everything that would normally be hidden in grass and dirt are collected. There's very little open ground here, and while there are a lot of trees for a city this compressed, there's not a lot of space for dog doo or firecracker paper or spilled paint or anything to hide. And on top of that, there's more people per square meter here, so more people to dump stuff or spill their pop or whatever to make things even messier. The rain is the biggest defense against the worse of the mess.


















Finally, I just had to illustrate the entertainment value of translations around here. This's the 27th funny thing I'd read this week, but this time I had a camera. This's in a grocery store where there were all kinds of samples to try.

So, from Taibei, Marie and I hope you and your family are happy and healthy, buried in the wrappings from the toys of your choice, and generally having a good time. So Merry Christmas, happy new year, and beware your lips.

Holiday time

We haven't been taking pictures recently, but that's 'cause I forgot the camera when we went to our Thanksgiving party last night.

We don't get time off for Thanksgiving here. In fact, we almost missed it entirely. Because it's not a national holiday (obviously) with several days off and a big tradition of getting together with family and feasting, it's not on the tip of everyone's tounge, asking, "so, what're you doing for Thanksgiving," we don't remember to ask, "what day is it?" We did spend part of last week working out when Thanksgiving started. Now that the time change has happened, the east coast of the U.S. is thirteen hours behind us and so on. So it's even trickier to call (do we stay up late or get up early).

But we did have a fun time with new friends. There's a restaurant in the north side of town that's a favorite of ex-pats (really good pancakes, I'm told). And they'd make you a turkey with all the side dishes. So Marie and I helped collect the food (the bird felt like twenty pounds, but it was certainly huge) and take it to Daniel's (a new teacher in Marie's school) apartment.

So we had turkey, and mashed potatoes, gravy, and broccoli; and thanks to Marie's quick thinking and spotting a Wellman's store (which's an importer of little-seen food stuffs, like Stovetop stuffing) we had stuffing, too.

There was the usual crowd of people. Katie, Rowan, Kat, Cindy, Fay, and Vera, all of whom we've seen at most of our get-togethers, but Marie works with half of them. Daniel and his friend Gina, Melissa brought what Marie called the Kojen mascot, Kiki, a hyper little poodle-terrier thing. Dgie (pronounced Gee, I think) brought her son Josh, so we had one cute little four-year old running around to make it seem like a family holiday. Josh and the turkey are the two things I would've photographed if I could've.

But there were almost twenty people there, and we went through almost all of the bird; the pounds of mashed potatoes were gone in the first serving, and we even had pie. Though I thought we should've had two for that group, the restaurant sliced the pie into sixteen slices so it came out just right 'cause I don't think the Chinese people were quite as excited by it. Interested, yes, but it wasn't nearly the same thing for them.

And just to make it seem like Chistmas is coming, Marie and I went toy shopping afterwards. She wanted some board games to play with friends so we went to a Toys "R" Us where we found these big foam swords, axes, and hammers that I almost bought. We did wack each other with them for a minute, just to get it out of our systems. I would've taken a picture of those, too.

But it was fun to poke through toys and see the new Lego and Star Wars stuff. We just bought a couple of sedate games, one with dice and a big dominoes set, 'cause we're old. But it was fun to laugh at the toys and wish I could bring myself to buy a huge Lego set. I did almost buy Cluedo (Clue in Chinese) 'cause it has everything in English and Chinese, so I could've learned to say "Professor Plum in the library with the pipe," in Chinese. And the uses for those kinds of phrases are just limitless.

So, our next project is to get ready for Christmas, because we're having it here, at our place. So at least there'll be plenty of photos 'cause I can't forget the camera. And at the same time, we're trying to figure out where to go for New Year's. In the ex-pat community it's called Chinese New Year, 'cause it's a few weeks after January 1st. But it's a big deal 'cause we get more than a week off work, apparently. So we're trying to get outta town and see some other place. But just like the states, we need to be buying tickets (for the train, tho') now (and probably last month) 'cause everyone wants to be somewhere else.

So that's all the news from Lake Woebegone. We hope everyone's having great holidays, too.

Ahh, fall

It's almost cold here. I really had forgotten what it felt like to be less than overwhelmed by heat. I like it a lot. So, we can now safely invite people to visit. I thought we'd need a couple of weeks to get settled and then I'd have some blog about helping people visit and see another culture and so forth, but that heat and humidity just makes it unfun. But now, it's fall cool and it's nice to be here. So all of you without new children can... um. Okay, Heather, d'you wanna visit?

But even more importantly,


















I got new shoes.

I had this whole conversation with my brother about how to pack and what to do about running shoes when I was expecting to be in Armenia.

He told me that I might have to take some off brand or it might cost and arm and a leg, but I'd be able to find running shoes. So it's pretty funny to come to Taiwan and get the new model of the shoes I've come to enjoy, for about the same price as the U.S.

Personally, I think it should be cheaper. I mean, I came to the shoes. It even says on the box "made in China." Don't I get anything for saving them all that shipping? But I'm pretty pleased with my shiny new trainers. I even have a roadrace next month to break 'em in on. It's a nine kilometer, so I can't really compare it to anything, but it's Nike's race (the Nike 9k) so they can do what they want.

In another completely unrelated note, I thought I'd illustrate laundry here in Taiwan.























This is the dryer. Why, yes, it does look like a closet, and that is my head. That's because it is in fact, a closet. There are no dryers in private homes. You can go to a laundromat and use a dryer, but otherwise you wash your clothes (in cold) and hang them to dry. We have a dehumidifier which helps a lot, but you really have to plan ahead with clothes. You can't just wash something in an hour. It only takes 15 or 20 minutes to wash something small, but drying it's a project. So things go on hangers and we wait. Good for preventing set-in stains, bad for getting things without wrinkles. I do miss the simplicity of laundry in the U.S.

And I think we're moving into feeling like we miss things. We're starting to talk about holidays here. No one has a serious oven, so no turkey. We're talking about where to go for dinner, and what to do for leftovers. On the plus side, everything's open on Thanksgiving. The down side is we don't get the day off.

So, it's like everything else here, things are different. Maybe not better, but really not worse, just different.

Oh, and I wanted to at least ask, in general (let's see if this gets many comments) if anyone wants anything for Christmas from Taiwan. Marie and I realize it doesn't mean much to get something that says "made in Taiwan" but we've seen a fair number of inventive or locally made things that are interesting and exotic. And of course, they're momentos of us. I'm thinking of fans, and tea sets, and tea that might be fun to have in the U.S. And of course we can send you one of those gold kitties that's always waving a paw.

Zee dayz, zay are packed

No, I don't know why I'm affecting a bad French accent, and in writing at that, it has nothing to do with anything, it just occurred to me.

So thank you to all of the people who tried to make us feel better by telling us about their heat problems (Marie's Aunt Lorre in Phoenix where they're still in the nineties) or lack of the same (Michelle in Seattle where it's just about perfect for fall) but we're doing much better now. The temp. dropped about 5 C all at once a couple days ago. It's now around 20 to 23 C so we're both much happier. We've almost completely quit using the A/C and we're talking about investing in a comforter and blankets for the coming months.

As an interesting side note, you cannot, repeat can not get flat sheets in Taiwan. I'd buy two single sheets and stitch 'em together, but they just aren't there. We're using a cover for a comforter as a flat sheet, and it works pretty well, but it's made for a comforter so my toes keep sticking out in the night, which really wasn't a problem until two days ago. I'm considering buying a fitted sheet and hacking off the elastic. But enough of my problems, the important thing is, Marie and I have been out into the wider Taiwanese countryside!

We took a whirlwind rafting tour a couple weekends ago. It has to be whirlwind 'cause we work on Saturdays so we can't leave until after 7 on Saturday night and then we have class Monday afternoon.


















This is most of the group killing time before the vans arrive. That's Marie, Katy's opposite her, then Georgia, Kat and Cindy (who are from Hawai'i), and Vera. The vans were supposed to be there so we could leave just after seven, but not so much. But, we did get to try this neat little cafe kinda thing. It was the first time in months I've had more or less American fries.

I'm sure there's a joke there about American french fries (how do I hyphenate that?) but I can't find it. So dinner made up for a little of the delay.

We didn't leave Taipei until about nine or so, so we didn't get to the campground south of Hualien until about two a.m., so the pictures skip to the next morning when I was more coherent and able to comprehend a modern autofocus camera.


















I just liked the mountains in the mist and the complete lack of other people.

This's out of one end of our little hut. I was so tired the night before I just threw my sleeping bag down and went to sleep. I wasn't thinking about bugs. That made for a long night for Marie. She's like a buffet to mosquitoes. I slept pretty well.


















This's the other end of our hut. What surprised me was the lack of other campers. The other tents are all our group. I don't know when the camping season is in this place, but it's not now, and you're thinking "well of course not in late October!" But it was warm at night and hot during the day. Maybe people camp in the winter, I dunno, I'll look into that. But we were about the only people there. And it's like a KOA campground. Central bathrooms, even showers, tho' they do have mostly eastern toilets around, but there's usually a western toilet in the area. So I think the only real problem was the bugs.



















This's getting ready for the raft ride, packing everything to go back in the van. That's one of the vans we came in and the driver, in the orange shirt, who, I'm not kidding, goes by the name of Cobra. Apparently it's from his Taiwanese nickname, which I didn't catch, but he was a solid driver on some pretty twisty roads, and pretty good with a camera, too. I haven't seen the photos he took, but they're out there. I'll post a few once I get my electronic mitts on them.

I did not take the camera on the raft. I'd thought about it for maybe ten minutes. I had an idea that I could use a couple of bags to keep it dry, but I got a look at what we were gonna do and I just put it back in the van.

The river itself was fairly sedate, only a few rapids and mild ones at that. But we were riding eight people to a raft. Four people straddled each side of the rubber raft. So there were a lot of paddles flailing around, at least in the beginning before we got the hang of it. But then we discovered the real reason for the trip, to splash other rafters.

Not that it wasn't a little fun, but I did like that our raft was more interested in paddling. I must be old. There were maybe a dozen to fifteen boats, and a lot of groups would pull alongside another raft and dig in with paddles and the bailing buckets, which I'm sure were there less for bailing than I first thought, and the two boats of people would wail on each other for many minutes. It was more amusing to watch from a distance. We'd splash people as we went by, but we mostly just kept paddling.

And it was a very good trip. It was mostly calm and level. We only had a couple of bumps on rocks and a couple of scary racing-right-at-a-boulder-in-the-middle-of-the-river moments. And the day was mostly bright sunshine and calm. And the river is a real river and runs through a well-cut gorge. And hills surrounding the river are covered in greenery, as you'd expect in a tropical climate. I was hoping for some bare rock and cliffs, but after months in urban Taipei, lots and lots of greenery was pretty welcome.

They even fed us lunch, though after a couple of hours of paddling I was ready for burgers or sandwiches, chips or fries, and a cookie. That might've been the first time I really forgot where I was. We got these box lunches, which aren't bad, they had strips of fried pork chop and a couple of veggies and rice. But they're not what I'm used to, so I was really yanked back to reality. But anything's good when you're using muscles for hours that aren't used to it. Though I was grumpy that they didn't mention that if you wanted something to drink, you'd better bring cash. I still haven't tested whether Taiwanese cash will go through the wash like U.S. currency, so I didn't think to bring coins on the trip or anything on the boat ride. But we mooched some water and all was good.

So, after another couple of hours of paddling (and splashing) we came to the end of our trip under this bridge.



















We parked the boats just down the bank there, and dumped our vests, soft helmets, and paddles and took off. Not bad for 600 NT apiece.


















Maybe the best part was seeing this view. That darker blue is the ocean. And this little landing has a zillion little shower stalls so you can rinse the sand outta your nooks and crannies. Again, no one was there. We basically had the place to ourselves, total of one dozen people in a place meant for a hundred or more.


















This's the group after we're mostly clean and ready to head for the campground. Food and taking pictures of the local dogs took priority, though not in that order.


















No, wait, I lied. This was the best part of the trip, though that shower was a close second.

This was just ridiculous how beautiful it all was. Green plants, red flowers, blue ocean, white surf. Kat (from Hawai'i) kept saying, "when did we get to Oahu?" or something. It made you a little stupid to look at it. But the real reason it was ridiculous was this little hut, with all the amenities of the last campground, but this view, was still only 500 NT a night. That's about $15. There were only a couple of other people there. In the U.S. this space would cost a hundred bucks and there'd be a three-year waiting list. I still can't fathom why this place isn't overrun by people.


















This's food that night. It was really quite dark, until you use a high-powered flash and light the place up. You can see the headlight Fay (in yellow) is wearing to cook by, Cobra's next to her, then Vera, Spencer, Georgia, Amber, and Lee-Anne.

The amusing part is how strange time is, first when you're camping, and then when you're in Taiwan. We have no daylight savings here. The sun heats things up, so the day starts early, and it gets dark quick, especially when you're camped on the east side of a short but very sharp mountain range. So by seven in the evening we're working on food and it's pitch black out. Of course it takes time to feed a dozen people when you only have a couple of little camp stoves (don't ask me why you want hot soup when it's this hot, but them's the rules in these parts). And Nick started a fire so a few people played at making s'mores.

So we're wandering around getting fed and talking and Marie made me pack a bottle of Kahlua (but we compromised and she put it in a lighter plastic bottle) and some people made a run for milk and beer (don't get weird, the milk was for the Kahlua). So after all this preparing and eating little bits at a time and talking and drinking, people started to yawn and some one asked, "what time is it." It was nine o'clock. Old, I'm telling you. But at least the other kids were feeling it too. The paddling that is. I think everyone was tucked in or just crashed someplace more or less comfortable by ten.


















And this's what we woke to. Marie was complaining that photos don't capture anything of a sunrise or a lion in the zoo or any sort of natural wonder, and I certainly don't dispute that, but it does a lot better than my text, so there ya go. Six a.m. up with the sun. And it was already 27, 28C, blech. But worth it to feel like I was on vacation and I lived at least near a tropical paradise.


















This was probably the most popular pastime that morning. Taking photos with the amazing sunrise as a backdrop in a hope that some of the grandeur will survive to the picture. You decide.


















Here's Marie and my contribution to the effort. (Oooh, look how long his hair is.)


















And this's getting ready to leave. It was almost like we'd just arrived.... But it was worth going and doing and seeing.


















And this's the whole group: Spencer, Cat, Vera, Marie, Amber (bottom) Georgia (top, who will not tell us her actual, Chinese name, as if it'd mean anything to us), Lee-Anne (bottom) Cindy, Nick, Fay (who would not raise her head 'cause she was counting the cash, I'm not joking, about nine times 'cause she was worried about over charging us, but after all we'd done it felt like we were paying about 20 bucks, for both of us, Canadian), and Katy.


















Finally, I took a LOT of photos on the drive home. I opted against illustrating just how sharp the dropoff was next to the road (there was always a heavy K-rail between us and a hundred-foot plummet to our fiery deaths, mom). But this was worth noting, I thought. The water is so blue and perfect, and there's nothing between here and Hawai'i, but what looks like white sand is gravel. And where there should be a quaint fishing village turned tourist destination for lying on the beach and drinking ice-cold daiquiries and buying pointless gifts for friends, there is an ACTUAL fishing village and industrial center where I think you can buy concrete by the ton.

It was odd. It felt like the entire coast should've been overrun by holiday people and beach goers but it was basically us. Not such a bad weekend.

Reality versus...

I just got home from my Chinese class. As I was riding the metro, and it was running above ground north of Taipei, I was thinking about how it gave a good view of the city. You don't see the details, but you get an overview of what things look like here. And for some reason I was thinking about seeing Taipei on TV. My grandmother told me about seeing a travel show about food in Taiwan. And I recently saw a few minutes of, I think it's called the Great Race: the world-wide scavenger hunt-reality show. I hate those shows, but the race was running through Taipei.

Marie and I've seen a few things, but not much, so I wondered if they'd go someplace I knew. They didn't, and the way the show works, they weren't showing much about the city. But it occurred to me that most travel shows are like an overview of an overview. Like taking a picture of a picture.

Mostly I'm thinking about this because my parents are talking about visiting next summer. And I'm thinking about how much different things seem when you're here (or where ever) versus just watching on TV. The immediacy of the place is paramount. The view is no longer surrounded by the rest of your living room. And the sounds and smells (especially the smells) come into play much more forcefully. And I'm thinking this because I would like to be able to play host for a bit and show mom and dad (or anyone else who'd like to visit) another pretty unusual part of the world (they've already seen a bit of Russia and Tanzinia). But I'm also thinking of the immediacy of the freakin' heat!

We thought we were getting into fall here, finally. I've been hearing nothing but how cool or even cold it's getting practically everywhere in the U.S., like the snowstorm on the east coast. It's still getting up to 30 C here and humid. I still sweat through a shirt just walking three blocks to the air-conditioned metro station.

This's our lesson for the day, ladies and gentlebeings. Taiwan, even tho' it's about the same latitude as Florida, clings to summer like a fat kid clings to cake. It's not really miserable, like the first few weeks, when it was five or ten C hotter and even more humid and we just weren't prepared for it, but it's not cooling like I was expecting, hoping, and making Faustian deals for.

So maybe I'm saying, enjoy your cooler weather. I'd kill for 70 F, as proven by the couple of cockroaches and dozens of ants I've doomed.

Not quite three months in...

...and it's already time to say goodbye to new friends.

Jenn, on the left, went back to the States last week to start work on a post-grad degree. LeeAnne will be leaving soon to travel southeast Asia with a friend. Keith and I spent quality time with these girls and they have really helped us settle in.

I suppose it's logical, in a place where we're in such a minority, that the western teachers would come together, welcome each other and offer assistance. But I've been surprised at how much good advice we've received, and how much people really make us feel welcome. And I don't think it's just that so many of them are Canadians ;)

The party Keith mentions in the last post was for these two. But even as we say goodbye we've already welcomed other new teachers who now can use our help. I'm glad we have such good examples to follow.

Party party

Hi everybody! Hi Dr. Nick!

We went to a party at a friend and former co-worker of Marie's last weekend. Emma and Grant have this amazing apartment with a ridiculous view. They'd been working here as teachers, like Marie and I (Marie worked with Emma for a couple of weeks before she got her great job) and we'd met them just after we arrived. They're a couple of very friendly, helpful, and generally agreeable people. I wish I were more like them.















This's Emma. Any necessary apologies to her. I was taking pictures without a flash, so I wouldn't seem so obvious and a little more candid. But I did get a lot of blur.

We had a great time talking with people Marie works with and eating food everyone brought. Notably, someone brought these sandwiches that were a little like pizza, with spicy meat and cheese, and I asked where they came from, thinking it was one of the more homey tastes I'd had in a while. The answer was, "Costco." Oh. Figures.
















This's Marie (center) with (left to right) Jenn, Lee-Anne, and Rowan in Grant and Emma's huge and well lighted living room.

Every place here has tile floors. No carpet. At first we were assuming it was for easier cleaning and we were marveling at how much difference carpeting made, and how dirty our carpets must've been. But I'm rethinking that. A local I'm tutoring noted it was because of the pollution. And there is a lot of dust or dirt or soot that seems to collect in a few days. So maybe it is more about the city than just not having carpets. I'll have to find a way to test that theory.















Isn't Marie cute.















This's Katie taking a picture off the balcony of the seventh floor apartment, which has no building opposite it. This's far north of the core of Taipei (and where Marie and I live) so there are still open spaces. You can just see the field, of maybe rice, opposite the building. They have a very long view, at least when the pollution and clouds aren't bad. But it was amazing to see the view and their apartment. They even have an entire half of the apartment they don't even use. At the risk of divulging details, Emma said she gets paid more than Marie does (which is enough to support the two of us on a frugal budget) to just be on call in case her employer has time to work on learning English. And the apartment comes with Grant's job.

It was at this party Marie and I had a really odd conversation about recognizing people. I thought I saw someone I recognized from work on the street below, which I do almost every day on the metro, but then I think, "that's absurd, what're the odds in a city of 2.5 million you're seeing one of the twelve people you know?" And I look again, and it's never them. I mentioned this to Marie who said it's the other way for her. She's probably not recognizing people she does know, for the same reason of similarity. But for the height of irony, the guy I saw from seven floors up, was in fact one of my co-workers coming to that party. I don't know what any of that means, but it was an interesting occurrence.

And Marie and I have begun Chinese lessons. Marie's been taking lessons for a couple of weeks now. I'm only just starting, so she's got an advantage, but I'm remembering that I'm really bad in the early stages of language acquisition. I can't hear a word and understand it. I have to read it and think about it before I can actually use it. So I'm ridiculously slow in classroom conversations. Marie kills me when we play games in class that involve answering questions in Chinese.

But I've got more hours at my school now. It's not what I was expecting. I thought I'd be more tired, but I'm not tired from working or standing for hours or being energetic and controlling 20 seven-year-olds, or energizing 20 fifteen-year-olds. I'm just run down from thinking about the next thing I have to do, what do I have to do at school and when does that mean I have to be there so I have to leave at what time? My schedule is different every day; I can't count on going to work at a certain time every day, so it's a little tough to keep track of.

But it's not boring, and the money is beginning to be what we'd expected, so we're both pleased with that. And it is getting just a bit easier every time. There are still set backs and mistakes, but I don't seem to be making the same mistakes, so things are getting easier, I think.

Next week Marie and I and a bunch of people are going on a rafting trip on our one day off, so we'll have some really good photos and tales to tell, provided my camera's waterproof, otherwise one of the tales will be about the photos that got away.

Really, I know geography, I swear!

Kinda embarrassing, but I just realized how wrong I was about where New Zealand is. A couple of entries ago I was talking about how it really isn't that hard to fly here, so a few more hours to New Zealand wouldn't be that bad. Of course, this might be true if New Zealand was where I thought it was, in Papua New Guinea.

I learned the hard way when Marie and I were just talking about big vacations we might take next year. New Zealand popped into my head immediately because I've heard stories from Mike and Becky. And, I thought, "it's on this side of the ocean so it's really close." Sadly, maybe because I'm an American and there's been no war there I don't know where it is.

We did a quick search for flights and of course it really isn't that close. All the flights were ten, twelve, fifteen hours. I couldn't understand (and prices were $1,200, $1,500, etc.) how that could be. So Marie pulled up a map and I had one of those "ohhhh" moments, after which I wondered where the heck I got the idea that New Zealand was north of Australia, instead of a couple thousand miles southeast. Whose job was it to teach me geography?

But that's one way to really learn something. Forget writing it down and listening to it and teaching it to someone. Make a fool of yourself telling it to people incorrectly. Good luck ever forgetting that fact again.

But, we are closer to New Zealand, by about half the distance. All the flights from the U.S. claim it's a 24 hour flight (two-four) to New Zealand. Whew. That's hard to even imagine. I didn't suffer too much to fly overnight to get here, but I dunno. I'm not sure that trip's gonna happen. Even Australia's still ten hours and $1,200 apiece away. That might be a bit much for a couple of weeks. We'll see, I suppose.

So, that's the educational bit for me. Let this be a lesson to you!

What's new at the zoo?

Taipei does have a very good zoo. It's larger than I thought it would be, and for only 30 NT it's really worth going. We were there for four hours on Friday, and we didn't get to see everything.

We did, however, learn that going on a major national holiday is not the best idea.















I think this illustrates something I just learned (notice that the river of people goes right up the hill in the distance). In Taipei, there are about 25,000 people per square mile. It sounds pretty scary, but it actually makes it easier to know, yes, it really is crowded. You're not imagining it.

I shouldn't be surprised that the zoo here is so well done. The island's population is 25 million or so, most within a couple of hours by train, but I was still impressed by what they had, like Insect World, here.















We considered adding this guy, a black beetle, to our list of giant inflatable animals, but he's neither inflatable nor animal. But we did take a photo 'cause he is giant.















But part of Insect World is a butterfly house. Marie and I got to see the new butterfly environment at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha over the summer, but this one was a little more fun. The H-D Zoo had many more butterflies and moths, but they seemed a little standoffish. The ones in the Taipei zoo would float and flit around the patrons, daring people to try and photograph them in mid-air. I tried a couple times, but all for naught. But they were very photogenic insects. They'd sit very still while I got the camera right next to them for a photo.















I realize now that I didn't get the names of these. Not that it really makes a difference, I suppose, but somehow it feels incomplete that I can't remember even a common name of one of these.


















Okay, except for this Monarch, here. I suspect that these are common butterflies to the region. In Omaha they had this complicated airlock system to keep butterflies in, either 'cause they're hard to raise or they could contaminate the environment. Here, we walked through a draft of air, and that was considered enough to prevent the butterflies from escaping. When we walked outside, it looked like the same butterflies were harassing the flowers just outside the building. I suspect that the environment is so people can walk among butterflies year-round.

Oh, but most of you will be happy to know I decided not to post the photo of the giant snail we saw in the butterfly house.

And we saw many more expected zoo residents.



















Most of the animals seemed either pleasantly bored like this Meerkat, or, frankly, a little crazed.

















Mama lion here was doing laps back and forth (that's a serious pane of glass between me and her). There were only a couple of lions in here, and the space was wide, but she seemed pretty wound up. Her cub was really cute. I couldn't get a decent shot of him as he stalked and pounced on her as she walked, but it was keeping a couple dozen patrons amused.



















And we watched the Macaques for quite a while. There were maybe a dozen of different ages on this island. I don't understand the barbed wire around the trees. It certainly didn't stop them from climbing the trees; at best it slowed them down a little. And I tried very hard to get a couple of action shots of the younger ones tumbling and playing, but they're just to fast for my camera.

And there's always a problem person in any group. We'd been watching for fifteen minutes and someone threw a handful of food across the water. It was pretty funny to see the big Macaque dive into the water after it, but it didn't seem very good for the animal. Worse still when the twit threw a tied plastic bag of food onto the island, which the animals wrestled over and chased until after we left.



















Personally, I liked the Austrailian tortise. Very camera friendly. I think Marie actually asked, "how do they tell them apart?" And this guy turned around and there was a big "4" on his shell. And you can't really tell, but this guy is not small. That shell is bigger than a manhole cover.
















This actually scared me a bit. There was only a concrete, knee-high wall with the chest-high rail, and a trench a couple of feet deep and a couple of feet wide between us and these couple of White rhinos. They seemed either bored or complacent, but it still felt like being a little too close. Especially after seeing the bit with the Macaques and the food. I was waiting for someone to throw something or just generally tick the rhino off. Standing here I could only remember that elephants can't jump, but I dunno about rhinos. And if they can we'd be in serious trouble 'cause I don't think that little wall would slow him down if he was even mildly grumpy.

















The giraffes were big here (at the end of Marie's nose), pardon the pun. Maybe 'cause they had a large paddock and a long rail where people could watch 'em. This was from the back of the yard 'cause I thought the photo was funny.

We didn't get to see the arctic animals or the asian ones. So we have a reason to go back, hopefully when it's not so warm or crowded.

And on Sunday we went to a movie with a friend of Marie's and a friend of hers. "Burn After Reading" by the Coen brothers was pretty good, and pretty funny, but we we all a bit surprised by the amount of violence. Marie and I had the idea it'd be more humor, less blood. There was a really funny scene when Brad Pitt's nose is bleeding, but it seemed more about the amount of comedy and stupidity in some dramatic events. Weird.

But we learned a couple of ins and outs (literally) of seeing a movie, here. One was they'll sell you popcorn and soda with the ticket, then you have to go find the stand to get the popcorn and soda. But there's no benefit to buying it with the ticket. Odd. And the really funny part was we had to buy the tickets then leave the building, cross a pedestrian area and go into another building to find the right theater.

I also have to say, I'm really glad I wasn't a teenager around here. They don't give the poor kids working at the theater an inch of self-respect. They have to wear these hats with big cardboard signs on 'em with ads for a movie or the theater.

And in our animal-zoo theme, I'll end with this, because it's funny.



















Next time, really, beach, I swear.

Greetings sports fans!

It's 2:30 a.m. here but this's the only way I get to sorta participate in Seattle getting whomped by the Giants, through nfl.com's play-by-play. And thanks to Dov for showing me that. It's a little bit of home that's much better than reading all the commentary on Monday. I might rethink this habit if the Seachickens don't figure out a way to win, but it does give me time to say hi to you all.

Oh, and I've been meaning to say thanks to Karl. He recommended the camera I'm using, and it's been a really good tool for what we're doing. On that note, on with the photos: food first.















I know what you're thinking: that looks like a bag of squid, but that's just ridiculous. And you'd be right, it is ridiculous, but it's also a bag of squid. The ridiculous part is it's sold next to ice cream. Seriously, the two things this little shop sold: ice cream and bags of squid. I am beside myself with both mirth and disgust. Whether that means there are four of me, I'll leave to you, dear reader. But this little experience reminds me that culture shock seems to be starting to set in.

I was walking to a bus stop in an unfamiliar neighborhood the other day, and I suddenly had a very strong sense of anxiety and frustration over not being able to walk on the sidewalk. Very early I took pictures of parked scooters filling the sidewalks. In the less planned neighborhoods, scooter parking takes precidence over space for people to walk, so everyone ends up in the street. The drivers are surprisingly good about this and there really isn't much honking about the herds of people filling the streets to go around the scooters. But I just had a twinge of "why?" accompanied by a sort of homesickness for Redmond, Seattle, Phoenix, and even Norfolk where the sidewalks were not filling in as parking lots. They all also differ in not being filled with people like here, but that's a different set of emotions.

In that vein, I'm really glad we went south of Taipei this weekend.















This's near the end line of the Muzha (said kinda like Mu-ch-zha) metro, where the Taipei zoo is. I took this photo for several reasons: the green hills are the most vegetation I've seen I think since we got here; very refreshing. Also the parking lot is the largest one I've seen here. It surprised me to see this much concrete dedicated to cars, but it makes sense, with whole families coming to the zoo, scooters don't make as much sense, and lots of people just take the metro. Next, it's raining and it was cool. It felt really good to be outside on a finally coolish day, even if we did get a bit wet. And it's hard to see from here, but they have huge sidewalks. Lots and lots of space for the really big zoo crowds, which weren't out today. So it was also a great time of not having to dodge people every few steps.

We were actually too late to get into the zoo, but we knew it was too late; we just wanted to find it and see if it was worth another trip, probably next Friday when we have a national holiday. Around here we've learned if we really want a trouble free excursion, we need to be willing to make a dry run at finding a place. But it definitely is worth coming back for. It has several environments with several dozen animals. It's not the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, which can charge $15 or $20 per person, but it only charges 60 NT. That's about $2, so, good deal.

And the trip gave us another installment in our giant inflatable animal series.



















It's not really giant, except relatively, and it's not the whole animal, but man these things were popular. I never did figure out what they were good for, except whacking your little sister with.















And here we are having a surprisingly expensive, but surprisingly appetizing dinner. It was about 900 NT each, and then a half bottle of wine, totaling about 2500 NT, or around $80. So, pretty expensive, even for Seattle, but it had an appetizer, soup, salad, entree, dessert, and tea. And I was really surprised by the flavors. I had what they called a chef salad as the salad. It was like a mini chef salad, with a zippy orange-kinda dressing, unexpected but very good. And it's the first time we've had steak since we've been here, so that made everyone happy. And they were both good cuts of meat and done about the way we wanted, which's kind of a miracle with language barrier, and it felt like the server was surprised by us ordering medium rare. I wonder if that's an unpopular choice or if I was just reading her wrong. Whatever it was, we had a very good meal and evening.

This was also kind of a celebration for finally making enough money to live independent of our savings, tho' the celebration might've pushed us back into the red.















This's why there aren't more pictures of me. This's our night out, but I really don't know why Marie kept turning the camera every which way but level.















And I'm just learning that my wife has a juvenile sense of humor. She demanded that I take this picture. Maybe this's where I'm wrong. I thought it was kinda funny, but I didn't think we needed proof. This sorta thing is on every other sign, t-shirt, you name it. This's probably the record holder for size, prestige, and unfortunate meaning, but I just didn't think it was that funny. I thought the squid and ice cream was a lot funnier. I mean, if they sold bras or swimsuits that would've been funny!

But some of us are on the lookout for culture.















This's obviously a street performance, and that is a basket over what I'm assuming is her head (assuming the her, not the head). I couldn't read any of the descriptions, so I don't know if this's traditional music and attire, but I have the impression it is. And I'm sorry to say I didn't listen to much of the music, but it was pleasant to hear after the kids covering pop songs on the other end of the block.















Finally, I've been reading a little of the ongoing complaints from Seattlites about the new light rail and how much it costs and won't be cost efficient even if people ride it and blah blah blah. I'd really like those people to come here and see things like this. This's about ten o'clock on a Saturday night, when people in the U.S. are taking their cars because anything else's too much of a pain. They have a really good system in place here, so people use it. And you have to start building somewhere. And if anyone saw the amount of people this thing carries on a regular basis and calculated what would happen if all these people were even riding two to a scooter, they'd see how this system is the only thing standing between Taipei and mass gridlock.

Personally, it seems like a good idea to build the emergency release valve before you need it. But, the fact that Seattle couldn't get it's act together on this until just recently and is still whining about it, and Portland saw the need ten or fifteen years ago, is part of the reason we're seriously thinking about moving there when we've seen enough of the world.

So, sorry, still no beach trip, but confidence is high! We have next Friday off, so I'm hoping we can go to the beach either Friday or Sunday and the zoo the other. So I hope I'll have lots of stuff to show how much more fun we're having than you!