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.
