颱風來

颱風來...Typhoon's coming. School and all outdoor activities are preemptively canceled for tomorrow, simultaneously robbing me of my last day at Hanmin; Fulbright's planned zongzi-making party (also at Hanmin, but with all the ETAs invited); dinner with Alison, Maggie, Fiona and Patty; and Qingshan's 6th grade graduation (which is being rescheduled, but which now seems to conflict with our dragon boat races, should they actually take place).

The unfortunate part is that I can't even get upset at the system: they're not overreacting. We're about to be hit by Typhoon Talim, which is coming up along the West Coast; this, I've been told repeatedly, is NOT GOOD. Typhoons usually hit Taiwan's more exposed East Coast, thus running into the mid-country mountain range and slowing down before passing over to the much more densely populated West Coast; when they hit on The Side with the Cities, so I'm told, is when problems happen.

Oh, and we're actually getting off easy with Talim: just a few days ago, Taiwan looked like it was going to be hit on both sides, by Talim and Guchol. Thankfully (for us, at least), Guchol swirled off towards Japan, where it is now assailing Analicia's mom in the worst-timed way possible (she's flying from the States to Taipei with a stop in Japan, meaning she will very likely be impacted by both typhoons on her journey).

To the left: Talim. To the right: Guchol. In the middle: Taiwan.

So, we're all pretty much under house arrest for tomorrow. Well, I had been lamenting my lack of experiencing a typhoon while I was here...after all, as Margaret told me, typhoons and earthquakes are Taiwan's natural products! Had to experience both, or I hadn't really lived here.

In other typhoon news, a friend request and follow-up message from one of my favorite 5th graders finally broke my resolve and reminded me that it was about time I made good on my promise to my students that they could be my Facebook friends after I was no longer their teacher. Within minutes of my approving my many pending requests, the following photo showed up on my timeline:

Note the eyes that say "why am I doing this?" and the feet that say "I did karate for six years!"

...and promptly received a deluge of "like"s from friends back home. Further exploration of the album in which I had been tagged (thankfully, just in this one photo) revealed that my fears about presenting awards at graduation had been fully justified, as there now exist multiple pictures of my back, bowing to the students. Oh joy.

And here, buried at the bottom of my post because, again, I'm in denial, today was my REAL last day teaching at Hanmin. I came in for one period in the afternoon, during which Alison and I taught a group of 1st-5th graders from a school in the outer county areas of Kaohsiung our 3rd-4th grade Morning English lesson. And that part was really fun--the kids were enthusiastic and our goal was mostly just to give out free stuff. Then Alison and I went out for a coffee, and that was really fun, too!

Then the typhoon began blowing in. And I realized I should probably act as if it was my last day at Hanmin. And I cleared out my locker, and my desk, and left a note for next year's ETA. And now my desk looks quite desolate and depressing...

Yesterday..

Today. :(

...and I now have a bone to pick with a typhoon. 

加油 Brittany!

I awoke this morning before the alarm went off to the sound of Brittany shuffling around in the dark, then pushing through the heavy wooden doors of our room. I curled up tighter beneath the cover. A few minutes later she returned, and decided 5:30am was late enough.

By 6am, we were all suited up in multiple layers: a tank top, two t-shirts, a long-sleeve shirt, a scarf, a sweatshirt and a raincoat for me, plus jeans and two layers of socks, all beside my requisite knit gloves and Taiwanese face mask. The necessary blue plastic 7-11 poncho and a helmet completed the outfit, and we set out through the rain and the wind towards the race.

After dropping Brittany off at the entrance, getting gas, dropping Karina off with Brittany's stuff, finding a parking spot, walking to the university, finding Karina again, and walking up to the entrance to the school, on a hill overlooking the starting line, we discovered something: there was absolutely no way we could see Brittany in the mix of professional African racers (many of whom got an artificial head start, thanks to a misunderstanding), the pro Chinese and Taiwanese racers, the amateurs of every race who still cared, and the hundreds upon hundreds of racers sporting umbrellas. Oh, Taiwan.

When we were assured that everyone (and, therefore, Brittany) had passed the finish line, we went inside the university--out of the rain and wind, though not the cold, thanks to the joys of outdoor-indoor architecture here--to wait for Brittany to finish, snack on Doritos and nuts, and play "would you rather."

About an hour later, we wandered back into the conditions and to the finish line, where we stood beside a group of clearly co-opted high school cheerleaders performing half-hearted dance routines to classics like "We're All in This Together" as nobody watched, and we cheered for everyone crossing the finish line.

"加油!"

When Brittany finished, we strolled back to our scooters, cheering everyone along the way, to the bemusement of the Taiwanese walking alongside us and, as our home-stay lay back along the race route, took a roundabout way back which still managed to loop alongside the runners, whom we continued to cheer on until we got back.

Without any discussion, we then locked ourselves in our room and beneath our covers, and proceeded to take an hours-long siesta-and-James Bond-movie-marathon session. We were finally roused from our cold-induced stupor by a call from Nick inviting us to join him in visiting the small island offshore. We didn't join him, but we did re-suit up--added a layer of pants to my ensemble--and head back out on our scooters, this time checking out the scenic drive, the Triangle Fort, and then looping back to the shopping area we visited yesterday to buy a few last-minute souvenirs.

While there, we ran into Evan, Miles, John and Jason, and hung out with them as they had some 豆花  (douhua) and squid balls before they headed back to 厦门(Xiamen). We said goodbye and crossed the street to Jessica's, where we ate yesterday, for dinner.

We made a final stop at 馬山(Mashan), where we had just enough daylight left to find the old escape tunnel and walk down to the end, where Karina and I got a glimpse of patrolling Taiwanese boats and the near shore of China.

Still cold but finally coping, we scootered back to our lovely home-stay, where we now sit again, huddled under the covers and watching TV. It's been a good day, and I'm glad we got to be here to cheer on Brittany--and the rest of the un-cheered racers. But you can take me back to warm Kaohsiung now, please!

Cold and Wet

(Another Sunday retrospective.)

It was like Kenting all over again. Windy and wet, and, as an added bonus this time, cold--oh so cold, especially on a scooter. We layered up--t-shirts and sweatshirts and rain coats, that is--but still, our first drive out was miserable: hands numb in the wind, face and eyes stung by the rain, turned to stinging pellets by the velocity at which we were traveling. To make things better, we got lost.

Eventually we flipped around and headed for an emergency 7-11 run, where I slapped down about $10USD for appropriate Kinmen driving gear: knit gloves, the ever-present plastic poncho, and, in the first time I can remember actually wanting to use one, a heavy-duty face mask. With Karina's borrowed sunglasses to top it off, I was set to drive.

Which was a good thing, since it's primarily what we did. We first tracked down National Quemoy University, where Brittany was going to run, and picked up her registration materials. There, Rachel saw fit to lose her ATM card to the BOT machine, inspiring a series of phone calls to the company and Fonda which ended in us leaving to come pick it up later.

From there, we followed a local into town to the cultural shopping district, where we wandered around looking at their emblematic knives made of old artillery shells--as the closest outreaching of Taiwan to China, this place has seen a lot of shelling--and stone lions and peanut candy and beef jerky, the latter two purchased from a very nice lady we spent a while chatting with, we met up with Nick and wandered into a nearby restaurant called Jessica, which was oddly decorated in a combination of Chinese and Taiwanese national emblems--uncomfortable to say the least, given the political history here.

We decided to see more of the island then, and set out to see Kinmen's other famous product, Kaohliang Liquor. We went to the factory, where we learned that they do not have a factory tour, so we just looked around at the showroom and then took off again, first to meet Nick's friends, Evan, Miles, John, and Jason, and leave our souvenirs with them, then off to see a beautiful and beautifully-lit cave system near the sea. It was absolutely gorgeous.

Next it was back towards town, where we found Nick's friends eating an early dinner at another 7-11. We joined them in sitting around, chatting and eating for a while, then we headed back towards our home-stay, though first grabbing a 7-11 dinner (for me, yogurt, nuts, juice, and a Snickers).

Then, as Brittany, Rachel and Karina insisted on watching a horror movies regarding living killer ventriloquist dummies, I re-watched a few episodes of The Office and How I Met Your Mother on my computer, and we had another early night, trying to conserve heat and preparing for a very early morning, one which promised to be, if possible, colder and wetter than this one.

Day in the...Sun?

Today was, against all odds, sunny. And I do mean all odds. Last night all the weather services and typhoon watch websites showed a tropical storm heading straight for Kaohsiung; we had the preliminary rain and wind most of the day yesterday, and today had a promised 90% chance of rain and thunderstorms. I talked to my friend Danny, who was supposed to come today to see the city, and he agreed to postpone until Monday.

And then I woke up this morning to sun shining through my curtains; it wasn't even overcast for most of the day. Go figure. Well, ast least Monday is still forecast to be nice! (Knock on wood.)

So, all that to say, I spent the day much as I would have had the weather not cooperated: lazing about the apartment and enjoying my first weekend in about a month which did not involve me going places and doing things.

The one thing that was different, however, and which I greatly enjoyed, was that I got to go to dinner with my host family tonight! They picked me up at 5:30 and took me to Hotel Kingdom, where they treated me to a fantastic Hong Kong-style buffet. At Margaret's suggestion, I had a little bit of just about everything, from oyster to stewed rib soup to deep fried seafood cakes to crab and curry dumplings to a delicious milk-pudding-and-passion-fruit dessert. It was fantastic.

Please note that I have in front of me a bowl of scrumptious cream of corn-and-seafood soup, topped by puff pastry. Mmmmm....

I had a lot of fun just chatting with them, about everything from American (and Taiwanese) immigration debates to the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan to the fact that I have Cherokee in my ancestry to how Steven's Chinese family name is actually Hakka in origin to what I want to see while I'm here in Taiwan. (Wow, apparently I'm into run-on but still technically grammatically correct lists today...)

After we finished eating, around 8pm, we decided to head over to the Kaohsiung Museum of History for the last hour they were open, since we were in the area. And, for the record, it's both gorgeous and free! We came on the last day of one exhibit and the second day of another, meaning we hit the jackpot of being able to see an exhibit about the cultural rituals surrounding marriage and childhood, and of seeing one about the Daliao area of Kaohsiung.

GORGEOUS building!

They let (encouraged, even) me get inside the display!

These are BIBS. Just saying.

Fantastic day, with or without sun! Moral of the story: take your day, just add host family, and everything becomes sunny. :)

Touristy Things

Given my well-documented love of mornings, especially on the weekends (please sense the sarcasm), it was just wonderful to be out of the house this morning by 9am, ready to catch a train at Zuoying by 9:55. But that's what happened! We (Rachel, Karina, and I) were in Taipei by 11:30, ready to check in at our hostel (a full 8 hours ahead of what we told them originally) and do some serious exploring.

One of the from-the-train vistas

And that's what we did. Armed with several guidebooks, Karina had put together a list of things to do in Taipei, and after a bit of conversation (including where I could go to buy shoes) we had a game plan: go to 陽明山 (YangMingShan), do a little hiking, check out the hot springs there, then come back into the city and go to 士林夜市 (Shilin Night Market), which is the most famous night market in Taiwan (and which, incidentally, sells shoes). We had lunch, got a call from Tom, who we invited to join us, and then set out for the mountain. The sky was cloudy as we descended into the Guting MRT station.

We met Tom and hopped a bus for the mountain top, but as we boarded we noticed something: raindrops. As it turns out, we seem to have a personal raincloud following us on our travels, much as you might see in an old Looney Toons production, but without all the moping. (It was our own fault, we decided, we'd jinxed it: getting of the train this morning I'd said it would be a good weekend if, just once, I got cold, and Rachel wore her bathing suit under her hiking gear) By the time we reached the place to change buses, it was really coming down. By the time we made it to the top (standing in the back of both buses for most of the time, balancing precariously on our feet as they weaved back and forth on crazy switchbacks), the mountain was also completely engulfed in fog. 

So, naturally, we decided to go hiking. We'd already trashed our original idea of hiking to the hot springs, so we were instead in the volcanic region of the park, at the dormant volcano's peak--or near it. To get to it, we'd have to hike 1.6km up the side of a mountain, in the rain, in the wind, on a slippery rock path, surrounded by sulfur, with no just-in-case hiking supplies. This, naturally, is what we set out to do.

We made it about halfway before we realized that we wouldn't have time to complete the hike before the last bus left the mountain, and so turned back, still in the rain, to catch another series of buses down. But before we did, we had a momentary lapse of cloud cover, and could at least catch a glimpse of the crater across the parking lot! But, all too quickly, it was gone.

Quick, clarity!

Out the bus window

So we were back on the bus again. We'd given up on the hot spring idea for the day entirely (which saddened me to no end, given that we were now wet and cold), but soon we were warm again and roaming about the night market. After what I can only describe as the easiest, fastest, and most painless shoe shopping experience of my life, we had accomplished our only hard-and-fast objective and were just taking in the sights like the other swarms of tourists.

And then we went to dinner--at Modern Toilet. For the uninitiated, Modern Toilet sells food and ice cream--in toilet shaped bowls. I wasn't feeling great at this point, so I ordered just ice cream and orange soda (thought it was water, but oh well). The drink came out first (an oddity in Taiwan), and it was in, well, a blue urinal.

Then came the 'ice cream.' Turned out that the ice cream I thought I was ordering, the simple pile of soft serve they are famous for, was not what I had ordered. What I had ordered was this:

Shaved ice with kiwi sauce,  chocolate soft serve, vanilla ice cream, raisins, mango pieces, and kiwi jellies, with random marshmallows etc sprinkled on it

 For a size comparison, here it is (a little depleted) next to what I meant to order, and which Rachel got after her meal:

Aww, look, the cute little baby toilets are gathering around the mama!

Anyway, after that we walked around some more, did a (very little) shopping in some of the stores around the market (one of which smelled and looked like it belonged in downtown Ashland, OR--smoky, tie-died, faux-exotic, belly-dancing...), and even managed to run into Emily, Lydia, and Samia, who were doing the same. Another fun moment came when we saw a stream of illegal street vendors running away from a police officer--and by running, I mean they were quickly but precisely wheeling their entire livelihoods down the middle of a crowded walkway, while a police officer strolled after them several blocks behind. (Clearly, they're really serious about this whole endeavor...)

We were all ready at this point to call it a night. So, after a brief stop-in at one of Tom's regular places, where he ordered stinky tofu (which we all then had to watch/smell him eat), we headed back for the hostel. Here, we discovered it had been taken over by middle-aged and older Taiwanese people, which was a bit of a shock given that hostels are normally for the young and are usually dominated by out-of-country people. I'm guessing, though, that at this point all the hotels are booked, and you take what you can get!

So that's it for now. Tomorrow we're going to chase Karina's ritual of taking photobooth pictures in every Asian country she visits, then actually go to the hot springs. Undetermined after that--we might meet up with another alum from my high school, but who knows--but hopefully the weather will realize we don't live in a cartoon, and hold for whatever we end up doing. 

Which will, inevitably, be touristy things.

Into the Wind

Today I boarded a bus for Kenting, Taiwan's coastal paradise; to the city which is named "eternal spring." I was super excited to finally get a taste of a tropical beach, since I have never before in my life been to an ocean warm enough to get into, or blue enough to see through. I was thorough in my packing--grabbed my 30 SPF sunscreen, two swimsuits, shorts, sundress, sandals--and, just in case, a rain coat and tennis shoes. I was ready for a beach unlike that in the Pacific Northwest--one that did not involve wind and rain.

But, as it turned out, wind and rain is what I got.

I pictured this (actual picture of Kenting from the Internet)

And got this (actual picture of Kenting from hostel window. Note the raindrops)

The whole trip down to Kenting was overcast-ish outside, but could still see patches of sun, and I grew more and more excited as I saw the coastline appear and realized that, when I got out, it would still be warm.

Then we got closer. Right around 5 minutes beforehand, it started raining. And it didn't stop. I put on my raincoat before we stepped outside, and then began the sprint for the nearest 7-11 so Brittany, Rachel, and Karina could buy ponchos. And I discovered that my thinking ahead was actually not the best of plans, since they were now better covered than I was. Which became a big regret as our taxi driver couldn't find our hostel and we wandered back and forth within a few blocks of it for a while asking people before we finally found it--and my stuff, and everything not covered by my raincoat, was soaked. Around this time, the rain began going sideways.

By the time we were in our room, the wind was gusting against the screen door and I was wondering how we could possibly do anything. Did I mention that a typhoon recently just missed Taiwan and hit Hong Kong instead? Turns out these are the edges of it. Today I've felt exactly like I'm at the Oregon coast--all wind and rain--but with the thermostat turned up about 40*. Very odd, yet oddly homey. Wind and rain: normal!

So with that wether, naturally, we rented scooters and headed for the beach!

And oh yeah--when our hostel owner drove us to get the scooters, he got pulled over. Seriously, this day was shaping up to be a combination of the least likely events ever. Rain and wind in Kenting? Check. Police involved? Check. What next?

Still don't know what they wanted...

The beach was not quite doable, so after lunch (delicious Italian), we decided to do some shopping, then head up to the Southernmost point of Taiwan and see the lighthouse there around sunset. But there were...complications, beginning with the marginal typhoon-strength wind. Driving a scooter in driving rain and wind is somewhat less than fun, and then Rachel and Brittany, who were leading, went past the turn-off for the Southernmost point, and then up an unprotected mountain. It had a GLORIOUS view, but Karina and I turned back--it was impossible to keep a straight line.

And we headed back to the Southernmost point! It was wonderful, and the winds were actually a boon there--high winds equal high waves which are beautiful to look at. Then the lighthouse, where we met some roving dogs who were also watching the sunset. Rachel and Brittany eventually made it back, and while we waited for them by the lighthouse, we were guarded by an adorable little golden dog, who reminded me of the cat in The Horse and His Boy, when Shasta is by the tombs. (If you don't get that reference, you're probably more normal than me, but you'd best go read that book.)

Trail to the Southernmost point

Looking south at the tip

LOVE the waves in the wind!

Eluanbi Lighthouse

Sunset. :)

On the way back, we stopped through at the Kenting night market, which had filled with people who had materialized out of nowhere--the streets were all but empty earlier today--and had a bit more shopping time. Tried on numerous hats, none of which quite worked, and bought a sweet travel coffee mug with Taiwan stuff on it, and--of course--watermelon milk. I have to say, too, that Kenting night market is a bit of a nightmare: a bunch of people at a market are annoying no matter what, then add in the vacation aspect, and it's not good. Still great time, though.

This doesn't even begin to cover the epicness of the day--I'll do more later. But the wind is still beating on our door, and we're getting up early tomorrow to enjoy what will hopefully be a less storm day in Kenting, so that's it for now. Turns out the "eternal spring" in Kenting is currently stuck in April, with no chance of May.