Life

Wow, it does NOT feel like 3am. And that is a VERY bad thing for my sleep cycles. But, also, a not-so-bad thing for my blog.

I had a pretty decent day, all considered. Watched most of a Scottish miniseries starring David Tennant--which, obviously, made me want to throw all my stuff in a bag and MOVE THERE NOW, though I resisted. FINALLY turned in my application for what I might do come September--and then accidentally half-way applied to a job in New York, which was odd. And grotesquely ironic: this job was posted on the website for a major publisher, and was one of FOUR fantastic jobs now posted on that site for which I may actually be qualified. Of course, I found them directly after mentally committing to another program. Sigh. Now to determine whether I should apply to them anyway...probably?

But the highlight of my day was easily my dinner plans. I met up with Tiffiany and our Chinese teacher, Mandy, at a great little Western-style restaurant on the Love River called Sandwich Island (and, stupid person that I am, I completely spaced that the dragon boat races going on would mean parking would be impossible--so I was 15 minutes late). The food was scrumptious, of course (fried chicken sandwich--mmm), and Mandy was so sweet--she brought Tiffiany and I some fantastic going away presents! Cue the part where I wish I'd brought more gifts to give away...

So we had our little meal, and then strolled along the Love River with the hordes of other people, watching dragon boat-ers who DIDN'T suck. And Tiffiany utilized her Chinese to ask a very nervous (but adorable) little girl to take our picture:

Extra smiles for our new 小朋友!

 Next up was some continued strolling and a stop by my personal favorite Kaohsiung gelato place--two scoops for 100NT (~3USD) of some of the BEST gelato ever. Tonight, I went for dark cherry and mulberry (2 separate flavors) and they were to DIE for. Then we kept strolling.

It's so PRETTY when you're not being forced down it with paddles in your hands!

Hey look, they're winning by almost as much as we lost by! (butnotreally)

And, thankfully, this ISN'T actually going to be our last hang-out like we'd originally thought. We made plans to go see BRAVE tomorrow (wow, I'm big on the Caps Lock tonight...sorry about that). Brave, for those who don't know, is this:

All I have to say is: Disney/Pixar? Check. Scottish? Check. Archery? Check. COUNT ME IN!

In brief

I'm currently at that particularly awful point in life where your eyes are refusing your orders that they stay open, and you still have a blog post to write. So, for purely physiological reasons, this will be short.

Today:

• Tom came to town!
• We had our first dragonboat practice, which resulted in obscenely sore muscles, a thorough drenching of the left side of my body, coupled with a deep understanding of how stinky the Love River is, and the realization that all may be for naught, if we can't get another foreigner to join our team by Thursday.
• Rachel and I hung out with Tom and two of his friends, Michael and Charles.

Welp, that's about all my eyes will let me write for now. More tomorrow, when we attempt dragonboating once again.

Full

Living in Taiwan, "full" is a regular part of my daily vocabulary. In a culture whose local language, Taiwanese, says "have you eaten?" for "hello," eating and over-eating are regular occurrences. Today, however, my title doesn't refer to food--or, at least, not principally. No, I mean the day as a whole: SO SO full!

It's 1am now. I woke up this morning at 7am. In the intervening 18 hours, I...

Went to school, where I dyed eggs with the 5th graders at Qingshan amidst what began as chaos and ended in gorgeous colors and very few messes;

Explained to countless students, teachers, and administrators who Alex and Melanie were, and that Melanie was, in fact, American;

Lost the race against Alex and Melanie's taxi driver home;

Revealed the wonderfulness of Ali's burritos and the corner shop's milk tea to Alex and Melanie;

Took advantage of a few hours break from today's drizzle to eat shave ice at Siziwan, take the ferry to Cijin, rent bikes, glimpse the lighthouse, explore the fort, ride bikes, and discover that basically the entire seashore at Cijin is under construction;

Helped Chialing cook some fantastic noodles which Alex and Melanie obviously ADORED;

Took a window-shopping stroll with Melanie that resulted in some cute stationary for her and a nice little conversation with the adorable owner of the adorable Nini store down the street, together with some delicious cake despite my protestations that we were full;

Walked along the Love River with Alex and Melanie;

Found Alex some cold medicine;

Made a brief stopover at Ruifeng Night Market, where we saw some hilarious Angry Bird and "Angry Sponge" shirts, as well as some gorgeous leather bags;

Made plans to hang out with my host family tomorrow, after a stop at another stationary store and Dream Mall, and made tentative plans to KTV afterwards.

So "full" is not an understatement--this is just the outline! In other news, my plans for tomorrow begin at 10am, and I am therefore going to sleep.

Responsibilities

It was a long day: Morning English, classroom observation, more class, Fulbright workshop, Chinese class...and then finally a bit of fun at Love River. I feel so bad for Kaitlin! Of course, the good news is that this is the last of these horrible long days full of responsibilities--and Kaitlin has been an excellent sport about all of this. I feel so bad that she's had to be, though...

But at least our night was nice! The Love River never fails to provide gorgeousness at night, and this time brought more new things in old places, like some DELICIOUS fresh kiwi gelato and rose grapefruit gelato, and a stroll as far down the river as the Love Pier, which I realized today I'd never seen before.

Also, we had some oh-so-lovely moments hating on Kaohsiung traffic. Great night, though! And tomorrow will be even better. Here's some pictures:

Food, Lanterns, Books and Indians

Today was full, in every sense of the word. Big meals, and a full 10 hour stretch of fabulous activities in the lovely Kaohsiung.

First off was a gorgeous and sumptuous eight course meal with my wonderful host sister, Emily.

And this was just the salad!

Next up was a movie, which we picked based on the criteria that it a) was in English, b) was playing soon, and c) had seats available, by which complicated logistics we arrived at Contraband, which I give a very sincere rating of "meh, glad I saw it considering our other options, but it's not going to win any Oscars."

Then we went outside and saw that it looked like this.

LOVE.

Then we met up with Margaret and James and headed for the Love River to watch the final day fireworks of the Lantern Festival. They were PHENOMENAL, and went on for a solid six minutes before ending, gloriously, like this:

Yeah those are lanterns. That came out of the fireworks. I really don't even know how that's possible, but it's what happened. There are simply no words for how amazing it was.

Then we looked around at the lantern-designing competition, and, though Hanmin eluded us, we eventually located the one designed my the kids at Qingshan!

Also, it's the year of the dragon now.

Next up was a long walk through the balmy evening and then another delicious meal, this time at a Western-style cafe near Margaret's school. It was great, not just because of the food (yummy tomato risotto and fried fish!) but because of the atmosphere: absolutely perfect for the Lantern Festival.

Still surrounded by lanterns as we ate!

It was 10pm by the time I got home, foot-weary but oh so happy and oh so full.
---
So far as one new things go, I'm going to go ahead and pass on all the obvious things, like first lantern festival etc, because I saw two of the most absurdly wonderful things today that I have ever seen. And captured photo evidence that they exist. And they are both, surprise surprise, new! So, here goes.

Thing 13:
This is one part new thing, one part thing I just don't understand about Taiwan: book covers. Walk into any bookstore in Taiwan, and you'll find, amongst the other offerings, table upon table of New York Times Best Seller list titles. "Great," you'll think to yourself, "They have English books here!"

So you walk over, pick up the nearest book and go to flip it open, only to discover that it opens on the wrong side. This should be your first clue. "O...k...." you say, "That's weird..." Then you look down. And discover that, English cover notwithstanding, it's written entirely in Chinese. And you don't speak Chinese.

"But Bekah," you say, "That makes sense! The books are in Taiwan, and they are originally famous in English, so it's logical to advertise them in English but actually sell them in Chinese. Right?"

And maybe you have a point. But I just can't say the same about the book I saw today, perched among at least three other similar covers to the same book:

One Hundred Years of Solitude. Wait, isn't that a Spanish book? Yep, good ol' Gabriel Garcia Marquez was 100% Colombian, amigo, meaning that this book was originally written and published--in Spanish--as Cien Años de Soledad. So why exactly is it titled here only in Chinese and English, with no glimpse whatsoever of the original title or language?


No one knows for sure. It's one of the unsolved mysteries of Taiwan.


Thing 14/Unsolved Mystery of Taiwan 2:
Tonight, as I mentioned previously, I went to the last night of the Lantern Festival at the Love River here in Kaohsiung. There, I saw a strange sight. A very strange sight.

This strange sight.

There I was, strolling along the Taiwanese riverside, which was all decked out for the last bit of celebration of the Lantern Festival, itself the end of the celebration of Chinese New Year, when I hear the oddly familiar sound of traditional Native American music. I look up, and see three people dressed in stereotypical Sioux Indian full dress--which is odd in itself, as I can't determine if they're actually Native American, just your run-of-your-mill Caucasians, or Taiwanese. In full Sioux get-up.

Another track came on over their little boom box, and I realized that wasn't the only thing that was off: their "traditional" music was in Spanish. Say what? Compensating for the Garcia Marquez title above, I guess. But really, I would have been slightly disappointed if the non-Native American Native Americans hawking their wares at a Chinese festival in Taiwan hadn't been singing in Spanish. You know, for continuity's sake.

Discoveries

Tonight, Karina and I decided to go check out Kaohsiung International Church--you know, the one which we tried to find the first weekend, only to have a doorman at an apartment building where we were trying to ask directions tell us that we weren't in Kaohsiung anymore. (He was wrong.)

This time, though, we went by scooter (first time driving with someone on the back--discovered I could do it--success!), and looked up and wrote down directions ahead of time. Only parking was an issue, since the street the church is on is under construction and I fail, in general, in getting my scooter into parking spaces. But, even with that little drama, we ended up in the church five minutes before service began.

And service was good! In a lot of ways, it reminded me of Springfield Faith Center, where I attended while growing up--the pastor's name was even the same, Dave, which I thought was a funny coincidence. And the people were friendly and fairly outgoing; it turns out, several of them live near the Cultural Center, too! One guy, Mike, had on a Mariners shirt, which got me excited for a minute, but turns out he's not from there. Dave, on the other hand, is!

It was a good mix of people (age-wise etc), good preaching, and decent worship (though I'm not going to lie, at moments I wanted to run on stage and grab the bass sitting there unused to get their rhythm back to where it should have been). Basically, still no City Church, but I felt like I could learn and belong there for a year.

After service, one of the girls, Katie, invited Karina and I to get dinner with them, but we had to get back to write our weekly reports (and, in my case, blog), so we declined and went to Mosburger for a quick bite instead--one which turned out unexpectedly fishy and slightly stomach-turning (looked like a burger in the picture! Shoot!). Next time, I'll join the church group.

On the way back, we saw a little bit of the area, which is technically in Sanmin district, and loved what we saw! First of all, clearly a fairly Westernized area--Mosburgers, McDonald's, Starbucks, and Blockbusters dotted the scenery--and it was also a very young area, with young people wandering everywhere. Also, from what I can tell, it's near the Love River! Definitely a very nice (and probably expensive) place to live, and definitely a nice district discovery which I will have to explore more in the very near future.

So, one successful church visit down, I dropped Karina at the MRT station and scouted out a flower shop I'd seen on Guangzhou the other day to buy a bunch of flowers for my lesson tomorrow, "Where are you going?" We're using realia to help reinforce the vocabulary, and I volunteered to supply the material for flower shop--and as a bonus, get some lovely flowers in my apartment after we're done with them! (Assuming they survive tomorrow, that is.)

Anyway, here they are--cost me all of $150NT, or about $5US, so a bit steep for around here but I didn't feel like bartering with a nice older lady when I could barely speak the language anyway and I was her only customer.

Please note that they are currently sitting in an aluminum thermos. In other news, I need to buy a vase.

So, things I discovered today: a good church; that I can drive with someone on the back; a great area to hang out; that I shouldn't eat seafood at Mosburger; that flower shops here are open on Sundays; that I need to buy a vase. Obviously some discoveries are worth more than others--so I should really go buy that vase now. :)

...and Repeat

I've been sitting here for a few hours now, intermittently reading, Facebook purging, and debating what to write about for my daily blog post. After much deliberation, I have settled on a theme: repetition.

Today we did more workshops, had more discussions (today with former ETA Dale and the legendary Dr. Wu), heard Dr. Vocke's elevator speeches for the millionth time (he admitted this himself, and asked us how many times we had heard it; Andrew figured it to be six.); and, throughout it all, several undeniably catchy songs played and replayed themselves for my subconscious.

So, for your pleasure, I've decided to reproduce them here.

1.) The Elephant Song: I posted it on here yesterday, but I think it bears repeating--and my subconscious, apparently, agrees.

2.) Friday, by Rebecca Black: It's inevitable. It's that day of the week. Why, oh why, oh WHY does this song title have to be so commonly used in everyday speech?!

3.) Taiwanese Garbage Truck Song: they say it's Fur Elise, but calling it that doesn't even begin to give an idea of what you hear everyday, several times a day around here as the trucks traverse the city. (No standing garbage around here.) Bring out your trash!

After training, we went out to a delicious Western-style multi-course meal with Dr. Vocke, Dr. Tsai (sp? He's the Director of Board of Education), and pretty much everyone from the Fulbright staff. The meal was great, and elaborate--sparkling rose water, duck soup, duck salad with raspberry vinaigrette, sorbet to cleanse the palate, steak, milk tea, brownies, custard, and fruit--and the restaurant overlooked the Love River, which was gorgeous. So that whole experience was quite amazing, and as a bonus, we got to chat with Joanne, one of the Fulbright staffers, on the way to and way from the restaurant.

Here's mah fancy dessert--the color's a bit off, thanks to my inability to edit pictures well, but I thought it might be better than a dark image, which is what I had before I began meddling:

We're going to visit the loner school district tomorrow, so not much sleeping in for us. Should be beautiful at least, though, and hopefully annoying-song free.

Humility, Scooters, and Other Mysteries

One of the biggest things I've learned in Taiwan so far is just how humbling it is to be in a foreign country. You can't speak the language. You don't know the customs. You can't navigate by yourself. You become, in essence, an infant, taking once again those first wobbly steps toward self-sufficiency, and trusting in the mean time that those around you will keep you from harm.  In short, you are entirely dependent on other people.

So, tonight I stepped out and put my life wholly in the hands of a stranger. Karina, who has lived abroad before, had connected to a local Kaohsiung resident who wanted a conversation partner; they met via a website for conversation partners and had never met in person. Until tonight, that is, when the friend, Carissa, offered to take Karina and I out to dinner. The restaurant she had in mind was too far for the MRT, she said, so she and her cousin, Joy, came on scooters to pick us up. So it was that, after saying hello, we were each handed a helmet and invited to sit behind these new friends, who then shot off into the night, with us behind them, clinging to the back railing. Where we were going was anybody's guess.

To be clear, we weren't stupid about it. We told several people what we were doing, and  checked back with them once we got to our destination. But still, it was a complete leap of faith in my mind; a moment of absolute, infant-like trust that the person we were sitting behind would get us safely to the right destination. And they did. And it was AMAZING.

I don't think Carissa or Joy fully grasped just how much Karina and I just enjoyed being on the back of their scooters. We've been doing scooter practice in the parking lot behind Sanmin for two days now, so that I now feel comfortable starting the scooter moving and driving it slowly in circles (for the most part--right hand turns are hard! My theory is that it's because the throttle is also with your right hand; opposing motions to turn and keep moving), but putting around a little lot is ENTIRELY different from zipping through rush-hour traffic, easily looping around turns and zipping around buses while surrounded by other scooters doing the same thing. The whole thing reminded me of a school of minnows shooting past slow and stately whales, really--scooters are definitely the way to go around here.

Carissa and Joy took us to a fantastic little shop that served us fried chicken, fried egg, rice with veggies, and some sort of fish-tasting soup, which we thoroughly enjoyed while asking them about the schools they go to, the instruments they play, and other little chit-chatty topics. Occasionally Carissa wouldn't know a word and would switch to Chinese, which Karina was usually able to interpret, and somehow we managed a pretty good conversation.

Then we hopped back on the scooters (oh, the wonderful joy of cool(ish) night air rushing past!) and went to get milk tea from a vendor who, Carissa told us, has been in business for 68 years. This guy knew what he was doing, alright--probably the best milk tea I've had since I've been here, or ever, really!

From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump (by scooter, of course :) ) to the Love River, which is absolutely GORGEOUS at night, with lights festooned all along the walkway and the bridges so that they reflect off the water. We even took a little boat up and down the river; a tour guide explained all the sights, but I tuned him out (it was in Chinese, anyway) and just soaked it all in. Here are some pictures from that part of the night:

We took a boat just like that one!

I really, really love this city. And I think that, after tonight, it may be hard to keep me off of scooters around here. But we'll see what coming days hold. In all likelihood, more time on the learning curve, trusting others to keep me afloat while I flounder in the humbling knowledge of my own ignorance.