Top 10 Things I'll Miss About Taiwan

10. My students, my co-teachers, my colleagues, my friends...
          This one is obviously actually #1, but it's far too serious to put as my ending note. So, this is actually the thing I will miss the absolute most about Taiwan...but I don't have the heart to put it there. I love my students; I love my co-teachers; I love my colleagues; I love my friends here, and I don't want to think about the fact that I'm leaving then soon. *ahem* Movingon.

9. Standing out in every crowd 
          It gets annoying at times, but it's still kind of cool to be The Foreigner, worthy of stares and smiles and awe. And I'm not gonna lie, it's nice getting "你很漂亮啊" all the time from strangers. I won't quite know how to deal with blending in again...


8. The ability to pop up to Taipei or Taitung on a whim, or to fly to Thailand in just 6 hours or so
          I've mentioned this before, but I have absolutely LOVED the ability to travel that this year has given me, coupled with an absolutely fantastic array of  locations at my feet.


7. Living amongst the nicest people on the planet
          I genuinely believe this to be true. I have NEVER met more kindhearted people than the Taiwanese locals, especially Kaohsiung locals, are. It's partly Southern hospitality (the same the world over), but mostly just an ingrained wonderful friendliness all over the island of Taiwan. They are simply wonderful.

6. Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday afternoon off work
          This was just a lovely quirk of my schedule all year: no class after noon three days a week. Never gonna get THAT again!

5. Playing the foreigner card
          Not being able to communicate definitely has its upside. This is it: the foreigner card. "I don't understand!" Annnnnd you can now do anything you want.

4. Drinking ALL THE TEA
          I didn't even drink tea before I came to Taiwan. But I will miss all the fabulous varieties of tea I've grown to love this year, and will no doubt try to replicate them on my own: grapefruit green tea, Oolong milk tea, Earl Grey milk tea (at least this one I can still get at home), yogurt green tea, mango green tea, the list goes on...and I will always remember being the sole one still ordering it iced when the temperature dropped to a "frigid" 60F or so.


3. Beautiful sunshiney days on my scooter
          When the sun is out, my scooter is perfect. Wind in my hair, zipping along, getting tanned (avoiding the slowpokes...); in essence, perfection.

2. Fresh fruit, everywhere, all the time
          Taiwan's fruit is the best thing ever. EVER. And it's cheap. I will forever miss being able to go down to the fruit stand on a whim and buy pineapples, mangoes, and watermelon and for less than 3USD. 

1. Driving like a maniac with no repercussions
          'Nuff said. Here's hoping I readjust before I get buried in tickets at home...

Kids, Critters, Camping and Beauty

I love camping. Let's just start there: love it. Camping has been a constant in my summers for as long as I can remember, most frequently in groups of several families. Old family videos pan between adults getting food ready, getting the boat ready to go fishing, and heading down to whatever water we're camped next to and kids racing the dogs around in a state of mania, ready to go swimming, fishing, or "critter hunting."

All of which is just one reason this weekend was so amazing.

At Sun Moon Lake with Karina and her host family, Casey and Yvonne and their adorable kids Ken and Jessica (newly self-minted as Jessica; she used to be Coco), I got all of this. We were camping with a group that included around 15 kids (and 2 dogs), who spent the time running around the campsite together, alternating between fishing down on the dock, driving around on the bike-trolley provided by the campground to get your stuff from your car to your campsite, and looking for praying mantises and toads.

They were frequently successful. Not pictured: a huge box filled with praying mantises and grasshoppers--and the scorpion they found under Tiffiany's tent

 

"This one is cute!" Oscar told me...I'm somewhat less than convinced. (As is he, judging from his face)

Yeah this little guy was waiting for Tiffiany when she rolled up her tent this morning...the kids were somewhat less cavalier with him, surprise surprise!

It was like reliving my childhood, but with an adult perspective this time. (And many more poisonous species--Ken informed me they'd once seen a cobra in the vicinity of one of the places we visited.) It was fantastic. Especially considering that my hectic graduation-China-DC-Taiwan schedule left no time for camping this past summer, it really felt like it filled a gaping void in my year so far.

And that's not even mentioning the view. It was absolutely breathtaking--and also, in its own way, hearkened back to childhood summers spent at Suttle Lake. There is simply no beating alpine lakes for beauty, I don't care what you say--especially when the lake is green-aqua and the rising mountains are covered in palm leaves and banana trees, crowned by spiring pagodas.

This morning was GORGEOUS.

And the pagoda: you can see it in the last of the photos above, the white-and-red tower jutting from the rightmost peak. We visited it (that was where Ken said they'd seen a cobra before; I kept an eye out in equal measures of fear and excitement) on Saturday, and climbed the many stairs to the top, where a giant gong/bell hung, ready for those who wanted to make wishes. Casey suggested that Karina and I wish for men, since we're both single; when I accidentally struck it twice, he looked perplexed and told me that meant two guys would be after me at the same time! I told him great! Haha, but I'll believe it when I see it.

The pagoda itself afforded great views of Sun Moon Lake and the surrounding area--none of which I captured on film, though, because I left my camera at the base with Yvonne, Ken and Jessica to take photos of Karina, Casey and I as we climbed.

WILD poinsettias on the way up

 

At the top at last!

Jessica playing. :)

Yesterday evening was fantastic, on many levels. First of all, (again, like when I go camping at home), the families all shared meals; one woman was a professional cook, so everyone paid into a food fund and she provided the most delicious meals ever. So last night's meal consisted of mashed potatoes, beef-and-carrot gravy, rolls, cheesy salmon, chicken stir fry, fried veggies, and rolls, amongst many many other delicious things which I seem to have forgotten at the moment.



Last night was also cold--surprisingly so. I wore jeans the whole trip, and last night my rain jacket was not warm enough; it wasn't until I actually went back to my tent and layered a sweatshirt underneath it that I was comfortable. Part of this was no doubt caused by the fact that I was sitting in a light rain while watching Cars 2 in Chinese with the kids (motionless and drizzle is not good for warmth--and I've determined that the rain is following me on these trips, thanks to my personal black cloud), but still, it was kind of nice to be chilled for a bit in November--it only seemed natural.
 
Today found us visiting a local and famous black tea garden (though it was closed, so we settled for pictures of the scenery at the gate), then taking down camp, stopping at a famous temple and then a famous chicken rice place, and then heading back.

Morning at the dock

Tea!

Camping is truly one of the best things life has to offer, especially when it offers, as a bonus, the opportunity to see a great natural beauty like Sun Moon Lake. This weekend proved that definitively. What it also proved, though, is how hard the ground can be when you've forgotten a pillow--and now, sitting on my bed at home, I can't wait to get back to this one creature comfort. For tonight, at least--but soon, it'll be back to the campsite for me. It just feels right.

劍湖山 and sniffles

When I left my apartment this morning, I knew three things:

1.) I was going on a field trip to an amusement park with my students;
2.) I wasn't feeling well;
3.) I was running inexplicably early.

The first was exciting, if mysterious, since, though I'd been told several times where we were going, I could never manage to remember the name. Still, an amusement park is an amusement park, and time with students outside of school is wonderful even if it didn't involve a free pass to a great Taiwanese attraction.

The second was just obnoxious. I made a quick trip down to 7-11 to pick up hospital masks, in case that was proper protocol for coming to school with a cold here (you never know) and two bags of what I know as cough drops, but which are here apparently considered candy--Ricola lemon mint drops (aka "herb candy").

The third is inexplicable still: I had been told to be at school by 7:24, so I was shooting for 7:20, and yet somehow managed to arrive at 7:05, after stalling and more than one convenience store stop. I met up with Maggie and we immediately began waiting, as the scheduled leave time of 7:30 came and went; when we finally boarded our bus at 8:00am, I had had ample time to wish I had bought breakfast in all my free time, rather than wait it out for the breakfast they provided, which turned out to be shredded dry pork sandwiches. (Not as bad as they sound, but there are still plenty of things I would have chosen over them.)

As the bus got moving, I asked Maggie, yet again, where we were going, and she told me 劍湖山世界, which is translated on their signs as Janfusun Fancyworld, though the characters should make it--and it is actually pronounced, from what I can tell--Jianhushan. So I guess I'm not the only one with problems with the name.

When we got there (after a beautiful drive through the Taiwanese countryside and a rest area reminiscent of those complexes found on toll roads on the East coast, complete with a Starbucks which Maggie and I took full advantage of!), I learned that this is not just a great theme park, but one located on a lush green mountain surrounded by lush green mountains. Absolutely gorgeous.

No photo-shopping necessary

Definitely one of the greenest theme parks I've ever seen

LOVE that view

The set-up reminded me at first of Enchanted Forest, in Albany, Oregon, but on a much grander school--if Albany looked like that (^), that is, which it doesn't. But it's the only other place I know of to so seamlessly integrate the natural environment--and geography--into the more modern buildings and rides. It was brilliant in this regard.

Maggie informed me that the first thing the teachers must do is have coffee/tea with the owner of the tour bus company who took us there. (Oh, there's another cultural difference for ya: no school buses here, and they use double-decker tour buses for just about everything that requires moving large groups of people! Much nicer than the States.) That's one tradition I was more than happy to take part in! Especially when we arrived at the place where we were going to drink the coffee, and found that it was...

Love at first sight. World's largest!

Inside, the different rooms--all part of a cafe--featured decor from all different parts of the world. So cool! Wish I'd gotten to explore it more.

Our table: Maggie with her rose milk tea (and leftover Starbucks from the road) and 2 of the home room teachers with their iced caramel lattes

Maggie and I! Our part of the cafe was decorated like the UK, from what I could tell...

Once we finished our drinks, we set out for the haunted theater attraction--never my favorite, but everyone else wanted to go, so I joined. It ended up being pretty tame: rather than reinvent the wheel, they had opted to recreate scenes from famous horror movies in each corner of a mid-sized maze. Also, Maggie and I were at the end of the group going through, so mostly we'd just hear screams up ahead and turn the corner in time to see the actor go back to his corner, or the animatronic monster shrink back to its starting position.

Then it was off to the rides! I think I may have earned myself a reputation as something of a daredevil as, in quick succession, I went on the Diving Machine G5 (not my video), the Sky Jet (where I had an audience of maybe forty or so of my students watching me) and the Crazy Coaster. All were a lot of fun, and all involved fairly quiet waits, seeing as how Maggie doesn't do roller coasters and the other teachers didn't speak English. Still a lot of fun, though!

the G5

Just caught it in time

Annnd JUST because they're adorable, I give you Fred and Brian. Twin brothers, and they're in the same class. And then I wonder why I can't remember names...

Not long after lunch--which we were late to, thanks to our roller coaster antics--it was time to head home. We piled back into the buses, turned back on our illegal copy of "Real Steel" (Hugh Jackman fighting robots movie), and headed home.

It was a great day, and it solved my first and third tidbits along the way: I now know that I went to j...n.shn....hm. Curse that name. Okay, it solved my third tidbit along the way: .....because...I...umm....huh. Not even going to try on the second one: my throat still aches, ricola notwithstanding. It didn't keep my from enjoying myself, but it does seem to be impacting my memory and sense of time! So I'm going to bed.

Exploring Kaohsiung

I spent a lot of time walking around today, both purposely and inadvertently exploring the city. My legs are sore, I'm tired, and my body is still covered in a thin film of sweat, but it was wonderful.

Around 1pm today, Rachel and Brittany decided to go out for a walk, and I decided to join them, interpreting their plan to be a quick jaunt which would quickly terminate with a bite to eat. We got back to the apartment around 4pm, fed, yes, but also exercised and sweaty, having walked a good 50 or so blocks  in 21* Celsius heat with 84% humidity--the heat index put it at 42* Celsius, meaning that it "felt like" 107* Fahrenheit. Brittany's from DC and Rachel went to school in Florida, but I've got to say, nothing in Seattle or Eugene prepared me for this sort of all-pervasive HEAT!

The other, less exhausting aspect of the trip, though, was that we got to get a better sense of where we are in the city and how it's laid out--we walked along one of the major streets we'd driven over before, and followed it from from section 1 through section 3; the city is laid out in numbered quadrants, so if we had kept going, we could have gone through section 10. We knew this from talking to Fonda, but it was nice to see the quadrants change on the street signs as we walked, and to get a sense of how big each one was.

We also continued to soak up the culture, as we first discovered that many street food vendors (including our favorite seller of onion pancakes) are closed on Sundays, but then found that, if you keep walking long enough, you can still find plenty to eat. In fact, even on a Sunday, there are shops all along every major sidewalk, selling stinky tofu (unfortunately), fried meats, and, most especially, TEA. We probably saw four tea stores every block, which was a bit of a frustration for me as I was on the look-out for one of my favorite things here so far, watermelon milk. Eventually my thirst drove me to settle for grapefruit green tea--which was also delicious, and the juice for which the lady squeezed by hand in front of me while I watched--but the disparity was amazing.

Sights from our walk in Kaohsiung:

The city street, complete with bikes, scooters, street vendors, and one of the ubiquitous 7-11 stores you find everywhere around here.

Dogs on scooters? Why not!

When we got back, Karina informed me that the church she and I had decided to visit today, Kaohsiung International Church, had their English service at 5:30pm, and that, based on her research, in order to get there on time we would need to leave around 4:45. After a quick scramble to get ready, we set off for the MRT, where we duly transferred from the Orange line to the Red line at Formosa Boulevard, then got off at Kaohsiung Arena and took the exit toward Yucheng Rd.

Then we ran into a difficulty: the streets Karina had duly copied down for us to take were nowhere to be seen. She had written them in pinyin, the alphabetic transliteration of Chinese characters, but we remembered then that in Taiwan, they use a different system of transliterating Chinese words, and, while not knowing what characters we should be looking for, our Anglicized versions were not only wrong, but illegible to those people we stopped on the street to ask where we were going (Karina speaks Mandarin quite well). 

After two students just shook their heads at our little map, a guy with a backpack pointed us the wrong way, a man in a gambling room pointed us to a closed-up building, and several random wrong turns, we discovered from an apartment doorman that we were in the wrong district altogether, and that it would take 15 minutes by scooter to get where we wanted to go; at this point, it was already 15 minutes after the service was supposed to start. We were also unsure as to whether he was right after all, or if we would arrive where he pointed us and have nothing else to do but continue to wander around as we had been doing for the past 20 minutes. Also, we were hungry.

So we told him thank you, pretended to take his directions, and hopped aboard the MRT again, defeated and headed for home. But the adventure wasn't quite over. When we got back to our stop, we set out to find the "Noodle Lady," a friend of Fonda's who sells delicious noodles and whom we had met before, but of the location of whose shop we had only a vague idea. When we did find it (hooray for good guesses!), we discovered that, as I had known before but somehow forgotten, she too is closed on Sundays. Oh well. We had a nice little dinner at a store next door, sitting in the abandoned basement dining room as they bizarrely played samba music over the loudspeakers, and then stopped in at a little bakery with Jamba-style enthusiasm on the way back for some sort of chocolate-covered chocolate cream-filled cake on a stick. It was quite tasty.

But for all that wandering through the sticky hot day and night, I arrived back at the apartment without having achieved my two goals of watermelon milk and a church service. And so I consoled myself with water and a podcast by Judah Smith in the comfort of my air-conditioned room, together with the knowledge that I now know Kaohsiung that much better.