My friends went on a 30-hour famine awareness rally this weekend. It made me realise again how much I have and how little other people do without.
But something nags at the back of my mind every time I hear the word "gratitude" or someone tells me I ought to be more thankful for what I have. I understand that I should complain less, but to be more thankful...that's just too risky.
Perhaps it's just me, or perhaps it's a common TCK (Third Culture Kid) fear. Perhaps it's just a reaction to having lost so much growing up. Perhaps it's all of these. Perhaps it isn't.
But to a TCK, being thankful, is a hard concept to come to terms with. In my case, the last time I remember being truly content and peaceful and grateful for the way my life was, was the time my life ceased to be peaceful and predictable.
The last time I remember being grateful for someone close to me, I had to say goodbye as we parted ways. The last time I remember being happy for my nice apartment, I moved away. The last time I remember being happy for my friends, I had to leave them indefinitely.
So you can understand why I might be wary of being "grateful" for anything, at least out loud. I will say I'm grateful, but I will try to keep it as general as possible, for who can tell when the next person I am thankful for, will be the next person I have to say goodbye to. Who knows if the next country I am grateful to live in, will be the next country I have to leave. Who can tell me that the next happy time in my life that I am thankful for, won't be the next time tragedy strikes?
So this word gratitude...it's not that I am ungrateful. I am thankful for every happy memory, every new culture, every new friend and every exciting adventure I have experienced. I guess that means I'm grateful for you. Just please, don't be the next person to leave.
Monday, February 4, 2013
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Ants Go Marching
Have you ever sung the song "The ants go marching two by two hurrah, hurrah...?" well I sing it regularly here on this side of the globe, in fact, everytime I return to this house. I don't sing it for amusement. I sing it in frustration. I also change the words and sing "The ants go marching ten by ten" or sometimes I change it to "one hundred by one hundred" depending on how many ants have decided it's nicer inside our house than outside and have rallied their forces and multitudes to take over the house.
Actually it's not just ants. I remember a spider the size of my hand that we found hibernating in a corner of my room near the head of my bed. We vaccumed that one up, but of course more returned to take its place.
Anyway, I'm not complaining as much as trying to come to terms with the fact that I live in a not so tame part of the world right now and this is one of those things that comes with living close to nature - sometimes you're so close there is no separation.
But a quick update on other matters of interest. Today, being Sunday (I'm lagging behind the times of my fellow friends in Taipei, which is sad except on Sundays, because that means you're already on Monday :) anyway, so today wasn't very eventful, was what I wanted to say. I spent some time on paperwork, preparing to mail it off in the morning, and looked at the online program for taxes. That was exciting.
Now I am deciding it's time for some sleep. I think I mentioned how I hate to ever admit to any sort of jetlag, but I suppose I have had a touch of jetlag, seeing as how I was wide awake at 4 am this morning for no apparent reason. So I took advantage of the time to finish off a book, and then I went back to sleep.
Now it is 10 pm and I am decidedly ready for bed. I am thankful that I only had 2 days of wanting to go to bed before 6 pm. My schedule seems to be adjusting nicely, although wouldn't you know it, in two days I shall again experience a time difference, this time of a few hours, and then the time will officially change, and then I shall change time zones again. Translation: I shall be very confused by the end of this month.
Well that's all for now. Until next time :)
Actually it's not just ants. I remember a spider the size of my hand that we found hibernating in a corner of my room near the head of my bed. We vaccumed that one up, but of course more returned to take its place.
Anyway, I'm not complaining as much as trying to come to terms with the fact that I live in a not so tame part of the world right now and this is one of those things that comes with living close to nature - sometimes you're so close there is no separation.
But a quick update on other matters of interest. Today, being Sunday (I'm lagging behind the times of my fellow friends in Taipei, which is sad except on Sundays, because that means you're already on Monday :) anyway, so today wasn't very eventful, was what I wanted to say. I spent some time on paperwork, preparing to mail it off in the morning, and looked at the online program for taxes. That was exciting.
Now I am deciding it's time for some sleep. I think I mentioned how I hate to ever admit to any sort of jetlag, but I suppose I have had a touch of jetlag, seeing as how I was wide awake at 4 am this morning for no apparent reason. So I took advantage of the time to finish off a book, and then I went back to sleep.
Now it is 10 pm and I am decidedly ready for bed. I am thankful that I only had 2 days of wanting to go to bed before 6 pm. My schedule seems to be adjusting nicely, although wouldn't you know it, in two days I shall again experience a time difference, this time of a few hours, and then the time will officially change, and then I shall change time zones again. Translation: I shall be very confused by the end of this month.
Well that's all for now. Until next time :)
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Transitioning
So far my catapulting myself onto another continent and changing lifestyles, countries, and culture in less than 24 hours, hasn't been too difficult. It certainly helps to be with family in a familiar place.
Right now it's almost midnight on my new side of the world, and I am eating a sandwich and wondering if I will be tired soon. I made the mistake of going to bed around 5:45 pm, fully intending to wake up at 6:30 and get ready to go for vespers at 7:00. Well I did wake up at 6:30, but I couldn't get my eyes to open fully and my brain to fully turn on and comprehend anything, so I gave up and went back to sleep after eating a couple chocolate brownies.
When I finally started getting restless enough to wake up, I was sure I had slept most of the night. Wrong. It was only 11 pm. I checked my clock again - perhaps it was still on Taiwanese time and it was really 7 am or something, but nope, it was 11 pm. 'Oh goody' I thought to myself. 'Now what do I do?'
So I got up and made a sandwich and checked facebook, of course, because what else do people do at midnight when they can't sleep?
I think next on my list is read a book or write about how tiring it is to keep changing continents. Wait, I'm doing that now.
Oh yes, I can tell you about my first day back. I will say it's lovely to be with family. Home is where you find parts of yourself staring back at you from different faces. That's family. You have uncanny similarities and you belong. It's nice to have that feeling of belonging when you've been a nomad for a while.
Well yesterday we made our way into town, about a half hour drive, and I got to try a new restaurant that was highly recommended to me. It was interesting. We stepped in the door and the two people at the counter looked at us and I immediately thought of saying "liang wei" or "two people." I bit my tongue before the Chinese words escaped my lips. After we were seated we were given a menu the size of a photo book. I began to feel overwhelmed. I'm not used to this many choices on a menu. So I began my search of what to eat, first by looking at food prices. When I started to convert the prices into NT dollars to figure out how much they really were, that's when I realised how much of an influence living in Taipei has had on me. It used to be I always converted NT into USD but now it seems I'm now doing the opposite.
I'm not sure if it was the lovely sunny weather, the warm temperatures, or the nice long drive in the car, or even the lovely fried food we ate for lunch, but by the time we reached home mid-afternoon, I was barely awake. I sat on the sofa watching a British comedy for just over an hour before I finally gave up fighting the battle with my drooping eyelids and finally headed off to my bed where I promptly fell asleep and was dead to the world for the next hour, until I woke up, had my chocolate snack, and then went back to sleep again.
I think I shall end my update here. I might actually be starting to get sleepy again. That would be nice. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of trying to fill hours of extra time in the middle of the night. I like to brag that I never really get jetlag, and I fully intend to continue with that theme, so off I go to get (another) good night's sleep :)
Until next time :)
Right now it's almost midnight on my new side of the world, and I am eating a sandwich and wondering if I will be tired soon. I made the mistake of going to bed around 5:45 pm, fully intending to wake up at 6:30 and get ready to go for vespers at 7:00. Well I did wake up at 6:30, but I couldn't get my eyes to open fully and my brain to fully turn on and comprehend anything, so I gave up and went back to sleep after eating a couple chocolate brownies.
When I finally started getting restless enough to wake up, I was sure I had slept most of the night. Wrong. It was only 11 pm. I checked my clock again - perhaps it was still on Taiwanese time and it was really 7 am or something, but nope, it was 11 pm. 'Oh goody' I thought to myself. 'Now what do I do?'
So I got up and made a sandwich and checked facebook, of course, because what else do people do at midnight when they can't sleep?
I think next on my list is read a book or write about how tiring it is to keep changing continents. Wait, I'm doing that now.
Oh yes, I can tell you about my first day back. I will say it's lovely to be with family. Home is where you find parts of yourself staring back at you from different faces. That's family. You have uncanny similarities and you belong. It's nice to have that feeling of belonging when you've been a nomad for a while.
Well yesterday we made our way into town, about a half hour drive, and I got to try a new restaurant that was highly recommended to me. It was interesting. We stepped in the door and the two people at the counter looked at us and I immediately thought of saying "liang wei" or "two people." I bit my tongue before the Chinese words escaped my lips. After we were seated we were given a menu the size of a photo book. I began to feel overwhelmed. I'm not used to this many choices on a menu. So I began my search of what to eat, first by looking at food prices. When I started to convert the prices into NT dollars to figure out how much they really were, that's when I realised how much of an influence living in Taipei has had on me. It used to be I always converted NT into USD but now it seems I'm now doing the opposite.
I'm not sure if it was the lovely sunny weather, the warm temperatures, or the nice long drive in the car, or even the lovely fried food we ate for lunch, but by the time we reached home mid-afternoon, I was barely awake. I sat on the sofa watching a British comedy for just over an hour before I finally gave up fighting the battle with my drooping eyelids and finally headed off to my bed where I promptly fell asleep and was dead to the world for the next hour, until I woke up, had my chocolate snack, and then went back to sleep again.
I think I shall end my update here. I might actually be starting to get sleepy again. That would be nice. I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of trying to fill hours of extra time in the middle of the night. I like to brag that I never really get jetlag, and I fully intend to continue with that theme, so off I go to get (another) good night's sleep :)
Until next time :)
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Update from Tokyo
Hi! So to my friends in Taipei - I miss you!! As soon as I arrived at the Taipei airport it hit me that I was really leaving, and on the airplane I kept telling myself "I'll be back" so I would feel better. I miss you guys.
So I've made it home, just in case you were wondering and hadn't seen my update on facebook while I took advantage of the free internet at every airport except Narita, Tokyo, where they don't have free internet in Terminal 1. But in Tokyo while I was busy relaxing, waiting for my connecting flight, I had some time to write a small update on my last few hours in Taipei - memorable ones for me for a few reasons.
For one, I got to eat out for supper with friends, and for another, I got another scooter ride, and those two by themselves would've made my last night in Taipei memorable enough, but somehow I guess I had to keep up my tradition of not doing things the "normal" way, so I ended up with a bit more adventure then just arriving home safely and sleeping soundly until my alarm woke me up. Maybe I should just explain.
Here's what I wrote in Tokyo....
Hi Everyone! I am still in Asia as I write this. If you are ever in Narita airport, I highly recommend Terminal 1's plublic lounge on the lower floor. they have this large lounge with a TV and reclining chairs and bathrooms and gate monitors so you can watch your gate to see when everyone gets up to board. It's great!
Anyway, so I'm sitting here relaxing and thinking how nice it was to have a comfortable plane to fly with over here, and I only hope my next flight of about 8 hours will be half as comfortable. I hope I will be able to sleep (that didn't really happen; I only dozed for an hour or two).
So I've made it home, just in case you were wondering and hadn't seen my update on facebook while I took advantage of the free internet at every airport except Narita, Tokyo, where they don't have free internet in Terminal 1. But in Tokyo while I was busy relaxing, waiting for my connecting flight, I had some time to write a small update on my last few hours in Taipei - memorable ones for me for a few reasons.
For one, I got to eat out for supper with friends, and for another, I got another scooter ride, and those two by themselves would've made my last night in Taipei memorable enough, but somehow I guess I had to keep up my tradition of not doing things the "normal" way, so I ended up with a bit more adventure then just arriving home safely and sleeping soundly until my alarm woke me up. Maybe I should just explain.
Here's what I wrote in Tokyo....
Hi Everyone! I am still in Asia as I write this. If you are ever in Narita airport, I highly recommend Terminal 1's plublic lounge on the lower floor. they have this large lounge with a TV and reclining chairs and bathrooms and gate monitors so you can watch your gate to see when everyone gets up to board. It's great!
Anyway, so I'm sitting here relaxing and thinking how nice it was to have a comfortable plane to fly with over here, and I only hope my next flight of about 8 hours will be half as comfortable. I hope I will be able to sleep (that didn't really happen; I only dozed for an hour or two).
Despite having enough time to pack everything before leaving, I still managed to get only about 4 hours of sleep the night before I left, so now my eyes are red and I look like a night owl who drank too much coffee and had a nightmare. Or something like that.
So last night after going for a supper with a couple friends at this all-vegetarian restaurant where the menu was all in Chinese and I could barely read the strange font they had used, we scootered back to my place where I piled things on top of my friend to take for me while I was gone, like a slow cooker and a box of snack food I still had (thanks by the way! really appreciate it :) Then I hailed a taxi and sped off to another friend's house with an additional two suitcases, a bag of miscellaneous household odds and ends, and an ironing board. By this time it was around 10 pm and I was cringing inside as I watched the minutes tick away because another friend had been waiting to meet me for a couple hours already.
My friendly taxi driver checked to make sure my friend was going to help me carry my heavy suitcase up and then drove off.
We managed to drag my super heavy suitcase up the stairs o the second floor (thank goodness it wasn't the 7th floor) and I stayed for a few minutes to say hello and goodbye, and then flew out the door to meet another friend a few minutes away to say bye.
This is when things started to get interesting. First, I didn't see my friend at the MRT exit. Then, when I tried to call her, I realised I didn't have my phone with me. I racked my brains trying to think of where I could have possibly put my phone in the last 10 minutes since leaving the taxi, and I finally remembered putting it in a plastic bag … the same plastic bag that was now sitting happily in my friend's house, on the second floor of a tall apartment building, with a locked front door and no guard to open it for anyone. I had no way to get in from the outside. With no key, no guard to help me open the door, and no phone to call my friend to open the door for me, I was stuck. With no phone, I had no phone numbers of people to call. Except for my own. Now this is where I suggest this as the best example of why you should memorise your own cellphone number.
After realising that I could call myself, and hopefully my friend would answer my phone for me, I went back into the station to find a phone. The first phone I found required some credit card I did not have or didn't know I had. The second phone was at the other end of the station, so I dashed back to that end, but realised it only accepted 1, 5, or 10 NT coints. I only had two 50 NT coins. I thought dismally of the bag of coins I had been collecting over the past 6 months that was sitting on my bedroom desk. This would have been the perfect time to use those coins, only of course, they were in my room where I had no use for them.
I contemplated asking someone to help me change my 50 NT but before I got around to it I found out that there are machines in the MRT station that take your bills and change them into coins (for no extra charge thankfully). So I happily put in my 100 NT bill inside, and received … two 50 NT coins... just what I didn't need.
So I tried the next machine, hoping it had more options. No such luck. It was well past 10 pm by now, but I still didn't have a way to contact my friend.
So I dashed back to the other side of the station to the information desk and asked for change there. Then I half ran, half dragged myself back again to the phone with my coins and put my first 10 NT in.
I tried dialling what I knew was my number. Nothing. The number was busy or out of service. I had made a mistake in my dialling. My first 10 NT was gone. I couldn't remember which number you had to press to call out and since my phone number began with 2 of the numbers for the fire department, I was afraid I might dial one of the emergency numbers like the fire station :) So I tried a second time, and tried a different code to reach my phone. Still nothing. This time my coin came back. Whew. I didn't have to run back for more change yet.
I tried dialling again. No luck. I tried another time and got an answering machine. I finally tried again, and it started to ring. After two rings I heard a voice on the other end of the line saying “hello?” I responded “Hello?” and my friend said, “Is this [my name]? Your phone is in my house, and you're friend is looking for you! Where are you now?”
What a relief to hear her voice! I told her I was only 2 minutes away and I ran back to her house and met her coming out to meet me.After retreiving my phone, thanking her profusely, and saying goodbye again, I again dashed through the station to the other side where my other friend was waiting to meet me. Finally after explaining and apologising, we went somewhere for some tea I had never tried before. By now it was close to 11 pm. We chatted for a half hour before parting ways, and I hurridly made my way home, arriving back in my room close to midnight. I still had some final packing and cleaning to do before I would be finally ready for bed. After just over an hour I finally tumbled into bed and set my alarm for 4 hours later...
Needless to say, I will not forget my last night in Taipei. I will not forget my last morning in Taipei either. I decided last minute to try taking the HSR for the first time :) Don't ask me why I decided this, except that I heard it would save me time, and I really valued sleeping as much as possible in the morning, and since my flight left at 9 in the morning, I wasn't too thrilled about an hour bus ride to the airport. So, I decided to try this high speed train and bus combination for the first time.
Thankfully it was very easy to manage. I don't know what I would've done if I had gotten lost or had to wander around finding my bus. But everything was so convient and I made it to the airport in time to check in and find my gate, with 10 minutes to spare before they began boarding :) yes, I only waited about 10 minutes. Just enough time to look around, check facebook and update my status, and decide I would sit down if they didn't start boarding.
Taking the HSR only gets you to Taoyuan so you need to take a bus to the airport, but thankfully the bus is right outside the station and the signs are easy to spot and you don't have to wait very long for the bus. This saved me from missing my plane :)
The one thing I remember about the bus ride over was one of those suitcases with four wheels that you can just roll along with you as you walk without having to tilt and pull it behind you. A lady had brought one of these rolling suitcases onto the bus, and about 5minutes into our quiet ride, the bus made a lurch to the right, and her suitcase began travelling in the same direction, rolling and picking up speed until it slammed against the side door. A gentleman jumped up and grabbed the suitcase and put it firmly back in place, where it stayed obediently until the next sharp turn, where it again began rolling wildly, and again slammed into the side door. The same gentleman jumped up again and rolled the suitcase back to where it was supposed to be, while the owner, a young lady, looked on gratefullly. The man finally decided the suitcase could not be trusted to stay in place by itself so he just held on to it for the rest of the 15 minute trip, that is, until the bus made another major turn and suddenly a small orange suitcase started flying through the air in the same direction. An older gentleman jumped up to grab the runaway case and laid it on its side. I kept an eye on things from my seat two rows behind, and the minute I saw my suitcase begin to move I too jumped up and sailed through the air, catching my suitcase before it rammed a hole into the door of the bus. Not sure why they haven't installed luggage racks into these buses yet...
*****
Well, that's my story, so far. I will keep you posted on what happens next. Right now I will go to bed. Tomorrow morning I have an interview to see about a job (not sure which job yet), and I also plan to send off my application tomorrow or Monday, depending on how coherent I am in the morning. I began the application today but my eyes couldn't focus so I lay down for a 'short nap' and didn't wake up until 3 hours later. I feel better for the rest though. It was a long 20 hour journey and I am glad to be back on solid ground for a while.
Until next time :)
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Nostalgia
I'm starting to go through the "lasts" process. "Last time I go to school here.... last time I see this person for who-knows-how-long... last time I travel on this bus... last time I eat this... last time I drink that..." It's been hard to get used to the thought that my life is going to change again soon, but since I haven't finished learning Chinese (as if one can ever "finish" such a thing) I know I will be back. I just don't know when.
So as I glare at the calendar, wishing it to stay forever February so I can stay here a bit longer, I am slowly saying bye to people and filling up my last few days here with appointments with friends around the city to go shopping, eat out, sing at KTV, and just hang out.
People ask me if I'm more sad to be leaving or more excited about going home, and I have to say it's evenly split between the two feelings. I'm excited to be going back but how can you be excited about leaving a place where you have made so many friends who care about you? So I tell them I'm only saying "see you later" and it's much easier that way. In the event that I don't return, at least I'll have these memories of them to keep forever in my memory album.
One thing I will not miss is this awful weather. It's been rainy for what seems like an eternity. As soon as the weather gets warmer and I pull out my short sleeves and start looking for summer shoes and sunglasses, the weather takes a turn for the worse and rains down a storm of blustery cold and I have to take to hibernating in my winter boots again.
But one thing I will definitely miss is the bubble milk tea (tea with milk and tapioca pearls). You have to try it to understand why it's so good. I think the sugar has something to do with it.
But what will I miss the most? My friends and their smiles as they say "hao jiu bu jian" or "long time no see" and ask me how I'm doing and warn me gently to dress warmly because they just checked the weather report and it's supposed to get colder.
I will miss dashing to class and then seeing my teacher smile and talk animatedly about Chinese culture and grammar. I will miss being part of a university and seeing all the students milling about buying food from all the little cafes on campus. I will miss hanging out with my classmates and snacking on pastries from the bakery after class, discussing grammar or what to do for the next holiday.
I will miss wandering the streets of the night market at 10 pm and feeling at home amongst the bright lights and smiling faces of the various vendors. I will miss the food vendors who recognise and greet me every time I come by.
I will miss making new friends randomly while standing in line to buy fried potatoes. I will miss the friendly strangers who tell me I just dropped money and quickly pick it up for me, or who ask if I'm lost when I'm looking at a map, or ask if I need help when I can't decide what to order from the menu. All these things and more I will miss greatly.
Until I return,
c u L8ter :)
So as I glare at the calendar, wishing it to stay forever February so I can stay here a bit longer, I am slowly saying bye to people and filling up my last few days here with appointments with friends around the city to go shopping, eat out, sing at KTV, and just hang out.
People ask me if I'm more sad to be leaving or more excited about going home, and I have to say it's evenly split between the two feelings. I'm excited to be going back but how can you be excited about leaving a place where you have made so many friends who care about you? So I tell them I'm only saying "see you later" and it's much easier that way. In the event that I don't return, at least I'll have these memories of them to keep forever in my memory album.
One thing I will not miss is this awful weather. It's been rainy for what seems like an eternity. As soon as the weather gets warmer and I pull out my short sleeves and start looking for summer shoes and sunglasses, the weather takes a turn for the worse and rains down a storm of blustery cold and I have to take to hibernating in my winter boots again.
But one thing I will definitely miss is the bubble milk tea (tea with milk and tapioca pearls). You have to try it to understand why it's so good. I think the sugar has something to do with it.
But what will I miss the most? My friends and their smiles as they say "hao jiu bu jian" or "long time no see" and ask me how I'm doing and warn me gently to dress warmly because they just checked the weather report and it's supposed to get colder.
I will miss dashing to class and then seeing my teacher smile and talk animatedly about Chinese culture and grammar. I will miss being part of a university and seeing all the students milling about buying food from all the little cafes on campus. I will miss hanging out with my classmates and snacking on pastries from the bakery after class, discussing grammar or what to do for the next holiday.
I will miss wandering the streets of the night market at 10 pm and feeling at home amongst the bright lights and smiling faces of the various vendors. I will miss the food vendors who recognise and greet me every time I come by.
I will miss making new friends randomly while standing in line to buy fried potatoes. I will miss the friendly strangers who tell me I just dropped money and quickly pick it up for me, or who ask if I'm lost when I'm looking at a map, or ask if I need help when I can't decide what to order from the menu. All these things and more I will miss greatly.
Until I return,
c u L8ter :)
Monday, February 6, 2012
Still Smiling
It amazes me how sometimes you feel that your smile is forever gone, only to have it reappear without warning, bringing with it a happy feeling that somehow, someday, somewhere, things will be ok.
I'll be leaving soon and the transition between countries is always hard, but for some reason I'm still happy, and while I am not sure why, I am grateful.
As I write I am being serenaded by crackling fireworks in the distance, and as I type the jingle of my new bangles from India are mixing in with the slight sounds of the TV, adding some music to the atmosphere. Thanks to my friend who gave me the lovely green and gold bangles :D I really like them.
Last night I went bowling with some friends, but one thing I refuse to tell you is my score after my second game of bowling. Needless to say, it is a number that I can count to in about 4 languages, and most of you know that I only know 1.25 languages, so that may tell you something significant about this number.
After bowling we headed off to a restaurant where apparently you can "hookah" - only I thought that was the name of the restaurant since I was told it was a Vietnamese restaurant. I was unprepared for the fact that there was such a place as a this, where you not only eat, but you smoke from these long pipes connected to large glass containers filled with flavoured tobacco and water, the latter which filters out the nicotine.
Anyway, in turned out that I left early and never got to watch my friends "Hookah" which was too bad. But I had homework and some things to take care of, such as finding my way back home. As soon as I left my friends, I headed in the general direction I thought we had came from, and promptly got lost. I was supposed to be heading to the MRT station but instead I found myself wandering around the night market area in downtown Taipei, finally finding myself nose to nose with a Mexican restaurant I had never seen before, so being the adventurous spirit I am, I went inside and ordered a vegetarian burrito. About 25 minutes later a small burrito appeared, stuffed with what appeared to be a salad mixture of coleslaw, onions, salad dressing, nacho cheese, and wonder of wonders, these delicious fried veggie meat cubes. I decided then and there that in the event they were not vegetarian, I would make an exception to my vegetarian preference and finish eating what I called the "meatlettes." The taste was, in my opinion, exceptional.
Apparently my meal came with "potato salad" which I kept looking for until I realised that I had just eaten it - a teaspon-worth of creamy potatoes hidden under a tablespoon of nacho cheese.
After my meal I decided I needed to eventually find my way home, so I set off in search of some form of transportation to get me there. I wandered around trying not to look lost, until I emerged from the maze of streets and surfaced to a main street, where I suddenly discovered where I was - about 40 minutes away from home in another part of town and quite far from the original MRT exit I had originally been at with my friends.
Thankfully I have enough vocabulary to tell people I need to find the MRT station, and thankfully, between pointing and gestures and words, I am quite sure I would understand anyone's directions, although following them would be a different story. But this time I didn't even need to ask, which made me even happier because it meant I am getting to know at least some parts of this large city.
I remember at the end of last year when my class and I were still in book 2 - the low intermediate/high beginner book. The "Orange Book." We have since advanced to the Blue Book and I feel very much an upper class man just for the fact that my book has changed color. Anyway, when we were in book 2, we were still practicing basic vocabulary and sentence structure, and I remember one assignment our teacher gave us was to ask three different Taiwanese to give us directions to three different places near our University, and our assignment was two-fold, practicing using our Chinese vocabulary for that lesson (giving directions) and, understanding when people gave us directions, and seeing if we could follow those directions.
Our assignment was to ask for directions and then follow them........ Our teacher however had somehow forgotten to take into consideration that we were in the middle of Taipei, one of the most foreigner-friendly cities I have ever been to, and guess what happened when we asked for directions? Two of us were personally escorted to the places we had asked directions to, as our new-found friends didn't want to see us get lost in Taipei with our limited Chinese skills!
So much for practicing our language skills. Our friends happily spoke to us in English :|
But it taught me that I never have to be afraid here if I get lost, because more likely than not there will be someone who takes pity on me or who just wants to help me out and will quickly point me in the direction I need to go, and may even walk with me part-way to make sure I don't get lost :)
But speaking of getting lost, I really need to end here because tomorrow I have to give a presentation on the geography of my home country (it was quite a task picking one). So I need to do some research and then translate that into Chinese vocabulary that I have. That will take a while as I need to first dig around and find my limited vocabulary...I think I left it in sitting on the teaspoon in that Mexican restaurant...
So until next time :) take care!
I'll be leaving soon and the transition between countries is always hard, but for some reason I'm still happy, and while I am not sure why, I am grateful.
As I write I am being serenaded by crackling fireworks in the distance, and as I type the jingle of my new bangles from India are mixing in with the slight sounds of the TV, adding some music to the atmosphere. Thanks to my friend who gave me the lovely green and gold bangles :D I really like them.
Last night I went bowling with some friends, but one thing I refuse to tell you is my score after my second game of bowling. Needless to say, it is a number that I can count to in about 4 languages, and most of you know that I only know 1.25 languages, so that may tell you something significant about this number.
After bowling we headed off to a restaurant where apparently you can "hookah" - only I thought that was the name of the restaurant since I was told it was a Vietnamese restaurant. I was unprepared for the fact that there was such a place as a this, where you not only eat, but you smoke from these long pipes connected to large glass containers filled with flavoured tobacco and water, the latter which filters out the nicotine.
Anyway, in turned out that I left early and never got to watch my friends "Hookah" which was too bad. But I had homework and some things to take care of, such as finding my way back home. As soon as I left my friends, I headed in the general direction I thought we had came from, and promptly got lost. I was supposed to be heading to the MRT station but instead I found myself wandering around the night market area in downtown Taipei, finally finding myself nose to nose with a Mexican restaurant I had never seen before, so being the adventurous spirit I am, I went inside and ordered a vegetarian burrito. About 25 minutes later a small burrito appeared, stuffed with what appeared to be a salad mixture of coleslaw, onions, salad dressing, nacho cheese, and wonder of wonders, these delicious fried veggie meat cubes. I decided then and there that in the event they were not vegetarian, I would make an exception to my vegetarian preference and finish eating what I called the "meatlettes." The taste was, in my opinion, exceptional.
Apparently my meal came with "potato salad" which I kept looking for until I realised that I had just eaten it - a teaspon-worth of creamy potatoes hidden under a tablespoon of nacho cheese.
After my meal I decided I needed to eventually find my way home, so I set off in search of some form of transportation to get me there. I wandered around trying not to look lost, until I emerged from the maze of streets and surfaced to a main street, where I suddenly discovered where I was - about 40 minutes away from home in another part of town and quite far from the original MRT exit I had originally been at with my friends.
Thankfully I have enough vocabulary to tell people I need to find the MRT station, and thankfully, between pointing and gestures and words, I am quite sure I would understand anyone's directions, although following them would be a different story. But this time I didn't even need to ask, which made me even happier because it meant I am getting to know at least some parts of this large city.
I remember at the end of last year when my class and I were still in book 2 - the low intermediate/high beginner book. The "Orange Book." We have since advanced to the Blue Book and I feel very much an upper class man just for the fact that my book has changed color. Anyway, when we were in book 2, we were still practicing basic vocabulary and sentence structure, and I remember one assignment our teacher gave us was to ask three different Taiwanese to give us directions to three different places near our University, and our assignment was two-fold, practicing using our Chinese vocabulary for that lesson (giving directions) and, understanding when people gave us directions, and seeing if we could follow those directions.
Our assignment was to ask for directions and then follow them........ Our teacher however had somehow forgotten to take into consideration that we were in the middle of Taipei, one of the most foreigner-friendly cities I have ever been to, and guess what happened when we asked for directions? Two of us were personally escorted to the places we had asked directions to, as our new-found friends didn't want to see us get lost in Taipei with our limited Chinese skills!
So much for practicing our language skills. Our friends happily spoke to us in English :|
But it taught me that I never have to be afraid here if I get lost, because more likely than not there will be someone who takes pity on me or who just wants to help me out and will quickly point me in the direction I need to go, and may even walk with me part-way to make sure I don't get lost :)
But speaking of getting lost, I really need to end here because tomorrow I have to give a presentation on the geography of my home country (it was quite a task picking one). So I need to do some research and then translate that into Chinese vocabulary that I have. That will take a while as I need to first dig around and find my limited vocabulary...I think I left it in sitting on the teaspoon in that Mexican restaurant...
So until next time :) take care!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Has it really been three months since I last wrote? Unbelievable how fast time flies when you're looking back.
The past few months have seen many changes, changes in my language ability, changes in the weather, changes in the date/year, and a change in the Chinese symbolic animal for the year (this year is year of the Dragon).
I am trying to think of something cultural I have done recently that I can report on so you can feel you really are reading about Taiwan, and the last thing I can remember is walking down what is known as "Snake Alley" in a semi-drizzle during a very quiet New Year holiday a couple weeks ago. Snake Alley is near a famous "Dragon Temple" which will be even more famous this year as it is year of the dragon. But Snake Alley is famous for what its name suggests, except rather than a reptile house in the zoo, Snake Alley is a street of restaurants, and they sell every imaginable dish of...yes, snake.
I saw one particularly large, anemic looking snake perhaps twice the thickness of my arm, sitting slumped in a small glass cage at the front of one such restaurant. A huge handwritten sign up above the snake's head warned "No pictures" in large bold letters. Off to the right were several smaller cages, a couple filled with smaller sized snakes, and a couple filled with fidgety bouncy tiny white mice who kept running around in circles. I suppose the mice were for the snakes and not directly part of the menu (although indirectly they were).
I will say that was quite a cultural experience, but I am afraid that I have started to settle down so much so that I spent most of my holiday relaxing at home rather than traipsing about the country getting every little spot of sight seeing in.
But since I mentioned settling down, perhaps I should mention what my schedule looks like these days so you know what "settling down" means to a Taipeitian, at least a foreign one who is studying Chinese.
For me it means waking up sometime before 10 am, doing at least an hour of Chinese homework (if I don't do it the night before), traveling by MRT (metro/subway) 20 minutes to get to my university, then sitting in 3 hours of class which is broken up by 10 minute breaks every hour. Perhaps I mentioned this all before. Anyway, this is a new term, and it is still the same schedule. The breaks are fun because it's the time to socialise with all my friends from around the world and set up times to do exciting things like eat stinky tofu in the night market (haven't done that since last year though).
After class is usually time for another meal and some more socialising and discussing the day's class and the grammar with fellow classmates, and after that I may go to the library and try to study in between checking my e-mail, or I may go home and relax and do some homework or watch a Taiwanese drama online (with English subtitles).
If I feel like it I can stop by a night market on the way home and walk along the brightly lit up streets filled with other Taipeitians or visiting tour groups from various other Asian countries.
The nice thing here is that night life is always exciting and always full of people and things to do. If you want to buy a drink, you will pass by at least a dozen tea stores before you finish the end of a long street. And if you want to eat something, you only need to think of what you would like to eat, and then walk to the nearest place selling that item, anything from deep-fried mozzarella sticks, to freshly cut fruit, to recently baked yams, to a sit-down meal in the somewhat famed Toilet restaurant where you receive all your food in toilet-shaped dishes and you sit on a toilet-shaped seat.
But back to the language learning. As I write and think, I sometimes switch to Chinese in my mind because sometimes it's faster to say something in two Chinese words than in 5 English words. That's when I get excited, when the words just come to mind when I am trying to express a thought, becauseI truly am beginning to have the vocabulary to express myself in Chinese. I have never had the experience of speaking in a second language, and I must say it truly is fun!
While I am happy about my progress, I am still woefully behind when it comes to speaking ability, since most of my friends and I speak English to each other. So about once a week I meet with a language exchange partner and we teach each other English and Chinese for a couple hours, talking about anything we can think of and practicing our new vocabulary.
My class recently finished the last lesson in the second book and started the third book in the series of textbooks most every university uses here in Taiwan for Chinese teaching. We are now discussing more exciting topics such as meeting roommates, or applying for scholarships, and our vocabulary is getting deeper and we're moving from words such as "almost" and "grapes" and "picnic" to more "advanced" words like "rent," "government," and "earthquake" (not that they are related in anyway :)
Yes, life here is exciting and I realise I have grown to really like this city and the friendliness I am surrounded with everyday, from smiling restaurant owners, to random people who politely tell you to close your backpack because it's open and your stuff might fall out, to helpful 7-11 staff who will assist you with buying a phone card when you don't understand enough Chinese to use the machine on your own, to small kids who pass you on the street and immediately practice their English on you "Hello!" and then walk off giggling. Yes, it's hard to put into words the specialness of this place. I really wish you could see it for yourself. Maybe next time I will be able to describe it in more detail. If you ever want a personal tour of Taipei, I promise your tour will include the best budget vegetarian restaurants you can imagine :)
until then,
:)
The past few months have seen many changes, changes in my language ability, changes in the weather, changes in the date/year, and a change in the Chinese symbolic animal for the year (this year is year of the Dragon).
I am trying to think of something cultural I have done recently that I can report on so you can feel you really are reading about Taiwan, and the last thing I can remember is walking down what is known as "Snake Alley" in a semi-drizzle during a very quiet New Year holiday a couple weeks ago. Snake Alley is near a famous "Dragon Temple" which will be even more famous this year as it is year of the dragon. But Snake Alley is famous for what its name suggests, except rather than a reptile house in the zoo, Snake Alley is a street of restaurants, and they sell every imaginable dish of...yes, snake.
I saw one particularly large, anemic looking snake perhaps twice the thickness of my arm, sitting slumped in a small glass cage at the front of one such restaurant. A huge handwritten sign up above the snake's head warned "No pictures" in large bold letters. Off to the right were several smaller cages, a couple filled with smaller sized snakes, and a couple filled with fidgety bouncy tiny white mice who kept running around in circles. I suppose the mice were for the snakes and not directly part of the menu (although indirectly they were).
I will say that was quite a cultural experience, but I am afraid that I have started to settle down so much so that I spent most of my holiday relaxing at home rather than traipsing about the country getting every little spot of sight seeing in.
But since I mentioned settling down, perhaps I should mention what my schedule looks like these days so you know what "settling down" means to a Taipeitian, at least a foreign one who is studying Chinese.
For me it means waking up sometime before 10 am, doing at least an hour of Chinese homework (if I don't do it the night before), traveling by MRT (metro/subway) 20 minutes to get to my university, then sitting in 3 hours of class which is broken up by 10 minute breaks every hour. Perhaps I mentioned this all before. Anyway, this is a new term, and it is still the same schedule. The breaks are fun because it's the time to socialise with all my friends from around the world and set up times to do exciting things like eat stinky tofu in the night market (haven't done that since last year though).
After class is usually time for another meal and some more socialising and discussing the day's class and the grammar with fellow classmates, and after that I may go to the library and try to study in between checking my e-mail, or I may go home and relax and do some homework or watch a Taiwanese drama online (with English subtitles).
If I feel like it I can stop by a night market on the way home and walk along the brightly lit up streets filled with other Taipeitians or visiting tour groups from various other Asian countries.
The nice thing here is that night life is always exciting and always full of people and things to do. If you want to buy a drink, you will pass by at least a dozen tea stores before you finish the end of a long street. And if you want to eat something, you only need to think of what you would like to eat, and then walk to the nearest place selling that item, anything from deep-fried mozzarella sticks, to freshly cut fruit, to recently baked yams, to a sit-down meal in the somewhat famed Toilet restaurant where you receive all your food in toilet-shaped dishes and you sit on a toilet-shaped seat.
But back to the language learning. As I write and think, I sometimes switch to Chinese in my mind because sometimes it's faster to say something in two Chinese words than in 5 English words. That's when I get excited, when the words just come to mind when I am trying to express a thought, becauseI truly am beginning to have the vocabulary to express myself in Chinese. I have never had the experience of speaking in a second language, and I must say it truly is fun!
While I am happy about my progress, I am still woefully behind when it comes to speaking ability, since most of my friends and I speak English to each other. So about once a week I meet with a language exchange partner and we teach each other English and Chinese for a couple hours, talking about anything we can think of and practicing our new vocabulary.
My class recently finished the last lesson in the second book and started the third book in the series of textbooks most every university uses here in Taiwan for Chinese teaching. We are now discussing more exciting topics such as meeting roommates, or applying for scholarships, and our vocabulary is getting deeper and we're moving from words such as "almost" and "grapes" and "picnic" to more "advanced" words like "rent," "government," and "earthquake" (not that they are related in anyway :)
Yes, life here is exciting and I realise I have grown to really like this city and the friendliness I am surrounded with everyday, from smiling restaurant owners, to random people who politely tell you to close your backpack because it's open and your stuff might fall out, to helpful 7-11 staff who will assist you with buying a phone card when you don't understand enough Chinese to use the machine on your own, to small kids who pass you on the street and immediately practice their English on you "Hello!" and then walk off giggling. Yes, it's hard to put into words the specialness of this place. I really wish you could see it for yourself. Maybe next time I will be able to describe it in more detail. If you ever want a personal tour of Taipei, I promise your tour will include the best budget vegetarian restaurants you can imagine :)
until then,
:)
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