Salamat

One part rice, two parts San Miguel Pilsner, a dollop of tricycle taxis, a few handfuls of white sand, a quart of the saltiest sea water, a dash of balut, and a pinch of tropical fish.  Mix well and let it sit out in the sun for 7 days.  Before presentation add a 50/50 mixture of Underground river and sugar cane rum glaze.  Viola!  Our Philippine Vacation.

Satisfied?  No?!  Alright then, we have been avoiding doing a proper blog post for some time now.  I suppose we can give you a little more about our week long mini vacation.

After a sleepless night in busses, airports, and airplanes, we arrive in Puerto Princessa City....If you can call it a city.  With a respectable population of 253,000 people you would think it would feel a little larger.  Bamboo huts, roadside vendors, shoeless children and not a building taller than 3 stories.  Our kind hosts at the hostel boasted with Filipino pride that there were many parts of the city worth seeing.  It is supposed to be the cleanest city in the Phillipines, and the island of Palawan is one of the greenest (both in environmental impact and actual color).  We took a city tour on the ubiquitous tricycles that are the filipino version of a taxi.  A motorbike with a home-made frame attached that acts like a side car.  Our Guide Rolly ended up taking us on a well worn tourist path of a Crocodile Rescue and Conservation Farm (that serves crocodile meat- explain that!), Bakers Hill which sells traditional baked goods amongst disney statues, an outlook over the picturesque city and Honda Bay, quick pit stop to patch the flat tire of the side car, a native women's art and weaving center, and finally the bay walk along the waterfront of PPC.  Altogether.....meh.  We were kept busy for the day, but failed in trying to escape the safe tourist highlights of the city.

Lets move on.  On monday we left PPC for a 6 hour van ride through unpaved mountain roads, a driver that handles the van in a way that would make even popeye a little queezy, and 3 hungover frenchmen that reek to high heaven (scratch that- New Caledonian men.....just google it).

Arrive in El Nido.  Dodge the pestering tricycle drivers that await the unsuspecting beach seekers.  Walk into town.  We immediately find that a simple beach walk exposes the many beachfront options for accomodation.  Our little place was a humble beachfront cottage.  In need of a little love, a new toilet, and perhaps a little tacky with the leftover Christmas decorations- but hey, 10 steps and your feet are in the bath water that is the South China Sea.  Also it was about $15 a night :)

We decided to deviate from the tourist trail a little by not taking the island hopping tours with the rest of the foreigners.  Instead we spent our days kayaking to the nearest archipelago, doing drop off/pick up tours to specific beaches, snorkeling, and generally enjoying the sun and no pressure to do.....well anything.  We were lucky enough to make some good friends on our second day there.  We Kayaked up to a little lagoon and found two friendly Swedish couples and an guy from Kansas having a pic-nic/snorkel/beach party.  We ended up spending the rest of the week with them.

I'm sure you don't want to hear the boring details of the insanely warm water, gorgeous coral and tropical fish, untouched white sand beaches, and delicious coconut juice picked right from the tree.  Don't worry, we aren't going to tell you about that.

We will tell you about two crazy foods that we tried.  One was Balut.   Balut is a fertilized duck egg that is incubated for anywhere from 6-18 days and then boiled for hours.  It is then eaten as a hard boiled egg with vinegar and a little salt.  It wasn't so bad.  The egg white turned into the texture of a rubber bouncy ball, but the yolk and the embryo tasted just like a regular egg.  We'd try it again.  The second strange food that we ate was Tamiloc- a worm that lives in the driftwood of mangrove trees.  Yes we ate them.  No they weren't squirming around.  They were garnished with vinegar and spices and resembled raw oysters in texture but not in flavor.  We will post the videos and pictures taken in both instances on facebook or here.

After an equally stimulating ride back over the mountains to the PPC side of the island, we spent our last day traveling to the famous Underground River- one of the New 7 Wonders of the World....whatever that means.  It was beautiful and vast and we thoroughly enjoyed the stalactite and stalagmite formations inside.

We are now home safe and sound and refreshed.  We both have the feeling that the next few months will be a tough stretch for us being away from home for the holidays and such.  It was great to have some time off in a gorgeous location.  Now we both have to lesson plan for this evening.  Lots of love and skype us soon!

Hal and Siri

Life: An Update

This morning Hal and I went to our third Chinese lesson. Our teacher's name is Bobo and she is great.  We can now say phrases like "I would like a cold black tea with no milk and a little sugar." Our homework for this week is to write down an introduction of our family, such as "I have 5 people in my family. They live in Seattle/Alaska. They are..." we can also write "I am American", "but", and any number 1-99 in Chinese characters.  Well, its a start. We meet with her once a week for an hour, but are considering upping it to twice a week.

I'm learning to bake with a toaster over.  This week I made banana bread.

We have been doing our best to get out of the city and do things on our weekends.  We have been to the mountains several times now.  Our big adventure this past weekend was a trip to the northeast coast.  Yilan is a surfing town.  The plan was to para-glide in the morning and surf in the afternoon.  Due to typhoons in the vicinity of Taiwan, the wind was neither good for paragliding nor surfing.  So we hung out on the beach, boogie boarded, had a couple beers, and sunburned.  Something to know about the beach in Taiwan.  If you go in the ocean past your knees and do not have a floatation device, you will be chastised by a lifeguard's whistle.  It was still a great day.

Guess what I bought today... new shoes? No. A bathing suit? No, but closer...  Plane tickets!!! To the beautiful island of Palawan in the Philippines.  For a full seven days from October 14-22, we are planning on doing... absolutely nothing on the beach. :)

Oh, and we got memberships. Today is Costco Grand Opening Day!

Love to you all!

Typhoon: French for "Sideways Rain in My Ear"

You all will be happy to know that we survived Typhoon Saola.  Our friend, host, and Taiwan role model Katie left to go back to Washington on Tuesday night.  Siri and I both had middle of the day classes on Wednesday, so we spent Wednesday evening cleaning and rearranging the apartment to make it feel a little more like home.  We decided to break from our cleaning and have dinner.  I left the apartment on my scooter to get some take-out and was hit by pre-typhoon wind and rain.  The rain was coming from all directions at the same time.  People were pulled over on the side of the road just waiting for the intense gusts to stop.  I saw trees uprooted and fences had fallen down.  I powered through the ferocity and arrived at the restaurant only to find that their front glass door had been shattered by the storm.  When I arrived back at the apartment, Siri said "Hey school has been cancelled tomorrow due to a Typhoon coming in!" I said "No shit!"

We merrily spent the next day cleaning and rearranging our new abode.  The weather was much more intense before the typhoon hit than during.  We were supposed to get between 30 and 90 inches of rain in this two day period!  Siri and I walked down to the river to check out its level and were amazed by how high it could rise in just two days!  We also saw some nice fish happily resting in some slow pools on the side of the river.

In other news I got in my first scooter crash.  Now before you start freaking out- #1-I am okay, #2-nobody was injured, #3- my scooter is okay.  I was late for class so I was probably going a little faster than I should have.  In classic Taiwanese driving style a van decided at the very last minute to make a right turn in front of me.  On most roads in Taiwan there are 1 or 2 car lanes per side of the road and a scooter lane to the far right.  The scooter lane is used for various purposes other than its obvious intended purpose.  People park in this lane, people walk in this lane, many cars use this lane to pass other cars!  I was riding in the scooter lane next to this car as they decided to take a last minute right.  Let me say this- just because you used a blinker in the 0.2 seconds before you actually made the turn, does not mean that you gave adequate warning to other vehicles in the immediate vicinity.  I slammed on my brakes (which are shotty at best) and ran right into her passenger side door.  The scooter and I made a dramatic fall to the ground and my school bag flew off to the side.  Surprisingly I wasn't hurt, not even a scratch.  My scooter was not hurt, not even a scratch.  I do not know if the lady's van had any damage, I'd doubt it.  She stopped and got out with a confused look on her face.  I yelled in frustration- "You have to use a blinker!" flashing my hand as best I could like a blinker.  She, no doubt, had absolutely no idea what I was saying.  I showed her my blinker on my scooter and said "you can't make a last minute turn!"  I got back on my scooter and pulled away yelling some English gibberish that she could not make any sense of.  I think the experience was good for me.  It was inconsequential and I think it will make me a more cautious driver.  So there.  Also- I was not late for class.

A Goodwill Puzzle

Siri and I are now almost at the five week mark.  I would like to say that time moves slower here in Taiwan, but the weeks have been passing just as fast and each time I blink I am amazed by what day it is.  "Surely it can't be Thursday, it seems like yesterday was Sunday and we spent the day at the Xiao Wulai waterfalls and the day before that was Wednesday and we ate at that Teppanyaki place."

Over one month.  That is enough time to know how to order food, fill up the gas tank on my scooter, and explore some of the river and mountain trails by our apartment.  It is not enough time to feel comfortable being stared at, to have a full teaching schedule, or to have tried stinky tofu.

I have quickly realized again that living abroad (how many times now Mom? 3, 4, 5?) is very much a give and take existence.  There are very many new, exciting, wonderful, even frightening things to explore while living in another country- especially one as Eastern as Taiwan.  The trade off is leaving everything comfortable, that you have worked so hard to bring into your life, behind.  You miss shooting off fireworks at fourth of July, but you get to explore Taipei.  You miss a camping weekend with a big crew of friends (heal up Manoah!), but you get to swim in some waterfalls up in the tropical mountains.  You miss your mother's enchilada casserole but you try soup dumplings and fall in love.  Perhaps you miss your brothers 30th birthday on 12/12/12, but just maybe you get to go to the Philippines or Malaysia.  That is not to say that these new things that we are getting to know replace home and the things we love, they don't.  Not even close.  Sometimes these new things can be a great distraction from the void left by missing home.  It is a sacrifice, and I can assure you it is not always easy.  If it were easy everyone would be doing it.  A sacrifice for what though?  I think of it as unlocking another puzzle piece of human existence.  I don't expect to ever complete the puzzle.  In fact the puzzle was probably bought at a Goodwill and has many pieces missing, they will be lost forever.  I am here trying to understand how these people live, how they understand the world, what they eat, the beauty in life that they get to see everyday and sometimes take for granted.  The mantra that I am trying so hard to repeat internally is this: "Its not better, its not worse.  It's just different.  Try to accept it."  Even if I can't see the puzzle completed in its entirety, perhaps I can blur my eyes and look at all of the pieces that I have and pretend that i can see the entire picture.

Of course the other side of being away for a long time is the great return.  Seeing home again as if it were the first time.  Lots of hugs.  Eating things you haven't had for so long, seeing people, and perhaps seeing the beauty in life that you once saw everyday and took for granted.  But that is far from now and another blog post.

I can say one thing after these five weeks- I feel very fortunate to be sharing this experience with Siri.  She is quite the special lady.

PS- We are thinking about going to the Philippines in September around Siri's birthday....Suckers...

People People, So Many People

This weekend was an eye-opener to the reality of my new home's population.  I have always heard that Asian cities are the densest in the world, and that people are just used to not having any personal space.  The population of Taiwan is 23 million, 6.8 million of which are in and around Taipei.  Little did I realize, the population density of Taiwan is second in the world only to Bangladesh. We got a small taste of that in Taipei's Ximen district that week, but other than that, Taoyuan just feels as crowded as any other city.  There is traffic and tall apartment buildings.  It is hard to find parking downtown and you never are alone.  At the same time, you can move about quite freely and never feel claustrophobic.

Saturday night, our new Taiwanese friend, Jack, went with us to the night market.  Taiwan is famous for its night markets, where there is all sorts of cheap clothing and wares being sold, as well as carts upon carts of tasty eats.  Plus, there are people everywhere. It is a cultural experience to say the least.  Read any excerpt on Taiwan, and it will tell you the same thing.  What did we sample?  Jack led us to many carts.  We started with mochi, which are doughy balls filled and covered with peanut or sesame dust.  They were tasty, but quite dry.  Next we ordered a kilo of these huge shrimp grilled in a garlic sauce.. so delicious and so messy to eat, because we had to shell them ourselves.  We tried octopus balls (not literally the balls of an octopus (doubt they have any) but octopus meat, and cabbage deep-fried into a scalding treat that is too hard to bite through, but just big enough to be difficult to eat in one bite), an oyster omelet (more of the tacky dough with egg and oysters cooked on top, topped off with ladelfulls of three unknown sauces, all in all taste: not bad, texture: WEIRD), and were handed a pig's blood cake (which is congealed pig's blood, perhaps mixed with rice, cooked and then rolled in peanuts.  Quite tasty, I recommend it.)  I washed it all down with a fresh kiwi juice, Jack a watermelon juice, and Hal some weird iced tea with lime and an unknown distinctive ingredient.

Sunday we met with our landlady, read through and went through our translated lease before heading off to the river!  We were so excited to spend the day in the mountains, in nature, OUT of the city, AWAY from people.  It was a beautiful drive, unfortunately, half of Taipei had the same idea!  We just kept driving and driving thinking, "we'll keep going til there are no more people" and " I thought the Taiwanese didn't like to tan their bodies," until we got to a waterfall an hour and a half into the mountains.  It certainly was beautiful.. HUGE spiders and webs everywhere, black butterflies the size of my hand flying around, and a monkey (rare in the north) even graced our presence.  It was good to be with some of our co-workers and get to know them better, but we pretty quickly got rained out.  Not just a light rain, or the usual short summer downpour, but a heavy, soak you all the way through, rainclouds clinging to the mountain type of rain.  The same rain we quickly drove out of into crazy traffic of everybody racing out of the mountains.

It was a great weekend, we are finally really meeting people who can show us around and recommend things to do.  We both finally have a few classes of our own now, but are still subbing most days of the week.  Check out the new photos on the photo page!

Love to you all!!!

Siri

Hotter than a snakes ass in a wagon rut

Hot and wet.  I've never really understood or felt humidity before.  You see Al Roker on the Today show tell you that it's a muggy, humid day in D.C. in the middle of the Summer and everyone on the Hill should bring an extra suit to work today or that them creole folk are going to be sweating over their gumbo due to the heat index and high humidity down South.  I've never felt that type of humidity before though, until now.  Here's whats happening in my neck of the woods- about 90 F and 66% humidity, which feels like 103 F in Taoyuan City.  Most of the time there is a slight cloud cover, but it doesn't feel like it, and those wispy stretched out cotton balls only trap in the moisture.  I step out of our air conditioned oasis and I instantly feel my pores ramping up.  It smells a little like a basement that has recently been flooded and is still drying out.  After about 10 minutes my body adjusts to its new climate and the waterfall of sweat on my lower back starts to slow.  Once I hop on the scooter, the warm wind of the dank city continues to help cool me off....sort of.  Look out for that mother carrying her two children across the road, heads up for that inconsiderate driver making an illegal turn, watch out parked car opening its door into the scooter lane.

We have a 4 person adult pool set up in our sun room and that helps combat the heat, though we really only use it in the evening.  

Taiwanese people are like vampires this time of year.  Sure there are people that come out at sun up to do Tai-Chi in a nearby park (that's when the trees are releasing the best and most energy).  People have to commute to work or school, which is air conditioned if they are lucky.  But really, these people come out at night.  Once night falls, the temperature sinks to a frigid 81 F (same humidity) and you are graced with an occasional cool breeze off of the river.  People pack the parks, river walkways, night restaurants, and sidewalks.  Being Bushiban Teachers we teach from early evening until about 9:15pm every night, and I can tell you that one of the best sensations I have had in my short time here in Taiwan is driving home on my scooter with that wonderful semi-cool night breeze and seeing the streets alive with people and culture.  Sometimes my helmet will fill with the smell of a street vendor's food specialty.  Is that stinky Tofu? Yeck!  Sweet pineapple, beef noodle soup, fried anything.  Neon lights and distant honks complete this sensory overload and I truly appreciate being in a very foreign place.

This weekend we are going to try to make it to a nearby town called Yingge (Inguh) which is known for its porcelain production and pottery.  It is our friend Steve's last weekend in town and it will be a great way pass the time together...even if I have to change my sweat soaked shirt every hour :)

If this post sounds like one big complaint about the weather here in Taiwan, then I apologize.  The truth is- I have enjoyed every minute of it.

-Hal

Hello friends and family!!

Well we have now been in our new home about a week and I have already had many requests for updates updates updates.  Originally I had thought I would skip the blog thing and just go with mass emails.  However, not only do I not want to leave anybody out, but having Hal taking on half the responsibility makes it feel more fun.

Here's the run down on week No.1 in Taiwan:
Saturday: I puked and slept all day. Welcome to Taiwan.
Sunday: Went to flower market, bought 3 orchid starts to grow for a dollar each, ate street food
Monday: Met with our new boss, Amanda, and signed our contracts with Gloria English School
Tuesday-Thursday: Workshops all day about summer camps and programs, plus observing different classes in the evening.
Thursday Evening: First Substituting job.
Friday: Shopping. Carrefore to buy groceries, Danxi (thing) store to buy random stuff, stationary store for school supplies... basically starting to settle in.  Had a bunch of people over to hang out that night.
Saturday: Steve's band's last show.  Lots of dancing and awkward small talk on my part.  But how else do you get to know people, right?
Today: Lunch at a traditional Taiwanese restaurant, buying our herb garden, rearranging and setting up our blow up pool in the day room (sun room) to spend the evening sipping gin and tonics in the pool in this 88 degree and 66% humidity weather!  Not too shabby!

We are meeting many people and getting our bearings about us.  We are both now very savvy at driving our scooters around town in traffic and finding our way.  We are at the point where because everything is so new, even little things feel like accomplishments and adventures. All in all, I'm happy and in great spirits!

We'll be sure to update our pictures and such on a regular basis.  I put our skype names to the right with our mailing address, no joke, I would love to hear from everybody!!

Love to you all!

Siri