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...
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Sunday, July 15, 2012
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
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
Thursday, July 5, 2012
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
Sunday, July 1, 2012
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
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
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