today the weather was gorgeous, and one of my classes just finished level 3 and did beautifully on their finals. so, being the wonderful teacher i am...i reviewed for half the class, we corrected the mistakes on our exams and made sure we all understood everything...and then, we went outside to play in the spring sunshine.
it was about the most amazing day i have ever had in taiwan...being dragged around by the hand by a bunch of 8-year olds shouting "i love you, katie teacher!" and racing them down the slide and laughing and running and swinging and singing and just letting them be kids for awhile and get out of their books. i think they had a really good time :)
for me, it was also good: it was so nice to go sit and swing on a sunny spring day and forget that i am an adult now who has to make adult decisions and pay bills and rent and blah blah blah.
ps...is april really over?!?! time...can you please, please slow down.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
waxing poetic
today was a strange day. i was in a strange mood.
i went to go eat breakfast out for a change because it had finally stopped raining...so i went in and ordered, in chinese, what i wanted to eat. the girl behind the counter's jaw literally dropped onto the counter: (in chinese) "can you speak chinese?" "yes, a little bit," i replied. she started jumping and clapping, "you can understand! hey, come listen to this foreign girl! she can understand what i am saying in chinese!"
there are times when i am so shocked (and admittedly very proud) of listening to myself say anything, even just hello, in chinese that i also want to jump and clap and run around speaking to everyone i can find. but...there are days, like today, when i really don't feel like being a museum exhibit and i hate when people gather round me to hear me say "can i have some rice and tea, please" in chinese. i almost started to cry because i was so annoyed, and because i felt like such an idiot, but i just ate my breakfast and tried to forget it.
on the way home, a woman stopped me to ask me where i was from. this is not an event that is out of the ordinary; i live in a town where there aren't many foreigners, so when people see me, they often try to talk to me. i had been sulking to myself in english for so long that i almost couldn't respond to her; finally when i did say something, it came out wrong, and then i had to correct myself...and then she kept asking really involved questions like "why do you like taiwan? what's the best about it? do you miss your country?" etc. these questions are hard enough to answer in english! you know the phrase about being "lost in translation?" that's definitely how i feel. my chinese isn't good enough to be able to discuss abstract situations or ideas, so these types of conversations are really difficult. i didn't want to be rude, because everyone is so nice to me and they have good intentions when they strike up a conversation...but i could almost literally feel my brain explode and start oozing out my ears by the end of that conversation. i don't even know what i said to that poor woman, but she smiled, told me to enjoy the rest of my time on the island, and that she had never seen green eyes before.
i went to go eat breakfast out for a change because it had finally stopped raining...so i went in and ordered, in chinese, what i wanted to eat. the girl behind the counter's jaw literally dropped onto the counter: (in chinese) "can you speak chinese?" "yes, a little bit," i replied. she started jumping and clapping, "you can understand! hey, come listen to this foreign girl! she can understand what i am saying in chinese!"
there are times when i am so shocked (and admittedly very proud) of listening to myself say anything, even just hello, in chinese that i also want to jump and clap and run around speaking to everyone i can find. but...there are days, like today, when i really don't feel like being a museum exhibit and i hate when people gather round me to hear me say "can i have some rice and tea, please" in chinese. i almost started to cry because i was so annoyed, and because i felt like such an idiot, but i just ate my breakfast and tried to forget it.
on the way home, a woman stopped me to ask me where i was from. this is not an event that is out of the ordinary; i live in a town where there aren't many foreigners, so when people see me, they often try to talk to me. i had been sulking to myself in english for so long that i almost couldn't respond to her; finally when i did say something, it came out wrong, and then i had to correct myself...and then she kept asking really involved questions like "why do you like taiwan? what's the best about it? do you miss your country?" etc. these questions are hard enough to answer in english! you know the phrase about being "lost in translation?" that's definitely how i feel. my chinese isn't good enough to be able to discuss abstract situations or ideas, so these types of conversations are really difficult. i didn't want to be rude, because everyone is so nice to me and they have good intentions when they strike up a conversation...but i could almost literally feel my brain explode and start oozing out my ears by the end of that conversation. i don't even know what i said to that poor woman, but she smiled, told me to enjoy the rest of my time on the island, and that she had never seen green eyes before.
Monday, April 26, 2010
more wisdom from foreign films
another excellent weekend! another excellent fan yi chen concert! i really love my life :)
there are many reasons i am glad taiwan is a tiny little island, but maybe the main reason is accessibility. it is quite easy to chase rock stars here! in america it would be all but impossible to follow your favorite singer around the country and go to all his shows/autograph signings, but in taiwan, its so so easy and cheap. sooooooooo this wknd, after cooking a DELICIOUSSSSSSSSS dinner of chicken and mango salad (and watching yet another awesome foreign film), the girls and i made the pilgrimage to ximending for the concert. it was awesome, as per the usual..........but! this time included a personal shout out to us from the stage, in the middle of the concert!!!! he was introducing the song, and then saw us. he looked right directly in our eyes and, in front of everyone, said (in english) "yes, hello, i remember you!" everyone then turned to look at us standing there...i could feel my ears turning red with embarassment at being called out right there, in english, in front of that whole crowd...but i was secretly proud and flattered to have been remembered by a rock star :) everyone was so surpised to see the foreigner there, being talked to by fan yi chen from the stage. then after the show when we went to get our albums signed, he and his bandmate thanked us for coming and said they remembered us, the "mei guo de pung yo," and shook our hands....... :) :) :)
the movie we watched this wknd was super good! it was "saawariya," a bollywood movie based on a short story by dostoevsky (highly highly recommended!) anyway, there was one scene in the movie where the main character is seeking advice about the woman he loves, who doesn't love him back. his landlady tells him: "if it is meant to be yours, nothing will stop it from being yours. if it isn't meant to be yours, then nothing can cause it to become yours." that is a really comforting thought :)
some other things:
1. today we had another earthquake.
2. it is very strange to eat with a fork.
3. mangoes and red peppers go suprisingly well together.
4. i love red beans.
5. i can't believe next wk will be may.
there are many reasons i am glad taiwan is a tiny little island, but maybe the main reason is accessibility. it is quite easy to chase rock stars here! in america it would be all but impossible to follow your favorite singer around the country and go to all his shows/autograph signings, but in taiwan, its so so easy and cheap. sooooooooo this wknd, after cooking a DELICIOUSSSSSSSSS dinner of chicken and mango salad (and watching yet another awesome foreign film), the girls and i made the pilgrimage to ximending for the concert. it was awesome, as per the usual..........but! this time included a personal shout out to us from the stage, in the middle of the concert!!!! he was introducing the song, and then saw us. he looked right directly in our eyes and, in front of everyone, said (in english) "yes, hello, i remember you!" everyone then turned to look at us standing there...i could feel my ears turning red with embarassment at being called out right there, in english, in front of that whole crowd...but i was secretly proud and flattered to have been remembered by a rock star :) everyone was so surpised to see the foreigner there, being talked to by fan yi chen from the stage. then after the show when we went to get our albums signed, he and his bandmate thanked us for coming and said they remembered us, the "mei guo de pung yo," and shook our hands....... :) :) :)
the movie we watched this wknd was super good! it was "saawariya," a bollywood movie based on a short story by dostoevsky (highly highly recommended!) anyway, there was one scene in the movie where the main character is seeking advice about the woman he loves, who doesn't love him back. his landlady tells him: "if it is meant to be yours, nothing will stop it from being yours. if it isn't meant to be yours, then nothing can cause it to become yours." that is a really comforting thought :)
some other things:
1. today we had another earthquake.
2. it is very strange to eat with a fork.
3. mangoes and red peppers go suprisingly well together.
4. i love red beans.
5. i can't believe next wk will be may.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
ode to 淡水
the photo you see above was taken on halloween in my favorite place in taiwan, 淡水 (danshui). i love this place for many reasons: its a nice escape from taipei city, there is good food literally on every corner, jay chou went to school here, and its gorgeous, obviously. it is a small port town/fishing town in the very northern north, and was first settled by the spanish; you can still see alot of european architecture here. it has gotten quite popular over the years; there is now a fisherman's wharf, about a gazillion open-air markets, and i can't emphasize the food-on-every-corner enough.
even though i could still see pollution swirling in front of me in the twilight hours, i have seen few sights more beautiful than watching that man fish at sunset.
even though i could still see pollution swirling in front of me in the twilight hours, i have seen few sights more beautiful than watching that man fish at sunset.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
forgiveness.
i watched a really sad/interesting korean movie last weekend called "a moment to remember." for the sake of my own sanity (it was really sad!) i won't summarize the plot, you should all find it and watch it yourselves anyway. i love the way asians do love stories: no sap, no unrealisticlly happy endings, and plenty of heart-wrenching sadness to make it seem real. but i digress.
in the movie, the main girl character was fighting with her new husband out whether or not he needs to forgive his mother. he says he doesn't need to, that she was a horrible woman who did horrible things, and that he would be better off having nothing to do with her, and that he didn't care. his wife, however, has a different take on what forgiveness means. her husband is a carpenter, so she uses a metaphor he can readily understand: building a house. i am trying to remember what the subtitles said, but something like this:
"not forgiving is like building yourself a house. a very beautiful, expensive house that you put all your time and effort and money into. then, you ask the person you can't forgive to move into the house instead of you. you are outside shivering in the cold and rain, beating on the door to be let in, while someone else is living inside the beautiful, warm house that you built. that's what hate is. if you forgive, you can give that person only one small room inside the house and you don't have to deal with them anymore. you can live in the house you built happily, and life can go on."
interesting, right?
in the movie, the main girl character was fighting with her new husband out whether or not he needs to forgive his mother. he says he doesn't need to, that she was a horrible woman who did horrible things, and that he would be better off having nothing to do with her, and that he didn't care. his wife, however, has a different take on what forgiveness means. her husband is a carpenter, so she uses a metaphor he can readily understand: building a house. i am trying to remember what the subtitles said, but something like this:
"not forgiving is like building yourself a house. a very beautiful, expensive house that you put all your time and effort and money into. then, you ask the person you can't forgive to move into the house instead of you. you are outside shivering in the cold and rain, beating on the door to be let in, while someone else is living inside the beautiful, warm house that you built. that's what hate is. if you forgive, you can give that person only one small room inside the house and you don't have to deal with them anymore. you can live in the house you built happily, and life can go on."
interesting, right?
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
guavas, life plans, and moonlight
right after this photo was taken, i almost vomited from laughter. i do love that feeling. and thank you mary for your awesome haiku about it:
one head caused big laugh
the longest laugh i have heard
15 minutes long?
today i ate 3 guavas. when i first moved to taiwan and people kept making me eat guavas, i thought they tasted like solidified perfume. seriously. but now, i love them. I ACTIVELY SEEK THEM OUT. the passage of time is a strange animal that does very strange things to people and their taste buds, such as making solidified perfume taste good enough to pay $35nt for.
i am currently waiting for a life plan to show up at my doorstep. or in the form of a letter to my mailbox, a swift kick to the face...anything. i am kind of at a loss...i expected to stay in taiwan longer than this, but for whatever reasons, i have found myself headed back to the motherland. to a newly unknown destination. granted, i will have only been gone for a year, but SO MUCH changes during that time. actually, i think life at home will still be relatively the same: its me who has changed. and that's normal, i'm just really hoping there will be a place for me when i go back. at this point, i'm at DESTINATION UNKNOWN.
in other news, here is a poem for everyone. our friend flea showed it to us on saturday night at dinner while we were making him translate 203948203 haikus for us.
床前明月光
疑是地上霜
舉頭望明月
低頭思故鄉
its a traditional chinese poem, and the translation is (roughly):
from my bed, i can see the reflection of the moonlight:
it looks like frost on the floor, but i doubt that's what it is.
i raise my head to look up at the moonlight,
and then i bow my head to miss my homeland.
Monday, April 19, 2010
blood types and other interesting stuff
for those of you who might have been awake last night wondering the answer, i have type ab blood. for most westerners, this seems like insignificant medical trivia, but for those of us in asia, it is an important facet of personality. i am frequently asked the question "what's your blood type?" its kind of the equivalent of your star sign in the west, except more common to ask about. of course its not a be-all-end-all determiner of personality or compatibility with others, but its important. its more common in japan i guess, but taiwan still uses the system.
being type ab, most people gasp when they find out. evidently its a rare blood type in asia, ha. most ab's are considered to be evil geniuses (true? YES! muhaha) and people who are made up entirely of opposites. HOW TRUE OF ME. this conveniently explains why i usually spend most of my time feverishly chasing after things on both ends of the spectrum, why it takes me 2309482304923 hours to choose which shampoo to buy, and why my ipod playlist confuses people. i consist entirely of contradictions, and this is thanks to my blood type. yay. this website has many funny things to say about type ab blood (anime villans? really?) and you can find yours too: http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/takemywings/bloodtypes.htm
this wknd, i spent saturday with my friends mary, kristen, and flea. we ate FRENCH FOOD in taipei (random, but DELICIOUS) and had flea translate our many haiku into chinese ;) then we went back to mary's house for movie night :) i can't remember when is the last time i almost threw up from laughing so hard, but we had such a good time (even though we watched the saddest korean movie i've ever seen in my life). the next day, i went down to taichung to meet my friends carol and jeremy and hang out for the day. we ate hotpot (i'm going to miss it sooooooo muchhhhhhhh when i go home) and went shopping. EXCELLENT WEEKEND!
the more and more i think about going home, the sadder and sadder i get. i am so not ready to leave yet. i am probably buying my ticket home this week...and that's a hard pill to swallow...i am totally not ready for this ending........
being type ab, most people gasp when they find out. evidently its a rare blood type in asia, ha. most ab's are considered to be evil geniuses (true? YES! muhaha) and people who are made up entirely of opposites. HOW TRUE OF ME. this conveniently explains why i usually spend most of my time feverishly chasing after things on both ends of the spectrum, why it takes me 2309482304923 hours to choose which shampoo to buy, and why my ipod playlist confuses people. i consist entirely of contradictions, and this is thanks to my blood type. yay. this website has many funny things to say about type ab blood (anime villans? really?) and you can find yours too: http://www.issendai.com/rpgs/takemywings/bloodtypes.htm
this wknd, i spent saturday with my friends mary, kristen, and flea. we ate FRENCH FOOD in taipei (random, but DELICIOUS) and had flea translate our many haiku into chinese ;) then we went back to mary's house for movie night :) i can't remember when is the last time i almost threw up from laughing so hard, but we had such a good time (even though we watched the saddest korean movie i've ever seen in my life). the next day, i went down to taichung to meet my friends carol and jeremy and hang out for the day. we ate hotpot (i'm going to miss it sooooooo muchhhhhhhh when i go home) and went shopping. EXCELLENT WEEKEND!
the more and more i think about going home, the sadder and sadder i get. i am so not ready to leave yet. i am probably buying my ticket home this week...and that's a hard pill to swallow...i am totally not ready for this ending........
Friday, April 16, 2010
haiku, and why i love them
lately, my friends and i have been writing haiku. why, you ask? why not!
while our topics are many and various, they are all dedicated to taiwan and the adventures we are having. mostly, they are dedicated to fan van. i love haiku number one because (and yes this is nerdy and english major-y) but i like the way the syllables fit together when you say them out loud; also, they are funny to write. and let's just be honest: who doesn't love a good old fashioned haiku? really.
here is my first attempt at a chinese haiku:
中文，為什麼？
我愛你 van fan，可是
中文很很難
this post is random,
sorry! you should write haiku
because they are fun :)
while our topics are many and various, they are all dedicated to taiwan and the adventures we are having. mostly, they are dedicated to fan van. i love haiku number one because (and yes this is nerdy and english major-y) but i like the way the syllables fit together when you say them out loud; also, they are funny to write. and let's just be honest: who doesn't love a good old fashioned haiku? really.
here is my first attempt at a chinese haiku:
中文，為什麼？
我愛你 van fan，可是
中文很很難
this post is random,
sorry! you should write haiku
because they are fun :)
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
the altar of heaven
this is a photo of the altar of heaven temple in tainan. the inside is so colorful and beautiful!! it is a place you can go to pray to the highest dao god, the jade emporer. in the 1st and 15th day of each lunar month, people will go there to pray for help from bad luck. i was there on the 15th day, and the temple was flooded with people making offerings and praying for good luck. the inscription you can see on the tablet over top of the temple says "yi," which is chinese for "one." in the dao religion, there is only "one" way, and that's what this means.
you can see a monk in the bottom right corner in purple. the big gold thing in the front is the place where you burn the incense after you've made your offering and said your prayer. this temple has no god in it, even though dao temples usually do, and its also over 300 years old!
thank you lonelyplanet, best travel guides ever, though i already knew most of this.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
everyone should listen to this awesome song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0xX7kjVF7I&feature=related
Saturday, April 10, 2010
a short synopsis of the holidays (including the best moment of my life thus far)
hi, remember me? its been awhile... :)
and WHOA, so much crazy has occured since the last post! let's see...where to start? i will attempt to start at the beginning if my poor brain can reach back that far...
american visitor #2 arrived on friday night (mar26) in the form of a shelby girl herself, jennifer gold. if you had told me 3 1/2 years ago when we were terrorising england that in a few years we would have progressed to asia, i would have laughed. anyway, saturday we left to taipei for some touristy sightseeing (i have lived in taiwan for nine months and am usually burning up the road between hsinchu and taipei, but this was the first time i had taken my camera, taken 2348029348 foreign tourists photos, and spoken english really loudly. we went to a party with my friends saturday night and then did the tourist route the rest of the time: craziness at the top of taipei 101 (the world's tallest building) in the form of a crazy old asian man who kept trying to take his photo with us and a million tourists trying to go under the ropes that were clearly blocked off...we saw all the temples, blah blah blah...how strange to be a tourist/interpreter/tour guide in taipei. ps thanks jen for these photos...my camera was once again dead.
after taipei we were off to chiayi, a town toward the south of taiwan. the second we stepped off the train, this grandmother came up to us, and, speaking the fastest chinese my brain has ever attempted to keep up with, led us to a hotel that i bargained to get really cheap (i have gotten quite good at haggling in chinese ;) anyway, next thing i know, the woman has me sitting on some benches in the lobby of the hotel trying her darndest to get us to go on this van trip to alishan (some really famous mtns near chaiyi) for "only $500nt! so cheap!" i kept trying to tell her that she was leaving much earlier than we wanted to go and that we weren't staying the night there, but she wouldn't have any of it. "i want to take you because you are a chinese-speaking foreigner! your husband taught you very good chinese!" then, i kept trying to tell her that i didn't have a taiwanese husband, and that my chinese wasn't good. i really could barely keep up with what she was saying because she was speaking so fast and so loud and she had a really strong accent that i'm not used to listening to. somehow, i finally convinced her that we would think about it and she could call us in the morning. easy out, right? NO... in the meantime, we went out exploring the city. i love chiayi very much! it was really different from any city in the north, but that's part of why i liked it so much. but, it was full of many bizarre things: i saw people getting haircuts in what appeared to be an outdoor beauty shop in the middle of the park (i also need to add that this city has a salon literally EVERY TWO FEET.) we ate dinner in a really traditional restaurant that serves the traditional food of rice and flowers wrapped in bambooo (mmmmmmmm!!!!!). we met a really nice girl who told us all about the city and what we could do there (she even helped me buy motion sickness medicine. she wanted to practice english with us of course, but i never cease to be amazed by the kindess of strangers here. we got on the subject of tea, and next thing i knew, she was on her motorcycle going to buy us some plum tea that is really famous in chiayi. so sweet! after that it was pretty late so we headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep... but our phone rang at the crack of dawn but both of us were too delerious to realise what was happenning because it was so early, so we didn't answer. thinking we were safe, we headed to the train station to start the journey to alishan sans crazy grandmother, but the second we got to the station, there she was! running over to us with the biggest smile i have EVER SEEN ON A GRANDMOTHER BEFORE. "the foreigners are here!" she shouted, and next thing i knew, there was a huge crowd of taxi drivers (who i still don't know what their significance was...) and she was loading up the van ready to haul us to alishan "for only $500nt!" she pointed to the people who would be joining us on the journey...and what do you think i see when i turn to look? the saddest looking teenage boy i have ever seen who has on a blue sweatshirt. not just any blue sweatshirt, mind you. a blue sweatshirt that read "RUTHERFORD COUNTY BIBLE CAMP." assuming there's only one rutherford county bible camp in the world, and that its the one in forest city, i took it as our sign to flee. i knew the second i tried to pop up alishan in a van with a sad boy from bible camp and that crazy grandmother, i would get the worst motion sickness and puke everywhere (if you know me well, you know that for me, vans and mountain ranges most certainly do not mix.) anyway, i'll never know how we got out of that one, but we ended up scratching the trip to alishan and going to tainan instead.
ah tainan...i have always heard that it is the best city in taiwan, and maybe i can't argue. it was hotter than blue blazes, but it was certainly awesome! its the oldest city in taiwan, and its full of tradition. we were there during the 15th day of the lunar month, so everyone had offerings of food and incense set out for the ancestors. we looked at about every single temple there, and there are sooooo many that i'm pretty sure we covered every square inch of that city. however, the temples are beautiful, and everytime we'd get lost, there was a friendly local around to help us. i love tainan very much...its just the right mix of city and countryside without being too much of either to be obnoxious ;)
after jennifer left, i was headed down to kenting with some friends for a nice wknd at the beach and a music festival that we had tickets to. AWESOME! some really good bands were playing (namely magic power and van fan) and we saw both their shows, ate lots of thai food, spoke lots of chinese, spent lots of time at the beach, enjoyed the southern sun...ah, it was so nice :) but, the best moment came on sunday night...
after watching van fan's wonderfully awesome show, we wandered out of the venue to find the exit and head home. *ok side note: for those of you who don't know who van fan is, he's a taiwanese singer/actor who i am in love with and have been chasing around the island at a pretty sucessful rate since i got here.* anyway, my friend kristen said "wouldn't it be funny if he was standing in his booth?" we laughed, knowing it was impossible. UNTIL WE LOOKED DOWN AT THE BOOTH THAT WAS PROMOTING HIS NEW ALBUM... AND THERE HE WAS!!!!!! naturally i took off running in that direction. one of his staff popped up out of nowhere and started raving about the "foreign fans" who were here, and for us to "wait, wait, you are foreign fans, i help you! wait, wait!" next thing i know, i'm standing NEXT TO VAN FAN getting my photo taken with him. he turned to shake my hand, but i couldn't even speak. every single word of english and every single word of chinese i have ever known fled from my brain, and i couldn't do anything but gasp and giggle like an idiot. he was also smiling, but i think he was just confused why these foreigners were here, and how we even knew who he was much less why i rampaged the booth and begged for photos. anyway, true to form, i can't do anything normally. can't just go say "i'm a big fan of your work," take the photo, and leave. no. not possible. i felt my arms go out in front of me, i felt my hands latch onto his shoulders, then i felt myself start shaking him. my brain kept trying to signal my arms to please stop shaking the movie star, but they wouldn't have any part of it. THEN, i heard my mouth start shouting in the loudest english i could muster..."IIIIIIIIIII LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU." his face was priceless (as i'm sure was mine and everyone else's.) about this time my friend mary grabbed me and dragged me away and we all fled. i was still in shock as we wandered to the bus stop...when we got to the bus stop, i spent a lot of time trying to convince them to let me go back down to the tent and have a do-over, after all, we hadn't even gotten an autograph!!!! so, we went back down. this time was much more calm, however. when they saw us coming back, i can only imagine what was running through their heads...but the crazy album promoter called out our names and announced that the foreign fans were back (which was probably code for "EVERYONE GET PREPARED.") i got an autograph, many posters, and had a conversation and a photo on my own with van fan :) it was the best best best best day in my life, one i'm sure that i (and van fan...) will not soon forget. it was just like that episode of i love lucy where they meet john wayne...though thankfully, i resisted the urge to dump out my purse and put it on my head.
so all in all, the holidays were excellent :) i love taiwan so much. the time is passing too quickly.................
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