Tidbits from Taiwan

As some things do, my vacation came to an abrupt halt one fine day in February, leaving me to fend for myself in the world of school. Though I never fell out of the habit of studying during the break due to me watching chinese tv, the shift back waking up at those unnatural hours of the morn is hard to face. I bought the second chinese book in the series, a whopping $500 NT, nuts, and have slowly started working my way through it in the many hours of free time during the school day. While the pace at which I read through my chinese/japanese comic book I bought a while ago is still rather slow, I am also making progress on that as well.

My English, however, has taken a major drop in quality. Forgetting word after word feels like I am trying to learn two languages. I finally ended up asking the Taiwanese School English Teacher to help me out when trying to find a word. Really...

The last three days of the vacation were spent with my family and my Rotary Club down in Kenting, the southern most part of Taiwan. We enjoyed the beach, a "5-star" hotel, and personally the most wonderful mattress and pillow I have ever slept on...memorable. We hit up the southern-most point of Taiwan and took some pictures. On the way back to the bus, some sensitive plants caught our eyes. Colorado sure as heck doesn't have these, but its little plants, grass-height, that will fold all its leaving together upon being touched. Truely incredible, wish I had a video.

On our way back from Kenting the group stopped by one of the world's few spa's (I might have this wrong) that has a mud hot spring. Nothing is quite like gooping mud on yourself and sitting in a steaming spring. It's like....just look at the pictures.

The Lantern festival was just gorgeous. Hundreds of different lanterns in the shapes of animals, building, art work, and all kinds of imaginative creations filled the vast landscape of the Chang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Live Music echoed across the park, and booths full of tea, food, souvenirs, and precious stones were setup by the bushel.

On Thursday, I discovered, there would be no class for we four exchange students at Shiou Fong High School. I decided to use the day to get up early, hop a ride to the nearby Confucious Temple, and sit down to read for a while before doing other things. Upon the discovery of a park beside the temple, full of trees, ponds, and tables teaming with old men playing chinese chess, I decided to stay a while and enjoy it. While I originally sat down under a vacated hut to read, it soon became full as some more older men began a game of AnQi, a type of Chinese Chess ("Dark Chess"). Now, I don't speak a lot of Taiwanese, but let me just say, these guys had some fowl fowl mouths for 70 year olds. Great fun though.

Saturday was spent with the Rotary Exchange group in a district down south, not quite sure the name. I finally bought a good teapot and cups, and also happened to fulfill a life long dream - that being to use a potter's wheel. It wasn't as easy as I imagined, but with the help of the teacher I ended up making some classy tea cups.

I decided to go back with Phillip to the Old-Man Park on Sunday, this time bringing our own chess set, some tea, and a book. One of the old men taught us the other more popular version of Chess (AnQi) for about an hour in a quiet hard to understand taiwanese accent, though we got used to it after a little. We met up a little later with Barbara next to DaAn park to visit the weekend market under the highway to explore many many Chinese goodies.

So, be contented...I am buying souvenirs for you all like mad.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to wish you all a very merrily happy Chinese New Year, as it was indeed Chinese New Year not more than a week past. I know I have had a nasty habit of not keeping up with my blog entries in the weekly time schedule I had previously aspired. AND as it has been nearly a month since last word of myself, fear not, that habit remains...intact.

For the usual defense (I like the way this sounds more like a court hearing than a blog entry), I'd like to present the facts. I have been...sick. Yes, the more I got sick, the more I compelled my body to fight against the germs which might keep me in the bonds of my house, which might keep me away from the mountains, the festivals, the markets, and the fun fun fun -ness of Taiwan. So, since last I spoke of an exciting night at the movies, I developed a nasty soar throat, an overly annoying stuffy nose, and an unending hack of a cough.

That being said, that being about me being sick, being the coughing and the sickness...what I'd like to bring you all is, instead, a bunch of New Year's pictures and tales of what I have been doing instead of the travelling I so fantasized about.

I was able to hobble up the Muzha mountain once with some buds, which was nice and cozy. Same story there, more tea, more chess and a lot more rain. Many of my friends disappeared to Southern Taiwan where most people go during the Chinese New Year. So, I found out Taipei was...quite...not as exciting as I thought during this festival.

The night before New Years Day my family and I had a fantastic feast with all kinds of food, all presented at the shrine beforehand, and I received three miraculous Red Envelopes. Oh how deliciously wonderful. I won't tell you how much, but, more rice for me, I'll tell ya.

On New Years, I found myself, besides sick, swept up in a rush of very Asian looking people all holding burning incense to the sky and slowing moving in a circular pattern within the temple, visiting each deity and making with silent lips prayers for family, friends, security and shelter, and (perhaps the most popular) a good grade on the test of a son or daughter.

That day, with the rest of my family, we visited five temples, some with free incense to burn for prayer, the last two temples having free food...to eat for hunger. Interesting enough, among one specially thick throng of peoples, I laid eyes upon an aspiring mayor with his wife, passing out chocolate coins. You might come to think people really like chocolate in Taiwan if you saw the way they attacked the Mayor-to-Be, but its in fact the luck that comes with it. (Yes, Mayor Chocolate is Lucky...heh) Check the Photos.

I finally visited the Doctor after two and a half weeks being sick. You know those cartoon versions of Doctors with the strap around their head, the circular thing sticking up in the front of it, and the mask? Well, the cartoonists must have been from Taiwan. Very funny, really. So, I got some medicine (3 pills, 4 times a day...goodie) The amount of medicine I received is normal to few in Taiwan. I woke up the next morning at 5 am shivering from head to toe uncontrollably through three layers of jackets and bed covers, so I woke my parents (yes, 5am) and we went to the hospital again where they checked me again. Outcome, more sleep, more hot water, and take pills. So, I am still getting better.

Till next time, and remember, keep watching the skies.