Graham on the Rock

The 37 Hour Day

2009-07-27T23:02:00.000+08:00

July 27

My day started early this morning. I woke up at 5:45 and took a nice lukewarm shower in the hostel bathroom. After that, I did my best not to wake up the others in my room as I took my two suitcases and backpack to checkout. Shortly thereafter, I arrived at the bus station and purchased my ticket with no problems. The first hiccup came when the guy taking tickets asked which terminal I needed to go to. My itinerary that I had printed out did not have that information on it. He asked, “mea guo (United States)?” and I responded, “dui (correct).” He then told me to go to the second terminal.

However, on the ride over I was second guessing that because I knew that the second terminal was for international departures, but the first terminal covered many Asian flights. Since my first connecting flight was in Tokyo, I thought that I might be taking off from the first terminal. Luckily, I stuck with the second terminal, which turned out to be the correct choice.

In the airport, I saw a few other Americans. After listening to a group of them talking for awhile, I decided to go over and join them. I found out that one of the guys I was sitting with took 4th place in the power-lifting competition at the World Games. It explained the massive upper-body that the guy had. One of the other guys worked on the medical staff at the events. I am really mad that I never got a picture with them. They were nice guys.

On the plane, I talked to a business man who travels to Taiwan on a regular basis. One of the things that I brought up was that I had a little visit in the Philippines. His eyes started to light up and he asked, “How did you like it?” When I replied that I hated it, he asked where I had stayed. When I replied that I stayed in Manila he understood why my experience was so bad. He told me that he had done quite a bit of traveling, and Manila was without a doubt the worst city that he'd ever stayed in. However, some of the other areas in the country were some of the most beautiful that he'd ever seen. It confirmed what I already believed: to fully experience the Philippines I need to explore other areas before I can judge the place.

On the flight from Tokyo to Seattle, I sat next to a mother who visited one of her children in Japan. She was nice, but kind of weird. I was kind of happy once the movies started so I could watch those instead of talking to her. Still, there are much worse passengers to sit by on an 8+ hour flight.

Upon arrival in Seattle, I discovered that my flight to Chicago had been delayed. There was a mechanical problem on the flight before mine, and the plane hadn't even arrived yet. It made me very antsy because my connection in Chicago was only 40 minutes to begin with. By the time we departed, it was at least 40 minutes past schedule.

When we landed, I borrowed the phone of the woman sitting next to me to make a call to Emilie. I told her that I was likely going to miss the flight, as the departure time was about 5 minutes away when I called. She gave me a glimmer of hope when she told me that the flight to Kansas City had been delayed an hour. However, after running to the gate, I discovered that the plane had already left. I would have to wait an additional 3 hours to get home.

It was at this point that I had one of my “Welcome to America” moments. I needed to call home to inform everyone of the flight change. Since Emilie and I traded phones for the summer, mine was only good in Taiwan. I walked up to the last group of people waiting in line at the customer service desk and asked if I could borrow one of their phones. One of the men reluctantly agreed. After a quick call I gave back the phone and thanked him. His response was like I had burdened him a great deal by using his phone. I thought about the woman the previous day that helped me find the hostel and realized that I was now back into a different environment.

Once I finally boarded the last plane, I took my seat next to two girls about the same age. I found out that they were arriving home after a couple of months in Ukraine. They described the process of constantly being interrogated there because there is little reason for Americans to ever want to travel to Ukraine. They said that they could tell they were back in the United States because the people here were so much nicer then in Ukraine. I laughed and explained that I knew I was back in the US because people here were so much meaner to me. They gave me one more reason to not want to travel to Ukraine.

After all of the adventures, about 28 hours later, I finally made it...home.

Last Day in Taipei

2009-07-26T23:36:00.000+08:00

July 26

Today I had my journey from Kaohsiung to Taipei to prepare for my flight back to America tomorrow. When I woke up, I still had no plans on where I would stay in the evening. I had talked to Sabina (Indonesia) and she said she had a friend that lived in Taipei I might be able to stay with. In the morning, I found out that her friend was out of the area, and that would not be an option. Luckily, I talked to some other staff members and they were able to help me find a cheap hostel that was also really close to the train station.

Leaving Wenzao was really weird. When each group of people left the school, a group of the other students would help to send them off. However, I was the last student from the Wenzao program to leave. Once one of the staff called a taxi for me, I began my journey by walking to the back entrance of the school by myself. It was an eerie feeling and it made me realize how little time I really have left in Taiwan.

Upon arrival in Taipei, I had some problems finding my hostel. At the train station, I talked to the information desk and they showed me what to do, but I still had a few problems. After walking around the area I knew was close to the hostel, I still couldn't find it. I stopped and put down the luggage that I was dragging down the sidewalk. After trying to see if I could get any visual clues for about a minute, a woman came up to me and asked me in English if I needed any help. I showed her the address I was looking for, and she said she would walk me to it. Luckily, it was just right around the corner. Not only did she walk me to the building, but she even went up the elevator to the floor I needed, just to make sure that everything was alright. Can you imagine many people doing the same thing in the US? The Taiwanese are easily the most hospitable people that I've met in my life.

After I got settled at the hostel, I called Sabina and tried to arrange plans for the evening. We settled on meeting at the Taipei 101 at 7:30. I decided to take a nap and just relax for the rest of the afternoon until then. A left for the Taipei 101 a little bit earlier than I needed to because I wanted to run by the bus station to see what I would need to do in the morning. One of the disadvantages of Taipei is that the airport is actually a little bit south of the city. In order to get to the airport, the most common way is to take a 45 minute bus ride. Since I need to leave so early in the morning, I wanted to make sure that I knew how to find everything ahead of time. Luckily, the signs were easily readable, and I am confident that I will make it to the airport tomorrow.

The journey to the 101 made me realize how much different traveling alone is than traveling with friends. Especially in an overcrowded city like Taipei, walking alone amongst all of the people can make you feel very insignificant. Once I made it successfully to the 101, I still had 30 minutes to burn. Even in the world's tallest building, filling those 30 minutes seemed to last forever.

When Sabina arrived, she had brought a friend with her. I was thinking that we were going to eat together, but found out that they'd already eaten. However, they were nice enough to join me in the food court while I ate. We had a nice discussion, and it helped ease my nerves of the traveling I have to do in the morning.

After dinner, they took me to a night market close by, where we sat down for some drinks. I had the last mango smoothie I will have for quite some time. It was well worth it. We also did a little bit of shopping for any last minute souvenirs, but I couldn't find anything worth purchasing. After that, Sabina helped me get back to the MRT station and I was on my own for the rest of my time on the island.

Back at the hostel, I spent a little bit of time interacting with a couple of my roommates for the night. One of them was a Korean high schooler that spoke decent English. He explained that he had spent the last two weeks traveling the island with nothing but a backpack of supplies. He only brought one pair of jeans, and each night would turn them inside-out to let them air out overnight before he would put them back on in the morning. It was pretty awesome to hear him describe the process.

The other guy that I talked to was a man from Kaohsiung. Unfortunately, his English was about as good as my Chinese. We ended up using his computer to translate for us. It was during this painstakingly slow process that made me realize how much I really want to learn Chinese. It really bothers me that I am only able to speak one language. Hopefully, within a few years I can become fluent in another language. Well, it's off to bed for me. See you in America!

Rugby 7s

2009-07-25T23:20:00.005+08:00

July 25

When I originally booked my flight to Taiwan, my sister had already informed me of the World Games. Knowing that I would enjoy seeing the events, I left a couple of extra days in my schedule to allow me to see a couple of events. Since the Wenzao program ended on Friday and I wouldn’t leave for Taipei until Sunday, Saturday was left as the prime day to go to the World Games. The event that I wanted to see the most was the Rugby 7s competition. I had never watched a rugby game in person before, so I figured that this was an ideal time to do so.

I ended up going with Christine, one of the girls from Indonesia. We were supposed to meet up with the other two girls from the US, but that fell through. The games themselves turned out to be a blast. Neither of us really knew what to expect, but we both ended up really enjoying the games.

My favorite part was getting to root for the Americans. When I bought the tickets, I didn’t think that the Americans had qualified for the competition. When I checked the schedule the night before the games I was surprised to see the inclusion of the US in the match-ups.

Following an early setback to Argentina, the Americans came back to defeat Japan in a thrilling overtime game. Taiwan also lost the first game and won the second, meaning that the two would face off in the 5^th place game.

As the game drew near, I began to prepare by pulling out my flag and getting it ready to go. A minute later, I looked around me and noticed that there was a guy about my age doing the same thing with his Taiwan flag a few seats down. When the two teams came out, I did my usual screaming and waving the flag, fully aware that nearly every other person in the stadium was rooting for the other side. Seeing this, the guy with the Taiwan flag came over and tried to cover up my flag with his. Our brief encounter amused the crowd as they looked on.

When the game began, the US got off to a great start and scored a try (like a touchdown in American football). When the Americans then capitalized on a Taiwan mistake to take a 14-0 lead, I playfully taunted the crowd by turning around and waving the flag. The guy with the big flag came over and handed me a foot-long Taiwan flag for me to hold. When I sat down and started waving the Taiwan flag, the crowd started applauding.

That wouldn’t be all they would applaud at. Soon, Taiwan actually came back and took the lead in the game. Even though the US was losing at that point, it was still a lot of fun because the crowd was so excited. There is a different aura at games when national teams are playing, as opposed to local teams. It is much more exciting. However, the United States would regain the lead and withstand a last chance for Taiwan to win the game. The final score was 21-19 to the Americans.

After the game, I turned into a celebrity for a few minutes. People came up to me and asked to get a picture with me. It is the first and likely the last time that there will ever be a line to get a picture taken with me. While this was going on, the American team came around to high-five people. When they came around, I gave one of them my flag. Giving a flag to a national team is something I have always thought would be fun, so I can now cross it off my bucket list early in my lifetime (hopefully).

The US-Taiwan game turned out to be the last close one, as both South Africa and Fiji dominated their competition to take 3^rd and 1^st, respectively. Just a couple of minutes after the final game, the skies opened up and it began to downpour. About the only people that didn’t take cover were Christine, me, the guy with the Taiwan flag, and his girlfriend. Hooray for umbrellas.

For dinner, we picked up Seiko and went to a night market. We decided on a place that we were able to pick the type of meat that we wanted, along with all of the vegetables. They then cooked everything together and served it with unlimited rice and tea. It was a good dinner, and a good way to end my last day in Kaohsiung.

The Final Countdown

2009-07-24T22:43:00.001+08:00

July 24

Today was the last official day of the Wenzao program. It is a bittersweet day for everyone as they realize that it could be the last day they will ever see some of these people, but also celebrate the fun times they shard over the last three weeks.

After breakfast, the morning activity was to break up into the four groups we had been associated with during our time here and prepare for the presentations. Each group was tasked with creating a presentation that included the Chinese that they learned as well as including experiences and culture from Taiwan. Our group decided to create a quick three scene act that included scenes of a wedding, classroom, and restaurant. These locations allowed for everyone to talk at least a little bit of Chinese.

However, while everyone else said things they learned that actually made sense, I decided to use the sentence that had been a running joke throughout the camp. So for the answer for both “What is your name” and “What would you like to eat,” my response was “I am from the United States.” While much of the language in our class was difficult to learn, for whatever reason I was able to pick up “Wo shi mea guo ren” right away.

We performed the presentations in the afternoon. Ours turned out better than I had expected it to. However, we still came short of winning the best presentation award. It’s alright though. I’m just glad that people laughed at ours.

The last organized activity of our time here was the closing ceremony. After a few speeches, we had the opportunity to eat one last meal of fresh seafood. Actually, that may have just been me. I guess everyone else lives much closer to the ocean than I do. After the meal, people from each group got to describe a little bit about their experiences. Being the only native English speaker in our group, that assignment was left to me. In hindsight, I probably should have cried. People from the next two groups after me cried quite a bit.

We also had the opportunity to watch the video that the English people had made. Their school booked all of the travel for them, and booked their return flight for earlier in the day. The staff wanted them to still to be a part of the ceremony so they recorded a short video a couple of days earlier. Somehow I was roped into interviewing them for the video. Luckily, all three of them have a good sense of humor and I was pleased that the final product turned out well.
After the event, we had the opportunity to mingle for the last time and take some pictures. Here are a few of them. Thanks to everybody there for making the event such a fun time!

Giant and Ramen Noodles

2009-07-23T23:57:00.000+08:00

July 23

On our last day of traveling, the first stop was the Giant factory in Taichung. Giant is one of the three biggest bicycle manufacturers in the world. I actually found the presentation part of our tour pretty interesting. It definitely made me more interested in buying one of their bikes. The factory tour was actually kind of fun as well. It was interesting to see each different part in the assembly line and how the bikes come together. It also reminded me of why I got a college education. The best part about the tour was when he let us pick up the frame of one of the carbon fiber bikes. Those things are so light! I’d want to get one, except I know they cost around $16,000US to get a completed one. I guess I will stick with my $150 one instead.

Between our two factory visits for the day, we encountered a problem that I am already much too familiar with. When the bus pulled off the exit ramp, the engine died. Subsequent attempts to turn it over proved to be unsuccessful. Finally after about 5 minutes, the bus finally was able to get started. We then found out that the bus was running on fumes. Luckily, we made it far enough to reach a gas station and were able to fill up. Considering the other bad luck that I’ve had on bus rides, I was ecstatic to find out that it was only a problem with gas.

The second visit brought us to the Uni-President Enterprises Corporation. The first thing we did was take a tour of the area where they manufacture ramen noodles. For the people that know how much I love ramen noodles, they would understand how excited I was to see them being made. I just wanted to hop the barrier and eat some right there. Luckily, the heat prevented me from being very hungry.

On the second part of the tour, they showed us a video basically on how their products can change the world. During the video, I discovered how much power the company had in Taiwan. Much of the food and drink that is available for purchase is made by them, plus they operate the 7-Elevens and Starbucks in the country. To fully realize how many 7-Elevens are in Taiwan, you need to go there and see for yourself. I imagine it’s the equivalent of trying to find a Starbucks in Seattle (before half of them went bankrupt). They have a dominant position in the country. The other thing that I realized during the video was that marketing a food company is difficult. Food is not a glamorous product, but the producers did a decent job.

After the tour, we went into Tainan City. The city has more history than any other place in Taiwan because it was the first city that the Dutch founded when they arrived in the 1600s. We went to a tree house museum where a gigantic tree was. I guess I missed the part that described why it was so significant, but it was kind of interesting.

After that, we had a few hours to get food. I went with Mangmang and Ms. Bao, the professor from Beijing. We decided to wait until we got back to Kaohsiung to get dinner, so we walked around for awhile. We finally stopped at a park and sat next to this group of older guys that looked like they hung around the park a lot. Of course, seeing that I was white, they proceeded to practice all of the English they knew, which was comprised of “Hello,” and “How are you?” The rest of the time they spent talking to the other two that knew Chinese. It was somewhat disturbing because one of the guys kept walking around, flipping up his shirt, and rubbing his belly while talking. I was trying hard not to laugh the whole time. After a few minutes we decided to walk around somewhere else.

After another hour-long trip, we were finally back at Wenzao. I went with Mangmang for some beef noodles. I added some extra spice to them and they were quite good. I could definitely get used to the spicy food around here. My time here is getting much too short now.

Once again, thanks to Grace for the pictures. Although I did take the middle one because you can see Grace in the picture!

On Top of Taipei

2009-07-22T22:57:00.001+08:00

July 22

Day three of our journey brought us to the capital of the country, Taipei. It is a bustling, overcrowded city that offers plenty to do. On the trip from Yi-Lan to Taipei, we went through one of the longest tunnels in the world. I forget the name of it, but the Taiwanese claim that it was the most difficult tunnel construction project in the world. Judging from the inside of the tunnel, the results were inconclusive.

Our first stop of the day was at the Taipei 101. Unfortunately, the building didn’t open up to commercial traffic until 11:00, which meant that we had two hours before we could go inside. I followed Jake (England), Craig (England), and Beck (Taiwan) around until the building opened. We first headed over to McDonalds for some food, but I opted out of getting any. I am too close to leaving the country to be eating American fast food. I decided that I would wait until the 101 opened up and get food in the food court.

After that, we decided to go over to the City Hall, which was a few blocks away from the 101. They turned out to have a pretty interesting museum inside. It gave details of how Taipei came to be created and organized. I also learned that Tainan was the capital of Taiwan for a long time before Taipei became the capital in 1887 (I had to look up the year). The audio guides that we had were very informative.

After that, we were on our way back to the Taipei 101. Jake, Craig, and I decided to spend the NT400 to go up to the top. We found out that spectator area was only on the 88th floor and were a little disappointed by that. Overall, the experience at the top was good, not great. I thought that the view of Kaohsiung from the Kaohsiung 85 was better than Taipei from the Taipei 101 (original names, huh?). Even so, it was still pretty cool to go up the tallest completed building in the world. The best part about the top was the ability to see the wind damper. The wind damper is a 660 metric ton hunk of metal that acts as a counterbalance to stabilize the building. It is the only one in the world that is open to the public to view. I enjoyed listening to how it worked.
Our afternoon trip took us to the National Palace Museum. First, a little background on the place. When Chiang Kai-shek was forced to Taiwan by Mao, he took a bunch of stuff from the mainland with him. Among the things that he took were many different artistic pieces. So many, in fact, that the National Palace Museum regularly changes exhibits, but has yet to show all of the pieces in their possession.

The tour turned out to be pretty much of a disappointment. Everybody had an earpiece, which was tuned to the leader’s microphone. However, the leader was Scott, the guy who had just turned 18 a couple of days ago. He was far from an expert in the artwork that we viewed. Instead, he gave us valuable information like, “This is written in Chinese,” “How many stamps do you see on this paper?” and “This is old.” Most importantly, he used the opportunity to recite the dirty words that the British guys had taught him over the previous weeks.

The big draw at the museum was a piece of jade carved into the shape of a cabbage. Call me crazy, but I just couldn’t get very excited over the most expensive thing shaped like a vegetable that I’d ever seen in my life. It turned out that the pieces I liked the most were the contemporary artwork that I went to look at by myself. I liked a few of them a lot.

After that, we traveled to the hotel about an hour or two south of Taipei. It was in a remote area. It would have taken a 20 minute cab ride to get to the nearest town. Dinner was provided in a restaurant in the middle of the area. I knew it would be a rough time for me when we were told that it would be a vegetarian meal.

One thing that I had learned from my time here is that my body likes meat. If it doesn’t have some, my body gets mad at me. I had not had any meat all day up to that point and now found out that I wouldn’t for the rest of the evening as well. It turned out that I spent about the same amount of time in the bathroom as I did at the table for the meal. In hindsight, I should have sprung for the McDonald’s in the morning.

The rest of the evening was spent walking around the area. It turned out that the place wasn’t like a hotel; it was like a little village with small huts as the rooms. We spent most of the evening sitting down by the pond and talking with one another. It was a good place to relax, save for the biggest moth that I’d ever seen in my life that kept flying around the light by us.

Thanks to Grace and Wikipedia for some of the images.

Mountains and Beaches and Gorges...Oh My!

2009-07-21T23:55:00.001+08:00

July 21

Today was the second day of the four day tour of Taiwan. The first thing that we did was continue or path north towards Taipei. The first stop of the day was at the Taroko National Park. The main attraction of the park is the Taroko Gorge, a big chasm (thank you Microsoft Word dictionary) that has a river running through it. The path that people hike on could be an all day event, but we only had a couple of hours to spend. Walking the trail was fun because of how narrow it is. The trail was about 5 feet across, with the only protection from falling off being a guard rail that was too low to do much good. After walking for 20-30 minutes, we reached a section of the trail where we could go get in the water. Everybody hiked down and we spent about 45 minutes getting our feet wet. It was fun, but I would have still preferred to have been back at the waterfall again.

For lunch, we had a nice box filled with nothing but pastries and a juice box. It would not have been my first choice for a boxed lunch, but I guess it did get the job done. While we were driving along the road, the scenery was incredible. Since Taiwan is a volcanic island, there are many steep mountains. On the eastern side, the mountains extend right to the sea. The location of the road was basically right on these cliffs from the mountains where you could look down a few hundred feet and see the beaches below you. It was another spectacular sight. The only problem was my fear that the bus was going to tip over and fall down the mountain. Luckily, that never ended up happening.

After looking at many empty beaches on the journey, we pulled off into a small town and went to a beach where we basically had the whole thing to ourselves. It would have been great, but it was the middle of the day and we still had another seven or so hours before we would be able to go to our hotel and take a shower. Therefore, I did not want to get into the water because it would mean that the rest of the day I would be travelling in clothing covered in salt water and sand. I may love beaches, but I hate the feeling of sand once it dries and gets everywhere. At the beginning, only the Brits decided to get into the water. Slowly but surely, more and more people started to get in. Soon, people were teaming up against others and throwing them into the sea. I knew that I eventually I would be the target of one of those attacks. Soon, it was my turn.

When I am either about to get into a fight or forced to do something I don’t want to do, I have just one strategy: run. When people started to come after me I used my speed to my advantage. They tried to get me on about five different occasions, but each time I was able to outrun the mob. However, it was still not a total victory for me. By running along the beach quickly I had tracked ocean water and sand up my shorts. So even though I never went into the ocean there, I still had to deal with the sand that had gotten on me for the rest of the day.

After we had gotten back on the road, the next part of the drive was even better than the previous. We went even higher into the mountains. At one point I looked out and saw a few clouds hanging on the side of the mountains. A few minutes later, we were at that point that I had seen and actually drove through the clouds. That was a first for me. Soon we reached our destination for the evening, Yi-Lan. Yi-Lan county is southeast of Taipei county.

For dinner we went to another night market. As some people I was with were waiting for food, I noticed a stand that had some fried foods. She had these things that looked kind of like real hash browns when they all stick together. I decided to get one of those, which ended up being a good decision. It tasted sort of like a funnel cake, except with potato and cinnamon flavors with it. Eating with some other people, I also had part of some sort of baozi, which was also pretty good. After looking at the food stands there, it offered better food than any of the other night markets I had visited.

When we reached our hotel, for the second straight night I was in a room that housed eight people. The room was great. There was a lounge area that had a big flat-panel television and a speaker set-up. When we got in the room, I walked into the first bedroom I happened to see, which turned out to be the master. I was able to claim the king-sized bed that was in there. It was gloriously large and comfortable. I shared it with Jake, but there was so much room on the bed that it felt like I still had the whole thing to myself. I slept well that night.

Thanks to Grace for the pictures. My camera was dead again.

Yellow Ice Cream and Waterfalls

2009-07-20T23:38:00.000+08:00

July 20

Today was the first day on our four day long trip around the island of Taiwan. It is the part of the Wenzao program that a lot of people had been waiting for. To start, we had to wake up earlier than usual. Each morning when we have activities to do, the intercom will play two songs to wake us up. This morning, they played those songs at 5:30. We were on the road by 6:30.

A couple hours into the journey we took our first rest stop. One of the unique features of the rest stop was that right behind the buildings was the ocean. Before we got off the bus we were told that we were not allowed to go onto the beach. But calling it a beach might not have been the best word. When I think of a beach, I think of sand. There was no sand there. Instead, it was filled with dark gray stones that were really smooth from the water. No matter. I still was able to throw some stones into the sea before we had to get back on the bus.

After the stop, we soon went from traveling along the west coast of the island to traveling east. A few hours later we reached our first destination. It was a campground for one of the aboriginal tribes (I can't remember which one). They did a presentation, but I didn't get a lot out of it because it was all in Chinese. After another lunch of aboriginal foods we had an hour of free time to walk around the area. I wasn't too thrilled to walk around in the sun for very long, so I found a shaded area with ducks and a pond and just stayed there for a while.

The highlight of the day was easily our second destination. We stopped at a big waterfall in the middle of the mountainous area. It would have been fun enough to see the waterfall from the path, but we had the opportunity to walk across the stream and take a little path to get even closer. After our tour guide started walking across the stream, I looked around for a minute to see if we were allowed to go as well. When I realized it was OK, I took off my shoes and socks and followed him. The short trip was worth it. Within about 10 seconds I was already drenched because we were on a flat area right to the side of the waterfall and the mist was intense. Within five or ten minutes, I was cold for the first time on the trip (excluding air conditioning). But I stayed for even longer because it was a lot of fun.

After I went down from that area, I watched two native boys walking up the stream. After watching them walking up, I visualized my path and went up as well. As I was travelling up, the boys came down and I was on my own. After I went part way up, one of the helpers told me not to go any further up. But after talking with the laoshi (teacher) from Beijing who told me to go further, I figured I should listen to the professor.

I went all the way up to the pond where the water was landing and stayed there for about ten minutes. It was great. There is something about being that close to a big waterfall that is unmatched by anything else. I took the opportunity to wash my whole body since I was already soaked, plus take the closest pictures of the waterfall out of the whole group.

Before we reached the hotel, we took a brief stop at a place known for serving unusual ice cream flavors. Three flavors I remember them offering were brandy, wasabi, and durian. Durian is infamous for its strongest scent of any fruit in the world. Pretty much nobody in the world likes the smell, even if they like the taste. Most people either love it or hate it, with most being in the latter category. Guess which flavor I got? I of course got durian, which turned out to be very average in ice cream form. The best part was convincing unsuspecting people that I had bought vanilla and letting them try a little. The looks on their faces when they discovered it was actually durian instead were priceless. Just to get a sense of how potent the smell of durian is, when I got back on the bus with only a spoonful of the ice cream left, someone a few rows ahead of me yelled, “Is that durian? Get that stuff away from me!”

For dinner, we went to another place that served aboriginal food. Correction, they served the ingredients for the food. We had to make it ourselves by crushing all of the ingredients and then adding water to create a sort of soup. After that, they brought out some other dishes. One of the things that I ate was some sort of cooked pig fat. I can’t remember exactly what it was for sure, but I remember being the only one at the table that ate any of it (and everybody else was Chinese or Taiwanese).

At the hotel (which is where we ate dinner); a few of us met with the family that owned the place and drank some tea. After we found out that one of the girls played the flute, we coaxed her to get it and play a song. Then, we mentioned that Minjae, one of the Koreans, played the ocarina. We made him go and play a couple of songs. The second song he played was the Celine Dion song from Titanic. Somehow, we ended up going into a bigger room that must normally be used for parties. Sabina (an Indonesian from Wenzao) played the guitar and Sandy (French) played the drums. We ended up singing a few songs and had some fun. Soon, more people outside heard what was going on and came in. It ended up turning into an impromptu birthday party for Scott, one of the staff members, who was turning 18. We helped him celebrate by giving him a glass of beer, a tradition that would not be legal in the U.S. All in all, it turned out to be a pretty eventful evening.

Team America!

2009-07-19T23:54:00.000+08:00

July 19

Today the school gave us a free day where we were able to do whatever we wanted as long as we returned back to the dorms by 10:30. Since the World Games were now underway, I wanted to make sure that I was able to watch them. The event that I chose for this day was Flying Disk, aka Ultimate Frisbee for the Americans. It was an event where I not only knew that the Americans would be playing, but favored as well. The tickets cost NT100 and covered six games, three in the morning and three in the evening. I was only able to watch two of the games because of other plans for the rest of the day. The last game of the morning session was the United States against Australia (which was also the match-up for the championship game. Yay for retro-diaries!). It was pretty fun to watch. I have to admit, those guys are a little bit better than the people I played with in Chiayi. Unfortunately, the wind in the stadium created problems for the players and prevented many long throws from being made. However, I still got to cheer for the Americans and they responded by winning the game 13-11.

After that, I met up with some of the students from China, as well as one from France. We headed over to the Kaohsiung 85, the second tallest building in Taiwan. I bet you can guess how many floors it has (No Jeremy, it's higher than 12). It was a lot of fun. The view was amazing, and Kaohsiung has many different things to look at. We ended up spending a lot of time there hanging out and talking. There were also plenty of photos taken.

Finally, as the nightcap for the day, all of the students from the Wenzao program were invited to the American athletes night at the Dream Mall. Seeing that I am American, I gladly took the opportunity to meet some of the athletes. The event was pretty good. They set out a lot of food, but by the time that I got around to getting in line for it, everything but the dessert and beer was gone. So it turned out that my dinner was a can of Texas Select. I may not be an expert on Texas beers, but if that is what Texas selected then I have no desire to try the rest of their choices.

I was able to talk to a few of the athletes. There really weren't too many of them at the program. Over half of them were the Dragon boat team, which are the ones that I ended up talking to. One of the interesting things that happened while I was there was getting interviewed. This interview was different than the other ones that I'd had. I was still carrying all of the stuff from Flying Disc, which included the American flag. I had given it to one of the Chinese girls, Jiang Lai, to wear at the American event. The two of us were talking when a woman came up to us and wanted a quick interview, apparently unaware that I was the only American she was talking to. I don't think Jiang Lai was very comfortable being interviewed in English, so the answer she gave was really short. Luckily, my wit and charm made up for her shortcomings. All in all, it was a fun and eventful day.

Arg! Cijin Island

2009-07-18T23:20:00.006+08:00

July 18

In the afternoon one of the things we did was go to a ship-building facility. They are rated the 5th best in the world and specialize in luxury yachts. I wasn't sure whether the tour would be fun or not. It ended up being pretty bland. One of the coolest parts of the tour was the offices. They are swank. The architects designed the building like a yacht and the offices were really nice. They used some of the best furniture that I have seen. It definitely makes having a desk job there more relaxing. However, other than that, the tour itself was pretty boring.

We also went to the Cijin island. It is an island just off the coast of Kaohsiung City. We went to the beach, but were not even allowed to get on the sand. It was kind of lame. But after going to the ocean, we went to an old military fort that had some great views. They also had my favorite sign that I have ever seen there.

For dinner we went to a seafood place and it was really good. The system is simple. Each plate costs NT100 and you just order whatever you want. The portions are designed for bigger groups. Our table must have gone through at least 12 different dishes. The food was good, but still cannot compare to the meal that I had at my home stay.

After dinner we went to another night market near the island. Or on it, I'm not exactly sure. Anyways, I spent the time talking to a Chinese girl, Jiang Lai. We just walked around for awhile and went down to Love River for a few minutes before having a dessert where they use shaved ice on top of fruit with milk. It was pretty tasty.

World Games Begin!

2009-07-17T23:46:00.004+08:00

July 16

There are aboriginal dancers in this picture, they are just hard to see

What a day! It was easily the best day that I have had since arriving here. In the afternoon, Wenzao brought in a Chinese yo-yo group. They are also known as diablos (the spell check wanted me to change that to diabetes). I saw a group a while back that came to a church. I was expecting a similar performance with these guys. Little did I know that these guys in Taiwan are the best in the world. The tricks that they performed were nothing short of spectacular. For example, one of the tricks that I liked was essentially an around the world where he only held one stick and swung around the other. With a normal yo-yo, the trick is not impressive. However, when the yo-yo is not attached to the string it becomes much better. Other tricks they did included wrapping around body parts and swinging the diablo like a mad man. After that, we were able to try it ourselves. I found out that I'm actually kind of decent with them. I am considering bringing a set back with me because it would be a fun activity to do in my free time.

While that alone would have been the highlight of pretty much any day here, it still cannot compare to the Opening Ceremony of the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. We were able to attend through the Wenzao program. We didn't have to pay a dime for the tickets. The show was amazing. After learning so much about the Taiwanese culture being here for this long it made the show even better. They highlighted the aboriginal groups as well as did more modern things. I liked when they did the part where a bunch of people on scooters came out because it really is part of Taiwan. Whenever I see a scooter from now on, I will instantly think of my time in Taiwan.

My favorite part was the walkout with the athletes. Since the US was one of the last countries to be called, I was very antsy to cheer for them. I was able to get an American flag through security (that's another story, I was very close to not getting it in because it was too big) and was standing up and cheering throughout the ceremony. When the US was called I screamed as loud as I could and waved the flag. I can't even count how many different people that have pictures of me doing this, because there were a lot of people that turned around and took pictures. But it was still a lot of fun. Considering how short this post is to others is kind of weird. It's just hard to describe. But it was still spectacular.

More pictures here. A slide show taken by a professional is here.

How Many Abodiginals Do You See Modeling?

2009-07-15T13:10:00.000+08:00

July 14

Today was yet another fun day. In the afternoon we took a trip to the Taiwan Aboriginal Park. There are something like 14 tribes native to the island, and each have many different rituals and cultures. We watched a performance of some of the cultures. The show was hit or miss as far as the individual scenes. My favorite part was actually the welcoming, where they played many different percussion instruments. I am a sucker for percussion acts.

After that we were able to explore some of the different areas in the park. One of the things that they did during the performance was use a rope swing. It was different from other swings because there are two ropes that come off the sides. The job of the person on the swing is just to sit, because two other people get on the sides of the swing and pull the person back and forth. We were able to go to an area that had one of the rope swings and I was able to go. It was really relaxing, but really taxing on the people that have to help you out. My time on the swing was probably about a minute long.

The highlight of the day was still the restaurant that we ate at afterwards. It served aboriginal food, which was alright, but that wasn't the best part. The best part was the spectacular view. We were well outside of the city of Kaohsiung, but off in the distance we were able to see some of the tall buildings. It was really cool because they have the Kaohsiung 85, which is 85 stories high. In the city it looks like a tall building, but from the distance it appears dwarf the other buildings. Closer to where we were, we were still in the middle of a mountain so the view closer was also great. As Jake was telling me, it would be a great place to throw a party and have a few drinks with friends with an amazing view.

I apologize for no pictures, especially since the whole post is about things that are best seen, but my camera batteries were depleted so I couldn't take any pictures. I will try to ask around to find some. If I am successful I will edit this post to include them.

Bardom

2009-07-14T21:00:00.003+08:00

July 13

Today was another pretty fun day. We started off by having our first Chinese class of the second week. Things are starting to get a little bit better since we started to cover numbers and food, things that are much more practical to know than just “I am from the United States.” Still, this is a very challenging language to learn but I am trying hard to learn new words. Now when I listen to conversations in Mandarin, I try to see what words I recognize. Usually I can recognize at least a couple of them.

In the afternoon, one of the activities that we did was learn how to make tea. It sounds really simple, but there are actually quite a few steps that you need to perform. I was sitting at the same table as a girl from Japan, two Chinese, and a guy from Thailand. I joked that Americans only know how to put a teabag into a cup and add water. There are many different elements to the process. One of the cups is only used to smell the tea. One of the pots is only used to filter the tea. It was actually a lot of fun because I really enjoy hanging out with people from different cultures. Now that we've been here for a while, people are starting to get more comfortable talking to people from different areas which makes for a lot of fun.

In the evening we had a free night where we were able to go out and do whatever we want (until our 10:30 curfew of course). I went with three Koreans and a Chinese guy that teaches in Korea. He is fluent in Chinese, Korean, and English. We went to a local restaurant where the cost for each of us came to about NT45. It is so nice to eat dinner here for a little more than one US dollar.

After that I tried to get the people that were around to go out and do something. A lot of them were not too enthused, so I ended up going with a Korean guy, a Taiwanese girl, and a Korean girl. We went to a local bar that we discovered is owned by a Canadian guy that looks like he's only about 30 years old. The only problem with the place was the prices. A pitcher of the cheaper beer still ran at NT360. It's weird that the food here remains pretty cheap here no matter where you go, but some of the bars charge a substantial amount. Whatever. We split the pitcher three ways and just talked for awhile. After that we played steel-tipped darts. Apparently I was the only one who had played before, so we played a 1 v. 3 game. I would guess that I still won half of the time. After that, we went back at around 10 to meet curfew, but I ended up talking with more people 'til about 1:30 in the morning. I still can't believe how many dirty words the Brits can think of.

Wenzao!

2009-07-09T23:54:00.006+08:00

July 9

Sorry for the lack of posts. Now that we are doing more activities it is becoming more difficult to post. But just be sure that we are having a lot of fun. I will give a really short description of what we did yesterday. In the afternoon after the Chinese lessons we took a tour of Kaohsiung. The first stop that we took was of a museum. It was fun, but still nothing to write home about. After that, we went to the former British consulate, which was really awesome. The view was incredible and well worth the trip. On one side of the building you could see a great view of the ocean and a couple of docks, and on the other side was one of the best views of the Kaohsiung skyline. I imagine that if we went at nighttime it would be absolutely spectacular. We went to the Dream Mall and that is where we ate dinner. The Dream Mall is just a really big mall that is Western in its style. One of the cool features is that it has a ferris wheel on the top of the 9 story building, so I imagine that it would also offer a really good view if you were willing to fork out the NT150. The final stop of the night was the Love River. It's also really nice and relaxing at night. As you might figure, it's a good place to take a significant other.

As for the days activities, in the afternoon we listened to a lecture on Taiwan and its position in the international world. It sounds like an interesting topic, especially for me, but it ended up being really boring. For part of the time I even had trouble staying awake. He was very scattered in his thoughts and I was pretty disappointed overall. After that we played dodge ball. The rules here are a bit different. There is only one ball that is used and there are people that surround the opposing team on the outside. Nothing happens if you catch the ball. Basically, the games are really slow and go on for a long time. All in all, it wasn't very exciting.

The highlight of the day was going to the Night Market. It is on of the bigger ones in Kaohsiung. A button fell off on one of my pairs of shorts so one of the things that I got there was a belt for NT100. It is nothing special, but at least it will hold my pants up. I stayed with Craig from England and Christine from Indonesia. Christine is one of the helpers in the program who is fluent in Chinese, English, and Indonesian (?). We also played a game where they have air-soft guns and you have to shoot all of the balloons.

It was really funny because Craig had never shot a gun before because of the strict

gun laws in the UK so we had a UK vs. US challenge. He ended up winning because I tried to be a hotshot and not use the sights which ended up being a poor decision. Oh well, it was still fun. For the prize, we pooled our points together and got a Sponge Bob light. Finally, the three of us all got about a pint sized Heineken green tea, which of course was delicious. After that we went bowling for a little bit, but weren't even able to complete the game because of the 10:30 curfew that the school enforces. If you aren't in by 10:30, you can't even get into the campus. So we had to leave the game before we could get to the 10^th frame, but at least the cost was only NT60 for the shoes and the game. The taxi ride split four ways was NT25 more. All in all, it was a fun evening and I am looking forward to tomorrow for the first culture night.

There are students from 8 different countries here, and tomorrow each of the groups have to do a traditional dance or theatre. It should actually be a lot of fun because nobody really wants to dance in front of the group, so it could provide some interesting moments. The three Americans here are going to get funky funky funky and do the Cha Cha Slide as our dance. We are going to tie it to traditional line dancing. It should be enjoyable. Alright, we'll see when I get around to blogging next. Opening Ceremony for the World Games is less than a week away!

Independence Day Half a World Away

2009-07-05T16:40:00.005+08:00

July 4

Today I made the trek from Chiayi to Kaohsiung (pronounced Gow-shung). As a side note, try breaking the habit of typing “sh” when pronouncing that sound. I have to remind myself every time I write it that the “h” comes before the “s.” Anyways, I left the familiarity of the practice hotel where I had lived the whole time I have been here (except for my time in the Philippines). After cleaning the place, which took longer than expected, I got a taxi and went down to the local train station. An hour and 15 minute train ride later I was in Kaohsiung (that took me at least 5 seconds to type that time). Somehow I got confused on where to go and took an emergency exit down to the main level. Yup, even with all of this traveling I am still an idiot when it comes to simple things. I am able to travel to different countries, but don't expect me to find the stairs.

I met two of the people from Wenzao University, Scott and Tina. As Ray and Emilie pointed out, Tina is a very common English name for the Taiwanese to adopt. As they say, the Taiwanese “are still stuck in the '60s” when it comes to American names. They took me to a street close to the station where I was able to get lunch. Since they speak English I was actually able to know what I was ordering. The pork noodles were tasty and cheap. The meal cost NT50.

After that, we went back to the station and took the MRT to the Kaohsiung Arena stop. The students told me that the KMRT was different than the MRT in Taipei, but I thought it was pretty similar. It only opened a year ago, so the facilities were really nice, just like the rest of the public transportation facilities. Luckily Scott and Tina were with me because there was one difference when getting the token. In Taipei, you just look at the map and the fare is on each stop so you just enter the token amount in the computer. On the KMRT, there is a map that you physically have to press the stop you want. It is really convenient, but the map was so new that I wasn't able to tell that I had to press it. I just kept hitting 20 and wondering why the screen wasn't changing. But once the snafu had been settled we were on our way.

From the stop we took a taxi to the school, and the school covered the fare. Awesome! They gave me a quick little tour of the campus and then took me to the dorms. The dorms are also in great condition. The main problem that I discovered is that there are no mattresses at all. Apparently when they said to bring bedding materials, they meant all bedding materials. It looks like I will be spending the next three weeks sleeping on a wooden board. Oh well, I can tough it out.

While I was in the room, they also made me fill out a few forms and explained some of the rules of the building. The best part about going through the rules was finding out that I was already breaking one. I found out that alcohol was not allowed in the dorms, which makes sense. Normally, this would not be a problem, as I am not a degenerate drunk and don't carry booze on my person. However, when we got out of the cab, we made a brief stop at a tea stand. I decided to try my first Heineken green tea. When they were going over the rules I was still holding the tea in my hand. Tina and I both just looked at each other and decided that I was just holding tea. Crisis averted.

By the way, Heineken green tea is pretty awesome. It tastes much like green tea, except it still has the kick from the beer. Since I liked that, I am going to try the recommendation to go with the Heineken green tea with passion fruit next time. I am surprised that they don't serve it in America seeing as it combines the two amazing ingredients of beer and tea. It's gotta be one of the healthiest alcoholic beverages on the market. After drinking it, my body seemed to be confused. It didn't know whether to be tired or awake. Right now I still feel kind of drowsy.

And that's basically where I'm at right now. Both Scott and Tina had to do other things, so I am just sitting in the room typing this up waiting for 6:30 to come when we will go out for dinner. This is not going to be posted immediately because there is a problem with the internet. The school configured the internet so that you need to type the IP address in before you can access the network. Unfortunately, they only have the instructions to do it for Windows operating systems. Since my computer runs on Ubuntu Linux we were not able to figure out how to configure it. Later on we will try again. If worse comes to worse I can always borrow other peoples computers long enough to send out e-mails and update the blog.

Anyways, I am really excited to be here and already had a chance to look at the itinerary and it looks amazing! There are so many trips and other events that I am really looking forward to. And I would like to thank Taiwan's Ministry of Education in advance because there is no way that this could cost $250US without their help. With all of the stuff that we are going to do, the actual cost for all of this is probably at least three times what I paid. All in all, it looks like this is going to be an awesome three weeks. I'll be sure to keep writing for the blog, even if I am not able to post the entries very often. Take care friends.

I'm Lovin' it

2009-07-02T21:36:00.002+08:00

So today was my second full day alone in Chiayi.It would have been my sixth in a row here had the whole visa thing not been a problem. Since there is not a whole lot going on right now, I will talk about my dinner tonight. I decided to go somewhere exotic. I chose...McDonalds. Yeah, I know that I should be trying all sorts of new things while I'm over here, but I haven't had too much to eat the past couple of days so I decided that I needed an influx of calories. McDonalds was happy to oblige.

When we were in Kending, we ate at McDonalds both mornings and ordering was easy. We just pointed to what we wanted and it worked out just fine. Here in Chiayi it was not so simple. I tried the pointing technique was unsuccessful and the girl at the register was kind of scared that we weren't able to communicate. Luckily, she brought over someone else who knew enough English to take my order and the crisis was averted.

One of the things that I have wanted to try since arriving to Taiwan is the Super Big Mac. I actually don't know what it is really called since I still know a grand total of one Chinese character. But anyways, the brilliance behind this beast of a burger is that instead of two all beef patties, they double it to four. And let me tell you, four is greater than two. The only complaint that I have is that it loses some of the special sauciness because the beef to sauce ratio increases. But other than that small detail it was pretty great.

Before she left, my sister and I decided that the only reason this beast of a burger isn't sold in the US is because health advocates would rip them apart for the decision. On a side note, why do we call them health advocates anyway? How many people are against health? Anyways, I think that if this burger made its way to the states it would be a big success.

1898

2009-06-30T22:05:00.001+08:00

June 29

Day Two- Much Better Than Day One

It was a slow start to the day today. The morning is when the streets are busiest with people that will try to rip you off. They are absolutely everywhere. It is impossible to avoid people that want to make some sort of deal with you. Because of that, and the guy I “owe” Php 200, I elected not to go out in the morning and instead watch television until noon. At noon, I elected to go do the same lunch that I did yesterday. Today's menu was not as good. The curry chicken with fried noodles and white rice was alright, but not nearly as good as yesterdays jerk chicken. However, I was still able to access the internet and get caught up on some things.

For the afternoon, I was in “Don't get ripped off” mode. On the internet I saw that I was close to the American Embassy as well as a big park so I decided to check those out. It was definitely a good choice. The US Embassy was huge, way bigger than any of the other ones that I saw. They have like three different areas just for Filipinos to get US visas. I would have pictures of it, but I barely had my camera out of my pocket before two security guards started yelling at me. So no pictures on that front.

I was about to skip the park because of how huge the intersection was to get to it. That's one thing about the streets here: it takes a serious amount of testosterone to cross. While the area may have crosswalks, the preferred strategy to cross is to wait for the smallest gap and then just start walking. It is common for people to be halfway in the street waiting for another car or two to pass before they reach the median. Then they repeat the process again.

So instead I crossed the street at a different point and looked around the area there. Little did I know that I was still entering the park, just at the very end of it. From there, I was able to get to the rest of the park at an easier section in the road. The park was huge and had lots of stuff in it. It was not just a big area of grass. There were many statues and monuments. I can't say for sure, but I believe that it is the national park. One of the main areas has a plaque commemorating the exact location where the United States granted the Filipinos independence on July 4, 1946. It made me wonder how much fun it would be to celebrate independence day halfway across the world around people that are doing the same thing.

I was checking out a cool little bridge area when a man said that I couldn't walk there. So I walked to another statue and he approached me and started telling me information. He told me he would show me some of the other areas in the park. Weary of getting ripped off again, I let him take me there but I knew that I needed to make terms with him before he showed me too much. Two of the areas that he showed me were a Chinese area and a chess park. The highlight of the Chinese park was the big statue of Confucius. I was surprised that he had an influence all the way down in the Philippines. The interesting part of the chess area was how quick the games go. Most of the players played games where they would start out with 5 minutes and no time would be added per turn. These guys were absolutely flying. At one point in the game, the button barely popped up on their side before the player would pound it down again. I found out that it is 10 pesos (about 20 cents US) per hour to use the equipment. Not too shabby. Still weary of getting ripped off, I declined the multiple offers to play a game. Oh yeah, un-timed chess here is called “Long Chess.”

When the told me he would show me another area of the park, I knew it was time to talk money. He explained to me that he did it for goodwill and if people felt inclined they could give him a donation at the end. I explained what happened to me yesterday and he told me that not all Filipinos were like that. Scam artists give a bad reputation to the rest of the people. I wanted to believe him, but I still had to be hesitant.

Next, he told me that we would go to see an old Spanish fort, and I made sure it was close by before I went with him. It ended up being pretty cool and offered a great view of a spectacular golf course and some of the government buildings. After that we went back to the park and that's where he said we would part ways. I gave him a 20 peso and he insisted that we buy water with it. We both got a water and then parted ways. In hindsight, I should have given him more than that since he showed me areas that otherwise I would not have seen. A 50 or 100 would have been more appropriate. I also feel bad for lying to him because I told him early on before I realized that he actually was a good man that my parents were staying back at the hotel. I said that I was leaving in two days and if we weren't doing anything I would invite my family back to the park to get a better tour. He said that he would take us on the train and the jeepneys (kind-of long pick-ups with benches in the back used as buses) to get places so I wouldn't get ripped off by taking a cab again. At least I told him that we would probably have plans. In any case, if you are ever in Manila and looking for a cool historical tour, I would highly recommend walking to Rizal Park and looking for the man named Paul.

Life in the Philippines- Bad Start

2009-06-28T13:56:00.001+08:00

June 28

Wow. What a start to my first full day in the Philippines. One of the first things that I did was get outside to explore the area that I'm staying in. Along the road as I was walking towards the ocean, a man approached me and said that he remembered me from the hotel last night. He said that he worked there. He introduced himself as Rico and I told him that I was Graham. He then told me that it was his day off and that he would take me and show me some of the touristy things. The first thing that we did was explore the coast next to the hotels. I was expecting a beach, but instead it's really just the ocean with a wall in the area that I'm staying at. He pointed to a few different things, one of which being the American Embassy, which I was thankful for.

He also was talking about an American cemetery that was nearby for the Filipino and American soldiers that had died during World War II. I thought we were going to walk there but instead he hailed a cab. At this point, I was too much of an idiot to ask how much it would cost. I thought that it was just going to be a quick ride. Instead, it turned out to be probably a 15 minute ride. I was very nervous at this point and realized that this guy was going to try to take advantage of me.

Once we got there, however, the cemetery was really beautiful. The grass was perfectly trimmed and the facilities were in pristine condition. I would have stayed and enjoyed it longer, but the taxi parked instead of leaving, and that's when I realized that I was in serious trouble. At this point, he was talking about taking me to another location, and that's when I finally asked him about how much this whole deal would set me back. He told me $100. I was thinking Philippine Pesos. He was not. I said that I could handle that. Somehow, the message became clear that he was talking about American dollars and the situation got more interesting. I said that I was unwilling to pay $100 American for anything and he said that instead I could pay $2500 peso. I said that that plan would not work either. I told him that I was only carrying $500 peso. He told me that we could go back to the hotel for $1000 peso. I reluctantly agreed to that offer. I pulled out $500 peso, but he saw that I was carrying more than just the one bill. After talking with him a little more I gave him another $300 peso with the agreement to pay the last $200 once we reached the hotel.

The ride home was very tense. He called about three different people and was absolutely livid. At least whenever he was talking to me he was much calmer. He ended up getting dropped off close to the hotel so he could be with his “baby” that he kept talking about. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that. He also wanted a bottle of milk for his baby because it was its birthday. But before the taxi rode away, I made sure that all of the expenses were already paid. The driver said that they were. He then drove a couple more blocks and dropped me off. As of now, I have still only paid the $800 peso. I don't plan on paying any more because it looked like my money was the only money that was given to the cab driver. The thing that makes me nervous is that he knows where I am staying because I stupidly said my hostel, even though the hotel that he thought I was staying at was right across the street. But I forgot the name of that when we were driving so I just wanted to make sure that I got back successfully. I am now out $800 peso but at least I know from now on ALWAYS to ask for the cost before I do anything. There is no such thing as free hospitality in the area that I am staying.

One Bad Trip to Manila

2009-06-27T22:02:00.001+08:00

June 26-27

This is not exactly what I expected. To make a long story short-scratch that. To not have to repeat a story that makes me mad, I was not able to receive a visa extension on the trip to Taipei. Therefore, to be able to study for the full stay, I had to leave Taiwan and then return in order to get a fresh 30 day stay. So I needed to look for a cheap place to stay for a few days. The two cheapest choices that I found were Thailand and the Philippines. Since Thailand has so many political problems, the choice became pretty easy- I would spend a few days in Manila.

Since Alex, Ray, Emilie, and I were already in Taipei, I looked for a flight that would depart while I was still in town. That would save money as opposed to traveling back to Chiayi and then coming back to Taipei a couple of days later. One of the drawbacks to this was that I had only packed for a one night stay in Taipei. Luckily for me, I had packed a few extra things, but still not enough for the three night stay in Manila. Even with that problem, I still booked an 11:00 am flight to Manila at about 9:00 pm the night before.

After all of the shenanigans, the four of us still elected to check out some of the bars in the area. The one that we decided on was a bar that was going to have a live band playing about 20 minutes after we got there. We decided that it was worth the NT600 charge to go. The band ended up being really awesome. They were a Taiwanese group that played a lot of American covers. They had both a male and a female singer. Both had really great voices and their English was pretty much spot on. They both talked with a good Midwestern accent. Unfortunately, the ventilation was poor and it got smoky pretty quickly. Ray ended up having problems with his asthma and I joined him for the taxi ride home.

In the morning, I woke up around 7 and began my trek to the second largest archipelago in the world. After a scary bus ride where we almost got into an accident, I successfully made it to the airport. Surprisingly, there were no problems getting my boarding pass and getting through immigration. The flight was nice and I was glad that I got a window seat because I was able to look at the different islands that we were flying over on the way down. Arriving was interesting, because apparently our plane was too small to use the normal gate (it appeared that only the big 747 and 777s could use it) so we had to take a bus to the terminal. Customs in the Philippines was pretty nuts because we also had to fill out a health form. On each of the three forms that were required, each one asked to write a permanent Philippines address. I didn't realize that it meant the hotel or hostel that I was staying at so there were problems fixing my forms. I am so glad that I had my hostel information on my Expeedia confirmation because I'm not sure if they would have let me into the country otherwise. They seemed to be very strict about having a place to stay. Once I got through that part though, the rest was really easy. Going through Customs, they didn't even check what was in my backpack.

The taxi ride to the hostel was eye opening because I quickly learned how little importance lanes are here. There were people driving between lanes and the congestion was so bad that I wondered if people just picked a lane if it would be nearly as bad. I successfully arrived at the hostel and got checked in. After a nap, I had dinner at a seafood place. It was delicious. I got a seafood dish were I dipped my assorted animals into a mix of soy sauce, chili mix, and some sort of little green citrus food. The woman told me the name of it but I quickly forgot. Whatever it is, it added an excellent kick to the dish and made it worthwhile to order.

The main drawback to the area so far is sticking out as an American. So far walking down about two blocks I have already been offered some silver coins, 2 different sets of watches, ganja, Viagra, and of course, a full body massage with the emphasis on “full body.” It makes me realize how much I enjoy staying in Taiwan because being American is a cool thing, but for the most part they will still leave you alone. Here, it appears that being an American is just going to be a hassle and people will just try to take advantage of me. Hopefully I will be wrong about that.

$50 Wine Never Tasted So Bad

2009-06-24T00:11:00.000+08:00

Today was a pretty low key day. I don't even think that I left the house until about three in the afternoon. Basically the highlight of the day for me was trying the rice wine that I bought yesterday. I figured that it would have a similar taste to regular wine, just not as good. Instead it tasted “like watered down vodka,” as Alex described it. As I am writing this at midnight, my glass is still half-full but I haven't the heart to throw it away.

Let's Play a Game: Alcohol...or Paint Thinner

2009-06-23T16:51:00.002+08:00

Yesterday was a pretty low key day. The highlight was visiting the alcohol museum in town. It is home to the local liquor distillery. They had a little walk-through exhibit that had some interesting exhibits. Overall, it wasn't too fancy, but college kids across the world can appreciate how much of a positive spin they put on alcohol. The best part about going was being able to look at all of the different liquors at the end. They also have a sampling station where you can try some of the liquors. After just two little sips, it was clear that some of the stuff that they brew is potent. After looking at the different liquors, I decided to buy a bottle of rice wine. It was $50 NT (under a buck-fifty). I might look around later while I am here by myself and see what else they had because we got there near closing time.

Kenting: It's a Good Place to Visit, But You Wouldn't Want to Die There

2009-06-21T20:48:00.002+08:00

June 20

Today the four of us had our first full day in Kending. It did not go according to plan. Kending is the southern-most part of the island. The area is renowned for their beaches and hot weather. Off the coast, there was a tropical storm about 200 kilometers away. Because of that, the waves were rockin' today.

We decided to get two surfboards and split time with them. Only Alex was experienced at surfing so he got one for himself and the other three of us split the other. After Ray did a good job of surfing, I decided to give it a go. I was pretty terrible at surfing. I was never even able to stand up while I was there. After a few minutes, I realized that I was pretty far away from land. What I quickly realized, however, is that I was unable to get any closer to land because there was a rip-tide pulling me further away. I fought it for awhile but ended up even further away from the coast. The situation was not good. Ray and Emilie were on the beach and started to look for me. I waved to them but I did a poor job explaining that I was stuck in the sea.

I was able to finally get the attention of Alex and explained that I couldn't get any closer to land. He told me to try to move sideways to escape the current. The only thing that did was made me further away from everybody else. After struggling for a few more minutes, Ray and Emilie both swam out to help us. Ray was going for me at first, but then ended up with Alex. Emilie, after lots of struggling through the waves, was able to reach me. Together, we made some progress to get close, but still not a substantial amount. As we slowly made a diagonal path towards the land, two Aussies saw our plight and asked if we were alright. I quickly responded that we weren't, because I was already exhausted from trying to get in myself. He helped pull us in by having Emilie grab his tow and also hold my surfboard. Pretty soon, we were back to where the waves were breaking. I was so tired at this point that I wasn't able to keep my head above water when the waves came by. As we started to get towards the shallow water, I began to dry heave. I was mad at myself for not even being able to wait until we got onto land to do it. I was able to not throw up, which I guess is a positive. Overall, that will probably be the last surfing experience that I ever have during my lifetime and I am thankful that nothing worse happened.

To top off that experience, after we had returned the boards it began to rain hard. Having taken the scooters there, we had a good 25 minute ride home getting pelted by rain. I was on the scooter with Ray and I was shaking and I know that he was cold as well. I at least had the benefit of his body blocking a decent amount of the rain and the wind. It was the first time since I have gotten to Taiwan that I was wishing it was warmer.

Things got better after that and we went back out to the market. We ate at a Mexican restaurant which was surprisingly good. I also thought it was a lot of fun when the Chinese guy starting singing and playing the guitar. He played songs from groups such as Maroon 5, James Taylor, and Tom Petty. It was a lot of fun.

I also had my first tasting of stinky tofu. I bet you can guess why it gets its name. It was actually really good, and I'm not even a big tofu fan. One thing I have learned here is that when you get the opportunity to add spiciness to your meals, go for it. They don't just add hotness to the dish, they add flavor with it. The kick to the tofu made it really tasty.

Later in the day we went back out to the market and had a drink at a trendy little bar. I was lame and went with a salty dog because I knew I would like that. We talked for a while and came into agreement that it was a good thing that none of us died today. I would have taken more pictures, but the batteries to my camera died and the backups were dead as well.

Baseball Far, Far Away

2009-06-18T23:56:00.002+08:00

June 18

In the afternoon, Ray, Alex, and I took a bike ride down to the Chiayi park. Just like in Tainan, it is right in the middle of everything but absolutely gorgeous. It was also quite a bit larger than the park in Tainan. We walked around and saw a bunch of interesting things. We came across Chiayi tower and decided to go up. It was a good view of the city, but the smog limits the view of the mountains. We saw that there was a baseball game going on nearby from the tower, and decided to check that out. Unfortunately, once we got inside I forgot to take any pictures. It was a nice park where that the professional teams use when they come to town. The Taiwan baseball league is different in that the teams are sponsored. Instead of being located in one city, they play all over the island. After watching a few innings of what appeared to be a high school game, we went back because it looked like a storm could hit soon.

For dinner, a bunch of us went to eat at a Thai restaurant. I went for the spicy drunken beef with cashews. It was awesome. I also noticed that my chopstick handling is getting better. I had little problems grabbing the cashews.

After dinner we went bowling. The lane that we got stuck with was possessed. It would randomly put down the guard and stop our balls. The girl working there had to have come over at least 10 times to correct our score. Because of all of the delays, the group next to us finished way ahead of us. So we were able to switch our scores and play on a lane that was working better. When we switched, I was bowling a perfect game through two frames. I proceeded to get a spare followed by two more strikes. I was feeling it. The next ball that I threw got 9 pins, leaving the 7 pin remaining. But there was another problem with the lane, and it reset the pins. In the first game I bowled it happened, but I really didn't care because I was bowling a fairly average game. But in this game, since I was going for a high score (I've been stuck at 199 for a long time) I wanted to make sure that the game had no hiccups. Luckily Mark knew enough Chinese to ask them to fix the problem. He told them that I was going for a high score, and they actually sent a guy down there who pushed all of the pins down except for the one that I had missed. The whole process of getting everything ready took over 5 minutes. After all of that work, I ended up missing the pin by a fraction of an inch. The rest of my game ended up falling apart on me and I ended up with a 168. That game could haunt me for a long time.

To make things worse, the reason we went bowling in the first place was because I had an outstanding challenge with Anna. She was one of the bridesmaids at my sisters wedding and went bowling after the reception in her dress. There was a deal that if I came to Taiwan there would be a rematch. Well she ended up bowling a 128 which was awesome, but all of the drama surrounding my game hid the fact that she did really well. I guess there just might have to be another challenge at a later time.

Additional pictures here.

Confucious Says...

2009-06-18T09:00:00.005+08:00

June 17

Today we took a day trip to Tainan. It was about an hour trip on the train. The first thing that we did while we were there was visit a Confucian Temple. It was the oldest one in Taiwan. They had some interesting things in there and the architecture was pretty spectacular. I also got to witness the first squat toilet that I've seen in their country in the bathroom.

The second place that we visited was the Golden Fortress. It was the most aesthetically pleasing military fixture that I have ever seen. There was a Japanese tour group that went in before us, so we ended up following them around just to make sure that we saw everything that was supposed to be seen inside.

The worst part about the day was easily the heat. It was definitely the hottest day since we got here and the buildings and concrete just trap and radiate the heat. We took a taxi out to the fortress, but it was outside of the main traffic areas. When we were finished looking at that, we had to walk back far enough into town to hail a cab. When we were walking back, there was absolutely no shade and the sun made the conditions absolutely brutal. Luckily, we survived.

After we bought our tickets for the trip back to Chiayi, we looked around for stuff to do and found a park nearby. Once again, it looked amazing.

More photos here.

Night Market

2009-06-16T23:39:00.000+08:00

June 16

In the afternoon today we took a trip to the pool. It was a lot of fun because they had an area where there were a bunch of different areas with the water jets. You could go from station to station and push a button to get water jets on different parts of the body. It's kind of hard to explain, but it was a very relaxing afternoon.

For dinner we ate at a Japanese sushi bar, where there is a conveyor belt of dishes that you are able to grab. At the end when you pay, the workers just count the number of plates and charge 30 NT per plate (a little under a dollar). It was fun, and I was able to try salmon eggs for the first time. They are little orange salty balls and weren't too bad.

After that, we headed over to the night market, which has a variety of snack foods, toys, shoes, apparel, and much more. I didn't end up getting anything this time, but when I go back I plan on buying a mask so I can breathe easier when I ride around on the bike. The exhaust combined with the heat combined with my asthma makes riding my bike a lung burning ordeal. It also reminds me too much of working at the go kart track for all of the wrong reasons. Sorry again for the lack of pictures. I'll be sure to take the camera tomorrow when Alex and I go to Tainan!

Cloudy with a chance of Sunburn

2009-06-15T22:39:00.004+08:00

Today was overcast all day. However, that did not prevent me from getting sunburned. I think I am whiter than Conan O'Brien. All over campus, the children were wondering what that delicious smell was, only to discover that it was the pasty white American smoldering in the heat.

The most interesting part of today was that it offered the first opportunity for me to navigate the streets. The streets have essentially three lanes in the high traffic areas. The rightmost lane in the street is for scooters and bikes, and the others are for cars. However, with the relaxed traffic laws, the first couple of lanes are a crazy mix of bikes, scooters, and cars. I am still not yet fully comfortable going down the road on the bike in some of the busier sections. Left hand turns are also kind of nerve wracking. I would explain more but the sleeping pills I took tonight are starting to kick in. I woke up at 5 this morning and I don't want that to happen again. I'm sure the more I am on the streets by myself, the more I can explain. Until then, enjoy your Monday. I know I did.

I Can't Feel My Legs

2009-06-15T07:10:00.001+08:00

June 14

Today I got to experience my first church service where English was not the main language spoken (Ed's note: that is not true. I have witnessed services in Creole and Spanish before). It was pretty cool because the songs and the Bible have English and Chinese right by each other so you can follow along. For the sermon, there is a woman who is fluent in both languages and translates for the English speakers into a microphone. The English speakers can use a headset to listen to the English translation. I felt like a part of the United Nations during the sermon.

After church, the four of us went to a Japanese restaurant for lunch. Seeing as I want to try as many different foods as possible, I went for the squid dish. The squid had an interesting consistency. It was kind of crunchy, but was seasoned great and I enjoyed it.

In the afternoon, a bunch of the teachers played Ultimate Frisbee and I got to join them. Apparently, not working out since the conclusion of soccer season has made me really out of shape. I'm sure the 30 degree increase in temperature and the constant humidity do not help, either. We played for a couple of hours and had a great time. The best part was when it rained for about 10 minutes which really cooled us off. In the end, it was exhausting.

In the evening we went to a movie. The nice thing about the theaters here is that they show American movies with Chinese subtitles. We saw The Hangover, which I thought was sub-par. But it was still a fun experience. Apparently, Transformers 2 comes out here earlier than in the States, so I hope to watch it before you loser Americans have the opportunity to see it. The other thing that is cool about the theaters is that you can take in any sort of food or drink into the theater as long as it doesn't smell. I didn't take advantage of that today, but I hope to bring in a beer next time I go.

In the Land of Chiang

2009-06-15T07:09:00.002+08:00

June 13

We hung out in Taipei on Saturday. It's a pretty crazy city. Plenty of stuff going on. The first place that we went once we got up was the Taipei 101. It currently is the tallest finished building in the world (there is a building in Dubai that is taller but it isn't finished yet). It was tall. When we went inside, the first few floors have a ton of different stores. What's interesting is that nothing is Asian. They are all Western style stores and they are not cheap. They are all upscale and it was weird because I never saw anybody inside of any of those stores.

The second place we visited was awesome. We went over to the Chiang Kai-shek memorial. The place was hoppin' that day. There are three large buildings and in the center is a large square. We were unaware of it when we went over, but there was a marching band competition going on. The place was packed. We were still able to head over to the monument and the museum. The monument was massive and it was awesome. It reminded me of the Lincoln memorial with an Asian flair. The museum was great as well with some pretty cool stuff inside. I liked some of the informational signs that they had because they definitely took a different perspective than what we talked about in my history classes.

After that we took the High Speed Rail from Taipei to Chiayi where my sister and all of the other teachers live. We ate a good dinner of a beef and noodle soup. After that we went out to a seafood restaurant and got a few beers. I also got to meet a few more of the teachers that stay here. We played two different card games that I had never played before, and I won each game on the first try. Yeah, I'm that good.
Thanks to Mangmang for the pictures of Chiang kai-shek memorial.

Bladder Envy

2009-06-15T07:07:00.001+08:00

June 12

It was really depressing to turn on this laptop. I am writing this entry on the flight from Tokyo to Taipei. The clock on the computer, still set to central time, just changed to 6:00 am. I have actually been successful in adjusting my body to the 13 hour difference. On the flight from Chicago to Tokyo, after the meal I took some sleeping pills and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to sleep. The results were decent. I probably took 3 naps at one hour apiece. Unfortunately, now it is 7:00 pm local time and I am trying to stay awake long enough to get in the airport and get through customs. Still, I think I am handling the adjustment better than most would. With a good night's sleep tonight (aided by more sleeping pills), I should be ready to go tomorrow to explore Taipei for a day.

As many of you know (or if nothing else, as a few of you know very well), I have a tiny bladder. Just the sight of liquid has me running towards the bathroom. The twelve hour flight to Tokyo was brutal for my bladder and my kidneys. Since it took so long to book the flight, the selection of seats was limited to say the least. I ended up getting the middle seat somewhat near the back. The people next to me were both young Asian guys. The guy in the aisle seat never said a word the entire flight save for ordering food and drink. But boy, he was good at consuming liquids. Every time the flight attendants came by he'd get another can of something. Meanwhile, my decision to get another drink was based purely on how much that would speed up the process of me running to the bathroom.

You know that uncomfortable feeling that you get when you have to nudge the person next to you so you can leave your seat? Yeah, it ain't fun. Well, on this flight it was even worse. On the twelve hour flight the guy in the aisle seat didn't use the bathroom until the last hour. It was a truly breathtaking experience to witness. Unfortunately, that just amplified my tiny bladder even more. I felt bad for the guy every time he had to move for me. I got really excited each time the guy in the window seat needed to go, because it gave me an excuse to go as well. Ah, the joys of flying.

Purpose

2009-05-26T09:43:00.002+08:00

The reason I am keeping this blog is to update people on what I am doing during my time overseas. I hope to combine interesting stories with videos and pictures. In addition to keeping others informed, I am also going to be using the site as a diary so I can remember what I did myself. Enjoy!