Places I've Been 2: Keelung

Keelung is a port city on the north side of the island where a friend of mine lives. We visited during the Double Ten holiday. 

Large Gaunyin statue that looms over the city. 

Keelung's famous night market. 

Episode 4: The Five Food Groups

It has been quite some time since the last episode. The month of October has been interesting, we had a three-day weekend for the Double Ten holiday (similar to independence day), I've been sick with bronchitis, and I've been subbing kindy for a good portion of the month. Next week's payday is going to be nice!. While I have plenty of topics to write about, I know everyone has been waiting for the food update. The Taiwanese love to eat. It's one of the main activities at the night markets or should I say the number one activity. It' also less expensive to eat out here than to cook. So I eat for almost all of my meals or pick something up on the way home. 

I'm sure I could write many page on food here in Taiwan so I'll have to cut back a little bit.  I'd like to introduce you to the five food groups here in Taiwan. 

1) Things with noodles. Chao mian is a staple during the week, quick and easy.  And I know how to say it.  There are rice noodles, regular noodles, udon noodles. Just take you pick. 

2) Things with rice. The word for rice also doubles as the word for meal. You get a lot of it here. Learn "chao fan" and you can get by on fried rice for a little while you first weeks in Taiwan. 

3) Thing that are fried. The Taiwanese love fried food. Well I'm not sure if they love it, but they make it an awful lot. As an Okie, I have to admit they do fried chicken "ji pai" quite well. In Yingee I ate yam balls, which seemed to be like donut holes made of sweet potatoes. They were actually quite delicious. On the streets and at the night markets, you will see a number of "fry stations," where you fill a basket with various items, chicken, veggies, or tofu, and the vendor fries the entire basket and gives it back. There are also fried cakes with custard or red red beans inside You'll also find a lot of fried chicken and fried pork in the lunch boxes. 

4) Things on a stick. A large portion of food here comes on a stick, candied fruit, roasted corn, meat, squid tofu, blood (usually of the pig variety). The blood thing sounds weird, but it comes sort of hardened in a square or at least I was told it was pig's blood. 

5) Things that wiggle. Gelatinous is it's own category here in Taiwan. The most well-known example is the pearls. It's known as bubble tea back in the states. Pearl tea is very popular here, and if I'm correct started here. It can be any tea with jelly pearls at the bottom. I love milk tea, but I don't drink it with the pearls or "jin ju" because I don't like the surprise of texture in my drink. A traditional Taiwanese dessert is also a type of jelly served over ice with cream. It's quite good. The jelly is sort of like jello but less processed. 

These are just some of the beginning observation about food here in Taiwan. I'm don't eat as healthy here as I as I do back home. The first food words I learned were related to meat and carbs, so I just need to learn the words for vegetables. It's best to eat fruit here, which I'm not a huge fan of. There are of course plenty of kinds of fruit that I've never seen before. Grapes here are almost the size of golf balls, and there are at least 10 types of apples that I never knew existed. I had to take a class of kindergartners to the grocery store, and I'm fairly certain I found it just as interesting than they did. 

Going out to east is always and adventure because my friends and I can't read most menus. On evening, when we were to check off what we wanted to order on paper, we just went over to a group of guys and asked them to check of what they orders We though it looked good and sure enough it was a good meal. 

I'm quite used to the food, to the point that western food makes me feel awful now. Taiwan does unfortunately have a serious lack of potatoes, bread, and cheese, which are perhaps the three staples of my diet back home. This weekend, I discovered Flavorfield in the Sogo Department store, which as a real bakery with real french bread. They even had gruyère! Needless to say, I want to live inside the Flavorfield. 

Places I've Been 1: Yingge

Food on the main street. They are little cakes filled with red bean or custard. 

One of these things is not like the others. 

That right folks, it's a ceramic pillow. 

So along with the episodes I'm going to try to include the different spots I that I visit in and around Taipei. Hopefully, this will include some overseas post eventually. 

Yingge is a town in Taipei County known for ceramics. I went there with some friends over the Double Ten holiday. It has a main street for buying all sorts of ceramic stuff, but it also has the surprisingly modern Taipei Ceramics Museum. I got to see the Taipei Ceramics Biennial, which had some artists I knew from working at Sculpture. 

Episode 3: And the teachers wished for no more Typhoon Days

Yes, that's right, I've been copped up in my apartment due to the Super Typhoon Jangmi, or Typhoon Jumanji as I like to call it. Did you know there were super typhoons? Neither did I. Yesterday, I went out for groceries and was completely soaked in under 10 seconds. This morning I watched as rain feel sideways. Man, Taiwan is weird.

While Jangmi is doing it's damage outside, I took some time to think about what I should write about next. If there hadn't been typhoon, this episode would have been called Episode 3: The Games I Play. We all know "What's in my dinner roll?" but I spend most of my day playing games. Now there are the language games I play with my students, Phonics Bingo, Word searches, the standard stuff, but there are so many other games you can play in Taiwan.

The first games is Paper, Scissors, Stone. you might know it as Rock, Paper, Scissors. I play PSS all day, everyday; anything in class is solved by PSS. To get the kids to answer a really boring reading comprehension question, they get one point for answering and if you beat Teacher Beth you get two points. I've gotten really good at this game. ( note to the females: Always throw paper when playing against a male. They will undoubtedly throw stone; it's a masculinity thing.) Paper, Scissors, Stone can solve any conflict outside of the classroom, who gets to use the copier first, who pays the bar tab, or even who has to do ex cerise time for the kindergarten. It can solve anything, try it!

I also find myself playing frogger often. No not on my computer, not out on the street.You remember frogger...Step 1) Imagine Beth as a small killable amphibian. Step 2) Frog must get across the playing field also known as Ming-An West Road. Goal ) Get across the street from the bus stop to work. (You might say Beth, just walk all the way to the crosswalk or to the foot bridge, but rules are for wimps.) Taiwan Frogger involves avoiding taxis, speeding buses, cars, and those annoying scooters. Alright let's play! So the little frog tries to get off the bus and is sideswiped by a scooter. (By the way, who passes a stopped bus at a bus stop on the right?) Okay so the frog waits for two speeding buses, okay go left, left, wait for scooters, more scooters run back! okay forward, forward, slowly, right right, run run across! Congratulations you've made it to work without losing one of your lives.

The third game that comes up often is "How do you spell that?" While everything here is in Mandarin characters, pinyin allows us to have an "English translation" So I live on Ming-An Road near Fu Ren University. Thanks pinyin! However, pinyin isn't perfect. Depending on who you ask, I live in Hsin Chuang, Sinjhuang, or Xinzhuang. It can make things tough especially for a girl who is trying to figure out the stops on the bus monitor. I sit attentively watching for the stop Gillin High School, but the monitor quickly flashes Jilin. Is that the same thing? I don't know, I'm just trying to get to Ikea. (Don't worry I found Ikea. It was easy because there was a big blue building that said IKEA.) So while pinyin makes things easier, it manages to make your life equally difficult at the same time.

So those are some games I play. There are others such as "Are you sure you want to eat that?" When looking for a friend in a crowded metro, you play "Spot the tall white guy."

My friend Audrey, asked the other day, "So how are you dealing with the staring?" I hadn't told her how much it bothers me. Apparently she can see as everyone stares at me when we are out. Most people double take and stare after I walk by. They only stare at her because she is speaking English with the white girl. Being pale is really desirable here whereas Westerners try to tan. Women wear long sleeves shirt year round and use sun gloves and umbrellas. I guess they just never seen someone this pale before. Taiwanese women would probably kill for my ability to only burn and not tan. The curly hair also doesn't help. It's just another thing I'm getting used to.

Episode 2: And the teachers wished for a Typhoon Day

Yep, that's right, it's a typhoon day, it's just like a snow day except without the snow or fun prospect of snowball fights and cocoa. However, there is the same result of you ending up wet if you go outside. I have been kept very up-to-date on Hurricane Ike by CNN International, but I had no clue about the typhoon headed straight for Taiwan until Thursday night; it's the end of typhoon season here. So Friday we had a bit of rain, but classes starting at 7pm were cancelled for a Typhoon warning, and Typhoon Sinlaku allowed us teachers to sleep in on Saturday morning Now, I had been told that sometimes you get a typhoon day and not much happens, the typhoon turns, and you get a free day off So I had a number of activities planned in Taipei today. Well the rain has kept me in my little studio all day with no sign of letting up and threatening Sunday's plans. It's been raining for at least 13 hours.

It rains a lot here in Taiwan, sort of soaking rain that last for the 20 minutes you planned on being outside. Once you are safely inside, a beautiful blue sky will emerge until roughly the time you need to leave work. Funny how that happens...For an example of this phenomenon, take a look at the attached pictures, same view, same day only an hour apart in time. I am also impressed with the Taiwanese people's determination to still ride their scooters in the pouring rain or on typhoons. Everyone here owns a poncho or slicker for just such an occasion. If you are really fancy, you wear a full-body slicker and slicker pants that snap on. I bet you didn't see those at New York Fashion Week!

I mentioned before the existence of the garbage truck song. Well, here in Taiwan the garbage truck plays a song letting residents know it's in the neighborhood. They are to bring their garbage out to the truck. Currently, the garbage truck plays Fur Elise, which you can hear once a day. Or if you are me, you hear never because the garbage truck comes while you are at work. I went a week without hearing Fur Elise and was stating to worry as the food containers piled up. One the time I did hear it it, I jumped off the sofa, tied up the trash and ran downstairs to find...no truck. So I stood in the lobby with the security guards looking at me, hummed the garbage truck song, and put up my hands signaling, "Where is it?" They smiled and showed me down to the basement where they are collecting trash and taking it out themselves. So know I know.

As for "What's in my dinner roll?," it's a fun game I play these days. I buy something that looks like bread only to discover it has any number of things inside cream, custard, egg, pineapple, or bean curd. When I got to the bakery, I buy at least three things, assuming I will probably only end up eating one of them. It can get a bit frustrating for someone not too keen on surprises. This has happened a lot at school. Sunday was Moon festival or mid-autumn festival, which coincides with Teacher's Day. It celebrates family and Confucius as a teacher, and teachers get gifts of food resulting in a plethora of snacks at work.

I've had good teaching days and some bad ones. Sometimes what I planned just doesn't work out, and I have to adjust. I start teaching kindergarten next week to cover while a teacher is on vacation. I'm sure that will provide some fun stories. Kindy has snack time and nap time, both of which I'm looking forward to. In a very short amount of time, I've become used to being at the front of the classroom. I'm not nervous about it anymore. It probably helps that I'm a lot bigger than my students. I also really like winning "Teacher Says," but I shouldn't gloat about winning a game against a bunch of eight- and ten-year-olds. I also hope all of my former French teachers are laughing now that I'm the one demanding students speak and write in full sentences. This is definitely punishment for all the times I chewed gum in French class.

Some of the students have taken to calling me Teacher Bathroom. Oh yeah, they're just so funny and cute.

Also, in Taiwan, I'm 24. I was only 23 for two months. The Taiwanese say you are one year old at the time of your birth. So if I come back in a year, I get to be 24 twice. And mom and dad, I would like the birthday presents for my 24th birthday, which you apparently missed.

Episode 1: Brah, Brah, Brah

Now that I'm in an apartment with Internet I am able to send out a bit more information. Training was pretty busy and there was a lot of adjusting going on. I made some great friends at training, but we were all sent to different branches all over the island, so it's back to square one meeting new people.

I live in Hsin Chuang City. Hsin Chuang is a southwestern suburb of Taipei City. It's about 30-40 minutes to Taipei apparently. You can see the mountains from my apartment. The suburbs are like a more cramped version of Taipei city. 

My apartment is a medium-sized studio, but it came fully furnished making things easier. It even came with a new flat screen TV and washer and dryer. Of course the washer is in Mandarin so I haven't figured out how to use it yet. I'm just getting used to living alone again.

No one really cooks in the home here, so I spend a lot of time trying to find food now. It was pretty easy to do in Taipei, but there aren't many English menus here. It was also easier when we were in big groups together. I know the characters for iced latte but that's not going to get me very far. I can also say "fried rice" in mandarin, but I'm going to need to learn some mandarin fast. The vendor across the street just talks and talks at me laughing because we both know I don't speak any mandarin. But I go there anyways and hopefully I'll be able to order something else soon. I also have a breakfast shop (Laguardia) and coffee shop (Dr. Duck) across the street. They make life easier. 

I start teaching on Thursday. The kids in the lobby just stare and whisper at me, the teachers said that they are all wondering which classes are getting the "new teacher." Most are pretty shy although I had a 5 year-old kindergartner come up to me yesterday and say " Hi Teacher Beth. My name is Eric."

I'll try to send out some emails about different aspects of Taiwan. Food is a topic unto itself. It's pretty much trial and error in terms of ordering for the new teachers right now.

Some interesting differences so far---everything can be solved with a game of "paper, scissors, stone." And the Taiwanese don't say "blah blah blah," they say "brah brah brah." So we've all adjusted to those two points at least.

This weekend I'm hoping to get into Taipei to explore. We didn't have time last week. All I managed to do was visit Taipei 101. So after I teach my Saturday class I'll jump on the bus. My Saturday class is all 15-17 year olds; I've been warned they sleep through class. So that should be interesting…. I'm going to end up with all ages anywhere from 6-17 years old.  Well I'm off to go find shoes that I can wear at the branch, (they just put in new floors). Then probably off to 711 where I can do just about anything from buying school supplies and getting food to paying my electricity and water bills. 

Future episodes will include discussions of the Garbage Truck Song and the game of never-ending fun, "What's in my dinner roll?"