MTC Christmas Party

I didn't realize that this was just a draft before; I forgot to publish it. It's a little late.

Friday, Dec. 19th, our school had their annual Christmas party. Among other attractions there, they had several stands set up serving food, both Eastern and Western styles. My friend Anna volunteered to make some and asked me if I could help, too. I agreed. The office staff told us we needed to make 250 portions of mashed potatoes and a salad (pasta salad). They took us to Costco (there are two around Taipei) to buy most of the stuff we needed. We spent a few hours Thursday night and many hours Friday preparing the dishes. I must say that the kitchen at school was grossly under-equipped for preparing that much food at once. All we had to mix the potatoes was ONE electric hand mixer. It was hard work, but it was fun. We chatted with other people in the kitchen making cookies and other sweets, Korean dishes, dumplings, etc. Anna and I served the mashed potatoes at the party, too. I'd estimate they sold out in about 45 minutes. I felt like I had been working in the deli again.

After serving the food, I grabbed a couple beers at the nearby convenience store and came back to watch the talent contest. There were people playing musical instruments, performing karate routines, dancing, and singing. It was all fun to take in. Among the dancers there were some girls that did a native Malaysian kind of dance, and many people that danced to hip hop, some of which was pretty cool. One thing about Taipei: if you go down into one of the underground malls (and there are several around Taipei Main Railway Station, where I live), you will invariably see several groups of teenagers or twenty-somethings practicing dance routines to hip hop music, it's ridiculous how many of these groups there are. After the party, Anna and I went with another group of people, who had prepared and served the sweets, and walked around the Shida night market for a while, stopping at one place to get some fruit-based deserts and some really funky tea drinks. I was really down to drink a lot that night after busting my hump all day, but none of those other people drank (?) and Anna was too tired. So we called it a night. All in all, it was a good time.

Also, you know it's not America when your school has a Christmas party, but you still have to go to school on Christmas day. Also, the school encouraged people to show up in costumes, kind of a cross between Christmas and Halloween, strange...

Jiufen

I've been trying to upload more photos to Flickr, but it's being a royal pain, so hopefully soon.

Last weekend, I did something I should have done sooner: I left Taipei. My friend Jered said that he would be going to Jiufen, a mountain town on the Northeast coast of Taiwan, with some friends on Saturday. He wasn't actually going to be there until 5pm, but I was going to meet a bunch of people at 9am to catch the bus there. Of those people, I had met one and only talked to another the night before. Most of this variegated crew was connected through Jared. It included a guy originally from Alabama (whom I'd briefly met), a Japanese guy with his Taiwanese wife, Lin (the Taiwanese guy I'd talked to) and his Japanese girlfriend, a Japanese guy, and a German couple. I think Lin met the German couple when they were neighbors studying in Amsterdam. Anyway...

The bus trip took a little over an hour and cost NT$90 (about US$3). At the time, it seemed as though we spent as much time getting out of the city as we did in the countryside. The mountain scenery on the way there was spectacular. As we neared Jiufen, the road wound back and forth up the mountain. I thought all the structures built on the sides of the hills/mountains looked pretty cool, especially the temples. I regret not taking a picture of this temple when I had a good view from the bus, going up the hill.

According to Wikipedia, Jiufen was only an isolated village until 1983, when gold was discovered in the area. The resulting gold rush hastened the village's development into a town, and reached reached its peak during Japanese rule. Many present features of Jiufen reflect the era under Japanese colonization, with many Japanese inns surviving to this day.


Jiufen is a very 'touristy' town, and going on a Saturday meant that the streets would be invariably crowded. As Jiufen is on the side of the mountain, there weren't too many roads to walk on that weren't sloped. After stopping at the hotel so those who were staying could check in and drop off their stuff, we first took a bus to the nearby town of Jinguashi. While there we went to the Gold Ecological Park. Here, we took tours of the living quarters of the some of the Japanese soldiers and officials. The Park also had several museums, including one about mining and one about gold. In one section of the gold museum, the had gold coins from several eras and several parts of the world, and to top it off, at the end they had a 220kg gold brick, wow! Sorry, they wouldn't allow pictures to be taken. In the park, they also have a few trails leading up the mountain, so we all took advantage.


A little weary from all the walking, we took the bus back to Jiufen to meet up with Jared and grab some street food, which, like many places around here, is ubiquitous. Among other things we ate, we stopped at a shop that makes one of Jiufen's specialty foods. I'm not sure what it's called, but it consistedd of pork and bamboo shoots inside a 'bun' of transparent rice gluten (i think) served in a red sauce of some sort and topped with cilantro. It was not bad. I didn't take to many pictures in Jiufen, I'm sure I'll be going back and will at that time. The streets are just like sloping alleys surrounded by ~4 story buildings winding around in a bush-maze-like manner. All of them are lined with various restaurants and shops that sell food of all kinds, trinkets, toys, massage items, guitars, ocarinas, shoes, clothes, incense, etc.

That night, we went to a very nice tea shop, one of the best in Jiufen. Jared got a reservation hear through his Taipei teahouse friend, Jackie. Altogether we had 13 people at the table. Jered brought the Pu'er (3 different kinds), and Jackie had the tea house give us some bai hao tea, what a nice guy. Part of the teahouse had water running down over rocks from the first level down to the lower level, leading to a little pond with koi (Japanese carp) swimming around. The tables there were pretty awesome. They were made of wood. In the center of the tables was an area cut out, and partly filled with ash, or sand or something, upon which they set coals and stands for heating the water. Definitely old school. Unfortunately, a few other people and I had to leave after trying only two of the teas, since we had to catch the last bus back to Taipei. But it was a great time.

Drinking Tea

I wrote before that there was a guy from Milwaukee in my class. His name is Jered Stoehr, and he really likes tea. He's got a friend in Ireland with a tea shop, and he helps his friend export tea from teahouse here in Taiwan. Jared is good friends with the proprietors of the Szu Hai Tea Shop and occasionally goes there to sip on their tea and chat in Chinese. One day after class, Jared took me to the tea shop with his Japanese fiance Nono (after getting a couple roubao, steamed buns stuffed with meat, at a place near his apartment).
We sat down at the table, it was pretty cool to watch how Jackie, the owner, poured hot water into a the pots to clean them all out. He then put some loose tea leaves into the teapot and poured hot water in. After letting it steep for a short amount of time, he poured it into a second pot through a strainer, and from that, he poured the tea into our cups. Overall, he probably brewed the tea 10 different times. Whenver I've known tea to be brewed in America (which is probably always Lipton, and it always comes in bags), it is brewed just once. We tried two different teas, oolong tea and bai hao tea, which I believe is a kind of white tea. The teas had a fairly light flavor, but they were good. The bai hao tea was naturally sweet. They told me that this tea plant produced more sugar when insects started to eat it. Jared would be able to give you a better explanation, I'm sure, since tea is a big interest of his. I had no idea that some teas were so expensive: Jared pointed out to me a picture in a catalogue of teas that were to be sold in an auction in China, and one of the pu'er teas (circa 1937) was going to go for about US$100,000/kg. Wow! Apparently fine tea is like fine wine: it gets better with age. Pu'er is Jared's favorite, by the way. A couple days before we went, he was telling me that he sat at the teahouse with his Irish friend for 7 hours drinking pu'er tea. He explained to me that drinking a lot of good tea can give you a drunk/high kind of feeling (Who knew?) and he had to lay off the pu'er for a while. All in all it was a really good time and a very good opportunity to practice our conversational Chinese.

ShiLin night market

Last night I went to the 士林夜市(ShiLin nigh market) with Anna and her Chinese language partner from last summer, Ray. What a great time. We got some food at this place next to the night market. The place had a roof over it and about 6 lanes going up and down, 6 going left and right, full of probably 100 different places to get food. We got some 臭豆腐(stinky tofu). It did stink quite a bit, but it tasted pretty good and was nice and spicy, just how I like it. Now I know what that obnoxious smell is I get a whiff of when walking around sometimes. We also got an oyster omelet, which is like eating eggs, snot, and chopped up veggies, very intersting. We then got some 湯包 (tang bao) which are like boiled dumplings filled with meat and a little bit of soup. They're a bit squirty, so I prefer to stick the whole thing in my mouth at once, very delicious. We also got some hard candy coated skewered grape tomatoes. They were ok, I think we should have gotten the strawberries instead, but oh well. The last item of food we got was 生煎包(sheng jian bao) which are just large dumplings filled with meat and cooked on a large griddle. This was probably my favorite item of food tonight.

After all that eating, we walked around and browsed all that ShiLin has to offer. You can buy pretty much anything there - clothes, shoes, bags, bedding, perfume, toys, etc. Anna got some boots and some sheets. I had a lot of fun talking to Ray. To him, apparently college students in Taiwan are pretty boring, just going home to study after school. He was fascinated as I told him about the party lifestyle enjoyed by a lot of American college students. He really liked the idea of beer pong when I explained it to him. :) After a lot of browsing, I was thirsty, so we got some 珍珠奶茶 (zhenzhu naicha - known as bubble tea in America). It's like a sort of creamy iced tea with chunks of gelatin and tapioca. I enjoyed it very much. Chewy and refreshing!!! We had to leave soon after that because it was getting late, and I didn't want to miss the last train home. What a great night!

School, misc.

School started last Wednesday. My teacher is great, a very nice guy. My class is pretty diverse - a guy and a girl from Japan, an American guy from...Milwaukee, a Turkish girl, a French guy, a south Korean guy, and an Indonesian guy. I'm really enjoying studying Chinese here. The two hours of class each day just fly by. I've been kind of lazy, so I haven't really participated in anything yet, but they've got a good deal of extracurricular activities. I still haven't gotten out of the city yet, maybe next weekend. My task today is to buy a cellphone, with a prepaid plan. Luckily I've got someone who knows the ropes to go with me.

Random things I've noticed

My first week here, I spent a good deal of time just walking around the city. Depending on where you are walking around, the sidewalks could either be very wide and level, very narrow, very uneven, non-existent, or existent but taken up by food stands or racks/stands full of goods and wares people are selling. I've never seen so many uneven sidewalks in my life; you really have to watch where you're stepping. Sometimes there's a nice smooth transition like an inclined plane, but other times there's just a sudden drop or elevation. Maybe I'm generalizing too much here, but when people walk around here, they walk really slow, which is ok. But when a fast-walker like me wants to pass them, it's kind of hard because they rarely walk in straight lines--they weave left and right and it's so annoying, but what are you gonna do.

I'm a very warm person, I'll admit that. I'm sweating when most people are comfortable. It's just kind of funny that it can be 65F outside and humid. I'll get weird looks because I'm wearing shorts and a t-shirt, while most people are wearing pants and a jacket. (I'm not looking forward to the summer.)

I have never seen so many places to get food or go shopping in my life. I've been to New York before. Yeah, they have a lot of shops and eateries there, but I think Taipei beats it. It's just amazing the quantity and variety of good cheap food available here.

Also, a lot of places here have squat toilets, which I don't care how long I'll have lived here, I'm pretty sure I'd never attempt to use for a number 2. Most bathrooms here (residential) don't have a bath tub; it's just a toilet, a sink a shower head/faucet, and a drain in the floor. This picture was taken at the bathroom on my floor in the hostel.

I had more things to write down but I seem to have forgotten them. Guess they'll have to wait for another post.

Thanksgiving dinner

I spent the next four days walking around the city. I probably walked 35 miles altogether. The day after registration, I went to school to use the internet in the computer labs and look at the bulletin boards at school for postings for rooms for rent. As I was walking out of the building, I happened to see 陳老師 Chen Laoshi (Laoshi = teacher), the professor I wrote about before. We talked for a while, and she took me up to her office and gave me her contact info. She asked me if I'd like to go out to dinner, because that day was Thanksgiving, which is of course not as big over here as it is in the States. I said I'd love to and we decided on a time to meet.



When we met, she had her daughter with her (who by the way is the cutest little girl ever, and full of energy). We decided on eating hot pot (火鍋 huoguo). I'd never had it before but have heard nothing but good things about it. At the restaurant, the tables had kettles of water with adjustable burners. You order what kind of meat you want and also rice/noodels/etc. Then they bring out dishes of vegetables and your meat. I got beef and lamb. You add the veggies and the meat to the pot of boiling water, stir it up, and take food out as wanted. This is one of the most delicious meals I've ever had. Some say that the soup/broth at the end is the best part, but I was waaaay too full to have any. Although non-traditional, it was a great Thanksgiving dinner.

Arriving

After a four hour flight from Chicago to LA, a ten hour layover in LA, and a 14.5 hour flight from LA to Taoyuan's Chiang Kai Shek International Airport (near Taipei), I was happy to be on the ground. After going through customs and grabbing my luggage, I immediately went outside. The first thing I noticed: it was quite humid. I went back in, ordered a bottle of water using Chinese, and found the bus I planned on taking to the Taipei MRT (mass rapid transit (subway)) main station. It was the greatest bus ride I'd ever been on. After getting out of Taoyuan, the highway carved it's way through mountains/hills covered in lush green foliage, and along the sides of the highway was my absolute favorite: palm trees. The humidity could now be seen as haze in the mountains. We crossed over a river, and once the bus got into Taipei, I couldn't believe how crowded it was not only all the buildings, but all the traffic--vehicles and pedestrians. The bus dropped me off at the Taipei Main Station, and, from there, it was a five minute walk to the Happy Family hostel, which I'm still staying at. Of course, it wasn't so easy to find the first time, and it took some asking around till someone pointed me to the sign on the front door. I got to the hostel at about 8:30, dropped off my bags (in the"lobby" because the room wasn't open till noon) and was off to school to take the placement test and register for class.

The MRT here in Taipei is very convenient; it has routes going to many parts of the city and county. Talking to people who lived here beforfe it's construction, I hear tales of unbelievable traffic congestion. And by the way, I've never seen so many hordes of scooters. At the intersection right by the hostel, I regularly see over 25 scooters waiting for the red light, and that's just going one way! Back to the MRT, it's very convenient, but if your Chinese isn't that great and it's your first time trying to find where you need to go, it's a nightmare (maybe just a bad dream). This station has not just the local subway trains, but trains departing for all parts of Taiwan. After figuring out where I needed to go and getting some tokens, I was on my way. Once I got off at the exit for school, I walked in the right direction, but stopped a few school buildings that weren't mine before someone was able to point me the way. Almost everything here is difficult to do or find the first time, but after that, it's like second nature.

The first thing I did when I got to school was go to the bathroom. Like bathrooms back home in the states, there were urinals and stalls with toilets. Unlike those I'm used to, one of the stalls had a squat toilet. No thank you! After filling out some forms, I had to pay the tuition in cash, which is very colorful (blue, brown/purple, pink) and whose bills' sizes vary by value. I did fairly well on the proficiency test. After registration, I had 6 days until orientation--6 days to explore the city. I decided to walk back to the hostel instead of taking the subway. This was only the beginning of a lot of walking for me.

A little background

If you've come to my blog, you probably know that I'm in Taiwan. A little background: I'm an electrical engineering major at UW-Milwaukee. A little while back, my uncle Jim told me that if I wanted to have a better chance at landing a good job after graduation, learning Chinese could be very beneficial. Maybe not so much recently, but China's economy has been booming for a while. Moreover, China lays claim to a fifth of the world's population. The common language there, Mandarin Chinese is the most spoken first language in the world with roughly 900 million native speakers (followed by Spanish then English with about 300 to 400 million each). These figures are rough estimates. So I thought to myself, what the heck, I had fun learning Spanish back in high school (of which I now remember very little), I'll give it a try. It turned out that I actually really enjoyed learning Mandarin. I have taken 4 semesters at UWM and audited the 5th until I left for Taiwan.

I was encouraged by a few people to apply for one of the scholarships offered by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. A friend and classmate of mine, Jake Gill (Chinese name 高健 Gao Jian, http://gaointaipei.blogspot.com/ ) received one of these scholarships last year and absolutely had the time of his life. So I applied and won it. I chose to study at National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center for a few reasons. First, it's the oldest and most prestigious Mandarin Training school in Taiwan. Second, the head of the Chinese program at UWM, 陳雅芬 Chen Yea-Fen, who co-authored the Series of Chinese Language books that UWM and a host of other schools use, is an associate professor and former student at NTNU (By the way the 'Normal' in National Taiwan Normal University means 'standard' as this is the teachers' college in Taiwan). Third Gao Jian and my only American Chinese Teacher, Andy Olson 歐頌安 Ou Song'an, attended here and had nothing be great things to say.