Alles nur geklaut

I vaguely remember a time when people actually wrote in their LJs, and my friends page was never empty.

Guess what was in my mailbox today?

A lizard.

I did two things today that I'd never done before: I got my scooter repaired, and I crashed it. Yes, in that order.

I didn't even go home in between leaving the mechanic and smashing into the back of another scooter. It wasn't exactly my first incident since I started driving it; an SUV sort of scraped against me a bit in February, but this was the first actual impact. I felt pretty bad about it, although if I were in the United States I would definitely say it was the other person's fault for stopping so suddenly in front of me. Traffic works a bit differently here, though, and if I were a more experienced scooter driver I think I might have managed to avoid the whole thing.

In any case, I was fine. The guy I hit seemed pretty angry, and I have the feeling he would have given me hell if he thought I'd understand. His license plate was crunched, but there was no other damage, so he just let it go. I lost a bit of paint off the front of my scooter (and spilled beef noodle soup all over it) but fortunately, I didn't have to head right back to the mechanic. It actually took a few tries to start it after I picked it up off the ground though, so I hope there isn't some other problem that got started.

In unrelated news, I actually managed to fit a few hours of scenic carpentry and painting into my schedule last weekend. Another teacher I know is in a bilingual production of the Vagina Monologues in Taipei, and the (American) director was looking for volunteers to help with sets. Unfortunately, it didn't work with my schedule to put very much time in, but it was nice to have the chance to get a little involved with theatre again.

Actually, theatre is the one dark cloud still hanging over my new-found happiness with life in Taiwan. I don't know how important it still is to me, for one thing. I thought that being away from that world for a little while would give me some clarity on how much it mattered to me, but instead I've left it so far behind that it's hard to even remember that it used to basically be my entire life. I am afraid that each month I choose to stay here makes it a little more impossible that I will ever find my way back to that career path, but maybe that isn't really the way it works, I don't know. Oh well, lots to think about as always.

Pictures from a scooter trip up to Keelung, on the northern coast:

( 基隆 )

In my week off I've spent some time just walking around Luzhou, something I haven't done since shortly after I arrived.  It isn't a very attractive city,  so once I got a feel for the layout of the streets I didn't feel a need to do so much exploring, but this week it's been nice to wander around a bit.  It reminds me how much more settled in I am than I was this fall when I was hiking about trying to get my bearings.  This morning I walked along the top of the dike on the edge of the city, something I'd never done before.  I added some pictures I took today and a few I already had to create this, my Luzhou collection.  They aren't the most stunning or exotic sights in Taiwan, but this is where I live:
( Home Sweet Home 蘆洲 )

Often while riding in a taxi, the cab driver will attempt to strike up a conversation. Sometimes he speaks good English or I manage a full discussion in Chinese, but most of the time it is a mix of both. A while ago I had a quite memorable cab ride. I'll write the conversation in English but really it was a rather garbled and confusing mix of languages, including a few random sentences of German at one point.

The driver started out typically, asking me where I was from and whether I liked the food in Taiwan. I told him that I was American and he started in on a long speech about the war in Iraq. I honestly had no clue what he was saying so I just nodded. Somehow he got the mistaken impression that I was from Chicago and I didn't bother to correct him so we talked about Chicago.

He asked how old I was and I told him.

"You are married," he guessed.

"No," I said.

"Your boyfriend," asked the driver, "Taiwanese or American?"

"I don't have a boyfriend," I told him.

"No?" he asked, quite surprised, "because you are Christian, yes?"

"No... I don't think that's why," I said. He was silent for a moment, and I thought the conversation was finally over. Then he spoke up with these words of wisdom:

"Taiwan girls very beautiful. American girls strong, eat steak."

So that explains it...

Yesterday I got some more deep insight into Taiwan from another cab driver.

"Taiwan is very very good country," he said, "No terrorists."

Sounds good to me.

Happy Year of the Pig!

Don't ask me why I happened to remember this today, but today is the three year anniversary of the creation of this blog. Not anything much to celebrate of course, but I looked back at some old entries and it did get me thinking.

I've changed so much in three years. You can't tell from what I was writing, it was mostly drivel then and still is. You probably can't really even tell if you've known me that whole time. But I can look back at those entries and remember the thoughts I had at the time and how I saw myself and everything else, and I am amazed at how different I was.

I'm not really going anywhere with this... I'm very happy with where I am and who I am now though. Cheers to getting old.

Maybe you've heard about the recent earthquakes here in Taiwan. Well, we (me and my dad and brother, who are visiting me currently) weren't anywhere near where the damage occured, so we're fine, but our hotel room was certainly shaking that night.

Quinn and my dad have been here since last Sunday, and we've done a lot since then.  It's been pretty stressful to work full time and have guests as well, but fortunately I got to take the last few days off so we could take a little trip down to Hualien and Taroko Gorge.

( Here are our past 2 weeks in pictures! )

As of Friday I have been in Taiwan for three months. That's 1/4 of the time I'm committed to, can you believe it?

The biggest change for me recently is that I finally got up the nerve to drive my scooter out of Luzhou. A whole new world has opened up to me! I can zip over the river into Taipei, or head in the other direction to check out that park that was always just out of reach. I have nothing bad to say about the public transportation I had been using up until now, but it's great to be a little more independent. Also, I'm not sure exactly how big my gas tank is, but it only takes about 4 bucks to fill it up!

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas around here. Well, maybe not Christmas in Minnesota since the weather here is still in the 60's, but I drove into Taipei to do some Christmas shopping this weekend and bought a little tree and some decorations. We've been decorating the kindergarten like crazy too, as well as preparing the kids for the annual Christmas program.

I'm really looking forward to Christmas, as non-traditional as it will be. My dad and brother are coming over and we'll be heading down to Hualien and Taroko Gorge for a few days. We may not be making snow angels, but how's this for a winter wonderland?

We’ve got some construction going on at the kindergarten this week, so this morning when I walked into the building there was sawdust covering the floor and I couldn’t hear my co-workers over the noise of pneumatic tools being used to construct a small stage. In other words, it finally seemed like the sort of place where I would work.

I got caught sneaking some recycling in with the trash on Tuesday. I recycle to an extent, but I have such a difficult time with the whole trash/recycling system here that sometimes I just don’t bother. The way it works is that when the trash and recycling trucks drive by they play a song like the ice cream truck back home, and you have to run out and bring them your bags. I am almost always at work when the recycling truck comes by so if I don’t want to have an apartment totally full of recyclables, I have to throw them away now and then.

Anyway, I could have gotten a big fine for that but I played the dumb foreigner (I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t know I couldn’t throw it away...) and only got a scolding.

One thing that I really have a hard time with here is the bugs. I can’t get rid of them. I keep the place so clean (not an easy feat for someone as typically messy as me) and I have tried all sorts of traps and insecticides but as soon as I exterminate one pest another one seems to take its place. I had a revolting experience with maggots recently which will haunt me for a long time.

At least (knock on wood) so far the roaches have left my apartment alone. However, they occasionally decide to go scampering across my students desks, which I can’t say does much for my classroom management.

Are you ready for the super exciting story of my Thanksgiving?

It started with parents day. All the parents of my kindergartners came to the school, met with me for half an hour, and then (gulp) all sat in the back of the classroom to watch me teach the day's lesson to their kids. It was terribly stressful, although not as stressful as having my boss observe me multiple times over the past week to make sure I was prepared for parents day. I was warned that some of the parents in my class were kind of scary, but everything went smoothly.

Once I stopped being so nervous about it, it was actually pretty interesting to see where the kids were coming from. The one who is so far behind the rest of the class has a mom with a constantly ringing cell phone who is "too busy" to help her daughter. The boy whose bad behavior drives me mad but whose English is amazing is clearly a spoiled brat, but his mom makes a point to speak English with him. It all provided some insight, anyway.

I was feeling sort of depressed about spending Thanksgiving that way, but my spirits were lifted slightly by a serious spending spree this afternoon at an art supply store in Taipei that I recently learned about. Nothing like spending all my hard earned money to put a smile on my face.

Anyway, I was just settling down to relax back at home for a while (Thursday is usually an easy day sandwiched between two stressful ones) when I got a phone call. My boss lost her voice, could I go over there immediately and sub her class? I said yes, but it was sort of the final straw for me. Today was terrible.

Oh, I didn't think this post was going to end up so bitter. But while I'm in a complaining mood, here's one more thing:

Twice this week I've had people I passed on the street stop to point out the waiguoren to their small children. Usually, I don't mind the stares and curiosity so much; sometimes I even enjoy it. But somehow, getting pointed at like that, as if I'm an animal in the zoo or something rubs me the wrong way more than anything else.

Careful, I bite.

I bought a new toy, isn't it pretty?



It's also pretty terrifying at this point. I had to drive it home from the dealer down some major roads, so my first taste of what it was like to drive a scooter was bursting out into busy traffic. I was basically white knuckled the whole way home. Tonight I took it out for a little joy ride around the city though, and while I'm still mildly terrified, I also really like it! I wonder how long it will take me to crash it...

Tonight I went to a blues festival with Sandy, another English teacher at my school.

The beer was cheap, the smell of barbecue was in the air, and the music was fantastic.

Just one more song, we kept saying. We can only stay for one more song...

My kindergarten kids were so adorable on Halloween that I want to just devote the next few weeks of blogging to pictures of 3 yr. old Taiwanese kids in costumes. But I'll just give you a small sample of the Halloween cuteness.

You want to learn English, do you? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!



On the count of 3 everyone say awwwwwwwwwwwww



Toy guns at school. This would never fly back home.



I still had a few kids left who weren't crying... until Teacher Chris payed us a visit.



Finally, here are three of my students with this other cute kid I know, Teacha Kado.

My plan for today was to go to the "Roots and Shoots Animal Parade" in Taipei with Amy, an English teacher from Iowa who I met at a party last weekend, and her boyfriend. The parade was to raise awareness about protecting Taiwan's animals, and Jane Goodall was there. Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it to the parade but we did get to see most of Dr. Goodall's speech. It wasn't anything new or spectacular, but there are some people that make you feel special just for having stood within a few inches of them. Afterwards we speculated about where she was flying off to next and what it would be like to live a life like hers when you're in your 70's.

As I waited for the bus back to Luzhou I found myself, as usual, surrounded by chanting people in red shirts. If you're not in Taiwan you probably don't know about the current events here, but for over a month now people have been protesting daily in front of the train station in an effort to force the president, Chen Shui-bian, to resign. Chen has survived two recall votes in parliament. At first the protests were 24/7, but for the last week or so they've only been at night. They chant "A-bian xia tai!", step down A-bian! (president's nickname). Anyway, the whole point of this explanation was just to say that tonight they were chanting "xia tai xia tai" in rhythm to "O Fortuna" from Carmina Burana and it amused me greatly.

On the way home I fought off claustrophobic panic by counting people on the 24-seat bus. 61.

I've been in a brighter mood lately, so I felt a little optimism was in order. Here are some things that make me happy here, in whatever random order they pop into my mind:

1. Not being (very) sick. For the first time in a long time, I am more or less healthy. As it turns out, not constantly feeling miserable does wonders for one's mood.

2. Paying my bills. Really. The bills themselves are no fun, but paying them is terribly convenient. I just scamper on down to the 7/11 right next door and they ring it up at the register like any other purchase.

3. Speaking Chinese. If I was ranking these in any particular order, this would be one of the most significant. Unfortunately, it's usually more a matter of being unhappy because I don't speak Chinese, but tonight I'm flying high because I just had an actual legitimate conversation with a cab driver. He complimented my Chinese and asked me where I'd learned it, where I'm from, how long I've been here, whether I'm a teacher or a student, etc., and I managed to come up with coherent answers most of the time. Made my day.

4. Greasy night market food. Good for the soul, if not the physique. mmmm... 鍋貼。

5. Carrefour. My extraordinary discovery of the day. I knew it existed, of course, but I hadn't been there and I didn't realize I cared until I took my kindergartners there on a field trip this morning. Carrefour is a french chain of "hypermarkets", basically filling the same niche as Wal-mart. I feel somewhat guilty about being so happy about it. I want to say that I have no interest in Carrefour, I'd rather just do all my shopping at local mom and pop stores or night/morning markets. But when I first stepped into Carrefour.... I almost cried. (OK, not really, but I liked it a lot.)

6. Some kids, sometimes. I'm not going to go so far as to say that my students always bring me joy. In fact, a lot of them make me fairly miserable. But I've got to admit, some of those little brats are alright.

Well, 6 things to be happy about isn't a bad start. I'm sure there would be more if I was in a thinking mood. Suffice it to say, the sun is shining here in Luzhou. (Not literally, of course. )

My pet and companion for the last 12 years died yesterday. I knew it would probably happen when I was in Taiwan, but it's sad to think I'll never give her another belly rub. Farewell Scannon, you'll be missed.

There was an earthquake in Taiwan last night. Apparently it measured 5.9 on the Richter scale in parts of Taiwan, but was only about a 2 in Taipei. Just a gentle swaying here in my 3rd floor apartment. Still, it was definitely a new experience for me!

In Taiwan it is the custom to never wear shoes in the house. Most people leave their shoes outside their door and have slippers that they wear inside. I usually remove my shoes when I go into my apartment as well, after all things stay cleaner and it's more comfortable that way, but it's not that important to me so now and then, for example if I'm just home to grab a quick bite to eat between classes, I don't bother.

Such was the case on Saturday afternoon. I had just sat down for lunch when I heard my doorbell ring. It was the first time I had ever heard my doorbell, actually, so it was a bit startling. I opened the front door to see a tiny little old Taiwanese woman shuffling towards me. "um... Ni Hao..." I said uncertainly to the stranger. She launched into a angry sounding tirade in Chinese, gesturing wildly and incomprehensibly. I gave her my best helplessly confused foreigner look. "Wo ting bu dong," I insisted "I don't understand." She stopped for a second and stared at me, then started the scolding again.

A younger woman, maybe her daughter, came tentatively up the stairs. "I don't understand," I told her, hoping she spoke English. Apparently not, because she just stood there looking embarrassed while the old lady tried to push her way past me to my apartment. "uh.. excuse me..." I said, stepping in front of her. Who was this person?

I noticed that she seemed to be pointing to my feet frequently. "Xiezi", I heard her say a couple times. OK, I know that one, she's talking about shoes. Maybe she wants me to take off mine? But why should she care? She pointed at my neighbors line of shoes outside their door and nodded vigorously.

Eventually, the situation became clear to me. How, I do not know. But as it turns out (I think...) these people live below me and do not appreciate the sound of me walking around in my shoes. Probably the grand total of walking in shoes that day had been to go from my main room to the kitchen and back again, but whatever. I quickly pulled my shoes off and set them neatly beside my door to demonstrate my willingness to comply. "Ok, Ok, Hao, Hao" I said agreeably. She nodded and the women turned to leave, the younger one throwing me one last embarrassed look over her shoulder.

That will teach me to ignore local customs.