a whole lot of new

It was another rather hot day today so decided to wait until the sun started to go down before I went out (well, that and it's a Saturday.) It's a funny how you don't notice a lot of things about a place until you've been there for quite a while, or gone home. It's almost as if there's so much to take in that your brain holds everything in, eeking out little tid-bits every now and then. Today, I had an eek. I've gradually been become aware of it for a while, but today, I became aware that I was aware of it. It is always noisy here, and every noise is new.

I live on the side of a hill with the town at the bottom of a short road. The road creates a small, welcome buffer for street noise so you don't have to hear it unless you want to. But, somehow, there is always noise. During a short 50metre walk you come across blocks of sound, as though walking into different rooms; the cricket (or very loud, leg rubbing bug of some kind) room, generator room, air con room. And then there is the intercom that can be heard in all rooms, generally blaring out music by the mopeds, chattering people, the sports fanatics or the garbage trucks.

(Before I go any further, a small note on the garbage trucks. The are unbelievable, or at least, I didn't believe anyone when they told me that they were the origin of the sound I was hearing. For day's I would get a little excited when I heard the noise, same time, every evening, and repeatedly I would be told, 'it is garbage truck,' but wouldn't believe them. Then one day I saw it, playing it's little (if not rather loud and repetitive) ice cream truck tune. Even though I had been warned, I still did a double take as I saw people running after it with their rubbish bags instead of their money. And you'll never guess what... the trucks have different tunes! I've heard about three different ones so far, but they still all sound like they belong at a carnival.)

This evening (the sun was set but the humidity was still very high) I went to the fruit market with a couple of friends. I'd never had the opportunity to go at night before so hadn't expected anything other than the usual couple of fruit stalls. Turns out, the whole place fills with stall of fresh produce at night. I was fascinated (although, my friends didn't seem to see why so left me wondering around gawking at things.) Just past the fruit stalls I found fish stalls with paper strands twirling above them (I'm not sure why, could be a smell thing.) A little bit after a massive pile of tripe there was a dish of octopus tentacles the size of my arm. Then a little after that, the shins (complete with feet) of cows. Aware that I was beginning to gape at things, I assumed the I'm-not-really-an-easily-amused-foreigner pose and walked on nonchalantly. That was until – the lone chicken. I had to use my best efforts not to laugh as I spotted a table with nothing on it but a dead, plucked chicken with its head hanging over the side (as in the photo.) It looked so much like a stereotypical rubber chicken I had 'Fun House' flashbacks (maybe I'm the only one who remembers that show.)

I love how things that seem completely normal to some people, are completely not to others.

Fryday

Man it's hot today! I've never experienced heat like this before. It's not so much the heat itself (which apparently is only 28oC) but the humidity added to it. When I saw it was sunny, I thought, 'yay, I can make a dent in some research and take in some rays at the same time.' I piled on sun cream, and off I went. I had only been out around twenty minutes when I realised I was bright red. I wasn't sunburned (not even a little tanned) I was just so hot, I looked like I'd spent several hours in the gym. The short time I spent outside also got my freckles a little too excited, so the usual sizable colony has taken up residence across my nose and cheeks a fair bit earlier than usual. Freckles are not an admired attribute in eastern countries. In fact they're fairly frowned upon, as with females with tans, it's seen as a sign of an unhealthy lifestyle of frivolity in the sun. (Although, for me, I think it's just that I've filled my average quota of sun-day's a bit earlier than usual.)

Ponderings

I've been reading 'camera lucida' by Roland Barthes, and today, it got me thinking. Near the beginning of the book Barthes describes 'the photograph' as belonging to

“that class of laminated objects whose two leaves cannot be separated without destroying them both.”

Taiwan, in my experience is a lot like Barthes' 'photograph.' On first impressions it seemed overwhelming whirling dervish of chaos, (not quite fulfilling the eastern principles of harmony and connectivity I had expected.) But on closer inspection, it was fascinating, and I was wrong. It seems to be a mass of juxtaposed lifestyles, buildings, modernism, tradition, religion, relationships and life coexisting perfectly in a way that could never be successfully reconstructed. There's such a menagerie of finely balanced relationships going on, between the old and the new; tradition and modernity; serenity and chaos; culture and pop culture; (and the list goes on.) Similarly, my relationship with these relationships is equally balanced on the extremes of love and hate. Ultimately (cheesily) love conquers all, and I would definitely recommend this country to anyone. As with all relationships there is a certain level of tension, and compromises must be made, but it seems to me that these tensions are a big part of what holds it all together, resulting in a unique situation where very little compromise actually needs to take place. At first it appears to be a gentle place, with lovely people, who are generally shy, and seem afraid to insult, almost to the point where I was anxious that people may try and take advantage of this. My fears were, however, unwarranted. Taiwan is no pushover, and has one strong sense of identity (even though that identity is made up of such diversity; in itself an important factor.) In all of this I see a definite comparison with Barthes' photograph. Taiwan thrives on its ability to be ultra modern and ultra traditional, all at the same time. So if you try and separate these out, or compromise one for the other, could you end up “destroying them both.”

Since its just over four weeks since the new year break, I did not expect the news I got today - I have three days off next week. What to do with this newly discovered five day weekend is open to suggestions, it snuck up so sneakily that I have nothing planned. It's a pretty random holiday. Officially it's the Tomb Sweeping Festival where everyone has to go back to their original home town and spend a day with their family (and ancestors), cleaning grave stones, cutting grass and carrying out various rituals. From what I can gather, people seem to look forward to it even though it's a lot of work (according to some girls in my 'table manners and placement of cutlery' class today.) But since I don't have any family buried here or pray to my ancestors, and it's a fairly 'family only' deal, I still need to figure out something worthwhile to do instead. (something that includes avoiding overly friendly Korean guys would be preferable)

Tuesday27thMarch07

Today was the day I discovered doodoo juice.
It was an ordinary day. I got up, went to classes and then went out for dinner. No, actually, hold the phone, that's not true! On the way to get breakfast I noticed that there were news trucks outside. I didn't think anything of it until I went out again and they seemed to be multiplying. Turns out there was some big Coca Cola promotion going on. There were heaps of film crews and news reporters filming people saying things like 'I love my boyfriend,' 'I love my mum,' just for a free coke. Rather bizarre. So, after that I went to classes, and dinner. I was hungry, so ordered the safest thing on the menu (avoiding the potential gag reflex that tends to leave most of the food on the plate), fried rice. Dinner always comes with a big tumbler of cold green or black tea, but given that green tastes like soap and black is like the stuff you get for tea parties when you're little; weak, milky and sweet, I decided to opt out. That was until a free passed me his drink and said 'try this' (this was the same friend that uttered those same words leading me into the congealed pigs blood incident, so you can forgive me for some serious hesitation at this point.) At first a strong taste of lemon hits you, then a little pineapple, and the tiniest hint of coconut, but before you have time to register the last, a small cube of jelly shoots up the straw and into your mouth. I was pleasantly surprised so decided to lift the drinks amnesty and got one.
As always seems to be the case, if you get roped into trying one thing, you get roped into another (although I'm still standing firm on the dating thing.) I had been suckered into various sports after dinner, but this one was an even bigger shock to the system, an in my opinion, much worse for your health than exercise on a full stomach... I went to the library. I had no choice. I was completely guilt tripped and press ganged into it. Don't get me wrong, I've spent time in the library before now, but after dinner is my me time (the time once occupied by the re-reading of the last Harry Potter book in preparation for the next, and more recently filled with the Black Dahlia.) Alas, I made the sacrifice, and I may never be quite the same. People here study way more than is healthy, and definitely more than I thought was humanly possible. Who knows, some of it might rub off on me... maybe.

Monday26thMarch07

All's well in a day with no classes.
Or so I thought.
Turns out that I didn't get away with as much as I had hoped. When I came back from my morning trip for breakfast, I was stopped and interrogated by 'the matron.' I've come to the conclusion that her not so perfect english makes her seem more formidable than she actually is since she did smile at me after making me sign some sheet to say that I had fled without warning (although it could have been a sadistic smile, you never can tell.)
I had a bit of a 'lost in translation' culture shock type day today. It was bound to happen sooner or later, but I guess I'd figured I'd skipped it. I think I was just really tired after a long few days with little sleep, so everything I have been avoiding caught up with me. Thankfully these things never last long so by the evening (after spending most of the day in the dorm (see photo) with several cups of plum green tea, and episodes of season 6 'sex and the city' from a girl on my floor) I had decided to get a grip, and get on with it.
It also turns out that I missed the biggest weekend on the Ming Chuan calender this year. The 50th anniversary. I was vaguely aware that something was coming up, but had no idea how big a deal it was. My roommates and classmates regaled me with tales from a weekend filled with cheerleading contests of epic proportions, specialist award winning wine developed by the biology department, on campus night markets, official meals with presidents, smoke bombs over military parades by day, and fireworks by night, and all with photographic proof.
Oh well.

Sunday25thMarch07

After walking for miles over the last few days, the only thing that was keeping us from sleeping till next week, was the thought that we would be missing out on something. However, after careful consultation of our map guides, there was really anything left that was standing out. And then it happened. A small stroke of genius. (even if I do say so myself) The jade market. None of us had been yet, all of us wanted to go, and I most definitely did. So after turning to my good friend google and battling with the multiple translations of pinyin spelling (don't even get me started) off we went. It was so cool. It was situated under a freeway overpass, it took up one side and a flower market and handicapped market on the other. Oh, I loved it. I walked in to a mass of stalls filling my field of vision with jade, gold, diamonds, coral and wood, carvings, jewelery,beads, pots, and everything shiny. We took a systematic approach, down one side and up the next. I got (what I thought was) half way down one side of a row when suddenly it opened up to be twice as long. I went a little further, and it did it again. Stall after stall after stall of all things interesting and wonderful. We met some fascinating people, one couple in particular who made all they're own jade jewelery and were so lovely and helpful. After spending a good few hours there, and making a serious mental note to come back with my friend who knows about rocks, we headed to the flower market. It was pretty cool too, but it didn't quite match up to the jade for me. It, similarly, seemed to go on forever, but was a lot wider with higher roofs to accommodate the various plant life (which somehow included fully grown trees...)
After the markets we headed back to the hotel, I packed up my stuff and my parents and I parted ways (again) for another three months. They don't leave till tuesday, but I must back to uni.
I just realised half way through the day, that I forgot to sign out of dorms, in fact I wasn't even sure I had told my roommates I was going since they were asleep when I saw them last, so I was mildly dreading the arrival back. Needless to say, I did some seriously sneaky moves to try and avoid the scary ex-police woman hall matron on the way back in. Crisis averted, for now.

Saturday24thMarch07

There were no set plans for today so we did a bit of a 'open a map and see what there is' type thing. Turned out to be one of the best ways to do things. We ended up in a small town to the north of Taipei called Xinbeitou at a Geothermal Scenic Park (otherwise known as Hell's Valley.) It was a lovely walk there through a tranquil park but man was it hot! It was one of those days when it's not really sunny but the humidity is so high that your clothes cling to you with no sign of letting go, only to be made worse by the hot spring water river running through the town. I've been trying my best to acclimatise, trying to copy the locals in clothing type (I've resigned to the fact that it's only going to get hotter so am trying not to wander around in tshirts and flip flops) but I failed. I was in thin trousers and sleeveless top and melting next to lots of cool, collected locals in long sleeves. Then we got to the main attraction. And it was hot. Almost boiling point hot. There was this beautiful pool of very hot water, covered in dancing pillars of steam, fading away, and shifting direction with awing grace. It was like a sauna it was so hot, which turned out to be a good thing since everything after that seemed quite cool in comparison. We headed back to the park and had a relaxing lunch in the shade on some large stone picnic tables with game boards of some sort painted onto them. I had barely started to ponder what kind of game it might be, when two old men turned up, animatedly greeting each other, then came and sat next to us. They took out small, flat, circular game pieces and proceeded to play. I watched, trying to pick up some of what they were doing but mostly just felt in mild reverence of these men. They had worked hard through their lives, and now were enjoying some well earned relaxing time with friends. It was lovely, and so were they. I tried to say I was impressed in Chinese but I don't think they got it (to be fair, I'm not sure that I had a clue what I said) but they smiled at me and asked me to play. I was so disappointed that I didn't know how, I felt so honoured to be asked.
It was not long before dark when we got back to Taipei so we decided to take another trip up the 101 building to see the city at night. It was really nice (especially since there was a big bike exhibition on near by, so there were some seriously good looking Australian guys going about) the view was delightful outside. On the way out I wanted to go have a look at a gorgeous jade shop on the bottom floor. I knew it was a scarily expensive shop but I just wanted to see the different styles of jade. I could see the glass doors were open, and the staff looked friendly so I upped my pace and off I went. bang. right smack bang into the middle of one of the open doors. I got such a shock I could do nothing for laughing. I tried to find a little composure since the shop assistants thought I was buckled over in pain, but it was too hard. I was gone. I was so impressed though. I obviously wasn't there to buy anything, and had just walked into a blatantly open door, but still the shop assistants couldn't have been nicer. I still have no idea how I managed it, but I still maintain that my eyes must not have adjusted from looking through glass at the dark city, and the sudden altitude change didn't help...

Friday23rdMarch07

There was a bit of a faff with the hotels today so we weren't left with much time to do anything other than check out and check in. However, we did have time to check out what could only be assumed to be an urban myth. A place where the 'f' word is used without restraint and geeks are the preferred clientele. A place where, you can walk down any street and see nothing but beautiful names in lights - 'pentax,' 'canon,' 'nikon.' And the honey to top off the milk - goods can be bought at very low prices. Surely this place couldn't exist.
But it did. And it was Fine.
I felt like a kid in a toy shop. Here lay two long street whose sole existence seemed to be to cater to my every want or need in the camera department. I may not believe in love at first sight, but this was definitely lust at first sight. Every store you went into seemed to have more than the last. More than I could afford for sure but a girl can dream. (It's streets like this that make people pay attention in classes - 'how to marry a wealthy man' - damn morals.)
I did practice a lot of restraint, only buying a filter and a chafe-free camera strap (to the relief of my neck.) Although, I must admit, I did leave with every intention of going back. How could I not?

Thursday22ndMarch

Today kind of snuck up on me out of nowhere. I had been planning my week around it but I hadn't realised quite how close it was, so when I woke up this morning and realised it was today I had to put my plan of action into effect sooner than expected. Pack my bags, go to class and jump on the bus as soon as it was done. Thankfully I made it to Taipei (possibly on a train I didn't have the right ticket for) before dark and set off, armed with a makeshift map, in search of a hotel where I was to meet my parents (although they weren't to turn up for another four hours.) I got off the MRT at the right stop and the right exit but, no hotel. There was a hotel where the map said, just not of the same name. In the hopes that I had written it down wrong I went in and enquired as to any reservations under my parents name... nothing. So I tried my friend who book it's name... nothing. I even wrote them down to rule out the possibility of verbal confusion... nothing. I wasn't sure what to do as I had no way of contacting my parents to warn them, and it was now dark so wasn't going to hang around for four hours. The hotels were all booked out because of a bike exhibition that was on so I couldn't even get a room. Eventually I found a payphone and called my friend. She phoned the hotel, and turned out they did have our reservation. Goodness knows. I dumped my bags and headed straight to the coffee shop that is fast becoming a friend of mine (since the coffee here comes in '3in1' packets; dry coffee, dried creamer and to much sweetener) Starbucks. What a strange place.

Its not cold!

What a beautiful day it was today! It must have been around 25 oC with a cheeky wind that was just enough to take the edge off the sun.
I had one (very long) class in the afternoon. It has to be one of the strangest classes ever, where we are taught immensely important things such as; how to dress for black tie social events and what to do in a crisis (ie if you turn up wearing the same as someone else...) I'm sure my sleeping will improve exponentially as a result. Half way through the class, I suddenly became very conscious of my flip flop skirt combo, but then decided to forget it and concentrate at the lesson at hand, after all, I may pick up invaluable advice on how to get a rich husband. It's scarily practical communication (and controlling) skills.
Later, after dinner, came the question that inevitably comes hand in hand with good weather; 'want to come exercise?' Their obsessed, I hadn't even digested my food yet, but somehow found myself jogging round the track dodging seas of hundreds of cheerleaders. (Its the uni's 50th anniversary this week - i think - so their out practicing in full force with the same music they've been playing persistently for the past 2weeks.) I was pretty chuffed with myself as I managed to complete almost seven circuits (two walking) before letting the guys I was with carry on the next ten on their own.
I just can't get my head around the whole lifestyle here. It's like all the jocks and cheerleaders from American schools have migrated here to form one school, and somehow became Taiwanese, normal, university students, and really nice. I don't get it. But I do love it.

fruit

Today has been one of those days that rush by and you have no idea where to. I got up pretty early so that I could load more software onto my computer and start backing things up. I thought I'd been there for around an hour, but when I looked at the clock, around three had past and I realised I had a class in 40mins (this wouldn't normally be a problem, but I may have forgotten to right up a news article for homework, plus it with four hours of classes ahead of me, I had to fit food in there somewhere too.) The class seemed to fly by, and I have no idea what I learned. I'm not used to this whole 'proper' classroom style set up as I haven't done that for around four or five years, so I really struggle to keep interested. (It's especially hard when you realise that your bum fell asleep 20mins ago, and you start to make you think that it might be on to a good idea.)
Later a few friends suggested going to the fruit market. I jumped at the chance, I love fruit and had wanted to go for a while but its not close and you cant walk around alone here once the sun goes down around six. It was so nice, even though I had no idea what most of the stuff was (animal, vegetable or mineral?) but left with what i think might be a melon, and some grapes that would not look out of place next to goliath. And suddenly it's now and I have no idea how that happened. What a strange day.

another day of freedom

I managed to sneak out undetected again today. Although this time it was just into town to try and get a mobile phone, or at the least a sim card. It turned out to be harder than it seemed as the guy kept blatantly trying to scam me, so I decided to wait until I can take someone who knows the language to get one. It's so strange though. I guess I had accepted the stares as normal at the start cos it was all really new to me, so i was doing a lot of staring too. But now that things are starting to become a bit more familiar and i can get around myself a little easier, i don't stare as much. I guess I'd figured they'd die down after a while, but no. To be fair, today was especially bad though, as the wind was pretty strong today, so add that to the affect the humidity has had on my hair and you cant blame people for wanting to look. That kind of volume isn't something you see every day. I don't mind it, its just a bit harder to ignore than I thought it would be.
Other than that, I've spent most of the day trying to restore programmes, files etc to my computer and catch up with a backlog of emails. I'm getting there. But I would like to ask; why do people make viruses?! If I ever meet someone that does, I will slap them. (Or at least verbally.)

'and I'm back in the game...'

Oh yes! After several weeks of computer outage, I'm back in action! Beautiful. I must admit that I've got a long way to go before updating photos, but I have no classes now on a monday (I think) so whould be totally back up to speed by tomorrow.
The rest of the day seems a little lacking after that piece of earth shattering, world changing news. We only went to the National Palace Museum to see some really old stuff (that being, a huge collection of Chinas riches and artifacts that Chang Kai Shek took with him to Taiwan when the whole communist thing happened in China.) It was pretty amazing though. And there was loads of jade! I love jade (as some of you may have guessed from the chunk of it that has been almost super-glued to my neck for years until recently when it forewent a tragic accident. ie the string broke.) But truly I think it is one of the most beautiful stones and it was fascinating to see such a prolific collection of jade. There were so many different colours and levels of translucency, that I didn't know existed. And the carvings were mildly mind boggling. I have no clue how they were even remotely possible. As I said, it was pretty amazing!
After that, my parents and I parted ways for the week so I am now back in my dorm and they are off for a trip down the east coast to see marble gorges and unmatchable landscapes. I'm not bitter. I think this shows a new-found greatness of character...

Saturday17thMarch07

We decided to have a chilled out day today, just taking in the city around us and going for long walks (with my newly smooth face.) First port of call was the Taipei 101 building. To be honest, I didn't know it was the tallest building in the world until only a few months ago. If someone had asked me back then I probably (ashamedly) would have said The Empire State Building (which hasn't been for quite a respectable length of time, in fact it has been topped by 5 or 6 since it's days of glory.) We headed in and into the elevator to take us up to the 89th floor. If you had blinked you would have missed it. The journey took enough time for a cat to sneeze. Seriously, I couldn’t believe it. Although, I couldn’t believe it so much, that it took me a while to believe that they had actually taken us to the 89^th

floor and hadn’t just put on some elaborate ruse. It was pretty cool though, even though there was a lot of cloud cover. The rest of the day we just walked around for miles, eventually heading back to the hotel for a well earned rest.

Friday16thMarch07 Part2

I met a lovely lady this evening. I've spoken to her several times on the phone and we have been keeping in touch by email for the past few months, ever since my Uncle Charles introduced us, and today we finally met. She took my parents and I to a local night market along with her 3 year old son (who was fascinated by my skin,) and her parents. It was a much better night market than the last one I was at, and a lot less busy. We had a wonder round the stalls that never fail to shock or amaze with their wares, then wondered into a temple that marked the exit. It was so beautiful. It was lovely to have our friends with us as they regaled us with stories about the various Gods as we marvelled at the statues, lanterns, smells and carvings. On the way back we went down the other side of the market where we noticed there was a lady free at a stall that did traditional hair removing. They use strings (don't ask me how) to pluck the hairs out. I'd heard it to be great for sensitive skin, and a less painful than waxing (my preferred weapon of choice) so I had always wanted to try it. I told her I wanted my eyebrows done and she nodded (perhaps a little too fast) that she understood and ushered me into a seat. Unfortunately, everyone was too curious to leave me in peace so I had an audience to watch as I sat (which frequently grew with random passers by.) She wrapped me in a cover thing and commenced covering my face in this strange powder (I presumed, for some ceremonial reason perhaps.) Next thing I know, clouds of powder and hair are flying everywhere as she started to pluck the hairs out of my forehead, only to finish when there were no hairs left on my face, bar my eyebrows and eyelashes! I must admit to being a little shocked, and definitely anxious at various points. And for those of you that are wondering, yes it hurt! It was less painfully than waxing, but I still managed to end up with mascara down my face from water filled eyes (mostly it was just a reflex, like walking into the wind, but man some bits smarted.) Although I've never had skin so soft, like a babies bottom (I told her that but she didn’t understand and I didn't feel that this was one for the hand gesture style of communication I've recently adopted) I keep stroking my cheek, it's lovely, and incredibly bizarre! It's definitely one for the books.

Friday16thMarch07

(Okay, so it's not monday yet, but turns out that my mum took her laptop with her so I connected to the net at the hotel.)

Today was the start of my little adventure. I felt like I was on a special stealth mission when I left campus this morning. I had to be careful to get from the dorms to the bus without being detected, otherwise, my sole-mission may have been thwarted by some overprotective friends. I made it and through the crazy traffic, and onto the train (who’s destination name never seems to correlate with the names at the ticket booth, and are mostly written in Chinese.) The journey as far as Taipei had taken a neat 1 and a half hours and had gone incredibly smoothly, so, I was feeling pretty chuffed with myself as I headed on to the next leg of my journey; a few miles on the MRT and then a 10min walk to the hotel. (This should have taken around half an hour, alas, it did not... it took closer to two.) I got to the station I wanted and got off at the right stop then headed off down the street that went down on the map (since I knew I wanted to head south.) After around 20mins I started to become a little suspicious of the lack of the intersecting street I was looking for. I was also a little surprised at the lack of the Taipei 101 building in my skyline (since it’s over 500 metres tall.) I came across an MRT station so decided to consult a map. Turns out, that down doesn’t necessarily mean south on a map. I had just travelled back two MRT stops in the direction had come from, so off I went to retrace my steps. At least I was on quite a nice street. It had a New York feel to it, tall buildings and nice shops with big roads and lots of yellow cabs.
I got back to my origin and turned headed due south, finding the street I was looking for (and seeing the 101 building pretty much the whole way.) Then, I couldn't find the hotel. I had been completely unflustered by the whole thing up to this point as I was really enjoying just walking and taking in the surroundings without any hangers on. I had been standing or walking for the past three hours, and my bag was quite heavy from the offset so it was time to have a seat and chill out at a local friendly coffee shop... Starbucks. I don't usually endorse such flippant use of over commercialised coffee houses, but man that was a well enjoyed Mocha frappucino! Feeling revived, I crossed the road, and found my hotel. A job well done. Oh yeh, and my parents got there fine (a few hours after me.)

Top Youth

Last night was the finals of the Top Youth competition for Ming Chuan University. People have been competing for months from the Taipei and Taoyuan campuses and the best of the bunch exhibited last night. To be honest I found the whole thing fairly disturbing as people strutted their stuff on a stage, being judged on intelligence, talent and health. But the whole thing felt more like a beauty pageant/cheesy rock concert. Needless to say, I never made it through to the end, the four hours of excitement were just too much for me!
Thank goodness there's only one a year.
My computer is still dead but my parents are arriving tomorrow and I'm still living in hope that my dad will fix it. However, this does mean that I'll be out of touch for the next few days as I'm leaving tomorrow to spend the weekend in Taipei with my parents. Should be fun. I'll fill you in when I get back to campus on Monday. x

White Day

I saw another animal today! (other than stray dogs, they don't count) I went (for the second time) to try and find an art shop I'd been given directions to. It turned out to be one of those cram-as-much-stuff-as-possible-in shops and some of the stuff looked like it was out of date when my grandparents were my age. I loved it. There were cobwebs on the pencils in the wee cubby holes, and every kind of paper you could thing of, most of which, you couldn't. Well, actually no, there was every kind except the kind I wanted - plain drawing cartridge paper. There were some of the most amazing patterns on the papers though (most of which, I'd hazard a guess, weren't there in the factory.) There was such an impressive array of fascinatingly useless, archaic art supplies, I couldn't help but spend quite a while in the poky little shop. Then after I left there it was right in front of me. (I'm going to try and find a way of getting the photo of it on here, words can't really do it justice.)
White Day. I was on my way to my dorm between classes and a group of Korean guy friends came running towards me. This was nothing new, I have become accustomed the sight of frantically waving arms and skirie tshirts bounding towards me. (A sentence I never thought I'd say.) But this time it was different. They stopped around me with big grins and produced copious amounts of chocolate (there was even some of that dust you'd get as a kid, the kind that when you hold it in your mouth, it crackles so much you feel as though your head might explode!) A dream come true perhaps? Not really, the chocolate here tastes like cack. It's even worse than American chocolate.
In Korea they have various versions of Valentines day. In fact, one every month (although a lot are ignored.) White Day is apparently one of the most important, it's the one where guys have to give girls chocolate. Amazing.

I just saw the most massive cockroach type thing ever on the way on the way here! I've been really shocked at the lack of bugs here, thats the first one I've seen! (I don't count flies, although there haven't been that many of them either.) There doesn't seem to be much of any kind of fauna here. It could be a conspiracy. It could certainly explain some of the strange meat in the food here which people seem to have a disturbing partiality for. I saw a little finch of some sort this morning which made me smile, there such cute little birds. They just hop about jauntily, unhampered by people. It was the first bird I've seen here. It's all very suspicious.
Our VIP room became slightly less exclusive this week with the addition of a new roommate. She's lovely, as is my other roommate, although this one is from Mongolia. I find the country fascinating and, unfortunately for her, that means that she is frequently bombarded with questions and requests to see photos. She doesn't seem to mind (well, either that, or she's exceptionally good at hiding the fact that she secretly cringes and pretends to still be asleep when she realises that I'm awake, dreading today's barrage of questions.)

Today

As you've probably guessed (due to the lateness of posts and lack of photos (which takes something away from the idea of a photo diary)) my computer is still sick. Windows has been reloaded but none of the drivers are working and it's not detecting network stuff - but I'm still working on it and have someone on the job. I had mandarin classes again today. I am shocking! I just don't get it! Apart from the fact that some of the pronunciation sounds don't exist in English, there is actually no correlation between English and Chinese words or characters. None!
Today I also found out my granma died last night which, was a bit of a bummer but not unexpected. At least I know she's happy.
On a brighter note, have you ever 'googled' yourself? Well, I (ashamedly) out of boredom did and the first link actually was me. I was totally surprised. It was a link to a friends blog who had written a lovely entry about me on my birthday. (Some would say it was about time, but I, obviously, remain suitably modest about it.)
(Also, I sorted the comments problem for those of you that were having trouble with posting, so it should work fine now.)
Take care x

Sunday 11th March 07

I felt a lot better today, so decided to join some of my friends and go on a little adventure. Today I went to a Korean church. I didn't understand a word. But I really enjoyed it. It was so nice to just 'be,' to have a bit of space to be quiet and listen for a change. Pray and meditate over life and your surroundings. It was a welcome little peaceful moment to nicely punctuate a hectic few weeks. It made me realise that sometimes you don't have to be able to tell what someone is saying to be able to tell who they are. I have no idea what the speaker guy was saying, but there was something about him that was just so kind and gentle. Afterwards we stayed for lunch and had some fantastic Korean food (thankfully without the fish which tastes grose and all seems to smell like rotten entrails.) They like things very spicy, which I am loving, and eat rice with every meal. The people were so friendly, and it turns out, I was the second ever white person to go there (which explains the initial stares.)
It was in Taipei so by the time we got back I was really tired so had a chilled out evening and an early night.

Saturday10th March 07

Well, today, I pretty much spent the day sleeping off my cold. But I did venture into town to buy a jumper (I only took one and the weather hasn't been great the last few days.) This turned out to be a slightly more eventful trip than expected. There was a group of us, around 12 or so, so we decided to split up and meet back in an hour. I was pretty pleased cos I was in a less than tolerant mood (as I usually am when I don't feel great) and so wasn't particularly in the mood for people. Just as I was about to enter a department store I heard someone shout my name, to my horror, here were four massively overprotective guys who had apparently decided I shouldn't go anywhere alone and so had taken it upon themselves to be my bodyguards. They seemed so excited I didn't have the heart to turn them down. Oh how I wish I had. Long story short, it may have been one of the single most embarrassing days of my life. I thought they would linger on the outskirts as I perused the shops to find one that had European sizes (ie anything bigger than a size 10) but no. First shop we come to they barge in front of me picking up some horrendous suggestions of outfits. I decided to be tactful and so (stupidly) motioned that they were to small. At this they ran up to nearby sales assistants asking for another size. When she asked which size they pointed at me, once the sales assistants got over the initial shock they went on to say that no they didn't. This was repeated in numerous shops until I gave up and said that I didn't like anything in the hopes of getting to leave. At this, they dragged me away to two more floors (by this point, they had encouraged 4 more girls to come and help) eventually finishing when I found a half okay zip up sweater thing. It was pink. At least they loved it. My entourage however, did not disband until we got back to campus, where I, exhaustedly, headed back to bed.

compliments

The people over here really know how to give compliments. It's amazing how many you get. Esp. as a curly haired, blue eyed, pale skinned girl. The first few days I was here I was showered with compliments and on average was told at least once a day how beautiful I was. To be honest I just found this a little embarrassing especially when they would ask to touch my hair or my face. The worst is on the trains or MRT's. Randoms would come up to me to tell me how beautiful my eyes are. I don't get it at all, cos the women here are stunning. But it's not just me, people here are culturally really complimentary to each other, it's such a lovely thing. How many times a day do people give compliments in Britain? You're lucky if it's once a week.
But yesterday something changed. I got a 'wow...' but instead of being followed by 'you're eyes are so pretty' it was followed by, 'you look like crap,' and so I was dragged off to the doctors. Turns out I have some viral throat and chest infection thing, so I got loads of pills to take. yay. It's so annoying. Apart from the fact that I had to wear this surgical mask thing, I also had to cancel my weekend in Taipei with a friend, which, I was totally looking forward to.
So this weekend will now be spent in dorms, sleeping loads and eating very spicy food. (Any excuse I guess)
On the subject of food; if you ever come here and decide to partake of the menagerie of various foods, never ask what it is you're eating. If you like it, stick to it. The problem is that you only eat with chop sticks here so you can't really bite off a little bit for a taste. So, while eating lunch with a friend he pointed out something I should try. It looked like liver cubes, but he promise me it wasn't so I picked some up, (along with something that I thought was just funny looking noodles and turned out to be squids tentacles or something.) I tried some of this liver looking stuff, which was not nice, and a bit slimy. I asked what it was, and he told me that I didn't want to know. But I was persistent to the point of irritating (which I now regret) and it turned out to be congealed pigs blood. At least I can add it to my list of weird things I've eaten.

7th March 07

I found a guy who said he could sort my computer for me without loosing all the photos that were still on there. So he did it and all seemed fine until I got back to the dorm and tried to connect to the internet, nothing. It doesn't seem to be any closer to being fixed than before which is a little frustrating cos it means I can't keep this up to date properly, and can't upload photos from my cameras. Oh well, you guys will just need to bear with me.
The computer labs are kinda cool though. You aren't allowed to wear shoes in them, so you have to take them off at the door and don these weird, green, slipper, flip flop things. It's really weird.
I found out something pretty cool today. Ming Chuan is situated half way up a hill side in a district called Gwei-Shan, which, I found out today, translates as Turtle Mountain. How cute is that?! And the funniest thing is, the Chinese character for it looks like a turtle. Well, a delapidated one anyway.

6th March 07

It is cold today. Yet again, undeniable proof that the weather forecasts for here have no bearing on what the weather is actually like. It rains a lot here at this time of year, which, I was aware of, but after the beautiful, can't-cope-with-the-heat type weather we were having, who would have thought it could change so fast. To be fair, it's still not as cold as Scotland but a 20kg luggage allowance (grr) barley allowed for equipment, never mind clothes to cover such changeable weather. I kinda figured I'd buy stuff when I got here, but a 10/12 is like the biggest size i can find here, so that's not gonna happen. On a cheerier note, a had a 3D animation class today, which, has the potential to be really interesting, but man t was boring! I got around half an A5 page of notes we learned so little. Then, later that afternoon, I got a phone call saying that there was some bad news; the class is full so I wouldn't be able to take it. Darn it!

Where has she been?!

Well, the last few days can pretty much be summed up in a mountain of tissues. (although obviously you will get more info later)

I've been fighting off a cold for the past few days which has now pretty much progressed into a 'freshers' flu' type thing. The problem arises when you mix this with the fact that I sleep in a bunk, so when you wake up in the middle of the night thinking 'how much do i really need to go?' you have to add to it ' will i make it down without falling off the steps, and if I do, how will i get back up again?' But I really don't mind, at least it gets it over and done with at the beginning of the trip.

Long story short, I didn't get off to the flying start I had hoped for, but you can be sure that I'll make up for it!

5th March 07

An even bigger disaster happened than my computer dying. Sometime this morning while i was sleeping so try as I might there's nothing I can do about it. Today I turned 21. 21 in itself is not a problem, it's 22 I'm scared of. ( i might be expected to grow up). I was a little bummed about it cos had I been in Scotland I was going to have a joined birthday party with some friends, but at the same time relieved cos I don't like doing the whole 'birthday' thing. But then the sweetest thing happened. Last night my roommate woke me up. (A dangerous thing to do.) I tried grunting and moaned at her but she was persistent so I eventually dragged myself out of my bunk just in time to see a cake floating towards me in the dark, followed by around seven friends that live a few floors below me. I was totally taken aback as they forced me to sit down with them and have a carpet picnic, at around 1130, of cheesecake. I soon forgave them for waking (even though they had gotten a little muddled with the numbers and the candles said 12 instead of 21) me after I realised that the cheesecake (which I don't generally like) tasted amazing! They also gave me a Chinese something-or-other that they told me said 'happiness' on it cos they think I smile a lot and they like it. As if that wasn't enough, this morning went to my mandarin class, and met another group of friends who all gave me a round of applause and announced that we're all going an Italian place down the road for a wee party meal tonight. How nice is that?! I didn't think they even knew it was my birthday. The people here are so lovely.

4th March 07

Today, I was so excited. I woke up, got dressed, met up with one of my friends and headed into Taipei. The lantern festival was on and I was told that thousands of lanterns and fireworks get set off at the Chiang Kia Shek memorial and it's really a sight to see. Potentially a personal once in a life time photographic opportunity. We were aware we would have to leave early (since it's a 2 hour journey and I have a 11pm curfew, grr) but figured, since it gets dark at around 6 there would still be plenty to see.
So we arrive, and I am so not disappointed. the Chiang Kia Shek memorial is amazingly beautiful. It has a big open tiled centre area with two big traditional old Chinese style red buildings flanking it. At the head is I big white pyramidal style building with steps leading up to a massive room on top holding a hugely impressive statue of Chiang Kia Shek. (He looks lovely and smiley.) And on either side of the white building are beautiful gardens with large fish ponds.
I got a beautiful new walk-around lens for my camera before I left and was really looking forward to putting it to the test. So I find a perfect point to get a lovely shot of the first red building. I was like a kid in a sweet shop, savouring the first bite, since it's always the most exciting. I look to down to see what I got and there it was... big and red... so emotion provoking I almost cried... the words - 'no cf card'.
I may never fully recover.

disaster

For the past few days my laptop has been struggling to start, i did a virus check and had to delete over one and a half thousand viruses (most of them were the same one that had just split and gone everywhere.) Unfortunately it corrupted a heap of system file so now all i get is my desktop background and nothing else. I found a guy in one of my classes who's going to take a look at it tomorrow, but until it's fixed I might not be able to keep this up properly. (Don't worry i have a written copy of yesterday so you will hopefully hear about it soon.)

x

I gave in...

I have turned to the dark side. I tried so hard to stand my ground but, alas, I failed... I'm ashamed to say it, but after all that ranting about the madness of sports here, I gave in. I went out after dinner for a wee game of basketball with some friends, and I have to say it was a lot of fun. The heat and humidity were ridiculous (my t-shirt was most definitely a different colour by the end) and I think everyone felt like they may actually die at some points but it was so worth it. It was one of those, 'if a girl gets the ball they have to run with it as fast as possible and try to shoot, during which time, nobody is aloud to tackle her.' I'm not normally one for endorsing unnecessary gender exceptions, but it certainly added the right amount of the ridiculous to the game. Earlier we all headed in to town (Taoyuan) for a bit of a wonder. I spent most of the time trying to figure out how the people here can be so much thinner than the people at home. I thought it was the food, but actually, I'm not so sure. And then I had an epiphany! It's the toilets! (You had to know they were gona come up at some point (and this is actually a coincidence Roger)) I can't exactly count for the guys but, good grief, the sheer amount of skill and dexterity needed to execute (well.. whatever), without getting it all over your trousers, while trying not to topple over, is immense! I mean, it's not wonder they're so slim; they get a full leg workout several times a day! AND there is never any toilet paper. Where does it go? Nobody knows. It's not like they don't use it, it's just that it doesn't exist anywhere in the restroom vicinity. I learned very quickly (thankfully not too late) to always leave the dorms prepared.

A sneeky wee extra bit

I had to do another one for today cos this is mental. I went out to dinner this evening with a group of friends (for a seriously nice, decent sized meal and a large tea, I was 95 dollars, that's like £1.45. Mental. I can't get over the prices here, but that's not the aforementioned mentalness.) Anyway, afterwards a few of them said they were going to exercise, and I thought they were joking (aside from the fact they had just eaten a fairly large meal, all the exercise here is outdoors). But alas, no, they were not. My dorm overlooks the playing field and running track, and when I looked out to see what all the noise was about, there were around 300 people doing various exercises, from group aerobics, to running. What's up with that! I mean there were people out all day but they have PE here so that made sense. (Although you could not have paid me to join in today, it was so hot.) I've never seen a track and field used so much! In fact, ever!

Back up to speed

I have decided, as of today, that the internet lies. Before I came I here I checked the weather reports and it said that around now is the end of winter so there would be an average temperature of around 15oC and it doesn’t fluctuate much. The last few days have definitely been hotter than 15 and today it’s boiling! It has to be at least 25 and the humidity is about 70% according to my sources. 15 shmifteen. I took today to have a wonder around campus and have fallen in love with the fishponds. They are so lovely and the fish are so cute. They’re Koi fish I think but they’re fairly massive and really friendly, so I just sat and watched them for a while this morning.

1st March 07

Day Three. It turns out that cos I’m an
exchange student here I don’t have to stick to the regular course electives, I can pretty much choose whatever I want from any course. This also means I can take a minimum of 9 credits instead of 15 if I like (I took 11 but that might change) and have the opportunity to take some free, no exam, mandarin classes too (obviously I jumped at the chance as the words ‘hello’ and ‘thank you’ can only get you so far.) As a result I totally scammed my way out of PE (yay!). So, I had my first class today, which was one of the strangest experiences ever. It was sociology (which I love) but I was in a class of around 75 students (myself being the only one whose first language is English) all of us in individual seats with an armrest desk type thing. It was just weird. I felt like I was in primary school or something and it had quite I militant feel about it. Thankfully, the surroundings had no reflection on the teaching. The lecturer was this American guy who kinda reminded me of the beaver from lady and the tramp, (but without the prominent s’) and he was loud, but laid back, which made everyone feel quite comfortable. I’m quite looking forward to seeing what the other classes are like.

Day Two - 28thFeb07

Today I met a guy whose actual honest-to-goodness, paid job, is to walk around with a board and offer people Free Hugs! How much would you love to be that guy?! Obviously I wanted one, since that was one of the main things I was anxious about in coming here – that I wouldn’t be able to hug anyone. In Scotland I barely go a day without a hug and never a week without a seriously good quality hug. I love them. And today I got one, from some random guy on the street with a billboard. I’m not sure this really doesn’t add to the problem, but for now I’m just going to savour it. So yeh, this all happened on a trip to Taipei today since it’s a national holiday and classes don’t start till tomorrow. I went with Brian (the American guy), and a group of Koreans, who laugh at me when I try and pronounce their Korean names, and have English names that sound like dolls or soap stars. (As far as I can tell, they aren’t translations of their real names, which, tend to translate into things like, ‘flower’ or ‘easy’ as in ‘easy going’.) (most are in the photo - taken on Ming Chuan campus) So anyway, we all took the bus, then the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit – kinda like the underground) to Taipei. We had a little help from some Taiwanese girls, since none of us speak Mandarin, and it’s pretty hard to negotiate the MRT on your first go, esp. with a group of around 15 people, ranging from 18 to 27 and all acting as though they’re about 12 (I, obviously, was far more composed.) Taipei is a lot like New York, tall buildings, very busy, lots of shops, except, although the shops are tall, you only seem to be able to see the bottom floor, which, is generally jam packed with stuff. And there are loads of adverts and skirie signs everywhere. It’s al a bit mental. But the thing that I couldn’t get my head around, at all, was that everyone walks really slowly. I mean really slowly. People stroll everywhere. To be honest, I started to find this pretty frustrating by about half way through the day. I walk twice as fast in normal situations and jet lag was starting to set in, so slow, monotonous walking was really not where I was at. Since it’s a prominent city, I automatically drew comparisons with London, or New York, where generally, people walk double my speed. And if I’m somewhere new I tend to be like, ‘Right! Early start, lets go, got to see as much as possible in as little time as possible, can’t waste a second…’ this was different. I found it kind-of funny. Although in all fairness, I still saw far more than I could process between the city and the night market. I tried so hard to stay awake on the 40minute bus ride home and was so sure I had managed, until 5minutes after we left when I woke up almost leaning on the poor random girl in the seat next to me, and we had arrived back at Ming Chuan.

27thFeb 07

Day One. Today was such a great, and bizarre day. It started with a long breakfast (not quite sure what it was but it tasted

fantastic) on the roof of the dorms, in brilliant warm sunshine, overlooking the running track and part of Taoyuan. First thing we got all the admin stuff out of the way, elected courses to take, and then headed to the local hospital. This had to be one of the weirdest days ever. Since I arrived late last night (in the dark) my

surroundings didn’t really dawn on me until we were on our wee bus on the way to the hospital (which felt somehow safe than normal, cos at least if you die due to the maniac driving, you’re heading in the right direction.) Since my mind appears to have switched off, I’ll leave descriptions for another day so as not to do it an injustice. So we got to the hospital where myself and six other exchange students (one from America and five from Korea) had to undergo a series of tests, everything from blood tests, x-rays, pee tests, the works, which, apparently is mandatory for all people living on campus (although, I have to say I’m a little dubious, since after showing my Russian roommate an impressive bruise from the blood test, she looked at me like ‘what-on-earth-are-you-talking-about?’ hmmm.) Later, we met up with some more Korean students and went on a short ‘here’s how the busses work’ tour to Taoyuan. The food here, on the whole, is great, however, this evening we ended up in a Korean restaurant, and in the true tradition of trying anything once that wont kill me, I did. It made me want to gag, it tasted like raw, rotten, fish (I figure that’s why it’s so spicy, to cover the flavour, and unfortunately they ordered no spices in mine). Parts of it looked pretty, like the flour & fish lumps had pink flowers painted on them. (see above picture) I love this place. It’s just weird.