A Year in Taiwan

2005-04-05T07:15:00.000+08:00

Buddhist Temple Street Party

On my way home from the bus stop every day, I pass a small temple. It is rather nice that Buddhist, Confucianist and Taoist traditions can all be found side by side in the same temple. I have got to know the old couple who live at the temple as I stop by for a chat, if they are in. The temple atrium is also their front room with sliding doors onto the street. They are often there as they look after their granddaughter, who is 2, while their son and his wife are at work.

At first Am'm did all the talking and I just did by best to understand. Her accent is pretty strong and she speaks to her husband in Taiwanese. After a few weeks I could speak more Chinese with them and they always welcome me back if I have free time. So kind, so patient, I really appreciate how they have helped me.

Easter Day was the birthday of the Bhodisatva (Saint) that this temple is devoted to. Am'm invited me to come to the street party they were having. A tarpaulin awning had been set up into the street. I think cooking preparations had been going on for weeks, round tables with red plastic sheets for a table cloth were set up with plastic stools, there were about 200 local people eating dish after dish of traditional Taiwanese food together. I met Am'm son and daughter-in-law and a few more neighbors. Am'm's daughter had to translate for me between the old gentleman I was sitting next to as he only spoke Taiwanese. Turns out we live on the same street in Xin Zhuang. A rather colourful day.

2005-04-03T14:07:00.000+08:00

Easter Sunday,

I rushes about preparing Hot Cross Buns, or at least the equivalent of, considering I couldn't get hold of quite the right ingredients. My very own creation contained, raisins, pecan nuts, prunes and tangerine peel. I was luck enough to find yeast and cinnamon. They had the right flavor, even if they weren't quite to right shape. People don't have ovens at home, so I had to hunt about to find one I could use. I was able to use the small one in the kitchen behind the church. It was nice to be able to share one of our traditions with the Taiwanese.

In the afternoon, after a brief practice, we donned our purple and white choir robes and walked to the park to sing hymns. Several of my friends had helped me with the pronunciation and translation of the Chinese and Taiwanese. The nice thing about singing is you don't have to think about tones, just follow the music. Just as well as Taiwanese has 9 tones!

2005-03-30T04:11:00.000+08:00

Happy Easter!

Holy week has been an eventful one! On Saturday 25 March I went up to the sea side town of Danshui to help my language exchange partner Jeff with his literature presentation. He picked me up from the station and took me up the hill to his dorm on the back of his scooter. We couldn't have got up to 25mph in the narrow streets swerving round street vendors, parked mopeds, oncoming traffic and throngs of shoppers, but it felt much faster, I laughed like a loony in an attic, excitement and fear. Jeff assured me everything was normal, this was his 'turf', I would be OK.

A few deep breaths after the dismount and we ducked down an ally flanked with a jewelries and a pick and mix boil your own dinner kind of cafe. Then through a courtyard fang dong (landlady) was tidying the potted shrubs, Jeff pointed out the tree in the middle of the small garden was a cherry blossom (not yet in flower, hardly surprising as it would only get the midday sun, concrete towering on all sides). Jeff's room was more of a bedsit, bigger than my room in Xin Zhuang.

Single mattress in the corner, big desk, TV, water boiler for hot and cold drinking water, Two wooden chairs and a few plastic 2 ft high stools, bookshelf, chest of drawers. Like me he had plastic framed wardrobe with a fabric cover that zips down the front. The shower and loo were down the hall, shared with the other four lads on the floor.

After a slurp of hot water we adjourned to the student library across the street. What a monster, we took the lift to the ninth floor to use a meeting room to study in, so we could talk without disturbing others. This would have seated a board room of twenty comfortably, had a gorgeous view of the mountains the other side of Danshui, temples on the hillside, the dwellings of Danshui crammed in tightly next to each other. All was not tranquil as we kept being interrupted by loud clanging of construction work on the new English Department next door.

We are reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dallaway, well at least I am, Jeff looked up notes on the internet to save him the trouble. What he wants me to do is explain the notes to him. Engineers! What can you do with them? He is taking three English courses on top of his Mechanical Engineering, but he isn't interested in the beauty of the writing (the first ten pages brought tears to my eyes, possibly progesterone assisted), the life of the author, the characters struggle to communicate their needs or London's post war society, he just wants a good grade in his presentation on Wednesday.

I had to be on my way at 6 as I was meeting a young couple who wanted me to teach them English one evening a week. This was the elder sister of a girl at church and her boyfriend.

Just for fun, Jeff took me round the back street of Danshui on the blessed moped, then we wondered the busy main street, crammed with people, tasted local baking, I spent my hong bao (new year money from Rosa's parents) on a Chinese silk purse and silk embroidered table decorations, coasters, I suppose, for tea parties Made in China. A stroll along the promenade, it is dark now and the dian deng (little lights) depict the far side of the river. This side people are walking along with their dian xin (snacks) There is every kind of chi de dong xi (things to eat) that you can spear from a paper bag or eat off a stick. Music blasts out bright lights of the shops selling Taiwan's own brand of seaside tat (and plenty of it), then to the station and on to meet Kristy and Max.

Such a sweet couple, buying their first house in June, architect designed that Max chose himself. Kristy is an editor for a Beauty magazine and Max sells advertising. I am going to help them practice their English conversation and making sentences. They will choose a couple of topics the week before, I e-mail an example couple of paragraphs and then check their own creative writing. Introducing myself, travel, business meetings and so on. I am quite looking forward to it. In return they bought me dinner at Moss Burger and have invited me to come cycling with them next weekend. Marvelous!

2005-03-25T03:40:00.000+08:00

Birthday Bash

I was very happy that a dozen friends came out for a meal with me on my birthday. You never know what is going to happen when you try and arrange something. Madalo one of my former classmates even bought me some red roses. That was very sweet. Felicidad gave me a Chinese calligraphy set, although my talent with the maobi hair brush has yet to appear. There is a small group of students who meet on a Monday. I sit trying to copy Rebecca's brush stokes but my output is splody and wobbles all over. I have sat for three solid afternoons of concentration and my improvement has been marginal. Very marginal.

We went to a roadside cafe for a traditional Chinese meal. Some of my European friends faces fell noticeably when Felicidad ushered us into striplight lit, cracked walled cafe with no front. I didn't want to take my friends anywhere expensive as I know most of them are on a very tight budget. The Laoban (manageress) was able to accommodate us all straight away. She had a brusk manner, pinny on, sleeves rolled up,shouting orders across to the chefs, her hair sticking up stiffly, teeth akimbo. We sat on stools round a large circular table. Ordering food took a some discussion as some of my friends don't eat pork, which features heavily in Chinese cuisine. We let Felicidad and Anna order the dishes as this was Felicidad's local and Anna can read the menu slip, and penciled in a nice selection. In five minutes xiao lum bao (small steamed dumplings with meat and soup inside), spinach fried in oil with garlic, shui jiao (meat and vegetable boiled dumplings) started to arrive. There were fried parcels several other dishes complimented with a bowl of chill pickles and soy sauce. We helped ourselves to rice from the massive steamer and passed round the bamboo disposable chopsticks. A very tasty selection, all for under one pound fifty a head.

As the street restaurants make their money by being able to have a fast turn around of guests, it is not the place where you can linger and chat, so we migrated across the road to Dante cafe with comfy chairs. The waiter put coffee tables together in a line for us so we could sit together. I like the Ji Cha, hot orange tea with halved green kumquats steeping in the transparent teapot, tastes like tart marmalade. It is always really nice when you can introduce different groups of friends to each other. Indonesian, Malaysian, British, Brazilian, Dutch, Spanish and African.

Jacqueline from Brazil was also celebrating her birthday by having her party at Bario's a Latin dance club. We caught a bus up there, Edi kindly helped me carry some of my gifts. Barrios was free to get in, down to the basement, soft red glow, sofas round the edge, plenty of tables and a big dance floor, the night was young so we sat and chatted before we got boogying. More student friends turned up in twos and threes, all very cordial. The Latin girls have really got rhythm. It was great fun.

2005-03-08T18:16:00.000+08:00

Semi wild orang-utangs come for a meal of milk and banana in the Borneo jungle.

2005-03-08T18:13:00.000+08:00

Turtle hatchlings just about to go back in the sea.

2005-03-08T18:12:00.000+08:00

River house in Sabah, Malaysia

2005-03-08T18:11:00.000+08:00

Kath and J at the Sultan's mosque, Brunei.

2005-03-08T18:10:00.000+08:00

Chinese New Year Decorations.

2005-03-08T18:07:00.000+08:00

Mum and I amungst the Orchids at the Flower Market

2005-03-08T18:05:00.000+08:00

Philip at the Flower Market

2005-03-08T18:04:00.000+08:00

Calligraphy, my first attempt at our school. Making decorations for Chinese New Year

2005-03-08T18:02:00.000+08:00

Margherita and Janet in the old school room

2005-03-08T18:01:00.000+08:00

Margherita, Anna and Janet hiking in the mountains at Yuan Minh Shan.

2005-03-08T17:59:00.000+08:00

Street vendors selling shui jiao - pork and veggie dumplings

2005-03-08T17:57:00.000+08:00

Gluing together the tissue paper forming a lantern.

2005-02-28T20:53:00.000+08:00

Po-Yi's cousin lights the fire crackers as the brides car arrives

2005-02-24T20:58:00.000+08:00

New Year Lantern Festival

15 days after the Chinese New Year, the Taiwanese celebrate Lantern Festival. This welcomes the new year, but is More fun than religious. Our school arranged ten coaches to take us to the mountains at Shihfen. There were thousands of people there for the event, shuttle buses had been laid on to reduce traffic and parking problems. It was lovely wandering along the old street lines with vendors selling traditional snacks, bumping into friends who we hadn't seen since the new year break. There was a path along the river, a wobble rope bridge and a couple of waterfalls to take in before nightfall and Margherita, Joyce and I joined our queue to set off a lantern. The lanterns are about a meter high made from strong tissue paper with a paraffin pouch underneath to fuel it. There were about 300 people setting off lanterns at the same time. The three of us held up the lantern and wrote our wishes and messages on the side in Chinese, such as 'shi jie he ping' which means World Peace. The stewards came and lit our lanterns and we watched them inflate and glow orange from the flame inside. A couple of minutes later it was time for the release and the lanterns sailed up into the night sky. When the lanterns are overhead you can see the flames burning brightly. There is no frame to the structure of the lantern, but even though they appear quite flimsy, I didn't see any catch fire.
It was really beautiful.

2005-02-17T14:56:00.000+08:00

North Borneo

I spent the Chinese New Year with friends I knew at Liverpool University when we studies Geophysics and Geology. Kath and J have been living in Brunei since March. Kath is a geophysicist working in seismics for Shell. J is a massage therapist, but has not been granted a work permit and is raining for the Iron Man triathlon in The States.

The opulence of Bandar is overwhelming with glorious mosques and the Empire Hotel smothered in gold and wall to wall marble. As the current Sultan is he 29th Sultan of Brunei, there are 29 towers, gold domes, you name it, in the architecture. We left our shoes at the bottom of the marble steps. J calls this black marble with a large crystal structure 'Midland bank-ite'. Kath and I were given a black robe that buttoned down the front covering everything from the neck down to the knees. The octagonal prayer rooms were up a huge stair case, very light and airy with a high domed ceiling and the carpets in rows facing Mecca. Huge green bound volumes of the Qi'raan lined the shelves. When we returned to the great atrium downstairs an usher showed us to a display of photographs of visiting dignitaries, including he Queen, beyond this was a library and we were invited to browse the English Language section including translations of the Qi'raan and introductions to Islam. In all the hotel rooms there was a small arrow on the ceiling pointing in the direction of Mecca. In recent years Muslim laws have been enforced more strictly. You used to be able to have a beer at the ex-pat Boat Club or bring your own alcohol to restaurants, but now this is not permitted, but you can buy alcohol over he boarder in Malaysia, the allocation is two bottles (wine or spirit) or you can buy booze at the Shell shop, but they only have one shipment a year (before Christmas), it is only February and hey have already sold out of white wine.

We drifted round the museum containing the Sultan's corrination coaches and gifts from the presidents and royalty of other nations. Lots of glitzy trinkets, elegant vases, a glittering model of a palace and a couple of dishes that should have stayed in Ikea.

Had a marvelous time visiting Sabah, over the boarder in Malaysia. J and I went on an EcoTour to see the turtles, orang utangs, monkeys and any other wildlife we were lucky enough to spot. As we sat in the boat a yellow racer snake swam across the river, heading for J. It poked its head up out of the water then dived under the boat and swam to shore. On land it reared up against a tree and began to climb up, slowly at first, but it was pretty amazing to watch make its was up the trunk.

When the turtles come ashore to lay their eggs, the rangers take them to protect them in hatcheries. In 7 weeks they hatch and can be released into the sea. This was amazing, especially as we were allowed to hold one of the little wriggles. Surprisingly strong they were smaller than my palm and paddle their legs like mad.

2005-01-13T21:11:00.000+08:00

A Taiwanese wedding

Kaku's nephew got married on 9 January. Margherita, Anna and myself were invited, along with all the Li family. Annie couldn't come as she is studying for exams in Taizhong. It was really nice to meet up with Janet and the other cousins that I had been swimming within Xindian.

The family had spent months getting the house ready, there had been building work and improvements so that everyone could see that the bride was coming to a good home.

The official papers had been signed in advance, then from 9am guests started arriving at the family home. The parents run a sop selling household electrical goods. Their apartment is on the 3rd floor. Everyone was in their best outfits, the young men in suits. I had not seen Po-Yi looking so smart, so he was first for being photographed.

The grooms bedroom had been converted to sumptuous boudoir complete with red bedcovers. It is traditional for the wedding bed to be new and for the night before the wedding it was good luck if the groom slept in it with a boy/ bachelor. As Po-Yi w around, he got the honor. He said the bed was too soft and he didn't get much sleep.

10 am and the groom was busy greeting guests. We drank some tea and awaited the arrival of the bride, who was greeted by the sound of fire crackers lit by Po-Yi's cousin.

The bride in a western style white dress was lead upstairs to greet the family, but not before the children presented her with tangerines on a dish (for luck). The groom's bedroom had been redecorated and the new bed had red bedcovers for the couple. They sat next to each other in the small bedroom for various other traditions and of course photographs. The children presented them with a sweet soup to bless the union and wish it to be a happy one. Then it was time for all the guests to present their hong bao - red envelopes to the brides mother.
It is traditional to give a monitory gift in a red envelope with our greetings for the newly married couple.

All the guests were invited for lunch at the local restaurant, but the bride didn't leave the bedroom. The main affair was in the evening for which the bride had changed into another beautiful outfit. There was at least 500 guests at the function. Many dishes kept coming, all the friends and relatives wandering from table to table, chatting. There wasn't much alcohol consumed and certainly not by the ladies. The uncles passed around a bottle of whiskey, but the rest of us drank tea or fruit juice. A friendly Taiwanese custom is to wonder through the masses with Anna and Margherita and introduce yourself to each table, toasting the guests and your hosts. Unlike the weddings I have been to there were no embarrassing speeches and at 9pm a tape recording of fire crackers announced that the festivities had come to an end, everyone put on their coats and left.

2004-12-31T16:24:00.000+08:00

Christmas in Taiwan

It has been a while since I have logged in. I have to keep studying hard to keep up with the course. We are well into winter between Christmas and New Year in Taiwan.

Although Christmas was quiet, it was nice to break the routine. There are Christmas trees and fairy lights all over the city, especially in the shops. Christmas is not celebrated in a religious way, but the children expect to get presents from Shang Dan Lao Gong Gong - Farther Christmas. Young Danny even got a typed letter with his presents from Santa.

On Christmas Eve I went to a Carol Service at the American Church in Yuan Shan. This is outside of Taipei City and not easy to find, so I was glad that one of my class mates arranged a lift for me. This turned out to be with the Malawi councilor's wife Colitta, when I got in the car and I introduced myself, she then said 'and these are my kids' -four pairs of curious eyes looked up at me from the back seat, they had been so quite I had not idea they were there.

The Carol Service was beautiful, it was so nice to pray together be singing something familiar. We had all brought something to eat and ate together in the church hall afterwards. There were a few families from Malawi, Canada and America, as well as Taiwanese. I was speaking with John from Canada whose wife is Taiwanese. Together they run a school, teaching children English. He has lived in Taiwan for 15 years and has seen many changes, for the better. As Taiwan was occupied by the Japanese and the Ku Min Tang from Main Land China during its recent history, neither of which planned to stay in Taiwan, so plundered what they could from this fertile island and built what they liked with no regard for the environment or an expanding population. Taipei was deigned for 700 thousand people and now is home to 6 million. It is only is recent years that legislation has been brought about that new building developments must include some green space. Some of the older areas of the city are wall to wall concrete apartment blocks, grimy from the pollution without a tree in sight.

John spends all day at the school only speaking Chinese, coming to church is his one chance in the week to speak English.

On Christmas Day I opened a couple of presents that had been posted. Thank you Val for the cassette with your Christmas message carols, classical Christmas pieces you played yourself and a bit of Radio 4 entertainment. That was really special. It was so nice to hear your voice.

As well as some Robot Super hero's Danny received a picture book and CD about the life and times of Mozart.

I was also really pleased to receive Christmas cards and e-mail messages. Woodbridge Methodist Chruch has all signed a card and then scanned it into an e-mail for me. Thank you everyone. It made being so far from home at Christmas a little easier.

When my friends start to talk about their lives back home, I realise how much I take for granted in Britain. My friend Joyce is from the Philippines and was speaking about how difficult it is to get a visa to somewhere like the United States. People sometimes have to queue for two days just to be seen by an official and apply. People start coming out the night before to get a place in the queue.

Huan was telling me a couple of years ago in Argentina, the economic situation became so bad that you could only take out $250 max. Each week of your own money. He said that the lack of any bureaucratic structure leads to economic collapse about every 3 years.

It is very humbling thinking about the difficulties that people living in other countries experience.

2004-12-08T15:25:00.000+08:00

Sun Moon Lake

During the end of term break, I went on a trip arranged by the school to Sun Moon Lake or Ri Yue Tang. A coachload of Chinese students and a few of the teachers set off at 6:30 am to the middle of Taiwan )5 hours). Here there is a forested National Park. Teacher Zhang told us that when she was young most Taiwanese visited this place for their holidays as it was not possible to go abroad. Our fist activity was a four hour walk through the tall fir trees including a Sky Walk built on a platform though the tree tops. This gave us plenty of chance to get to know each other. I met Huan is a Law student from Argentina, Manoshe from India, Trantri is a journalist from Indonesia and Jim a special needs teacher from California. We were all exhausted fit to drop, except Huan, who had carried all his kit with him and had jogged several times around the Sky Walk and was ready to do it all again!

Our guide Yeh was very funny, he mainly spoke Chinese, so we all had to listen carefully. We usually managed to catch the few vital words for what tie the bus was leaving. On the trip down, he got us all to introduce ourselves in Chinese. He tried to get us into singing some Karoeke, but most people wanted to watch a DVD instead. Yeh had organised everything very well.

We were very pleased to our bus turn up! We stayed in an Activity Centre, which was rather nicer than the youth hostel I was expecting. We slept eight to a room in bunk beds. No spring mattresses, just a thin mattress straight on the wood. I am used to it, but some of the other girls didn't manage to sleep much.

Amanda, who works at Shida had the foresight to bring coffee, hot chocolate, snack and playing cards. There was a common room in the middle of the dormitories for us to jabber on in Chinese, Japanese, English, Spanish and anything else. It was such a good crowd.

My room mates were from Paraguay St Vincent, Indonesia and Russia. There was plenty of hot water for everyone to get showered, which I was very thankful for after the long walk. I am also glad I had been 'in training' each week going to the mountains at Mao Kong.

In the morning we set off for the Aboriginal Culture Village. We watched displays of traditional Taiwanese dance in costume, saw the kind of huts that tribes people built. Each tribe has different customs, but many have initiation rights for both men and women. In one tribe a woman was worthy of marriage only once she could sow an make the traditional garments. Once she could demander this, she would have ritual tattoos made on her face and arms. The young men would spend time in the men's hut away from their families learning hunting and tracking skills with the elders. They would each be set a task to prove their worth to the tribe.

In the aboriginal Cultural Village, there were also Roller Coaster Rides. As it was out of season there were no queues, so you could go as many times as you wanted.

On the last day we took a boat trip on Sun Moon Lake. It was fairly choppy and the sky was overcast. It is a man made reservoir that is also used for hydro electric power.

Traveling back to Taipei was very interesting. Much of the land is used for farming. Manly crops, but some cows and pigs. It was great to see cotton growing. The tall slim palm trees grow beetle nuts- bing Liang - some of the locals chew them instead of tobacco. They have a stimulating effect, truck drivers chew them to stay awake.

Outside of Taipei, life is rural and pretty basic. There were general stores in some places and the tractor shop sold only renovated tractors and combines. I was impressed how resourceful the Taiwanese are, fixing things themselves and making what they need themselves from basic materials.

2004-11-22T14:50:00.000+08:00

Taiwanese open Air Performance

We have reached the end of the first semester of our Chinese course. It is pretty tiring, but I have managed to get into a routine, learning characters, completing our workbook for each chapter, using the language lab and having language exchanges. In the weeks break there is a three day school trip to Sun Moon Lake in the middle of Taiwan and after that I will move house.

I am going to be living with a family in Xin Juang, it means more traveling, about an hour from home to the school, but Sam, Rosa and their son Danny are such nice people, I am really looking forward to staying with them.

On Friday evening several friends went to an open air show near Longshung Temple. We sat on the grass and waited. Nothing seemed to be happening other than sound tests and photographers setting up, which made me think it would be something special. When the show got underway we weren't disappointed. It opened with amazing tribal warrior drumming. The pounding rhythms were breathtaking, the physical strength and discipline required to give such a performance were outstanding. This then evolved into tribes women drumming, with more subtlety and incorporating dance. I was really impressed. I am so pleased Guei En asked me to go. As the evening went on we got colder and colder, but it was so good we didn't mind. At a quieter interlude, Bob was the first to realised that the music was live and that the panpipe player was wandering amongst the audience as he played.

The dance and drama was very loud and colourful, both traditional and modern Taiwanese and other cultures. Fire dancers represented the sacking of a city, reflecting Taiwan's occupation in the past, very moving.

It was Marina's birthday and she was having a party at her flat, there were so many people speaking every kind of language. Due to the noise we were making, a policeman paid us a visit, he looked around to check nothing untoward was happening and asked when we were going to finish. It seemed to be fine that we would all leave before midnight (as the buses and MRT stop running). I made some new friends that evening.

I was surprised that the Police didn't say or do anything more. Later as we grouped outside in the street saying good night and making arrangements for cabs, the police kept an eye on everyone and didn't like groups hanging around. As long as we kept moving they were happy.

2004-11-11T14:21:00.000+08:00

End of Term

Now we have less than a week of lessons before the end of term. Our teacher Wang Ai Ling took me and my classmates to a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch. It was very nice to go out together and try traditional dishes. Next term we will have a different teacher and we won't all stay together in the same class. Our teacher has been great getting us started with Chinese, we have all made a lot of progress. She has high expectations and gives us a lot of homework, but is always very encouraging.

Six of us went to buy flowers for Wang Laoshi at the market and we found a nice card to sign with our Chinese names. Liang Jia Wen has the best hand writing so we thought she had better write our Chinese message of thanks.

The Korean girls in my class don't speak any English, so at break time we always talk in Chinese (badly) however it is all good practice and I have made good friends with them despite having to struggle to understand each other. They are all so lovely, if we are in different classes next term I will miss them.

This evening I am going to the Toastmasters club, where they practice giving speeches in English. I am going to teach them a few songs.'Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head' and 'When I Fall in Love, It Will be Forever'. I have a CD and I have printed off the words for everyone. Hopefully these will be easy enough for everyone to follow and join in.

I am trying to speak Chinese as often as possible, but when I need a rest and speak English, it is good that others here can benefit.

2004-11-03T14:43:00.000+08:00

Lung Shui Keng and a Halloween Party

I joined a Toastmasters outing to Lung Shui Keng or the Cold Water Hole , north of Taipei. This is a sulpherous hot spring region and comes out much cooler than some of the other hot springs 45 deg C as opposed to 80 deg C or higher.

We went for a hike up to mountain pastures where cattle are put out to graze. There are less cattle farmed in Taiwan these days as industries have taken over and land has been built on. I hadn't seen so much green grass since I left the UK. It was training so we didn't see any cows, sensibly they took shelter. At a ranger station there were some pictures of the cattle - enormous great buffalo that would dwarf a Hereford bull!

There were about a dozen of us, I had only met a couple of the group before and made friends with Guei and her husband Kenneth. We spoke Chinese and English, I think everyone learned something.

The hot springs are public, Men and women separately, but a large pool this time, the sides coloured orange from the mineral deposit from the sulphur. There were water jets for massage and we went in naked except for a shower cap.. Next to the warm pool was a cooler one, most people like to make three trips between the hot and cold. The second time I was sitting in the cool pool, I started to feel faint and had to get some fresh air. The combination of the sulphur fumes and my blood running fast meant I wasn't getting enough oxygen.

The ladies were all very friendly and we chatted away for a couple of hours looking our at the lush hillside view.

We had a gorgeous lunch at a garden full of statues, some buddhas, some Indian and Thai gods. These were made from stone or brass, depicting monkeys, peacocks(in Chinese the Noble Chicken), elephants. I loved it.

I have a friend Lena from Germany who asked me if I wanted to join her to help with a children's Halloween party at the American club. We went along on Sunday 31 October and painted faces, covered them in transfer tattoos of witches, painted pumpkins and so on. There were about fifty children some Chinese , some American all dressed up. They were so cute. Lena painted my face like a cat for 'Trick or Treat', the helpers hid in the corridors with a bag of sweets while the children had to find us to get their prize. It was so nice to have a good laugh with the other girls from college, Marina from Vladivostok, Gui En from Holland and her friend from Japan.

2004-11-03T14:28:00.000+08:00

Table manners

I still need to be reminded by Bo-Yi to keep my left hand on my rice bowl when I am eating with chopsticks, to stop the bowl slipping. It is polite to keep both hands above the table at meal times.

Being well brought up in Britain, it still takes me by surprise me when mature 'twin set and pearls' type ladies belch at the dinner table and in restaurants too, excusing themselves only by saying 'I'm too full' - 'tai bao le'. It is funny how different cultures think different things are considered rude.

As Chinese food is prepared to be eaten with chopsticks, and cooked quickly, most vevetables are chopped up finely. Our friends have a baby nine months old, they never both with a high chair or bib, Mum feeds Tze-Yi with her chopsticks while he plays near by.

2004-10-28T13:55:00.000+08:00

Earthquakes

It has been a while since I have written in the blog as I had a cold. The weather here is a little cooler now and there have been a lot of colds going around the students with the change in the weather. Our course has become more difficult as we expand our vocabulary. It is very interesting but I need to spend more time studying.

There was another typhoon on Monday, so we all stayed at home. There were very high winds and a lot of rain. I good chance to catch up on sleep and practice writing characters.

I am still quite slow when it comes the speaking Chinese. The pronunciations is a little confusing. At school we are taught standard Mandarin, but the Taiwanese accent is slightly different. Taiwanese and Hakka are also spoken in Taiwan. On the MRT, each station is announced firstly in Chinese, then Taiwanese, Hakan and American English. There are LED displays over the door inside each carriage displaying the name of the station in Chinese Characters and then in English (pinyin). This is very handy for Westerners wanting to get around the city.

The tones in Chinese mean that saying the same pronunciation with a different tone has a completely different meaning. (The tones are approximately: 1st high constant, 2nd rising or 3rd falling then rising, 4th falling sharply. There is also a neutral tone) Not only that, but many characters have the same pronunciation and the same tone. Our teacher gave a copy of a short story about prince and stone lions entirely using characters pronounced 'shi'!

Each character has one syllable and 'words' are built by grouping these together in twos and threes to form new concepts. All very interesting.

There have been a couple of earthquakes in Taiwan lately. The first one lasted for about a minute. I was on the 6th floor, so as well as the juddering, the building swayed from side to side. It was the first time I had experienced anything like that. It was over too quickly to be scared. Margherita was at home, she was on the 14th floor and the motion knocked tipped the wardrobe over, she was very frightened and upset as she was four years old when there was a terrible earthquake in Italy 20 years ago and it brought back the memories. Taiwan has over a hundred earthquakes every year, so the locals are fairly blase about them. The second one was in Japan, where I understand that a lot of people died, it was so strong that it could be felt in Taiwan. I was with my friends Laura and Julia and Laura's Mum going down the escalator in an department store at the time. I just thought that it had seen better days 'ropy old thing 'I thought to myself.

On the radio there was a discussion about Taiwan's Earthquakes. Although there are a lot of them, all the fault lines in Taiwan are quite small, minimizing the risk of a serious earthquake.

People in Taiwan are very superstitious. I found this strange as everyone here is very well educated. I met Ming Chaing at the language school who works in the computer department. He explained to me that Taiwan has always been prone to natural disasters and also has only had a reasonably stable democracy for the past 40 years. This gave me more insight into Taiwan's history.

2004-10-07T16:54:00.000+08:00

Accommodation for Students

Well, my place is on the fifth floor and the family live on the fourth floor.I have a room with my own shower and loo and my own front door. The family come up to the roof garden to bath the dog or repot plants, or for the occasional social evening. They are happy that I join them downstairs for company and some meals. Taiwanese and Chinese cable TV is quite entertaining and I can try and understand some of the dramas. There is a really good Chinese historical costume drama. It is a Korean production which has been dubbed into Mandarin and also has Chinese subtiltles. The whole family enjoy 'Da Zhang Chiang'. The acting is so good that even if I dont understand the words, the emotions of the actorsmake it easy to follow.

I don't have to think about curfew either, not that I have many late nights with my classes starting at 8am. Kaku just asked that I press their door bell to let her know when I am home. Kaku is quite a night owl so she is usually up anyway.

I can stay with the Li Family until the beginning of December and then will have to move out as they have a Japanese exchange student coming. He is only 17 years old.

Some of the girls I meet for lunch are staying in the dorms which are next to the college. These are for the whole of the university, not just the language school. Some sleep three to a room others six to a room and share a bathroom. Horrendous! As you can imaginem it is pretty cheap. They complain that there is nowhere to put their stuff and people keep stealing their underwear from the laundry room in the basement.

I have been surprised how polite and friendly everyone one is in such a busy city. People queue for the MRT and their is never any pushing, even in rush hour. The traffic looks chaotic, but is not as aggressive as somewhere like London or Paris. The community here works together very well, people I have never met offer help if they see me struggling with something.

I haven't had any problem with men in Taiwan, neither have my class mates. I feel quite safe going back by MRT on my own at night. Female students were advised not to take a taxi on their own or go and view a flat alone.

2004-09-24T11:34:00.000+08:00

Air Raid Drill and Hot Springs

On Wednesday we were told that there would be an Air Raid Drill at 2pm. There were notices in each classroom in Chinese and English. This wasn't just for the college, it was a drill for the whole of Taipei.

If we were in the Po Ai building were my classes are held, when we heard the air raid siren we had to head to the basement bomb shelter and stay there until the second siren about half an hour later. If you were at home you had to stay indoors. The police were patrolling the streets to make sure no one was in the streets, driving or traveling by MRT. There would be a fine if you out and about at this time.

I decided to head home as I needed to get my sports kit for an exercise class later on. After the air raid siren I could hear some aeroplanes overhead, but couldn't see anything. Most of the apartments have toughened glass and metal grills over the windows to withstand the typhoons. It reminded me at first of places in Toxteth where I was a student, where the reinforcements were there to deter light fingered scallies.

Last Sunday I went to a swimming pool complex in Xindian with Janet and her cousins; Sandy and A.J. and A.J's girlfriend. There was a large outdoor pool and play pools for the children, indoors was another Olympic sized swimming pool - I sound like Gladys from Hi-De-Hi - and the hot springs and saunas. The hot springs look like a cross between a jaccuzi and a sheep dip. There were four of five of there in a row against the side wall, all containing different kinds of water or maintained at different temperatures; plain hot water with jets, like a normal bath; sulphurous spring water - bright green in colour - it looked like Japanese instant tea; a Chinese medicine bath (I don't know what went into this brew but it smelled quite pleasant; a luke warm bath and a cold bath which I think was 10 deg C, but it felt much colder!.

Opposite was a waste deep pool full waterfalls directed into jets that you stand under to massage your back. There were also places where the water jets are directed at your legs. All very healthy and relaxing.

I am off now to help some young students with their English project.

2004-09-17T13:30:00.000+08:00

Taiwanese Food

There is such a selection of wonderful dishes to try in Taiwan. As well as traditional Taiwanese and Chinese food, Thai, Korean and Japanese food is very popular as well.

Although, by my own misadventure, Sunday lunch turned out to be tripe and onion soup. I am cringing just thinking about it. At our local noodle shop you can have deep fired pigs ears. Enough said, I haven't been tempted.

The Asian style of cooking meat is to chop it, bones and all then fry the smallish pieces at a high temperature. It is part of the fun sucking to meet from the bones. The red fish we cooked in our class went in the pan whole. It had been gutted but not filleted. As we were going to eat it with chopsticks, you can pick around the bones.

The traditional hot breakfasts are really nice. Sweet pork steamed dumplings - 'bau za' and a kind of omelet 'dan beng'that you have with soy sauce.

The typhoon has ruined a lot of the crops, so fruit and vegetables are relatively quite expensive. Water melon is in season at the moment and are reasonably priced, although they are so huge I would have difficulty carrying one. Luckily you can buy portions, but even a quarter cut lengthways is pretty big.

At a large family meal the first course us usually meat, followed by soup. It has taken me a while to get used to this as in Britain it is the other way around. The soups scare me a bit as you are never sure what you are going to fish out with your chopsticks - squid tentacles dofu, who knows. All kinds of dishes are brought, usually a few at a time, seafood, pork is very popular and it has a stronger flavour. The mushrooms are very different to what I am used to. One type looks a little like a white fish net stocking.

At the large parties, we sit around a large circular table with a 'lazy Susan' in the middle - a smaller circular table top that spins so the everyone can reach what they are after. Very civilized. This way you can help yourself and don't have to take what you don't want. A bowl of rice each accompanies the meal. It is a good opportunity to catch up with friends, slowly nibbling at this and that.

At home most people don't have an oven. Kaku uses a couple of gas hobs and a steamer. They have a small grill on the sideboard for making toast and heating up precooked dishes one at a time. Kaku doesn't cook much as it is so hot and it is fairly cheap to eat at the street vendors near by.

2004-09-10T11:59:00.000+08:00

Umbrella - U-San

It was really lovely to receive cards from the junior church children (xiao pengyou).

The weather is a bit unpredictable in Taiwan, so it is a good idea to keep your umbrella (u-san) handy. If it is bright it can shade you from the sun or shelter you from a sudden torrential downpour.

Margherita, my friend from Italy, said that some of the rural public toilets in China didn't even have doors, so you can even use your umbrella to protect your modesty.

My Bed

Mary Addington asked where I sleep. My room has a raised wooden platform. I have a mattress to sleep in with a cotton sheets and an thin cotton douvet. The pillow is normal sized but harder and flatter as it is filled with buck wheat (from the smell). I also have a thin 'normal' pillow. When the weather is really hot, it is cooler to sleep on the thin douvet folded double. I have been quite comfortable sleeping on the wooden floor.

The family's beds are lower than mine at home with a thin, very firm (quite narrow) mattress. Annie has a special cover made from small tiles of hard polished wood links to form a mat that is cool to lie on. This lies on top of the bed covers and you sleep on that.

2004-09-09T20:38:00.000+08:00

Sunny Days - Thursday 26 August

It was cooler, bright and sunny, the Typhoon was over. Kaku suggested I get me laundry (shi yi fu) done as it was a good day for getting things dry.

Bamboo is great. It is used instead of a washing line, then you hang you clothes on hangers in the breeze. I the mountains larger bamboo poles are split lengthways for drainpipes and water pipes.

Sunday 5 September

I met up with Cindy Zhang's friends from Southampton University, Laura/ Yeh Yu-Ting and Julia. They showed me around the National Concert Hall and Theatre and the Chang Kai Shek Memorial hall that houses an immense bronze statue of the man himself under armed guard. We watched the changing of the guard on the hour which is a precision drill.

ye-Ting gave me a mug with the MART map on it, so I will never get lost and Julia brought me some children's books to help me to practice my pronunciation. I gave them some Scottish Shortbread biscuits.

Inside, there were science exhibitions and Chinese art galleries and jade sculpture exhibition. Beneath some of the paintings were potted orchid and lilies, sometimes bamboo ornately arranged tied with red ribbons. These have all been presented to the artists to wish them well, bring them success and good fortune.

We made a brief visit to Lungshan Buddhist temple. Yu-Ting asked me "Do you want to say hello to God?'We enter the temple on the left the God's right which is his dragon side and leave on the tiger side. We each bought a packet of incense and lit them over a large burner flame. We bowed and prayed in front of the gold Buddha. There were many shrines to bodhisatvas, one was associated with mercy, another for passing exams or for healthy babies. Ye-ting told me to hold my incense between my palms and bow three times telling God my name and introducing myself. If I have any problems or requests I should also tell God these.

In front of each shrine was a smoldering cauldron where we places the incense stick. The air was thick with smoke even thought e courtyard was open air.I could feel the soot sticking to my face.

Yu-ting called her mother who joined us for dinner at a small Japanese restaurant near by. All the dishes were lovely. Some sushi, thick noodles, vegetable side dishes that were peppery and oily and deep fried vegetables including grated carrot. Very tasty.

We ended up in McDonald's having - 'Hong Cha' sweet black iced lemon tea because Julia wanted to try some glitter transfers that were a free gift. We were sitting there having girlie giggles putting glue on our arm, using the transfers to make flowers and angels and covering them in coloured glitter. It was really funny.
It was lovely to meet them all. We had a great day.

2004-09-09T13:02:00.000+08:00

9 September

I have been at college a week now and tomorrow is my first test on reading and writing Chinese Characters. I have been practicing the 23 I need to know for tomorrow. These will include Hello, what is your name? Where are you from?

After class today, the scholarship secretary came and said that the Rotary Scholarship foundation wanted my photograph now that I had arrived in Taiwan. I headed down to the office and had a quick snap, then they e-mailed it to Katherine Chang. I am not sure where this will turn up!

Our class is moving on at quite a pace so I usually spend the afternoon in the library and study.

I had a lovely letter from Woodbridge Methodist Junior Church. Ni Hao to John Briany and Dillon and a big thank you! It was really lovely to receive your pictures! I am very impressed you can write Chinese!

2004-08-30T20:09:00.000+08:00

Typhoon Arie Monday 23 August

Well on Monday afternoon it just kept raining the winds were getting up. After I had gone to bed. Po-Yi and Kaku came up to my room to tell me that tomorrow there would be a typhoon and there wouldn't;t be any school or work for most people. This had been announced on the television news and wanted to make sure I understood that it wouldn't;t be safe to go out until it had passed. That means a lie in for everyone. Just as well as their were a couple of loud crashes that woke me up.

Po-Yi brought their dog up onto the floor where I live as there was more shelter for her outside at the back of the showerroom. She was very quite and just settled sown to sleep. She has seen it all before.

Annie told me about a local radio station that has some English programmes and news where I could get updates. I am very pleased to have my radio to find out more.

Typhoons bring a lot of rain. This caused landslides in some mountain regions and unfortunately twenty people lost their lives. The rains were so heavy that the river flooded and the reservoirs were overflowing and had to use their control release mechanisms. Typhoons are normal for July, August and September. Normally they only last for a day but this time two came together. Once the first one headed off to China, the second one came in from Japan.

We also had Wednesday at home. I was going to go with Mr Lee to a Rotary meeting, but this had been cancelled sue to the bad weather.

On Tuesday Mr Lee ventures out to work. At dinner he told us "normally I am very respectable at work, but today I cam out of the MRT, took off my shoes and rolled up my trousers like a farmer" He had had to wade through the water to get home.

Once the rain stopped it was able to grain so there wasn't any flooding in our area. Some of the valley regions were less fortunate.

On Thursday morning we had to have a look round and clear up. There were a few plant pots knocked over and a couple of pots broken, but nothing too serious. It was wise to take the advice to stay inside as a flowerpot or something could easily fall off any of the 6 storey apartment block that huddle together behind Jin Ming Street.

2004-08-30T20:06:00.000+08:00

Dear all,

To write any comments to any of the logs, please click on the hash symbol # next to the entry date and it will take you to a link where you can add your comments.

It would be nice to hear from you!

Love

Beth

2004-08-25T19:41:00.000+08:00

Saturday 21 August

On Saturday evening I was invited to join the Lee family and go out with three other families that they had known for 20 years. Kaku curved her hand over her belly to how she was expecting Annie. The father of one of the families is a Colonel in the Army and had hired this military function room for the get-together. We were in a square wood paneled room with a large round table covered in a red cloth, a sliding door to the en-suit facilities and a small alley to the kitchens.

There were seventeen of us including me, all seated round the one table. Everyone was very friendly and two of the daughters helped me to food. The dishes of gorgeous food just kept appearing! Everyone ate and talked. The host was even kind enough to raise a toast to welcome me (using my Chinese name Gao Ning Jing) to Taiwan. Speaking to one of the sons Daniel, who was at college, if would like to visit England. He told me he had no time as all Taiwanese men must complete 14 months military service. He will do his once he has graduated from university. After this he wants to spend two years doing his masters.

After the meal and serving tea, a screen came down, James Bond like and microphones were passed round for a bit of Kareoke. There were duets and traditional Chinese ballads and even a few Western songs. I tried Elvis's Are you Lonesome Tonight. The families stayed up chatting until the small hours.

On Sunday afternoons the Lees like to join a group of families for a walk in the mountains half an hour out of town. It is a beautiful setting. It really was a climb The first hour we went up carved stone steps in the heat. I am glad they had told me to bring a bottle of water and a hand towel! At one of the rest stops you could look down the forested hillside. There were ferns, bamboo, palm trees and all kinds of greenery forming a canopy over us. A little further on and we were looking down on tea plantations. Several of the friends could speak English and explained that the tips of these tea plants had not been picked, so they assumed that they were growing them to harvest the oil from the berries. Tea oil is traditionally used for cooking fine noodles and is good for a delicate stomach.

We followed yellow and red plastic tags that other hill walkers had tied to trees when they had found a good path, showing the way. This leg was uphill and down dale, catching glimpses of the beautiful view.

The trek down caused me a few more problems. It had been raining that morning. The rocks were slippery and the ground soft. I was slipping quite a bit and found it had to judge how far to step down. Mr Lee kindly broke a fallen bamboo to make a walking stick giving me more stability. I still managed to slip and rip my trousers on the bum. There was one part so steep there was a rope to hold on to, going down backwards leaning back to keep the rope taught. It wasn't easy trying to find your foothold.

Down at the restaurant, the chef lent me a pair of shorts and flipflops to change into. I had brought a spare t-shirt and got cleaned up for a meal together with the walkers. The second storey to the restaurant is open air. At night you can look sown over the light of Taipei city. It is a very popular spot.

2004-08-22T11:20:00.000+08:00

Tuesday 17 August

I have completely lost track of time. It is 30 degC so I am sitting right in front of the fan.

I had a good flight. The only thing that offended me was the toothpaste that came with my complimentary BA toothbrush. I really thought I had put Vim in my mouth and had to look down to check - 'Toothpaste' - in English, my mistake.

Turned out having a suitcase labeled heavy was to my advantage in Hong Kong. It was one of the first ones on the carousel, so I made a quick get away and checked in at Cathay Pacific for Taipei. They didn't mind my 27kg case. Hong Kong airport reminds me a little of Stansted, but larger. As well as the usual duty frees there were Japanese sweet shops and a Chinese 'pick and mix'. Dried fruit of all kinds, nuts, sweets, jellies. One box of small brown and white strands caught my eye. Thought I would try and speak some Chinese and meant to ask 'can I have a look' - kan yi kan, but its other meaning is have a little go at. The young lady asked if I wanted to try one. I took one out of the perspex box. Just before I tasted it, she said 'Fish.' Fish sweets? Why not. It was sweet, salty, chewy and fishy. - strange. Kath - something tells me I am not a million miles away from an unsavory fish cake.

2004-08-22T00:22:00.000+08:00

My contact details in Taipei:

4F No 3
Lane 11
Jin-Ming Street
Taipei
TAIWAN

I am staying with Kitai and Kaki Li.
Family's phone number +886 2 2934 8606

My mobile is +886 953 258638

e-mail bethhgrundy@yahoo.co.uk

Thank you for your e-mails. It is really nice to hear from everyone.

At the moment we are 7 hours ahead of UK.

2004-08-21T00:15:00.000+08:00

Arrival in Taipei

On landing in Taipei, we were advised that Republic of Taiwan uses the death penalty for drug smuggling and their a stiff fines for bringing meat, fruit and veg in too. Due to a SARS outbreak in June this year, everyone coming in from China (no matter that I had only been in Hong Hong for 2 hrs) has to complete a yellow health form, stating your name and address, which flights you were on on which day. I have to make a record of my body temperature AM and PM for the next ten days. If it rises to 38 deg C or you get any SARS symptoms you have to start wearing a mask and notify the authorities. If you don't and you develop SARS and pass it to others you may be fined up to 300 quid for violating the Communicable diseases act..

I was slightly concerned that a person in the loo next to me had a really bad cough.

My councilor Emily's daughters Samantha and Natasha met me at the airport with a big sign with my name on. I was wearing my Rotary Abassadorial scholarship pin. It seems everyone has an English nickname, which makes life easy for me until I get to know their Chinese names.

As soon as we stopped outside the airport my glasses steamed up with the heat and humidity. Samantha's boyfriend Davis drove us back into town ( 1 hour).

When we were in the car Natasha put on a white mask - uh oh - and handed me a packet. "from Emily". I thought it might be a mask for me to wear. No, Emily has sent me three tickets to the Palace Museum, a pretty Chinese notebook and file dividers depicting the Palace Museum along with her business cards. When we had a little more conversation, it turned out that Natasha just had a bit of a cold and didn't want to spread her germs. Phew. Samantha showed me pictures of her cat on her mobile, he is a little black cat called Rolan I think. My host family The Li's have a small Labrador Hei Niyu - Black Girl. I am greatly relieved that people in Taiwan have cats and dogs for pets. Back in UK people were teasing me about what might be cooked up for me for dinner.

2004-08-13T04:04:00.000+08:00

Thusday 12 August 2004

I am having some trouble packing my bag. There is a fair bit that will have to back in the cupboard.

I am flying out on Monday and will be staying with Kitai and Kaku Li and their children in Taipei, the capital city, meaning 'North Taiwan'. I am looking forward to exploring the city's tmples, night markets and the National Palace. It is going to be a shock to be back in a bustling city of 3M. It looks as if it will be fun to get around in the Mass Rapid Transport (MRT) , the overhead metro service which avoids the congested streets below. I am hoping that the stations are numbered to make it easy to locate yourself.

2004-03-09T00:52:00.000+08:00

First test post of Beth's new online diary