Life in Taiwan has been eventful. So much so that we haven’t been writing as much as we’d like to be. This post will then be a smattering of should-be-individual posts, all put into one.
First, we go back a few weekends to Moon Festival. This is one of The Big Holidays in Chinese culture. Story goes that there was a hero named Ho-I who killed some monsters and became a hero, then upset his wife by falling in love with someone else, and so she took his magic medicine and flew to the moon. I know there is way more scenery and poetry to this story, this is only the version I was given to be able to teach the kids, so I never learned the rest. Someday I will. Anyway, we celebrated like many others, only so much better.
Back story: A few hours before Nick and I took off from Seattle to Taipei, we went to a bbq that was being held by the people at my uncle’s office. There, we made friends with two girls from Taiwan who were in Seattle visiting their aunt, who happens to work with John. They were really nice and we exchanged email addresses and phone numbers. Then, a few days before Moon Festival, they emailed. “We would like to invite you to our home.” Little did we know. Sarah and Yvonne live in a swanky community in the mountains in south Taipei. They have an amazing view of the city, and their neighbors are celebrities. But that all came later. First, we rented swan-shaped boats.
Then we drove to their house, which I should have taken pictures of. I’d felt too sheepish at the time. We met their mother, who was very charming, and who allowed me to drool over their beautiful wall-mounted European-made oven (She put special emphasis on it NOT being made in China.). Then we went to the country club to swim before dinner.
I can’t really express how amazing this place was. Of course it had a pool, but we were wooed by the spa. It was a tiled, organically-shaped maze of water jet “stations”, each designed to soothe or pound your various muscles. You waded through the waist-high water, past hanging plants, mist machines and water-fall showers to each station. It was a thing of beauty. (I probably would have added fog machines though.) Downstairs were the saunas and hot pools and red-light heat lamps (for circulation). Each sauna provided you with a little baggy of rock salt to help massage away dead skin. While the others chatted, I thought out the plans for the spa in my future home.
Then! Bbq and KTV (Karaoke) in the living room.
Back at our host’s house, we began cooking. Everything was delicious and perfect, and to spend the holiday in the home of a Chinese family was really something special. We ate delicious pomelo (Chinese grapefruit. Like ours but smaller, green, and sweeter.) and poured over the KTV song-book. I sang but only after much pestering by others, and with great shame. I dislike intensely the unfeeling electronic music, and I’m perpetually perplexed about what sort of tone I should take: self-deprecating or Diana Ross. The resulting mess is deeply embarrassing for all involved. Maybe someday I will learn to relax.
We took a cab back to Taoyuan. It was a little expensive, but worth it to prolong the comfort we had gotten used to that day. Thank you Sarah and Yvonne and your family for such a fantastic day. : )
Road Trip to North Taiwan
Sunday we went on a bus tour with the all the teachers (and aunts and uncles – aunts help in the classroom, uncles drive the school-vans and do minor repairs) from our school. We were the last ones to get on the bus, as it left promptly at 7.20. When we had asked Shelly, our k-class director when we needed to arrive, she said be there by 7.20, so we figured, right, she’s telling us to be there 10 minutes early, to be safe, because the bus will probably leave at 7.30. I’m telling you all this because we were chastised for being late by 3 minutes of the 7.20 go-time, when the bus was supposed to have pulled away from school. These people meant business. At each stop of the day, we left PROMPTLY the minute we had been scheduled to leave. Also, as we neared the half-way point of our march of shame to the back of the bus, our co-teacher Rebecca stood up and asked me if we just woke up. I said no, and she said loudly, “But look at your hair.” Everyone laughed and I laughed a long but told her she was very rude. The other teachers encouraged me to tell her her hair also looked very bad (it looked perfect), but you see, I am a good person. Rebecca later apologized to me, although it was unnecessary. She’s totally awesome and I would forgive her if she tried to rob my mother. (Also both Nick and I think her husband is dreamy and plan to see them more often.)
First stop: A nice stream up a mountain with a rusty suspension bridge spanning it. This was my first encounter with the whole Asian Picture Extravaganza. I took pictures with every teacher there, individually, and with the group, pictures with just Nick, phone pictures, smiling pictures, serious pictures, good pictures, and pictures we had to redo because there was too much/too little sunlight, until finally I started making faces in the backgrounds and was immediately maligned and included in no more photos. That suited Nick and I just fine. In the picture of the ladies, you will notice two particularly: Queenie (ripped tights) and Elsa (light blue pants). They they teach K1A and K1B respectively. They are so beautiful, I get a little shy when I walk into their classrooms for my lesson.
Are they hot or what?
We escaped around the bus, where we found a beautiful kind of fragrant white flower. Upon a leaf sat a giant black beetle. I stuck my face closer to get a better look, and it REARED back, spun 180 degrees and flew vertically to the exact elevation of my corneas, where it buzzed ferociously, waiting for my next move. I knew I’d just raised the hackles of the deadly TIGER BEE. Knowing it to have killed many a hiker in these parts, I shrieked and turned tail, much to the amusement of the uncles.
Back on the bus:
More KTV!! Only this time, with Aunt Joanne and the uncles singing heartfelt Taiwanese ballads. Wonderful!
Presently we stopped at an old military base on one of the many ridges that surround the port of Keelung. We were treated to a spectacular view and this! Rebecca said that its called a face spider…eewwwww. It was about 5 inches in diameter.
Lunch down on the dock in Keelung:
The aunts and uncles like to sit together in times like this, because they can speak Taiwanese together and “gan bei” (dry glass) toast many many times. Nick and I hoped all the toasting would result in more KTV on the bus, which it did. Hurray!
But I shouldn’t leave out the fish market, which we hit right after lunch. Here, I saw many new and exciting things. Some I will never speak of again, but many I hope to eat while the opportunity exists.
Yum!
Back to the bus, and the promised KTV, through the lush, lush mountains to the a famous gold mine. There is a lot of history associated with the place, much of it to do with the Japanese occupation, but unfortunately, I didn’t learn anything more than that. Here are some more pictures:
Aaand back to the bus. We went down the mountain a bit to a small town and a disproportionately huge market, built into the hillside. Everyone bought something, mostly food. Steve picked up a few lion puppets for our other English teacher, Viola, who didn’t end up coming.
Observe the lushness…
And on the way back home, Steve peed into a Doraemon plastic bottle, and when that was full…well I promised not to tell. But it was utterly depraved. And it involved physics and liquid mechanics and an emergency exit of the bus and bad end of the trip for our (very kind and safe) bus driver.
Adios! Until next time…
