Trip to Taimall

November 24, 2009 by goodluckrooster

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Welcome to Taimall, once biggest mall in Taiwan, now just the closest mall to our apartment. It’s under construction right now, but I think you can still tell it’s a place that causes children to shriek.

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Inside the decor is a little less fairy tale, but still impressive. Bri takes in the expanse.

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That red jacket and hat on the right is part of a Ferrari boutique. I don’t see many of the cars, but the shirts, jackets and, yes, bicycles are everywhere. Playboy also has a good business selling its logo around here. Playboy clothes, shoes and glasses are everywhere. Seeing the culture as I do, through my slightly opaque, distorted, American window, I can’t comment on the brand’s message with much certainty, but Playboy clothes seem have nothing to do with nude co-eds beyond the bunny profile. Funny how these logos travel. Delving deeper into Taimall will unearth more examples.

This cute, bewildered little Che is more a lovable scamp than a symbol of Marxist revolution. The store dedicated to him features images of little Che spilling paint all over himself, dropping ice cream scoops from their cones and trying on many pairs of funky sunglasses. Unfortunately, they were a little sensitive about my camera and I could only manage a surreptitious shot of this bag on my way out. I’m surprised I haven’t seen this brand in the states yet.

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Upstairs is the carnival with all the arcade games, air hockey tables, crappy rides, flashing lights, buzzers, and general stimuli a kid could ask for.  There was also a nifty mini casino for mom and dad, post dumping of offspring. There was a roulette wheel, electronic poker, some sort of horse racing game and a few other tables I didn’t understand. Gambling is very popular here. Most any densely populated place, a night market, for example, will have a string of ancient electronic poker machines fired up.

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Sorry this picture is so blurry. This puffy pink princess, all of seven, was mutilating zombies with such simultaneous concentrated skill and ruthless abandon that we had to take her picture and post it to the blog, despite the low light in this corner of the arcade. We could have turned on the flash, but we didn’t want to distract her.

Let’s take a stroll

November 8, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

The following is from my most recent 2-hour-long Web-cation.

While visiting one of my favorite websites, Failblog, I stumbled upon this video of a movie-tv-mashup-song:

In the comments section someone mentioned another guy (Alias Pogo) doing it better, and while I think the aim was a little different, his youtube channel is definitely worth roaming. Many of the films he uses were intensely nostalgic for me. Nice work dude!

And, as always, I end up perusing the archives of my all-time favorite motion graphic masters at Digital Kitchen…

Behold but one example of their fine work (Sorry, embedding doesn’t seem to be working):

Dexter Main Titles

(give it a few to fully load before playing it or you won’t get the intended effect)

If this kind of thing is interesting to you, please also check out:

Superfad

and Imaginary Forces

Nick update: he’s sick

November 3, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

The Doc says it’s not H1N1. Our principal, Bonita, took Nick to the doctor this afternoon because he woke up with a fever and was feeling horrible this morning. I got him some delicious noodle soup for lunch…and now he has LOADS of drugs to take, what are generally referred to by all as “fever reducers.” All the teachers are worried…it doesn’t take much to push the H1N1 Panic Button.

Here he is in bed:

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catching up with his "to see" movie list

 

And here are the proper accoutrements of the invalid:

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aloha facemask, pills pills and more pills (stylishly wrapped in Hello Kitty paper)

 

I’ll never own a cooler pair of kicks

November 2, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

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I just bought these ^

…to cover my hideous mosquito-bite-ridden feet. And because they are so fantastic. I can’t stop looking at them over there by the door.

Ew. This is from walking around in Taipei at night, and sleeping in our bed with my feet dangling outside the covers because its hot.

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We’re back!

October 21, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

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.

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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.)

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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.

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Photo Extravaganza

Are they hot or what?

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.

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Lunch down on the dock in Keelung:

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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!

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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!

Yum!

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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:

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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…

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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.

Ah Steve...

Adios! Until next time…

What the kids listen to

October 5, 2009 by goodluckrooster

In warm-up dialogue with one of my evening classes last week one of my students asked me if I could dance. “What kind of dancing?” I asked. In answer the three boldest boys in the class stood up and started rubbing their hands together while shaking their hips and chanting “sorry, sorry, sorry.” My Chinese teacher helpfully informed me that everyone in Asia knew the “Sorry Sorry” song, from the oldest grandparent to her three-year-old son. Now you will know it, too. Friends and family, meet Super Junior:

There, now you can dance with my 7th graders if you come visit. Those of you with a discerning pop music ear may have noticed that there are two English words in the song—”sorry,” of course, but also “shawty.” I’ve also included the youtube litmus test for larger-than-life dance craze, just so you know how big this thing is.

The Earth Moved

October 4, 2009 by goodluckrooster

Ok, it happened. Bri and I had our first quake. It was 6.3 at the epicenter, around 85 miles southeast of us. Up here on the 25th floor Bri and I had just gotten into bed after a Moon Festival party, when the apartment began to sway gently back and forth. It wasn’t too terrifying, more like sitting in a boat than feeling tectonic plates lurch violently underneath us, and everything remained intact—no broken electronics, no shattered crockery. We stayed in bed and were rocked for 30 seconds, until, everything still rocking, we got up to try our sea-legs and watch the laundry we had on the line outside pitch from side to side. We were warned that the building would take a little while to shake out the quake and that was indeed the case. There is no way to know when the quake stopped or started because everything kept moving for so long. When I got back in bed, I thought I could still detect the faintest undulations, but it was impossible to tell whether these were real or imagined. All and all, not so awful experience, but I wouldn’t want to be in a bigger one. Next is typhoon Parma, which should hit us sometime late today or early tomorrow. Two natural disasters in 24 hours!

Bri says: To our loved ones, the typhoon is not expected to be dangerous. Lots of rain and wind and little else. Love you all!!

PS. I want to make a shout-out to my Ring of Fire compatriots Ryan and Molly, who are experiencing earthquakes on the other side of the pacific! Hello to you in Chile! Remember not to leave any glasses of water near your computer while you sleep!!! You can read about their adventures here.

The infamous Ring of Fire

The infamous Ring of Fire

Meet K1A

October 1, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

Here are a few pictures of students in one of my classes, K1A. My two main classes are K1A and K1B. Chinese teachers for these classes are Queenie and Elsa respectively, both of whom I greatly admire. Each class has 9 students, between 3 and 4 years old. They make me very happy. (More to come.)

Yolanda The Dulcet

Yolanda The Dulcet

Jack The Puck and Greedy Kenny

Jack The Puck and Greedy Kenny

Max The Charmer

Max The Charmer

Kristine The Irresistible

Kristine The Irresistible

the baseball game part II

September 29, 2009 by goodluckrooster

I know, I know, you already heard about the baseball game. I should be telling you something new, something English about classes and food and cultural misunderstandings. I should be posting photos of adorable children, not living in the past. I hear you. I wish I didn’t have to do this, too, but, with all due respect to my co-blogger, the first version of the story left everything out.

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First of all it wasn’t the Brother Elephants vs the Uni Lions, it was the Brother Elephants vs the Uni/7-11 Lions. The ubiquity of 7-11 in Taiwan is hard to overstate— no mere store, more a cultural fixture. Not only are they the convenience store on every corner, they are also the after work hang out, the beginning and ending of Friday nights (often the middle, too—every 7-11 here comes with a few tables and chairs out front and, in our suburban location, it’s far more popular to drink Taiwan beer there than go to the empty bars), the place to find a cab and most everything else. You can even pay your electrical and gas bill there. I’m reminded of college-era Christmas times in my hometown, when for one night 7-11, the only store open, became the center of the universe and, around 10 o’clock, you were guaranteed to see there every person you knew in high school buying beer after a long day of family time. In Taiwan, for 7-11, it is always Christmas.

Price of Admission: 250 NT. Around 8 bucks.

Homefields: Of course we were there to support the Brother Elephants. It was the only reasonable choice. If the name “Brother Elephants” doesn’t convince you of the righteousness of boostering them, I’d like to draw your attention back up to their logo in the photo above. It’s like Babar decided to play baseball. Someone finally got a mascot right. If you need more reasons, I saw a Brother Elephant baseball hat at the game with the message “We Are All Brothers” (yes, in English) stitched into the back. Hands down the best sports slogan of all time. Would you cheer against the Elephants and universal brotherhood? I thought not.

Anyway, we assumed that since we were in Taipei that we would be watching this game at the B.E.’s homefield. Not so. All you baseball fans, get ready to have your minds blown. The Lions and the Elephants share this stadium. It is both of their homefields. They swap homefield advantage every other game. The Saturday we arrived at Tianmu it was the Lions home game. Is there still homefield advantage? In a way…

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Make some noise: Here is the scene from our seats. Note the yellow cones that most B.E. fans are holding. These are the most essential aspect of attending a baseball game in Taiwan. Mostly they are used to strike together, like so.

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Further evidence of the B.E.’s love for all humanity. With these cones in hand we were ready to do battle. This is the game face.

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But one doesn’t just strike plastic cones with impunity. There is a rhythm, set by a man far down the field beating ceaslessly on a tom tom drum. Whenever the B.E. came to bat we answered his call by striking our cones together, so that the field echoed with a sound like the approaching steps of a plastic giant. There was one variation in the cheer in which everyone pointed their cones in the air three times, and when something good happened people went buck-wild, as you would expect, and beat their cones as fast as they could (pictured below), but for the most part it was a steady, walking beat throughout. It got pretty tedious. By the eighth inning the unrelenting tom tom had me feeling a little like an oarsman in a Roman galley.

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The more interesting cheers were happening across the field. The 7-11 Lions had mascots, cheerleaders and a pep band with a battery of songs, including “popeye the sailor man” and “old macdonald had a farm.” This, I think, is homefield advantage. On your night, you get more than just the tom tom.

The Wall: the discerning blog reader and baseball fan will have noted the presence of a giant chain link fence obstructing the view of the field in the photos above. Whether it was there to protect us from foul balls or to keep excited fans from rushing the field I don’t know, but it was easily the dumbest aspect of our baseball experience. If the Brother Elephant head-honcho stumbles across this, I urge him or her to tear down this wall. Tear it down, I say!

Ends Well: The game turned out to be a pitchers duel (1-0 Brother Elephants!) and we were ready to leave well before the last inning. Fortunatly for us, we did not. As opposed to disapearing into their club house at the end of the game the winning B.E.’s came onto the field to receive adulation from the crowd. They took as few bows to the cheers, then promptly all lay down on the grass, where they idly stretched, chatted with each other or looked up at the lights of the stadium. It seems to have been a photo op, judging by the mass of people pressed against the fence with cameras. I wanted to get a few photos myself, but my compatriots were tired from the long slog in the baseball galley and wanted to leave. I shuffled out, but I thought this spectacle, players lazing on the field, was the perfect end to this or any baseball game. Since baseball is the stuff that many children’s dreams are made of, I’m always glad to see a player doing anything that would have given me a charge if I had witnessed it as a youngster. Seeing a baseball hero lay on the field for my benefit would have been amazing. More than that though, I was reminded about how the baseball games I used to play ended, with snow cones, me laying in the grass, waiting for my parents to pick me up. The only real differnece was that these were professional players, there were no snow cones, and I was on the other side of the world in a country and culture utterly foreign to me. Besides these details, it seemed exactly the same.

Puzzled

September 20, 2009 by oxroosterlittletiger

Sometimes vendors come by the school selling toys and puzzles and that sort of thing to the teachers. Nick bought this “Magic Intellect Ball” thinking he’d give it to the students who come by our desks after school wanting to chat when we have work to do. The damned ball turned out to be horribly addictive.

Observe:

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