Do You Believe in Life after Love

It has been a month in Taiwan. That in itself is pretty crazy.
After the typhoon, the city is back to normal and normal life is starting for me...which means work, and having "the regular" at the tea shop across the street, and purchasing my own scooter dubbed "the beast", and experiencing the normalcy of life here in Kaohsiung.

The other day we also experienced an earthquake quite early in the morning and this was what it looked like:
My roommate Sandra runs into my room in the wee hours of the morning...like 8 AM and yells, "it's an earthquake" with her sexy Mexican accent and morning voice.
from my deep slumber and half-conscious, i grumble, "oh, i thought you were just shaking my bed"
"why would i do that?" she asks half-surprised.
"you know, i'm not too sure. not too sure at all."

And then, thanks to our intense elementary school training, we proceeded to stand in our doorways until the aftershock subsided. We also figured since we are on the top 15th floor, if anything happened, we could just surf down with no worry that others would fall on top of us. It's a win win situation. But alas, nothing happened and we are alive and well.

....


Recently I have also began playing basketball with my friends. I live right next to the world games arena and there are nice basketball courts that we go out and play on almost everyday. Now I might be 5'2 but my junior high basketball skills are slowly coming back to me, and as i am below everyone's line of vision, I just dribble right under them and that is how real sports should be played. Plus I have the whole trash talking down, "u.g.l.y. you aint got no..." which is probably the best part of sports anyways. It gets pretty heated.

Also this weekend a friend, cooper, from home came to visit and I, for the first time, got to play tour guide. I explained that there is a 7-11 on every block and that you can even pay your bills there, I explained the use of face masks as protection from smog and not from SARS, that there are karaoke bars everywhere and some are even karaoke strip clubs (hilarious AND true), the fact that we have an Ikea and a Costco, the monkeys, and even showed him how amazing the people of Taiwan are and how easy it is to live here.

He saw a small example of the kindness of people here after i had a small spill on my scooter when my breaks went out and I literally got ambushed by little Taiwanese women trying to heal me and clean me up. They were on their hands and knees pouring water into the wounds as a man on a scooter offered what I can only assume was antibacterial cream and as another man checked and miraculously fixed my breaks. All this before I could even say xiexie, thank you. It was such a perfect way to get hurt because by the time I even got to see the scrapes, they were all cleaned up and disinfected. What a country!

My little spill on the scooter. "The beast" as I have gently named it, thought I said go, but what I really meant was "Good God, stop for the love of all mankind!" Oh what a hilarious misunderstanding.


We also went exploring and climbed some pretty huge and spiky rocks by the ocean.
If you look really closely, that is me On top of that boulder, which might as well be the biggest boulder in all the world.


I have been exploring the night markets which stink of stinky tofu...that is the actual name, stinky tofu, I have played with the monkeys on monkey mountain which is a lot scarier than cute little monkeys you might think of, i have gotten lost driving around the city, I have climbed trees and rocks, been bitten by mosquitoes, climbed mountains, avoided cockroaches, and have begun living.



Teaching is a bit tougher than I thought because you have a classroom of 15 10-year olds who don't speak English and have ADD and yell, "Teacher teacher...uhfihi fueisfg" in Chinese as I explain to them for the twenty third time that I don't speak Chinese so I just assume that they always have to go pee. But I am getting used to it and they are fun and quirky and very smart so when I get a chance, I will post photos. I also start teaching a kindergarten class in a week, so that should be fun too! I also tutor a group of high schoolers and this week we are learning the lyrics to a song by Greenday, their choice not mine. Had it been my choice, I probably would have taught them something by Cher because how funny would a bunch of Taiwanese high schoolers singing "Do you believe in life after love?" look like! There will come day...I promise.


So there it is.
My life in Taiwan so far.
So far so good.
One month.
I do believe in life after love.
Much more to come....

I want to ride my scooter...i want to ride it now

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRZn5wrktwA&feature=related

Typhoon Time!!

So currently I am sitting around with Sandra, Courtney, Danielle, Anthony and Ben while a typhoon is throwing itself a VIP party outside...and we are NOT invited. These past few days we have been hibernating inside watching 24 with short spurts of trips to 7-11 to get refreshments. The typhoon is like no storm I have ever been in. Winds were reported about 89 miles an hour and reached 112 in teipei. Crazy it is. So we have all been here hanging out and anthony's landord just called and told them that their apartment was flooded so they left for a bit to dry their apartment and bring a change of clothes. Apparently the drain on their porch was clogged and the water from the storm seeped through into their place.

And I was talking to my friend Brian who lives up north in Taiwan and he said that they tried going out on a scooter yesterday and one of their friends got thrown off from the back of the scooter! he is ok, but what a crazy story!!

Anyways enough about the typhoon, its getting too much attention and i think it is growing because of all the attention we are feeding it.

Everything else is wonderful. I have acquired a few jobs and am deciding which jobs to take with the best schedules. I will tell more of the jobs when I have exact details. It is finally hitting me that I am living here, in Taiwan!! and though its a crazy thought, it's a reassuring one and it makes me feel good to know that I can feel home in such a place as this.

On My Run tonight

I went running today in the humidity and the dark but never having felt safer in my life, let me tell you what it is like. Everyone stares. That is no shock to me anymore, neither it is as exciting as it was at first. But now I can appreciate the subtleties that Kaohsiung has to offer.
By our house there is a river and these bridges that intersect one another. I think it was built for the world games because it is new and beautiful and lit up with these beautiful white lights that give this area the Christmas glow. I began going on the bridge that overlooks the highway, and it might have been the humidity, or the beautiful Brazilian tango I was listening to, but in that moment, one word just hit me and I could not get it out of my head. For all the great things the hippies have done for our culture, I think the one setback is the cheapening of the meaning of the word harmony. And this is my own accusation, but I just don't want my story about Taiwan to sound like a peace and love fest...which it is. But the word harmony just sat there, on the river, the lights, the muffled sound of the scooters passing by underneath, the children running around, the sound of the humidity. It was simply serene.
thats it. i just wanted to share that word for today. harmony. think about it. use it. try to feel it. but if you simply cant, just come on down my way and i will take you that bridge at night with the lights and the heat, and the sounds of traffic with the haze of the city lights in the background, and you will somehow understand.

So I accidentally climbed a mountain today...

Wanting to explore the city a little more by myself, I drove around Kaohsiung on my scooter and came upon this temple




So overtaken by its beauty I was that I decided to park my scooter and climb up to it....except that the stairs that I thought led to the temple, really led to the top of this beautiful mountain. And not being one to give up on such a challenge designed by a greater hand, I climbed on.





Caught off guard by the beauty, the heat, and the old people climbing, I continued my climb unaware of my unfit presence until an old man stopped by the shaded tree looked at me and said, "hello"
I said "Ni hao!"
He looked at me laughing, "you, just one?"
"yep, me, just one"
He then pointed to his shoes and then to mine and began laughing as if I had said or done the funniest thing in the world. I realize I was not wearing proper attire and that this mountain had never felt such heels as were on my shoes, but I did not consider myself to be so hilarious. He showed me on a map where we were and said, "this way, this way". I knew that I didnt know that map and he didnt know me, so who was i to judge his recommendation of going that way? Though looking back, I probably should have because though it led down through a beautiful and rocky pathway, it also led me down on the other side of the mountain. But such is life and the adventures we allow ourselves to get into.





I also realized that since the sun is no friend of the asians as white skin is revered as high society, all these senior citizens not only were climbing up this mountain in 100 degree weather and something like 100% humidity, but they were also doing it in pants, jackets, hats, and face masks. I gave all of them the "I am very impressed" nod when I walked by. They know what I meant.



So on my way down the wrong side of the mountain, I came across a few fun friends: an old chinese man that spoke to me for about 20 minutes...in chinese. I tried to laugh at the appropriate parts, like when he pointed up the mountain and then at me. I sometimes repeated what he was saying and this threw him into a frenzy, laughing and clapping his hands. I started thinking about becoming a comedian here in Taiwan because apparently I am just that funny.



Then I came upon a rooster playground and an old man giving a head massage. It's odd to me that these things dont seem so odd to me anymore...




Then once I was down the mountain, it took me about half an hour to find my way back to the scooter....realizing a little too late that the whole mountain is surrounded by oddly similar looking red temples.




.....I love this place.

Our New Home for the next year! The Babbaganoush!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5c-Vdw9M9Y

Scooter Story Time!

Now everyone gather around and let me tell you a story that will surely delight you with its humor, scare you with its rising tension, and leave you aching for more stories of Taiwan, even to the point where you will want to come see for yourself!

So take a seat, grab some tea, and read on my friends!

Once upon a time an Armenian and her Mexican friend decided to venture off to a faaaarrrr away land where they spoke a foreign language, where they celebrated cats by greeting them, saying “hello kitty”, and where they drove these motorized seated vehicles. On the eve of last night, their dear friends Anthony and Danielle invited them to a tea party at their teacher friend’s house to celebrate being a foreigner in this strange land they called Taiwan. They had promised the Armenian and Mexican that there would be a certain prince charming awaiting them at this party, so much were they excited that they got their hopes up and even dressed up for this occasion.

They arrived at the festival and there was an array of English teachers from all around the world and they introduced themselves one by one and then they got to this boy, nay, a man. A kind of man you don’t see every day, you can’t find just anywhere, THAT kind of man; the kind of man that has a mullet, and is very intensely tall and skinny, and has a pierced nose. THAT kind. To their shock and a little dismay, he was not the prince they had been promised to be betrothed to though he had quite the sense of humor.

A bit tired and ready to go home at 2 past the midnight, the four youngsters and their two scooters headed out into the streets as the rain began beating down first softly then so roughly that a shower was no longer necessary.

Two minutes into the drive, the breaks started acting a bit edgy on their motorized cart and suddenly it stopped, nay it died.

And it was 2 in the morning.

And it was pouring.

And it was an Armenian and a Mexican in Taiwan.

And they were alone with no cell phone and no idea of where they were.

And this story is not ended yet….

Not reacting too rashly or strongly, the two damsels take in their situation and decide to get a taxi back to their abode but what they find odd is that no such vehicle will stop for them. None will stop to their arms waving madly, to their soaked clothing, to their whistling and yelling and obvious signs of “help wanted”.

“So my dear, shall we walk?” asked the Armenian to the Mexican.

“……..I guess…..”

So they walked.

Twenty minutes into their trek home, they realized that since they were not well acquainted with the geography of the city, they might have been going to wrong way so they stopped at a family mart and when the little Taiwanese man came out this is what happened next:

Looking like this, Sandra yells at him with powerful hand signing:

“SCOOTER BREAK. TAXI CALL”.

A bit scared and too unsure of what to do, he did what he was commanded.

Xie Xie. Thank you, we are very grateful.

Inside the taxi driving for about 20 minutes and watching a music video of some terribly cheesy Taiwanese lost lovers, the two travelers found themselves in familiar territory and arrived home safely to live happily….but not ever after….and without any princes because who needs them when you can get lost in the middle of the night in a foreign country in the rain and make it back decently alive?

ZE END!