Category Archives: tourist

Wooden Weekend

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This weekend, we were whisked away at 7:30 in the morning on Saturday to a cabin in the woods high up in the mountains of Wulai. It was an office trip with a bunch of my aunt’s and uncle’s colleagues, so we were a bit out of place. There was a lot of drinking and card games and mah-jong playing. But of course, Jennifer was sick pretty much the whole weekend, and I had a major headache for most of the day Saturday, so we stayed in and watched lots of movies in the nice air-conditioned wooden mansion. (which slept 20 people easily with room to spare.) However, the scenery really was beautiful, and we found a huge snake skin to end the weekend on a high note.

Jen has a secret admirer from the office, whom we call Puffy-Hair Boy. You can read more about him and also see pictures at Jen’s blog.

Winner Winner.. Chicken Dinner?

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It’s about 45-50 minutes of a bus ride, about 40 minutes to walk to the subway, take the subway, then hop on a bus, to get to my job from where I’m staying now. I think we found a place that probably would not make a difference in the commute time. But that’s the price you pay to live in an area like this to be close to everything convenient.

We are this close to finding an apartment. We just have to like the place when we visit and convince the landlord to like us. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an apartment online? Ok, how about trying to find one already furnished? And with air conditioning, especially here in Taiwan? Now try doing all of that in Chinese. Yeah, not fun.

Oh, and you know another thing that’s really not that fun either? When I get stopped on the street by people passing out surveys. They’re all, Oh it’ll only take a minute. Just one minute, just check a few boxes, and that’s it. Then I glance at their half-page survey and it’s covered in Chinese, and I’m all like, No thanks. And then pretend I’m in a big hurry to get somewhere and really don’t even have a minute to spare. Just because I look like I should know what I’m doing, do they have any idea how long it would take me to take their little survey? Try half an hour. I would probably have to ask them what every other word meant, and then they would think I’m dumb, so why don’t we just spare everyone’s feelings and call it a day?

People don’t want me because I’m not Caucasian, and yet other people assume I’m straight up Asian and should be doing everything like I’m supposed to. It’s like I can’t win.

There is Hope

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It’s way too hot here… there’s no air conditioning here at my aunt’s place, in fact not much anywhere, so we can only sleep with fans on in 90 degree weather.

I’m also way too dark-skinned for them here. My cousin, who’s 17, is currently in modeling high school where she learns to put on make up and how to put oneself look pretty. Anyways, she asked me if I wished I were paler.

The toilets are half normal ones and half squatting ones. I’m not a big fan of the squatting toilets. I’m always afraid I’ll pee on my shoes or something, and there’s just something unsettling about my face being so close to all of that. The idea is that it’s more sanitary because your butt doesn’t actually touch anything, but if you’re squatting, putting your face so close to all that can’t be sanitary either. And hardly any public places have toilet paper available, so most of the time you have to bring your own Kleenex. It’s times like these when I wish I were a boy.

Ok, I’m done with the gross stuff.

Yesterday, we went to visit more family. We went to Ying-ge, famous for its ceramics, and did touristy stuff. Here, all shopping streets are lined with little food kiosks with all sorts of random and delicious snacks. But if you eat something from just about every kiosk, then that’s just like three meals. My cousin and aunt from China are also in Taiwan for about a week. Apparently, the girls in the family, on my dad’s eyes, all have pretty eyes. I think my girl cousins’ eyes are the biggest with the super long eyelashes and the folded eyelids. I’m just a teensy bit jealous.

Today, we went shopping at Ximen, the biggest teenager hangout/shopping place ever. Ok, that’s a lie because everywhere has hardcore shopping places. But imagine your local teenage hangout or where you meet up with your high school friends, now multiply that place by a thousand and the people by a million. A bit of an exaggeration, but you get what I mean.

I bought a pair of chucks today. Now I need a new handbag to go with them. Did I mention that I love to shop? I decided to wear the chucks right after I bought them because the flip flops I bought the other day were hurting my feet, so I had to buy socks. Then I got blisters from the chucks. We do a lot of walking here.

As for the real reasons why we’re here in Taiwan, we do have job interviews! Tomorrow, Jennifer needs to get a health check, and then we need to go far out of the city for one of Jennifer’s interview. (She didn’t know where any of the places are, so the only place she called today asked her to come in to interview tomorrow, and of course it was the furthest away. And she most likely won’t take it, but it’s ok because we need to see what the interviews are like.) After that, we need to come back here and meet with a lady who works for a company who helps schools find English teachers. And then on Thursday, I have another interview with another lady at another school.

If you didn’t know already, some of these English schools will only hire foreign-looking teachers. There are parents who won’t pay for their students to attend the schools if they don’t think that the teachers are the best. And since the parents have no other way to compare the English levels, they can only do it based on appearance. But I already sent my pictures to the schools that I’m going to interview at, so I’m not worried that they’ll reject me because they only hire foreign people. That has been one of my biggest concerns lately, and I’m pretty certain that Jennifer should find a job before I do with the least amount of effort.

Night Is Now Officially Day

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Here, I am always perpetually eating. Imagine three official and big-portioned meals and some sort of snack in between. And I’m not talking about half a bag of chips for snacks, but more like a mini-meal. It’s a good thing that I’m always perpetually sweating; have to keep off the weight somehow, right?

We woke up at 7am and couldn’t fall back asleep. Guess we’re not adjusted to the time difference yet.

Breakfast was amazing. I don’t usually eat breakfasts at home, but here, I would dutifully eat it every day. Eggs, turnip cakes, pita salads, almond juice, and rice milk.

Lunch at this amazing hole-in-the-wall place for beef soup noodles. Then again, about every other food joint is a hole-in-the-wall place, and you have to go through the locals to know which ones are the best. This place is famous for its broth, and not so much the beef or the noodles, and the line was out the door after we got there.

Off to the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. For those of you who don’t know who he is, he was the first president of Taiwan. Lots of big old buildings, giant statues, and lots of old stuff.

Then to Longshan Temple, very big and very popular with the tourists, surrounded by tons of shopping and food joints. We went and got shaved ice at a popular place that’s been around since 1920. Walked around a bit, did some shopping, bought my first pair of flip-flops. And the shopping begins.

We went back to my dad’s house, the place where I was born and grew up in for the first three years of my life. Had a mini-family reunion at my Uncle’s new Karaoke place down the street. Again, more food: amazing dumplings that my Aunt made, clams, fresh-not-frozen edamame, Chinese water spinach, tofu, fish.. did I mention that we eat a lot here?

Back in the States, I don’t have all my family there. I have an aunt and her family up in Ohio, whom we visit about once a year, and my great aunt and uncle out in California whom I don’t see very much. So I’ve always been a teeny bit jealous when my friends always talk about hanging out with their cousins, seeing their grandparents, or big family reunions. It’s a bit strange to see uncles look like my dad and aunts who I’ve always been mesmerized by as a child with a different perspective years later. There’s a different dynamic with every aunt, whereas all my uncles are the same, easy-going and fun like my dad and grandfather. And the thing is, they all love me that can only be expressed by food and entertainment. My cousins are all so big now, and I only remember them as children. It’s nice to know that I have family, and it’s definitely made the transition easier.

Jennifer has been doing fantastic, willing to try everything and has taken on quite a palate for most of the food here. She’s been openly practicing her Chinese with my family, and they’ve taken on quite a liking to her. We went and had our hair washed at a salon which, by the way, was less than $5 USD for 10 minutes of hard-core shoulder and head massage, 30-45 minutes of intense hair washing: shampoo three times for about 15 minutes each, then a really long rinse, and a blow dry and hair styling at the end. It was less than $5, to the point where Jennifer and I felt kind of bad for paying so little, and also there are no tips here in Taiwan.

But I digress; Jennifer fascinated everyone at the salon. Everyone here, my family included, thinks she has doll-like features and is so awed by her beauty. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell her when she keeps saying that everyone is staring at her a bit too long, as if they’ve never seen an American before. Oh, but they have, and we have confirmation that she’s just way too pretty. I told her she should start wearing big sunglasses, and I’m going to start going around and calling her Julia Roberts. I plan on exploiting Jennifer quite a bit. =)

I will put up more pictures when I get time, but Jennifer needs to use our only ethernet cable. But here’s one for the road.