Taipei World Design Expo

30 Oct 2011 1 Comment

by twgurl54 in Culture, Taipei Tags: , , , , , ,

Entrance to Songshan venue

As a teambuilding activity, all of our company’s Taiwan-based tech writers took the day off  on Friday to go on a field trip – and what a day it was! Taipei was selected to host the 2011 Design Expo divided among three venues: Songshan Cultural and Creative Park (great name!)  and two Nangang Exhibition Halls. We met at Songshan @ 10am under gorgeous skies along with hundreds (thousands perhaps) of like-minded design aficionados. After waiting in line to get a program we entered the Expo. Much like a county fair, there were exhibits in various buildings; we opted to start in the “back” and work our way to the front, since it was obvious that the exhibits closer to the entrance were mobbed! Every type of object (for work or play) you could imagine was represented. My favorite was the floor housing the “Golden Pin” award winners for innovative design of products sold in Taiwan!

The eponymous golden pin!

Room after room of colorful, useful, imaginative products! I love this stuff! I could have spent all day there but our plan included catching all three venues in one day, so, off we went. After a wonderful lunch at a nearby pizzeria, we road the MRT (blue line) to the end-of-the-line: Nangang. The giant exhibition halls housed more industrial displays with vendors from all over the world. My personal favorites were the BMW booth with it’s upbeat music and crazy lighting and a local handbag designer:

Designer handbags

speed demon

Junk Mail

24 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Daily Life, Taiwan Tags:

What’s annoying and clogs the mailbox? Junk mail! Most people throw it out – but not me. I save mine and take it to Chinese class. I really do want to know what’s being sold, what’s on offer,  and where all the good deals are! Usually I can get the gist of any circular by reading, re-reading, and reading yet again, scouring the symbols for patterns and any recognizable numbers or words. I’ve figured out “2-for-1” and how percent-off works: if something is 20% off, the price is listed at 80%. Maybe that makes it easier to do the math and figure out the price? One nice thing about shopping here – there is no tax, so the price you see is the price you pay (unless it’s on SALE!).

so colorful!

Halloween in Taipei

24 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Culture, Taipei Tags: , , ,

Who knew the Taiwanese were into Halloween?

Walking down Guangfu (after coming out of the Sun Yat Sen MRT)  I noticed a crowd gathered around the entrance to a store up ahead. As I got closer I could see it was an all-Halloween store! WOW! Once inside it felt like any Wal-mart in America: the exact same items (made in China, of course). I selected some spider webs, face make-up, and a bright green mask. I think only my boss is dressing up so I’m not sure what I’ll do with my treasures…

Take a “crack” break…

24 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Taiwan, Travel Tags: ,

A few months ago I noticed some cracks in my brand new apartment’s livingroom wall….WTF?!! Since there’s not a lot I can do about it, I just forgot about them – until I found this little product:

How funny is this? And so totally Taiwan. Take a flaw and turn it into ART!

gimme a break!

Hilarious food descriptions

14 Oct 2011 1 Comment

by twgurl54 in Foreign Food, Travel Tags: , , , ,

You’ll love this! When you shop the 7-11 or Wellcome or any of the local food stores, you’ll find English translations printed under the tradition Chinese characters on some packages. For instance, here’s a cream wafer that is deemed “evolutional” by the manufacturer. Hmmm, what does that mean, I wonder. Is it the next generation of cookie? If you eat it when you’re pregnant will your children be farther along the evolutionary chain than they might have been had you not eaten it? I have no idea! I did ask a native Chinese speaker to interpret the characters and she came up with “super creamy”. Ok, I buy that. And they were delicious…

say what?

The hills of Taichung, part 2

14 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Foreign Food, Travel Tags: , , , , , , ,

First stop, though, is a side trip to visit my host’s parents house in Yingge where I’m excited to have the opportunity to see some of her father’s art work. He creates pottery with unusual finishes and glazes; not the stuff you see in many shops in town.

Next up, DINNER! We stop at just outside Taichung  at a *barbeque* place owned by my host’s cousins. I typically avoid these places since they mostly serve meat but I was pleasantly surprised. I had “dou fu” (tofu), tofu skin, and green beans on a stick; hao chi (how-cher). Good eating. Bu hao (not bad)!

kebabs, Taiwan-style

After spending the night on the outskirts of Taichung, we went up the winding mountain road to my host’s Grandparents’ home. The whole family turned out and we spent a day of eating (very popular pasttime here!), playing card games, drinking tea prepared on an outdoor stove, and talking about the family history. My host is 7th generation Taiwanese; her grandparents, 5th. “Grandpa”, and his ancestors were all farmers who had come over from China. Behind their home you could see fruit orchards built up on the steep hills. They served up persimmons, guava, and the largest asian pears I’ve ever seen (literally 8 inches in diameter) from their orchard. What a treat! We heard how the matriarch and patriarch had met: he came to work in the orchard and would spend the night in the family home.

All around the porch, were dozens of bonsai trees, carefully pruned and lovingly tended. “Grandpa” told us that one of the trees was more than 200 years old and had been taken from the ground of the orchard. Amazing! This lovely family truly exemplifies the warm hospitality of the Taiwanese people.

there is beauty all around

When we left, on the way down the mountain, an older well-dressed lady on the side of the road, flagged us down. We pulled over and from the conversation I gathered that she needed a ride into town. So, of course, we obliged! (Where else but here would this be advisable or even possible?) She kept smiling and patting my hand , apparently happy not to have to wait for the bus in the rain.

On the way back to Taoyuan (where I would catch the train to Taipei) we stopped at a rest stop. And by that I mean, a party on the side of the road! The place was HUGE and the atmosphere was like a giant amusement park….to me, the most amusing thing of all was the MUSIC (ok, asian musak) playing in the restroom! I’m calling it “music to pee by”! I guess that makes up for the lack of TP!! LOL

The hills of Taichung, part 1

11 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Travel Tags: , ,

I took a taxi to Taipei Main Station, loaded with the honey liqueur I’d purchased for my hosts. Inside the station, I followed the TRA signs thinking I’d find a manned ticket booth; the last time I was here there was a manned ticket booth. This time, I must have entered on a different floor (there are at least 3). The only ticket booths I saw were for the HSR. Maybe they would have sold me a train ticket but I didn’t want to wait in line and ask. Finally I did ask – an entrance attendant. I said the word “Yingge” and she pointed towards a set of escalators and, after swiping my Easy Card, down I went. I know Yingge is south of Taipei so, just to be sure, I asked a lady standing on the platform. She asked someone else, who asked someone else, who….you get the picture. Soon, there was a crowd gathered around trying to *help*! Luckily, this time, I did select the right escalators (out of hundreds) and got on the train. 30 minutes later my friends picked me up in Yingge and we headed, by van, to Taichung.

National Pride

10 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Culture, Taiwan Tags: , ,

This weekend everyone is celebrating this tiny island nation’s 100th birthday. Taiwan may be small but its show of nationalism is anything but!  Flags are displayed everywhere. Roads have been blocked off  for the many parades and inevitable crush of people going to see tonight’s firework display over the river. Military aircraft overhead  are showing off their capabilities during an airshow. 7-11 is giving away colorful “Happy Birthday Taiwan” folders with each purchase. Most everyone gets the day off; folks are in a festive mood!

Happy Birthday Taiwan!

More musings on life in Taiwan

07 Oct 2011 1 Comment

by twgurl54 in Travel Tags: , ,

Although I’ve been walking to and from work for several months, people still stare up at me like I’m a creature from another planet. If I catch their eye, I will smile at them and it takes them a few milliseconds to realize I come in peace and they smile back.

As I passed the Palace HD Hotel (not sure what the HD stands for) on Anhe, I noticed a funny sign out front. At first all I could read was “SEX” and as I got closer, I could see it read “SEX &  CITY”. I’m guessing they mean to pay homage to the popular TV series and movies starring SJP et al. What’s funny about it is that the Taiwanese are outwardly very conservative and the fact that they don’t seem to understand that such a sign, so close to a hotel has a, shall we say, unintended meaning for English speakers.

this is hilarious!

The women’s magazines here all come shrinkwrapped with all sorts of goodies inserted as “bonus” gifts. Sometimes it’s full-sized beauty products and sometimes a PILE of samples. I love it! (The German magazines have the best FREE stuff in ’em!)

What can you use to decorate your walls that doesn’t have to be painted over when you want to change your color scheme? Paper tape from Japan, of course! What a fun idea!

Bill paying, Taiwan style: take your bills – ALL of them – into the nearest 7-11, smile, hand the clerk the bills and some money and within seconds, it’s done. Done. DONE. For the entire month! (Most folks get paid once a month.)

Weekly review

01 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Shopping, Taipei, Taiwan Tags: , , , , ,

I started out writing at least daily and now it seems I’m so busy enjoying all Taiwan has to offer, I write a lot less frequently. Every day I find something else to marvel at. One interesting factoid: the Taiwanese can be a superstitious lot. They don’t like living on the fourth floor because the words for this floor sound like a word with a bad meaning. HINT: if you want to pay less for an apartment in a nice building, check out the 4th floor!

On Wednesday it was Luoshi (low-sure) Day, a day to celebrate and thank teachers! Several of us share the same Chinese teacher so we got together to get her a gift (lucky bamboo) and a card. The card was red and the envelope pale pink so I thought it would look nice to write her name in red ink on the envelope. Oh no, big faux pas! Writing someone’s name in red ink means you’re predicting their death. Say what? Who knew? (When folks here use a “chop” to stamp their name on a document, they use….yup, RED ink!) So, crisis averted; I used a black pen instead. Whew. Luoshi said it “made her heart happy” to get our gift. Awwwwww.

Luoshi is super patient and I like that she’s open to “alternate” teaching methods. For instance, one of my lessons was supposed to be about negotiating the price of a new car, something not likely to happen during my stay. Instead, I asked teacher to help me decipher all the junk mail I get. It’s colorful and looks interesting; ads for restaurants, real estate, foot massage places, retail store circulars. If I peruse them long enough, I can detect patterns and figure out a little of what is being said. It’s amazing how much you can learn about a culture by reviewing their junk mail!

On Saturday I met some friends at the local “bookstore”, Eslite. This place must be seen (and experienced) to be believed. 5, or is it 6, floors (only one and a half of which contain books) of the latest clothing, gadgets, accessories, paper products, music and movies, food, jewelry, cosmetics – and everything in between. I had a delicious fresh vegetarian lunch at a buffet that came to 88NT (less than 3.00) and included 5-grain rice and green tea. You can almost do all your shopping in one place!

Eslite Bookstore - and so much more!

Sunday, I planned to ride a gondola up a mountain to where the oolong tea Taiwan is famous for, is grown. The weather has been dicey – windy and rainy – this weekend; I hope they don’t cancel the ride.

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As for me, I will take the road less travelled…