Yingge take 2

12 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Culture, Taiwan Tags: , , , ,

I met up with 3 friends at Taipei Main train station, headed to Yingge. I have been wanting to see the Ceramics Museum; Yingge is famous for it’s pottery. One 30 minutes train ride later, we were walking with our hostess (my Melaleuca upline) to the museum. NOTE: despite the fact that rain was predicted, it was a balmy day. Not a cloud in sight, slight breeze, mildly warm. The museum is a gorgeous, modern glass-and-cement building housing a beautiful display of Asian celedon ware.

Admission is FREE, as are the guided tour headsets. We started on the top (3rd) floor and made our way down the sloping ramp, looking at gorgeous and amazing anatique vessels in every shape and size glazed in colors ranging from a delicate robin’s egg blue to a deep jade green.

Old Street map painted on ceramic

No trip to Yingge would be complete without a visit to Old Street, a pottery buyer’s dream come true! On the way from the museum to Old Street, we passed a street merchant selling his paintings. (Hadn’t we seen the old white man with the long beard on the train from Taipei?)  After looking through his art work, I selected three modern-style paintings – and began bargaining! I ended up with all three  for 1500NT (50USD). I asked to have them signed by the artist (who had gone walkabout) and was asked to come back for the signed paintings “later”. Okay, so here’s one big difference between Taiwan and the US: in the States, the artist and his helper would have been long gone (with the art AND my money) by the time I returned a few hours later. Not here. My art was signed and rolled up, ready for me to take home, have framed, and hang!

Election time in Taiwan

12 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Daily Life, Taiwan, Travel Tags: , , , , ,

This weekend Taiwan holds elections for the country’s president and vice-president. I don’t know much about politics here; I purposely try to stay neutral (read: uninformed). It’s safer that way. I figure: whatever this country is doing seems to be working.

The enthusiasm of the Taiwanese for voting is epic. Folks literally fly BACK to this little island from all over the world just to vote. No absentee ballots. Then there are the banners. No little ugly plastic rectangles stuck into all of your neighbor’s lawns. No. These banners are colorful 6′ tall flags on even taller poles bearing the beaming faces of the candidates, spaced evenly along the street medians along with the national flag. And get this, Taiwan’s president may soon be a WOMAN. No kidding.

Busses and MRT cars all over Taipei (and presumably all over Taiwan) carry photos of all three partys’ candidate pairs, smiling  with fists clenched, held high, in apparently victory.

"vote for us!"

Small trucks, draped with giant banners of one set of candidate likenesses, slowly troll the streets, sharing the candidate’s canned thoughts via loudspeaker.

The Taiwanese are so mannerly, I doubt any of the potential presidents mount any type of “dirty” campaign. I know that one party is called the “blue” party and one is the “green”. One is pro-unification (with China) and one is for independance – but I don’t know which is which. And I don’t know what the third party is….Happy voting Taiwan!

Daily life….

08 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Daily Life, Taipei Tags: , , , ,

I wake up at 9am most days. It’s cold at night now and there is no central heat in most apartments. I use two portable heaters (used, found on Tealit) to heat my bedroom and living space. I get up, have some hot tea, make my lunch (usually a chopped salad and fruit). NOTE: my two new favorite fruits are the rose apple and passionfruit. I shower, dress, and get ready to leave. Often that means I am packing all sorts of stuff (lunch,  stuff I have to take to work, workout clothes for after work). I have to leave two windows open for ventilation and am out the door. I walk downstairs and to the little store next to the temple where they make me a mocha protein shake and fill a GIANT pitcher with guarana tea. Then, depending on the weather, I either walk 17 minutes to work, or take the 235 to the Anhe street stop. At work, I hit the ground running – there is ALWAYS something going on, not always strictly related to work! I take a lunch break maybe once a week. Today one other vegetarian and I went to the “Green House” on Heping where I had a vegetable soup, pesto rice (yum!), and roselle tea (made with some flowers I have yet to identify but turns the water a lovely deep ruby color and tastes a bit sour). Total for lunch: 209 NT (<7USD). After work, I go to yoga, eat dinner (mostly I fix something on the one-burner stove) and then relax (read, watch TV, play Words with Friends). On the weekends I sleep in, shop, do laundry (when it’s humid outside it can take DAYS to dry), clean the apartment, and dream of warmer weather…

6 months in Taiwan!

08 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Travel Tags: , , , ,

I’ve enjoyed my time in Taiwan, though I’m looking forward to coming home! There is a lot to love here. For a small island country, they get a lot of things right! The stellar customer service, those cool glued-on cup tops and angled straws, fresh-squeezed juice, 45NT vegetable noodles, Loving Hut’s toon pancakes, 24-hour Eslite (bookstore) , Watson’s (pharmacy) and Wellcome (grocery), the brightly painted utility boxes, NO TIPPING, real Chinese medicine – did I mention the customer service? And then there is the low cost medical and dental services, and cheap and plentiful public transportation, cheap taxis, how helpful and friendly people are, the night markets, the day markets, the flower markets, the jade market, how SAFE it is to live here.  The temples (large and small) and lanterns, and everything red and gold. How beautifully all purchases, not matter how small, are wrapped. Being able to pay all my monthly bills in a single hour. 7-11. Dish dryers. Taipei 101. High-speed rail. I’m sure I’ll think of more….

There are things I’ve missed. Like clothing in my size! And being able to read signs and menus. And my car – well, I don’t miss DRIVING. The quiet in the great outdoors, wide open spaces with no one around. Stoves, ovens, clothes dryers, garbage pick up, central heating, thrifts stores, the Goodwill, Ulta, free samples, and my Neptune!

Cole Porter with an Asian flair

08 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Culture, Travel Tags: , , ,

Broadway comes to Taipei. Enthusiasm. Several co-workers and I decide to check it out and bought tickets. Theirs were on the 5th level (read: far from the stage) and cost 1500NT (50USD). I didn’t want to be in the nosebleed section of the 3000 seat Taipei International Convention Center, using opera glasses to see the action, so I spent 3200NT to sit in the 2nd section center stage. Excitement. We met up at Taipei 101’s food court for dinner (I had a salad from Jason’s Fresh Market). Anticipation. Afterwards, we walked to the Convention Center. It’s chock full of other musical theater fans and HUGE flower arrangements, Taiwan’s custom for sending good wishes.

break a leg

Hundreds of people, in a very orderly fashion, ascend elevators to find their seats. While I waited in my plush seat, I browsed through the program and watched a music video of the title song performed by the show’s lead performers on two Jumbotrons! (That was anti-climatic.) I wondered, would the live musical performance be shown on the large screens? (As it turns out, it was, making it a distraction to the action happening on-stage.) Hmmmm, I’ve attended Broadway shows before (NYC, LA, OR) and don’t recall ever seeing the show being broadcast on-screen. 15 minutes after the show was due to start, the 11-piece orchestra filed in.    Yeah, here we go!

And then….disappointment.

The good: the musicians, under the direction of a spirited band leader,played their hearts out.  two of the supporting cast turned in stellar performances (too bad they represented only 5% of the cast). the one tap dance number was rousing (despite the spotty choreography). the venue was lovely and a very civilized.

The bad: the sound board seemed to be manned by a tone and decibal-deaf technician. At times, the singers were drowned out by the orchestra and at other times they faded into the background. the leads seemed to phone their performance in (at one point, the male and female leads simple stood and sang – i’ve seen more spirited performances at a concert).

The ugly: what happened to passion? singing what you feel? sharing what you feel with the audience, in song? what happened to artistic integrity? many of the performers were difficult to understand speaking English.

So sad – a classic American musical chopped up and spit out; completely unpalatable. Verdict: it’s a MISS. I should have spent the ticket money shopping 101.

Writer’s holiday party

31 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Foreign Food, Travel Tags: , ,

My work team celebrated this holiday season with a White Elephant gift exchange and dinner at a local “hot pot” restaurant.  I must say I was originally not too excited, thinking “oh great, an a;;-you-can-eat all-meat restaurant with no veggie options”. I could not have been more wrong! The 10 of us sat around a large table with “hot pots” (large vessels set over a gas burner) and selected which liquid to cook our dinner in. We vegetarians shared half a hot pot filled with some tomoto-based liquid and heaped our plates with all manner of non-meat options. In truth, I recognized very little of the plentiful veggie options but that didn’t stop me from trying as many of them as possible.When the liquid was gently bubbling, we used chopsticks to carefully drop items into the “hot pot” and waited for them to cook. (Of course, while we were waiting for the liquid to heat up, we helped ourselves to the dessert bar – my boss actually had 3 HUGE bowls of Haagen Daz!) After the items were cooked, the idea is to place them into a bowl to cool off and then dip them into a smaller bowl filled with whatever custom-made sauce you’ve prepared. Needless to say, I’m now a “hot pot” convert!

Hot Pot extravaganza

Weekend in Yilan

21 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Travel Tags: , , ,

0730 comes early in Taipei, especially on a weekend! But last Sunday, I’d agreed to meet other co-workers at the Sun Yat Sun MRT, exit 4, at 0730 for a bus trip to the NE part of Taiwan: a town called Yilan (ee-lan). I left the apartment at 0700, walked down Tong Hua and left on Xinyi. A few blocks down I turned on Guangfu S. road and 15 minutes later I saw SYS exit 2, but where was exit 4? hmmmmm And then I remembered the MRT tunnels underground and descended into exit 2. And there is was: a sign pointing to exit 4, blissfully in a warm and dry environment.

The bus trip to Yilan took a little over one hour, through many long tunnels. Our first stop was the Rabbit pencil factory! Yup, good ol’ fashioned wood-and-lead writing instruments!

The Rabbit Pencil Factory logo in pencils

You can imagine that it’s a popular place for the Elementary school crowd. Sitting in small schoolkids’ desks, we were shown a movie about how the pencils are made. It was all in Chinese but I got the gist of it. Then we took a tour  (also in Chinese) through the ancient factory.  It was interesting watching the raw material, Chinese cypress, being molded into bright, shiny pencils. I cracked up seeing this sign on one of the machines:

Is there an "incoherent" machine somewhere?

Next stop: DIY pizza! It was lunch time and everyone was hungry. We waited our turn to turn a blob of yeast dough into a handcrafted feast and watch it bake in a wood-fired oven. Yum!

who knew making pizza could be so fun?

Our final stop in Yilan was an orchid farm! How wonderful to step into a botanic wonderland! We got a tour (yes, again in Chinese but this time I was assigned a translator!) We wandered through greenhouse after greenhouse, each one filled with beautiful blooms and tropical plants! (You know how expensive orchids are in the States? Not here! I bought a lovely light green orchid, a pot to put it in, and a small Hawaiian anthurium for 300NT – around 10 dollars USD.) On the drive back to Taipei, we were told the farm had given each of us a lovely white orchid plant – wow!

Yilan hothouse

Wanna guess what the cost for the entire trip was? The bus, the tours, the pizza….500NT (~16.00US). Gotta love it!

Christmas in Taipei

21 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Daily Life, Taipei, Taiwan Tags: , , , ,

I finally got all my packages and cards mailed out last week; lord, I hope they make it safely to their intended recipients!  People here are so trusting. I have no doubt the packages will make it across the water. I am, however, worried about what happens to them once they land stateside (that’s a sad state of affairs, isn’t it). The postage was outrageous, but then again, the packages are travelling 10,000 miles and I had them insured. I carefully selected the gifts – all made in Taiwan. The Taiwanese pride themselves on their workmanship. And their pride is well-placed; it’s amazing to see how much care goes into even the simplest of items. I was invited to a co-worker’s house for a Christmas Eve party and to Yingge for Christmas day. It’ll definitely be a different celebration this year…

I found a live Christmas tree, all bundled up in the florist shop across from the bus stop. I wrapped my arms around it and breathed its smell in. Ah, such a lovely scent! I made the mistake of asking the price….are you ready for this? 20,000NT, the shoplady said with a straight face. That translates into nearly 700USD – for one 6’tree that won’t last one month. Yikes! Instead, I went to the “everything” store and purchased a  small fake white tree and some LED lights (both made in Taiwan). Total cost: less then 500 NT (18USD)! I can still smell the spendy pine when I turn the LEDs on…

Merry Christmas 2011

Trend Tennis

04 Dec 2011 Leave a comment

by twgurl54 in Sports, Travel Tags: , , , , ,

I haven’t picked up a racquet, much less played tennis, in over 10 years. I used to love it! The feel of the sun as you wait for the serve, the sound the ball makes when it hits the sweet spot. Ah, that was another day and another time….last Tuesday I “practiced” (in surfer shorts and using a borrowed racquet) with my doubles partner for the first time and could barely MOVE on Wednesday~ lol!  Today was the Trend Tournament, starting with an exhibition between one of our company’s presidents and the brother of a ranked pro. My partner and I won our first two matches, making it into the “finals”. But I was hurting, making it difficult to play well (or what passes for “well” from someone who hasn’t played in over a decade).  One of my “serves” actually got lodged in a tree – a tree(!) for goodness sakes. Hey, I may not have much control left but apparently I still have some power. My partner did a great job, although we eventually lost, coming in 2nd. Guess I’ll have to use the prize money to get my own racquet now and practice a bit more for the next game…

2011 Trend Open

6:16pm earthquake #3

04 Dec 2011 1 Comment

by twgurl54 in Weather Tags: ,

This one was a BIG one – at least it SOUNDED like it. I could hear (and feel) the apartment building moving and the windows buckle.  The shaking kept up for only a few minutes. Odd, these ‘quakes feel…more personal. I’ve experienced others in the US but these (in Taiwan) are close. I mean, this isn’t a big island and we are sitting smack dab on a fault, with a huge drop-off shelf off of the east coast so it’s to be expected. Still, talking about it and living it are two different things. It makes me wonder what sort of natural disasters are in store for us in 2012…

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