join me as I discover Taiwan!
24 Oct 2011 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taipei Tags: costumes, Halloween, MRT, Sun Yat-sen
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…
01 Oct 2011 Leave a comment
in Shopping, Taipei, Taiwan Tags: bamboo, Eslite, gondola, luoshi, oolong tea, vegetarian buffet
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.
27 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taipei Tags: Led Zeppelin, music, rock and roll, The Big Band Theory
Who knew that techie, geeky types were also so musically inclined (wink, wink)?
an empty stage
Remember the Battle of the Bands they used to do in High School? Picture that, in a more intimate setting (no giant, reverb-prone gym) with a really well-behaved audience (no drinking or drugs or rowdiness), a wide variety of music (rock, hard rock, ACID rock, pop, and christian, plus popular Chinese tunes), and musicians that looked more like they walked off the pages of GQ than Rolling Stone, and you’ll get the gist of TBBT.
A clever take on a popular television show’s title, this past weekend’s TBBT showcased 10 bands with varying degrees of experience and talent. Some of musicians looked like rock stars, others like hipster schoolkids. It was good fun, and definitely LOUD! My favorite though, was a Taiwan band playing and singing Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”!
Other than the slightly accented words, it was a dead-on rendition of a classic rock cover. Ironically, very few, if any, in the audience, were even alive when the song was released in late 1971, but for me, it sure brought back some happy memories.
rock on!
18 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taipei, Taiwan, Travel Tags: antique documents, bronze, Chinese treasures, jade, National Palace Museum, tea house
What does a newcomer to Taiwan do on her first day off, a paid holiday? She gathers some friends and goes to the National Palace Museum, of course!
One 300NT taxi ride and 30 minutes later, we climb out to witness a jaw-dropping sight: a former palace that now houses thousands of years of Chinese art pieces on three of the four floors of the main building. Someone said that if the exhibits were rotated quarterly for the next 23 years, you would see something new every time and still not see it all – and I believe it.
The National Palace Museum at night
No photo-taking was allowed so my mere words will have to suffice to describe the various items. We saw incredible objects carved out of every imaginable color of jade. My personal favorite was the [calligraphy] brush wash carved to resemble a curved lotus leaf. The showcase piece was no more than 8″ tall carved out of a single piece of white and green jade to look like bok choi with a little green grasshopper on it. It was apparently part of a bride’s dowry and appeared in all manner of much lesser forms throughout the museums many gift shops!
Bronze cauldrons, copper daggers inlaid with gems, porcelain pillows (pillows?), intricate carved jade, ancient documents, ethereal paintings of mountain scenes (one was at least 50″ long!)- each item more amazing than the next!
At one point we decided to go to the 4th floor tea house for some sustennance; even the food was a work of art.
Lotus tea with spring rolls and sweets
18 Sep 2011 1 Comment
in Taipei, Travel Tags: Raohe night market, Songshan Temple, train station
Yesterday, a friend and I made our way (bus 235 on Anhe > Technology building MRT on Fuxing > Zhongxiao Fusing (Blue Bannan line) > Taipei Main Station > TRA to Songshan) to Songshan train station. After shopping at the Melaleuca store, walked down Bade road to the Raohe night market and since it wasn’t open yet, stopped in at the nearby Temple.
Songshan Temple
Songshan Temple is on a main street yet once inside, the everyday worlds seems quite removed. The noise level is significantly reduced as people, mainly groups, carry burning incense sticks and, holding them to their foreheads, bow and pray to various deities, stunningly set into alcoves on all four floors of the Temple.
Yearly hero Gods
I try to be a casual observer but taking in all the gorgeous colors and sights makes that impossible. Every surface is either carved, inscribed, painted, and/or gilded. One can’t help but feel awe and reverence for the 260-year old building and its inhabitants even if the meaning behind it all is somewhat obscured.
good vs. evil?
11 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taipei Tags: sculpture, utility boxes, Yingge
I began noticing it when I went to Yingge several months ago: someone had painted the utility boxes to look like a bucolic mountain scene.
Check out the cherry blossoms...
This is common; I haven’t seen a single utility cabinet that wasn’t painted. The construction barricades have cheerful messages and bright colors painted on them. The freeway buttresses are adorned with all sorts of ocean creatures in little vignettes. Taiwan is, after all, surrounded by oceans!
Then I noticed the sculpture – it’s EVERYWHERE! Strange and wonderful shapes in the most unlikely of places. People just walk past them without a sideward glance. Although you’d assume that space is limited it’s because we’re on an island, there seems to be space enough for surprising reminders of an artistic nature. They even transform walls into vertical gardens!
Living Wall
10 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taipei Tags: drag queen, Ximen
Taiwan Drag Queens
I was invited to a birthday party/fundraiser (for the Taiwan equivalent of the Humane Society) for a friend of a friend of a co-worker. In lieu of gifts everyone was asked to donate 1000NT ($20) to the animal charity. The party was held in an open air cafe/bar in an area of Taipei known for its colorful stores and even more colorful characters, appropriately named Ximen (pronounced she-men)! The birthday “girl” and some of “her” friends dressed in drag and lip synched their way (in English) through some torchy ballads I’d never heard before. By midnight, you can imagine that the crowd had had plenty to drink so it was VERY entertaining, to say the least.
New lipstick and haircut
04 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Taipei Tags: homesick, island living, moon cakes, Mrs. Fields
Taiwan's public art
For the past 8 weeks I’ve focused on getting to know this fascinating island, or at least parts of it. I’ve really resisted comparing life in Taipei to life in the States, for fear that I will lapse into homesickness. There is much to appreciate here, but sometimes comparisons are inevitable.
Every Monday when I join the line of folks waiting to separate and dump their garbage , every week when I take my clothing from the clothes line several floors up (no dryer but hey, at least we aren’t washing our clothes in a stream), when I realize that I can’t bake even the simplest of cakes (I have no stove; very few people do) I can’t help but wonder what life would be like here with a few extra “modern” conveniences. Taking public transportation is a great leveler – everyone does it. Walking downtown at 11pm? Completely safe, if you don’t count the taxis cutting corners into crosswalks. The Harvest Moon festival, complete with a 3-day weekend, is coming up. We’re each getting a package of Moon Cakes. Guess that’s the Taiwan equivalent to Mrs. Fields…
04 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel Tags: jade market, rhino, Tibet, watercolor
Next up, the trek through the Taipei jade market, adjacent to the flower market under a busy overpass. Row after row after ROW of jade, beads, pearls, and all manner of pretty shiny and carved things.
Jade (and other) Treasures
It’s difficult to know where to look next and after just a few minutes, the sheer volume of -well – EVERYTHING overwhelming. I take a deep breath and soldier on. I attempt conversation with various vendors; most don’t speak English. I see a lot of antique-looking items from Tibet, old Chinese textiles (gorgeous!), Japanese watercolors, ivory carvings, and rhinocerous horns (ewww) among the most amazing translucent green, white, pink, and yellow jade treasures.
04 Sep 2011 Leave a comment
in Shopping, Taipei, Travel Tags: Holiday Flower Market, lilies, lotus, roses
A lot of Taiwan’s sights are located in spare spaces: hidden underground, beneath overpasses, in some really unlikely spots. You might easily drive, ride, or walk by them without notice. The Taipei “Holiday” flower and jade markets are no exception. I stumbled onto the flower market when I walked down the wrong side of Jianguo, trying to find the main Taipei Library.
Greenery Galore!
Inside the market, the first thing you notice is the fragrance of a million flowers and flowering plants. There are blossoms of every shape, size, and color. It’s like a wacky kalidiscope image, bursting at the seams. The market stretches farther than I can see and I wander along, simply amazed by it all. The Taiwanese love their greenery and you can see why – so many options. Bonzai galore, one even taller than me (and that’s saying something!). Water plants (lilies, lotus) for dish gardens and outside fountains. Pots, saucers, rocks, gardening implements and garden furniture. Herbs, fruit and citrus trees, strange insect-eating plants, orchids galore all being misted from above to maintain their health (I guess the intense natural humidty isn’t enough, but I must say the mist feels good). Vendors pass out samples of their teas and various drinks made from herbs, and lots of, well, I’m not really sure exactly what the ingredients were, but most of it was delish! So many choices but finally I settle on a bunch of sweetheart roses (20 stems for 50NT) for less then 2.00US. Of course the bouquet is beautifully wrapped, the stems inserted into water for the trip home, and then placed into a long plastic bag to protect it on its journey on public transportation.
Bougainvilleas
Year of the Dragon!
Asia's best kept secret... 