Dilemma: I can't not run. It makes me unhealthy and miserable. But I can't run outside by myself because I'd be paranoid the whole time. That leaves two solutions:
1) Wake up super early to run (not likely to happen, these days 8 hours of sleep doesn't even feel like enough)
2) Join a gym.
I hate both options so much. Asia, I miss you so.
Saturday, October 18, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Living in Taiwan vs. Living in Japan Part III
Parts 1 and 2
Similarities:
1. Both countries have shitty summer weather. Japan: humid to the point where cold showers are wholly justified. Taiwan: humid + rainy + typhoons. I used to think living in L.A. during summertime was uncomfortable, with its 90 degree and above weather. I don't anymore, California's got it pretty good weather-wise, ignoring the fact that it no longer rains.
2. Both countries really enjoy hating on China; it's like a nation-wide hobby. True, a typical Japanese person would be fairly reluctant to use the word "hate" or express any form of negativity whatsoever, but yeah, they hate China. They just frame it as: "We're afraid of China" instead. (But who isn't, really?) I've had conversations about this topic ranging from "They hated us first!" to "They think they own the world" to "Nanking never happened." The hate may be on a differentiating spectrum, but it's certainly there.
I understand Taiwan's animosity towards China, considering the whole lack of national status thing that kind of exploded, among young people at least, this past year. But sometimes the vitriol still surprises me. A lot of Taiwanese assume that all Chinese people are like the tourists that flood popular spots in Taiwan every year -- and honestly, it seems that a lot of people in the world currently think this way. But it got to the point where I didn't even want to mention that my ancestors came from China, because of how awkward it would get in a conversation with older people I didn't know very well. If you say you're from Hong Kong, the responses you get are much friendlier. Taiwan and Hong Kong have a very good relationship, because Hong Kong also shares the "We hate China" mentality.
A lot of my Taiwanese friends complained that the Chinese characters they see abroad are written in simplified characters rather than traditional. It was literally one of the saddest things in the world for them. Again, I get it - seeing your country's influence in the world weaken would be hard for anyone to stomach - but for better or worse, Mainland Chinese (from China) is more universal, and I view this as something more practical - less strokes! more people know them! easier for foreigners to learn - than personal. Do I like traditional better? Sure, that's why I chose to learn it, but it's kind of illogical to hate on a country just because its writing system is more pervasive. I guess you can kind of argue that all hate is illogical in a way, much like emotions of the opposite sort.
3. Both countries are really into picture-taking, especially of themselves. The difference is that selfies seem more popular in Taiwan, whereas in Japan it's still purikura pics that rule all. I've seen Taiwanese girls take a selfie in almost every kind of situation - waiting in line for their milk tea, on a bus to school, even once in a bathroom. And both countries like to emphasize big eyes, pale skin, and kawaii poses involving the peace sign. I kind of really want to find an Asian country where feminine beauty isn't defined by trying to look like a human stuffed animal.
Differences:
1. Japan is a lot cleaner. I would be pretty shocked to find a country cleaner than Japan. I don't know how they do it, especially since they don't have trash cans on public streets so everyone just carries their own trash with them (and deposits it at home, I guess?). Even in Tokyo, where there are millions of people walking about every second of every day, many of whom who are drunk off their minds, I never once saw trash on the street. It sounds crazy, but the worst I ever saw were a bunch of cigarette butts lying on the ground. Japan's bathrooms, no matter where you seem to go, are spotless.
Taiwan, unfortunately, was not as clean. The weird thing about Taiwanese buildings is that 90% of the time, the insides are significantly better-looking, and bigger-looking, than the outsides. The outside of Taiwanese buildings often look like they haven't been remodeled for years (they probably haven't) and like nobody lives inside (they do). Only in really ritzy-looking areas, and Taiwan doesn't have that many, do you see new, polished-looking buildings. But the insides are spacious (way more spacious than most Japanese apartments) and usually nicely decorated. Japanese buildings might look old in some areas, but they still have this elegance to them that's hard to replicate.
I saw rats, cockroaches, lizards, and spiders all over Taiwan, but very rarely in Japan. In fact the only nasty bug I ever saw in Japan was a cicada and they don't usually get inside your house.
2. Japan has a lot more crazy cafes and weirder pop culture in general. They're not ashamed of otaku culture with the big-boobed anime characters, animals dressed up like humans, rock stars that wear pigtails and checkered skirts, and whatever other weird fusion you can think of. Only in Japan can people worship robots and maids without feeling ashamed. They have every sort of fantastically-out-there cafe imaginable. I once visited a cafe whose theme was a ghost cartoon named Boo. And that wasn't even one of the weirder ones (ahem, cuddle cafe).
Taiwan has a ton of cafes, but most of them are pretty normal. The nice thing about them is they'll often have a decent food menu rather than just drinks. The best quesadilla I ever had in Taiwan was in a cafe. Typical Japanese cafes (excluding the widespread weird ones) are chains rather than hole-in-the-wall places and their food isn't super great (nor inexpensive).
3. Japanese girls spend a lot more time on their appearance than Taiwanese girls. I thought I was biased because Tokyo girls are supposedly more conscientious of their appearances than girls from other regions (except Osaka apparently?), but no, Japanese girls in all areas get very decked out when they go out, even if it's just to the grocery store. They got the fake eyelashes, super high heels, short skirts, and more make-up on than the Kardashians. I think I can count the number of bare-faced Japanese girls I've seen in public over two years on one hand. In Taiwan, however, you see a lot more girls wearing T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. That's why it's so easy to spot Japanese girls in Taiwan, even when they're not speaking Japanese - they stand out so much. Japanese girls will even wear high-heels to go hiking.
Similarities:
1. Both countries have shitty summer weather. Japan: humid to the point where cold showers are wholly justified. Taiwan: humid + rainy + typhoons. I used to think living in L.A. during summertime was uncomfortable, with its 90 degree and above weather. I don't anymore, California's got it pretty good weather-wise, ignoring the fact that it no longer rains.
2. Both countries really enjoy hating on China; it's like a nation-wide hobby. True, a typical Japanese person would be fairly reluctant to use the word "hate" or express any form of negativity whatsoever, but yeah, they hate China. They just frame it as: "We're afraid of China" instead. (But who isn't, really?) I've had conversations about this topic ranging from "They hated us first!" to "They think they own the world" to "Nanking never happened." The hate may be on a differentiating spectrum, but it's certainly there.
I understand Taiwan's animosity towards China, considering the whole lack of national status thing that kind of exploded, among young people at least, this past year. But sometimes the vitriol still surprises me. A lot of Taiwanese assume that all Chinese people are like the tourists that flood popular spots in Taiwan every year -- and honestly, it seems that a lot of people in the world currently think this way. But it got to the point where I didn't even want to mention that my ancestors came from China, because of how awkward it would get in a conversation with older people I didn't know very well. If you say you're from Hong Kong, the responses you get are much friendlier. Taiwan and Hong Kong have a very good relationship, because Hong Kong also shares the "We hate China" mentality.
A lot of my Taiwanese friends complained that the Chinese characters they see abroad are written in simplified characters rather than traditional. It was literally one of the saddest things in the world for them. Again, I get it - seeing your country's influence in the world weaken would be hard for anyone to stomach - but for better or worse, Mainland Chinese (from China) is more universal, and I view this as something more practical - less strokes! more people know them! easier for foreigners to learn - than personal. Do I like traditional better? Sure, that's why I chose to learn it, but it's kind of illogical to hate on a country just because its writing system is more pervasive. I guess you can kind of argue that all hate is illogical in a way, much like emotions of the opposite sort.
3. Both countries are really into picture-taking, especially of themselves. The difference is that selfies seem more popular in Taiwan, whereas in Japan it's still purikura pics that rule all. I've seen Taiwanese girls take a selfie in almost every kind of situation - waiting in line for their milk tea, on a bus to school, even once in a bathroom. And both countries like to emphasize big eyes, pale skin, and kawaii poses involving the peace sign. I kind of really want to find an Asian country where feminine beauty isn't defined by trying to look like a human stuffed animal.
Differences:
1. Japan is a lot cleaner. I would be pretty shocked to find a country cleaner than Japan. I don't know how they do it, especially since they don't have trash cans on public streets so everyone just carries their own trash with them (and deposits it at home, I guess?). Even in Tokyo, where there are millions of people walking about every second of every day, many of whom who are drunk off their minds, I never once saw trash on the street. It sounds crazy, but the worst I ever saw were a bunch of cigarette butts lying on the ground. Japan's bathrooms, no matter where you seem to go, are spotless.
Taiwan, unfortunately, was not as clean. The weird thing about Taiwanese buildings is that 90% of the time, the insides are significantly better-looking, and bigger-looking, than the outsides. The outside of Taiwanese buildings often look like they haven't been remodeled for years (they probably haven't) and like nobody lives inside (they do). Only in really ritzy-looking areas, and Taiwan doesn't have that many, do you see new, polished-looking buildings. But the insides are spacious (way more spacious than most Japanese apartments) and usually nicely decorated. Japanese buildings might look old in some areas, but they still have this elegance to them that's hard to replicate.
I saw rats, cockroaches, lizards, and spiders all over Taiwan, but very rarely in Japan. In fact the only nasty bug I ever saw in Japan was a cicada and they don't usually get inside your house.
2. Japan has a lot more crazy cafes and weirder pop culture in general. They're not ashamed of otaku culture with the big-boobed anime characters, animals dressed up like humans, rock stars that wear pigtails and checkered skirts, and whatever other weird fusion you can think of. Only in Japan can people worship robots and maids without feeling ashamed. They have every sort of fantastically-out-there cafe imaginable. I once visited a cafe whose theme was a ghost cartoon named Boo. And that wasn't even one of the weirder ones (ahem, cuddle cafe).
Taiwan has a ton of cafes, but most of them are pretty normal. The nice thing about them is they'll often have a decent food menu rather than just drinks. The best quesadilla I ever had in Taiwan was in a cafe. Typical Japanese cafes (excluding the widespread weird ones) are chains rather than hole-in-the-wall places and their food isn't super great (nor inexpensive).
3. Japanese girls spend a lot more time on their appearance than Taiwanese girls. I thought I was biased because Tokyo girls are supposedly more conscientious of their appearances than girls from other regions (except Osaka apparently?), but no, Japanese girls in all areas get very decked out when they go out, even if it's just to the grocery store. They got the fake eyelashes, super high heels, short skirts, and more make-up on than the Kardashians. I think I can count the number of bare-faced Japanese girls I've seen in public over two years on one hand. In Taiwan, however, you see a lot more girls wearing T-shirts, jeans, and sneakers. That's why it's so easy to spot Japanese girls in Taiwan, even when they're not speaking Japanese - they stand out so much. Japanese girls will even wear high-heels to go hiking.
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Living in Taiwan vs. Living in Japan Part II
Part 1 here
A lot of people ask me whether I liked living in Japan or Taiwan better. I have to say, the circumstances and motivation for each were so different that I can't really compare.
I went to Japan for the chance to teach English in a foreign country and try my hand at living abroad. Before this, the longest I had ever been away from home on my own was a 6-week stint in England during a travel-study program in college. Prior to arriving in Japan, I knew no Japanese and very little about the area in which I was placed. I had gone to Japan once before with family, but it had been a long time ago and the place I went to was more rural and lesser-known, not close to the big city like Saitama was (and yes, despite what some Japanese and foreigners say, I believe that Saitama was not far from Tokyo).
I chose Taiwan because after leaving Japan, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to the States or stay abroad, and also because I developed a strong interest in learning Mandarin Chinese while living in Japan (I studied Japanese there too, but nowhere to the extent that I needed to if I wanted to become fluent). Lucky for me, the stars aligned and I got a scholarship to study Mandarin for six months in Taipei shortly after my contract in Japan ended. 6 months ended up being a year, but that's another story.
So I was a worker bee in one of the largest English-teaching corporations while in Japan, and a language student while in Taiwan. In Japan, I had money but very little free time. In Taiwan, I had very little money but plenty of free time, except during one quarter, when every day after class consisted of working on a talent show and studying for the unending tests we had every week. That was an intense quarter, but probably when my Chinese improved the most.
Some things Taiwan and Japan have in common:
1) It is very easy to get around. In Japan I took trains everywhere, from my little suburb to the city and from one major city to the next. I didn't utilize buses as much unless it was during long trips, such as from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and they weren't necessary for moving around Tokyo at all.
Taiwan's trains and buses were also very convenient. I took buses more regularly on an every day basis, because they were cheaper and often more direct than taking the MRT. Taipei is an easy city to explore even if you don't know where you're going, because they have a limited number of metro lines, and each line is very clearly marked in English. In Tokyo, it's easier to get lost because some of the signs (for older, not as frequently used train lines) are only in Japanese and there are so many different lines that even Japanese people get confused sometimes.
For example, if I wanted to get to Taipei Main Station, Taipei's downtown, there are maybe two ways I could get there from almost any point in the city. If I wanted to go to Tokyo Station, however, depending on what subway and train lines were available, there were a lot more than two ways to get there, many of which involved changing to another train on another platform for another line. I got lost in Japan way more frequently than I did in Taiwan, but that was fine. It was all part of the fun.
2) Both countries are among the safest places I've ever been to. I once read an article about the dangers and annoyances that female runners face in almost every city they run in: catcalls, leering, or even straight-up harassment. This doesn't include the obvious dangers of being kidnapped, physically assaulted, or raped. The article made me feel sad and angry, but I felt like adding something: Asian cities seem to be different. At least the two that I've run in have been different.
Both in Taiwan and Japan, I've gone running alone, late at night or early in the morning, many times without feeling the least bit worried about my safety. Japan is so safe that you can fall asleep on the train and wake up with all your possessions intact 4 hours later (true story, a friend once told me). I once left my wallet on the platform and was able to retrieve it from a station attendant an hour later, with everything still inside. When you're running, people barely look at you, much less say anything.
During one quarter of my time in Taiwan, my friends liked to throw small parties at their respective apartments on the weekends. I lived a little further than everyone else, and sometimes the parties would end very late (or very early), around 3 or 4 a.m. There would be no buses or trains running so unless I wanted to spend an hour walking back home, I had to take a taxi. Most of the time my friends and I would walk back to the university, where most of them lived, and then I would hail a taxi from the university back to my place (about a 10-minute ride and not very expensive).
Once the taxi driver asked me what I was doing alone so late outside. I told him (in Chinese, of course) that I was coming back from a friend's party. "Is it dangerous for a girl to be outside at this time?" I asked. He replied that no, it wasn't dangerous but it was still a little weird. He didn't see it happen often. "But Taiwan is so safe," I told him. "I often walk alone at night and nothing's ever happened to me." He agreed that Taiwan was very safe, probably one of the safest places in the world, but I should still be careful. "Of course, not as careful as in America," he later thoughtfully added.
One thing I learned very quickly while in Taiwan is that taxi drivers (and bus drivers, and sometimes random people you meet on the street) are generally very friendly and love to talk to strangers, especially in the south. This is very different from Japan, where the people servicing you always keep a polite distance, as though wanting you to forget their presence altogether.
Some things that Japan and Taiwan differ in:
1) Taiwanese university students are much more serious than Japanese university students. In Japan, getting into university is the hard part. Once you get in, however, college is more of a time to let loose and have fun than to actually buckle down and study. This is because after university, most Japanese students enter into lifelong contracts with big companies that require them to be at the beck and call of work 24/7. So college is their last chance to relax, go out with friends, and have a good time before bowing to the never-ending pressure from their jobs.
In Taiwan, however, and I'm not sure why, students seem to study just as hard as when they were in high school, when they were trying to get into the prestigious universities in the first place. I went to the library a lot while studying and it was always, always full - on the weekends, late at night (the basement section was open 24/7), and during school vacations. People would have these huge textbooks and laptops with them and pound away at what I assumed were solid solutions to global problems around the world, judging by the intense looks on their faces.
I once asked a Japanese friend of mine how NCCU compared to her university back home. "NCCU is much, much better," she told me without hesitation. "In Japan, a lot of people don't even attend class and they still get a good grade. The professors don't demand much and they don't ask a lot of questions like here. Here, there are often group discussions and I have a lot of papers every week."
When I asked a Taiwanese friend why universities were so intense, she responded, "I think Taiwan likes to copy America, and American universities are known for being intense."
2) I think as a culture, Taiwan is much less shy about interacting with foreigners - and with strangers in general. I met a lot of Taiwanese people, who after meeting for the first time, invited me to go to a club together or stay over at their house or just hang out. And they would actually follow up on these invitations days later, so I knew they weren't just trying to be polite. Japanese people, while also friendly, are much more reserved when it comes to spontaneous invitations.
In Taiwan, everyone will talk to you - old ladies waiting at the bus stop, taxi drivers, people living in the same apartment building, grocers, etc. They don't care who you are, they just want to talk. "Oh, you're foreign?" "How long will you be staying in Taiwan?" "You're too skinny, you should eat more. Here, have a peach."
For some reason, whenever I mentioned to a Taiwanese person that I've lived in Japan, they always wanted to try speaking Japanese with me, even though my Japanese started deteriorating rather rapidly the moment I left Japan. I guess a lot of them have studied it before, during the occupation, but I always found it funny (and a little exasperating) because I'd be wanting to practice my Chinese and they'd start busting out random Japanese phrases instead. (Oh yeah, and Taiwanese people LOVE Japanese culture, like love with all capital letters. Even more than the way most Asian countries love Korean pop culture.)
Whenever I went shopping in Japan, the only conversation people working would have with me would be "Welcome!" and "Do you need a bag?" If I started speaking English (or a mix of English and Japanese), they would almost always immediately direct me to someone else, after apologizing profusely for their bad English. Japanese service is amazingly efficient and hospitable, but also distant and removed. It's part of their "Customer is God" culture, which doesn't seem to exist as much in Taiwan, if at all. Japanese friends in Taiwan would often tell me how shocked and appalled they were by the service (or lack thereof) they got in Taiwan, where you would sometimes see salespeople in high-end stores checking their cell phones in front of customers or (god forbid!) eating on the job.
A lot of people ask me whether I liked living in Japan or Taiwan better. I have to say, the circumstances and motivation for each were so different that I can't really compare.
I went to Japan for the chance to teach English in a foreign country and try my hand at living abroad. Before this, the longest I had ever been away from home on my own was a 6-week stint in England during a travel-study program in college. Prior to arriving in Japan, I knew no Japanese and very little about the area in which I was placed. I had gone to Japan once before with family, but it had been a long time ago and the place I went to was more rural and lesser-known, not close to the big city like Saitama was (and yes, despite what some Japanese and foreigners say, I believe that Saitama was not far from Tokyo).
I chose Taiwan because after leaving Japan, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go back to the States or stay abroad, and also because I developed a strong interest in learning Mandarin Chinese while living in Japan (I studied Japanese there too, but nowhere to the extent that I needed to if I wanted to become fluent). Lucky for me, the stars aligned and I got a scholarship to study Mandarin for six months in Taipei shortly after my contract in Japan ended. 6 months ended up being a year, but that's another story.
So I was a worker bee in one of the largest English-teaching corporations while in Japan, and a language student while in Taiwan. In Japan, I had money but very little free time. In Taiwan, I had very little money but plenty of free time, except during one quarter, when every day after class consisted of working on a talent show and studying for the unending tests we had every week. That was an intense quarter, but probably when my Chinese improved the most.
Some things Taiwan and Japan have in common:
1) It is very easy to get around. In Japan I took trains everywhere, from my little suburb to the city and from one major city to the next. I didn't utilize buses as much unless it was during long trips, such as from Tokyo to Hiroshima, and they weren't necessary for moving around Tokyo at all.
Taiwan's trains and buses were also very convenient. I took buses more regularly on an every day basis, because they were cheaper and often more direct than taking the MRT. Taipei is an easy city to explore even if you don't know where you're going, because they have a limited number of metro lines, and each line is very clearly marked in English. In Tokyo, it's easier to get lost because some of the signs (for older, not as frequently used train lines) are only in Japanese and there are so many different lines that even Japanese people get confused sometimes.
For example, if I wanted to get to Taipei Main Station, Taipei's downtown, there are maybe two ways I could get there from almost any point in the city. If I wanted to go to Tokyo Station, however, depending on what subway and train lines were available, there were a lot more than two ways to get there, many of which involved changing to another train on another platform for another line. I got lost in Japan way more frequently than I did in Taiwan, but that was fine. It was all part of the fun.
2) Both countries are among the safest places I've ever been to. I once read an article about the dangers and annoyances that female runners face in almost every city they run in: catcalls, leering, or even straight-up harassment. This doesn't include the obvious dangers of being kidnapped, physically assaulted, or raped. The article made me feel sad and angry, but I felt like adding something: Asian cities seem to be different. At least the two that I've run in have been different.
Both in Taiwan and Japan, I've gone running alone, late at night or early in the morning, many times without feeling the least bit worried about my safety. Japan is so safe that you can fall asleep on the train and wake up with all your possessions intact 4 hours later (true story, a friend once told me). I once left my wallet on the platform and was able to retrieve it from a station attendant an hour later, with everything still inside. When you're running, people barely look at you, much less say anything.
During one quarter of my time in Taiwan, my friends liked to throw small parties at their respective apartments on the weekends. I lived a little further than everyone else, and sometimes the parties would end very late (or very early), around 3 or 4 a.m. There would be no buses or trains running so unless I wanted to spend an hour walking back home, I had to take a taxi. Most of the time my friends and I would walk back to the university, where most of them lived, and then I would hail a taxi from the university back to my place (about a 10-minute ride and not very expensive).
Once the taxi driver asked me what I was doing alone so late outside. I told him (in Chinese, of course) that I was coming back from a friend's party. "Is it dangerous for a girl to be outside at this time?" I asked. He replied that no, it wasn't dangerous but it was still a little weird. He didn't see it happen often. "But Taiwan is so safe," I told him. "I often walk alone at night and nothing's ever happened to me." He agreed that Taiwan was very safe, probably one of the safest places in the world, but I should still be careful. "Of course, not as careful as in America," he later thoughtfully added.
One thing I learned very quickly while in Taiwan is that taxi drivers (and bus drivers, and sometimes random people you meet on the street) are generally very friendly and love to talk to strangers, especially in the south. This is very different from Japan, where the people servicing you always keep a polite distance, as though wanting you to forget their presence altogether.
Some things that Japan and Taiwan differ in:
1) Taiwanese university students are much more serious than Japanese university students. In Japan, getting into university is the hard part. Once you get in, however, college is more of a time to let loose and have fun than to actually buckle down and study. This is because after university, most Japanese students enter into lifelong contracts with big companies that require them to be at the beck and call of work 24/7. So college is their last chance to relax, go out with friends, and have a good time before bowing to the never-ending pressure from their jobs.
In Taiwan, however, and I'm not sure why, students seem to study just as hard as when they were in high school, when they were trying to get into the prestigious universities in the first place. I went to the library a lot while studying and it was always, always full - on the weekends, late at night (the basement section was open 24/7), and during school vacations. People would have these huge textbooks and laptops with them and pound away at what I assumed were solid solutions to global problems around the world, judging by the intense looks on their faces.
I once asked a Japanese friend of mine how NCCU compared to her university back home. "NCCU is much, much better," she told me without hesitation. "In Japan, a lot of people don't even attend class and they still get a good grade. The professors don't demand much and they don't ask a lot of questions like here. Here, there are often group discussions and I have a lot of papers every week."
When I asked a Taiwanese friend why universities were so intense, she responded, "I think Taiwan likes to copy America, and American universities are known for being intense."
2) I think as a culture, Taiwan is much less shy about interacting with foreigners - and with strangers in general. I met a lot of Taiwanese people, who after meeting for the first time, invited me to go to a club together or stay over at their house or just hang out. And they would actually follow up on these invitations days later, so I knew they weren't just trying to be polite. Japanese people, while also friendly, are much more reserved when it comes to spontaneous invitations.
In Taiwan, everyone will talk to you - old ladies waiting at the bus stop, taxi drivers, people living in the same apartment building, grocers, etc. They don't care who you are, they just want to talk. "Oh, you're foreign?" "How long will you be staying in Taiwan?" "You're too skinny, you should eat more. Here, have a peach."
For some reason, whenever I mentioned to a Taiwanese person that I've lived in Japan, they always wanted to try speaking Japanese with me, even though my Japanese started deteriorating rather rapidly the moment I left Japan. I guess a lot of them have studied it before, during the occupation, but I always found it funny (and a little exasperating) because I'd be wanting to practice my Chinese and they'd start busting out random Japanese phrases instead. (Oh yeah, and Taiwanese people LOVE Japanese culture, like love with all capital letters. Even more than the way most Asian countries love Korean pop culture.)
Whenever I went shopping in Japan, the only conversation people working would have with me would be "Welcome!" and "Do you need a bag?" If I started speaking English (or a mix of English and Japanese), they would almost always immediately direct me to someone else, after apologizing profusely for their bad English. Japanese service is amazingly efficient and hospitable, but also distant and removed. It's part of their "Customer is God" culture, which doesn't seem to exist as much in Taiwan, if at all. Japanese friends in Taiwan would often tell me how shocked and appalled they were by the service (or lack thereof) they got in Taiwan, where you would sometimes see salespeople in high-end stores checking their cell phones in front of customers or (god forbid!) eating on the job.
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Dangerous Deeds with Good Friends
I love doing dangerous things with friends. For me, the danger keeps boredom at bay and makes me appreciate the little things more.
Just a few of the dangerous things I have done with friends in the past:
- Hiked Half Dome with stomach cramps
- Hiked Yosemite Upper Falls during a thunderstorm
- Hiked Yosemite Lower Falls through a mountain of snow
- Hiked 7 miles with only 2 bottles of water and a sprained ankle
- Hiked Mt. Fuji with stomach cramps
- Hiked Mt. Fuji a second time without a flashlight during nighttime
-Climbed onto the top of a building at 5 a.m. to watch the sunrise (one of my favorite moments from college)
I just realized that most of these things involved some form of strenuous physical activity done in the Great Outdoors. Stupid or brave? I say both!
Recently a good friend of mine from college invited me to bike the Golden Gate Bridge. I had recently acquired an old but sturdy mountain bike and decided it sounded just like the kind of grand adventure I often crave. We met at the Ferry Building in San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon and, after a lunch of overpriced burgers and tacos, started our journey to the iconic bridge.
Prior to this adventure I had been biking around my small, humble city a couple times a week, mainly because I lacked a car to get around. Like in most California suburbs, my biking was the exception rather than the norm. I could feel people's stares as I biked my way through town to grocery stores, libraries, parks, and the BART station. Let's get something straight: I am not your typical physically fit, spandex-clad, helmet-wearing biker. After a month of no regular exercise and many months of eating oily but satisfying Taiwanese food, I was not in the best shape for hours of non-stop biking. Oh and yeah, San Francisco has its fair share of hills, bless its heart. But I didn't care, because I love adventure.
I love my friend too because of how equally unprepared she was for this trip. She had purchased a trendy bike many months before but didn't seem the least bit accustomed to riding it. The seat was too tall for her and she had no helmet. Her thin, willowy legs also had no muscles whatsoever. Riding downhill on her bike made her nervous.
But I still love her because despite all this, she was still down for the adventure. You know those friends you have who you can call up on a whim and ask them to do practically anything, knowing that more likely than not she'll say yes? I'm lucky to have a couple of friends like this, and she is one of them.
Biking from the Ferry Building to the Bridge, and then to downtown Sausalito, is apparently the most popular bike route in SF, which I didn't know about until after the fact. It was great because I haven't been home in awhile, and doing this trail allowed me to get reacquainted with the city's beauty. It was like seeing everything for the first time again and I must say, I could feel myself falling back in love with this city by the bay. I was even more encouraged by the fact that there were so many other bikers on the road! It reminded me of being back in Taipei.
We kind of got lost on the way back but luckily bumped into a friendly policeman who helped us carry our bikes down through a dark alleyway that led back up to the bridge. He also rode his own bike with us in the same direction for awhile, which was rad. I never got his name, but so grateful for kind officers who go out of their way to help lost girls. Nothing reaffirms my faith in humankind like the random kindness of strangers.
By the time I had taken BART back to Union City (bike on board, of course), it was 9 p.m. and dark out. I decided to bike home anyway. I don't really like the route to and from my house to BART because of 1) the many stoplights along the way and 2) this one intersection that crosses through two freeway entrances. The lack of sidewalk or bike lane here makes it difficult to get across without a higher than usual possibility of getting hit by a car. Luckily I made it without any injuries.
Total number of miles biked: ~30 miles, which is more than I've done in awhile. I think the last time I biked this much was in southern Taiwan, when my friend and I biked from our hotel to the southernmost point of Taiwan. We got exhausted and sun-burnt, but it was so worth it.
I can't wait for my next biking adventure.
Just a few of the dangerous things I have done with friends in the past:
- Hiked Half Dome with stomach cramps
- Hiked Yosemite Upper Falls during a thunderstorm
- Hiked Yosemite Lower Falls through a mountain of snow
- Hiked 7 miles with only 2 bottles of water and a sprained ankle
- Hiked Mt. Fuji with stomach cramps
- Hiked Mt. Fuji a second time without a flashlight during nighttime
-Climbed onto the top of a building at 5 a.m. to watch the sunrise (one of my favorite moments from college)
I just realized that most of these things involved some form of strenuous physical activity done in the Great Outdoors. Stupid or brave? I say both!
Recently a good friend of mine from college invited me to bike the Golden Gate Bridge. I had recently acquired an old but sturdy mountain bike and decided it sounded just like the kind of grand adventure I often crave. We met at the Ferry Building in San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon and, after a lunch of overpriced burgers and tacos, started our journey to the iconic bridge.
Prior to this adventure I had been biking around my small, humble city a couple times a week, mainly because I lacked a car to get around. Like in most California suburbs, my biking was the exception rather than the norm. I could feel people's stares as I biked my way through town to grocery stores, libraries, parks, and the BART station. Let's get something straight: I am not your typical physically fit, spandex-clad, helmet-wearing biker. After a month of no regular exercise and many months of eating oily but satisfying Taiwanese food, I was not in the best shape for hours of non-stop biking. Oh and yeah, San Francisco has its fair share of hills, bless its heart. But I didn't care, because I love adventure.
I love my friend too because of how equally unprepared she was for this trip. She had purchased a trendy bike many months before but didn't seem the least bit accustomed to riding it. The seat was too tall for her and she had no helmet. Her thin, willowy legs also had no muscles whatsoever. Riding downhill on her bike made her nervous.
But I still love her because despite all this, she was still down for the adventure. You know those friends you have who you can call up on a whim and ask them to do practically anything, knowing that more likely than not she'll say yes? I'm lucky to have a couple of friends like this, and she is one of them.
Biking from the Ferry Building to the Bridge, and then to downtown Sausalito, is apparently the most popular bike route in SF, which I didn't know about until after the fact. It was great because I haven't been home in awhile, and doing this trail allowed me to get reacquainted with the city's beauty. It was like seeing everything for the first time again and I must say, I could feel myself falling back in love with this city by the bay. I was even more encouraged by the fact that there were so many other bikers on the road! It reminded me of being back in Taipei.
We kind of got lost on the way back but luckily bumped into a friendly policeman who helped us carry our bikes down through a dark alleyway that led back up to the bridge. He also rode his own bike with us in the same direction for awhile, which was rad. I never got his name, but so grateful for kind officers who go out of their way to help lost girls. Nothing reaffirms my faith in humankind like the random kindness of strangers.
By the time I had taken BART back to Union City (bike on board, of course), it was 9 p.m. and dark out. I decided to bike home anyway. I don't really like the route to and from my house to BART because of 1) the many stoplights along the way and 2) this one intersection that crosses through two freeway entrances. The lack of sidewalk or bike lane here makes it difficult to get across without a higher than usual possibility of getting hit by a car. Luckily I made it without any injuries.
Total number of miles biked: ~30 miles, which is more than I've done in awhile. I think the last time I biked this much was in southern Taiwan, when my friend and I biked from our hotel to the southernmost point of Taiwan. We got exhausted and sun-burnt, but it was so worth it.
I can't wait for my next biking adventure.
Saturday, September 20, 2014
Studying Mandarin Chinese in Taipei: NTU, NTNU, or NCCU?
When I learned that I had gotten the Huayu Enrichment Scholarship, I had to decide which university-affiliated language center I wanted to study at. For those looking to study Chinese in Taipei, most choose one out of three: Taida 台大 (NTU), Shida 師大 (NTNU), or Zheng Da 政大 (NCCU). I picked the last one.
Since I've only studied at one language center in Taiwan and don't know much about the others, aside from what little I've read on internet forums, I can't really speak to which one's best. But I can speak for NCCU, where I studied for a full year. In terms of assessment I will look at four areas: Quality, Cost, Location, and other Bonus Areas.
Quality
Pros: NCCU is the smallest of the three, so class sizes are usually pretty small, ranging from 6 to 10 students a class. The least I ever had in a class was 6, the most 9, this being the norm. Needless to say, in a small class, you can get a lot of individual attention from the teacher and it's possible to ask as many questions as you want.
In addition, I hear that the office tries not to assign too many of the same nationality to one class, so unlike at Taida, where the majority of your classmates might be Japanese or Korean (these being the most common types of people to study Chinese in Taiwan, Taida being the biggest language center in Taipei), at NCCU your class will most likely have a good mix of both Easterners and Westerners. I think this is a good system because as weird as this might sound, different nationalities have different ways of learning.
Not to get all stereotypical, but in my experience, the more Westerners a class had, the louder and more rambunctious it was, which can be better for people who want to focus more on speaking (and, well, socializing). Also, Japanese students' native knowledge of Kanji, which is derived from Chinese characters, means that they usually do better on tests, especially on dictation tests, so in terms of trying for a scholarship awarded by the school (which mostly hinges on one's grades), this makes an Eastern-dominated class more competitive.
NCCU, from what I hear, focuses more on practical conversation as opposed to book learning. For those looking to improve speaking and listening - or just looking to get by in Taiwan in general - this is a definite plus. I don't know how true this is, considering that all the language centers used the exact same textbooks when I was there (this changed starting this year), but in my case, how much 'practical learning' I had varied teacher by teacher. The majority of my teachers were very good about telling us what words and phrases were used only in the textbook and what phrases were actually used in real life (sometimes there were big differences). Having native Taiwanese as language partners helped me more though.
There are also free courses offered every term at NCCU that cater to different student interests/needs, for example, TOCFL training, Business Chinese, Newspaper Chinese, or learning about different holidays in Taiwan. Every term also has some kind of field trip, planned and paid for by the language center, which is great for meeting new people and exploring Taiwan. Warning: They tend to fill up quickly.
Cons: Small class size can also can be a deterrent, as discussed by Malcolm Gladwell in his new book David and Goliath (which pales in comparison to his other books, IMHO). Too few students who all think the same way together in one class means less opportunity for disagreement and discussion, which is crucial to language learning (or life in general, really). If no one really speaks up in class, it becomes much more lecture-style, which sucks for output. Plus, it's boring; would you really want to listen to a teacher talk for 3 hours straight?
In a language center of this size, everyone seems to know everyone else. In theory this sounds great, but in practice it made for a lot of drama. Many students were in their early 20s or younger, so sometimes it felt like being back in high school, where gossip about who's dating who and who dislikes who takes precedence over stuff like learning. This made for some close-knit groups (and it's more likely than not that you will have the same classmates(s) for more than one term), which is great for how close you can get with some people but terrible in terms of how clique-like things can get.
Also, for me personally, there were too many written tests at the higher levels for my liking. For beginners I understand the necessity of building a solid foundation, but once you know the basics I don't think it's necessarily to quiz everyone on 30-40 characters (including definitions, strokes, and tones) a couple times a week. Yes, writing is important, but too much emphasis on one area means not spending enough time on another.
One class I was in had us taking an average of 3 or 4 quizzes a week. I objected to this mainly because I wanted to focus primarily on speaking, as opposed to learning how to write the characters, which can be done on one's own. I think this was mostly done for the benefit of the exchange students, whose grades actually mattered, but then again, this was still Asia, where "learning" by means of rote memorization is a huge thing, something I struggled with based on pure principle.
Cost: Originally NCCU was cheaper than the other two schools, but they raised their tuition starting Fall 2014 so I'm guessing each school's tuition is now about the same or nearly the same.
The school does offer 10 scholarships (20,000NTD each) every term for those who do well in classes. Not enough to cover even one term's tuition, but still better than nothing. Scholarships are awarded purely based on academic results and your previous teacher's recommendation.
Location
Pros: Located in the more rural part of Taipei, so rent and cost of living is generally cheaper than in downtown. Those living close to school can expect to pay about 5000-6000 NT per month for rent. Dorms are cheaper but very limited, especially for foreigners since Taiwanese students get priority. Expect to have an extremely difficult time finding housing if you don't arrive two or three weeks before the term starts (sometimes even then).
Generally quieter than living in the city, for obvious reasons. If you like cable cars and zoos, both are located about 10 minutes away from the school, within walking distance. If you prefer living in close proximity to bars and clubs, this is not the place for you.
Cons: Closest MRT station is Taipei Zoo, the last stop on the Brown Line and about 30 minutes from Taipei Main Station. Can be problematic if you like to party in the city and tend to miss the last train, which is around midnight, but taxis are fairly cheap even late at night, especially for groups.
Eating options are limited. Obviously all the standard tea shops and convenience stores still apply, but beyond that, don't expect anything extraordinary in terms of quality or variety. On the plus side, a typical meal will probably cost you around 60-100NT, which is cheap even for Taipei. There are also various cafes and restaurants located right next to campus. For entertainment, however, unless you like hiking or bike riding*, there's not much else. There are also no beaches nearby.
*There is a YouBike station (Taipei's awesome bike-sharing system) next to NCCU.
A lot of people complained about this one, especially during summertime when the temperatures reached astronomically high degrees: the language center is located atop a hill, or more like a small mountain. To get to class you need to take a 1-minute bus ride, which runs pretty frequently anytime other than in summer, or walk, which takes about 10 minutes, depending on fast you walk and how many people you bump into on the way to class. This was especially inconvenient when it rained (which was often) or when you had morning classes and were running late.
Bonuses
This school was a good fit for me aesthetically since I prefer a more rural-like environment to the city, so long as the city is still nearby. I loved the mountains and open areas. The campus itself is very beautiful -- not necessarily the buildings but the scenery surrounding them. It also didn't feel very crowded 90% of the time.
This is also a very international university in Taiwan. They have a lot of exchange students from Europe and other parts of Asia, like Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc. (not many Americans, though) so if you're looking to do some sort of language exchange, you're coming to the right place. They also have a good amount of student events like concerts, food fairs, and various club activities.
To Note
Not exaggerating when I say it rains like crazy in Taipei and it gets especially cold during wintertime, because no one in Taiwan really uses central heating systems. (TIP: Make sure you bring winter clothes unless you want to buy them there.)
In one year, there were maybe three major typhoons that closed down the school and prevented anyone from going outside. If you're not used to rain, don't want to deal with rain, or just plain can't stand rain, consider studying somewhere in the south (such as Kaohsiung or Taizhong) instead. Also, yes, like everywhere else in Taiwan, there is year-round humidity.
Since I've only studied at one language center in Taiwan and don't know much about the others, aside from what little I've read on internet forums, I can't really speak to which one's best. But I can speak for NCCU, where I studied for a full year. In terms of assessment I will look at four areas: Quality, Cost, Location, and other Bonus Areas.
Quality
Pros: NCCU is the smallest of the three, so class sizes are usually pretty small, ranging from 6 to 10 students a class. The least I ever had in a class was 6, the most 9, this being the norm. Needless to say, in a small class, you can get a lot of individual attention from the teacher and it's possible to ask as many questions as you want.
In addition, I hear that the office tries not to assign too many of the same nationality to one class, so unlike at Taida, where the majority of your classmates might be Japanese or Korean (these being the most common types of people to study Chinese in Taiwan, Taida being the biggest language center in Taipei), at NCCU your class will most likely have a good mix of both Easterners and Westerners. I think this is a good system because as weird as this might sound, different nationalities have different ways of learning.
Not to get all stereotypical, but in my experience, the more Westerners a class had, the louder and more rambunctious it was, which can be better for people who want to focus more on speaking (and, well, socializing). Also, Japanese students' native knowledge of Kanji, which is derived from Chinese characters, means that they usually do better on tests, especially on dictation tests, so in terms of trying for a scholarship awarded by the school (which mostly hinges on one's grades), this makes an Eastern-dominated class more competitive.
NCCU, from what I hear, focuses more on practical conversation as opposed to book learning. For those looking to improve speaking and listening - or just looking to get by in Taiwan in general - this is a definite plus. I don't know how true this is, considering that all the language centers used the exact same textbooks when I was there (this changed starting this year), but in my case, how much 'practical learning' I had varied teacher by teacher. The majority of my teachers were very good about telling us what words and phrases were used only in the textbook and what phrases were actually used in real life (sometimes there were big differences). Having native Taiwanese as language partners helped me more though.
There are also free courses offered every term at NCCU that cater to different student interests/needs, for example, TOCFL training, Business Chinese, Newspaper Chinese, or learning about different holidays in Taiwan. Every term also has some kind of field trip, planned and paid for by the language center, which is great for meeting new people and exploring Taiwan. Warning: They tend to fill up quickly.
Cons: Small class size can also can be a deterrent, as discussed by Malcolm Gladwell in his new book David and Goliath (which pales in comparison to his other books, IMHO). Too few students who all think the same way together in one class means less opportunity for disagreement and discussion, which is crucial to language learning (or life in general, really). If no one really speaks up in class, it becomes much more lecture-style, which sucks for output. Plus, it's boring; would you really want to listen to a teacher talk for 3 hours straight?
In a language center of this size, everyone seems to know everyone else. In theory this sounds great, but in practice it made for a lot of drama. Many students were in their early 20s or younger, so sometimes it felt like being back in high school, where gossip about who's dating who and who dislikes who takes precedence over stuff like learning. This made for some close-knit groups (and it's more likely than not that you will have the same classmates(s) for more than one term), which is great for how close you can get with some people but terrible in terms of how clique-like things can get.
Also, for me personally, there were too many written tests at the higher levels for my liking. For beginners I understand the necessity of building a solid foundation, but once you know the basics I don't think it's necessarily to quiz everyone on 30-40 characters (including definitions, strokes, and tones) a couple times a week. Yes, writing is important, but too much emphasis on one area means not spending enough time on another.
One class I was in had us taking an average of 3 or 4 quizzes a week. I objected to this mainly because I wanted to focus primarily on speaking, as opposed to learning how to write the characters, which can be done on one's own. I think this was mostly done for the benefit of the exchange students, whose grades actually mattered, but then again, this was still Asia, where "learning" by means of rote memorization is a huge thing, something I struggled with based on pure principle.
Cost: Originally NCCU was cheaper than the other two schools, but they raised their tuition starting Fall 2014 so I'm guessing each school's tuition is now about the same or nearly the same.
The school does offer 10 scholarships (20,000NTD each) every term for those who do well in classes. Not enough to cover even one term's tuition, but still better than nothing. Scholarships are awarded purely based on academic results and your previous teacher's recommendation.
Location
Pros: Located in the more rural part of Taipei, so rent and cost of living is generally cheaper than in downtown. Those living close to school can expect to pay about 5000-6000 NT per month for rent. Dorms are cheaper but very limited, especially for foreigners since Taiwanese students get priority. Expect to have an extremely difficult time finding housing if you don't arrive two or three weeks before the term starts (sometimes even then).
Generally quieter than living in the city, for obvious reasons. If you like cable cars and zoos, both are located about 10 minutes away from the school, within walking distance. If you prefer living in close proximity to bars and clubs, this is not the place for you.
Cons: Closest MRT station is Taipei Zoo, the last stop on the Brown Line and about 30 minutes from Taipei Main Station. Can be problematic if you like to party in the city and tend to miss the last train, which is around midnight, but taxis are fairly cheap even late at night, especially for groups.
Eating options are limited. Obviously all the standard tea shops and convenience stores still apply, but beyond that, don't expect anything extraordinary in terms of quality or variety. On the plus side, a typical meal will probably cost you around 60-100NT, which is cheap even for Taipei. There are also various cafes and restaurants located right next to campus. For entertainment, however, unless you like hiking or bike riding*, there's not much else. There are also no beaches nearby.
*There is a YouBike station (Taipei's awesome bike-sharing system) next to NCCU.
A lot of people complained about this one, especially during summertime when the temperatures reached astronomically high degrees: the language center is located atop a hill, or more like a small mountain. To get to class you need to take a 1-minute bus ride, which runs pretty frequently anytime other than in summer, or walk, which takes about 10 minutes, depending on fast you walk and how many people you bump into on the way to class. This was especially inconvenient when it rained (which was often) or when you had morning classes and were running late.
Bonuses
This school was a good fit for me aesthetically since I prefer a more rural-like environment to the city, so long as the city is still nearby. I loved the mountains and open areas. The campus itself is very beautiful -- not necessarily the buildings but the scenery surrounding them. It also didn't feel very crowded 90% of the time.
This is also a very international university in Taiwan. They have a lot of exchange students from Europe and other parts of Asia, like Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc. (not many Americans, though) so if you're looking to do some sort of language exchange, you're coming to the right place. They also have a good amount of student events like concerts, food fairs, and various club activities.
To Note
Not exaggerating when I say it rains like crazy in Taipei and it gets especially cold during wintertime, because no one in Taiwan really uses central heating systems. (TIP: Make sure you bring winter clothes unless you want to buy them there.)
In one year, there were maybe three major typhoons that closed down the school and prevented anyone from going outside. If you're not used to rain, don't want to deal with rain, or just plain can't stand rain, consider studying somewhere in the south (such as Kaohsiung or Taizhong) instead. Also, yes, like everywhere else in Taiwan, there is year-round humidity.
Why You Shouldn't Ride Elephants in Thailand
I've been putting off writing about this for months, mainly because I didn't want to relive the experience or even think about it, but a part of me kept nagging, saying, "If you care anything about elephants at all, or about nature, you should write about it."
So I thought about it and realized that I do care about elephants and nature and hopefully talking about my experience can make a difference, however small.
Back in June I visited Thailand for about a week, partially because I love the country and partially because I needed to do a visa run to stay in Taiwan. Since I had already been to Bangkok, I decided this time to head up north to Chiang-Mai, an area well-known for, along with great food, fabulous hiking, rafting, and numerous other outdoor activities. Since I consider myself an outdoors activity kind of gal, I was very much looking forward to the adventuring that was sure to take place.
While trying to book one of the many trekking tours available in Chiang-Mai, I found one that promised a full day of hiking, rafting, waterfall-watching, and...elephant-riding. Being the young, naive girl that I was, the itinerary presented to me seemed nothing short of awesome and I quickly put down my name and paid the deposit.
I have already forgotten the name of the tour company I used, but believe me when I say that there are dozens like it all over Chiang-Mai, probably attracting hundreds of tourists every year. Since I went on a weekday, there were only five people in my group, including me, all Westerners. Our tour guide was late that morning because there had been some mix-up with two of the guests, so he had the driver take us to a random paper-making farm for free in order to pass the time. There was nothing extraordinary about the paper-making farm other than the fact that besides the three of us, there seemed to be no one else there.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the guide had initially promised, the other two guests arrived and we were off. Our first stop was elephant-riding.
I had never ridden an elephant before. I don't think I have ever so much as expressed a desire to ride an elephant before, so I'm not sure why I had been looking forward to it, other than maybe sometime in the recent past I had clicked through some friend's pictures on Facebook and thought it looked like something I might do. You can't get any more outdoorsy than riding an elephant in a forest in Thailand, right? Once we got to the "elephant camp," which is what they called the place where the elephants were kept, however, I began to harbor some serious doubts about the whole thing.
First off, the actual camp itself was tiny. It was located on a field next to a river lined with some trees. There were about three or four men standing atop a wooden structure, on which guests would be loaded on and off the elephants. One bigger, older-looking elephant was tied to a post, his ears flapping back and forth as he tried to keep the flies away. He didn't look particularly happy to be there, but then again, having never been in close proximity to a real elephant before, I certainly wasn't an expert on elephant happiness. The other elephants were on their way back from an earlier expedition and would arrive shortly, we were told.
After three elephants had returned, the people at the camp told us to climb up the wooden structure so they could start loading us onto the elephants. Since there were five of us, and each elephant could hold up to two people, including one "driver," I would be on one by myself. The elephant I got on wasn't big or small. It looked neither happy nor unhappy to be there. There was a bench attached to its back, held up by two thick ropes, one looped around its torso and another that came up from under its tail. The driver sat on the elephant's head to steer. I remember it seemed like the drivers weren't really present; they didn't speak to us, smile at us, or acknowledge us in any way, which I found a little strange. After everyone was sitting on a bench, the elephants, prompted by the drivers, started moving forward.
The drivers had two ways of controlling the elephant. One was to nudge the elephant just behind its ear with their foot (all the drivers were wearing shoes). The other was to use a wooden instrument with a hook attached to prod the elephant. Neither method looked very comfortable for the elephant.
Once I was actually on top of the elephant, I started feeling strange. What was I doing sitting on an elephant anyway? In retrospect, riding an elephant didn't seem outdoorsy at all - if anything, it was the very opposite, being a rather passive and lazy thing to do. It was like riding in a car, except that the vehicle was a living, moving being. I wasn't doing anything but sit there, watching as the elephant first moved through the trees; then moved through thick, muddy water; above all moved primarily because there were two strangers sitting on its back and one of them poked at it with a very inhumane-looking stick.
If I were the elephant, I thought, I would be really pissed. But the worst part was, nobody there seemed pissed. Not the drivers, not the guests, not even the elephants. Everyone there was simply compliant, everyone including me. Some people laughed and pointed at things in the distance. Almost everyone was taking pictures. The drivers sat quietly and grunted out commands whenever they felt the elephants were moving too slowly or not obeying them. The whole process just seemed so natural, just another part of idyllic life in Southeast Asia. Except it shouldn't have been.
The ride felt long and short at the same time. It was supposed to last an hour, but no one complained, not me especially, when the elephants arrived back at the wooden structure 40 minutes later and were tied to it once more, as a new group of elephant riders started to mount themselves onto their backs. The drivers didn't get off. I wondered how many groups each elephant was required to carry in a single day. The older elephant that had been tied to a pole earlier was no longer there. I didn't ask where it went.
Later that night, when I was back in my hotel room, I googled elephant riding in Thailand and saw, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, reviews for the tour I had just come back from. Most of them were poor reviews, complaining that the tour guides hadn't seemed to know what they were doing; that the rafting had been shorter than promised; that smaller companies like this were much more likely to rip off inexperienced tourists, etc. Not many of them mentioned elephant riding.
One review, however, stood out. Like some of the others, it had given the tour one star out of five. Unlike the others, it was a highly charged, emotional piece of writing, less review than judgment. Besides lambasting elephant riding as a whole, this reviewer said that upon arriving at the camp and seeing the "traumatic state of the elephants," he and his family decided not to ride after all. They were not emotionally prepared to deal with the ramifications of seeing the elephants in such a sad and cruel environment. They wanted to leave the tour and go back to their hotel immediately, but the tour guide refused to take them. So during the entirety of the trip, which consisted of hiking, rafting, and finally, a visit to a traditional village (also a tourist scam, according to many reviews), all they could think about were the elephants suffering direct abuse at the hands of greedy tourist companies.
Because of tourists like myself.
To be honest, it hadn't even crossed my mind to research elephant riding before I signed up to do it. It just seemed like a fun, once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. I didn't know that tour companies like the one I had used thrived on people like me: curious, unassuming foreigners who view elephant riding as simply one way to pass time in a foreign country known for its exotic adventures, adventures that could perhaps garner a few dozen likes on a social networking site after they had been had.
I didn't know that in Southeast Asia, in order to make elephants safe for humans to ride, they have to be tamed in such a way that their bodies and spirits are visibly broken, for days at a time, practically from birth. I didn't know that baby elephants are often wrenched from their mothers and put into cages so small that they can't even turn around. I didn't know that such elephants are continually beaten and deprived of sleep or that eventually, their tormented cries give way to resignation as they come to accept their fates, the light going out of their eyes as though they're already dead, the flinch present in their bodies even before they're whipped.
I didn't know that elephants are smuggled into Thailand every year to support the growing tourism industry, where people like me pay a small amount of money to ride elephants who have been trained to withstand humans on their backs, at the expense of their own emotional and physical well-beings.
In essence, I didn't know much. And I'm guessing a lot of other people don't either.
If I had, I wouldn't have considered elephant riding at all. Instead, maybe I would have visited the Elephant Nature Park instead, also located in Chiang-Mai, which gives tourists a chance to interact with elephants without actually harming them.
I didn't make that choice, but maybe others can.
So I thought about it and realized that I do care about elephants and nature and hopefully talking about my experience can make a difference, however small.
Back in June I visited Thailand for about a week, partially because I love the country and partially because I needed to do a visa run to stay in Taiwan. Since I had already been to Bangkok, I decided this time to head up north to Chiang-Mai, an area well-known for, along with great food, fabulous hiking, rafting, and numerous other outdoor activities. Since I consider myself an outdoors activity kind of gal, I was very much looking forward to the adventuring that was sure to take place.
While trying to book one of the many trekking tours available in Chiang-Mai, I found one that promised a full day of hiking, rafting, waterfall-watching, and...elephant-riding. Being the young, naive girl that I was, the itinerary presented to me seemed nothing short of awesome and I quickly put down my name and paid the deposit.
I have already forgotten the name of the tour company I used, but believe me when I say that there are dozens like it all over Chiang-Mai, probably attracting hundreds of tourists every year. Since I went on a weekday, there were only five people in my group, including me, all Westerners. Our tour guide was late that morning because there had been some mix-up with two of the guests, so he had the driver take us to a random paper-making farm for free in order to pass the time. There was nothing extraordinary about the paper-making farm other than the fact that besides the three of us, there seemed to be no one else there.
After waiting for about 20 minutes, 10 minutes longer than the guide had initially promised, the other two guests arrived and we were off. Our first stop was elephant-riding.
I had never ridden an elephant before. I don't think I have ever so much as expressed a desire to ride an elephant before, so I'm not sure why I had been looking forward to it, other than maybe sometime in the recent past I had clicked through some friend's pictures on Facebook and thought it looked like something I might do. You can't get any more outdoorsy than riding an elephant in a forest in Thailand, right? Once we got to the "elephant camp," which is what they called the place where the elephants were kept, however, I began to harbor some serious doubts about the whole thing.
First off, the actual camp itself was tiny. It was located on a field next to a river lined with some trees. There were about three or four men standing atop a wooden structure, on which guests would be loaded on and off the elephants. One bigger, older-looking elephant was tied to a post, his ears flapping back and forth as he tried to keep the flies away. He didn't look particularly happy to be there, but then again, having never been in close proximity to a real elephant before, I certainly wasn't an expert on elephant happiness. The other elephants were on their way back from an earlier expedition and would arrive shortly, we were told.
After three elephants had returned, the people at the camp told us to climb up the wooden structure so they could start loading us onto the elephants. Since there were five of us, and each elephant could hold up to two people, including one "driver," I would be on one by myself. The elephant I got on wasn't big or small. It looked neither happy nor unhappy to be there. There was a bench attached to its back, held up by two thick ropes, one looped around its torso and another that came up from under its tail. The driver sat on the elephant's head to steer. I remember it seemed like the drivers weren't really present; they didn't speak to us, smile at us, or acknowledge us in any way, which I found a little strange. After everyone was sitting on a bench, the elephants, prompted by the drivers, started moving forward.
The drivers had two ways of controlling the elephant. One was to nudge the elephant just behind its ear with their foot (all the drivers were wearing shoes). The other was to use a wooden instrument with a hook attached to prod the elephant. Neither method looked very comfortable for the elephant.
Once I was actually on top of the elephant, I started feeling strange. What was I doing sitting on an elephant anyway? In retrospect, riding an elephant didn't seem outdoorsy at all - if anything, it was the very opposite, being a rather passive and lazy thing to do. It was like riding in a car, except that the vehicle was a living, moving being. I wasn't doing anything but sit there, watching as the elephant first moved through the trees; then moved through thick, muddy water; above all moved primarily because there were two strangers sitting on its back and one of them poked at it with a very inhumane-looking stick.
If I were the elephant, I thought, I would be really pissed. But the worst part was, nobody there seemed pissed. Not the drivers, not the guests, not even the elephants. Everyone there was simply compliant, everyone including me. Some people laughed and pointed at things in the distance. Almost everyone was taking pictures. The drivers sat quietly and grunted out commands whenever they felt the elephants were moving too slowly or not obeying them. The whole process just seemed so natural, just another part of idyllic life in Southeast Asia. Except it shouldn't have been.
The ride felt long and short at the same time. It was supposed to last an hour, but no one complained, not me especially, when the elephants arrived back at the wooden structure 40 minutes later and were tied to it once more, as a new group of elephant riders started to mount themselves onto their backs. The drivers didn't get off. I wondered how many groups each elephant was required to carry in a single day. The older elephant that had been tied to a pole earlier was no longer there. I didn't ask where it went.
Later that night, when I was back in my hotel room, I googled elephant riding in Thailand and saw, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, reviews for the tour I had just come back from. Most of them were poor reviews, complaining that the tour guides hadn't seemed to know what they were doing; that the rafting had been shorter than promised; that smaller companies like this were much more likely to rip off inexperienced tourists, etc. Not many of them mentioned elephant riding.
One review, however, stood out. Like some of the others, it had given the tour one star out of five. Unlike the others, it was a highly charged, emotional piece of writing, less review than judgment. Besides lambasting elephant riding as a whole, this reviewer said that upon arriving at the camp and seeing the "traumatic state of the elephants," he and his family decided not to ride after all. They were not emotionally prepared to deal with the ramifications of seeing the elephants in such a sad and cruel environment. They wanted to leave the tour and go back to their hotel immediately, but the tour guide refused to take them. So during the entirety of the trip, which consisted of hiking, rafting, and finally, a visit to a traditional village (also a tourist scam, according to many reviews), all they could think about were the elephants suffering direct abuse at the hands of greedy tourist companies.
Because of tourists like myself.
To be honest, it hadn't even crossed my mind to research elephant riding before I signed up to do it. It just seemed like a fun, once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. I didn't know that tour companies like the one I had used thrived on people like me: curious, unassuming foreigners who view elephant riding as simply one way to pass time in a foreign country known for its exotic adventures, adventures that could perhaps garner a few dozen likes on a social networking site after they had been had.
I didn't know that in Southeast Asia, in order to make elephants safe for humans to ride, they have to be tamed in such a way that their bodies and spirits are visibly broken, for days at a time, practically from birth. I didn't know that baby elephants are often wrenched from their mothers and put into cages so small that they can't even turn around. I didn't know that such elephants are continually beaten and deprived of sleep or that eventually, their tormented cries give way to resignation as they come to accept their fates, the light going out of their eyes as though they're already dead, the flinch present in their bodies even before they're whipped.
I didn't know that elephants are smuggled into Thailand every year to support the growing tourism industry, where people like me pay a small amount of money to ride elephants who have been trained to withstand humans on their backs, at the expense of their own emotional and physical well-beings.
In essence, I didn't know much. And I'm guessing a lot of other people don't either.
If I had, I wouldn't have considered elephant riding at all. Instead, maybe I would have visited the Elephant Nature Park instead, also located in Chiang-Mai, which gives tourists a chance to interact with elephants without actually harming them.
I didn't make that choice, but maybe others can.
Wednesday, September 3, 2014
Oh, You're American?
So, I'm back.
How very anti-climatic. But then again, the whole affair -- the packing, the good-bye dinners, the last-minute get-togethers - all felt very anti-climatic indeed, as if the circumstances weren't permanent but a mere ruffle in an on-going plan. Don't lose hope, there's always time to change your mind!
I feel the same way about coming home as I always do; a little glad, a little sad, but mostly very, very displaced. Part of it has to do with the jet-lag and part of it has to do with emotions that I have yet to sort out (it's hard to care about anything even remotely important when your brain is telling you: sleep! wake up! sleep! on repeat) I read that you need one day of recovery for each time zone you cross on the way back and going from Manila to SF meant crossing 9 time zones. So, 6 more days and I should be back to normal, right?
Maybe.
Just take it easy, everyone I know has said to me so far. Ease back into it. Relax. Take your time. No need to rush.
What's left unsaid: You're back home, where you're supposed to be. Get happy.
The important take-away point: Now is not the time to feel pressured to 'returning to my normal self,' whatever that means. Of course, I can no longer clearly recall what my 'normal self' feels like in America, having been my 'normal self' (or an entirely different self?) for three years in two very Asian, very un-American countries.
On the plus side, Taiwan is more similar to the U.S. than Japan ever was, especially culturally. I didn't commit very many cultural taboos in Taiwan, other than looking Asian while proclaiming to be from America. After awhile even I began to question myself: Am I really American? Or is that just what my passport says? For some reason some people found it really hard to wrap their heads around this phenomenon. You would think that Taiwan's obsession with the ubiquitous Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin (see? there is such thing as nationality-hyphen-nationality) might have made it easier for Taiwanese people to grasp the whole concept of "Asian-American," but no matter who I talked to - young person, old person, friend, parental figure, stranger - everyone's initial reaction was nearly always the same.
"So you're Chinese-American?" (emphasis on the Chinese part)
"But you simply don't look American." (Because all Americans are white, tall, and eat hamburgers every day for breakfast)
"How interesting! How rare!"
And then: "Oh you're from California? No wonder. There are a lot of Asians there, right?" (Asian-Americans, I always wanted to correct, but usually didn't. And depends what part of California you're talking about.)
I'll have to admit, on days when I wasn't mildly exasperated from repeatedly explaining my oh so very unique situation -- yes, I'm American, no, neither of my parents are white -- I almost felt offended by the constant questioning, the intense curiosity, and the aha! look in people's eyes when I agreed, once more, that yes, I'm ABC. I didn't want to feel this way, and maybe I shouldn't have, but these kinds of comments had a way of gnawing at me, especially over time. I got plenty of them the two years I lived in Japan as well, so you'd think I'd be used to them by now. However, part of me just assumed this was because Japan has always been especially weird about the whole nationality vs ethnicity issue, weird as in being radically different from what our interpretation of it is in America. I thought Taiwan would be different. And it was, just not as different as I initially presumed -- or hoped.
And I don't want to sound dramatic or anything, but it does wear on the soul a bit when an individual you barely know (or even someone you do know, which sometimes makes it worse) proclaims to know more about your nationality than you do, as though they are so determined to put you in a neat little box, to make sense of your 'special' situation, that they don't care if the box doesn't fit or how you feel about it. So you make sense to them, because how you view yourself isn't important at all. Where I come from -- where is that again? -- pushing self-created identities onto others is a cultural taboo and can be insensitive, even ignorant, but most definitely politically incorrect.
Maybe only once in my life have I encountered someone who told me that I couldn't be American because I didn't 'look' American. (Because all Americans are white, tall, and eat hamburgers every day for breakfast.) Obviously this person was being a racist asshole, but at least she knew she was being a racist asshole when she made the comment. She was acutely aware of what effect her words would have on someone who came from an immigrant family, yet was born and raised on American soil (which, by American standards at least, makes you pretty darn American). Yet she said them anyway. So it was easy to dismiss her as an ignorant prick, because she was one. By that age I had accumulated enough wisdom and self-worth to know that the petty words of a bigoted asshole had no bearing on how I viewed myself or others like myself.
But in Taiwan, even though I was still, for the most part, an individual who knew better than to let others' ignorance bother me, didn't always mean that no offense was taken, precisely because the people making these blanket statements didn't know that their words could, and sometimes did, cause discomfort, annoyance, and yes, even pain.
A question that often plagued me was: Why does it bother you so much what they think? It wasn't as though my nationality was contingent on anyone's interpretation. Yet it continued to bother me when people said, "Are you really American?" As though daring me to prove it. (Show me your white father!) More than I would have liked to admit, it bothered me because it wasn't just about me and how they saw me, with my Asian face and body, but rather, how they saw all Americans in general. For them, the two things just didn't mix. From their points of view, if your parents are born in one country, and you are born in another, your parents' nationalities still reflect yours, because you share the same blood. Just because they happened to move somewhere else and give birth to you in that particular place didn't mean your blood changed. It didn't automatically make you part of that country. You are part of your parents, so where they're from, you're from.
Maybe a part of me has allowed myself to think like that as well, when I was very young and even occasionally as an adult.
I have thought long and hard about what constitutes my nationality long before other people deemed it appropriate to tell me so. As an Asian-American, it's kind of hard not to. In fact, this was a huge focal point of Pacific Ties, the news-magazine I worked at for more than two years in my university, identity-forming years.
What constitutes the Asian American identity? On the one hand, of course we're Americans. We speak f'ing English and eat burgers for breakfast, for god's sake. On the other hand we, along with our families, still celebrate Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) and some of us can even speak the 'mother tongue.' The best of both worlds, right?
Sometimes this feels great. And sometimes it just feels confusing. To many Japanese and Taiwanese (and probably to a lot of other people, to be honest), it feels strange.
But for Americans, identity is what we give ourselves. We're bombarded with quotes like "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" and all those other warm fuzzies related to being yourself and being an individual and not giving a shit what other people think.
Except as humans, despite our very best efforts to maintain a mental fortitude worthy of everyone's envy, of course we give a shit. From time to time, of course we care what others think, and of course on some level it affects how we view ourselves.
As an American, and as an Asian, I am no exception.
How very anti-climatic. But then again, the whole affair -- the packing, the good-bye dinners, the last-minute get-togethers - all felt very anti-climatic indeed, as if the circumstances weren't permanent but a mere ruffle in an on-going plan. Don't lose hope, there's always time to change your mind!
I feel the same way about coming home as I always do; a little glad, a little sad, but mostly very, very displaced. Part of it has to do with the jet-lag and part of it has to do with emotions that I have yet to sort out (it's hard to care about anything even remotely important when your brain is telling you: sleep! wake up! sleep! on repeat) I read that you need one day of recovery for each time zone you cross on the way back and going from Manila to SF meant crossing 9 time zones. So, 6 more days and I should be back to normal, right?
Maybe.
Just take it easy, everyone I know has said to me so far. Ease back into it. Relax. Take your time. No need to rush.
What's left unsaid: You're back home, where you're supposed to be. Get happy.
The important take-away point: Now is not the time to feel pressured to 'returning to my normal self,' whatever that means. Of course, I can no longer clearly recall what my 'normal self' feels like in America, having been my 'normal self' (or an entirely different self?) for three years in two very Asian, very un-American countries.
On the plus side, Taiwan is more similar to the U.S. than Japan ever was, especially culturally. I didn't commit very many cultural taboos in Taiwan, other than looking Asian while proclaiming to be from America. After awhile even I began to question myself: Am I really American? Or is that just what my passport says? For some reason some people found it really hard to wrap their heads around this phenomenon. You would think that Taiwan's obsession with the ubiquitous Taiwanese-American Jeremy Lin (see? there is such thing as nationality-hyphen-nationality) might have made it easier for Taiwanese people to grasp the whole concept of "Asian-American," but no matter who I talked to - young person, old person, friend, parental figure, stranger - everyone's initial reaction was nearly always the same.
"So you're Chinese-American?" (emphasis on the Chinese part)
"But you simply don't look American." (Because all Americans are white, tall, and eat hamburgers every day for breakfast)
"How interesting! How rare!"
And then: "Oh you're from California? No wonder. There are a lot of Asians there, right?" (Asian-Americans, I always wanted to correct, but usually didn't. And depends what part of California you're talking about.)
I'll have to admit, on days when I wasn't mildly exasperated from repeatedly explaining my oh so very unique situation -- yes, I'm American, no, neither of my parents are white -- I almost felt offended by the constant questioning, the intense curiosity, and the aha! look in people's eyes when I agreed, once more, that yes, I'm ABC. I didn't want to feel this way, and maybe I shouldn't have, but these kinds of comments had a way of gnawing at me, especially over time. I got plenty of them the two years I lived in Japan as well, so you'd think I'd be used to them by now. However, part of me just assumed this was because Japan has always been especially weird about the whole nationality vs ethnicity issue, weird as in being radically different from what our interpretation of it is in America. I thought Taiwan would be different. And it was, just not as different as I initially presumed -- or hoped.
And I don't want to sound dramatic or anything, but it does wear on the soul a bit when an individual you barely know (or even someone you do know, which sometimes makes it worse) proclaims to know more about your nationality than you do, as though they are so determined to put you in a neat little box, to make sense of your 'special' situation, that they don't care if the box doesn't fit or how you feel about it. So you make sense to them, because how you view yourself isn't important at all. Where I come from -- where is that again? -- pushing self-created identities onto others is a cultural taboo and can be insensitive, even ignorant, but most definitely politically incorrect.
Maybe only once in my life have I encountered someone who told me that I couldn't be American because I didn't 'look' American. (Because all Americans are white, tall, and eat hamburgers every day for breakfast.) Obviously this person was being a racist asshole, but at least she knew she was being a racist asshole when she made the comment. She was acutely aware of what effect her words would have on someone who came from an immigrant family, yet was born and raised on American soil (which, by American standards at least, makes you pretty darn American). Yet she said them anyway. So it was easy to dismiss her as an ignorant prick, because she was one. By that age I had accumulated enough wisdom and self-worth to know that the petty words of a bigoted asshole had no bearing on how I viewed myself or others like myself.
But in Taiwan, even though I was still, for the most part, an individual who knew better than to let others' ignorance bother me, didn't always mean that no offense was taken, precisely because the people making these blanket statements didn't know that their words could, and sometimes did, cause discomfort, annoyance, and yes, even pain.
A question that often plagued me was: Why does it bother you so much what they think? It wasn't as though my nationality was contingent on anyone's interpretation. Yet it continued to bother me when people said, "Are you really American?" As though daring me to prove it. (Show me your white father!) More than I would have liked to admit, it bothered me because it wasn't just about me and how they saw me, with my Asian face and body, but rather, how they saw all Americans in general. For them, the two things just didn't mix. From their points of view, if your parents are born in one country, and you are born in another, your parents' nationalities still reflect yours, because you share the same blood. Just because they happened to move somewhere else and give birth to you in that particular place didn't mean your blood changed. It didn't automatically make you part of that country. You are part of your parents, so where they're from, you're from.
Maybe a part of me has allowed myself to think like that as well, when I was very young and even occasionally as an adult.
I have thought long and hard about what constitutes my nationality long before other people deemed it appropriate to tell me so. As an Asian-American, it's kind of hard not to. In fact, this was a huge focal point of Pacific Ties, the news-magazine I worked at for more than two years in my university, identity-forming years.
What constitutes the Asian American identity? On the one hand, of course we're Americans. We speak f'ing English and eat burgers for breakfast, for god's sake. On the other hand we, along with our families, still celebrate Chinese New Year (or Lunar New Year) and some of us can even speak the 'mother tongue.' The best of both worlds, right?
Sometimes this feels great. And sometimes it just feels confusing. To many Japanese and Taiwanese (and probably to a lot of other people, to be honest), it feels strange.
But for Americans, identity is what we give ourselves. We're bombarded with quotes like "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent" and all those other warm fuzzies related to being yourself and being an individual and not giving a shit what other people think.
Except as humans, despite our very best efforts to maintain a mental fortitude worthy of everyone's envy, of course we give a shit. From time to time, of course we care what others think, and of course on some level it affects how we view ourselves.
As an American, and as an Asian, I am no exception.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Summertime and...
In some ways, summer in Taiwan is cruel. In June, it rains practically every day. The worst part is, on some days it starts off extremely nice and sunny, and by the time we get out of class it immediately starts pouring rain, as if it is deliberately feeding off our hopes and expectations and using them against us. Taiwan weather can be quite a tease.
Starting in July, things heated up, quite literally, without much warning. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to sleep at night without turning on my air conditioner. Ideally, I'd like to save on my electric bill, especially since I'm not working right now, but it's just not possible with this kind of humidity.
Not to mention, 90% of the people I know have found one or more cockroaches in their bedroom and/or apartment. Taiwanese cockroaches are no joke, man. They're twice as big as any cockroach I've seen in the States (and this is on AVERAGE), and the worst part is, some of them can fly, thereby making them that much harder to kill (as if they really needed that extra boost of immunity). I know this firsthand because I saw one fly from my desk to the spot on my wall right above my bed. It was freaking terrifying, mostly because this cockroach was gigantic and had alien-looking antenna. I feel a little sick just thinking about it. Needless to say, I was so traumatized for the rest of the night that I couldn't fall asleep, thus starting another vicious cycle of being really tired during the day, unable to resist the innocuous daytime nap, and then not being able to sleep at night...which has done wonders for my studies, let me tell you.
Taiwan has more cockroaches than any country I've been to. I swear, I never once saw one while living in Japan. My Japanese friends doubt this claim, but really, other than the annoyingly loud cicadas that always seemed to be floating above your head, there wasn't that much to fear in Japan bug-wise. I think it's because Taiwan is so hot during summer. Even if you live on the 7th floor and don't have much food in your room, cockroaches make their way in, man. And once you see one in your bedroom you kind of can't forget the sight, even if you've managed to eradicate it. Hence the insomnia and late nights and being so tired in class that 3 hours feels like eternity...
In some ways I'm glad that summer in Taiwan, and therefore my time in Taiwan, is ending, but of course deep inside I know I'm sad as well. If not sad, then at least nostalgic. Was one year enough? When I first arrived, I would have said no, one year is way too short, for both my language and personal goals. But now I have an inkling that maybe one year was just right. Around the 9-month mark I started getting a little antsy about staying. Which is not to say that my Chinese has reached the level of fluency that I was originally aiming for, but hey, how accurately can we judge fluency anyway? I would say that my Chinese now is pretty good. Compared to what it was 11 months ago, I would say it's more than pretty good. Of course it could always be better, I could have done better in a lot of ways, but all in all, not bad for a year's worth of study. To someone who has never studied Chinese before, I'm pretty sure I can sound fluent (or at least that's what I like to tell myself).
I used to think that everything in life happened for a reason, because it was easier to believe that than to believe that shitty things sometimes happen to good people for no real reason at all. From the way that things are progressing now (a poor choice of words, in many a sense), it seems like shitty things often happen to good people, which serves no higher purpose than to put life into perspective for the living. Too many lives cut short for no reason at all. So I've revised my thinking a bit. Or should I say, my thinking has revised itself. I am the passive bystander in a mountain of quicksand, not sure whether I should be looking up at the sky or down at the ground, not even sure if it really matters.
Not everything in life happens for a reason. Sometimes things just happen. Good things, bad things...when I read the news now, it seems to be overflowing with the deaths of people I'll never know, in every corner of the world. I hate to admit it, but this is having more of an effect on me and my mental state than ever before. I know they're isolated events, I know that shit happens, I know that death is inevitable, but these stories, for whatever reason, sink into my consciousness and refuse to let go. As they should, because as much as it scares me sometimes, I am part of humanity. I am also capable of doing the same atrocious things that I often read about. They ('they' being the writers and reporters, the deliverers of bad news) like to call these acts "inhumane," but in some ways they're very humane, perhaps more humane than anything we could dream of, since only humans are capable of doing them.
I don't want to lose hope. I don't want to spend so many hours every day being sad about things I have no control over. But every time I turn on the computer, there's something horrible waiting to be acknowledged. How are we supposed to deal with an overflow of information, most of it negative? Ignore it and be ignorant (but not blissful; I know, I've tried) or take it in and be satiated with emotion that is often more destructive than productive? I don't know how to channel information in a positive, or even neutral, way, anymore. It's as if everything I read immediately becomes a post-it that I can't tear off; even if I look another way, I know it's still there.
Starting in July, things heated up, quite literally, without much warning. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I've been able to sleep at night without turning on my air conditioner. Ideally, I'd like to save on my electric bill, especially since I'm not working right now, but it's just not possible with this kind of humidity.
Not to mention, 90% of the people I know have found one or more cockroaches in their bedroom and/or apartment. Taiwanese cockroaches are no joke, man. They're twice as big as any cockroach I've seen in the States (and this is on AVERAGE), and the worst part is, some of them can fly, thereby making them that much harder to kill (as if they really needed that extra boost of immunity). I know this firsthand because I saw one fly from my desk to the spot on my wall right above my bed. It was freaking terrifying, mostly because this cockroach was gigantic and had alien-looking antenna. I feel a little sick just thinking about it. Needless to say, I was so traumatized for the rest of the night that I couldn't fall asleep, thus starting another vicious cycle of being really tired during the day, unable to resist the innocuous daytime nap, and then not being able to sleep at night...which has done wonders for my studies, let me tell you.
Taiwan has more cockroaches than any country I've been to. I swear, I never once saw one while living in Japan. My Japanese friends doubt this claim, but really, other than the annoyingly loud cicadas that always seemed to be floating above your head, there wasn't that much to fear in Japan bug-wise. I think it's because Taiwan is so hot during summer. Even if you live on the 7th floor and don't have much food in your room, cockroaches make their way in, man. And once you see one in your bedroom you kind of can't forget the sight, even if you've managed to eradicate it. Hence the insomnia and late nights and being so tired in class that 3 hours feels like eternity...
In some ways I'm glad that summer in Taiwan, and therefore my time in Taiwan, is ending, but of course deep inside I know I'm sad as well. If not sad, then at least nostalgic. Was one year enough? When I first arrived, I would have said no, one year is way too short, for both my language and personal goals. But now I have an inkling that maybe one year was just right. Around the 9-month mark I started getting a little antsy about staying. Which is not to say that my Chinese has reached the level of fluency that I was originally aiming for, but hey, how accurately can we judge fluency anyway? I would say that my Chinese now is pretty good. Compared to what it was 11 months ago, I would say it's more than pretty good. Of course it could always be better, I could have done better in a lot of ways, but all in all, not bad for a year's worth of study. To someone who has never studied Chinese before, I'm pretty sure I can sound fluent (or at least that's what I like to tell myself).
I used to think that everything in life happened for a reason, because it was easier to believe that than to believe that shitty things sometimes happen to good people for no real reason at all. From the way that things are progressing now (a poor choice of words, in many a sense), it seems like shitty things often happen to good people, which serves no higher purpose than to put life into perspective for the living. Too many lives cut short for no reason at all. So I've revised my thinking a bit. Or should I say, my thinking has revised itself. I am the passive bystander in a mountain of quicksand, not sure whether I should be looking up at the sky or down at the ground, not even sure if it really matters.
Not everything in life happens for a reason. Sometimes things just happen. Good things, bad things...when I read the news now, it seems to be overflowing with the deaths of people I'll never know, in every corner of the world. I hate to admit it, but this is having more of an effect on me and my mental state than ever before. I know they're isolated events, I know that shit happens, I know that death is inevitable, but these stories, for whatever reason, sink into my consciousness and refuse to let go. As they should, because as much as it scares me sometimes, I am part of humanity. I am also capable of doing the same atrocious things that I often read about. They ('they' being the writers and reporters, the deliverers of bad news) like to call these acts "inhumane," but in some ways they're very humane, perhaps more humane than anything we could dream of, since only humans are capable of doing them.
I don't want to lose hope. I don't want to spend so many hours every day being sad about things I have no control over. But every time I turn on the computer, there's something horrible waiting to be acknowledged. How are we supposed to deal with an overflow of information, most of it negative? Ignore it and be ignorant (but not blissful; I know, I've tried) or take it in and be satiated with emotion that is often more destructive than productive? I don't know how to channel information in a positive, or even neutral, way, anymore. It's as if everything I read immediately becomes a post-it that I can't tear off; even if I look another way, I know it's still there.
Not much to say.
Typhoon Matmo passed through Taipei yesterday. From around 11 p.m. to about 3 a.m., the wind was rattling the windows and doors so loudly that I couldn't fall asleep. By 10 a.m. the next morning though, it had stopped raining and the winds were mostly gone. Our classes were cancelled for the entire day, so I just stayed indoors and caught up on some housework and studying.
In light of all the recent plane crashes, I have to admit I'm a little nervous about flying home. I think most people are, even though we know that logically plane crashes are extremely rare. It's strange, looking outside the window right now, it's so sunny and clear that it's hard to believe the weather was so bad yesterday that it (most likely) caused Taiwan's first plane crash since 2002. I flew TransAsia just a couple months ago to Thailand.
We're about winding down to the last stretch of the semester, then most people are heading back to their respective countries. I don't have much to write at the moment, so I'll upload some pictures instead.
In light of all the recent plane crashes, I have to admit I'm a little nervous about flying home. I think most people are, even though we know that logically plane crashes are extremely rare. It's strange, looking outside the window right now, it's so sunny and clear that it's hard to believe the weather was so bad yesterday that it (most likely) caused Taiwan's first plane crash since 2002. I flew TransAsia just a couple months ago to Thailand.
We're about winding down to the last stretch of the semester, then most people are heading back to their respective countries. I don't have much to write at the moment, so I'll upload some pictures instead.
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| Celebrating the 4th of July, with a cake and everything. |
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| The only 2 Americans out of the bunch. |
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| Food From Around the World party. I just made that name up. |
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| Homemade taco shells, courtesy of our Texan friend. |
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| Dinner is served. |
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| One of many good-bye dinners |
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| The southernmost point of Taiwan, pretty much. |
Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Happy July 4th (Almost)
這個星期五是美國的(獨立)生日！說到這天，我就開始想起來美國在我的心裡到底有什麼影響呢？
我在台灣認識了很多不同國家的人，可是認識的美國人有點少，所以常常跟別人討論美國的特點。不管我在什麼國家，很多人都會問我：＂妳是哪國人？＂ 我回答"美國"的時候，他們會直接地問我，＂那，妳的父母是哪國人？＂
我覺得對很多國家的人來說，一個人的國籍總是靠著父母跟祖先的起源。可是在美國的話，很少人會問我，＂你是哪國人？＂雖然美國對移民這方面很開放，可是在美國我們總以為大家都是同一個國家的人。不管你的父母跟祖先原來是哪國人，大家都是美國人。美國一個特色是沒有唯一種文化，美國文化是包括很多不同的文化。比如說，在我的家鄉裡,我常吃到很多不同國家的食物，聽到很多不同的語言，而且受到很多國家的影響。跟別的國家比起來，美國好像有很多不同的國家在裡面.
我在美國出生，長大，所以在我的心裡美國永遠是一個很特別的地方。從小到大，我的老師，家人，朋友, 連陌生人都告訴我： "既然妳是美國人，妳可以自己決定妳要往那一方面走。" 他們也跟我說，"妳很幸運，很厲害，想做什麼就可以做什麼. 只要妳努力，有決心，將來沒有不能發生的事!" 有時候我還是覺得這種觀念有點幼稚，說得到不一定說明會做得到, 可是每個人都想回到小時候，那種好像沒有不可能的事情。
難怪我一直覺得美國另外一個特色是自信。雖然我們有的時候會做錯事，可是還是要試試看。與其從來不做一件事不如做錯以後還是學了一點。有的人喜歡問，＂你為什麼做這樣？＂可是美國人比較喜歡問,＂我為什麼不可以做這樣？＂美國當然也有很多問題，可是說真的,我們很有自信啊！
有的人覺得美國很開放。有些覺得美國人很有錢。我也聽過美國人很笨或是很胖。因為美國是很大的國家，還有包括很多種類的文化，要有一個刻板印象算是不容易的！我不知道我自己對美國最大的印象是什麼，可是我知道我在美國可以問很多問題，討論很多事情，好像什麼想法都有。在很多不同的想法上,可以創建創新，改變比較弱的地方，有所作為。有些朋友告訴我，＂妳真的喜歡爭論阿！＂那當然,我在美國長大麻！
我最感謝美國給我這個特色。美國的電影，書，和 音樂常常有這種想法：別盲目聽從別人，靠自己的力量學習.自己找到的夢想和相反，才能對生命產生力量。獨立對美國人來說很重要。
今天我要慶祝一下美國的獨立。一提到美國，我就想到很多重要的事, 像我家人，朋友，背景，夢想，個性, 等等。在我心裡所有這些東西都能代表美國對我來說到底是什麼樣的國家。
我在台灣認識了很多不同國家的人，可是認識的美國人有點少，所以常常跟別人討論美國的特點。不管我在什麼國家，很多人都會問我：＂妳是哪國人？＂ 我回答"美國"的時候，他們會直接地問我，＂那，妳的父母是哪國人？＂
我覺得對很多國家的人來說，一個人的國籍總是靠著父母跟祖先的起源。可是在美國的話，很少人會問我，＂你是哪國人？＂雖然美國對移民這方面很開放，可是在美國我們總以為大家都是同一個國家的人。不管你的父母跟祖先原來是哪國人，大家都是美國人。美國一個特色是沒有唯一種文化，美國文化是包括很多不同的文化。比如說，在我的家鄉裡,我常吃到很多不同國家的食物，聽到很多不同的語言，而且受到很多國家的影響。跟別的國家比起來，美國好像有很多不同的國家在裡面.
我在美國出生，長大，所以在我的心裡美國永遠是一個很特別的地方。從小到大，我的老師，家人，朋友, 連陌生人都告訴我： "既然妳是美國人，妳可以自己決定妳要往那一方面走。" 他們也跟我說，"妳很幸運，很厲害，想做什麼就可以做什麼. 只要妳努力，有決心，將來沒有不能發生的事!" 有時候我還是覺得這種觀念有點幼稚，說得到不一定說明會做得到, 可是每個人都想回到小時候，那種好像沒有不可能的事情。
難怪我一直覺得美國另外一個特色是自信。雖然我們有的時候會做錯事，可是還是要試試看。與其從來不做一件事不如做錯以後還是學了一點。有的人喜歡問，＂你為什麼做這樣？＂可是美國人比較喜歡問,＂我為什麼不可以做這樣？＂美國當然也有很多問題，可是說真的,我們很有自信啊！
有的人覺得美國很開放。有些覺得美國人很有錢。我也聽過美國人很笨或是很胖。因為美國是很大的國家，還有包括很多種類的文化，要有一個刻板印象算是不容易的！我不知道我自己對美國最大的印象是什麼，可是我知道我在美國可以問很多問題，討論很多事情，好像什麼想法都有。在很多不同的想法上,可以創建創新，改變比較弱的地方，有所作為。有些朋友告訴我，＂妳真的喜歡爭論阿！＂那當然,我在美國長大麻！
我最感謝美國給我這個特色。美國的電影，書，和 音樂常常有這種想法：別盲目聽從別人，靠自己的力量學習.自己找到的夢想和相反，才能對生命產生力量。獨立對美國人來說很重要。
今天我要慶祝一下美國的獨立。一提到美國，我就想到很多重要的事, 像我家人，朋友，背景，夢想，個性, 等等。在我心裡所有這些東西都能代表美國對我來說到底是什麼樣的國家。
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
That Time I Ran With Wet Shoes
This past Sunday I ran the Nike Women's Half-Marathon in Taipei, which was a 21K race (about 13 miles). This was the third time I've run a half-marathon, the first two times both being in Saitama, Japan. I think my best performance has still been my first run, because that's the one I trained the longest for. I would run 3-4 times every week for about 3 months with my friend Noah (who used to play football professionally, but is not really a fan of long-distance running). The second time I ran in Japan, I barely trained for it and made the mistake of not eating enough in the morning so by 5K my stomach was already grumbling and I barely had enough energy to finish the race. That was probably my worst performance out of all the races I've done. So if you're going to run 21K, please make sure you eat more than just a banana before the race!
This time the gap between the recent 10K race I did and the 21K I was going to do was only about 5 weeks, so I didn't have much time to train, especially since I spent a week in Thailand the week before the race. The only running I did while in Thailand was sprinting from one terminal in Taoyuan to the next because we were cutting it close for our flight from Taipei to Bangkok. I think that was one of the few times I was legitimately a little worried that we might miss our flight, but luckily everything worked out. Thailand is actually hotter than Taiwan, but there's no humidity, so if I covered myself in sunblock I could probably run without collapsing. On the contrary, I pretty much just ate and got massages while in Thailand (though there were 2 days involving outdoor activities - hiking, rafting, and the like - but pretty minimal considering the circumstances).
Anyway, once I got back from Thailand my friend and I at most ran 10K in one go a few days before the race. So I was a little worried I might be able to finish the race in time (I think we had 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete it. Or maybe it was 2 hours and a half?).
Taiwan's summer weather is the worst. If it's not raining, then it's freaking humid, and sometimes it'll seem perfectly sunny and then start raining hours on end with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. This is pretty much what happened the day before the race. Because the race started at 5 a.m. and we had to arrive at the starting point by 4:30 am (ridiculous right? I thought so too), my two friends and I planned to sleepover at one friend's place and cab it to the start location early in the morning (since no public transportation would be open at that time). I stupidly wore my running shoes to go to to my friend's place that night because I didn't want to carry an extra pair of shoes to the race. Unfortunately, they got pretty wet and were definitely not dry the next morning. So I ran the entire race wearing my friend's socks and semi-soaked shoes. As a result: I got one big giant blister on the bottom of my left foot. A whole patch of skin got rubbed off around 10K, and for awhile I thought I had a rock in my shoe because every time my left foot would touch down, there would be a sting of pain at the center of my foot. But when I took off my shoe to investigate, there was nothing. So I ran the remaining 10K with my foot throbbing. It was after the race that I discovered the quarter-sized blister - no blood, just a bright pink area where you can start to see the insides of my foot.
I've kind of been limping everywhere since then, which has prompted questions from my friends and stares from strangers. That was fine. But then yesterday my index (?) toe on my left foot start hurting like mad. It's not broken, but it was a little swollen and totally tender to the touch the whole day. It was more of a dull pain than the sharp kind resulting from walking around on my blister. But then, around the time I was planning to go to sleep, the pain suddenly magnified. I can't really describe what this kind of pain felt like, but I basically couldn't even touch the toe without waves of pain instantly shooting to the corners of my skull. When I propped my leg up on some cushions, the pain lessened a little bit. But only for a few minutes before it would come back. So I spent the entire night changing positions trying to fall asleep while ignoring the pain in my toe. Around 5 a.m. I eventually drifted off and when I woke up the piercing pain was gone but it still throbs a bit whenever I touch my toe. And of course there is still the blister.
Probably my worst post-race experience to date, as I pride myself on being able to recover quickly. A couple days after my last half-marathon, I could go running again, 3-4 miles at a time, no problem. But this time I can barely walk without wincing. I'm planning to see a doctor if the pain in my toe returns again tonight. I really don't know what that was about. (My right foot is completely fine so if I hop around on one leg, I feel no pain at all!)
This time the gap between the recent 10K race I did and the 21K I was going to do was only about 5 weeks, so I didn't have much time to train, especially since I spent a week in Thailand the week before the race. The only running I did while in Thailand was sprinting from one terminal in Taoyuan to the next because we were cutting it close for our flight from Taipei to Bangkok. I think that was one of the few times I was legitimately a little worried that we might miss our flight, but luckily everything worked out. Thailand is actually hotter than Taiwan, but there's no humidity, so if I covered myself in sunblock I could probably run without collapsing. On the contrary, I pretty much just ate and got massages while in Thailand (though there were 2 days involving outdoor activities - hiking, rafting, and the like - but pretty minimal considering the circumstances).
Anyway, once I got back from Thailand my friend and I at most ran 10K in one go a few days before the race. So I was a little worried I might be able to finish the race in time (I think we had 2 hours and 45 minutes to complete it. Or maybe it was 2 hours and a half?).
Taiwan's summer weather is the worst. If it's not raining, then it's freaking humid, and sometimes it'll seem perfectly sunny and then start raining hours on end with seemingly no light at the end of the tunnel. This is pretty much what happened the day before the race. Because the race started at 5 a.m. and we had to arrive at the starting point by 4:30 am (ridiculous right? I thought so too), my two friends and I planned to sleepover at one friend's place and cab it to the start location early in the morning (since no public transportation would be open at that time). I stupidly wore my running shoes to go to to my friend's place that night because I didn't want to carry an extra pair of shoes to the race. Unfortunately, they got pretty wet and were definitely not dry the next morning. So I ran the entire race wearing my friend's socks and semi-soaked shoes. As a result: I got one big giant blister on the bottom of my left foot. A whole patch of skin got rubbed off around 10K, and for awhile I thought I had a rock in my shoe because every time my left foot would touch down, there would be a sting of pain at the center of my foot. But when I took off my shoe to investigate, there was nothing. So I ran the remaining 10K with my foot throbbing. It was after the race that I discovered the quarter-sized blister - no blood, just a bright pink area where you can start to see the insides of my foot.
I've kind of been limping everywhere since then, which has prompted questions from my friends and stares from strangers. That was fine. But then yesterday my index (?) toe on my left foot start hurting like mad. It's not broken, but it was a little swollen and totally tender to the touch the whole day. It was more of a dull pain than the sharp kind resulting from walking around on my blister. But then, around the time I was planning to go to sleep, the pain suddenly magnified. I can't really describe what this kind of pain felt like, but I basically couldn't even touch the toe without waves of pain instantly shooting to the corners of my skull. When I propped my leg up on some cushions, the pain lessened a little bit. But only for a few minutes before it would come back. So I spent the entire night changing positions trying to fall asleep while ignoring the pain in my toe. Around 5 a.m. I eventually drifted off and when I woke up the piercing pain was gone but it still throbs a bit whenever I touch my toe. And of course there is still the blister.
Probably my worst post-race experience to date, as I pride myself on being able to recover quickly. A couple days after my last half-marathon, I could go running again, 3-4 miles at a time, no problem. But this time I can barely walk without wincing. I'm planning to see a doctor if the pain in my toe returns again tonight. I really don't know what that was about. (My right foot is completely fine so if I hop around on one leg, I feel no pain at all!)
Sunday, May 11, 2014
Good Things to Come
Things have improved a lot since my last post. Part of it came from realizing that I sometimes harbor a not-too-positive attitude towards my studies, particularly in regards to my language skills, not to mention being too hard on myself in general. There will always be areas where I could improve, but there's a time and place for everything...
On a positive note, some accomplishments from the past few months:
1. I passed Level 4 (out of 6) Listening and Level 3 (also out of 6) for the TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language test) this month! This to me is a pretty satisfying accomplishment considering that I didn't really have time to study for it and we're only expected to pass Level 3 based on our current class level.
2. I finished my second 10K race in Taiwan! I wish I had trained more, but it was an accomplishment just to get up at 4 in the morning to head to the race site. I don't know why, but Taiwanese like running their races *very* early in the morning.
3. I entered a school essay contest and my submission won a prize! All winning submissions will be published in a collection of essays this month, and I'm excited to see the result. The topic was "NCCU and Me." I'm still waiting to hear back from another essay contest I entered. Good thing the contest guidelines only require essays to be written in English, which is still my strong point...
4. I realized that I can successfully hold conversations in Chinese now with native Taiwanese. Over the past 2 weeks I had a conversation with a taxi driver, a random guy riding a motorcycle, and a surfer only using Mandarin. Most Taiwanese people I talk to also comment on the fact that I speak pretty well considering that I've been in Taiwan less than a year. At first I thought they were just being polite, but then I thought, hey if I can successfully communicate with them without using English, I must be doing something right.
5. My writing has improved too. My teacher says I do pretty well on our writing assignments, and there was one time where I wrote two short essays with no mistakes. This is pretty amazing considering that characters are my weakness, and for me at least, it's so easy to get them mixed up (if you even miss one stroke, it often becomes another character altogether). Not to mention learning traditional characters is no piece of cake.
6. I've gotten closer to a couple of people I didn't know too well before...when I'm with them, I can laugh a lot and learn about different cultures (the majority of them are not from Western countries). We talk about differences between American culture and Asian cultures a lot. The cool thing about studying in an international environment is that you can meet people from all over the world...I think my current class also represents a good mix of nationalities. At first I was a little worried about the fact that there are 3 Americans in class, including me, but we're all from different areas so I can learn a bit about those places too.
On a positive note, some accomplishments from the past few months:
1. I passed Level 4 (out of 6) Listening and Level 3 (also out of 6) for the TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language test) this month! This to me is a pretty satisfying accomplishment considering that I didn't really have time to study for it and we're only expected to pass Level 3 based on our current class level.
2. I finished my second 10K race in Taiwan! I wish I had trained more, but it was an accomplishment just to get up at 4 in the morning to head to the race site. I don't know why, but Taiwanese like running their races *very* early in the morning.
3. I entered a school essay contest and my submission won a prize! All winning submissions will be published in a collection of essays this month, and I'm excited to see the result. The topic was "NCCU and Me." I'm still waiting to hear back from another essay contest I entered. Good thing the contest guidelines only require essays to be written in English, which is still my strong point...
4. I realized that I can successfully hold conversations in Chinese now with native Taiwanese. Over the past 2 weeks I had a conversation with a taxi driver, a random guy riding a motorcycle, and a surfer only using Mandarin. Most Taiwanese people I talk to also comment on the fact that I speak pretty well considering that I've been in Taiwan less than a year. At first I thought they were just being polite, but then I thought, hey if I can successfully communicate with them without using English, I must be doing something right.
5. My writing has improved too. My teacher says I do pretty well on our writing assignments, and there was one time where I wrote two short essays with no mistakes. This is pretty amazing considering that characters are my weakness, and for me at least, it's so easy to get them mixed up (if you even miss one stroke, it often becomes another character altogether). Not to mention learning traditional characters is no piece of cake.
6. I've gotten closer to a couple of people I didn't know too well before...when I'm with them, I can laugh a lot and learn about different cultures (the majority of them are not from Western countries). We talk about differences between American culture and Asian cultures a lot. The cool thing about studying in an international environment is that you can meet people from all over the world...I think my current class also represents a good mix of nationalities. At first I was a little worried about the fact that there are 3 Americans in class, including me, but we're all from different areas so I can learn a bit about those places too.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Today I walked from my apartment to my school. What usually takes a 15-minute ride by bus took an hour on foot. I'm not sure why I did it, other than the fact that I've been feeling a bit low lately and I was tired of staying holed up in my room studying for yet another Chinese test (I'm now in my third quarter of Chinese classes, and we have a test pretty much every other day).
I've been terrible about updating this blog, as well as keeping in touch with people back home in general. Half-written letters sit unsent in my desk, and there's the stack of Christmas cards that I meant to write but never got to. I'm not sure why I've been so averse to delivering snail mail and answering e-mail lately, but there it is.
All anyone's been talking about these past few days are the student demonstrations against the trade pact with China that Taiwan's president is trying to pass. They only recently got violent, with some students getting hurt and handcuffed. My current teacher is not only very interested in politics but in this issue in particular, so we've been discussing it pretty much in every single class last week and this week. I can now talk about politics in Chinese, which is pretty mind-blowing when I realize that I can't even really talk about politics in English. But I now have the vocabulary at least to deliver some sort of opinion.
It is also ironic that these demonstrations are taking place during the same week that we're learning about Taiwan's history in our textbook. I must admit that I don't know much about the whole Taiwan-China situation at all, and now that I have all these names and dates floating about in my head, I feel even more mixed up than before. For one of our homework assignments, we had to watch a two-hour movie (in Mandarin, with no English subtitles) about how the two parties in China separated during the wars and how one of them eventually migrated to Taiwan and transformed into the democratic system that governs the country today.
Honestly after watching the movie I just felt really depressed. The movie centers on the three sisters (real people) who married the three most powerful men in China at the time. However, after Chiang Kai-Shek's party started killing off members of the opposing Communist party, two of the sisters found themselves against each other and didn't speak for 10 years. The movie ends with both of them dying alone. I don't know how accurately the historic events and figures are portrayed in this movie, but I was so surprised to discover that I had never heard of the three Soong sisters before in my life. I really am ignorant about the role that women have played in history throughout the world, and no wonder. How often are we taught women's lives in history classes?
My current Chinese class is the hardest one I've had yet. The tests are particularly difficult, not just because of the amount of vocabulary that we're required to know, but because the listening part, which I am normally best at, requires us to write at lightning speed what we hear the teacher say. This has always been the most difficult part of learning Chinese for me (learning traditional characters is no piece of cake, especially since I never had to learn so many in such a short time), and I was shocked to discover that my listening skills (on these tests, at least) have progressed from being my strongest point in class to my weakest. On the bright side, we have presentations every week, and I've been successfully breezing my way through those. We're allowed to look at our notes, but we have to write our own speeches, of course. I think I am one of the stronger speakers in class, mainly because my previous teacher really emphasized learning grammar structures and I've always been good at constructing sentences, which has carried over from English. Also, I enjoy saying whatever I feel like saying; being afraid of making a mistake is no longer an issue.
I've been terrible about updating this blog, as well as keeping in touch with people back home in general. Half-written letters sit unsent in my desk, and there's the stack of Christmas cards that I meant to write but never got to. I'm not sure why I've been so averse to delivering snail mail and answering e-mail lately, but there it is.
All anyone's been talking about these past few days are the student demonstrations against the trade pact with China that Taiwan's president is trying to pass. They only recently got violent, with some students getting hurt and handcuffed. My current teacher is not only very interested in politics but in this issue in particular, so we've been discussing it pretty much in every single class last week and this week. I can now talk about politics in Chinese, which is pretty mind-blowing when I realize that I can't even really talk about politics in English. But I now have the vocabulary at least to deliver some sort of opinion.
It is also ironic that these demonstrations are taking place during the same week that we're learning about Taiwan's history in our textbook. I must admit that I don't know much about the whole Taiwan-China situation at all, and now that I have all these names and dates floating about in my head, I feel even more mixed up than before. For one of our homework assignments, we had to watch a two-hour movie (in Mandarin, with no English subtitles) about how the two parties in China separated during the wars and how one of them eventually migrated to Taiwan and transformed into the democratic system that governs the country today.
Honestly after watching the movie I just felt really depressed. The movie centers on the three sisters (real people) who married the three most powerful men in China at the time. However, after Chiang Kai-Shek's party started killing off members of the opposing Communist party, two of the sisters found themselves against each other and didn't speak for 10 years. The movie ends with both of them dying alone. I don't know how accurately the historic events and figures are portrayed in this movie, but I was so surprised to discover that I had never heard of the three Soong sisters before in my life. I really am ignorant about the role that women have played in history throughout the world, and no wonder. How often are we taught women's lives in history classes?
My current Chinese class is the hardest one I've had yet. The tests are particularly difficult, not just because of the amount of vocabulary that we're required to know, but because the listening part, which I am normally best at, requires us to write at lightning speed what we hear the teacher say. This has always been the most difficult part of learning Chinese for me (learning traditional characters is no piece of cake, especially since I never had to learn so many in such a short time), and I was shocked to discover that my listening skills (on these tests, at least) have progressed from being my strongest point in class to my weakest. On the bright side, we have presentations every week, and I've been successfully breezing my way through those. We're allowed to look at our notes, but we have to write our own speeches, of course. I think I am one of the stronger speakers in class, mainly because my previous teacher really emphasized learning grammar structures and I've always been good at constructing sentences, which has carried over from English. Also, I enjoy saying whatever I feel like saying; being afraid of making a mistake is no longer an issue.
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Happy Thanksgiving
This past week has been a rather frantic whirlwind of emotions.
November was an especially busy month to be a student, because we had a speech contest, a final, and good-byes to prepare for. I also had friends visiting from Japan the week before the speech.
I must admit I'm not the best at maintaining balance in my life. Over the years I've definitely learned that when I'm really passionate about something, I tend to work my butt off, regardless of the consequences. My passion is something I've always taken pride in (why do something if you're not going to go all the way?), but it's also something that has consumed me as much as it has helped me.
Case in point: I really wanted to do well in my speech and my final. It's true that I'm generally a pretty competitive person (those who have had the misfortune of playing board games with me know this firsthand), but mainly I wanted to do well for my own sake. I came to Taiwan to study Chinese seriously, so doing well at the speech (even though I was terrified) and doing well in my final (also terrifying, but in a different way) were two big priorities for me.
I think during the whole month of November I slept maybe an average of 5 hours every night - when I wasn't studying Chinese, doing language exchange, or teaching English, I was busy trying to memorize the speech, which took even longer than expected due to the numerous corrections my teacher, exchange partners, and friends helped me make. But in the end, it was worth it, because I knew that speech backwards and forwards. I can still probably recite it from memory now. Maybe I can't pronounce every phrase correctly (Chinese tones are so hard to get down!), but I come pretty close.
Unfortunately, in the mist of everything that made up the busyness of November, I forgot to take care of one crucial issue, something that resulted in some serious consequences: I forgot to extend my visitor's visa. In Taiwan, you can extend your visitor's visa up to one month if you're a full-time student at an accredited university Chinese Language Center; after 4 months of continuous study you can apply for a resident's visa. However, the catch is that you have to go to the immigration office about 5-7 days before the visa actually expires; otherwise, it's a no-go. I didn't do that. As a result, by the time I discovered my mistake, I had already overstayed my visa by 2 days.
I never had to worry about extending a visa abroad before because 1) I either didn't stay long enough to warrant needing an extension or 2) someone else took care of it for me (as was the case in Japan, where I could pretty much stay for 3 years without ever visiting the immigration office). I remember during NCCU's orientation, they put a lot of stress on remembering to extend your visa, because the immigration office is not at all lenient when it comes to visa infractions, no matter how desperately you plead your case.
Once I realized my mistake (which, in a cruel twist of fate, happened to be right after I took my final), I had one choice and one choice only: to leave Taiwan and come back. Moreover, I had 8 days to get out or my fine for overstaying would increase at least ten-fold. Luckily, my discovery of my mistake coincided with our one-week break between semesters, so getting time off wasn't an issue. Financially, I probably could have done without the spontaneous round-trip ticket to Hong Kong, but plane tickets were not as expensive as I imagined, considering that I had booked it 2 days prior. And of course, I had good friends to stay with in Hong Kong, something for which I cannot express my gratitude enough. They made my stay as seamless as possible - if it weren't for them, the situation would have been significantly more stressful than it already was.
Going through the immigration office at the airport was the only time as of yet that I've seen Taiwanese officials look truly unfriendly. They don't take visa overstays lightly - even for students such as myself. Even though I had only overstayed about 5 days up until that point, I had to pay a fine and got a scary-looking stamp in my passport that basically says I can't enter Taiwan without a visa for one year. Unfortunately, this means my visa saga is not yet over, as I am planning to travel outside of Taiwan before my 90 days is up. Which means...I need to get another visa, in another country, if I want to go back into Taiwan. This obviously takes time and money.
When this first happened, I felt pretty miserable and stupid about it. Sure, I may have done well in the speech (with the help of numerous individuals) and on the final (also with others' help), but how could I have been so stupid to make such a costly mistake? The whole situation would have been easily avoidable if I had just remembered to stop by the immigration office the second week of November and applied, free of charge, for that initial visa extension.
However, I realize that lamenting over my stupidity and carelessness is rather pointless, as it doesn't really change anything, much less make the situation more bearable. On the contrary, I should really focus on the positive things that came out of this situation. Were it not for everyone who helped me - my friend who let me stay at her place and even came to the airport early Sunday morning to meet me, her boyfriend who cooked us dinner nearly every night and let me crash on their couch, my classmates who consoled me in my throes of misery, the office ladies at the CLC who helped me call immigration several times, my friends who told me what I would need to do to get this issue sorted out, even the immigration officers who let me back into Taiwan - this situation would have ended up much, much worse. I lost time and money, but I also realized that there are a considerable amount of people in this world that I am truly grateful for.
Ultimately, striving to do your best at any one endeavor should not overshadow other necessities in life, the most important being your health and peace of mind. While diligently preparing for my studies, I repeatedly neglected these two areas to no avail and as a result paid the price in more ways than one. What's the point of being a good student (or good anything, really) if it means you lose out on yourself as a whole? This is a lesson I continually forget, no matter how old I get. But I'm not a child anymore; I need to take better care of myself, for my own sake and that of others.
Today, I want to give thanks to the many people in my life who have helped me out in tough situations. I am so grateful for my family, the friends I've met, the people I've encountered, and the good times I've had. I am fortunate to have each and every one of them in my life. Adversity, big or small, only makes this that much more clear.
November was an especially busy month to be a student, because we had a speech contest, a final, and good-byes to prepare for. I also had friends visiting from Japan the week before the speech.
I must admit I'm not the best at maintaining balance in my life. Over the years I've definitely learned that when I'm really passionate about something, I tend to work my butt off, regardless of the consequences. My passion is something I've always taken pride in (why do something if you're not going to go all the way?), but it's also something that has consumed me as much as it has helped me.
Case in point: I really wanted to do well in my speech and my final. It's true that I'm generally a pretty competitive person (those who have had the misfortune of playing board games with me know this firsthand), but mainly I wanted to do well for my own sake. I came to Taiwan to study Chinese seriously, so doing well at the speech (even though I was terrified) and doing well in my final (also terrifying, but in a different way) were two big priorities for me.
I think during the whole month of November I slept maybe an average of 5 hours every night - when I wasn't studying Chinese, doing language exchange, or teaching English, I was busy trying to memorize the speech, which took even longer than expected due to the numerous corrections my teacher, exchange partners, and friends helped me make. But in the end, it was worth it, because I knew that speech backwards and forwards. I can still probably recite it from memory now. Maybe I can't pronounce every phrase correctly (Chinese tones are so hard to get down!), but I come pretty close.
Unfortunately, in the mist of everything that made up the busyness of November, I forgot to take care of one crucial issue, something that resulted in some serious consequences: I forgot to extend my visitor's visa. In Taiwan, you can extend your visitor's visa up to one month if you're a full-time student at an accredited university Chinese Language Center; after 4 months of continuous study you can apply for a resident's visa. However, the catch is that you have to go to the immigration office about 5-7 days before the visa actually expires; otherwise, it's a no-go. I didn't do that. As a result, by the time I discovered my mistake, I had already overstayed my visa by 2 days.
I never had to worry about extending a visa abroad before because 1) I either didn't stay long enough to warrant needing an extension or 2) someone else took care of it for me (as was the case in Japan, where I could pretty much stay for 3 years without ever visiting the immigration office). I remember during NCCU's orientation, they put a lot of stress on remembering to extend your visa, because the immigration office is not at all lenient when it comes to visa infractions, no matter how desperately you plead your case.
Once I realized my mistake (which, in a cruel twist of fate, happened to be right after I took my final), I had one choice and one choice only: to leave Taiwan and come back. Moreover, I had 8 days to get out or my fine for overstaying would increase at least ten-fold. Luckily, my discovery of my mistake coincided with our one-week break between semesters, so getting time off wasn't an issue. Financially, I probably could have done without the spontaneous round-trip ticket to Hong Kong, but plane tickets were not as expensive as I imagined, considering that I had booked it 2 days prior. And of course, I had good friends to stay with in Hong Kong, something for which I cannot express my gratitude enough. They made my stay as seamless as possible - if it weren't for them, the situation would have been significantly more stressful than it already was.
Going through the immigration office at the airport was the only time as of yet that I've seen Taiwanese officials look truly unfriendly. They don't take visa overstays lightly - even for students such as myself. Even though I had only overstayed about 5 days up until that point, I had to pay a fine and got a scary-looking stamp in my passport that basically says I can't enter Taiwan without a visa for one year. Unfortunately, this means my visa saga is not yet over, as I am planning to travel outside of Taiwan before my 90 days is up. Which means...I need to get another visa, in another country, if I want to go back into Taiwan. This obviously takes time and money.
When this first happened, I felt pretty miserable and stupid about it. Sure, I may have done well in the speech (with the help of numerous individuals) and on the final (also with others' help), but how could I have been so stupid to make such a costly mistake? The whole situation would have been easily avoidable if I had just remembered to stop by the immigration office the second week of November and applied, free of charge, for that initial visa extension.
However, I realize that lamenting over my stupidity and carelessness is rather pointless, as it doesn't really change anything, much less make the situation more bearable. On the contrary, I should really focus on the positive things that came out of this situation. Were it not for everyone who helped me - my friend who let me stay at her place and even came to the airport early Sunday morning to meet me, her boyfriend who cooked us dinner nearly every night and let me crash on their couch, my classmates who consoled me in my throes of misery, the office ladies at the CLC who helped me call immigration several times, my friends who told me what I would need to do to get this issue sorted out, even the immigration officers who let me back into Taiwan - this situation would have ended up much, much worse. I lost time and money, but I also realized that there are a considerable amount of people in this world that I am truly grateful for.
Ultimately, striving to do your best at any one endeavor should not overshadow other necessities in life, the most important being your health and peace of mind. While diligently preparing for my studies, I repeatedly neglected these two areas to no avail and as a result paid the price in more ways than one. What's the point of being a good student (or good anything, really) if it means you lose out on yourself as a whole? This is a lesson I continually forget, no matter how old I get. But I'm not a child anymore; I need to take better care of myself, for my own sake and that of others.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Gross, I just vomited after taking one of the pills that the doctor prescribed me.
This is why I don't take medicine. Before going to the doctor, I had a fever (that I didn't know I had) and my throat was killing me, yes, but I was still eating and walking normally. After going to the doctor (who was very nice, have nothing against her) and getting a bunch of pills and taking them like I was supposed to, what happens? 1) I completely lose my appetite. 2) I'm not sure if this is because I didn't eat anything substantial in 24 hours, but I almost pass out walking from my apartment to 7/11, which is like 2 blocks away. By almost pass out I mean like seeing lots of black dots, man. 3) I get stomach pains all day and start vomiting. So gross!!! I haven't vomited since I don't even remember and I HATE the feeling.
Next time, I'm not going to the doctor and I'm not going to take medicine.
This is why I don't take medicine. Before going to the doctor, I had a fever (that I didn't know I had) and my throat was killing me, yes, but I was still eating and walking normally. After going to the doctor (who was very nice, have nothing against her) and getting a bunch of pills and taking them like I was supposed to, what happens? 1) I completely lose my appetite. 2) I'm not sure if this is because I didn't eat anything substantial in 24 hours, but I almost pass out walking from my apartment to 7/11, which is like 2 blocks away. By almost pass out I mean like seeing lots of black dots, man. 3) I get stomach pains all day and start vomiting. So gross!!! I haven't vomited since I don't even remember and I HATE the feeling.
Next time, I'm not going to the doctor and I'm not going to take medicine.
Friday, October 11, 2013
Tests and Hospitals
Today we had our midterm. It was divided into three sections: 1) listening, 2) written, including a short essay (only 100 characters), and 3) speaking. Listening was harder than I expected, the essay wasn't as bad as I expected, and speaking went fine. The thing that really screwed me over was the part where we had to mark the tones though. I know I messed up on that part because I really wasn't expecting it to be a big part of the test and therefore did not study much for it.
But anyway, it's over now, at least. I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was pretty tired throughout most of it. The reason I didn't sleep well is because over this past week, I had what I thought was a relatively benign cold. I was coughing a little bit and I didn't feel well. Then one day I woke up with a really bad sore throat and it eventually grew to the point where I couldn't swallow anything without it hurting. So today I went to the hospital near the school (I bought health insurance when I registered for classes).
Taiwanese hospitals are interesting. Like every other official building here, you take a number and wait for your turn. Well, I got number 9 and they were going through at least 2 numbers every few minutes, it seemed like. It wasn't 10 minutes before it was my turn. I walked in and luckily the doctor spoke pretty good English. She asked me about my symptoms and then this nurse walked by, stuck something in my ear, and said something to the doctor in Chinese. She said I apparently had a high fever, which surprised me because I felt unwell, but not burning hot or anything. Then she said my throat was inflamed and she wasn't sure if it was an infection or a symptom of a cold. So I got some medicine to take and if my fever doesn't break in 3 days I have to go back. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes.
I'm kind of bummed because even though my midterm is over I can't really have fun because I'm not feeling well. But I suppose the smart thing to do would be to stay in this weekend and not do anything strenuous. I was going to go run tonight but I don't feel like it anymore. Just feeling really lethargic....
When I moved to Taipei, I thought I was being smart by not bringing a lot of clothes with me. But I really underestimated how often it rains here. Plus it can be really hot outside and then you walk into a building or walk onto a train and you're blasted with cold air. And lately at night I feel like I need another blanket, more than the thin one I currently have. (But maybe that's because I'm sick?) Basically I don't dress appropriately for the weather because I didn't bring enough clothes. And also the weather here really sucks. If it's not humid, then it's raining. And it rains off and on so you really can't predict when it will rain so you have to carry your umbrella with you at all times. And you can't plan a lot of day trips in case it suddenly starts raining. I knew the weather was going to make me sick.
I currently have no appetite.
But anyway, it's over now, at least. I didn't sleep very well the night before so I was pretty tired throughout most of it. The reason I didn't sleep well is because over this past week, I had what I thought was a relatively benign cold. I was coughing a little bit and I didn't feel well. Then one day I woke up with a really bad sore throat and it eventually grew to the point where I couldn't swallow anything without it hurting. So today I went to the hospital near the school (I bought health insurance when I registered for classes).
Taiwanese hospitals are interesting. Like every other official building here, you take a number and wait for your turn. Well, I got number 9 and they were going through at least 2 numbers every few minutes, it seemed like. It wasn't 10 minutes before it was my turn. I walked in and luckily the doctor spoke pretty good English. She asked me about my symptoms and then this nurse walked by, stuck something in my ear, and said something to the doctor in Chinese. She said I apparently had a high fever, which surprised me because I felt unwell, but not burning hot or anything. Then she said my throat was inflamed and she wasn't sure if it was an infection or a symptom of a cold. So I got some medicine to take and if my fever doesn't break in 3 days I have to go back. I was in and out in less than 20 minutes.
I'm kind of bummed because even though my midterm is over I can't really have fun because I'm not feeling well. But I suppose the smart thing to do would be to stay in this weekend and not do anything strenuous. I was going to go run tonight but I don't feel like it anymore. Just feeling really lethargic....
When I moved to Taipei, I thought I was being smart by not bringing a lot of clothes with me. But I really underestimated how often it rains here. Plus it can be really hot outside and then you walk into a building or walk onto a train and you're blasted with cold air. And lately at night I feel like I need another blanket, more than the thin one I currently have. (But maybe that's because I'm sick?) Basically I don't dress appropriately for the weather because I didn't bring enough clothes. And also the weather here really sucks. If it's not humid, then it's raining. And it rains off and on so you really can't predict when it will rain so you have to carry your umbrella with you at all times. And you can't plan a lot of day trips in case it suddenly starts raining. I knew the weather was going to make me sick.
I currently have no appetite.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
So tired
We have our midterm this Friday, which is worth 30% of our overall grade, so everyone's been showing up to class really tired. I think we all start talking really strangely in Chinese when we're tired, including me. Been studying every day...initially I thought Chinese grammar was pretty easy (especially compared to Japanese), but I'm not sure what happened in merely a month, it seems to be getting a lot harder already. I especially have trouble using 了, which has so many uses other than past tense...
I also attended the scholarship ceremony for all the Huayu recipients...which was held more than a month after most of us have already started classes, not sure why they decided to do it so much later. It was nice of them to put together the event though. The only question I had was why group us by nationality - I currently feel more uncomfortable sitting at a table filled with only Americans than I do at a table filled with various nationalities, such as the situation in my Chinese class. Not to mention, I was the only Asian-American, period; it seemed like 90% of the American scholarship recipients were white males. I think I was very tired that day, but I didn't find any of our conversations particularly stimulating. Perhaps I simply feel less American as time goes on...
I am sort of rambling because I'm tired. My sleep schedule got thrown off by the typhoon and I have a cold. I hope I can recover by this weekend. We have Thursday off, but we'll probably spend the whole day studying.
I also attended the scholarship ceremony for all the Huayu recipients...which was held more than a month after most of us have already started classes, not sure why they decided to do it so much later. It was nice of them to put together the event though. The only question I had was why group us by nationality - I currently feel more uncomfortable sitting at a table filled with only Americans than I do at a table filled with various nationalities, such as the situation in my Chinese class. Not to mention, I was the only Asian-American, period; it seemed like 90% of the American scholarship recipients were white males. I think I was very tired that day, but I didn't find any of our conversations particularly stimulating. Perhaps I simply feel less American as time goes on...
I am sort of rambling because I'm tired. My sleep schedule got thrown off by the typhoon and I have a cold. I hope I can recover by this weekend. We have Thursday off, but we'll probably spend the whole day studying.
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Saying Good-bye Abroad
Though there are many awesome things about living abroad, there is one very definite downside that has me preoccupied lately.
It's not culture shock. Since arriving in Taipei, I haven't experienced much culture shock at all. Right now off the top of my head I can't really think of anything that has really shocked me about being here. Taiwan is definitely more like the U.S. than Japan was.
It's not missing home either. Although I miss my family and friends like any normal person, I don't yearn for them in that way that makes you wish you had never left. It's become second nature not to see them on a regular basis, or even talk to them regularly, partially because I know that we will be reunited eventually. Things might have changed a lot by that time, but relationships can also be rebuilt, perhaps for the better.
What sometimes makes me a little sad though is the ultimately fleeting nature of my relationships abroad. When you're living in a foreign country, you often form bonds with people you otherwise might have never met or gotten to know. This is a great feeling. You find things you can talk about, laugh about, maybe even argue about. You see them on a regular basis and get to know them as individuals, both the quirks and the annoyances. But at the end of the day, you know that all the good friends you've made and the sweet moments you've had- none of it is permanent. Eventually, the day will come when you have to say good-bye to those you've known and fly home, leaving it all behind.
This is not to say that it's impossible to stay in touch with friends living in other countries. But the relationships you have with them after you have left will never be the same as when you were in the same time and place; it can't be. Nothing can replace spending time with someone in person - enjoying the little nuances that can never be captured in print or photos. And though I will always try my best to stay in touch with those I care about, no matter where they are, my knowing them will forever be rooted in the fact that nothing is permanent, and moments from one area of the world cannot be replicated in another. Good-byes will be said, and life will continue in its own fluid fashion. I know that they will likely never live in America, and I will likely never live in their country. Hence the inevitable parting of ways - maybe not of the emotional kind but definitely the physical. They simply won't be a bus ride away.
It is times like these when I wish I could freeze time and preserve moments beyond their mere memories. But I suppose no moment is as sweet without impermanence to temper its sweetness.
The only way to deal with it is to enjoy being in the moment as much as possible, and to remain grateful for the experiences had (and for the ones yet to come). And to enjoy the company of those you were lucky enough to meet.
It is a very bittersweet feeling.
It's not culture shock. Since arriving in Taipei, I haven't experienced much culture shock at all. Right now off the top of my head I can't really think of anything that has really shocked me about being here. Taiwan is definitely more like the U.S. than Japan was.
It's not missing home either. Although I miss my family and friends like any normal person, I don't yearn for them in that way that makes you wish you had never left. It's become second nature not to see them on a regular basis, or even talk to them regularly, partially because I know that we will be reunited eventually. Things might have changed a lot by that time, but relationships can also be rebuilt, perhaps for the better.
What sometimes makes me a little sad though is the ultimately fleeting nature of my relationships abroad. When you're living in a foreign country, you often form bonds with people you otherwise might have never met or gotten to know. This is a great feeling. You find things you can talk about, laugh about, maybe even argue about. You see them on a regular basis and get to know them as individuals, both the quirks and the annoyances. But at the end of the day, you know that all the good friends you've made and the sweet moments you've had- none of it is permanent. Eventually, the day will come when you have to say good-bye to those you've known and fly home, leaving it all behind.
This is not to say that it's impossible to stay in touch with friends living in other countries. But the relationships you have with them after you have left will never be the same as when you were in the same time and place; it can't be. Nothing can replace spending time with someone in person - enjoying the little nuances that can never be captured in print or photos. And though I will always try my best to stay in touch with those I care about, no matter where they are, my knowing them will forever be rooted in the fact that nothing is permanent, and moments from one area of the world cannot be replicated in another. Good-byes will be said, and life will continue in its own fluid fashion. I know that they will likely never live in America, and I will likely never live in their country. Hence the inevitable parting of ways - maybe not of the emotional kind but definitely the physical. They simply won't be a bus ride away.
It is times like these when I wish I could freeze time and preserve moments beyond their mere memories. But I suppose no moment is as sweet without impermanence to temper its sweetness.
The only way to deal with it is to enjoy being in the moment as much as possible, and to remain grateful for the experiences had (and for the ones yet to come). And to enjoy the company of those you were lucky enough to meet.
It is a very bittersweet feeling.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Typhoon and School Activities
We had a four-day weekend for Mid-Autumn Festival, which was great. The not so great part? I barely got any sleep. Typhoon Usagi recently came to Taiwan, which meant that these past few days have been filled with a tremendous amount of rain and wind. My first umbrella got ripped apart because of how strong the winds were. Then there's the howling at night. I don't think I ever experienced this strong of a typhoon in Japan. I was honestly afraid of the windows in my apartment shattering from the sheer force of the wind, which was made all the worse by the fact that they're located right next to where I sleep. (I really don't want to wake up with a glass shard stuck in my eye.)
I already have a bit of a tough time sleeping through the night here, because I'm not used to how flat the pillow is or how hard the mattresses in Taiwan are (I know, I sound like such a princess, but I swear, I can usually sleep anywhere!). Recently I've been waking up more and more often with a serious neck ache. But these past few days, not only has there still been lots of humidity (it doesn't even go away with the storms), but the noise from the typhoon has repeatedly kept me up. It sounds like a giant smashing his big fist into the walls.
Luckily the typhoon is gone now (or so they say), so I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight after 4 days of little sleep. It rains so much in Taipei. I know I shouldn't be this surprised because Taiwan is a tropical country, so the rain makes sense, but it's really inconvenient. I'm kind of worried that having just one waterproof jacket won't be enough to get by here, especially during fall, when the weather becomes even more unpredictable. Plus I haven't been able to do a lot of the stuff I've been wanting to do, like running or hiking. How am I supposed to train for the race in October when I can't even run? I suppose I could run in the rain, but I'm worried about catching a cold or damaging my music player. Since I have class nearly every day, getting sick wouldn't be very pleasant.
On a good note, I'm starting some free courses this upcoming week, on top of my regular language courses. I signed up for a basic pronunciation class (I really need a tone refresher course), a TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) listening prep course, and just for kicks, a Shaolin Fist Punch course. I don't really know what that last one entails, but I'm excited because I always wanted to do martial arts as a kid but my mom wouldn't let me (not for girls, she said). Now I can finally see what it's all about! That class filled up really quickly (only 15 spots) so I'm glad I was able to get in.
Basically, starting from this week, I'm going to be spending a lot more time on campus. They're going to do a Club Fair this week, and NCCU has a fair share of clubs, including academic clubs, athletic clubs and just-for-fun clubs. A few friends and I are planning to join the Film Club, although I'm a little worried all the movies will be in Chinese with no English subtitles. Oh well, I'm curious regardless.
I think this week will be very busy (starting a new language exchange as well!), but in a good way.
I already have a bit of a tough time sleeping through the night here, because I'm not used to how flat the pillow is or how hard the mattresses in Taiwan are (I know, I sound like such a princess, but I swear, I can usually sleep anywhere!). Recently I've been waking up more and more often with a serious neck ache. But these past few days, not only has there still been lots of humidity (it doesn't even go away with the storms), but the noise from the typhoon has repeatedly kept me up. It sounds like a giant smashing his big fist into the walls.
Luckily the typhoon is gone now (or so they say), so I'm hoping for a good night's sleep tonight after 4 days of little sleep. It rains so much in Taipei. I know I shouldn't be this surprised because Taiwan is a tropical country, so the rain makes sense, but it's really inconvenient. I'm kind of worried that having just one waterproof jacket won't be enough to get by here, especially during fall, when the weather becomes even more unpredictable. Plus I haven't been able to do a lot of the stuff I've been wanting to do, like running or hiking. How am I supposed to train for the race in October when I can't even run? I suppose I could run in the rain, but I'm worried about catching a cold or damaging my music player. Since I have class nearly every day, getting sick wouldn't be very pleasant.
On a good note, I'm starting some free courses this upcoming week, on top of my regular language courses. I signed up for a basic pronunciation class (I really need a tone refresher course), a TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language) listening prep course, and just for kicks, a Shaolin Fist Punch course. I don't really know what that last one entails, but I'm excited because I always wanted to do martial arts as a kid but my mom wouldn't let me (not for girls, she said). Now I can finally see what it's all about! That class filled up really quickly (only 15 spots) so I'm glad I was able to get in.
Basically, starting from this week, I'm going to be spending a lot more time on campus. They're going to do a Club Fair this week, and NCCU has a fair share of clubs, including academic clubs, athletic clubs and just-for-fun clubs. A few friends and I are planning to join the Film Club, although I'm a little worried all the movies will be in Chinese with no English subtitles. Oh well, I'm curious regardless.
I think this week will be very busy (starting a new language exchange as well!), but in a good way.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
How to Study Mandarin in Taiwan for Free
Towards the end of my teaching contract in Japan, I was thinking seriously about my next step. Did I want to go back to the U.S. and apply for jobs/internships/grad school or attempt to live in another foreign country? I've mentioned this before, but my interest in my heritage peaked while I was in Japan, as did my desire to study the language of my parents' home country. I initially wanted to study Cantonese and retain my childhood fluency, but as most academic centers do not teach Cantonese, I realized that this would be hard to do (and Mandarin is undeniably more useful).
At the same time, I had just gotten back from visiting friends in Taiwan and had loved many things about it, including the food, the environment and the ease with which people interacted with one another. Though I had a great time in Japan and wouldn't trade that experience for anything, Taiwan felt pretty different to me - less grounded in rigid customs and, in many ways, more international. And of course, everyone spoke Mandarin there.
So it was really great timing when I happened to stumble across this article while still in Japan, about getting paid to study Mandarin in Taiwan. It seemed like the perfect fit for what I wanted to do next: be a student again while still managing to live in a foreign country (I suppose I wasn't quite ready to return to the States permanently yet).
Initially, finding out where to apply was tricky. The Huayu scholarship is basically open to anyone without Taiwanese citizenship and who is not an overseas Chinese student, but to apply you must find the nearest embassy in your country of residence. For me, this was San Francisco. Though the Huayu scholarship application is supposed to be released in January, I don't think SF's website had it up until the beginning of February. The deadline is always at the end of March, but it is recommended that you send in the application package as soon as possible for a higher chance of getting accepted.
Putting the application together was a little bit tougher for me since most of my contacts were located overseas. I had to make sure to mail in the application early enough so that it would reach San Francisco (from Japan) long before the deadline. Filling out the application and writing the study plan (essentially the statement of purpose) didn't take me that long, but I also had to secure two letters of recommendation. For one of them, I asked my boss in Japan, who graciously wrote me one almost immediately after I put in the request. For the second, I asked one of my professors from UCLA; however, since I wasn't living in California, I asked that she please mail the recommendation to my residence in Japan so that I could assemble all the materials myself. (It is also recommended that you send everything in one package, to minimize the chances of something getting lost in the mail.)
The application also asked for a formal, stamped copy of my university transcripts, which I had to order online. However, when the transcripts had yet to arrive to Japan after one week, I called the registrar office and they told me that international postage can often take as long as 2 weeks to arrive, if you don't pay for the expedited service (which I didn't, since I thought I had ordered them early enough). As a courtesy, they told me they could send me another copy, free of charge, to my home address in the States, which I could then have someone forward to me using a faster mailing option. I eventually asked my dad to do so.
Obviously, the whole process would have been a lot less stressful and cheaper had I applied back in California (I wouldn't have had to pay for international postage, for one), but since I wouldn't be returning home until April, this wasn't really an option. Another unexpected obstacle I ran into was not having a printer in my Japanese apartment. At first, I decided that the best option was to use an internet cafe nearby, which offers printing charged by the page. This became somewhat of an ordeal due to various reasons, but fortunately, I managed to print everything out after several failed attempts.
Some tips on the application:
1. Give serious thought to your letters of recommendation. I can't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure they play a pretty significant role in the selection. The way I saw it, the scholarship committee (whoever that might be) would definitely want to pick candidates who a) would likely finish out their term in Taiwan without incident and b) had academic qualifications that proved they could take their Chinese studies seriously.
This doesn't mean you have to be good at Chinese or even know any Chinese to apply (this matters for the other scholarships, but not Huayu).
Essentially, they want someone who can live abroad for an extended period of time and who has a strong background in academia. Since I had already spent well over a year living and working in Japan, I figured that asking someone from my job would show that I could successfully live in a foreign country and carry out my responsibilities diligently. As for the academic part, I have a feeling that graduating from UCLA with a fairly high GPA carried some weight, as did asking someone who could extensively assess my abilities in the classroom (I ended up asking a professor in the film department, whose class I had absolutely loved and did pretty well in).
2. Make sure your "study plan" is amazingly thorough and personal. When I first read the "study plan" part, which stated, "Please describe your study plan in Taiwan in __ number of words," I was initially confused. Did they mean how much I was planning to study once I got to Taiwan or the means by which I would be studying? It seemed strangely worded, to say the least. However, after doing some googling, I realized that they were really just asking for a statement of purpose. Why Taiwan? Why Mandarin? How does this apply for your future plans and how are you planning to implement these goals during your time there?
One of the reasons why this scholarship exists is to promote international exchange among citizens of countries with diplomatic ties to Taiwan. It's important to focus in your essay on why you picked Taiwan specifically, as opposed to other countries where you can also learn Mandarin (China, for example). So showing in your essays that you have some political knowledge about Taiwan is very important, as well as explaining how that knowledge relates to your academic and career goals.
Since this is the only part of the application where your personal agenda can really shine, it's important to spend a lot of time on it and have someone (or many people) read it over and offer critiques. They want to make sure they're not giving the scholarship to someone who just wants free money to spend in a foreign country.
3. Stay in touch with your embassy and the language center that you're planning to study at. For those interested in learning Mandarin in Taiwan, there are a lot of language centers you can choose from. Initially I was debating on whether to study in Kaohsiung or Taipei. I didn't want to be in a big city, but most of the major language centers are located in the more densely populated areas of Taiwan (obviously). You have to pick your language center before you apply and request a letter of acceptance to submit with your application. This isn't hard to do, but it does involve choosing a place early on and keeping in touch with them throughout the application process (think: lots of paperwork).
I ultimately decided on NCCU because 1) it was located in Taipei, but in a more rural, scenic area than most of the major language centers downtown, 2) it got lots of positive reviews online, 3) it was about the same price as the language center I was looking at in Kaohsiung, where I initially wanted to go because living expenses would presumably be cheaper than in Taipei. However, I knew that Kaohsiung had worse humidity than Taipei, and that was the ultimate deal-breaker for me.
I'm glad I made the choice to go to NCCU because it's an incredibly international school (with some of the best English programs in any Taiwan university, though that doesn't really affect me as a language student) and they seem very organized in all their dealings with international students. For example, the woman in charge of admissions to the language center always responded immediately to my e-mails and was very straightforward in informing me of the paperwork she needed to complete the application process. She was also really warm, friendly and easy to communicate with. In fact, I was significantly more impressed by my dealings with NCCU than with the experience I had at the embassy in San Francisco (getting a visa was probably one of the most exasperating parts of the whole experience).
And though I didn't know this at the time, it doesn't seem like there are that many Americans studying at NCCU's Chinese Language Center. Most of the people I've met are from somewhere else in Asia (mainly Korea and Japan), Europe or Latin America. It's great because it definitely feels like one big melting pot where you're meeting people from all over the world - and as a bonus, it's very easy to find exchange partners when your primary language is English (still the lingua franca of the developed world).
At the same time, I had just gotten back from visiting friends in Taiwan and had loved many things about it, including the food, the environment and the ease with which people interacted with one another. Though I had a great time in Japan and wouldn't trade that experience for anything, Taiwan felt pretty different to me - less grounded in rigid customs and, in many ways, more international. And of course, everyone spoke Mandarin there.
So it was really great timing when I happened to stumble across this article while still in Japan, about getting paid to study Mandarin in Taiwan. It seemed like the perfect fit for what I wanted to do next: be a student again while still managing to live in a foreign country (I suppose I wasn't quite ready to return to the States permanently yet).
Initially, finding out where to apply was tricky. The Huayu scholarship is basically open to anyone without Taiwanese citizenship and who is not an overseas Chinese student, but to apply you must find the nearest embassy in your country of residence. For me, this was San Francisco. Though the Huayu scholarship application is supposed to be released in January, I don't think SF's website had it up until the beginning of February. The deadline is always at the end of March, but it is recommended that you send in the application package as soon as possible for a higher chance of getting accepted.
Putting the application together was a little bit tougher for me since most of my contacts were located overseas. I had to make sure to mail in the application early enough so that it would reach San Francisco (from Japan) long before the deadline. Filling out the application and writing the study plan (essentially the statement of purpose) didn't take me that long, but I also had to secure two letters of recommendation. For one of them, I asked my boss in Japan, who graciously wrote me one almost immediately after I put in the request. For the second, I asked one of my professors from UCLA; however, since I wasn't living in California, I asked that she please mail the recommendation to my residence in Japan so that I could assemble all the materials myself. (It is also recommended that you send everything in one package, to minimize the chances of something getting lost in the mail.)
The application also asked for a formal, stamped copy of my university transcripts, which I had to order online. However, when the transcripts had yet to arrive to Japan after one week, I called the registrar office and they told me that international postage can often take as long as 2 weeks to arrive, if you don't pay for the expedited service (which I didn't, since I thought I had ordered them early enough). As a courtesy, they told me they could send me another copy, free of charge, to my home address in the States, which I could then have someone forward to me using a faster mailing option. I eventually asked my dad to do so.
Obviously, the whole process would have been a lot less stressful and cheaper had I applied back in California (I wouldn't have had to pay for international postage, for one), but since I wouldn't be returning home until April, this wasn't really an option. Another unexpected obstacle I ran into was not having a printer in my Japanese apartment. At first, I decided that the best option was to use an internet cafe nearby, which offers printing charged by the page. This became somewhat of an ordeal due to various reasons, but fortunately, I managed to print everything out after several failed attempts.
Some tips on the application:
1. Give serious thought to your letters of recommendation. I can't know for sure, but I'm pretty sure they play a pretty significant role in the selection. The way I saw it, the scholarship committee (whoever that might be) would definitely want to pick candidates who a) would likely finish out their term in Taiwan without incident and b) had academic qualifications that proved they could take their Chinese studies seriously.
This doesn't mean you have to be good at Chinese or even know any Chinese to apply (this matters for the other scholarships, but not Huayu).
Essentially, they want someone who can live abroad for an extended period of time and who has a strong background in academia. Since I had already spent well over a year living and working in Japan, I figured that asking someone from my job would show that I could successfully live in a foreign country and carry out my responsibilities diligently. As for the academic part, I have a feeling that graduating from UCLA with a fairly high GPA carried some weight, as did asking someone who could extensively assess my abilities in the classroom (I ended up asking a professor in the film department, whose class I had absolutely loved and did pretty well in).
2. Make sure your "study plan" is amazingly thorough and personal. When I first read the "study plan" part, which stated, "Please describe your study plan in Taiwan in __ number of words," I was initially confused. Did they mean how much I was planning to study once I got to Taiwan or the means by which I would be studying? It seemed strangely worded, to say the least. However, after doing some googling, I realized that they were really just asking for a statement of purpose. Why Taiwan? Why Mandarin? How does this apply for your future plans and how are you planning to implement these goals during your time there?
One of the reasons why this scholarship exists is to promote international exchange among citizens of countries with diplomatic ties to Taiwan. It's important to focus in your essay on why you picked Taiwan specifically, as opposed to other countries where you can also learn Mandarin (China, for example). So showing in your essays that you have some political knowledge about Taiwan is very important, as well as explaining how that knowledge relates to your academic and career goals.
Since this is the only part of the application where your personal agenda can really shine, it's important to spend a lot of time on it and have someone (or many people) read it over and offer critiques. They want to make sure they're not giving the scholarship to someone who just wants free money to spend in a foreign country.
3. Stay in touch with your embassy and the language center that you're planning to study at. For those interested in learning Mandarin in Taiwan, there are a lot of language centers you can choose from. Initially I was debating on whether to study in Kaohsiung or Taipei. I didn't want to be in a big city, but most of the major language centers are located in the more densely populated areas of Taiwan (obviously). You have to pick your language center before you apply and request a letter of acceptance to submit with your application. This isn't hard to do, but it does involve choosing a place early on and keeping in touch with them throughout the application process (think: lots of paperwork).
I ultimately decided on NCCU because 1) it was located in Taipei, but in a more rural, scenic area than most of the major language centers downtown, 2) it got lots of positive reviews online, 3) it was about the same price as the language center I was looking at in Kaohsiung, where I initially wanted to go because living expenses would presumably be cheaper than in Taipei. However, I knew that Kaohsiung had worse humidity than Taipei, and that was the ultimate deal-breaker for me.
I'm glad I made the choice to go to NCCU because it's an incredibly international school (with some of the best English programs in any Taiwan university, though that doesn't really affect me as a language student) and they seem very organized in all their dealings with international students. For example, the woman in charge of admissions to the language center always responded immediately to my e-mails and was very straightforward in informing me of the paperwork she needed to complete the application process. She was also really warm, friendly and easy to communicate with. In fact, I was significantly more impressed by my dealings with NCCU than with the experience I had at the embassy in San Francisco (getting a visa was probably one of the most exasperating parts of the whole experience).
And though I didn't know this at the time, it doesn't seem like there are that many Americans studying at NCCU's Chinese Language Center. Most of the people I've met are from somewhere else in Asia (mainly Korea and Japan), Europe or Latin America. It's great because it definitely feels like one big melting pot where you're meeting people from all over the world - and as a bonus, it's very easy to find exchange partners when your primary language is English (still the lingua franca of the developed world).
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