Huge update 3: Dalat, Vietnam

A few days later I moved my way to Dalat, Vietnam. This area really was a great place to be. I reminded me a lot of Taiwan. It is set up in the 'Central Highlands' of Vietnam and was a lush green area on the side of a mountain. This took me away from the craziness of Ho Chi Minh City for sure. This is a slower paced area and more locals are around with less foreigners.

While on the bus heading there I was seated next to a Vietnamese girl who is my age and we got to talking. Turns out she lives in Dalat and studies in Ho Chi Minh City. So we decided that we would meet up one day and she would show me around the area a bit.

Dalat night market in the background
foreground is racing RC cars

When I arrived I stayed in the worst hotel I have ever seen. A motorbike picked me up at the bus station and drove me to some really horrible place. I don't remember the name but I know I didn't really sleep at all because everything looked like it was out of the 1970's and very dirty with bedbugs. So I kind of slept but didn't at all. The next morning I went out on a mission to find a new place. Found a beautiful one and settled down there for the next few days.

On the day that I found the good hotel I went for a walk around the day market to see what was being sold and bought. Went through shops to see what locals eat and drink. Nothing too out of the ordinary but still had a lot of fun doing it. That night I went out to the night market they hold on the main street. This city is really beautiful because it is lit up at night and has a really nice river in the middle of the town. The town is quiet in the daytime but so busy and hectic at night.

The next day I rented a motorbike, something I have never done before in my life so I thought I would give it a try just in case I wanted to buy one when I got back to Taiwan. I was nervous but got the hang of it very fast. It was difficult at first because it was rainy and I didn't know what to expect on one. But I went for a ride through the hills of Dalat to see what else I could find outside of the town center. There is not much outside but some beautiful mountain scenery. I made my way on the bike to see a waterfall. The waterfall was not much to look at but still was a cool place to see indigenous Vietnamese.

Dalat Watefall

The next day I just walked around a bit until the night when I met up with the friend I met on the bus. She showed me around the night market and told me about all the local foods of Dalat. We tried many different foods. She paid for a lot of it which I felt really bad about, I tried to offer to pay but she refused. One thing about many Asian cultures is that when they refuse you just accept it so you don't make them upset. I have found that, it isn't really getting upset but disappointed, Asians like to treat people but don't always like to be treated (same goes for South East Asia). But we ate egg pancakes that were just very thin egg with spices on it. She bought me some lychee for the bus and some more traditional Vietnamese foods.

The next day I had to leave Dalat to head back to Ho Chi Minh City to head into Cambodia, I found as I was going that I could have taken a bus from there but I was at the wrong place, so 8 hours sort of wasted. It wasn't fully wasted because the same girl who showed me around was on my bus again so we were able to eat together before we had to part ways.

Stay tuned for Huge update 4: Phnom Phen, Cambodia

Huge update 2: Malaysia and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

I was planning a trip for a while and decided that I would kind of vagabond the trip. I was not going to make any plans ahead of time other than the flights. So I departed Taiwan on July 1st and knew I was going to be gone until August 7th.

I had really a strange feeling about leaving Taiwan, it hurt to leave but I knew I wanted to see more countries. This really told me how much love I have for this country that I was leaving. Taiwan has become my home. I decided that I would travel alone and meet people as I go. Disclaimer: South-East Asia is not a place to travel to alone because most people travel in groups and there are few hostels, so it is hard to meet people.

But my first destination was to Vietnam, a country that I really wanted to visit and was very interested in seeing what it had to offer. My flight left Taiwan and was headed for Malaysia first, when we landed I wanted to see the Petronas Towers since I had about a 10 hour layover. So I got off the plane and went to the train station that was going to take me there. I ate a little then had to take a subway out. The problem was I didn't have enough money so I went to the ATM and my card was denied, called the bank so they could add Malaysia to my bank card so I could get money out and by the time they did... all the ATM's were closed for the night (I think for security reasons). So I had to 'sleep' in a train station with homeless around me. Needless to say, I didn't sleep.

When the station opened back up I got back to the airport and waited to head to Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon.

First meal in Vietnam:
pho bo, with my favorite Saigon Beer.

I could talk for hours and days on all of this, but I won't I will be brief and to the point (but it still might be a little long). I land in Ho Chi Minh City and it seemed like I was landing on a dirt runway. It didn't feel the safest but I landed fine and got out and grabbed a cab to the hostel I wanted to go to. The hostel was great, I loved it and stayed many nights. It was the NGOC Thao Guest House. The people were so nice and helpful. I highly recommend them.

Ho Chi Minh was a very crazy city, with way more motor bikes than Taiwan. The funniest thing, and possibly the most dangerous was that they have to wear helmets there. But they get around that by using 'Nike' hats with a little padding inside and a chin strap. I have to say, they did look pretty cool and I wanted to buy one but they were not going to save you from a crash. I traveled around a little to see a bit of the area I was in, which was District 1; otherwise known as the party district. I didn't plan that but didn't really mind either.

Mr. Bean, sad story this man has he wishes everyone
just forget about the war. He has been writing a diary
since he was in the war and will publish it once he dies.

A couple days after arriving I went on my first trip, Cu Chi Tunnels tour. The Cu Chi Tunnels were tunnels that the North Vietnamese (now just Vietnamese obviously) made during the war against the French for independence and then continued during the 'American War' or the 'Vietnam War' as I know it by. We had a guide for the tunnels, Mr. Bean. This man has an extremely sad story, one that is a real tearjerker. He was a soldier for the United States during the war and then finished his tour of duty in New York. Upon leaving he burned his passport and said he would never come back to the US because he told us, 'I am not an American, I am Vietnamese'. The love he had for his country was great, as do all Vietnamese. Very few, if any, hold a lot against US tourists or the US in general. As Mr. Bean told us, they want to move on and so should the US. He said both sides were wrong and should not have gone to war. From most that I talked to, they didn't care what the government became, as long as they were still Vietnamese at the end of it. The tunnels were really cool but sad, we saw tanks that were blown up by Vietnamese, weapons the Vietcong used and heard stories of how the sides tried to outsmart each other.

One story stands out to me the most. The VC taught their dogs to smell Americans, because Americans smoked Marlboro Cigarettes. So the VC taught the dogs to sniff out Americans by that smell. Eventually the Americans caught on so they would drop their cigarette butts in the tunnels and the dogs would turn on the VC thinking them to be Americans. Another story was that the VC didn't have shoes or lots of weapons. So they would cut up tired and make shoes out of them. During the night they would sneak into the American base they dug under and steal their weapons and ammo. The only problem is that tire tracks have treads on them to show which direction people are coming. So the VC would wear them in one way and walk out with them on the other way, so it would seem that the VC never left the base. To me, this was all a mental game, who is smarter.

VC sniper pit, a tight squeeze

While on the tour I was able to go into a sniper pit that the VC made. The pit was so tight and small, pretty much everything in the country was small and showed just how to outsmart the Americans during the war. Make things small and Americans can't come in. We also saw many, many booby traps. Some of the most disgusting things to see but I have to admit, they were highly inventive. The highlight of the tour is going into the tunnels. Tourists are not allowed in the real tunnel because it is too small. There was one part of the tunnel that was carved about 3 cm bigger to accommodate Westerners. Having that said, they were still very, very small. Americans during the war would have to crawl on hand and knees to fit through, some on their stomachs. It was a game of hide and seek. While in the tunnels I got extremely, extremely claustrophobic. The tunnel we went through only lasted 100 meters but had levels that you went down, first was 3 meters down, then 6 meters, then back up to 3. At each drop there were emergency exits, I thought of taking them whenever I saw one. Luckily, I made it out at the last exit. At the end of the tour we were brought to a shooting range where it is one of the only few places you can shoot some weapons. I shot the AK-47, first gun I have ever shot, and let me tell you, I am a horrible shot. The very end of the tour is watching a 1960's propaganda movie, which is obviously propaganda but still very cool to see.

View inside the tunnels

AK-47

After that tour I headed to the War Remnants Museum. Which used to be called the 'War Crimes Against US and Puppet Government'. This was just the beginning of all the sad museums I was going to see on the rest of my trip. This museum contains many vehicles that were shot down by the VC and North Vietnamese during the war and some land vehicles too. Inside the museum, which is another propaganda place but really none of it is false, shows all the chemical crimes, physical crimes, and other crimes the US did during the war. Granted the crimes the North Vietnamese did were not shown, but the museum hits close to home too because it shows US soldiers who have had children with deformities due to Agent Orange.

Meeting with Thuy Ngoc in the park across from
my guest house

A couple days later, while traveling around I got lost and was trying to find my way back when a huge downpour happened. I managed to hide under a balcony and after standing there for a bit security came out and tried to help me. He found I knew no Vietnamese and called someone younger out to help me. This girl told me her name was Thuy Ngoc to come inside and she could help me. This was the nicest thing because when I came inside I found it was a college and she and all the students embraced me and loved the chance to speak English. They taught me some games until the rain stopped and then I went on my way but decided I would meet up with the girl before I left Ho Chi Minh city and buy her a drink. One thing to note about Vietnam is that everything is cheap, but to Vietnamese it is still expensive. So to buy someone something really is a grand gesture of friendship that they don't forget.

War Reunification Palace, a chopper like this blew up
two areas of the building and the government
wants people to know about it.

A day or so later I went off to the Reunification Palace which was the site that marked the end of the Vietnam War. When the Americans up and left, the Vietnamese were still fighting and eventually the war ended by the North Vietnamese storming this Palace that, if I understand correctly was the home of the President of South Vietnam. There were a ton of cool rooms to see here and reminded me a lot of the White House tour I went on in December. At the end you get to see another propaganda film, which I always love seeing so I watched it all.

Ho Chi Minh City Post Office

Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh

Stay tuned for Huge update 3: Dalat, Vietnam

Huge update 1: Dragon Boat

First, I have neglected my blog long enough. I haven't written for a while for a few reasons, all July I was traveling around in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. The other reason for the neglect is that I was just being lazy for a while.

This blog will span about 4-5 blogs. First I want to talk about the end of the semester and the beginning of the summer. Blog number two will be Vietnam, then three Cambodia and four will be Thailand.

The end of the semester wrapped up nicely, I got all great grades. Grading in Taiwan is different than in the US because no one, and I mean no one will get higher than about a 92%. But I got lucky and got all A's and B's (which was expected). Chinese, which I wasn't sure if I was going to even pass was passed with a solid B.

After the semester ended we were getting ready for a big event that takes place every year in Taiwan: The Dragon Boat Festival. This event has a history, that might be botched by me but from what I understand is this: Long ago there was a man who drowned in a river (or lake, something) and the people didn't want the fish to eat his body so they raced out and dropped 粽子(zhongzi) down into the water. 粽子 are a rice dumpling that is wrapped with either a bamboo leaf or seaweed, in Taiwan it is traditionally bamboo leaves. The dumplings then are steamed and have a mix of meat, rice and egg inside. I don't like them too much but I know many people that do, the only problem with them for me is that I don't like egg that much. But after a while these dumplings were no longer thrown into the waters they were just eaten as tradition. But nowadays the tradition has steamed into a race where teams from all over the country and all over the world come out and race in boats up a river, or lake. 

My good friend in the middle 阮柏緯.

There are a few dragon boat teams at my university but the one that I became the most friends with was the 文山 (WenShan) dragon boat team. I had a couple international friends that joined the team so I began to hang out with the team at a bar nearby and other places that they went. I was sort of adopted by the team and they were my first large group of Taiwanese to hang out with, I also kind of became their camera man as well. 

Fast forward a bit to race day. I watched them race two times and needless to say, it was extremely hot outside. I hung around with the team while they waited for their race to start and they were very kind to allow me to sit around with them, they even 'force' fed me. I didn't want to impose on the team because they were the ones racing not me, but even the elder team members told me I should eat with them. This is how Taiwanese are, they are always helpful and kind. To me, this race went very well, but they did not end up winning. It has to be said though that this race was a worldwide race, so people from all over the world participated and I got to see the Mayor of Taipei along with some representatives from other countries. 

That night they all went out to eat at a really nice place and, of course they dragged me along. It might sound like I am making excuses but they really did want me around which was so nice of them to keep inviting me places. 

The next day was race number two for them. This day was even hotter and there was little to no shade anywhere. But the day was beautiful and I got there a few hours early to hang out with the team and take some pictures of them warming up and they again, fed me and watered me. After a few hours they were up to bat and their first race went extremely well, they won but did get disqualified for dropping their baton in the water. Not only did the baton fall in but the person at the head of the boat did too because the bot actually broke. But the first races video is here:

The second race everyone knew was going to be a difficult one because they were racing against the Taipei firefighters. The firefighters had one rule while being at the race, they could not talk. They could not talk even to each other in the tent. They were dead silent from the moment the day began. This was their strategy to mentally be strong and put pressure on other teams. They were successful in looking powerful because everyone was talking about them all day. But the race began and once again the 文山 team were doing amazing and racing their hearts out. But in the end they did end up not winning that race and the firefighters did win. The second race video is here:

To talk for a moment about the sport itself and compare it to other sports I will say this. The fans, the teams, the players are all extremely respectful. These races do give people a lot of money and that is an incentive to do well. But one thing I noticed, and maybe it is because I am not close to many athletes in the US or have met the wrong ones, there is a little tension between the teams like there should be because everyone wants to win but there isn't a lot. If I can compare it to a sport it would be like major league sports in the US, the players all respect each other, sure there are some exceptions but for the most part they do. Everyone wants 'their' team to win and that is where the fans can be obnoxious at times, but here at these races, the fans just cheer on their teams and always congratulate the winning team and never have hurt feelings or be angry, even if the team is from Mainland China and the team advocates to take back control of Taiwan, which one team was. 

Gilberto and Emmaida, couple of my Mexico buddies

After the second game everyone just went to the bar that we have become accustomed to going to and had some drinks and just talked.

About a week later the team invited me to a KTV with the team, which is where I coined the phrase 'but I am not on the team', whenever they would do something nice for me. It was all in joking fun because I knew they wanted me around and I wanted to be around them. Like I said before, I was adopted by them. This KTV was funny because there were no English songs but 'Happy Birthday' and 'Hey Jude'. This didn't stop those who don't speak Chinese well from having fun though. So we still ate, drank and had a blast listening to drunk Taiwanese sing and have fun. It was a great experience and one that I won't forget.  

Overall, if I was planning a travel guide to Taiwan, which I am sure some people might use my blog for, I highly recommend seeing the Dragon Boat festival. No matter where you are in Taiwan, there will be one near.

KTV's and crazy weather

The last post was a long time ago but not too much has happened since the last post. School is still going on but life has still been great.

The biggest event that has happened was my attendance to a KTV with some Taiwanese friends. Before heading to the KTV (karaoke party) I only knew one of them. I had helped one with a final project and then was asked if I would like to meet some of her friends and attend a KTV. I was not too sure because it was a little pricey. I'm not sure if I could chalk it up to just being money, I was a little scared to go. The thing that scared me the most was that I would be in a room with only Taiwanese for hours and I didn't know what to expect at all. I am not scared of Taiwanese at all but when you are meeting a whole group of twenty new people you get a little apprehensive. But either way, I decided to go and meet more Taiwanese and maybe meet some people that I can get to know for the next semester of school.

The KTV began at 9:30 pm and after getting some drinks for the KTV room we all sat around in a circle and introduced ourselves to everyone because it was a graduation and birthday party and most didn't know each other. I decided to do mine in Chinese just to fit in with everyone else who was doing the same. Everyone was so nice and supportive of me no matter if I got tones right or not. After this we started eating, talking and singing. We sang all night, until 3:00 am. I didn't sing much but did sing come Celine Dion and then Coldplay, but then I mainly listened and talked to everyone I could and get to know them more. Everyone I met was extremely nice and spoke to me in English whenever I could get the chance to talk to them, which was more than helpful and way too nice. After many drinks, many songs, and many new faces to meet, we all left and went back home.

After the KTV not much went on until a couple days ago when I went to another area of Taipei that I never went before. This Saturday was a really hot day and I went with a friend of mine to see the Taipei Contemporary Art Museum. Before heading there we went for a walk to see a Confucius Temple which was very big and beautiful, but unfortunately way too hot to take any pictures. Then we walked around the town a bit more before deciding to head to the museum to cool off. When we arrived at the museum there was only one problem, after walking all day in extreme heat we were way too tired to look at art so we both decided we should leave and head to the night market to get some food. There wasn't too much to report for this day but it was still a fun day and we got to get out of Muzha for a bit (the district my school is in).

The next day I was up very late Skype-ing, until about 5 am. All of the sudden I thought my bed was breaking because it was shaking, then I thought why am I shaking so much, finally I came to the conclusion: EARTHQUAKE. This was a huge earthquake, I don't really care about the numbers but about the amount of locals that wake up because it is so big that they are scared. The earthquake scared me and gave me a bit too much adrenaline for 5 am so I went to get some breakfast and settle down a bit.

Finally we come to last night, last night we had a down pour; the downpour lasted about six hours of rain and this was non-stop downpour, rain like I have never seen. We woke up this morning all confused and thought what happened. Finally posts started showing up on Facebook about classes being cancelled. I really didn't want to go to class so I thought it would be nice if they were canceled. I checked my email and saw I got an email from AIT (American Institute of Taiwan), which is an unofficial embassy. They told us to stay inside because roads, schools, government agencies, and shops were all being ordered to stay closed. Needless to say, I was a bit happy that class was canceled but the real fun began when I saw the river bank. I really can't describe it but a picture sure can.

In the matter of less than a week we have had: KTV, flash floods, downpours, flooding rivers, earthquakes. Pretty eventful week if you ask me.

中山女中 and 立法院

During the past few weeks I have done a couple things that really couldn't make up a whole blog post so this will have a couple updates that don't really follow the order of the blog.

All the girls

On Friday May 4th I went with my buddy to an all girls school in Taiwan (中山女中). I was invited to this school to give my perception on something dealing with American Culture. This probably was the hardest thing I have had to do in Taiwan because I have trouble describing America to other people because I have many perceptions of it, not to mention that I had to make it interesting for seventy-seventeen year old-Taiwanese girls. My buddy told me that they like Lady Gaga, a lot. So I decided to cater my speech to Lady Gaga while spinning it in an American Culture way. Lady Gaga works hard to speak out for those who do not have a voice and creating the American dream though equal rights; this is something that many do not know about her outside of America. The speech went for 45 minutes and then had a question and answer for any other questions. Taiwanese girls are very pensive, especially in a high school English class where they might not feel confident talking in front of their peers in English. The question and answer went well and I was given a great welcoming afterwards with a picture taken with all the girls. After I was done some of the girls came up to learn more about me and where I come from without their peers watching. This was nice because I knew that they were actually interested in me and I felt like I accomplished what I had come for. Eventually we had to leave and we got our overly-generous payment (1000NTD) and we went out to a great, and expensive, dumpling restaurant in Zhongxia Fuxing Station (忠孝復興站).

Giving the speech

Few of the girls who came to talk afterwards

Mario, Gilberto and Emma making
their famous burritos

The next update is something that went on this week that happens every year at NCCU (國立政治大學), the World Festival. I didn't see much of it because my Chinese class conflicts with most of the events but I did participate in two. The first was a photo competition that was held for all exchange students to tell what they feel about Taiwan through a short paragraph and a picture. Sadly I did not win but a lot of people did say they really enjoyed my pictures that I posted. The second was really fun to walk through, even though I had a short time to do so. This was the food festival where all the countries have food from their countries and share the tastes of their countries with everyone else. I had to go for the French crepes and the Mexican burritos. Everything was so interesting and fun to see, if I had more time I could have easily eaten at every place.

So many people and so much food

The last small update happened today. This morning I headed to the Legislative Yuan (立法院) with my class I have on Tuesday's: Democracy and Democratization in Taiwan. The Legislative Yuan is the law making body of Taiwan and is very interesting to me since I am a political science major. The trip began early in the morning, well 9 am (early for me). We all met up and went into the Legislative Yuan. The trip began kind of unfortunate. In the beginning we were brought into the chamber and listened to some talks by the KMT (ruling party) talk about US beef but then we were promptly kicked out because a vote was about to begin. They kick everyone out just so there is no worry of lobbyists attempting to lobby in the chamber. Then we met with our professors uncle, who has worked in the Yuan for over twenty years. He showed us a film about the Yuan and the process of law making in Taiwan. The system is very similar to the US but just unicameral. When we finished the film we were brought to the cafe inside and were given tea and then brought to a small museum where we saw some old documents regarding the Yuan and even saw a chest that held the documents when the KMT brought them from China in 1949. The next stop was our professor's uncle's office where we sat for a little bit and learned more about the Yuan and then his uncle gave each of us a little parting gift, a mug stamped with a picture of the Yuan.

Kaohsiung weekend trip (週末到高雄)

Life has been a series of ups and downs lately. There are things that are starting to get to me when living abroad, mainly missing family and friends. When I speak to friends on Facebook or Skype I just remember how much fun I had at home, but this does not mean I am not having fun here, I am. It is a normal feeling but just one that bugs me from time to time, I wish I could just live in two places at one time.

Kaohsiung, Taiwan: South-West Taiwan

Other than that I have been very busy. I am studying like crazy still but did have a chance to run away last weekend for a trip down south to Kaohsiung (高雄). This was a great trip, weather in the low to mid 30's, but very exhausting. I took the high-speed rail down, my first ever trip on a high-speed train. It is a little expensive to go this way but was something I had to do. The train was a smooth ride and much more accurate in relation to departure and arrival. In total I was down in two hours, compared to five on a bus. 

When I arrived I met up with my friend who recently moved down there, Dana, we both decided it would be good to get a late dinner so we headed to the 'Canada Town' of Kaohsiung to a bar. We had some 

delicious fish and chips with a couple beers. The night ended late since we were up late talking. 

Needless to say I didn't think I would clear it

The next morning we were up very early to head to a coffee house to pick up a bike they allowed me to use for the weekend. This is a great part of Kaohsiung, you can bike anywhere in the whole city and easily bike across the city in a short time. Dana introduced me to some of her friends at the coffee house, I got along with all of them very easily but Na was the easiest, she is my age and we were able to talk a bit, but only a little since she speaks very little English and my Chinese is below par. 

When we were done there we set off on our bike tour. We headed up the Love River (爱河) which runs right through the whole city. My goal this weekend was to see monkeys, which are known to hide in this city. Our bike trip was very long and arduous since there are many mountains and hills to ride up and without a bike with gears you are kind of out of luck and have to walk some of the way. We made our way to the coast and worked up the biggest mountain I have ever biked. Up the west coast has a few secrets around it. One secret is all the military that is around there. Kaohsiung is the biggest port so there are many military barracks around to keep it safe. The second thing is the monkeys. After biking for about three hours we made it to the top by a military barracks and ran into our first monkey! While we sat there taking pictures there was a couple more that came and eventually there were three adults and two babies. This was the highlight of the hardest bike ride I have ever done. The monkeys were very protective of one another but in all didn't bother us and allowed us to take pictures of them. 

A view in Kaohsiung

Found one!

After seeing the monkeys we headed down the mountain a bit and tried to find the third secret in the area. This is the secret beach which we were told about the night before. After looking for about an hour we were about to give up when we came upon a place that looked like it might be the place we were told about, turns out it was and we were able to have a piece of a beach to ourselves and get away from the tourist beach. Once we finished cooling off we headed back and went to the night market. Since we were on a bike for nine hours I was extremely hungry so got some good food and we had some more drinks back at Dana's. We talked again into the early morning and then put our heads on a pillow and passed out. 

First scooter ride! (A nervous smile)

The next morning we headed back to the cafe to drop off their bike and get some more tea. We sat and talked for an hour or so and met up with Na who decided to join me in helping Dana tutor a student English. Since Na didn't know much English it was a lesson for her too. So Na took me on my first scooter ride in Taiwan. This was a blast because the laws in Kaohsiung are non-existent so it was kind of a crazy ride. We safely made it back to Dana's and started our lesson with the student. We played a game for the whole hour on punctuation and what each one does and means. We actually all had fun even though 3/4 of us were over the age of seven. 

Night market time!

When the lesson was done Dana and I had to run to meet up with some friends of hers at a hostel for a night market trip. This is the thing I love about Taiwan, which has been talked about before but can be put into words easier now. I love night markets. Going to a night market can easily bring anyone who doesn't know each other to great friends. Food brings everyone closer together, and that is a fact. Joanna was the hostel owner who is one of the sweetest women, the others that came with were a man named Jimmy who has a very similar name and seems like a very similar personality and a couple more of his friends. We had some interesting foods that are home to Kaohsiung, like a soup and rice that is a little thicker than normal, and some food that is home to Taiwan, stinky tofu (臭豆腐). Stinky tofu isn't the greatest thing but is okay, I am not a huge tofu eater but I'll try anything once. When we were done here it was time for my quick trip to end and I 

boarded a night bus back to Taipei, five long hours of snoring Taiwanese (no fun). 

A (secret) spot in Kaohsiung

Daily downpours and the daily grind

Main street soaking wet during a downpour.

Life hasn't brought too much different since my last update but I thought I would make a short update on daily life. Lately my life is still Mandarin, Mandarin and more Mandarin. When I am not working on Mandarin I am trying to stay active in other activities. I will be heading to a girls high school to present American Culture to them this week. The topic I chose (mind you it has to keep 75, 17 year old Taiwanese girls attention for an hour) is pop music and the philanthropic work they do on the side. My main focus will be Lady Gaga (who is loved here) and her work she does to help stomp out bullying. The students may know her music but I don't think they will know some of her side projects. I hope it will work just fine. Life hasn't changed too much, but the weather sure has. This week has been the wettest week I have seen since being here. Everyday you wake up and see that it is very nice outside, so why bring an umbrella. Well, after Monday and Tuesday's 3pm downpours, and getting stuck outside with no umbrella I finally learned that in Taiwan you won't look like a fool carrying an umbrella in the nicest of conditions.

Life has been very quiet otherwise, the semester is more than halfway over so everyone has more and more obligations to classes and different university activities. Next week I am planning on getting away from this wretched weather and head south to visit some friends in Kaohsiung, another little get away spot in Taiwan, warm weather, beaches and monkeys! I am also planning on participating in the Model UN that is happening on campus, it is not the official one but it is the one that is run by Taiwan. This will bring me back into my main focus, politics.

But another update will come after my trip to Kaohsiung, with many more pictures too!

A life less ordinary

Before I go back to studying for my Mandarin mid-term I thought I would do some stream of conscious writing and an update:

Many I have spoken to at home say they are afraid to study abroad because they are 'homebodies' or 'they will miss their family.' It really is amazing how far technology has come to make both of those not possible. My life has always been a stable one. I am not ashamed to admit this because I think it has made me stronger in the long run. One of my wishes in my life was to travel, and now I am doing it. I am so happy with the place I have gone and could not have chose a better place to travel to. One of the questions that is always asked by people here is 'Why Taiwan?' This is a very hard question for me to answer. There are so many reasons I came here and I find new ones each and every day. I wanted to get away from America for a bit to see a totally new world. Nothing is more exciting to me than taking myself from what I know and experiencing something totally new. This fulfilled that and gave me more. I never thought I would be learning a language as fast as I am. Granted I am not learning as fast as I wish I could but just to think that almost three months ago I did not even know how to say hello, thank you, and yes. Within three months I have experienced a totally new culture and broadened my mind more than I ever thought I would. Taiwan is a very different country and one that needs to be experienced first hand to truly understand the greatness of a small island that's biggest claim to fame for average Americans is that they create HTC phones.

Having that said here is a little update:

About a week ago Jack and myself went for a hike up Tiger Mountain and had a great time. The hike was really hard but felt great at the top, and had a great view of all of Taipei. That evening we went out to dinner with his father, these nights are always the best in my book. Mr. Chang always has made me feel like family and wants me to know so much about Taiwan, he really does love his country and wants to spread the love. Any questions I have he always wants me to ask, which is nice because I sometimes I have questions that might seem taboo but he allows me to ask and not feel shame in being curious.

Last week we had our spring break, or here it is called Tomb Sweeping Day. This is a day of remembrance for Taiwanese. To put it in the simplest terms, Taiwanese will go to their families graves and clean them and pray for them.  For this most of the international students had planned trips to different areas; some went to Hong Kong and others to spots around Taiwan. My group decided to go to Ken Ting for Spring Scream. This is a festival that is held every year and hosts many beach parties and music from all over the world. We decided to just partake in the free beach parties that were available and just relax on the beaches in paradise.

We took a midnight bus on Thursday night and arrived at 6 a.m. in Ken Ting. The bus was very comfortable and we turned it into a party bus to get ready for our long five day weekend away from the stresses of school. When we got there we all blew off some steam by sleeping for a few hours. A group of two Germans, Martin and Phillip, and myself decided to buy tents and set them up on a campsite to cut down on the price a bit. We purchased our tents for about 500 nt, which is about $15.00. When we started setting them up the price became evident because first my tent broke, then came Martin and Phillp's a bit later. So we decided to get a cabin on the campsite and had the best rest we could have asked for.

Three of us got Ken Ting Boy shirts, totally worth it
1 of the Ken Ting Boy's Ingmar

When we woke up we all regrouped and grabbed some beers and sat near the beach talking into the early morning. Then it was right back to sleep to wait for the next night. The next day we all went to the beach and relaxed for a while just tanning on a private beach of a hotel. The hotel finally caught wind of a bunch of international students at their hotel and asked us to leave. This wasn't a huge problem because we just moved to the public beach. The night brought the same as the last but instead of the beach we checked out a bar.

Our puppy who took over our tent

When we awoke the next afternoon we saw a totally different Ken Ting; the whole town had turned much livelier and and a night market was setting up for the night. Not to mention that we had a visitor who occupied our tent, a baby puppy who would growl at us if we got near but he was so small that he could do nothing and was just very scared, but the cutest little guy. The expected amount of people to attend was around 200,000 but this number seems very large for a street that is about six city blocks. The night came and there were not too many people. We hit the beach for the night and then back to rest up for the next day.

Day three was fairly similar that we went to the beach again and just relaxed. In the evening we went to the private hotel for a beach party. The party was kind of quiet and not much was happening. I meet a great Taiwanese friend Serena and we talked for most of the evening just relaxing by the beach drinking.

Day four was a huge surprise because there were so many more people. This was the official day of Spring Scream starting so many more people showed up to see the happenings of Ken Ting during spring break. Martin, Phillip, and myself decided to go for a hike where we got quite an experience. The mountain we climbed had no path visible so we just climbed freely through the trees and vines. This was the hardest hike I think I have ever done due to the conditions: hot and difficult zig-zagging terrain. We got about 45 mins into our hike when we started smelling something but kept walking a bit further. The smell we had smelled was wild dog excrement and we found this out by the barks that began running towards us. We never saw how many there was but I would guess there were at least four running towards us. Immediately we turned around and ran down the mountain, which took forever to walk up but we were down within 20 mins and finally decided never to go up again.

The mountain we climbed

We ate dinner at a great Thai restaurant and then decided to head to the private hotel that had a free beach party that evening. I decided to stay back and check out the huge night market and see all the different stands that opened up. There were tons of promotions going on and many companies came out to show off. The best show had to be the Svedka Vodka bar that had a huge show going on with music and free shots. It was truly the party experience you see on TV. Along with all the stands there were tons of people all over and some of the best cars I have ever seen racing down the strip. It was one of the craziest places I have ever been. After walking around I went to the beach party we had gone to the night before and it had completely changed. There were a ton more people and the atmosphere was a lot different. Since this was our last night and our bus left in a few hours we just danced and had fun for the last beach party together. The bus brought us back and it was back to reality.

The Foot

The evening of coming back I looked down at my foot and found out that early in our trip I was burned on my foot by candle wax and the burn had become very infected. My foot has swelled up to about 2x the size. This made me very nervous so I made the decision to go the ER. I found out there that my foot had either a second degree or third degree burn that had become infected. They gave me a shot and four prescriptions. Just another experience to check off while in Taiwan.

Now I am just studying for mid-terms and getting worried about my Mandarin mid-term. This is still the most fun class, but is the hardest for me. Tones are really a hard thing to understand but I am slowly getting them more and more.

New food tried: Chicken foot, not too bad all thanks to
my language exchange buddy Yen-ting You

Putting my fingers to the keys and typing

Just a free flow of thoughts:

• Thoughts on Taiwan: I love it. I have extended my stay for one year now, which means I will most likely be back in January. This is a country that has the nicest people and that know what it means to be free. The people are always so helpful and have a smile on their face whenever they help. Compensation is never in order after receiving help. In the West people will refuse compensation until they are asked a couple times. In Taiwan, people do things for you and will refuse compensation or might get a little upset if you don't respect them. The same is with gifts, I am not one to accept gifts but in Taiwan they come often. Friends insist on getting things for one another and have no payback. When I am given something, normally food, I always ask how much I owe them. They refuse to take anything. It is not like me to just not payback. Money is not on their minds, it is the thought that counts. So what I do is reciprocate their actions by buying them something.
   
• Thoughts on my mind: Everyone thinks their mind is different than others, but in reality I find many people who are similar to me. My mind might be very free-flowing and might change often, this might be because I am still young and don't know what direction to take. I like people to think I have stability in my life, but I don't. I love everything which helps and hinders me. I love to try new things and open my mind to everything. Normally when I try something new I have two reactions: either I love it, or I don't like it at all (which doesn't happen often). I run into this all the time. The most recent example is here in Taiwan: I have fallen in love with this county and the people and don't want to leave. I try not to find negatives in life where-ever I am. When I try to think of something negative in Taiwan, I really can't think of one.
  
• Classes: So far classes a going great and I love them all (minus my culture class, which is not unexpected that it has not gotten better). Mandarin is by far my favorite course, maybe it is because of my motivation to learn. But even though I am a very political person, while I am here politics isn't my number one class any longer, it has become Mandarin. The reason for this is because I feel that a second language is extremely necessary in today's world, and Mandarin is a great language to have to get around in the world (also it is fun and challenging). My law class is another challenge because it is a subject I have not previously learned too much about. Law turns into a course that compares many countries views on lawyers and international law. This is always a great thing to hear because I know my opinions on law and lawyers in the U.S. but not in Taiwan, Mexico, or Ecuador. 

The busiest week ever

There are a couple reasons I have not been able to do a blog post recently. The first reason is that I am not doing much lately, traveling has stopped and I have began studying a lot. As stated previously, I have been taking my Mandarin course five days a week for three hours per day. This has kept me very busy. I have never been so busy in my whole life.

Full-time Mandarin is just that, full-time. I rarely have the ability to go out and hang out with friends which is a downer. But there is a very large upside to learning the language; after three weeks of being in the course I am not able to carry on some conversations. This is obviously no where close to fluency but I am on my way. Normally Mandarin takes up about seven hours per day, at least (not including talking to Taiwanese and extra studying some days). For me, I am not learning the language as fast as most so I need extra time to study. Recently, I picked up a language exchange with two Taiwanese twice a week for two hours; I talk to them for one hour in English, then we talk or work on my assignments for another hour. Then I also talked to a Japanese student in my class and we are going to work together outside of class. He barely speaks English so it will have to be mainly Mandarin spoke, which will help us both.

I have tried to break away from the international students more and more. By doing this I am meeting more Taiwanese and am using what I have been learning in class outside. This is essential in learning the language, and most likely the reason why Spanish did not stay in my mind. Also the Taiwanese don't drink and party all the time, which is a good thing because I am not here on holiday, I am here to study. I do like to go out some nights or have a couple drinks every once in a while, but not as much as the other international students do.

Much of my time lately has been spent in the last week is in the upper campus. The upper campus houses the dorms and has most of the Taiwanese that are not from Taipei, along with the international students who don't want to be partying and around only international students. Eventually I am hoping to move up there, maybe within the next month.

Just today I woke up early and went with my language exchange and her friend to MaoKong (猫空) and took a gondola ride to the tea houses up on the mountain. On our way up we took the see-through car called the Eye of MaoKong and it was really cool to be able to see how high we were just by looking down. When we got to the top we went to a temple that was recently built and then made our way back to a tea house. At the tea house everything is made with tea or using tea. We had a meal of rice that was cooked with tea, meat that had a tea based broth and some vegetables that were steamed in tea. Everything was extremely good, I could eat up there everyday. After our meal we then had our tea. This was another very interesting part and very cultural. I have never actually made tea like a Taiwanese before, I normally take a tea bag and throw it in water, sometimes adding honey. When you prepare 茶(tea) in Taiwan you get two tea pots, 二杯子 (two cups), the 茶 (tea), and a bowl. What you first do is heat the water then add the hot water to the bowl. Then a smaller tea pot goes into the water with the tea in it. You add water to the smaller pot and wait thirty seconds. You then take the tea pot and pour it into a tall cup, this is a cup that you smell (like wine, the smell enhances the taste). Once you smell it you take the smaller cup and put it on top of the tall cup upside-down and flip. After you flip it you carefully remove the tall cup and your tea is ready. It was very new to me and I thought it was a new fun way to drink tea. 

From rain to earthquakes - Alishan and Tainan

The past few weeks have been quiet exciting. School has finally begun and I am all settled into the course that I am taking. My favorite course has to be International Law Practice because it is a course that has many Taiwanese students that are studying for law school in America. Alongside them are one girl from Mexico, one girl from Ecuador, and me. We all bring different experiences we have with international law and the UN. Originally the course didn't have enough students in it to continue the class but we came and filled in the openings. This made the professor tell us that the course would be taught in half Mandarin and half in English and we could stay and make it so there is a class, or we could leave; we all thought it would be fun to take it and meet some Taiwanese students. The professor greatly appreciated us staying.

Our first nights rest

After our first week of class was over we had a long weekend, as if my vacation has not been long enough yet. There was much deliberation but we finally decided to go to Alishan for the weekend. Alishan is a mountain in the center of Taiwan and is known for hiking and it's beautiful sunrise each morning. We departed from the bus station at 23:00 and assumed that it would take around five hours to get there, well we were wrong. It took us about two and a half hours to get to the train station was to take us to Alishan. Then we found that the train to Alishan was broken and we had to take a bus which was not too big of a problem, if the bus didn't come at 06:00.

Alishan - Beautiful

So we were stuck in a bus station in Chiayi for about four or five hours. So we found a small spot to sleep for the 'night'. Finally we got on our bus to Alishan. I had about two hours of sleep that night so I slept on the bus for three hours. After arriving we went to our hostel and set down all of our things we went for our hike. There are not too many words that can describe how this hike was. To be honest I felt sick from the lack of sleep and did not have the best time at all, oh - and did I mention we were there during a downpour of rain... After about three hours of hiking we decided to head back all soaked from the rain. I was tired, and cranky, so decided to take a nap. I woke up around 18:00 and got some food and drinks. We all drank and ate some food in the rooms with some other travels we met, one from Madison, WI.

Forest Railway Station at Alishan, 05:00 sunrise

The next day we had to move out, because it was a hostel for only the night. Our train left at 04:00 to see the sunrise at Chushan. We got up there and waited for a bit, and it was almost as good of a sunrise as our hike was the day before. The time came for the sun to rise and we saw nothing the horrendous fog made us not be able to see anything, almost like seeing a sunrise in England.

Emmaida showing the beautiful sunrise

So far, the trip isn't going so well. We regrouped and had a laugh about it but had to find something to do or somewhere to go because we had no accommodation and there were no hotels to stay in. After a bit of discussion we decided to head south and hopefully find something or sleep in another bus station. Next destination: Tainan.

Tainan is located in the south west tip of Taiwan and is very historical. This is the area that the Dutch first came to and 'settled'. Once again, we had no accommodation there and being that this was a holiday weekend and a historical city we were traveling to, all the hotels were books three months in advance. Many Taiwanese go to Tainan to visit family and to their families temples. So we were asking on the train, practicing our broken Mandarin to get a place to stay or to see if anyone knew of something. Out of no where a man told us he would help us find a place to stay. He took us around the city for a short while asking in hotels and then took us to one near the train station. They said they had one room and it was 'Japanese Style.' This is an interesting concept which simply translates to some mattresses on the floor. The price was high but we had no where else to stay, so we took it.

Fort Zeelandia

After dropping our bags and seeing what a room for eleven looks like, we met up with one of the travelers, Nicholas, buddy from NCCU and her friend. They carted us all around the city while we ate everything we could find in the city. Our first dish was at a day market and we had octopus balls and a ham bao with chicken. Then our amazing guides took us to Fort Zeelandia, a Dutch built fort in the 1400's. This is very historical for Taiwanese and a big part of Taiwan history. Afterwards we traveled to a couple temples, which are everywhere in Tainan. During the evening the girls took us to the largest night market in Tainan, and maybe in Taiwan. The night market was huge and had wall to wall people. Lines for food were practically non-existent. After much squeezing around people and being in peoples way we just took a break and waited for the others. This night market is a must see, but patience is required, luckily I had patience this day. After this our guides left us for the night and went back to their homes and said they were coming for us again at 11:30 the next morning for more touring of Tainan.

Ham bao

Octopus balls, not bad 

Just a side note, Taiwanese are the nicest people in the world. I see it like a job interview. When one is a job interview they are asked 'What is a flaw you have?' This questions then has to be answered in a way that it is not actually a flaw. Taiwanese would say 'Well I give a lot to people and never want anything in return at all.' 

Ah night markets in Tainan.

So we returned to the hotel and got ready to head to a bar for the evening. This was a nice place to relax. We had a couple drinks and played some pool for the evening. It was a 'Western' bar or more like an American bar. The atmosphere was very home-like and it felt good to have that feeling for once.

Just making fools of ourselves during an earthquake

We left the bar and returned to the hotel around 02:00 and slept until our wake up call at 11:00. Our wake up call was quite an interesting one: an earthquake. Being on the lucky 13th floor of a hotel during a 6.2 magnitude earthquake is not what I thought I would wake up to. But I wanted to experience an earthquake so that was my first. We all left the room and ran down 13 floors to the ground, in very little clothing. When we got to the first floor everyone was staring at us like we were crazy, which we were and we decided to do a walk of shame back upstairs because we were safe.

The girls arrived and laughed at us for our stupidity and we learned it was the biggest earthquake in Taiwan in two years, pretty exciting. They took us first for more food, this day was for a Tainan specialty, eel noodles. I was very afraid to try this at first but I learned that I am making the right decision to try everything that is put in front of me, eel noodles taste amazing.

Eel noodles, with chili powder.

Fort Provintia

After lunch we ran over to another Dutch fort, Fort Provintia. This is another famous fort that is in Tainan, adding to it's colorful history. We ran around to another temple and then to a Confucius garden to rest for a bit. Then the Museum of Books, very briefly because we wanted to see more of the city. Our dinner was in another night market, but this one was much smaller and we got another famous meal: instant noodles. This is like Ramen, but they make it so much better by adding meat and egg to it; you would never know it was instant noodles. We had to make our way to the train next because we had to come back to Taipei. First we took another stop to get more food of course. I got a shaved ice and fruit, which was heavenly and a lime juice with gelatin. The girls then gave us a present, living up to the Taiwan way of always giving and never wanting anything in return. The present was pudding from Tainan, another delicacy in the city.




Which concludes our adventure to the south! We all had fun and in all I approve of both place, just plan on Alishan in the summer rather than winter or spring. Tainan is a must for all travelers.

Goodbye Tainan

Not your average home in Taipei

The day after this we were invited to a house, which is rare in Taiwan, to watch the Oscars. When you hear a house in Taipei, it is normally a mansion. This was, a mansion. I have never, and don't think I have been in a bigger 'house' (the White House is big but is also a place of work). The owners father just passed away so the whole first floor was filled with flowers, probably around 400+ flowers in the bottom floor alone. Then we took the elevator to the third floor to the KTV (karaoke) / theater room. We attempted to get the TV to work, but failed, so we drank a bit then took a cab to the mother's home of the girl that invited us. This was more of a normal sized home and we all just ate a lot of food and had some drinks.

Our Thai meal to thank the girls for all they did to help
us around Tainan 

This past week was not so interesting, we all were tired and broke from traveling so we just relaxed around the university. I had only one class this past week but this next week starts Mandarin which will be five days a week three hours a day, which I can't wait for. To thank the girls we took them to a great Thai restaurant and then just went to the river to relax for a bit in the evening.