Taiwan - October 2-5, 2010

October 1^st was China’s National Day (國慶節), similar to America’s July 4^th.  I went Taiwan for 5 days.  It was the perfect place to go as a lone traveler.  It was safe, the people were incredibly friendly, and there were so many opportunities to wander.  Each day, I would just wander, all day long.  I absolutely loved it and here are some of my favorite things:

Great public transportation system

Taipei’s Metro Rapid Transit (MRT) has lines spanning the city.  It was cheap, efficient, and easy to ride.  It enabled my day-long wanderings.  

Waiting lines.  These remind me of how kindergarten classes have spots marked on the carpet for each student to sit and how we all need a little guidance when it comes to coexisting with others.  

Public spaces

I visited two memorials, one for Sun Yat-sen and one for Chiang Kai-shek.  What struck me most about these places was that they were beautiful public spaces for people to gather and hang out.  I saw people flying kites, kids blowing bubbles, people walking their dogs, old men playing chess, young people working on dance routines, people meditating.  If I lived in Taipei, I could see myself reading a book on a bench or going there to jog.   

Sun Yat-Sun Memorial

Chess

Meditating

 

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial - arched entryway

The memorial

Inside the memorial

Changing of the guards - a precise and polished ritual executed every hour

View from the Memorial.  You can see the vast plaza, the arched entryway, the National Theater on the right and the National Concert Hall on the left. 

Dragon dancing

Flower girls

Organized streets

Coming from the lawlessness of Shantou traffic, I appreciated how organized the streets of Taipei were.  The roads had lines, designating bike paths, pedestrian crosswalks, and areas for mopeds to wait during red lights.  Vehicles yielded to pedestrians.  It was so civil.  I didn’t have to worry about mopeds riding up on the sidewalk behind me.  I could cross the street without dodging trucks, cars, mopeds, bikes, or rickshaws.  Vehicles were not constantly honking, insisting on their right of way.  For the first time in the last month or so, I felt safe walking around. 

Neat and organized

Boxed areas for mopeds to wait at intersections.

Random Street Art

There are statues and benches scattered throughout Taipei, making it a very pleasant city in which to stroll.  

Stationary supplies galore!

If I lived in Taiwan, I would be so organized.

Food

The food was delicious and cheap.  Along with little restaurants everywhere, there were several night markets, open from 6 pm or so until midnight, where you can get good, cheap food.  I even went to two in one night just to extend my wandering and grazing.  I particularly liked the fruit, which was so ripe and juicy, as well as the fruit drinks, blended from the amazing fruit.  I wished I had more capacity for more drinks and snacks.  

Oyster omelet from the Hauxi Night Market - It was made of oysters and eggs and covered with a sweet, red sauce.

Bbq cart at the Shida night market

Fruit at the Shilin Night Market

The original Din Tai Fung located on Xinyi Road.  This restaurant was rated one of the 10 best restaurants in the world.  There is also a location in Arcadia, CA.

Xiao Long Bao at Din Tai Fung

Zha Jiang Mian at a little eatery in an alley.  I went into this place because it had a long line.  I couldn't really read the Chinese menu, except for distinguishing noodles from soup, so I asked the waitress what their best dish was, using my limited Chinese knowledge. This was it - 香菇炸獎麵.

Shopping

Ximending - a pedestrian shopping area

 

Temples

Longshan Temple

Confucius Temple

Baoan Temple

Culture

I went to the National Palace Museum, with its rich collection of Chinese art and artifacts.  There are 93,000 pieces and only 1% can physically be on display at a time.  The collection included jade, ceramics, enamelware, bronzes, landscape paintings, and calligraphy. 

The National Palace Museum

Nature

Taroko National Park - about a 3-hour train ride from Taipei on the eastern side of Taiwan.  It’s a very dramatic landscape of mountains, marble walls, and a narrow and deep gorge. 

Friendly people

I had never been to a place where people were so kind and helpful.  Whenever I asked for directions, people were glad to stop whatever they were doing and give me detailed information with a smile, and they were willing to chat some more.  When I was at Taroko National Park, the distances between the scenic spots were far, and one couple just pulled over to the side of the road to offer me a ride.  Another time, a worker was on his way home, and he offered me a ride on his moped to my next stop.  Where else do people offer strangers rides?  

I was stranded at Taroko National Park and had to hitchhike.  These ladies offered me a ride all the way back to Hualien, which is at least a 30-minute drive.  They even fed me dinner and dropped me off at my hostel door.  They were extraordinarily kind. 

I found Taiwan to be a beautiful place and I look forward to visiting again. 

中秋節－ Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival is a 3,000-year-old tradition that is celebrated on the 15^th day of the 8^th moon, the same day as the autumnal equinox.  I have 3 days of vacation, though only one day is the official holiday and the other two are borrowed from the weekend.  I have to work the Sunday before and the Sunday after to make it up.  I don’t see much around the city in terms of decorations or festivities.  People celebrate by going home to spend time with their families and by eating mooncake, which is made up of a pastry shell, a sweet bean paste filling, and an egg yolk in the center.

Lafayette 148, the clothing company that funds the school, had a celebration at their office.  They set out a buffet of snack-type food.  And students from the school performed.

 

Lunch

Everyday at about 11:30, the central area erupts with noise.  The teachers take stacks of little plastic chairs and tables and drop them into rows.  The classes get dismissed one at a time, the students wash their hands in the bathroom, and then race to their designated rows.  The food is rolled out on a two-tiered cart in big metal bowls.  There’s rice, a couple of dishes, and soup.  The adults serve out the food into smaller metal bowls, while a few students from each class distribute the bowls.  It seems like a big production everyday to serve food to the 260 students, but they manage. Throughout all of this, the students are chatty and they are sitting in close quarters, but there is never any fighting.  The kids seem to know the boundaries of acceptable behavior.  As they finish their rice, they can get soup.  When they finish eating, they help to stack the chairs and tables.  A few students get brooms and sweep the area clean.  It all works like clockwork.  By noon, the students are in their classrooms doing work, while the teachers have their lunch.  

The rows of tables and chairs

The adults portion the food into bowls, while a few students distribute the bowls to the others.

A happy pre-schooler,  named Ming Ling, who is the daughter of one of the teachers

Second graders waiting for their food.  You can see their uniforms.  The girls have red plaid and the boys have blue plaid.

Upper graders chowing down

 

The School

Let me tell you about the school that I work at: 

It’s called the School of Dreams.  It’s in an old warehouse, in which they’ve built classrooms along the perimeter of the building, and a stage and a playground in the center.  Each classroom has rows of tables and benches, with 2 students per table.  The classrooms have a blackboard, a projector screen, a stage, and a podium, with fans on the walls for circulation (no A/C). 

The center of the warehouse where there is a basketball hoop and ping pong tables.  People also park their scooters and bikes here.  The car belongs to the headmistress.

The stage

A classroom

The teachers rotate between the classrooms, as opposed to each teacher having his/her own room.  Each teacher has a cubicle space in a central office to do planning and grading.  However the English teacher (me) gets a private office, where I have a computer and internet, so Skype with me please :)  I have a break at work from 8-9pm PST Monday-Friday.

My office

There is a kitchen/dining area, where a cook makes lunch for the 260 kids and 16 adults.  The food is made from scratch, using fresh ingredients. It’s not processed, frozen, and reheated as cafeteria food often is in America.  Lunch is definitely a nice perk to this job.  I just go to the dining area at noon, the food is ready, I eat, and then they wash the dishes. 

The bathroom has one row of toilets for the boys, one row for the girls, and there are two private bathrooms for the adults, one with a squatty potty and one with a western style toilet.  Again, they gave special consideration for the foreign teacher. 

There are about 260 students from Preschool to 6^th grade, with about 40 students in each grade.  The order of the grades is preschool (學 前 斑), grade 1 (一 年 級), grade 2 (二 年 級), grade 3 (三 年 級), etc.  There’s no kindergarten.  At first I thought it was weird for it to go from preschool to 1^st grade, because a preschooler is so much different than a 1^st grader in America.  But I have come to see that the numbering system is quite logical – you have a pre school grade, then you have the 1^st grade, with the 1^st grade being quite basic and foundational.

The principal here is better translated as a headmistress – 校 長 – the first word means school and the second word means the head, so she is the head of the school.

The students have 7 periods each day from 8:10 am to 4:20 pm.  The subjects that they study are Chinese language, math, P.E., music, arts and crafts, and foreign language (English).  I guess they learn some science and history in their Chinese class, but they study this more in middle and high school. 

These are a few of the things that I’ve noticed being different here.  If there is anything else you want to know, just ask :)