Taipei livin’

I’m back!

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:21:53 +0800

Hey everybody! I’m sorry that it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything, but classes were a little more intense than even my grimmest expectations. However, I’ve spent the last 8 weeks at leisure (well, a very active leisure) and I’m finally putting up all of my photos from this period, as well as from the months before. There are A LOT of photos, so I don’t recommend trying to look at them all in one sitting. Hopefully, none of you will have problems viewing the regular photos. I know some people have had problems with the videos, so I’m going to try to publish them on a separate page somewhere. It always seems to have a hard time publishing them. Let me know if there are big problems.
Anyway, we turned in our last final exam and research paper just the day before Christmas, so we were really working right up until the end. James arrived the day after Christmas and we spent his couple of weeks checking out Taipei & Northern Taiwan, as well as spending 5 days in Hong Kong. We really lucked out on the weather in Hong Kong. Thaya and Aaron met us there and we at least got to go out to dinner with them and check out the fabulous view from the Peak. Forgive the multitude of photos of the Hong Kong skyline; it’s spectacular! James bought a fancy new camera and we took literally thousands of photos while he was over. I narrowed them down dramatically here for you all, but in the interest of getting this up before classes started again, I didn’t go through and analyze them closely to narrow it down to the best photo of every spot. You may want to savor the photos, anyway, since classes start a week from today and there may not be any new ones put up again for awhile!
James left in the second week of January, which wasn’t long enough, but he’ll be back in just 4 1/2 weeks for my spring break! It was the best being able to show him around Taipei and Hong Kong. My favorite person and two of my favorite places! After he left, Thaya and Aaron and I went to Hualien on the spectacular east coast of Taiwan to visit our friends Jill and Allan. We got to see Taroko Gorge, which is one of Taiwan’s natural highlights. I then went on a short trip down along the western coast of Taiwan to see Kending National Park at the very southern tip of the island and Tainan, Taiwan’s oldest city. Soon afterwards, my friend Lorna arrived, making the long trip from Scotland. We spent her 9 days between Taipei and Hong Kong. We weren’t as lucky with the weather, but got to experience Chinese New Year in all its splendor. It was really great to have her over, we always have such a great time when we travel together. Now I’m back in Taipei with only a week to go before classes start. Thaya and I have to spend that time running errands (getting our national insurance cards, etc) and trying to remember everything that we learned last semester so that we don’t get ruined this semester. I’ll try to check in again here when James is over in March. The provisional plan is Beijing to see the Padres play the Dodgers at the new Olympic baseball stadium. Awesome! In the future, I’ll put new photos at the beginning of the albums, so you can quickly see if there is anything new. Albums like “Food” and “Taiwan Awesomeness” get more updates than others for obvious reasons. Anyway, I hope all of you are well. Apologies if my correspondence has been inconsistent. It’s been quite an experience!

Double Ten Day

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 14:02:28 +0800

Taiwan’s version of the Fourth of July. It celebrates the start of the Wuchang Uprising of 1911, which led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. It is also celebrated on the Mainland on October 1st for slightly different reasons. It’s a national holiday with the requisite fireworks display over the river and elaborate speeches made by the President and Leader of the Executive Yuan. There was a little bit of hoopla this year because President Chen Shui-Bian didn’t hang the traditional Long Live the Republic of China banner on the Presidential Palace, instead keeping up the gigantic UN for Taiwan banner he has up there. Chen is actively pushing for UN membership under the name Taiwan instead of the Republic of China because the US and pretty much everyone else won’t recognize Taiwan as a separate political entity from Mainland China under that name. In reality, they won’t recognize them regardless of the name because of the bullying power of China, but it makes the lack of recognition a little more outrageous than it already is. Anyway, we went down to the Presidential Palace to check out the parade only to learn that we couldn’t get anywhere near the Palace and had to stand on a street corner a few blocks away. Unfortunately, we were therefore only able to watch the military parade, where Taiwan shows off its might. The Pentagon put the ixnay on them showing off their newest missile which the US helped them manufacture, but we got to see lots of other weaponry. The highlight was the Navy Seal types who sat on their inflatable boat on the back of a truck at attention. Some were shirtless and had their massive muscles fully greased up, the others were in full wetsuit, mask, etc getup. They looked like Tie Fighter pilots from Star Wars. Very ominous. Must’ve been scorching in the heat. They must be pretty tough. Anyway, we had to go home and do homework, so we watched the fireworks on TV. At least we got the day off from classes! Photos and film on the My Albums page.

Our Trip to Luo Dong

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:28:03 +0800

Thaya and I had our first trip out of Taipei a few weeks ago and it was awesome! Our friend Keith (the best outing organizer in town!) rounded up a motley band of foreign and local pals and we all went to visit some friends who live closer to the East Coast of the Taiwan. Luo Dong is in Ilan County which is on the NE Coast. We were a group of nearly a dozen: 1 Korean, 1 German, 2 Americans, 2 French, 3 Japanese and 5 or 6 Taiwanese (mostly law students with a couple of biologists and a computer science/Chinese student thrown in). We went to a party in a local community center where they treated us to an outrageous feast, had us drink gallons of beer and wine and do a lot of karaoke. We then went back to our friends’ house where we played Korean drinking games and chatted until 3 in the morning. The next morning we were up bright and early to go for a spectacular hike. Our friend’s parents took us up to a National Park where we hiked past a series of small waterfalls to get to the big one where we got to swim in the glorious cold water. I only have one picture of the big waterfall because there was so much water in the air I couldn’t use my camera in the area. On the way back down, our ‘dad for the day’ took us to every secret swimming hole under every waterfall. Amazing! The water was cold, fresh and clean and everything was so green and lush. It was really spectacular. The scenery was beautiful, our hosts were so generous and gracious and our new friends are so much fun (and excellent singers, naturally). Can’t wait for our next trip! (Check my albums for all the related photos.)

Super Typhoon Krosa

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:14:14 +0800

Yes, that’s a real wave hitting Ilan County on the East coast (the same place we visited a week earlier to see the waterfalls in Luo Dong).
So a couple of weeks ago we had our second Super Typhoon (I guess it becomes ‘Super’ when it hits Category 4 or 5) of the month. Krosa was much bigger than Wipha, at least in that the eye passed very close to Taipei, whereas Wipha’s eye stayed off the north coast of the island. We really got the full brunt of the storm this time. It definitely felt as strong as some of the big hurricanes I remember as a kid, but here in Taiwan they don’t seem to use storm shutters, which was a bit worrying. I was worried about our living room windows, since they’re so big. Mom speculates that they use storm glass like hers that can withstand up to 145mph winds. Krosa had sustained winds of 145mph with gusts up to 175. Crazy! We heard that a million people were evacuated from the coast. There were luckily only two deaths and a half dozen or so serious injuries. Taiwan is so efficient and organized that I’m sure you don’t get the crazy people like in the States who insist on staying in their homes when the waves are crashing in their windows. We attempted to go out once on an ill-advised trip to the mall only a block away, but were thwarted by the elements. During a break in the storm, we headed around the corner for supplies, but once we got onto the big boulevard that the mall is on, the wind was ferocious. During Wipha, the mall was packed, but this day it was closed up. I was worried about flying debris, so we quickly booked back to the house. There was a couple attempting to ride their scooters even though all the scooters parked on the street had been blown around. We saw a lot of images on the news of tiny women in ponchos and high heels getting blown over on their scooters. Taiwan’s funniest home videos - Typhoon edition. I tried to take a few movies so that you can see and hear the rain and wind. Since we couldn’t really leave the house, they’re mostly of the same view, but you do get a little taste. Naturally, I couldn’t open the windows when it was really bad, but hopefully you get the feeling. They’re short, so have a listen. Check out the Krosa album for the action shots. I assumed the season was over until this one hit, so I’m not sure how many more we might get. I’ve heard there’s already another one brewing...

So what’s new?

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 11:03:44 +0800

I’m going to try to write something tonight. Just wanted to get the new photos up. New stuff in most albums - check it out!