大龍峒保安宮 (Bao An Temple)

Today, my delightful roommate and I took a walk, an MRT ride, and another walk to Bao An Temple. After eating at the third Korean restaurant I've dined at since coming here. Lots of Korean places here, or perhaps I just notice them more because they tend to be sit-down type places, and the district where I live has a whole lot of street vendors.

The food is good, but there are few variations to what I've been having. I need to diversify. Wonderful noodles, meets spicy vegetables and a couple of curious sides with every meal. Unless I get a soup meal, in which there's broth, veggies, thin slices of some type of meat, usually with about 30% fat (which, contrary to what you might think, is delicious), and noodles shaved off from a wheat dough block. Sometimes, there's even shrimp or somesuch. And it's all usually $100NT or less (Less than $4USD). I eat two meals a day out, though, and there's got to be some cheap other-type-food around here.

And they usually have mirrors in front of you, because the shops are so small. Makes it look like there's more room. 

And on we went to Bao An Temple. The name means security, or serenity, and you can see why. The place is beautiful, with lots of swooping dragon motifs, and ski-slope roofs. 

This style is usually reserved for Emperor's houses or a place of the gods. And this temple had a lot of them (gods, that is). The main one in the center of the courtyard was for Guan Yin, whom I mentioned before. My roommate was telling me that the lore about her comes from a Military General in the Waring States period. And this guy became a legend, feminized, and deified into this quite popular goddess here.

The courtyard had lots of plants, flowers, bonsai, and tablets. A worshiper kindly informed Pat and I that this tablet was written on by all the generations of the masters of this temple. I loved the orchids, and all the lights. The bonsai, the incense, the color. It was all so good.

On the way home, or rather, in our roundabout walk back to the MRT station, my stomach began to complain. Conveniently enough, we stumbled into a fruit market, selling the typical fruits one would find in Taipei markets: watermelon, lichee, apples, asian pears, durian, huge carrots, wax apples, and my favorite, Mangoes. We're coming up on Mango season in Taiwan, and this is one excited blogger. I can't get enough of these things. I'm trying to justify the costs of a mango a morning, but we'll see what my budget says. Hopefully these things get dirt cheap as the season progresses. Either way, I'll miss the little buggers when I go home. I can't remember if I posted this before, but mangoes here don't have that green, grassy taste that they do in the states. The ones here are ripe, delicious, juicy, and wonderful over shaved ice. My mouth is watering. Tomorrow will be a mango day.

Anyway, back to the walk. Pat and I also met this lovely lady who had pre-washed, cut wax apples. They sure hit the spot. I had a bit of a time conjuring her up for a photo, especially since she had a thick Taiwanese accent, but I couldn't miss this. She is so beautiful. And sweet.

Lastly, this is a pic from the balcony of the building that I have my classes in. The plants caught my eye, and I had to sneak out of the class ad snap this shot, just to show how much cooler and plant-friendly the Taiwanese folks are. I can't wait to have a balcony full of trees someday!

That's all for tonight, folks. More to come, for sure! Zài Jiàn.

你想要照片嗎？我給你照片吧。(You Want Pictures? I'll Give You Pictures!)

I found my chord. And here are some results with notes:

A couple of days ago, I went for a walk with one of my classmates late at night. Our way led us around our district, and I saw some interesting things. This was of most interest to my lens:

Something's a bit off with the aperture, I think, but I liked the composition. The light was just amazing; you should've been there.

Anyhow, I forgot to mention a couple of events in my last post until I got the pictures in front of my face. So here are some from our visit to a hookah bar a few blocks from our house. Actually, they served really good kabab, and gyros meat, as well, and some nice Asian beer.

One nice thing about living in such a happening district is that there are good restaurants, night markets, and goings-on all the time. Even on weeknights, you can wade through droves of people to get some 小吃 (xiàochī) or little eats. And cheap too: I usually eat well for about $100NT (or about $3.30 USD) or less.

Another great thing about living here is that there is a wonderful subway system. Did I mention that it was one of the most, if not the most expensive subways to build, yet it's the one of the cheapest to use? Yeah. And it's super clean, super fast, and super... super. Even a bunch of students who don't speak Chinese can figure it out!

Speaking of, as I mentioned in my last post, we had a heck of a time in Ximending (西門町, for those interested) getting some crazy additions to our wardrobes. Here are some images to help with your visualization:
This guy thought it was great that we were wearing all this crap, and wanted a picture. Even among the crazy 'tweeners, we were quite a hit.

I think the glasses are my favorite. I might get some actual lenses in them sometime. The pants were a bit tight, but appropriate in a British/American boys-who-wear-girl-pants-indie kind of way.
But no one could top this kid's outfit. This is what I mean when I say Jap-pop meets Nascar.

I also forgot to mention that we went to the Dragon Boat races on Friday in preps for the Dragon Boat Festival's big race on Sunday. Or perhaps I didn't forget, but forgot that I had remembered. Anywho, this is the NTNU Mandarin Training Center's (where I'm studying) dragon-boat team. They crushed their competition, but it was only the first heat in a tournament. 

And last, but not least, the barbecued squid. This stuff was so delicious. So fresh you can almost hear the little cephalopod screaming. It's sacrifice was not in vein, though. It nourished me for quite some time. Thanks dude/dudette!

The Dragon Boat race was a wonderful time to get portraits of my friends, too. I posted quite a few of those pics on FaceBook, and even put them in the FaceBook group for our trip. I just don't feel comfortable putting them here for some reason. 

One last update: I feel really good about my class now. I got to being social, instead of being a tortoise hiding in my Shell of Dauntedness, and found that the other students in my class were pretty lost as well. But today, I came to class with a new set of ears, and am able to understand a lot more than I had originally thought. Plus we now have a Nicaraguan and a guy from Poland in my class, new students. I'm pretty excited about all that. I think we'll have some good times together. And I performed well, too, on my quiz--as we all know, our value in life comes from our academic performance... ;-)

That's it for me. Any thoughts?

Cordless

Hello.

So, I've been looking for the mini-USB cord that connects my camera to my computer for about 2 days, and I know that it's around here somewhere. I am trying to organize, but something tells me that I'm going to have to go get a card reader. Anyhow, I thought I'd updated you all on the goings on here.

A couple of days ago, on Wednesday, we met our language partners from the university here who are Chinese speakers that need to practice their English. We're doing a language exchange. It's kinda cool. So we met, got lunch, and went to the National Palace Museum. It was incredible. A lot of Chinese culture is wrapped up in the art and artifacts that they have there. Especially the jade and wood carvings and porcelain. Perhaps the most famous artifact at the museum is a jade carving in the form of a bunch of celery called Cuiyu Bai Cai (翠玉白菜). On it, there are two courting grasshoppers. The genius of this carving is that the carver, in a very Taoist manner, saw that he should reserve the green part of the stone for the leaves and grasshopper, and the white for the stalks. In this way, he worked in harmony with nature to effortlessly craft this masterpiece.

The following day, we started class. I've never felt so in-over-my-head in my life. So much Chinese languge, so little English. I walked away wondering what in God's name I was supposed to do for the next class. I didn't catch the homework, if there was any, and I spent most of the time fumbling through the lesson. I haven't felt like that since I started Spanish 301 at Calvin College my first semester there! After class A couple of us went out and about and I returned home promptly to get in some studying.

My class has two Japanese students, a British one, one from India, one from Malaysia and me. Needless to say, we're all a little hard of understanding when the teacher starts off blurting out Chinese very rapidly.

Yesterday was day two, and I still feel very daunted. I'm way behind in my knowledge of Chinese characters compared to my other classmates, so this weekend is all about not doing to much other than studying characters, tones, and grammatical constructions. I could drop down to a lower level, but I tested into a high level and I'd like to make the most of it. These first few days, though, are bound to be pretty arduous.

After class yesterday, a bunch of us GVSU students went to Ximending, the hippest, coolest, most trendy 'tweener hot spot in Taipei. We ended up getting some pretty ridiculous outfits and parading around looking like Japanese pop got in a train wreck with American Nascar. I wish I could find that camera cable...

Today, I went with my classmates from GVSU to the Taipei Computex Computer Expo. It was pretty interesting to see all the newest technology, but I felt that I was a bit too far on the consumer end of the spectrum, as the expo was definitely geared toward businesspeople. Afterward, our whistles were wet to buy some gadgets so we went to the technology district to check out cheap computers. A couple of my classmates bought a computer each that is super small and pretty cheap (about $500USD). Great as a peripheral for taking to class and whatnot. I'm not on the market for those, but I am on the market for an electronic Chinese-English dictionary. These things are really helpful, and even have a speaker so the machine says the Chinese words. Great help with pronunciation. The downside is that these things run about $200. I'm going to see if I can find a much cheaper version, as I think it will serve me quite well for years in the future. 

Tonight, we're going out to dinner for a member of our group's birthday. Should be fun. We might end up going to Karaoke, which is a pretty big thing here in Asia. It's called KTV and it promises to be quite the event.

I'll keep searching for my camera. Sorry, this post was probably boring, due to the lack of images. Next time, I won't disappoint.

Feel free to comment.

Hakka Tour

Today started early at 7:15 am with the boarding of a tourbus. NTNU organized a day long trip to Sanyi province to the south, where we were to experience a different flavor of Taiwan. We started by hitting up the Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum. This area of Taiwan is espeically known for its wood carving, being that it has plenty of skilled craftspeople and great natural resources (wood). I wish I could have photographed some of the amazing sculuptures in the museum, but as in America, there are strict policies against that kind of thing. The link, though offers an idea as to the place. A couple of the sculptures caught me off guard with their humor or poignance. A Pudgy face or an explicit environmentalist message or an intricate spindle meticulously carved were around every turn. 

Next, we went to experience a of bit of Hakka culture. Hakka is an ethnic group in China that, unlike the other large ethnic groups, does not have a definate place of origin. They have been called the gypsies of China, and in fact, their name itself means "guests." They are more populous in the middle provinces of Taiwan than in the others. We went to Sanbanquiao Painted mask Culture Center, and got to try our hand at painting Chinese opera masks:

Mine is on the right, and is of a female character, indicated by the flower, who was very brave, hence the dark blue/black color.

Our tourguide through the area was named Eddie, and he took us to a temple in Beipu, to one of the main goddesses worshiped in Taiwan, Guan Yin (觀音), goddess of grace. Very interesting. Her shrine is a place where you can ask questions and cast lots of sorts that will indicate the answer, if you're lucky. My professor also talked about the woodcarving in this area, which is apparently famous for its high skill. The Hakka people were very hospitible, and the tea, Beipu Lei Cha (北埔擂茶) that we helped make was delicious as well.

And finally, here's another pic of a gate in one of the allies we walked through in Beipu on our tour. I just had to stop and snap one of it, because it was so full of eye-fodder. Hope you enjoy!

P.S. You can leave a comment if you like the posts, dislike them, or just want to say hi just by clicking on the little "comment" link at the end of each post. I know it's hard to see, but I know of a great eye doctor if you need one. ;-) 

Faculty Led Tour

Yesterday morning I went for another walk. Stumbled upon this gem:

After getting my normal breakfast of Lo Bou Gao (萝蛋糕) (It's only NT25!) Professor Smith took us on another tour of our district. He gave us a tutorial on the Subway and took us to Chiang Kai Shek Memoria Hall, which I'd already visited. However, I took some more pics, this time with my classmates in them. The lighting's better in the middle of the day, too.

After this, my group split off and went to a huge bookstore, with a lot of English books, but sadly, many of the books were for Chinese speakers learning English (go figure), so there were few resources for bridging the language gap from my direction. Oh well, I got a Chinese Chinese dictionary, which will be useful when I have to read in Chinese without hearing the words first. We then went to a Japanese restaurant, where I got this really good dish with rice, raw fish, seaweed, and roe. it came in a really hot stone bowl so it all cooked together when you stirred it. I'd have taken pictures of this leg of the trip, but my memory card stopped working, and I didn't have my backup. So this part was a blind stretch, but relax, there are more pics...

After that, it was off to find the Berkenstock store by NTNU to ease my aching feet. I got a pair of clogs, because both the pairs of shoes that I brought had given me blisters on my heels. And back to my room to get my other memory card--following which I hopped on the subway to Taipei City Hall where it was only a short walk to Taipei 101. 

This building was the tallest in the world up until last year. Kinda cool from below, but as you can see, it was too cloudy to make it worth a trek up to the top. Another day...