Red Shoe Something

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Well, not really, but it sure looked like it! To many of you Americans this may look totally disgusting. Why would anyone want to eat their entree out of a toilet, slurp their beverages out of urinals, and devour their ice cream presented to them on ceramic squatters? The answer is:

This is ASIA.

I have to admit that Asians think that some of the strangest things are absolutely adorable. Like poo for instance. We don't quite think the same way about the bathroom in America, but here poo shows up as cutesy cartoons in the bathrooms, on T-shirts, and is even the theme of this restaurant, Modern Toilet.

It was a riot! Our table was made out of a bathtub, and the seats were made out of toilets, albeit with really cool toilet seats. As always, us crazy Americans were having the time of our lives taking funny pictures while to locals sat by and watched (sometimes I wonder how annoying they find us).

{Our table after we licked our squatters clean}

{Sunny, Connie, and Michelle}

{This image just makes me laugh. Gotta love the sparkly diva seat.}

Lukang: a year later...

A year ago I journeyed to Lukang with my good friend Fenny. This time it was a bit different. For one, it wasn't raining. Second, we knew where we were going. Third, there were ten of us.

But like before, I fell in love with this quaint, historical town.If you remember from past posts (aka the last time i was in Taiwan), Lukang is the home to several Living Heritage Award members--that's like being a national treasure. The last time I visited Mr.Wu Duen-how, I bought 4 of his amazing lanterns. This time I watched as my friends bought the lanterns. This man is incredible. The started studying the craft of paper lantern making and painting at the age of 13. He has been on television countless times, his modest shop has been visited by three Presidents of Taiwan, and by numerous tourists--both local and foreign. Today, I'm guessing he's in his 90s. He looks old. His apprentice (thank goodness he has one) was personalizing my friends' lanterns, while he scuffled out to the front of the shop and sat in his easy chair. It was interesting to observe. He seemed so at peace with how his life has gone. No regrets.

From there Sarah, Lindsay, and I headed to one of the famous historical lanes where we were going to meet up with the rest of our group. We got a bit lost (basically we turned too soon), and I decided to ask a group of Asian college students for some help. It was really funny. A side note--I've noticed that many Asians outside of the classroom are very shy about using English even though almost all of them have studied it since first grade. I approached this group and asked if anyone knew English. They started laughing nervously until one of them admitted that she knew English. We showed her the map and her friends all jumped in wanting to help. Then the questions of where we were from and what we were doing in Taiwan began. I felt like by the time we separated from them we had made new friends.

This historical street is my favorite part of the city. It is untouched by urbanization, so it's the real deal. I loved the different doors and roof shapes. There were little kittens crawling all over the place (in a picturesque sort of way, not in a creepy, unclean sort of way). Families with little kids in strollers, and couples young and new paced up and down this street. I loved it. It was a bit of heaven.

{A really cool temple on the side of the road}

{A woman making a basket . I loved the door way}

{Joanne and Angus. Our Taiwanese friends}

{A cute kitty lurking about the streets}

{A cool motorcycle in an even cooler alleyway}

{Me at the half well}

{The gang taking it easy after drinking some star fruit juice. Notice Sarah and Lindsay's bags o' lanterns}

{The gang plus the rad roof tops}

{Yum. Ice cream}

{A gorgeous yellow door. I'm slightly obsessed with the color yellow as of late}

If you come to Taiwan, you must, must, must visit Lukang. The charm is unparalleled.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Twilight, fifth graders, and chinese vampires

So as many as you may know, I'm teaching one of my former classes. When I had them a year ago they were sweet, tender 4th graders. Now they are flirty, angst-ridden pre-teens.They try to put up a front, but I just laugh at them. There's no hiding behind a wall of attitude with me. Mainly because I won't let them. I remind them all the time that I already know them, and know them well. Last year this was one of my favorite classes, so it's been great having them again.

Each class period we have journal writing time. They are good writers, so instead of having them write about pictures, I've been having them write about scenes from a few films. One day, one of my girls came to class with Twilight. I happen to really enjoy the Twilight series, and even own all of them (I know, I know. I'm probably too old for vampire romances, but hey, they do take place in Washington). I got the idea to show parts of Twilight the movie, in class. The girls have loved it, and I think quite a few of the boys have as well. It's been funny.

I remember talking with this same class around Halloween last year. I tried to give them some Halloweenesque spelling words and vampire was one of them. I tried to explain what a vampire was to them, and I swore they didn't get it.

me: You know, they suck your blood with sharp teeth.
them: Yeah, yeah, and they jumps like this....

They would then get up and start acting like a stiff, hopping zombie. I didn't get it. And finally this past week I had it explained to me. Western vampires and Eastern vampires are nothing alike except for the blood drinking thing.

Connie was talking to our mutual 1st grade class, and they explained it to her. I walked by their classroom yesterday, and they started hopping toward me like little vampires. I decided to play along and flee with my hands around my neck. They started laughing hysterically! I love these kids.

Anyways, I found this little video on youtube that explained the differences incredibly well. So hopefully you'll find it both entertaining and informative as I did.

Here's to knowing what to do if attacked by a Chinese vampire!

They say it's your birthday...

Happy Birthday Lisa!!!

Hope it's just dandy!!!
(sorry, it's the only picture that I really have of you. we'll have to change that!)

Thursday, August 6, 2009

The emerald typhoon, Morakot

At the very top of this picture of typhoon Morakot (meaning 'emerald' in Thai) you can see the slight white outline of Taiwan. If you can't see it very well, it's probably because the massive spinning mass of moisture is right on top of it.

Connie and Lisa, my two roommates have been tracking the tropical storms in our area wishing and hoping that a typhoon would come our way. The only days off from school this semester will be typhoon days, so we were pretty darn exciting when we found out last night that school was canceled today. Just take a look here:

It was a joyous celebration! Here you can actually hear the rain in the background:

The wind was blowing hard and fast, and this is what we found this morning:

Laundry strewn all over the place. A little bit later a huge flower pot was blown off the ledge and dirt was all over the place.

So far the day has been a wonderful holiday from school. And...I really haven't done a thing. Sarah and I did take a walk into the center of town on a food run. We found some pretty funny things that I'll blog about later.

Here's to Morakot--the grand emerald typhoon!!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

What are three girls to do on a fabulous, sunny, Taiwanese Saturday?

Bike to Taichung of course! For some reason we thought it would be a splendid idea to bike from Feng Yuan, the town in which we live, to the nearby city, Taichung. The last time I was here I though it would be a fun adventure, but didn't think anymore of it.

Well, until Leia, a student of mine, told me that she and her dad biked to Taiwan last weekend.

Me: Really?
Miss Leia: Yes, really.
Me: How long did it take you?
ML: Hmmm. About, about, about....I don't know.
Me: Really, you don't remember how long it took you?
ML: Miss Shan, I got new gloves. See! Oh, maybe two hours?

Only two hours! I had been thinking that it would take much longer. And, Leia most distinctively pointed out to me, they had ridden to the mountains, not the town.

My mind started mulling over this new bit of knowledge. I mentioned it to my roommate Connie, and immediately we decided it would be a cool thing to do. This past weekend promised to be the perfect opportunity for such a jaunt.

After my Saturday morning class, Connie, Erin and I loaded up our bikes with our waterbottles and bags, and started pedaling. And...it didn't take us very long at all. Granted most of the way into town was downhill, but still. I was shocked to find that it took us 55 minutes to get to the center of Taichung--that's only 10 minutes slower than the bus! And we weren't booking it by any means.

{Connie and Erin on the road}

{Yes, that is a building with Britney Spears plastered on it's side}

We ended up parking our bikes at the Church, and then set out to go exploring. We didn't get far. Only across the street where we found a Sushi Express, and had to go in. And it was fantastic!

We decided to go to Chung Yo, the big department store, and Connie and Erin got there makeup done at the MAC counter (Mindy, you've converted me!). As we were leaving we heard some pretty cool music coming from outside. Often there's some sort of concert going on on Saturdays so we went and investigated. It ended up being a belly dancing contest. And it was pretty much amazing!

It was interesting to see the different variety of women--and man--who made up the different teams/groups. Culturally in Taiwan one cannot be beautiful and big at the same time. Asians do have a tendency to be smaller boned, and I think because of that women have a lot of pressure to be slender, and sometimes unnaturally so. It was refreshing to see these middle aged women not ashamed of their bodies, even though they didn't necessarily fit what was culturally acceptable.

One of the teams singled out Erin and asked if she would film them. They were from Taipei and didn't have any friends to do it for them. They happened to be really good. Allen was the only guy belly dancer, and man did he have some amazing moves. His partner, Maggie, was absolutely gorgeous.