Nine minutes left at the internet cafe

First: Thank you Andrew's Mom and Dad for the cute Valentines Card! I loved it! :)

The Weather: It's raining right now. It's been raining for what seems like days, and I wish it would stop. Although today there was a slight break in the rain, with even a little sun to tease me. Sigh, I can't wait for the warm weather to return!!!

My weekend: It's a three day weekend, which means I get to sleep in tomorrow! (Monday) 2-28 is a national holiday, it's a sort of memorial day because a great massacre happened on that day when Taiwan was still under dictatorship rule under the Chiang family. You can go to ChinaPost.com.tw to read all about it! Or any other major events going on in Taiwan. Anywho, Saturday Andrew and I went out to dinner with (get ready) my mom's good friend's mom. My mom had brought a few things back for her, and I was the delivery person, so we were invited out to dinner. It was a super fancy, super yummy sorta Italian restaurant. Today I went to a Turkish restaurant and had a really yummy Greek salad, that even had Feta on it! I was euphoric! It wasn't the best feta I've ever had, but I'll take whatever I can get. Too bad it's a 45 min MRT ride away. I then did some shopping and went to the Taipei Museum of Contemporary art. Like most modern art, some cool, some confusing, some just plain weird. But it was nice to relax and just get lost in the exhibits. There was one of random barbies going around on a platform. I didn't get it. I think my favorite exhibit was a whole bunch of lamps made out of everyday plastic items, i.e. laundry baskets, garbage cans, colanders...

My Monday will be spent cleaning, sleeping in, and just generally avoiding the rain.

You'll have to wait for Andrew's post to see where he was.

Work is less stressful, but still pretty hectic. Almost out of time!!

Randomness

I saw my first Taiwan death the other day. I was in my own little world, thinking some meaningless thoughts, no doubt, when, much to my surprise, I look to my left in the middle of the road and see a man sprawled spread eagle on the ground next to his scooter, with some younger man, I am not sure a relative or accidental assailent, looking quite distressed (and quite alive). People in scooters were looking quite the same way, wondering what the heck was going on. I paused for a few seconds, witness the scene, soak it in, and see an ambulance come. I move on; I don't want to create a traffic jam.

I then noticed people walking toward the intersection, oblivious to what they were about to see (there was no blood, just a man and an ambulance)... as I walk back after visiting the post office, the body is gone, and new people on scooters were looking amused, some were laughing, some were indifferent, to the damaged scooter in the middle of the road, with the policeman directing traffic, oblivious to what (or who) was there two minutes ago.

No real point, other than it's so, so weird how we all have different perspectives viewing this world, and we're so, completely oblivious to most other people's problems or concerns. That was especially highlighted with the laughter I saw around me, and how one man's concerns (the distressed man) can go so completely unnoticed or unrecognized by other people.

Anywho, in a completely unrelated note, I find myself getting homesick! I think of friends, I think of places that I'd like to go to, etc. Maybe it has to do with me just having to pay my taxes here! Ha. The first 6 months they take out 20%... the next 6 months they take out 6%. Another reason to stay longer, huh? Take care!

Some New Years pictures (and Kara)

Here is the assorted family at New Year's (the main, fancy dinner at the country club). From left to right: Michael, Aunt Augusta, Grandma, Grandpa, Johnathon, Aunt Julia, Ann, and Mei.

P1010724.JPG


Johnathon having a bit too much wine at dinner. (They celebrated his 22nd birthday. Did I mention he's a Marine?)

P1010713.JPG


Here is us playing in-between. Someone lost. The amount in the table is for about $35. The person, I don't know who, just lost the amount that's in the middle of the table.

P1010728.JPG


And finally, this is for Hiro, to help illustrate why this guy reminds me so much of that guy in the movie: JoJo liughting fireworks outside the house (which briefly lit a tree on fire):

P1010724.JPG


Here's a picture of Kara, the husky we housesat:

P1010711.JPG


Wait, this one shows her tail better:

P1010707.JPG


And did I show this already? Well, regardless, here's the source of SARS. Turns out it came from Taipei, what do you know:

P1010705.JPG

Take care, all!

"Post" New Years

So I'm finally going to post a real post, so strap on the seat belt and get ready for the ride!

Vacation, or, I like having 2 weeks off, can I do it again?:
My vacation started out nicely, slept in, checked out where the new school was, shopped for new clothes, and then disaster! Curse the cold, damp, rainy weather. I ended up with a fever in bed from about Wednesday through Friday. Saturday I was up and around, but still a little groggy. I ended up not going to Tainan, Kate ended up not taking her dog, so we volunteered to dog sit until we left to visit my family. So we had a cute husky named Kara with us from Thursday until Monday. Andrew's desire for a husky of his own was incredibly elevated during this time, I know because the whole time we were dog sitting he kept saying "I want one! I want one!" She's a really sweet dog, and we only had a few "accidents" while she was with us, nothing too major. She likes to chew on things though, so we had to hide stuff that was at dog level that we didn't want chewed apart.

On Tuesday we headed to LungTan on the train to see my family, my Aunt Augusta and her husband Michael picked us up and took us to the house. My family ended up getting the vacated house next door to accomodate the influx of visitors, usually it's just my grandparents and my Aunt Julia, but over the holiday, my mom, my Aunt Augusta and her husband, my uncle (JoJo) and his son(my Marines cousin Jonathan), Andrew and myself descended upon the house. My grandma, I'm sure, went nuts cleaning before and after the whirlwind of people. My grandpa was a little grumpy during because he doesn't like a lot of people in his house. Anywho, it was a little hectic when we got there, Michael had flown in the day before, but was delayed and rerouted to southern Taiwan for a few hours because of heavy fog in Taipei, so when my mom flew in, they expected her to be fog delayed as well, but her plane came in fine, it was just that she was wheeled out in a wheel chair because she had twisted her ankle right before going to the airport, so it was super swollen and she really couldn't walk on it for most of the week. Which eventually turned into a running joke with the family (assuming you read Andrew's new years post) because in MahJong, there are four players, the four seats are called "ca"s, so they had my Uncle Michael pegged as the super "ca" because he's become really good at mahjong over the years and loves to play, my grandpa was the eager/really good "ca" since that's who he is, my mom was the crippled "ca," and poor Andrew became the slow/not very good "ca," see previous post. My family likes to make fun of everything (my mom attributes it to the stress of having lived with my grandfather as a father) so they got a good laugh out of the situation.

It was interesting to read Andrew's post as an outsider looking in, it's nice to have a fresh perspective, as the insider looking out, it was just another crazy Cheng family gathering. My mom has three siblings, an older brother and two younger sisters, and every one has a very distinct, strong personality, they don't even look that much alike. So you can imagine that a week is about how long everyone can get along without too many major arguments. In that week, we ate continuously, received red envelopes containing money, gambled, played lots of card games, shopped, and saw some of my mom's extended family. I enjoyed myself a lot, tried to stay out of family politics, and tried to keep Andrew clued in, but I guess I wasn't that good since he made the boo-boo at New Years dinner of digging into a dish before it had been offered to my grandfather.

In the Chinese culture, age is everything, especially if you're the head of the household. When you're told to jump, just do it, don't ask how high because that would be wasting energy. My grandpa really is a sweet guy, underneath the tough guy exterior, he worries very much about everyone in the family, he's just not very emotional, so his emotions come out usually in anger and criticism.

Back to New Years, all in all, it was lots of fun, it was nice to see my family, it was nice to sleep in.

The first week back at work was incredibly hectic, since everything is closed during the New Years holiday, so not much had been moved, and there was a lot of remodeling that needed to be done. We didn't have phone lines and proper lighting until Thursday, on Wednesday my bushiban class was held at McDonald's because the new school is so much smaller than the old school, and we lost a few classrooms as well. I hope that the whole semester isn't conducted at McDonalds because it's really hard to have a class there, and I miss having a chalkboard, but I'm not really sure where there's room for another class at the new school. On Thursday night/Friday morning I got super sick from something I ate, so Friday I had no energy to go in (Not to mention that we're also super shortstaffed with a few people still on vacation, so I had been staying late to watch the kids everyday, poop on 10-12 hr days!). Andrew was super nice and covered my morning for me until more people showed up at work, I owe him big time! (When I told my mom about Friday, she said "Andrew is so nice" and I must concur). My bushiban class was cancelled, and I will have to make that up next Saturday. I'm fine now, I just slept for all of Friday and recovered from throwing everything I ate up.

Tomorrow should be fun to see where the state of the school is now, if they're all done remodeling and if all of our materials have been moved over from the new school. I'm hoping to get off at my normal time, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Hope all of you are doing well, I'm back to the grind!

Lazyness rules

It's been really rainy here. Not off and on rainy, but just continuous rain, day and night, for the last three or four days. Not a break of it, either, just sometimes more hard than others. And this week's foreceast? Last friday said that for a week straight (i.e. until friday) rain is expected. (What the heck? How is this even possible to have 4 days STRAIGHT of rain? Possibly *10* with no break? I wanna see the satellite pics.)

So... to coutner this, I moved the playstation and tv to my room, and just played all morning in bed. I think I'm going to play in bed when I get back, too, because it's so darn cold and I don't feel like doing CRAP. Super lazy? You bet. I might, just might, even get up to go get a movie to watch in bed, also. Mei is wearing off on me.

Have a good one...

Meet the (Grand)parents

A film otherwise known as: How I Spent my Vacation

The plot:

Andrew is going to spend a day/a few days/a week meeting the Asian family for the biggest holiday in the Chinese culture: New Years. Here, he will meet Mei's family's patriarch of a grandfather, as well as the grandmother and Mei's aunts and uncle. Hilarity ensues as he, the akward whitey, tries not only to not be hated, but to actually make mediocrity, or perhaps even inch towards the positive spectrum of Mei's family's eyes.

The all-star cast:

Gohng-Gohng: The patriarch (grandfather) of the family. When this guy is happy, the family is permitted to be happy; when he is upset: look out. His biggest thrill is Mahjong, a gambling game played with four people at a time that he has played for probably 70 years. If he wins, he's in a good mood, but when he loses...

Po-Poa: The grandmother. Very, very sweet (at least according to my impression)

Ann: Mei's mom! No introduction needed.

Julia: Mei's mom's (Ann's) sister. Aunt Julia. Like Ann says, she probably doesn't have a hint of badness in her: very, very sweet and very genuine. She previously helped us in Neihu.

Augusta: Ann's other sister. She married Michael, a German who's also in Taiwan for New Years. She's kind, but dramatic.

Michael: German accent. So basically, I love hearing him talk. "Johnathon, you forgot your light-uh!" He's also very, very nice.

Jo-Jo: Mei's Uncle, Ann's brother. The best description I can give will only be understood by Hiro, Raf, and Yuriko, and I have 2-1 odds that Yurkiko isn't reading this. To you three: remember that awesome Japanese movie Hiro rented? The guy who was supposed to take the kid out to see his mom, but stopped to gamble, etc? Yeah, not only does he look EXACTLY like that guy, but he acts the SAME WAY. Hilarious. To everyone else: he seems like he's permamently drunk, but in a funny way. He means well, but is a little odd.

Mei and Andrew: Like we need mention these two all-stars. Millions and millions of people read up on this blog (ok, ok, so maybe just our parents...).

The story:

Ann and Mei came up with the perfect gift that I could possibly bring for New Years: learning to play Mahjong. "That will make my father so happy," says Ann. "Just make sure to lose money to him so that he'll be happy!" ... You can imagine what's going to happen already, right?

So we cannot just show up empty handed, nor would I want to even if that was expected. This is Chinese New Years, a holiday that's bigger than Christmas! Not show up with anything except the knowledge of playing a game?! No way. (P.S. even at that I failed: I learned enough for the basics, but I was woefully inadequate...) So Mei and I picked up a nice orchid from the market on the weekend, big enough that I had trouble holding it in one arm on the train.

Tuesday came, New Year's eve, the day we were to meet Ann and the family (Ann flew in Tuesday morning). I was expecting CHAOS on the train (the whole country shuts down, essentially, excluding the expressways of course, because all 23 million people are travelling somewhere else... wherever home is). But surprisingly, things were sedate. A good sign!

We get picked up at the train station, and make small talk with Michael and Augusta. Another good sign! Being able to speak English to another whitey! Nice people! So far so good!

Then the fun begins. We get to the house, and I am introduced to everyone. On one hand, I can't begin to tell you the hospitality that they provide: home-cooked breakfasts and dinners every night (4 days so far), my own room to sleep in in an adjacent house, etc. However...

Here's the thing. I am headed toward a family that cracks up at the thought of a family member having to drive somewhere in the rain, in heavy, heavy traffic, a drive that might be extended by two hours. That's about the creme de la creme. Points and laughs at the guy like Kristy did in high school (the whole wind up, the laughter, and then then pointing). Uh-oh, right?

I try to speak as much Chinese as I can. Only I CAN'T. When I say "Very difficult." (hun nan) I am ACTUALLY saying "Very south." (also hun nan, but DIFFERENT DAMN INTONATION). Jo-Jo thinks this is the funniest thing. So for the rest of the week, Jo-Jo says every chance he can "Very south." Mahjong? "Very south." Learning Chinese? "Very south." Aye-yo. This perhaps nipped my trying to speak Chinese. Besides, everyone can speak English well enough, so why butcher it, right? At least I'll be known for a long time this way, ha.

And then the time comes to play Mahjong. Let's see how well I do. Now, the thing about Mahjong is, is that you play with tiles. You have to move these tiles remarkably fast, at least if you want to catch up with the people who know how to play. I mean, say an 80 year old, who has been playing for just about forever, of course, has arthritis. And on this day, that arthritis was causing a LOT of pain. And say he/she was drunk. And blindfolded. Then you might, just MIGHT have a chance to catch up. I mean.. these people are FAST with the tiles.

So I play, with Jo-Jo watching over my shoulder to help. I'm playing much, much slower than the others, of course, but they are being very patient with me. The first two games, I don't win, but because my discarded tile wasn't the one that led to a victory, I didn't lose, either. So I didn't have to pay any money. On the third game, by luck, I picked up a tile, and... hey! I win! It turns out that if you pick up a tile and win, then nobody loses, right? Because nobody threw the tile that you took to win? So EVERYONE loses, and everyone has to pay you money. I... win! Then, Grandpa gets up and leaves.

STTTTTTTTTTTTRIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE 1!

What's that about me not supposed to win? Huh, well, must have forgotten about that. The competitive juices got flowing in me, and well, I couldn't help it (and also, it was blind, dumb luck picking up that tile... besides, who woulda thought that we'd just play three (or was it 4) games?) I think mostly he left because I was sooo slow and he can't really stand playing with slow people.

Eventually that night came dinner! Woo! New Years dinner, the biggest meal of the week. We all go to this fancy country club, all dressed up and ready for food. And the food kept coming, and coming. Here, everyone was given red envelopes.. including me! I felt so, so, so bad. Here I was, a stranger, and they were giving me money! It was very, very nice, and I really appreciated their genorosity.. Including Mei's cousin, who's a U.S. Marine, and is 6 months younger than me. Don't get me wrong, I was really thankful to be getting red envelopes, but I felt soooooo bad. I didn't have any to give, and I felt really, really, really akward. (Not to mention akward during dinner.) But no worries... that money wasn't destined to be mine, anyway.

I made my second major mistake that night during dinner. Food kept arriving in about 11 separate dishes (or 7, whatever, a lot, I lost count). One of these included meat. Now... you don't just stick meat in front of a hungry dog and expect him not to eat it, right? RIGHT?!? Well, same for me. But the thing is, Grandpa was supposed to take the first bite out of everything that came. Whoooooooooops....

STRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE 2!!!!!!!!

Damnit. Huh. So we go back home... and there I am introduced to an aspect of chinese culture that I love: their love for gambling. We play a game called in-between: it's played with a deck of cards (or two in our case), and afetr an ante, everyone is given two cards face up. The goal is to get a third card in-between the other two cards (i.e. you have an ace, the lowest card, and a jack. You want the third card to be a two, three, four... eight, nine, ten.); if you do, you get to TAKE money. If your card ISN'T in-between, you GIVE money. So when it's your turn, you can either pass, or say an amount of money that ranges from 10 (33 cents) to whatever the amount is in the middle of the table (i.e. taking it all, which they then say/chant "Tram-boo, tram-boo, tram-boo!!") You win, you get the money that you bet, you lose, you GIVE the anount of money that you bet. Make sense? It's not complicated, I'm just MAKING it comnplicated.

Oh, man, hilarious. Jo-Jo, the crazy one, kept betting the entire pot (tram-boo), and I think four times he hit the crossbar, i.e. he JUST missed (he has a four and a jack? He gets a four, which incidentaly is the chinese symbol for death), and every time, he gets more and more flabbergasted, "THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!!!!" or "THAT'S IM-POSSIBLE!!!!!!!", jumping up and rocking back and forth in his dad's walker. I swear, this poor guy, it happened about 4 times. *4 TIMES!!!!* Johnathon, the marine (Jo-Jo's son)? No luck. He lost like every time he bet. Me? Bad luck also, and I kept getting 6/7's, or 7/8's, etc. No chance for anything in-between, right? The ante kept getting higher and higher.. 10 dollars (33 cents US), to 20 dollars (66 cetns), to 100 dollars (3 US). And I kept losing. But I didn't feel bad about losing money.. afterall, it's the red envelope money, right? First night alone I lost $20 US.

The next day, we gamble again and again and again: the result? More Jo-Jo's foul luck, spreading to everyone (Julia had an ace-king, the best possible hand, and gets an ace? Aye! Throw in $US 30!) I think I lost another $15. I'm still up according to the red envelopes, but my guilt in having received them is beginning to dissipate.

That night we go to an auction. Maybe 200 people, maybe more, cramped into a warehouse selling all sorts of goods. My first impression as Ann, Mei, Johnathon and I walk to the other end? Looking across and seeing Jo-Jo raising his hand and buying... 2 mini ironing boards for 100 bucks ($3 US). Hilarious. "What's so funny? Two irons for $3!!" I didn't fit in (DUH, being a tall whitey) but I got less stares than I thought i was going to... they were all probably too busy focused on what they wanted to buy. But it was great; you had things ranging from watering pots (there was one time that they opened them up at random and said, "Ok, if you buy one you can't exchange it later for another!"), to bracelets, to carvings, to globes that you can put things in,. Just random, random stuff. Stolen? Ha who knows.

Anywho, the last two days have consisted of gambling, eating, and watching movies. I went to a market with Julia, Ann, Mei, and Johnathon, and got my fortune at a temple. Apparently I need to convert to Buddhism. I played another game of Mahjong, but beacuse I'm too slow for Grandpa, he won't play with me. I lost more money... $6 US. No more for me. We played another game of in-between and I actually won (so it was only $1 US... at least it flowed in the right direction, i.e. TOWARD me and not away from me). Ann had an Ace King and got another Ace... aye, BUT she won some big ones as well. I went to another day market and bought more great food on the street; fruit, meat on a stick, and fries (made from sweet potatoes... mm...).

Yesterday we went back to the crazy clothes shopping place for Ann to go shopping. I found cheap movies for 100 dollars each ($3), so I got The Incredibles, Kung Fu Hustle (YES!!! I wanted this!! It's freaking hilarious, I hope it coems out in the States, go watch it if it does.) Closer, and a couple of other recent movies. Pretty neat-o. All in all, I ended up buying more than 10 movies this week. 10 movies!! I own ONE back home. I also got a pair of pants, tailored on the spot for $10 at the equivalent of a Taiwan costco.

It's been a fun time, all in all. Longer than I thought, too. I thought I'd be here a day or two, instead I've been here 5. (I'm editing this on monday after work, since we ended up staying until Sunday.) Meeting Mei's family is (was) great, playing games has been great, being introduced to the Chinese culture has been great. Some things that haven't been so great is that nothing I can do is right. I used to think the Ranch 99 slogan was kind of interesting: For 99, we try harder. Basically we're working to get to 100, right? Well... at first I thought that was a cool slogan. But after living here for a week, it no longer seems innocuous. Why? Because it seems that nothing you can do is right, that's just the Chinese culture: Augusta says coffee will be ready at 9:00 in the morning. You're there at 9:00? Hilarious. "Why are you here? You could sleep in, you know." You're there at 9:30? "Where were you, don't you want coffee or breakfast?" You're there at *11:00*? Aye-yo. Same with speaking Chinese. You're learning? Great, we'er going to make fun of you (of course). You're not learning? Why don't you want to learn the language? Playing Mahjong, same thing. Learning to be slow isn't good enough, right? You have to be good, or why even bother playing? So why does the Ranch 99 slogan no longer seem great? Because it's probably wrong. I am sure people are saying well it SHOULD be Ranch 100, beacuse they're perfect! AND if it was ranch 100, then people would say well it SHOULD be ranch 101, they're BETTER than perfect, and if it was 101, people would say well it SHOULD be ranch 99, they TRY to get to perfection. That's not just for me, a whitey, but I think that's the culture. It makes sense now why when I FIRST got here, our helper at IACC was really, really modest about getting third place in running the 400 for, what was it, the country? He ran it VERY, VERY fast. But to him... to good. mei tried explaining it at the time, but now, I get it a little more.

It might sound like I'm bitter. I kind of am. However, it's much, much easier for me to just nod and say uh-huh, ok, whatever, and then think nothing of it. I'm not part of the family, and in a week I'm gone, right? I'm a whitey just sticking my head in the oven. However, I now am much more appreciative of Mei's comments, and am much more knowledgable. Mei isn't just in for a visit: it's her oven!

But it's been a great week. I'm extremely, extremely thankful for Mei's family's gerat hospitality. It's saturday, and I have to be at work on Monday (NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO), so this is my second to last day here at most. It feels like a month has gone by since I've been at work, partly because being here has been so different. I'm really thankful to experience the Chinese culture, and had a fun time. At the same time, I'm thankful that this isn't my culture (although the food I could get used to!).

I hope you're all doing great... take care!

P.S. In case you were thinking that at least he didn't make it to strike 3...: Strike 3 likely came in the fact that I'm white, and not Chinese. Or was that strike 1? Ah, well, can't win them all, can I?

Happy Year of the Rooster!

Hello All!!

Just a quick note to say Happy Chinese New Year!

Will post more later, but been doing a lot of sleeping and relaxing on my break, did some shopping as well. Tomorrow we head to my family's for a big New Years Eve dinner, should be very exciting!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!