election

just a quick post. it's quite rainy and cold now - unpleasant weather to ride my scooter in. Had to buy a new raincoat yesterday, and i wear semi-waterproof pants every day. yuck.

last week was the big election, which to me meant annoying trucks blocking traffic and blasting indecipherable messages over a loud speaker. the green side lost out to the blue side, apparently. Whatever that means. i'm glad it's over.

gearing up for Will's wedding in india. it feels like it's coming up, and i'm really looking forward to it.

stache pt.2

i shaved my ridiculous mustache to an almost pencil mustache last night. I got rid of the pencil stache this morning.

new

Well, the weather is lousy now, winter has begun. Up until this week, it has been sunny and in the 80's, just right. Now it's rainy and cold and i'm grumpy all the time. i'm kind of bored, so I'm growing a fu manchu mustache. it looks disgusting - one of my students saw me, pointed to around his mouth and said: "teacher, yuck." that about sums it up. richard was up when i got up yesterday to eat breakfast wearing jeans and no shirt. he correctly pointed out that i looked like a gay biker. why am i doing this? ...

richard's cat fell off the balcony on saturday night and broke his pelvis. he has one of those plastic things around his neck, and seldom eats or drinks. he looks doped and miserable (which he is).

chinese class is moving brusquely, but i continue to enjoy it. i got my visa and plane ticket for india, so now i just need some shots. I also renewed my alien resident certificate this week. I have been sick (wow! so different...) and busy, so my workouts have suffered, which has no doubt contributed to my crappy mood. hopefully, photos will come soon.

India

Well, I'm currently trying to book a flight to Calcutta, my old friend Willard is getting married there and I'm pretty excited about the opportunity to go and see it. Finding a decent travel agent who speaks english is somewhat less exciting. The one I'm trying to work with was kind of rude and not helpful the last time I worked with them - this time they're just slow to respond to my questions. I'm going to have to get lots of shots, too, which I'm really looking forward to. Actually being there should be pretty interesting, if I ever make it.

Other than that, not too much is new. As the weather turns cold and rainy, my omnipresent cold is returning. I am still lifting weights three times a week, which makes me feel a bit better. My airconditioner is now off, so the power bill should be a lot smaller. Chinese class has finally reached the chapter I was at when I took a break in June (I really needed the review) and continues to be challenging. My major weakness is listening and understanding what people say. My hearing isn't that great to begin with - even in english I say "what?" way too much. I want an ear horn so I can say "speak up sonny!" with more conviction. Throw in a few Chinese words I don't know and whole sentences become incomprehensible to me. I'm trying to watch more Chinese movies and practice, but they speak so damn fast. And even if I catch the sound and the tone, Chinese has plenty of homonyms. People (chinese teachers and such) will tell you that Chinese grammar is easy, and I guess it's easier than french or english, but it's different from what I'm used to so I still make plenty of errors. On Monday we have a listening test - the last one we had I got a 39 on, and I was about average for the class, with many students doing less well. Frustrating.

back again

I know that there has been a long delay - I moved and it took a while to get myself set up. My new place is outside of keelung up in the mountains and cleaner air. I'm also closer to jiu fen, the mountain town with beautiful views and teahouses. It's been an expensive move, but I know have a computer that can actually access all websites (!) and my own air conditioner(!!). The place is cleaner, newer, a little bit smaller, and slightly cheaper. We are within walking distance of a mega mart, kind of like a taiwanese walmart without all of the negative connotations (that I know of). I'm pretty happy to be here. I'm also fully back into chinese class, which is good. Work continues along, though I should be getting a raise fairly soon. Today I picked up the results of my yearly medical - I'm sure that everyone will be happy to hear that I'm free of HIV, syphyllis, and tuberculosis. Yay me!

hi

i'm getting tired of junk posts on my blog.

n.

yet another typhoon day pt 2

Other things-

My old computer finally decided it couldn't go on. I now have a new used computer that is substantially better, so I should soon be able to post photos. Plus, I can actually see my own blog! Wow!

I have a regular workout schedule, and the physical activity is making me feel better. I need it.

Started Chinese class again this week. Going back a few chapters to review. The teacher is good (i think - she taught me bopomofo, the basic phoenetic system for learning chinese in taiwan) though i miss my old teacher. This teacher does allow some english, and occasionally the students just start random conversations. It's hard to hear the lesson when there are 3 loud conversations going on, in english, japanese, and korean while the teacher is speaking. I think it's kind of rude, and certainly annoying, but I don't want to be the guy who tells these assholes to shut up. Hopefully it will get too dificult and they will drop out soon. anyway, i'm excited to be back in class.

Our landlady is going to sell this apt., so we need to move. She is not a great landlady, so we would probably move after this lease anyway. We looked at a new place last night. Substantially cheaper, but smaller too. Secure building, convenient to a pool and a nice place to walk or run. Has its own little park/courtyard. Seems quiet. It's outside of the city, so the air is cleaner. But we need to furnish it (AC, bed, tables, chairs, couch, etc. There is a commute. And expenses are starting to add up right now as my work hours decrease. Still, a change might be nice. It's closer to the mountains and the teahouses in Jiufun. And I do like the clean air.

yet another typhoon - pt 1 parade

Another typhoon today means time to write.

The week of my birthday concluded with a ghost festival parade. Keelung has one of two in Taiwan, and I hear that it is the best. The parades here are one of my favorite things about Taiwan. I took pictures and crappy movies on my digital camera, but I don't think that they truly capture the combination of color, movement, crazy sounds, sacred, and profane themes that go on in a parade, especially a big one like this. Maybe I can upload some of the photos soon. All kinds of trucks go by, some with buddhas, some with smiling beauty queens, some with cheerleaders, civic leaders, etc. Some are decorated like temples, some like wierd outdoor seens, some not at all. The music can be classical chinese, soulless techno, western classical, or pop music, usually pumped exremely loudly out of speakers with extreme distortion. Sometimes the music is live, especially the drum music that I like here. The drums are usually pulled by a truck, on several little train sections snaking behind. Sometimes there are dancers (my favorite was the kids drum and dance team dressed in traditional taiwanese clothes). Frequently there are identically dressed representatives of some political group, who do nothing but look vaguely surly. The giant God costumes have strangely swinging arms and remarkable faces. There were a couple of groups of dragon dancers. There were fireworks, and random firecrackers exploding throughout. At the back of the parade, some kids on racing motorcycles and ATV's just rode around. At a midway point on the parade route, there was a stage set up where a local rock band played. It was very interesting to listen to them play in competition with a marching band, two traditional Taiwanese drum groups, and someone speaking on a loudspeaker. Total aural chaos. August in Keelung is super hot, so a mayoral candidate had people circulating and handing out fans with his smiling, Alfred E. Newman face on them (I kept mine). It was all very interesting. I ran into my boss and he explained to me that this is the one festival where all 3 major religious traditions (Buddhism, Daoism, and the local ancester worship) have a big holiday. He also told me that last year there were african dancers and Thai acrobats. At a certain point, I was very tired and kind of numb from sensory overload so I went home, but I probably missed interesting things.

birthday

My birthday on the 16th was extremely fun. I drove my new scooter
through the mountains to Fulong beach. The scooter is a 125, so it
has the power to get me up the hill. The air in the mountains was
very clean, cooler, and filled with nice smells. There were beautiful
views of mountains, fog, and the ocean. It really made me feel like I
wasn't wasting my time here. It was a long ride, and I was happy when
I made it to the beach. The beach was ok, not great, but I didn't
wear my swimtrunks (I hadn't planned to go that far) so I just rested
and looked at the water. I rode home along the coast - not a bad
ride, and quicker, but not as beautiful as the ride in. When I got
home, Richard fried up an andouille sausage and handed me a margarita.
I went online to find an interesting restaurant, and finally decided
on a Taiwanese place in Taipei. It was an old house, unusual in
Taiwan, but it was dark and I couldn't see it. Beautiful view of
Taipei though. The food was just ok, but it was pleasant eating
outside and looking at the city lights. Dogs and cats approached us
to say hello and a fan kept the bugs away. We took a taxi to a famous
foreigner bar (Brass Monkey) and had a couple of drinks before heading
home. I got a lot of sun and slept like a baby.

another typhoon

Currently, we are having another typhoon, which means a fairly boring
day. Bad weather, can't do laundry, going to taipei is less
interesting, and half of the stores in town are closed so I can't do
the shopping I need to do. I'm going to try to do some chinese
studying - without class my discipline has been terrible. Also have
some work I need to do at the office, but it's closed so I have to go
in early tomorrow. *sigh* Typhoons are pretty much a waste of time.

typhoon

looks like class will be cancelled tomorrow because of the typhoon. i
find typhoons kinda exciting and i can use the time to catch up on
some work and projects.

hot

today I woke up and looked at weather.com. At 9:30 AM it was 90
degrees, 99 with heat index. Apparently it will get much hotter in
August. Wow. A friend/co-worker is leaving for Canada tomorrow and
gave me her heater - I certainly felt silly walking down the street,
drenched in sweat, bringing a heater home.

I have many new classes and I am quite busy. Today I had my last one
on one class with an adult who is applying to the University of
Wisconsin's graduate literature program. I read most of her thesis
about a Doris Lessing novel I have never read. I was very impressed
with her ability to write about complex literary theory in English.
She is currently teaching english at a junior college here, and
although her speaking abilities still need a bit of work, she writes
english at a level beyond most native speakers. We talked about
Foucault, bell hooks, Julia Kristeva, and various takes on the idea of
"hybridity" among other things. It was interesting to talk about
books, philosophy, and theory with someone and get paid for it. I
used to give that away! Conversely, I'm currently teaching the ABC's
to small children in a summer intensive. Although I have been doing
some 7 hour days, it looks like I will soon have fridays off, so
hopefully I can do a little bit of exploring around the island soon.
And I need to get back into some kind of Chinese studying routine - I
miss it a great deal. Some of my time is also being eaten up by the
weight bench I just bought - I already feel better after just 3
workouts this week. I really needed that thing.

every day

right now i am being assaulted by the jack hammer that wakes me up
every day at 7:30. It's pretty damn unpleasant. First, the apartment
across from me (about 12 feet from my bedroom) was being redone, now
the pavement below me is being dug up (maybe 20 feet away, but they
jackhammer in pairs (and right now as a trio!), each jackhammer with a
different rate of hammer, like a duet of the most unpleasant music you
can imagine, and you feel it in the floor.) So FUCKING loud! I am
cranking very loud music, and I can still barely hear it. Added to the
oppressive heat, my lack of sleep and unpleasant wake up has kept me
feeling extremely cranky, like I want to punch someone in the face and
just beat the living shit out of someone. I cleaned up a giant dead
roach in my room last night. I only ever see dead roaches in here,
but i may need to change my traps soon. I love my roach traps - my
small room has maybe five of them. Certainly overkill, but that's
just how i feel. Bastards. I need to buy a weight bench soon.

dragon boat festival

Yesterday was dragon boat festival, the big early summer festival in
Taiwan. Traditionally it involves watching boats with dragons on them
race and eating a food called jhong-tse. The jhong-tse are pretty
good - they are made by putting glutinous rice in a bamboo leaf with
pork, mushroom, peanuts, and egg. They are then steamed (in the north
of Taiwan they fry the glutinous rice before they add it so it has
more oil and a bit more flavor). The story of the dragon boat festival
is pretty interesting - long ago in a kingdom in China there was a man
who loved his country a great deal. He had many ideas about how his
great country should be run, but the king of the country would not
listen to him. This made him so depressed that he through himself
into a river to his death. So symbolically, the dragon boat races
represent trying to rescue this man from the river. And when he was
in the river, people were afraid that the fish would eat his body, so
they made the jhong-tse for them to eat instead. Anyway, I got the
day off, which meant my first 2 day weekend in months (yay!).

what's new?

Really, not too much is new. Richard's dad came into town last night,
and I have enjoyed talking with him. He was in the u.s. military here
in the late 60's and early '70's, speaks Chinese pretty well, and
generally seems like a nice and interesting guy. I have been watching
the show Firefly (Richard is a fan) recently, and that's pretty fun.
Work continues to be about the same. I eliminated all files from my
computer that don't pertain to internet, listening to music, and
watching movies, so things are running a bit better (though I still
can't access many sites). Chinese class is shrinking again and I will
be sorry to leave, though I'm thinking about doing 1/week private
lessons to keep myself honest as I try to review (depends on the price
and my work schedule). And that, is really, about it.

easy to blog, annoying to throw away garbage/recycling

So, I'm happy to say that I've found an easier way to post, so I may
be able to do it more regularly. I think I have also made it easier
to leave a comment (you don't have to register anymore) so, you're
welcome. Today I will bitch about the stupid garbage system here. As
I have mentioned before, garbage in Taiwan is picked up by a big ice
cream truck that plays Fur Eloise over an over again. You can't just
leave it in a dumpster, you have to lug it yourself. For me that
means steep stairs, 3 blocks, and crossing a very busy street. But
even more of a pain in the ass, the truck comes at 5pm and 7pm, two
times when I am working every day of the week. On Saturday and Sunday
I can do it, but the recyling truck isn't there. Since almost
everything in Taiwan is recycled, and Richard and I go through
prodigious amounts of paper, aluminum, glass, and plastic, we have
very quickly accumulated massive bags of recycling. Which makes for
heavy trips when we somehow are able to catch the truck. Richard gets
some days off during the week, so he was previously able to take
things out, but now that he has a broken ankle (and will for the next
2 to 5 months!) it is basically on me, and I can't do it. People have
suggested paying someone to do it for us, but I have no idea how to go
about finding someone and no one has thus far been able to help. It
is becoming somewhat urgent, as the weather is hovering in the humid
upper eighties and low nineties and promising to get hotter.
Remember, we have kitty litter and bags of used toilet paper (no
flushing!) in addition to the beer and soda cans that the flies love
so much, so things will very quickly get pretty disgusting. We are
going to have to do something to resolve this soon.
In other news, I'm actually enjoying the warmth and feeling more
healthy. I take lots of supplements and drink fresh fruit juice every
day. I have lost muscle and gained fat here, so I will need to
increase the amount of exercize I do somehow.

post

just experimenting to see if I can post through email. After a brief
respite, the rain is back - I have another long saturday tomorrow.
while i feel better, i wonder if my bronchitis is not chronic.
usually, older smokers and people who work in places like coal mines
get bronchitis - yay me!

cool

This morning i got to look out my balcony as a parade turned around down below. VERY loud firecrackers, then the usual big drum and many gongs. Then tiger dancers, then 20 guys with 4 foot long horns that sounded low and strange. Then 3 paolanquins with incense burning in front and Gods inside. Some Gods are having a birthday. Everyone clasps their hands together (usually with incense in their hands) and bows as the Gods are carried by. Now it's gone and I can just hear the old Chinese songs played on the loudspeaker in my neighborhood. It has become hot, so the doors are closed and occasionally the AC is on. It is a beautiful sunny day. And I am hardly sick at all! I'm thinking of taking a trip to the beach sometime soon.

On the other hand, R. broke his ankle and isn't getting around very well. He will have surgery on tuesday, but until then he is trapped in the house, mostly on the couch in front of the tv. I don't envy him - being in pain and bored is really awful. His uncle in Taipei has checked up on him and brought him food a couple of times, which is nice.

always sick

i have been sick for the past two weeks. went to the doctor (i have insurance!) and it turns out i have bronchitis. i have been taking medicine for 4+ days now, but it really hasn't done much other than make me feel tired and extra spacey. i have slept a lot, drank fluids to the point of complete saturation, and fallen behind in my chinese class. fun! my hope is that it will clear up soon, but who knows. i have many classes wrapping up, which means final exams to grade and grade reports to write. lots of work, and not much fun if i'm ill. oi. outside richard's window right now the drony trumpet is playing, alongside all types of gongs, intercut with a duet of a cappella sad singing in taiwanese. i believe it is part of a funeral. nice, and certainly strange, but it has been going on all day. it is also quite humid and warm, pretty much what you would expect in a tropical country. i will be happy to feel healthy again.

last night

i went out to karaoke with r. it was ok, but there were very few songs i recognized and for some reason the machine wasn't actually able to play them. i sang "california girls" and "california dreaming." i don't know brittany spears' songs or any taiwanese pop songs.

actually...

i didn't sleep on grave sweeping day. i took an extremely twisty busride to a mountain town called jiu fen. The ride there almost made me throw up, but once i got there it was great. it was a beautiful day, and a holiday, so the place was packed. there was a main walk way, with vendors selling tea, mochi, and various other snacks and gew gaws. too crowded for me, but i enjoyed the tea and mochi samples, and i ate bbq'd cho dofu and trumpet mushrooms which were very delicious. i went down a side road and through a passageway that was about 5feet tall to a beautiful teashop filled with antiques, a koi pond, and strange chinese cats. It had an amazing view from which i could see the fog roll in off the ocean and get trapped in the valleys between myself and the water. my photos don't really do it justice, but if i was able to post photos i would (email me if you want one sent to your inbox). i sat there drinking tea and studying chinese until the sun got too low and made me leave. then i wandered around for a while until it started getting cool and dark. i was desperate for a taxi, but figuring out how to get one was beyond my chinese skills. the bus ride home was dreadful - i almost passed out. luckily, this girl offered me her seat and i spent the trip with my head between my legs trying not to throw up. oi. i was nauseous for the next few days, and only now has my head stopped spinning. i would like to go back, but i have to figure out a different way.

grave sleeping day

nothing new. just busy with class and work. the weather seems to be improving. i'm tired all the time. finished atomised, which i had read before under the title the elementary particles. not bad. french. a new canadian at work rants against the french quite frequently. he drinks a lot and looks like the family guy. i ignore him. my computer is no better and i'm not sure where to look for solutions. i am accessing the net through a network with r's computer, and he doesn't want to switch to linux. plus, command lines and text make me nervous. this tuesday is grave sweeping day - it is a national holiday during which people sweep their ancestors tombs. I will be sleeping.

sorry

unfortunately, my computer has had all kinds of crazy problems lately, so blogs have been very difficult to post. i'm not able to access this site, or hotmail, or random other sites. i have no idea why. i'm currently writing on r's computer. things that have happened since last post - i tried absinthe in taipei with a friend who has since left for korea, i saw a lantern festival (at the end of chinese new year) and ate asst. interesting and delicious foods, i became sick, jacques left, i picked up several new classes, and asst other crap. by request, i will try to get a photo of r. and i up on the site soon, if i'm able to figure out the problem. the weather is getting warmer, which is nice. next post shouldn't take so long to get up, bimshallah.

nonstop

the rain never stops. it's getting to be oppressive. a dog has been howling since i got home from work last night. i need sleep.

vacation

so i got this entire week off. i did most of the things i had planned, but it rained every day and in general it was a pretty boring week. my job didn't pay us before the break and didn't give us a bonus (traditional on chinese new year) so i have no money to do anything particularly involved. although it is nice in southern taiwan, everyone goes there now so things are very expensive and booked up regardless. i'm pretty much trapped. i've watched several movies and cleaned the house. i've organized some work stuff. i've read a book. i've even studied a little chinese. i've cooked a little, but for some reason taiwan doesn't have any lemons, an essential ingredient in what i want to cook and a staple food in most countries i've been to. very strange. anyway, back to work on monday. i would have preferred 3 days off now and 2 days off in the summer, but that is not to be.

chinese new years

it was chinese new year on wednesday. on thursday night i went over to my language exchange partner's house (her name is Karen) and had a very nice meal, drank some monstrous liquor, and played cards until after midnight. it was nice to see what taiwanese people do to celebrate. several of the meals had symbolic meanings - fish (very fresh, prepared with ginger and green onions, very tender) represents wealth, boy choy (with garlic, i like it very much) represents long life, and i believe that the pigs feet stew (cooked for 3 days - very tender! and better than it sounds) represented god knows what. another dish, a vegetable and pork stew, could be literally translated as "buddhist monk jumps over the monestary wall because it smells so good," so named because the vegetarian chinese buddhist monks couldn't eat the meat dish. we also had chicken with the head still on, which represented the health of the home, important for karen's two recently married brothers. karen told me that if the head of the chicken points at you (and it inevitably pointed at everyone being as it was on a big lazy susan) it means that you will be fired from your job in the next year. nice to know i have something to look forward to. we drank plum wine that karen's aunt made -very nice- and i had what i believe was sorghum liquor - very strong and a little bit foul. we watched some crappy taiwanese variety shows (think donnie and marie) and some crappy harry potter movie while we played cards (seven star) until it passed midnight. anyway, it was all very interesting and i appreciated the invitation.

haircut

i took my language exchange partner and got a haircut recently. it was very nice - long shoulder, neck, and scalp massage along with shampoo and a cut for around $10 us. my barber was kind of pushy - she wanted to give me a cesar, and she insisted it would make me look younger. having a dumb and dumber haircut may make me look younger, but i don't want to look like a young mentally retarded boy.

these are my new slippers (we don't wear shoes indoors.) i paid about $1.50 US - rip off or bargain? 

rainy again today.

sun

it has actually stopped raining and been sunny for the past couple of days. on sunday, when the sun first appeared, i recoiled like a vampire. but it really was a welcome change. unfortunately, when the rain starts other problems start. for one thing, the rain knocks down the pollution. now that it stopped, i remember how all these scooters can change the atmosphere. also, my office is an amazing breeding ground for mosquitoes. i have lived in the swamps of florida and the mosquito infested suburbs of connecticut, i went to summer camp in the woods of new england and was a tourist in the hills of north thailand. no place i have ever been even comes close to my office building in terms of mosquito infestation. it's unbelievable. it reminds me of that off commercial from the '70's. i wave my hand from my pocket to my face and literally hit 3 mosquitoes on the way. i yi yi.

rain

it has been raining every day since before xmas. you would think someone who lived in seattle for 6 years would be unfazable, but i haven't seen the sun this year. it's remarkable and it never ends. richard claims one day was just overcast, and he may be right, but even so. wow.

by the way, i ate a remarkable meal today for under $3 us. 4 guo tieh (fried dumplings), and 6 shuei jiao (steamed dumplings - 4 shrimp and 2 spicy korean flavored), with a nice bowl of hot and sour soup and some soy milk. and it was all great. i would have been thrilled to get this for $12 at a fancy pan asian place in the us. it makes me happy to start to find the restaurants that i really like.

my chinese classroom. beautiful, isn't it? i enjoy my frankenstein-esque haircut. 

more with ugly santa. note the brown and yellow graphic on my tshirt between the lapels of my suit (it's a picture of bruce lee). 

very cute little girl. i am a very ugly santa. 

my boss sitting on my lap 

xmas and new years

my xmas and new years were fairly uneventful. i got an actual weekend (saturday and sunday off) for 2 weeks which was very nice, but i will make up for it next week when i substitute for a coworker off visiting his wife's family in Wisconsin (poor bastard). i will be working a lot, and substituting is particularly taxing. i need to take care of myself and not get myself sick. anyway, i will be happy when the week is over.

last night

nice long weekend right now. sadly, no cable. it has been very cold (40's and humid) the last few days, so people have been using space heaters. late last night one of my neighbors started shouting and the next thing we knew there were people running with fire extinguishers and then the fire truck showed up. all of the homes seem to be concrete here, so i'm not sure what burned, but the truck was loud and stinky. hope no one got hurt. i stayed up and wrote chinese characters until things quieted down a bit. anyway, no cable today.