Mid-Term Projects and National Treasures

Satoshi's birthday party: Satoshi's friend, Vicky, Ian, Me, Satoshi, Fu, Joice

Another few weeks has brought more birthdays, conversations, and outings with friends. Satoshi's birthday came and went with another dinner and visit to KTV, during which I had a cold, so my singing voice was um, awesome. We've been good children and sharing... sharing a particularly fun cough around the chinese language center. Satoshi got hit after me (sorry Satoshi), but his cough only seems to be getting worse... he even wore a mask to class today, which I'm grateful for, even if I'm still not used to seeing people wear them. Here, there are lots of fashionable masks- leopard print and leather and pink polka dots. My home-stay sister, Vicky, says that people wear them when it's cold, or to avoid the pollution when they're driving with the other gazillion motor bikes in the road. I haven't bought one yet, but it certainly seems like a good idea. I'm thinking purple is a good color...

Last week marked the middle of my first semester here! To celebrate (or something like that) we had a class mid-term project. We all had to find a cafe close to ShiDa (Taiwan National Normal University - where I go to school), then write directions to it from school. Then last Friday, the teacher gave us our classmate's directions, and let us go for 2 hours. Our task: follow the directions to find the cafe, then find 3 Taiwanese people who'd gone abroad, and ask them a series of questions. All in Mandarin, of course. We'd written out our questions as a previous homework assignment, so the Mandarin was all corrected and understandable to Taiwanese people. I asked people where they'd traveled abroad, why they went, what they'd thought of the country before they'd gone, what they thought of it now, what they missed about Taiwan while they were gone, and such things. I found a person who went to the US when she was little, and before she went had thought that all the American kids would think she was from outer space because she was different... luckily the American kids she met were nice to her and she's not afraid of Americans anymore. I also met another woman who went to the US last year, expecting to find lots of fat people... but she went to LA and San Francisco, and she said she didn't see any. I think that's pretty funny. I told her she should go to the south, or the mid-west... then her chances would be higher. I also had to write a mini-research paper about the experience, which left me with a pretty good feeling of accomplishment... it's only a page and a half, but still, I wrote stuff in Chinese, yay!

On weekends, my classmates usually go to a pub, trying to find suitably attractive Taiwanese girls to hit on. I usually go dancing... this last Friday Satoshi decided he needed to take a break from the beer and came with me to Tango. Vicky came too, because she's been curious about what "tango" is and what it looks like. I was glad they came together, because then no one was left alone while I went to dance. It was my tango friend's (he calls himself Fish) birthday, so he brought a tiramisu cake for everyone (mmmmm...) and taught Satoshi and Vicky both a little tango. We also tried to get Fish and Vicky to teach Satoshi how to hit on girls in Chinese... but neither of them said they knew how to hit on girls... I guess I have to make some more pub-going Taiwanese friends... Fish did show me a street downtown where there are a lot of hot girls though, so now my classmates want me to show them where it is so they can, uh, practice their Chinese.

Fish teaching Satoshi how to tango

Saturday, my classmates and some friends and I went to the National Palace Museum - where all the stuff from the Forbidden Palace in Beijing is... that Chiang Kai-Shek brought with him when he left China, fleeing to Taiwan, waiting to re-take control of all China. I figure that when Taiwan re-conquers mainland China, then maybe they'll share the treasures from Beijing with them again. :) I also think that ancient Chinese people must have really liked to eat... two of the most treasured pieces in the National Palace Museum are a jade piece of cabbage, and a realistic looking stone piece of meat (a little too fatty-looking for my tastes, however). To commemorate, we all went out to dinner after the museum and had tasty cabbage (and there was meat too, I just didn't eat it). mmm... much softer than the treasures, cheaper, and probably tastier... but not nearly as valuable I suppose.

Tonight I also tried to make dumplings at home for the first time in Taiwan... but my family here says the stove is too dangerous to use, so I tried to make them with hot water and the microwave... with marginal success... I think the vegetarian buffets may be a better deal, if perhaps, less creative and exciting... I still have half the package left though, so perhaps I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can perfect my technique...

I've been practicing for my up-coming lindy hop performance fairly often, which has reminded me that I have become weaker since I graduated from school... We're doing a bunch of aerials, and I keep waking up all sore (in that good way)... slowly but surely though, we're putting in some quality rehearsal time in the subway station, and I think it'll be very different from what's seen around Taipei... no one here really knows what swing is, and aerials are cool and unusual - so put them together and we have an exciting new jumping foreigners dance, yay! I'm curious to see what people will think of it...