Night in Hsinchu

So, we've spent a lot of time talking about all the different places we've been in Taiwan so far but haven't mentioned much about the city where we are living. This is probably for two reasons:

1. Other places always seem more exciting than the one you're living in, and...
2. While still a major metropolitan area, Hsinchu/Jubei is smaller than most big cities in Taiwan so there actually is less to see.

While this sometimes leaves us wanting to get out rather than explore our own city, we prefer it on a day-to-day, living-life basis as it's much less crowded, congested and crazy than the bigger cities.

Recently, Luke and I decided to head out one night and try to snap some night pictures of Hsinchu. They're not the best quality, but you can get an idea of what some of the more interesting parts of the city look like.

Welcome to Hsinchu's East Gate and "Circle of Death" as I like to call it.
Hsinchu was first established in the 1700's. Back in the day it came complete with a moat and a sweet wall to keep all the bad guys out. The East Gate is the last remaining part of that wall. Just that the thing is preserved and still standing is amazing considering that most historic buildings can be found in varying stages of dilapidation. This can be pretty depressing to a lover of fine and historical architecture like myself. Well, ce la vie...here, if it doesn't have some utilitarian purpose, away with it! We have no need!

Oh, and the "Circle of Death." Looks fun, right? There are about eight streets that all empty in to the circle at once. This means that at any moment about a dozen scooters, ten large tour buses and maybe twenty cars are all entering at the same time. You, on your scooter must not only navigate your entrance, your journey around the circle but also your exit while other said automobiles do the same. Some times are crazier than others, but I leave the driving to Luke and he does swimmingly. I'm just there to lend moral support and another set of eyes. Oh, and also the occasional "watch out!" and white-knuckled grab on his arm.

The part of the moat in front of the East Gate has since been blocked off and drained and is now used for concerts and emerging Asian boy bands practicing their break dancing.
Is that photo crooked, you ask? No, just the platform that all those people are standing on...
Here is the rest of the moat. It no longer goes around the entire city but only runs through a part of it. There are plenty of nice(r) restaurants and shops to peruse as well as a walking path on either side of it. Walking path, yay! I say this, because a sidewalk that continues unobstructed for more than five feet is a rare thing indeed.
Also, on our wanderings that night we stumbled on a sign telling us that we were entering "The Dark Street." Woooo...sound scary? Not really....apparently, the first street of Hsinchu, it looked to us like any other street in Hsinchu except for a bunch of these lanterns. They were pretty (prettier than the street), so here's a picture.

Little Island Awesome

After the Halloween extravaganza we felt compelled to get out of town for the weekend. After some e-mails and a little planning we decided to head south to the island of Liuchiu. It is a very small island (5km across) just south of Kaohsiung. The trip was being organized by some friends living in Kaohsiung and they offered to let us crash at their place before setting out early Saturday morning.

So Katie and I, with a friend from our branch made our way to the Hsinchu train station to catch the 3.5 hour "non-stop" train to Kaohsiung on Friday night. The train wound up being fourty-five minutes late and packed to the brim. In Taiwan, you can almost always get on a train going anywhere, but that does not mean you will get a seat. So for the first hour and a half I was standing in the aisle among many others hoping to slip into a seat as soon as possible. This was amusing only because there were seven other men from Indonesia that insisted on listening to the Scorpians rather loudly on their miniture MP3 player.

With Katie safely in a seat, I found myself ready to laugh as I was being pressed at all sides by bodies of random people with the Scorpians playing in the background. Without any real events, we made it to Kaohsiung late that night and to our friend's house.

We were up early to make our way to the port to catch a ferry to the island. Our friends had to teach that Saturday, so the three of us planned to go on ahead and meet the others there later on. So after some quick negotiations we arranged a cab to take us to the ferry...everything was going according to plan.

With the ferry filled to the brim with everything from supplies, to scooters (yes they even fit them in on the boat) and people we began the hour boat ride to the island.

This guy looked like he had a rough night.

The sky was heavily overcast and to be honest in Kaohsiung, the air quality can be so bad it is difficult to tell when the smog ends and the clouds begin. That being said, we were hopeful there would be a breakthrough from the sun as soon as we got out into the water a ways. This wasn't the case however...
This was our "clear" approach. I am guessing if the sun was out this temple would have been quite impressive.

Which was probably the case for the whole island. The clouds did not break and after we rented a scooter and began to explore, periodically we felt small drops of rain on our faces.

We stopped at the first beach we came to hoping to lay around for a while when the rain started. It was a harmless sort of rain and we were certain it would pass. So we made a small little camp next to some jagged coral rocks and tried to enjoy the beach.
Here is our "campsite"...
Here is the beach just as the rain began.

It became clear that the rain was not going to stop immediately, in fact it was starting to rain harder. So doing the best we could to stay dry we made our way to a covered area that our friend saw on the way in.

This area seemed to not only be a suitable place to stay dry, but possibly a place to camp for the night. So as the rain began to pour, we happily got out our towels, books and blankets then got comfortable for a peaceful and lazy afternoon.
The rainy day wasn't so bad...

Then came the lightening. Which was a little disconcerting and the rain came down in buckets. Suddenly our dry area was being flooded and we scrambled around trying to keep dry. All our stuff wound up on our backs and we needed a plan B. After some quick deliberation we made the logical choice: the three of us would pile onto the rented scooter and I would drive it through the pouring rain to drier ground.

So, that's what we did. Let me tell you, it is not as easy as it may sound and honestly it was one of the funniest things we have done in a while. I don't know how exactly we didn't die, we just kept moving and as long as we were going fast and straight balance wasn't really an issue (except when we had to make a 6 point U turn near the edge of a cliff...I mean...just kidding mom and dad...)

Needless to say we made it in one piece and tried to wait out the storm. I recieved a text message from our inbound friends explaining that there was a tropical storm in the area and the rain was not likely to stop. They were going to stay in Kaohsiung. It seemed un reasonable to stay there as well, so we rushed to catch the next baot back and just like that our mini-vacation on the island was over.

This however, turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While our friend went back home that night, Katie and I decided to stay in Kaohsiung with out other friends. They are wonderfully hospitible people and we enjoyed a restful evening drying out and enjoying their large three bedroom apartment overlooking a large lake. Katie enjoyed playing with their blonde, minature dachsund Roxie.
The next day was still rainy but we decided not to let that ruin our time in Kaohsiung. The four of us went to Lotus Lake to have a look at the various temples. Needless to say more it was very impressive. Below are many pictures from that all-day excursion:




So despite the rain and the storm the trip was very relaxing and we had a great time with our friends. As always many of these pictures do not do justice to what we saw, but we wanted to share as much of this as we can with you.

Halloween: Taiwan Style

Of the American holidays there are few that I regard with less interest than Halloween. That is to say when I lived in America I was more excited to see Columbus Day on the calendar than I was Halloween. There are various reasons for this, but the main one is that Halloween isn't celebrating or commemorating anything. The irony of my apathy of course is that for some reason, those who are in authority at the school we work at regard Halloween as something very important.

Does Taiwan celebrate Halloween? No. But Hess Language school does. Why? It isn't clear except that the "holiday" has an attachment to the United States and the myth is that it is in fact a very important holiday state-side. So, instead of dedicating just one evening to the Halloween "tradition" (whatever that may be for you) we were required to teach on it for a week. That's right, one week of English teaching on ghosts, monsters, bats, skeletons, and whatever else will fit appropriately on a Kindergarten flashcard--culminated by an event (replacing classes) on Friday--the actual day of Halloween.

It is important to point out, that I have particularly strong feelings about these events because I had to plan the big event for the whole Kindergarten on Friday. In hindsight, this sounds like more than it was because, the duties of running the event fell on all the English teachers and not just me.

The week of Halloween was a blur of language games, the Halloween Song (which song is that you may be wondering...), and overly elaborate craft projects geared towards decorating the hallways with the kids' artwork. All of these things went off without a hitch and the event day arrived.

Without too much needless detail the event was to last for two and a half hours. The opening of the day would be a "fashion show" of all the kids in their costumes, followed by trick or treating and games. The children arrived that morning decked out in whatever their parents could buy or make (most of them...some didn't have any costume) and Halloween was on.

This is Winnie...part of my (Luke's) Kangaroo class.

This is Kelly...part of Katie's Rabbit class and yes she is a little unicorn!
The costume show was more amusing for the teachers than the students. There were too many of us crammed in a tiny hallway, but it was a good time all the same.


Things moved forward from there rather smoothly. But the day wouldn't have been right without some true Taiwan moments:

An example was the Trick or Treating. This was supposed to take place at 3 different businesses just down the block from the school. One of the Chinese teachers assured me that this would only take each class about ten minutes and so everyone would have plenty of time for the games. So we set out in the hot early morning sun (90 plus degrees and 90 plus humidity) toward our first stop: Starbucks.

For this to be a true Taiwan experience there had to be something unusually dangerous going on. In this case, the building next to ours was being remodeled. In Taiwan they don't use cones, or ropes or anything you would normally find in the U.S. Instead they like to use a "walk at your own risk through a construction site" policy.
Excuse me while I move my tractor off the road (which I was blocking) and off the sidewalk (as the kids were walking toward it) and into this recently destroyed area.

Don't mind the broken bricks...shards of rocks and metal spikes...
Yay we made it 100 hundred feet to Starbucks!

Another major distinctive of Taiwan is the real lack of places to walk. If it is just Katie and I making our way to 7-11 that is one thing. We can watch for scooters (they drive on the sidewalks, through covered markets or anywhere they can fit) for just the two of us...but watching for almost 60 little kids was a bit stressful.

Oh yeah...another tractor actually tearing up the road. They stopped for a minute to watch us as we walked by...

So ten minutes took forty-five, but it was worth it. The children loved Trick or Treating and just looking awesome in their costumes.


At the end of the day we were exhausted but we felt like the event as a whole was a success. There was merriment, much candy, and laughs all around. So that being said...happy halloween from Taiwan!