Fruitfly retreat

I got a couple of emails with fruitfly remedies- basically they all invovle trapping them in vinegar, and they work! Thanks, everyone!

Fruitfly invasion is killing my soul!

Seriously, there are like 327 of them in my kitchen, and a good hundre elsewhere in my apartment.

My kitchen is more assiduously clean than it's been since I moved in but still they are there. Also, when I spray them with Lysol, they don't care.

I have stepped it up to weird gel- like ant poison, but I'm trying to avoid cockroach spray as I feel it's very poisonous and probably cancer-causing and should be reserved for cockroaches.

ah, Taiwan...

yeah, you know what's great? It's 10 at night and I realize I have no bananas for tomorrow morning. And I forgot to pay my electric bill. So in 5 minutes, I walked to the late-night fruit stand, went to 7-11 to pay the bill... all done!

Warmin' my heart

Sometimes my students are just so mean (especially now that they're 6th-graders) and sometimes they're just so sweet. We just had a speech contest yesterday, which we've been preparing for for over a month. There are two kids in my one class who are just born hams and were pretty much shoe-ins to win from our class and go to the final round. (In fact, I lobbied to let 3 kids into the final round so everyone else would have a chance.) That whole class did really well- I was proud of them. Even the shy kids made a real effort to be audible and add some intonation.
Today the two shoe-ins were trying to get me to tell them who the winners from our class are (which won't be revealed until Friday) and the one girl who's won every year told me, "I don't think it's me. I don't think I did very well." I asked her how she'd feel if she didn't go to the final round, and she said, "It's OK. I don't really deserve it, and it will give some other people a chance." Can you believe it? It really made my day to hear that. (And we're sending her through, but not because of that!)

dried pork

I've mentioned this a few times in my blog. I don't really understand it at all, but basically they dry pork so that it becomes very dry and fluffy and expands in your mouth- kind of like cotton candy but not sticky- and use it as garnish on all kinds of things. They put it on congee (as on today's snack, pictured), in sushi rolls, on vegetables, in layered cake.
Sometimes it's called "pork floss" which doesn't sound much better. This is one of those culture gaps- I've never seen a westerner who thinks it's good, and never seen a Chinese person who thinks it's gross, or can even understand how we'd think it's gross. Also they have an innate understanding of what to put it on.

warmin' up

Yeah, I finally got out my winter clothes (which actually is not much of a production- take the suitcases that hold them off the shelf? yeah) and found that wearing appropriate clothes for the weather makes a big difference. I also got out my hot water bottles- boy are those a good invention.

It's still a little dicey as I wound up way overdressed today- thus I remembered that unless it's for sure going to be freezing, wear a few layers instead of a bit turtleneck sweater. Oh. But having a winter coat for the scooter- so genius!

Winter

I forgot how cold 60* is. Yeah, I know, it's actually cold in America. But I'd forgotten that you actually have to wear a sweater, and a jacket, and sandals really aren't an option, and also you should wear socks. Also on a scooter it's really really cold.

No big deal, I just have to get in the habit of bundling up! And wearing the good old layers as there's always a chance it'll be 80* on any given day.

Happiness is...

... that google maps now has tone marks for the pinyin on its maps of Taiwan! You have no idea how awesome this is.
See, it's extremely helpful if you say the tone correctly when you're asking for or giving directions, 'cause then the Chinese person understands what you're saying. But no maps ever include the tones in their Romanization, and neither do the street signs (if they even have romanization at all), so unless you know the characters (ahem), you're stuck. Usually you can figure things out as long as you pronounce the name of the road pretty well, but it's really nice to see the tone marks.

Yay!

oof. and duh.

So we're in the middle of two months of gorgeous weather here- 80s and sunny almost every day. It's to the point that I took my rain gear out of my scooter because at most there's ever a 20% chance of rain. I heard some rain-like noises on my windows this morning but brushed them off and when I got on my scooter, darned if it wasn't raining! I did have a rain jackets so I stayed half-dry on the way to work.

I kind of didn't want to admit that it was raining and I kind of had forgotten that you need to take it easier while driving in the rain, especially on the tile and marble that makes up the entranceways to most buildings. Like my school.

So I got my temperature taken, zipped on in the gate and proceeded to totally wipe out- my scooter just slid sideways and fell over with me on it. The guard and my boss both rushed over and luckily I'm fine- just a bruise on my knee and one on my foot. They made me go to the nurse and she gave me baby ice packs. :) I just feel like I keep doing things that are like, idiot. Of course you know better. I think I need to pause once an hour and ask myself, "What's a stupid thing you would've done when you first got to Taiwan because you didn't know better, but now you do know better?"

I was afraid the run commute home would become another one of those things I should've known better than to do, but I made it totally fine! Yay!

a big 'un

Just had one of the bigger earthquakes I've felt in a while- hard enough I could really feel it shaking and it lasted a while, not hard enough to knock anything down or make me fall over. I did walk near my doorway to a) be close enough to it to escape if it shook a lot more and b) eavesdrop on my neighbors to see if it was a strong enough earthquake to be worried about.*
It was centered near the middle of Taiwan, and it says it was only in the 4 vicinity up here (Taichung area).
*This is one of those things that, when the earthquake isn't happening, I recognize doesn't make sense, because if it was an earthquake that's big enough to worry about, I would be scared and adrenaline would rush and I'd react. But I always calmly think, "Hmm, since I'm not from an earthquake-prone area, I don't know if this is a big earthquake or not. I hope my neighbors discuss the earthquake in Chinese instead of Taiwanese so I can know.

d'oh

When will I learn? I seriously keep doing these things that afterwards I'm like, idiot, you know better! Nothing major yet, just dumb things.

So one of my class rules is no saying "Oh my god" which is pretty popular English in Taiwan, like the kind of think even people who can't speak English say. I give my students the alternative, "Oh my goodness." Once I let out a "dear heavens" when they were driving me crazy so that's caught on, but it's pretty mild as far as explitives go...

But when I worked at Hess, I taught one class "Oh my goodness" the same day that they learned the word "nurse." Thus "Oh my good nurse" was born. And it drove me crazy.

And in a fit of amnesia I shared that amusing anecdote with one of my classes. So now all I hear is "oh my good nurse." and "oh my bad doctor." and "oh my stupendous journalist" as they have recently learned that word.

Rarrrrr...

Passionfruit!

I didn't buy these for a year when I saw them at the fruit stands because I didn't know what they were.

On the outside, wrinkly brown ugliness:


On the inside, seedy pink deliciousness!



I think they're in season again- yay! You can also buy passionfruit tea at a lot of tea stands but I think they just use flavored syrup, not real passionfruit juice.

another trip to Tai-An

You might remember me biking there last year- what? No? Oh, it's all right...

Well, our school is closed this week because it's National Sports Week in Taichung, which I guess means Taichung is hosting like national games for professional athletes? Anyways, a week off of school. We had an optional trip to Tai-An hot springs are with our school, which I took advantage of, and got permission to ride my bike up (about 55 km). It was absolutely a perfect day- sunny and breezy and gorgeous. I had a great time going there. Unfortunately, the combination of my run commute and lots of hills led to some sore old-woman knees... sigh...

One bummer was that the hotel was a crazily nicer than I'd ever stay in on my own hotel, but it was like at the top of a mountain that was perched on another mountain so once I got up there I had no desire to go walking back down in search of hikes. (Most everyone else rode a bus up from Taichung.) I did get to enjoy the hot springs and had a little awkward moment in that I didn't know if it was a wear-a-bathing-suit hotsprings or not. It seemed not to be, as it was separated by gender and the only showers were right next to the pools, but there were also windows that you could kind of see in, and I was the only person there and I figured better to not be naked in a naked hot springs than naked in a non-naked one, eh? Especially when your boss walks in. One lady did get in- she came to the pool in a towel and then left and came back in a bathing suit. I later found out you are not to wear a bathing suit in them. Well, live and learn.

We had a delicious meal and an enjoyable evening. I rode the bus part of the way home and stopped at several places with the group and then rode my bike the rest of the way- only about 30 km this time and mostly down hill so it was fun.

I would like to say for the record, though, that I'm not too sorry I'm not rich, at least when it comes to hotels. Twice in the last month I've stayed at hotels that are beyond my means (here, and at the Tai-dong triathlon where we had crazily discounted rates) and I don't know, Taiwan seems to be about pointless luxury. Like our room for two adults included a bathroom the size of my living room and a Japanese tatami tea-drinking room, but we had 2 twin beds pushed next to each other. Weird.

Great weather on tap for the rest of the week- looking to do some hiking and shopping tomorrow and then head up to Taipei for, I don't know, hiking and shopping? Depends on how creaky my knees are.

little mes

One thing about being the main native speaker of English in my students' lives is that they tend to pick up on things I say. Not everything, just random things.

My one class can't seem to read together out loud, and a few times I said, "That was very poor." Yes, I'm mean! Now that's their word for everything. "You are so poor." I guess they think it's funny because they think it means not rich?

Today I had them write an essay about why we need to obey rules in the library. One girl wrote, "If the teacher asks you to do something, it's not a debate. Just do it." I could totally hear myself saying that.

Beans & ice & condensed milk

When I was home, one story I kept being asked to tell was about the unique summer treat, uh, I don’t really know what it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

You start with some shaved ice.  A few places add condensed milk and fresh fruit, which has a certain appeal.  Most places add, um, tapioca balls (those are the black balls in the sign above), weird medicinal jell-o (the jello-y black stuff in the bowl on the right), taro balls (the kinda beigey purple balls) and other gummy and chewy things.  And, of course, beans!

It’s one of those things I kinda get talked into because Taiwanese people can’t fathom how it’s not delicious.  The stands always have a huge menu, which I can’t understand, and also one kind of cold soup gummy beany thing tastes the same as the next to me.

I’ve learned to avoid these stands by treating at Starbucks whenever someone suggests it all my smarts went out the window last weekend, when the friend I was with said she’d treat me to ice later.  Ice cream, I thought!  Great!  And for some reason in my mind I just knew she’d take me to some delicious place with homemade ice cream in normal flavors…  Sometimes I don’t know what’s wrong with me.  Did I just get to Taiwan yesterday?

The upshot is that I got to take a picture of my bowl.  Yes, those seems to be pinto beans and kidney beans, and yes, I ate some (but not all- it was huge!)  The beans are not as salty as canned beans back home so it’s not really that bad, just not something I would choose to eat.

Since it’s only 80 degrees out (ie, it’s cold!), she couldn’t eat the ice stuff, so she got a bowl of warm (not hot) “tofu flower” soup. 

I just realized this whole post sounds really sarcastic.  But I mean how else do you write about sweet gummy bean ice?

Ghost money

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is called “bai-bai” (sounds like bye-bye!)- Many Taiwanese people burn “ghost money” and make offerings to the spirits at least twice every lunar month.  They put out fruit and sometimes other food with incense stuck into it, and use what looks like a little burn-barrel to burn the ghost money.  It seems to be done most often about an hour before dusk, or in the early afternoon.

The little grocery store in my neighborhood carries some ghost money, although there are some small shops that sell it, and even a few huge stores that have lots of idols and other ancestor-worshipping items.  I also had to include this announcement that was up in the elevator of my building- I think it’s for when they put a tent outside the building and you can buy some food on a table and a bunch of people do their bai-bai at the same time.  Gotta love the picture though, with the chicken with the incense sticks and 3 distinctly western-looking ghosts coming to get it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I’ve mentioned before, ghost money is extremely polluting and apparently is printed with carcinogenic dye?  It seems so strange that they don’t use non-carcinogenic dye.