Oh, Jianada!

Hey all! 5-day a week class really provides a regularity to life that detracts from epic blog post opportunities so this one is more stream-of-consciousness than anything else. Anyway, on Friday David and I continued our Friday swim tradition at the pool which was fun as always. Then we went to the Marimar Mall with a group of Yalies. After dinner in the food court, we took a ride on what is billed as the world's second largest ferris wheel. The trip up was pretty serene until people started shooting off fireworks from the street right below. Looking down on the fireworks I felt a bit disconcerted, as in "please don't aim to your left..." but it was a nice belated 4th of July event. The mall itself was enormous and well lit. It sort of resembled a Vegas casino. Sadly it was closed when we got off the ferris wheel. 

Next, we caught up with some ICLPers at a club called Luxy. Although my U.S. club going experiences are limited... I imagine that Taiwanese clubs aren't all that different. People danced. People drank. The bartenders did a cool fire throwing routine. Yeah. 

Anway, Saturday night I went to Taipei 101 (once the world's tallest building for those who don't know... is it still? I can never keep up) for the view and for dinner. We got there at dark and the city looked really nice all lit up. Although it seems to me that once you've been up a tall building, you've been up them all. I've been to the Sears tower, and this was similar. I'd like to go on a clear day though so I could see further out into the mountains. Illinois has less of that to boast. There was a really weird coral museum slash store at the top of the building. Probably the coolest part was the ride up in the world's fastest elevator which took forty-something seconds to get us all the way to the top. You couldn't even really feel it accelerating which was incredible. So after descending, we had dinner in the food court and then walked around the district. Sei waited in line for about half an hour for Cold Stone. We saw a fake statue of liberty right outside the store. Lady Liberty had apparently partaken a bit too much in the ice cream because she was a lot chubbier than the original. The weather was breezy and cool which was an INCREDIBLY welcome change so we sat around a bit before returning home.

Anyway no more exciting excursions to report so I'll just post some general observations: 

Before arriving, I read in the guidebook that the Taiwanese are incredibly gracious hosts, perhaps because they are so happy that a foreigner has chosen to come to their often unrecognized island. This I've found to be true in a lot of cases. Although, while polite in conversation, people are often horrific when it comes to waiting in line or yielding on a crosswalk. That's okay, I forgive easily.

Anyway, this leads into the somewhat hard to notice but omni-present tenuous political equilibrium Taiwan has reached with the People's Republic. I make the following comments not to offer original or in-depth analysis but rather an on-the-ground. This situation fascinates me because it seems like such an odd position for the two countries to have reached. For instance, Lu Laoshi took me out to lunch this week (he was my level one teacher at Middlebury) and mentioned that one needs a visa to travel to mainland, which I found so counter-intuitive to the ROC's official claim that Taiwan is part of China. But yeah, you make new rules and overlook certain things I guess for the sake of peace.

Sei also pointed out that the airport in Taipei changed its name from Chang Kai Shek airport to Taipei International Airport when it started making flights to the Mainland. Good burn, Taipei. Good burn.

Last week, I was sitting in the computer lab at school and incredibly loud sirens started sounding. I sort of looked around at the other people in the lab to discern what one does in the case of nuclear annihilation but apparently what one does is continue to do homework. Turns out they have these drills a lot and  I missed the memo. I asked my one-on-one teacher about it and she seemed surprised to hear that we didn't have regular bomb drills in the U.S. (not for half a century anyway) but I pointed out that China is quite a bit further away from us than it is from Taiwan. She laughed, but I guess it wasn't really all that funny.

One other curious thing I've noticed: A common question that teachers ask in class just by way of practicing various grammar patterns is which countries you've been to before. I'll start listing "France, Italy, Mexico, Canada..." and at "Canada" the teacher, no matter which one, invariably gives this sort of incredulous look or snort that means to say "Canada? No, no, I said foreign country not 51st state. Silly waiguoren." It is in these times that I like to write a rhetorical letter. It reads: "Dear Taiwan, you are in no position to judge Canada's sovereignty ... Love, Eric." Maybe I'm developing some weird Canadian pride because I've been asked if I were Canadian at least three times. (???) At Carrefour, a free sample lady just pointed and David and me and said "Jia na da?" ("Canada?") I responded "No we're American," in Chinese to which she responded that we spoke very well. Oh, what would I do without the lowered expectations for white guys who speak Chinese.  This can be another example of the extreme politeness of strangers here in Taiwan toward foreigners. (Would we Canadi- sorry - Americans ever compliment an Asian tourist in a supermarket who managed to stumble through the sentence "I'm from Taiwan" on their superb English? Maybe we should start.)

In other news, a little boy got on the subway with his father and loudly announced, "爸爸，後面有一個外國人!" (Dad, there's a foreigner behind you!) The dad slowly turned around and politely smiled. I made no attempts to reveal that I understand Chinese to avoid embarrassing the dad. Anyway, Erica warned us that this would happen but I'd gone a very long time without it and was starting to worry. Too many of us in Taipei to be all that notable I guess. 

Okay, until next time...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFyAJhueDJA&feature=related