Catholic Filippinos in Taiwan

Last Sunday I went to a Catholic Church of immigrants from the Philippines. I did not know that people in the Philippines were Christians, but I found out that it is about the most practiced religion in the Philippines.

They went through the basic Catholic service common in a Catholic church. However, the priest spoke in English especially for us for half of the sermon. The rest of the sermon and prays were in Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines. What struck me as strange we that certain words they used were in Spanish. They used the words dios (God), Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit) La madre Maria (Mother Mary), and Jesu Christo (Jesus Christ). They had not translated these words into their own language. Are there equivalent words in Tagalog?



I imagine that these words are a result of Spanish missionaries converting the heathens hundreds of years ago. It was interesting to see such a strong Spanish influence on the Filipino culture. Colonialism.

Everyone at the congregation was very friendly and welcoming. After the service there was a birthday party for the priest and we were all invited to attend. They had prepared a few Filipino dishes and also had pizza and tuna fish sandwiches.

For a few of the students, this visit was a shocking experience. Most of the students grew up with Christian parents. Many of them have totally revolted from the Christian faith. It is interesting that the students have been so open to participation in Daoist Temples and Buddhist temples, but were so averse to participating in this Catholic Church. Why are travelers so averse to their own culture? Why are we so much more willing to participate in cultures other than our own? Are other travelers like this, or only those from the USA?

Baby Kitten

(We named her Bodhi. She is a little Buddha speaking no evil, seeing no evil and hearing no evil.)

Baby Kitty,
Born into this here harsh world. Like we all are. On Cold tile enclosed by bright white walls.
Momma left you on the steps.
Welcome to the world.
Abandoned.
I feel you today.
I was in a warm womb this morning.
Then I got ripped out, and abandoned in the freezing, rainy real world alone, blind.
Umbilical cord hanging out of your belly button still connected on one end, but severed on the other.
The attachment is still there, physically laid out on the floor for everyone to see, shriveling. Vulnerable.
All the wanting in the world cannot reconnect this wounded appendage.
The same woman found us both today crying on the white tile floor all messy and snotty and wet from crying about how our attachments were laid out before us and the other beings of our umbilical cords, our sustenance, had gnawed off their attachment to us. She scooped us both up into her arms as a surrogate mother.
Maybe love should not be a physical attachment to the body.
Maybe love ultimately has to be something deeper.
If a mother can leave her kit maybe there is no unconditional love.
Maybe there is only conditional love.
Or maybe if it hurts too much to love another that we gnaw off the painful part and leave love behind.

The National Palace Museum in Taiwan

I went to the National Palace museum here in Taiwan. This museum is a world renowned museum of Chinese artifacts. During the Communist Revolution in China one of the missions of the Commies was to destroy antiques. Antiques and art were part of the “Four Olds” which the Commies said promoted feudalism and inequality. Fortunately while people were fleeing from China to Taiwan, they brought along many of these artifacts which now reside in the National Palace Museum in Taipei.

I was incredibly excited to visit this museum. I love Chinese art and furniture. As an anthropologist and archaeologist I think old junk is awesome. When I was studying in China, Wade and I often discussed going to Taiwan specifically to visit the museums here. A lot of people visit Taiwan just to do that.

(Outside of the National Palace Museum in Taiwan)

Before I left for the museum I got my camera all ready. I made space on my memory card and loaded my bag with extra batteries. I was ready to take photos of all these ancient treasures. However, when I arrived I found out that photography was not allowed in the museum. NO PHOTOS PLEASE read signs posted all over the entrance way. Woe is me! I came all this way, to the other side of the world and I couldn’t even photograph anything. My memory isn’t very good, so I like to take photos so later on in life I can remember what I did and saw. I guess I will not be able to remember this museum very well.

I walked around the museum aimlessly, checking out the general lay of the land. There were only a few rooms on each floor. I thought I must be missing something, so I walked around again. I didn’t find anything else that I hadn’t already seen. It was a little weird to me that this was considered one of the best museums in the world. There were not too many exhibits and there were not many artifacts on display. In fact, I think the University of Penn’s Archaeology and Anthropology museum may have more Chinese artifacts.

(A Chinese Lion Sculpture Guarding the National Palace Museum in Taiwan)

The one thing I was amazed about was how old the Chinese culture is. In the museum there were axes, jewelry, and other relatively sophisticated tools displayed dated from around 4,000 B.C.E. This is old! Paralleled to culture in Americas, the Chinese were way more advanced. In Honduras I was working on a Mayan site where their technology was basically at the same stage as the 4,000 B.C.E. Chinese, but this site only dated back to around 700 C.E. The Mayan civilization as a whole really didn’t start developing until the first or second century C.E. Why were the Chinese so much more advanced than other civilizations? I am going to read more about Chinese history and archaeology now.

Taiwan and China Racism

Taiwan is not China, China is not Taiwan, but both are Chinese. China is the People’s Republic of China and Taiwan is the Republic of China. I do not fully understand the political situation of China and Taiwan. The most I can comprehend is that China thinks Taiwan is a part of China, but Taiwan does not think they are a part of China. The Taiwanese have their own government, so they should be considered their own government. But international organizations like the UN and the World Bank do not consider Taiwan a country. Is this right? Can anyone better explain this to me? How can they be a separate country, but not be viewed as a separate country?
At the Government Information Office in Taipei a man told me that Taiwan is not internationally recognized by the world as a separate country. He said that it has to do with trade. China says if anyone does business with Taiwan that China will not do business with that country. So, since China is larger and richer in resources, countries choose trade with China over trade with Taiwan.
I also don’t understand this because Taiwan does tons of business all over the world. For example the company ASUS that makes EEEPC is a Taiwanese company, and you can buy these computers all over the world. I do not understand economics. I do not understand the China Taiwan relationship.

(Wade from www.vagabondjourney.com and I with Chinese girls in China.)

For more pictures from China Visit my Travel Photos blog at travelerphotos.blogspot.com

Taiwanese people, I am finding, really do not like China. This is hard for me to grasp. I like China. I spent 5 months in China. To me, Taiwan is very similar to China in a lot of ways, food, culture, language, stores, products, music, etc. Since I am familiar with China I want to compare Taiwan to China. This is coming out in my conversations with Taiwanese people, and I don’t know how they are receiving it.
I was talking to three Taiwanese boys and I was a little shocked how they reacted when I spoke about China, and how they thought of China and Chinese people. The boys asked me if I liked Chinese food and if I had ever tried stinky tofu. I said that I liked the food in China. I told them I had stinky tofu in China and it wasn’t very good, so I want to try it again in Taiwan. They all kind of snickered.
They replied, “We think food in China is dirty.”
Then they told me that they all wanted to study in the USA and asked if there were a lot of Chinese students in the USA. I told them that there were, and I also described China town. I really love China town in Philadelphia. I thought the idea that there are communities of Chinese people from all of greater “China” (Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Singapore, etc.) would comfort them. I thought they would like the idea that there were places in America where they would feel at home. I was wrong.
They replied, “But we do not like Chinese people.” They do not want to talk to Chinese people, even in America.
Then we discussed their plans for after college. I was wondering what schools in America they would like to go to, or what they would like to study, or what career they would do after they graduated. They told me first they must do mandatory military service. I replied, “It is a good thing Taiwan is not at war with anyone.”
They said, “Yes, but Taiwan has lots of problems with China.”
Does Taiwan still fight with China? Is there a war going on somewhere between them that I do not know about?
Their anti-Chinese attitude was very startling to me. In America we are raised to be anti-racist, and most people will not make such brutal statements about the people of other countries. Maybe with the war, now people openly make these statements about Iraqis and Muslims, but still for the most part Americans are taught not to express hate. I want to talk to more Taiwanese about this issue. And I guess I need another history lesson.

Culture through the eyes of a Traveler

Loaded words. Everyone is trying so hard to be politically correct. People from the United States try to be very politically correct. We are taught not to be racist, not to judge, and above all, that everyone is created equally. I think sometimes it is hard to travel, or continue to travel, or see many many many different cultures and continue to think this. I am not saying one becomes racist, or hates humanity, but that a travel gains a sense that people are created differently. I am not saying that any human being lacks potential. I am saying enculturation and socialization of any given civilization or country really shapes a person. Maybe we are all created equally, but we are shaped differently. Traveling and studying anthropology changes how one views the world, and often destroys many ideals and preconceptions of humanity.

Thinking on the Alan Cornes text Culture From the Inside Out, his identification of different traveler stereotypes really struck a chord in me. I think when most people start to travel they are the “Please like me” sojourner. This is a person who thinks everyone is friendly and should get along. They are very trusting, think people need help, think they can help the people, etc. They have a politically correct view point, and maybe not a realistic view point of the world. Andy is not this person.

Today I spent time with Andy from hobotraveler.com. He has been traveling steadily for over 10 years to about 77 countries he says. The kind of traveling he does is NOT normal. He does not have a home. He is constantly traveling from one country to the next. There is no going home. He does not do the normal tourist things either. He is not on a constant vacation. He doesn’t go to a country to go ziplining through the Amazon, or see a particular tourist sight. For this reason, he usually does not go to normal tourist destination. He does however interact with the people more than I have ever seen anyone else while traveling. He talks to everyone, from the youngest to the oldest, or all sexes, male, female, and even the lady boys of Thailand.

He has learned to live a different way than most people. He has had to develop different skills, and a different set of rules to view the world. With this he brings a lot of insight. He cannot be politically correct. Simply, he would not be able to continue traveling if he did this. He has an ability to see the world in a unique light.

With this he brings a lot of insight. He cannot keep many traits that are a part of USA culture. He cannot be an idealist. He cannot completely believe that all humans were created equally, or at least shaped equally. With having such a broad view of such a myriad of cultures this just is not possible. He has learned just how different cultural morals, ideals, values, religions, customs and life is around the world. There is no standard.

So, Andy is an interesting person to listen to. His commentary on the world often forces the listener to stretch their world view in ways that are often uncomfortable. Tonight he was introduced to other students on the CRC program. As he talked, I watched their eyes widening and their bodies shaking with what he said. Some of his opinions can be so shattering that you feel the effects racking through your body. Your own view of the world begins shaking and causing a deep feeling, often putrid in a way, like you are about to throw up. In a sense, one does throw up as they regurgitate their cosmovision in words, in a response, almost so physically that the words seem to spill out onto the table, thick and heavy, maybe gruesome.
I think one of the hardest things about talking to Andy is that he speaks the truth. Or maybe, let me phrase it a little differently. He speaks in a way coming from a person who has dealt with over 77 different cultures for an extended period of time, in a way that he tries to present as unbiased by cultural standards of politeness or politically correctness. Maybe this is hard for me to explain and formulate into words. His words often scream, “the fact of the matter is…”

For example he was talking about “factories in foreign countries.” To many, this equates to sweat shops. Andy has probably seen and been inside and talked to more people who work in “factories” around the world than all of the CRC students combined. He has a huge repertoire of experiences that he can use as a comparative study of “factories” around the world. He is thinking of starting a “factory” to produce backpacks. He is thinking of putting this factory in a country other than the USA or Europe.

In one students mind, this equated to “sweat shop.” He fully knows that his reason for his factory’s location IS based on cheaper wages. In our USA encultured mind this means sweat shop. Sweat shop means bad. That means Andy must be bad. Basic reaction.

“What about the worker’s rights? Why don’t you pay them decent wages?” The student asks. I could literally witness their reaction welling of from the core of their belief system, like a shock radiating out until it reached her mind and her words bounced out.

Andy knows this is a loaded question. Andy knows his own culture, and how his own culture views the world.

He responds in a very matter of fact way. “I know what you think, and I do try to pay my workers better wages. But you have to look at the implications and effects of my actions. I am going to another country where they have a different set of standards. Have you ever been to a factory or so called “sweat shop?” Did the workers look like they didn’t want to be there? Would there be happier if they weren’t there? What else would they do? Is there anywhere else they could work? I want to pay my workers fairly, so I pay them 25% more than the average daily wages of the country. I cannot pay them more than that or else it would be culturally insensitive. It would not work. I would be viewed as a rich a$$hole. If I pay them less than what is fair, I will be exploiting them. By paying them a little more it makes everybody happy, but I cannot pay them too much more or else it would cause problems. People in other countries want to work. If I build a factory somewhere and put people to work I am creating a job for them, a way for them to make a living.”

Does this make sense to American culture? Does it make sense in the world? He thinks giving people work and paying them a little more than they would normally earn is a good thing.

Andy likes people. Andy’s motto is “life is good.” Andy likes the world. Andy thinks the world is good and doing just fine. Andy is happy. How many people can say that?
Where does travel really take the traveler? Are travelers merely visiting other cultures and countries or are they visiting a place inside themselves? Sometimes travel shakes darkness inside a person and stirs up hidden feelings and beliefs. It urges us to take a look from another person’s eyes, even if that view is so contradictory to our own sunglasses that it is uncomfortable and painful. This reevaluates our own cultures, and sometimes wipes off the dust that may have built up on our sunglasses, or prescribes a totally new prescription lens altogether. The world rocks the traveler’s “world.”

Learning Mandarin Chinese in Taiwan

Learning a language is difficult. It happens in stages. It is a gradual process that sometimes kills. I am at a frustrating point in learning Mandarin. I started studying Mandarin over a year ago. I took one class and then stopped, due to certain circumstances and the end of my semester. I gained a basic knowledge of Mandarin in my class, the grammar structure and a very small, limited vocabulary. This is an extremely frustrating point to get over. I started practicing the language again this summer. The material that I had previously learned came back to me quickly, but I am finding it hard to now progress pass that point.

I know some basic phrases that seem helpful, but can also be a burden. A woman who works at the dorms where I am staying tries to communicate with me. She seems very friendly and sweet and I wish I could tell her that. She asks me a lot of questions in Chinese and I wish I could understand her. I can’t. I try, but I can’t. I do know enough Mandarin to tell her that I do not understand. I wish I didn’t know how to say this. By telling her in Mandarin that I don’t understand, I am also ultimately telling her that I do speak some Mandarin. I feel like she thinks, can I just not understand her or what? It makes me feel like I am acting arrogantly. Like, she may think I just do not want to talk to her, maybe she thinks I don’t want to talk to her because she is Taiwanese or a maid or maybe her Mandarin isn’t good and she has a country accent.

I don’t want her to think this. I wish I could tell her all of this. I do not want to be culturally insensitive. I can see why people may view foreigners in a negative light. It is understandable.
Now I feel very shy when she is around, which also may be interpreted as being arrogant. I don’t know what to do in this situation. I think if I do not understand someone from now on it may be better to just shake my head rather than tell them in Mandarin that I do not understand. I don’t know.

Another problem I am having is that I know how to ask a lot of questions in Mandarin. I can ask how much something costs, if a store has something I want, or ask directions. My problem is that I cannot understand the answer. Particularly when I ask for directions, this is frustrating. They can say the directions all they want, but I will not understand. I just get confused and realized I shouldn’t have asked for directions in the first place.

I need to practice some more phrases in Mandarin and learn some more useful vocabulary. Hopefully I can break out of this stage of learning the language, and move on.

Taiwanese Instant Noodles

I love ramen cup of noodles. I know it is a little disgusting, but I do love them. There is something really satisfying about eating them. They are also EXCELLENT for getting rid of hang-overs.

I was really excited to be in Taiwan so I could eat lots of cup of noodles without being such a weirdo. AND they have about a million different varieties of them here, and just about everywhere has hot water, making them an easy snack or lunch.

(Package of Taiwan Cellophane noodles)

Anyway, I stocked up on some cup of noodles just in case the typhoon made it too difficult to leave my dorm. When I went to the grocery store last night it was being torn apart by millions of young Taiwanese. I could hardly make my way around the narrow aisles. Everyone must have had the same idea. When I got to the cup of noodle aisle (yes, they is a whole aisle in the grocery store designated to cup of noodles, also known as heaven) the supply had been horded. My favorite kind of noodles was all gone, pillaged in a typhoon, noodle buying frenzy. There were only a few kinds of noodles left that I had never tried before. There was an entire shelf of noodles, in fact, that no one had touched. I wondered why no one had bought these noodles. My friend took one look at them and said, “Those look nasty, that’s why!” I thought the picture looked just like all the other noodles package pictures so I bought them. I had to buy something. And did I mention I love noodles?

So today during the wind and rain and storm I was very excited when it came lunch time, noodle eating time. I open my package and, to my dismay, realized why no one wanted these noodles. They were cellophane noodles, thin, clear, wormy noodles made out of god knows what. They are called cellophane. Does that mean plastic or something? I will have to look up what they are made out of. I don’t know.

I have a strong aversion to this type of noodle. When I was a child my mother really loved to make seaweed soup with this type of noodle and tofu. As an American child, of course, I was not into this. Something about the texture of the weird clear noodle was appalling to me. Now, as an adult I was again faced with the noodle, and soon discovered that the broth was seaweed flavored as well. Of course I ate the noodles. I do not like to waste food. But from now on I am going to examine my noodles a little more closely. I need to look up the characters for cellophane noodles to prevent further eating of these noodles.

Blogger Community in Taiwan

I have never really considered myself to be a part of the “blog-o-sphere.” I don’t even really know what that is. I just like writing on my travel blog. I haven’t really contacted too many other bloggers before. In my typhoon cabin-fever I started searching for other blogs on Taiwan. I read some posts, and looked at some amazing photos from the Taiwan bloggers. I left a few comments on some pages, and I am amazed at the responses. All the bloggers commented me back. They also invited me to a Taiwan bloggers community meet-up and posted me as a featured blog on Bloggers in Taiwan on taiwanblogs.blogspot.com. Wow! These are some really nice people. It is great to receive the friendliness of such a welcoming community. I just want to say thanks to all of you Taiwan bloggers!

Taiwanese Hospitality

My first impression of Taiwanese people is that they are really nice and friendly. The average person seems to be very accommodating to my foreign face. When I enter a restaurant they are all smiles and make sure I am comfortable and treat me with the finest upright standards of respect. A group of friends and I went to a restaurant the other night where they cook the food up right in front of you. The owner was a spunky little lady with a huge generous smile. We were seated as soon as we got it. She didn’t think that the table was good enough, as it was far away from the food action. So she shooed off some customers to different seats to make room for us. She made sure we were comfortable by bringing us a steady flow of heaps of rice, cups of honey tea, and steaming bowls of soup broth to accompany our delicious meal.

I met one of my religions professors and he too seemed like one of the happiest, most generous people I have ever met. I don’t think I have ever met a person with such a bright sparkle in his eyes before. He was extremely excited to have the “honor” of teaching us. He also alerted us to many safety issues and told us where the best cheap restaurants are located. “Look five times when you cross the street here. It is very dangerous. Once I only looked twice before I crossed the street and I almost got killed,” he said.

I think I will like Taiwanese people. They know how to be good hosts. They are proud of their country and want to share it with foreigners. This is an honor to them. I think many people all over the world could learn from this kind of generosity and hospitality.

The Worst Game of Pool ever

A few students and I went in search of KTV. KTV is karaoke, which is a pretty popular passtime in China and Japan. We walked for miles in all directions following signs leading us down dark alleys and through side street, but still no KTV was to be found. I was amazed how few bars and nightlife activities are located in this area. I am staying in Sinjhuang City, near the Fu Ren University. I would think that the place would be hopping considering it is around the campus of a university with several thousand students. I guess students here take homework and studying more seriously.

After our marathon search for KTV we settled on playing pool instead. There were three of us so we decided to play a game of high, mid, low under rules I had never heard before. Maybe they are crazy Bostoner rules (both of the other students were from Boston or there abouts). If a person scratched then the other 2 people got to remove 2 of their balls from the pockets. This made the game VERY slow. As soon as anyone hit any balls in, they were almost immediately taken out again. I have never played by these rules before and I think they are stupid.

At any rate, we soon realized that none of us are very good pool players. We could hardly get any balls in the pockets, though hard we did try. I think I turned out to be the best of the three, but that really isn’t saying much at all. The game went on and on for hours as we shot random balls around the table with no success. Our skills seemed to get worse as the game wore on. Balls were literally flying everywhere. The cue was bouncing out of the table, and instead of the balls being deposited into the pockets they would bounce out onto the floor. The table of Taiwanese pool players next to us began to get a little scared and worried by our behavior. They were jumping out of the way each time they heard our balls crashing, least they get hit with a stray. It was so utterly ridiculous that we had nothing else to do but howl with laughter. The balls just wouldn’t stay on the table, and we too were dropping to the floor rolling with giggles. The other problem was all of us would scratch on just about every turn. By the end we had to abandon all rules and we were merely all working as a team to knock ANY ball into a pocket.

I think our game took about 2 hours to complete, and then we shamefully ran out of the place. I don’t think anyone else in the world has ever played a worse game of pool.

Typhoon Sinlaku in Taiwan

So today I was told that Taiwan is about to be hit by a huge Typhoon. It is Typhoon Sinlaku. I guess it has made its way almost all the way around the world from the same hurricane that hit the USA last week. What is a Typhoon anyway? I think it is a hurricane that comes from the Pacific. At any rate it is a lot of wind and a lot of rain. They are saying that when the Typhoon hits Taiwan it will be a category 3 or 4.

This messes up my plans. Andy from www.hobotraveler.com has come to Taiwan to visit me. Well, he says he came here to look for backpack materials, but I know he really likes me and just misses me a lot since Guatemala. Hahaha. At any rate, we had a date for tonight, but I didn’t want to go out into the rainy evening. It is really wet here. The wind is really, really strong as well. It also limits me from doing anything else I had planned, like exploring Taipei.


We are being told here to buy all kinds of food and to bunk down for the storm. They are expecting power outages and supposedly nothing will be open and there will be crazy debris flying through the air outside. We were even told to stay in rooms that have windows sheltered from the wind. (My window looks out into a sort of small crevice between two buildings, so I am safe.)

So I bought provisions of milk, cereal, cup of noodles, various Taiwanese snacks, beer and wine. Hopefully, if there is a terrible storm this weekend this will hold me over. I don't know what to expect though.

Bathrooms and Toilets in Taiwan

I think bathrooms in other countries are interesting. They tell a lot about a culture, how clean they are, how social they are, how technologically advanced they are and all kinds of stuff. They are just neat to look at to see the different ways people thought up to do things. My bathroom in Taiwan has all kinds of strange things going on in it. First, the shower is a nozzle fixed on a long hose. The nozzle can be taken off the wall and used to spray all parts of the body in anyway you would like. There is no tub, or shower curtain or anything. The whole bathroom was designed so that it can be sprayed down with the shower hose.

(Shower hose in my bathroom in Taiwan)

There is a nifty little waterproof box that is made to keep the toilet paper dry. I guess if you are spraying your shower hose all over there is a huge potential for soggy toilet paper.

( water-proof Toilet paper holder)

Also, there are 2 flushers on the toilet. One says “da” which means big in Chinese and the other handle says “xiao” which means small in Chinese. So one handle is for large bowl-fulls and one is for small bowl-fulls. I thought this was funny how they used these words to describe the bodily functions. Haha. This probably does potentially save a lot of water and money though.

(Toilet in Taiwan, with flushers. The line with a dot on either side means "xiao" in Chinese, or small. The character that looks like a stick man with its arms spread means "da" in Chinese, or big.)

Interacting with Local People While Traveling

Sitting in my room eating my breakfast instant noodles, I can hardly wait to go outside and explore. It is distracting, knowing there is so much outside, so many new scents and flavors and things and people.

I was sitting in the laundry room this morning where people come to throw away their trash or do laundry or use the water filter. The people come in and look at me funny, but don’t make eye contact or say hi…maybe they are use to living here and seeing lots of people coming and going. Ignoring me is as if to say, “I have see you before anyway, and you probably won’t be here for long.”

When things aren’t long term it makes people rude. People are only polite if they know they will have to see you again and again. People will only give you a fair price if they know you will come back to their store. I think this is kind of one of the reasons tourism has spoiled the world. The local people know these people aren’t coming back. What do they care if they are polite?

Taiwan Travel Blog

Flight to Taiwan.
www.ladythetramp.com
I am tired. I left Philadelphia at 2 pm Sunday and did not arrive in Taipei until 5 AM on Tuesday. This is due partly to weird time zone discrepancies and to the fact that the flight is just plain long. I hate sitting on planes for a long time. It makes me feel dirty and smelly. You can’t ever sleep well on planes either.

9 AM today felt like 4 PM because I had been awake for so long. Now it is going on 6 PM and it feels like 6 AM. My body is all messed up and my mind doesn’t know what to think about it.

So far I really like Taiwan. Before coming I started getting anxious about all the scary stuff in China that got to me, people staring, people always laughing at you, and the utter strangeness of the foreign land. I am not feeling that in Taiwan. I feel very comfortable actually, very confident. Maybe just because I already know a little about the East this time.
Taiwan has a nice atmosphere to it. It is like China, but it also feels like an island. There are palm trees and something about the people and the building and everything, you can see that it is an island. It is warm and rainy here.

I walked around a little today and was joyful to see all the noodle restaurants, grubby and greasy, and the cheap junk shops, and the girls all dressed up in their little outfits. I went to a grocery store and bought some of my favorite Chinese snacks: dried tofu strips, wasabi peas, loose leaf green tea, drinkable yogurt and cups of instant noodles. I looked reminiscently on the cookie isle, remembering when Wade and I would devour huge packages of digestive cookies. I couldn’t find the ones we ate, so I didn’t get any though.

I can still understand a lot of Chinese, and I am proud of myself for that. I still have trouble speaking though, out of my bizarre, crippling shyness. I really like Taiwan so far. I can’t wait to go exploring some more.

Problems With the Internet in Taiwan

So I just arrived in Taiwan. The accommodations I have a la my school have an Ethernet cable to connect my laptop to the internet. I am having some problems with this connection though. First, it wouldn’t let me sign into my hotmail account. I restarted my computer and then it let me sign into the account.

Now, for some reason I can’t sign into my gmail account. I have been trying for hours, and all that comes up is a blank screen that says “done.” It will let me type in my username and password, but when I try to sign it the screen just remains blank. I tried refreshing it over and over and still no luck.

Can someone help me out with this? I can’t figure it out. Does Taiwan have some kind of block on gmail? I know China has a lot of filters and blocks on internet access. I am wondering if Taiwan does too.

At any rate, I need someone to help so I can check me e-mail!

What to Pack while Traveling

I am packing for my journey to Taiwan and Thailand. Packing is always nerve racking. What should I bring? Am I bringing too much stuff? Am I really going to need that? Is this all going to fit into my backpack?
As I travel more I get a better feel for what to bring and what not to bring. In my final days before my trip I usually whittle away at the stuff in my bag until I feel that it is acceptable to carry on my shoulders.
Here’s what is in my bag:
Clothing. Clothing is a hard one for me. I am a female. I like to look nice and or pretty. This is hard when traveling. Guys can wear any old thing and get away with it. Girls, not so much.
3 t-shirts
2 tank tops
1 long sleeve nice button down shirt
1 long sleeved “warm,” but light shirt
1 small little silk number to wear if I go out
2 pairs of pants
1 pair of Thai pants (for pajamas/ comfy pants)
1 short skirt and 1 long skirt
2 pairs of socks
5 pairs of underwear
1 scarf
1 sarong

This is more clothing than I normally bring, but this is what circumstances call for. I usually travel with less shirts and only 1 skirt. However, I will be going to school and visiting mosques and temples. This calls for a specific dress code. I can’t look like a vagabond. Also, while visiting mosques and temples I will need a long sleeved shirt to cover my arms and a long skirt to cover my legs. The scarf is good for cold weather and it can be added to outfits to look more funky/ sexy. The sarong is an absolute must. It has so many everyday uses that it becomes an essential part of my travel gear. I can use it as a towel, skirt, cover myself with it, use it on the beach, use it as a blanket, use it as a sheet, etc. I have a small water-proof, air tight bag which I shoved all of this into and scrunched down to make a small sort of owl pellet about 6 x 10 x 4 inches.

Shoes:
Shoes are also a hard one to decide on. Again, a girl can’t wear sneakers all the time. You need sturdy shoes to walk around in, but you also need shoes in case you have to dress up. But the dressy shoes have to be comfortable and casual enough to also wear them in other situation.
1 pair of sneakers
1 pair of cloth mary janes
1 pair of flip flops

The cloth mary janes can be squished down so they don’t take up much space. They are also really, really comfortable so I can walk around in them. The flip flops are good for communal showers, a sandal option, and they are comfortable to just throw on. The sneakers will probably be on my feet any time I am carrying my bag and are good for walking, hiking, bad weather conditions, etc.

Books:
Because I am in school I have to bring a ton of books with me. I am not too happy about this because it constitutes the majority of the weight in my pack. I have 6 books for school, Chinese/ English dictionary and 1 paperback for pleasure reading.

Miscellaneous/ Other Travel Necessities:
Laptop computer (I would like to get a smaller one, maybe an ASUS)
Camera (and camera attachment cords and batteries)
Toiletries: toothbrush, tooth paste, shampoo, soap, hair things, sunscreen, etc.
Water Filter (This really comes in handy in places where you can’t drink the water.)
Compass (So I know which way I am going on a map, and it has a compact mirror for the girls)
Journal (to write my thoughts, absolutely essential on any journey)
1 small backpack (To put my computer in and carry it in front when my other bag is on my back, or to use as a day pack. I suggest the smaller cloth ones, such as the basic jan sport model, so that it can be folded up and put into my bigger bag if necessary)
1 big cloth purse to carry all my junk in (Again, get something that is a light weight material that can be folded up small and stuffed in the big bag)
Small sewing kit: Needle, thread, scissors (This is important for repairs and scissors always come in handy)
Flashlight (Because electricity doesn’t always work everywhere you go)
Electrical Currency converter (So I can plug electronics in)
1 Swiss army knife (with bottle opener and corkscrew)
Address book (to write postcards!)
Pocket sized first aid kit with I. B. Profen
2 smalls locks to put on my backpacks to thwart robberies

It may seem like a lot, but compared to what I have seen other people traveling with, it isn’t too much. I have tried to strip my bag down to only the bare necessities. This all fits comfortably into my Kelty Red Wing 2500 with room to spare for gifts and souvenirs. This bag is small for a rucksack and incredibly comfortable.Only the necessities are necessary. A traveler must remember that wherever they are going other people are living there too. If you need anything that you didn’t bring or didn’t want to carry it will probably be readily available almost anywhere in the world.

Drinking Beer on a Hot Day

Drinking beer tastes good on hot days. It is over 100 degrees today and all I want to do is drink beer. I don't usually drink beer during the day, but hot days are an exception. When the heat is so overwhelming there is nothing else to do but drink beer.

I have 3 more days of freedom before I go back to school for another year. Three more days until I fly out of the United States again and start another crazy journey and spend all my time doing school work and soaking up the world. I am going to enjoy these days, relax and drink beer when it is hot.

(Drinking beer in the heat of Mexico and sweating)

I bought a whole case of various Mexican beers. This reminds me of my last birthday, sitting on a little porch by a stream in the jungles of Mexico. I drank big warm 40's of Mexican beer all day long as I celebrated my long awaited 21st birthday. It was so hot that day that it was a sweaty task just to lift the bottle to my mouth. That was a good day.

Today is a good day too. I wish someone was here to enjoy drinking beer on a hot day with me.