Fun in the Sun

I hit a strange milestone in my life abroad this week, I looked at flights home for the first time.  I don’t have words for it, especially since I haven’t made any purchases yet (I suspect that is this week’s hurdle) but it has made my upcoming departure seem much sooner.  Knowing that my time is coming to an end, I know I need to make the most of all of my weekends left.

It seems a silly thing to say, but I often forget how much I love being in the water.  I have always enjoyed swimming, but when if you asked me what I wanted to do on any given weekend, going to the beach or pool probably isn’t my first thought.  Perhaps it is because I feel like I have been to all of our standard swimming holes? Regardless, I had a sunny, water-filled weekend, and loved every minute of it. 

Saturday was the summer solstice, so to celebrate the longest day of sunlight the year will provide us with, a group of locals and foreigners alike gathered Zhunan’s largest beach.  Zhunan is about 1.5 hours north of Changhua, in Maoli county.  I had only been to Zhunan once before this weekend, and that was during my Chinese New Year (2013) road trip when we slept in the park and woke up to the red-face of the agricultural deity staring back at us.  This weekend we were not on the lookout for temples however, we were heading straight to the water for some swimming, barbequing, and bonfiring.  I have been told before that the beaches in Zhunan can get pretty windy, which makes them idea for kite surfing and wake boarding (someday I’d love to learn how to do either of those sports) and it lived up to that reputation (the windmill-lined skyline can attest to that).  When the sun finally set on our day we set up a grill and cooked up some barbecue meat while we sat around talking.  Before I knew it, it was time to catch the train home.

Summer Solstice in Zhunan, this is the "volleyball court".

This morning I met up with some friends for a ‘small trip to the waterfalls,’ which turned into a massive group adventure through the mountains of Taichung.  I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting a full-sized group, but by departure time there were 18 of us, helmet-clad and ready.  We drove out to Taiping (which is an area I have explored several times now) and made a brief stop at the bat caves.  Though I swore to myself well over a year ago that 1-time through the caves was more than enough, I grabbed a flashlight and crept inside.  The bat cave is an interesting experience because the walking trails are only about the size of a person, and when you have a flashlight (I didn’t last time), you see the mud and poop-caked walls clearly the entire way.  We made the mistake of entering the caves from two different directions (past exploration of the caves had lead to dead ends), and ended up colliding with each other (both groups equally scaring the bats closer to the other groups’ faces).  Squished against the walls we managed to slide past, and a few minutes later we were back in the light of day and on the road to the waterfalls.  The waterfall itself was particularly difficult to reach today.  Last year was a dry summer, but the rains this year have caused a slippery layer of moss along the tops of most of our climbing rocks.  We must have been quite a spectacle, falling all over each other or flat on our butts the whole way up the river.

The "scooter gang" making our way through Taichung

Climbing up the rocks as the river rushes by.

We made it!

Now, as a temporary memory of the weekend, I am surprised to see I have a slight sunburn.  Hopefully that fades quickly, I don’t think countries with vast assortments of whitening products will be impressed with my new color.

"It was spontaneous, and ad hoc"

So it begins, the first talk of typhoons this season has worked its way across the island.  The weather bureau issued the first typhoon warning of 2014, but Taiwan appears to have stayed out of its path, leaving us dampened by a little rain but otherwise unaffected.  Fear that the storm would be stronger, all of the established plans for the weekend (including a trip to Sun Moon Lake and a swim in the waterfalls of Taiping) were cancelled. 

Determined not to let the weekend go to waste, I went on a day trip to a little district in the western part of New Taipei City.  Yingge is a pottery district, which is known for porcelain production.  It is home to over 800 different ceramic-related businesses, including stores, Do-It-Yourself studios, and museums.  We started our exploration in the ceramics museum, which compared the Taiwanese ceramic production techniques to those of other countries.  I was surprised by how well the signs were translated into English, which is likely due to its presence in Taipei rather than its popularity amongst tourists.  A short walk across the river is a “Pottery Park” with sculptures depicting different stages in the ceramic-making process including sculpting tools, clay, and complete pots and dishes.  Inspired by the oversized cups and bowls, we sang through “Be Our Guest” as we walked through the park, then walked along to the main attraction: The Yingge Old Street.  The old street is a brick-lined carless street lined with souvenir shops (primarily containing pottery or woodwork).  While some of the stores contained mass-produced pieces that you could find all over the country, most of them housed unique pieces made by local potters.

A cup of...me?

Stacks of pottery for sale on the old street.

At the start of the pottery Old Street

Some cute little panda pots

The trip is over, catching the local train back to Taoyuan.

Exhausted from the heat, we took a nap on our train ride back to Changhua so we would feel rejuvenated for our evening’s plan.  Changhua is full of a variety of foreigners, of all ages, who have been in Taiwan for vastly different spans of time, but because of the city’s small size, a lot of those foreigners move on to bigger cities eventually.  Last night, we all reunited to partake in everyone’s favorite past time: drinking.  Five of the local bars agreed to host our oversized group and treat us to drink specials.  My timing didn’t work out to “crawl” with the other foreigners, so my friend and I got seats in the final bar and waited until the crowd came to us.  It was great to see people that I haven’t seen in weeks, months, or close to a year even (although the hazard of seeing so many people is that it wasn’t a wallet-friendly evening). 

Televisions around the world this week have been tuned in to the FIFA World Cup, and Taiwan is no exception.  Despite not having a team in the competition, bars and restaurants are still showing the games.  I find I have been more involved in watching the games than I expected to be, even now, the Chinese-speaking announcers are the background noise while I type.  The thing that is difficult for avid soccer fans in Taiwan though is that the games times are at midnight, 3am, and 6am, which means we either commit to an all-nighter, wake up sporadically during the night, or catch up on the game the next day.  Lucky for me, I’m not devastated by missing most of the action.

Quarter of a Century

Aren't birthdays interesting? As children, we like them because of the presents we get, and the attention placed on us, and the fact that we can claim an extra year in our age.  For most people there is an age though, where the wonder of childhood birthdays fades, and the realization of an additional year to our age isn't welcome.  I haven't reached that dreaded age yet, I still love all my birthdays.  I particularly love knowing the unique location of celebration for this milestone, afterall, most American’s weren’t living in Taiwan when they turned 25.  The celebration started with a typical teacher’s pastime, late-night test grading with one of my coworkers.  At 12:01 the date was brought to my attention and I was surprised with cake (the first of many piece, I have never had such a cake-filled birthday).   A few hours of sleep later I was up at ready for a day of celebrations.  My birthday fell on a Friday this year, so I had three classes to teach.  Walking into both of my younger classes, I was immediately serenaded with “Happy Birthday”, and a couple students in my older class arranged gifts for me (so I rewarded them with birthday cake number two).  During the day my desk was decorated with gifts, cards, and so much glitter that I am still finding it a week later.  At the end of the day, the TAs took turns distracting me as they raced around setting up birthday cake number three then called me downstairs to sign our attendance sheets for the month and “double-check the English on a document” (and by that I mean, I walked into a room where the TAs were hiding with ripped up paper to throw at me and a cake).  After a later-than-expected departure from school I went to my dinner party in one of our regular bars: Flamingos.  I was surrounded by good friends, enjoyed delicious food, and finished the night reading cards and opening more gifts than I could have imagined (including a special international card from the US and package from the Czech Republic). 

I know I am spoiled by my life here, I have some of the best experiences, and I managed to drag out my celebrations for three more days.  The next afternoon, a group of friends and I caught a train south to one of my favorite cities, Tainan.  Thankfully the train ride is less than two hours, because we spent that time sitting on the floor and shuffling around at each station.  Stepping off the train we were overwhelmed by the heat almost immediately, so we ditched our bags at the hostel and went to the beach.  Despite the large “No Swimming signs”, we jumped in the water with the crowds of wading tourists and cooled down.  For dinner we went American (TGI Fridays) and finished up the evening with drinks and board games back in the hostel. 

Wrapping up the evening at the Sunset Beach.

Birthday Dinner: Part 

There were no set plans for any of the days, but I was very excited about a river cruise my Chinese teacher had explained to me, so I talked the group into getting traveling out to the canal where we waited in Taiwan’s longest line to board the boat.  The ‘cruise’ was about 30 minutes, and traveled through some of the mangroves in the Annan District to see the wildlife (mainly crabs and birds) as well as various trees and flowers.  The trip was lead by a Chinese-speaking tour guide who helped point out the interesting sites along the route.  

The Sicao Green Tunnel of Tainan.

River boats on the Anping Canal.

The night we temporarily split up and I helped to take on the role of tour guide in the Anping district as we explored the tree house (a former warehouse which has now been ‘consumed’ by a giant banyan tree and the market streets around the old Dutch fort before making our way to the beach for the second night in a row (seriously, it was hot!).  A pizza dinner and a walk around the Streets and we were tucked in for another night’s sleep.

Our last day of vacation was also a national holiday, so we spent all day near the Anping Canal watching Dragon Boat races.  I have to admit, Dragon Boat Festival was one of the holidays I was most excited for prior to living in Taiwan, but it isn’t as exciting as it sounds.  There is a long wait between each race, it is hard to see the entire race, and it is usually difficult to know which boat won.  Still, the weather was gorgeous, and the canal was filled with food, drink, and souvenir vendors to keep us entertained when the races didn’t work. 

Dragon Boat races on the Anping Canal

Work this week flew by, I guess that’s what happens when it is a short week.  Because it is almost the start of our “summer season” I am on the schedule for several demo lessons, the first of which was last week.  Our attendance was a little lower than expected, only two girls came to the lesson, but I think it is safe to say they had a good time watching me run around like a fool, and singing so long it made us all cough, and showing off their English abilities.  Demo lesson number two will be taking place this week.

I’m proud to say, my voice is still holding up, because this was a vocally straining weekend.  I think you all know by now that I have an addiction to Asian Karaoke, but it is safe to say, going to KTV twice in the same day is a sign that the problem is getting out of hand.  Seriously though, it made for a wonderful Saturday.  We started off the afternoon gathered with the Homei School staff of teachers, TAs, and our manager and finished off the evening with several teachers from various schools in the KTV until 5am (which meant that we had stayed out long enough to avoid the taxi costs and just take a train home).  With a Saturday like that, it goes without saying that Sunday didn't stand a chance at being eventful.  Five hours of sleep in I was thoroughly woken by the sunlight and heat.  I went out into the mountains for some fresh air and temple exploring, before going to a movie.  Those were some good weeks!

Homei School karaoke party!