This evening is the first one that I’ve managed to stay awake past 8:45 or so. This may have something to do with the fact that it’s the first night I’ve had anything resembling supper. Or, it may just be that I’m finally getting past the jet lag - I’m not sure which one, really.
So, tomorrow in training is our first big hurdle - teaching demos! We’re supposed to prepare an entire kindy lesson, but then we’ll only be teaching about a quarter of the whole lesson, but we won’t find out which quarter until right before we do it. So, tonight we’re supposed to be preparing. Only, I’ve been slogging through emails, and talking to my dad (yay for Skype!), and uploading pictures, and setting up a nike+ challenge for some friends, and I think that’s everything. Also, Seth is sick, and in no shape to be practicing anything except not puking. I’m not sure what it was he ate, but I’m guessing it was something from the veggie buffet he went to last night that I chose to skip. So, I think I’m probably just going to get up early in the morning to plan and try to help Seth do the same. Mmmm, cramming at the nearly-last minute…good times.
How about some pictures?
These first two are our hotel room and bathroom. Do you notice anything? Ahh…yes…the room is pretty small. All but one of our bags are all over the floor, as there’s no cabinet or chest to put our clothes in. The bathroom’s nice, though.
These next two are from our tour of Taipei the first day. What does it mean to Enrch Your Life? I dunno. But it must be good, right?
More from the tour. First up is Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world for now. I think there’s another somewhere else in Asia that’s just about finished that will take that crown away from the 101, but for now, wooo! I live in the country with the tallest building! Next, um, is me squinting. Yay.
This one is the statue of Sun Yat-Sen above his tomb. Then, we’ve got the gate in front of the Chang Kai-Shek tomb, I think.
Then me, uh, squinting again. I’m good at that on the days I forget my sunglasses. Finally, the a picture of place we visited, a temple that they tell us is a lucky one - people will come to pray for a good grade on the morning of a test - perhaps Seth and I should take a trip out tomorrow!There are lots more pictures in online - just click on the link up on the top of this page that says “photos” to see the rest. Kindly remember that I didn’t take the time tonight to gussy them up any, and we’re not the best photographers ever. So, yeah. They won’t win any awards, but they’ll do pig. They’ll do.
…of some of the things that have caught me off gaurd so far. I keep telling myself that they aren’t weird or anything, just different than what I’m used to, but still, they are some of the things that are keeping me on my toes.
- Toilet paper goes in the trash, not the toilet.
- Uh…yeah. Not weird, just different. But maybe a little weird to my western nose.
- Fried rice at breakfast.
- And soup, and veggies, and rice. And, for now anyway, at the hotel, little bitty pancakes and cereal and toast and fried eggs. Oh, and these cheesecake-ish things that are more like fluff than cheesecake but still really tasty.
- Scooters. Lots and lots and lots of scooters.
- That’s pretty cool, actually. I didn’t think I was going to want one, but now I’m beginning to wonder if I could pass the test that is required to get licensed to drive a scooter legally.
- The sun’s schedule.
- Daylight comes really, really early here, as does the twilight and darkness. By 6:00am, the sun is fully up, and by 7:30 or so, it’s already fairly high in the sky. Then, by about 7:15 or 7:30, it’s already dark. Of course, walking around to find food isn’t difficult, as we’re in a city with plenty of streetlights and signs to light the way, but the sun has gone on. I guess the island is on the eastern end of its time zone?
- How completely unprepared I was to not be able to do so many of the things I’ve always taken for granted.
- I have no idea, really, what restaurants serve unless there’s an illustrated menu. Even then, though, I’m not entirely sure - is that fried thing fish? Chicken? How much is it? Yesterday, Seth and I went in search of food, and much to my disappointment, I found I couldn’t hack it. We even found a shop with food set out with clear prices - all we had to do was point and pay, and they’d make it fresh. The woman working even got her son to tell us a little more about what there was. But it was weird looking - wait, I’m sorry, it was very different that what I’m accustomed to - and I felt pressured, and just sort of buckled. Completely disappointed in myself, I told Seth that I just wanted a diet Coke, and I’d be fine. So, we set off back home, stopping at the 7-11 on the way to pick up some Coke lite for me and some ramen in a cup for him, and I ended up feeling utterly pathetic. Here’s hoping I’ll do better soon.
At least I assume it’s coming up. I can’t see it, but outside is becoming brighter. I know this because I can’t sleep. The time change is a real bugger, apparently. I’m generally a solid eight-hour-plus sleeper, but I went to bed sometime between 9:30 and 10 last night, and I’ve been awake since 4:15, just lying in bed hoping to catch a few more winks.
We have one full day of training under our belts though. Yay! We mostly did get-to-know-each-other type things after our tour of the city, as well as something akin to dim sum for lunch. I found out a few minutes ago that one of the things I ate was blood. I didn’t like it when I didn’t know what it was. Several things were very good, though, and whatever the frozen fruit was that we had for dessert, I hope it’s a very common thing.
At the end of the day we were on our own for dinner. Since we only know four food words* we thought we’d look for a place with both pictures and prices easily visible. The couple of places we found like that didn’t look like anything we wanted, but eventually a woman approached us and apparently could tell we were very confused. She asked us “noodle or rice?” We’d decided by then we just wanted noodles. Then she tried to ask about fish, and things got confusing, until she pulled her son out from behind her. He looked about eight or ten, and he translated for us, pointing to a crowded shop very nearby and saying “Noodles here. You can see what you want to eat.” Indeed, we could see, as they had samples of everything sitting out, but it all looked a bit more oceanic than we were interested in at that moment, so we decided since noodles were the order of the day, we might as well hit one of the countless 7-11 shops here and get a cup of ramen and some coke.
*Mien=noodles, the other three words I think I can pronounce, but definitely can’t spell. They’re the Mandarin for rice, fruits, and vegetables.
In Taiwan, I don’t know if all ramen is like what I had last night, but it was a tad different than what I’m accustomed to stateside. The two differences were: the vegetables and beef were in the flavor pack, and there was one extra packet. Neither of these changes were bad-I think I maybe prefer the sealed veggies and meat-but the extra packet was…unusual. I thought it was duck sauce. It looked like duck sauce, except a bit oily. I tried to smell it, but the noodles overpowered it. I squeezed it into my noodles, stirred it in, and licked off what had spilled on my fingers. It was grease. Just grease. Like left over when you cook beef. It made the noodles more robust, no doubt, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again.
Day 4 was something of a whirlwind, with further bureaucratic problems and a scare or two, most of which I’d rather not go into quite yet, but will relate soon. As Lisbeth said, we did get our visas, so that’s all okay now. Met a dude named Void, heard some good stories, day 5 was packing time, followed by a long flight.
Now we’re in Taiwan. Our driver wasn’t at the airport, but eventually another driver for Hess showed up, and we managed to get something worked out that resulted in a car coming around for us. His dispatcher on the phone initially told me no one had scheduled us a car, then that it was scheduled, but the time was wrong. She said she could order another, or we could wait until 6:00. I asked if she meant 6:00 pm, because that would be over eleven hours away, and she said that no, it would be 6:00 am. I told her it was 6:38 am already, and she sounded surprised, then told me there’d be a car at the airport in five minutes. It may have actually been faster than five minutes, the guy was there in no time at all.
We got to the hotel around 7:30 or 7:45, so the room wasn’t quite ready, which worked out to our advantage because it turned out to be a smoking room, and the delay gave them time to get a non-smoking room ready. Also it kept us awake a little bit longer. We intended to stay awake until early evening, but that didn’t happen at all. No problem though, since I think we’re about to sack out for the night anyway despite a rather extended nap.
So really, nothing too interesting. We’ll put up something better when we’re more rested and have eaten something.
Despite the troubles Seth discussed briefly regarding getting our visas, we were able to get them, and they’re now in our hot little hands. So, um. Guess what? We’re going to Taiwan!
I should actually be finishing up repacking our bags right now. Most everything is more or less ready to go, but I need to organize my carry on, decide what I’m going to be knitting on the plane (well, I know it’s going to be a sock. I’m really deciding on the pattern - it’ll either be the Straight-laced Socks pattern or the Shetland Lace Rib Sock pattern), and pack away the last few things we’ve been using, like the toothbrushes and stuff.
Hmm…housekeeping. I need to post some links to our RSS feed, but I’ll put them here for now.
Well, that’s everything I can think of for now - I’m sure we’ll have more soon!
First things seem rosy regarding our visas, then slightly less so as we’re asked yet again for more documents than we were told to expect to give. Worse yet as we receive a call informing us the documents are unsatisfactory. Those are all the details I can give on that subject at this time. Suffice to say the situation is a tad frustrating.
So we spent Monday in the city, where we discovered that not only does the Virgin megastore have the smallest book section of any store ever purporting to have books, but that somehow it holds otherwise difficult to find (offline) books. I’ve been looking for The Illuminatus Trilogy for some time now, and excepting Amazon.com have had no luck. Virgin miraculously had it burrowed into a spot between the dozen other books on their shelf. I exaggerate, of course, but it’s a three-story building, with a sign on the door saying “Books Upstairs,” and they have maybe three hundred books in stock. I’m very excited that one of them was the specific Robert Anton Wilson title I was looking for.
Disillusionment: Apple, the company that’s all about aesthetic, functionality, user experience? Dirtiest place we went all day. Several of the things we tried to play with were broken. The first iPod I picked up was actually bricked. Still it was a pretty cool place, and it would be hard for their devices to survive the insane crowds that were in there.
Today we walked around San Rafel, which was an altogether more calm experience. Lisbeth discovered the brick-and-mortar home of a place one of her aunts orders supplies from, and found some cool yarn there. I stopped in a great game shop and picked up the GURPS rule books and the Illuminati University game for it. We ate great burgers at a place that smelled like the burger joint at which I was employed during high school, and when it was all done, James picked us up for a foray to Muir Woods and a lesson in how cold the Pacific Ocean really is. Good times.
I’m waking up after my first full day in San Francisco, slightly surprised not to be hung over, and super excited about everything we’ve done so far. James and Emily took us into the city yesterday for Dim Sum in new China town, where I ate more shrimp in one sitting than I’ve previously consumed in my entire life. Then we toured old China town, which we’re told is about one-fourth as crowded as Taipei, and doesn’t smell like diesel fumes and cigarettes.
We went back to James and Emily’s house for a fish barbecue, and it was just killer. There were creatures I’d never tried before, drinks that tasted just like lemonade but were distinctly more than that, (see above, “slightly surprised not to be hung over,”) and I ate sashimi. And liked it. A lot. I liked all the fish I had last night, and was shocked each and every time. But especially at the sashimi. I wanted to try it, sort of, but raw fish was a bridge I wasn’t quite ready to cross yet, until Chippy walked over and insisted that I just close my eyes. Then he fed me a piece of the most incredible tasting fish, it was just unbelievable.
Sometime around then I found out that not only had Andrew worked at Broderbund, but that Myst had been “his game.” I yelled at him about the puzzle that made me give up. He was gracious, and laughed instead of getting angry when he told me it had been long enough that not only did he not remember “the three digits with the two levers,” he didn’t remember any of the puzzles. He told me some great stories, which seems to be a hallmark of this area. Everyone has great stories, and many of these tales involve people I’ve heard of but never met.
Eventually Lisbeth suggested we walk down to a bar to hear the Marones, a Ramones cover band that plays every Sunday night down the road from where we’re staying. I wasn’t too surprised to see Lisbeth was familiar with Blitzkrieg Bop, but when they played Rancid’s Ruby Soho I was very much impressed to see her singing along.
I know I’m leaving out a lot, but I’m typing this literally first thing in the morning, so I haven’t had coffee yet. This place is beautiful though, and we’ll be here just long enough to fall in love with it, and we get to leave before we could possibly begin to see any of the downsides. How much better could it get?
So, we’re in San Francisco, visiting my ex-coworker James and his wife. We got in sorta late last night, but today we had dim sum for lunch (verdict = good. really, really good, if a little unnerving. also, mom, guess what? I ate mushrooms! And greens! and I like them!). We’re back at they’re house now, along with a few of his friends, one of whom likes to fish. We’ve got Mahi Mahi, tuna steaks, and sea bass. They’ve made beer-battered Mahi Mahi for fish tacos, and are grilling the rest. Mmmm…looks like it’s ready now, so I’ve got to go!
Though I’m leaving open the possibility that I am not entirely correct, it looks like things are mostly sorted out. We get to go. “Sorted out” is a relative term - the buyer of our house has now had to back out and our dogs don’t yet have homes - but the bureaucratic problems seem now to be something we can overcome.
It’s a good thing, because as of 8pm yesterday, I’m unemployed. I’ll miss the library a lot. Though I may go back today anyway: I’m not entirely sure what I’m supposed to do while unemployed, but based on my own observations I believe the accepted method of passing the day is to go to the library and use their c’puters to look at nekkid lady pictures. Today is also Lisbeth’s last day at work, then we have a whirlwind weekend of travel for a wedding, packing like mad, visiting with friends one last time, and hopefully getting on the road. This is getting a little scary now, but at least now it’s a good variety of frightening, whereas before things were straightened out it induced fear of the gut-twisting, headache-inducing type.
I just signed up for Pink Lemon Twist’s third Mystery Stole knitalong. Nevermind that I need to be focusing on packing for our big Taiwan adventure. Nevermind taht I don’t really have any laceweight laying around. Nevermind that I already have a lace project languishing on the needles (I work on it, but not all that often - socks just go so much faster!) that I started sometime last fall (October, I think?). But - it looks like fun, and the deadline to join the group is tomorrow, so I decided to go for it. I’ll probably pick up some cheap laceweight yarn from Knitpicks (or find something on Etsy). I guess we’ll see how it goes, but from what I’ve seen so far, it looks like it’ll be pretty!
Oh, and I got my invite to ravelry a few weeks ago. I’m MissLisbeth if you want to say hi!