New Sky

Corporate Poetry

2011-06-17T12:00:00.000-07:00

It seems like whatever joy or enrichment that can be felt viewing most advertisements is not worth their mind numbing inanity. Something about consuming content that treats the world like an impulsive baby leaves me feeling a little... dumber. Such as are my beliefs, on the off chance I come across a commercial that makes me laugh or think, it's a pleasant surprise.

The commercial I present to you here is for Taiwan's most popular liquor (Gao Liang). It (the ad) speaks for itself, so I'll spare you any more introduction:

(forgive my novice translation)

When you want to pick up a beautiful woman

it's like you're drinking Gao Liang.

Your first thought is

don't be silly, you won't succeed.

Don't be silly, you'll be drunk.

Don't be silly, you'll be turned down.

Don't be silly, you have work tomorrow.

But if

your whole life you only go for the sure things,

how can you know

what you're capable of?

Just Missing the Dance

2009-10-27T05:26:00.000-07:00

Yes, that is me. And no, it is not every day you see people grilling out and singing karaoke in front of their temple. This was a celebration for a local god that Jared and I stumbled upon when I was giving him a tour of the city. Thefood was really great, but we had to sing for our supper!

Nonhuman Rights

2009-09-26T06:21:00.000-07:00

In case you can't see it clearly from my lowly cellphone shot: this is indeed a picture of a lady driving a scooter full of chickens. What kind of world do we live in where black chickens aren't free to sit on the front of the scooter with their white brothers and sisters? Just look at how they hang their heads in despair and humiliation as their priveleged counterparts gleefully strike bold, cocky poses. I don't mind saying that this scene not only sickened me, but gave me newfound sympathy for outlaw radicals like the Animal Liberation Front. But in these trying times we don't need masked crusaders, we need a leader! And that is why I will be working overtime to endorse this guy in his next bid for president:
I've already prepared a speech for the campaign, it's called "I Hatch a Dream"

Chirp Chirp

2009-09-02T07:15:00.000-07:00

Here is a photo that has been sitting around for a long time waiting patiently for a good blogging. What you're looking at is two intricately crafted grasshoppers, a little smaller than hand-size each. I am told that making these out of long, broad leaves is an old tradition on Taiwanese farms. The man who made these was selling them to kids in front of the biggest temple here in Tainan. The kids were either really patient or really transfixed, because each grasshopper took more than five minutes to make. I'm leaning toward the latter, because the quick swipes of the artist's box cutter interspersed with the deliberate lashing and wrapping motions were more than enough to draw my slackened stare. My thoughts alternated between awe at the precision of the guy's work and disbelief that it was taking so long to finish. To watch someone work so fast for so long with just a leaf puts the thought "OK, that looks like a grasshopper, surely this is the last step" on repeat in your mind for a long time.
I've seen one of these in the office at my college and I must say it still looks good after its metamorphosis into its dried, brown form. Not bad for a leaf and a razor blade! This tradition further heightens my love for the Taiwanese countryside.

Make it Rain

2009-08-08T00:27:00.000-07:00

That's right, typhoon season has kicked off with a bang this year thanks to Typhoon Marakot. This begs the question: who names these things? Well, after some digging I found that here in "typhoon country", we owe our curious storm names to the Typhoon Committee, a group of meteorologists hailing from 14 Asian/ Pacific countries. The names are apparently not chosen with an emphasis on the people variety, and seem mostly to be natural plants, animals, phenomena, etc. The names added to the list by the Japanese members of the committee, for example, are from constelations. Marakot means "emerald" in Thai. The name seems strangley apropriate, considering this is pretty much what the view out my window looks like:
And after 3 whole days, I have to admit it's wearing on me. Thank gods there was a typhoon holiday Friday so that instead of suffereing the indignity of being blown into a pattern that resembles drunk scooter driving, all the while getting wet, I can relax at home and listen to the soothing sounds of a neverending downpour. The typhoon is slow this time, which is great for Taiwan, as the island has been in the grips of a near-drought for a couple months now.
Here is an image from Google Earth Thursday night when the typhoon was still fun and interesting (please disregard my sorely inaccurate approximation of the location of Taiwan and focus rather on the fact that you can't see Taiwan under all that cloud):And here is an update for Saturday night, after the typhoon has become one big, post-soul-crush meh in my life:So yes, I meant it when I said that my dear friend Emerald has come from a brisk swim out at sea only to crawl all over Taiwan and Eastern China. And since I've run out of enlightening or humorous observations, I'll wrap things up with a couple of videos I made to document the carnage earlier today:

This is the stuff indoor plants' nightmares are made of.

All this bad weather is making me think about comfort food. And I'm starting to wonder, what am I supposed to do with the money that I've saved for a rainy day? Maybe in a place of such extreme precipitation, we have to face that we've really just been saving for a rainy day pizza delivery.

Linguo Head Trauma

2009-08-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

I have a friend who is about to move from the States to China to teach, so I thought it would be appropriate to write him a Chinese message on his facebook "wall". I wanted to send a thoughtful message, one that would both make him excited about the strange journey ahead as well as impart a bit of sage wisdom that would ease any foreigner's transition to Chinese life. This proved difficult as I am mostly a wellspring of, well, that which cannot rightly be called wisdom, but I remembered some advice that was kindly bestowed upon me in my early days of Taiwanese life. The piece of advice was this:

"一晚睡覺多少" 不是 "一婉水餃多少"。你不要被打！

This advice is a quite humourous illustration of the perils of using the wrong "tones" when pronouncing your Chinese words. The quoted parts are pronounced thusly:
(1) yī wăn shuì jiào duō shăo
(2) yī wăn shuĭ jiăo duō shăo

Notice that the only difference is your vocal inflection when pronouncing shui jiao. However, the meanings are
(1) "How much (money) to sleep (with you) one night?"
(2) "How much (money) for a plate of dumplings?"

And the end of my "wall post" simply says "Don't get smacked!" I believe this to meet the above advice qualitifications nicely. The recipient can garner many snippets of wisdom such as how to solicit prostitution, that there is some kind of dumpling that is presumably a popular food in China, and that not unlike American restraunteurs, the Chinese counterparts are likely to smack you for soliciting prostitution. On top of all this is a stark example of the hardships of speaking a tonal language. The recipient may begin to foresee the frustration that he inevitably faces when using all the right "words," but still not being understood for want of correct "tones". Perhaps this will initiate some last-minute Chinese language cramming to attempt to stave off avoidable communication disasters. Whatever the usefullness of my advice (or lack thereof), I believe the funniest part of all of this is the Google translation said friend is likely to be staring at soon, as I don't think he can read Chinese yet. Here it is:

"How much sleep a night," instead of "how much of a dumpling-wan." You will not be beat!

Ahh computer translator, there is truly no end to the LOLs you provide. I can only hope that in China, it will be how much he sleeps and not how many dumplings he eats that renders my friend unbeatable!

Entertainment

2009-07-21T00:41:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about being a Westerner in a foreign land is the endless opportunities for hilarious interactions with children. When I walk down the street and cross paths with a group of kids, the excitement of the kids can manifest itself in different ways. Sometimes they will vie for my attention by using the first English phrases that come to mind - almost always self introductions. Sometimes though, and especially if they are older and the number of kids is smaller, they will instinctively look to the funniest kid in the group to spontaneously do something outrageous in my vicinity. Obviously their interest is getting a laugh out of the spectacle: look at how stupid Sam is being! Look at the foreigner's reaction! But the obvious side effect is free entertainment for the foreigner.

I don't know whether or not I can rightfully take credit for the stupid action I was recently witness to, but I'll do so anyway so as to make the story a perfect example. Sunday morning I woke up early due to my residual jet lag and decided to go for a swim at the beach. It was my good fortune I took my camera with me (honest to gods I picked it up on my way out the door out of fidelity to you, dear readers) too, because after exhausting myself in the water, I emerged to see some local teenagers making with the funny business. I had previously noted the peculiarity of their presence and age inappropriate behavior upon my arrival - as it was 8am and they were wading around and throwing sand at each other. This stunt, however, was truly unexpected:
I'll just assume for my sanity that they were riding stolen bikes and were still awake from a rollicking Saturday night of hooliganism. Though in a land where kids go to the park at 7:00 am on Saturdays to practice their jump shot, I have to take my sanity where I can get it.

Snackies

2009-07-18T02:21:00.000-07:00

I am ready. I'm more than ready; I feel as though it is I who is about to let the dogs out. I feel a yearning to create that only comes from having just spent an entire month chillaxing. That's right, I recently joined the ranks of the world's globetrotters, playboys, and those generally above working year-round. I picked up and headed on a whirlwind tour of South Korea, Atlanta and Colorado to perform a focused exercise of my freedom. So here I am, back in the real world, with a sled dog's share of pent-up work, and just guilty enough a conscience to do it.

My first order of business was school work, then came my job, then taking care of my plants, and now I find myself blessed with the unique fortune of punching in to work for you, if there are any of you left after my shameful, henceforth-not-to-be-mentioned hiatus. The particular inspiration that brought me here to officially reopen for blogging business was, predictably, a culinary one. You'll be pleased to learn that unlike many of the delights of Chinese cuisine that I'm so fond of relating, the ingredients of today's grub are easily procured from the local supermarket. "But wait! He's going to teach us to cook something. Who wants to learn how to cook something?" you're surely saying to yourself. Here's the best part though - today's tasty treat is so easy to make it doesn't even qualify as a recipe! (I think. Actually, I'm kind of afraid that the cooking authorities are going to chastise me for being wrong about my definition of the word "recipe" now.)

Fair warning: the dish I am so excited to share with you is in fact, like everything I make, completely made-up, experimental, and fairly described by any word that is cooking code for "bad". All I can say to that is hear me out.

Spicy Tofu Bombs

Ingredients (see addendum):
2 8"x10" sheets of nori, or the equivalent amount of smaller sheets
1/2 block of firm tofu
1 cup uncooked white rice
spicy sauce/paste (sriracha, etc.)

Feeds 2 (used as a side dish)

Step 1: Cook the rice (don't be afraid to read the back of the box if that sounds impossible)

(Skip step 2 if your pieces of nori are about 3"x4" or smaller)

Step 2: Lay the 2 sheets of nori on top of each other and cut them so you end up with 12 smaller nori rectangles. In case you didn't know, nori is that seaweed stuff people use for making sushi:
Your pieces of nori after step 2 will be somewhere around 3"x4" if my math is right.

Step 3: Rinse your tofu and cut it into 1" x 1/2" x 2" slices or thereabouts.

Step 4: Get the tofu, spicy sauce and nori laid out on the table. Put single servings of rice into bowls on the table. It probably just occurred to you that this dish includes uncooked tofu. Trust me, it's not bad.

Step 5: OK - be patient with the eating directions because I just ate mine and there's nothing left to take pictures of. Start by putting a piece of tofu on the middle of your rice. Then, hit the tofu with a dab of spicy paste. Next, lay a piece of nori on top and use it to scoop the paste, tofu and some rice into your face. Ignoring what this guy is scooping, it looks like this after you've got the tofu slice and spicy paste in position.
Note that it's actually easy to use chopsticks for this step with some practice, my google search just happened to return a white guy who's down with finger food. Repeat step 5 until any or all of the ingredients runs out.

Addendum
This protorecipe wouldn't be complete without clarifying a couple of points. First, this dish is much better if you can get your hands on the Korean nori (called "kim" in Korean). It's saltier, and fried instead of baked. I wish I knew more about how to procure this in the states, but if you just can't get your hands on kim, I believe its still worth it to make this with plain nori. Maybe just cook your rice with a little butter to compensate.
Second, I was intentionally vague about the spicy sauce. Sriracha (a Thai sauce for chicken) is one example. Each Asian country has their own variant. It should be on the thick side, that's why I called for sauce/ paste. There should be some options in even the most White Bread supermarket's Asian section, just choose what sounds appealing.
Eating variations of white rice with nori is one of the first snacks that was introduced to me in Taiwan and it's really found a place in my food heart. If the tofu sounds nast, replace it with a fried egg or peanuts or pieces of cooked tofu or pork. Experiment and let me know what's good. Happy snacking.

Water

2009-02-09T23:10:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the first in a series of posts about tea. In my post about Chinese New Year I mention making tea with mountain stream water. Now, I'll tell you the significance of that report.
水
This is the word that means water. The ancient character that it derived from looks like this:
The character water looks like a stream, and mountain stream water is one of two ingredients needed for a perfect cup of tea. I know this because I have been lucky enough to drink tea with old people in their homes on a few occasions now. Of course there is more to tea than leaves and water - the tea pot and it's proper care, warming the pot and cups, and the screen filter are very important as well, but I'll get to all that later.

Why do you go to the trouble of getting mountain stream water to make tea? Well, no one's explained that to me yet, but from my perspective the taste is a big part of it. There are many, many middle-aged-and-older people who drink tea every day using very fine leaves and tea sets. I think if I drank a drink so often and put so much time and money into it, taste would be a big focus.

Of course there is also the belief among tea drinkers that they are doing something extremely healthy. Taiwanese people are natural penny pinchers. Most of them wouldn't spend too much money on something just because it tastes great. There is a strong belief that better quality tea is better for your body (again, this is my vague understanding from speaking to old guys in my limited Chinese, I've yet to learn any specifics about tea's health benefits), and better quality tea here means "high mountain tea" that as a result of its habitat and cultivation is a very limted and expensive commodity.

This brings up my last point: tea is expensive. I'll explain the details in my next post but really, it's expensive. So if you spend a lot of money on a steak, are you going to serve it with slices of a rotten potato? No. Tap water in Taiwan is rotten. Even after you boil it, it doesn't taste pure. If your tea is made with this water, you're a fool unless the tea leaves were appropriately cheap. So, any tea drinkers here with the means has a buddy fill them up a couple big water containers at at mountain stream every time they drive across the island from East to West. (Accessible on the side of the mountain highways every so often) I can't do this yet, unfortunately, but I am buying cheap spring water. One day...

The Game

2009-02-09T22:38:00.000-08:00

I finally learned how to play mahjong on Sunday. My Taiwanese friend came over to teach my roommates, girlfriend and I. It was really easy to pick up and seems fun. I can see why its so popular over here. If you've ever played Gin Rummy, the gameplay is eerily similar. That is great for me because Gin is one of the few card games I know how to play.

Fortunately, she lent us her mahjong set since she only needs it when she goes to visit her grandmother. So, if you stop hearing from me in a few weeks its probably because I'm in the depths of a seedy pan-Asian mahjong binge, gambling with a motley crew that looks like something in between grandmothers and pirates. But hell, if that happens at least I won't be able to buy this:

A Week of Camping

2009-02-04T05:14:00.000-08:00

I've posted about 40 not-too-shabby pictures from my island-wide trip this past week (we had a break for Chinese New Year). You can read the details from some of the pictures in this Picasa web album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lonhig/ChineseNewYear09

This follows my 環島 "loop island" journey camping across Taiwan. Some nights we trespassed on farms, one night we camped at an elementary school, we backpacked a tiny slice of Taroko and stayed in a very old spa in Yilan. As you can see, my preoccupations were a little mountain-centric. Besides mountains, it was amazing seeing the Pacific from the cliffs along the East coast, lots of fireworks everywhere every night, Taroko gorge, eating lots of fresh veggies from mountain farms (so much better than lowland veggies!), drinking lots of tea fresh from the mountain-top using mountain stream water, seeing cherry blossoms, visiting a very old Japanese-built hot springs, and meeting really happy people everywhere. Everywhere we went (Mountains and East area) was predominantly aboriginal villages.

Here is a preview:

The Lunchbox

2008-12-31T04:22:00.000-08:00

I forget what the Chinese word for this is, and so would you, so let's just use the standard translation "lunchbox."

This is a lunchbox. Lunchboxes are the most common form of take out in Taiwan and the small restaurants that provide them quickly and cheaply are EVERYWHERE. I can never over-emphasize the mind-boggling number of small restaurants here. And when I say cheap I mean $1.50 - $2 cheap. $2 for a duck dinner! As you can see by comparing it to the chopsticks, that box is big! And what does it contain? My 3 choices of side vegetable: dark leafy greens, cabbage/ carrots, and bamboo. In the spotlight is a big piece of roasted duck on a generous bed of rice.
People line up at this guy's restaurant every lunch and dinner rush. I mean they form a long line, but it moves fast. I guess his duck is semi-famous or at least neighborhood-famous. The funny thing about Taiwan is that due to this glorious tradition of great cheap food, fast food restaurants serve a completely different service here than in the West. For example, I got in and out of this guy's shop just as fast as I would a McDonald's, but the food at McDonald's costs twice as much. So why do people go to McDonald's then? Because the seating is ample and there is no pressure to leave when you are done eating. For this reason KFCs, Burger Kings and McDonald's in Taiwan are mostly populated by high school students just hanging out or studying. (MosBurger is the same. It's a fast food chain from Japan that actually has high-quality food, believe it or not.) McDonald's even plays classical music! That cracked me up the first time I went inside one.
So there you have it - the lunchbox. The original fast food: healthier, cheaper and better tasting than the competition. Interesting trivia: since Asia does not have the oven tradition of the West, the is a single Chinese word that can mean any of the following: grilled, broiled, roasted, baked, etc.

Yum!

2008-11-19T23:27:00.000-08:00

Rather than regaling you with another tale of a fine Asian dining experience, today I will show you what a great ambassador I am for Western cuisine. This picture was taken at a cook out that John and I threw last month. We (mostly John) bought a slab of pork, marinated it, and made many, many kabobs using an assortment of veggies. Granted, the Taiwanese style of grilling out one ups the American tradition in terms of sheer volume consumed - these things are basically 2 to 3 hours of straight eating. They also have us beat in the fuel dept: all Taiwanese use the Webber style grill and they ONLY use "natural" charcoal. You cannot buy briquettes in Taiwan.

However, I believe American style grilling wins by virtue of the simple fact that we grill more than just meat. In Taiwan, grilling out is very popular, but the whole experience is just eating one kind of meat after another. Our party was good fun, and Jake got everyone to play a very fun Panamanian game in which two people race lemons across the ground using a second lemon that hangs from your belt inside a stocking.

So besides showing our Korean, Japanese and Taiwanese friends what American grilling (well, American with middle eastern influence I guess) is all about, we had fun identifying what type of food my burned toast qualified as. My Korean friend Kuai Fan saw me take it off the grill and asked me if this was "American style toast". So now we have the ongoing joke of MeiGuoTooSuh ie: American Toast. Yum!

The Luckiest Day Ever

2008-11-11T21:51:00.000-08:00

I had quite a surprise yesterday while studying at a coffee shop. I was on the University campus, in a coffee shop attached to the University book store, when the barista started asking me about my Chinese studies. Yesterday was the University's anniversary/ birthday so there were celebrations going on and no class. The barista told me that upstairs, in the very building in which I was drinking coffee, were a group of famous Chinese calligraphy masters who came on this one day only to do free calligraphy for anyone who requested it! I went upstairs and lo, there were about 6 old men all with big calligraphgy brushes and bowls of black or orange ink. They were writing the requested messages, of varying length, on various sizes of rice paper. I gravitated toward the man writing on the biggest pieces of paper, writing with the biggest brush, and asked him to write "peace" for me, which looks like 和平. Now look at the result!

(Click for big)

In olden times, characters were read from right to left, so on the left you can clearly see the stylized "平", but what about the 和 you ask? Well it turns out that the old, old version of 和 is much more complex and half of it was replaced with the 口. My scroll has the old version :)

I've learned a very valuable lesson from this experience. I'm NEVER going ANYWHERE without my camera AGAIN! Mark my words! Wait, have I said that before...?

Check Picasa

2008-09-21T23:40:00.000-07:00

Check http://picasaweb.google.com/lonhig for my pictures from Sun Moon Lake. Post forthcoming.

Company Dinner

2008-09-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Shortly after Nicole started her new job last month, her department was invited to eat together at a very nice Japanese restaurant. Needless to say I didn't have to think twice when she asked me to join her. Well, my expectations for the meal were exceeded to say the least. Our group of about 20 sat around two large circular tables. Each table had a huge Lazy Susan in the center from which the table's attendees shared each course. First was onion salad, then sashimi, then sushi rolls, then crab egg tofu, then some sort of decadent lettuce wraps, then... Well, I completely lost count of how many courses were brought out - let's say it was 12. We were treated with fresh watermelon juice to go along with the hot tea. I know that somewhere toward the end was a giant Hot Pot that was a meal in itself. The desert was green tea flavored milk pudding. Nicole's co-workers were all very nice and complemented me extensively on my Chinese.

Can you spot the father and son in matching outfits?

Chinese students abound

2008-08-11T00:18:00.000-07:00

My Chinese class is comprised of twenty-somethings from India, USA, Korea and Russia and a 14 year old from Japan. Well, it was a sad day last Friday because the Japanese girl, Grace, had to quit the class to go home. (Her mom didn't want to pay for her to make a Visa run to Hong Kong, Manila, etc. and her 30 day Visa was expiring)
Here are the class photos we took to honor her memory. One normal picture and one Taiwanese picture:

And here is a bonus picture from the Chinese Language Center field trip to GaohSiung last Saturday:

This is G and me posing with our new Japanese friends. Their Chinese is bu tai hao, but they were still fun to hang out with (for reasons that should be obvious).

The field trip was good fun, considering we had to meet at the language center at 7:50 am (on a Saturday mind you). Here are some more highlights:
The first five pictures here are from some temples (forgive my exceedingly limited vocabulary and memory of Chinese names). The guy riding the chicken was on top of one of the towers in the first picture. Although my eyes are closed in the last picture, I have to share it because these guys are really funny and I hung out with them most of the day. We're are all in beginner Chinese classes - from left to right we're Japanese, Thai, American, American and Korean - so the only way we can communicate is with our humble Chinese. We continue to persevere and can call ourselves good friends (hao peng you).

Kending Part Deaux

2008-08-08T02:00:00.000-07:00

OK, I am new to sharing pictures online, but I plan to store all my photos (not just the ones that make the New Sky cut) at http://picasaweb.google.com/lonhig

So Saturday morning after the bikes were rented and we somehow reached the top of the mountain, we arrived at a forested park with a relatively small network of trails. What the trails lacked in length, however, they amply made up for in beauty and diversity. There were huge rocks everywhere that looked pitted, as if they'd spent part of their lives under the sea. Parts of the trail went under the rocks through short caves and crevices. The highlights of the hike were the vistas of the hills with the sea in the background.

This was on one of our "stick your head in a creek" breaks before we reached the top. I don't know what kind of trees these were, but all the vine-looking things are actually hanging roots. It's like the land was snatched away from under the trees.

There was a nice ocean breeze and plenty of views along the hike.

OK, it was more like ocean wind in some places :)

This guy was ready for his close up.

We found some good vines for swinging.

Next, after eating very big bowls of noodle soup, we flew down the mountain on our bikes and went to one of the beaches. Over Saturday and Sunday we actually went to three beaches and one pool. The first beach had an "international" surfing competition going on, but it was kind of sad because the waves were weak that day. At least they were projecting good music from their tent. I am now going to mess up the chronology of this tale so as to consolidate the beach pictures:

This is from one of the hotels we pretended to be guests at. It was beautiful, but we left because you couldn't swim in the ocean without a life vest. (?!) I am doing my best to hide my mouthful of food.

Nicole sporting one of the beach toys I brought.

This was the most beautiful beach we went to. The name translates to "White Sand Beach". The waves were just big enough to body surf and some of the rocks were out in the water for me to dive off of. And before you think I'm really stupid enough to dive into the shallow sea, let me inform you that the water was soooo clear! If you've been to the Gulf, it was just like their water - it was turquoise-colored, but I could look down to the bottom through 1.5 meters of it. This beach is out of the way too, so it was really uncrowded.

You can thank my parents for putting it in my head that I should take pictures like this one ;)

Besides chilling on the beaches, we also pretended to be guests at a very nice resort hotel. It had a nice outdoor pool with comfortable chairs and ample plant life.

The hotel's pool get's my official stamp of approval. It was big and relaxing. Too bad it wasn't $3 a night, though places like this start at only $70 I hear, and this hotel also had a private beach. The food, etc. was all surprisingly cheap in Kending, considering it's the resort town in Taiwan.

We ate at Sushi Express Saturday night. I had raw scallops for the first time! I can now say I love scallops prepared any way!

This is a fish market in a nearby fishing village. The stands will cook your purchase for you if you want. Do I look tired and hungry? Like I've been at the beach all day? It's OK, I had this to look forward to:

Big ol' crabs, clams, some kind of mountain vegetable, and rice. Oh yea, and Taiwan Pi Jio ("Taiwan Beer" brand beer). I still dream about that crab...

Kending Part 1

2008-08-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

I have a lot to write about my trip to Kending (Kenting) last weekend, but my schedule is busy so I will start with a short post now and continue later. I made last minute plans to go to Kending National Park Friday through Sunday with my friend Nicole. Kending is the resort town on the Southern tip of Taiwan - a popular destination for beachgoers and surfers. Besides beautiful weather and beaches, Kending is home to some stunning mountains and cliffs. Though it is a resort town, and the most prominent one in Taiwan, you would be amazed how little Kending has been built up. All the hotels and tourist shops are restricted to one main drag. Most of the land is protected once you get a half mile inland due to the National Park.

Kending is that yellow star

Nicole grew up in Tainan and is very familiar with the area in and around Kending. She also has a car, so it only took us about 2.5 hours to get to our destination. She looked for campgrounds online before we left, and the place we settled on turned out to be a beautiful, isolated field in the hills between the mountains and the sea. Also, we had the whole field to ourselves except for one tent far on the other side. Oh ya, it cost us a total of $3 a night to stay there. The beach was a 2 minute drive south and we were right near the road that leads up to the mountains.

A shot of the sunrise Saturday morning from our "camp site".

We went exploring Saturday morning around the campground. I almost walked into this guy, the biggest spider I've ever seen, save tarantulas. It was the size of Nicole's open hand.

Upon my first encounter with a mountain crab, I thought he was very, very lost. Nope, these guys just live around streams - I had no idea. (Kending has "normal" crabs at the beach, too)

Not too far from the field was a small house with these cages out front. Nicole informs me that the habitants must be training these messenger pigeons for competition. She has an uncle that does the same. The pigeons are sent off to some predetermined (distant, I presume) destination and have to race each other there and back.

This is in the campground. I was all ready to pose in front of this sweet-looking driftwood and flower arrangement when I noticed a big lizard standing next to me. Well, the lizard wasn't big by Kending standards it turns out. I saw lots and lots of them over the weekend.

Another view from the campground.

This was a pathetic attempt on my part to do the "stick your hand out and take your own picture." The little spot of blue in the top-right corner is the ocean that was supposed to comprise the whole background... It's a good picture of Nicole at least. This picture was taken on our arduous bicycle trip up the mountain to go hiking in one of the scenic parks. We rented bikes Saturday morning and decided to go up the mountain before hitting the beaches. I'll continue the next post with our montain hike. Zai jien :)

The Night Market

2008-07-28T01:50:00.001-07:00

There are several night markets in Tainan, and each has its own night of the week. So on Friday there is only one market open, on Saturday there's a different on open, etc. This one is called Flower Garden and it is the biggest in Tainan. It's open on Thursday and Saturday.

I'm not sure when thing heat up at the night markets, put most people leave by 12:30 or 1. Also, the patrons and vendors all bail at the first sign of rain, so you have to go on a dry night. The setup is farmiliar to any convention-goer, each vendor has a stall and they are arranged in long rows. The night market is basically organized into 3 zones: carnival games, food and merchandise. They take up about 25%, 35% and 40% of the real estate respectively. There is a left side entrance that puts you in the games and a right side entrance that puts you in the food.

This is only a percentage of the vast sea of scooters that welcomes you to Flower Garden.

This is Mei Ba Guai. She has a small stall at each of Tainan's night markets dedicated to decorating scooter helmets. She will draw on your shoes, glasses and face mask too - and apparently your water bottle! Here are some cool designs she did for other people:

Here is one of the sticker stalls. It is the smaller of the two. On the left you can see the proprietor politely gesturing for me to not take pictures. Duei bu chi! As far as the nazi sticker in the middle - everyone I ask tells me that people really don't know what it means and just confuse it with the similar-looking Buddhist symbol. Not sure what to think - the only nazi symbol I've seen on the street so far is that same sticker on a really old dude's scooter helmet. My friend John said the same thing as everyone else when I asked him about it - no one knows what it means, old dude included. Hmm.

There are a few of these stalls and they seem to specialize in incense, humidifiers, and glowing fountains.

This stuff reminds me of a cool cat I saw in a tea shop that in turn reminds me of Cait Sith!

Hats, shirts.

Fresh fruit in the back - dinnerstuff in the front. I really dropped the ball on taking pictures of the food here. Night market food is GOOD and PLENTIFUL! The food is what the night markets are most famous for. This is where I tried stinky tofu (that's a literal translation, and yes, you can smell stinky tofu stands from a block away. It tastes so good though!), spicy fish "eggs" (actually fish meatballs), fried sweet potato puffs, and some dish that is kind of like an omlette made with oysters, lettuce and a little cream - topped with a sweet and sour sauce. I also get some coconut milk whenever I'm at the market.

Got fish?

And some games. They have every kind of carnival game you've ever played and then some. I may have to try and win me a giant stuffed Pikachu one of these days. And there you have it: the night market.

Sweet Sweet Veg

2008-07-11T10:20:00.000-07:00

I wasn't kidding about the carrots. Every time I go to a produce stand I feel like I'm in Curse of the Were Rabbit!

Goofy Foreigner Ruins Dance Party

2008-07-05T03:17:00.000-07:00

Just kidding y'all. I MADE that party :D Well I don't know what was weirder, the group-excitement-bordering-on-man-love that seemed to never stop climaxing in front of the DJ booth (hard to explain), the foreign girl who got a break dancing circle going, or the fact that I found these pictures randomly online. The girl (I'm going to venture Australian but God knows) was very physical for lack of a better word. When she wasn't break dancing, she was bouncing around kind of mock fighting guys like that Brazilian dance-fight stuff or faux moshing. At some point she jumped on my back when I wasn't looking, expecting what to happen I haven't the slightest. The whole group excitement thing was all these guys wearing their hip hop gear to the nines constantly throwing their hands in the air and screaming... I haven't seen this at the other clubs, but I wonder if they were compensating for the low girl to guy ratio by trying to look the most "into" the music. (No, I didn't stumble into a gay bar)You may have noticed that something is up with my outfit, that it's wack even. In fact, this costume idea was an homage to Tae, as he is the only person I know who wears kerchiefs and I think it's badass. I made a pink and grey kerchief because the party had a "Nu Rave" theme - and I wanted that neon look. I've talked to Jake about Taiwanese fashion a little bit, since he is a metrosexual and all, and it's abundantly clear that Taiwanese guys all go for a bright, colorful look. It would look funny in the U.S., but that's just Taiwan. Maybe they're just ahead of the global fashion curve. I call it peacock-y, but I do admit some of their t-shirts are cool. The point of this diatribe is that my silly costume fit right in at the party, even if my nose didn't. (The Taiwanese slur for westerners translates to "long nosed foreigner")

Night Market Shirts

2008-07-05T02:47:00.000-07:00

I really love the night market, and I love my new t-shirts. Now bootlegged merchandise usually doesn't bother me, but I'm not really sure what to make of this purchase. I mean I'm all for fucking over multinationals like Lacoste or something, but I bought these t-shirts because they feature some of my favorite musicians. I think I may have to go buy some licensed Ed Banger Records and Devo merchandise from the internet now... But anyway there are a lot of cool t-shirts in the night market and they are dirt cheap. I swear I'll take pictures of what the market itself looks like soon (it might be closed due to rain tonight though).\m/ UNCONTROLLABLE URGE \m/ Classic DEVO.

Funny thing about the Ed Banger t-shirt: it is supposed to have tour dates on the back and it doesn't! It's from the 2007 Australia tour and you can read on the bottom of the design "see back for details"... Woops, nothing on the back.

Heaven is a Coffee Shop

2008-07-04T22:17:00.000-07:00

Meh. A dripping hot Saturday morning and I can't get back to sleep. Wait, I know! I'll go utilize the air conditioning of my current favorite establishment in Tainan! Let me preface this by saying I'm a little ashamed of how much time I've been spending at this coffee shop because there's something decidedly western about coffee shops in general, but I've yet to find a tea shop with nearly as good an atmosphere (indoor seating at tea shops is rare to begin with), so let me indulge for now.
The coffee shop of which I speak is Masa Loft, conveniently located adjacent to the NCKU campus, a short elevator ride above the 7-11. Which 7-11 am I talking about you ask? This one:Masa is on the 3rd floor. It is a big place, but here the view looking straight ahead when you enter:
And here is a view from one of the more comfortable areas. Note the book collection to the right. There are many books (art books, novels, etc, etc) to browse here. There are also many puzzle-toys, CDs, a couple DVDs, and some Masa stamps to play with.
They have their own roaster, which blows my mind as I've never heard of such a concept in coffee vending. When I worked at Jittery Joes one of the first things I learned was that the biggest determining factor of coffee quality is the length of time between roasting and brewing. That is why good coffee shops get beans from a local roaster who roasts in small batches. You are right if you suspect I have a new favorite coffee. ;) [edit: Jake informs me that there are multiple coffee shops in NYC with roasting capability. And also that the principal owner of Masa (pictured below making my coffee) attended college in NYC.]
The coffee menu at Masa is a little different than other operations, and had to be explained to me (yes, in English). If you order "American coffee" or "black coffee" off the menu, you get what I would call an Americano (with one or two shots of espresso respectively). If you want actual coffee, its costs a bit more, but its worth it to see the barista work one of their unique percolators! The varietals on tap were Brazilian (100NT), "Mandarin" (120NT - this one may have been a blend, I should have asked) and Hawaiian (180NT). There was a blend that was only described as Arabica (100NT). I went with the Brazilian, as there was nothing African or Indonesian to choose from. In retrospect I should have tried the Hawaiian or Mandarin as I have no idea where those two fit in the realm of beans.
Here is a shot of my coffee percolating. Resting on top is the wooden paddle used to stir up this glorious soup (the metal thing on bottom is holding a portable butane burner):
And here is the final product. "You don't put cream in good coffee" as an old gentleman always said to me at Jittery Joes when I asked if he wanted room in his cup.The ceramic spoon was a nice touch. I think the real charm of this place is in the attention to detail. Last but not least is a shot of their astounding beer selection. I think I've only had 3 of these beers before. Trappists, Lambics, Belgians, oh my!
Is there a little halo around the row of Chimay blue label, or is that just me ;) I have never seen the blue label in a bar before, only liquor stores. Yum. Speaking of yum the food seems pretty standard coffee shop fare for Taiwan: "thicktoast", waffles, sandwiches. One thing they have that the other coffee shops don't is croissants. I have a feeling I won't see a bagel as quality as this one anywhere else though (Now I'm wondering what bakery it came from. Bagels are almost non-existent in Taiwan). It's smoked salmon/ cream cheese. And continuing their streak of getting the details right, the chopped green stuff if fresh basil. Hell yes for fresh basil!
I will spare you the long list of frozen/fruity/milky drinks they offer as this is Taiwan and selling milk tea is practically mandated by law. My only gripe is that the music selection often leaves something to be desired, so bring your headphones. Though I must say boss lady was DJing this morning and the music was right on: Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and such. It made for good sippin and Mandarin studying both. Since headphones are always a convenient option, and the music is pretty quiet anyway, I'm going with 5 out of 5 beans. Go Masa! (Until I find the ultimate tea shop anyway...)

Haian Lu

2008-06-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night was a night of celebrating, because Jake's friend Kim was visiting town from Gaoshung (Jake is my roommate for the summer). We went to a popular Road called Haian that has a lot of tea shops and bars with outdoor seating, so its a main drag of sorts for going out. My friend Nicole took my to Haian 2 weeks ago and explained to me how the road was widened in recent memory, requiring a lot of old houses lining it to be cut in half! There is a nice mural on the front of one of these half-houses which I failed to photograph Tuesday night (I suck at this pictures thing! I will work on that), so I'm resorting to google once more here. There is also a sidewalk display of windows, cabinets and china taken out of one of the old houses before it was halved (no picture - YET).

First, we sat down at Moogo (tea and snacks). We all ordered Heineken and green tea (!) because neither Kim nor I had experienced this popular treat. It came in a normal 20oz paper cup. Heh, I'll have to get used to thinking in milliliters I guess. It had ice in it, and the taste was very refreshing. I swear there was something that tasted just like grapefruit added to it.
After we all gave the HGTs our stamp of approval, we walked to a bar that I had been wanting to go to called Blueprint. It is in one of the old half-houses, and the original scene from the house is drawn on the front of the building. Also, wooden support beams still stick out over the sidewalk. Here is are the pictures:

Me - the flash is on and no, I am not breaking nor even hanging from that beam.

Jake and Kim - the flash is off (nicer colors, but the picture of me with the flash off was a little blurry)

The bar was expensive for Tainan ($4 beers), but it was worth it for the atmosphere. A big tree is growing up through the middle of the place and is visible when you come in the door. The bar area has big clear Plexiglas tiles for a floor that are lit from below with blue light. The booths/ tables are in a dark room with candles on the tables, and they're separated by thin blue curtains. A deck of cards was brought to us by the waitress upon request, and I learned how to play "Chinese poker". The Chinese name translates to "big old two." It was fun, but I lost 3 games in a row. The music in the first room we were in was depressing, twangy singer-songwriter fare, so we went to the other half of the house where the music was... up beat house. It was cool going to a table upstairs because its very open up there. There's a balcony and you can see the underside of the old roof way above you. (Once again I should have taken a picture. Whenever I go back I'll have to get pics to edit into my writeup.) Overall a fun, low key place to drink, and the high price is OK becuase other fine establishments are always a short walk away. Fun.

Hello Blogosphere!

2008-06-20T21:48:00.000-07:00

That's right, this is the New Sky Blog inaugural post! In case you were wondering why you're here, it is because you love me and want to know everything about my new life in Taiwan. Yes, Athens Georgia is far away, but I have a new home now, and I love it already. I am posting in anticipation of the arrival of my digital camera will be the backbone of the blog henceforth. Today, I am working with google image search to try to get my point across. And my point is this: I love carrot lady!

This is the closest I could get to the likeness of the Taiwanese carrot. My roommate John put it best: "you can club a man with one of those carrots". And who is the carrot lady? Well I 'll put up a picture when I get the camera, but the carrot lady sells me ice cold carrot juice when I've been riding my bike around in the sun all day! It costs 35NT which is 1.05USD and consists of (so far as I can surmise):

~2 clubbing carrots, juiced in front of me
1 cup fresh pineapple, juiced in front of me
water and some crushed ice
1 tablespoon mystery syrup

The fruit here, nay the pineapples alone, will have to have an extensive post of their own later. The first time I found the carrot lady I happened to be in the same condition she would come to recognize me in: on a bicycle, sweaty, parched and probably hungry. I looked into her I eyes pleadingly and pointed to the carrots in her display (this is a roadside stand operation). I was praying in my head that I wouldn't have to navigate the score of choices on the chinese menu-sign in front of me. Lo and behold - she recognized the intense carrot juice hunger within. Now we're past pointing, she knows what I come for. The stand is 5 blocks from my apartment so I pay, politely say "xi`e xie", and go enjoy my life potion on the couch (under the fan).