Lao Ren Cha - 老人茶

My Taiwan Valentine

2012-02-14T12:09:00.000+08:00

awwwwwwww "My Taiwan Valentine" being different from "My Taiwanese Valentine", of course. If I had a Taiwanese valentine I think Brendan might be a leeeeeeettle upset. First, enjoy this. Watch the video, too. And enjoy this. I think next year Brendan is getting Easter candy and a bag of hammers. So generally we're not big V-day celebrators. Not because I'm anti-Valentine's day, but rather

SYS Memorial Hall Lantern Festival 2012

2012-02-12T10:28:00.000+08:00

I am a horrible, lazy person. I went to this last week and didn't put up photos, or even edit them, until yesterday (Catherine here certainly beat me to the punch by about 7 days). I've had a long week - I unexpectedly found myself in Hsinchu three nights out of five working in the Science Park, and that not only takes a lot of time (for which I am well compensated, don't feel bad for me) but

Not Fluent, Stop Asking

2012-02-05T23:04:00.000+08:00

Photo from this site It's been 5 1/2 years. 5 1/2 years of learning Chinese - with some extended breaks, but make no mistake, I learned on those breaks, too. I suppose you could count that tortured year in China in 2002 when I taught myself basic survival Chinese, but looking back, I have to wonder. I feel now as though I knew nothing then. At this point, especially as it's clear that I

The Chinese Jungle

2012-02-03T17:31:00.002+08:00

Photo from this site - please don't sue me There have been a lot of online petitions and public outcry in the West recently over the treatment Chinese factory workers endure. Most of it, thanks to This American Life, The Daily Show and other outlets, has been directed at Apple, whose products are made in China by vendors and suppliers. My feelings on this: I agree completely with the

Not A Girly-Girl: Being an Unfeminine Female in Taiwan

2012-02-03T02:09:00.000+08:00

Average-looking, not slim, no makeup, not "elegant", likes to swear and drink, has chewed betel nut, could happily be a breadwinner, talks too much and has forceful opinions. What other gender-driven expectations can we find and destroy? I'm having a weird form of writer's block: I have four posts I really want to write, and I can't seem to write any of them in a clear or coherent way

Apropos of Nothing

2012-02-01T20:36:00.001+08:00

My opinion on Newt Gingrich is as follows: Fortunately I am not the only person who thinks this: a quick trawl of Google turns up people who said it before I did. Just thought I'd put it out there, though, because it can't be said enough. Also, unrelated to anything, look at the headline under the Will&Kate picture: Me: "Well I guess they count as unemployed." Brendan: "Can

Everything's Closed, or, My Chinese New Year Staycation

2012-01-29T17:56:00.000+08:00

You know what it's like: the weather is a dark, drizzly Taipei Gray, roads are mostly devoid of people, accordion metal pull-down doors cover every storefront. Everything's gray, everything's quiet, and everything is closed. What do you do when you're stuck in a city that's shut down for an entire week? When much of the population takes flight and you have expect the horsemen of the Apocalypse

Taipei Love: Guiyang Street

2012-01-28T14:05:00.000+08:00

The weather yesterday was beautiful - one nice day out of 11 days (for me) off - so before some friends came over, we went to the Longshan Temple area to wander and take some photos on and around Guiyang Street. Guiyang Street is one of my favorite overlooked streets in old Taipei - it's not as fancy or lengthy as Dihua Street nor as renovated and promoted as Bopiliao, but also usually

Pet-Owning Redux

2012-01-27T13:19:00.005+08:00

Who's afraid of Stupidface? Aren't you just a big genius? Yes you aaaaaarrreeee. Who's a stupid genius? It's YOU! Just thought I'd muse a bit on something I've noticed: A fear of cats among many Taiwanese people - more so than I've ever noticed back home. I grew up with cats, and rarely would people decline to visit my parents' home or act nervous or afraid around my parents' cats (who

"First Female President of Taiwan"

2012-01-26T12:51:00.001+08:00

I know I should have written about this earlier but it kind of got caught in the undertow of the Chinese New Year wave: Tsai's "First Female President of Taiwan" Theme Fails to Win Support I could interpret this in two ways. The pessimistic view: people care so little for women's rights in Taiwan these days that having a female president (or even strong contender) isn't something that really

Marriage and Living Abroad, Part The Second

2012-01-26T12:14:00.004+08:00

Beautiful flowers in a beautiful home housing a beautiful marriage This hasn't happened to me in Taiwan, but what I've seen on various expat forums and even witnessed among expats in China (I was too young, and in a place with too few expats, to see it in India) is an expectation that marriages, when taken abroad, not only often fail for reasons specifically related to the expat shift, but

Being Married and Living Abroad, Part The First

2012-01-25T11:05:00.003+08:00

Being a married expat is great, too. I guess you could consider this the bookend to my earlier post on traveling while single vs. traveling as a couple. I talked about traveling there, but here I'll meditate a bit on married expat life vs. single expat life. Of course, my experience likely differs from many, partly because I'm just a big ol' weirdo, and partly because most expats are male,

The Mightiest of Signs

2012-01-24T17:23:00.001+08:00

Just a quick observation. A trawl through Western Zodiac signs, meanings and personalities doesn't really seem to reveal any ranking. Libras are balanced, Virgos are smart, perfectionistic and a bit cold, Pisces are sensitive and easygoing, Gemini are creative and indecisive, Scorpio are distrustful, a bit dark and passionate, Aquarians and Sagittariuses (Sagittarii?) are independent and a bit

So Far Adrift

2012-01-22T17:02:00.000+08:00

迢遞三巴路，羈危萬里身。亂山殘雪夜，孤獨異鄉春。漸與骨肉遠，轉於僮僕親。那堪正飄泊，明日歲華新。 Farther and farther from the three Ba Roads, I have come three thousand miles, anxious and watchful, Through pale snow-patches in the jagged nightmountains -- A stranger with a lonely lantern shaken in the wind. ...Separation from my kin Binds me closer to my servants -- Yet how I dread, so far adrift, New Year's Day, tomorrow

Dihua Street Holiday Market: Year of the Dragon

2012-01-20T12:19:00.004+08:00

So I have a camera again. Brendan dug out his old pro Canon EOS 350D, found the old memory card and charger for it, and has been letting me lug it around town to take lots of great pictures. The upside is that unlike my old camera, which was good but not the best, this is a real pro machine. They say that it's not what camera you use, it's who's behind the camera (incidentally, they say

"Facts don't prove a damn thing!"

2012-01-17T12:40:00.000+08:00

Just a small note on education. I am one of those people who believes that, generally speaking, education back home cultivates better thinking and life skills than education in East Asia. Even if the overall knowledge base is less, that's amply made up for in the development of critical thinking skills, creativity and to some extent confidence. All skills that serve one better in the real world

Reasonability

2012-01-16T18:44:00.000+08:00

Another positive thing I'd like to say about the elections is how reasonable it all was. I don't just mean the subdued campaigns - nary a screaming siren political truck drove my by house and posters and flags were sedate and much fewer in number than in previous elections - but Taiwan as a whole. Here is my dark secret: I have friends who are blue (shhh, don't tell anyone)*. I disagree quite

My Admiration for Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)

2012-01-16T16:17:00.000+08:00

Even though I'm still bitterly disappointed in the election results, I do have a few positive things to say. First, I can't say enough how much I appreciate the fact that Tsai Ying-wen was a viable female candidate, especially in Asia. Different countries in Asia have had female leaders before: Indira Gandhi, Megawati Sukarnoputri, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Corazon Aquino, Benazir Bhutto...

Annual Party (尾牙) Culture in Taiwan

2012-01-14T22:32:00.000+08:00

Here, be cheered up by nearly naked engineers dancing in diapers Seriously, I got nothin'. I can't write anything except to say how disappointed I am in the election results, and what good'd that do? So, I'm going to write about the 尾牙, or company year-end banquet that is held by most workplaces of some size in Taiwan. Smaller offices don't always hold them, especially tiny offices with

I went to a KMT rally, and it made me feel dirty inside

2012-01-12T19:09:00.001+08:00

So I "attended", if you can call it that, a KMT rally tonight. I don't have pictures - my apologies, but I still don't have a working camera, even an iPod or phone camera. Mine traveled up to the great Canon In The Sky to meet its maker last week, and my good one was stolen in Turkey. I didn't do it because I like the KMT - you all know how much I hope they lose the upcoming election and how

Some Women's Issues: Links For A Gray Wednesday

2012-01-11T12:57:00.001+08:00

I've been working on a post that I'm not sure if I'll publish in its current form, so it's sitting in draft form now, lying fallow in my Posts list. I'm just not sure if it really makes clear the point I want to get across. So, instead, a few links for you. Shu Flies writes about depression and living abroad in a two-parter (you can click to Part II from Part I). While mood disorders affect

Updated: The Best Pizza in Taipei

2012-01-10T11:35:00.000+08:00

I've updated my post on The Best Pizza in Taipei to include Zoca on Linjiang Street (near Anhe Road, north of the biggest nightspot area). Really good stuff! Also, I can walk there. Bonus! I know I should probably actually rank these, but you can't rank something as ineffable as good pizza. I can try to make some order out of the chaos, though. All pizza places I list below are in the post

Double Triple Culture Shock

2012-01-09T15:55:00.001+08:00

I've written before about reverse culture shock, something Kath at [insert suitably snappy title here] has described as feeling like "something has grown and it no longer fits like it used to, like a favourite t-shirt you used to wear all the time that accidentally got shrunk in the wash". I could swear I wrote another post on the topic more recently, where I talked about how going home felt

2012 Election Posters, Such As They Are

2012-01-08T20:07:00.000+08:00

This is one of my favorites - a bus wrap encouraging people to buy their train tickets to go home and vote. This year's election...well, it's hard to tell there's an election on, not to mention a presidential election. Where are the trucks blaring music? The posters? The fliers? The campaign ads? The candidates shaking hands and giving you tchotchkes? In the last election - which wasn't even a

Of Sympathy

2012-01-05T15:30:00.000+08:00

Not so long ago I posted a status on Facebook along the lines of "在成功國宅，只有兩個泛綠的人，就是我和百川。有一天我在散佈，看到一個帶很大中華民國國旗。他叫我：中華民國加油！我回：台灣加油！哎唷！他給我顏色瞧瞧啊！" A quick 'n dirty translation would be "There are only two pan-green folks in Chenggong Apartments, me and Bai-chuan (Brendan, who has the awesomest Old Chinese Man name ever). One day I was walking around and saw an old guy carrying a huge Republic of

Of Balls

2012-01-03T19:50:00.000+08:00

Sure, it only costs NT$250, but for that price it's a pretty decent wine. While finishing off a bottle of inexpensive but good wine with Brendan last night, I got to thinking about all the usual stuff: you know, how great married life has been for the past year and a half, how lucky we really are to have such a strong relationship, and my doesn't this apartment look awesome, I could actually

Of Sleep

2012-01-02T18:03:00.002+08:00

I recently came across this post: Ten Photos Proving the Taiwanese Can Sleep Anywhere, Anytime I'm not surprised.I'll even say that there's more than a grain of truth to this: I too have noted a higher percentage of people sleeping in all sorts of places at all sorts of times in Taiwan. It starts in childhood, when as kids they go to school all day, then to cram school, and they're lucky if

Hailongtun

2012-01-01T18:15:00.000+08:00