Hong Kong

1 hour taxi ride.

2 hour flight.

45 minutes on a double-decker bus.

20 minute walk to the hostel.

Sounds like a normal travel schedule. Under most circumstances I wouldn’t even have mentioned this in my blog. But my trip to Hong Kong wasn’t under normal circumstances. I was sick. VERY sick. Salmonella poisoning sick. Every rock of the plane or turn of the bus felt like it was going to be the one the sent me over the edge. It was the most uncomfortable travel experience of my life. But I made it.

It wasn’t until midday on Saturday when I actually appreciated being in Hong Kong. The previous 6 hours were spent looking for a toilet and trying not to pass out. Much props to the girls on the trip that had to put up with me. I was a drag. I probably used the restroom no fewer than 50 times over the weekend. Hong Kong has some pretty nice toilets…I can even flush my toilet paper. Luxury!

One of approximately 400000 stores like this.

 Our first trip was to Victoria Peak. You take a steep rail car up to the top of a mountain that overlooks the city. Naturally there was a shopping mall at the top; they love their shopping in Hong Kong. The views were pretty spectacular even with the haze over the city.

 Next we hurried to the harbor to catch a ferry to ride around the city and watch the symphony of lights (A bunch of huge buildings light up to music). Millions of people have done this so I am not going to tell you about the symphony of lights…it was pretty boring to be honest. The fun story all started when I decided to use the restroom aboard the boat. The show was still going on so I thought I still had time to take care of business and return to the deck before we docked. That wasn’t the case. About halfway thru my…ummmm…poop, I heard them say “thank you for watching the symphony of lights, please come back again”. Then I felt the side jets pushing us towards the dock. At this moment I had a decision to make. 1. Finish pooping and risk being left on the boat for another hour ride and lose my friends. Or 2, Get off the boat and for sure poop my pants. Not an easy decision. I decided to continue pooping. As I finished and ran to the top dock there were my friends telling the workers that I was still on the boat and they couldn’t leave yet. So they saved me and I made it off.

  

We then went back to the hostel which was very nice, other than the guy who stayed in our room with us. Jerk!

  

The next morning I went to Stanley, which is a little market town on the ocean very near to the city. It was nice, but not a lot for a guy who doesn’t like to shop.

Street-side fruit stands like this are one of my favorite things about Asia. They are everywhere.

Our final trip was to the gondolas. They were glass bottomed and went over the river/ocean and up into the mountains. At the top was another shopping area and then a walk to an enormous Buddha statue. It was pretty cool how big this thing was. Also the setting was pretty spectacular. Mountains and ocean all around us with clean, crisp air.

People hand fishing in the river. Not sure for what

Hong Kong's airport is HUGE

That brings me to my next point. When I pictured Hong Kong in my mind I thought of a never ending dirty city. Boy was I wrong. The city is nestled between mountains and the ocean. The air quality in the city was way better than in Taiwan. Where ever you looked you could see green…pretty awesome for such a huge city. Also, there was basically no trash on the ground. But what surprised me the most was the amount of people who spoke English. I would guess 90% of people speak English. There are more English signs than Chinese signs. Sometimes I forgot I wasn’t in America.

Im not going to put Hong Kong on the absolute must-see list. (Unless you like to shop) But if you ever get a chance to visit, take it!  

A lovely week here in Asia

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Trying to slim down?
Can't wait to get rid of those love handles?
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Side effects that may occur;
-violent and explosive sessions on the toilet.
-upset stomach
-head ache
-sweating
-dizziness
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-malnutrition
-embarrassment
-awkward conversations with your female coworkers.
-and an overall lack of desire to live.

This ad brought to you by Taiwan egg farmers.

Toilet Paper sold separately



I will post about my trip to Hong Kong next Sunday when I feel better. If you didn't get it from my infomercial, I have Salmonella Poisoning. Probably from some bad eggs I ate. At least I think that is what I have, Im going to the hospital in about an hour to get checked out.

Hsinchu County

Today is double 10 day. It is also Taiwan's 101st birthday. So we all got the day off of school and took advantage of the free time by taking a trip to the mountains. We went with a few students and their parents.

First we went to a persimmons orchard. The amount of people with expensive cameras impressed me more than the persimmons. Apparently they found it much more inspiring than I did. The workers at the orchard were very excited to have foreigners there. And yes, people were quick with their cameras. Snapping pics whenever they could.

The next few pics are of persimmons. Scroll fast if bored

 At the orchard we also ate a traditional Hakka meal. (Hakka is a very old culture of Chinese Han people who speak Hakka. Or something like that, idk.) I ate many weird things, including my second experience with chicken feet.

Many traditional Chinese medicines/dishes

Half eaten chicken foot

Everyone thought it was pretty funny that we were wearing rice hats.

KC bbq pit, meet Hakka bbq pit

After that we went to an old city in the mountains to go to a market and make our own Hakka tea. I went inside my first temple. It’s pretty amazing how much detail everything has.

How else are you supposed to carry bananas?

 One man band!

This temple is over 200 years old. There are temples on the island over 400 years old

The detail is amazing

Making traditional Hakka tea...don't worry family, I bought some to send home.

This is the tea, even though it looks like cereal. It is VERY healthy and tastes decent.

I'm headed to Hong Kong this weekend. Probably won't post til Tuesday next week. But I will have a bunch of pictures.

Life as an American in Taiwan.

The list of differences between Taiwan and home is as long as the flight over here. From drinking water to going to the bathroom. The common forms of transportation to the types of trees that grow. Everywhere you look things are different. But even with all of these differences, the ins and outs of everyday life are very similar.

Language

The language barrier was extremely overhyped. I would guess 50% of Taiwanese speak some level of English. The ones who don’t speak English, understand gestures. There have only been 4 or 5 times where the language barrier has caused a real problem. My desire to learn Chinese isn’t as high since I moved here because so many people speak English.

If so many people speak English, does that mean there are a lot of foreigners in Taichung?  NO! Diversity here is basically non existent. Other than the teachers I work with I might see a non-Asian person every 2 or 3 days.

So what is the result of a lot of Taiwanese who speak English and not a lot of foreigners? The result is both fun and annoying. It seems like every Taiwanese who knows a drop of English will practice by talking to us. Sometimes it is pretty fun to talk to random locals on the street. Other times, when you cannot understand anything they say but they keep talking, it sucks.

People

People here are frightened of the sun hitting their skin. In America the tanner the better. Here, the whiter the better. They wear sun screen at all times. They cover up every inch, and I mean EVERY inch when they scoot. It is very silly.

So why do they want to be white? It’s a combination of preventing skin diseases and trying to look white. Taiwanese are obsessed with American culture and being white. People go as far as bleaching their skin to look white.

It seems like most Taiwanese I talk to want to move to America, even though most have never visited. I never understood how powerful Hollywood is until now.

So what does this obsession with America mean for me? It means everyone staring at me basically everywhere I go. It means random strangers asking to be in a picture with me. It means no one ever being rude to me. (A treatment Taiwanese people don’t always apply to each other.) It means I do not always have to pay full price. It means everyone going out of their way to be friendly.

The food

A lot of Taiwanese food is bland. They aren’t a very adventurous group. It is still very good, but not too spicy or sweet or bitter. However that isn’t all Taiwanese food. Any street you walk down you can find many street vendors cooking some crazy foods. I have found the only foods I really do not like are their takes on western foods.

But just like life at home. There are things that are awesome about living in Taiwan, and there are things that aren’t the best. But overall life is pretty easy here.

Im going on a trip this Wednesday so I will post about it sometime before next weekend. I am going to Hong Kong next weekend. I will post about that Monday or Tuesday.

I will also try to remember to take a picture of my scooter sometime this week.

People from all of these countries have read this blog:

USA

Taiwan

Russia

Germany

Poland

France

Italy

Bahrain

Belgium

Malaysia

Canada

UK

Thailand

Austria

Vietnam

China

Korea

Japan

Spain

Scary! Maybe I should start editing and proofreading before I post….nah

Full Moon Festival

I smell BBQ but I’m not at Arrowhead stadium or Bryants. I taste beer but I’m not at Harpos. Fireworks exploding in the air but I’m not at Lake Viking. It’s not Independence Day, so why is everyone celebrating like it is.

Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, that’s why.

To the Taiwanese a full moon symbolizes happiness of family gatherings. So that’s what they do. You cannot find a street in Taiwan that does not have a family gathered around a small grill, drinking beer, and setting off fireworks. All things I am very familiar with, but it doesn’t seem familiar at all. Something about it is just different.

Most days walking around Taichung all you see is overworked people overworking. Parents working several jobs, or jobs with long hours. Going in at 7am and leaving at 8pm isn’t uncommon. The kids have it even worse. School from sun up to well after the sun goes down. When I asked some of my grad students (high school aged) what they liked to do in their free time, they responded that they have no free time. They aren’t lying. After school they go to another school, then to a cram school. After that, hours of homework. On weekends, more school.

(Any politician wondering why America is falling behind on test scores just needs to spend one day in Taiwan. It isn’t because our kids are dumb, or our teachers suck. It’s because we let kids be kids.)

So it is such a refreshing change to see everyone with their families. Smiling. Laughing. Having a good time. It’s a much too rare occurrence here.

But fireworks and grills aren’t the only things burning. Have you ever heard someone say, “I am burning through money”? Well here it has a different meaning. They burn money to keep the ghosts away. Legit. I’m not even making this up. Taiwanese believe in ghosts and are insanely afraid of them. So it only makes sense to burn money in an attempt to keep them away, right?

People also carve pomelo’s during this holiday. Kind of like carving pumpkins on Halloween.

Random things:

-Friday was Teachers day in Taiwan, because it was Confucius’s birthday. So my kids gave me a ton of treats and cards.

-A new teacher took over one of my grad classes, so I got my Friday nights back. YEAH

-Next weekend I am going to a BBQ at the owner of my school’s house. Should be a pretty good time.

-In two weeks I am going to Hong Kong. (Gosh, living in Southeast Asia is so awesome.)

-I ate chicken feet today. Looks super gross, actually tastes good. I probably ate 10-15 of them. Nobody else would try them….Chickens!!  haha It was very gelatinous, and the skin was a crazy texture, but I would recommend them.

I painted this on my scooter helmet....as if people don't stare at me enough already.

-Go MIZZOU! 

Working on the weekend

Twice a year I have to do a storytelling at the cultural center on Saturday morning. Well this was my weekend. So naturally, there was a trip planned to Kenting that I couldn't go on. Kenting is at the southernmost point of Taiwan. Beaches, surfing, swimming, snorkeling ect. It is supposed to be very nice. Every teacher went on the trip except me and the girl I did storytelling with, Amy.


A short story even shorter, my weekend consisted of; riding my scooter, storytelling, eating, sleeping, cleaning, and getting up at 3:30am to watch Mizzou get whooped. Extremely boring. Other than story telling and cussing at the Mizzou game I don't think I even spoke English.

Every week I usually have something to write about....... not this one. Sorry, maybe next Sunday will be more exciting.

Here are videos of me riding my scooter in the mountains, and pictures of a golf course I found. (But it's way to expensive for me to play there)

Holy sand trap

 Sorry it is sideways. It's not easy to scoot and film at the same time.