Last Blog in Taiwan!

As most of you know, we will arrive in the U.S. on evening of January 8. We’re in a little bit of mourning! Our children have expressed that they will miss their friends and their schools, and we will miss our lifestyle in Taipei. I put together a list of what we will miss most in Taipei and what we are looking forward to in the U.S.!

What We Will Miss
• Living together as a family—this, of course, has been the most precious aspect of our time here. I’m NOT looking forward to being a single parent during the week again! Seriously, my life dramatically improved in Taipei simply because John helped me in the mornings and evenings! I’ve been spoiled by this lifestyle and I hope I will be able to cope with being a single parent during the week again—I don’t even want to THINK about it!!
• Public transportation
• The people—everyone, even the taxi drivers are VERY friendly! We’ll never encounter taxi drivers or ANYONE this friendly EVER again!
• The students—very serious, honest, seem to have much integrity
• Being able to get a bottle of wine or produce 5 seconds away from our apartment
• The way they do trash/recycle pick-up—VERY convenient
• Chinese egg plant
• Hot Pot Buffets
• Milk tea
• Our favorite dumpling restaurant
• Our flexible schedules—in Taipei, professors are NOT expected to be at school every day. The mentality is that if you’re at school, then you’re not doing your research.
• The conspicuous absence of departmental politics from our lives
• Prices—food, public transportation, clothes—very reasonably priced
• National health care; Wanfang Hospital—again, very good health care, very reasonably priced

What We’re Looking Forward to in the U.S.
• Friends, socializing with colleagues
• Having heat! They don’t use any heat here—we’re constantly freezing inside houses/buildings!
• Weather in SC—In Taipei, it’s too hot and humid in the summer months, and damp in the winter months
• Our houses
• For John, the saxophone ensemble; for me, my piano students
• Tivo
• American TV programming, especially on HBO and Showtime
• ESPN in English
• American football

We also squeezed in a few activities before leaving. We made a trip to Maokong, an area in the mountains where one can experience the tea culture. Usually there is a sky cable car (Maokong Gondola) to take people to Maokong, but because of the typhoons, the cable cars were damaged, so this service has been temporarily suspended. We actually live VERY near Maokong and were waiting for the gondola service to resume, but it is still NOT up and running! So we decided to take a bus, which was a BEAUTIFUL ride. We walked around a bit and went to a tea house—we were the only ones there! And since there is NO HEAT in ANY buildings here, we wore our coats inside! Usually people go to Maokong at night for the views! The tea house had a little pond with big gold fish in it, and in order to get to the areas where you could drink tea, you had to cross a rock bridge. The children LOVED it!

There also was a spectacular fireworks show at Taipei 101 on New Year's Eve. We did NOT attempt to go to this show--from what I hear, it's WAY too crowded! However, if you're interested, this show is up on youtube--here's the link: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=8gyLZCcspXI

Cheryl, the American who invited us over for Thanksgiving, had an egg nog party! Most of the guests were American women--I was the only Chinese-looking woman there! All the women were expatriates married to Taiwanese men! John managed to have a nice time, even when the talk got a little girlie! The only other men who were there was Cheryl's husband and her husband's son from a previous marriage, and they did not speak English!

As I mentioned earlier, we took Lauren and Luke to the Children’s Gallery at National Palace Museum. Unfortunately photo-taking was not allowed, so I provided a picture of us outside the gallery. I think the children were a little young to truly appreciate the gallery, but it had many hands-on activities that they enjoyed. Over the week-end we treated ourselves to an overnight stay at the Ambassador Hotel in Kaohsiung, the second-largest city in Taiwan. Kaohsiung is a port city on the coast and is currently a tourist attraction. Many people stroll along the Love River which used to be very dirty, but over the past 5 years it has been cleaned up and is now quite beautiful. We walked along the river, took a boat ride, and spent the evening at a night market. The night market had an arcade the kids enjoyed and tons of snack foods. I treated myself to a chair massage--$100 NT ($3 USD) for 10 minutes!

When we returned from Kaohsiung, John and I attended a concert at the National Concert Hall. Being musicians, we absolutely had to check out the big concert hall in Taipei before we left! Leonard Slatkin conducted the National Symphony Orchestra of Taipei in a concert featuring Haydn, Hindemith, and Richard Strauss. I LOVE Leonard Slatkin—he used to be the conductor of the St. Louis Symphony and I grew up watching him conduct!

We also squeezed a couple of meals/get-togethers. We had lunch with a former Taiwan Fulbrighter named Prudence, a professor at National Chengchi University, and dinner with Shirly (John's teaching assistant) her family, and Greg. We also met for a short while with Violet's (my sister-in-law) mother. I still did not fulfill my social obligations, however! There were SO many people I wanted to lunch with or get together with, but there just wasn't enough time!!

We HAVE to come back to Taiwan!! There was SO MUCH we didn’t see! I’m SO disappointed we didn’t get to Hualien. We also didn’t do any international travel—I would have LOVED to have visited Thailand or Singapore! SERIOUSLY, we really needed a year here—one semester is definitely TOO SHORT!!

See you in the U.S.!!

Trying to Celebrate the Holiday Season!

I ABSOLUTELY HAD to provide a picture of a cello teacher’s schedule on her office door at Chinese Culture University. As you can see--make sure you click on it so you can see it enlarged--for one of the students she put “fat girl” above her name in one of the slots!! See, I TOLD YOU—Chinese/Taiwanese are VERY open about that sort of thing! I COULD NOT believe that was on the outside of a door! You could probably get FIRED for this in the U.S.!!

On Christmas day, Lauren and Luke did half-days at school and then we picked them up, hoping to take them to the zoo. BUT the weather did not cooperate—much too windy, rainy, and cold! We just took it easy at home and went out to dinner at a new restaurant in our neighborhood, a buffet hot pot place called Shabu Sen. Over the week-end we went back to Hsinchu and stayed over at Auntie Yin’s house-- she cooked some great meals for us! So I guess she provided us our “holiday” meals!

Auntie Yin is quite an incredible person. She’s a long-time family friend and her biggest joy in life is helping others. She’s very strong-willed and is not afraid to do whatever it takes to help people—she’s not shy AT ALL and she’s VERY enthusiastic! When my brother, Ken, was 3, he had a life-threatening kidney infection, and Auntie Yin was extremely instrumental in helping my mom find the best doctor for him—she actually helped my mom save Ken’s life. Since she’s always going out of her way to do things for other people, she has friends everywhere and people always want to do things for her. For instance, when I mentioned that we were interested in visiting Hualien, she immediately got on the phone to call someone she knew who ran a hotel there! Her land-line and cell phones are constantly ringing and there’s a steady stream of people coming into her house—there was a full table for all the meals she cooked for us. Seriously, her house is bursting with life! While we were in Hsinchu, Auntie Yin’s neighbors, a young couple, Jessica and ??? (forgot his name—it’s Chinese!), took us to Judung, a town about 20 minutes from Hsinchu. Judung has a cool outdoor market area and we ate a wonderful local restaurant. We also visited the temple there—so far, unfortunately, we have not seen any temples, so we were really glad to finally get to one. Jessica and ??? are very nice and they seem to represent the new generation of two-career couples who do not want children. I’ve talked to more people about this and what I had written in an earlier blog was correct--it appears that women here are simply more realistic and just know that it’s simply too much work and stress to have a thriving career and a child. Many women have worked very hard to get high-positioned jobs and they simply don’t want to make the sacrifice. In addition, these young couples have become accustomed to a certain standard of living and they’re very fearful of the expenses of raising a child—they know they would have to make financial sacrifices as well. Unlike Americans, Taiwanese/Chinese people are extremely uncomfortable with any kind of debt. Now, the issue I’m wondering about is…what are the reactions of these young couples’ PARENTS? Any Chinese/Taiwanese people reading this will COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND what I’m talking about!! Chinese parents do NOT HESITATE AT ALL in asking questions like, “Why aren’t you married yet?” or “When are you going to give me a nice son-in-law?” (an ACTUAL question MY mom asked ME) or “When are you going to give me some grandchildren?” (ANOTHER question my mom posed to me!) So I’m POSITIVE these young couples are getting HARRASSED by their parents on a DAILY BASIS! So that will be my next charge—to find out how parents of these young couples are dealing with this!

We also took some pictures on the National Chiao Tung University campus in Hsinchu, one of the best universities in Taiwan. The university has a scenic pond area and John did a morning run there!

Since it’s a Christian school, Luke’s school had a Christmas program. Let’s just say this…..organization and efficient use of time was NOT a priority!! For example—even though the first group’s song was only 3 minutes and started at 7, the second group didn’t get going until 7:20!! But all the kids were really cute and Luke did OK. During Luke’s presentation, 2 of the children were crying on stage during the entire performance—totally hilarious! And for one of the songs, Luke happened to be next to Fu-Fu, a boy he sometimes fights with, so I was a little worried about that! In one incident at school, Fu-Fu pushed Luke and then Luke retaliated by BITING him on the FACE! Fu-Fu still had a mark on his cheek for the performance! According to Luke, Fu-Fu hits all the kids and is sometimes mean to everyone—I guess he’s kind of the class bully. BUT STILL—I was thoroughly humiliated by Luke’s actions! I had to run out to the store and put together an "apology" goodie bag for Fu-Fu—seriously, I was afraid Luke was going to get kicked out of the school or something!

I REALLY had an interesting experience reviewing Fulbright applications. We looked at over 35 applications and many of them were EXTREMELY impressive. We split up into 2 groups—John and I were in the more humanities-oriented group, and the other group consisted of the more business-type applications. It was VERY fascinating being on the other side of the fence. After reviewing applications, both John and I agreed that it REALLY helps to have a letter of invitation from an institution. John and I were able to secure letters of invitation when we applied for Fulbrights, but we were told it didn’t really matter. Well, right now I think it helps make a stronger case for your application. One impressive applicant, a neuroscientist, had THREE letters of invitation, and one was from Harvard. I don’t remember the other schools he had, but they were also excellent. I was lucky enough to even get ONE letter of invitation! Another interesting project was a proposal to do a bibliography on rare Chinese books at the University of Chicago—I REALLY liked that project. John and I were also impressed with a Chinese art history project--it was some kind of comparative study between 2 different Chinese bronze techniques. That particular proposal was extremely well-written, focused, and specific.

For MONTHS we’ve been dying to visit the National Palace Museum! We were actually planning to go RIGHT around the time Lauren got sick, and of course, we had to postpone our intended visit. The National Palace Museum has a permanent collection of over 650,000 ancient Chinese artifacts and artworks—it’s one of the most famous museums in the world. When I was in Taipei over 20 years ago, our hotel happened to be down the street from the National Palace Museum, so I went there almost every day! John and I were so excited that we FINALLY had the opportunity to visit this museum! During our visit, we found out there was a children’s wing, so we’re thinking of taking Luke and Lauren there on New Year’s Day! Provost Dori Helms wanted us to take some pictures in Taiwan with the Clemson flag--so here's one of us at the National Palace Museum!

One of the Fulbrighters, Amy, invited us to a karaoke party in her apartment building. I had never been to a karaoke party, so naturally we accepted. John, however, was a little afraid to go because he would prefer DEATH over singing karaoke! But Amy said it was definitely fine to just be an observer, so John was relieved to know that he wasn’t going to be pressured into it. Karaoke is HUGELY, HUGELY popular in Taiwan—it’s one of the most prevalent forms of entertainment. Karaoke bars are extremely common here, and most of the time, a group of people will get a special room at a bar and have their own little parties. The Chinese/Taiwanese culture is a dichotomy—generally, they are very modest and do not like to draw attention to themselves, but they’re COMPLETELY at ease doing karaoke! Go figure! I’m not sure why, but karaoke has not caught on nearly as much in the U.S. The Asians LOVE IT!! Anyway, Vivian, one of the assistants at the Fulbright office, got me to do a song with her! Yes, yes, I’m sure I looked and sounded quite foolish! It was actually a lot of fun, and the thing is, everyone is too drunk to really notice if you sound bad! I think that’s the point!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Next up…an eggnog party……visiting Kaohsiung…….

Happy Holidays!

Although the malls, some restaurants, and shopping areas in Taipei have Christmas decorations, Christmas is not really considered a big deal here. I think, and this is similar to the U.S., they try to use Christmas to sell stuff! However, public schools are open on Christmas day—yes, Lauren will go to school on Christmas—and it’s pretty much just another day! Although New Year’s Eve is celebrated in the Taipei 101 area with fireworks, Jan. 1 also is not such a big deal. John and I are going to be teaching straight until Jan. 6, the day before we leave for the U.S.—we will not be out of school at all. The BIG event here is Chinese New Year, which happens around Jan. 25—THAT is when everyone is out of school, and I believe it’s a 3-week break. I’m VERY bummed—I’m missing the holiday season in the U.S., AND I will miss Chinese New Year in Taiwan! I REALLY, REALLY wanted to experience Chinese New Year here! We’re SO disappointed!!

John got another big chunk off his plate—his band concert is over! John was VERY busy for this particular concert—we joked that Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA) was getting its money’s worth out of him! For the concert, the regular band music director, Chan, conducted the first half. John played a saxophone concerto with band, Chan conducted. John conducted the second half! Seriously, I could have never done what he did—I would have COMPLETELY focused all my energies into the concerto and would have NOTHING left for anything else! But everything went very well, and the students were very appreciative. And things are absolutely NOT winding down for us right now—John still has to teach at TNUA and NCCU, I’m still at Chinese Culture University, we have to prepare to leave AND get ready to teach in our universities in the U.S.! PLUS, we want to squeeze in as many activities as we can!

On the day of John’s band concert, John had to leave quite early in the morning. I left later with the children. So….for the first time, I took Lauren AND Luke ALONE on the bus and the subway. Whenever we’ve taken public transportation with the children, up until now, it’s been the four of us. It is MUCH MUCH MORE difficult taking public transportation ALONE with two CRAZY kids!! It’s totally like herding CATS! On top of all this, our subway line, the Muzha line, is currently closed for repairs on the week-ends. In order to get to John’s school, which is less than a 90-minute commute, we normally take the Muzha line, switch trains, take the Bannan line to Taipei Main Station, switch trains there, and take the Danshui line to John’s school. Since the Muzha line was closed, we were advised to take a bus straight to Taipei Main Station and catch the Danshui line from there. Since I knew the bus is slower than the subway, I left an extra hour—so basically I allowed 2 and a half hours to get to John’s concert. We STILL BARELY MADE IT ON TIME!! I couldn’t BELIEVE what a pain it was! The bus to Taipei Main Station was SUPER crowded—we were so lucky that people gave up seats for us! AND THEN the bus stop outside of Taipei Main Station seemed like a MILE away!! It was AWFUL dragging lollygagging kids—I held hands with both of them the whole time--through all the massively crowded sidewalks and streets to get to Taipei Main Station! If I had KNOWN the subway was THAT far from the bus stop, I would have sought other options—we really LOST a LOT of time because of the distance. Usually the bus stops are right outside the subway stations! AND THEN Taipei Main Station was extremely crowded! While we were fighting our way through the crowds, a woman’s purse HIT LAUREN in the EYE!! TOTALLY freaked me out, and of course Lauren started crying, so I knew it was bad because she rarely cries! I covered the other eye asked her immediately if she could see out of that eye, and she could, but she complained that it still hurt. BUT THEN a person who worked at the subway station came over to us IMMEDIATELY and asked if she could help! She was SO NICE and insisted that we come with her to the office and get some help for Lauren. I was pretty blown away by that—this would NEVER happen in the U.S.—people in the U.S. totally ignore you when something bad happens to you! (Didn’t a person just get trampled to death at a Wal-Mart in the U.S., and people STILL SHOPPED and just stepped over the body??) SO anyway, someone looked at Lauren’s eye and flushed it out with some water. Lauren immediately felt better and said her eye didn’t hurt anymore. I was VERY relieved and appreciative!!

During the concert, Lauren and Luke were well-behaved, but it was still a little nerve-racking for me because Luke was OBVIOUSLY restless! I had promised the children I would give them chocolate if they were “good” during the concert, and throughout the concert, Luke kept asking if it was over and if he could have his chocolate! So I could not relax. By the end of this entire adventure, my stomach was in a billion knots! I knew John had his stress to deal with, so I didn’t complain to him at all—but man, was I happy to have a glass of wine that evening!

After the concert, John’s band students made the HUGEST fuss over Lauren and Luke! They played with them, kept saying over and over how cute they were, how pretty Lauren is, and what large eyes they have! Even the male students played enthusiastically with Lauren and Luke. This truly demonstrates a large cultural difference between Chinese/Taiwanese people and Americans. When Taiwanese/Chinese people think your children are attractive, they REALLY lavish SO MUCH attention on them and COMPLETELY go OVERBOARD. The DOWNSIDE of this, however, is that Taiwanese/Chinese people don’t say ANYTHING if they think your child is “normal-looking.” We’re REALLY fortunate in that people think BOTH Lauren and Luke are cute. In the case of 2 siblings and only ONE of the siblings is considered “attractive,” I’ve seen MANY instances in which Chinese/Taiwanese people will LAVISH attention on the “attractive” sibling and COMPLETELY IGNORE the other. I think this can be very heart-breaking and emotionally damaging for the left-out child! How would you explain these incidents to the left-out child? So I greatly appreciate the attention, but on the other hand, I’m relieved that BOTH get the same consideration.

The video is one of John’s rehearsals. Unfortunately, the video of John’s concert is unusable. I apologize for my camera work—I was trying to be artsy, but instead it’s ANNOYING!

This past week-end we took the children to a Hello Kitty restaurant, a place known for its sweets. Hello Kitty is IMMENSELY popular here, and Lauren LOVES Hello Kitty! The restaurant is EXTREMELY girlie—it’s all pink with Hello Kitties everywhere, and Lauren said she felt like a princess in a castle! It’s also WAY overpriced—although the desserts are tasty, you’re pretty much paying for the experience and the atmosphere. I’m glad that Luke was too young to realize just how girlie the place is—I’m sure if he were older, he would have felt like a fruitcake there or would have REFUSED to go! Even John mentioned that the men’s room was pretty fru-fru—it’s totally in pastels and the Hello Kitty emblem is on the paper towel holder! But there were several young couples at the restaurant—I think many guys take their girlfriends there as a sweet gesture (ha, ha)!

Teacher Linda, her son, K.C., and her family took our family and Greg to Xindian, an area just outside Taipei, but only about 30 minutes from where we live. We ate at a WONDERFUL Japanese restaurant and afterwards, we took a walk on the riverwalk by the Xindian subway station. This area is very beautiful—it reminded me of the riverwalk in Savannah. There was also a suspended walking bridge, and this reminded me of the bridge in Greenville, SC. The children were pleased with all the Christmas decorations, so it was quite a picturesque night scene!

We want to wish everyone a HAPPY, HAPPY HOLIDAY!!

Next up…reviewing Fulbright applications, Luke’s Christmas program, trying to celebrate Christmas in Taiwan.....