Linda Li-Bleuel's Blog

Last Blog in Taiwan!

2009-01-05T00:39:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-30T21:14:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-23T18:21:00.000-08:00

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.....

Less than a Month to Go......

2008-12-17T17:00:00.000-08:00

As each day passes, John and I get a little sadder! We keep thinking about all the things we’re going to miss in this under-rated island country! Really, one semester simply isn't enough time! We really should have tried to stay the whole year! I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before, but EVERYONE is VERY pleasant and helpful! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to depend on the kindness of strangers. This experience has made me much more aware of how foreigners must feel in the U.S.! I think I’m usually helpful to people in the U.S. who ask me for directions, but now I will make a special effort to make foreigners in the U.S. feel more welcome! And again, I have to mention Wanfang Hospital! I would take this hospital home with me, if I could! We’ve been bringing Luke and Lauren there for follow-ups, and AGAIN, I have to emphasize how AWESOME the care is there! I realize that the U.S. boasts the best medical schools and doctors in the world, but seriously, MANY things are done SO MUCH BETTER here, at least at Wanfang Hospital. They simply expedite everything much more efficiently and the hospital is extremely convenient. The doctors are very nice and SUPER-SHARP, and so far, generally appear to be less arrogant than doctors in the U.S. (OF COURSE, my brother is NOT one of the arrogant ones!) And the COST is simply SO MUCH less expensive than the U.S. Even though Luke and Lauren don’t have insurance here, it’s still INFINITELY cheaper than the U.S. WITH insurance. I’m REALLY sold on the national health care system they have here. This country has proven to me that it IS POSSIBLE to provide high-quality, service-oriented care for EVERYONE at a REASONABLE cost. And, Wanfang Hospital has dentists, opthamologists, family doctors, and gynecologists. They even have a Chinese medicine department. You can pretty much get all your medical care there, which is what we did—when we took Luke for one of his follow-ups, we were able to schedule a dental appointment for him as well. That SAME DAY. Right after his ear-infection follow-up, Luke saw a female dentist who spoke excellent English, and she was GREAT with Luke. She went through all the dental instruments with him, pretended they were all special toys, had Luke play with them and feel what they would do on his arm—VERY kid-friendly. And she even got him in the dental chair told him it was like a special elevator. Luke did EXTREMELY well and best of all—he had no cavities! The 2 follow-up visits for Lauren and Luke, dental appointment for Luke, and medicine ALL together cost less than $30 USD!! If they had health insurance, I’m sure it would have cost less than $10 USD.

John is going to take advantage of Wanfang hospital while he can—he’s already scheduled an appointment with an opthamologist and plans to make an appointment with a dentist!

While we were at Wanfang Hospital for the follow-ups, a couple of women came up to us and asked if we minded being in a video promoting the hospital! They wanted to feature foreign visitors! In return, they would get Lauren and Luke’s appointments pushed up. So naturally we said yes! I wanted to take pictures of this event, but the video camera was on, and I didn’t want to screw up the video with camera flashes! Of course, they adored Lauren and Luke and kept commenting on how cute they were (another thing I will miss—people here are VERY demonstrative when they think your kids are cute—we’ve all been spoiled by this). The manner in which we were asked to participate in this video was actually quite funny. A pretty woman came up to me and began speaking to me in Chinese. I totally didn’t understand her and was unable to come up with anything to say back to her. You see, many times when I don’t understand someone at first, I kind of BS my way through the conversation! I’ll say something back in Chinese that I know has NOTHING TO DO with what they said, and then they’ll look at me funny, and reword what they just said. Many times I’ll understand them after they reword what they said. But THIS TIME, I was at a loss—I couldn’t come up with any such sentence! So the pretty woman asked me, “You can’t speak Chinese?” And I said, “Not very well!” And then she just ran out of the room! I was thinking, wow, I hope I didn’t offend her by not speaking Chinese well enough! But then she came back with someone who could speak English. During this video, an English-speaking doctor conversed with us, and they filmed Lauren getting her follow-up care from Dr. Huang! I wish we could get a copy of the video!

In Taiwan it’s quite common for people to wear surgical-type masks! As I mentioned before, Taiwanese are very fearful of the cold and GERMS, so many people wear masks, especially in the hospital. All the health care workers wear them. It’s also quite common for bus and motor scooter drivers to don them. So I had to get a picture of Lauren and Luke wearing masks—they wore them for their follow-up visits!

John teaches a music appreciation class at National Chengchi University (NCCU) and he wanted to do a live performance for the class. Since NCCU does not have a music major, they didn’t have a classroom with a piano, so he held that particular class at a local high school. This local high school is in a beautiful neighborhood surrounded by mountains, so it had great views. Anyway, Greg (the doctoral student who’s helping us, Shirly (John’s teaching assistant), and Teacher Linda came with us. John and I performed a few pieces together, and I did a couple of piano solos. Afterwards, Teacher Linda took all of us to a Western restaurant on the NCCU campus, and the food was actually quite good! I provided a picture of us and don’t forget to check out the video of John and me performing—really, it’s John’s show in this instance! Unfortunately the space ran out at the end! John was also asked to coach some student music groups at NCCU. Even though NCCU does not have a music major, the students have their own music performing clubs—they are completely student-run. EVERY department has its own choir—there are 32 choirs—and they were all preparing for a campus-wide singing competition. So John helped the Department of Education choir! He was greatly impressed with the students’ drive and their obvious commitment to their extra-curricular activities. One time on a Friday night, he encountered 6 trumpet students rehearsing ensemble music! Another time he heard a trombone player practicing Mahler Symphony #3 excerpts! All at a school with NO music major! And he’s found that the students at NCCU are VERY knowledgeable about classical music—they’ve initiated discussions on the composer, Lutoslawski with him, and one student even said to him, “Oh, when I was 13, my teacher thought I was crazy that I liked Schoenberg so much!” (Many undergraduate music majors in the U.S. have barely heard of Schoenberg and Lutoslawski, and the people who have heard of them, don’t usually appreciate them). John has also noticed that there is significant student camaraderie within the departments. For instance, the speech department and law school have baseball and soccer teams. The students at NCCU obviously take pride in their music and sports activities, and these activities play an important role in their social lives. This past week-end we were still being cautious with Lauren, but she was going very stir-crazy staying at home—she was dying to get out. Since she loves night markets and hot pot so much, we went back to Gongguan night market since this area has many hot pot restaurants! I had to provide some pics of that as well! Yes, we definitely frequent hot pot buffet restaurants! They’re SO convenient, and we can always find something the kids will eat! And of course, the kids just LOVE the dessert buffet—good for bribing the kids to eat well! Next up….John conducts and performs with the Taipei National University of the Arts band….….John and I are asked to review Fulbright applications (yes, this time I was also asked!)

OUT at last!

2008-12-10T19:31:00.000-08:00

Lauren got out of the hospital last Friday! We were very overjoyed and so happy to have her back with us! She has already had a follow-up, and Dr. Huang is very pleased with her progress. She’s been out of school this week as a precaution and Dr. Huang will see her again on Monday—he believes she should return to school after that appointment. Lauren is still on antibiotics—in fact she’s taking four different medicines four times a day! On top of all this, Luke is recovering from an ear infection! He’s also on four different medicines four times a day! It’s been VERY interesting administering all this medication! I want to emphasize how excellent the care was at Wanfang Hospital! I really thought Dr. Huang and the staff were first-rate and was AMAZED with their efficiency! It was also pretty cool being at a teaching hospital—every time Dr. Huang came by to see Lauren, he’d have a herd of students with him observing, and of course, they COMPLETELY doted on Lauren! She, of course, LOVED the attention! She was almost sorry to leave the hospital!

During our last couple of days at Wanfang Hospital, we were down to 2 patients in our room, but the room is still divided into quads. I naively thought, OK, good, not as many people are here, so we’ll have more privacy and NOT SO MUCH bathroom traffic. WELL, I was TOTALLY wrong! The other patient, a boy who looked to be around 7 or 8, had the LOUDEST FAMILY you could imagine! And, HIS ENTIRE FAMILY LIVED AT THE HOSPITAL with him, in his tiny quad area! His parents, grandparents, and little brother!! This space is BARELY enough room for Lauren and me! I have NO IDEA where they slept! The grandmother was especially VERY loud and BOSSY—Lauren kept asking me if she was MAD about something! And she spoke a dialect I did not understand—I wondered if she was Cantonese, since the Cantonese language can sometimes sound a bit angry. I mean, they used the room like it was a living space—they ALL ate and showered there! The first night they were there, John stayed overnight with Lauren, and he was pretty annoyed with them because they kept him awake! He warned me about them before I had to stay overnight the following night with Lauren. And yes, he was right, the night I was there, ALL of them were there, except the father. So I was thinking, maybe the father had to work at night…and SURE ENOUGH around 2 AM he came bursting into the room, saying something REALLY LOUDLY! I actually found the whole thing VERY amusing—they reminded me of a Taiwanese version of My Big Fat Greek Wedding! When Lauren and I were trying to fall asleep, we were both giggling at them, we found them so funny! I actually found their closeness kind of REFRESHING—you would not commonly see this kind of open closeness happen in the U.S., I don’t think. I hope people don’t mind me saying this, but from an Asian perspective and from a person who grew up in a VERY open Chinese family (we all lay it on the line and everyone knows what each other is thinking—believe me, my parents NEVER hesitated to share their opinions with me)—but American white families can be just a little uptight!! Go ahead and argue with me on this…I don’t mind….(John promised me people would not be offended by this comment!)

Soooo….life goes on. John and I are continuing to teach through all this, and at the same time we’re taking turns watching Lauren since she’s out of school until Dr. Huang gives her the get-go. No huge outings, we’re taking it easy so Lauren and Luke can recover. Lots of takeout, though—I provided pics of our favorite places. One is a picture of a dumpling meal—my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE restaurant. LOVE their fried and steamed dumplings! And the other is a picture of my favorite Thai restaurant! We do much takeout from them, too! I also provided a picture of me doing “percussion” with Lauren—Luke wanted to join in! Don't forget to check out the video at the bottom--this was taken the day after Lauren got out of the hospital! She and Luke are counting in Chinese!

I had the wonderful opportunity to judge a piano concerto competition at Chinese Culture University. This competition was unusual for a few reasons. All of the contestants played the same concerto—in this case it was Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3. In the U.S., most concerto competitions allow everyone to perform whatever they want—they do not all have to play the same work. Another aspect I found that differed from competitions in the U.S. was that the participants performed the concerto in its entirety. When I’ve judged competitions in the U.S., I’ve rarely heard the entire work—we hear part of the piece and skip contestants around. For this particular competition, there were 5 participants, so I heard the Beethoven Piano Concert No. 3 FIVE COMPLETE TIMES! The concerto is approximately 35 minutes long! Needless to say, I don’t think I’ll be listening to this piece for a while—I’m a little Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3ed out! But it was VERY INTERESTING to hear 5 different approaches and interpretations of the piece! We were instructed to rank the 5 performers, 1 being the best, and the person with the lowest score won.

I have to confess, even though everyone played very well and the level was high—I was not “blown away” by any of the performances. I did end up picking the winner—I believe 4 of us chose her to win—but for me, she won by default. She just didn’t do anything totally objectionable, which is why I picked her to win! HARDLY a ringing endorsement! These competitions are so TOUGH—IDEALLY you want to choose someone who is a solid performer, but at the same time is musical, expressive, exciting, and imaginative. The person I REALLY wanted to win, who I thought was by FAR the best pianist technically and musically, just had too many problems in her performance—she really let her nerves get the best of her. It was pretty heartbreaking, actually! And there were others who were more musical than the winner, but they had TECHNICAL issues—bad pedaling, bad sound, messy scales. The person I chose to win was actually boring, but she performed solidly with a good sound and good technique. She just didn’t have much personality! So I was bummed out that my favorite pianist in this event could not pull it off…very disappointing, indeed! But what a nice opportunity for the winner—she gets to perform the concerto with the school orchestra!

I’ve discovered that Taiwan is the OPPOSITE of Wisconsin! In Taiwan it’s hot most of the time, so when the temperature is 65-70 degrees, people consider that ARCTIC weather, so the attire is heavy winter coats and scarves. In Wisconsin, it’s cold most of the time, so when it’s 65-70 degrees, people consider that LAYING OUT weather—people actually don SWIMSUITS, shorts, or flip flops! I’ve mentioned earlier how the Taiwanese are VERY fearful of the cold, and this has come out in full force. It’s DECEMBER now, and it’s around 70+ degrees! I think the weather has been GREAT!!

We have about a month left—I CANNOT believe how quickly time has gone! I’m already sad because I will MISS SO MANY things here! And there is still so much I want to see! I truly wished we could have stayed the entire year! I mean, just when we’re getting used to everything here—we even have a GREAT doctor for the kids—it’s time to leave! But this has caused me to reflect a bit and I’m realizing EVEN MORE that I REALLY DO NOT HAVE ANY IDENTITY!! I mean, I’ve ALWAYS known this, but this experience has made me realize JUST HOW MUCH! You see, in the U.S., even though I was born there, I don’t look “American,” and I’ve had several instances in which people were shocked by my manner of speech—the fact that I DON’T have an accent. So I really do not BELONG to any kind of majority, ESPECIALLY in Clemson, SC! But HERE, I actually LOOK like the majority—I’ve had several instances in which Chinese/Taiwanese people have stopped me to ask for directions, and I have to sheepishly say in Chinese that I’m American and can’t give them good directions—but STILL, I do not belong!! The only way I can feel like I belong to a large collective is to be in a country of ABCs—American-Born-Chinese! Of course I have no solution for this feeling of being a little “lost,” but I do find it fascinating and enjoy contemplating this! Another factor I want to point out…at the risk of pontificating on race issues…is that I’ve seen more couples with Asian men paired with white women here than any other place I’ve been to. In the U.S., it’s a bit more common to see couples like John and me, and it seems that Asian guys in the U.S. tend to be with Asian women—I really don’t see many Asian men with white women there, aside from my brother, Ken, and his wife, Janet! Anyway, I just find that REALLY interesting! I always enjoy making these kinds of observations! OK…ENOUGH of this boring racial stuff….

Next up…our visit to a local high school…..

Wanfang Hospital

2008-12-02T18:44:00.001-08:00

We’ve had QUITE a bit of drama! Lauren contracted pneumonia and is currently at Wanfang Hospital in Taipei! At the beginning of last week, on Monday, we received a call from Lauren’s school in the afternoon informing us that she had a fever. We took her straight to the doctor and he said it looked like she was starting a cold, so he prescribed her antibiotics, acetaminophen, and stuff for cough and cold. Over the next couple of days, I noticed that she didn’t improve much! And she still had a little FEVER! So on Thursday we took her back and the doctor prescribed more medicine. Well, Saturday night was AWFUL—Lauren was coughing SO hard she couldn’t sleep AT ALL, and it was concerning me SO MUCH I had to take her to the ER at Wanfang Hospital the following morning. They did a chest X-ray, and the ER pediatrician told me she had pneumonia and should be admitted immediately, and that she should stay 3-5 days MINIMUM! Of course I totally FREAKED OUT (outwardly I did not, but INWARDLY I SO TOTALLY WAS FREAKING OUT) and proceeded to get her admitted! So HERE WE ARE, hanging out at Wanfang Hospital! She’s been doing better, but she still has quite a wet cough! At least, so far, her fever is gone—we’re keeping our fingers crossed! I’m TRYING SO HARD NOT to go CRAZY with WORRY!

Wanfang Hospital is only a 15-minute bus ride from our apartment, and it is a subway stop, so it’s VERY convenient to get there. It is also a reputable hospital with the most up-to-date cancer treatment, has every department you can imagine (NICU, cosmetic surgery, plastic surgery, overweight department) and is a research and teaching hospital, so I felt confident taking Lauren there. One of the walls in the lobby lists all the groups and people who have visited and observed the hospital—it has had visitors from over 60 countries. The staff has been UNBELIEVEABLY considerate, pleasant, and FAST. When I took Lauren to the ER, she was seen IMMEDIATELY, her X-ray was done promptly, and she was admitted right away—I barely filled out anything. I scarcely had time to call John to tell him what was going on, everything moved so quickly. I also hardly had enough time to prep Lauren for the IV—I had to give her a quick explanation because they were so quick in getting stuff into her! (Uh, let me add—putting in the IV was NOT FUN!) Lauren’s pediatrician at Wanfang Hospital is Dr. Huang, and he happens to be the doctor of Cheryl’s son—Cheryl is the American woman who had us over to her home for Thanksgiving. The doctors all speak English—not extremely well, but well enough to get their explanations across. However, the nurses and staff do not speak English as well, but they are so nice and sweet, that more than makes up for it.

On the minus side, Wanfang Hospital is not as clean as the hospitals I’ve been to in the U.S. It’s NOT dirty by any means, but it’s not in the immaculate condition I’ve been accustomed to. The lobby looks great, but the rooms are just OK. BUT, then, I’ve been lucky—whenever I’ve had to stay in the hospital, the hospital was always brand new, so that has been my only hospital experience. The problem is we are in a quad—right now, three kids to a room separated by curtains--so we’re ALL sharing the same bathroom. The bathroom gets cleaned RARELY, so it’s not in the best condition! I finally had to ASK to have the bathroom cleaned! It LOOKS like there are private rooms that seem to be much nicer, but since the children do not have medical insurance here (however, John and I are fully covered), I had NO idea how much it would cost, so I made the decision to go the cheaper route, especially since she has to be in the hospital for so long. I was also influenced by my medical experiences in the U.S., where I frequently got ZAPPED by unexpected costs, so instinctively I went with the cheapest option! I just found out it will end up costing about $60 a day, and that includes drugs and doctor visits. So, actually, even w/o coverage, it’s CONSIDERABLY less expensive than the U.S. I also JUST found out from Auntie Yin that I can save the receipt and take it back to the U.S. to get reimbursed by my own insurance company (but who knows if my insurance will honor it), which I also did not know when I had to make a quick decision.

Lauren is receiving IV antibiotics and nebulizer treatment 4 times a day, which according to my brother, Ken, a doctor, is standard treatment for pneumonia (it REALLY IS handy having a brother who’s a doctor). We also have to administer “percussion” treatment. After Lauren gets the nebulizer, we have to pat her back on her right and left sides for 15 minutes—we have to do this 4 times a day! Since we’re sharing a room with other kids, it’s actually pretty funny listening to all the back-patting going on! Lauren LOVES the percussion treatment—it really relaxes her and she says it really does make her feel better, so we don’t mind doing it at all!

It’s been interesting to watch the other families in our room. One of the kids looks like he’s about 3 or so, and his grandmother has been the primary caregiver thus far. His father and grandfather come in and out (there doesn’t seem to be a mother in the picture), but the grandmother stays here 24/7 and has been doing virtually everything. Another child looks to be about 7, and he’s had many members of his family visiting, but so far his father has been the constant force.

John and I have been working in shifts and we’re taking turns staying with Lauren at night, and we have not left her alone—we want to be sure she doesn’t accidentally pull the IV out. Luke, of course, doesn’t really understand what Lauren is going through—he just gets ANGRY when I can’t stay with him at home! And of course, he’s had his share of one-liners. In the hospital lobby last night, out of the blue, he VERY LOUDLY blurted, “MOMMY, I’M NOT PLAYING WITH MY WEE-WEE RIGHT NOW, I ONLY PLAY WITH MY WEE-WEE IN BED!!” (We’re teaching him all the names, but apparently he seems to like this one…) I was MORTIFIED….but no one seemed to care because no one understood what he said! In fact, right after he said that, someone walked by and commented on how cute he was!! So here’s an instance in which the language barrier was a distinct advantage…..

Another thing cool about Wanfang Hospital is that it’s centrally located, so it’s walking distance from many stores and restaurants. Starbucks and 7-11 are actually housed in the hospital lobby, which has been SO convenient! We’re giving Lauren a break from Chinese food and we’ve gone TOTALLY Western this week! So we’ve been to Starbucks numerous times—Lauren loves the sandwiches and sweets there—I think we should buy stock in Starbucks we’ve been there so much! Oh—I forgot—Lauren does NOT have to eat the hospital food—it’s OPTIONAL. So we’ve been bringing in our own stuff or going out for meals, which is nice since it gives us an excuse to get out of the room.

I can’t EVEN BEGIN to express how STRESSFUL this has been! I think this has taken 10 years off my life! Lauren was a day care baby, so she’s been sick NUMEROUS times, but she never had to go to the hospital. I CANNOT BELIEVE that the FIRST time she has to stay in a hospital, it HAS TO BE while we’re in Taipei! I would freak if this happened in the U.S., but the fact that we’re in a situation that’s SO unfamiliar, where we’re far from our regular doctor and navigating the language barrier, well, that has added an ENTIRELY NEW dimension to this already nerve-racking experience! I’m trying VERY hard to hold it together, and John has been amazingly calm. Lauren has been a total angel! I frequently take her around the hospital in a kiddie wheelchair, and every time we go out, people comment on how cute or pretty she is! They all ask me if she has an American father because of her features. BUT, because she’s so small, some people have actually asked me if she’s 3 years old (she’s SIX)! It’s been SO DIFFICULT for me to watch her go through everything! I would give ANYTHING for this to be happening to ME instead of Lauren! I SO HOPE she recovers quickly—I’m STILL VERY worried and FULL of anxiety!

The pictures are mostly of Wanfang hospital--the one of Luke alone is at the Starbucks. I apologize--one of the pictures is up twice, but the connection at the hospital lobby is so slow, I didn't want to deal with it again and edit this....

Next up….HOPEFULLY good news about Lauren….I’m keeping my fingers crossed…..

Conduct Unbecoming

2008-11-23T02:59:00.000-08:00

The challenge of conducting a student large ensemble is to convince everyone to buy into YOUR analysis of a work. The conductor does not simply keep time--essentially, he/she is trying to get about 65 people to execute HIS/HER vision, HIS/HER sound concept, and HIS/HER interpretation of a piece. There’s NO democracy in this situation—the conductor MUST have final say, and there is no room for debate. This is challenging because in most of these conditions, everyone is coming from a different place—some students prefer certain styles of conducting, some students despise anything that is not familiar, some students have specific repertoire preferences, and some students are simply just jerks! The challenge is to get everyone on the same page and to buy into what you’re trying to achieve. In order for a conductor to be successful, there can be NO distractions and the environment must be disciplined with high expectations.

SOOO, I mentioned earlier that John was having some difficulty with the trumpet players? Well, after the last rehearsal, he came home and had a Cheshire cat grin on his face. I asked him what had happened. He said with a bit of glee, “I had to get a little dark with one of the trumpet players!” Apparently, John had taken matters in his own hands! Here is the exchange:

Prologue: Trumpet player, laughing and talking, missed instructions on how to phrase a particular passage.

JOHN (stepping down from podium, locking eyes with player): Dude, I TRIED to be a nice guest, but I’m about THIS FAR from blowing my stack, and that’s NOT SOMETHING YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE!

TRUMPET PLAYER: No response, but was too scared to even take the horn out of his mouth. EVERYONE was scared….

JOHN (to ensemble): You’re all performance majors, RIGHT? (Everyone nodded) Then WHY do some of you INSIST on doing things in rehearsal that would get you FIRED IMMEDIATELY from ANY PROFESSIONAL JOB????

After this exchange, you could hear a pin drop! Rehearsal was very productive after this incident.

Later, at the break….

JOHN (to trumpet player): So you want to be a professional trumpet player, right?
TRUMPET PLAYER: Yes!
JOHN: Well, at the rate you’re going, you’ll be LUCKY to be working at the GAS STATION out at the ENTRANCE TO THE UNIVERSITY! OR, maybe the ASSISTANT MANAGER of the SEVEN-ELEVEN!!

After this exchange, there were no more problems with the trumpet players!!

My piano master class went WELL, but there were a few challenges. The biggest one was that the students barely understood English, and I didn’t have a translator! Music is difficult to discuss in your own language, and to try to convey some of the complex concepts I had in mind, well, it was definitely daunting! The other main issue was the repertoire. The repertoire was PERFECT for a LESSON situation, but not conducive for a master class situation—a master class is basically a public lesson. In a public lesson situation, you hope for repertoire that is more “entertaining;” literature that is satisfying for the master teacher, the performing student, AND audience. In this particular situation, the repertoire was more appropriate for a private lesson, so I felt I could not be as engaging as I would like. But all in all I greatly enjoyed the students and this was a marvelous opportunity!

John and I recently performed a recital at Taipei National University of the Arts, and this was a WONDERFUL experience! The hall had fantastic acoustics, and I got to perform on one of the best pianos I’ve ever encountered! The piano was a phenomenal Steinway that was PERFECTLY voiced—it had such an amazing tone—really, it was such a treat for me! We also had an enthusiastic crowd—we even performed an encore, which was a first for us! The most moving factor about this experience was the support of the fellow Fulbrighters—SO MANY of them came to the recital, and they came from all over Taipei—some even came from Yilan, which is an hour away. Many Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (these are people who graduated from college last year) were present, and they came all the way from Yilan as well! I can’t tell you how much we GREATLY appreciated this—my OWN STUDENTS at Clemson University are not this supportive!

We have already celebrated TWO Thanksgivings! The first one was a reception hosted by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT), and this gathering was VERY high class—MUCH too nice for our kids! The attire was business casual, so I wore khakis, nice shoes, and a nice sweater. Well, apparently, their idea of business casual was MUCH DRESSIER—most of the AIT people were wearing suits with ties, and the women were wearing elegant dresses! The AIT facility was STUNNING, and we all had a very nice time—the kids really enjoyed themselves. We also attended a Thanksgiving gathering at the home of one of Lauren’s schoolmates, Ben. Ben’s mother, Cheryl, is American, and she is married to a Taiwanese person. In fact, the entire make-up of the crowd was quite diverse—Constance, an American, has a Cantonese husband, and Roma is from India. I enjoyed asking questions about the culture and changes here since almost everyone at this gathering had lived in Taiwan for close to 20 years. I was VERY impressed with their Chinese language fluency—puts me to SHAME!

In the pictures—our family with another Asian Fulbright family at the AIT reception; Lauren, Luke, and a daughter of a Fulbrighter at the AIT reception; Lauren and Luke playing with some Fulbright ETA’s at the AIT reception; John on the campus of Taipei National University of the Arts; John in rehearsal at the beautiful hall at Taipei National University of the Arts; John and some students after the recital; our family after the recital; Luke, Lauren, and Ben (Lauren’s schoolmate) at Cheryl’s house for Thanksgiving; friends at Cheryl’s house.

Up next….adjudicating the piano concerto competition at Chinese Culture University, visit to Maokong Tea Plantation…..

Coiffing, Climbing and Free Beer

2008-11-16T06:11:00.000-08:00

It’s AMAZING what you can find on the Internet! Even though I emailed several people and asked for hair salon recommendations, I did not get any responses. I decided to do an Internet search and found an English-speaking hair stylist not far from where we live! I found her in a Taiwanese forum discussion on haircuts, and this forum contained her email, website, phone number, and directions to her salon! Pretty awesome! She was definitely on the pricey side--$1000 NTs (ca. $30 USD)—which is the equivalent of what I pay in the U.S., but by Taiwanese standards, MUCH TOO HIGH. I know if I told people here what I paid, they’d be shocked! I think Taiwanese people are used to paying around $200 NTs ($6 USD) for haircuts! But this hairdresser I found, Diane, had many great reviews in this forum discussion and she has had experience cutting hair in the U.S. I decided it would be better to pay a little more and be happy with the results than to pay less and have to wear hats and scarves for the remainder of my stay here (this actually happened to me when I had a terrible cheap haircut—this is why I’m willing to pay a little more for a good haircutter).

Another wonderful feature about Taipei is how CONVENIENT it is to get around. Seriously--I don’t have a car, I don’t speak Chinese very well, I don’t READ Chinese AT ALL, I have the WORST sense of direction, and SOMEHOW I’ve managed to travel fairly easily all over the city—even to other parts of Taiwan! Diane runs her business from her home, and I found it without much difficulty. BUT I did commit a few errors on the way. One happened while I was wandering aimlessly at an intersection looking for her alley. I totally wasn’t paying attention to where I was going and suddenly I backed into something in the middle of the street that was VERY hard—it even hurt my foot! I was thinking, WHAT is this object doing in the middle of the street, and it turns out I had run into a man in a WHEELCHAIR! He looked at me like I was NUTS, and I was MORTIFIED—I apologized profusely! I mean, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!!?? In the MIDDLE OF TAIPEI?? This could only happen to ME!! The other mistake was that I kept buzzing Diane’s apartment and did not get a response. Fortunately I had her phone number and called her, and it turns out it was the WRONG apartment! I was REALLY happy no one was home!

Diane is Taiwanese, speaks English fluently, has a Swedish husband, and he speaks fluent Chinese. She’s lived all over the place—the U.S., Sweden, and Thailand. VERY interesting and creative person! We had fun exchanging stories on being an Asian married to a Westerner. Yes, I realize I’m as Americanized as they come, but I DO have an unfortunate Asian masochistic streak in me—we Asians are INCREDIBLY hard on ourselves and extremely self-critical. As a result, this can cause us to be critical of those who are close to us—another Asian characteristic. We both shared laughs about our husbands’ common responses: “You ALWAYS think I do EVERYTHING wrong!” It has INDEED been a while since I’ve spoken to a fellow Asian woman who’s married to a Westerner! Anyway, the money was well-spent—I really liked the haircut! I’d really like to go back before I return to the U.S., but the problem is that she did such a good job, I may not have to!

The trip to the hairdresser was productive because I also found a couple of stores that sell reasonably-priced kids’ clothes. I have been having a VERY HARD time finding stores that sell kids’ clothes! Most of them are WAY over-priced—I wish there was something like an Old Navy here! Luke is in desperate need for long pants—I should have brought more, but I was thinking I could buy some here since I heard clothes were cheap. Well, apparently this doesn’t apply to children’s clothes! Anyway, I was VERY pleased that I found a couple of stores finally! I also made a stop at the Sogo Department Store because there was this MEGA SALE there, and the Sogo Department Store was so close to Diane’s business. There were extra police at the subway station and at the store because of this sale! This was during the day on a Friday, and it was INSANE! Sogo sells designer brands, and it seemed that prices were cut by around 60%. I only went because I had to experience this—I didn’t buy anything! It was like the Friday after Thanksgiving, only a little more NUTS!

We FINALLY made a trip to Yangmingshan! Yangmingshan is the most famous mountain in Taipei and was the summer residence of Chiang Kai-Shek. Actually, I go twice a week to Yangmingshan since Chinese Culture University is located there. But I still haven’t been to the Yangmingshan National Park, which is where I wanted to take the family. The bus drops us off about a kilometer from the park, and you take a hiking trail to the park. SOOOO, we didn’t actually do as much at the park as we wanted because the kids were pretty tired by the time we walked there! Plus, I didn’t want to tire them out so they could walk BACK to the bus station—I didn’t want to have to carry anyone! But the kids were real troopers and loved running about the hiking trails, and they really enjoyed themselves. Yangmingshan is BEAUTIFUL and a PERFECT place to go if you want to relieve stress. It’s serene, very scenic, and it’s like you’re in an alternative universe from Taipei—also great for hiking. I believe that I made ONE good call on this trip—I did NOT bring a stroller to Taipei, and I think this was the right decision. I really had to ponder that one. My feeling was that Taipei is quite crowded and the sidewalks are unpredictably bumpy and narrow—I thought a stroller would prove to be cumbersome. Luke is at a borderline age—Lauren has NO problem with walking, but I did wonder if Luke could handle it. Well, I think I made the right decision. A stroller on Yangmingshan would have been a pain and I found this to be true in many circumstances. I do see parents with strollers, even people with DOG strollers, but I don’t know how they handle it! And Luke has actually exceeded my expectations—he’s turning out to be a great walker!

We ended up going to the Taipei Main Station food court for dinner. I had to mention this because there were already Christmas trees there!! I did NOT expect this at all—I wasn’t even sure they celebrated Christmas here! So I HAD to take a picture of the kids next to a Christmas tree—how often do we get to see THAT in Taiwan?

We made ANOTHER trip to Carrefour—before any of you say, AGAIN, I MUST write about a couple of things I never had the chance to mention. I pointed out the overstimulation, right? Well, I want to elaborate a bit. When you go there on the week-ends, you can get tons of free samples. The people offering free samples are OBNOXIOUS! Many of them have handless microphones and TALK CONSTANTLY about their products, and they’re all talking simultaneously! Also, you can get free samples of alcohol—the HARD stuff! TODAY when we were there, you could sample WHISKY, SCOTCH, and VODKA!! You can get SERIOUSLY INEBRIATED at the Carrefour! I actually took a sample of Carlsberg BEER! Anyway, one of the pictures is of a skinny Taiwanese girl giving out free samples of alcohol at the Carrefour! Also at the Carrefour—SUSHI EXPRESS, which is where we ate! Sets of 2 Nigiri sushi only cost $1 USD—AWESOME deal! The sushi is ready-made and you grab whatever you want off of a conveyor belt. For the four of us, dinner was $13 USD—a STEAL!! I provided a picture of that as well!

Next up….my piano master class FOR SURE, John’s recital…..

In Pursuit.....

2008-11-10T22:31:00.000-08:00

A big chunk off my plate—I performed my recital at Chinese Culture University! It kind of evolved into a lecture-recital! At first, they told me that I would perform a regular recital. Later, they asked if I could introduce each piece before I performed it. Eventually they asked if I could use Power Point since it would be helpful for those who didn’t know English—they’re REALLY into Power Point here! So I ended up frantically preparing a Power Point presentation! In all my professional experiences in Asia, I have found that everything morphs into something else, and all you can do is go with the flow and see what happens! In a week I will conduct a formal master class with some piano students performing solo piano repertoire. So far my primary teaching duties have centered on chamber music, and the pianists I have been working with have been in the context of chamber music literature, not solo literature. I’m getting the feeling that the pianists need more time with their solo literature and didn’t want to embarrass themselves by playing for me too soon—keep in mind they started school in the middle of September, and it takes at least a couple of months to get a piece ready!

Although the lecture-recital went very well, I usually find speaking and playing problematic. I prefer to do one or the other—perform OR talk, and I’m not too crazy about doing both. When I speak and play, it’s more difficult for me to completely focus on my performance and I’m afraid of getting distracted by talking and running the Power Point! In other words, I have to switch gears quickly, and I’m fearful that my performing will suffer as a result! But I actually had a terrific time—the audience was very responsive and seemed interested in what I had to say, which makes everything much easier! AND John was extremely kind enough to come to my recital and support me, which means I put him to work and had him change the slides for me! That helped IMMENSELY!!

The saxophone teacher at Taipei National University of the Arts, Kenny, arranged for John to give a saxophone master class at Shi Chien University this week. Kenny is extremely friendly and amicable, and has even invited us to his wedding in December! Anyway, Kenny offered to drive John to Shi Chien University and Kenny was lamenting that full-time saxophone jobs in Taipei were non-existent. As a result, he is an adjunct lecturer at 7 different schools—colleges and middle schools. He was also not pleased with the pay as an adjunct lecturer. So John is thinking, “ok, he’s probably going to be driving me in a Ford Escort!” Well, you can imagine John’s surprise when Kenny’s car turns out to be a LEXUS! MAYBE the pay as an adjunct lecturer is not that bad?

As much as John has enjoyed conducting the band at Taipei National University of the Arts, he has found that SOME things are universal—the trumpet players talk too much! AND they give a BIT of attitude! For those of you who are not musicians, brass players, ESPECIALLY TRUMPET PLAYERS, are notoriously obnoxious—I apologize to any brass players out there, but hey—YOU KNOW IT’S TRUE. Musicians jokingly call them “brassholes!” So John has encountered this stereotype in Taipei as well! If this band were HIS band, he would absolutely know how to deal with this—he’d completely annihilate them! John is laid-back about everything--EXCEPT matters concerning music. You don’t MESS WITH JOHN when he’s in the process of preparing repertoire that means a great deal to him—he takes it VERY seriously and is ULTRA committed--more so than I am. SOOOO, when he encounters ANY type of obstacle during the pursuit of his musical goals, it IRKS him—it’s like he takes it PERSONALLY! BUT the problem is that he’s a GUEST—this group is NOT his! So he’s not quite sure how to handle this. He’d love to just throw them out during one rehearsal, just to make a statement! And they’re not really that bad—he just wants to nip this in the bud NOW! In addition, he’s not quite sure what is culturally acceptable! So right now he’s pondering his options…..and trying to find out what IS acceptable….

Auntie Yin delivered my mom from Hsinchu and my mom stayed with us in Taipei from Wednesday until yesterday—she just left for the U.S. My sister-in-law, Violet, was here visiting her family, so we decided we should all get together for dinner. Violet came up with the idea of meeting at Taipei 101, presently the tallest building in the world and perhaps the no. 1 attraction in Taipei. This building is considered one of the Seven New Wonders of the World and Seven Wonders of Engineering, and contains the world’s fastest ascending elevator. Taipei 101 has numerous shops and restaurants, and we dined at a Japanese grill restaurant in the food court. In the picture of the four ladies: me, Violet, her mom, my mom. Afterwards, John, my mom, and the kids went up into the building. We were allowed to explore the 88th, 89th, and 91st floors—the outside observatory was on the 91st. The views were absolutely incredible and the kids had a fantastic time! I tried to get a night shot from the observatory, but it came out a little blurry!

I decided to take advantage of my mom’s visit and assigned her to read through all of Lauren’s papers from school! In the U.S., I was CONSTANTLY OVERWHELMED by the HUGE amount of papers I’d receive from Lauren’s school. Well, as you can imagine, it’s even MORE OVERWHELMING when the papers are ALL IN CHINESE! I also arranged for her to speak with Lauren and Luke’s teachers so I could get a better idea of how things are going. It seems that things are fine, but as expected, Lauren does have issues with the language barrier. Two days a week, a student from the university tutors Lauren individually and helps with her homework. I try to do what I can, but I feel like a loser because I can’t do the homework! So yes, I feel a bit inept! But it seems Lauren is hanging in there with all those over-achieving Taiwanese kids! And the other kids just LOVE her—she’s a especially a hit with the older kids—they all want to play with her!

I also took my mom shopping for DVDs. One of the reasons she was very enthusiastic about visiting here was because she wanted to add to her collection of Korean DVDs. She and her Chinese friends in St. Louis are COMPLETELY addicted to them. My mom has been quoted as saying, “Those DVDs are my LIFE!” We tried a couple of places—an area called Guang Hua Plaza, which is an electronic geek’s paradise! We had a few issues getting there. After asking for directions about 5 times and being directed the wrong way 5 times—at one point, we crossed one particular intersection back and forth around 4 times—we finally found the place! You see, I thought it was just me—whenever I ask for directions, I always get LOST! I just assumed it was my pathetic Chinese. But even my mom, who speaks fluently, had a hard time!! So it’s not ENTIRELY my fault! Well, but then it is my mom and me…very similar to the blind leading the blind—we’re both pretty horrible with directions! Fortunately we found the area, and even though we found some DVDs, Guang Hua Plaza is really a place to buy digital equipment—it doesn’t appear to be a DVD place. But we also ended up finding some DVDs at Carrefour, the Taipei equivalent of Wal-Mart.

We had terrible weather this past week-end—very rainy and windy--so it was a mall week-end! We went back to Taipei 101 and browsed around some more and we also went to another shopping area called the Breeze Center. Both places were WAY out of our price range—mostly designer stuff—but they both had awesome food courts! Really, the food courts in the U.S. CANNOT COMPARE to the ones here! We did break down for the kids one time—they did have Subway one time! But at least I made sure to have something Chinese! AND another time we had hot pot! VERY tasty! One of the pictures is of Luke and Lauren looking exhausted after eating hot pot!

I don’t know when, but I VERY much want to take the family to Yangmingshan, and John and I are DYING to go to the National Palace Museum!

Next up….shopping for kids’ clothes, getting my hair cut, getting ready for John’s recital, my piano master class….MAYBE Yangmingshan???

Weighty Issues

2008-11-03T01:22:00.001-08:00

John and I are having are greatly enjoying our students. We’re discovering teaching chops that we hadn’t used in a long while! For John, conducting the band has been a phenomenal experience. John used to be the assistant director of bands at the University of Milwaukee and gave up band after he became a saxophone professor at University of West Georgia. So working with the wonderful, disciplined, and responsive students in the band at Taipei National University of the Arts has been a fantastic experience, and he’s greatly enjoyed conducting on a regular basis again. At Taipei National University of the Arts, the orchestra, not the band, is actually the top group, but some of the students in the orchestra are asking John if they can also play in his group! One bassoonist actually came up to John and said, “Oh, you such good conductor! I would like to play in your group!” John believes this has been one of the best band conducting experiences he’s ever had. For me, I’m having a BLAST coaching chamber music groups! I’ve never taught in a department that had such an active chamber music program and I’m LOVING it. Just this past week, I was wondering if the students were benefitting at all from my work there, and then the other day, two groups sought me out and requested that I listen to them and give them suggestions! I ended up having awesome sessions with them! I just love it when students take the initiative and actually WANT to work with me, and John feels the same way! Hey, we’re musicians—we constantly need our egos stroked, and like to feel needed!

My sister-in-law, Violet, arrived last Sunday, and my mom arrived on Wednesday! Violet is here visiting her mother and sister, and my mom is visiting us and one of her dearest friends, Auntie Yin. Auntie Yin resides in Hsinchu, a town approximately 90 minutes away from Taipei. Hsinchu is the Silicon Valley of Taiwan. Before I was born, my parents and 2 brothers (Bill and Ken) used to live in Hsinchu and eventually moved from there to the U.S. Auntie Yin’s husband recently passed away and before he passed away, she had hired a live-in maid to help take care of her husband. Since her maid, Aleja, is still on contract, Auntie Yin decided to bring her maid to our apartment and help us out a bit! She and Auntie Yin cooked a couple of wonderful meals for us, and then she, Aleja, and my mom went to Hshinchu together.

OK, I have to relay a conversation between my mom and Auntie Yin! Bear in mind they were speaking Chinese and this is MY translation:

MY MOM: Did Aleja have enough to eat? She didn’t eat very much!
AUNTIE YIN: Yes, she had enough, she usually doesn’t eat very much!
MY MOM: Really? But she’s FAT!!
AUNTIE YIN: Yes, she is—that’s why she doesn’t eat much! She’s on a diet!

They had this conversation IN FRONT OF ALEJA!! Granted, they were speaking Chinese, and Aleja doesn’t know much Chinese (she’s Filipino), but STILL, I was worried she could have picked up on some of those words! So, there you have it, a HUGE cultural difference! Taiwanese and Chinese people are BRUTALLY BLUNT about weight issues, will tell you to your face if you’ve gained weight, and will even tell you if they think you’re fat! And people here don’t get insulted by this, they just agree and respond with something like, “yes, that’s true, I’ve gotten fat!” When we were in Chengdu, China, last year, my cousin introduced me to his 15-year-old son, right in front of him, by saying, “this is my son! He’s a little FAT!” When John heard that, he was completely shocked! Later I told John that Chinese people say stuff like that all the time and just don’t take it personally. The administrative assistant at Chinese Culture University told me that her husband likes to do mountain climbing. I was impressed and said that he must be in very good physical condition. She replied, “Oh, no, he isn’t—he’s quite FAT!” Americans would NOT be able to tolerate such comments! The word “fat” is practically an obscenity! In fact, people in the U.S. would rather be called obscenities than be called fat! In the U.S., comments like that will send a female of ANY AGE into therapy for the NEXT 10 YEARS!!

Since my mom was in Hsinchu with Auntie Yin, this past week-end we took the high-speed rail to Hshinchu to visit them and spent the week-end there. The high-speed rail is AWESOME! It travels at approximately 160 mi/hr and the ride is SUPER smooth—you barely feel like you’re moving. And it only took 30 minutes as opposed to 90 minutes by bus/car! The children LOVED it! Hsinchu also has a brand new station, and the building is quite futuristic-looking (see picture). My mom is having a blast in Hsinchu with Auntie Yin. Auntie Yin has a very nice town house with Aleja, the live-in maid, and they’re playing mah-jongg with some of Auntie Yin’s friends. I’m telling you, she’s living the life there! While we were in Hsinchu, we were again treated to some awesome food Auntie Yin and Aleja cooked, and Auntie Yin’s son, Willy, also visited with us. Willy is one of Bill’s childhood friends.

Willy drove us around Hsinchu and showed us where my parents and brothers used to live and where my dad used to work before he studied in the U.S. My mom says that Hsinchu has COMPLETELY changed—much more developed and urban with many, many buildings. It’s still not nearly as large as Taipei, but it is definitely a thriving city. However, the area where my family used to live is quite suburban-looking with many trees and areas of green grass, very UNLIKE Taipei. Also, my family used to live in the same neighborhood as Cho-Liang Lin, the internationally renowned Taiwanese violinist. Practically all the houses that used to be there are gone, including my family’s house, but Cho-Liang Lin’s residence is still intact and is considered a landmark of Hsinchu. In the pictures—the one of our family in front of the apartment building is where my parents’ house used to be, the one of us in front of the brown house is Cho-Liang Lin’s former residence. The group photo is of our family with Willy, Auntie Yin, and my mom. The pictures of my mom and our family are at a university close to Auntie Yin’s house—National Chiao Tung University. National Chiao Tung University is considered the most prestigious research university in Taiwan and is renowned for its excellence in electrical engineering, computer science, and management.

Since Auntie Yin is still mourning her husband’s passing, my mom decided to stay in Hshinchu for a few more days to keep her company—she will stay with us in Taipei later this week. Also, she seems to be having too great a time there--we decided it would be more fun for her if she stayed there a little longer!

Next up….my recital at Chinese Culture University, dinner with Violet’s family….

Errands and Education

2008-10-27T05:45:00.001-07:00

We were told that children do not celebrate Halloween at the public schools, but at cram schools (more on this later)! Shirly, a graduate student at National Chengchi University, has been our mediator between Lauren and Luke’s teachers and us. She promised me we would find a way to take Lauren and Luke trick-or-treating—they may have to go to a cram school to participate. So part of this past week-end was devoted to getting them ready—we had to get costumes! This meant we had to make a shopping trip to the Taiwanese equivalent of Wal-Mart—the Carrefour store! I have to confess—John and I make a run there an average of once a week! Since the kids are INCREDIBLY PICKY about what they wear, we had to bring them along to choose their costumes! Lauren, or course, opted to be a princess! The selection for boys was pretty BLEAK! At first Luke, the Litigator, didn’t like ANYTHING, but he FINALLY got very excited over a ladybug costume. As soon as we got home, the children wanted to wear them immediately—see the picture! AT LEAST in Taipei, they don’t start selling Halloween items until around the middle of October, unlike the U.S., which practically starts in AUGUST!

Our main adventure this past week-end was a visit to the National Taiwan Science Education Center. The building was quite architecturally interesting, and the Taipei Astronomical Museum, which is very close in proximity, was also very distinctive (see picture with the children and me—the Taipei Astronomical Museum is in the background). I’m afraid we did not get as much education as I hoped—the National Taiwan Education Center houses an indoor inflatable play area named Bouncy Town, and Luke and Lauren ended up spending most of their time playing there! But they had a great time, John and I were able to take it easy, and they got good and TIRED, which caused them to fall asleep easily that night!

In the Asian culture, achieving academic success is crucial, and this goes back to Confucian values. These values emphasize hard work and the belief that education is essential to the future of children. Parents in traditional Asian societies regard academic achievement as one of the critical factors that impact their children’s potential career development. If Asian parents can afford it, they will financially support anything that will ensure academic and career success for their children.

That being said, as much as I’ve enjoyed living here, there’s NO way I could live here permanently—only because of our children! Even though I grew up with traditional Chinese parents, I could not stomach the pressure for my own children—I’m a wimp! The competition to get into a prestigious high school and university is severe—I couldn’t handle it! This pressure begins in middle school, when children have to begin studying for entrance examinations. The high school a student attends determines his/her options for college. If the student does not attend a prestigious high school, attendance at a good university is unlikely. Reputable Taiwanese universities only want students who attend reputable high schools. Basically, your entire career success is practically decided in middle school! This is a major difference between the Asian and American cultures. In the U.S., everyone has a chance to attend a prestigious university no matter what background he/she has or what high school he/she has attended. Also, in the U.S., you can achieve success late in life—a person has several chances to fail and try again. Even an ex-convict can become a lawyer! This is unlikely to happen in Taiwan! And I will say that even though my parents are traditionally Chinese, my dad definitely adopted these American beliefs. When I chose music as my career, he was the one who told me if I put my mind to I could succeed, but even if I didn’t, I could always start over—that it was never too late!

As a result of this competitive environment, many Taiwanese students attend cram schools. Several types of cram schools exist, but the purpose of these schools is to prepare students for entrance examinations or improve skills students feel they need help with. Students preparing for the TOEFL examination can also attend cram school. K.C., the wonderful high school student I mentioned in earlier blogs, has a sister in middle school who is preparing for her entrance examinations to high school. She finishes regular school at 5:30 and attends cram school from 6:30-9:30 almost every day. These cram schools are lecture-oriented, revolve around rote-memorization, and completely “teach to the test.” Also, many of these schools are expensive, but as mentioned earlier, Taiwanese parents willingly pay these high tuitions if they know it will help guarantee success for their children.

Another significant difference—graduation rates in Taiwan from universities are around 99%. I get the feeling that college is not as high-pressured as high school. Even though students work hard, they do not feel they absolutely have to have the highest grade. All the pressure seems to be in high school and getting accepted to a good university, and once they’re in, they pretty much know they’re going to graduate. It’s the opposite in the U.S.—not so difficult to get into an average college, but harder to graduate—I believe U.S. graduation rate is around 60%? However, Taiwanese college students still completely freak out over exams. For instance, John is teaching a music appreciation course, and he was advised to change his “exams” to “quizzes”. They will only tolerate 2 exams—the mid-term and the final. If you have additional exams, they will panic and drop the course!

American universities are highly regarded here. Many professors at National Chengchi University and at Taipei National University of the Arts did graduate work in the U.S., and many of them attended reputable American universities and conservatories. In a previous blog, I mentioned hearing a cello recital, and the cellist in that recital graduated from Peabody Conservatory, an excellent music school. I’ve also met Taiwanese professors who have graduated from UCLA, Indiana University, and University of Michigan—one had a Fulbright from Harvard. In the Asian culture, the prestige of a university is very important and people frequently judge others according to what school they attended. Dr. Wu also informed us at the orientation that the Taiwanese hold colleges in low regard—they only want their children to attend universities. When Dr. Wu discusses potential schools with Taiwanese parents interested in sending their children to the U.S., if a school only has the word “college” and not “university” in its name, they won’t even consider it!

We’re also preparing for relatives who are coming to visit! My sister-in-law just arrived—she’s visiting her mother and sister--and my mom arrives this Wednesday! We’re greatly looking forward to seeing them!

Next up….my mom and sister-in-law in Taipei….

Alternatives, Animals, and Adventures

2008-10-21T04:13:00.000-07:00

We received our national health insurance cards about a week ago! As some of you know, Taiwan has universal health care. Another plus: it includes Chinese medical treatment! I’ve decided to take advantage of this and try acupuncture. Again, some of you may know this already, but for about 10 years I’ve had issues with my neck and shoulders. About a year and a half ago, while in Beijing, I fell down a half-flight of cement steps, further aggravating this condition. Fortunately nothing was broken, but it was a long recovery that required physical therapy. I do consider myself recovered from this fall, but my right shoulder and neck have never been the same. This also can be attributed to having children—as much as I love them and wouldn’t have it ANY other way, they have DEFINITELY added MORE TENSION AND STRESS to my life! And it didn't help that during my recovery, against medical advice, I kept lifting the children. I’m thinking that this is the time and place to try other options!

Greg, the PhD student, took me to his doctor, who has treated him for headaches. This particular doctor does reflexology and acupuncture. Greg was my translator and the doctor seemed to completely understand what I needed. AGAIN—I barely had to fill out any forms! I was treated immediately, and after the doctor promptly inserted 8 needles into me—the neck and shoulder areas, my hands, and my feet—I laid on a table for the treatment to take effect. Later, Greg relayed to me that the doctor thought I was VERY tense and should come for treatments EVERYDAY! And he also told him it was obvious I’ve had this tension for a long time. Greg immediately said, “no, she can’t come every day—she’s a professor, she’s too busy” to which the doctor nodded, understood immediately, and said, “ok, she should come twice a week!” YES!! I’m in a country where PEOPLE ACTUALLY THINK PROFESSORS WORK!! WHAT A REFRESHING CHANGE THIS IS FOR ME!! The entire session, including several doses of some yucky-tasting powdery Chinese herb medicine, cost a little over $3 USD! I could get used to this, that’s FOR SURE!

In the last blog, I forgot to include another observation concerning style of dress here—NO hoochie mamas! The women here dress stylishly, but modestly, MUCH more so than the women in the U.S. Obviously the Britney Spears culture has not taken over! And so far I have not seen any tattoos in the small of the back, very common in the U.S. Honestly, in the U.S., sometimes I don’t know how the male college students can concentrate in class! Oops--I take that back—I spotted ONE hoochie mama on a subway the other day and it really attracted my attention because I had never seen one here until then!

I MUST comment on the dogs here! There’s DEFINITELY a dichotomy—unleashed mutt dogs vs. pampered princess dogs. As I’ve mentioned earlier, in lieu of children, many young couples have pets instead. These young couples tend to favor small, purebred dogs, and they OBVIOUSLY spoil them. They’re usually leashed, immaculately groomed, and sometimes they’re even in STROLLERS! Yes, here in Taiwan, some people actually use special strollers for dogs. The unleashed mongrels seem to be on their own. BUT, they have collars, so SOMEONE must own them. They’re all over the National Chengchi University campus, and they pretty much roam everywhere. To their credit, they’re VERY well-behaved—they rarely bark, and they don’t try to jump on anyone or get in anyone’s way. They’re also quite skilled at crossing the street—they do a better job than I do! I honestly HOPE I don’t see any get hit by a car—so far I’ve been fortunate in that I have not witnessed any such tragedy! I do see quite a few cats, but they don’t roam around as much. The weirdest cats were a few that were obviously shaved. They had plenty of fur and all, but the body portions were considerably shorter than the head portions, so they resembled little lions! Maybe the owners wanted to keep the cats cooler? Or maybe they’re just having a little fun with them? I’ve had cats, so my first thought was, HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO SHAVE THEM? Any cat owners reading this would COMPLETELY understand what I mean…..

With the children, we made a small excursion to a place called The Living Mall. The building looked very unusual (see pic—one of the buildings is shaped like a ball) and this place was very kid-friendly. Anyway, Luke and Lauren enjoyed themselves—there was an outdoor playground, and inside the mall, there was a play area that contained little rides. You needed tokens to pay for these rides, and it was pretty inexpensive, but man, totally OVERSTIMULATING. Luke and Lauren enjoyed themselves, but it was OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD! And of course, since this was a mall, it had a very extensive food court, which we took advantage of!

Our day trip this past week-end was to Danshui, a small town north of Taipei. It’s completely on the other side of town from us, and it’s about a 70-minute subway ride. Danshui is on the coast and very picturesque (see pictures), and this past Sunday the weather seemed so beautiful we thought it would be a great day to go. Well, apparently EVERYONE IN TAIPEI had the same brilliant idea because the subway was COMPLETELY PACKED all the way to Danshui, which is the last stop on the line! And Danshui was VERY crowded! AND it was HOT and HUMID! We were sweating bullets, and there were people wearing long sleeves and sweaters!! But it is definitely a very lovely area—the ocean looked beautiful and many people were riding bikes along the coast. There is a huge walkway with billions of restaurants and shops along the ocean. We decided to take a ferry to Tansui Fisherman’s Wharf. You can just IMAGINE Luke and Lauren’s excitement; they could barely wait in line! The wharf was also gorgeous and the walkways were even wider than the ones in Danshui, so it didn’t seem as crowded. Luke and Lauren really enjoyed walking on this really cool white bridge (see picture). We also enjoyed the local Danshui snack food—fish ball soup and rice noodles! And Luke was GREAT!! He didn’t barf, pee in his pants, or have a meltdown!!

I have to mention that it’s SHEER LUCK that I’m able to get to these places w/o reading any Chinese! I still have NO IDEA how I got tickets to the ferry boat, and how we knew when to get off the boat. I’m TOTALLY winging EVERYTHING, I’m telling you!

Next up…my sister-in-law’s and mom’s impending visit…..

Not Doing as the Romans Do.....

2008-10-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

Rules for Taiwanese and Chinese Drivers

• Road signs and crosswalks are arbitrary. Follow the traffic lights only when necessary—if you can get by without stopping at a red light, GO FOR IT!

• Rarely yield to ANYONE, even people who are crossing on a green pedestrian light. HONK if the pedestrian is moving too slowly. Honk even more if the pedestrian is absent-mindedly text-messaging or checking messages on the mobile phone.

• Leave as LITTLE space as possible between you and oncoming traffic when making turns.

• Pass other vehicles at will, on any side possible.

• NEVER allow the vehicle to gradually accelerate or decelerate. In fact, NEVER let the vehicle coast naturally—that’s for WIMPS. Constantly apply the gas and brakes. And make sure to brake suddenly without actually screeching.

• For bus drivers: The more your standing passengers seem to be losing their balance, the better job you’re doing.

Okay, but in defense of Taiwanese drivers, they NEVER lose their temper and stay cool and collected at ALL times. Losing your temper is considered a sign of weakness here. If a professor loses his/her cool in front of students, he/she will lose respect. Also, the reason why people here can get away with this type of driving is because EVERYONE thinks exactly the SAME way, and they all COMPLETELY understand and ANTICIPATE what everyone else is doing. However, when these drivers move to the U.S., then problems arise. They apply these same principles in the U.S., not realizing that everyone else will think they’re crazy for driving in this manner! And they don’t realize that people in the U.S. do not understand what they’re doing and cannot anticipate their moves. Hence, the “bad-Asian-driver” stereotype is perpetuated!

The “double 10” (10/10) holiday is similar to our Independence Day, and celebrates the end of the dynasties in China. As I mentioned earlier, the Fulbrighters were invited to attend a reception at the Taipei Guest House hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in celebration of 10/10. According to Dr. Wu, we were considered VIPs, and VIPs we were! The president of Taiwan was even there! The Taipei Guest House is a beautiful facility—the pictures do not do it justice. John and I had a great time and it was nice to see to catch up with the other Fulbrighters and exchange experiences! Dr. Wu is in one of the pictures--he's the one in between John and me!

Because of the holiday week-end, subways were even more crowded than usual! Lauren and Luke LOVE the subways. Really, if all we did was ride the subways all day, I think they’d be perfectly satisfied! We decided to venture out to Miramar Entertainment Park, which houses a gigantic Ferris wheel. The pictures include the children on the Ferris wheel and views of Taipei from the Ferris wheel. We also made a trip to the Shilin night market, one of the largest night markets in Taipei. It was SUPER crowded and we were terrified we would misplace Luke and Lauren! I discovered that Shilin is DEFINITELY the place to shop—should have begun my personal shopping there! We also found a restaurant that serves hot pot, one of my FAVORITE foods! For those of you who are not familiar with Chinese hot pot, it’s Chinese fondue. You heat up soup on the table (see the picture), put raw food in, cook it, and then ENJOY! Two types of soups are served—one is spicy, the other is not. Anyway, the mistake we made at the restaurant was that we didn’t realize it was buffet style. We were just sitting at the table for several minutes waiting for someone to take our order, and finally someone came over and explained to me that we were supposed to get the food ourselves. We didn’t see the food—it was in another room! We must have looked pretty foolish just sitting there! But I really enjoyed getting our own food because I didn’t have to order in Chinese! The buffet included ice cream for dessert, which pleased the children. I’ve enjoyed 2 flavors in Taiwan that are not common in the U.S.—green tea ice cream and red bean ice cream, which happened to be at this restaurant!

I realize that we obviously do not look Taiwanese, and our way of dressing brings even more attention to this trait! We consistently under dress, meaning, we’re about a season behind! We’re still dressing like it’s spring/summer, everyone else is dressing like it’s fall/winter, simply because it’s no longer 90 degrees. But it still HOT!! AND HUMID! It’s still 75-80 degrees, and it FEELS hotter because of the humidity! I'm wearing sleeveless and short-sleeved tops; everyone else is wearing LAYERS with LONG SLEEVES AND JACKETS. Some women are wearing TIGHTS and PANTY HOSE! NOW I understand why my mom always nagged me to dress heavier when I was a child! There’s NO WAY I can dress like that right now! I’ve noticed that when I see other Americans, they’re dressing like me, too, so I guess we’re not totally crazy! I KNOW Lauren and Luke’s teachers are thinking we don’t dress our kids warmly enough—they’re the lightest-dressed kids in their schools. Their classmates are practically wearing winter coats! Definitely, Taiwanese are fearful of being cold!

My leftover summer tan also distinguishes me from the others. Taiwanese HATE exposure to the sun, and think tans are VERY unattractive. When it’s sunny, many women use umbrellas to shield themselves. I’ve also noticed that many face creams—acne and moisturizing—contain “whitener.” They equate tans with working-class people, people who have to work outside for a living, so tans are considered undesirable.

Next up….alternative medical treatment…..

Shopping, Excursions, and Street-crossings

2008-10-08T16:42:00.000-07:00

For the Double-10 holiday (more on this later), the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan) has invited the Fulbrighters to a reception being hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). Suits or tuxes for men, cocktail dresses for women! My problem—I DIDN’T BRING an appropriate dress! I only brought recital clothes! This was my first real personal shopping assignment! So far, shopping in Taipei has been a challenge for me. Supposedly bargaining is an option, but I haven’t even attempted it! And I’m still not sure when it’s appropriate, so I just don’t do it! I obviously still need to learn the ropes because I generally can’t seem to find what I want very easily! People can correct me on this, but so far I’ve found that I can shop at large department stores, or smaller shops/boutiques on the streets. The underground malls at Taipei Main Station also contain small shops. The department stores, which mostly sell designer brands, are EXPENSIVE, and I’ve pretty much eliminated that option. Great for looking around, and the stores are BEAUTIFUL with wonderful food courts and fantastic bathrooms—one of them even had heated toilets—but MUCH too pricey for me. The small shops are inexpensive, but I’ve been having a hard time finding the right clothes. They’re either too teeny-bopperish or too dowdy! I usually don’t find anything in between. Maybe someone can advise me on this, but I wish there was something more mid-range, like Ann Taylor (preferably sale prices). Or even a Target, Kohl’s, Gap, or Banana Republic. There is a comparable store called Net, which is very similar to the Gap, but it is too casual—no cocktail dresses there! Another idea I have to adjust to is that I’m 1-2 sizes higher here than I am in the U.S.! This can be a real ego blower, and I have to keep reminding myself it’s because I’m in a country that has SMALL, SKINNY people! Or that the U.S. has size inflation! AND as some you know, normally I have no problem drawing attention to myself—a couple of my colleagues in my department have told me I’m the LOUDEST Asian they’ve ever met—but when I shop, I want AS LITTLE attention AS POSSIBLE. I don’t want any help, I don’t want the salespeople to notice me, I just want to do my own thing. This is VERY DIFFICULT to accomplish in Taipei! The shops are usually quite small, so many times I’m the ONLY person in the whole store. You really feel like you’re invading someone’s space, and I practically feel like there’s a SPOTLIGHT on me. And the salespeople are overly-attentive and constantly asking me if I want to try on something. This is not a gender-based instance—one time John was looking at some shoes and salespeople were on him like flies on you-know-what. That’s one phrase I learned how to say in Chinese—I know how to say I just want to browse. But STILL, the salespeople totally EYEBALL me the whole time and watch my every move to make sure they can help me—it’s a little STRESSFUL! But I DID find a dress, at one of those smaller shops on a street near my apartment, and stayed in my price range—I wouldn’t allow myself to go over $3000 NTs (ca. $100 USD). I managed to find one for $2600 NTs (ca. $80 USD), so I was satisfied!

Crossing the street in Taiwan and China is quite an adventure. In Taipei, at times the crosswalks have pedestrian lights, just like the U.S., but they actually let you know how many seconds you have to cross the street, which I find VERY helpful, especially when the children are with me. However, when there are crosswalks with NO pedestrian lights, it’s pretty much a crap shoot. The cross walks w/o pedestrian lights are essentially theoretical—you’re pretty much at war with all the vehicles. Xi’an, China, was ABSOLUTELY THE WORST—seriously, the stress I endured crossing the streets there was almost worse than suffering one of Luke’s tantrums! Crossing the street here really reminds me of being the “frog” in the video game, Frogger. My trick is to line myself up with someone else—I put myself parallel to another person, and follow that person when crossing the street. I try to use that person as a shield so in case a car does hit someone, the person I’ve lined myself up with would be hit first! Also, in Taipei, you actually have to physically flag down busses, kind of like hailing a cab. If you don’t visibly indicate that you need a particular bus, they’ll just drive right past you! You practically have to throw yourself in front of the bus if you want it to stop for you!

This past Sunday we took the children to the Taipei Children’s Museum, which had many hands-on exhibits and activities. Everything was going very well until I heard Luke yell from the construction center, “I PEED!” Sure enough, there was a yellow puddle right where he was standing! My first reaction was disbelief because REALLY, he had JUST used the bathroom before we left for the museum! I frantically pulled out all my wipes and madly wiped up as much as I could! John notified the museum people and took Luke to the bathroom—yes, we did bring an extra change of clothes. ONLY they were not the RIGHT clothes. Luke will only wear orange OR anything with some kind of vehicle (cars, trucks, tractors, trains) OR anything with animals/bugs, preferably dinosaurs. At the time of the accident he was wearing one of his favorites—an orange dinosaur shirt. SO OF COURSE we only had a yellow-striped polo shirt, and according to John, this put Luke in a TOTAL fit of despair in the bathroom! And once he gets going, it’s VERY DIFFICULT to bring him back! He eventually recovered, but he was a bit huffy the rest of the afternoon!

This week, Lauren went on an all-day field trip with her school and parents were also invited, so I tagged along! Since Lauren still doesn’t know Chinese very well and this trip involved several logistical issues—changing to swimsuits, putting on swim caps (yes, here in Taiwan, you MUST wear swim caps during swimming activities), several snacks, lunch, etc.—I thought I should be around to assist Lauren with everything. Several other parents tagged along, including quite a few dads! We took an excursion to Jinshan, an area just outside of Taipei which is famous for its hot springs. Our final destination was Jinshan Youth Activity Center, and this place had bike paths, a beach (we were on the coast), a water park, and spas. The water park is where all the school kids played, and Lauren had a fantastic time! The drive to Jinshan was gorgeous since most of it was along the coast—we got wonderful views of the ocean!

This upcoming week-end will be a long week-end to celebrate the “Double 10” holiday (10/10), which is Independence Day for the Taiwanese. So everybody has this Friday off, and Friday is the day of the Fulbright reception!

Next up….Double 10 reception, under/over dressing in Taipei……

Bug Bites, Beggars, Beauty, and Blending

2008-10-04T08:20:00.000-07:00

I’ve already had a medical incident! An insect bite on my arm became infected—I didn’t think anything of it and simply treated it with hydrogen peroxide and Neosporin. Well, apparently that wasn’t enough because one morning I woke up with a completely swollen arm! It totally freaked me out! Naturally, I thought I was going to have to get my arm amputated! Greg, the INCREDIBLY resourceful Ph.D student, took me to the National Chengchi University (NCCU) medical clinic and I was able to see a doctor immediately. Greg is amazing—I’m not even an employee of NCCU, and he convinced the receptionist I was a professor there, I barely had to fill out any forms, and I saw a doctor and received meds for FREE! So my arm is much better—I’m very relieved!

While at Taipei Main Station waiting for my Chinese Culture University bus, I saw something for the very first time in my life: A Taiwanese beggar! I, myself, have NEVER seen a beggar of Asian descent! I commemorated the occasion by giving him a $10 coin (about 33 cents, USD). Anyway, this beggar was in REALLY terrible shape—obviously crippled and mentally affected; I honestly felt sorry for him. BUT, you should have SEEN the looks of DISDAIN on people’s faces. Everyone was visibly disgusted with him, even the students! They all had looks of, “HOW CAN YOU DISGRACE YOURSELF IN THIS WAY?!!” They probably thought I was a loser for giving him some money, but I didn’t worry about it too much—I can play the “naïve foreigner” card!

Eating well is very important in Taiwan, and I found this to be true in China as well. And in Taiwan, the food is especially excellent with tremendous amounts of varieties and nationalities. Sushi is very popular here, as are Thai, Vietnamese, and Indian cuisine. This would explain the massive food courts everywhere. Taiwanese and Chinese people firmly believe in eating 3 significant meals a day—sandwiches are considered lame. Basically, if you don’t require utensils to eat a meal, then it’s lame. Even the 7-Elevens offer hot breakfast foods. Lunch breaks are substantial—usually at least 90 minutes, and no classes are held during this time to make sure students eat. However, the Taiwanese are generally thin! All I can say is that I’m SO GLAD I didn’t come here RIGHT AFTER I had my children, or I would have been considered OBESE! So far I have not seen a single obese person here, absolutely nothing comparable to what I’ve seen at the Super Wal-Marts in upstate South Carolina! And many women here are Paris Hilton SKINNY! BUT globalization has shown some consequences—SOME children/college students are pudgy, and I’m suspecting it’s because of the Western chains. Also, the Taiwanese and Chinese perception of beauty is quite narrow compared to the United States. I’m hypothesizing that since the U.S. has more diversity, the definition of beauty has a larger scope. In Taiwan, I’ve noticed that all the models in the ads and magazine covers LOOK EXACTLY THE SAME. There is DEFINITELY a type of face you must have in order to be a model/actress in Taiwan or China. Asian actresses that are considered attractive in the U.S., such as Lucy Liu or Sandra Oh, would NOT be considered beautiful here. I suspect that in order to be beautiful here, a woman must look something like Zhang Ziyi, the actress in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon—she definitely has the right kind of face.

People are also very respectful of the elderly, pregnant women, and women with children. On busses and subways, people willingly give up seats for these people. We experience this ourselves whenever we bring Lauren and Luke on the busses and subways, and this is causing them to become SPOILED. It’s to the point that when we get on a bus/subway and all the seats are taken, Luke yells, “I WANT A SEAT!” and somebody immediately gets up and gives it to him! NOT GOOD!

This week-end we took the children to Taipei Municipal Children's Recreation Center, an outdoor facility that included rides, several playgrounds, a giant sandbox, and many other activities. John enjoyed this place more than Kiddyland because it wasn't as obnoxious--since Kiddyland was entirely indoors, it was REALLY loud and over-stimulating! We had perfect weather--it was not too hot--and the kids had a great time. Best of all: NO MELTDOWNS!!

John has concluded his participation in reviewing potential Fulbright candidates. He found the entire process extremely fascinating and was intrigued by the different perceptions of everyone concerning the review of the Fulbright candidates. John turned out to be the one of the tougher reviewers, which didn’t surprise me! For those of you who are not familiar with John’s style of teaching, let’s just say that in his department at University of West Georgia, John’s classes represent the “rite of passage” for the music majors! My perception, and I may be wrong--people at University of West Georgia may correct me on this—is that the students at West GA greatly respect John, but they’re highly intimidated by him! I wish I could garner this kind of respect! Anyway, he has upheld his reputation during these reviews!

I recently read a blog of a German piano professor who teaches in Taiwan and I found everything he said to be true. He believes that the culture of Taiwanese and Chinese students is to BLEND and NOT bring attention to themselves. As a student, individual expression is not a priority. This is completely true, which presents a problem in music, where individual expression is ABSOLUTELY a priority. Definitely there are advantages, especially when playing in an orchestra or wind ensemble—the students are extremely respectful, they follow the rules, they’re disciplined—but when asked to completely go out on a limb, take a risk, and be completely original, this can be a challenge since they feel uncomfortable bringing attention to themselves. I have the OPPOSITE problem—I tend to take TOO many risks in my musical judgment! However, I hope this is one issue I can focus on while I’m teaching in Taiwan and really convey the benefits of risk-taking—it’s the only way you can grow as a musician!

Next up….shopping in Taipei, field trip with Lauren, getting ready for “double 10” holiday…..

Jangmi, Gigs, and Globalization

2008-09-29T20:45:00.001-07:00

We had ANOTHER typhoon, Jangmi, this time hitting central Taiwan, and it was worse than the last one. We actually lost our power for a little while! On Monday, all schools and offices were closed! The winds were very intense and everything was cancelled for safety reasons. So the children were happy—they got an extended week-end!

John and I are simply IMPRESSED with our students. We are getting SPOILED! They have such wonderful attitudes, they work very hard, and they're so SWEET! During John's last rehearsal with the wind ensemble, John gave them a 10-minute break, and he was astounded that many of the students actually used that break to PRACTICE for the upcoming piece! But, please--our students back home--don't take this the wrong way--we adore and miss you!

Since John’s host university, National Chengchi University (NCCU) does not have a music department, he is being housed by the Department of Education. The dean, Dr. Jason, (one of the pics is Dr. Jason and us) had a retreat for the department this past week-end. As part of the retreat, John and I were invited to perform. This retreat was held in a large meeting room in the Arts and Culture Building, which does not allow shoes. In the Asian culture, it’s understood that you never wear shoes in someone’s house—as soon as you enter someone’s home, you put on slippers. This was the case in this room in the Arts and Culture building. So John and I performed in slippers! This was definitely a first! We brought the children with us, and Teacher Linda watched them while we were at the retreat—they were just one floor up. Luke and Lauren actually did very well, but at one point Luke got frustrated with Teacher Linda because he wanted to come see me and she prevented him. We heard him yell, “I’m VERY ANGRY WITH YOU!” to Teacher Linda, and I was thinking, uh-oh, please no meltdown, but he quickly got over it. Later Luke apologized to Teacher Linda and gave her a hug….but of course I had to blackmail him into it….

John and I actually went to a concert together for the first time in a very long time. Since John taught at Taipei National University of the Arts the day of the concert, I met him at the recital since it was about halfway between us. Greg, the Ph.D student, and K.C., that wonderful high school student, watched Lauren and Luke. This is awkward for me because I REALLY wanted to HIRE someone. Greg and K.C. refused money, and I felt HORRIBLE about this. Since K.C. and Greg have been around us so much, they're almost like our family here. So to offer them money to baby sit would practically be an insult—Asians commonly think this way. I would rather pay them so I don’t feel like I’m taking advantage of them. In fact, I requested to HIRE a student from NCCU to baby sit, but NCCU just wouldn't hear of it--they went ahead and got Greg and K.C. to help us. But the nice thing about Greg and K.C. is that they’re very sincere and absolutely do not expect ANYTHING in return, and they NEVER make me feel like I owe them anything—they’re extremely genuine. But I will ABSOLUTELY have to get them something really nice before we leave!

The reason we went to this concert was because of our connection to Kuo-Pei Lin, our staff piano accompanist at Clemson University. Kuo-Pei is from Taiwan, so she contacted me and told me her friend, a cellist named Celine, was giving a recital in Taipei. Celine contacted us and invited us to her recital--she also teaches at Taipei National University of the Arts, where John teaches. So naturally we accepted! Anyway, this recital was INCREDIBLE!! Celine and her pianist, Wen-Chuan Wang, were absolutely PHENOMENAL!! They should be teaching at the Juilliard School! What was astonishing was that Wen-Chuan was a doctoral STUDENT—I thought she was a professional or a professor! It was WONDERFUL to hear such a BEAUTIFUL recital! John and I enjoyed this concert IMMENSELY!! People who know me well know that I don’t gush over performances very often, so I really mean this—it was GREAT!

We did manage to get the kids out of the house right before the typhoon. Since it was raining on and off, we decided to check out the Taipei Main Station subway area since everything is indoors. I’ve mentioned this before, but Taipei Main Station has a gigantic food court and indoor malls. I’ve provided a couple of pictures of us at the food court, but the pictures do NOT do it justice. IT WAS HUGE. Take a typical food court in a nice shopping mall in the U.S. and times it by FIVE. We had fun just walking around the perimeter of the food court—it seemed like a mile! John estimates that there were probably 80 restaurants!

Afterwards, we ventured outside of Taipei Main Station—at that point it wasn’t raining—and had ice cream at a Cold Stone Creamery. Yes, the Cold Stone Creamery is quite common here—evidence of globalization! For the most part, as a family, we’ve avoided the Western chains, but I will say we have had ice cream (NOT HOT FOOD) at McDonald’s (it’s so cheap). The one chain John and I still frequent is Starbucks—they’re everywhere! We also see many chains such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Mister Donut, KFC, Barista Coffee, Burger King, and Ponderosa. BUT the ruling chain is DEFINITELY 7-Eleven! They’re on EVERY block, and you can do everything at a 7-Eleven—pay bills, add minutes to your mobile phone (they say that instead of “cell”), buy or add money to your MRT card, and buy convenience foods, even ready-made meals. A Taiwanese chain I’ve enjoyed is Come Buy—a tea place. Come Buy has a huge variety of tea drinks, all SWEET. The Taiwanese don’t snack much, but they do love sweet coffee/tea drinks, and many of them have this jelly-like substance. I’m really starting to love milk tea, which is served cold, and you can have it in many varieties. Usually when I get something from Come Buy, I get hazel milk tea, WITHOUT the jelly stuff (I’m still a little scared of it)!

I also want to note—Luke has been GREAT since that melt down! We’ve been walking an AWFUL lot, not just on the week-ends, but to and from his school, and he’s been a complete trooper--so far I’ve barely had to carry him. And he’s become a pro at getting on and off the escalators, busses, and subways!

Next up….John’s review of Fulbright candidates, more teaching, and PROBABLY more kid drama…..

Teaching, Taiwanese Identity, and Trends

2008-09-25T04:11:00.000-07:00

In the photos--one is a picture I took from the bus on the way to Chinese Culture University, one is of John teaching at NCCU, and the others are pictures of the Chinese Culture University campus.

I’m really enjoying the students at Chinese Culture University! So far I’ve been coaching/teaching chamber music groups that are preparing for a performance at graduation.

Whenever I’ve been a guest professor, I’m FILLED with apprehension before I actually begin teaching. When you give lessons (not classes) as a guest professor, there is ABSOLUTELY NO OPPORTUNITY for preparation. Most of the time I find out what I’m going to teach right before the lessons, and many times they’re working on repertoire I have not played. Bear in mind that the chamber music and piano repertoire is vast—there are literally hundreds of thousands of pieces, and therefore it’s impossible to know ALL OF THEM—I know other musicians who are reading this know exactly what I’m talking about! In addition to this, I feel this large amount of pressure to demonstrate tremendous knowledge since I am a guest professor, and students from other countries believe that professors from the U.S. must be knowledgeable. In other words, I’m completely afraid of making a fool out of myself! My hugest fear is to listen to a student and have absolutely NO suggestions! The pressure is even more intense in Asian countries because the students are of VERY high quality. If the students were terrible, I’d have PLENTY to say!! I’m completely afraid I will be stumped! But I REALLY do love the challenge of working with excellent students. You really have to be on your game and I probably learn more from teaching excellent students than they learn from me! On the plus side, the students are usually receptive, open, and very eager to please—especially in the Asian countries--which makes my job much easier. AND as a guest, there’s no accountability in that I’m going to responsible for these students for a long period of time. If they don’t graduate or can’t get into graduate school, it’s not my fault!

The chamber music groups I was assigned to coach/teach were playing repertoire I was COMPLETELY unfamiliar with! Also, a few of the chamber music groups were not in my area of expertise—one was a woodwind quintet w/o piano, the other was a group of 3 trumpets and piano, an unusual instrumental combination. Quite frankly, John is much more qualified to coach these types of groups, since he is a wind player. I feel MUCH more comfortable coaching piano solo, or any duos/trios/quartets/quintets containing piano PLUS strings or woodwinds. The woodwind quintet is playing a piece I had never heard of! AND they did not have any music to give me to refer to, which also put me at a disadvantage. However, I ended up having plenty of ideas to suggest, and I had plenty to say for the other groups as well! I’m really having a great time, and I think I’m developing a nice rapport with the students. The students are TOTALLY ADORABLE!!

Chinese Culture University is located on Yan Ming Mountain, a tourist attraction. It is a BEAUTIFUL university, and the bus ride up the mountain is stunning! I was also able to practice there, and they gave me this wonderful practice room that contained a gorgeous black, mirror-finished Steinway grand! I could definitely get used to this…..

Taiwanese professors are under IMMENSE pressure to publish. The motto is “Publish or Perish.” Achieving tenure and promotion is an extremely difficult and convoluted process. According to what I’ve heard, and I could be wrong--Taiwanese professors MUST publish in Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) journals. I’m not very well-versed in these journals, but as I understand it, SSCI journals are considered the most prestigious journals in the world. HOWEVER, I’m not sure how these journals are chosen to considered SCCI, and it’s very likely that many esteemed journals are not on this list. Supposedly Taiwanese professors are obsessed about publishing in these exclusive journals, and many Taiwanese professors have had heart attacks because they’ve been unable to publish in these journals. I asked Greg, the Ph.D student, if writing a book would suffice for tenure and promotion, and he told me that only publications in SSCI journals would guarantee tenure and promotion. Also, the schools do NOT grant tenure and promotion—they RECOMMEND someone for tenure and promotion. Tenure and promotion is ultimately decided by the Taiwan Ministry of Education, a government office in charge of education, so you can imagine the bureaucracy. Needless to say, the process is highly rigid, uniform, and check-box-oriented. At National Chengchi University (NCCU), professors are regularly in their offices until 2 or 3 am, working on articles to publish in SCCI journals.

Another matter I find intriguing is that Taiwan has one of the LOWEST birthrates in the world. Many elementary schools have closed due to lack of attendance. People do get married, but MANY couples choose to NOT have children. Women here are highly educated, very career-oriented, and believe that children will detract them from a successful career. Most women here work—the stay-at-home mom/wife is very rare. Also, there is NO home schooling—Taiwanese heavily believe in COMPETITION and do not favor one-on-one instruction. I found this VERY fascinating! Are they more realistic than women in the U.S. who strive to “have it all” (I include myself in this unrealistic category)? I’ve asked several people about this, but I’m not getting straight answers. However, it seems that modern couples are afraid of the costs associated with children, and they also feel they simply do not have time to raise a child.
Greg told us that young couples prefer to have pets, not children. Although this view is generally acceptable, there is concern that the population is aging too rapidly and Taiwanese government is putting into place financial incentives to motivate couples to have children.

Even though Taiwan is the Republic of China (R.O.C.), it is indeed a democracy with completely free press. This country is the size of Massachusetts + Rhode Island, yet it has FIVE 24-hour cable news channels. Like the U.S., it has conservative and liberal newspapers—even a “green” one! Also, many Taiwanese generally like to distance themselves from the Chinese. It’s OK to call the cuisine Chinese, but they themselves do NOT want to be called Chinese—they are absolutely Taiwanese, and very proud of their heritage. You CANNOT accidentally say that Taiwan is China—they get a little prickly with that! I’ve been trying to be very careful about this and I hope I don’t accidentally commit any faux pas’!

Next up….our maiden-voyage performance at NCCU, more teaching, outings, and a night out for John and me….

Outings=Tantrums

2008-09-21T23:32:00.000-07:00

Good news! We finally got our Alien Resident Cards so John and I opened bank accounts here! We don’t have to carry all that cash anymore! Carrying that cash was causing me a GREAT deal of anxiety! I keep hiding the cash in my purse for fear that I’d lose it, and then I’d forget where I put it! I’ve already thought that I’ve lost my cash several times and have caused myself to endure several mini nervous breakdowns! I’m EXTREMELY relieved we can now keep our money in a bank!

I did a little exploring/shopping and had a very funny experience. I decided to browse at an inexpensive shoe store. The background music at this store was American rap, which I despise (I hope I’m not offending any rap lovers). Anyway, this rap music had EXTREMELY vulgar and PROFANE lyrics! I’m not a prude at all, believe me—my personal choice of movies and TV tend to be R-rated--but I didn’t think this was appropriate shopping music! No one in the store was reacting at all because no one understood it! It was COMPLETELY HILARIOUS and SURREAL! I was laughing the whole time, and everyone else was shopping very diligently, showing NO reaction! I guess what you don’t understand won’t offend you….

Since we were cooped up by the typhoon last week-end, we decided to make up for it and have a few outings this past week-end. One day we took the kids to the Taipei Zoo, which is only a short bus ride away. It was good AND bad. Good because I think generally the kids enjoyed themselves and the zoo is a really wonderful facility with tons of stuff to do. Bad because it was VERY HUMID AND HOT—the heat was literally killing me! It felt like it was 100 degrees! But the Taiwanese are used to this weather, and the zoo was actually pretty packed and busy. Some people were even wearing light jackets and long sleeves!

The Taipei Zoo also has an indoor mall area, and on another day we made a trip there. This indoor mall had a place called “Kiddyland,” which was PERFECT for the ages of our children! Kiddyland houses a TON of rides, including a carousel, a little rollercoaster, a mini-ferris wheel, a train, and other rides similar to these. Both kids had a terrific time—until THE ICE CREAM INCIDENT. Luke was behaving VERY well until we had ice cream—and then DISASTER struck! His ice cream melted too quickly which caused him to get a little upset, and then the ice cream started falling off the cone which led John to try to save it, and in the process, John accidentally poked a hole in his cone. Well, you would have thought that we had chopped off his arm with a chain-saw or something—Luke went absolutely BALLISTIC. He started SCREAMING and crying to the point that he was having massive hiccups. EVERYONE was staring at us! I kept threatening to take away the ice cream cone, but he was on a downward spiral to tantrum oblivion—he got worse and kept screaming “FIX IT! FIX IT!” We were stubborn—there was NO WAY we were going to reward this behavior by getting him a new cone! Finally we got SO fed up we just threw the ice cream cone away, which of course made him cry even harder. I told him we were leaving, picked him up, and dragged him to the bus, and all during this time he was yelling, “PUT ME DOWN!” again, drawing stunned stares! John was furious and mortified, I was COMPLETELY stressed to the bone and horrified, and Lauren thought it was HILARIOUS! That’s the ONE problem with public transportation—it’s so…. PUBLIC! You can’t just stuff your screaming kids into the privacy of a car and drive away! Seriously, we were ready to throw him into Taipei traffic! He actually calmed down right when we got on the bus (thank God), and was back to his angelic self, PATHETICALLY whimpering stuff like, “you don’t like me anymore?” and “I love you, Mommy! Please hug me!” This boy is going to drive me to an early grave …..when we got home, I was in MASSIVE need of a drink….

By Taiwanese standards, Luke and Lauren seem to be considered good-looking. When Luke is not having a tantrum, they actually attract positive attention everywhere we go, and many times perfect strangers want to take pictures with them, as if they’re celebrities! This even happens on the subway! It’s a RIOT! So even though Luke completely humiliates me in public, much to my relief, people in general don’t seem to mind it too much—they just take pictures with him…..

We also made a trip to the Gongguan area, which reputably houses a great night market. Night markets are bustling places filled with restaurants, inexpensive stores, bars, and activities. You can get really awesome deals at the night markets. One person asked me about the bars in Taipei, and I have to confess since we’re in kid jail, we haven’t had much of an opportunity to explore the bar scene! Plus, our neighborhood doesn’t really have any bars, because we’re more on the outskirts of Taipei. The happening places seem to be more in the heart of Taipei, at the night markets, and we definitely noticed more of a bar scene there. Luke and Lauren did EXTREMELY well for our night market outing. This involved a bus ride and three subway changes, and the subways were PACKED! They loved riding on the train, especially Luke, since he’s such a fan of Thomas the Train.

John had his first rehearsal with the wind ensemble at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), this past week and he thoroughly enjoyed it. The students sight-read the music extremely well—notes, intonation, and rhythm were good immediately. All he has to deal with is interpretation, which is an ideal situation. He found the students to be responsive and enthusiastic. A few had the blank Taiwanese stares we were warned about, but generally John had a great experience. The students even applauded him after the rehearsal was finished—DEFINITELY not a common occurrence in the United States! In the U.S., you’re relieved to not be hung on the flag pole after a first rehearsal!

Next up...my teaching gig finally..thought this blog was getting too long and verbose....

Prisoners of Typhoon Sinlaku!

2008-09-16T20:39:00.000-07:00

We’ve experienced our first typhoon—Typhoon Sinlaku! Up until now, I barely knew what a typhoon was! I’m guessing that the only difference between a typhoon and a hurricane is that typhoons happen in the Pacific Ocean, and they’re not necessarily named after people. We were safe, but it was ultra windy and rainy! My main disappointment is that the Autumn Moon Festival was supposed to happen, and it had to be cancelled! I so wanted to experience an Autumn Moon Festival, which other than Chinese New Year, is supposed to be one of the most important events of the year! John and I were scheduled to perform for the on-campus festival, but everything was cancelled! Well, at least we ate some moon cakes—a common pastry eaten during this time. Lauren and Luke LOVE moon cakes!

We received emails from the Foundation for Scholarly Exchange (Fulbright Taiwan), and Dr. Wu advised us to stay inside and read a good book! We have a DVD player, but we needed one more cable for it to work. The kids got a little stir-crazy, to say the least!

So I must say that I’m really enjoying MANY things in Taipei! I LOVE using public transportation, and I really enjoy walking the children to school. The teachers have been SO wonderful, and they sincerely seem to enjoy having Lauren and Luke in their classes. Also, there’s never television at their schools! And no mean children or bullying! John and I have found 2 awesome noodle/dumpling places that are EXTREMELY inexpensive. It’s wonderful being in an old-fashioned neighborhood in which we get our bread from a local bakery and buy fresh produce from local markets. We’re also drinking tea every day, and John has given up coffee for tea. Ever since he began drinking tea instead of coffee, he no longer has to take Prilosec! Poor John, for health reasons he's given up 2 of his favorite beverages--beer and coffee! The only thing I have not adjusted to is the abundance of motor scooters! The motor scooters SCARE me! They’re everywhere and appear out of nowhere! I’m COMPLETELY terrified that one will run over Luke or Lauren. I try my best to always stand between the children and the motor scooters, and I’m constantly holding their hands. During orientation, we were HEAVILY discouraged from using motor scooters. A speaker from the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) told us there were numerous accidents and deaths from motor scooters and that Taiwan is a slippery country, which I’ve definitely noticed, especially when it rains. Motor scooter accidents happen when they slide from underneath the riders. We frequently see parents and children on motor scooters! But at least they’re wearing helmets!

One issue we have not conquered is our washing machine! We’re getting better, but it has been VERY trying. It’s actually a really fantastic machine—an LG Intellowasher—it cleans AND dries clothes—but apparently it’s much too intelligent for us! One hurdle is that the directions are in Chinese, but I doubt we would even understand how to use it if the directions were in English. There are billions of cycles, controls, lights, and buttons. Believe me, we’ve asked several people for help, but we’re still screwing up royally! John and I very technologically-challenged, and this machine is too sophisticated for us! We can’t even open the door sometimes!! When we do get the door open, it’s by SHEER LUCK, and we have no idea how we got it open! And then we think we’re drying the clothes, and after spending about 90 minutes trying to get the door open to see if the clothes are dry, the clothes are still sopping wet! This machine is totally kicking our you-know-whats! John is normally a very calm person who displays no temper, but this machine has almost driven him to the brink—I’ve never seen him so annoyed!

John had a terrific visit at Taipei National University of the Arts. He has a long commute as well—about 90 minutes. His is a little easier than mine in that he’s pretty much on the subway the whole time. I need to explain this a bit—John’s original Fulbright proposal was to teach at Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA). When John was selected to be a Fulbrighter, there was a housing issue—TNUA was not able to provide housing. Dr. Wu saved the day by getting National Chengchi University (NCCU) to serve as our host university and provide housing, and in return, John would teach a music appreciation class and serve as an artist-in-resident at NCCU. NCCU is a very excellent school and community, but it does not have a music major. So John is teaching at both NCCU and TNUA. Anyway, he found TNUA to be a lovely campus and the faculty and students there are amazingly cooperative and friendly. He’s really looking forward to teaching there—he will start conducting the wind ensemble this week. John starts teaching at NCCU this week as well. The NCCU people have also been PHENOMENAL. Greg, the Ph.D student has been GREAT, and Teacher Linda and Shirly, John’s teaching assistant (can you believe he actually has a teaching assistant—this is the first time he has one) have also been INCREDIBLY helpful and have taken wonderful care of us. I have no idea what we would have done without the assistance of Greg, Shirly, and Teacher Linda.

NCCU is a first-rate university and many, many people want to come to school here. Greg also told us that it's very expensive to live here because people want their children to go to the NCCU-affiliated schools. So our kids are very fortunate!

Lauren and Luke have settled into a schedule and are sleeping well (knock on wood). Luke is even taking naps! Luke really reminds me of Brett Favre—when he’s doing well, he’s incredible, but when he’s doing badly, it’s DISASTROUS! Just like Favre, we never know which Luke will show up! But both kids seem happy here and are adjusting very well!

One of the pics is an image of Taipei from the MRT. I also wanted to provide a picture of John's office door with his given Chinese name--hopefully my Chinese-reading family can tell what it is.

Next up….more on my teaching gig, John’s first wind ensemble rehearsal, Taiwanese vs. Chinese....

Schools

2008-09-10T04:27:00.000-07:00

I was right about Dr. Wu liking John—John has been asked to be a reviewer of applications for the Fulbright Foundation here. Dr. Wu told him that there were some music applications and he needed John’s help in evaluating them. So if you’re a musician, this is a good time to send in an application to Taiwan! Seriously, I thought that was pretty cool, and I’m happy John has this opportunity!

I finally tested out my commute to Chinese Culture University. I wanted to visit the department before I begin work next week. Door to door, it took about 90 minutes. It actually wasn’t so bad—started out on the bus, got to the subway, then back to a bus. Subways are EASY for me, considering how directionally challenged I am. I’ve navigated subways in almost every city I’ve visited—Barcelona, Vienna, Beijing, Paris, Montreal, London, Kyoto, and NYC! Subways are wonderful because they stop in the same place every time, each stop has a name you can recognize even if you’re a foreigner, a voice on the intercom actually says the stop, and if you miss your stop, you can always get off, cross over to the other platform and come back. PLUS the MRT in Taiwan is wireless, so if you have a smart phone, you can do tons during your commute! Busses, however, are another matter! I am TERRIFIED of busses! There are NUMEROUS nameless stops, and the rider has to initiate the stop—the driver may not necessarily stop where you want, unless you let him know about it. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pressed the button too early and have added blocks to my walk for fear of missing my stop. Also, if you want to go to the other side and go the other direction, the stop may be in an entirely different place and not correspond with where you were originally. You really have to know a town well to take the bus, and you have to depend on the kindness of strangers—I’m always having to ask for help from the locals and bus drivers.

That being said, I had no trouble getting around on the subway, and in order to get to Chinese Culture University, I had to change to a bus at a subway stop called Taiwan Main Station. This, of course, is a huge station that’s practically the size of Rhode Island. Taiwan Main Station has a giant food court and indoor mall! When I got off the subway, there were like 50 exits! I had absolutely NO IDEA where to go. I randomly exited and asked a ticket person how to find my #260 bus. OF COURSE she barely knew English and I had no idea what she was saying. I did, however, have “Chinese Culture University” written in Chinese so I showed it to her, plus I knew how to pronounce it since I practiced saying it about 100 times the night before. She told me to go out on Exit 4, so I did. When I reached the outside, I just about freaked out! There were vehicles EVERYWHERE, on all sides of the train station, and the area was so HUGE, I totally panicked! I finally found a #260 stop, but when the bus arrived, the driver told me it was the opposite side. Unfortunately, the opposite side seemed about 3 miles away! After some aimless and confused meandering I eventually found the right stop and found a nice older woman who was going to the same place. She actually walked me to the university and asked a student to help me find the building.

Kay is the administrative assistant for the Western Music Department at Chinese Culture University. She has been my main correspondent over the summer and speaks English well. I also met Dr. Peng, the chair of the department. Even though school hadn’t started, there were students doing playing examinations--our term in the U.S. would be juries. When I asked a piano professor why they were having playing examinations this early, she told me in broken English, “these are extra examinations for the BAD!” I chuckled at her bluntness--totally sounds like something my mom or dad would say! I took that to mean that these examinations were for students who didn’t do very well last spring! Kay told me that by the time I begin work, the university shuttle will be working. Chinese Culture University has a free bus for its employees that goes to Taiwan Main Station, which will be VERY convenient. I will definitely take advantage of this, but I’m also glad to know how to take the city bus, too.

The video is of Lauren reading Chinese! And one of the photos is of Lauren, the principal, Teacher Linda, the principal's son, and us. Lauren REALLY likes her school so far and the Chinese language isn’t bothering her. She's doing so well there, it's SCARY! I'm waiting for something bad to happen! I’m thinking that the reason why Lauren has been OK with all the Chinese is because she’s in her own imaginative world and thinks Chinese is some kind of special language in her alternative universe! But, according to her teacher, she seems eager, raises her hand often, and seems happy. Lauren’s school goes from 8-12 and I’ve also enrolled her in the after school program. The after school program really IS a program--they actually try to teach the children something, unlike my day care in SC! AND, the after school teachers help with homework, which is great, since it's in Chinese! Luke is in a Chinese-language day care named Haw-Sheng, a Christian school. Many NCCU faculty use this school, and supposedly this place has a long established reputation, and they’ve worked with international students. Plus, the price was very reasonable! My other option was the Taipei New Zealand School. This school is REALLY excellent and very impressive, but it’s very expensive! The enrollment fee is over $1000 USD! I may have considered it if we were to be here for an entire year, but for 4 months, I thought it was a bit too much! The day care also expects us to buy bowls and utensils from them, and bring them back and forth, so again, the emphasis against waste. I think this is a GREAT concept! And I've been remembering to bring a tote bag everywhere so I don't have to use plastic bags!

Next up...our first performing gig at NCCU, Autumn Moon Festival, and John's visit to Taipei National University of the Arts...

Apartment, Trash, and Trains

2008-09-09T08:19:00.001-07:00

John and I do not start teaching until the middle of September, but Lauren has already started school and so far she likes it! Luke has started his day care, and I will write more about that later…stay tuned…

The pictures are of our apartment—the inside of it and the front of our building. The one of the street is nearby our place, so you can get an idea of our living environment. As you can see, it’s QUITE DIFFERENT from Clemson!

Our major order of business when we arrived to our apartment was SHOPPING. We needed linens, pots and pans, dishes, trash cans, toilet paper, hand soap, FOOD, etc.! Greg, a Ph.D student from the education department at National Chengchi University (NCCU), was assigned to help us! Greg is Filipino, but he reminds me of my brothers in that he can speak Mandarin like a Chinese native and English like an American. He showed us how to take the bus, and Luke had the time of his life—he had a mini-tantrum when we had to get off! Greg took us to the mother of all stores in Taipei, a place called Carrefour. This store is like a super Wal-Mart on CRACK. It had EVERYTHING, including a food court from hell! The escalators are flat so you can take your shopping carts with you! It was INSANE, I’m telling you! But, in contrast to Wal-Mart, the food selection was of high quality, and the meat and fish looked unbelievably good.

After this completely over-stimulating adventure (the annoyingly loud music at Carrefour was driving John and me crazy—it kept playing this melody over and over again, and it sounded like poorly-written Mozart, and it was super-crowded), an administrative assistant at National Chengchi University, Linda, and her family took us out to a Thai restaurant. It was such a relief to have someone else order all the food, and the meal was awesome! Linda’s son, K.C., mostly spoke with us since he had the best English. He will graduate from high school in 2009 and his plans are to attend a university in the United States. K.C. told us he attends school from 8-5 and stays at the school studying until 9 pm, and this is a typical day for him. However, he seems to have also found time for other things--he’s travelled with friends to Europe, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the U.S. He just finished taking his major exams—I guess they’re the equivalent of our SATs, but these exams in Taiwan seem to be more of a dire type of situation. I’ve been hearing that in Taiwan, from middle school onward, students face tremendous pressure on these standardized tests—they pretty much determine their future FOREVER, and this is difficult for the parents as well. Julie Hu, the American woman married to the Taiwanese drama professor, raised 3 children in Taiwan, and she told me she could only handle the Taiwanese high school pressure once. Her oldest child, a daughter, went through the entire Taiwanese system and did very well, but it just about killed Julie. Her sons ended up going to high school in the U.S. and stayed with relatives—she couldn’t go through all that again!

Now I MUST write about the trash! In Taiwan, you cannot leave trash outside for pick-up or you will be fined. There is a set time for pick-up every night except Sundays and Wednesdays, and you have to listen for this obnoxiously loud music—that’s the signal that the trash truck is coming. This music reminds me of the ice cream truck. As soon as you hear it, you have to run outside with your trash and dump it into the truck. The trash people encourage you to recycle and to separate food from your trash—they actually have a special place for food, and they feed it to animals. There is usually someone from the neighborhood that grabs everyone’s recyclables for himself/herself so he/she can sell it! This trash pick-up turns out to be a community event! Everyone is outside at the same time, and I noticed people were socializing! Also, you get to see everyone in your neighborhood!

I also want to add, now that we're on the subject of trash and recycling, Taiwan is very pro-recycling. I noticed people here hate waste and try to make the most out of everything that's thrown away--note that they try to feed leftover food to animals. People are heavily encouraged to bring their own bags to shop, and if you need a bag from the store, you're charged a small amount for it. I've been trying to change my habits about this and now I'm bringing a tote bag everywhere so I don't have to ask for a bag!

The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) here is AWESOME!! It’s REALLY clean, convenient, and it goes both underground and above ground. John and I are living in Muzha, which is a suburb of Taipei. I guess you could compare it to living in Brooklyn and commuting to Manhattan. We’ve already used the bus and taken the MRT a few times, and I hope to be getting the hang of this soon!

Next up…my visit to the place where I will work, Lauren and Luke’s schools…..

Stomach Issues and Orientation

2008-09-06T08:21:00.000-07:00

We didn’t get off to a good start for our first breakfast in Taiwan—Luke threw up at the breakfast table! After returning to the hotel room, he threw up 2 more times. On top of that Lauren was also not feeling well and it looked like she was about to follow suit. Eventually both recovered and ended up okay. In spite of the stomach issues, we were able to sample the local cuisine. I’m finding that if you eat at the totally local places that are completely non-westernized, you get better food and prices. The only problem is that these places are completely Chinese with Chinese-language menus. My only saving grace is to find places that have a couple of pictures of their food, and I can usually go from there. The deals are incredible if you can survive the language barrier in these restaurants. We had a lunch for 4 that was under $10 USD and a dinner for 4 that was approximately $5 USD. These were not fancy places, but they served food that I love—dumplings and soup. I’m pretty terrible at ordering food, though. At one restaurant, John wanted a vegetarian meal, and I had NO IDEA how to articulate this. I ended up telling the waiter in Chinese that John did not want beef, did not want chicken, and pretty much named every animal I could think of. The waiter finally got it and John ended up with a seafood dish, which was perfectly fine with him.

Since John and I are Fulbrighters, we were required to participate in a 2-day orientation. The two people that I’ve had the most contact with from the Fulbright Scholarly Exchange (FSE) in Taiwan are Dr. Wu and Julie Hu. They have been incredibly helpful in getting us settled, clarifying our duties, suggesting schools for our children, etc. Dr. Wu has been the director of the FSE in Taiwan for almost 30 years. My big surprise at the orientation was the discovery that Julie Hu is white American woman. I felt racist, but the whole time I’ve been emailing her over the summer, I had pictured a Taiwanese person. It turns out she married a Taiwanese drama professor who graduated from Indiana University. This would explain why her emails were in perfect English. The first day of the orientation centered around logistics—how to get our Alien Resident Card (this made me think of the old Sigourney Weaver movies), how to get around Taipei, places to visit, etc. The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) also did a presentation and it turns out the AIT is an excellent resource for Americans in Taiwan—they help you do absentee voting, help with visas and passports, and do what they can to keep Americans safe. The second day focused on the Fulbrighters learning about each other and getting to know one another. I was VERY impressed with the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants (ETAs). The ETAs are recently graduated students who are assigned to help teach English to elementary, junior, and high school students. These kids are first-rate, articulate, warm, and extremely bright. Virtually all of them had studied abroad at some point during their undergraduate career. I’ve really enjoyed talking with them and getting to know them. Everyone, including John and me, had to introduce ourselves and talk about our projects. I honestly do not enjoy doing this kind of thing, but I think I did OK! John did a fantastic job! He is a very quiet person, but when he’s given the floor, he always shines! Even Dr. Wu commented on how quiet John is, but when he’s in front of people, he could tell that John enjoys the spotlight!

During the orientation, other Fulbrighters who have been lecturing here gave us some excellent tips in dealing with Taiwanese students. The prevailing conclusion is that Taiwanese students always have an expressionless blank stare and that we should not take this personally. Supposedly this is a defense mechanism—they want to attract as little attention to themselves as possible and hate being put on the spot. Taiwanese students also do not enjoy debating or having to consider many answers for one question. They prefer some kind of resolution and they need to have one right answer. They also feel very uncomfortable critiquing each other and despise any kind of situation that involves conflict or confrontation. And this I found amusing—many times if you give them a good grade, they will tell you that you graded too leniently and did not deserve that grade. THIS WOULD NEVER HAPPEN IN THE U.S.! As you may know, many students in the U.S.have delusions of adequacy! Another thing I found endearing—Taiwanese students adore their professors and want to be close to them. It’s completely acceptable for professors to eat lunch with students, and supposedly students sincerely care about their professors and truly want to get to know them.

As you can see, one of the pictures is a map of the United States. During the orientation, Dr. Wu wanted each of us to tell everyone where we’re from and where we are now. The red stars represent where we’re from, the yellow stars represent our present institutions. As you can see, I was the only representative from Missouri and South Carolina!

Children were welcome to the orientation, but this was definitely an adult activity. Lauren and Luke rose to the occasion behaved superbly. They basically stayed in another room and various people would help watch them. I also brought a ton of videos for them to watch—they’ve definitely had enough of Charlotte’s Web! Luke finally redeemed himself after putting me through the ringer during the past week! He still has his moments and is still the king of drama, but at least he didn't completely humiliate me at the orientation! The end of the first day of orientation concluded with a nice reception and the second day concluded with a wonderful dinner at a restaurant in the 44th floor of a building. The view was phenomenal, but I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I could have since Luke was running wildly about and Lauren was narcoleptic...

Next stop….moving into our apartment…..

We're in Taipei, Taiwan!

2008-09-03T06:24:00.000-07:00

We’re here!!
We arrived safely in Taipei! It was a LONG plane ride—we flew from Greenville-Spartanburg to Newark, where we had a 4-hour layover. The flight out of Newark to Taipei was supposed to be at 11 pm, and it was delayed about an hour. This was especially problematic because our son, Luke, was pretty cranky at the Newark airport. In fact, he was pretty cranky a LOT of the trip, and STILL IS! He’s completely exhausted and jet-lagged. He won’t sleep when we want him to, and he sleeps when we don’t want him to! As I’ve told many of our friends, when he’s great, he’s great, but when he’s bad, well, let’s just say I wonder if he has 3 sixes hidden on his head! On top of that, ever since he was born he’s had an Oedipus Complex (we call him “Ed” for short), so he’s been especially draining! Lauren did extremely well—occasional whininess and moodiness, but outside of that she was pretty awesome.

Fion, a college student, met us at the airport. She’s extremely pleasant, speaks English well, and has already offered to baby sit our kids during the Fulbright orientation.

My first miscalculation was an ATM withdrawal at the Taipei airport. For some stupid reason, I expected the ATM to show everything in USD, but of course, everything showed up in NTs (Taiwan dollars). Since there was a line behind me, I choked and withdrew $500. I thought to myself, “surely $500 will be enough for a while,” and after I was finished I actually figured it out and realized I only had about $15 USD. Our second mistake was that we left John’s large suitcase of clothes at the airport! We didn’t even realize this until we were at our National Chengchi University (NCCU) apartment, after a 1-hour van ride.

The original plan was to go straight to the hotel and stay there until Sunday—after Sunday we’d move into our apartment. The Fulbright orientation is close to the hotel, so we were advised to stay there until the orientation. During our van ride to the hotel the plans changed—we would instead go straight to our apartment, unload some luggage, and then go back to the hotel. John and I were in favor of this idea because we were very curious to see the apartment. It turns out the apartment is really nice! It’s a recently renovated 3 BR 2 BA with a nice kitchen and very conveniently located. We have a 32-inch LCD television with HBO, Cinemax, CNN, ESPN (this is especially important since we want to keep track of the Green Bay Packers and the Georgia Bulldogs), and wireless Internet access. We’re really looking forward to urban living and taking public transportation—this lifestyle will be drastically different from our situation in Clemson, SC! But I’ve always wanted to experience this kind of living and I’m thrilled to be able to walk everywhere and not have to use a car. While I was retrieving our left luggage at the airport, John was able to check out NCCU and Lauren’s elementary school, and he was really impressed. The elementary school is an experimental school that’s associated with NCCU and is supposed to one of the best in Taipei. We’ll soon check out day care options for Luke, which are also supposedly excellent.

My main concern at this point is my commute to Chinese Culture University. NCCU is our home base since they are providing housing and schooling for Lauren. However, my teaching duties are at Chinese Culture University, which I just found out is over a 90-minute commute! I knew it would be long, but I was hoping for about an hour. I don’t have to go there every day, fortunately, but I didn’t know it would be that long! Oh, well, welcome to city living! I’ve been acclimated small-town living for the past 10 years, I have to keep telling myself people who live in big cities do this all the time.

My other concern is cash. Not lack of cash, but carrying SO MUCH. The Fulbright foundation here pays us completely in cash. When we arrived, Fion immediately gave us about $60,000 NT (ca. $2,000) in white envelopes. A former Taiwan Fulbrighter, John Labadie, told me that when you get these envelopes, you feel like you’re committing a drug deal, and he was completely right! People who know me well know that I rarely carry cash because I lose everything all the time! My colleagues at Clemson University laugh at me because I lock myself out of my office at least once a week.

The climate has been mild—mostly cloudy and rainy. My Chinese is pretty limited, but I’ve already found some of coming back to me. It’s amazing—when you’re forced to do something, your brain finds a way to survive! But when I ordered dinner this evening, I was VERY lame…..