भाषा प्रशस्ता सुमनो लतेव केषाम्न चेतांस्यावर्जयति।

DISCLAIMER: Might be a little boring...

I may have mentioned before that where I am living, people speak Cantonese. Cantonese, or 广东话 = Guǎngdōng huà is VERY different than Pǔtōnghuà which is the 拼音, (or Pīnyīn) for Mandarin Chinese (or Common people's language). I know I cannot do justice to explaining the language differences and comparing them to something we’re all familiar with, but basically Cantonese is not just like a dialect of Mandarin, but actually like a different language (in you ask me).

When people speak Russian I can pretty much understand what they are saying because I speak Polish and although Polish uses the Latin alphabet (with some additions) and Russian uses Cyrillic, both are part of the Indo-European language family and in the Slavic group (Russian is East Slavic and Polish is West Slavic). In essence, this is NOT how the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin can be explained. Mandarin speakers, if never previously exposed to Cantonese, cannot understand Guǎngdōng huà. Note that the word"Cantonese" translated into Chinese means language of GuangDong or something like that (this is my own translation; don’t take my word for it). Wikipedia states that Cantonese is a “prestige dialect”, not a different language. The only reason I can think why is because it is spoken in China and it is not the language most Chinese speak (even thought it does create language barriers because the two are so different, spoken and written). I hope I didn’t confuse you there…

Henceforth, shopping and speaking with people here is a challenge because some ONLY speak Cantonese and some speak Mandarin. I have made friends with a lady in the market who sells me vegetables and she asks me if I speak Chinese (I can understand that) and we communicate with hands, smiles and me saying “I don’t speak Chinese” or “I don’t understand” or “no”. When Chinese people are around me I’m spoiled because I rely on them, but when I’m by myself (shopping or getting food) I can pretty much get my point across, and kind of figure out what they’re saying. In the event that a person who speaks Chinese is with me, I shut up. For example, two days ago a few of us went to dinner and then went walking around Beijiao. I saw something I wanted to buy and started talking to the lady, but then relied on Alex (who speaks Chinese) to help me bargain, although I know I could have done it myself… I was embarrassed in front of a native Chinese speaker. That’s why it helps to be drunk, because then words flow out of your mouth even if they’re wrong (for example one time after the club I was screaming “Wǒài zhōngguó” outside…look it up and learn something hehehhe)

In any attempt, I’m going to try to learn some Cantonese too (because Скільки мов ти знаєш - стільки разів ти людина).

The point of this post was to talk about something I’ve noticed lately… just HOW difficult Chinese is. This is NOT my excuse by any means, but I wanted to point out some things. There are about 47,000 Chinese characters, but a fully literate Chinese person knows between three and four thousand only! “Only”, you ask? Yes only in comparison to the almost 50,000 characters there are available! I think I only know ONE. Equally important, people here use the computer or their cell phone to figure out characters for a word or phrase. For example, they start writing a word with the Roman alphabet, then pinyin options come up (with many different tones) then they click on the word they are looking for in pinyin and the Chinese characters pop up! This is how all my coworkers write, because obviously there ARE NO Chinese characters on keyboards (or are there and I just don’t know about it?) I’m not talking about a few characters on your laptop keys, but I mean a full keyboard of Chinese characters.

Subsequently, pronunciation of words also leads to misunderstandings. A different tone could make a world of a difference. The four tones are: ā á ǎ à and even a (ahhh how is this different than the first tone?!? So confusing). Not only are the tones confusing for NON NATIVE speakers, but as is the vocabulary (even for native speakers). For example, yesterday I had dinner with two Chinese friends. One said something in Chinese and the other could not understand. So he kept repeating and repeating and slowly repeating again… until finally my other friend figured it out and said another word, which I’m assuming just means the same thing! So as you can see, misunderstanding people and mispronouncing things is very common here. To be more concise, a mispronunciation could just be a way you’d pronounce something in your hometown or in your province, and the person you’re speaking to does not say it that way, or it sounds a little different.

What I don’t understand is that while to me, two phrases (pronounced differently) can sound VERY similar and almost the same, but to a Chinese person, they understand what the heck the other person is saying because it’s not pronounced EXACTLY as they pronounce it… You’d think people with so many tones would have their ears and brain trained to be super flexible, but I guess you have to get it JUST RIGHT to communicate fluidly (for example if I said I love you without any tones, using all flat tones instead of Wǒ ài nǐ [there are two DIFFERENT tones here] people wouldn’t understand me… at least MOST Chinese speakers wouldn’t). I, on the other hand, understand when people mispronounce and butcher the hell out of English… and the other languages I speak fluently. This happens mostly when people TRY to speak Polish to me, which is one of the hardest languages to pronounce for native English speakers.

Chodzi mi o to, aby język giętki

Powiedział wszystko, co pomyśli głowa:

A czasem był jak piorun jasny, prędki,

A czasem smutny jako pieśń stepowa,

A czasem jako skarga nimfy miętki,

A czasem piękny jak aniołów mowa...

Aby przeleciał wszystka ducha skrzydłem.

- Juliusz Słowacki

La Curita

Hoy te quiero más
Y te olvido menos
Apenas te fuiste
Y estoy desecho
Mi cielo se nubla
Cuando no te tengo...

Devuélveme tu amor aunque sea unas horas

Y hoy mi corazón de este mundo loco no encuentra salida
y tú

tienes la curita de mi herida

Esta situación se pone muy grave,
mi corazoncito está vulnerable,
y a mí ya no me importa quién era el culpable.

Desde tu partida aquí hay un vacío,
y en este verano sin el calor de tus besos siento frío.

...porque mi melancolía merece bachata.

Brief Summary and Countdown Begins: SEVEN Days

CAUTION: I realize I tend to be loquacious at times (to say the least), but this blog post will be a salient summary of my accounts in China thus far.

Lately I've been feeling homesick one minute, then totally happy and content with being here the next. When I feel most homesick is when I'm tired, groggy, lazy... and I guess simply parochial. It's difficult to not be close or narrow minded at times, when there are so many aspects of China that purely disgust me. Let's review what they are:

Nasty men showing their stomachs

Putrid smells of people who don't bother to shower, or stinky tofu on the street

Asinine comments from ugly ass men and boys on the streets, including "Hallllooo!", as if you speak English anyway, you pig

Obnoxious, spoiled children who believe they have a right to yell up and down the hall at 8AM

Crying babies. I don't have a child right now for a reason (well MANY reasons, but one being I don't want to hear crying 24/7) So to my neighbor- close your door, play with your baby, feed it, change it, do WHATEVER it takes to shut them up.

Crowds, especially in the metro and downtown Beijiao where I live

The stupid, loud music the stores blare to get attention of customers. It's a mix of techno, dance music, jumbled fast tracks... I will have to make a video of this so everyone can see for themselves

Shampoos, beauty product selection.

The customer service (To demonstrate... yesterday Lily and I went to get ice cream and I ordered something with melon ice cream. The waitress brought me vanilla or something and Lily told her it was the wrong one. The waitress said "we don't have melon" and I told her to take it back. Then we waited for the next waitress to come to us, and lo and behold, THEY HAD MELON ICE CREAM. Lazy asses. I've noticed Chinese people, in general, don't like to own up to their mistakes, instead they ignore you (ahem Audre) or simply lie... but they're NEVER wrong. With this said, I can't generalize for ALL Chinese, but I will say this has been the case with many people I've (and my friends) dealt with.

"Exotic objects of intense curiosity" That's me. [Even though in the US, people tend to be curious of what nationality I am... big eyes, dark long hair, dark skin ("Are you mixed?" I've been asked before, no joke. I take that as a huge compliment, yea it was in the middle of the summer when I laid out on The Terrace all day, but so what?) Here it's staring with some sort of fascination, not checking out like the typical stares I get in Madison (I do not mean people stare because I'm so hot, don't misunderstand me hahahahha. I mean because when people in Madison DO stare, it's because of your looks... could be good OR bad). Sometimes I'd like just to walk through somewhere without people looking at me or taking pictures!]

The aforementioned list makes me sound like a complete b!tch, I know... but no one can say that unless they have lived in the outskirts of a big city, in a town that consists of factories, housing, some restaurants, and mostly pollution and filth (oh and did I mention rats and cockroaches at night in the market are next to my apartment?)

Equally important, though, are the things I absolutely LOVE about the Middle Kingdom and henceforth, will miss when I leave

Fat babies (albeit loud, the baby who lives across the hall from me is so fat, it's hard not to smile when I see him)

Food (I am becoming a pretty good cook. I'll even take credit for teaching Audre how to make my FAMOUS tofu yesterday which turned out delicious) but I love some of the food here: hot pot, DongBei, Sichuan food, cheap beer, EVERYTHING spicy... YUM I'll stop because my mouth is already watering

Prices for certain things. Everyday I go to the market after work and buy myself a great dinner AND a beer (most of the time) and all in all, it costs less than $3. Chinese things are also pretty cheap

Shopping (this can either be placed on the HATE list, or LOVE list) because some things are so cheap and easily found here. Conversely, it's hard to find Western-like clothes that you can try on and fit, AND are not WAY OVERLY priced... I will put it on the LOVE side though because I've already bought bags and bags of random things here.

I believe the good outweighs the bad, but some things I don't think I'll ever be able to get used to... like the way of doing certain business, hierarchy and miscommunication (or lack of it) and all the spitting.

On another note (a much lighter note for that matter) my sister is coming to CHINA! I cannot believe she will be here and will get to experience everything I have been going through since I've been here (well we will only be in my town for about two days, but still). I don't want to be over zealous, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna cry when I pick her up at the airport in Shanghai. It will be a shock and a comfort I've been missing for about five months now! I won't mention all the plans we have for traveling at this point in time, but I will say we should be hitting up more than 6 different cities ALL over China... one which I am particularly excited about because it is VERY different than "typical" Chinese. I don't want to jinx anything and the timing will be crunched already, so we shall see. I am a little nervous about the Chinese trains though, because yesterday when I bought my tickets to Shanghai, my friend told me I will find the train "annoying" and that there are standing tickets. Ummmmm standing for 20 hours or more on a train? Apparently so. Nevertheless, I am ecstatic about seeing my sister and traveling and meeting people... By this time next week, I will happily be in Shanghai (hopefully... who knows with Chinese manufacturing and people), nothing can be too organized though.

Finance English Competition

REMINDER: Write your blog posts more often and closer to when what you're writing about happens. Luckily, work is pretty easy this week so I have time to think and write blog posts (that's why this is my third post in two days). Before I went to Taipei, I was asked to judge an English competition for all the people who work for Midea's finance department. Audre was supposed to judge it with me, but she actually had to go to Hong Kong at the time. I was the only foreign person there, so that was cool, and I also met the VP of Midea and some other important people. I didn't sit alone, luckily, because the Director of Finance for Midea, Jimmy, sat next to me and we talked about the US and such... he lived in Texas for two years while working for our company, and also has a house there as an investment he says. The English competition was interesting to say the least. Basically, anyone who wanted to participate in it was able to, as long as they were part of the finance department in their division. I was one of the judges along with some other people who work for Midea Group who speak English pretty well. They left most of the questions at the end of the presentations up to me because I was the designated foreigner... hehehe. The only way I would participate in this competition if I were an employee was if I got a huge check if I won...and I'm pretty sure they got a good amount of money for Chinese standards, because I got money for judging it!

The competition went like this: Each person had an allotted amount of time to present something in English, not necessarily having to do with finance. I think about three people spoke on financial issues, three spoke about managing stress, and four spoke about Chinese Fever. When I first heard the presentation about Chinese Fever I was very confused... basically it was a lot of talking about why people are learning the Chinese language, are learning about China, visiting China etc etc. It was pretty straight-forward and conceited if you ask me, but then I realized that this will get that person high scores from the Chinese judges... Moreover, I realized I have Chinese fever! Well I did... just kidding! I am still very much interested in China and everything having to do with Chinese business, exporting and importing, culture, people, the language and so on and so forth. Besides, the girl who presented on this topic spoke English well and she was actually from my division (Dishwasher) and she drove me to the competition. She ended up winning first place, although I gave the highest score to this guy who later told me he studied in the US for a few years... and I guess I could sense it! I thought his English was great, but presentation wasn't so great. Kinda boring actually. Another person who spoke was really funny. He had just graduated college and was an intern at Midea. Oh poor little guy, his eyes were glazed and he had that naivety about him... it was adorable, but wait until he actually gets into the work force and reality hits. He spoke about how he loves Midea and will work so hard for it, and how this is his dream and paying back college loans...blah blah blah. At least he was entertaining and corny. I don't think people in the US would fall for this. Sadly, I think he was totally serious when he presented, but I thought it was just really funny and fake (if I had heard it in the US).

Many people spoke about how to handle stress at work, and how it should be a driving force as well (that should make the bosses happy AFTER people said work takes up so much time, is stressful, etc). I think the main reasoning for this stress talk was the Foxconn suicides. I didn't hear about this before the competition, as I have no TV or radio, but I just read more about it and it's actually kind of freaky. I have been speaking about Chinese workers working so much and being so diligent... so this was very close to home. I think I will have to do more research for myself about the work atmosphere in China and in big companies. To read more about this, google Foxconn suicides
Thus far, I have written in my blog about people working over time and spending many waking hours at work, but I have no idea how much stress and pressure people are under here. This is something I will have to conduct some interviews about. I'll ask my Chinese friends.

China Land

I wanted to write another blog post to make up what I have not been writing lately. I'm actually not THAT busy, but I kind of am. My average days look like this: I wake up around 10 30am and get ready for work. Usually I just wear nice pants and a nice top, but sometimes I'm lazy and I wear nice pants and a cotton shirt from Express or something of that sort... not too impressive. Some people at work wear stylish business clothing, while others wear black gym shoes and a shirt with some kind of pants (we can only wear jeans on Saturdays, and I don't work on Saturdays...I hate wearing jeans anyway!) Since my office is in the HR department no one really cares what we look like because we deal with the inter-workings of the company...only when my co-workers have to do presentations or we have an event, that they wear more office style apparel. Nevertheless I always have to look presentable because I teach my co-workers and other members of the company at night. If I looked like a messy 23 year old they might respect me less, or not at all even. During work I prepare lessons and do random things and then leave at 5 30 or 6pm. I either walk or get a ride to where I teach (not always in the same place, sometimes I teach in a conference room in the same building I work in). Lately walking to work has been a huge pain because it's 95 degrees outside and it takes me a little more than 30 minutes, so by the time I get to work I'm VERY ready to sit down at my desk and enjoy the air conditioning and the fan which I put directly behind me. I also always have my AC on at home, but some of my neighbors don't...they just open their door and create a breeze which is a HUGE pain in the #$% for me because I hear babies crying and kids screaming all the time.

For those of you who read my facebook updates, you've probably seen that I live across from an annoying baby who literally cries from morning till night, and better yet, a few doors down there is a rambunctious boy who runs up and down the hall in the morning screaming on the top of his lungs (when I still could have 2 more hours of sleep) The first time this little brat woke me up, I went outside and told him to "SHHHHH!!!" One time I angrily came out my room and went straight to his mom and started speaking to her in English with an attitude... I wonder what she thinks of me. I asked Lily what my options were and she called the management and they gave her the security's number. So now whenever the kid wakes me up I have to call Lily and she then calls security for me... how convenient for the both of us. Audre uses ear plugs when she sleeps and although this isn't something I want to get used to, I need them too, so I bought some in Taiwan. I am going to recommend ear plugs to all my students who have complained to me about annoying neighbors because these babies really work! I mean when I put them in, I feel as if the whole world goes silent! The bad thing is two days ago I think one fell out and that little shit woke me up AGAIN, so I went outside and was super pissed and yelled at him and his mother... I do feel kind of bad, but come on, EVERYONE here works so he needs to shut the %^&* up! Lily told me that she will come with me to speak with his mother next time this happens, but what is the mother going to do? Tell her brat ass son to shut up? Like that will help. Sadly, China has made me hate a lot of things that I used to love, like chubby little babies (well I don't hate them, but I've come to dislike the ones that cry all the time, like those who live across the hall from me). I also don't fancy the stray dogs anymore, they just creep me out! I think I have post-vacation depression because Taiwan was too good, and now I'm back here! Hopefully I will snap out of it soon! I am beginning to think about my future after I am finished with China and the Guangzhou area, and I am thinking of going to the US to take some tests for Grad school and applying to schools, then coming back to Asia (South Korea specifically) to teach for another year... who knows though? Because I don't!

I'm in a pretty good mood today because 1) it's Audre's birthday so all of us are going to Serena's and drinking and cooking and complaining about life in China (hahah I had to sneak that in!) and 2) I haven't had to teach for the past 2 days and don't have to tonight either since it's the middle of the 4 month term. I have been feeling pretty bitter and down lately because as I said, Taiwan was too good, and also because when I came back from my vacation Lily told me my boss was angry that I went to Taiwan for so long. Oh come on! Now I think of this as COMPLETE bull%#@. I told and asked my supervisor if it would be ok, and now suddenly when I come back there is a problem? I've talked and complained about this with Audre and she has her own issues with work, so mine aren't even that bad, but I just can't stand the Chinese way of doing certain things. Actually my friend in South Korea told me that he has definitely had similar problems with work... he thinks it's just a Confucianism thing! Audre says they solve problems by just letting things be... I'm not sure if that's exactly what she said but something like that. Lily told me my director was mad, but when my supervisor was talking to me about my vacation when my sister is coming, she just said she'd have to ask the director for permission and it might be difficult. I am going on this Chinese vacation no matter what! Hellloooo! I told them so long ago, get real people. Unlike Chinese people, I do not live to work. I do not work overtime because they ask me to and I definitely do not miss out on a once in a lifetime (probably) opportunity for a job that I will only have for one year... and that is the difference between me and Chinese people. I don't fell like I owe the company anything... it's not like they pay me thousands of dollars and stuff... I'm just being serious here. I came to China to travel and experience the culture, not just to work. I don't know if I'm being over dramatic here, because an issue with the Chinese business culture for me is the lack of communication and transparency. Actually I was reading in a book about Chinese business, and it is immensely different than the way the US does business. It's like my director can tell my manager something, then my supervisor will not know and neither will I. Or my supervisor can know one thing but NEVER tell me. Or my director can just keep something to himself, and so much information gets lost. For example, I wanted to get shots while I was in Hong Kong to be safe, and so I asked my supervisor, Kelly, if I could. She told me that I should wait until my company takes a trip to some really good hospital nearby and I could get them then. Two weeks ago Lily said, "Oh I forgot to tell you! Kelly said you could get your shots somewhere around here and they would reimburse you!" Great. Why in the world did I not know about this earlier, and better yet why didn't Kelly just tell ME? Lily doesn't even work in my division, she's just a friend of mine and my student! I still have to ask Kelly about this and see what she says. It's little things like this that I find annoying.

Taiwan

This blog post will mostly be about Taiwan because I forget what I wanted to write about BEFORE I went on this trip... but I would like to mention something before I begin and that is homesickness. There really is no place like home: I miss my friends more and more and I really miss things about Western life such as the way people confront each other, the way people find it rude to stare, the way nasty guys DO NOT pull up their shirts and show their gross bellies when it's hot (as you can see, I am growing a minor bitterness towards China...which is sad because the area I live in is pretty bad, so I can't consider all of China like this). I do't want to be that person, but honestly after Taiwan, I remember what the Western world looks and acts like, and I really miss it. It doesn't help that Guangdong (where I live) is known to be different than the rest of China in certain ways-- food and men (they're known to be ugly here while northerners are supposedly much better looking...) Audre and I were talking about this and she felt like this when she came back from Hong Kong... we got a little taste of civilization and now we want to go back to it. It's really sad but true, that in the airport I had an experience that proved to me China was different, and I was going back to it... In Taipei airport I was walking around before my flight. I went to the nice boutiques, looked at perfume and makeup and beauty products, then decided to go to my gate: D1. D1 was all the way at the end of the terminal and even down the stairs... as soon as I stepped down I heard a man hawking up nasty spit and aiming for the garbage. I heard a group of people screaming at each other when they were right next to the other person. I saw little kids running around and yelling. I heard a baby crying. At this point I remembered what it was like to be in China... and my level of happiness dropped MANY many MANY bars. I first sat down next to a group of people, then had to move because they were too loud and obnoxious. The best part is that the plane was delayed and when the airline started asking people to line up... EVERYONE got up. It didn't matter that they said rows 40-60 or people with small children... EVERYONE just decided it was time for them to line up. The lady working at the airport tried to control people, but it's pretty difficult to control more than a hundred people talking loudly... Lastly, surprisingly someone took a picture of me. I say surprisingly because I was still in Taipei...come on just give me a break! There are many more white people in Taipei than in China, so why are you taking a fucking picture of me at the airport while I am patiently waiting? That was the last straw and I think the straw that broke the camel's back, because now I am getting easily irritated with everything having to do with the ignorance of China as well as the lack of manners and respect. Awww civilization... Now I see why the gate was down the stairs...because the Taiwanese wanted to hide certain Chinese people from the rest of the normal community... hehehhehe

I must admit, I really expected Hong Kong to be what Taiwan was... great fashion, people lining up on the right side of escalators and letting others walk by on the left, lines waiting to get into the metro instead of everyone just pushing each other before people exited the train... this was the life and something that really made me appreciate Taipei! What I didn't like was that things there were SIGNIFICANTLY more expensive than in China... the first night cost me NT$1000, which is around 250 Yuan and $50 I guess. I didn't want to spend too much because the plane ticket to Taipei was SUPER expensive and I want to save money for when my sister comes to visit (which is in exactly 2 weeks!) I actually met up with Josie on Thursday and we went back to her parents' house in DongGuan and swam in a pool, went to dinner, and got foot massages! It was amazing and so relaxing...and a much needed break from Beijiao. We ate at a Thai restaurant and I had the best coconut drink thus far! It had pieces of jelly coconut or something...whatever it was, it was delicious! The next day Josie and I went to buy some illegal DVDs with her dad (I bought a few DVDs as well as a concert of Beyonce I think) and then we were off to the salon! We got our hair washed and massaged and our nails done! I painted my toes bright purple and Josie got a French mani. I'm not sure if I've ever written about the hair washing they have in China, but if not, allow me... basically you can get your hair washed at a salon, but they don't only wash your hair, they massage your scalp and neck and wash your hair around three times! It's so relaxing and a great experience because they DO NOT do this in the US, even if you pay $150 to get your hair done! First the girl at the salon washed my hair very carefully and massaged my scalp for about 20 minutes. Afterwards, she conditioned my hair and I got a coconut milk conditioning mask put on. While this was happening, some other girl was massaging my feet and painting my toes. After the coconut treatment for my hair, the girl massaged my neck and shoulders (which felt amazing because my muscles are ALWAYS tight in this area). She then moved on to massaging my arms and legs... and then I was almost finished! After she rinsed everything from my hair and wrapped it in a towel, I went to see a guy who would style my hair. Josie and I decided that I wanted curls and that was exactly what I got! It turned out great and it smelled great, and my toes looked ready for open toe heels. We then proceeded to have lunch with someone who worked with Josie's mom and he was super funny and lunch was also good (I was still full from breakfast because we went to a Dim Sum place and I tried chicken feet. I thought they weren't good and it was probably because I knew what I was eating... Josie likes them though!)

Later we got ready to go to the airport and Josie was freaking out because she didn't want to miss the flight, but we got there on time, got on the plane and flew to Taiwan. It's a little difficult to explain the dynamics between China and Taiwan because everyone has their own opinions on the subject (this means Chinese people versus Taiwanese people, old people versus younger people). When I asked Josie about it, she said something different than her friend Yvette, and something different than what Lily told me... but it makes sense because everyone has their own view on the subject of independence of Taiwan from China. On Josie's passport it says Republic of China and the Chinese passport says People's Republic of China...so that is a slight difference, but the way Lily explained to me is that Taiwan is under China and if anything ever happened with Taiwan, the Chinese government would come to their aide. Josie on the other hand said that Taiwan has it's own government and does not like to be associated under China... I asked why it was not considered independent and she said it was because Taiwan does not want to start trouble with China... this just confuses me because some Taiwanese want to be independent of China, while some do not... it's a little similar to the situation with Hong Kong. If Taiwan did ever start a war on independence... parts of China like Tibet and northwest China would also want independence...and it seems as if parts of China would fall apart, so the Chinese government cannot let that happen. In a book I read they said "Taiwan is as likely to become independent as Native Americans will get the United States land back from the US government"... or something like that.

Actually, the government from China escaped to Taiwan and set up their own government there after they lost the Chinese Civil War to the Chinese Communists (but the Republic of China government [now known as the Taiwanese government] got Taiwan because Japan lost it in WWII). Josie said something interesting... that Hong Kong should actually belong to the Taiwanese government because when the British got it after the Opium Wars (I wrote about this remember?), the Communist Party was not in existence, so the ROC (the Taiwanese government) really should own it. So complicated!

Anyway, our first night in Taipei we went out to a club called Luxy. It was very expensive but really fun. They had 3 dance floors and three DJs. One played hip hop (the biggest one), one played techno like music, and then there was an area upstairs for rave/alternative music for people on drugs. Not joking. Everyone was swaying like they were on some kind of substance. With the entry fee of NT$600 we got 2 free drinks which were not strong at all. We left the club went went to the 7 11 and got Johnny Walker and chugged it outside along with a chicken oil substance that is supposed to prevent hangovers (Josie's friend John suggested it. It was not good at all, and I don't think it REALLY worked, but oh well) We partied till the morning (around 4am) and then walked back to Josie's place. The next day we walked around downtown Taipei and went to the mall. It's very interesting because Taipei has about seven huge shopping malls that all have the same stores: Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, Ferragamo... I don't really understand why one city needs so many of the same stores but Josie said Taiwanese people love to shop and some have a ton of money to do it... so it works! I was also introduced to a new Japanese store that I think I will shop at when I style my future condo... but I won't mention it here because I don't want people to steal my designs...hehehehe... Taipei had a lot of boutiques and stores with interesting and cool furniture and gadgets, so if I go back before I set up a new apartment, I think I will import some things from there... one of a kind and NO ONE in the US would have them! I always wanted different rooms in my future houses to have artifacts of all the places I have traveled... and I can just imagine all the crazy things I will buy when I go to the Middle East and Africa... actually China has some great pieces as well... very oriental and full of Jade (different than Taipei) Anyway we saw Taipei 101 but did not go up to the top and went to sleep pretty early because Josie had driving lessons in the morning and I was NOT going to go out by myself.

The next day was the 4th of July so I wore a white tank top with a blue and red skirt... We went to a small waterpark adn hung out in the pool, then we continued on to a market where they have tons of street food and little clothing shops. The stores were really nice, but I felt like I could find the same things in China for cheaper than buying than in Taiwan, so I didn't really get anything besides food! I tried some local Taiwanese food as well as a huge waffle cone filled with ice cream, fruit, and thick whipped cream which was sooo good, but I'm guessing also very fattening! I ate the WHOLE thing by myself! We actually didn't do anything to clebrate the 4th which made me a little sad, but Josie was tired early for some reason and I didn't know anyone else in Taipei so I had no choice but to go home earlyyyy. Waaa! Oh yea, in Taipei the metro is called the MRT, not the MTR or subway, and you have to look at your destination and see how much you need to buy a token for. The lowest price is NT$20, which is more expensive than in Guangzhou, but the taxis are cheaper in Taipei... around NT$150 for most places at night (you divide NT$ by 30 to get US $, and by 4 to get Yuan)

I guess the first few days that I was in Taipei were the hottest it's been for a few years there, but I didn't really mind it because I was used to the heat from China! We went to a small bar in the college area to use the internet and watch the Germany vs. Argentina game (ALL the bars either had a really high cover charge to get in, or they were all booked because I guess Taiwanese and foreigners in Taiwan LOVE soccer!) We spent a lot of time uploading pics on facebook in the bar because Josie's internet at home is really slow and sometimes doesn't work...and only one person can use it at a time. We met two Americans and a French guy there... that Josie would end up teaching Chinese to every week, who would in return teach her French (I joined them for their first lesson and it was pretty informative) Throughout the week we went to museums, to an old Taiwanese village (where everything looks like it did about 30 years ago in Taipei), to Sun-Yat Sen's old house, to the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, to the Taiwanese Museum, to the malls, to restaurants, to street vendors, to the park... actually in the park we were asked to put our clothes on because we were drinking and tanning in bathing suits, but I guess someone called security on us. The poor old security guard felt very awkward when he told us, in English, that some old men complained (it was me, Josie and John tanning). I also got to see some famous Taiwanese and Chinese actors... like the Taiwanese Johnny Depp (we went to his bar one night and he was actually there), some other Chinese guy whose career fell apart after pictures of him and other Chinese actresses doing dirty things leaked on the internet... Josie even had a small get together for a few of her friends for the Germany vs. Spain game... I fell asleep very early that night (well around 3AM, but the game ended at 4), so I guess people stayed over till then! In addition, I experienced my first earthquake EVER... I was sitting online very late and the building and apartment started swaying... at first I didn't know if it was just me being tired, but then I realized it was an actual earthquake. I felt the vibration and heard the teetering building. Josie was asleep at this time but the quake woke her up and we stood under a threshold and I had the feeling that earthquakes like this are very common in Taiwan! Josie said they were and she went back to sleep! It was pretty cool to actually feel a small earthquake..it felt weird knowing that the ground COULD just crack underneath me.

The last night in Taipei Josie and I and Antoine (the French guy) went to a really nice bar (Barcode) where there were a ton of foreign people... Antoine talked to some French guy who was an alum of the school he's going to and this guy was half Senegalese and half French! COOL! I think I need to go to France because a lot of north Africans go there, and I want to see what it is like. After a short lesson with Antoine before the soccer game that one night, I realized I really need to spend some time in France... it's so ME! I want to learn more about their culture, fashion, politics... and Paris would be a perfect city... expect maybe for the stuck up French I hear so much about. Nevertheless, all this traveling has made me want to travel more, especially to certain countries in Western Europe and north Africa! I can't wait!

All in all, Taiwan was so great and a real breath of fresh Western air. It was pretty expensive but interesting because of Chinese, Western and Japanese influence. Josie was a great tour guide and really explained a lot to me... about the food, politics, people! Hopefully someday I will get to go back and then have time to go outside of Taipei to the south and the east, where supposedly the natural area is beautiful! I actually really miss beaches and if I had time I would go to Hainan with my sister, but instead we'll stay on the mainland and explore here... but I think in October I might go to Hainan for vacation! I miss beautiful beaches!