Christmas greetings from Taiwan! While you all are opening presents by the tree, my Christmas day is just about over. It was a good one! I had lunch at Chili's with some friends (a lot of my friends went home or elsewhere for the holidays, but some were still here). Someone suggested Chili's half jokingly when we were deciding what to do , but we ended up deciding on that. They import all their food from the U.S. so it's fairly expensive by Taiwan standards, but it was completely worth it since it is just like home. After our meal, which lasted several hours since we had several courses, we did some shopping and then went to look at the holiday lights around Taipei 101 (the downtown financial district). We even came upon a nativity scene surrounded by 45 different pictures depicting Jesus' life. Some of the (very simplistic) pictures were very amusing, and we could only imagine how accurate the Chinese captions were.
Charlie arrives in less than 48 hours. I can't wait! We're off to Kenting on New Year's day for a few days. Kenting is a beach town on the very southern tip of Taiwan. It is also a national park, so there's a lot to do. Other than that we'll be in and around Taipei.
Hope everyone had a great holiday! And, as always, check out my "Around Taipei" album for my new pictures from Christmas.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Wedding bells-Taiwanese style and Christmas festivities
It sure has been an eventful couple of weeks for me. The week before last I was sick with a cold I couldn’t get rid of. (As I believe I mentioned in an earlier post, many thanks to extreme changes in weather from one day to the next, as well as kids coming to school sick). So I finally went to the hospital to see a doctor. Health care is very good here and I went to the best hospital in the city, which also happens to be two subway stops from my apartment. The doctors speak English there, thank goodness. So I got myself checked in found where I was supposed to wait and had to wait about an hour for my appointment. The doctor was really good and understood everything I was talking about. He determined that I basically had a bad cold, but that it could get worse if I didn’t take couple days off of work. (So I took last Friday and Saturday off and basically did nothing but sit in bed. It really sucked, but I did finally get better.) He gave me a couple of prescriptions, too, which you pick up at a counter right at the hospital. In total, my doctor visit plus two prescriptions was just under $14US since I get Taiwan national health insurance through my job. I was pretty proud of myself for handling the hospital visit on my own and having no problems.
The Christmas festiveness has started, of course. So far I’ve been to two Christmas events. Some friends and I had a gift exchange last week. We all bought gifts under a certain amount and then did that game where you pick presents based on the number you pick and then you can steal other people’s presents. It was fun and I ended up with some pretty useful gifts. This weekend I went to a Christmas party at a restaurant/bar which was the company party for the school company a lot of my friends work for. It was pretty fancy (white linen table cloths, I’m not used to that anymore.) I had two huge platefuls of amazing western food…Turkey, warm cranberry sauce, potatoes, French bread, vegetables, etc. It was so good!
I also went to a wedding this weekend! My co-worker, Esther, had her wedding banquet which was so much fun! She has actually been technically married for a bit and she and her husband, Scott, have a baby boy. But they had not had their wedding banquet yet. It was at a very nice banquet facility outside the city. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty much like any western wedding reception, minus the dancing, but with a few different traditions added in.
Tradition #1: Everyone gives the couple cash in red envelopes (red for good luck). There are people at the entrance taking the cash and marking in separate books (one for the bride’s guests and one for the groom’s guests) how much each guest gave. I thought that was a little bit tacky until I was told the reason behind it…that way when the bride and groom go to the weddings of their friends in the future they’re supposed to add on to that amount a little bit more. I like that idea! Too bad I most likely will not be getting married in Taiwan!
Tradition #2: I’m not sure if this is how everyone here does it, but for the opening the bride stood on a little stage in the back of the room while her husband sang a song to her at the front of the room. Halfway through the song he walked back to her and then they entered the room together. Then they did a toast with their parents at the front of the room. They didn’t have a wedding party, but later in the reception a couple of their friends gave speeches.
Tradition #3: Instead of the western tradition of tossing the bouquet, the bride gathers single friends (male and female) around her bouquet and each person grabs a ribbon attached to it. At one time everyone pulls at their ribbon and whosever ribbon remains attached is supposedly the next one to get married. That person turned out to be the toddler next to me who my friend was holding. It was cute because she gave a little message of good luck to the bride and groom in front of everyone.
Tradition #4: The bride changes dresses three, yes three!, times during the banquet. She wears one for the opening, one for the main part, and one for saying goodbye to the guests. Also, the brides friends traditionally get a box of cookies at the coupe’s engagement party. They did not have an engagement party, so the boxes of cookies were given out today. I got one and it’s really elaborate…I’ll be eating cookies for a while!
And of course the big thing was the food, ridiculous amounts of it! Fourteen different types of dishes and soups were brought to our table. They had everything from lintel soup, to shrimp, chicken, cod fish, other types of seafood, to different pastries and desserts. I was so full, I couldn’t eat everything I wanted but I attempted to at least try everything. So all in all my first Taiwanese wedding was such a fun experience! And as always, I have a lot of pictures posted from the wedding on my photo site in my “Around Taipei” album.
Charlie arrives next Thursday, Dec. 27. I can’t believe it’s almost here, I am so excited! I’m working on finalizing plans for our trip. My mom is coming for about two weeks at the beginning of February. I have just finalized plans for that trip. We’ll be going to Hong Kong for about five days during the time I have off for Chinese New Year. Well, that’s it for now. Merry (almost) Christmas!
The Christmas festiveness has started, of course. So far I’ve been to two Christmas events. Some friends and I had a gift exchange last week. We all bought gifts under a certain amount and then did that game where you pick presents based on the number you pick and then you can steal other people’s presents. It was fun and I ended up with some pretty useful gifts. This weekend I went to a Christmas party at a restaurant/bar which was the company party for the school company a lot of my friends work for. It was pretty fancy (white linen table cloths, I’m not used to that anymore.) I had two huge platefuls of amazing western food…Turkey, warm cranberry sauce, potatoes, French bread, vegetables, etc. It was so good!
I also went to a wedding this weekend! My co-worker, Esther, had her wedding banquet which was so much fun! She has actually been technically married for a bit and she and her husband, Scott, have a baby boy. But they had not had their wedding banquet yet. It was at a very nice banquet facility outside the city. I really didn’t know what to expect, but it was pretty much like any western wedding reception, minus the dancing, but with a few different traditions added in.
Tradition #1: Everyone gives the couple cash in red envelopes (red for good luck). There are people at the entrance taking the cash and marking in separate books (one for the bride’s guests and one for the groom’s guests) how much each guest gave. I thought that was a little bit tacky until I was told the reason behind it…that way when the bride and groom go to the weddings of their friends in the future they’re supposed to add on to that amount a little bit more. I like that idea! Too bad I most likely will not be getting married in Taiwan!
Tradition #2: I’m not sure if this is how everyone here does it, but for the opening the bride stood on a little stage in the back of the room while her husband sang a song to her at the front of the room. Halfway through the song he walked back to her and then they entered the room together. Then they did a toast with their parents at the front of the room. They didn’t have a wedding party, but later in the reception a couple of their friends gave speeches.
Tradition #3: Instead of the western tradition of tossing the bouquet, the bride gathers single friends (male and female) around her bouquet and each person grabs a ribbon attached to it. At one time everyone pulls at their ribbon and whosever ribbon remains attached is supposedly the next one to get married. That person turned out to be the toddler next to me who my friend was holding. It was cute because she gave a little message of good luck to the bride and groom in front of everyone.
Tradition #4: The bride changes dresses three, yes three!, times during the banquet. She wears one for the opening, one for the main part, and one for saying goodbye to the guests. Also, the brides friends traditionally get a box of cookies at the coupe’s engagement party. They did not have an engagement party, so the boxes of cookies were given out today. I got one and it’s really elaborate…I’ll be eating cookies for a while!
And of course the big thing was the food, ridiculous amounts of it! Fourteen different types of dishes and soups were brought to our table. They had everything from lintel soup, to shrimp, chicken, cod fish, other types of seafood, to different pastries and desserts. I was so full, I couldn’t eat everything I wanted but I attempted to at least try everything. So all in all my first Taiwanese wedding was such a fun experience! And as always, I have a lot of pictures posted from the wedding on my photo site in my “Around Taipei” album.
Charlie arrives next Thursday, Dec. 27. I can’t believe it’s almost here, I am so excited! I’m working on finalizing plans for our trip. My mom is coming for about two weeks at the beginning of February. I have just finalized plans for that trip. We’ll be going to Hong Kong for about five days during the time I have off for Chinese New Year. Well, that’s it for now. Merry (almost) Christmas!
Monday, December 3, 2007
80 degrees in December?!
You’d never know it was December in Taiwan, today at least. It’s nearly 80 degrees and sunny. I went on a nice run by the river park near my apartment. People were out biking, fishing and playing baseball. I’ve been thinking on and off about buying a bicycle. Recently I’ve been kind of off of the idea, but today makes me want to buy one again. Tonight I went to a barbecue with some friends. It was such a great evening for it! I am trying to get over a cold though because of the ridiculous weather. One day it will be 80 degrees and sunny and the next day it will be 60 degrees and rainy. So because of the variation in weather, probably not helped by the fact that I’m around little kids all the time, I’ve gotten a cold a couple of times already. And I never get sick at home, so it’s annoying!
We have a new roommate in the apartment as of last week. The guy who was living here moved to a different part of the city, and a girl, Kaitlyn, has moved in. She’s another American teacher, from California. So now we have all girls in the apartment…Liz from Kansas (teaching English and studying Chinese), Judy from the Dominican Republic (studying Chinese), Kaitlyn and I.
We got a Christmas tree for our living room. The Taiwanese go crazy for Christmas, so there are Christmas decorations in many stores. I even saw an entire store dedicated to Christmas downtown last weekend , complete with life-sized Santas and blow up decorations. Our tree cost about $4US. All the decorations are extremely tacky here. So we got the basic lights (they’re colored and blink) and Christmas balls. It’s not the classiest tree ever, but it makes it a big more like home and Christmas-like.
Charlie comes in just about three and a half weeks. I can’t wait! He’ll be here Dec. 27-Jan. 8. We are going to take a four day trip down the island. First we’ll go to Tarako Gorge in the central part of the island. It’s really beautiful and one of the most visited places in Taiwan. We’ll rent a car (which is super cheap) and just drive around, and probably do some hiking if the weather is nice. Then we’ll go down to a town at the southern tip of Taiwan called Kenting. It’s on the beach and another of Taiwan’s most popular destinations. I’m not expecting to be able to lay out on the beach, but it will be warmer than it is in the north. It’s actually a national park, so there’s a lot to see and do.
I started my language exchange this week. (I think I mentioned it before.) The girl I’m doing it with is a co-worker of a friend of mine. They work at Sony here in Taipei designing video games. Her English is good, she just wants to practice some conversation. She has a book with different conversation topics which we’ll go through, but we always have good conversation, so I don’t think thinking of things to talk about will be hard. I also told her I would try to find some articles on some of the newspaper sites I read (Washington Post, NY Times, etc) related to art, which she is interested in. So we can read an article and then discuss it when we meet. For my end, I just want to learn some basic phrases and simple conversation. I bought two basic Chinese books, so that way I can pick and choose some of the things I want to learn. Learning languages is not my forte, but I’d really like to be able to communicate better than I can right now! The other night I saw something in a store window and couldn’t find it in the store, so I pointed to it in the window and said “where” in Chinese, and that’s pretty much what my Chinese currently consists of (in addition to “hello,” “yes,” “thank you,” some numbers, and some terms in yoga class.) I'll let you all know how my Chinese is progressing! That's all for now!
We have a new roommate in the apartment as of last week. The guy who was living here moved to a different part of the city, and a girl, Kaitlyn, has moved in. She’s another American teacher, from California. So now we have all girls in the apartment…Liz from Kansas (teaching English and studying Chinese), Judy from the Dominican Republic (studying Chinese), Kaitlyn and I.
We got a Christmas tree for our living room. The Taiwanese go crazy for Christmas, so there are Christmas decorations in many stores. I even saw an entire store dedicated to Christmas downtown last weekend , complete with life-sized Santas and blow up decorations. Our tree cost about $4US. All the decorations are extremely tacky here. So we got the basic lights (they’re colored and blink) and Christmas balls. It’s not the classiest tree ever, but it makes it a big more like home and Christmas-like.
Charlie comes in just about three and a half weeks. I can’t wait! He’ll be here Dec. 27-Jan. 8. We are going to take a four day trip down the island. First we’ll go to Tarako Gorge in the central part of the island. It’s really beautiful and one of the most visited places in Taiwan. We’ll rent a car (which is super cheap) and just drive around, and probably do some hiking if the weather is nice. Then we’ll go down to a town at the southern tip of Taiwan called Kenting. It’s on the beach and another of Taiwan’s most popular destinations. I’m not expecting to be able to lay out on the beach, but it will be warmer than it is in the north. It’s actually a national park, so there’s a lot to see and do.
I started my language exchange this week. (I think I mentioned it before.) The girl I’m doing it with is a co-worker of a friend of mine. They work at Sony here in Taipei designing video games. Her English is good, she just wants to practice some conversation. She has a book with different conversation topics which we’ll go through, but we always have good conversation, so I don’t think thinking of things to talk about will be hard. I also told her I would try to find some articles on some of the newspaper sites I read (Washington Post, NY Times, etc) related to art, which she is interested in. So we can read an article and then discuss it when we meet. For my end, I just want to learn some basic phrases and simple conversation. I bought two basic Chinese books, so that way I can pick and choose some of the things I want to learn. Learning languages is not my forte, but I’d really like to be able to communicate better than I can right now! The other night I saw something in a store window and couldn’t find it in the store, so I pointed to it in the window and said “where” in Chinese, and that’s pretty much what my Chinese currently consists of (in addition to “hello,” “yes,” “thank you,” some numbers, and some terms in yoga class.) I'll let you all know how my Chinese is progressing! That's all for now!
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