About Me

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Yilan, Taiwan
I just returned back to the States after 11 years in Taiwan with my daughter. Taiwan is an excellent base for us explore Asia, while living in relative (gun free) safety, while benefiting from a cheap and efficient national health care system. The people are amazing too. I have Taiwanese friendships that are 20 years old and I'm always making new ones! My coworker here in CO is from Taiwan.

Sunday, August 26, 2012

You Scream, I Scream, We all Scream: Ice-cream in Tainan



Summer is slowly, very slowly fading. We couldn't have made it without regular intervals of ice cream treats. Ice cream in Taiwan is fun, there are some funky flavors. The ones I like that are normal flavors are, peanut, pineapple, green tea and green tea mixes, red bean, green bean, and  taro (purple potato), just to name a few. On Penghu we had yucca which was exciting.

If all these flavors seem too exotic--like red bean and green tea one of my favorites, there are the more common flavors chocolate, strawberry, vanilla. There is Haagan Daaz at the supermarkets, if you miss that creamy decadence. There is Cold Stone at  Mitzokoshi and Frozen Yogurt (our personal favorite). Recently, I noticed RT-Mart selling Russian ice cream, which I am meaning to try. If you are ever in Kenting, go check out the Aquarium, there is a Turkish guy who works the crowds, probably the happiest guy I've seen selling gooey Turkish ice cream.



One of our favorite places for ice-cream besides the Frozen Yogurt place at the mall is on Nanmen Road  across from the Confucius Temple. There is a small mom and pop's place next to a used book store cafe, that makes some refreshing ice-creams. They must use skim milk, as its not very creamy to a westerner's palate but flavorful nonetheless- and cheap. Three scoops sets you back like 30NT (1  buck).-

Across from the Confucius temple on Nanmen Rd.

An off the wall place to have a cold treat is just literally down my street. Inside an American naval, battleship that since retired in the port by my house, there is an ice cream shop. They sell it by the pint or stick. Today I bought a pint of red dragon fruit for 25NT, Z had her favorite mint chocolate chip.



Nice place for an ice-cream and catch the sunset

Taiwanese people in accordance to Chinese Traditional Medicine, do not really eat so much ice-cream as eating cold foods is considered unhealthy and makes disease. Half the kids in my class are not allowed to eat it (a crime against humanity!). Z lives for ice-cream so I don't make it forbidden (like soda, which I might let her have half a can of root beer twice a year). But ice-cream? If she is healthy I don't see the harm, especially in this humid heat.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Father's Day in Taiwan

Today is Father's Day in Taiwan because  the 8th day of the 8th month  ( ) sounds the same as the word for Daddy ( ba ba). The number 8 is ba .  My daughter made me a Father's Day card at school (which she left there), but I am looking forward to seeing what she created. She has got used to giving me her Father's day crafts and gifts.

As for my class of 4 year olds they made a gold trophy for their Dad's that says "World's Best Dad". I also taught them a little song that goes to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle,

Daddy Daddy let me say
I love you in every way
I love you for all you do
I love you for being you
Daddy Daddy let me say
Have a happy Father's Day!


Saturday, August 4, 2012

The End of a Beginning Chapter

Z at her graduation performance
The night before our 2 week holiday began, and Z and I would leave for Malaysia, it was her kindergarten graduation. This is always a seriously big deal for our school and any respectable private kindergarten in Taiwan.  As a teacher at this school I have had 2 graduating classes myself which means when they leave me they are fluent in English and can write complete sentences and are pretty much cognitively prepared for their suffering career as elementary school students in the rigid, competitive, soulless Taiwanese educational system. (As for their souls that's an entirely different matter, but I try to be as holistic a teacher as possible).


It was a bit of a different experience as a parent--and worker. For example, during her flawless performance when she was the feline reporter Kitty Mitty in her class' play, I was "backstage" behind a curtain. My sole job was ushering the kids from the stage to the back door and hallway. An hour of that (speeches+ 3 class performances) I was then the parent and watched her receive her "diploma" from  the school's founder.


Z's official grad photo

I  always thought the Taiwanese even having a graduation ceremony for kindergartners was a perverse superficial sentimentalism, or a cheesy demand of parents who fork over a substantial amount of their salaries to schools who at the end of the ride have to prove their worth.  And it is that.  But there is also this deep human need for ceremony for marking within the bond of community different phases of our life's growth, stages, transformations.  I happily was denied kindergarten. I stayed at home or rather I ran around wild most of the day in the rattlesnake infested fields of  the outskirts of a blossoming Phoenix Arizona, taking rides with the neighborhood teenagers on the back of their dirt bikes, playing with my best friend Brandy where development met the desert. My mom taught me how to read and I didn't go to school til I was  in 1st grade in Aurora, Colorado.


A few months after we moved to Tainan

 But that  wasn't Z's reality. We moved to Tainan when she was 2 1/2 and she went to nursery school until  present. She is still going to my school (my place of work) in their summer program. I hope she will be weaned from here once she starts elementary school so I can start saving what I pay in her tuition.

I admit that on that graduation night I was overwhelmed by thoughts that kept well under the surface had made their way to the forefront of my mind's eye. Namely, I asked myself if this would be my only child, my first and  last baby. At age 6 she is still so baby like, her chubby cheeks and pot belly. She is going to real school soon, growing up and I might loose this "babyiness" forever. I asked myself things like if I would ever nurse a child again. If her father and I had worked out, what other beautiful children we might have had. Crazy things like figuring out how many child bearing years I have left (that would be 5, my cut off age is 42, but that might change).  I didn't have so much time to process these thoughts, the next day I was taking us both on an early am bus to Taipei to catch a flight to Malaysia and our return to Borneo. That's ok, I'm gentle with myself and nonjudgmental. As I have learned in my young life so far, a whole lot can happen in a year.  I hope I am savoring her childhood more.

Seafood Satisfaction









Before I  left on holiday my friend Vicky (and Saturday language exchange buddy) invited me to a seafood restaurant in Tainan County. It was a 30 minute drive NE of Tainan on some saltwater fish farms literally on the coast. You wouldn't think twice from the front of this building except for the cars. Walking inside there were no people. We walked through the kitchen to the back where the large patio like restaurant was full of diners.


The owner was very outgoing and spoke Taiwanese so I couldn't understand most anything he said. But he was kind enough to indulge Z and Jeremy's (Vicky's son) curiosity with his gigantic crabs and fish.


We got to pick and choose some of what we ate. Then according to the weight, the bill was calculated.



In pure Taiwanese fashion, the table was round and never empty, plate after plate was dropped on the table, as we tried to make room for another dish. Used to this, I tried to pace myself. The afternoon was hot, there was cold Taiwanese beer to wash it all down.





Z was into the cuttlefish balls and prawns. I love prawns but they are so messy! Feeling brave I had some snails, which looked nasty, but tasted pretty good, they were seasoned with black pepper and had a nice bite to it.  I couldn't get enough mussels and scallops. Eventually I did.


At the end of this enormous lunch I was stuffed. I couldn't even finish my beer. It reminded me of lunches in Spain (the main meal) when afterwards everyone (including the women) would unbuckle their belts before an espresso and/or descanso.