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.

Friday, September 14, 2012

River Tracing Virgins

Remember the last time you ever tried something completely unknown for the first time?? You're a little bit clumsy, a little scared and excited. Well I didn't know what to expect about river tracing. I figured it was like rock climbing over river boulders--and there was definitely a lot of that, but there was so much more for me in store. In fact for all of the buddies that I tagged along with, it was also their first time and everyone had their misgivings, expectations.



When I saw my friend Johan's Facebook invitation to go river tracing, I just felt a strong inclination to go and scrambled to find a sitter. Plus the price was reasonable (850NT). With no sitter (short notice), I basically gave up and then my  friend Michael said he could have Z stay the night and watch her the next day. (His kids and Z are beach playmates). I dropped her off at his place late and then woke up bright and early at 530 am. I barely made it at 6 to meet Christine and we found Jason and his girlfriend at this obscure bus stop (not on the street with all the buses) tucked on another street under a Nike store behind an arcade and bought 1 way tickets to Cishan 旗山 (625 am is the first bus).


My cool retro (kid) boots, reminded us of moon boots when we were kids.


Christine went out the night before and had about a hour of sleep so I was impressed-especially by the end of the trip. It was supposed to be a 3-4 hour trek but was more around 6--which I don't mind. Its just that I told Michael that I would pick up my daughter at a certain time and I didn't want to be away from her too long.



We arrived about 745 and met Johan at Cishan's (only?) 7-11 at 8 am. By chance we met this extraordinary Californian guy buying coffee who was meeting some Shaman in town. And this 15 minute exchange was just a serendipitous encounter for me and for Christine (who just finished her MA in Parapsychology). We will be back in Cishan in very near future I think.




The guides picked us up and drove us for about an hour to our river site. After getting on all the gear, we really didn't get started til around 930. It started out calm enough, hiking on rocks by a river. And then it started. There was a little white water and we all lined up to trudge through the current and sit back and enjoy the bumpy, sometimes painful water slide. It was fun, I knocked my elbow good, the water was cool, felt great.

I was really impressed with the competency of the guides, they really knew the river (which happened to be the easiest). They were experts with all the technical aspects, fearless, I had complete trust in them. For me, it was just a matter of feeling comfortable in what my boots could grip onto or not, how slippery is slippery. Rope, helmets and helping hands were all necessary.



Our last "cliff" jump I totally chicked out. Behind that point, there was an incredible Polynesian waterfall, that no one took a picture of (we left our waterproof bags below). I just could not jump, it was so high. Eventually I had to go to a lower point to jump and joked on the way back I "lost  face."  Then there was Jason who was doing back flips off the cliff, he was my hero, they all were. It wasnt until I ripped the back of my beach shorts on a rock that I completely lost whatever face I had left. No but I am just joking, we all had moments when were laughing at ourselves which is not a bad thing.


At the end, we washed ourselves up and the guides prepeared some instant noodles and then we drove back to Cishan and waited a half hour for the next bus to Tainan. I was itching to get back to my daughter. She was totally fine at the beach when I picked her up around 7.

The outfitter is called  Mountain Goat (in Mandarin )"Cross-Country Adventure" and their contact person (and photographer) is June. Their email is yau907@gmail.com, telephone is 0972-006-054. I paid 850NT  for the trip plus another 150NT for them driving me an hour to the river site and back, so I think its a pretty exceptional deal. I am definitely going to do another river tracing adventure with this crew. They have friends all over Taiwan, some from Taipei joined us, so if I want to river trace up north they have the contacts.

Monday, September 10, 2012

The Circus Comes to Town: Saltimbanco

“Time is a circus, always packing up and moving away.” - Ben Hecht (playwright, writer)


Recently in KL, the friend we stayed with had a Cirque du Soleil DVD and Z and I watched it, she was
totally mesmerized. I decided then and there the next time they came to Taiwan I would take her. As Grace would have it the next week we saw an ad on TV that they were coming to Kaohsiung and Taipei and that was that. Tickets were going quick as we waited for friends to decided if they would go or not. After a week it was mutually decided to just buy them as all the cheap tickets were gone. We paid 2200 or 2400 NT for our tickets.
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"Saltimbanco" means "street acrobat" or "entertainer' in Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. It's also the title of the oldest major touring show of the bewitching (animal cruelty free) circus called "Cirque du Soleil" and has been running since 1992.



We by chance met some friends in Tainan train station who had a different way of getting to the Kaohsiung Arena MRT, so we all went down together. Z and I walked around the corner to a 7-11 and bought some snacks. We had made a mistake buying our ticket's so we weren't sitting next to each other but behind each other.The competent staff quickly remedied the situation and we were give better seats  together.  The row behind us was a group of foreign (western) women from Tainan --no not a very large group haha, but some  of whom knew, so between our chatter and comments we were a tiny riot of laughs and jokes. I'm sure the circus appreciated  our section's festive applause and praise, as the crowd seemed very shy until the end.






The clown/mime dressed as a kid, made sound effects with this mouth and was generously hilarious, he interacted with the  audience between acts. His last interaction he went around looking for the right person, and boy did he find him! This large Taiwanese man was his new comrade in arms and he was such a good sport and funny himself, it really was an entertaining dynamic duo.

The band, with a pretty dazzling jazz sax and excellent bass

You can watch the full show here.

My favorite was the ending performance of the first part, the boleadoras. They were this amazing couple doing flamenco like footwork and twirling these hard tops that would bang the floor until they were creating these synchopations  of percussion like an intense drum circle between two people--with the dancing. There were some point where I felt as if in a trance and I felt like they were in some trance of their own. Drums and dancing has that effect on me.


The boleadoras

I recently just finished Charlotte Bronte's Villette. In Chapter 38 the heroine Lucy is drugged with opium  and has this surreal vision of a midnight street carnival which of course reminded me of Saltimbanco.





Saturday, September 1, 2012

Zen's First Day of School

Can you recall? Do you remember your first day of school? The world felt so big and wide or perhaps stifling.  I was anxious the night before her big day, wondering if we could make it on time, wondering if every morning is going to be some mad scramble to get her to school by 730. Getting to kindergarten by 840 was always a mad dash for me to clock in for work.


Z was all smiles at home getting ready, putting on her uniform. I was happy for her and a little sad myself. So many unknowns. I didn't know what would happen to her in the afternoon and last minute found an anchingban. 


In Taiwan, first graders go to school a half day except for Tuesdays, that's a full day. They also wear uniforms. Since most parents work, the children have to go to an anchingban after school. This is a kind of cram school where a Chinese teacher makes sure the kids do their homework and teach them if they have any problems with the material. For me this is a necessity on 2 fronts. 1.) I work until 5pm  and 2.) I wouldn't be able to help her with her homework. I found a good place, they pick Z up at her school and walk right around the corner.She naps there and they provide snacks from the bakery of one of the kid's Dad (he studied baking in Germany so it has to be good.) It costs me 4000 NT a month.



Her elementary school is called Yitzai and its a beautiful campus across from the pretty Eternal Golden Castle Park  億載金城, (Yìzǎi Jīnchéng).where her school gets its name from.There are 11 first grade classes this year. Her class has 26 students. She is the only foreign kid. The school is huge by American standards--looks more like a very large high school or small community college. There are 5 floors, a track, tennis court and lots of kids.

Reality is setting in
The first day of school started last Thursday so she has only had 2 days and so  far so good. She saw friends from her kindergarten on the playground so she is not totally alone. I  tried to take pictures of her but she wouldn't have it. In fact she was kind of mean to me, telling me to leave and not wanting to hug or kiss (so unlike her.) I understood she was freaking out a little and felt safe enough to let it out on poor old mom. I'm counting on her feeling better about school  on Monday, at least enough for a hug and smile goodbye.

This day was a rite of passage for the both of us. "All things must pass", the Early Takes was playing in the back of my head the whole time. I'm still processing this.