I’ll Blog Home for Christmas (If Only in My Dreams)

Hello all,

As the more astute of my readers will have noticed, it’s August, and therefore no longer the Christmas season. I have been extremely busy and, unfortunately, the blogs have suffered as a result. I’ve decided, as always, to continue chronologically, so welcome to the two part Christmas blog (woo!). As a personal update, I have been offered a full-time job here in Taiwan, so I’ll be staying for another year in order to save up some money before going back to the States. I went home for a month’s reprieve last month and saw many of you, which I really enjoyed. Yesterday was a typhoon day (like a snow day, but wetter) so I had all day to lounge in my PJs and write my blog (you lucky people)!

This (well, last) year I had a very bipolar Christmas over the course of two consecutive weekends. The first one was a standard Western celebration in a mountain cabin; the second was a very non-Western celebration in a town called Pingdong (but you’ll have to wait for the next typhoon day to hear about that one I think…).

A few weeks before Christmas, the young adult group from New Life Church hired a few vans and we all spent about six hours driving up the steep mountains that run through the center of Taiwan.

We left at 10 pm that Friday since most of the teachers (myself included) work until 9 at night. Due to my carsickness we all came to the mutual conclusion (and by that I mean I threatened them with lots of vomit) that I would ride in the front of one of the vans. My friend, Josh (the one in a Santa hat later), who has been in Taiwan several years volunteered to drive. In the back, were about 6 Taiwanese girls, none of whom I’d met before. We had a fantastic drive up. They wanted to learn some Christmas carols, so Josh and I would sing and teach them line by line (with me translating their meaning as we went). Then I had them teach us some Chinese songs in return. Luckily both Josh and I love singing, so it worked out well. Once we got to the hotel-cabins, I bunked with my Taiwanese van-mates and we all went to bed on arrival.

The destination of this trip was Nantou, a beautiful village in the heart of the mountains and (to complete my Western-themed Christmas scene) it is full of pointy western architecture, angel statues, as well as some inexplicable windmills, all of which have contributed to town’s nickname: “Little Switzerland”. We even stayed in fancy wooden cabins with tall balconies overlooking the mountains!

We spent Saturday wandering in the little village behind the hotel. Well, I say “village” but it’s actually more of a tourist attraction. They had the world’s highest 7-11 convenience store (something we can all be proud of), as well as a little shopping area complete with Starbucks. The most exciting place, however, was a little shop that sold hand-made wooden toys of all shapes and sizes. They decorated the outside with wooden  cat carvings, they had a full train model (with a real cat sleeping on top of it), and they had an entire park called the “Swiss Garden” full of their creations including a full horse-drawn Cinderella pumpkin-carriage. 

That night, we went back to the Garden and meandered around its huge pond killing time until the amazing water/lights/fireworks show started that evening. All the trees and carvings were decorated with Christmas lights. The best part was that it was actually cold enough for me to wear my woolen pea coat! Something l haven’t experienced in Taiwan before or since that trip.

After the show, we went back to the hotel’s main meeting cabin (which was full to the brim with tiny porcelain shoes from Holland) and we had a gift exchange. We all put our presents on the table, then drew numbers to decide who got to pick first.  A gift could only be stolen three times, and then it stayed with the last person who got it. The first gift Iopened was a lovely clay tea mug, including lid, decorated with Chinese characters. That was promptly stolen, and then stolen again by my friend Bree. So I chose another one, which was some huge canisters of hot cocoa, which was stolen by my friend Daniel. So, I then stole back my tea cup for the victory! (I knew Bree wanted a pink scarf still on the table anyway…) After that, I found a cat to sit on my lap (with a little coaxing), then we all sang Christmas carols, read some Bible stories, and told everyone what we were thankful for, and finally turned in.

The next day, we woke up early, piled in the vans, and headed to Qingjing Farm. This is one of the strangest “farms” I think I’ve ever seen. On our way up, I’d been told there were flocks and flocks of happy sheep in the meadow (which as we all know, is extremely thrilling for me, and I’m not being sarcastic). So. We arrive. Maybe having lived in Scotland where you have to drive through the sheep on the road to get to work or visiting the Navajo reservation where I got to hold a lamb (and enjoy sheep tacos too) has colored my expectations. Even still,  a 200 NT$ entrance fee, shops full of sheep memorabilia, and about ten sheep hanging around by a fence while the people crowded around thrilled to be near “wildlife” isn’t exactly the “farm” experience I was expecting! It was essentially a glorified petting zoo, complete with little sheep-food vending machines. They even had instructions telling people not to ride the sheep!!!(I hope you can read the English on these, pretty amusing.)

There was also a pony-ride set up, but it wasn’t for five-year olds; they had a couple horses in an amphitheater that adults got to “ride”. I’m not saying I’m cowgirl of the year (I once tried to “help” my mom on the ranch and within the first five minutes I got sunburned, tripped in a hole, hurt my ankle, and then went back inside to watch Spongebob in the air conditioning), but everyone was so thrilled about having a couple little horses walking in circles, it was like being in the Twilight Zone. To be fair, it isn’t really their fault. Taiwan is a tiny island with mountains and beaches, it’s just not suited for grazing animals so people rarely get the chance to interact with farm animals larger than chickens (one of my students actually asked me if I’d ever seen a cow…gee coming from a dairy farming family I guess I’ve seen one or two!).

The area around the sheep is quite nice with hills you could climb for better views. My friends all decided to go climbing up some steep hill or other, not exactly my thing, so I headed off on my own down a different slope.   There, I ran into another group of Taiwanese girls in our party I didn’t know. They invited me to tag along with them (and they will come back into the plot in the next blog, during my second Christmas adventure). We made our way to the aforementioned horse and sheep pens. Truth be told, I actually DID enjoy petting the sheep, but none of the girls I was with were “bold” enough to touch one…I dunno.

We then went up to the “Music Castle for Sheep.”I have NO idea why the sheep needed their own music castle, but there it was, as promised. We walked through the tiny castle-looking building, and then everyone met up at a street market and grabbed some lunch. I had rice steamed in a stalk of bamboo and a cup of plum tea. Then we climbed back in the vans and headed home. Good times had by all!

That’s it for now; hopefully I will get to the second part of the Christmas story before my next Christmas here in Taiwan!

With love,

Amanda

P.S. I know the font on this one is really annoying with those spaces between every line and how the pictures don't line up well, but I have spent hours trying to fix it and I'm fed up, so you'll just have to pretend it isn't extremely irritating...like me...I'm totally over it, really!

Hongkongged!!!

In the nineteenth century, able-bodied men had to be wary of where and when they got black-out drunk because one false sip and they could wake up on a ship working as impressed sailors headed for Shanghai; this legal kidnapping came to be known as being ‘Shanghaied’.  A few months ago, I too made a slight error and as a result found myself in Hong Kong against my will on an emergency-visa run, an experience which I have since dubbed, ‘Hongkongged’.
 

On the Friday before I went to Kenting with Luc and Bree, I got my papers from the school office which would extend my student visa for another six months. I had class all day Monday, so I foolishly waited until Tuesday to go apply for my free extension. I gave the lady my passport, all was going well, when she discovered a mistake. It seems that I failed to take into consideration the fact that one of the months had had 31 days which meant that rather than being in Taiwan for 90 days, I had been in the country 91 days. If I had gone in on Monday, I would’ve had a free extension, no questions asked; as it was I had to spend 500 dollars on an emergency plane ticket to Hong Kong, spend money on a hostel, and pay just to leave the country, not to mention the price of a new visa…so my free extension was now 800 US dollars…Hongkongged.

I explained the situation to my classmates and, thankfully, my friend Mariusz has travelled to Hong Kong several times so he gave me information about the city’s lay-out, how to get around, and what to see during my sudden, forced vacation.  He also helped me book a hostel last minute. I left Thursday night and arrived in a few hours.

When I first arrived at the Hong Kong airport, I was suddenly reminded of the recent flu problems Asia's been suffering when I encountered the enormous temperature check point; as you walk under this sign it gauges your body temperature and if you’re too hot they pull you over and make sure you’re not infected.  On the plane itself I was excited to discover that the TV screens show the runway as you’re taking off and it had a tiny mirror next to the screen, genius! I hate having to fight my way to the bathroom to make sure my eye makeup didn’t give me raccoon eyes during the flight. The busses in Hong Kong also had cameras which showed where we were driving, will wonders never cease?

From the airport I managed to find the right bus which took me straight to the street with my hostel. I was warned by the hostel website not to allow anyone on the street to 'escort' me to my hostel, as they would lead me off to their own hotel instead! I did see swarms of peddlers, all of whom had very impressive methods for getting my money, but I managed to stave off the invasion long enough to find the hotel which had my name on the books as proof I was in the right place!

Hong Kong is separated into three main sections, the airport’s on one island, Hong Kong Island is the big posh region with all the tall, shiny buildings, and Kowloon’s the cheap area across from Hong Kong Island where the all hostels are. The bonus of staying in Kowloon is that you get to look across the water at all the sparkling lights on the expensive side, whereas the people in the expensive side have to look over at Kowloon! There are a few nice buildings on the cheapside, particularly the famous clock and swoopy building (neither of which I am able to name).

Friday morning I took the subway over to the nice side of Hong Kong and went to the passport agency, left my application with them and then spent the day wandering around. Hong Kong is so compact I managed to make it to all of the main touristy areas on foot. The agency is right in the middle of the skyscrapers, so I wandered around with my head craned upward and saw all the famous buildings around the Lippo Centre like the Bank of China Tower, Finance Centre, Central Plaza, etc. (don’t worry, I didn’t really know what I was looking at either). Some of them are extremely elegant with sleek, shiny blue metal and intricate glass windows; others made me feel as though I were inside a giant concrete honeycomb. 

 
 



















There’s also an interesting blend of traditional Chinese and Western architecture in the city with the red-roofed temples and buildings with white Romanesque pillars popping up here and there. A trolley system runs through the main downtown area, and there were double-decker buses everywhere.

After snapping some pictures of the pointiest buildings, I headed toward Victoria Peak. In the nineteenth century, Western businessmen lived up on the mountain above Hong Kong and they engineered an electric train which went up and down the mountain to help them get to the business center. Today it’s just a tourist attraction and museum about Victorian commerce. The train reminded me of riding the cog train up Pike’s Peak back in Colorado, but the scenery was much junglier. 

 



















There was a look-out point up on the top of the mountain and I stayed for over an hour gazing over Victoria Harbor, watching the ships scuttling around skyscrapers. There were also restaurants, a shopping center, and a miniature Disneyland castle at the top so I had some lunch and made may way back down the mountain. 

 

 

 

I still had a few hours to kill before my visa was ready, so I went back down to the central area and spent time in a big garden set up in the middle of the building complexes; it had a stream and ponds, with little signs up everywhere asking people not to nap on the benches (not that it did much good as everyone around me was zonked out by the calm sounds of the water in the middle of their hectic work days). I also went up the longest escalator in the world, located in scenic ‘SoHo’. It’s not all connected, but it starts at the bottom of a set of hills and at the top of each hill you cross the street and go up the next escalator until you’re all the way up to the top of the hills. There’s an antique market, a Sun Yat-Sen historical trail, and a few museums I didn’t have time to visit. 

At four I made my way back to the agency, grabbed my passport, and as I was walking through the lobby I overheard a couple of American girls talking about living in Taiwan so I stopped and chatted with them. One of them currently lives in Taipei and has actually offered to let me stay with her for a few days during Chinese New Year, so you’ll hear more about that Sarah in a few weeks! (See, it pays to be nosey).

After I got my passport, I took the ferry back across the harbor to Kowloon so I could see the buildings at sunset from the boat, then I meandered up and down the sidewalk watching the lights flicker on across the harbor. I sat down to take some pictures but soon found myself stuck talking to some random Turkish guy who kept hitting on me (like I really care that he owns a club and is a dance instructor). After he found out I was 25 he was certain I must be desperate to get married and at one point he told me if I moved to Hong Kong he could set me up with a job teaching English so I could live near him (he must have read the ‘propose to me, I’m a pathetic single loser’ tattoo on my forehead). It was at that point I made up a boyfriend whom I met in London just before I moved to Taiwan, I think it’s getting serious between us, and, oh look at the time! I have to be going anywhere but here…. 
 

 














Now that I had been chased off from the prime light-show viewing bench in which I had nested before whats-his-face started talking to me, I had to go find another place to watch the show. I was a little irked, but even off-centered the light-show was really incredible. One entire side of Hong Kong Island is made up of pointy, shiny, skyscrapers and they use the whole skyline as a stage; the lights flicker on and off in dazzling patterns which correspond perfectly to the classical music playing in the background (almost as if it had been choreographed or something…). It was stunning; I tried to get a decent video of the show, but my camera died right in the middle of it. Oh well.

 

 















After that, I decided to head to the night market to see how it compared to Taiwanese night markets. It was then that I really felt I was back in China. It felt like all of the tight, cramped clothes markets which I remember squeezing through up in Beijing, and the bartering was just as unpleasant as it always was except that it was in English. (Though I did manage to get two sparkly hair clips and a nifty umbrella with a cover in the shape of a purple China-doll.) The main difference between Hong Kong night markets and the Taiwanese night markets is the impressive amount of sex-shops, costume shops, and hourly-rate hotels which offered happy-ending massages lining the booths (one such hotel was called the 'Virginia' which, of course, means 'virgin'; I think the irony was most likely lost on the proprietor!). 

 








 













The strangest thing for me, however, was seeing all of the Chinese characters I have come to know and love being spelled/pronounced differently in the Cantonese language. One of the most unfortunate linguistic Romanizations is the word 福. In Mandarin, this is pronounced 'Fu' and it means fortune, but as you can see from the pictures below, it's pronounced a bit differently in Hong Kong! And, of course, due to the auspiciousness of this particular character, it's everywhere in the city; I caught myself smirking quite a few times.

   








  

By that point, I had been on my feet all day and I was exhausted so I hopped on the subway and went to the hostel. I was sweaty from the humidity, my hair was greasy, and to make matters worse I had a huge zit on my chin, so when the African guy handing out fliers to some nightclub started chatting me up, I was a little taken aback. Actual conversation: ‘So, where are you from?’ ‘I’m half American, and half-British.’ ‘Well, that must be why you’re ALL beautiful!’ *rolling my eyes* ‘Not tonight I’m not.’ ‘Do you want to go get a few drinks, where are you staying?’ 'I don't give out my address to strangers and *I lie* I have an early flight in the morning, I have to get to bed, sorry, but it was nice to meet you….’
 

That night, I spent most of the evening trying to sleep since my bunk (and the room was basically only the bunk, plus a tiny toilet in the corner with some sort of water spigot meant to function as my ‘shower’ as well as a TV that only played static) only had about an inch of ‘mattress’ on a hard wooden block. The plus side was that the room was up on a high floor so I could look down over the bright street and enjoy the skyscrapers and traffic for a while.

 














In the morning, I got up, checked out, then went to scope out the day markets around Kowloon. There was a bird market, flower market, and fish market where they sold, shockingly enough, birds, flowers, and fish. I liked how they individually wrapped each bud in a styrophome net (bad for the environment, good for your flower). Every type of bird has a different meaning, all having to do with fortune or well being, and they were really lovely but I always feel bad for them because they’re crammed into tiny little cages without any sort of toy or anything. 

  

(Not in this particular bird market...)

 

After the markets, I went and caught my shuttle back to the airport and took some pictures as we crossed over the islands. On the bus, there were three Middle Eastern guys sitting at the back, so I intentionally sat in the front to avoid another awkward moment. Unfortunately, they decided to make it awkward, free of charge. About half way through the trip one of them came up and started talking to me, asked if I were single (we’re going to the airport, what could he possibly expect from this conversation???) and wanted to know if I planned on getting married. ‘I suppose so, eventually.’ ‘Well, you could marry me!’ I know he was half-joking, but it was the other half that concerned me. The whole group insisted on seeing me to my gate and then wandered on their way to their own flight. 

I bring up these encounters to make several points:

1.) Hong Kong is an amazingly diverse place, people from all over the world flock there and it’s the first time in Asia I never got stared at due to my hair.

2.) When it comes to men, I’m used to being ignored, considered just ‘one of the guys’, or being asked for homework help, but being hit on and getting marriage proposals is new to me. Most likely I blew the conversations out of proportion, they were probably nice guys, but I felt extremely uncomfortable in all three situations (being alone in a foreign city and feeling very ogled didn’t help). 

3.) If I am ever desperately lonely, I could just head to any non-Western European or East-Asian country and I’d be able to find a mate in about a week. Good to know I have options.

Well, that was my trip to Hong Kong. I think, as a Nineteenth-Century British/Chinese Cultural Historian (try fitting that onto a class ring) I enjoyed the melding of the ‘Western’ and ‘Eastern’ cultures I saw there; most of the street names were named after Scottish entrepreneurs, but the markets were very Chinese. I soaked in a lot about the history of the place (which I will politely keep to myself), I discovered that chubby redheads are a real commodity in other parts of the world, and I learned to always bring my visa in early.   Knowledge really is power. 


I leave you now in peace: 和平. (Which in Mandarin is pronounced 'he-ping'
but is more amusing in Cantonese!!!)


 

Love you all,

Amanda