Home

hiking up alishan at 5am for the sunrise, which
unfortunately was blocked by fog. all part of a fun trip
over our chinese new year break with some classmates,
where we met up with some taiwanese friends
and some of my classmate's relatives. great times!

back to the beached oil tanker in kenting haha. good stuff.

random trip to “正妹" university with a classmate
and a couple taiwanese friends haha

A couple of weeks ago, Light posed the fellows the following question:

What perceptions of home have changed for you? Have the qualities you value in home changed as a result of living in a new country, community, and culture?

An interesting and important question indeed, with different levels to discuss: individual, family, community, city, nation, state, and the world. Some questions that I have found myself repeatedly confronted with as an American abroad are: What does it mean to be American? What does it mean to become an American? Is there a timeline or a set of checkpoints that one has to go through? The same questions I suppose apply to becoming that cliché “citizen of the world.” And how does something like the earthquake in Haiti challenge that notion? What level does one identify with when that happens, and how do you act on that? A question that is both harder and easier for diaspora, of which Haiti has a lot. All questions I don’t really have answers to. (a couple of interesting blog posts about the Haitian earthquake as it relates to this at bagnewsnotes: 1 2)

I feel like it’s difficult for me, as well as many of my classmates to have a definite sense of home, as we’re always in-between places it seems. You’re at school for a while, then home for break, then back at school, maybe somewhere else for the next break, home for a bit, and then back to school, etc. While permanence isn’t the most important aspect of home, I think it’s an important part of that feeling of comfort and routine that comes with being “home.” While abroad, however, comfort and routine seem a bit antithetical to the concepts of challenging yourself in that new environment. At the same time, that’s part of the challenge—getting comfortable in the new, strange environment.

It’s been interesting doing that in Taiwan, because it’s been a different set of challenges than the mainland. Not that things are difficult in the mainland, but the challenges one is presented with are often more concrete or straightforward, whereas challenges here have been more subtle and complex, and mostly in terms of culture, and the way people interact. As of late I’ve been a bit more sensitive/aware of the different ways that people make and view friends here, and all of that plays into that sense of comfort. In that way, I feel like Taiwan has been a better challenge in some ways—on a more intellectual/interpersonal level, but maybe I’m just used to it all now too. Knowledge of the language and culture, but also the city, is important too.

That being said, the most important thing is undoubtedly family. When I asked my mom what she thought, she came back with the question: “when we visited you over Christmas, even though we were staying in hotels, did you feel at home?” I could only say yes and no. It was a different kind of comfort and feeling from home, but in some ways it felt more like home than Taipei does for me now. To some degree maybe family, friends, experience and place become entangled in one’s sense of home and the different identities one has in different places. Back in the Qing dynasty, officials sent to Taiwan were not allowed to bring their families with them during their two-to-three year terms, to prevent them from “sprouting roots” in Taiwan—exactly for that reason.

Finding a new home is a difficult thing then, with so many factors coming together to create that sense of “home,” which can only be embodied so far in the house you live in—it’s more about where that house is in relation to the others in your community and the people in the house. When I think of “sprouting roots” I think of a banyan tree slowly dropping more and more roots into the earth as time passes—much like the “tree house” in Anping, Tainan. One must have the right environment and soil to flourish, and may be uprooted many times before finding that, though…. Enough of these silly metaphors.

General Update

during a bike trip along taipei's rivers

down south in kenting, exploring some of the awesome rock formations
Happy New Year! 祝大家恭賀新禧，萬事如意！年年高升，虎虎生風！Last night was interesting, with everything closed and all of Taipei either back home in the South or inside eating their 團員飯 with their family, I ate at KFC with some classmates (it was either that or McDonalds… and it was an interesting group of locals who were eating there—either young and alone, or clearly in a fight with their spouse or something), and then biked around, set of some little firecrackers, and watched thousands of dollars worth of fireworks explode throughout Taipei’s alleys as we cruised through the ghost-town-like streets.

Outside of class, the past couple of months have been great. I haven’t been worrying so much about spending time with my classmates, in part because we have an informal language pledge between us, which is great, but also because it’s not worth fretting over anymore. That being said, I’ve also settled in better to life here, and have had consistent meetings with language partners, as well as been hanging out with some other Taiwanese friends on a more consistent basis.

I just had a wonderful New Years lunch with a friend and her family, which was great fun and also incredibly delicious! (I’m not a very gracious crab eater, however). I hung out with a friend a couple days ago just talking in a coffee shop, and was astounded when I looked down at my watch and SIX hours had passed. I’ve had a number of casual meals with one of my neighbors, and hung out with him a few times later at night. I’ve developed relationships with the people I go biking with, and it’s no longer a passive relationship. Calligraphy has been a lot of fun, and its initial solemn atmosphere has gradually dispersed. Anyways, in all, I’ve made good steps forward, and in some ways am kind of disappointed I’ll be leaving in the summer.

I feel like I’ve finally started to understand some of the subtle differences between Taiwan and the mainland, and of course the United States. Just like anything, that of course always takes a long time, but I can start to see it, both because of my one-on-one class and because of my interactions with friends outside of class. Of course, TV is also really important. I watch a fair amount of TV here, mostly variety shows, and one of my favorites is a discussion-based show that brings 50 parents and 50 young people together to talk about a certain issue. Some of the topics are silly, like whether or not young children should have cell phones or not, but others, like those about finding a husband/wife, homosexuality, etc., are much more pointed and interesting. It’s also fascinating to see how the generation gap manifests itself. I’ll talk about that more later in another post once I have my ideas better collected.

Other than just hanging out more, which I value more highly than I used to, I’ve been biking more and seeing different parts of the city, spending more time in night markets and trying new foods, and just trying to get out more. I went to Dihua St. the other day, a hubbub of stalls selling all sorts of goods for the Chinese New Year. I’ve been to a couple of temples, and done some of the other sites too finally. While I obviously can’t bring myself to not care about my studies and homework, I’m trying to take better advantage of this environment, even if sometimes that just means watching some TV in my room.

I’ve also gotten into a better pattern of doing work and exercising, which always makes life better. I unfortunately lightly sprained my ankle a week or so ago, but it wasn’t too bad and it’s already pretty much back to new. Rehab will continue though.

Happy New Year all!

School Update

taipei 101 from a hike one day back in october or something

so MAN!

random alley, there's a lot of interesting places
in taipei in terms of light, overlapping of space
and intersecting functions

So we just got out on break for Chinese New Year, which is in just two days! It’s a long-awaited break, both for students and teachers. Even though this quarter is a little bit shorter, days seem to be passing slower for some reason. Classes have been good, however, especially my listening class and my one-on-one class. The listening class is challenging, both in terms of the vocabulary and actual lessons, as well as discussion in class. My one-on-one class has been great because my teacher’s great, and I’ve been able to learn more about Taiwanese history and identity, while discussing it with her. I’ve also been learning a tiny bit of Taiwanese with her as well, so it’ been fun. I now buy all my bananas in Taiwanese haha.

My two other classes, one reading and one classical Chinese, have been good but not great. Classical moves a bit too slow and the teacher sort of underestimates us. She also has a strange habit of spending the first 10 or so minutes of class talking about something random, probably because ICLP has told her to develop a relationship with her students, but it just comes across too forced. The reading class is taught by the head teacher, who is great, and while the articles are interesting and have good vocabulary and stuff, a lot of class time is spent going over little problems that classmates have that should have been dealt with at home by preparing well before class. So that’s a bit frustrating, and really puts a damper on any sort of real discussion.

I definitely feel like I’ve been making progress again, both in more formal class topics and in regular day-to-day stuff. Watching television has been helpful with that. Variety shows, soap operas, movies, and news are all good ways to get exposed to a wider range of vocabulary and ways of speaking. Something else I’ve been doing this semester is not really spending time sitting down memorizing characters. I’ve been spending more time listening to lessons and reading lessons to try and see how I can naturally absorb the new vocabulary in context, rather than memorizing individual characters. I’ve found it’s actually been helpful, and while I’m maybe not remembering as many characters as I could, I’m remembering more complete patterns and am able to use them more correctly as a result.

It’s definitely still not easy, got to keep on working at it. That’s all for now. More interesting/non-academic stuff later.