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!