Happy New Years!

Happy New Years!

No that is not a typo. This year in Taiwan we have had several new year celebrations. We hope that it bodes well for the coming year. Since school was in session for the western new year and since Susan's class was on Friday, she worked on both Christmas Eve Day and New Year's Eve Day. Her students are a mixture of Taoist, Buddhist, and Chrisitian and many students celebrate the western Christmas and New Year Holiday with their friends and partners. She had individual consultations on their final papers during the week of Christmas. Students were required to meet for a 30 minute consultation on that week and papers were due on New Year Eve Day by 6:00 PM. Some students invited us for a traditional new year's hot pot celebration at the department of social work. We thought that it was interesting that students could do this in the school. We found out later that it was not officially sanctioned by the department or university. Everyone brought some kind of vegetable, mushroom or meat. There were vegetarian hot pots and omnivore hotpots.



Even men cook hot pot...

Hot Pot Heaven
The weather has been very cold for Taiwan and you could feel the warmth in the room - from the steaming food in the pots, the spicey Taiwanese pepper brew, and the warm interactions. One of the students, who had not yet turned in his paper, was not expecting to see Susan at this event. It was a bit uncomfortable for him until he realized she was not going to embarass him in front of the others. It is really fun to visit with students in these informal settings. They are very relaxed and because their anxiety is less their English flows more comfortably. Susan finds Taiwanese students friendly, motivated, respectful, and appreciative of faculty. In addition, they have a nice sense of humor once they feel comfortable with you.

Sunny North Shore


No we didn't eat the eel this day...

A colleague graciously took us to the northern coast for a day and it was great to see the ocean and visit with he and his son. We enjoyed the scenery comaradery and flying a kite on the beach, it was great! It made us a little homesick for our own grandsons who will be so much bigger when we return home. It was one of the few sunny days we have had this month.

...but, fish was on the menu.

We also enjoyed some very fresh seafood for lunch. It came from the ocean in the morning and could be seen swimming in tanks in front of the restaurant. It reminded us of our former favorite Hakka restaurant in Honolulu.

Brrrr! and Ahhh!

Beitou Version...

You've heard of shock and awe, this is the sound of us running to the hot spring and sinking into the water.

Weather has been cold so we have visited three hotsprings. Our favorite so far is Beitou - a public hot spring that anyone can get warmed by for NTD 20 or less than a dollar. (There are private and more expensive places, but this one is open to all.) We like this very much about Taiwan that rich and poor can enjoy the wealth of the island. To get to Beitou, you can take an MRT train to Beitou (about a 45 minute ride from out neighborhood)and walk about 10 minutes to the hot spring in the center of town. It is a beautiful spot. There are a series of three pools starting with the hottest at the top of the hill spilling down into the hotter pool in the middle and then the hot pool at the bottom.. The pools in the foreground are cold and colder.Young and old go and it is great to see the number of elders who are enjoying the heat to ease their older bones. We enjoyed it very much. When we left after dark we walked along the lantern lit street. It was beautiful and peaceful --we were at peace.

Jiaosi Version 



We also visited Jiaosi a small city in the beautiful county of Yilan. We went twice once with a colleague who convinced us the weather was just right to sample that hot spring and once with Doug and some friends. On the first visit, we also saw a beautiful waterfall and a flock of Taiwanese bluebirds eating papaya. They are strikingly large bluebirds with white markings along their very long tail. They were feasting on papaya and darting up and down the hill as we walked along the river back from the waterfall.

More about hot springs in a later blog...

We had a visit from Doug Cole, Claude's younger brother. He was a real hit. The Taiwanese heard his name as "dog" so I said that no he is not a rapper and they all laughed. Many older Taiwanese also have a good sense of humor even in English and, like Americans, tease you if they like you. I told them his name was Douglas. That was easier -- they all know Michael Douglas. He was stunned, awed initially and then had a very good time. He has white, very curly hair. The Taiwanese really liked it and many women asked to touch his head to feel his hair. He was amused, but I think enjoyed having the positive response to his appearance.

The morning Doug left for the airport, we left on the train to travel to Hualein for the Fulbright Mid-Year Confernece. We had the Mid-Year Meeting in a lovely hotel in Taroko Gorge. Claude had some down time. Susan had to present her progress report and listen to others. We had visited Taroko earlier in the fall not knowing this meeting would be held there. It was a lovely spot - spectacular views and warm rooms. It was great to hear how everyone's year was going. Most are doing very well. Those senior scholars who only had one semester fellowships are feeling like the time is too short. It very much fun to see how the English Teaching Assistants (primarily recent BA graduates from all over the US -- mostly small colleges and universities) are growing and changing and becoming fluent not only in Mandarin, but also Taiwanese and some of the indigenous dialiects of the students they teach and coach in English.

That all for now. Hope you are well and staying warm. We are trying to do the same.

Susan and Claude

Holidays in Taiwan

Yes, Mom, they do have panetone in Taiwan...

Although we were a little apprehensive about celebrating the holidays without family and friends from home, the holidays here in Taiwan were memorable. Many beautiful flowers and light displays in the shopping centers around town. It is funny to see such western icons as Santa Claus and hear stories of Taiwanese Christians continuing this Western tradition with their children as well as celebrating the birth of Jesus. One colleague's daughter was Mary in the Christmas pageant at their church.


Christmas Tree at 101



 Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Dinner

We were invited by a friend to spend Christmas Eve with her Buddhist Tzu Chi group. We had a tastey vegetarian dinner, learned about the good work the group is doing world wide to assist disaster victims and received a blessing for a good coming year from a Buddhist master. It was interesting hearing the Buddhist elder speak, she alluded to "silent night, holy night" and the desire of all people for peace. It was a very different evening. We wondered how many priests in our own religion would have made this connection. It was a totally peaceful night and great to be spending it with friends who were so committed to peace and working to improve the environment.

Christmas Day

Prelude to dinner...

For Christmas Dinner we made a traditional Italian seafood meal - Cioppino.  We were able to even find prosciutto in Taiwan and had delicious Taiwan mellon spikes with prosciutto wrapped around. The chicken broth did initially elude us -- people thought we were crazy looking for "chicken water." In the end, Claude purchased a chicken and we made chicken broth from scratch.

The guests - Taiwanese friends, my teaching assistant, and a post-doc from Georgia in the former Soviet Union - seemed to enjoy the food. In the typical Taiwanese style, everyone brought something to make the evening special - we had a variety of dessert from the delicious pineapple cakes to special Alishan Mountain Tea served in a traditional Taiwanese tea ceremony by our friend. It was a great evening.


That steaming soup tastes good on a "cold" night!





New Years Eve

On New Year's Eve we were invited by students to eat a traditional hot pot with them at the Department of Social Work. This is sort of like stone soup Taiwanese style -- without the stone. Everyone brought something to go into the pot. Because we had vegetarians and omnivores eating there were several pot bubbling. As the evening went on different things were added to the pots that people brought. It was delicious and fun. We have not tasted anything that we really don't like.

All types of vegetables and meats -- sliced very thin were cooked in the hot pot. It made the broth very delicious. This is an important activity in the culture here and our Italian and Danish roots feed right into those important activities. All are equal in contributing to the goodness of the food and we all eat together. As you can see, we had a great holiday even though we were very homesick for our family and friends -- especially those grandsons!


Other events...

Susan and Red Heart Director

We know that you are probably wondering if all we are doing is eating. Actually, in addition to teaching, Susan has made a connection with a local NGO that provides support to families of people in prison and assistance in transitioning from prison back into Taiwanese society.

Red Heart
The Red Heart Association is a Buddhist organization that was founded  to assist disaster relief victims in China and was asked to take on this work with ex-prisoners about 10 years ago.

Susan is also hoping to find out more about a program in Taiwan that allows mothers to keep children with them in prison until they are three years old. Little research has compared outcomes of these women and children with women and children who are separated when the mother is incarcerated. From colleagues we understand that rehabilitation is becoming an important focus of Taiwanese prisons.

We hope that all of you have a good new year filled with blessings and the courage to pursue the road less traveled. It the words of Robert Frost, "it has made all the difference" for us this year. 

Claude and Susan

Christmas in Taiwan

Christmas has come to Taiwan. The weekend after American Thanksgiving when we were feeling like we were missing our own holiday traditions, it burst out everywhere. It reminded us of when we were children and the Christmas Season really did begin with Advent. So, yes, there were Santa breads (very cute) stuffed with chocolate custard and even lights and tiny Christmas trees. I do have to say that ours is probably the tiniest -- even smaller than the artifical tree that Mom Carano sent to us in the Marshall Islands.


Note the shirt box sized present
under the tree :)

When we were in Majuro for Christmas, we brought our favorite decorations for the "kids."  But as Christmas approached here in Taiwan, our dormitory looked pretty dismal. It reflected our own low spirits. We realized that maybe it was us who needed the lights and hope of the season as well as the decorations that reminded us of Christmas past. Amy's crumpled aluminum bell that comes out every year reminding us of how much time has passed. She is carrying on the baking tradition this year with her sons. It is difficult not to be there with them. Jeremy's ceramic peace dove candle holder made in elementary school was also left behind in Illinois. Somehow that bird  never wanted to be put away after Christmas and sits out all year round. This year he and Jodi will have their first Christmas with Tyler and have the joy of experiencing the wonder of it all through Tyler's fresh, new eyes. His first Christmas and he's crawling!

This being Taiwan though with many perspectives on the deities and holy people who give guidance on living a moral life, it would not be Christmas without a visit to the beautiful Confucian temple. A student in my class is helping give tours and invited us to join her on one of her tours. We visited the temple and them went on to Sunday evening Mass at St. Christopher's a Catholic Church that ministers to Filipina and Filipino guest workers. Taiwan is a very spiritual place occupied by traditional Taiwanese gods and newer interlopers such as Buddha and Jesus. Somehow during this season when I am overwhelmed by the lack of peace in the world I think we need all the prayers and intercessions they all can give us -- so light that candle, burn that incense and wage peace.

November in Taiwan

Thanksgiving

Sorry that it has been so long since our last blog. The month of November became extremely busy with classes, meeting new people and going new places. As Thanksgiving approached, we started to wonder what we would do this year. Amercian Thanksgiving is not a holiday in Taiwan, so on "black" Friday Susan had class. As the day approached,iIt seemed that traditional Amercian food was out. We didn't see a turkey anywhere and we didn't have an oven to cook a turkey anyway even if we found one. Simpathetic Taiwanese friends said there are turkeys around and ususally people order cooked turkeys from "American style restaurants. As we were mulling our options, we received two invitations for Thanksgiving dinners - one from the American Institute in Taiwan (US State Department) and another from an NTU Christian student organization. We attended both and they did have turkey. We even had wild rice dressing at the AIT dinner. It was delicious! Again we are struck by the concern our friends in Taiwan have for us -- asking us if we miss our families and friends (we do!) and if we would be joining with others to celebrate this holiday. We are very thankful for their kind concern.

Travel Show Extravaganza!!!!!!

Because we are hoping to be able to visit some other Asian cities while we are here in Taiwan, we attended the yearly travel show here in Taipei. We have not attended these type of travel expositions in the US so we have nothing to compare this event with those in the US. We thought the whole of Taipei must be interested in obtaining some travel bargains. It was packed. We were one of the few Americans to attend on Saturday -- they may have had more information on the popularity of the event and stayed away. We were able to make contacts for future travel and even obtain tickets for a very reasonable price. It was worth it to see how each country was promoting itself. We even saw a promotion for Hawai'i for Hawaiian Airlines and a major hotel chain -- I think it was Jodi's former employer. We foolishly thought there might be peopel from Hawai'i -- they were dressed in Hawaiian shirts, playing Hawaiian music, but no -- they were local Taiwanese drumming up business for travel to Hawai'i.




Travel Show



Day in Keelung and the Gold City

We were hungry for water -- the ocean that is. Early November was very wet so it was not the rain variety that we were thirsting for. Tin the young man that Claude is tutoring invited us to go to Keelung, a harbor on the northeast coast of Taiwan with him and his girlfriend. Keelung is about as large as Taipei population wise, but less developed in some ways such as no MRT, so Tin drove us all around Keelung and the surrounding areas. One of the interesting things we did that day was to visit a former gold mining region in the mountains above Keelung Harbor. It was operated by the Japanese during the time that they occupied Taiwan, so there are historical buildings from that era and an interesting historical video that had interviews workers from that era and when the mine was turned over to Taiwanese.

Mountains near Keelung


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Lunch in the market

We had to climb for our dessert. Why is this couple smiling?

 

Keelung night market for dinner.

Danshui (Tamshui in Taiwanese)

Disability Fair

 

The Band.

We had another delightful afternoon in Danshui with Yi-Hung. When we stepped off the MRT, there was a disability fare to inform local people about resources for people with disabilities. I think this was one month after these events in Urbana.



Disabilities Fair





Yi-Hung knows all the interesting places to visit as well as where to find delicious food. The weather was cool that day so we had an opportunity to visit some interesting historical sites dating from the Portuguese, Dutch, and English occupation. It is very good traveling with Yi-Hung helps negotiate buses, etc. and always has interesting insights about the local history. We were blessed with a beautiful sunsetwe and ate delicious hot soup and dumplings. It was a great day ending.

Little surprises around Taipei...

November 3, 2010

We have been taking some short trips around Taipei city and Taipei county during the last couple of weeks. A great thing about Taipei is that it never fails to provide a surprising delight around any corner. We thought we would give you some quick tastes.

Surprise # 1....Yes, they do have real wood pizza ovens in Taipei. Actually, a place that we like very much. It is called So-Free. The dough is made on site and so is the honey and vinegar drink choice that is quite refreshing in hot weather. There a couple of benches for about ten seats outdoors, you can sit in the small park across the street or dash home on you bicycle and still eat hot pizza. Our favorites are smoked cheese and mushroom pesto -- no meat here.

Surprise # 2...Yes, the beautiful Buddhist temple at the end of the Bannan line in Yongning is only a fifteen minute walk from the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station...if you take a bus or taxi or if you can read the signs. Since we could do none of the above, we ended up doing a little pilgrimage on foot. The temple is about half way up a lovely mountain that over looks the city. To get there you have to walk through a factory district and then up a stone path.  After we left the town the road forked and we took the path less traveled. It was a warm humid day and as we neared the half-way mark we stopped for a water break. We weren't the oldest nor the youngest and as we started getting near the temple, we noticed that a number of people were walking down the mountain. They looked fresh, we looked beat. We were a little discourage until we realized that they had taken buses or taxis to the stop and were walking down. It certainly was worth the walk and we appreciated the ride back in the air conditioned taxi very much.

Surprise # 3...Treasure Hill...Yes, it is a treasure. We live close to a shopping area called Gongguan. It has a busy night market and all kinds of shops and restaurants. We saw a phamphlet on an area called Treasure Hill, an area that was originally a KMT squatters village that is becoming an artisit haven. It also overlooks Xindian Stream with a bike path that meanders along the bank. On Monday we rode our bikes to Gonguan and then walked to Treasure Hill. The Buddist Temple is one of the three oldest temples in Taipei and was established before the city of Taipei. The squatters village is being renovated int the style of the origiinal village thanks to the efforts of local citizens and NTU students. (Treasyre Hill is the site of an outdoor film festival called the Urban Nomad Film Festival. It's coming up this Saturday!) We had a delightful walk along the river in the afternoon sun. Cranes and other birds were feeding in the stream and we were only a short walk from the hectic markets of Gongguan. Many people were using the bike path for riding bikes, walking babies or just strolling near the river. It was a great afternoon.

Up for some surprises? Why don't you consider visiting us? Only 8 more months to go.

Claude and Susan

Update on Life in Taiwan

Hi, All,

 

Sorry to be remiss in updating the blog...

 

On the whole, we are doing very well. It is different for us living in a large city, but it is a fairly easy city to negotiate. It is clean and safe and we even found two movie theatres. They show first run movies so last weekend we saw two fun films -- not great cinema, but very fun. "RED" and "Detective D." It was fun to be there with a local audience. "RED" was in English with Chinese sub-titles and "Detective D" was in Chinese with English subtitles. RED is quit clever and had some jokes that apparently did not translate well into Chinese, so Skip and I were the only ones laughing in the audience. For the Chinese language film, the Chinese in the audience would laugh and Skip and I didn't get it. It is difficult to translate humor cross-culturally.

 

I am enjoying teaching and working with the students at NTU. My teaching assistant is very helpful. It is the first time that I have had a teaching assistant in all the years that I've taught and it is great not to be xeroxing and emailing students. He takes care of all of that in addition to interpreting and coaching me on cultural issues. It has been fun and I hope a learning experience for both of us.

 

My students are enthusiastic and responsive and seem willing to do the work they are given. They are spontaneously asking questions so I am excited about that. We at times struggle to communicate about concepts such as translating "Hansen's disease" into Chinese, but there is a willingness to help each other so that we all learn together. I like that cooperation among students and between students and professor.

 

One student who is in my class from the Psychology Department has asked me to consult on Group Therapy. Students are developing a "Group Work Club" to develop group work skills beyond what is taught in class. It is open to psychology and social work students. So, I am going to meet with him about this. I enjoy group work and have fun teaching this so we will see what comes of that.

 

I suppose the most difficult thing for us is to be away from family and friends (Are you sure you don't want to take a little fall trip to Taiwan?) We miss seeing family and friends and talking with them. We have spoken to my Mom and Dad on a regular basis and I called and talked to my Dad after a recent outpatient procedure. They seem to be doing well. They are still counting the weeks until we return. If you have SKYPE give us a call. If you send us an email we can give you the details on how to do this. It is very inexpensive (about $0.02 per minute). 

 

Skip has been talking to people here about the "Green Machine." He toured the factory here and saw the production facility.  He is also waiting for a local English language class to be filled. He should be starting teaching English as a second language soon. 

 

It is currently rainy, but warm. We are experiencing the outer fringe of Typhoon Magi that hit the Phillipines pretty hard. Prior to that weather was breezy and pleasant. It is great to be out at night on a bike in the cool breezy air. Many people are out walking and riding on the campus, it is great!

 

That's it for us hope all is well with you!

 

Love,

 

Susan and Skip

Weather is getting cooler...

Hi, All,

We didn't believe our colleagues. They said the weather would get cooler and it has happened this week. Skip and I have moved to long pants and long sleeves -- our Taiwanese colleagues are wearing jackets. We are into a fairly regular routine -- having a teaching schedule seems to do that -- it gets your life organized. Because parks and local attractions are very busy on weekends, we have been working on the weekends and visiting sites at the beginning of the week.

On Monday we took the train from Taipei to Taroko National Park. It is a park with very high cliffs made mostly of marble. It is amazing. We stayed at a B&B just at the entrance of the park. Two former middle school teachers operate the B&B. Their daughter completed an MSW at NTU and is completing a Ph.D. at Washington University in St. Louis. It was a great place with views of the Pacific and the mountains. The B&B arranged an English speaking guide for us. He is also a retired middle school teacher. He was very knowledgeable about stories of the gorge from aboriginal times, Japanese occupation, and current situation with respect to the aboriginal people living within the park. We also had an opportunity to see a traditional grave yard that was on the beach in Hualein. Because of the strong currents, the ocean is very dangerous. It is also the side of the island that typhoons often hit so it is not so popular. After living in Hawai'i, it is so interesting to see the beach not being used for tourists. Also, the beach is made from -- yes you guessed it marble rocks. It reminded me of Lake Superior. I understand the rock hunting on the beach is very good.

It was very interesting to visit this area. While we were in the gorge on a high mountain meadow, we experienced a small earthquake. Because of the action of tectonic plates, the mountains in Taiwan are growing several inches each year. It is constantly moving and changing.

We continue to enjoy our time here, but wish we knew Mandarin. We are thankful to all the people who help us in English or interpret our "body language." Taroko pictures coming soon.