Back again...

Curtain call...

The past six weeks have been very hectic with visits from friends from Urbana-Champaign and Michigan. It was fun to share our favorite parts of Taiwan. While our friend Linda was visiting us, we were able to see a traditional Taiwanese opera. Claude and I had to go to Michigan for an emergency. Susan's mother was very ill, but is doing better right now after the placement of a stent in an artery going to her heart. We have returned to Taiwan to finish out our last three months. It will be very hectic for Susan -- class, workshops, and presentations in Taiwan and China.


Last weekend we were fortunate enough to literally run across a local celebration for the goddess Matzu and we were with our friend Yi-hung so she could help us understand what was happening. Here are some of the pictures from our encounter with the celebration of Matzu's birthday...

There are 12 foot tall gods that represent the helpers of Matzu. They parade through the streets to clean up any evil spirits who might be making trouble for the neighborhood people. One has good eyesight and can see anyone not acting right, one has good hearing and can hear any negative talk, etc.

We followed the parade through the streets. There were the gods in elaborate costumes followed by small visiting Matzu statues in palanquins. They were visiting a powerful Matzu in the local neighborhood and would return to their local temple after the celebration regenerated them and made them more powerful.



There was also a baby god in a small palanquin. He was holding the ring of eternity. For each stop on the route through the neighborhood twin lion dancers and dragon dancers performed. This was followed by paperless fire crackers. At the end of the parade through the neighborhood, they took up residence in a local park.

Before...



Afer igniting...

At the park, the temple had hired traveling Taiwanese opera performers to perform in honor of the god. You can see from the pictures it was very interesting. Our friend told us this is not the most elaborate festival, but it was certainly enthusiastic! It was fun to be so close to the activities.




Palanquins for the visiting Matzus...



Dragon Dancers

Orchestra for performance of the opera

It's good to have friends...

Dinner for Joyce's birthday...how many years young?

Yes, that's right, friend from Champaign and Urbana did brave the 20 hour flight to spend time with us in Taiwan. They had an opportunity to see the last vestiages of the lantern display at Chiag-Kai Shek Memorial -- a beautiful display of hand painted lanterns, experience Taipei winter -- cold and damp sometimes and warm and balmy others.  We enjoyed having them here and we have been a little down all this last week with them gone.

We're not sure how helpful those English
menus were...

They got to try lots of special food from Taiwan, ride on the high speed rail, listen to aboriginal music, and shop, but we'll let you tell there story.


We took them to some of our favorite places - Sun Moon Lake. The gondola ride on Maukong.

Floral display

We also had a chance to visit the floral exhibit. It was really beautiful. I think everyone in the group enjoyed the times we spent together.

Claude and Susan



These teapots are survivors...

Survivors of 1999 earthquake...

The teapots and cups in this picture are from a tea shop in Jushan that collapsed and has been rebuilt. The caligraphy on the outside of the cup is "tea." The caligraphy on the inside of the cup calls the taster to "enjoy the fragrance" as well as the taste. The small teapot on the left is from Yixing in China. It is famous for indistructible teapots. When we were in China 12 years ago, we remember people lining the road banging teapots together with wild abandon to show how indistructible they are. With these teapots it is certaingly true!

Friends invited us to their shop, invited us to share tea with them, and told us the story of the teapots on display at their shop. During the severe earthquake in 1999, many homes and lives were lost. The tea shop was on the ground floor of a multi-story building. The living spaces for the family were not damaged, but the tea shop collapsed. Many pots and cups were crushed, but a few survivied. Our friends knew we were looking for a tea pot and some cups so that we could have tea in the afternoon in the Taiwanese way -- multiple steeping, tasting and savoring of the tea and the company of each other -- a time to slow down and really attend to the smell and flavor of the tea be present to the other person. It seems to me nothing is so fragrant as Oolong tea from Taiwan. The high mountain tea is very delicate and delicious through multiple steepings and pourings. Pot and cups are warmed with boilint water. The tea is put in a small teapot to cover the bottom. The boiling water goes into the small teapot. The rolled tea leaves unbend and release their beautiful fragrance and delicious flavor. The tea is brewed for a short time and put in another container to serve all around. This prevents the tea from becoming bitter. This is done at each steeping and pouring.

Taipei Tea Shop

It is a serene and relaxing way to spend time with friends sharing a languid moment of quiet of spirited conversation with people we enjoy. The Taiwanese style tea tasting is a way to stop and enjoy the day. It is great. Even Claude is drinking tea! We are learning to sit with each other with calm and grace. We are thankful for all the friends who have helped us learn about this very delightful way to to value our day time and each other. We look forward to tasting tea with all of you.

Claude and Susan

Latern Festival Wow!



Grandma's Lantern Shop - Yi-Hung and Claude

 Thursday, February 17th is the official close of the Lunar New Year. The new year celebrations end with the Lantern Festival. There are spectacular festivals around Taiwan that include launching very large paper lanterns powered by burning paper in the bottom of the lantern. The most famous is in Taipei County in Pingxi. Thanks to our friend, Yi-Hung, we were able to travel with her and negotiate the taxi, MRT, buses, trains, and foot power to participate in the Lantern Festival.

As you can see there are all kinds of lantern, but these are small ones...

Pingxi is a long time vacation and honeymoon area. Our friend told us that people in the south of Taiwan would come here to see the widest waterfall in Taiwan. We hiked together done to the waterfall. I know it looks like we are standing in front of a fake background, but we are really out there in the mist of the day. This is a very beautiful spot. It reminded us of my father's favorite vacation spot -- Niagra Falls in the U. S. It has that same curve.

A little history...

This area was a coal mining area that was developed during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The mine has been closed for many years, but the railroad, river, and romantic scenery allowed the area to develop into a tourist area. Even the former residences of the Japanese managers are used for a bed and breakfast and restaurant. The train is the original narrow gage rail system that the Japanes introduced to carry coal out of the area.

And then the lanterns...

The Latern Festival ends the Lunar New Year with positive hopes for the coming year. Yi-Hung told us that when she was a little girl, her mother would buy two small lanterns for her and her sister and they would walk together through the streets in their neighborhood to end the new year festivities.

The original sky laterns were made of white tissue paper and people would write their wishes and prayers for the coming year on them before they launched them hoping the gods would hear their prayers. Now the lanterns are made out different colors of tissue paper and have different meanings such as green for health, pink for love, red for good luck, etc. Because friends and family have had some health problems, we chose a green lantern and wrote all our wishes on it.

 Mom and Dad,

Terry Jobin for good health. Continued good health for Amy, Pete, Liam and Sean; Jodi, Jeremy, and Tyler, and all the brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, and grands. May 2011 be a good year for all.

There it goes...

Happy Lantern Festival!







Lunar New Year Celebrations

The Lunar New Year in Taiwan has been an extraordinary time for us. Thanks to a social work student and the generosity of her extended family, we were able to stay with her family in Nantou county. We spent two days and an evening with her. It was amazing. They are great people. The elders of the family are her grandparents who are 88 and 89 years old. Both are retired teachers from Taipei who loved the Nantou area and purchased property and build a two story house in an intesive truck farming area. We went down on Thursday and came back Friday evening. It was great to be with a family! We ate delicious food and learned the fundamentals of Majhong.

Taipei Night Market

Many traditional foods are for sale in preparation for the Lunar New Year. Also, special fruits and baked goods are an important part of honoring the gods and the ancestors. There are many complicated rituals for the family to perform. Many families will visit many shrines - some as many as five - dedicated to different gods who are responsible for taking care of many things such as the earth, the kitchen, prosperity, etc. Even a Buddhist temple may have an altar to a local god who is important to the community. The Catholic Church also had decorations for the Lunar New Year - fire crackers and calligraphy couplets for a good new year.

Nantou Family Celebrations

Outside Taipei, the weather was warm and sunny. When we arrived in Nantou, we were delighted to feel the warmth of the sun. We visited a friend of our student's father. He served tea and accompanied us to visit a large Buddhist Shrine. This is the second largest sect in Taiwan. The complex has an elementary school and high school as well as a monastery and hotel for people
who would like to stay. After that we had traditional
food for the new year.



Nantou is famous for tea and bamboo and we were forturnate to visit several tea plantations and bamboo factories. In the last few weeks, we have learned more about tea -- especially that most fragrant of teas from Taiwan -- Oolong. We feel like we had no idea what we were drinking. There are definite, subtle differences among all the teas we have sampled and the repeated tasting allows for a leisurely time with friends and family.

Outside the family tea shop





Tea Plantation



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