For those of you who have never used Google Translator here is your big chance. You should keep in mind that 鄭明哲 is my Chinese name. Once you have figured out this post’s title you can write me a comment about how great Chinese is and how much you enjoy learning it.

Before reading on, press the play button of this video and listen to it as you read. It will be a scrumptrulescent experience, I promise.

Last week I finished my last final, turned in my last term paper and started winter break! Last Thursday Emily and I hosted a “No More School” party here at our house with truly fantastic people joining us in our celebration. This week I’ve lazed about, began using Pimsleur in my quest to become a real speaker of 普通話 (Mandarin), hiked with Emily in the hills just south of 台北市 (Taipei City), spent an evening at the club with foreign exchange classmates for one last whoopla before they bid Taiwan adieu, and said goodbye forever to being a twenty-five year old. What a wonderful world we have been given.

After checking my grades and speaking with classmates it seems that there is consensus in my class that many of our professors felt that they were too kind to us during the midterms and have tried to make up for it in grading our final exams. It seems like all of us have 5-10 points less on our finals than were on our midterms….maybe the administration gave one of their crack-down decrees or something. Maybe we all just slacked off. Whatev’, we should all become Montessori advocates anyways.

Our party was great. A ton of people had told Emily and I that they would be coming but as it turned out there were not too many but plenty enough to have fun! I estimate thirty to forty but Emily insists there were at least fifty people. We had an awesome mix of my classmates, Emily’s classmates, and friends of friends creating an atmosphere of diversity, conversation, beer-pong, Soul Caliber II (Playstation for the rest of you), and Texas Hold’em. Phil, one of our roommates headed up the beer-pong effort and it was a true hit. While the fact that the Asians did not know the game wasn’t surprising, I was flabbergasted in learning that the Europeans hadn’t played. Just think, because of our party beer-pong will be spreading the world over. Can a man leave a better legacy is the question that now haunts my moments of cogitation. Last year we had our party at the end of Spring semester in June and it was way too hot. Now, having done both I can say with authority that having the party at the end of Fall semester is a much better way to go.

The lazing about has been great for me but a little nerve-racking for Emily. I think that might be a reflection of our upbringing. What do you think?

Pimsleur’s Mandarin learning curriculum has been recommended to me a few times now. It was apparently developed by Dr. Pimsleur to simulate the way a baby learns language. So far I’ve really enjoyed it and I’m hopeful that I will soon be speaking pǔ tōng huà like a zhōng guó rén. Right now, though, I need to remain hopeful and consistently exercise my nǎo. Diligence is my Achilles’ heel but this time…this time will be different.

The lazing about came to a head this past Wednesday with Emily suggesting we go hiking. We chose a trail out of our Taipei Day Trips book that started just south of Xindian and went up over a mountain (or big hill if you prefer) and ended down the other side in Muzha. On the way up we stopped in to see a little temple cut into the side of the mountain behind a waterfall. It was pretty rad. If I were going to be a monk that place would be a contender. Upon reaching the top of the hill Emily and I came upon a few criss-crosses in the paths that we weren’t too sure about and ended up a little off-track. No matter though as we decided we had had enough hiking for the day. Finding ourselves in the Tea House area of the mountains surrounding Muzha we popped into one, bought some tea, enjoyed the view, talked, and sipped to our hearts content. I should teach you all how to properly drink tea; it is quite a procedure. Once we’d had our fill we hopped on the bus for the winding ride back down into the city.

Emily and I joined some of my classmates, who were only here for this past semester as exchange students, at 9 percent, a club that is luckily within walking distance from our house. Emily and I had never been there before and the evening was a nice bit of Long Island ice-teas, dancing, and saying goodbye to Julia and Fendi who are leaving to head back to Germany.

As I write this I am celebrating my first day as a twenty-six year old. I knew it was coming up but since break began I’ve completely lost track of dates. Consequently I didn’t realize until yesterday that my birthday was looming so near. I’m not even thirty and I’ve already become that guy who forgets about his own birthday. This very moment Emily is preparing a wonderful birthday dinner for me so I had better go.

Today, October 10, is the Republic of China’s (known these days as Taiwan) birthday, basically their Fourth of July. Language can be a funny thing: Every Taiwanese person and news article calls it Taiwan’s birthday while every westerner and news article calls it Taiwan’s Independence day. The hip slang for it is “Double Ten” or “Ten Ten”.

On October 10th, 1911, the Wuchang Uprising started the Xinhan Revolution that led to the end of the Qing dynasty (the last dynasty) and the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC). Here’s a few links if you want to read some more about it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Ten_Day
 http://sinotour.com/news/160.html
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/enlarge/double-ten-day_pod_image.html

Being the patriot I am I decided to celebrate by sleeping in since there was no school. Then I spent most of the day reading in my book, Generation Kill, which I have become hooked on. Thank goodness for my studies’ sake the book has an end and I’m fast approaching it. The other parts of the day included Emily and I walking the streets in our neighborhood trying to find a good bargain for a bed and frame. We found one! Now we can trade in our two single matresses mushed together on the floor for a sophisticated queen matress on a wooden box platform. Its crazy how we’ve been too busy to take care of these type of things and we’ve already been here for a month. Now we can focus on buying desks.

Last night after playing basketball with some friends from school down the street at Shida’s (thats Chinese for the name of Emily’s school) courts we came back to our house for dinner. Emily made Ken (our Taiwanese roommate), Jamali (classmate from St. Vincent & the Grenadines), Jabu (classmate from Swaziland), and me this chicken and noodle dish with veggies. It was excellente and we also had some good conversations too.

Today David, the brother of Sunny (our other roommate from France) who has been living in her room with her for the past 6 weeks, left to head back to France.

Tomorrow I leave for the weekend to help with freshman camp which is this thing thats common in Taiwanese universities. Basically sophomores put together a ‘bonding experience’ camp for freshman. Wish me luck.

Love you all!