Taiwaneers

So much has happened since my last post. My problem has been that since so much was happening I kept on meaning to post but then I would be overwhelmed by how much there was to talk about so I would put it off only to be faced with a bigger problem as there was even more to talk about. I’m finally biting the bullet but alas I have compromised with myself and it will be an abbreviated bullet.

So after my birthday Emily and I left for vacation. We are trying to save money for a trip home in March for a wedding so this year’s vacation was not a jaunt off to some other east-Asian country but instead a trip around our own Formosa (one of Taiwan’s many names.) After thinking about what we could do we decided upon a moped trip around Taiwan. Setting out with with one other friend Rachel, on her own moped, Emily and I piled our big backpack, our tent, and ourselves onto our moped and fled Taipei. We traveled down the west-side of Taiwan’s mountainous center stopping only one-night to stay with friends near Nantou before completing the journey down to our friend’s house in DongGang, a coastal town south of Kaohsiung (Taiwan’s second-biggest city).

We stayed and hung out with Laura, our DongGang friend, for about a week and camped for a few days on Xiao Liu Chu, a small, coral island not far from DongGang. It was warm and sunny. We camped out on the beach and read and we even went snorkeling in the surf. It was fantastic and a great departure from the much colder north.

Emily celebrated her birthday while we were in DongGang. I took her to Kaohsiung for the day and we hiked and road bikes and had fun together exploring the city. She’s a quarter-century old if you can believe it.

Megan, my sister, joined up with us the day before we left DongGang. Now there were four of us on two mopeds for the trip back to Taipei and oh man were we funny looking all packed on to our tiny, little 125cc scooters.

We took off north and hopped on Hwy 20, Taiwan’s southern cross-island road. There was a ton of road damage from mud-slides and it was very precarious in spots…it’s a very good thing that no mothers were on the trip is probably where I should leave the description. We came across many construction crews repairing damage and were even held up by one that hadn’t completed a little dirt trail to connect each side of the road from where a bridge had collapsed. Emily’s pictures will be invaluable for you all to see and get a better idea of what I’m talking about! We made it through eventually though and camped at LiSong, a natural hot-springs that LonelyPlanet says is Taiwan’s most beautiful hot-spring. It was very beautiful but oh man was it a hike to get down to it at the base of a ravine. I’ll leave that story for Emily to share.

After a few days there we took off up the east coast of Taiwan. The mountains and the east coast of Taiwan are so beautiful; so untamed compared to what we were driving past going south on the west-side.

After a night at Hualien’s Formosa Backpackers Hostel (recommendable) we headed into Taroko Gorge for a few days of camping and hiking. Another great story and another one I’ll leave for Emily.

After leaving Taroko we continued to head west and north through Taiwan’s mountains. It was slow going and very foggy in places. We stayed one night at a place called Wuling Farms and while it was a nice place we arrived too late in the day to truly enjoy it. Plus, we were pretty far north at this point and as we were camping we were less enthused about being outside and “doing stuff” due to the drop in temperature.

Our last day driving from Wuling Farms to Taipei was the most grueling. It was cold, rainy, and foggy and we were way up in the mountains in the middle of these clouds that were causing the rain and the fog…and we were riding on mopeds…brr.

We finally made it back to our house last Friday evening. Since then we’ve been hanging, reading, and enjoying each other’s company. Megan had to leave to head back to her home on Kinmen today. Monday Emily and I start school.

Vacation is over.

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.

For the last few years I’ve rediscovered a love for reading books. During the campaign of ‘06 I became a news junkie and it took me a while to  I realize that the news is just the same thing day after day after day. I think 2009 was my first full year of enjoying books on a consistent basis instead of just news. To mark this historic fact I give you a list of the books I read throughout this past year with a few comments about them. If any of you have read these books and want to add your two cents I’d love to hear it. If you have any suggestions for books that should be on my 2010 list let me know!

Prison To Praise by Merlin Carothers is how I began 2009. I found it in the MCU library and remembered that I’d seen the book on my parents’ bookshelf growing up. It was really small so I figured why not give it a try. I liked it and it made me think about praising God in new ways.

Playing For Pizza by John Grisham had been borrowed from my dad and brought from Michigan the previous summer to read during the year. You’ve got to love Grisham, at least I do, and I read the book in like 2 or 3 days because it was so fun. I liked how lighthearted it was and I loved reading the story of an expat while living as an expat myself.

The Dilbert Principle by Scott Adams was given to me for Christmas by my uncle back in 2006. That, as you will recall, was when I just read news so I never read it. I should have though because this is seriously a great book. I can remember reading it and laughing over and over no matter if I was in my bedroom or in Mos Burger and just loving how spot on Scott Adams got the whole office scene. If you’ve ever worked in an office and haven’t read this book then stop waiting and borrow my copy! Thanks again uncle Jimmy!

Descending From Duty by J. Ryan Fenzel was another book I picked up in ‘06 and hadn’t read. The author is from Michigan and on a campaign staff retreat they had him give us a little talk and copies of his book. I liked how the book was set in Michigan and how I had been to places he uses in the setting of his book. It smacked of a Clancy novel to me and while it isn’t going to be a bestseller or anything it was fun to read it. During the time period when I was reading it I posted here on Taiwaneers and mentioned the book. The author found the post on the internet and messaged me about it asking how a dude in Taiwan picked up a copy of his book. It’s amazing this internet thang isn’t it?

On The Boundaries Of American Evangelicalism, The Postwar Evangelical Coalition by Jon R. Stone is another book I found in the MCU library. If I remember right it was the author’s doctoral dissertation. While I skimmed parts of it I did learn a lot. I gained a lot more big-picture understanding of the whole twentieth century for American christianity. I had no idea before reading this all of the intricacies of how fundamentalists and main-stream modernist denominations split in the first part of the 1900s and how evangelicalism sprang up out of the middle of it all. I liked it and it has made me interested to learn more about the history of Christianity.

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is one of Ken’s (our housemate) books and was just sitting on the bookshelf here. The little quotes on the front about how great the book is and the fact that I kept hearing about Gladwell finally prevailed on me and I read the book. I was thoroughly entertained by it but the book definitely did not change my life as the hype around it told me it would. It’s just a bunch of entertaining stories and practical sense observations about how products and stuff take off and become popular. I guess all the hype about the book is what let me down. It was entertaining and enjoyable to read…just not life-changing.

River Town by Peter Hessler was my lucky snag from the white elephant gift exchange during our Christmas party last year. I liked the book and found several similarities to culture here in Taiwan that the author observed in mainland China. Also, I saw some pretty big differences and it made me want to take a trip and explore the mainland. For anyone who wants to read an account of an American living in China pick this one up.

Improving Your Serve by Charles R. Swindoll came next. I guess I don’t really have much to say about it. If anyone else has read it and can share with me what I should feel let me know. Otherwise I’m tempted to feel like Swindoll just needed to publish something so he slapped it together. There just doesn’t seem to be much to it.

Operation SOLO by John Barron was an awesome read! The true story of FBI spies to the Soviet Union totally made me realize how much goes on that we don’t know about. This husband and wife looked like the complete, subversive, anti-American, communist, couple and we find out years later that they were giving the American government some of the best clandestine information ever gathered. Shazam! A very good book.

Blindsight by Robin Cook was and, unless the book was rewritten, still is crap! I saw it at my parents’ house and brought it to Taiwan to read during the year just to have more fiction to choose from. Talk about drivel.

Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne & Chris Haw unlike The Tipping Point was a life-changing book for me. At the beginning of the book I was turned off by the confrontational statements but as I read on I became more and more challenged and more and more turned on by the message of total surrender to Jesus. I really liked the book and still haven’t gotten over the questions it raises. I encourage everyone to read it. Definitely one of the best books I read in 2009 and on my list of books to recommend. If you haven’t read it then put it on your list.

The Act of Marriage by Tim & Beverly LaHaye was recommended to Emily and I to read when we got married. We started it on our honeymoon in the spring of 2007 and finally finished up in 2009. This is not a reflection of the book though. Actually we finished the book quickly after starting it but I didn’t put it on my list until now because we were still reading through the Q&A section at the back. It is a great book and one we recommend to others when they ask us for marriage advice. It makes a great wedding gift but definitely not something for single people to read.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner came next. I was a little apprehensive that it would just be another entertaining book that had lots of hype around it. I think because my expectations were tempered actually contributed to how much I enjoyed the book. It did completely entertain me and at the same time I thought it was fascinating. Levitt definitely seems to be asking interesting questions and using data in new ways. I liked the book a lot!

Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard was recommended to me by my mom while I was home during summer break. It’s a quick and easy read and she hit on a good one. An interesting socio-economic experiment as a middle-class kid tries to start at the bottom of the economic ladder with $30 bucks, the clothes on his back, in a brand new city and work his way out of the homeless shelter into middle class America without using any of his past-life credentials or connections. A very interesting topic and a nice read.

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by W.H.D. Rouse I will admit was a bit hard for me to get through. I was excited to read it after taking a mythology course in the previous year of school and after the two easy reads directly before I was ready to take it on. Now I can say I’ve read it.

The Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne was on my dad’s bookshelf and after Jesus for President I was eager to see what else Shane had to say. This is his first book and contains a lot of the same stuff that he talks about in Jesus for President. This one focuses in more on him and his experiences. I think I would have preferred reading it later on and not so close to Jesus for President though because it did seem a bit repetitious even though it does have a place on its own. I would recommend others not to read both books in close proximity to each other but I do recommend both books.

The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis is another fantastic book by one of my favorite authors. Lewis does such a great job with imagery doesn’t he?

Man of the House by Speaker Tip O’Neill with William Novak was my grandpa’s book. My uncle suggested I read it back when I was first getting interested in politics as a high schooler. Sadly, it took me seven years to decide to read it. Once I started it though I loved it and basically scarfed down the pages. I felt like I was getting to know my grandpa better even though he’s dead because Tip, like my grandpa, was an Irish Catholic and the whole story-telling qualities seemed so similar. I really enjoyed the book and hope I can find others like it. Anybody who enjoys stories and has an interest in legislative goings-on would enjoy this book!

PYONGYANG A Journey In North Korea by Guy Delisle was lent to me by my brother. It is written in comic-book form but not humorous or about something “larger than life” or anything typically depicted in comics. It’s written by an animator who spent some time at an animating company in North Korea about his experiences there. I really enjoyed it. It’s short and just gives quick glances into living an expat life in the one country no one knows anything about.

The Sum of All Fears by Tom Clancy is the first Clancy book I’ve read. I’ve listened to one or two on tape and watched most of the movies but that’s not the same is it? I can see why people buy his books. He does a really good job at developing a whole bunch of characters and bringing them together for a cataclysmic finale. Not quite as amazing as Dickens does in A Tale of Two Cities but hey, not half bad either. I liked the book even though it took me a while to get through it. Clancy writes long novels doesn’t he?

Jim & Casper Go To Church by Jim Henderson & Matt Casper is another book I found on my dad’s bookshelf. It’s about a Christian and an Atheist who visit a bunch of churches in America and talk about what they observe. I thought it was an interesting read although I think there is a ton more that they could have done with the premise. I found myself wishing they would take the conversation farther than they did and felt in a lot of ways like they were saying things I already knew.

And that folks is the end of 2009. I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say about these bad boys. A penny for your thoughts as they say.

Well we made it home for summer break!

We said goodbye to our flat-mates last week and boarded our Malaysia Airlines flight to California. We sat next to this guy who told us story after story. He was born in Taiwan and had been visiting his mother for two months. However, for the past thirty years he has lived in the USA and currently lives in Lacuna Beach. He’s a millionaire who made his money in one-hour photo shops and real-estate. Paul was definitely an entertaining guy. I love the fact that he was sitting with us in straight-up Economy (not even business class) and talked about how he just bought his daughter a new BMW.

Let me take a minute here to give my full endorsement to Malaysia Airlines. The seats go way far back, lots of leg room (seriously I felt just as good as if I was sitting in an exit row), and….drum roll please….the food was not only edible it was good. Just to rub it in, the dinner they served me was Seafood Ragout! Boom shaka laka! The service was fantastic as well with very nice flight attendants who were always bringing stuff around without any call buttons being hit. Finally I must mention the fact that even though they made Emily check her carry-on because it was too heavy they didn’t charge extra. I’d definitely use their services again!

We landed at LAX in the middle of the day and decided to try our hands at American public transportation after all our experience overseas because the alternative: the shuttle service to Pasadena where we were headed, was $25 a-person. YUCK! Emily and I read up online and discovered we could take the free airport shuttle to Parking Lot C, get on the 439 LA city bus and ride it to Union Station where we could catch the metro to Pasadena. The ride to the parking lot was short but the 439 ride was like 2 and a half to 3 hours long. The metro ride was only about 20 minutes. The bus was like $1.60ish per person and the metro was $1.25 per person so what we might do next time if we are in more of a hurry is take the $5 shuttle from LAX straight to Union Station instead of the city bus. It did feel great to cheat LA out of its reputation for being un-navigable with public transportation…I’m becoming my dad.

Even though it was a long ride its good that we took the 439 this time. 1 because we had plenty of time to kill before our friends got off work and 2 because we had a very nice conversation with a movie star. Carey Westbrook got on the bus not long after we did, came straight to the back of the bus where we were sitting with our bags and before long we were chatting away. He told us all about the movie, Blue Valentine, he just got done shooting with Ryan Gosling which is scheduled for release in 2010 and how he’s juggling his movie career with his two part-time jobs, one at a cemetery and one as a night-watchmen at the newspaper. The newspaper bit launched us into a conversation about where to get real news with Carey advising us that www.democracynow.org is where its at. We found common ground learning that he spent a few weeks in South Korea teaching English but decided to cut it short and instead of sticking around asked his students how to say “I want to go to the airport” in Korean. Before he got off the bus I was also able to squeeze some marriage advice out of him. Even though he’s not married his relationship with his long-time girlfriend has taught him a few things he told me. Carey advised me to remember three things when the woman in my life is talking to me. Every once in a while I should say “ya gotta watch out for that” or “thats what they do” or….sadly it seems the third one has already left me. If my woman then questions me on whether I was really listening or not I should quickly respond “I said thats what they do.” Carey was a really cool guy and thankfully I got a picture with him before he got off so that when he makes it big I can say I knew him when.

After the metro ride from Union Station we walked the 5 or so blocks from the metro station in Pasadena to our friends’ house and had a great few days visiting with them. Afterwards they took us to the airport and we got on our Frontier Airlines flight to Detroit. Nothing that good to say about Frontier other than they are cheap and got us to where we were going. I’d compare them to Spirit Airlines. Basic, cheap travel. One thing to remember though is that Frontier charges $15 for even the first bag so factor that in when you are buying tickets.

It was great to be back in Detroit and see my sister who came and picked us up. I was so revved up we stayed up late eating Taco Bell and watching a movie!

Since then we’ve gone to a July 4th party with friends from church, gone to church, and spent lots of time with our families!

Work should start on Monday!

One second I was walking down the street on the way to the post office and the next second I was part of an air raid drill. Thats exactly what happened to me today.

Emily and I were puttering around our house getting everything ready for our summer-break departure tomorrow. All of a sudden we heard an extremely loud and extremely long alarm from outside. It was the same kind of noise I remember hearing as a kid that signaled tornadoes.

We opened the window to see if people were rushing away from buildings or anything giving us an indication of real danger from an earthquake or something but seeing no one we just continued what we were doing and finally the alarm stopped.

A few minutes later I left for the post office and walked down the street to the first intersection. I was about to cross the street when a Cop standing there told me that I had to stay. Looking around I noticed several people just hanging out at the corner and then I realized how eerie it was that there were no cars or scooters or pedestrians or bicycles or anything moving along the streets. One of the other guys standing there spoke a little English and he explained to me that this was a 15 minute air-raid drill that is done across Taipei city once a year.

After the obligatory 15 minutes were up the deafening alarm sounded long and loud again and as quickly as you can snap your fingers the streets were full with cars and pedestrians.

In a country where I feel less in danger than when I’m in America this was a surreal experience.