Holy wow Taipei has so much more than Hsinchu, as I discovered when I had a few days to explore the city.
I spent two days in Taipei... most of it involved shopping of some sort.. haha. It was like woot, but in person. My favorite place to be would probably be the Guanghua Electronics Market, which was composed of a street of electronics vendors, along with a six-story building filled with small vendors. The vendors all pretty much sold the same thing one or another, and so prices were fairly cheap. Not cheap enough for me to buy anything for resale in the states, but about amazon-price cheap. Got a chance to try out mechanical keyboards, and I have to say, I love them. Currently researching the best brand and model so I can go back and get the best deal I can.
A close second would be the Shilin Night Market. It's huge. I did my best to cover all the streets, but I'm sure I missed some, because I often got lost and just walked around until I saw familiar shops. Tried out a bunch of different foods, but I really wish I could read at least some Chinese food characters because a lot of stalls weren't clear on what they were selling and I was curious. Next year, I will come back prepared!
Taipei also had extraordinarily good food, much better than Hsinchu. I ate so much food here and spent so much money but it was all worth it. Other notable places I went to was the Taipei 101, where I sat and wrote out quite a few postcards, and just relaxed while enjoying a bird's eye (probably higher than a bird's flight, actually) view of Taipei. Not to mention that Taipei 101's lower level food court contains some of the best food (beef noodle soup, xiao long bao) I have ever had.
Also, gonna take a minute here and rave about Taipei's public transportation. It's so great! And so English-friendly. But it's super efficient, super cheap ($0.50 for a bus ride, $0.65 for a subway ride), and everything is so efficient. Bus lanes are efficient in that only buses use them, and the on-off process is quick and easy (you pay as you get off). Subways are clean, large, modern, and everything good. It will be hard to go back to NYC's shitty MTA system and not think about Taipei's MRT system.
I am seriously considering coming here after college, perhaps to teach at an international school in Taipei. I dunno, we'll see.
Japan plans are all set, I will be in Tokyo from 5/31 until 6/2, and then from 6/2 until 6/4 I will be in Yokohama. Ramen Museum, I will be back!
I am currently somewhere in the mountains with limited internet access so I'll upload photos later. Lots of photos to come! I think my current altitude is somewhere around 2100m above sea level. Views are gorgeous.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
On Pacific American School
So Winston attends Pacific American School (PAS). I had the pleasure of attending an entire day's worth of classes (7:55 AM -> 3:10 PM). There were four classes total (classes are roughly 85 minutes long, +/- 5min) that I sat in on - Precalc, Physics, Spanish, Java. Overall, it was an interesting experience.
Important piece of information - PAS is a for-profit school. Big red flag for me.
Anyway, the classes. Honestly, I don't understand why they have classes that are so long. NYU classes (usually) aren't even that long, and these kids are still in high school. I really don't think they have the attention span to pay attention for more than half the class.. and it shows, too. Precalc was rather long and drawn out. The class was noticeably split down the middle by gender - the girls were on the right side of the room, the boys on the left. About half the students had laptops. The boys on the left were either playing D3 or watching their neighbor play D3. The girls on the right were working on some essay or chilling on facebook. The teacher lectured for most of the class, I could not tell whether the students actually understood the material or not. Well, I could. They were going over determinants of an n by n matrix, actually, and at the end, when he gave them a problem from the book to solve, I heard a girl say (in Chinese), "How do you get the determinant?"
Next was Physics. The teacher was passing back a test in which about 80% of the class had failed. Apparently, he had a hunch that they were cheating by getting answers off the internet (not sure how that would work), and the students had been doing well overall prior to this test, so he designed a difficult test cheat-proof (again, not sure how). The highest grade was 100. The second highest grade was 60. The lowest grade was somewhere around 20. Not sure how I feel about this one. Without knowing how the students could have cheated, and how the teacher could have made the test cheat-proof, I can't really say much about it. The teacher, though, didn't seem to know his subject; the student who aced the test consistently corrected the teacher throughout the class. Really fundamental errors too, like getting an equation wrong, or mixing up terms.
Spanish was a very helpful class in the sense that I got to learn a lot more about the kids at the school and of the school itself. The teacher was a very open and friendly woman, and was more than willing to answer any questions I had. It is near the end of the school year so today's class was a cooking class, where they made some bacon/garlic/mushroom combo. I forget the Spanish name. But she admitted that the school is very different from typical public schools in the U.S. in that it has a very heavy focus on SATs and standardized test-taking. Students here are mostly independent, "just give them a textbook and a chapter and they'll learn it." Which also means the students are mostly well-behaved. She also admitted that there were some teachers who didn't really care about the kids that much.
Java. Not much to say here. Students just worked on their project.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the school. I don't know whether the students are well-behaved and independent because of the school, or because of the culture that surrounds them (they are mostly Taiwan-born and Taiwan-raised). The atmosphere was very nice and friendly though; since each grade only contains about 30 students, the teacher-student relationships were very close. I don't know if I would want to teach here, although it would seem like a relatively easy job (relative to teaching in, say, NYC), but the goals and methods of the school may not be compatible with my own. But as far as the current quality of education goes, I would not pay the $15,000 USD tuition price to send my kid to this school. Also, core classes only happen 2.5 times a week (half-length classes on Thursdays)... considering how little was covered in today's one class, it makes me wonder how much they actually learn? Well, regardless - we'll see.
Yay pictures:
Jiou cai he zi (pinyin may be off) - $0.80
Cong you bing jia dan (scallion pancake with egg) - $0.80
Important piece of information - PAS is a for-profit school. Big red flag for me.
Anyway, the classes. Honestly, I don't understand why they have classes that are so long. NYU classes (usually) aren't even that long, and these kids are still in high school. I really don't think they have the attention span to pay attention for more than half the class.. and it shows, too. Precalc was rather long and drawn out. The class was noticeably split down the middle by gender - the girls were on the right side of the room, the boys on the left. About half the students had laptops. The boys on the left were either playing D3 or watching their neighbor play D3. The girls on the right were working on some essay or chilling on facebook. The teacher lectured for most of the class, I could not tell whether the students actually understood the material or not. Well, I could. They were going over determinants of an n by n matrix, actually, and at the end, when he gave them a problem from the book to solve, I heard a girl say (in Chinese), "How do you get the determinant?"
Next was Physics. The teacher was passing back a test in which about 80% of the class had failed. Apparently, he had a hunch that they were cheating by getting answers off the internet (not sure how that would work), and the students had been doing well overall prior to this test, so he designed a difficult test cheat-proof (again, not sure how). The highest grade was 100. The second highest grade was 60. The lowest grade was somewhere around 20. Not sure how I feel about this one. Without knowing how the students could have cheated, and how the teacher could have made the test cheat-proof, I can't really say much about it. The teacher, though, didn't seem to know his subject; the student who aced the test consistently corrected the teacher throughout the class. Really fundamental errors too, like getting an equation wrong, or mixing up terms.
Spanish was a very helpful class in the sense that I got to learn a lot more about the kids at the school and of the school itself. The teacher was a very open and friendly woman, and was more than willing to answer any questions I had. It is near the end of the school year so today's class was a cooking class, where they made some bacon/garlic/mushroom combo. I forget the Spanish name. But she admitted that the school is very different from typical public schools in the U.S. in that it has a very heavy focus on SATs and standardized test-taking. Students here are mostly independent, "just give them a textbook and a chapter and they'll learn it." Which also means the students are mostly well-behaved. She also admitted that there were some teachers who didn't really care about the kids that much.
Java. Not much to say here. Students just worked on their project.
I'm still not sure how I feel about the school. I don't know whether the students are well-behaved and independent because of the school, or because of the culture that surrounds them (they are mostly Taiwan-born and Taiwan-raised). The atmosphere was very nice and friendly though; since each grade only contains about 30 students, the teacher-student relationships were very close. I don't know if I would want to teach here, although it would seem like a relatively easy job (relative to teaching in, say, NYC), but the goals and methods of the school may not be compatible with my own. But as far as the current quality of education goes, I would not pay the $15,000 USD tuition price to send my kid to this school. Also, core classes only happen 2.5 times a week (half-length classes on Thursdays)... considering how little was covered in today's one class, it makes me wonder how much they actually learn? Well, regardless - we'll see.
Yay pictures:
Jiou cai he zi (pinyin may be off) - $0.80
Cong you bing jia dan (scallion pancake with egg) - $0.80
Monday, May 21, 2012
Of Eggs and Bronchitis
So it turns out I have bronchitis.. haha.
Lunch... some sort of noodle soup with ground pork, meatball, and tea egg
Chihkan tower entrance
Making (delicious) peanut candies
Walkway up to Anping Fot
Tree!
Some streets are really narrow..
Hsinchu nightmarket
Not sure how the pinyin for this goes. sen jian bao? 5 for $1.75
Popcorn chicken + "tempura" (tian-bu-la), which is some kind of fried doughy thing? It's good. $2.75
Sao bing you tiao. $0.60 each
Takoyaki.. this was 7 pcs. for $1.25. I like the takoyaki on 9th street in NYC though.
Dumplings! Long dumplings, not the ones you might initially think about.
Long dumplings! around 6 for $1.00 - prosperity is pretty close. But these are fried so well!
A tree's roots are engulfing a wall... it's a little scary
Brothers, mom, grandparents. Grandpa is 97 years old!
Same, but with dad
Dad is "transferring Chi energy" into grandpa
Grandma
Mom asked me to "smile"
Winston
Harrison
Mom and her mom
Aunt and grandma feeding grandpa ice cream
I don't even understand what my dad does.
Those are some bigass "guo tie"
Delish
So much food
Not sure how we're related, or if we are at all, but the dad certainly looks like he's enjoying it
Group picture (that's adigu in the front, he's so good on camera)
Another group picture
Adigu so cute
So much cuteness
What a boss
Health care here is really cool though. I'm not covered by insurance here or anything, but when I went to see the doctor, it only cost $30. This included all pharmaceutical costs (including an inhaler)... with insurance, it would have cost me $8. That's some pretty damn good healthcare. I'm jealous.
On Saturday my dad, my little brother, and I went to Tainan, all the way down in southern Taiwan. It was raining on and off throughout the day, but we went around and saw Chihkan Tower and Anping (Zeelandia) Fort. Walked around narrow crowded streets filled with shops selling touristy items.. and food. Then it really started to pour and everyone scrambled inside to hide from the rain. We decided to go home then.
Other than that, I spend a lot of my time just chilling. It's really relaxing here, and the weather is surprisingly nice. I try to avoid going out during the hot parts of the day. The apartment complex requires a key to go both in and out, so... I'm sometimes forced to spend some time at home.
Every 7/11 has tea eggs... and they're a quarter each. I eat 4+ per day. It's delicious. To date, I think I've eaten maybe 25-30 eggs since landing haha.
Every 7/11 has tea eggs... and they're a quarter each. I eat 4+ per day. It's delicious. To date, I think I've eaten maybe 25-30 eggs since landing haha.
Anyway, I think the best way to describe my time here is through pictures. Without further ado:
Tainan! First view off the train.
Lunch... some sort of noodle soup with ground pork, meatball, and tea egg
Chihkan tower entrance
Making (delicious) peanut candies
Walkway up to Anping Fot
Tree!
Some streets are really narrow..
Hsinchu nightmarket
Not sure how the pinyin for this goes. sen jian bao? 5 for $1.75
Popcorn chicken + "tempura" (tian-bu-la), which is some kind of fried doughy thing? It's good. $2.75
Sao bing you tiao. $0.60 each
Takoyaki.. this was 7 pcs. for $1.25. I like the takoyaki on 9th street in NYC though.
Dumplings! Long dumplings, not the ones you might initially think about.
Long dumplings! around 6 for $1.00 - prosperity is pretty close. But these are fried so well!
A tree's roots are engulfing a wall... it's a little scary
Brothers, mom, grandparents. Grandpa is 97 years old!
Same, but with dad
Dad is "transferring Chi energy" into grandpa
Grandma
Mom asked me to "smile"
Winston
Harrison
Mom and her mom
Aunt and grandma feeding grandpa ice cream
I don't even understand what my dad does.
Those are some bigass "guo tie"
Delish
So much food
Not sure how we're related, or if we are at all, but the dad certainly looks like he's enjoying it
Group picture (that's adigu in the front, he's so good on camera)
Another group picture
Adigu so cute
So much cuteness
What a boss
Friday, May 18, 2012
First full day
Today was my first full day in Taiwan. A bit about the journey here though...
I took three flights to get to Taiwan: From NYC to Washington D.C., from D.C. to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Taipei. I almost missed my first flight - got to the terminal two hours early and decided at some point that it would be a good idea to take a nap. The scheduled departure time was at 11:26 AM. I passed out at the gate and woke up at 11:40 AM. Luckily, I woke up to them calling my name on the intercom and I sprinted to the front, apologizing profusely. Missing that flight would've meant missing all of my flights and that would have been all sorts of buhao.
On all three of the flights I took, I sat next to no one. Which is sad. I enjoy meeting people on airplanes, partially because I know I'll never see them again. Or maybe I will, and it would be awesome. But most likely not. So I just slept a lot. 18 hours in the air is a lot of time for nothing. On the 13 hour trip from D.C. to Tokyo, each seat had its own touchscreen entertainment center and I watched the bollywood film 3 Idiots, which was, as is with any Aamir Khan film, an awesome movie and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else.
Anyway, back to Taiwan. It's been thirteen years since I have last been in Taiwan; I was in second grade, and attended elementary school in Taipei for two months. My parents and my little brother now live in Hsinchu, which is about an hour's drive southwest of Taipei.
My day started off bight and early at 8AM. I went with Harrison to get breakfast from some local shops. It cost $5 total to feed the both of us; we ordered dan bing jia rou song, dan bing jia you tiao, xiao long bao, dou jiang, and shao bing you tiao. I didn't bring my camera so unfortunately there aren't any pictures. It was all delicious, except for the rou song; that was a little dry and I didn't have any drinks to complement this meal.
So the apartment is pretty nice, but has a lot of security. You need a key to get in AND out, so at this point, I couldn't really leave the place by myself. I also didn't have a phone, so I couldn't call people to let me in either. So we headed back, and Harrison went off to take care of some stuff, and I took a nap for a couple hours. For lunch, Dad took us to his workplace where he ate with us at the cafeteria with his co-workers. I had some sort of pork chop over rice (with other things). It was pretty good and cheap ($2). I realized how hard it is to tell Asian peoples' ages here... one of my dad's coworkers is in her 30s and about to have a second child. I thought she was in her mid-20s. Some employees who walked by (they were wearing employee ID cards) looked like they could be in middle school. You really can't tell.
Afterwards, we went to Winston's school so I could ask if I could sit in some classes the next week. They were fine with it. The school is an international school, and had a bit of a weird atmosphere; I can't really pinpoint what made me feel so awkward. Next, Harrison and I took a bus to Taipei. Even the bus was cheap! For an hour-long trip, we only paid ~$3.25. We went to Taipei to visit my mom at her workplace; she also wanted to buy us shoes and show us a bakery. Then we went to the old apartment, where my uncle's family and grandparents lived.
We took a road that passed by the old elementary school. Now I don't remember much, and I'm sure my friends can attest to my horrific memory, but I do have very vivid memories from going to school here in Taipei. I remember the courtyard in the school, where we all ran around being kids. I remember the school shop, where we bought plastic model airplanes to fly around. I remember the supermarket on the way to school, where we bought Kinder chocolate eggs with plastic toys in the middle (assembly required). I remember how to get to the school from the apartment, and vice versa. Dude, I even remember where my 2nd grade crush lives - no, I was not a creeper at age 7, I did walk her back home once. She lived along the path to school. Everything I saw in this area sparked memories hidden in the back of my head. Everything, including the door to the apartment to the damp smell of the streets.
When we entered the apartment (Harrison had keys), no one was home. I was pretty bored so I picked up a guitar and started playing for the first time. Tried playing various segments of various Kina Grannis songs, some successful and some not. Slowly, in groups, the rest of the household came home, and things were fairly lively. I had not seen one of my cousins, Yu Hang, in thirteen years. He's fourteen years old now and I didn't even recognize him. He has a little brother, nicknamed "Ai-di-gu", who is a cute little ball filled with energy. I thought Aidigu was Yu Hang at first, until he walked in, and I was confused and had to ask my grandma in a low voice "shei shi shei?" (who is who?)
We ate, talked, my mom joined us after she got out of work (in Taipei), and it was a very comfortable family setting. I realized that I haven't had this type of feeling in a long time, mostly because my cousins within the US are all grown up, as I will be soon. Having a little kid around the house just makes the atmosphere so much more different. I spent a lot more time with Aidigu than I did with Yu Hang, simply because communicating with Aidigu didn't require a strong understanding of Chinese. I could easily handle such low level communication with my broken Chinese, but since Yu Hang, didn't speak much English, I couldn't hold much of a conversation with him.
After some time, I went back to Hsinchu with my mom. Took the high speed rail. Opted for a taxi instead of a bus for the final stretch back to the apartment complex. I'm glad too, since it started pouring right after we got into the taxi. Sucks, because I wanted to get some food from the local nightmarket.
I can't promise posts of this length for every day, but I'll try to keep up with what I do during my time here.
Apartment in Hsinchu
Lunch at MediaTek cafeteria - $2
Mediatek Building (taken from a car, a little blurry)
Mom's workplace
Shoe shop
The road next to the old elementary school
Supermarket where I used to buy everything
Road leading to school
Old Taipei apartment
The inside
Little cousin setting up Chinese Chess on wooden floor tiles... because we couldn't find the board.
Mom came and found the board for us
Grandma's wonton soup
Rain ripples in the courtyard in Hsinchu apartment complex
Another shot
Our door. Not sure if having six deadbolts is necessary
With a key to match
The shoes! ($30)
p.s. I'll try to avoid portrait photos in the future. Or I'll just rotate them somehow.
p.p.s. all prices listed given are USD approximations
I took three flights to get to Taiwan: From NYC to Washington D.C., from D.C. to Tokyo, and Tokyo to Taipei. I almost missed my first flight - got to the terminal two hours early and decided at some point that it would be a good idea to take a nap. The scheduled departure time was at 11:26 AM. I passed out at the gate and woke up at 11:40 AM. Luckily, I woke up to them calling my name on the intercom and I sprinted to the front, apologizing profusely. Missing that flight would've meant missing all of my flights and that would have been all sorts of buhao.
On all three of the flights I took, I sat next to no one. Which is sad. I enjoy meeting people on airplanes, partially because I know I'll never see them again. Or maybe I will, and it would be awesome. But most likely not. So I just slept a lot. 18 hours in the air is a lot of time for nothing. On the 13 hour trip from D.C. to Tokyo, each seat had its own touchscreen entertainment center and I watched the bollywood film 3 Idiots, which was, as is with any Aamir Khan film, an awesome movie and I'd definitely recommend it to anyone else.
Anyway, back to Taiwan. It's been thirteen years since I have last been in Taiwan; I was in second grade, and attended elementary school in Taipei for two months. My parents and my little brother now live in Hsinchu, which is about an hour's drive southwest of Taipei.
My day started off bight and early at 8AM. I went with Harrison to get breakfast from some local shops. It cost $5 total to feed the both of us; we ordered dan bing jia rou song, dan bing jia you tiao, xiao long bao, dou jiang, and shao bing you tiao. I didn't bring my camera so unfortunately there aren't any pictures. It was all delicious, except for the rou song; that was a little dry and I didn't have any drinks to complement this meal.
So the apartment is pretty nice, but has a lot of security. You need a key to get in AND out, so at this point, I couldn't really leave the place by myself. I also didn't have a phone, so I couldn't call people to let me in either. So we headed back, and Harrison went off to take care of some stuff, and I took a nap for a couple hours. For lunch, Dad took us to his workplace where he ate with us at the cafeteria with his co-workers. I had some sort of pork chop over rice (with other things). It was pretty good and cheap ($2). I realized how hard it is to tell Asian peoples' ages here... one of my dad's coworkers is in her 30s and about to have a second child. I thought she was in her mid-20s. Some employees who walked by (they were wearing employee ID cards) looked like they could be in middle school. You really can't tell.
Afterwards, we went to Winston's school so I could ask if I could sit in some classes the next week. They were fine with it. The school is an international school, and had a bit of a weird atmosphere; I can't really pinpoint what made me feel so awkward. Next, Harrison and I took a bus to Taipei. Even the bus was cheap! For an hour-long trip, we only paid ~$3.25. We went to Taipei to visit my mom at her workplace; she also wanted to buy us shoes and show us a bakery. Then we went to the old apartment, where my uncle's family and grandparents lived.
We took a road that passed by the old elementary school. Now I don't remember much, and I'm sure my friends can attest to my horrific memory, but I do have very vivid memories from going to school here in Taipei. I remember the courtyard in the school, where we all ran around being kids. I remember the school shop, where we bought plastic model airplanes to fly around. I remember the supermarket on the way to school, where we bought Kinder chocolate eggs with plastic toys in the middle (assembly required). I remember how to get to the school from the apartment, and vice versa. Dude, I even remember where my 2nd grade crush lives - no, I was not a creeper at age 7, I did walk her back home once. She lived along the path to school. Everything I saw in this area sparked memories hidden in the back of my head. Everything, including the door to the apartment to the damp smell of the streets.
When we entered the apartment (Harrison had keys), no one was home. I was pretty bored so I picked up a guitar and started playing for the first time. Tried playing various segments of various Kina Grannis songs, some successful and some not. Slowly, in groups, the rest of the household came home, and things were fairly lively. I had not seen one of my cousins, Yu Hang, in thirteen years. He's fourteen years old now and I didn't even recognize him. He has a little brother, nicknamed "Ai-di-gu", who is a cute little ball filled with energy. I thought Aidigu was Yu Hang at first, until he walked in, and I was confused and had to ask my grandma in a low voice "shei shi shei?" (who is who?)
We ate, talked, my mom joined us after she got out of work (in Taipei), and it was a very comfortable family setting. I realized that I haven't had this type of feeling in a long time, mostly because my cousins within the US are all grown up, as I will be soon. Having a little kid around the house just makes the atmosphere so much more different. I spent a lot more time with Aidigu than I did with Yu Hang, simply because communicating with Aidigu didn't require a strong understanding of Chinese. I could easily handle such low level communication with my broken Chinese, but since Yu Hang, didn't speak much English, I couldn't hold much of a conversation with him.
After some time, I went back to Hsinchu with my mom. Took the high speed rail. Opted for a taxi instead of a bus for the final stretch back to the apartment complex. I'm glad too, since it started pouring right after we got into the taxi. Sucks, because I wanted to get some food from the local nightmarket.
I can't promise posts of this length for every day, but I'll try to keep up with what I do during my time here.
Apartment in Hsinchu
Lunch at MediaTek cafeteria - $2
Mediatek Building (taken from a car, a little blurry)
Mom's workplace
Shoe shop
Bakery!
The road next to the old elementary school
Supermarket where I used to buy everything
Road leading to school
Old Taipei apartment
The inside
Mom came and found the board for us
Grandma's wonton soup
Rain ripples in the courtyard in Hsinchu apartment complex
Another shot
Our door. Not sure if having six deadbolts is necessary
With a key to match
The shoes! ($30)
p.s. I'll try to avoid portrait photos in the future. Or I'll just rotate them somehow.
p.p.s. all prices listed given are USD approximations
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