"...cuz Taiwan's a real country."

so just got back from Taiwan last night. We went with the program for the week. Technically we went to as part of our comparative metropolis class, to compare Taibei (Taipei) and Shanghai. It was pretty awesome…

Friday before we left, magnolia and I went to the shanghai art museum cuz we didn’t have Chinese class. It was pretty amazing. Really cool paintings/statues/installations. I highly recommend it.

exhibit at the museum- "Fat"

chinese pop art

Shanghai Art Museum Building

Then we discovered this new really amazing area of shanghai called tianzifang. It’s a whole series of alleyways that are made up of traditional shanghainese homes, called shikumen. Now it’s filled with boutiques and ethnic food (likes thai, Indian, western, etc) We had Indian food, sooo good. Then I got a brownie at a different restaurant and noli had a coffee. Then we went to a third café, that was all organic and natural (zan you would have died). I got a cocktail and noli got gelato.

so we left last Saturday. It’s only a two hour flight so it was pretty easy. We were picked up at the airport by the Taiwanese partner university coordinator people. They had different students every day assigned to hang out with us and help us out with whatever we needed so we got to talk to lots of Taiwanese students about whatever. That was pretty cool. We decided that Chinese students from the ages of 12-25 actually act like they’re 12-15 yrs old. The whole time. As in very low emotional maturity. Example: they’re obsessed with stuffed animals, toys, dolls. Boys and girls still frequently act like the other has cooties. And the idea of “partying” is really bizarre to them. Most of the clubs/bars in china are full of westerners or older Chinese people. Anyways, Taiwanese people are a bit better. They party. And don’t act like children. So after checking into our hotel (which had this awk courtyard in the middle with fake grass mat stuff. And all the floor overlooked it so we’d just lean over the balcony and yell at each other- probs pretty annoying for everyone else at the hotel, invasion of the loud Americans!), we walked around the area a bit. We quickly discovered that people actually obey traffic laws in Taiwan! It was crazy. People stopped at red lights. Bikes stayed on their side of the road and followed the lights. You didn’t feel like you were going to die in the taxis. And taxis were just always available. Whenever you needed one and started to look around, they would just appear. And the drivers were all really nice. And their taxis were too, like brand new looking. Leather seats. Yay. (speaking of scary taxis- today the taxi I was in got pissed off that the light turned red, so he sped up to get through the intersection before the other cars started going cuz they had a green light. We were inches from a giant bus. Sooo scary. Then we stop at a light and the driver starts snorting and then opens the door and spits. Gross.) we decided this must be because taiwan is a real country, with real laws, etc. haha. then we had a dinner with the program at a nice western restaurant (everything is a bit cheaper in Taiwan than it is in shanghai) but it took forever, like 3 hrs. and my steak was barely cooked, which I normally like but you just never know when you’re in china/Taiwan. Then we went to a bar and I had hard cider- yum! We tried to go to this bowling place/club but you needed reservations. At 1 am, seriously? Reservations. We were sad. And then I lost my purse. (more on that later)

Sunday me, ben, alex, and jay went to longshan temple. It’s Buddhist. Really ornate and well preserved. And tons of worshippers burning incense, offering fruit to the gods, chanting, doing calligraphy, bowing, etc. really cool cultural experience. And there were water falls and ponds all around it- sooo pretty.

Long Shan Temple 

details on the ceiling, really well preserved

Me and Alex (and Ben) outside of the temple, there were gardens and such

Then we went to this street that supposedly had traditional stuff to buy, but it was really just tea and Chinese medicine. We did a tea tasting, which is sooo fun. Such a ceremony, they have to clean the leaves, the bowls, everything a million times, and then pour and repour everything a million times. We also randomly saw a van doing a puppet show on the street. Random. 

rando puppet van

funny hats on the street

In Taiwan there are tons of themed restaurants (hospital, toilet, poop, lord of the rings, etc) and we went to the ninja one. It was Japanese, soooo yummy. All the waiters/waitresses were wearing ninja-like clothes and had swords. Apparently on the weekends they have “girl shows”, aka strip shows. We did not see the strip show, haha. Then we walked around and discovered a cool boutique area.

Ninja Restaurant

ninja clothes

Monday we started the pre-planned lecture stuff. We had a lecture at the zoo (so random, no one really knows why we were lectured on zoo management) and then got to see all the animals, mostly special ones who were in non-public cages. I think they were like rescued or something. The orangutan was so creepy looking. When he looked at you, like in the eyes, you could tell that he had stuff going on in his head, not blank stares like other animals give you. And there were these really cute monkeys that were swinging around holding on to each other- they were mom and baby. And we saw pandas!!!!! So cute. Great panda gift store too. J 

creepy orangutan

cute mommy and baby monkey

panda!!!

gift store

then we went to the national science and technology university and had lunch with the students there. We were in groups and our students was so awk, but in a funny way- he asked us if we had boy/girl friends. And one of my friends, ben, was like ya I do. And the Taiwanese student was like, “oh can you teach me how to get girlfriend?” haha. Then we got a tour of the campus and saw their really baller technology lab thing.

science lab thing

our new chinese friend

Then we went to the election headquarters of the democratic people’s party (DPP). (more on politics later) there is an election for the mayors and local positions of the 5 cities in Taiwan in about a week so everybody was geared up for the election. they gave us lots of free stuff. Then we had free time so we went to see the social network- it had just come out in Taiwan. And it’s never coming out in china so we thought we should take the chance to see it. It was good, very interesting. I enjoyed reading all the subtitles in Chinese to see how they translated things. Then we went to the shilin night market- see my last post for the wonder of night markets. But this was even better. Whole streets filled with delicious foods- I tried fried squid, dumpling things, lemon-orange juice (amazing!!!!!!!), bubble tea (a specialty of Taiwan, although you can get it in china too), a curry chicken wrap, fried shrimp with this delicious spicy sauce (oh ya, I forced myself to like spicy food now), a waffle cone filled with shrimp and pineapple, and tons of really fresh exotic fruit. Noli and I stayed and shopped some. I bought a leopard print sweater (I am so my mother) and noli got some awesome tee-shirts/dresses.

night market streets, lots of people

street food corn

Tuesday we started off the day with lecture on development in Taiwan at National Chengchi University, who was hosting us. They guy was an idiot and just told stupid stories and no one really knew what he was talking about. Apparently back in the day, Taiwanese tribes used to hunt each other (over women, territory, honor, disagreement), specifically for their heads. And then the lecturer proceeded to tell us exactly how the whole ritual works and the drying out of the head, etc. ewww. Basically, the indigenous people of Taiwan feel oppressed and are underpriviledged and poor, just like every indigenous group everywhere. Then we had lunch on campus with one of the deans. Me and a few friends ended up at the teacher table, which was a bit intimidating for awhile but turned out to be fun. They were speaking in Chinese (but would randomly intersperse English words cuz apparently they just don’t translate very well and they’d rather use the more precise word, pretty cool) but me and alex still contributed in Chinese. We discussed china’s development and if they’ll ever catch up to the US (some said never, some said like 30 yrs), We also talked about english education and teaching in English- everyone in Taiwan speaks English really well (relatively). Even shopkeepers and taxi drivers speak English. And the students and educated people speak really really well. People are really friendly in taibei too, they’ll just randomly start talking to you on the subway and stuff. Omg, the subways- pretty clean and modern (although some of shanghai’s lines are newer so those are nicer), but they have lines drawn on the floor so people wait in an orderly and civilized way to get on the subway. We don’t even do that in America! It’s so nice. And the pushing is at a minimum. Anyways, so we had lunch with the teachers, then a lecture on politics in Taiwan, which was supposed to be “unbiased”, HA. Good joke. It was soooo skewed. The lecturer kept saying awkward things to our teachers (who are Chinese obvi), like “ya, we stole all of your artifacts when we fled to Taiwan and kept them all. You probably would have destroyed them in the cultural revolution anyways.” (they’re in the national palace museum, which we went to on Friday) And he showed us all these videos about how china was preparing militarily for an attack, all the time, and how Taiwan should be really afraid of mainland china. It was all bullshit. And then he tried to tell us the video was unbiased and made by CNN. Ya right. Then we went to the legislative yuan, which is essentially their congress. And we watched another stupid bias video. Then I went to go get my purse back- cuz someone found it! Taiwanese people are soooo nice. She said she found it in a taxi so I went to her apt building to get it. And she found me cuz my phone was in it, but it had died so she found a way to charge it so she could call one of my friends! Sooo amazing! And all my money was in it too! Everything! It was so exciting. Then we went to Taipei 101, the tallest building in Taipei (101 floors I think). We heard the observatory restaurant wasn’t that expensive and it revolved around so you could see everything- not quite… ended up being a 6 course dinner. About $100 USD once you included the wine we ordered. It was delicious! International food- steak, salad, amazing mushroom soup, etc. we all had fun pretending to be rich and snobby and elite, even though we were just silly college students who made a mistake about the restaurant and showed up in tee shirts and jeans. Haha. And the restaurant didn’t revolve, but no big deal. Still amazing view. Then we went to 711 (or club 7-1-1 as we call it) to buy drinks (they have them everywhere- so convenient!), then went to a bar hosting a salsa night! So fun!

Wednesday we started off going to the Guomingdang (Kuomingtang), which is the nationalist party that originally fought the commis and fled to Taiwan in 1949. A rep from the KMT talked to us about issues and such and then we got to ask questions. It was sooo interesting. He gave us real, honest answers (of course bias, but that’s the point, it’s what he really believes). He kept looking at our teachers and saying “your government…;you….”, it made them pretty mad and it was awk. We went to the headquarters of their election campaign too. We watched a bunch of campaign adds, which didn’t really say anything about the issues or the candidates. Just random stuff about the river in the city and this really cool sand artist. Basically they told us the only thing people care about and the only thing that influences their vote is cross-strait relations (china and Taiwan). The KMT advocates the 3 NOs: No reunification, No indepence, No use of military force. The DPP supports independence and really pisses china off all the time and tries to be as separate as possible. 2000-2008, the president was DPP and there was a lot of tension between china and Taiwan. Turns out that president got arrested for corruption, haha. But ya, so this is a mayor election happening. And even though the mayor doesn’t really have anything to do with china, it influences every issue- example: Chinese students who come to Taiwan to study, do they get scholarships like Taiwanese students? Or should they not cuz they aren’t Taiwanese? KMT would say yes they get them, and the DPP would say no. the KMT pretty much just advocates the status quo. We asked the KMT guy what would happen in the long run, but he said it was too hard to tell. You can’t vote until you’re 20 in Taiwan. They have a president, and a parliament with a prime minister. And they have two extra branches of gov’t we don’t have- control and examination. They basically monitor stuff. I guess they need it with those corrupt presidents running around. Apparently though they tried to model everything after the US cuz we’re their idol. Did you know Taiwan wasn’t a democracy and was under martial law until 1987? And they didn’t have real functioning elections for everything until like 1999. So recent!

random fact: Taiwan barely has any trashcans. They’re a rare find on the street. We were seriously baffled by this and talked an entire bus ride about it with the Taiwanese students with us. Apparently they either just don’t have as much trash or if they have it, they just carry it around with them until they go home. (this is a big problem at the night market cuz you have all this food trash and its gross) but at the same time, it’s relatively clean so people actually just don’t have as much trash/take it home. And at home, they don’t put their garbage on the streets to be picked up. No, they wait at home on garbage day and listen for the garbage truck music (piano stuff, kinda like an ice cream truck) and then bring it outside when it gets to their house. Weird huh?

Anyways, I loved all the politics stuff. It’s so crazy and so interesting. People in Taiwan are so afraid of what could happen, America is so ambiguous with its language about Taiwan (although our weapons sales to them are pretty clear), and the Chinese soo want it back. Anyways, so then we had a gross lunch, and listened to two more lectures. The first guy was supposed to talk about Taiwan economy stuff, but just talked about random general econ stuff and it was boring. The second guy was awesome though- he was the vice president of the S & P! so smart! He said he felt kinda responsible for the financial crisis, haha. As he should. And he had really interesting, concise, and useful things to tell us about the Taiwanese stock market and such. Oh ya, and he invented/coined the word “securitization”, as in asset securitization. Smarty pants. Then we took a gondola, with a glass bottom, to the top of some mountain nearby. But it was dark by the time we got in so we couldn’t really see much. I was pissed. Taiwan is really beautiful btw. So many mountains and trees and water. You know movies set in ancient china where they float around on huge boats through green mountains and lush valleys? That’s what Taiwan looks like. Unfortunately I couldn’t get any good pics to capture the beauty. L ate a quick dinner at the top, sitting on the floor. Then I went to the night market again, but we went to a different area at shilin and I tried oyster pancakes, a specialty in Taiwan. It’s really an omlette with some thick jelly like stuff in it with some oysters and sauce. I didn’t really like it. Bought some cool sunglasses. Went to a pet store, I wanted to buy every dog in there. And there were so many dachshunds (java baby I miss you!!) – so cute. No btowns though (miss you too mad dog). Ate some more tropical fruit.

Thursday we went to a “Taiwanese business” which was essentially the Chinese version of Verizon or at&t and they just gave us a presentation on their services. I played snake on my phone. Much more productive. Then we had a yummy Italian lunch where I had squid ink risotto (remember that in Venice mom and dad and emmy?!), yum! Then we went to the international flora expo. Unfortunately no one told the Taiwanese that nobody cares about the flora expo and that the real expo was in shanghai (not that people outside of china really cared about that one either). People were like, oh it’s so cool, you have to go. They didn’t even have that many flowers though. I was expecting botanical garden stye, plants everywhere. But they were very contained and well groomed, but probably not in full bloom yet. I still liked it though, cuz it was weird and funny. Took lots of pics, played in the hedge maze (reminded me of kate blackburn’s 8^th grade bday party at the corn maze! Anybody remember that?!) 

Me and Magnolia blossoming at the expo

traditional dance

victory, found the middle of the maze :) 

friends at the flora expo

then we had a “farewell” banquet buffet with the Taiwanese students. Then we went karaoking. Sooooooo fun. People were soooooo into it. I love karaoke. The best part might be the rando stock footage that they play for songs that don’t have videos (or they just don’t have the real videos) so they use random footage from America in the 80s. so good. Total eclipse of the heart was epic. EPIC.

Friday we had a free day so we went to the national palace museum. Really cool building. And inside they had cool scrolls, calligraphy, the jade cabbage (it was a big deal), miniature ivory carvings (so amazing), and more. Me alex and magnolia discovered a secret garden. It was pretty great. Then we took the subway to Danshui, which is a costal city/suburb of Taipei in the north, about an hr subway ride. We really wanted to go to this one restaurant in castle that took us an hr to find. Then when we found it, the restaurant wasn’t even open, only the café. So we ate there. It was on a big hill so there were great views of the mountains and the ocean. The waiter spilled really hot nacho cheese on me, but it only got on my hand and it was really funny. Then we walked around the streets for awhile, very night market like. Then magnolia and I went to another town where they have these natural hot sulfur springs. It was really relaxing. Then we went to the shilin night market again. Tried to go bowling, but you needed an ID and a bunch of us didn’t have them. Seriously, an ID (18+) for bowling? We played arcade games for awhile while we waited for our other friends to bring us our IDs from the hotel. I discovered I’m quite miserable at bowling these days.

Saturday morning we left and came back to shanghai. As soon as we got on the plane, it was apparent we were returning to the mainland. Everybody was screaming and running around and pushing each other. Chaos. The usual. The flight attendant at one point actually had to ask one group to be quite. And people say Americans are loud and obnoxious…

Today I went to a forum on China, Canada, and the G20 for my internship. It was in English this time so it was infinetly better than the religion forum. People there were soooo friendly and just wanted to talk and give out business cards (people were surprised I didn’t have a card, seriously? “Julia Nethero, Vassar College, Junior”, pointless). One guy even said I needed to come to his city and give a speech to his university and they’d pay for everything. Who does he think I am? What can I talk about? Bra fitting I guess…haha. I said I’d think about it. I know so much about the G20 now. It’s crazy. And Canada, random.

Nothing too exciting happeneing this week. This weekend is Linh’s bday so that’ll be fun. And mom and dad are coming in a week!!!!!!!!!!! 20 days until my bday!!!!!!! And we only have 5 weeks left here in china. Weird… I miss America and my friends so much but I know I’ll miss china once I leave. And I’ll miss my new friends L most people are from CA so it’ll be hard to see them.

woah. I think that’s it for now. 

(more pics later)