Fin - The End!

Well I finally made it back in Los Angeles. Aside from my garbage disposal not working and one burned out light bulb, everything else seems to be ok and in working order. I even drove my car to the post office and picked three months worth of mail that they held for me (that should be fun to go through). So all in all, everything is ok back home in the USA. A few days off to rest, and then back to work on Monday...man it all seems like a strange dream.

I want to again thank my family and friends in Taiwan and the USA, but also thank my bosses and coworkers at Line 6 for letting me take this break and for picking up the slack while I was gone. It was a trip of a lifetime and I learned and did a hell of a lot of things. I'm also going to continue to learn more Chinese. I've worked very hard and come a long way in the past three months and I'm not about to give up on it.

Thanks for reading the blog, it was certainly a fun and interesting way to document my journey.

Now off to Carl's Jr to get me a Western Bacon Cheeseburger and some Chili Cheese Fries...mmmmm.

Jim

Last post from Taiwan

24 hours from now I will be on a plane somewhere over the Pacific Ocean flying back to Los Angeles. It's been an amazing three months, that have gone by very quickly. I'll answer a few questions to document this crazy event:

After 11 weeks of classes, 4 hours a day of additional studying, and living in Taiwan for 12 weeks, can you speak Chinese?

I can have a very basic conversation with people using only Chinese. It is frustrating, slow and humorous, but I can communicate with others only using Chinese. The unfortunate thing is right now, as I am leaving, I really feel like I am starting to pick up the language at an accelerated rate. If I could stay here for six months instead of just three months, I'd say I'd be able to speak the language at a very basic, but comfortable level.

When are you going to return back to Taiwan?

Honestly, I have no idea. Over the past 10 years I've visited Taiwan 10 times, perhaps the law of averages knows better than I do, but I really have no idea when I will be coming back. With a house, job, car, music and other commitments in Los Angeles, I'll have my hands full in the near future with a lot of things.

Are you going to continue to study Chinese in the USA?

Absolutely. I have a few books and DVD's that I will be working with to continue my studies. I've worked so hard and come so close to speaking the language at a comfortable level that I just can't see myself giving up. UCLA supposedly has some very good Chinese classes and there are three people at my job who speak Chinese, so I have no excuse for not continuing my studies.

I'm going to post one last blog when I return to the USA, but this is it from the Far East. I want to thank my wife Charlene, her family, my teacher Tian Lao Shi, my classmates and my friends for showing me a wonderful time in this great country of Taiwan.

"Zai jian wo de peng you!"

Jim

Going away party

We invited a few friends and classmates to go out to dinner to celebrate my "going away" back to the USA. Most of us met up and had some great food at a Korean BBQ restaurant a few blocks from our apartment. After eating we all walked back to our apartment for a few drinks. For fun I took out the guitar and played a little. Led Zepplin, Jimi Hendrix, Fleetwood Mac and even some old Van Halen. The best part of the party was jamming with the five year old son of Charlene's friend from college. Me on heavy metal guitar and he on a small percussive instrument we bought in Thailand.

We had a few more drinks, surfed YouTube for some hilarious versions of Chocolate Rain and ended the night. It was a nice way to hang out with friends, practice my Chinese, play some music and say goodbye. Everyone in Taiwan has been extremely kind and friendly to me, it's been a great trip.

Back to the USA in three days.

Jim

Chinese class completed

392 Chinese character flash cards, that's the final total now that the class is completed. Today was our last class and Final Exam.

The final exam wasn't too difficult, but it certainly wasn't easy. Everyone in class was given a different one page story written only in Chinese characters. We had 20 minutes to read and research our one page story. Then we individually stepped outside of class and had to read our story (with proper pronunciation and tones) to the teacher. Then after this, we were asked five questions by the teacher in Chinese about the story and had to answer these questions in Chinese. Out of the six students I was the second to go. I was a little more nervous than I thought reading the story, but I ended up reading the story OK and answering all five questions correctly. I was told "hen bang" (great or awesome) by the teacher so I guess I did well.

The class was pretty crazy because we studied all 12 chapters of the book in the time when they normally only study 8 chapters (our class was the first to try this new compressed schedule). The last few weeks I couldn't review or practice the older material because I was just trying to stay caught up with the newest material. I feel like my Chinese got a little worse the last few weeks, but we were all very lucky to have an amazing teacher, Tian Lao Shi, pull the entire class through this extremely difficult and fast paced material.

I knew the class was not going to be easy, and I had studied a little on my own a month before I came, but beginning Chinese is EXTREMELY difficult, and was much harder than I had imagined. It was probably the second most difficult class I have taken in my entire life. The only more difficult class I have taken was Astrophysics when I was getting my electrical engineering degree (I mistakenly thought I signed up for Astronomy, but that's another story).

Well I'm finished with my class, but I have a number of books that I'm going to continue learning from when I return to the USA next week. The initial learning curve of Chinese is very tough, but I think if you can make it through the first few months, the rest will become a little easier. This Chinese class was an amazing experience and I consider myself very lucky to have had the taken it with such a great teacher and classmates.

One last weekend to enjoy in Taiwan, then back to the USA on Wednesday.

Jim

Last week of classes

This is the last week of my Chinese class. It is sad in a way because in the past week I've really started to hear things better. I'm hearing and understanding a lot more phrases and words in conversations and television than when I first arrived 10 weeks ago. Instead of just random sounds and a few occasional words I understand, now I'm beginning to at least have a general idea of what people are saying. I'm still not very good at speaking, but I can get my point across to most people, albeit with horrific grammar.

It's strange to think that two weeks from today I will be back at my job in Los Angeles. No longer a student, and back to an electrical engineer; I don't think it is going to be an easy adjustment.

The last few steps of my thousand mile journey are quickly approaching.

Jim

Hualien

At 7:00am on New Year's day, after three hours of sleep, we left for the Taipei train station to go to Hualien. Everything went well, we arrived early for our 8:15am train. We boarded the train, took our seats, and the train left the station. While we were sitting a man came up to us, showed us his ticket and said we were in his seat, we showed him our tickets as they both said the same seat number. He left and we felt bad for him. He returned with the ticket man from the train...apparently we were the unlucky ones, we boarded the wrong train. I wondered why we boarded an 8:00am train when the ticket said 8:15am, this explains the conflict. This is a picture before we found out we were on the wrong train. The guy standing in back is the guy whose seat I am sitting in.

This was a major problem because every train was sold out this weekend going to Haulien. We got off at the first stop and took a taxi back to the original station but we missed our "real" train. We ended up getting on a 9:30am train and stood in the middle aisle for two hours and finally got to sit in a seat the last hour of the three hour train ride. Not the best way to start the trip.

We arrived at the train station in Hualien and were picked up by a driver from the hotel we were staying at. Our friend Ping is originally from the east coast so he hooked us up with a very nice and friendly hotel. We dropped off our bags and went out to downtown Hualien for lunch and a little shopping. We played some games at a fake gambling video game store and I even bought a DVD of my favorite show in Taiwan from the MOMO children's television channel. We went back to the hotel and then basically passed out for the night. The next day was an all day tour of Taroko National Park, the biggest attraction in the area.

Taroko National Park was beautiful, it reminded me a lot of the mountain areas of Colorado and Northern California. Many beautiful mountains, rivers and cliffs.

The road driving through the park is very narrow and quite scary on a large tour bus. The road took four years to build and 450 men died in the process. There were mountains, a river, rocks, gorges and marble was everywhere. I can see how this is the largest marble gorge in the world, it is literally everywhere you look.

Later that night after returning from Taroko National Park, we went out to the Hualien Night Market. There was food everywhere and many games to play. You could toss rings and win a giant Sponge Bob doll or even baby piglets.

Charlene got down to serious business and won some more dolls from the "crane game".

Before we went home from the night market we went to the back area on the beach. Everyone was lighting fireworks. We bought a "red lantern", wrote our good wishes for 2009, lit the lantern and sent it on its way.

The next day our train left at 5:00pm so we had a few hours to kill. We checked out of our hotel and took a trip to a Liyu Lake. We ate some local food and had just enough money to take a one hour paddle boat ride.

We got off the boat, walked around the the lake a little and got into a taxi to go back to the hotel and then the train station. We stopped by the hotel, grabbed our bags, said our thanks and goodbye and off we went to the Hualien train station. Charlene triple checked that we had the right tickets and the right train for the ride back. These are the right tickets and the right train:

This time we were able to sit in seats for the entire three hour train ride. We had to deal with around 15 screaming children in our train car, but that's the price you pay for public transportation and bad parenting. Either way Haulien was a beautiful place and we were very, very lucky to visit it with such great weather. It stopped raining a few hours before New Year's Eve at Taipei 101 and started raining about 2 hours after we got back from our trip to Haulien.

That's a pretty good start to 2009.

Jim

Happy New Year 2009

Wow, in world record fashion we left for the Taipei 101 fireworks display at 10:30pm, got there at 11:00pm, waited for an hour, saw the show (with a few hundred thousand other people) and got home at 12:35am. This might not seem like a big deal, but everyone was telling us we would be stuck downtown for hours after the fireworks display waiting for the subway and get home around 3:00am.

We arrived at 11:00pm and found a nice spot on the street to watch the show. It was about 5 blocks away from Taipei 101 and conveniently located in front of a McDonald's. We even enjoyed a delicious 6 piece Chicken McNuggets extra value meal while we waited.

Every minute the street filled up with more and more people. There were thousands of people around us setting off firecrackers, lighting sparklers and taking photos with their cameras and cell phones. One guy offered a sparkler to Charlene and me. What the hell, the Chinese did invent fireworks right?

At 12:00am the building went completely dark and the fireworks started. The show was short and sweet lasting about 3 minutes. Here's a pretty good picture I took:

Literally seconds after the fireworks display ended we ran to the nearest subway entrance. We were lucky and were one of the first hundred or so people to get there after the show finished. Here is a picture of everyone behind us waiting to get into the subway station to go home after the fireworks display.

We ended up getting on the subway at 12:15am and actually back inside our apartment by 12:35am. Everyone said it would take us two to three hours to get home...ha! I might not be the best in my Chinese class but I sure as hell am good with directions and getting in and out of places.

Six hours from now we are going to get on a train and ride to the east coast of Taiwan and visit Hualien for three days. For years I've heard about how beautiful the east coast of is, now I'll finally get a chance to see it.

Happy 2009!

Jim

Last test and New Year's Eve

I got back my 8th and last test today. So, on my 8 tests, I've scored: 93, 95, 84, 90, 90, 88, 93, 85 for an overall average of 89.75. There are almost daily homework writing exercises and other "small" tests so I'm guessing I'm right at about 90% average for the class. We have one Final Exam on the last day of class next Friday. We have 20 minutes to read a story in Chinese and then the teacher will ask us to answer questions about the story orally in Chinese. I'm not sure how it will go, but at least I don't have to worry about writing any Chinese characters, that's a first.

Tomorrow night is New Year's Eve and they will be counting down and setting off fireworks from "Taipei 101" the tallest building in the world (the building in Dubai isn't finished yet, so Taipei 101 still holds the world record). This may be the last year they will light fireworks on the building, so it should be a memorable event. This is picture from last year's display, pretty amazing:

On New Year's Eve we are going to downtown Taipei to watch the Taipei 101 fireworks display. The following morning we are going to take a train and travel to the east coast of Taiwan to visit the city of Hualien for three days. The Hualien coastline is supposed to be very beautiful with mountains, waterfalls and the largest marble gorge in the world. I hear that they don't speak much English there, so I'll get a good chance to test my Chinese.

Happy New Year!

Jim

Merry Christmas

Christmas isn't celebrated too much here in Taiwan, but it is slowly becoming a bigger holiday, especially with the younger generation of Taiwanese kids. Earlier in the week I went out and bought a tiny Christmas tree, a wreath and two mini-stockings. I can't help myself from having some Christmas decorations set up in our apartment.

On Christmas Eve we ended up going out to Outback Steakhouse and eating steak and potatoes. Not a traditional Christmas meal, but very good and filling none the less. On the walk home a group of around 20 college aged kids ran up to us dressed up in Christmas outfits and were singing "Silent Night". I think they were really happy to see a "white foreigner" to grant an authentic "Merry Christmas" wish. They even handed me a small candy snowman sucker, very nice.

We came back to the apartment, put on A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack and opened our presents. Some stuffed animals for Charlene and some Chinese text books for me. Pretty low key, nothing too crazy. Being away from everyone in the USA really does show that Christmas is more about family and friends than anything else.

Jim

Gold Melon Stone

Gold Melon Stone...well that is the literal Chinese to English translation of Jin Gua Shi, the old gold mining area that we visited today.

We took an hour bus ride from Taipei City to Taipei County to visit this beautiful area. Gold was discovered in these mountains over 100 years ago and there a many tunnels, tools, machinery and buildings left over from those times. It was also used as a POW camp for prisoners by the Japanese during World War II. In their museum they have supposedly the largest gold bar in the world, it is the size of a small suitcase. You can even touch it:

The coolest part of the day by far was when we got to use a dish and "pan for gold". We were instructed on how to use the dirt, dish and the water to try to acquire the gold. There is actually real gold in the tiny dirt samples they give you so this isn't BS. We both weren't able to get much out of it, but we ended up with tiny fragments of gold (imagine a few grains of salt). Amazingly fun. I always wondered what in the hell the people with the pans were doing in the movies, now I know.

We ended the day taking a tour of the area just below the mines called Jiou Fen. This area was supposedly made famous in a Taiwanese movie, and there were hundreds of people in this tiny market area. There were so many sights and smells it was a little overwhelming. Now that I know what smelly tofu smells like, I could smell it from a mile away. We ate some interesting foods (yes even I had an interesting pancake-type snack). I was happy to order a Coke and Ice Cream Cone in Chinese as well. My only problem was when she asked me what kind of ice cream I wanted. I didn't know how to say "Vanilla" but with my catlike reflexes I said "bai se" (white color)...well it's not perfect, but she laughed, understood me, and gave me the vanilla ice cream.

We then got in line for the bus to return home. There was an arcade where Charlene happily played the "use a crane to get a toy" game. After three tries, she finally got the prize after she dropped it, but it magically bounced back up and then went down the shoot. As we boarded the bus, the cutest little girl was sitting next to us. She was staring at Charlene with her new toy (a Tofu Doll with a parachute)...well there was only one option left...Charlene gave the doll to the little girl. The best of both worlds, winning the prize and giving it to a child who loved to receive it.

You couldn't have asked for a better day. Now off to study for my test in 12 hours.

Jim

2 down 1 to go

Two months are finished, with one month left to go here in Taiwan. It has been an amazing experience so far, and I've learned a hell of a lot...I've also realized how difficult it is to learn to speak and read Chinese. After three months, I will be able to speak a bit of Chinese, but that is nothing compared to what it takes to be fluent in a language. It's an amazing language and culture, I just wish I was younger and had more time to learn and experience it. My experience reminds me of the George Bernard Shaw quote, "It's a shame that youth is wasted on the young."

Here's something cool I learned in class today:

Jimmy = 吉米 (ji mi)

Guitar = 吉他 (ji ta)



Pretty cool, the first character of my name is the same first character of guitar. You learn something new every day.

Jim

Back from Thailand

So how was Thailand? Pretty damn amazing that's for sure. Where else in the world can you walk through the red light district, watch go go dancers, drink a beer and feed a baby elephant all at the same time? Bangkok, Thailand, that's where. This is really a baby elephant and not some staged photo, incredible!!!

We landed into Bangkok, Thailand around noon and got "scammed" at the airport. We went up to the taxi booth inside the airport and ordered a cab. 1200 baht (33 baht = 33 Taiwan $ = 1 US $) from the airport to our hotel. We thought it should be about 300 baht, "Oh that's what it costs outside as well". Ok, we just got here, let's take it. We get to the hotel and asked the front desk, "12oo baht? That isn't possible, do you have your receipt?" "Yes." "Oh you paid for a limo." Well I guess in Thailand a SUV is a taxi." We at least we didn't get scammed again on the ride back to the airport from our hotel.

That day we went to the Chatuchak Weekend Market. It was literally over a 1000 outdoor shops with any and everything you could think of buying. We saw: food, shirts, pants, hats, dogs, cats, fish, squirrels, chickens, a live cock fight, and many, many, many more things.

The highlight of the market was when we left and ran into a woman selling grasshoppers, cockroaches, worms and baby birds all cooked some kind of brownish color. As you can see Charlene was happy to sample the grasshoppers. I can't imagine why she ended up in the hospital when we got back to Taiwan (more on that later).

Later that night we went to Lumpinee Stadium, the most famous Muay Thai Kickboxing Stadium in the world and got to sit in the second row. It was amazing to not only see the sport up so close, but to also see the culture behind the fighting. The fighters enter the ring, and then do a Ram Muay dance to prepare themselves and pay respect to their heritage and training before the fight. A live band plays during the dance, and also during the entire match. Amazing stuff, it was a real privilege to see this first hand, in the birthplace of Muay Thai.

The next day we visited many of the temples that are everywhere in Bangkok. The only analogy I can give is they reminded me of an Asian version the cathedrals I have seen in Europe. These temples were magnificent. Enormous and beautifully decorated with many colors and tiny mirrors. Some of the most amazing architecture I have ever seen in my entire life.

The temple visit was slightly soured by being "redirected" on the street when Charlene asked for directions to a second temple (that is why men never ask for directions). He directed us to a tuk tuk driver (mini taxi-like motorcycle/car hybrid). We wanted to go to this second temple, but he lied and told us it didn't open until 2:00pm. Why don't you go visit this other "lucky" temple first and then go to the temple you originally wanted to go to...and it will only cost you 20 baht? Ok, what the hell, this guy is nice and that is a great price. Here is a luxurious tuk tuk.

A long story, short, we ended up being dropped off at a jewelry store first (ok fine) then come out after two minutes not buying anything then the same tuk tuk driver takes us to the "lucky" temple, where we meet a "nice guy" at that temple who speaks perfect English. Very friendly, but talks about how much money he makes buying jewelery and selling it in the USA. We then go back to the same tuk tuk driver who again waits for us, and takes us to a SECOND jewelry store. WTF! Ok, we spend five minutes in there, and again leave not buying anything. We come out, and the same tuk tuk driver finally takes us to the second temple we originally wanted to go to. Wow amazing, the temple was open all day and not closed until 2:00pm.

It was only after the fact later that day that we realized all 3 people and the 2 jewelry stores were all in on this "scam". We actually ran into the "friendly directions guy" again later that day. He avoided us like the plague. I felt like saying "Fuck off" or "You're a asshole.", but in the end I just shook my head back and forth when I walked past him.

Later that night we ended up going to the red light district of Bangkok. We were approached every few minutes by guys showing us signs asking if we...and I quote...(scan ahead if you don't want to read the XXX quote)..."would like to see the Pussy Ping Pong Show". Hmmm let me think about that? Ah no, but thank you. Ok fine one time, but this happened at least 10 times. We were shopping and wanted a drink so one of these guys directed us to a bar which ended up being the special "show" but all it really was, was just a strip club with a bunch of naked dancers on stage. No thanks, bye. We eventually found a normal bar with a band, had a few drinks and went to the other red light district (there are 2, this was the shopping friendly one with the "special shows").

The second red light district was much nicer. One long street called the Soi Cowboy area. This was a bunch of strip club bars with nice outdoor areas outside. It was funny, every bar had a large screen LDC TV playing live soccer games outside in front on the outdoor patio. Well they know what their customers like, beer, sports and naked women. We sat outside a bar enjoying the spectacle, and that is when we saw the baby elephant being walked down the strip. It was amazing for 50 baht, I was able to pet and feed this baby elephant. Unreal and definitely the highlight of the trip.

We returned back to the hotel that night and prepared to go home the next day. We got up, checked out, and went shopping a little the next day. Nothing too crazy, but a nice relaxing few hours. I even picked up a copy of the Iron Man DVD for 100 baht (about $3 US) on the street.

We made it to the airport and got back into Taiwan around Midnight. I had class and a test in 8 hours so I pretty much just went to sleep. I woke up the next day, exercised, took the test (got an 88, not too bad considering everything) and came home exhausted. I called Charlene and she was at work but feeling really sick and said she was going to come home. I felt tired, but not really sick. She came back and passed out for a few hours. She woke up around 7:00pm and said she needed some medicine because she had a fever and didn't feel too well. We walked up to the pharmacy store on our block and as she was talking to the pharmacist, she passed out. I caught her but she fell down to the floor. The pharmacist called a taxi and we went to the hospital two blocks away. She was only out for about 10 seconds, but it was a long scary 10 seconds.

Kind of scary huh? Just back from Thailand...I kept imagining the National Geographic shows "Survival, Almost Dead" or something like that where someone goes for a tropical vacation and comes back with some parasite in their brain. Well the hospital gave her an IV, and did a blood test. Everything looked ok and more than likely she was fighting something from some food she ate (remember the grasshoppers?). After three hours we left the hospital with some medicine and Charlene was feeling much better. She is feeling better today, so that's good. Moral of the story: don't eat insect street food on the streets of Bangkok.

Bangkok was an amazing city and the most international city of any I have visited in Asia. Most of the people were extremely friendly (besides the jewelry scammer guys) and everything was very inexpensive. It is definitely a great place to go on a vacation. I'd recommend it to anyone...just avoid the tuk tuk drivers.

Jim

Off to Thailand this weekend

Yes I know Thailand has been a little crazy lately, but hell, it seems like the entire world has been crazy lately. Supposedly things are a little better now, and the Bangkok airport is up and running. I need to leave the country again because my 30 day traveler's visa expiring, so it was either Japan or Thailand. Thailand seems to be a little more exciting and less expensive. So Charlene and I are leaving Saturday morning and flying back Monday afternoon.

I used to do muay thai kickboxing many years ago so I am VERY excited about going to Bangkok and to Lumpinee Stadium. This is the most famous muay thai stadium in the world. For those unfamiliar with muay thai kickboxing, it allows: punches, kicks, knees and elbow strikes to the entire body (except the groin). They also allow fighting and throwing from the clinch so there is no safety and resting like a boxing clinch. They have fights there every Friday and Saturday night, so it should be an amazing thing to watch.

Here is a video from the introduction of the weekly Lumpinee TV show in Thailand:

Hopefully things will be OK, and we'll be back safe and sound in Taiwan Monday night.

Jim

Taiwanese Puppet Show

There is a very, VERY cool show on Taiwanese television. It is a puppet show that is spoken in the native Taiwanese language (not Chinese) and has Chinese subtitles at the bottom. Puppets? Well these are not your everyday, puppets or even muppets. No these aren't your daddy's puppets, like the show Thunderbirds, these are super bad ass kung fu fighting, flying through the air puppets with cool special effects. May I present Exhibit A, a sample from the television show (no idea what in the hell it is called):

Charlene saw that I very much liked this show (and hey what's NOT to like about it?) so she mentioned that they have free live puppet shows outside of Taipei city in Taipei County. Of course I was very happy to go so we finally got to go today. In Taipei County, there is more of an aboriginal and native Taiwanese influence. These puppet shows on television and this live presentation are in Taiwanese, not Chinese.

We showed up about 10 minutes before the show and it was a pretty impressive stage as you can see.

I happily anticipated the performance and was not disappointed.

There wasn't super high tech special effects, but there was smoke, dragons, flying swords, horses, and some other cool stuff. There was even a live band behind stage playing traditional instruments.

Here is a short video from the show:

The show was longer than I expected, about an hour, but it was well done and really brought a feeling of what if must have been like thousands of years ago watching these exact same shows. This was their television and movie theater, it really was amazing to see this show live.

After the show, we left and went shopping a little on the streets. I found some great sweat pants (they even have pockets) and Charlene got some jeans. Then we ran into the infamous CHOU DOU FU "smelly tou-fu". I believe this is a Taiwanese specialty dish. It is "delicious" tou-fu, but smells like something you wouldn't believe.

Remember gym class freshmen year in high school? You put your smelly socks in the locker, then at the end of the year you have to clean out the locker and find the smelly socks you forgot about? Well this is what "smelly tou-fu" smells like. I don't care what it tastes like, I almost threw up in my mouth when I stuck my face in the bag, and took a deep wiff to see what the big deal is with this stuff. After that, it is safe to say that I won't be tasting this stuff anytime soon.

As you can see Charlene was very excited and happy about getting and eating it.

Well at least I saw the really cool puppet show and got some sweat pants that I like.

Jim