Cafe Gigi:Shameless Plug

One of our favorite places in Danshui (淡水, or Tamsui) is Cafe Gigi. On one of my sick days, Philip and his friend, who was visiting, were trying to find the Fort San Domingo 紅毛城. The fort was originally built by the Spanish in 1629. The literal translation of the Chinese name, Red Hair Fort, was in reference to the Danish, who took over the fort in 1642. Like always, when we try to find something, we rarely find said thing. Instead, they found the lovely Cafe Gigi. Cafe Gigi is like how I want my house to be if I was artistic, had any talent for decorating, or a green thumb. The tea is delicious and lovely, it has the only wine I've had in Taiwan that wasn't a little too well aged, and the food is scrumptious and filling. If you ever trek up to Danshui, you must stop here.

The first thing that catches your attention are the paintings on the crumbling stucco outside of the place. They are so not Taiwanese and stick out amidst the Taiwanese architecture. Taiwanese architecture is hard to classify. They seem to be going for the very boxy, stapled together, corrugated tin roof, and if you have the chance to cover things with pool tiles, you really should style. Needless to stay these paintings kind of stand out.



Also, you can't beat the patio on a sunny day.

The tea is yummy and brewed with fruits and roots and comes out looking beautiful.




The dinner selection is limited. There is curry (meat or not) and also the pork meatballs. Both are delicious, reasonable, and filling. She also has small, but tasty selection of wine.
In Taiwan, disgusting, big-enough-to-eat-tropical-sized-cockroaches, spiders mean good fortune. At the lovely Cafe Gigi, we were lucky to have a lot of good fortune on the wall 2 feet from our table, who-wa.
Getting there from Danshui MRT

It's pretty easy to get there in that impossible sort of way. Exit the MRT, turn left. The road you want is Zhongzheng Rd, but of course, that road sign is in Chinese. Basically, there is a fork in the road. You want the road to the left of the bank on the corner and to the right of Starbucks. Keep walking until you see the first temple on your right hand side, Longshan Temple. On the wall of the Longshan Temple you will see the Cafe Gigi sign. It looks like this:
Take a right, and head up the steps:

(handsome Filipino-American tour guide not included)

Follow the steps until you see another sign directing you to your right:
Take the right and walk up the ramp until you see the paintings. You will see the cafe sign just past the paintings. The garden entrance is on your left-hand side.

Pingsi Lantern Festival

The lantern festival pictures are up.

This fest was probably one of the most beautiful things I have participated in. The idea is to write your wishes on the lanterns, then send those puppies to the heavens. The colors of the lanterns have different meanings. These seemed to vary depending on where you purchased your lanterns. The result is awesome (literal meaning, not Bill and Ted interpretation) - a sky illuminated by wishes.



*If you click on the slide show, it will take you to the Picasa album.

Home Coming

We have purchased tickets!

We'll be flying into LAX on April 15. From there, we will be driving up nothing no later than April 19th for Greek Easter celebrations. Plans, living situations, and whereabouts get a little fuzzy after that.

Originally, we were planning to fly into Amsterdam for a week or so, then head home. But we have decided to stick around Taiwan and really see the country here before we head out. I told the school I am working for that I am leaving, so of course they are taking away my hours like it is going out of style. (Bastards.) The good news is I have more free time to travel.

Behold the Taiwan Bucket List in no particular order:

1. Snake Alley
2. Alishan National Park
3. Taroko Gorge / Haulien
4. Tainan
5. Visit Josephine
6. Visit Tammy
5. Kenting
6. Scuba diving of some sort on Green Island
7. Ride the high speed rail
8. Ride a bus line to nowhere
9. Eat as many different kinds of snacks as my innards will take.
10. Take my bike down the bike path as long as my little legs will peddle me
11. Koashung
12. Yoali
13. Ride scooters up the southern part of Taiwan

This is what we are exporting

We get Tai-chi, they get Elvira. Behold, in all its glory.

Today feels like...

In case anyone was wondering, today feels like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

Now, off to Chinese class, where I will finish off the day feeling like this:

OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OWWTF?OW!!!!!!

I hope all is well with you. I love you and wish you all sunshine, puppies, and red wine that has not turned because it doesn't exist in Taiwan.

Next up...

Lantern Festival.

There are 2 options. The first option is this:

2009 Pingsi International Sky Lantern Festival


http://www.2009lightup.world.hbpr.com.tw/eng/index-eng.html

The second option is this:

Yanshui Lantern Festival also known as the beehive of fireworks. See the video at the link below.

http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/festival_c/glue_e/tainan.htm

I must be getting old because I don't really want someone shooting fireworks at my face. Pingsi it is.

Happy Birthday!

Taichung and Changhua

I did my first real traveling within Taiwan this week. I went with Phil and Winnie (a reformed student, now friend) to visit Claire (yet another reformed student, now friend). We spent 1 day in Tai-chung and 1 day exploring Changhua County. It was a great little over night trip, plus we had authentic tour guides, so we got to try some new food and see old things in a new way (new being informed in this case).

More amazing, I am posting the pictures on my blog in a timely fashion. Holy crap. That IS amazing.

Tai-Chung

Guandu Temple

Humbled by their serenity, craftsmanship, and beauty. Temples abound in Taiwan, and I must say, I'm kinda sick of visiting them. But I bet you're not. Pics from Guandu Temple are up...

Guandu Temple

Philippines

I am back from Cebu, an island in the Philippines. It was a pretty amazing trip, and we got to do some pretty amazing things. Some on the morbid side of spectacular (cock fights and firing M-16s) and others on the more pleasant end of spectacular (snorkeling and island hopping).

Click the picture below to see more of the trip

Ok, now I am just being immature

Sometimes grading can be fun. See #5.

The National Palace Museum

This was the welcoming committee for the museum.



This me in front of the Museum, and then the brand spanking new camera's (which rocks, thank you mom and dad!) memory card filled up.




Which was ok because we couldn't take pictures of the art anyway, so here is my rendition of some of the most interesting pieces.


In my opinion, the aboriginal museum across the street was far better lit and organized. It was much more interesting and pleasant to view than the National Palace Museum. Not being able to read Chinese definitely put us at a disadvantage when viewing all the ancient texts. The translations seemed to be lacking helpful or interesting information about any of the pieces. The collection and how it got to China is an interesting story, or at least it seems to be. I haven't been able to find any sources on the Internet to substantiate the claims that American planes were used to transport a good portion of the goods to Taiwan to prevent it from being destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In fairness to the Internet, I haven't looked very hard yet.

For more information about the NPM, although not much, go here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Palace_Museum

The Lovely Nuances of Language

Found, December 26th, 2008 in the classified ad section of The Taipei Times.

Confucius Parade (I think)

Before we headed down to check out the Confucius temple, we were pleasantly surprised by what I believe to be a Confucius parade in front of the Danshui MRT. Now, if I had to guess if Confucius was a guy into parades, I would say no, but then again, he and I are not that close.




My favorite part of the parade had to be the kids wearing the Confucius heads. They brought up the tail end of the parade, and the local car and taxi drivers seemed little concerned with the safety of the Confucius heads or the real possibility that the parade of people might serve as a potential road block. Due to this, the variety of Confuci had to dart in and out of traffic in order to avoid becoming Confucius pinatas. This was no easy feat as, I imagine, their range of motion and sight was severely limited. It was still very amusing to watch.

Vow of Silence

I have been forbidden by my doctor to speak for at least 24 hours or risk permanent damage to my vocal chords.

But really, once my doctor tells me not to talk, of course, I instantly really, really want to talk. I have spent my time thinking about all the people I need to call, and how I should really, really catch up on my communication. And suddenly, I have the burning urge to use my Chinese instead of jumping around like an idiot and pointing at things and pictures. But the hardest part so far (it's been 2.5 hours, and no one is home yet) is that I talk to myself all the damn time. I have to stop myself from talking to myself. A lot.

This vow of silence should be an interesting little journey for me...

Fun, fun, fun

While my roommates went to Osaka and the Manila respectively, I got laryngitis. I know, I know, I have the good life. And while I have been looking every bit as peaked as I felt pretty much all week, I actually went into teach on Saturday. I learned something through my work experience. When teaching a language, it helps if you can talk. *gasp* And when teaching small, affluent, gender-biased children, regularly verbally abused in their schooling system, it helps even more if you can yell (and use fascist principles), but we can save how I am ruining children and creating culture-bound conformers producing productive contributors to Asian society another day. *

I'm sick is the point of this discussion.

And my Mac has been consistently overheating, so when I stop being sick, I am going to see if the authorized Mac store is indeed an authorized Mac store. (Ok, that wasn't the point at all, but it is a reason this post is ending)

* Do not read this book and then teach in Asia. It will hold you accountable for all your wrong doings.

sign from god?

Ann Coulter has had her jaw wired shut. I shouldn't laugh, but HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Work and play

I do to much of it. So, the obvious remedy: Vacation! Not a big one. A little one. A three day one. I'm on it right now, so ta-da! Blog.

The vacation is in my town because my planning skills are lacking. This week I went to my favorite Taiwanese Irish Coffee Shop (Pub with good food). I ran into a ridiculously loud, drunk German woman and her equally drunk although not so loud Finnish boyfriend. It was one of those nights where I feel extremely blessed to speak English, so I can have barely understandable conversations about politics with people from all over the world.

Phil is in the Philippines visiting family and doing a visa run, so I have a couple days to myself.

Day .25: Loud, drunken political discussions and slobbery kisses from large German woman and Finnish husband. (done)
Day 1: Eat pizza and coffee for breakfast. Finally make it down to the apartment movie theater and find out they are showing a little mermaid movie in Chinese. Sign up to workout with the staffed personal trainer at the apartment gym instead. His personal training will turn out to be showing me how to turn the treadmill on. The treadmill was in English. (done) Write a blog. Read Phil's novel draft.
Day 2: Get my ARC card fixed. Change my bike tire. Go as far as my legs will willingly take me. Start studying Chinese officially again.
Day 3: Go on a hike in Yangmingshan. Go for a soak in the hot springs there.

I am so very desperately trying not to worry about what happens after the vacation. The catch up. The silliness that has me stressed out and sleep deprived on a regular basis. In time, I will find a balance between work and life again. In time.

I have pictures, although not many because I lost my camera on a bike ride a couple weeks ago. I will try to get those up on day 2, but it is not on my official agenda, so who knows.

Reviews

This is a 5 asterisk system.

(*)*Beneath the Underdog: His World as Composed by Mingus - Charles Mingus : Giving this book a star is a formality. I know it ain't easy being a pimp and all, but do you have to spell shit, schitt? If you are really interested in how many bitches Charles Mingus has stuck his joint up, this is your book. Now granted the time, Phil was reading Immortality by Milan Kundara, so exchanging bits of wisdom by respective authors was pretty damn hilarious. Phil told numerous times to just leave the book alone, but I read on. I had about 100 pages left before I had to put the book down for my own health and sanity.

*It really isn't fair to review a book I never finished reading. I just wanted you to know how much I hated this book.

(**) Slam - Nick Hornby: "Meh" is my general feeling about this book. I like Hornby, but this book is subpar in every way. The story is traditional Hornby boy dealing with "maturing", although this time it is a teenager). The whole magic Tony Hawk poster is awkard and unnecessary. The ending is hack writing and screams "I am sick of writing this story!!" It is only mildy funny at times. You won't be mad you spent time reading it like Beneath the Underdog and that is about all I can give this book as far as recommendation.

(****)The Curious Incident of the Dog and the Night-time - Mark Haddon: This book was a delightful read. It is heartbreaking and also tries your patience. Haddon does an excellent job of showing the perspective a 15-year-old autistic boy as he sets out to find the killer of his neighbor's dog. This book made me realize that many of my friends probably have undiagnosed autism. I kid, I kid.

Is it wrong to love bagels and cream cheese this much?

While the amount of Western influence here makes me sad, I really could have kissed my co-worker who went to Costco - yes, they have Costco here - and brought me back raviolis, bagels, cream cheese and a hunk of mozzarella cheese. I feel like such a American whore when I do things like that - eat at McDonald's, PizzaHut, Dominoes, Starbucks, and now we can add, 3rd person shopping at Costco. I have eaten at all of these places, and the comfort of eating there is frightening. The food isn't great, of course, but it's easy and familiar and no one has exchange looks of "I have no clue as to what you are referring to" and I can safely answer yes to all of the questions. But back to the bagels - wonderful, gloriousness.
Taipei is clearly far too big and far too international to force me to have any sort of cultural experience here. I will have to seek it out, and who knows what that really looks like or means. The next generation of Taiwanese seems to enjoy hanging out at McDonald's (McCafe's, and open 24-hours. It's a much more pleasant environment when late night employees don't have to deal with drunk assholes or the fear of armed robbery) *Gasp*

Enough about that...

Feeding the Love. This is a more entertaining idea (says me) started (though probably not invented) by heels - the Ron Paul huggin', cunt of woman she is. She did a lovely post where she said tear-jerkingly nice things about people I love and people she loves as well, so I would like to jump on the wagon. I'm a big fan of love notes. As a person with an obtuse sense of humor and an often malfunctioning brain to mouth filter, I find it's really, really, really, really important to remind people that I truly love and adore them because the ones closest to me often catch the brunt of my wrath. I can't sit down and list everyone I love at one time. It's too overwhelming and exhausting and I start gushing tears. It ain't pretty, so instead of feeding the love as requested, I'm rationing the love. One per post. Requests are welcome. And, well, where to start seems pretty easy...

Dani - I have known you for a really long time. I really love how I can look back and see what twits we were at different times. I think I beat you on length of twit stage, but you are right, you did start out as my best friend's older sister, and then my older brother's friend. I think I can pin point the beginning of my awe and appreciation of the tenacity of how your beliefs and humor mix and mingle when my brother and I went to visit John, You, Emmy, and Spence down at the house near the high school. I think I nearly peed my pants looking at the Mormon brochure you defiled and left on your door as repellent for boys in bicycle helmets, white button-up shirts, and ties. You are hilarious, smart, witty, nurturing, loyal, and still as fierce as ever. These will always be qualities that will be as often adored as misunderstood. You are a gorgeous, rare human being. I am thankful that I know you and your family.