Return to the R.O.C.

It has been over two years since the end of my Rotary Exchange in Taipei, Taiwan. I often think of that year as the best year of my life and what a shame it was for me to peak at such a young age. At the beginning of my exchange I could barely speak any Chinese. I could say "thank you" and "I want coffee" with poor pronunciation. By the end of my exchange I could say "I want my coffee black and hot" with mediocre pronunciation. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of my exchange was that I didn't return to the States with the ability to discuss the housing market and tax reform in Chinese. My dream to become fluent during my exchange was far-fetched  I had never studied Chinese before my exchange and ten months was not nearly long enough to obtain that desired level of working fluency. Chinese sounded nothing like any other language I learned before. This made it nearly impossible to simply pick-up words. I didn't understand how the language worked. I had no knowledge of radicals, or stroke order for characters, or how the Chinese possibly use a keyboard to type. "How could they possibly fit all of the characters on a single keyboard?" It took me nearly 3 months to start to grasp how the language worked. Due to my host families’ hard work and my Chinese teachers I did learn some Mandarin. As time went on the rate that I was learning increased. By the end of my exchange I was not even close to being fluent but it was a start. Thanks to the impromptu speeches at Rotary meetings I'm now comfortable speaking Chinese. My preference to speaking and listening has been a curse while taking written placement tests and a blessing in class discussions. 

Upon my return to the States I continued to study Chinese at George Washington. After spending nearly a year in Taiwan I was confident that the elementary Chinese class would be well below me. My ballooned head deflated after I failed my first two quizzes. The problem was that I needed to write in Simplified Chinese instead of the Traditional Chinese that I learned while I was in Taiwan. It wasn't an easy task but I managed to get a good mark and pass onto the next level. Fortunately the following year I could continue my study of Traditional Chinese. Unfortunately over that summer all I did was install air-conditioners and apparently reading the Chinese labels off of the boxes wasn't enough to keep up my language skills. After returning to the classroom it was obvious who had spent time in China over the summer. My competitiveness kicked in and I worked hard to catch-up, because nothing gets my goat like someone being able to speak Chinese better than me. My Chinese book accompanied me everywhere including the ice-baths after cross country workouts. During this last year I realized that in order to really improve my Chinese I needed to return to Taiwan or go to China. I decided to do both. I applied and received a generous grant from the GW Sigur Center to study Chinese in Taiwan this summer.
I’m back, I've returned to the R.O.C.

Check out the new blog at http://returntotheroc.blogspot.tw/

Bus Trip Pics #2

Dan Green gives our mascot Dama the bird a good looking over. 

Light House in Kenting.

Green Island Paradise. 

Bike ride in Taidong. 

Mountains encircling the bike route. 

Taking pictures at Taroko National Park. 

Bus Trip Pics #1

Sun Moon Lake

Night Market

Boxes of fruit at the Night Market

Pets for sale at the Night Market. 

No Shirt No Shoes No Problem? 

Dragon Boat Festival.

Dragon Boat Festival

Traditionaly, Chinese Dragon Boat Festival is on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month. The 2011 Dragon Boat Festival will be on June 6th in calendar. It is one of the traditional festival in China, which has more than 2,000 years of history.

The festival commemorates the patriotic poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), who lived in Warring States in history of China. He was a scholar who served in the government of the King of Chu in approximately 300 B.C. He was a loyal subject and minister to the King for many years. He had great favor because of his faithfulness, but because of the favor he had with the king the others in the government began to plot to rid themselves of this man. So they trumped up a charge of conspiracy against the king. The king bought into the conspiracy charge and had Qu Yuan removed from his position in the government and exiled from his homeland. As you may imagine this caused a bit of distress for Qu Yuan. He used his talent for poetry to write a number of angry poems about his exile, the damage to his reputation, the loss of his homeland and the people of that homeland. Finally, in a state of depression, in the year 278 B.C. at the age of 37, he threw himself into the river with a huge boulder clasped to his chest and drowned.

The local people, recognizing his righteousness, ran to the river to find him. They took out Dragon Boats to search for him under the river. They also threw a type of Rice Dumpling, called Zong zi into the water so the fish would feed on these rather than Qu Yuan's body.

Many traditional customs and activities are held on the specified day by the Chinese people around the world. Among these customs are dragon boat racing, eating zongzi, wearing a perfume pouch, tying five-colour silk thread and hanging mugwort leaves and calamus.

On to the Next one

Milk tower stacked to represent Taipei 101. 

Tofu at a traditional Taiwanese market. 

Pig head anyone? 

Fruit stands are in abundance. They offer cheap prices and fruits only grown in Taiwan. The fruits pictured behind the apples are litchi and are in season now. 

This box was bought from a roadside vendor. The round balls are made from "little rice" that is smashed together  until it forms a jelly like consistency. Afterwards these balls are rolled in ground peanuts. 

Take notice to the jade peanut hanging of the side of the phone. Charms like these are  more than common in Taiwan. Most phones look naked without some sort of charm. 

Pictures Worth A Million Words

A pig leg rests on the back of a motorcycle. The 95 degree heat didn't deter  anyone from setting down though. Who knows maybe they were trying to cook it. 

After eating curry for lunch for one week, my friends and I decided  咖哩 had the best curry. So I made him a certificate that is currently hanging in his shop. My stomach was strongly opposed to a weeks worth of curry and I haven't had the chance to go see it since. 

Red Bean Cake's are delicious.  Two pieces of cake with a thick layer of Red Bean paste in-between is one of my favorite delicacies. 

The variations of fruit here in Taiwan are incredible. Local fruit stands and fruit vendors selling from trucks offer incredibly low prices. Pictured here is a "Korean Apple" which tastes something like a mix in-between a pear and an apple. 

The ever popular drink stands offer a wide selection of teas mixed with different milks, fruits, and extracts. Pictured is  the fruit tea. 

Another famous drink from the drink stands. Pearl Milk Tea. One of my favorites.  Tea, Milk, and tapioca balls, all mixed together for a unique experience. Usually everyone's first impression of Pearl Milk Tea is negative. The entire drinking and chewing thing turns people off. Then after a week or so the consumer usually starts to crave it. After the second round there is no stopping them.  

This is "small rice" mashed in a bowl. I had the opportunity to make this special dish. The process includes mashing "small rice" until it become sticky and almost liquid. In the end it changes colors. Then it is rolled into small bite size pieces and served with ground peanuts and honey. 

The award winning vegetable curry. If my mom found out that I eat  eggplant and broccoli she would either jump for joy or smack me because I put up such a fuss eating those veggies back in the States.   

The Weekend Adventures Number 1

About three weekends ago one of my good exchange student friends had a birthday. However unlike most birthday celebrations this year she held a party. This was the first time I had actually spent time at someone else's house instead of meeting at a park, restaurant, ice rink, or  movie theater. I felt like I was back in the United States, with pizza, M&Ms, and marshmallows. The most unique aspect of the party was the cooking competition. The "winning" categories included grossest, most creative, and most delicious,  with prizes including stickers, and sponge bob undies. The guests were separated into teams before hand and let loose to shop for ingredients. Some of the creations that turned out were yogurt cake and fried rice those who were going for the gross category made sushi with marshmallows and stuck fish eyes in chocolate cake. My team decided to try and create the ever popular dish called curry. Popular doesn't do curry justice though, I have a friend who claims its the best food ever. If I could compare curry to an American dish I would say gravy and potatoes (but better); curry is usually served over hot white rice and has the same gravy and potatoes affect. With curry on the mind my team headed out to the Indian Spice whole sale market and picked up our essential spices including cardamom pods, coriander powder, and cayenne powder. While cooking up our chicken korma our competition kept on coming into the kitchen to check out what was smelling so good. The answer was butter, oil, chicken, yogurt, onions, garlic, and spices. The celebration was good and the food better.