New Year's Day in Taiwan! and Happy Birthday Jesus!

Happy New Year, 1997, everybody! (In the Chinese calendar, it's only 1997. Guess we can't sell them any Y2K software, eh?)

If you're reading this I hope it's because you're procrastinating on all your New Year's resolutions (I know I am)...but here in a minute, you're going to have to go to the gym, or clean out the garage, or whatever else you promised to do.

I'm on day three of 2008, and for the first time in my life, I've worked 2 of the 3 days so far this year! There's no rest for the workers in Chinese culture.

It's a good year, so far. My friend, Claudia, from San Francisco, arrived late Friday night (the 28th) and promptly had to get up for a work commitment I had on Saturday morning. She arrived in the coldest spell of the year and we've been experiencing the rigors of scooter riding in the freezing cold wind for the past 5 days. On top of that, there is no heat in the apartments here, so the other night when I said to Claudia, "I can turn the heater on if you want me to," and her eyes lit up with excitement, I had to let her down and say, "Just kidding! There's no heat in China. These people are hardcore!" I thought she was going to cry, but instead she found a space heater in my roommates room and it has become her new best friend. I think she may survive her visit. (IF she could just find a way to have that heater on the scooter, she'd be happy!)

I've included a video of my A7 class from Friday night singing, "Happy Birthday, Jesus" with one of my students, Cosmo, doing interpretive movement. Just so you can hear them sing (sorry you can hear me coaching them too.)

I've also included a video of one of the 300+ participants in the Kang Ning English School Reading Contest (for which I served as a judge, "certified foreign teacher judge", all day Saturday). This little boy is probably 6 years old, he read with the paper covering his face the whole time, but what a cute voice. His topic is "Owen and his pet python, Lucky". Try to listen to the whole thing and watch him walk off the stage. This was in a huge convention hall full of people.

On Sunday, we went to church, then ate Teppanyaki (Japanese style cooking on a grill in front of your table), which we both enjoyed, and spent the rest of the day holed up in the apartment trying to stay warm.

Monday, we went to work, and spent the New Year's Eve-ning chilling (literally) in the apartment with an American friend, Julie, playing a cool game called Imaginiff. We were asleep by 1:00, which meant my roommates were locked out at 3:10 when they came home from their New Year's Eve party. Claudia and I never heard them, and slept right through til I woke up and discovered their text message at 5:15. Too late, they had already gone back to sleep at their friends house. Oops!

Tuesday, New Year's Day, was a full one! We took the train into Taipei to see the worlds tallest building (o.k., now it's the 2nd tallest, but don't tell the Taiwanese since they haven't updated their displays or their audio tour). It's the Taipei 101 and it is really impressive. When we got out of the train station, we took a taxi to the 101 and it's surrounding shopping areas, complete with a Chili's, a Macaroni Grill, and a Cold Stone Creamery. (Go America!) (Shout out to my sister from the food court where we found another Teppanyaki restaurant named "Karen". Hey sis!) We ate a yummy Italian meal at Macaroni Grill and then went up in the tower for the tour. It was awesome to see the city from the sky. Claudia graduated from Cal Berkeley with a degree in Architecture so she was more impressed than I was. But, I found all the grammar mistakes in the signs...see the picture below of Claudia and the "World Fastest Elevator".

After we finished at the tower, we stopped in at Marks and Spencers to see what they had (I used to shop there in the UK and wanted to check it out), then we picked up some Cold Stone to go, both of us clinging to our old favorites, and being sorely disappointed when the girl behind the counter didn't mix it the way they do in DC (that's Daly City, not Washington). We jumped into a taxi, tried in vain to communicate "train station" to the taxi driver, complete with "choo choo" and "chug a chug a chug a chug a" and finally we got out our tickets from the earlier train to show the guy. He LOOKED like he understood and off he went. After a bit, when I didn't recognize anything, I called my friend and had her say it to him on the phone. He had understood but was just taking a different way to get there. We arrived at the station shortly after, bought a ticket and only had the option of standing on the train for the hour and fifteen minute ride back to Hsinchu, so we were tired puppies when we got off. And fearing the public toilets on the train, I was needing to get home quickly. No such luck.

As we got on the scooter and turned out of the train station parking lot, we were seconds later, met head on by a taxi whose driver was clearly not wearing his glasses. The dude just rolled right into us. It was like bizarre slow motion. The bike fell over, Claudia got her leg caught under it, the back of my leg scraped on something, my Marks and Spencers bag fell into the street and I pounded the guys hood trying to make sure he didn't keep rolling. He got out and made some motion that he'd HAD his blinker on...as if that makes it o.k. to cross traffic and roll right into a two-wheeled vehicle. I immediately called my friend and let her talk to him in Chinese. Long story shorter, he gave her his name and number, the bike was not hurt so we could drive home and get out of the cold, our "injuries" were mainly just bruises which are still with us but nothing major, and the old taxi guy made sure we were out of the street and said a number times in his broken Chinese accent, "Surry!" Sincerely offered and apology accepted, we scooted on home to the comfort of hot shower, clean clothes and leftovers from Macaroni Grill. It was a big day filled with excitement, discovery, adventure, and surprises. What more can we ask for in 2008, er uh, I mean 1997? (Prince, tonight we're gonna party like it's 19-90-9!" They still have two years before that song is old. Buy stock in Prince's music.)

We're having a great time, so far, although I'm already getting really tired of being at work all day and not being able to enjoy the visit with Claudia like I want to. Alas, as always, work really gets in the way of life doesn't it?

Have a great one. Until next time, LC (and CB) from the TW!

Taipei 101 at dusk!

Claudia pointing out an error.

Hey there, Karen! You're big in Taiwan.

The inconsiderate Taxi Man!
Ran right into us!

Happy Birthday, Jesus!
A7 singing with Cosmo as the star!

The Reading Contest at Kang Ning
(note the backwards "N" on the curtain...oops!)