A couple of firsts

The blissful 75 degree days have officially ceased as of this week. We are now down into the 50's and with the rain and wind, it can be downright nasty out there. Ah... Feels like home!

I got my first care package in the mail on Friday and damn it felt good. I know it's only been a month but hell, nothing can cheer you up like a box full of stuff that you had been wishing you'd brought since you landed. (A big thanks to my Mom for making it happen) So I have now a new pair of glasses to replace the ones lost in Hualien, my old digital camera to replace the one lost in... well, you know where, and some great gifts from back home.

I spent a good 4 hours today on public transit in one form or another. This is not a complaint, I'm just sayin'. I traveled to the north of Taipei to go to Costco so I could pick up a wireless router for my internet. Turns out that this was apparently not the issue, so I'm still without high-speed internet for the time being. But I digress. Getting to Costco took two hours or more of bus rides, subway rides, and much subway terminal wandering with lots of confused muttering and walking up and down the same flight of stairs a couple of times to make sure I was in the right location. It was all worth it though when my eyes caught the heavenly glow of American influence that is Costco in Taipei. It's a beautiful thing.

My first order of business was to get some food at the counter, which is much the same as getting food in any other Costco except for the fact that here there are roughly 6 people for every one person in a Costco back home. The sheer amount of human mass packed into that place is staggering, it's like lining up on a conveyer belt to be shoved into a sausage casing made of shopping carts. You can hardly turn around without having to say "Duei bu chi" (excuse me) to some old lady or another and when you finally reach the food stand and see that big huge picture of a hot dog you kind of feel like you can commiserate with the poor pig who ended up in there. Is there pigs in hot dogs these days? Who knows. Anyway, the food is basically the same except for the bacon cheeseburgers, Seafood pizza and Peking Duck pizza. I was feeling extra adventureous today and got the Peking Duck pizza and was happy to find that it exceeded expectations. It's a bit like a bar-be-que chicken pizza from California Pizza Kitchen because of the sweet sauce and poultry flavor along with the green vegetable of some kind that is scattered liberally about. I scarfed it down while taking the escalator up to the second floor which is where you have to start shopping. Which reminds me of the first time I was there with some Taiwanese guys who were from California, I was remarking how interesting it was that there are escalators everywhere in Taiwan and one of them said, casually: "Well, around here you have to build vertically, not horizontally." And by God he's right. I have completely taken for granted that back home you can just build and build on new land all around without any thought of moving skyward. Think of a Fred Meyer, those beasts could be contained in the size of a basketball court in Taiwan, but it would be 6 stories tall.

Another interesting difference between the Costco's back home and the one here is that they give you liquor samples. Please, read that again. Liquor. Samples. You can be walking down an aisle filled with 80 pack boxes of diapers one moment and stumble onto a sample lady offering you a shot of whiskey in a plastic cup with ice. It's hard to comprehend at first, being an American who's so used to flashing his I.D. every time I want to take a crap, but over here they will give you booze for free in a grocery store. Which reminds me, I've not been carded once since I've been here and I have no idea what the legal drinking age is. In Washington I couldn't walk within 20 feet of a bar entrance without some lump of muscle and flesh with a skin-tight black shirt on asking me for I.D.

So after I purchase my wireless router and take a taxi back to the subway station I settle in for another long haul back home. But just as I walk into the terminal I remember that my care package also contained my skateboard trucks (the axle portion on bottom that holds the wheels) and I whip out a shredded scrap of paper that has been nearly water logged to death by the ocean (again, Hualien, that place destroyed me) which has directions, if you can call them that, to a skateboard shop off of one of the stops on my way home. I could not resist. It has been over a month since I stepped on a board and every time I leave my apartment all I do while walking down the street is imagine skateboarding every piece of marble, metal, and concrete that stands between me and wherever I'm going.

It was raining at this point but I decided I had to find this place. My directions say, and I quote: "Sun Yat Sen Memorial, #2, go through 4, then ----->" That was what I was working with and an hour later, I found the place. My heart was racing when I saw the blue sign for "Jimi" which is the name of the skateshop. I staggered in, wet, tired, and brimming with joy at having actually found the place. I have to admit, in my month in Taiwan I have not felt more at home than I did when I walked into that skateshop. It was like the outside world fell away and I had walked into a place where I was understood. There was a skate video playing on a tv in the corner and skateboards lined the walls. It was like my own personal Shangri-la and even after I'd paid for my board and had no further business in the place, I just hung about for a little while, not wanting to actually leave. I made a skate-date with the guy who worked there for 3 o'clock tomorrow at some place in ximen (pronounced she-men, which is dangerously close to semen, and has been known to make me giggle when said by Taiwanese people).

With my board in hand I strode out the front door in the rain and walked back to the MRT station with my head aloft, shoulders back, with all the confidence of someone who'd just found their own little home away from home.

The second to last first of the day was stepping on my board and pushing around the underground parking garage at my apartment building. I think I scared the crap out of a little kid on his way to the garbage area but other than that it was bliss. The final first of the day came about half an hour ago when I was sitting on my couch looking at skateboarding videos online and felt the vibration of what I thought was a lead-footed individual walking down the hallway. This steady thump... thump... thump... feeling soon turned into a gradual shaking of everything not bolted down in my apartment and the light bulb in my brain flickered to life: Earthquake! I had been told that Taiwan was notorious for earthquakes but I hadn't experience one yet. It got steadily more powerful and before long it was really moving things around, but I've been through a lot of earthquakes and wasn't too bothered by it, other than the thought that I'd never been nine stories up during one before. Another first.

When it subsided I had the overwhelming urge to get onto my blog and record the occasion which basically brings you all up to speed. Also, I'm going to start a second blog about skateboarding in Taiwan which I hope to get published on a skateboarding magazine's website. So wish me luck on that!

All in all, a long but fruitful day full of equal parts tedium and adventure.

Sometimes I forget...

Sometimes I forget that the world has not stopped since I've been here. Living on a little island in the Pacific can make you feel like everything and everyone else is very far away, and sometimes like they're not even there at all. It's very easy to get wrapped up in the notion that you are removed from the web of human existence but it is a flawed way to live your life.

Coming to terms with the fact that I'm far away from friends and family who need me is beginning to make its mark on my psyche. I hadn't counted on the fact that I would be just a ghost for so many people back home, like I could do nothing to help them. It is surreal to wake up every day and go about my daily routine and play games with a bunch of kids for a couple hours while knowing, in the back of my mind, that people I care about are dealing with extremely serious issues.

I feel selfish and cruel for going off and finding a path that's suitable for just me. Don't get me wrong, I love the opportunity for adventure and I revel in the fact that I've actually done something truly outside my comfort zone, but there's a nagging feeling like every moment that I spend focused solely on my own ambitions is a moment lost in another aspect of my life. I guess that is the way life works though, you can only spend your time doing one thing so you've just got to make decisions which allow you to use that time the best that you see fit. How do you know you've made the right decision? That is what plagues me. I wish I had a compass or a map that told me whether I was on the correct path, but I'm a natural skeptic to anyone or anything that says that they have the "true" answer to any of life's problems. Perhaps this is because I think that they cannot possibly have a better handle on it than I do, but I'd like to think that my own ego is not what's stopping me from believing these things. After all, there are certain people in my life that I trust to an extent that I would take their knowledge as a revered gift, though I may not always do what they say.

I do not like to waste people's time because I place a high value on it, and cannot possibly understand anyone who doesn't. Time, in the sense that we only have so many rotations around the sun to call a life. So why ruin someone's opportunity for happiness by using some of them up for your own ends?

I can only hope that my family and friends back home know that I love them and not to worry about me. I'm not moping about worrying about what is going on without me, I'm simply hyper-conscious of the fact that my decisions affect everyone around me and I don't want to let them down.

Aracnaphobia

After a long first week of teaching (I think that's what I'm doing anyway) children English, I finally got some time to explore the surrounding mountains of Sansia. On Saturday I went for a great day hike up the nearest mountain to my house who's name I am not sure of. The trail to the top was basically straight up with hints of switchbacks here and there but it made the elevation gain quick and straightforward. Once I reached the top of the ridge line I was greeted to panoramic views of my own city and all the surrounding topographical features.

At one point along the trail I saw a little offshoot into the brush that looked interesting and decided to see where it led. This was the the point when my childlike exuberance was taught a quick lesson in the dangers of the jungle. As i was walking through the thick greenery, I got caught up in a spider web, which normally wouldn't bother me, but this was no ordinary web. It was home to the most massively scary spider I've ever seen. I won't go into too much detail because I want people to be able to sleep tonight, but Let's just say that it was the size of my fist and had a look about it that said: "I could kill you in the time it takes you to scream for help." It was terrifying, and after that I took the jungle more seriously.

I got another lesson from the wild a few hundred meters up the road where I decided, again, to branch off into what looked like a lovely clearing. I was greeted by many, many more of those gigantic spiders and had now armed myself with a three foot length of bamboo which I waved furiously in front of me at all times to break any spider webs before I got to them. Upon entering the clearing I was given a heart stopping fright by a small, harmless bunny rabbit that bounded into the bush. The moment I saw it leap into the bush, however, it was unmistakably a rabid monkey with super-rabies and a nasty case of swine flu. I got over the fright though, and moved forward. It was at this point that I noticed a dragonfly on the ground, flitting it's wings haphazardly and not getting anywhere. "Strange," I thought, and I poked it with my stick. That's when I realized it was in the pincers of a Preying Mantis! This was the single most exciting discovery of my entire hike, and quite possibly my time in Taiwan thus far. You see Preying mantis' on National Geographic or a behind the glass at the insect section of the zoo, but nothing can really prepare you for the sight of what looks like a viscious leaf devouring a dragonfly by chewing it in half. I oggled at this sight for over 15 minutes, watching as the dragonfly's wing beats grew fewer and fewer, before stopping completely. Morbid, perhaps, but it was quite fascinating watching an evolutionary wonder like a Preying Mantis feed and I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

After this, I felt that nothing else on the hike could possibly excite me more and sighed comfortably with the knowledge that I had seen the most interesting thing going on in the world that day. With a smile on my face, I continued up the mountain until I saw another turn off that looked promising.

After about thirty meters of winding trail I came upon an absolutely idyllic spot. Imagine a small pool of rock lined water roughly thirty feet wide the color of jade, with beautiful green grass surrounding it on all sides, backed sharply by rising cliffs topped with lush vegetation. Whatever you are imagining, this was something like that, but better. I sat here in utter seclusion, with nothing but the sounds of strange birds which I've never heard before and the low, everpresent, din of insects flying about or rubbing their legs together or whatever they do to make noise.

I walked over to a sun drenched rock and set down my bag, had a drink from my water bottle, then pulled out my copy of "The Hobbit" and read for an hour in the sunshine. I couldn't picture a better way to spend a lazy afternoon.

After my brief intermission, I summited the mighty peak and stood about a large square containing a massive red bell that had a lovely description carved into a marble placard that was in Chinese and therefore unintelligible. But from what I could gather, it went something like: "This here is the giant bell, It's been here for a really long time, and will continue to be here long after your mortal remains have been swept from the Earth. Give it the due respect it deserves and take a photo in front of it holding up a peace sign." I tried, but i no longer have a camera, so I bowed to it and kept on up the trail.

The last viewpoint that I found before turning around, as the sun was getting low in the sky and it wouldn't be light for much longer, was the most beautiful of the entire hike and is hard to describe. All the trees around this outcrop of rocks are swathed in Buddhist prayer flags, waving gently in the breeze and dancing about the canopy and in your face. They have been tied to every branch capable of holding their string and create a truly serene atmosphere at the silent top of the mountain. The rock outcrop juts slightly out past the plants and affords you an uninterrupted view for miles in every direction. Below is the large river which runs through Sansia who's name I also do not know, though I admit that i should. At it's mouth is a massive delta where the water waits patiently to creep through the dam and trickle through the city. Beyond the river is miles of city-scape and further on are more lush mountains. It's breathtaking.

That's all I can bear to put down at the moment, though I could go on for plenty more self indulgent paragraphs, but I won't put you all through that.