Monday, August 29, 2011
A Cat (danny)
I saw a cat. It stretched. It was cute. Shoshana didn't like the cat. She swatted at it.
Settling in
We have been in Shanghai for about a week now. I haven’t quite adjusted to life here but we are starting to settle in and find the things we need. We really haven't done any sightseeing yet. I've basically just run lots of errands and gone to work.
After several trips to Ikea our apartment is starting to look more like home even though we didn't come here with much stuff. I bought a whole bunch of picture frames so the wedding photos are everywhere. Next week our kitchen curtains will be ready. We bought a drying rack for our laundry which we can keep in the shower where it doesn't take up the whole kitchen. I still really want a dryer and I don't like how hard our clothing feels after it air dries. We also still have to get a good toaster oven because apartments here don't come with ovens. I was really happy we found an art supply store so I can decorate the walls. I bought nails at a hardware store, my Chinese accent was so bad I had to resort to pantomime to explain what I wanted. Internet is really crappy here. They block Facebook and any sites that involve too much free communication so most foreigners have to use a proxy to get around the firewall which makes internet slower.
The first two days here I was feeling really overwhelmed and didn't want to go places by myself because not many people around here speak any English. They probably do in the really touristy places because when we go to nice restaurants they all seem to speak it. On Tuesday night, when we first got back from Taiwan we went to Carrefour and it was horrible. Danny said it was a really nice market where we could find all the western foods I wanted but it turned out to be really crowded and dirty. People were pushing each other and yelling at each other, it was way worse than any Walmart in the states. We bought some cheese, cereal and other stuff anyway before I vowed to never go back there. Wednesday I went to Ikea and decorated the apartment more and it made me feel much better. Ikea feels just like shopping in the states.
Thursday I started work so I had to venture out by myself. I was really nervous riding the metro by myself. Hardly anyone spoke English and Danny didn't set up a phone yet so I couldn't call anyone if I got lost. It is a twenty minute walk from our apartment and another twenty minute walk to our school. It also poured the whole time and my feet were soaked and blistered by the time I got to my work. I went to the wrong building around the corner from my work first so I was relieved when I finally found it.
My co-workers were fairly friendly. Most of them were new to Shanghai like me. I was really relieved to be around people who spoke English by that point. We had two days of orientation where we learned about the PYP program but didn't find out much about the actual school like our schedule or anything. They give us lunch and breakfast every day but so far nothing vegetarian except fruit and a few crackers.
After my first day of work we went to City Shop. It is more like a whole foods whereas Carrefour is more like a super ghetto Walmart. I was so relieved to find City Shop even though everything there was like triple the cost of stores at home. It was sort of like shopping in the Hamptons.
Danny figured out the bus schedule for me so I only have to walk about 10 minutes instead of 40. The buses have really crappy English signage but once I knew how to go they saved me a lot of time.
I was really excited Danny finally set up a second phone while I was at work. After the second day of orientation Danny and me went out for Korean food with a few of my co-workers. By that point I figured out a bit more about the school by chatting with various co-workers. It seems like a decent school, a bit disorganized at times but as people often point out - it is China.
On Saturday Danny and I decided to try going to synagogue. We found the address online and it turned out to be incorrect. After more carefully checking the location and a bit of wandering around in the rain we found it. It turned out to be a big house in an area that looked like the suburbs. I felt sort of awkward knocking but we made a lot of effort to find it. It did turn out that the rabbi and his family live on the top floors and the synagogue was below. There were only about five people there besides the rabbi and his family but they were welcoming and invited us to stay for lunch afterwards. They apparently have a bigger service on family night the first Friday of each month so we may try it again then. It was good to find out there is somewhere to go for the high holidays at any rate.
We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant in the nice shopping mall on Saturday night. There are a bunch of shopping malls that are about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The really nice one with the Gucci store and stuff I can't afford has a bunch of nice restaurants inside. Another mall had a Coldstone, Dairy Queen and a Beard Papas which we were very excited about. The Thai food tasted like Chinese Thai fusion but it was still pretty good.
In spite of being somewhat fancy the bathrooms in the malls are really scary. Some of them have a trough that you are supposed to crouch over and it makes everything smell horrible. I always wait until we get home for the bathroom. My school has some bathrooms like that as well.
On Sunday I had to work because the students had an orientation. We had a half day Monday to make up for it but it still pretty much took away the weekend. My students were really cute though. They rushed in like little balls of energy running around chatting excitedly. I was fairly relieved that most of them spoke English fairly well. They really didn't tell the foreign teachers much about what was happening and the Chinese teachers mostly took the lead. I never had a co-teacher before but from everything I've read about it that isn't at all what should happen but you can't exactly change the culture of the school the first day.
After work we went to Element Fresh for lunch. The food there was really good. It had fresh salads and sandwiches which I was desperately craving. We are starting to find all of the things I am used to at home but it is a bit tough at times. The language barrier is really frustrating but Danny has been helping me a lot.
So far we haven't done any sightseeing but what I have seen of Shanghai isn't that pretty. All the roads are really wide with multiple lanes. It is convenient for drivers but the aesthetic is horrible. It is like living next to Roosevelt Boulevard. Maybe if we start exploring I'll find some prettier areas. So far it is just giant streets and shopping malls.
After several trips to Ikea our apartment is starting to look more like home even though we didn't come here with much stuff. I bought a whole bunch of picture frames so the wedding photos are everywhere. Next week our kitchen curtains will be ready. We bought a drying rack for our laundry which we can keep in the shower where it doesn't take up the whole kitchen. I still really want a dryer and I don't like how hard our clothing feels after it air dries. We also still have to get a good toaster oven because apartments here don't come with ovens. I was really happy we found an art supply store so I can decorate the walls. I bought nails at a hardware store, my Chinese accent was so bad I had to resort to pantomime to explain what I wanted. Internet is really crappy here. They block Facebook and any sites that involve too much free communication so most foreigners have to use a proxy to get around the firewall which makes internet slower.
The first two days here I was feeling really overwhelmed and didn't want to go places by myself because not many people around here speak any English. They probably do in the really touristy places because when we go to nice restaurants they all seem to speak it. On Tuesday night, when we first got back from Taiwan we went to Carrefour and it was horrible. Danny said it was a really nice market where we could find all the western foods I wanted but it turned out to be really crowded and dirty. People were pushing each other and yelling at each other, it was way worse than any Walmart in the states. We bought some cheese, cereal and other stuff anyway before I vowed to never go back there. Wednesday I went to Ikea and decorated the apartment more and it made me feel much better. Ikea feels just like shopping in the states.
Thursday I started work so I had to venture out by myself. I was really nervous riding the metro by myself. Hardly anyone spoke English and Danny didn't set up a phone yet so I couldn't call anyone if I got lost. It is a twenty minute walk from our apartment and another twenty minute walk to our school. It also poured the whole time and my feet were soaked and blistered by the time I got to my work. I went to the wrong building around the corner from my work first so I was relieved when I finally found it.
My co-workers were fairly friendly. Most of them were new to Shanghai like me. I was really relieved to be around people who spoke English by that point. We had two days of orientation where we learned about the PYP program but didn't find out much about the actual school like our schedule or anything. They give us lunch and breakfast every day but so far nothing vegetarian except fruit and a few crackers.
After my first day of work we went to City Shop. It is more like a whole foods whereas Carrefour is more like a super ghetto Walmart. I was so relieved to find City Shop even though everything there was like triple the cost of stores at home. It was sort of like shopping in the Hamptons.
Danny figured out the bus schedule for me so I only have to walk about 10 minutes instead of 40. The buses have really crappy English signage but once I knew how to go they saved me a lot of time.
I was really excited Danny finally set up a second phone while I was at work. After the second day of orientation Danny and me went out for Korean food with a few of my co-workers. By that point I figured out a bit more about the school by chatting with various co-workers. It seems like a decent school, a bit disorganized at times but as people often point out - it is China.
On Saturday Danny and I decided to try going to synagogue. We found the address online and it turned out to be incorrect. After more carefully checking the location and a bit of wandering around in the rain we found it. It turned out to be a big house in an area that looked like the suburbs. I felt sort of awkward knocking but we made a lot of effort to find it. It did turn out that the rabbi and his family live on the top floors and the synagogue was below. There were only about five people there besides the rabbi and his family but they were welcoming and invited us to stay for lunch afterwards. They apparently have a bigger service on family night the first Friday of each month so we may try it again then. It was good to find out there is somewhere to go for the high holidays at any rate.
We ate dinner at a Thai restaurant in the nice shopping mall on Saturday night. There are a bunch of shopping malls that are about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. The really nice one with the Gucci store and stuff I can't afford has a bunch of nice restaurants inside. Another mall had a Coldstone, Dairy Queen and a Beard Papas which we were very excited about. The Thai food tasted like Chinese Thai fusion but it was still pretty good.
In spite of being somewhat fancy the bathrooms in the malls are really scary. Some of them have a trough that you are supposed to crouch over and it makes everything smell horrible. I always wait until we get home for the bathroom. My school has some bathrooms like that as well.
On Sunday I had to work because the students had an orientation. We had a half day Monday to make up for it but it still pretty much took away the weekend. My students were really cute though. They rushed in like little balls of energy running around chatting excitedly. I was fairly relieved that most of them spoke English fairly well. They really didn't tell the foreign teachers much about what was happening and the Chinese teachers mostly took the lead. I never had a co-teacher before but from everything I've read about it that isn't at all what should happen but you can't exactly change the culture of the school the first day.
After work we went to Element Fresh for lunch. The food there was really good. It had fresh salads and sandwiches which I was desperately craving. We are starting to find all of the things I am used to at home but it is a bit tough at times. The language barrier is really frustrating but Danny has been helping me a lot.
So far we haven't done any sightseeing but what I have seen of Shanghai isn't that pretty. All the roads are really wide with multiple lanes. It is convenient for drivers but the aesthetic is horrible. It is like living next to Roosevelt Boulevard. Maybe if we start exploring I'll find some prettier areas. So far it is just giant streets and shopping malls.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Taipei - Taiwan
Taipei was a much larger and more exciting city to visit than Tainan or Kaohsiung. We got a bit more of a chance to do sightseeing and exploring. While we were there I was fairly exhausted and stressed out over some things at home but we still did a fair amount of sightseeing.
We stayed at a hotel called Dolamanco. It seemed to be a bit confused by western culture as I'm sure westerners are about Asian cultures. Either that or it was having an identity crisis because it had decorations with both Flamenco dancers and the Virgin Mary. They don't quite go together in my mind. It was a nice hotel though. I have two things to point out about hotels we stayed in so far. They have this thing where you have to put your hotel key in a little slot to turn on electricity in the room. Danny likes it a lot because he thinks it more convenient to turn lights on and off all at once. Also some of the rooms just don't have sheets. I found it sort of yucky because it seems unlikely they wash the whole comforter that often.
Both Tapei and Tainan have this weird sort of style of architecture where most of the stores look like they are inside a garage. The nicer ones look like this. The less nice ones look like a run down garage with a few signs to tell you the price of things. Most of them have apartments above them.
We walked through a giant flower market. They had really pretty fountains and I wanted to buy one but had no way to transport them.
We also walked through a Jade market. I really liked this tea pot but Danny wasn't a fan.
We visited the National Palace Museum. We couldn't take pictures inside but it has a pretty amazing collection of pottery and other artifacts. It wasn't very well curated though and the lighting was sort of bad.
After we wandered around the palace gardens and Danny bought pellets to feed the Koi.
This girl had like a dozen people photographing her. We weren't sure why but we took a picture. I thought it was either a photography class or she was really famous.
We saw Danny's former elementary school. He attended it for one year before moving to the states for good.
We went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial.
There was a nice view of Taipei 101 from there. Guess how many floors it has.
We met Danny's aunt, uncle and cousins from his mom's side of the family at a really fun restaurant. His cousin's husband's uncle owned the place so I think it was a regular favorite of theirs. I like the decor a lot but I had a hard time with the food. Danny enjoyed it though.
We went to a park where Danny had gone as a kid. He was really fascinated by the fact that we saw a class full of kids and they each had a digital camera better than ours so he took their picture.
Danny got some food he liked. I was sort of frightened of it.
We got shaved ice which was completely amazing! It was sort of like sorbet but a slightly different consistency and made with fresh fruit.
We went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It was very large and elaborate and included everything from his photo to old uniforms. We saw the changing of the guard, I don't think it was as elaborate as in London or anything but it was cool.
They also had a mummy exhibit and an Astro Boy exhibit there but we skipped them.
We ate at Taipei 101 which as you may have guessed has 101 floors. We didn't go all the way to the top but I really enjoyed the food court because we found pasta and Coldstone.
I got a nice feel for the city but there was still a lot I missed. Next time we go I want to go to Ying Ge where they make pottery and the hot springs at Tai Dong.
We stayed at a hotel called Dolamanco. It seemed to be a bit confused by western culture as I'm sure westerners are about Asian cultures. Either that or it was having an identity crisis because it had decorations with both Flamenco dancers and the Virgin Mary. They don't quite go together in my mind. It was a nice hotel though. I have two things to point out about hotels we stayed in so far. They have this thing where you have to put your hotel key in a little slot to turn on electricity in the room. Danny likes it a lot because he thinks it more convenient to turn lights on and off all at once. Also some of the rooms just don't have sheets. I found it sort of yucky because it seems unlikely they wash the whole comforter that often.
Both Tapei and Tainan have this weird sort of style of architecture where most of the stores look like they are inside a garage. The nicer ones look like this. The less nice ones look like a run down garage with a few signs to tell you the price of things. Most of them have apartments above them.
We walked through a giant flower market. They had really pretty fountains and I wanted to buy one but had no way to transport them.
We also walked through a Jade market. I really liked this tea pot but Danny wasn't a fan.
We visited the National Palace Museum. We couldn't take pictures inside but it has a pretty amazing collection of pottery and other artifacts. It wasn't very well curated though and the lighting was sort of bad.
After we wandered around the palace gardens and Danny bought pellets to feed the Koi.
This girl had like a dozen people photographing her. We weren't sure why but we took a picture. I thought it was either a photography class or she was really famous.
We saw Danny's former elementary school. He attended it for one year before moving to the states for good.
We went to the Sun Yat Sen Memorial.
There was a nice view of Taipei 101 from there. Guess how many floors it has.
We met Danny's aunt, uncle and cousins from his mom's side of the family at a really fun restaurant. His cousin's husband's uncle owned the place so I think it was a regular favorite of theirs. I like the decor a lot but I had a hard time with the food. Danny enjoyed it though.
We went to a park where Danny had gone as a kid. He was really fascinated by the fact that we saw a class full of kids and they each had a digital camera better than ours so he took their picture.
Danny got some food he liked. I was sort of frightened of it.
We got shaved ice which was completely amazing! It was sort of like sorbet but a slightly different consistency and made with fresh fruit.
We went to the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial. It was very large and elaborate and included everything from his photo to old uniforms. We saw the changing of the guard, I don't think it was as elaborate as in London or anything but it was cool.
They also had a mummy exhibit and an Astro Boy exhibit there but we skipped them.
We ate at Taipei 101 which as you may have guessed has 101 floors. We didn't go all the way to the top but I really enjoyed the food court because we found pasta and Coldstone.
I got a nice feel for the city but there was still a lot I missed. Next time we go I want to go to Ying Ge where they make pottery and the hot springs at Tai Dong.
Kaohsiung - Taiwan
Kaohsiung is a much more cosmopolitan city than Tainan. We only spent one day there.
We went with Danny's cousin, aunt and uncle to look around the campus of the school where his cousin had gone to college. It was a very scenic campus. The symbol on the ceiling is from the Taiwan flag.
Then we met his other aunt, uncle and cousins for lunch at the tallest building in Kaohsiung. The restaurant was sort of interesting. It was a really fancy building and had a nice view of the whole city. It was sort of trying to be an American restaurant so they had American flags as decorations all over the place and the waiters wore cowboy hats and handkerchiefs. The food wasn't American at all though.
From there we took Danny's favorite mode of transportation, the high speed rail, to Taipei.
The buildings in both Tainan and Kaohsiung have similar style except the town is a bit larger and more upscale. I saw a few more stores I was familiar with as we walked around.
We went with Danny's cousin, aunt and uncle to look around the campus of the school where his cousin had gone to college. It was a very scenic campus. The symbol on the ceiling is from the Taiwan flag.
Apparently at Zhong Shan University instead of mouse or bug problems they have stray dogs and monkeys. Danny's cousin Eric told us stories about a monkey breaking into his dorm room and stealing his food. I was really hoping we would see a monkey as we walked around but no such luck. We did see some signs that said don't feed the monkeys though.
After we got really tired from walking around the really hilly campus in the heat we went to an area called Fisherman's Wharf and met his other cousin for dinner.
The next day we had a brief chance to look around by ourselves and see another shrine.
Then we met his other aunt, uncle and cousins for lunch at the tallest building in Kaohsiung. The restaurant was sort of interesting. It was a really fancy building and had a nice view of the whole city. It was sort of trying to be an American restaurant so they had American flags as decorations all over the place and the waiters wore cowboy hats and handkerchiefs. The food wasn't American at all though.
We stopped by their house for a few minutes and tried some fruits that I'd never seen before. The green one tastes like honey dew but is crisper like an apple. The pink one is called dragon fruit and tastes a lot like kiwi.
From there we took Danny's favorite mode of transportation, the high speed rail, to Taipei.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Random Observations in Taiwan
So just a few random things I found interesting about Taiwan...
For some reason people in Taiwan and in Shanghai think it is more hygienic to wear masks. I'm not sure if it is to keep dust out of their faces or not inhale germs or what. Either way, as we are walking around we saw tons of people riding around on their little vespas wearing masks over their face. They even handed them out for free in the airport in Taiwan.
I think people here study English a lot but they seem really shy about using it and only do it when there is no alternative. They all seem scared of making mistakes. Just a few English mistakes I found funny...
At the National Palace Museum we were told: No Eating, No Drinking, No Photo...ing
Danny made fun of me for taking pictures of Pimp and ASS but it was funny.
We also saw some Hebrew.
My Dad wanted me to write how much things cost here. So a brief overview... a lot of brand name things are priced similarly to the states. Chinese foods are a lot cheaper, but American foods seem about the same as in the states. The bus here only costs like 50 cents and the subway is about 75 cents. In Shanghai the subway is 50 cents. In Shanghai the cost of labor is really cheap so hiring a cleaning lady is extremely affordable. Our place in Shanghai has daily maid service included in the rent but I'm not sure how much they pay. In Taiwan it is a bit more expensive for labor since there are fewer workers.
When things are on sale here they write the number you would multiply by to find how much it costs instead of the percent to take off. So here when it says 8 the price is 20% off because if you multiply the cost by .8 to find the price.
Taiwan is a tropical island so it is extremely hot and humid. You pretty much start sweating the second you walk out the door. Danny said as a kid most places didn't have air conditioning or "lun chi." I don't know how people deal with it but I guess you get used to it. Danny's grandmother won't turn the air conditioner on in her apartment even though Danny's dad installed one when he visited a few years ago.
I think bugs here seem worse than in the states... except for maybe bedbugs. The mosquitoes here are awful. In addition to it itching when you get bit it stings like a bee sting as they bite you. They also have giant cockroaches that I see on the street occasionally which can fly.
Last thing... People here are much more respectful of following rules. In the states people just shove their way onto the subway, here they have marked off where to form lines. On escalators people actually follow the stand right, walk left rule. It is really nice...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)