Visa Renewal Process

A month or so before leaving Minnesota I had mailed my passport and requested documents to the TECRO office in Chicago. A couple weeks later they mailed it back with my 90 day visitor visa, and hand written instructions on how to obtain my visa renewal. They told me to take my student ID after being in Taiwan for 75 days and go to the immigration office. They never mentioned that if you get a multiple entry visa and leave the country that the 90 days resets itself without needing to go to the immigration office. So I woke up early this morning and accompanied a couple friends to the office without actually needing a visa renewal. It is very hard to get good information about the visa process for Taiwan. They do not have a student visa, and a visitor visa does not seem appropriate. I guess this is something that future students on this exchange should keep in mind.

Chi Kenting ma? Dui!!

This past weekend I headed south for the third-annual Spring Scream Music Festival (usually during the early part of April, www.springscream.com). We took the coolest bus I have ever taken, I mean cool as in COLD. I tried to cover my face and ever part of my body for the nearly 6.5 hour bus ride. My beach towel only provided a little bit of comfort from the chill. We arrived around 7:30 AM and had to wait for our hotel (Hotel California, http://www.hotelca.idv.tw/) to let us check-in. The hotel is located above one of the many surfer shops in town and the stairs are located at the back of the store. The hotel was nice with wood floors, linens  and toiletries provided, our own room, and cable TV. They do not provide towels for guests though, and during windy nights the windows can keep you up during their constant slamming back and forth. The staff is very accommodating, speak English and can give you good information about Kenting. There is also an available computer to use for last minute research or checking email. The rates were not bad (especially during off-season), all-in-all I would probably stay at this hotel again. 

After breakfast, checking in and delicious Thai food we were ready to start wandering around the town. The town was just beginning to wake for the flood of visitors for the two festivals in the area (ours was an indie rock festival and the other was a techno/house music festival). There were street vendors setting up to sell just about everything and anything (clothes, food, beverages, toys, etc.). We gathered our group of 7 and headed to the festival. We managed to catch a ride with a group of Taiwanese heading that way to the festival, well actually we hitched, but almost everyone heading the same way was going. 

We purchased 3-day passes to the festival with the expectation that Saturday was the biggest day for music. I enjoyed the town as much, if not more, than the festival itself. The town is very touristy, but nice nonetheless. We spent most of the long weekend on the beach catching some rays (don't worry I had SPF 45 on the entire time and I reapplied regularly). I still burned as usual. I don't know how anyone would dislike sandy beaches, crashing waves, beach volleyball, sunshine, and music. There were large gatherings of people on the beach outside the Cesar Hotel after the music stopped.

On the last day in Kenting (Monday) we rented scooters ($250 NTD, or $8 USD for 4 hours) from a place on Kenting Road. I was so nervous, because I thought my friend had said he had never driven before. So I was like I guess I'll give it a try. As I was pulling out into traffic trying my best to hold 4oo lbs. plus a bike upright, I turned around and said "I'm so nervous". At that point, my friend asked if I preferred he drove, and I asked if he had ever driven and he said plenty of times. Of course I'd prefer not to die on my first attempt, so he drove until I attempted once again and nearly injured my self on a out of the way road. Lesson of the day "don't try to accelerate through sharp turns even when you can't push the bike along". I still got on the bike and rode around. The bike is easy enough to ride when there is nothing to hit. I thoroughly enjoyed the 4 hour ride around the peninsula and highly recommend it to anyone that wants to do it. I would wait however until the concert was over, otherwise you'll be competing with thousands of cars and scooters for road space. The concert was pretty much dead by noon the last day (Sunday), and the town cleared out even faster. Once there was no more money to be made, the vendors left and shops closed up. 

In the evening we hired taxis to take us to Zuoying (the HSR station outside of Kaohsiung) to take the train home. Most of the tickets were sold for the next two hours or so, we had to wait until 9:30 pm to catch the 2.5 hour train home.

This is Kenting where Spring Scream took place.

Wedding in Tainan!

 
 
 
So a couple weeks ago I was invited to a wedding in Tainan through my language exchange buddy's professor who is also my advisor from Minnesota's cousin. Sorry I know that was a bit complicated, I suppose I could just say a friend of mine invited me. I was so delighted to be invited to a wedding because I had heard during the most recent language exchange about the traditions. 

I was so excited to be invited to a wedding as most of my American-Born Taiwanese friends haven't even been to one. We met up with the Professor who introduced to one of her students taking the HSR (high-speed rail, http://www.thsrc.com.tw/en/index.htm) train down to Tainan, which takes only about 2 hours. For going north to south, the 2 hours is not that bad, by bus the trip would be more like 6 excruciating hours. Once we arrived at the station in Tainan we met up once again with the Professor's student. He rode in a different car on the train that was non-reserved. Although the seats are cheaper, you are not guaranteed a seat, it is the same type of system as in Italy. I once rode 8 hours on a slow train to Rome in a luggage compartment, needlesstosay we reserved our seats for this short trip to Tainan. The weather was vastly different from the rainy and dreary Taipei. The sun was blindingly bright and warm on my pale skin. We found our ride to the wedding, a couple friends came to pick us up. Neither Rachelle or I speak enough Chinese to really understand where we were going or even to ask. I guess we were just in for the ride. 

Finally, we had arrived to the hall. 10 people were seated at each of the twenty-some tables. Courses of food were served, each one more elegant that the previous. I was so excited that I knew all the food, well except for sea-cucumber (that one took a little longer to guess). I had been working on food during my language exchanges. A quick glance I exchanged with my friend and language exchange partner told me that I had made some progress. The others at the table were quite impressed with my ability and knowledge about the food we were eating. After the ridiculously delicious lunch, we watched as the bride and groom (I guess newly married husband and wife) strolled around to each table handing out candy and greeting the guests. One of the close family friends or members came around to collect the gifts or rather "shi" money in red envelopes. We had written on the envelop in a golden ink pen and wished them a happy life together. Someone said one typically gives $1500 NTD or $50 USD at a wedding.

Then the next part occurred after most of the guests left (but we were lucky enough to be with people close to the husband and wife to stay). They handed out tea to their elders, parents, aunts and uncles, a tribute of respect to them. After this cordial tribute, it was once again picture time. We were able to get a picture with the newly married wife and husband in a tuxedo and pink formal dress. The actual ceremony for the marriage took place earlier in the day and only a few family members are present, we were at the part of the ceremony that is shared with family and friends in celebration. All in all this wedding lasted about 3.5 hours.

After the ceremony Yi-Ching set us up with two people to show us around Tainan before we headed home. We saw what is seen as the First Confucian Temple/School in all of Taiwan, built in 1665 during the Qing Dynasty (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tainan_Confucian_Temple). I was amazed at how well preserved the temple and school were. There was a deity for studying, people bring their tests, school materials and grades to the deity to pray for a better grade or score. The second place we visited was a temple across the street. This temple was a Taoist temple and I learned how one actually prays. You pay for what is known as "golden money", which is golden paper that's burned to honor the deities, incense and a food offering. The food is left at the first and primary shrine while one visits the rest of the temple. After praying to the various deities and leaving 3 incense at each of their shrines, all of the "golden money" is burned at once. Two moon-shape pieces of wood are tossed, each time telling the wisher if their wish or thought will become true. If they are opposite three times in a row, the wish will come true, if not then the answer is no. My outcome was that my wish will come true. 

After the temple and school visit we had a brief snack. The snack consisted of a tofu pudding in sugary water and mine had red beans on the side. I found it to be delicious, strange but yummy at the same time. Finally, time to head home and catch the free shuttle (comes every 15 minutes) to the HSR station at the center of town.

Giving Gifts in Chinese Culture, Important Taboos

There are many taboos when giving gifts in Chinese culture and most other Asian cultures. So far I have been able to avoid making any mistakes in this regard. Many of these taboos come from traditions related to death or beloved ones dying.

Items that should never be given as a gift include:

1. White Candles - White candles are usually burned at funerals. Most things that are white and/or incences can often represent death.
2. Clocks - Giving clocks sounds like 'attending upon one's dying parent or a senior member of one's family'. Both said as "song4 zhong1".
3. Hand Towels - In the past, the family of the deceased would give hand towels to people who paid a condolence call, intending to break off their relations with the deceased.
4. Fans - They are cheap and fragile. They are used to relieve summer heat. Since it gets cooler by late autumn, there is an idiom that says "Qiushan Jianqian" (literally, to put away the fan in autumn).
5. Scissors - Scissors are sharp and hurtful, implying to sever relations with one stroke or one cut.
6. Umbrellas - The word in Taiwanese Chinese sounds like 'parting'. In the Taiwan dialect, "伞" (san, umbrella) shares the same pronunciation with "散" (san, parting).
7. Mirrors - Fragile and break easily, and hard to put back together. Metaphorical of a friendship/relationship.
8. Sweet Cakes - Given to deities during festivals or offerings.
9. Rice Dumplings - Another thing given when one is deceased.
10. Ducks - The type of meat women eat one month after giving birth.

Most of the things are bad to give as gifts because they represent death or represent a person's relationship with the other person as being fragile, temporary or unimportant. The best gift to give is something permanent and well thoughtout, which really isn't that much different from Western traditions.

Check out this page for reference on Taiwan http://scenery.cultural-china.com/en/146Scenery2785.html

Utilizing Your Blog

My blog is really just a collection of my thoughts, happenings and pictures gathered while I am abroad. I'm not quite sure if this is interesting for anyone else, but still it provides information about my life to those close to me at home, people I meet and those I wish were with me, but cannot be. I hope that my college, Carlson School of Management, makes the blog a requirement for all of those studying abroad so that the lessons learned from students in programs years before can be a stepping stone for those in the future. I have found blogs to be priceless for information that travel guides and locals cannot tell you. I have been a bit pressed for time in the past month or so, and the conclusion my study abroad is coming up, so I am behind and I hope to catch up in the next week (after studying for my midterms of course). 

I wrote a series of emails while I studied abroad in Milano, Italia but did not provide family and friends with pictures of my experience. I will be adding those to adjunct blog in the next month as a reference for anyone who is curious about my experience. Please send me an email or message if you have any questions esivertson (at) gmail (dot) com. 

In Seoul--Updates Soon!

Hi everyone,

I am currently in Seoul visiting some friends. I have spent the past week visiting the DMZ, markets, the Yongsan Military Command Post and just hanging out. I have really enjoyed Seoul thus far and I still have some updates about Kenting to post to my blog. I hope that others find the time to make trips to other countries to observe the similarities and differences between the two. I keep finding myself wanting to use the limited Chinese over here. So far I have only picked up hello and thank you in Korean :).

~Erica

Up-Close and O'Naturelle

 

A neat flower with a friendly visitor and a what Su called a dog fir plant coiled awaiting for the warmth of spring to come.

  

Left: One of the buddha or taoist sculptures I saw on the outskirts of Taipei near Elephant Shan. Right: A sign that says something about Elephant Shan covered by a lush moss. 

 

Top: Wild berries of some sort that I thought looked pretty cool. Bottom: Wild ginger, it looks pretty strange. I had never seen a wild ginger plant before.

 

Left: The path we took. It's easy to see how lush this high elevation eco-system is. Right: A rusted chair from the acidity of the constant misty rain.

  

Top: Another photograph of wild ginger. Bottom: A photograph from Sun Moon Lake. The hotpink and white flowers are all part of the same flower. I just thought that this looked quite pretty.

 

A reminder of the constant drizzle.

These are some of the pictures that I have taken of nature and things I think look quite cool. 

Most of the pictures are from a hiking trip up Elephant Shan (Mountain) on the edge of Taipei. I had the opportunity to see lots of gorgeous scenery and landscapes of Taipei. I love that there is so much wildlife to explore that is so accessible from the city. I remember missing nature when I spent 6 months in the blacktop-covered-treeless Milano. Green vegetation was one thing I missed in Milano, that I do not miss here, because there is just so much of it all of the time. The campus is adorned with sub-tropical plants and flowers I have never seen. 

  

One picture at the top and the other at the bottom (or gong kai si, at the beginning).

There are many palm trees here that were planted by the Japanese many many years ago pre-1940s. These trees tower over the main boulevard and an adjorning one as well. When I first saw the sign below on one of the trees, I thought it was just another wacky sign, but instead it is a really important cautionary message. Palm tree leaves are HUGE! I would not want to be hit on the head with one, could knock you out quite easily. 

Last night I spent a good couple hours at the library studying. I love the enormous library here, makes me feel like I am back at Coffman or Wilson. I haven't found a good studying coffee shop here yet, either the coffee isn't good or far too expensive for me. I think the library with its 24 hours a day study room will be permanent home for my studying. My dormitory also has a very nice room, which was a closed down coffee shop, but I have bad luck with the internet and get bitten by tons of misquitoes while studying. I am a bit shocked by the daily difficulties with internet connectivity here. I expected a better connection wirelessly and through my ethernet cable. Perhaps, I have been spoiled for too long on ResNet at the University of Minnesota. My room is a bit uncomfortable, mainly because the chair and the desk do not go together. I cannot get my legs under the desk and a couple hours of sitting to the side can be quite tiring. 

Two BBQs, Two Mountains, Two Days and a Rubber Factory

Summary of this somewhat long post... sorry guys!

Bravo Burger, Yangmingshan National Park, BBQ at Guo Qing, BBQ at rubber factory, & hiking with a rope in hand

Rachelle and I decided we would try to get food at Bravo Burger off of the Zhongshan High School MRT stop. Last time we went with the group they had actually run out of burger patties for the night at 7:30pm or so. So this time we weren't quite sure if we would make it. We made it and the food was delicious. It is famous around Taipei, but I have noticed that just about everything here is famous on some sort of standard. I am not quite sure how the 'famous scale' works in Taipei, sometimes it seems like so and so's uncle's friend heard about this place. Despite the ambiguity with the famous scale, I have enjoyed many of the places and foods known to be 'famous'. Nonetheless I have the picture to prove that we made to Bravo Burger :).

The first mountain that we climbed was at Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), it was really more of a hiking trail. The National Park is about an hour outside of Taipei and quite easy to get to. I highly recommend heading to Yangmingshan, because not only do you see nice vistas of the hills around Taipei, bamboo forests, a waterfall, but you also get a breath of fresh air. There are many signs reminding you of attacking cattle and telling you to drive safely on the walking path :). This was an easy half-day trip right before a yummy BBQ.

The first BBQ was one hosted at IYC/Guo Qing. I think the only thing I have to say is that it was the most dangerous BBQ I have ever been to. They would not let us take the grill outside and the security insisted that we do it inside! There were two big fans blowing all of the air outside, so none of the most was left, but I was more worried about the high temperature of the coals over the laminate flooring and wooden ceiling. We managed to safely cook everything and stuff our stomachs with goodies we found at the Taipei Costco. Almost everything in the store was an American import, but was much cheaper. I wish I had a membership in the USA, because I found out it would have been transferable.

BBQ in Taoyuan!

Taoyuan is the city where the main international airport is located and is about an hour out of Taipei. I was invited to a BBQ by my language exchange partner and Professor friend. The NTU Graduate Material Science Department and friends were having a BBQ outside of a rubber factory. The grounds were gorgeous with blossoming cherry trees, raspberries, palm trees and plenty of other lovely plants. The BBQ was very nice and I noticed some definite differences between a BBQ at home and this one. The food came out over a period of nearly three hours, so you had to make sure not to eat too much at one time. Another difference was that everyone was cooking and helping--I would have thought it would be difficult to get everyone to cook together so happily, but it worked. The last difference was cooking sweet potatoes underground. The sweet potatoes were amazing! They started a fire put the tin-foil-wrapped sweet potatoes in the clay soil for a half hour or so and then they were ready to enjoy :).

The next part of the day was a tremendously hard hike up a mountain, it might have been harder because I was so full with delicious eats! I figured since we would be hiking with two couples in their mid-50s (although they look much younger), we would be doing a hike like the one the day before. I was wrong, quite wrong indeed. We climbed a mountain, literally. There was a rope on either side to help us climb up the 45 degree incline. The slick clay soil, bulging tree roots and smooth rocks felt precarious at times, but we made it and only a couple steps, well minutes, behind the two older gentlemen in the group. One was even wearing sandals. I don't believe the difficulty stemmed from being out of shape, but to the fact that I rarely step up so high for so long. At the top of this mountain we were able to see Taipei in the distance and the city's water reservoir. The hike was nice, but after this very long weekend I was quite tired.

An Oolong Tea Garden

Berries and sweet potatoes!

The rubber factory where we had the splendid BBQ.

Taipei's city water resevoir and the two Taiwanese friends plus a stranger we ate and hiked with.

A restaurant we saw along our way up the trail and Rachelle and I after a good butt-kicking hiking. You can see we are holding onto the rope to keep our balance during the photograph.

Semi-Conductors and Hsin-Chu Technology Park

Wed. March 18th--I went to a the Hsin-Chu Science Park south of Taipei in Taiwan. I am fascinated by technology and always have been. I was dumbstruck by the collectiveness of the government and company policies so that all of these firms and the country may learn from each other. I have seen similar laboratories in the US, but none that made semi-conductors.

I took two pictures when I entered the primary building for this park. The first was of a metal mesh rice bowl and chop sticks and the second was of rice grains spread on the ground. I took the meaning of the two pictures collectively to mean sharing the resources, the rice spills out of an open bowl.

I think one of the most fascinating things was practical use of all the technology. They had a network of supercomputers monitoring some of the key environmental indicators in national parks all around the island. They also used the network of supercomputers to help some of the health problems here, such as mapping asthma and the factors from all patients in the national healthcare system to ensure the neediest get treatment first. After the hour bus ride home, I made it in time to my afternoon finance class.

Taichung and Sun Moon Lake

I spent this past weekend in Taichung and Sun Moon Lake which are both south of Taipei in the central area of Taiwan. There were eight of us in the group and I booked the hostel Friday night as the last of the group confirmed their attendance. None of us were fluent in Chinese, one was at least somewhat proficient. We woke up early Saturday to try to catch a bus. The first place told us we would have to wait another three hours, so we went to another company and were on our way. The bus takes approximately two and a half hours to reach Taichung. We had to transfer to another bus on the edge of the city and again to a city bus. Finally on the outskirts of the city we managed to find our hostel. I was a bit nervous as I was the one leading all of us on this journey. I was quickly dubbed the 'mom' of the group, one was the translator and two were the paparazzi (they had really nice cameras and documented the entire weekend, never have I felt so famous).

My buddy, who is assigned to me through the exchange program, is from Taichung and goes back every weekend. I contacted him and quickly met up with him at the main train station. We headed to one of the three night markets in the city and had a dinner I will never forget--it had to be one of the spiciest meals I have ever had. If ma is in front of la for a spicy dish, know that it will be extremely spicy. Almost all of us ordered the middle level of spiciness, but were crying as our lips swelled and reddened from the chili peppers and sauce in our noodles. The papaya milk seemed to reduce the heat a little bit.

After the unforgettable meal Andy met back up with us after his family dinner and we headed to the largest night market in Taichung, Feng Chia. The clothes definitely had a somewhat different style and were a little cheaper than Taipei. Taichung also has an area of town known as Little Europe, and it actually was different and more like Europe than the rest of town. Andy was so excited to have us try a bunch of different foods, some of which I know most would not of tried. All in all we tried rice and pig's blood on a stick covered with peanuts and cilantro, BBQ-ed shrimp on a stick with their shells still on, deep fried sweet potato balls, Chinese hot dog with wasabi sauce, a milk tea type of drink (still not quite sure what was used to replace the pearls, it was some type of seed but not passion fruit), and a couple other things. Andy took the group of us on his motorbike and in his brother's car to the highest viewing point of the city. We could see the Taiwan Strait in the distance and lights all around. I had no idea how vast the city actually was until we were perched so high above. We made it home safely to the hostel just in time to catch a couple hours of sleep and head to Sun Moon Lake in the morning.

Sun Moon Lake is in the Nantu region and quite easy to get to from Taichung. Andy met up with us in the morning out of concern of being able to buy tickets to get there. I am not quite sure when it was arranged that we would ride in two random cars and pay each $200 NTD ($6) to get there. It took us half as much time to reach the lake and about 20 minutes later of trying to refuse a 3 hour tour around the lake we were off. Sun Moon Lake is gorgeous and not used much for swimming or recreation and is only 33 km around. The Lonely Planet said that foreigners should not swim in the lake as Taiwanese do not know how to swim and may jump in and drown if they see you swimming... I'm not sure how true this is, nonetheless it is quite entertaining. After bumming around for a couple hours we found a bus to take us back to Taipei and a short five hours later we were home. Although the island is quite small, only 150 km or so wide, it takes a long time to get city to city unless you use the high speed rail. The trip was awesome and gave me a taste of what I had pictured Taiwan to really be like. Taipei is quite orderly and like most other big cities with a Rail Transport system.

(I thought that this was very cool. This is a picture of a flower that seems to never stop flowering. The small buds in the middle are about to flower, and they start out yellow and turn to a hot pink when they are done maturing and about to fall off).

(This is an Assam Tea Plant. Tea is very important in Taiwan and was one of the primary export goods in the 20Th century. I thought I would take a picture to share with all of you.)

I had my haircut today in Gongguan and I am extremely happy with the result. I am going to go whitewater rafting and study this next weekend, which I am also very excited about. I will be sure to add an update about that as well.