Jotings: Babies (Not Mine), Grad Schools, Top-Secret(?) Beverage Testing, Hair-Dye Poll

This is a bit of a catch-all entry of tidbits too small for their own posts, but interesting (at least to me) nonetheless. First is that our good friends Heather and Mark had their baby on Monday. A girl named Kimberli who weighed 6 lbs., 6 oz at birth. That's her (obviously) in the picture, along with her proud momma. And that's what makes this blog worthy. Look at Heather. Does she look like she gave birth at most five days ago? Does she look like a woman who has gotten maybe 24 hrs of sleep in the last week? A woman who has had to take her baby to the hospital every single day because it lost 6 oz between birth and the next day, although even though the baby is now thriving and gaining weight? No, no, and no.


I've once again hit the grad school applications, filling and exceeding my quota of stress for the day. I think it was easier to get a visa than to fill out Boulder's application. I'm not sure the actual process of filling out the application should weed people out. It's too cruel. In a twist of fate, I had read the NY Times article on the lengths students went to in order to get into college. It transcended ridiculous and entered the realm of insanity. So when I started stressing, Paul was all too quick to point out possibility of a similar obsession. You really should read the article, if for no other reason than to read the unbelievably pretentious name of "Winthrop Pierce Rutherford." (Knowing nothing but his name, I was praying that Princeton and every other Ivy League school rejected him.) I was not surprised to learn his family has a legacy at Princeton dating back to the 1770s. No one else would have the sheer gall to name their kid that.

Finally, Taiwan appears to be some sort of top-secret beverage testing site for Coke. The most beautiful of carbonated sodas appeared on store shelves last week. It's called Sprite Ice and it is awesome. It's all the goodness of Sprite, but the sweetness is cut by a subtle menthol aftertaste. I highly recommend it. Of course, it could be that Taiwan is considered not a large enough market for Coke to blitz with advertising, but is any market not large enough for Coke to promote new products? Word on the street is that is also available in Canada, so I'd make a run for the border come Christmas time.

Finally, my dye-loving roommates have convinced me that the superstrength hair dyes here can make me into the redhead I have longed to be. It was going to be the cranberry chunks I have pined for since high school, but I ever-so-pragmatically concluded that such an action would result in a new line being added to the policy manual, and that's something I don't want to be responsible for. But if it was a color that existed in nature, well....So, I put it to a vote, dear readers. Should I let my roommates dye my hair a "rich auburn" or stick with what I've got (dark brown hair with rapidly growing out hairlights, in case you have already forgotten)? Paul has already chosen to abstain, so no one else can try that.

Epilogue: Day Four

As you no doubt noted, day three ended with us back in Changhua. But we had a free day on our hands and besides, Changhua was feeling so backwater and our memories of normal, filling food had been stirred. So we got all adventurous and took the bus into Taizhong. It took an hour, which for some reason felt like FOREVER. This may have been because the bus driver kept getting off the bus to smoke and buy betel nuts. I guess I admire his adherence to the no smoking rule, but it disconcerning to see your driver leap off the bus and beginning puffing away at red lights. We finally found ourselves in our coveted, solidly American restaurant known as TGI Fridays. Paul got a tasty hamburger and I went all crazy and ordered the Kung Pao Chicken Wrap, as there no Jack Daniels chicken (or Jack Daniels anything) to be found. We sat in a window seat--which is where we always sit in restaurants because we are either good for business or cannot sit next to the Taiwanese patrons, take your pick--and enjoyed being in a sit-down place where what you got would not be a surprise. Afterwards, we visited the Chung Yo department store, which is like 12 floors in three towers. It's really, really big. In the process, we made two very exciting discoveries. 1)The toy floor also carries Sylvanian Families and for cheaper than in Taipei. They even had the updated version of the three story house (which I so had). Their selection was also way better. 2)Jason's, the mecca of Americanism where we bought Dr. Pepper and A&W Rootbeer, just opened in the basement! Yes, now it will only take 1 hr and NT$150 to purchase the two finest soda pops on the planet as well as all the Caesar dressing and Milanos we can eat. Surely, the good life is upon us.

Day Three: Accepting Defeat

By day three, we had given up all pretenses of roommately togetherness and were making our plans with no concern for others. We left our hotel at the very leisurely hour of 11 am and made our way to the Shilin district. After a quick metro trip, we found ourselves in a land of pleasant, cheap restaurants with names like "i like cake" and "Rosie's Sushi and Noodles." We rode a bus for some time into the mountains, which were very pretty, until we reached the National Palace Museum. The Museum claims to be the largest collection of Chinese art in the world. It's probably true. It's also surprisingly boring. With the world's best stuff, you'd think there would be some really nice things. At the risk of causing an international incident, the highlight was a visiting exhibit of Islamic jades. Personally, I was underwhelmed because the majority of the stuff was Yuan or later (1279-1911). Most of that too was porcelains, which are pretty, but montaneous. Only four items currently on display are from the T'ang. If you're really into porcelains or bronze ritual vessels, though, it's worth your time. (There were so many bronzes that at one point we jokingly theorized as the Nationalist government was fleeing China, everyone was given a ticket to Taiwan and an ancient bronze.) The Museum gift shop was also a letdown--although not a surprising one after the exhibits themselves. Still, I found a nice image of a buddha, which I pratically snatched out of the hands of an older woman. Oh sure, I was playing in cool, loitering in the background as she and a female companion hemmed and hawed over it. Then her husband lost all interest and the women put the picture back and moved away. I zeroed in and snatched it for the kill. It's a good thing I did. Turns out there was only one, plus the display. I learned this as I was waiting for the clerk to bring it to me and the other woman intercepted her. But I asked first and I got new picture. On the way back, we stopped at a food stall and bought some Nam bread (like a soft, freshly made pita) with sauce. It was incredibly tasty. Later that evening, we went back to the 101 and refreshed our Milano and Dr. Pepper supplies, having consumed them in the course of one day. We bought High-Speed Rail tickets home because we decided we'd rather spend $40 and be home in an hour than spend $18 and 3 hours on a bus. This also meant we could leave Taipei later. Unfortunately, we arrived in Taizhong so late that the buses (which are irregular at best) were no longer running (okay, and it was 10:30 pm). A kindly security guard "rescued" us and personally escorted us to the standard train station (conveniently located in the same building as the HSR station) because taking a taxi (for all of maybe 5 miles) would be too expensive. (For the record, it would not have been.) Nevertheless, no one was going to spend NT$110 on a taxi when they could take the train for NT$30. The train station was very fun. It was so small and we were the only passengers for our train. We just waited until a man came out with a flashlight and flashed the conductor. We got on and rode the maybe ten minutes to Changhua. I was most disappointed to see how really out in the boonies our city is. Chengqing, which has a train station, a restaurant that's only open for breakfast and nothing more, has a far nicer train station than us. Just to round out the evening, we picked our bikes up and went over to McDonalds for a midnight snack and then biked home. For those keeping tally, we used 1)the Metro, 2) our legs, 3) our bikes, 4) a taxi, 5) a bus, 6) a HSR train, and 7) a train. That's every form of transportation available except boat and airplane and six out of the seven in one day. If only we had gone out to Danshui, we could have added boat to the list.

Day Two: 10:30-23:00

Day 2 of Taipei: The Vacation began at 10:30 am, precisely 2.5 hours later than it should have. Thus our morning plans were ruined before the day began. Paul and I boldly decided to ditch our roommates, which turned into an excellent plan as we 1) visited the Shandao Temple, 2)Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, 3) expensive restaurant section near Sun Yatsen's Memorial Hall, and 4)the Longshan Temple district. Meanwhile, our roommates 1)were ambushed by Audra's old mission president and pressed into service. Clearly, we got the better half of the bargain. Paul particularly liked the Shandao Temple, as it lacked the elaborate ornamentation common to Chinese temples and shrines. I liked it, because the nuns were more than happy to let us wander around and take pictures. (Temple pictures make me nervous, ever since the Matzu temple in Lugang politely showed us the door. Although, that was the only temple that has ever shown us the door, so maybe it was just that temple's policy, not standard practice.) The Chiang Kai Shek Memorial was a lot of fun. The museum was quirky, but enjoyable--unlike that ultra-low budget Sun Yatsen Memorial with its photocopies of pictures of objects. (That's true, BTW.) We overlapped a little with an English tour group, whose guide was informing them that if Eisenhower had listened to MacArthur and Chiang, there would be no North Korea. He also almost exploded from pride while naming every country that had given an honorary medal to Chiang. The restaurant section was a little disorienting. You literally exit the metro and there are four Italian places within 30 ft. Go an extra 30 ft. and you find an alley of nothing but Japanese restaurants. We ate at a tasty Italian place recommended by our travel guide and it was quite good. Paul got a really good pizza on super-thin crust and the Caesar salad was top-notch. Of course, I was charmed by the free--though warm, because cold water doesn't exist here--Evian. The Lungshan Temple district was probably the highlight of the day. We went at night, which made the Temple look extra-dramatic with all the candles and lit incense sticks. Of course, all of the gold everywhere helped too. It was packed with people and it was nice to be in a functioning temple, not just a historical relic. We were also able to get really close and hopefully our pictures from there turn out. While at the the temple, we saw a little girl (3-ish) take one of the divining blocks. Naturally, her parents were upset about this, but the girl refused to give it back. When they tried to take it, she simply screamed. They appeared tremendously embarassed. I was tickled pink to see someone else have to deal with a misbehaving child. We also wandered around the night markets there, finding a wonderful jade shop (where nothing could be purchased because the owner was out and he did not trust his assistant enough to give him the key to the cases) and a used book store decorated with random antiques (included a giant poster from the premiere of Pink Floyd's "The Wall") with an equally random selection of books. It was a really eclectic and cool place. Thus ended Day Two.

Moon Madness Time

Dear All,
We spent the past three days in Taipei for the Moon/Mid-Autumn Festival. Our glorious trip began at 9:30 am on Saturday with a bus trip. It was not particularly pleasant as I had 5 hrs of sleep the night before, yet couldn't sleep on the bus lest we miss our stop. I was also mostly breakfastless, because the nice girl at McDonalds forgot my pancakes, which combined with the windy mountain passes made me very, very sick. We got off the bus at the train station/metro station and rode to the roommate meeting point, where we were going to have lunch. Unfortunately, the restaurant was closed for the holiday. And everyone but me mysteriously wasn't hungry. So we went to drop our stuff at our hotel, which Audra--a normally reasonable roommate--had picked out. It was close to the metro and a very hip, trendy section of Taipei. It was also possibly the worst hotel I have ever been in. (I would have to make a chart to decide this hotel or a certain hotel in Tyler, Texas was the worst. It might be a tie.) I really wished I could remember the name of the nice, cheap hotel Trip Advisor had recommended. Instead, we dropped off our non-valuable lugguage and went the jade market, lugging my backpack along with me since I wasn't about to risk having it stolen. As for breakfast/lunch I was left to satisfy my hunger with the fillings of a Hi-Life convenience store. Paul and I were both unimpressed with the jade/pearl market. Most of the stuff was clearly not real, but it wasn't priced that way, which was irritating to us. Fake is fine if it looks pretty, just don't try to sell it to me as if it were a rare gem. Then we went back across town to the Sun Yatsen Memorial, which is very ugly if you only see the side of it. Imprevious to hunger or fatigue, my roommates enthusastically decided to go on the Makong Gondola, which is way over on the outskirts of the city. Being exhausted, starving, and, oh yeah, my death fear of gondolas, I steadfastly refused to be involved. Paul and I instead took refuge in the Taipei Zoo McDonalds, where we could sit and eat. There was even Wi-Fi, so I was going to send a desperate plea for help--having lugged my laptop all over creation for the last six hours--but its stupid battery was dead. Eventually, our roommates returned from their nighttime gondola ride (no better way to see the scenery than to ride a gondola at night) and we went all the way back across town to see the 101. The 101 is the tallest building in the world, boasting (supposedly) the world's best food court and tons of super-luxury stores (Dior, Tiffany and Co., Armani, Cartier, etc.). It is also home to the best selection of Western foods in Taiwan. We spent $50 on Dr. Pepper (which exists no where else), Milanos (ditto), Miracle Whip (same), Caesar dressing (not in its familiar form), Alfredo sauce (doesn't exist in here, no matter what the menu says), and Rootbeer (which even this store was sold by the single can). We also went to Toyland, where I made a truly exciting discovery: Mapletown lives! Yes, under the pseudonym "Sylvanian Families," the Bear family, and the Raccoon Family, and the Rabbit family, and the newlyweds Mr. and Mrs. Deer and all of their tiny furniture are still being made. There are even new toys like bathing set I bought with its adorable miniature clawfoot tub. Ah, good times. found the hotel toleratable to acceptable. Exhausted, Paul and I returned to the hotel while Bridget and Audra continued to paint the town red into the wee hours. **As a disclaimer, Paul insists I mention that everyone else found the hotel to be tolerable to acceptable. This is because they only care about having a roof over their heads, running water, and a pillow. In fairness, it did have all those things, although Audra had to sleep on a futon matress on the floor and Paul had no pillow because he gave it to Audra.

Important Life Lessons Learned: 2--Never let anyone else book a hotel room for you and food from home makes everything better.

I Hate Typhoons

I hate typhoons. I hate them so much. I hate walking in them, riding in them, possibly even their mere existence. There just should never be rain so heavy that it soaks you to the skin regardless of whether you're wearing a poncho or a rain jacket. My pants were drenched within 60 seconds of leaving the house. You know why? Because there was so much water running off my jacket. I ask you, is this the kind of world you want to live in? Oh sure, the poncho-over-the-rainjacket method will leave you merely wet, but--shockingly--typhoons really don't do much to lower the humidity or temperature dramatically. You might be only wet from the rain, but you're sweating so much, you might as well not even have bothered to get out of the shower this morning. And while you can just change out of wet clothes at home, it's more difficult and less fun to do this at school. Add to that the fun of hydoplaning on a bike, crazy traffic (thanks, bus for the giant splashes. I just love the dirty street water! And I definitely agree--red lights, no matter how long they have been red, are not for you. Sarcasm aside, it really is something to see a bus run a light that has been red for a good 30-40 secs with no regard for the opposing traffic.), the fact that it rains so much that my shoes are constantly filling with water...well, it just makes me cranky. It's unpleasant and it messes up my schedule. How can we buy dinner if we can't get it home before it's flooded? Don't even get me started on not having any milk for my Oreos.

Catch-Up: Neighbors, Milk, and Grad School

Well, I've given up having anything remotely interesting to say, but certain parties just keep clamoring for a blog update. Here it is. Since the sixth, I've 1)visited the sweet temple next door, 2) resumed my quest for milk worthy of consumption, and 3)started applying for grad school.

1)--I've included pictures of the temple and convent next door artfully taken by Paul. The near-absurd level of detail is characteristic of all of the large temples I've seen here so far. The pictures really don't do it justice, nor can you get a scale of the statues inside the temple. They are huge; the Buddha is much larger than life-size. We've discovered an English tour guidebook specifically for our city, so there'll be tons more pictures of temples. You'll probably get sick of them. One of the temples in the historical section of town is supposed to have an image of Guanyin from the T'ang period, so you'll definitely see pictures of that if we can find it.

2)--I assume my milk tastes are legendary by now, but if you somehow missed the Great Milk Debate of 2003, I have very high standards for my milk. I should, it's my favorite beverage. The very best is 2% milk from the BYU Creamery. For the record, I was even back by an award-winning former 4H milk judge on this. Anyway--because Oreos just aren't worth eating without milk--I have been searching among Taiwan's approximately four brands of milk (hey, when it's all imported, you don't get a lot of choice) and I have found a winner. It's Superior Quality Milk and indeed it is. It is only sold by the quart (in nifty glass bottles), costs $2.30 (but then, all milk here does), and is only available at Carrefour (France's exported version of Walmart). For the interested, it beat out I Heart Milk, High Quality Milk, and Dr. Milker, and won because it lacks the strong corn taste that plagues all the other brands. Forgive me, but I feel very strongly that the only food that should taste like corn is corn.

Finally--3)I've begun apply to grad schools. I'm applying to ASU, the University of Colorado-Boulder, and the University of Kansas. All are excellent choices with varying strengths. ASU has the best faculty for medievel Chinese studies, Boulder has the biggest name (and editor of the Journal of the American Oriental Society), and University of Kansas offers an "East Asian Cultures" emphasis which allows a combination of history, art history, geography, literature, language, and religion courses. Unfortunately, I find the process a tad stressful and frustrating (ASU wanted a combined Junior and Senior GPA, which BYU doesn't give, but can be done using a GPA calculator in a three-step process, and Boulder wanted pretty much everything except my maternal grandmother's blood type).

I'm sorry I don't have anything more exciting to offer, but if you tune in next week, we're going to Taipei for 4 days for the Moon Festival and I'm sure fun stories and pictures will ensue.

Our First Earthquake

Well, we finally experienced an earthquake. Preliminarily, it was placed at a 6.5 (US Geological Survey) and a 6.6 (Taiwan Central Weather Bureau). There have been lots of little ones since we arrived here, but this was the first one we felt. It happened at 1:51 am our time as I was getting ready for bed and Paul was playing Bioshock. I asked him if he was moving the mattress with his foot at the same time he was about to ask me if I had started dancing on the bed. It was surprisingly strong and perfectly rhythmic. It was more than a little surreal and a little frightening. Logically, I know earthquakes do not start out small and become big, but at the time you can't help but wonder if it is going to get better or worse. It was disturbingly like turbulance on a plane. To someone as terrified of flight as I am, it is not comforting knowledge. Terra firma is supposed to be safe. Now it has gone and betrayed me? How can I sleep at night? (Remarkably well, I soon hope to find out.) It was not unexpected, though. There have been four earthquakes in the 4-5 range of magnitude in the last 72 hours, so I figured we would eventually feel one. Still, better to have a series of frequent, small earthquakes than one major one. Also, I got to fill out one of those "Did you feel it?" questionnaires for the US Geological Survey, and now I feel special.

Lugang Pics

Lugang Trip

We spent the afternoon in Lugang (after a fun morning of chatting online with Paul's family), a nearby town with a thriving tourist industry based on its historical buildings and crafts. We forgot our camera, but took a few using a roommates's, so hopefully I will soon be able to post a picture or two. We only visited half of the town and missed the biggest attraction, so we plan on going back soon. It was a lot of fun. The historical section has its old brick buildings either restored or rebuilt, so it has a cool feel. The streets are narrow and windy, and while there are tons for touristy stores, there were also plenty of houses with people living in them. It's a big attraction for the Taiwanese, as well as foreigners, so the shops had some fun stuff in them. We bought delicious passionfruit gelato from old woman (she was very aggressive in selling, but we felt her product justified it) and had a great time looking at some truly beautiful temples. The most beautiful one, the Nanjing Temple, was rebuilt/repaired and renovated (depending on your view) in 1971 and it is amazing. Luckily, one of the pictures we took was us in front of the main gates. Sadly, you cannot see the amazingly ornate and delicate stone carvings that literally cover the rest of the temple.

We (meaning mostly I) bought some great stuff. We got a two decks of cards with various minor folk deities on them, two sketches of the old parts of the city, a supposedly original painting of a girl and her kitten in the wet brush style, a gorgeously carved figure of Guanyin (the bodhisattva of compassion) or possibly Mazi, a sea deity who has a large temple in Lugang, two hand-painted fans and a pair of handmade shoes. The figurine was a bit of a splurge, but it was beautiful and delicately carved from a single piece of wood. The seller offered a better figure, but it was carved from a single, very large piece of sandalwood and was US$250. I don't think he was surprised when we declined it, but he probably figured he had nothing to lose by offering.

The fans have a great story behind them. I wasn't going to go in, but Paul thought it would be nice to have things that seemed distinctly Taiwanese and the fans seemed very traditional. Turns out the painter was a master craftsman, quite famous. I had read about him in the magazine on the airplane. He also LOVED Mormons. He had tons of pictures of him with missionaries and had a copy of the Liahona with many pictures of various temples. Apparently, the missionaries often visit and they love to have him paint the Taipei Temple for them (on fans), so he asked for pictures of other temples so he could offer more temples. The Taipei temple is so popular that he has a standing supply. It was pretty funny and cool at the same time. We, however, bought one fan with cherry blossoms on it and one with tree branches and calligraphy. Truly beautiful works of art. Then he painted a koi pond on the box, signed, and dated it all while we were waiting and while everyone else in the store was trying to buy things. The best part was that in the back of the shop he had his private studio where he painted modern religious art in intense, almost garish colors in an impressionistic style. They were super-cool and I wished he sold those too.

The handmade shoes were way cool. For $13, you pick the wood platform and the upper, and this woman made the shoes on the spot in like five minutes, most of that time spent measuring and fitting things just to your foot. If I understood her correctly, you could bring the shoes back and have a different upper or a heel put on for five bucks. The observant viewer will note that I picked uppers that perfectly matched my Easter dress (the blue one with the pink blossoms on it, for the less observant).

Well, I'm sure you're bored after hearing about us buying things, but we had a great time and who knows, maybe we'll get Christmas gifts when we go back.