Taiwan

So, to fill in those of you who I haven’t had the opportunity to speak with in person recently:

My brother and I are four years apart. This summer, we are celebrating two graduations: his from high school, and mine from college. As this is probably the only entirely free summer we have together, our parents chose to give us the gift of culture by sending us to their homeland of

Taiwan for a month. Of course, we cannot just sit in our relatives’ homes rolling around for days and asking them to entertain us- that would be terrible in terms of 人情,so we both applied to a volunteer teaching program, bringing English to small elementary and secondary schools all over the island.

We were both accepted, and received our school assignments. My brother will be teaching elementary English in the former military/current airbase of Jingmen, a tiny island that is closer to the coast of China than it is to Taiwan. I will be in Taidong, in a little village nestled at the foot of the mountains, teaching secondary school. We receive basic instructional training for a week in Jiantan, and are then sent off to our respective schools.

I am writing this from Keelung (Jilong), which is in the mountains of northern Taiwan. We are staying with family friends for a few days before the start of the program, in order to roam around, eat good food, and let our internal clocks settle into Taiwan time (15 hours ahead of Pacific Standard).

Even though I’ve only been in here for two days out of the eventual four weeks, that’s time enough to really notice how different Taiwan is from California. These are just a few things I saw on the first day alone...

1. GREEN EVERYWHERE. The tropical climes of the island yield a lush natural landscape.

2. BUGS EVERYWHERE. Everywhere you go, even indoors, you can hear a high-pitched buzzing

noise… it seems unfamiliar at first, until I realize that it sounds just like what I hear the morning

after dancing next to speaker sets at raves. This sound is not an audial aftereffect, however-

it’s the sound of thousands of cicadas singing from the trees. I’ve also seen at least 30 different

types of butterfly since arriving.

3. WATER EVERYWHERE. It hangs in the air like a sticky, heavy cloud.

4. BARSOOMIAN BIRDS. Sparrowlike little things with pitchfork tails? Ginormous avian beings with comically long, white necks? Vibrant lime green birds with red-orange eyes? ALIENS.

5. THE BIGGEST MANGOES I HAVE EVER SEEN. At the grocery store, there are those red-and-green mangoes, and there are those little yellow kidney-shaped mangos that are about the size of a tomato. Well here, they’re the size of papayas. NORMALLY.

As I find more interesting observations, I will expand this list. In general, however , I will also try to update this as often as I can find stable internet, as an attempt to both

1. Really get this baby blog going

2. Document what might be our last trip to Taiwan in a while

3. Give my readers a peek at the beautiful island, as I experience much of it for the very first time as well