5 Thanksgivings

They were all special in their own way:

1. We went to Taipei for an early Thanksgiving with the American Institute of Taiwan. Since Taiwan is not "technically" a country, there is not "officially" an American embassy here, which bespeaks the complex political situation. I haven't talked about Taiwanese politics on this blog, but its gotten really crazy lately; student demonstrations, massive protests, a visit by a high-level Chinese official, the former President of Taiwan being arrested on corruption charges and then going on a hunger strike, etc. Anyway, the pumpkin pie at this thing was really good and I had like 4 pieces.

2. My host family (Kendra, James, and Cliff) took me out to dinner at the highest restaurant in Yilan. All the patrons were stoned. No, actually it was at the top of this mountain where you had a view of the whole city and it looked beautiful at night. My host fam said, "we heard that Americans get lonely at these holidays, so we wanted to be with you." They're awesome, and not just bcuz they love to take me out drinking.

3. Same night, I went to my friend Evie's place. She had made a Thanksgiving dinner for her co-teacher, but her co-teacher had to cancel at the last minute, leaving you-know-who with the enviable job of eatin all the leftover food. I shoulda gotten p-a-i-d Im so good at that.

4. Friday I went on a hike with these two Professors from the local University. The trail was challenging and the view at the top was literally indescribable. Which is why I prolly shoulda taken pictures. Oh well. After that I drove to Loudong for the Fulbright Thanksgiving. If you think I didn't devour an insane amount of food after my exhilarating hike, you must not know bout me.

5. Sunday night I went to a potluck Thanksgiving at a local church. This completed my interfaith-themed week, since on Thursday I went to a Buddhist ceremony and "received the Tao." Basically, I placed incense in front of this statue of the Buddha and got a blessing from one of the priests. Then I was told the "3 secrets," which I am not permitted to reveal to anyone. The swearing me to secrecy thing was kind of undermined, though, when they handed me a pamphlet with the "3 secrets" written in it. And although I can't be sure, I think I may have accidentally converted to Buddhism.

Pics from the various Thanksgivings, as well as the Thanksgiving-themed "thank you" cards my students wrote in class last week.

Taipei: President Ma and Lil Jon

So much to say about Taipei that this one is a two-parter. part one:

Taipei has been dubbed, "the world's most underrated capital city." Now, I ain't been to enough capital cities yet to know about all that, but I will say Taipei is a really cool spot. A few weeks ago we were invited to this real fancy party for "Double-Ten" day, which celebrates the uprising that led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of Taiwan. The party was pretty good and I felt like James Bond. There were all these diplomats in tuxedos and beautiful women in evening dresses, and I chatted up some ambassadors from Burkina Faso, The Gambia, and Senegal. There was even a Latin American guy in military regalia, which I think is a prerequisite for these kind of events.

The President of Taiwan, Ma Ying-jeou, was also there. I was just goin to get a martini (shaken, not stirred) when I turned around and there was President Ma with this huge security detail shakin hands with people. I wanted to talk him up (President Ma went to Harvard Law, that was gonna be my opening), but then he got swept away somewhere else with his big entourage, so i didn't get a chance to go up to him and say, "Hey Ma, whatsup? You smoke? I drink, me too, well good...cuz we gon get it on tonightttt"

There was one more celebrity sighting, the Taiwanese actor Van Fan. He's big here, having recently starred in the movie, "Cape No. 7," which is the 2nd most successful movie ever in Taiwan, behind only "Titanic." "Cape No. 7" is also Taiwan's entry in this year's Oscars for "best foreign language film." I saw the movie and it was really good, check it out if you get a chance.

Then after rubbing elbows with the high-rollers, we went to this hip-hop club where Lil Jon was performing. That's right, you heard me. Lil Jon. Mr. "Yeaaaa" himself came thru because he's got love for Taiwan. And also because they prolly paid him an insane amount of $. I was skeptical as to what he was actually goin to perform, because he's not technically a "rapper," but his set was actually pretty cool, just doin the hooks from a lot of dirty south songs and pouring expensive vodka on the crowd while taking big swigs of it himself. It got krunk in the club.

Here are some pics from the wknd: Lil Jon, President Ma, and a picture of me killin the buffet (like I always do) at this welcome reception they had for Fulbrighters.

Girltalk

As the only heterosexual dude on a 16-person Fulbright delegation, there's often a lotta "girltalk" goin on. I got two cool female roomates, though. Mary is from Minnesota, and is studying for the GMAT (business school). Paige will be in China next year, before attending Yale law school (Go Harvard). I could never imagine living with two girls (jk Nora and Caryn) but its working out well.

Here's a pic of the 3 of us from August, when we didn't know we would be living together and our fates thus irreperably intertwined. Paige is on the left, Mary is on the right, the 48th President of the United States is in the middle.


Secondly, I went to this party in Loudong this past wknd (25 minute motorcycle-ride from my hood, Yilan) and they were playing this DJ named, "Girltalk." His stuff is f-ing amazin. He mixes my favorite songs from my parents generation, the 90's, and contemporary stuff with the hottest artists in hip hop. For example: The Band w/Young Joc, Ace of Base w/Cassidy. Check out this video, its dope.

Warning: this video contains expletives of the non-fleeting variety.

Weddings

I've been to two weddings in Taiwan. A few things about Taiwanese weddings:

At the last one I went to, they served chicken testicles. Really. I didn't even know chickens had testicles. And apparently they're supposed to make you virile or something because my co-teacher was chewin on one when he turned to me and said, "my wife likes it when I eat these. Do you know what I mean?" His wife was sitting right next to him at the time, so i was just like, "yea...I know what you mean." They also told me how in China they eat tiger penis, which is supposed to make you more "manly." Luckily for me, I could not possibly be any manlier so I dont gotta worry about it. I gained a whole new appreciation for keeping Kosher, though.

One custom they have at weddings that I really like is that the bride and groom go around and have a toast with every table. I'ma try to do that at my wedding. Its a nice way to schmooze/show respect to your guests and get smashed at the same time.

The second wedding was actually really cool cuz it was my aunt Cecilia's brother. My aunt is from Taiwan, so it was sorta strange to meet family for the first time. To the groom I was like, "nice to meet you. And congratulations on getting married!" But they were incredibly gracious to me, seated me at an "important" table and arranged for me to eat vegetarian food.

The only thing that I kinda dislike is the lack of dancing at Taiwanese weddings. There wasn't even a DJ. There were, fortunately, many beautiful Taiwanese women. But I couldn't dance with any of them! And I know they woulda felt my style, too. It was kinda like that Twilight Zone episode where the guy just wants to be alone in a room reading books all day and then he dies and goes to heaven and heaven is a library but then he breaks his glasses. Or 10,00 spoons and all you need is a knife. Or something like that.

My uncle and his wife, me and my friend Kelly:

Obama Breakfast

My friend Latrice (whatup Trice!) asked me what the reaction to Obama is out here. Lemme just say they already ahead of America in terms of gettin behind Obama: the breakfast shop a few blocks from my apartment is called "Obama Breakfast."

They named it that like 3 months ago because the people who owned it were banking that Obama was going to win and that that would be a cool name for a place that sells dan bing (see below). When Obama won I was at school, and all the teachers kept coming into my office and congratulating me like I had done something/won something. But i felt what they were saying, because there's really a vibe here of being impressed with America again.
Surprisingly, one of the things they were really interested in is the concept of absentee ballots, which don't exist in Taiwan. Even soldiers stationed abroad can't vote without coming back to Taiwan. They were like, "really?! you can just mail a letter?! How do they know it's really you?"

And ironically, "Obama" sounds a lot like the Chinese word, "banma," which means zebra. A zebra, of course, is half-black and half-white.

I also led all of my classes for that day with the chant, "Hello Obama! Goodbye Bush!" because we were learning the Beatles song "Hello Goodbye." I highly encourage you to ellicit chants of "Hello Obama!" from any Taiwanese schoolchildren you meet. They really love it.

Taiwanese dan bing, good breakfast for cheap:

Halloween in Taiwan

SO they don't really do Halloween here, but since they got an American (me) they wanted to try it out. As you can see, they got really into it and did a really good job. I wrote my own ghost story that I told the kids (it was pretty good, if I do say so myself) and we had a costume contest. And then the kids trick-or-treated around the school at the different classrooms, since if they knocked on their neighbors door dressed like a ghoul or wtvr who knows what would happen.
That reminds me of this time I was goin to my friend Jesse's house and I'd only been there a few times so I knocked on the door and no one answered so I just walked in and it totally was not his house and there was this elderly Indian woman sitting there watching TV and there I was with like my hood up and a bubble coat on walking in her front door. She didn't speak any English, so I tried to explain but just slowly started backing out the door and then she called her husband and HE came down and I just kept repeating how sorry I was and luckily he spoke Enlgish and he was like, "it's aight, it's aight," and it made me realize how lucky I am to live in an area where gun ownership isn't commonplace. But I digress.

My Aboriginal Fam

So they set us up with a host fam out here, not like a host fam that you live with but who you hang out with, do some cultural exchange with, and drink beers at kareoke bars with. My host fam happens to be aboriginal, which means they're descnded from one of the 14 tribes native to Taiwan before the Chinese first came about 400 years ago (and before the Chinese came again like 60 years ago). The tribe my family is from is the Atayal, known for their facial tatoos. I'll think about getting one.

Anyway, my fam is mad cool. They took me to this aboriginal cultural dance show, which was dope. It reminded me a lot of Bhangra, actually. Also reminscent of Punjabi culture is the aboriginal peolpe's proclivity for alcohol consumption. I'm down with that. Here are some pics, some from the aboriginal dance show and the others from kareoke, where we drank a lifetime's worth of "Taiwan Beer" (motto: "in lieu of Stella Artois, drink this"), sang some classic 1950's songs, and hung out with the kids.