Ming Chuan's 51st Anniversary!

Happy 51st Anniversary MCU!

This week was crazy! After a great week at home, I left Michigan on Monday afternoon. I arrived back in Taiwan late Tuesday night and had normal class on Wednesday... then on Thursday we had a "field trip!"

Thursday was Ming Chuan University's 51st Anniversary, so since no one else had to go to class- we decided to practice our Chinese in the "real world"-- A.K.A. attend MCU's birthday party!

Quen and I decided to embarass the tuxedo boys!

All of my classmates (minus the only boy Michael).
6 nationalities represented!!

And I can never make fun of Eddie for being a "cheerleader" again. (Well.... yes, I still can ;-) But it turns out that "cheerleading" in Chinese can also mean like a hip-hop dance squad/aerobatic team. Somewhat more "manly" than what I had pictured! Each of MCU's departments put together a different act for the annual cheerleading competition. I was really impressed by how creative their themes and costumes were! It's great to see that kind of school spirit!

Happy Lantern Festival! 元宵節快樂！

Falling just on the heels of Chinese New Year is the Lantern Festival.
One Saturday afternoon in between going to the park for some exercise and going to the grocery store, Eddie and I stumbled up this local exhibit for 元宵節！

Because it's the year of the rat, Mickey Mouse & friends are extra popular!

No resemblance there!?!?!

National Palace Museum...

First off, it's never a good idea to visit a museum on an empty stomach. You'll be too busy thinking about your next meal to enjoy the art!

Taiwanese sausages...

"Where are the buns?" you may ask...
The larger white "sausages" are actually made from rice (duh!),
when sliced in half they take the place of what we normally think of as a bun.

Visiting the National Palace Museum is always a pleasure. The collection contains so many fine artifacts that it can be overwhelming, but the newly renovated museum makes the collection much more accessible. Unfortunately, photography is prohibited inside the museum (understandably as many of the art is over 1,000 years old!). If you have time I suggest renting the digital headset with prerecorded guide and exploring the museum on your own. I was not impressed with the English-language tour. *TIP* Visiting the museum on a weekday morning is your best bet to avoid large crowds!

For more information about the museum click here!
This is one of the most famous artifacts in the NPM.It's so impressive because the artist used the natural color of the jade
to carve a very realistic looking Chinese cabbage.
(Photo courtesy of NPM http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/collection/selections_01.htm?pageno=3&catno=12)

In addition to many wonderful examples of Chinese art the museum also regularly hosts visiting exhibits of art from different parts of the world. You never quite know what you'll find!

Pictures in front of the National Palace Museum.

Lin Family Mansion

Every day while taking the MRT (read: subway) I pass a stop that proudly advertises the Lin Family Mansion. Interestingly, my surname in Chinese is "Lin"-- but I never knew my family had a Mansion! One Saturday afternoon (after a traumatizing haircut) Eddie decided to cheer me up by visiting the mansion.

The buildings and gardens reminded me of some of the mansions we visited in SuZhou in China. Everything was designed taking balance and feng shui into consideration, the man-made mountains are reflected in a man-made lake.

For me the highlights of our visit were: the peacocks (reminds me of being a kid at the Saginaw zoo); the theater, which is two large covered porches set across from each other with a man-made pond in between; and the calligraphy inscribed on some of the walls, I can read some of the characters now!

Would I make a special trip to Taipei just to visit the Lin Family Mansion?? Nope. But if you're spending some time here and it's a great place for an interesting and relaxing afternoon.

2008 Taipei Flower Show

Being from Michigan it seems strange to hold an outdoor flower show in JANUARY, but this is Taiwan :-) My hometown is still buried under a foot of snow, and I'm spending a sunny Saturday afternoon exploring the 2008 Taipei Flower Show in Daan Park in Taipei City.

The flowers themselves were beautiful. I proudly showed off my limited gardening knowledge by identifying the flowers I recognized, i.e. lilies, petunias, roses, etc. I was surprised how BIG some of plants were. I'm always seeing "exotic" flowers that we attempt to grow in Michigan that are huge here. Poinsettias grow like weeds here!











In addition to the flowers, I really enjoyed seeing the creative displays - including a Peter Pan pirate ship complete with a giant crocodile! It was a treat to see Taipei natives relaxing as families in the park. Too often everyone here seems so busy! (It's a big city;-) So seeing parents playing with their kids on a Saturday afternoon was nice.

Yang Mei: hen hao chi! (Bay berries are delicious!)

Xiao Wu (Yes, "Little Wu") as our boss is reverently addressed... decided to take his offices out for a bonding trip to pick the most famous "Yang Mei" (bay berries). Our adventure included much more than just driving out to the farm to pick some fruit..... It began with an early morning KTV session on the bus.... and as the only "Lao Wei" (foreign teacher) in attendance I was prevailed upon to sing an English song (never mind that I'm shy or tone-deaf!) We went to an even smaller town about 2 hours from Wen Ling.

First on the docket was an invigorating hike through the rain up the mountain. Along the way we climbed next to waterfalls, took shelter in damp caves and scrambled up wet stairs. The views were nice and it was fun to get wet and silly with Chinese co-workers! I'm sure there are some crazy photos of me floating around!



The hike was a good way to work up an appetite, because our next stop was lunch. The restaurant was pretty standard rest-stop style, but they did serve the local specialty of a soup with freshly-caught river fish. It was DELICIOUS! (yep, I'm back to eating fish... and enjoying it, again....)


The mayor of the town and their chief of police happened to be eating in the same restaurant and one of the restaurant's staff tipped them off to the appearance of a foreigner. Of course, I had to go through the obligatory toasting (although by "playing the girl card" I only have to sip my beer) and introductions.


After lunch, it was back on the bus for the drive to the Yang Mei farm. Apparently this town has the best Yang Mei in all of ZheJiang Province.



"What exactly are Yang Mei?", you may be wondering... well, the Chinese-English dictionary translates them as "bay berries" (which I've never encountered in the states). They look like giant raspberries and are round and about the size of golf balls. They taste the best when they are dark purple or deep red--- otherwise they're very sour. The taste is definitely it's own (don't think raspberry!) but they are very good! They grow on giant bushes, similar to blueberry bushes, but sturdier. (Note that Kathy is climbing up the middle of the bush to get to the best berries.) The rain hadn't stopped, so we got absolutely soaked while picking, but it was a lot of fun!


(at left) Myself and two of my TA's (teacher's assistants') Justine and Kathy, with some Yang Mei, of course!

More pictures with captions at:

Yang Mei

Welcome to Wen Ling!

So… the one suitcase thing didn’t work out… American Airlines only allows 50 lbs. in each bag! Eeek! So I ended up bringing a full size American pillow and some bedding with me, just to fill the space left in the gapping whole that was my small suitcase packed inside my large one. LOL!

After a 14 hour plane ride, I landed in Shanghai. I slept most of the way, and the lovely people I was sitting by were kind enough to wake me up when the flight attendants served the meals, so I felt pretty good. Clearing customs was painless; none of my luggage was lost; and Tony picked me up from the airport- no problems. I did fall asleep in the backseat of Tony’s car during the 6 hour drive to Wen Ling—I think I even started snoring! HOW EMBARASSING!L

My experience in China will be much different from Taiwan.... and Wen Ling is MUCH different from Taipei... if Taipei is the New York of Taiwan then Wen Ling is the Saginaw of Michigan... except we make cars, and they make a shoes and light industrial products. I feel pretty comfortable and am starting to learn my way around. No MRT (subway)- just buses and taxis-- but everything is inexpensive :-) My Chinese is improving fast... and I forgot how much I LOVE to eat Chinese food-- I'm not sure if my plan to loose weight here will work out too well ;-)

My apartment is on the seventh floor of the teacher’s dorm at Wen Ling High School. Myself, five other foreign teachers (all connected to LifeNet) and the principle of WLHS make up the entire floor. Our apartments are pretty nice—no frills, but two large rooms, a balcony, bathroom, (hot water shower is down the hall) plenty of storage space… not bad for my first solo apartment. I already locked myself out! But I never had a key to the locked door—so it wasn’t too bad—Joe was kind enough to climb around the balcony and unlock my door.

Speaking of Joe, and the other LifeNet teachers here in Wen Ling- they are an AMAZING bunch. Bracha and James G. I knew from HS and James E., Joe and Tabby are very nice. They’ve done a great job making sure I feel at home here and taking care of me!

The campus of Wen Ling HS is BEAUTIFUL! The principle designed the landscape plan… there are gardens and canals wandering through the campus- so it feels almost like a park… a park with 4,000 high school kids going to class?!? My favorite feature is a reflecting pool with a world map- when it’s lit up at night it’s gorgeous!

Back to School

They say as you get older, you become more like your parents… well, today I understand a little bit how my mom must feel after being on her feet teaching all day—those cute little kids can really wear you out!! The bright side is I’m in China and the kids are (for the most part) pretty well behaved considering that they’ve already gone to their normal school all week and this is extra “voluntary” education on Saturday. I can see why teachers love teaching… it’s amazing to see a kid’s face light up when a new concept suddenly makes sense to them…

I teach at a sort of "cram school" and have ages 6 to 13!! I basically just make a fool of myself and the kids love it! We sang and played games and had a good time getting to know each other. One of my TA's has volunteered to help me learn more Chinese-- so that should be fun! It's nice teaching during the weekend, so I have Wed. Thurs. and Friday off to travel. One other teacher has the same schedule as I do- so hopefully I won't be traveling alone!