School!
Right now, I am in the International Chinese Language Program's new computer lab at National Taiwan University. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? Or at least exciting. It really is pretty nice, but going to school is pretty much like it has always been. The only real difference is that at this point the workload doesn't seem much different from any of my other semesters, seeing that Swarthmore has made an impossible workload an essential feature of every student's existence.
I don't normally use such an impassioned tone when I am discussing schoolwork, because I try not to be the kind of person who brags about how much work they have, but it's kind of true. I don't mind that there is so much to do; I think it's good to inure yourself against stress. I'm just stating that it seems almost certain that there is no way here, or at Swarthmore, to study everything and not sacrifice both your sleep and your social life. Especially here, considering that I have to commute to work. Which, keep in mind, is a totally foreign concept to a college student who rolls out of bed every day 5 minutes before class starts (I have the time to every building down to the half-minute).
My material is at least fairly interesting. I have one class on Chinese culture, history and economics, one on Chinese radio plays, and one on reading news articles. In addition, I have an individual class which is a supplement to the Chinese culture class, and helps to keep me awake during the mornings, which begin at precisely 8:10 am every day. That's probably at least 2 hours earlier than I could ever naturally wake up, but it encourages me to be more relaxed, so to speak, on weeknights. In that regard, I am glad that I have started school. Two weeks with nothing in particular to wake up for (most real estate agents and apartment showings were in the evenings or on weekends) were taking their toll.
The good news is, I am moving into my new apartment today! It is a small studio, furnished, with a TV and refrigerator and totally new. That's the best part, as nothing has been used, broken or poorly retrofitted to this point. Plus, my landlord seems like a very nice guy. He is a graduate of National Taiwan University, and seems to be a very nice, though also very successful man. He works in the Taiwan Power Company as an environmental engineer but owns more than 20 apartments. Becoming a landlord is probably one of the most beloved second jobs of Taiwanese. Once you're started, it's probably the easiest job ever. All you have to do is just rake in the money! That said, many older people here collect trash for recycling off the street here for money, too, so who knows?
Last night I went to a pizza restaurant named Alleycat's again. It has very good pizza, even by American standards, and it has Hoegaarden on tap (no, I don't know why they chose Hoegaarden. It seems a little unusual, to me). For some reason, though, eating anchovies on pizza here doesn't scare me. I don't think I ever even considered it the United States, but considering the type of things people consume without a second thought, it seemed second nature to chow down on little fishies with my pizza this time.
Speaking of weird foods, one of the best places to see lots of weird food at once is a 'hot pot' or huoguo restaurant. The way it works is sort of like an all you can eat place: in front of your seat there is an electrically heated pot. The waiter fills this with water, and then brings you your choice of thinly sliced meats, typically beef or lamb. To this you add whatever items you find of interest from the buffet. And, wow, are they interesting. There is an enormous variety: one can choose among several kinds of tofu, sea cucumber, seaweed, chopped squid, whole squid, whole octupus, quail eggs, chicken eggs, whole and chopped fishes, lots of weird meatballs of unknown origins and with questionable aromas, lots and lots vegetables (I like those especially), mushrooms and a couple types of noodles. So you grab a plate, fill it up, and then put stuff in the pot as you want to eat it, along with the meat. You have a second, smaller bowl which is unheated and as you remove things from the boiling water you put them in that bowl. Usually you can also add whatever spices you're interested in, though if you get mala huoguo you probably can't really taste them. (If you think I have good spice tolerance here, you have no idea. We in the West aren't even on the same level.) It makes for a good, though tiring meal, especially with friends. But beyond that, it's kind of fun, above and beyond the basic pleasures of eating. I always make it a point to try and eat the strange stuff, though, because it really impresses any Taiwanese I meet. When I say that I can eat, and in fact like stinky tofu and pork blood rice cakes, most people are quite surprised. I'm trying to be the American ambassador, of course, so I talk to everyone and try to be as polite as possible. It seems to be working so far.
In any case, although I'm hungry from writing that paragraph, I have to go study for a while before I can go eat. But I wish each and every one of you a happy Tuesday night (you're probably sleeping right now, though it's 3:02 pm on Wednesday for me) and hope to hear from you soon.
Andrew
I don't normally use such an impassioned tone when I am discussing schoolwork, because I try not to be the kind of person who brags about how much work they have, but it's kind of true. I don't mind that there is so much to do; I think it's good to inure yourself against stress. I'm just stating that it seems almost certain that there is no way here, or at Swarthmore, to study everything and not sacrifice both your sleep and your social life. Especially here, considering that I have to commute to work. Which, keep in mind, is a totally foreign concept to a college student who rolls out of bed every day 5 minutes before class starts (I have the time to every building down to the half-minute).
My material is at least fairly interesting. I have one class on Chinese culture, history and economics, one on Chinese radio plays, and one on reading news articles. In addition, I have an individual class which is a supplement to the Chinese culture class, and helps to keep me awake during the mornings, which begin at precisely 8:10 am every day. That's probably at least 2 hours earlier than I could ever naturally wake up, but it encourages me to be more relaxed, so to speak, on weeknights. In that regard, I am glad that I have started school. Two weeks with nothing in particular to wake up for (most real estate agents and apartment showings were in the evenings or on weekends) were taking their toll.
The good news is, I am moving into my new apartment today! It is a small studio, furnished, with a TV and refrigerator and totally new. That's the best part, as nothing has been used, broken or poorly retrofitted to this point. Plus, my landlord seems like a very nice guy. He is a graduate of National Taiwan University, and seems to be a very nice, though also very successful man. He works in the Taiwan Power Company as an environmental engineer but owns more than 20 apartments. Becoming a landlord is probably one of the most beloved second jobs of Taiwanese. Once you're started, it's probably the easiest job ever. All you have to do is just rake in the money! That said, many older people here collect trash for recycling off the street here for money, too, so who knows?
Last night I went to a pizza restaurant named Alleycat's again. It has very good pizza, even by American standards, and it has Hoegaarden on tap (no, I don't know why they chose Hoegaarden. It seems a little unusual, to me). For some reason, though, eating anchovies on pizza here doesn't scare me. I don't think I ever even considered it the United States, but considering the type of things people consume without a second thought, it seemed second nature to chow down on little fishies with my pizza this time.
Speaking of weird foods, one of the best places to see lots of weird food at once is a 'hot pot' or huoguo restaurant. The way it works is sort of like an all you can eat place: in front of your seat there is an electrically heated pot. The waiter fills this with water, and then brings you your choice of thinly sliced meats, typically beef or lamb. To this you add whatever items you find of interest from the buffet. And, wow, are they interesting. There is an enormous variety: one can choose among several kinds of tofu, sea cucumber, seaweed, chopped squid, whole squid, whole octupus, quail eggs, chicken eggs, whole and chopped fishes, lots of weird meatballs of unknown origins and with questionable aromas, lots and lots vegetables (I like those especially), mushrooms and a couple types of noodles. So you grab a plate, fill it up, and then put stuff in the pot as you want to eat it, along with the meat. You have a second, smaller bowl which is unheated and as you remove things from the boiling water you put them in that bowl. Usually you can also add whatever spices you're interested in, though if you get mala huoguo you probably can't really taste them. (If you think I have good spice tolerance here, you have no idea. We in the West aren't even on the same level.) It makes for a good, though tiring meal, especially with friends. But beyond that, it's kind of fun, above and beyond the basic pleasures of eating. I always make it a point to try and eat the strange stuff, though, because it really impresses any Taiwanese I meet. When I say that I can eat, and in fact like stinky tofu and pork blood rice cakes, most people are quite surprised. I'm trying to be the American ambassador, of course, so I talk to everyone and try to be as polite as possible. It seems to be working so far.
In any case, although I'm hungry from writing that paragraph, I have to go study for a while before I can go eat. But I wish each and every one of you a happy Tuesday night (you're probably sleeping right now, though it's 3:02 pm on Wednesday for me) and hope to hear from you soon.
Andrew
posted by Andrew at
2:28 PM
1 Comments:
Yes, I did note that conflict in the way I wrote that sentence. I will remove "business" from the sentence. What I meant was that he was very nice, but clearly he's a clever guy. He's making the money somehow (maybe his wife helps out? It's considered smart to marry an older woman in China because they can help you with your business.)
I think learning French at an early age perhaps made it easier to think in other languages. I don't really think in English when using Chinese, except perhaps when I am studying very abstract concepts like economics and sociology. Until I learn those things thoroughly, I will of course need to compare them to their English counterparts. But it's more difficult and less rewarding in the end to rely upon translating back and forth. You just don't get enough fluency. Chinese is even more different than French from English, but that makes it all the more important to avoid internal translation, in my opinion.
Stinky tofu is soybean curd that is marinated in a very old pot of vegetables and sometimes shrimp (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu). I don't think it's bad smelling as some people say it is, but I haven't eat it more than once or twice in a restaurant with other things so I don't think I really noticed it.
Chinese is probably about as hard to learn as English (maybe slightly easier; the grammar isn't too bad). In Chinese, the same character can be pronounced more than one way, and the same sound can be represented by more than one character. What's more, different pronunciations (or intonations) of the same consonant-vowel pairs can be different words. You can make a whole sentence out of "Ma ma ma ma ma?"
Long comment...
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Andrew, at 4:03 PM
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