Night Life

          It shouldn't even be called night life here...it should be called "life". Because "night" would imply that said "night-time" activities occur within the constraints of the time when it is dark outside.  Last night, I left the club and the sun was up. Not coming up...up.
          People don't congregate at the bar here before the go to the club...they congregate at the 7 11. Here's why: not only can you buy beer in the 7 11, but they will actually open it for you at the register and you can drink it in the store...as you leave the store...and as you walk down the street. It's totally legal. You can even loiter outside the place and drink, and people definitely do this.
          This all starts around 10 pm... people START to come into the clubs at 11 pm. The clubs here are INSANE. There was so many people in this place you could barely move...and it's a big place. Underground with two main rooms...all new and chic. Everyone is dressed up and gorgeous. As I've said before, there are very very few fat people here. Actually, there are very few ugly people here. So everyone looks great and the sound system in the club is super high fi. The bass is so loud that the whole dance floor literally shakes...the drinks on the bar vibrate like in Jurassic park. There were hired dancers dancing on the bar tops...what a scene. We congregated with my teacher friend who had rented a vip table section. Good time...I'm not typically a club person, but even I enjoyed myself. This club was called room 18. This is the classy club.
         Now, about the "other" club. There are two foreigner bars that I went to. We are not well represented. It seems like just about every foreigner I talk to at these places is beyond incoherently drunk. To be fair, there are quite a few people who are incoherently drunk. The first two times I went to "Roxy 99", people passed out in the bar. I'm not just talking regular pass out, I'm talking EPIC pass out. This one girl literally fell flat on her face and was completely unconscious when she hit the floor. Epic. So people fall over and knock people over all the time at this place...it's a mess.
        This type of thing doesn't really happen at the other club, but the other place is more expensive. The other foreigner bar I went to was called Brass Monkey and there was a lot of foreigners there. It's like an Irish bar in Taiwan. Nothing special, many of the same people who were at Roxy were there.
        Anyway, I've been going out too much. I have to reel it in...it's getting expensive. But the point I'm trying to make is Taipei goes hard...real hard...real often. I mean this week I went out Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. And then tonight I went to the night market and it was packed. So time to tone it down a bit. This is much different than Philadelphia...more like DC or New York...but it doesn't have that "small town" appeal like Philly does...anyway...apples and oranges.
        So I got some cool stuff for my room and I'm almost done furnishing. I have a new bed (mattress) coming, then I'll put the couch mattress back on the couch at which point I will have a couch...then I'll get a Japanese divider to section off the sleeping part from the rest of the room...then a wireless router so I don't have to run this hideous yellow chord across the room. The room will have a Japanese feel to it...mattress on the floor, sitting cushions, a few tatamis, the divider thing...I'm excited.

My sweet new tibetan singing bowl.

My sweet new meditation cushions.

Taiwan Beer...it's not great, but it's cheap. They drink with ice cubes in the beer...at first I was revolted, but it's actually pretty good...now I can't drink it without...of course I would never drink say, Guiness, with ice cubes.

Roxy99

Roxy

Awesome.

Men in black.

Room 18 Night Club

Night Market (the biggest one)...I can't remember the name.

My sweet new light.

My sweet new meditation table...with table cloth, candle and naag champa incense (the incense and bowl were not easy to find.)

My sweet new spot for my bed with sweet new covers.

My sweet new shoes.

Culture Shock Part Two

Culture shock is a sort of vaguely defined term. It’s not really a condition in and of itself. It’s really more the confluence of various other conditions, which are caused by massive upheaval in life.  We are products of our environments. We perhaps take for granted each day the luxury of “identity” which is afforded to us through being integrated in a society, a family, and a job.

People talk about being homesick, lonely, depressed as symptoms of culture shock…comparing your new country to your old one in a negative light. These descriptions all fall short. Although “to each his own” rings true for this condition, it is not particularly about being homesick or lonely or “in over your head”. The feeling I have been experiencing is more fundamental. It is a nervousness in the center of my being…a nervousness which knows far better why it has cause to be nervous than I do.

“I” is not about to be “I” anymore. And “I” does not know what it will become. This is the cause of said nervousness. My ego fought hard, sending out waves of anger, excitement, irritability and self-righteous indignation in a last ditch effort to win the battle for control. But as the Tao Teh Ching says, “a whirlwind does not last even a whole day”, and “to be overgrown is to hasten decay…this is against the Tao…and whatever is against the Tao will soon cease to be”.

Such is the behavior of my ego, asserting form on the formless and watching it dissipate. To be cliché, it is like dust in the wind. To be debauch, it is like pissing into the ocean. Now I am regaining my routine of exercise and sleep. I am starting to calm down and I am starting to notice things…or rather I should say I am starting to BE noticed. I don’t know why that is a more appropriate way to say it. I feel as though Taiwan is now acting on me rather than me on it.  Now, I can say Taiwan is this way or Taiwan is that way. But I really no longer have any other option but to find out.

The picture is unrelated, I just thought is was cool.

Culture Shock

There is a strange sensation I have lately.  I feel slightly nervous, my immune system is wearing down.  My countenance is tired and saggy. I feel internally that something is wrong. It’s sort of like the feeling you have when you wake up from an anxiety dream about sleeping through class or something…speaking of which, I have been having strange and interesting dreams lately…more so after I got my memory foam pillow…hold on a second.

MEMORY FOAM PILLOW ACHIEVED!!!

OK… But with this, I feel like my brain is lagging behind my body. Like I am underwater but my head is in a protective bubble. It is only a matter of time before I am immersed. I wonder how I will react. So apparently this is what being uprooted feels like.

But see, my body is also reacting. This is the land of lunch and dinner…there is not to many American breakfast foods here; Although they do eat eggs with everything and at all times of the day here. They have these things called tea eggs, which are basically hard boiled eggs steeped in a vat of hot black tea. They do not look appealing, but apparently they are all the rage here.  But you know what you can have for breakfast? That’s right…pork dumplings, pork noodles, or pork rice. So needless to say, my body is starting to give me a piece of its mind. If it could speak it would say something like “what IN THE HELL are you doing?”.

So that was inevitable. But on the plus side, it seems that foods are less acidic here, because I had heartburn constantly in the states and I only get it here when I drink…a lot. The restaurants all close between 2 and 5…interesting fact. Here’s something else...apparently Japanese people eat lots of curry, and so do most Asian people. Who knew? I went to a Japanese restaurant and this girl was like “those are Japanese currys” and I was like “really?”. And she was like “yeah they are everywhere in Japan”…who knew?

Here’s a bit on Taiwanese religion; The religion here is Taoism…but not the Taoism you may know from Lao Tzu or the Taoism of Tai Chi. In fact it’s not really even Taoism… it’s Shenism, which is traditional Chinese folk religion with maybe a little Taoism and Confucianism. 

So Taoism is pretty hard to figure out. There is a pantheon of Gods, probably like a hundred of them. This of course is all mixed in with the history of Buddhism, which dates all the way back to ancient India. Most of these concepts are pretty foreign and unfamiliar to us. It seems easier, though, to make a study of Christianity than of Chinese religion if for no other reason than Chinese religion has a few thousand more years of history behind it. I don’t even know how one begins to understand these things. There’s a lot of stuff going on here that seems to have nothing to do with the four noble truths or the eight fold path. What the hell do I know anyway…apparently not that much.

            So I look like captain America today (accidentally). I am wearing red shoes, blue pants, an Obama shirt and a red white and blue towel. I am officially Mr. USA right now. The kids were tough today. These children are better than American inner city children, but maybe only a little better than children from other places. Some of these kids are wearing on my nerves today. And then on the subway, these two little (*)s were full on having a karate match with yelling and everything. I wanted slap the (*) out of them. But I decided that moving to the next train was perhaps a better course of action.

            My boss said I’m probably not eating enough. I think that’s true. Because I think I’m loosing weight. After being in Brazil, my family and I had commented on how we all were skinnier. In other countries, they apparently don’t inject their cattle with creatine…how strange. Anyway, I plan on rectifying this situation presently. Work was stressful today. Had to do my regular class which was giving me a little more nonsense than usual, sub for a class and create a science lesson on the fly for some other class. I was NOT in the mood for this today.

            Another note about Taiwanese society. They have two political parties…Green and Blue. The blue ones want to maintain status quo and occupy the north. The Green ones want independence and occupy the south. Basically, the Blue ones don’t want to provoke China…which seems smart. They don’t really want to reunify because actually, Taiwan is a very liberal society. In fact, I think Taiwan is more liberal than America. Maybe because they all live close together and must be more permissive of various behaviors. Taoism is a departure from Confucianism too, emphasizing wild nature over control. Anyway, society here is highly adaptable and transformative. They all speak at least two languages, Mandarin and Taiwanese and many of them also speak at least some English. They also face constant threat of invasion from mainland China…yet the aboriginal culture is still alive and well in the south and they want independence…so it is a very interesting place to be. That’s all for now.

Is that neccessary?

One day you may find yourself on an unfamiliar street. You may say to yourself, "I think I'll have some tea." When you order your tea, you may find that the (tea) barristas have taken upon themselves to insert gelatinous tapioca balls into your tea or as they are more commonly known in the states, "bubbles". You may ask yourself, "was that necessary?".
Likewise, you may say to yourself, "I think I'll get a massage".  You may find that you are directed to a tub of hot water in which you are expected to soak your feet. As your shoulders continue to ache (the purpose for which you came into the massage parlor), you may ask yourself "is this necessary?"
But then again, maybe you wouldn't. Maybe you are not the type of person to be picky about these things. Maybe you do not have particularly strong convictions about how your tea should be prepared, or how your shoulders should be rubbed prior to or without a foot soak. And so I will direct the subject matter of this post so that it may be both subjective and objective. Because of all the questions you could ask about other things, "is this necessary?" is a question which you might also ask about you, yourself or your behaviors.  Of course when I say "you",  I really mean "me".
It's so funny because I'm over most of the major changes. The move, the job, the having human contact outside of work. I have made accomplishments in all of these realms by and large on my own steam and in no small part due to the help I have enlisted from others. But I find that it is the small things that I really let drive me crazy. For example, there was the thing about the mint tea...it's all about expectations. I had an idea which I thought was reasonable enough that with some effort I would witness this abstraction (thought) given life in the physical realm. Now on the one hand, you may say, "let it go, it's not important". You may think, "that is a pretty silly thing to get upset about". But let us examine the roots of the issue so that we may be entertained with a character study of Sloppy J.
First, let us examine the afore mentioned attitude. That if a thought is reasonable, with intention and due diligence, it can/will be born into fruition. Is it not this very attitude which allowed me to accomplish all the things I have thus far? Without faith in this idea/philosophy, I would not have committed to coming to Taiwan, meeting random people at the night market, moving in to a sweet place, or finding a sweet musical outlet. Yet now, I see a conflict between this most useful belief system and the suggestion that my preferences and idiosyncrasies may be too rigid. But if it were not for my peculiarities, I would not have studied music like I did, or been discerning enough to choose a lifestyle which is healthy and interesting. And so I hold tenaciously to some preferences.
For example, anyone who knows me knows that I love sushi. There is a most unexpected phenomenon here in which Japanese restaurants are ubiquitous and yet do not serve sushi. Mostly, it's barbecue or "Tiwanesed" Japanese. They also may have a limited selection of sashimi. Now I know what you're saying. "What did you expect? It's a different country and culture, the sushi is not going to be the same as American sushi." I hear you. You're right...but just hear me out. We know that sushi is rice with fish on top. It's pretty simple. You take some rice. You put some fish on it. I am astounded by the lack of ability to make this food item in Taiwanese Japanese restaurants. They look at me like I have five eyes when I order only rice and Sashimi so that I may make my own. Like I just farted and a hole in the space time continuum opened. So it's hard for me to understand why they can't figure out how to put some fish on some rice, in a JAPANESE restaurant. This kind of thing gets under my skin.
Another example of an unexpected phenomenon was when I went to have a massage. Apart from the jet lag and culture shock, my shoulders have just been wrought with tension since I arrived in Taiwan. So  I walk in to the room and laid down on the bed only to be greeted by the thumping bass of some pop music. I tried to be patient. I really did. But every bass bump was like someone knocking on my head trying to get in. I had to leave... I was MOST unhappy. The very idea of playing club music in a massage parlor offends my sense of all that is correct. As I said before, I have strong preferences and find it difficult to be flexible about certain key points. Because, if I go to what I think is a sushi place and they don't have sushi, I'm not really sure how to react. If I go to a place where you are supposed to relaxed and I feel like I'm getting pumped up to hit the town, I have trouble being flexible on that point.
So this is what makes me me. This conclusion that I'm about to make is why I am who I am. Because I am willing to assert that there are somethings in which purity and specificity are important, nay, essential. Because knowing that I am picky is knowing myself and accepting that part of me. Humans are not particularly known for their saintliness...in recognizing and accepting our "devils" we become realer and happier AND, the most important part is that we treat OTHERS better because we recognize our own faults as well as those in others. And when we don't punish ourselves we feel less obligated to punish others.
So sometimes it's about accepting tapioca in your tea. And Sometimes, it's about accepting tapioca in your soul  :) (:
-Sloppy

When it rains it pours/Don't forget your towel

Yesterday, it rained. Hard. Today, it rained. Hard. They weather here has been extremely unpleasant. I really can't leave the apartment without a towel. Because when deathly hot out, it's also deathly humid. From the house to the train on a hot day, my armpits become the Mississippi delta, my chest becomes the fertile crescent and a general deluge pours forth from every pore, soaking my clothes, making me dehydrated, making me smell horrible, and making my very existence mostly uncomfortable. Here's the best part; everyone else smells too. So that sucks.
But today it rained. And it doesn't just rain here apparently, it pours. So from the house to the train, my feet were soaked, and my shorts were on their way. Let me set the scene though. I slept 10 hours last night...a good, long rest. But I woke up feeling like I had been tackled by Ray Lewis, and then while I was unconscious, that I had dreamt about being tackled by Ray Lewis. It was a combination of all the various mental, emotional and physical stressors I suppose.
So I dragged my ass out of bed and immediately took some ibprofien to alleviate my stiff neck and shoulders. Then I had the pleasant suprise of discovering a stye in my right eye. So the treatment for a stye is a hot water compress. Enter the trusty towel again. So I go down to get some water from the water boiler and come back up. Of course the water is not just hot, it's hot enough to smelt iron. So the dye from the towel bleeds off into the water. Another complication in an already crappy day. :-/
So while I'm on the MRT in dawns on me. I am going to have to haul my ass out to Donghu EVERY goddamn weekday for the next two months. It's a 45 minute commute at minimum and like a mile at least of walking every day. When I was in America, Taiwan seemed so far away, and it was. I didn't think about things like daily commute because I was so caught up in the adventure of it all. But bnow that it's upon me, I am thinking about it.
 Anyway, so by the time I get to work, I am just totally miserable. The workplace is chaotic too. They are understaffed and can't get people to work there because the school also is like daycare so there's so much work to do. The school is modern but it's too damn small. There isn't enough room for anything. So I show up and I get to teach again with like zero notice. I planned a few things before the class. The class was off the wall, they are like 7 year olds or  younger. Excuse my language for the next passage...I'm going to give it a little flavor to express my point...to spare your delicate eyes I will put (*), and you can insert your own expletive.
So I get upstairs, and the (*) classroom is full of children who are (*) sleeping...in sleeping bags. (*) NOBODY speaks English on the staff upstairs and this girls father is just (*) standing there watching me as I look like an (*) because I clearly have no (*) idea what to do with this class of kids who are just (*) wandering around with no physical space to stand or sit. Then we get inside this tiny little (*) classroom and the kids are all (*) standing on the bench chair things. I finally get them seated, sort of, then the (*) TA busts in and starts handing out these papers like she's in the last quarter of the indie 500 for a spelling test. Then she hands me this schedule even though I already made one and said this is what we're doing. I'm looking at her like "what the (*) are you doing?", "what the (*) is this?", "I have a plan already and this (*) test is not part of it", "are you the teacher or the TA?, "WT(*)?". So then, as I'm scrambling to give this (*) test, none of the kids have any (*) pencils! "Teacher Justin! I need a pencil!" Then these little (*) are shoving there pencils in my face so I can sharpen them because they can't say it in English or do it either apparently. This one little kid is (*) freaking out cause he doesn't have his grammar book and he's like hysterically crying and I keep telling him it's OK but he doesn't seem to get it. So I'm trying to bang out these sections and it was rough going the whole time...but I got through it. OK that's the end of the bad language for now.
Oh wait, nevermind, I'm not done yet. So then, I'm done the class and it's time to copy documents for my foreigners card. So I'm talking to one of the office staff who only half speaks English. She wants to copy every (*) page of the passport. Then I have to sign all the goodamn pages...of which there are like 26. Then it's time to get my picture taken again because apparently I need to have a(*)magazine quality picture for this(*)foreigner's card even though I already got one in the photo booth on day one. So who does she send with me? The one girl in the front office who speaks NO (*) English. On the way I need some food so I have like a few rounds of sherades with these people even though I asked "Chu Shu shumu tzui tai?" (is this vegetable) I forgot the obligitory "ma" which demarcates a "yes" or "no" question, so they just babbled at me in Chinese and I ended up just telling her to give me "that"...whatever the (*) "that" is. So I get all that done, then I come back on the train and my (*) cell phone runs out of minutes. Of course I have no (*) clue how to add them so I go to 7/11 and make it happen with the help of this very helpful employee and the use of only "you can?" and "I can?" OK now it's the end of the cursing section for real.
Anyway, I'm back home now and it's 8 pm and I feel like I don't have that much time to do stuff now and I have to do it again tomorrow. I know it will get better, but as they say, when it rains it pours.

The pictures here are from two days ago, I haven't taken any since because I've been in survival mode.

Would you like pork with that?

I would like to qualify this post by saying that now I that I have been living in Taiwan for almost four years, I have learned where to get the things I want and learned that Taipei does actually have a nice variety of western and eastern food of all types. At the time, I had arrived in the Tung Hua night market, where all of the old school Taiwanese reside and where things are more traditional Chinese style. Needless to say, it was a rough adjustment...this post just kind of describes my frustration adjusting in a new country...having come unprepared and not knowing what to expect...and having landed in not such a great place to find the things I was accustomed to.

Would you like pork with that?

Too bad, cause you're getting it.

Rice? How bout some pork with that?
Noodles? You know what goes real well with noodles? Pork.
It doesn't matter that I asked for rice, and that rice is not pork...clearly that's what I wanted, I just didn't know it yet.

So what's for breakfast?
How bout some soup?
You know what goes well with breakfast soup?
Pork intestine.

What's for lunch?
How bout some soup?
Nevermind that it's 100 with 70 percent humidity with the sub tropical sun on your face...you clearly need some piping hot soup with hot sauce and all manner of pig parts in it.

Oh what's that? You want something to drink?
You should have thought of that before you came into the restaurant.

By the grace of god I found some broccoli today which I zealously consumed with my pork rice and milk tea. It's the first recognizable vegetable I have seen here other than a few garnishes here or there.

I went on an oddessy twice today...one was to get mint tea...I even had a Chinese translator...he didn't even know what mint was and he was from Belgium...the closest I got after getting someone to write it down in Chinese was artificial crap green peppermint green tea which was disgusting. I threw it out in resignation and almost broke down...stupid things like that...so simple...but so impossible.

Then I went to find chamomile cause I was reaching boiling point...I went to a western style coffee shop and finally got it...she almost put a green tea bag in my mug even though I showed her the Chinese characters...luckily I caught her and they actually did have chamomile...I was NOT about to get something I did not order AGAIN. I bought a whole box of it...then I went to 7/11 and bought some scotch.

Went to see an apartment today...absurdly small...I can't even explain what a rip off it is.

The hostel is cool, I uploaded a pic of my Belgian Chinese speaking friend who accompanied me to Taipei Main shopping district today. I caught a video of this Chinese guy wrapping and video taped it...he was really good...then I asked what he was rapping about...my friend said he was basically advertising for the shopping district...just another hardened G trying to sell bubble tea and hello kitty key chains...


So I was drinking with Americans, Canadians, Germans, Brits, Taiwanese and a Belgian in the hostel...all good people...good time. One of the staff is helping me find a place...they all are actually...very helpful and nice. I need to move to the Dormitory tomorrow, but I also met a guy while eating my pork rice who has a room to rent...divine providence...and will check it tomorrow. Hopefully I will find one soon. I'm trying to get one downtown so I'm not lonely and will have things to do all the time.

I'm still jet lagging pretty hard...this Monday is moon festival (woopdie freeking doo) the last thing I need right now is for the city to shut down and turn into the fourth of July (which is basically what it is)...I need an apartment... the moon Queen can wait...

Met some expats who are visiting from Korea...from what they tell me, I am glad I'm not teaching in public school there...that would have been a bad move. And the hagwons are shady too they say...but they do love Korea...they confirm that things here are cheaper...but I'm sure it's great...good at any rate that I didn't take the public school 8-10 hour a day job.

Day One

Long day...saw my school, met co teachers...took some pictures...taught a class of pre-k, did as well as can be expected...By the way their children read better than ours IN ENGLISH, in kindergarten. These five year old kids already know basic English. I had to teach in my socks because you can't wear shoes inside. The school is clean and modern and everyone is very nice...class sizes are like 12 and there is a TA to grade papers...curriculum and lesson plans provided.

A fun thing happened after I got back to the hostel. I went out to buy some body wash and had like a full conversation with this Chinese girl in which she spoke almost NO English and I spoke almost NO Chinese...but somehow she was able to show me where the body wash was and we were able to agree to teach each other home languages...I got lost on the way back...literally like 3 blocks away

Note to self: never leave hostel without map or phone...too many good pictures to take!

More fun facts about Taiwan:

-People wear these masks like a surgeon wears in surgery...apparently one because of the SARS outbreak a while back and two because of the pollution...but quite a few people wear them...I got one pic of a guy but I'm going to plan to get more.


-There are abundant bathrooms in the Subway...clean too, in fact the whole subway is clean and people are extremely orderly...lining up at each entry point to wait for the train...

-Had physical today...the hospital is like a factory...they just pump people through the stations.

- They have a 24 hour foot massage place...you can get a full body for like 10 dollars.

Arrival

Hello everyone. I am creating this blog as a way for my family and friends to see what I'm up to in Taiwan as well as anyone else who thinks it might be helpful and also as a kind of journal to keep of track of what's going on. The title is fashioned after my nickname given to me by my hometown friends Chris Pasquale, Carl Gurshenson and Sam Conver, "Sloppy J".
I got to my hostel about 1030 pm local time and when I got settled I was hanging out with the people that work here...very nice and cool, good time. I then went out to the night market to get some food. UPDATE: people at the night market DO NOT speak English...I am beginning to learn Chinese and FAST. The owners of the hostel speak excellent English and so do some people you run into so it does seem like I'll be able to get around. I went to a sushi place and had a grand ol' time trying to order...I learned the word for rice but apparently they don't know what Maki is here or what Unagi don is. Luckily I met some gents using my one phrase of Chinese that I know "do you speak English?". They helped me order after I botched the first one. I got Salmon sashimi and what is equivalent to something like a rainbow roll and it was PHENOMENAL...I dipped in teryaki instead of soy sauce...it was like a revolution in my mouth. I think it cost something like 10 dollars...I don't really remember, I have to start keeping a log..it was cheap though, cheaper than American sushi for sure, and better tasting. I got a couple of beers too at the store and you can get Kirin Ichiban for 1 dollar a can (win)...or six for a six pack (obviously) which would be like 15 probably in the states. Here's a shot of the night market...I will have many more photos to come.

So that was last night, I only slept like 3 hours cause of jet lag then I got up to go on a breakfast adventure. I ended up with some rice gruel with potatoes and other fruit like things on top. It was pretty tasty and it was like 2 dollars for a big bowl. She told me the name which means "everyday Taiwanese" or something like that, I of course promptly forgot what to call it. A few fun facts:

-You can't flush the toilet paper here.
-The quality of the tap water is questionable.


Anyway, I'm going out at 930 for the health check, I'll keep you all posted and upload many more photos.