Weddings

I went to my 2nd wedding last weekend and it followed the same pattern as the first so I guess this is pretty standard.

First, one is really only invited to the reception banquet. The wedding has taken place at some other time. In this case, on December 30 and the couple had already been to Australia on their honeymoon. My department chairman is currently on his honeymoon in Europe but the wedding reception is not until February 11. Apparently scheuling is the cause of the abitrary chronology because it seems to be accepted as a matter of course.

Anyway, this was a fellow teacher and she had arranged for a bus to take us to Tainan, where I was going that weekend anyway, so I decided to go. Actually, deciding to go is another odd thing. Everyone gives 1,ooo NT (about $30) whether they go or not. In some schools, they deduct it from your pay(!) then availability is the only issue.

We took the bus to a "marriage hall", very common here, big rooms with catering facilities that aren't used for much else. In this week's case it was a little odd because it was a very big room divided down the middle but not with a partition, just an openwork, decorative screen. On the other side was another wedding, another bride -- a little confusing.

Our bride looked lovely. She is a really beautiful girl and just looked gorgeous in her dresses. The bride changes her clothes several times during the party into different colored formals. Sometimes the last one is a traditional Chinese dress but not this time, just beautiful western styles. She looked great in all of them. These dresses are rented for the occasion so nothing is spared.

We were about 200 guests sitting at tables for 10 and there was entertainment, a singer/mc kind of person. He sang popular songs that were well known by the table of 9th grade girls, students' of the groom, who had been invited. They knew all the words, sang loudly and shrieked and squealed their delight at the whole event. Our two tables who are with this kind of student every day were not amused.

The big deal is the food. About 10 courses, usually about the same as other banquets I have been to, but all fancy and pricey -- served to impress. During the eating, and between wardrobe changes, the bride, groom and both sets of their parents come around and toast all of the guests.

When the eating is done, that is the end. No sitting around gabbing here, the purpose is the food, food finished, everyone stands up to leave. The bride and the groom stand at the door and hand out candy and cigarettes and accept kisses and best wishes and that is the end. In this case, one and one-half hours.

They will both be back at their respective schools tomorrow.

Tidbits

As the Travellin' Trio unanimously decided to stay home last weekend, I have no new exciting things to write about so a few little goodies:

- I have found a seamstress who will alter slacks for $1, and that is more than just hemming them. That only cost 50 cens.

-- Taiwan has a helmet law for motorcycle riders but it only applies to the driver (Dad), not Mom sitting behind him holding the six month old or the 3 year old standing between his legs.

-- In the middle of the miserable cold of the winter, there are gorgeous warm days like today.

-- Chinese prescription nose spray is superb.

-- The season for my beloved tangerines is coming to an end. Now in the market, each one is wrapped in plastic wrap to keep in what juice there is.

-- My hard as a rock bed continues to make me feel sorry for myself mentally but wonderful back-wise. Some of the foreignors are talking about taking them home to the states with them.

-- They have invested in treadmills for the school so now the teachers have a "fitness center". This is good for me since, although I ride my bike a lot, I can always use more exercise and my light schedule gives me plenty of time.

End of Semester Blues

I really shouldn't write anything today. My nose is dripping, my throat is sore, it is freezing here in the teacher's room, I am wearing gloves while I type this and I just realized that this is my last class withy the 9th graders.

Now, admittedly, in some cases, this is a good thing but I have gotten quite close to some of these kids. It also would have been better if I had realized it sooner and done some kind of bang up finish. While we were doing the date (as in every class) I realized that next week they have exams for three days. After that, due to the vagaries of the calendar and because Chinese New Year is late this year, we will have one week of the new semester BEFORE semester break.

Next semester I will not have the 9th grade at all and will pick up 8 classes of 7th graders. Yecch. I haven't taught that young in a long time. What I have is bad enough. It pretty much shakes out to where the top 4 classes are a joy and the bottom 4 are a waste of my time and theirs. This is a point I have tried to make to the school here since I would have a lot more impact if I had the better ones twice a week and skipped the lower ones altogether. The answer was to agree but point out how tightly the kids are scheduled.

When the program gets back together in Taipei in March, I will make this point. Their idea was to bring native speakers to the hinterlands but the hinterlands can't really take advantage of us.

Happy New Year

I just realized that my blogger site address no longer applies! Happy 2007 everybody.

We had a 3-day weekend for the New Year which we don't often have. For those of us used to flex-time schedules it kills to have to work 5 day weeks all the time so the long weekend was much appreciated.

My two travelling friends and I had decided to go to Taipei for the holiday. Taipei is "the place to be" in Taiwan but it is really far for just a weekend visit, 4 full hours on the train each way, and then I have to get home from the next town by bus or somehow. With the extra day, it sounded like a good idea.

To make it better, we imposed on a friend of a friend of a friend who had room for the three of us to stay in his apartment for free! The first treat was the apartment. It is only about a 10 minute walk from the metro station (here called the MRT). It is the top two floors of his building 7 and 8. It is a great, spacious apartment so even with his wife and two little kids, we could stay upstairs and out of their way. The upstairs also has a beautiful wrap around balcony/terrace with a neat view. We got in pretty late on Friday night, but met up with Linda, who had to take the bus, without too much trouble and got to the apartment and just crashed.

Early the next morning we went to the National Palace Museum after a scenic tour of Yangmingshan Park with great views of Taipei from the top.

Before I continue, I have to say that we had been warned that it was going to be very cold and rainy in Taipei and dressed accordingly. In fact it was in the high 60s to mid 70s every day and only cloudy with occasional showers one day. This left us pretty overdressed and carrying jackets everywhere.

The Museum was fabulous, as usual. It has been beautifully renovated and adopted the new "museumology" of having less stuff, better displayed and described. It was neat and the museum store is still gorgeous and still WAY expensive.

After the museum, we took a bus down into ShiLin, my old stomping grounds. We walked around a totally unfamiliar place, got something to eat then went to the famous Night Market. It is touted as the biggest in Taiwan and I don't doubt it. We all bought stuff and ate more -- hundred of food carts, and even though we never got to the best part of the market, the crowd just wore us out.

Sunday, I split off from the others and went back and found where my old house used to be. It's been torn down, of course, and replaced with something taller, but I could identify the spot because of the little neighborhood temple which is still there and apparently as active as ever. Then I went looking for the school I had taught in -- I knew that the American School had moved to the next town but people here were saying that the old school was still there. Yet another indication of how young some of these teachers are! There is a school there, but it isn't the old one I taught at. It is now a 4-story Taiwanese Elementary school and Kindergarden, very modern looking.

The amazing part was the stream that ran past the school and had the bad habit of flooding us regularly, has now been transformed. There are lovely high, concrete berms and the level part is a park with paved bike paths, etc. Really nice.

I walked back and window shopped. The alleys haven't changed much I told one lady that I used to buy cigarettes in the place where her shoe store is now and she said that she recognized me! Not true, of course, but sweet.

Then I went to Ximending, the old downtown. All of the stores that used to sell souveniers to tourists have been replaced with clothes stores. No more carved elephants or pirated books.

I met up with my friends at Taipei 101 -- they still call it the tallest building in the world but I'm not sure that is true. The first 4 floors are the most sophisticated and expensive shopping mall I have ever been in. Prada, Versace, Gucci, Chanel, Valentino, Armani, Tiffany, etc. One could spend a whole lot of money there. There were definitely people who were, also. Not everyone was a window shopper like us.

After a long wait, we got a table at Macaroni Grill (!!??) for dinner and dawdled to wait for midnight. Hooked up with a nice family from South Africa and some other expat Englsih teachers until it was time for the big fireworks display. We walked out and had a great spot for watching, right by the building and the show was as fabulous as advertised -- short, but fabulous. I'm such a fireworks junky but I would put it at or near the top of my list.

Hard trip home on the MRT with 500,000 of us trying to cram on but, like Washington, you get there eventually.

A great new year is beginning.