Muddled

Taking out the garbage, in most cultures, is considered a relatively dry and simple affair. After a week of living in Taiwan, I can tell you that on this island getting rid of the trash is quite complicated and sort of like a party.

The first day at orientation we were warned that the garbage trucks in Taiwan do not stop and will alert you to their arrival with ice cream truck-like jingles. After multiple days of travel, I didn’t fully process these simple instructions. A few days later, my roommates and I were hanging out in the apartment when Fur Elise suddenly began playing over the complex’s loudspeaker. After exchanging brief looks of puzzlement, we all remembered the warning about the garbage. Scraping together our growing collection, we rushed down the elevators to find the better portion of our 21 floor building’s residents camped out on the steps. Surrounding them were hundreds of bags of garbage. A few minutes later, a big yellow truck pulled up on the street with song seemingly composed for the sole purpose of clashing with the Beethoven still sounding from the apartment. Jostling with the rest of the building, we ran up behind the truck as it slowed and tossed our few bags of trash into the back. Unfortunately, when my bag hit it made a quiet clang with the sound of glass on metal. I immediately received judging looks from three people nearby, and fled back up the stairs to my apartment.

Later that week at orientation we were told that in Taiwan it is necessary to sort all of one’s trash and recycling. This is more complicated than it first appears. Food waste, glass, paper, plastic, boxes, and regular trash must all be organized and compartmentalized. If anything is awry, its a hefty fine from the garbage man.

That explained the dirty looks. The next time Fur Elise echoed throughout the apartment we were ready and sorted. After making our way to the street, we were unexpectedly accosted by the building security guard. He told us we couldn’t use the garbage, which was naturally quite confusing. Eventually we realized that he wanted us to sort through our waste. Upon telling him it was already done he was taken aback. Regaining his composure, he started to walk away–but not before exclaiming that someone had informed him of our previous sorting mishap and it had not gone overlooked.

I’m now a little worried about his informants in the complex, but most of all I find the whole musical garbage truck process to be quite entertaining. I appreciate the efforts to protect the environment, as well as the apparent zeal at enforcement.

I posted a video above of the scene.

With a lot of luck and some help from the storm walls, my apartment survived Typhoon Saola unscathed. No windows broke and flooding was limited to a few spots in the kitchen and living rooms. After talking with local Taiwanese, it seems that it was a pretty average-sized typhoon for the area and its likely that I’ll see a couple more before the year is up.

The weather since has been beautiful more for the most part, with giant sweeping clouds emerging over the mountains interspersed by pockets of blue sky and sunshine. It truly makes for some dramatic scenery, and a great view from my seventh floor balcony. The apartment is on the edge of a huge forest called the Luodong Sports Park. Its truly a comprehensive athletics center–complete with clay and concrete tennis courts, basketball courts, racquetball, outdoor swimming pools, workout equipment, a chess pavilion and taiqi stages throughout. Best of all, all of these features are free to the public and surrounded by gardens, a winding stream, and a lilly-filled lake. I couldn’t sleep a few nights back and ended up going for a prolonged run throughout the many trails of the forest. It was a literal breath of fresh air, and felt miles away from the hustle of the city just a few blocks away.

I’ve also started to get to know the area a little better, but this is a pretty difficult feat do to the fact that you never know what will be open in this town. I feel like I am playing a game of restaurant

roulette every time I step out of our front gate because a new store front will be open and one that was there just hours before will be closed. I still haven’t figured out the exact timing or days of each stores operation–I have only seen the ice cream shop next door open twice since arriving–but I’m at least getting used to the process. This is a major difference I’ve noticed with China, where shops are generally open at the same time every day with very extensive hours. The Taiwan way makes for some getting used to, but it definitely keeps things interesting.

A couple of days ago, I happened upon a dumpling (水餃）shop two doors down that I had never seen before. Upon entering I was greeted by a boisterous woman who proceeded to jab at my Beijing accent and mainland vocabulary while whipping up the best dumplings I’ve had in Taiwan yet. Since it was 3:00 on a Sunday, I was the only customer and the shop-owner sat down across from me. We talked for at least half an hour, and by the time I left she told me to call her Ayi–Auntie in Chinese. She also promised to teach me how to sound like a real Taiwanese and get rid of that telling accent of mine.

Looking back,  I’m not sure how much I want to gain a Taiwanese accent, but I do know I’m happy to have a friend in the neighborhood.

I have to thank Typhoon Saola for the raucous welcome it gave as I stepped off the plane in Taoyuan airport. There’s nothing like 100 mph winds and a meter of rain to start off a good year.

I’m here through the American government’s Fulbright program, where I’ll be teaching English and completing independent research for the next year. My TPE to DCA ticket home is booked for August 1, 2013, and I can’t wait to see what experiences the next twelve months will bring. I’m living and working in Yilan County, a plain nestled between the central mountains and the Pacific Ocean, about 45 minutes outside of Taipei. It’s absolutely gorgeous, and on a good day (i.e. no typhoons) I should be able to see both the mountains and the ocean from my seventh floor apartment. Taiwan was originally named Ilha Formosa–beautiful island–by Portuguese explorers who discovered it in the 16th century, and it is easy to see why. The dramatic cliffs, sapphire-blue water, and tropical greenery make for a stunning sight.

For those of you who read my previous Beijing blog, I apologize for the infrequent posts and abandoning the blog halfway through the semester. I’m dedicated to keeping this one up to date throughout the entire year, and hope that it will be a good way for friends and family to have an idea of what I’m up to, and for me to record and remember some of my more interesting experiences.

The last few days have already been quite an adventure. On my flight over from Los Angeles, I sat between a Vietnamese nun and a eccentric woman who riddled me (as well as the English-limited nun) with sensationalist tales from her past including a supposed run-in with a great white in Perth where she escaped unharmed but her friend wasn’t so lucky…     At first this was rather entertaining, but after the first few hours of non-stop stories, I started to go a little crazy. I feel that there are definitely a few unwritten rules of airplane etiquette that this woman was breaking:

1. You don’t interrupt people when they are reading; 2. When people put their headphones on you generally don’t disturb them; 3. If someone turns to look out the window during a lull in conversation you don’t start up a whole new story.

I ended up having to fake sleep just to get some peace and quiet.

Since arriving in Taiwan life has revolved around the typhoon, which is currently a category 2 storm (equivalent to a cat 2 hurricane) and Yilan is currently in the eye of the storm. Last night, preparations involved rushing to the supermarket to pick up flashlights, water, and dry food for my new apartment, and subsequently realizing both how terrible my chinese has become and how terrible it is to be illiterate. While Taiwan speaks more or less the same mandarin as mainland China, the writing system is a lot different. In the 1960s China moved to a simplified form of Chinese characters while Taiwan and Hong Kong did not. Some characters are the same, but the majority of them look extremely different. Trying to figure out what type of batteries were needed in the new flashlight while rushing to get home before the roads get flooded out was quite an adventure. My roommates and I were mostly successful, but we did find out this morning while making scrambled eggs that the jug of milk we bought last night was actually a jug of yogurt.

The winds and rain have been pretty intense overnight and into today, but things have held up pretty well. It seems that the buildings are built quite sturdily and have some great extra features. Some of the coolest are the storm walls–metal barricades that can be pulled down over glass windows and sliding glass doors. Nerdily enough, lowering them last night when the 130 mph wind gusts started hitting was quite a fun time. I felt like I was in Star Wars ordering the blast doors to be closed before the storm troopers busted in.

Luckily, beyond lots of flooding and some collapsed billboards the area around our apartment is doing pretty well. Wish me luck for the second half of the storm, and I’ll be posting again soon when the storm lets up.