The air is so clean this morning in Taichung. The way the clouds are formed, to the west of Taichung on the hills of Shalu and Dadu, the houses are shining pretty in the morning sun. I've been looking on the maps and on-line to find a cheap hot spring to bathe in in the mountains nearby in Beitun. There's a place call Xiafei but I can't find its exact location. There is a phone number which I'll ask Leona to call when she gets up to see if it is what I want. I don't want to go to a hotel resort, just jump in an open spring. It probably doesn't exist. The springs in Beitun were drilled wells from satellite photos after the Sept. 1999 earthquake. I'll probably end up riding to my favorite spots in Feng-Yuan on the banks of the Han River.
Friday, November 30, 2012
"Taste" Steak Restaurant
The restaurant, "Taste," for 550NT ($18us) offered us set menu choices of an appetizer, soup, salad, entree, drink and dessert. The American beef we each ordered was delicious though not a very large portion; 8oz. The worst part was the toasted white bread they masqueraded as garlic bread and bread sticks. The creme brule had a little too much emulsifier but the coffee was good. Leona had a nice romaine salad with the crust of that same white bread masquerading as croutons. I had a dish of upside-down cup potato salad with one little shrimp on top. The shallow plate of mushroom in cream sauce they brought tasted like undiluted Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup. The service was too fast and we asked the waiter to slow down; the waitress asked for our order the moment we sat down; Leona asked for five minutes to decide. But they paid attention to our request and held up the beef until we finished the appetizer. The waiter seemed to denigrate my order of wine marinated beef saying it didn't taste like beef, if beef was what we wanted to taste, and the medium rare we wanted would make it chewy. I decided to change my order. For the price, the food was great and we would go there again. Leona filled out a review and gave it in. I had to tell Leona to explain that our waiters had paid attention to our request to slow down as she had not written so; they could have gotten fired or reprimanded instead of praised.The manager had sent her an e-mail when we got home thanking her for her comment and saying they would improve service.
Prejudiced Global Village Bushban
The prejudiced Global Village bushiban across the street from the restaurant. Leona said she would contact the labor department to ask if it was legal to ask someone their religion on a job application. I told her I wasn't in Taiwan to change their stupid discriminatory laws and business practices. It doesn't matter why they didn't give me an interview or hire me. It's their loss as I would have brought them many students' tuition. But I hope Leona sues them and they go bankrupt. She won't sue them. They won't go bankrupt.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Foreign Spouse Sensitivity
Last evening, Leona rode with me to Feng-Yuan for the foreign spouses orientation meeting. It was a required of us when I applied for my permanent resident card and originally the time I was to be presented with it, that was before my emergency visit to Brooklyn made it necessary to pick up the card early and unnecessary to go to this foreign spouses meeting.
It was a long ride on Leona's scooter in a drizzle and we arrived early, one of the first couples there. We sat in a waiting area and were handed two bian-dangs (lunch boxes) which came with baggies filled with hot soup. The other new couples married to a foreign spouse starred arriving. Most foreign spouses were Asian, particularly from China, but there were two Caucasian foreign husbands besides me there. In all, about a dozen couples were called into a room after finishing eating our bian-dangs.
In time, an immigration officer came in and welcomed us, then introduced a friendly Taiwanese woman in her fifties who would conduct the spousal relationship sensitivity group meeting. She spoke Mandarin only and I was not quite sure what she was saying, unlike the other spouses who knew Mandarin from living in China before they emigrated to Taiwan. There were spouses from Inner Mongolia, Xin-Jiang, Szechuan, and other areas of China along with a few Vietnamese brides, one of which was married to this brutish Taiwanese farmer with whom she was raising a cute five-year-old from another of his marriages.
The counselor starred playing ice-breaking games with us designed to show how couples must be sensitive to each others' feelings. Leona wasn't very prompt translating and I became a bit disorientated trying to catch on. The counselor played a finger game that we had to copy to show how difficult it is to coordinate yourself with two fingers up, down, and sideways. Next, we had to stand, look at our spouse, and follow her instructions facing and turning our backs on each other. We each introduced ourselves, in Mandarin.
The one brutish man called his Vietnamese bride of a few months stupid and unable to learn anything. It was quite shocking for the group and totally embarrassing for this pitiful Vietnamese bride who sheltered his adorable daughter. The counselor told him in Taiwanese that surly there must be something about her that is good that made him marry her in the first place. He would have none of it. He got up and went outside.
Next, she handed us sheets of paper and markers. She asked each couple to draw their dream homes. Leona held the paper on her lap and I drew a condominium near the mountains and a stream. She drew two cats on the roof. I drew three children together on the right with a telephone receiver and radio tower between us, and one more child on the left side of the page in similar position. The counselor pointed out that it was good that we worked on the dream home picture together and that neither of the spouses took over. Next, she played 'musical newspaper' pages with us. Like musical chairs, we had to stand up with our spouses and walk around the room to children's' music until the music stopped and we both had to have a foot on one large newspaper page. The couple without a newspaper to stand on were eliminated. Then, the newspaper was folded, once, then twice, then three times until it was the size of a loose-leaf page. Leona and I lasted that long, she standing on my foot and balancing until I fell over and created to the floor! We were eliminated. The last couple, an American who met his wife in China, won, with his foot on the six inch square and his wife piggy-backed. They won a key chain. Finally, we were given little greeting cards and pens and asked to write love messages to each other. Then, our photos were taken with a Poloroid Instant camera and were bid farewell. The brutish Taiwanese man with his mortified young bride and daughter got on to a scooter and drove away. We all felt so badly for her and the child.
Afterwards, Leona rode us to Temple Street in Feng-Yuan where we had delicious wonton soup, oh-ah-me-swa noodle soup, slimy oyster pancake, iced pineapple drink, and deep-fried 'water-buffalo' chestnuts. Yum! We sat in the basement of the department store there to eat and relax before we got back on the scooter for the long ride home.
It was a long ride on Leona's scooter in a drizzle and we arrived early, one of the first couples there. We sat in a waiting area and were handed two bian-dangs (lunch boxes) which came with baggies filled with hot soup. The other new couples married to a foreign spouse starred arriving. Most foreign spouses were Asian, particularly from China, but there were two Caucasian foreign husbands besides me there. In all, about a dozen couples were called into a room after finishing eating our bian-dangs.
In time, an immigration officer came in and welcomed us, then introduced a friendly Taiwanese woman in her fifties who would conduct the spousal relationship sensitivity group meeting. She spoke Mandarin only and I was not quite sure what she was saying, unlike the other spouses who knew Mandarin from living in China before they emigrated to Taiwan. There were spouses from Inner Mongolia, Xin-Jiang, Szechuan, and other areas of China along with a few Vietnamese brides, one of which was married to this brutish Taiwanese farmer with whom she was raising a cute five-year-old from another of his marriages.
The counselor starred playing ice-breaking games with us designed to show how couples must be sensitive to each others' feelings. Leona wasn't very prompt translating and I became a bit disorientated trying to catch on. The counselor played a finger game that we had to copy to show how difficult it is to coordinate yourself with two fingers up, down, and sideways. Next, we had to stand, look at our spouse, and follow her instructions facing and turning our backs on each other. We each introduced ourselves, in Mandarin.
The one brutish man called his Vietnamese bride of a few months stupid and unable to learn anything. It was quite shocking for the group and totally embarrassing for this pitiful Vietnamese bride who sheltered his adorable daughter. The counselor told him in Taiwanese that surly there must be something about her that is good that made him marry her in the first place. He would have none of it. He got up and went outside.
Next, she handed us sheets of paper and markers. She asked each couple to draw their dream homes. Leona held the paper on her lap and I drew a condominium near the mountains and a stream. She drew two cats on the roof. I drew three children together on the right with a telephone receiver and radio tower between us, and one more child on the left side of the page in similar position. The counselor pointed out that it was good that we worked on the dream home picture together and that neither of the spouses took over. Next, she played 'musical newspaper' pages with us. Like musical chairs, we had to stand up with our spouses and walk around the room to children's' music until the music stopped and we both had to have a foot on one large newspaper page. The couple without a newspaper to stand on were eliminated. Then, the newspaper was folded, once, then twice, then three times until it was the size of a loose-leaf page. Leona and I lasted that long, she standing on my foot and balancing until I fell over and created to the floor! We were eliminated. The last couple, an American who met his wife in China, won, with his foot on the six inch square and his wife piggy-backed. They won a key chain. Finally, we were given little greeting cards and pens and asked to write love messages to each other. Then, our photos were taken with a Poloroid Instant camera and were bid farewell. The brutish Taiwanese man with his mortified young bride and daughter got on to a scooter and drove away. We all felt so badly for her and the child.
Afterwards, Leona rode us to Temple Street in Feng-Yuan where we had delicious wonton soup, oh-ah-me-swa noodle soup, slimy oyster pancake, iced pineapple drink, and deep-fried 'water-buffalo' chestnuts. Yum! We sat in the basement of the department store there to eat and relax before we got back on the scooter for the long ride home.
Turtles in The Han River
On my bike ride back from up the Han River yesterday morning, I noticed a dark round object on one of the boulders in the stream. I thought it was a large turtle and took a picture of it with my cell phone. When it jumped off the boulder into the water, I knew it was a turtle. Just a few minutes later downstream, I noticed another dark smaller round object on a boulder. I took a photo of another turtle! When I got home I told Leona. She said there are no native turtles in the Han River; it must have gotten there by some buddhist to get good luck. When I woke up last night at 2am, I Googled "Turtles in Taiwan" and found that there are four native species of water turtle, according to some study some professor did. There were acknowledgements of Buddhist turtles, too, so Leona is probably right, though the study did find a few samples of turtle in the "Fun-Yuan" (sic) River. I was in Feng-Yuan when I saw the turtles. Leona's comment gave me the last verse in a poem I wrote along the bank of the Han yesterday.
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