I’m sitting in the China Airlines Lounge at TPE, which we somehow got invited to by showing a Delta Skymiles Card when getting our KLM tickets to Bangkok.  They have a noodle bar, dim sum, free magazines and internet access and booze.   Relaxation has begun.   I don’t know how connected I’ll be, as we’re traveling to remote and rustic islands, but I’ll journal and post pics when I can.

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We took a train trip to Hualien and Taroko Gorge this weekend with friends from work and I posted pics here.  It was scenic and a lot of fun . . .  until  we got back Sunday night I realized my apartment key had fallen out of my pocket in the cab or train or something and that we were locked out.   We managed not to sleep in the street but didn’t get back into the apartment until Monday morning.   It sucked.
More trips are coming, stay tuned.

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There’s a minor China/US dustup going on this week over arms shipments to Taiwan.  My standing plan for armageddon scenarios was to head to the deep underground recesses of the Songshan Airport MRT station – the entrance to which is not 200 meters from our apartment.  However, my Marine friend pointed out that a significant fraction of the 200 or so Chinese ballistic missiles pointed at this island are probably aimed at Songshan, since it’s a facility shared between domestic airlines and the Taiwanese military.  So, seeking protection under a missile range is not as safe as it would first seem.   I don’t have any faith in the accuracy of the Chinese missile guidance systems either, especially with our apartment so close – so I’ll head towards some cultural landmark likely to be spared instead.  Family: try not to freak out.

This week was the 43rd anniversary of the Catholic parish here, that like everything else  is just a short walk from us in the neighborhood – and they had special festivals to celebrate.   They sent the Pope’s ambassador (the Vatican has the only embassy in Taiwan) to say mass.  Then we were all invited to kiss the relic of the parish patron, St. John Bosco, given that is was his feast day (an intentional coincidence).   I’m new to kissing relics – they don’t usually make an appearance in the US, at least in the places I frequent.  Afterward. there was a delicious 10 course luncheon at a nearby wedding hall that cost $11 for tickets.  Wine (from Ontario!) flowed freely and there was entertainment MC’d by the church ladies.  Members of the parish young and old sang, danced and played  instruments.  Also, there was a sanctioned competitive drinking game between tables, and a game in which people had to trade all their clothes with someone else on stage, “excepting the underwear” behind a blanket the church ladies held up.  I know. Cynthia is always amazed at how Catholics party, her other primary non-mass experience being “Oktoberfest” at St. John the Baptist in Folsom.  Also on her mind – “How come everything is St. John with you people?”

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I caught a stomach bug this week and had a leave a group dinner I’d set up for my team at  Taipei 101 before we even ordered any food.  I was sick the whole night, and stayed home the next day to recover.   I suspected food poisoning, but had only eaten yogurt, some homemade ramen, and chips and salsa that day – no obvious suspects.  Two nights later, Cynthia’s showing the same symptoms , which I will spare you the details of; I guess we won’t be bike riding with friends from work today – it’s soup, Sprite, and crackers for a while.

I’m going to try to post more pictures of food – I got feedback when I was back in the US for Christmas that people really enjoyed seeing those pictures in particular.   We’ve been sticking to a working set of some old haunts recently, but we’ll branch out to explore some new joints again once normal digestion returns which should yield some new shots.

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I emptied a huge backlog on the camera here, including Shanghai and hiking pics

We ate at an awesome place near our house this weekend: “Stone BBQ”.  There’s a big hole in the table that they fill with coals, then cover with a marble slab.  Then, you char all you can eat meat, seafood and vegetables, and eat it.  They also have all you can drink beer.  All of this costs less than $20 a person.

All the restaurants and shops play Christmas music in the background, which seems completely out of place but has me “in the spirit”.  I can’t wait to get back to the US next week, unwind and see the fam.

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Details on our backpacking epic are coming (from Cynthia), but I have something to amazing to share:

Bacon cheeseburger for Cynthia, “Spicy Mexican” burger for me and wings to share.  I had yet to have anything better than a McDonald’s burger here (Outback: not good), but the bun, cheese, dill pickles and medium-rare non-frozen ground beef all added up to something more than “pretty good for Taiwan”.  Instead it was  just fantastic without any location modifier .   Everything tasted as good as it looked.
The best part is this is all from literally a hole in the wall joint less than 2 blocks from our apartment.  We stumbled upon it walking back from the bike shop  a couple days ago, but we didn’t have time to try it out until today.  They call it “Bravo Burger”.  We’ll be back there often.

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Usually a long weekend in the great outdoors, roughing it under the big blue yonder can return the previously forgotten joy of small comforts…like pillows or hot water… but that’s another post.  Lately I’ve turned into, well…my own preschool teacher, I guess. Who dances a jig when I dial the phone and order 4 bottles of water to be delivered on Monday?  Yay! You did it!  Who sings a victory song when the water actually comes on Monday? High five, Super job! Who claps their hands in delight when I know it’s the water guy because he said it?  Awesome! You’re doing great! I get so excited when I ask the shopkeeper what particular variety of fruit this is, and I can understand their answer! Or when I finally understand the telephone number that the radio DJ repeats 10 times per hour! Yes, I’m a full grown adult with the proficiency of a 4 year old. Only their language skills are better. 再見, 我們愛你們! See! I’m doing a happy dance right now!

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Lots to recap here, I’ve gotten a bit behind.  Pictures to come later.

Shanghai

• I got ripped off by the cabbie on the way to the hotel and ended up paying about $10 US extra
• The city sprawls and traffic was horrible.  It took me an hour to an hour and a half to get from the hotel the office each way.
• The local work folks couldn’t have been friendlier, showing us around on weeknights and weekends
• Leo took us to Xintendi -  an upscale walk thorugh bourgeoisie mall across from the first communist party hall
• We explored the lights and architecture of the Bund and had Italian dinner on the 56th floor of the Hyatt.
• Lei took us to the underground mall, featuring hardcore haggling for counterfeit designer goods.  My opening bid would be 20% of the quoted price (i.e 80% lower), and I’d make the deal for no more than 30% of the original.
• Jenny took us on the train  to Hongzhou, where we looked at Temples and rode steel Chinese rental bikes around the locally famous lake.
• We bought hairy crabs and snakes and other stuff at the seafood market, then had a restaurant cook it all up for a team dinner.  I ate snake gall bladder, a duck’s head (best parts: tongue and brains), and drank lots of 白九(bai jiu/rice liquor/shiver).  You open the carapace of the crab up with your chopstick as if  picking a lock and then eat the roe that tastes just like egg yolk (the males moreso than the females)
• Mediocre  buffet breakfast at the Hilton International Shanghai was $33 US dollars each day.  Instead, I bought ramen noodles for breakfast at work for 40 cents.
• We rode the Maglev train to and from the airport at 350km/h (217mph).  It leaned in the turns.  It was awesome

All in all, we were happy to get back Taipei.  For the first time, it felt like coming “home”.

Yi Lan

Went to northeast Taiwan last weekend with a group of expats organized by The Center.  Getting there required going through the 5th longest road tunnel in the world (18 miles).  We stayed in a really interesting B&B and did some hiking around the local mountains.  One of the trails had a rope bridge over a river and getting to the other one required riding on a small scale logging train.  I saw a monkey in the forest.

The mountains are all dense subtropical forest, but the valleys around the mountains are totally desolate – so much water falls during the typhoon that it turns into a giant washout that just wipes everything out, leaving a dried up riverbed behind.

We also sampled some of the local food with a barbeque on Saturday night (pork, steaks, fishballs, shrimp and veggies).  Best food of the weekend was the deep fried “onion pancake” with scallions, eggs and batter.

Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving in America, but not so much in Taiwan.  I worked.  You can’t find turkey here, and even if you could, we have no way to cook a whole bird.  Michelle suggested hacking it up and putting it in the toaster oven, but I don’t think this will have the desired effect.  We could have gone to one of the international  hotels and had an authentic dinner, but we had Chinese lessons tonight so really didn’t have time.  Instead, Cynthia made miso soup from scratch (she made her own dashi broth from kombu seaweed and bonito fish flakes) along with some teriaki chicken and noodles.   In the middle of our meal, I spotted a huge cockroach brazenly walking across the floor.   We killed it, but the food just didn’t taste as good thereafter.  I have no idea where it came from . . . I think we would have noticed it flying through the door, it must have come in on my bag or through the walls.   We hope this is an isolated event but fear it will not be – other expats have warned us about this sort of thing.

Cynthia is going to make a “real”  Thanksgiving dinner for me and some coworkers next Wednesday instead.   We’ll have a crock pot chicken (no crispy skin I guess), my Grandma’s stuffing (which we should be able to faithfully replicate with local ingredients), mashers, green bean casserole, and maybe a squash based dessert.   I’m looking forward to it.

This weekend we’re going hiking with a club from work on an organized trip.  We think this will be a more hardcore hiking experience – hitting a couple peaks of more than 11,000 feet and rumors of some slopes requiring rope.  It’s hard to really tell because the details are all in Chinese, and we’re staying in huts along the way, so we don’t need to bring most of our regular backpacking gear – it will be more like a couple of day hikes.  I will of course log a trip report here.   Hope you have/had a good Thanksgiving.

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I figured out how to type in Chinese.

我性Cassleman 我是美國人

“I’m surnamed Cassleman.  I am an American.”  Yeah, you can’t type “Cassleman”  in Chinese.

Also, 我喜歡吃義大利面

“I like to eat Italian noodles”  (still not sure how to say “with tomato sauce”).  Also note that despite this impressive writing feat, I can’t actually read it.   I’m typing phonetically and a what I assume is the proper character shows up.  I have no idea if it’s the right one.

In other Chinese learning news, I actually did the tiniest bit of thinking in Chinese today (when the teacher would tell me something and I wouldn’t have to translate it in my head word-for-word into English to figure out what it meant).  Today the cab driver also understood my directions to drive me home on my first try -  without having to resort to the special address card I’ve printed out.  Still, progress is way slower than the Spanish I picked up in the Dominican Republic.  Of course, there’s not as much forced immersion with my English speaking wife and coworkers, and 4 years of high school Latin doesn’t help at all with Chinese.

I’ll tell you all about our trip to Shanghai when I have some down time at the B&B we’re going to this weekend.

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There’s an article on my high school in Time Magazine.� U of D Jesuit had a massive influence on my formation as a person, and this article touches on some of the reasons why.

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