Surf's Up in DaShi
Trip Start
Mar 16, 2004
1
39
64
Trip End
Apr 02, 2005
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Taipei, Taiwan
Friday, September 24, 2004
Well, I am rounding out my first week at my new job, and I have to say, prospects look good. The first three days were überhectic, because I was still running downtown in the evenings to teach my old classes, but today I had a taste of times to come...ten minute walk to work, ten minute walk home, in the house at the human hour of 7:30pm. I will finally be able to go to the gym in the evenings, which is something I have been missing like a fiend. Tonight...Yoga with Mango. I feel my muscles relaxing already.
Funny story of the week: I was teaching a class off-site to two executives of a Taiwanese security company, Derek and Jimmy. Well, Derek and Jimmy happen to be experts on Chinese culture. I teach them for two hours and fifteen minutes once a week, and during the first forty minutes of class, they insist on teaching me about Chinese art, food, and especially Chinese tea. I tried explaining the concept to them that I am the teacher and they are paying me, so they should let me teach them, but they will have none of it. "You are very lucky," they keep telling me. "We can teach you too."
Two weeks ago, despite strong resistance, I allowed Derek to show me his personal collection of paintings and vases from the Qing Dynasty. This weekend, he spent over half an hour explaining the anti-oxidant power of Oolong Tea. Then he spent about ten minutes trying to help me see the supposed golden dust on the surface of the tea he had prepared for our class. You should have seen it. I felt like I was looking at one of those magic eye paintings and just not seeing the pattern. "Look there," he kept telling me. Luckily, Jimmy couldn't see the "golden dust" either, so I felt better about that.
Once we finally got on track and I launched the two of them into a stimulating discussion on censorship in the media, Derek's assistant entered the classroom with some snacks. For the record, snacks in class are not a sanctioned part of the Berlitz protocol, but these students are obviously out of control. "You are very lucky," Derek informed me. He had ordered a traditional Taiwanese food that looked to me like mystery meat on a stick. "You try!" I was told. So I try and I couldn't really figure out what it was. The taste was interesting...not bad, but certainly unlike anything I had ever eaten before. It was too soft to be beef, and it was coated in cilantro and peanut powder that further obscured the taste. After a few bites Derek and Jimmy asked me if I wanted to know what it was. I almost didn't want to know, but they told me anyway: coagulated pig's blood mixed with glutinous rice. The two of them nearly fell off their chairs laughing at the expression on my face. The Taiwanese sure are adventurous when it comes to food, I tell you.
In other news, last weekend my friend, Mark, and I found some time to get out of the city and check out another beach. This one was called DaShi and is located on the East Coast about one third of the way down the island. DaShi is a black sand beach surrounded by steep, green, rolling mountains. DaShi also happens to be the most popular surfing spot in northern Taiwan. The waves are small, but regular, and the scenery is breathtaking. So Mark and I rented surfboards and flopped around a bit. I am proud to say that by the end of the day, I was actually catching a few waves. Can't wait to get back out there again (even though the surfboard gave me a rash, which my roommate convinced me was scabies, which freaked me out and sent me running to the dermatologist, who examined me and told me that it was not scabies but a surfboard rash and sent me away with some itch cream which, including the doctor's visit, only cost me $5 and took about twenty minutes of my time, which left me in amazement at the efficiency and affordability of the Taiwanese medical system (Bravo universal health care!), and also taught me that next time I go surfing I might want to invest in a traditional and highly recommended piece of surfing equipment...the rash guard).
That's the update for this week. I hope all is well on the home front. Cheers!
