Taiwanese Spork

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The learning curve

When learning a foreign language, I'm certainly spoiled. I was educated in French from kindergarten (grade 0) through grade 10. The first six years of that education were in an immersion program. Half of a day of class was spoken and written entirely in French. My middle school years (grades 6-8) were at a bilingual school that tried to place multi-lingual teachers in common subjects, such as math and science. That's how I found out that the Belgian way of counting is different than French, but only in certain sets of 10 (70,80,90.) The confusion about what to call dinner is another interesting difference. Now, in Taiwan, I see that the playing field of language is even further mingled. The mainland Chinese way of saying 一 or 1 is pronounced differently in some cases than it is in Taiwan, but not in normal counting. I've even heard that 0 is pronounced differently. In Chinese, the number 二 (er4) or 2 is pronounced differently once you count above 100, or when you are a...
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Chiang Mai Day 2: Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep and iberry

On our second day in Chiang Mai, we set off to see the famous Buddhist temple Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep (Doi Suthep being the name of the mountain on which the temple is located). To get to the temple, we crammed ourselves in the back of a songthaew (red taxi truck), where we tried not to sit on the laps of elderly french people or fall out of the truck. Once we arrived, we headed up a huge staircase flanked with Nagas, or mythical sea serpents. At the top, we purchased our tickets at from the "foreigner" booth. The ticket conveniently listed the Do's and Dont's of temple etiquette, and I found out that wearing a short skirt to a Wat is a bad idea. Not to worry though, with a small deposit I was able to borrow a sarong from the temple. Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, built in 1383, has many legends surrounding it. Perhaps the most famous is the legend of the White Elephant. According to this legend, a Lanna king wanted to build a temple. To locate a holy sight, he mounted ...
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Aboriginal Cultural Experience, if Nickelodeon was in charge.

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I'm very happy that there is a place and a way to examine one of the deepest historical aspects of Taiwan: the native tribes and their culture. Our friend Jack was kind enough to get all the details in order so that Cori, myself, Mattheus, Isabelle and Jack himself could all go to the Aboriginal Cultural Village.  After a long, soothing bus ride, and then a wobbly, car-sickness-inducing bus ride, we made it to the gates of the Village. Upon entering, we realized we'd accidentally gone to Versailles, so we got back on the plane and went back to Taiwan.  After getting to the ACTUAL park, we were all perplexed (as Cori is seen here smashing her hand into her head) as to why aliens had taken over the park.  There were spaceships everwhere.  The carnage was massive.  No one was safe from their armada. We ran to the nearest cave, hoping to hide out until we could formulate a plan. Regrettably, the cave was infested with dinosaurs. Who were not happy with us....
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