"Travel pursues romance, and romance requires the unknown - an element in shorter supply now that technology is encompassing the world with ever-multiplying pings. The goal is not only to arrive at some numinous, far-off destination; it's to return to your usual place clothed in exciting unfamiliarity: you're the boy with lived with pirates, the girl brought back from the wilderness who has grown so accustomed to Indian life she has to be coaxed away. A key element here is the cool impression made on one's friends." -- Ian Frazier, "A Kielbasa Too Far"
So I'm here, safe and sound, ish. Only 15 mosquito bites so far. They get me, only and abundantly me, out of our group of 9 new teachers, if we're standing outside.
The airplane ride over was extremely Chinese. They showed this exercise video, for lack of a better term, at the beginning of the flight which had me gaping in disbelief. Hilarious. There were two people doing exercises that were meant to keep blood clots from forming in your legs, etc. The neck rolling dude had the most elastic neck I had ever seen (useful for...?), and smiled continually as if he were on the verge of orgasm. I wish I could get that much out of neck rolls. The woman was anorexic looking and really really pale (ie. pinnacle of Chinese standard of beauty), and had these long witchy fingers which she stretched out at you and she did her arm exercises.
My apartment is INCREDIBLE. If I knew that I could do this well as a high school teacher, I would've gone into teaching a long time ago. Or better yet, gotten the fluck out of the country a long time ago. It's bigger than my Bulgarian apartment, which was sizeable, but this one is only a year old and monstrous. Two bedrooms, good size bathroom, awesome white tile floors, AC in each room, dishdryer (wtf?!), full kitchen, my own goddamn full size fridge (unlike in Bulgaria, or in New York, for that matter), a stove that provides heat immediately (as opposed to 20 minutes, unlike Bulgaria), comes with some couches and bureaus. I have arrived.
The language stuff is much less of a problem than I thought. I figured it would be the same ego-crushing experience as I had when I lived on the mainland in QingDao, where they looked at me as if I was a FREAK when I explained in my perfect accent that I didn't understand what they were saying. Well, not a freak, but REALLY FREAKIN' DUMB. Here, they look surprised, a little wondrous, what is this fantastic creature? and then they explain what I asked them about. It's pretty cool. I thought the language would be an issue with buying stuff and other service issues as well, but nope. I can just talk around something until I get what I want. Awesome.
This all leads to a non-foreign feeling, which is fabulous, but also a bit disappointing. What is it with me and being disappointed with the familiarity in new countries? (new?) I love that I feel like a native here... I almost pass as one, and on the street, no one gives me a second glance. But at the same time, I guess I was hoping for that awkwardness and excitement of a new country. I like the uncertainty, and there doesn't seem to be much of that here. Of course, I haven't ventured alone out of my apartment yet, so we have yet to test any theories, but we shall see.
In the mall I got some double takes, I guess because I was wearing gap-y kind of stuff, and they were dressed like friggin' Japanese tourists. (sorry, k.) Crimped, orange hair, lots of makeup, dark knee high socks with sneakers and a little white skirt? Ah, and the hipsters are here, or at least their dark framed rectangular glasses have arrived in abundance. Juuuust can't get away from Williamsburg, can I?
Here's a link to the Frazier piece, in case you want to read the awesome short story from which the quote comes: (http://outside.away.com/outside/culture/200608/staying-healthy-travel-rules-1.html)
8/11/08
So I met all the family this weekend. They were cool, I guess. I could understand mostly what they were saying when I spoke to them one-on-one, but all gathered around the dinner table I've got about 50% of what's going on. I can pretty much figure out the subject of conversation though. Maybe. They were really nice and someone would do comprehension checks with me every once in a while ("... do you understand what's going on? Well, we're talking about how if you shoot someone a sexy look, then...") It's hard to figure out where a mid-rank cousin fits in. I finally hung out with big aunt's kids, the older guy and girl (there's one more guy), and little aunt's kids. We went to tainan (southern city) on sunday and ate a LOT, like the cousins were going there just to eat, talk about _my kind of people_, and I got the traveler's illness. hahahahaha. sigh.
In other news, my grandpa's pretty old. They've told him like 500 times that I was coming to Taiwan for two years, and he was still surprised when I showed up. He was like, how long are you staying, and I was like, two years, and he was like really?! sigh. all the other aunts and uncles are like, how long is the contract for, and i'm like two years, and they're like, so you're going to extend it, right? they're like, can you continue at the school afterwards (as if that's an imminent possibility). and in my head i'm like, HELLZ NO FLUCK ALL YA'LL. I'M OUT.
