Holidays

John and Tim on the beach in Tainan, a ship was stranded in the recent typhoon and there were watermelons everywhere on the beach.
The 101, from the outside.
Cuban National team taking the diamond.
Cuba vs. South Korea, Cuba won, but not to be discouraged plenty of Korean fans got drunk.
Local beach we spent the night at recently.
Name of the beach, pronounced Bi sha wan, means white sand beach.
The Shinkong Mistukoshi Dept. Store in Tainan. It's a ridiculously popular Japanese Dept Store in Taiwan. In the foreground is the Tainan Train Station.
My friend John, a UGA alum from Decatur, on his scooter.
A crowd of Taiwanese on their scooters watching a scooter race track.


Well, I realise it has been a while since my last post. Would like to put on the heirs of being too busy, but that's simply not true. A level of leisure has set in, and I don't spend too much time on my computer these days, just the basics. I have been working a lot more, 18 hrs at my school, plus three privates and doing some language exchanges. Basically beginning to dawn on me that my time here is short lived no matter how long I decide to extend it. That being said I feel my time is better served getting out and conversing and exploring the city and culture. I have become comfortable enough to get around in Chinese and I bought a scooter so transportation is no problem. Yes, I bought a scooter, it's only 100cc which is decent power, I have no problems getting around on hills even with another foreigner on the back. That has allowed random escapades around the city, and day trips to some of the smaller towns and mountains around Taipei. It really is amazing how abruptly everything from the landscape to the language (Mandarin to Taiwanese) changes only 30 or 40Km outside of the city, no suburbs so to speak.
A friend and I went south to Tainan where a couple of old friends live for Turkey day. It was nice to get out of the city, the weather is better (upper 80's), less crowded and the people are more laid back. We made mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, deviled eggs, sauteed onions and mushrooms and bought two whole chickens at a night market. It was quite the feast for the four of us. We also went in search of monkeys on a local mountain. It turned out to be quite the debacle as we bushwhacked through some dense foliage for hours in looking for our arboreal friends. We got off track and were chased by some dogs, saw a couple snakes, and encountered (from afar)the largest spiders I've ever seen. After four fruitless hours of meandering about we ended up seeing a monkey as we were descending. We bought fruit in hopes of enticing the little buggers, an idea we soon regretted. After we threw out a couple of orange slices we were surrounded by tens of monkeys. We kept walking through a thicket of monkeys and ended up down near a parking lot of cars and scooters next to a shop that sold bananas. Of course all the Taiwanese knew about this spot and were able to drive right up, get out of their cars and walk up a short path to see hundreds of monkeys. We bought some bananas and were immediately under siege. They came from everywhere, fat, small, short, maimed, dismembered, you name it. They were obviously accustomed to humans as they grabbed our shorts, our can with the bananas and even screeched and seemingly "bucked up" to threaten us. It was surreal and began to border on eerie. The rest of the weekend was a walk in the park compared to that.
The past few weeks they have held some sort of baseball world cup type event in Taipei and Taichung (city in the south). It's not the real baseball world cup, there aren't any big leaguers, just Triple A level stuff. Still, it was interesting, and a couple of friends and I made it to a few of the games. It was supposed to be Cuba's tournament to lose, but the US ended up winning it. We saw the US beat the Netherlands in the semifinals, a fun, festive atmosphere. Davey Johnson (old Mets manager from 86 WS team) was the manager for the US. A friend is a big Mets fan, so we ran down and yelled at him after he came off the field after the win. We told him we remembered the 86 Amazing Mets (which being born in 83 we obviously don't) and he called us out. "You're way too fucking young to remember that, but thanks" I think we're his exact, not so articulate words.
We've had a few earthquakes recently, nothing too major in the 5 range on the Richter, but nothing in my opinion is scarier. When the ground below you starts to shake, its scary, and you don't know how long it's going to last, and how bad it might get. It generally starts out weak but then you get a few strong shakes that sway your glasses, TV, etc. Where do you go and what do you do when an earthquake hits? You have no warning, no idea how strong it may be, and there is literally nothing you can do if the ground below you collapses or falls over. Luckily those are rare, but it puts the fear of God in me like nothing I've ever imagined.
Chinese New Year is coming soon and I have the week off. I have to teach up until that week but I am going to take the preceding 3 days off to get a full two weeks plus off. Headed to Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Two weeks is hardly long enough but I think it should be enough for a whirlwind visit. It's either SE Asia for sixteen days or Japan for about five days and more money. I have to work Christmas and New Years Day, not happy about that, but when in Rome. I've included some random pictures from the last two months, thought I would have a slew of pictures with my camera but either forget it or a wayward Saturday suddenly becomes picture worthy sans my camera. Should you want to send a card for Xmas my address is as follows:
Frank Aquino (still the same name)
9 Minquan East Road, Section 2
11F~ 15
Taipei, Taiwan
R.O.C.


PS- Pictures of my scooter and the monkeys are forthcoming.