A Year in Taiwan

Happy Easter!

Holy week has been an eventful one! On Saturday 25 March I went up to the sea side town of Danshui to help my language exchange partner Jeff with his literature presentation. He picked me up from the station and took me up the hill to his dorm on the back of his scooter. We couldn't have got up to 25mph in the narrow streets swerving round street vendors, parked mopeds, oncoming traffic and throngs of shoppers, but it felt much faster, I laughed like a loony in an attic, excitement and fear. Jeff assured me everything was normal, this was his 'turf', I would be OK.

A few deep breaths after the dismount and we ducked down an ally flanked with a jewelries and a pick and mix boil your own dinner kind of cafe. Then through a courtyard fang dong (landlady) was tidying the potted shrubs, Jeff pointed out the tree in the middle of the small garden was a cherry blossom (not yet in flower, hardly surprising as it would only get the midday sun, concrete towering on all sides). Jeff's room was more of a bedsit, bigger than my room in Xin Zhuang.

Single mattress in the corner, big desk, TV, water boiler for hot and cold drinking water, Two wooden chairs and a few plastic 2 ft high stools, bookshelf, chest of drawers. Like me he had plastic framed wardrobe with a fabric cover that zips down the front. The shower and loo were down the hall, shared with the other four lads on the floor.

After a slurp of hot water we adjourned to the student library across the street. What a monster, we took the lift to the ninth floor to use a meeting room to study in, so we could talk without disturbing others. This would have seated a board room of twenty comfortably, had a gorgeous view of the mountains the other side of Danshui, temples on the hillside, the dwellings of Danshui crammed in tightly next to each other. All was not tranquil as we kept being interrupted by loud clanging of construction work on the new English Department next door.

We are reading Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dallaway, well at least I am, Jeff looked up notes on the internet to save him the trouble. What he wants me to do is explain the notes to him. Engineers! What can you do with them? He is taking three English courses on top of his Mechanical Engineering, but he isn't interested in the beauty of the writing (the first ten pages brought tears to my eyes, possibly progesterone assisted), the life of the author, the characters struggle to communicate their needs or London's post war society, he just wants a good grade in his presentation on Wednesday.

I had to be on my way at 6 as I was meeting a young couple who wanted me to teach them English one evening a week. This was the elder sister of a girl at church and her boyfriend.

Just for fun, Jeff took me round the back street of Danshui on the blessed moped, then we wondered the busy main street, crammed with people, tasted local baking, I spent my hong bao (new year money from Rosa's parents) on a Chinese silk purse and silk embroidered table decorations, coasters, I suppose, for tea parties Made in China. A stroll along the promenade, it is dark now and the dian deng (little lights) depict the far side of the river. This side people are walking along with their dian xin (snacks) There is every kind of chi de dong xi (things to eat) that you can spear from a paper bag or eat off a stick. Music blasts out bright lights of the shops selling Taiwan's own brand of seaside tat (and plenty of it), then to the station and on to meet Kristy and Max.

Such a sweet couple, buying their first house in June, architect designed that Max chose himself. Kristy is an editor for a Beauty magazine and Max sells advertising. I am going to help them practice their English conversation and making sentences. They will choose a couple of topics the week before, I e-mail an example couple of paragraphs and then check their own creative writing. Introducing myself, travel, business meetings and so on. I am quite looking forward to it. In return they bought me dinner at Moss Burger and have invited me to come cycling with them next weekend. Marvelous!