Today's fun sign

On Taida's campus:






















That is definitely not a Rhododendron mucronatum, I'm sure of it!

Tale of the Tape(i)

Hey if anyone is reading this, check out the newly installed link to Corey and Anting's blog about their experiences in Taiwan--great pictures and entertaining commentary.

Listening to one or another of Jay Chou's live albums, the part where he has the good sense to play two of my favorites back to back: "Garden Tour Festival something or other" and "Tornado" got me thinking. Got me thinking about how I could use my hard won KTV skills here in America. Frankly, kareoke is beneath me. So i screamed the chorus to "Tornado" out the kitchen window at the idling cars on Fairfax Avenue. That seemed to work. When i finally got my car back on the road after a year away, I found American Bai Anjie was apparently really into Wilco and going through a Paul Simon phase. Taiwanese Bai Anjie's tastes run to pop and so-called r'n'b.

I miss the little ants that seasonally kept me company. My apartment in LA has none. I remember in the darkest hours of the ICLP winter, talking to them, and being a little dissappointed when another batch of little friends died off. Of course, at the same time I talked with them, I was also sponsoring the ant death camps that are marketed under the name "No-mo-ant" (the single most effective product in recorded history, by the way)

ROC vs. USA
"Tale of the Tape(i)"

Reflex Development
ROC: Always dodging scooters, cars, children
US: Generally nothing to dodge.
Edge: ROC

Mail delivery
ROC: Where is the mailbox anyway? Chinese junkmail+ free tissue paks=no stress.
US: Let's face it, the mail brings fresh problems everyday. Bills, problems. Actually in LA you are lucky to get your mail at all.
Edge: ROC

Refrigerated eggs
ROC: Non-existent
US: Ohh I loves eggs.
Edge: US

Availability of Snapple
ROC: None
US: It's everywhere--my favorite flavor is tasting a little sweet though. Have I been Taiwanized? I dare not visit a bakery for fear that I've ruined my sweettooth for ever. I am comforted in the US by the wall of Gatorade in the supermarket. How can a democracy function without having Gatorade at the ready?
Edge: US

I have checked steak, pizza, and ice cream, and a burrito the size of a football off my list of things to eat immediately. I also had my first $4 milkshake since I got back. I have had "Chinese"once since I got back, at a place called Gengis Cohen's on Fairfax. Incidentally, that night, I ate dinner with Keanu Reeves, or more precisely, in a booth next to his. Watching a bearded celebrity play with his dirty hair while you eat, that's something you definitely can't get much of in Taipei. Anyhow, it's hard to resist the conclusion that portion sizes are out of control in the US and that is why we're all fat. More later (after I have my first piece of chocolate cake.)

Today's fun picture

sweet, a new britney release!



















oh wait...

ah...ya got me Taipei!

Goodbye, Sleepyheads

It is not worth going into how long I waited to snap a picture like this, one that would capture a key element of Tawianese society. And it happened on my third to last day. Defenseless victims of my photography, a mother and her charges take advantage of the comforts of the Danshui MRT line for some shut-eye.
One of the most charming features of Taipei is that everyone trusts everyone else enough to fall completely and utterly fast asleep on the public transportation, or on public anything really. At least that's the interpretation I have decided to adopt. And I swear, morning noon or night, you may find yourself on a subway car where you are the only one awake. That's a lot of responsibility, Sally, cause they're counting on you to watch out for them while they just rest their eyes for a minu....

Some might say this country just needs a bedtime, but I prefer to see the mass somnolence as a beautiful tribute to careless sleep and happiness, and a fingerpoke to the eye of our hyperanxious and vulnerable modern lifestyle.

I leave tomorrow. I will miss the friends and habits I have developed. I will miss certain beverages, certain dumplings, and certain other kinds of dumplings--you know who you are. Sometimes the sky is pretty. I will miss the Taiwanese people, and I like to think they will miss staring at me. But enough about me.

Today's fun picture

Seen on an ambitious beverage machine.

"get you dreamy world" --isn't that an Enya song?

Things I'll miss about Taiwan

The tiny Coke can, pictured here alongside several other of mankinds' most loved and convenient inventions, is certainly one of my favorite things in Taiwan.

Ok, you say, Coke isn't exactly an exotic, indigenous Taiwanese invention. Ah, but drinking too much soda rots your teeth. And I bet it makes you fat. And, if you can't help yourself, here comes the 1/2 can to the rescue. Just enough tasty beverage to get you through. Half the calories of a regular can. Half the sugar, too. Amazing.

Kudos, to you Taiwanren, kudos.

LP

Many travelers don't realize that when you find the cover of the Lonely Planet you get to go home OR move to a new country. That's it- that's the cover dragon. 你們去找把！

Today's Fun Sign

Every foreigner in Taiwan learns to understand phrases like ". . . it is valid on the same day that backward stroke unites the limit by bus" and "it least 11 people in the Units train, the full price is collected"

加油！

Like Recycling?

Hey, you like recycling? Then Taipei city is the place to be for you! The Taipei City "Five Days A Week Household Garbage,Recyclable and Kitchen Waste Collection Program" rocks hard!

In order to participate, go 7-11 and buy your special trash bags, then take the average of this schedule and this almost totally different schedule (pictured below) and guess what day to get your recycle on!

Jiayou!

From Information for foreigners website:
Sun & Wed Mon & Fri
No Pickup Today!
Tues
Flattenable Recyclables:
Paper
Old clothes
Clean plastic bags
Thurs & Sat
Cubic Recyclables:
Clean Styrofoam
General: (Cans, bottles, containers, small home appliances

From Department of Environmental Protection website:
Sun & Wed
No
pickup
today!
Mon & Fri

A.Household Garbage
B.Recyclables( flattenable):
1. Paper
2. Old clothes
3. Clean plastic bags
C. Kitchen Waste

Tues, Thur & Sat
A. Household Garbage
B. Recyclables (cubic):
1.Clean polystyrene foam
2. General:
(Cans, bottles, containers, small home appliances, scrap metal, plastics [not composite materials such as fiber glass and CD], aluminum foil packing [empty and flatten], tires, batteries, fluorescent tubes and light bulbs, motor oil)
C. Kitchen Waste

Today's fun picture!

Somewhere in a lab near Danshui, Taiwanese scientists are working hard to add new forms of ice cream management to a legacy of notable scientific achievements that includes safe drinking water, the first man on the moon, and pearl milk tea. Spokesman from the ROC ministry of funny walks had no comment.

Today's Fun Sign

Can Taiwanese t-shirts live up to the hype? You'll just have to come here and see for yourself, bucko!

another fun sign

Mindgames at the old TaiDa student center postoffice:

"...the letter which is not."

How to kill a Taiwanese Roach

Got a roach as big as a small dog cornered in your apartment?
You got your soup can and a can of Lysol. Whisper "來,來"until the little beggar comes near. They're dumber than the one's stateside so you got an even chance of capturing them. Spray the living shit out of them. Capture with soup can. Repeat.

Things not to bring to Taiwan

10. This bottle of Tide is just too big for one year's stay. I bet I did laundry once a week or so. How am I gonna use it all?
9. Plastic Halloween Pumpkin. It's not that it's totally useless; you could get a night or even stretch it out into a weekend. But a cost-benefit analysis shows you can probably leave this home.
8. Magic boots. You really won't need these here as it rains quite a bit. Actually it turns out you never really need magic boots.
7. 7-11 or Starbucks. There is no need to bring either of these to Taipei; they've got that covered pretty well.
...to be continued...

Welcome to Zao Gao!

Welcome to Zao Gao. This site is meant to be an amateurish tribute to the glory of the International Chinese Language Program at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan,ROC, and the brave students who bravely survive its rigors. The blog has a combination of possible uses, and will likely meet one of several possible fates. For former ICLP students, particularly the class of '05-'06, you could post your stuff here. Hell, maybe we can even use it to keep in touch. Or perhaps students considering coming to ICLP can use it as a resource too. The blog could develop into the cyber-student lounge without the uncomfortable seating or water heater/coolers. Or maybe it will lie dormant, sad and unvisited, save for the guy who googles ICLP hoping for international ladies or logic programming. Well, guy, I hope you enjoy it too.

It will be unique in that many blogs are written while stuff is happening. Because I am leaving Taiwan, along with the rest of the class of '05-'06, in a few days, this will be a site based on innaccurate, exagerated and often bizarrely false memories--so much better if you ask me!

Enjoy!
白安傑

• What the heck is ICLP? Well, its only one of the top Chinese language programs out there.
• Still undecided? Here's what people are saying about ICLP.
• In Taiwan, you will be referred to as a foreigner. Get used to it here.
• I have no other bullet points.