Urban Farms beneath the towers of Technology

Hsinchu, where we live, is widely known as the "Silicon Valley" of Taiwan.  It is home to a lot of tech companies and well-paid engineers.  You may have heard of some of these brands - ASUS, Logitech and Acer to name a few.  Jenny's university specializes in engineering and technology as well.  

But between the high rise apartment buildings and along the river trail below the luxury towers, Zhubei's original residents are working their own low tech revolution.  Small community garden plots and even a rice paddy here and there offer a moment of respite from always looking up and counting floors to the sky.  Instead, our focus turns to simple daily work and nutritious food raised by neighbors and feeding our need for a connection to the earth.

Jenny's sister has shared some healthcare tips for city residents like us who suffer from countryside melancholia.  She says we need more time with our feet on the ground - down on the first floor, walking barefoot on the grass.  Today we took her advice and had a picnic breakfast in the park before church.

Here are a few photos I've taken of the urban gardens populating empty lots in our neighborhood. Below those are two videos Jenny took along the riverside bike path during the rice harvest this fall.  The second one has a brief narration that refers back to the first.

The Luxuries of a Pencil Box

What do you need for school?

Markers and Crayons:  I have two boxes of markers and one box of crayons.   One box of markers is small and one big.   

  

Erasers, Pencils and Rulers:  There are many erasers in Taiwan and many different shapes.  I have an eraser shaped like a girl's head, shoes, a cracker sandwich and Winnie-the-Pooh.  There are many different decorations on the pencils.  One of my pencils, the pink one below, you can pull out the lead and there's another new lead under it.  This pencil lost it's cap.  These three rulers you see in this picture.  One of them you can trace circles and the other two you can trace shapes.  In Taiwan they use centimeters (cm) to measure.

Pencil boxes:  I have 5 pencil boxes.  I brought two from Maine, a purple bag from Mama and a pink box from Ms. Powell, my first grade teacher.  My friend Joanna (陳運如) gave me a Sponge Bob pencil case!  I bought two pencil boxes in Taiwan.  One that is a zip open dog.  And one that has Butter Lion on it and many luxuries.  See the video below for details.