Trip Back To Maine

 Here is a video I made leading up to our trip back to Maine.

~Soleil Huang-Dale

Bubble Tea Compilation

We have made drinking bubble tea a Friday ritual, and I took pictures of about 1/2 the boba we actually drank. We tried to seek out a new tea shop every week. I also tried to branch out and try new flavors every once in a while trying to find the best flavor in Taiwan. By now I consider myself a bubble tea connoisseur. 

~Soleil Huang-Dale

 

Sonate Duette (Mother-Daughter music)

 And a brief interlude from Handel before returning a violin to Zhubei and a cello to Maine.

So Long It's Been Good to Know Ya

 As we close up the grade book and pack up the bags for a long journey home, we wish all our friends in Taiwan a safe and peaceful summer.  Vaccines are coming and Covid cases are dropping across the island.  We've made it through 2 months of Level 3 restrictions and now we say goodbye.

Here's to all our friends far and wide.

China and Taiwan -- What's the diff?

 Disclaimer: We found an old blog post draft that was never published. When I say old, I mean SEVEN YEARS old. Some of this information is from 2014, some things we updated to the current status of Taiwan.

Taiwan and China 

by Jenny with help from Soleil

Many people have asked us what the difference is between Taiwan and China.  It is hard to compare because I don’t know which differences are specific to certain places, and which are because I have seen China in the past and am seeing Taiwan now. But anyway, these are some of the things I have noticed. For some of the linguistic differences, please see the blog called China Penguin and Taiwan Penguin, posted June 19, 2014.

China - in the 1990s and 2000s	Taiwan - 2013-14, 2020-21
More bikes, cycle for transportation	Cycle for leisure, sport and transportation (students bike to school)
RenMinBi is the currency.	The currency is the New Taiwan Dollar.
Political protests are not shown on TV.	Protests against the government are in the news.
Lots of my relatives are there.	I only have a few relatives here.
Bathroom stalls might have doors.  Few public restrooms provide toilet paper.	Bathroom stalls have doors. Some public restrooms provide toilet paper.
Mostly squatty potties in public restrooms	In public restrooms you have a choice of squatty potty or toilet
	Bathrooms are generally cleaner
	More private cars and scooters
	People line up when waiting.
Sidewalks are not always useable.	Sidewalks are often unusable for walking
Has REAL pandas, but not many.	Has lots of  Food Panda (drivers on scooters of a food delivery service) (2020-21)
It is very competitive to get into university	It is easier to get into university.
Enormous class size	Extra large class size
Traffic laws exist. However... there is some degree of traffic FREEDOM.	They obey traffic rules more. Drivers are somewhat more cautious. This is relative.  I still see people cross on a red light and in some places parking is a mess.
	Less spitting
Lots of men smoke.	Some men chew beetle. bīngláng 檳榔
Many sales people are aggressive/proactive.	Salespeople are more chill. 😎
Yes, technically there are elections in China, but...	They have political campaigns and elections.
Falungong is illegal.	Falungong is accepted.

Homosexuality is generally not accepted.

Homosexuality is more accepted but there are still plenty of people who disapprove of it. (2014) A marriage equality law was passed in 2019. (2021)

Some Food Panda Delivery Guy:

Déjà Vu

It's been a hot second since I last posted on our blog, but I finally mustered up the time and energy this weekend. 

A couple of weeks ago there was community spread of Covid-19 for the first time in Taiwan since the pandemic started. At school we started having our temperature checked, and bleached the desks every morning. The government also made a mask mandate. On May 18th we started the first day of our two day mid-term testing. After the first day, all schools in Taiwan closed. The next day students had a stay-at-home rest day while teachers (my parents) were frantically learning how to teach online.

For the past two weeks I’ve been learning new content online. Some of my teachers film a lecture and put it up on YouTube for students to watch and take notes on, while others have the class gather on Google Meet to learn synchronously. For some teachers I imagine filming a lecture once is much easier than teaching the same thing over and over to 10 different classes. For me, remote learning has its benefits and drawbacks. I spend every weekday from 8:00AM to 3:45PM on the computer completing assignments which is surprisingly exhausting even though all I do is sit on my butt. I also spend all day at home by myself and I don’t see anyone in person besides my parents. 🙄 One of the benefits is I have access to online translators. Google translate and Pleco (a Chinese-English dictionary app) have helped me understand instructions and content much better than I am able to at school with just my paper dictionary. Even with this benefit, I still much prefer in-person school.

Since this is the first time there has been major community spread in Taiwan, some people here are learning the ways of the pandemic lifestyle for the first time, but for us foreigners this is déjà vu. When school was first cancelled they said we’d be back in 10 days. Then a week in (just like we predicted) they extended remote learning a couple more weeks. You might remember in the USA there was a massive toilet paper shortage, well over here it’s been difficult to find fresh vegetables at the grocery store. One thing that is not similar to what we experienced in March of 2020 is people here are already accustomed to wearing masks. There is also an app that you can download on your mobile device that tracks where you go and if someone who also has that app and was near you at some point tests positive for Covid-19 the app will notify you as a way to contact trace. Unfortunately, vaccines have not been widely distributed among the population and when Covid started to spread, vaccine distribution was stopped to prevent more spread.

In the midst of all this craziness we are also preparing to head home to Maine. We’ve been booking plane tickets and trying to also bring a cello on the airplane, which is super complicated and expensive apparently. Now that people are getting vaccinated it seems safer in Maine than Taiwan now. I feel like we just keep running away from the coronavirus. Anyways, I am super excited to return to Maine. The weather here is getting hotter and hotter every day, so I am excited to be able to enjoy swimming in Keyes Pond at grandma’s house in Maine. I am also looking forward to raspberries and blueberries and PIE!

~Soleil Huang-Dale

In Our Prayers

 Church is one feature of our lives that remained consistent when we moved from Maine to Hsinchu.  We still get up on Sunday morning, have breakfast and listen to NPR news (from Saturday).  Then head to Liujia Presbyterian for worship.  Although the service is entirely in Chinese we manage to sing along to hymns we recognize, greet neighbors in the passing of peace ceremony and read English translations of the bible verse chosen for the day's sermon. And thanks to modern technology, a handheld translator (also known as a cell phone) I can read the announcements for the week.

1. Prayers for the elders with health problems, that they may be relieved of their pain and recover quickly.

2. Prayers for the sisters who are expecting new children in their homes.  (There are many of these as a result of the influx of young families in this area drawn by the growth of the tech industry).

3. Prayers for the countries facing an increase in novel coronavirus infections and deaths, including the USA, Brazil and India.  

It's this last one that surprises me a bit.  I know back home we often pray for those in other countries suffering from war and hunger.  We lift our thoughts to those who face drought and natural disasters in far away places.  And yet I never consider that those people might just as well be praying for us.

This month Taiwan made news in the US twice.  We heard from many of you regarding the news of the tragic train accident on the east coast of the island.  Although it was several hours drive from where we live, it was still close enough to wonder... would we know anyone, who knew anyone in the accident.  And then this past week we received notice regarding possible water shut-offs in our homes if rains don't soon come and refill the reservoirs. Taiwan has made the news in the US again.  But besides praying for rain for us, you might consider the impact it has on you!

As it turns out, Taiwan's drought may have an impact on the US economy.  As Americans have started buying new cars again, a shortage of computer chips has put a damper on production.  And as it turns out, the city of Hsinchu where we live is the hub of the semiconductor industry.  The young families who are filling our church are also the people hired by the tech boom in Taiwan where the lion's share of computer chips in Asia are produced. This feeds the production of many things in the US, automobiles among them.

And as it turns out, the two issues - water and semiconductors - are quite closely linked.  The semiconductor industry uses around 63,000 tons of water a day.  That's only likely to increase in the coming months and years.  To take some pressure off the public water supply, the industry has developed a water recycling system as well as a desalination plant to provide fresh water, but water limits have threatened chip production.  

These are just a couple ways we still feel connected to our home and we understand even more how the world is linked in a global network.  Thank you for your prayers and we continue to pray for all of you.

Who am I? Storytime

This is the Storytime video that Claire and I made. Of course she would be very happy if you open the video link above in Youtube and click the LIKE button.

The book is called 我是誰？

How to Read a Language You Can't sound Out

 How to Read a Language You Can't sound Out

Introduction to zhùyīnfúhào 注音符號

ㄓㄨˋ ㄧㄣ ㄈㄨˊ ㄏㄠˋ

A Trip to the Library in Zhubei

A Trip to the Library in Zhubei

新竹縣文化局圖書館

by Jenny

 

可艾小廚房 Claire’s Kitchen - Making Granola Bilingual Instructional Video

Our friends from church came over and we taught them how to make granola. We made a video for Claire's cooking show youtube channel. Claire would very much appreciate if you would open the video in youtube and hit the like button! 請按讚！Thank you!

Art in the Park

 As a matter of sanity, it's my habit to pick up the mandolin a few times a week and play through some old familiar tunes.  This week I've been reviewing music by one of my early inspirations, Peter Ostroushko. I was fortunate to hear him play live a few times with his Duo partner, Dean Macgraw, when I was at Macalester College in the late 1980s.  Both of them were local Twin Cities musicians who were frequently featured on A Prairie Home Companion.  My friends and I loved to emulate the humor and music that we heard on that show, so seeing them live and laughing at their antics remains planted deep in my grey matter.

I'm also lucky to be part of a duo here in Taiwan.  Not my lifelong duet singer, Jenny Huang, but a local misfit who keeps his guitar handy too.  Van grew up in Tennessee having played many genres of rock music, but could never escape his bluegrass and country roots.  So Van and I occasionally text each other "Up for some tunes in the park?" and "How about we meet to play at the Duck Park before it gets dark?"  It's a weather dependent habit, but the spontaneity of it makes it all the more enticing.  Late in the afternoon after a day of teaching, it's a great way for me to switch gears and get out of my rut.  A grey day that turned sunny and warm in the afternoon is one of the best times.

We have a small but expanding repertoire of favorites we run through each evening.  Certainly not all bluegrass, but the mando-guitar combo along with simple vocal harmonies lend themselves to bluesy folksy songs and old-timey fiddle tunes.  The park is not particularly known for buskers, so passers-by sometimes glance our way but rarely stop to listen.  That is, adults.  They are cautiously polite about giving us too much attention when we're clearly just enjoying our own company albeit loudly, and in a public space.  Forgivable for foreigners.  But kids can't help but look and listen and move.

Just the other day as we ran through our version of  Lady Madonna a kid no older than 2 with his grandpa in tow started bouncing at the knees and waving his arms to the beat.  In spite of his grandpa's coaxing he could not be redirected.  The music had caught hold and like a preacher at a Pentecostal church he was wild with joy.  When we finished he climbed up on the stone stool in front of me and reached out to start my mandolin again.  I leaned back and started chunking on Freight Train, the old Elizabeth Cotton favorite, then segued into CCR's Down on the Corner.  Other kids came to listen and I sang out loudly with smiling parents in the background, "You don't need a penny, just to hang around..."

Just another walk in the park, ya never know what you might see or hear.

Stone, Wind and Water on the North Coast

 As Spring Festival 春節 (Lunar New Year) approached we were left without a "family home" to return to so we made plans to visit the beautiful natural earth that is our planetary home.  One spot that stands out on the island of Taiwan is its sandstone northern coast with calcium carbonate formations that look like a moonscape, or to an Iowa forager, giant morels.  Here's a sample as you enter the park, enough to feed 500, I'd say.  

and here they are in their more natural context.  

This "geopark", recognized as a unique and protected world heritage site by UNESCO (UN Education Science and Cultural Organization), is actually a peninsula jutting out on the northern most coast of Taiwan, an hour ride by bus from the center of Taipei, the capital city.

  

The piece de resistance is the Queen's Head which not only appears on every promotion for the park (and nearby village) has it's very own boardwalk approach and photo shoot queue!

But, on this visit the Princess won Miss Photogenic. 

Many of you are familiar with the term Fengshui (風水) which refers to a balance of design in art and architecture rooted in natural shapes and structures.  In this place formed by wind (風) and salt water (水) the emergence of unimaginable stone forms gave us a feeling of wonder and awe as we walked among these sculptures, alien and extraterrestrial, and yet a place we still find ourselves.

Hiking the Hills of New Bamboo

While most of the Taiwan we see on a daily basis is city, we do manage to get out into nearby rice / vegetable fields on our bikes regularly and enjoy the feeling of our typical rural lives in the US.  This winter holiday however afforded us time and energy to venture further afield into the nearby hills to the east.  We had to take a bus to the trailhead / visitor center and then enjoyed a rigorous walk along a mostly paved path up one of the sacred mountains of the island, Lion's Head Mountain.

 

Hamming it up as Hakka farmers at the LHM visitor center.

 Jenny peering out from a shallow cave called the "lion's tail" which had greenery hanging over the edge like hair.

 

Soleil and Jenny reach the height of land after a steep climb and enjoy an "us"ie at a tall stand of bamboo.

Soleil had her eye on blooming plants throughout the hike and we kept reminding ourselves that it was February!

We took a shorter circle hike on a Friday afternoon but noticed that the trail map offered longer hikes up and over the top to a temple village.  So on Monday morning we returned for the full trip up and over.  We were delighted by the sights from the other side looking down into the next county south of Hsinchu (New Bamboo) called Miaoli (Chestnut Sprouts).

The temple pillars are carved from a seeming singular stone.

  Life sized cranes bathed in a waterfall surrounded by trees, both real and sculpted.

The views alone were worth the 3 mile walk, but of course there was much more to be enjoyed.  As you may have read in a previous post, kumquats from our friend Joyce have been our winter food challenge. Here was the final kumquat bite and we are converts.  Try one!

Finally the Huangs were over the mountain and celebrating with the lions at the gate.  A bus from a tiny village at the foot of the mountain took us back to a station where we caught the local train back to Hsinchu and our neighborhood where our bikes were waiting to take us home again.

 

Jenny spun the prayer wheels for good luck and we headed home.

Kumquats

Soleil and I are half way through a Ten-day Kumquat Challenge. We were recently gifted a generous supply of these cute little orange fruits. I'd tried them before but never enjoyed them. They are bitter, sour, and sweet all at once. Day one, according to Soleil, "Weird. It's weird eating the peel. The inside has too much fiber. Sometimes they taste like lemons."

So as I wondered what to do with our new piles of kumquat gold I searched the web for ideas and read that they are an acquired taste and that if you eat one a day for ten days you'll end up loving them. Apparently they are good for your health with vitamin C and antioxidants and all. Some days I have two in a day, so I can call myself an overachiever. 

I'm not addicted yet but Soleil is already worrying about how she'll survive when we run out.

I made some muffins with kumquats, yogurt and tiny chocolate chips. Eater one said, "Sensational!" Another eater said, "You could sell these at a café." The third eater said, "I'll have to make these again." There was no fourth eater. The muffins were all gone in a flash. 

So the muffins were a grand success. But the best I can say for the fruit itself (without added sugar and chocolate) is, "I don't hate them anymore." Five days to go.

Jenny

Kumquat Update

We ran out of kumquats around day eight. Blame that second batch of muffins, with ginger instead of chocolate. So we didn't get in the full ten days. But after a week without a single kumquat we bought some at the fruit store and are back on track. It's also pineapple season and we've consumed at least three of those recently. Tonight we had homemade carrot pineapple cake to celebrate Greg's birthday. Taiwan is a great place if you like fruit.

寒假! Winter Break!

 A little over a week ago we started winter break. This break is almost a month long, so it makes up for Christmas and February break that we don't have in Taiwan. So far it's been pretty relaxing with not a ton on our plates, which is very different from the many rehearsals and appointments that we usually have during vacation. 

One of our tasks is to find a violin and/or cello to rent for the next semester. Both me and my mom have missed playing our instruments, so we have visited a couple of music shops and tried out some instruments. We also recently got a piano! We are borrowing it from our church pianist's friend. It's an old short little four octave synthesizer that doesn't sound like a piano, but I shouldn't be too picky. It was FREE! 

Violins we tried at a string instrument shop.

I've been spending my days slowly chipping away at my homework. My assignment for P.E. class is to keep track of when I exercise. Bob and I have gone to the park to play basketball a couple times this week, and I sometimes go for a walk around the baseball field near our house. For my science homework I have to memorize the periodic table in Chinese, and the elements' scientific symbols.

A few days ago we went to Big City, a mall in Hsinchu city, with the hope of going ice skating, but unfortunately the rink turned out to be very small and for children on a team. 😭 So instead I ate a lemon custard thing and mom and Bob ate one that looked like quiche. Because it was a Friday (and we get boba every Friday) later we got boba from a place we hadn't tried before called "Cha Time". Mine was yummy!

Lemon custard and quiche thingys.

Mango QQ Pearl Boba. (QQ means chewy in Taiwan)

Plastic food at Big City.

Last weekend we invited some friends over for lunch. Mom made lasagna for the main course, Bob made garlic bread, and I made homemade bubble tea! Our guests brought bubble tea and cheesecake too, so there was plenty of food to go around. After lunch there was a scavenger hunt that Bob set up and along the way we found chocolates. The final prize was a 紅包 red envelope with money inside! It is a tradition for Chinese new year that adults people give money to children. I like that tradition, although I probably won't as much when I get older.

Mom's homemade lasagna.

As for the rest of vacation, we might go stay in Hualien for a couple days of getaway, and/or go explore Taipei. Happy Chinese New Year, the year of the Ox! 新年快樂！恭喜發財！

~Soleil Huang-Dale