So there's this typhoon making a beeline for Taipei.
As a result, I will not going to Penghu for what would have been four days of glorious relaxation in the sun with a huge group of my favorite Taiwanese family and friends.
They've rescheduled the trip to begin next Tuesday, but I immediately discarded the idea of trying to somehow tag along, because that would involve 1) un-postponing a 4-person group presentation; 2) taking the professor-administered, listening-intensive final test another time; and 3) missing 4 days of class.
I'm pretty devastated, so I don't really want to discuss it further. I'll make the final, "I Could Be In Penghu Right Now" post of my Snapshots of Taiwan series on Friday, since I'll definitely have the time.
~A very disappointed Ethan
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Snapshots of Taipei, Part 2
The fun continues.
1. I'll start with some of my favorite shots from that cosplay convention I mentioned last time:
Things to know, most of which actually aren't reflected by the images (photographer fail):
a. The female:male ratio of the participants who dressed up was very, very high. Why? Girls, say Jun Xiang and his friend Yu Zhong, like to dress up, and have their pictures taken (more on that later). This is true, but I'd also add that in my opinion at least some of them definitely took the opportunity to break out of the Taiwanese dress code for the day. For while it's okay for a girl to bare as much leg as she wants (short shorts are currently quite popular; I give that fashion trend five thumbs up), tops are a different story. Arms are okay, but anything else is very much not. For example, in the picture of me and the two girls, their belly shirts are very much not kosher and would almost never be seen on the street. I'd say that as few as, say, 1 in every 500 or 1000 girls bucks this trend, and even then not flauntingly. I'm sure it has something to do with the general Taiwanese body type (petite :-p), but there are enough exceptions to make me pretty sure that it's a sign of a slightly more conservative, slightly more moderate youth culture than exists in America. Along the same vein, if you go to bars or clubs in the university area you'll notice a much higher expat:national ratio than normal - and this despite the fact that one can legally drink at age 18 here.
b. Another thing the photos don't reflect: the swarms of photographers. Nearly all of them were male, and judging by the ridiculous equipment, most of them were also either professional photographers or wealthy amateur enthusiasts. Some were probably also taking photos for papers, but by and large I think that they were for collections, blogs, etc. Subjects would by and large be willing to be photographed for several minutes at a time in the sun, oftentimes striking whatever poses the photographers asked for. They were there, after all, to look good.
Despite some things I had read on Wikipedia about problems with creepy male cosplay photographers in some places, the photography had a very Taiwanese air to it. Most photographers would thank the subject when they were done, sometimes adding a little bow for good measure, and move out of the way to let other photographers in; even more telling, when a character was done posing and being photographed, he or she would simply say so and relax or walk away, and everyone would immediately stop taking pictures.
It was fun to watch trends form and dissipate, as particular people/characters became "popular," and at the height of their two minutes of fame were barraged by 20 photographers. I actually started two of those trends, which was kind of cool. I suspect it was because people who weren't available for photos beforehand were willing to start posing again when I asked them; being "the foreigner" has its perks ;-)
2. And now for something completely different: the MRT.
a. Come try the new Neihu Line! Why? Because a popular Taiwanese singer thinks it's awesome, and that guy in the background is so excited that he's even started break-dancing.
b. Hopefully you won't be among the unlucky few...
In early July, Taipei City opened a new set of Metro stations, the "Neihu line," which expands metro coverage to about an additional 40% of the city to the northeast and provides a key connection to the main domestic airport in the north. (With 2,000,000 people, Taipei's a sizeable town, folks. I've only seen part of it.) Still, the line is opening some 13 years (!) behind schedule, and it has had issues: on the first day of operations, a car's main brakes failed (emergency brakes worked fine, so nobody was hurt), and a few weeks ago the entire line - the Neihu portion and the pre-existing stops to the south - was shut down, and 9,000 people were stranded for a few hours due to a technical problem. Fares are currently discounted about 25% to encourage people to continue traveling on the line, and the one time I did (Neihu also opens up the IMAX theater, which is key!), folks seemed to be taking advantage of it.
Fun fact: The Taipei government recently threatened to sue a prominent tabloid (they're very, very popular here) for $100,000,000 NTD (about $3,000,000 USD) over an article about reasons for the problems with the Neihu line. According to ICRT, the English station here, "The magazine fired back, calling the city government 'absurd' and 'evil.'" I'll be interested to see what comes of that...
[Apologies for the poor sound quality and the clear lack of any sort of skill or common sense on the part of the cameraman.]
The Zhangs have reminded me to be wary about overgeneralizing my experiences in Taipei. For one thing, as I think I mentioned earlier, Xuan Xuan (the low-paid buxiban English teaching assistant) told me that she though the Zhangs were special and uncommonly friendly. And when I went to their house on Tuesday for their early father's day celebration (we'll be at Penghu for the actual date - 8/8, which can be read as "ba ba" ["dad/dy"] ), I was impressed with the idea that this was probably more the case than I had thought. Each of the four siblings invited several friends and encouraged them all to mingle; the snack food/dinner/cake was plentiful and seemed very half-American/half-Chinese; and the socializing was followed by several ridiculous skits prepared over the course of about a week, a public reading of reasons why the four of them loved their father, and then a series organized games. Afterwards, when I was complimenting him on the skits and how friendly the whole atmosphere was, I asked Jun Xiang if their family was different than most in that way, and he uncharacteristically said, "Yes, I think so." Don't get me wrong - I still think Taiwanese people are fantastically nice - but I'm appreciating the Zhangs more and getting the idea that maybe not everyone here would be that amazingly welcoming.
Also, while I've tried to be careful to restrict my commentary to "Taipei" (as opposed to "Taiwan"), and to "Taipei's youth" when appropriate, I'm guessing there have been a few times when I've failed to make that second distinction; I'm also guessing that even some of my "Taipei" generalizations are inaccurate. While I hear that the "poorer" areas nearby are restricted to some of the suburbs (still on the metro line, though), and not the city itself, I do have to remember that I have only lived and traveled through the university districts and the municipal district. There's a lot more of Taipei to see, and maybe I shouldn't be so glib about my generalizations. It's such a temptation, but recognizing it just makes me want to learn more Chinese, so that I can come back and really get an idea of what life is like here.
To end with, a quick recap on my daily life of late:
1. Chinese:
Right now, could be better.
- For one thing, we recently had a friendly but heart-to-heart talk with the teacher who directs the way the main course ("Modern Conversation," both "large" and individual classes) is taught for his students. Boin, a classmate and a Columbia grad, and I both thought that the new characters were fine, but that we should be focusing on a few sentence patterns/phrases/pieces of grammar a day, because we're trying to remember a dozen or so and really not assimilating any of them. The Yale system was great in that one was called upon to memorize, verbatim, a short dialogue every night, and a medium-sized one every week; by the end of it, you really owned those patterns and phrases if you did them right. Here, not so much.
1. I'll start with some of my favorite shots from that cosplay convention I mentioned last time:
Things to know, most of which actually aren't reflected by the images (photographer fail):
a. The female:male ratio of the participants who dressed up was very, very high. Why? Girls, say Jun Xiang and his friend Yu Zhong, like to dress up, and have their pictures taken (more on that later). This is true, but I'd also add that in my opinion at least some of them definitely took the opportunity to break out of the Taiwanese dress code for the day. For while it's okay for a girl to bare as much leg as she wants (short shorts are currently quite popular; I give that fashion trend five thumbs up), tops are a different story. Arms are okay, but anything else is very much not. For example, in the picture of me and the two girls, their belly shirts are very much not kosher and would almost never be seen on the street. I'd say that as few as, say, 1 in every 500 or 1000 girls bucks this trend, and even then not flauntingly. I'm sure it has something to do with the general Taiwanese body type (petite :-p), but there are enough exceptions to make me pretty sure that it's a sign of a slightly more conservative, slightly more moderate youth culture than exists in America. Along the same vein, if you go to bars or clubs in the university area you'll notice a much higher expat:national ratio than normal - and this despite the fact that one can legally drink at age 18 here.
b. Another thing the photos don't reflect: the swarms of photographers. Nearly all of them were male, and judging by the ridiculous equipment, most of them were also either professional photographers or wealthy amateur enthusiasts. Some were probably also taking photos for papers, but by and large I think that they were for collections, blogs, etc. Subjects would by and large be willing to be photographed for several minutes at a time in the sun, oftentimes striking whatever poses the photographers asked for. They were there, after all, to look good.
Despite some things I had read on Wikipedia about problems with creepy male cosplay photographers in some places, the photography had a very Taiwanese air to it. Most photographers would thank the subject when they were done, sometimes adding a little bow for good measure, and move out of the way to let other photographers in; even more telling, when a character was done posing and being photographed, he or she would simply say so and relax or walk away, and everyone would immediately stop taking pictures.
It was fun to watch trends form and dissipate, as particular people/characters became "popular," and at the height of their two minutes of fame were barraged by 20 photographers. I actually started two of those trends, which was kind of cool. I suspect it was because people who weren't available for photos beforehand were willing to start posing again when I asked them; being "the foreigner" has its perks ;-)
2. And now for something completely different: the MRT.
a. Come try the new Neihu Line! Why? Because a popular Taiwanese singer thinks it's awesome, and that guy in the background is so excited that he's even started break-dancing.
b. Hopefully you won't be among the unlucky few...
In early July, Taipei City opened a new set of Metro stations, the "Neihu line," which expands metro coverage to about an additional 40% of the city to the northeast and provides a key connection to the main domestic airport in the north. (With 2,000,000 people, Taipei's a sizeable town, folks. I've only seen part of it.) Still, the line is opening some 13 years (!) behind schedule, and it has had issues: on the first day of operations, a car's main brakes failed (emergency brakes worked fine, so nobody was hurt), and a few weeks ago the entire line - the Neihu portion and the pre-existing stops to the south - was shut down, and 9,000 people were stranded for a few hours due to a technical problem. Fares are currently discounted about 25% to encourage people to continue traveling on the line, and the one time I did (Neihu also opens up the IMAX theater, which is key!), folks seemed to be taking advantage of it.
Fun fact: The Taipei government recently threatened to sue a prominent tabloid (they're very, very popular here) for $100,000,000 NTD (about $3,000,000 USD) over an article about reasons for the problems with the Neihu line. According to ICRT, the English station here, "The magazine fired back, calling the city government 'absurd' and 'evil.'" I'll be interested to see what comes of that...
[Apologies for the poor sound quality and the clear lack of any sort of skill or common sense on the part of the cameraman.]
The Zhangs have reminded me to be wary about overgeneralizing my experiences in Taipei. For one thing, as I think I mentioned earlier, Xuan Xuan (the low-paid buxiban English teaching assistant) told me that she though the Zhangs were special and uncommonly friendly. And when I went to their house on Tuesday for their early father's day celebration (we'll be at Penghu for the actual date - 8/8, which can be read as "ba ba" ["dad/dy"] ), I was impressed with the idea that this was probably more the case than I had thought. Each of the four siblings invited several friends and encouraged them all to mingle; the snack food/dinner/cake was plentiful and seemed very half-American/half-Chinese; and the socializing was followed by several ridiculous skits prepared over the course of about a week, a public reading of reasons why the four of them loved their father, and then a series organized games. Afterwards, when I was complimenting him on the skits and how friendly the whole atmosphere was, I asked Jun Xiang if their family was different than most in that way, and he uncharacteristically said, "Yes, I think so." Don't get me wrong - I still think Taiwanese people are fantastically nice - but I'm appreciating the Zhangs more and getting the idea that maybe not everyone here would be that amazingly welcoming.
Also, while I've tried to be careful to restrict my commentary to "Taipei" (as opposed to "Taiwan"), and to "Taipei's youth" when appropriate, I'm guessing there have been a few times when I've failed to make that second distinction; I'm also guessing that even some of my "Taipei" generalizations are inaccurate. While I hear that the "poorer" areas nearby are restricted to some of the suburbs (still on the metro line, though), and not the city itself, I do have to remember that I have only lived and traveled through the university districts and the municipal district. There's a lot more of Taipei to see, and maybe I shouldn't be so glib about my generalizations. It's such a temptation, but recognizing it just makes me want to learn more Chinese, so that I can come back and really get an idea of what life is like here.
To end with, a quick recap on my daily life of late:
1. Chinese:
Right now, could be better.
- For one thing, we recently had a friendly but heart-to-heart talk with the teacher who directs the way the main course ("Modern Conversation," both "large" and individual classes) is taught for his students. Boin, a classmate and a Columbia grad, and I both thought that the new characters were fine, but that we should be focusing on a few sentence patterns/phrases/pieces of grammar a day, because we're trying to remember a dozen or so and really not assimilating any of them. The Yale system was great in that one was called upon to memorize, verbatim, a short dialogue every night, and a medium-sized one every week; by the end of it, you really owned those patterns and phrases if you did them right. Here, not so much.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Snapshots of Taipei, Part 1
I went on that bike trip today! It was great, but I'm definitely out of shape like it's nobody's business: in a little over 3 hours of riding I probably covered about 25 miles, which I figure is alright considering the fact that I had a backpack with a lot of water and haven't really biked (or done any other exercise, for that matter) in nine months. I wish I could have spent more time on the road, but I got a late start (kept forgetting things at the house; bike rental issues) and had to return earlier than I had thought to be in time for Harry Potter.
(Speaking of which, my Harry Potter verdict: excellent. Possibly my favorite so far, though I'm still a fan of #3 and I can't remember how well I liked #4. The 3D part at the beginning is also epic, if you're considering going that route.)
Back on topic. The bike rental was great, and cheap ($7 for "5 hours"? I can do that.), and I got my first real taste of how glorious it is to ride a modern machine; in the past, I had been riding Dad's old 1984 Huffy road bike, which came complete with gear problems and ten speeds, operated by metal levers in the center space between the two handlebars. Although I brought my camera, I only really took pictures before I got started; I decided that worrying about good photos and stopping to take them would take away from my ride. So instead, today I'm bringing you a lot of explanation of All Things Taiwanese (TM), generally by way of the other photos I've been taking over the past week or so. Enjoy.
1. Obama hits the night market:
Ridiculous, right? But everyone, of course, knows his name. I get the sense that Taiwan collectively looks up to America, in a way. The U.S. is seen as Taiwan's protector; the Taiwan Relations Act allows the U.S. to immediately intervene in the case of an attack on Taiwan, and is seen by most as a defense guarantee (though it only really mandates that the President report such an attack to Congress, says the Brookings Institute). The U.S. is also one of Taiwan's biggest trading partners, for example supplying it with a third of its beef and selling it arms (over China's strong protests). Then there is, of course, the democratic connection, especially in the face of Communist China. Little things also count: Taiwan has a man on the Yankees (surnamed Wang), and most Taiwanese seem to know about him. And finally, while the U.S. does not officially recognize Taiwan as a nation (China has a policy of essentially not dealing with countries that do, which is why some of the mere 23 countries that recognize Taiwan are obscure Pacific islands I've never heard of), it does give Taiwan quasi-nation status in official jargon and diplomatic treatment, running the American Institute in Taiwan ("AIT"; essentially an embassy) and hosting in return the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office ("TECO"; the same) in New York. Visas are granted by both sides.
2. (A photo in words): One day a few weeks ago, I was walking down a side street to the MRT (metro) station after lunch; when I reached the main road, a divided 4- or 6-lane affair, I noticed that there was literally no traffic. "Wow," I thought to myself (being me), "That's odd. The Taiwanese must really take their lunch hour seriously." Glancing at the blinking red pedestrian light, I crossed, not noticing the policeman on the other side of the street until he blew his whistle at me. "Damn," I thought, "I guess I wasn't supposed to cross at that light." I said I was sorry, and he told me something that involved "don't walk." Assuming he was talking about the crosswalk, when he turned away I headed back up the road in the opposite direction. About 30 seconds later, another whistle, from another cop farther up the road. This time I got the message: "You can't walk." ("Here? Or here?") "No, you can't walk. Rest here for a while." ("How long?") ("Half an hour.") Not sure if I was being penalized, I did as I was told, loitering near a shop doorway and finally taking a better look around. I now noticed that there were also no people on the street, and that others were doing the same as I. Half an hour later, at 2:00 PM, horns sounded from the tops of stoplights, and the flurry of activity that is Taipei traffic began once again.
It turned out that this was an air raid drill. People were supposed to get off the streets, probably both for safety reasons and to make the area look less populated. It's a holdover from times when the threat of Chinese attack was more real, when U.S. backing was nonexistent. In 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists were routed from the mainland by Mao Zedong's Communists, and since then Mao's China has claimed Taiwan as its own, first bombarding Taiwan with cannons and then continually threatening it with attack. That threat of attack is not voiced by China today, but Taiwanese still feel it very faintly in the back of their minds. The Communist government's policy has always been and continues to be that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and a Taiwanese spokeswoman pointed out in a recent visit to the United States that Taiwan cannot help but feel threatened when the mainland has 13,000 missiles aimed at the island. Taiwan and China share a military border, at which Taiwan's military practices regularly; Taiwan has long held tightly to its outlying islands (besides the main island, it has a handful of decent-sized outliers) as buffers against potential Chinese attack. Most Taiwanese believe that the status quo will most likely continue, though, despite posturing on all sides. And they like that idea - enough that the current president, whose party's platform supports "eventual" reunification with China, had to promise not to pursue that reunification, in order to be a viable candidate for election.
3. Guess the connection: a university, a sign with a laptop on it, and people dressed in fantasy/anime&manga costumes.
Well, it turns out that the costumed people (and the horse) have been hired to make a still ad proclaiming that all freshmen who enroll will have a chance [I don't know what %] to win a laptop computer.
After recent high school graduates take the national university entrance exams and receive their scores back, they can list up to their top 100 department choices (from as many different public universities as they want) on a form, which they then send to the government education ministry. Most people choose public schools, because they're insanely cheap - 台大／TaiDa, Taiwan's one-uni Ivy League, costs around $1700 USD per semester for Taiwanese - and generally better than the private universities. Clearly, the college being advertised is not one of the better ones...
The visual method of advertisement is really interesting too, though, isn't it? I don't know that a horse and some folks in fantasy costumes would ever be well-received in the U.S. when put on a billboard in connection with a university. While still definitely in the minority, the percentage of people who are into fantasy and role-playing here in Taiwan is definitely much greater than that in America, where after a certain age it tends to be seen as absolutely ridiculous. You can see this simply in the sheer amount of media around - on the metro TVs, on billboards, etc - advertising MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games). And, even (to us) stranger: When I first showed a small version of the above photo to Jun Xiang, he said, in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Oh, it's probably cosplay." Cosplay, for those of ye who don't know (probably the majority, is a "performance activity" in which people (usually young) dress up as a character from their favorite fantasy or sci-fi series (usually fantasy here, particularly manga/anime) and either act out scenes, roleplay their character, or just kind of walk around and look crazy/attractive/frightening/awesome/hilarious/a combination of all of the above.
In fact (drum roll please) there is a weekend cosplay convention going on right now at TaiDa, right between my apartment and the ICLP classrooms. And on second thought, I think that's where I'm going to go instead of doing homework; the library's sweltering, I can't find the air conditioning, and I'm meeting my language exchange partner soon anyway. And after all, how many opportunities will I get back home to take pictures with awesomely dressed Asians? That's just... not my crowd, so much.
Look for Snapshots, Part 2, next week. Hopefully I can also include some of David's or my own cosplay convention photos for your enjoyment.
~Ethan
(Speaking of which, my Harry Potter verdict: excellent. Possibly my favorite so far, though I'm still a fan of #3 and I can't remember how well I liked #4. The 3D part at the beginning is also epic, if you're considering going that route.)
Back on topic. The bike rental was great, and cheap ($7 for "5 hours"? I can do that.), and I got my first real taste of how glorious it is to ride a modern machine; in the past, I had been riding Dad's old 1984 Huffy road bike, which came complete with gear problems and ten speeds, operated by metal levers in the center space between the two handlebars. Although I brought my camera, I only really took pictures before I got started; I decided that worrying about good photos and stopping to take them would take away from my ride. So instead, today I'm bringing you a lot of explanation of All Things Taiwanese (TM), generally by way of the other photos I've been taking over the past week or so. Enjoy.
1. Obama hits the night market:
Ridiculous, right? But everyone, of course, knows his name. I get the sense that Taiwan collectively looks up to America, in a way. The U.S. is seen as Taiwan's protector; the Taiwan Relations Act allows the U.S. to immediately intervene in the case of an attack on Taiwan, and is seen by most as a defense guarantee (though it only really mandates that the President report such an attack to Congress, says the Brookings Institute). The U.S. is also one of Taiwan's biggest trading partners, for example supplying it with a third of its beef and selling it arms (over China's strong protests). Then there is, of course, the democratic connection, especially in the face of Communist China. Little things also count: Taiwan has a man on the Yankees (surnamed Wang), and most Taiwanese seem to know about him. And finally, while the U.S. does not officially recognize Taiwan as a nation (China has a policy of essentially not dealing with countries that do, which is why some of the mere 23 countries that recognize Taiwan are obscure Pacific islands I've never heard of), it does give Taiwan quasi-nation status in official jargon and diplomatic treatment, running the American Institute in Taiwan ("AIT"; essentially an embassy) and hosting in return the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office ("TECO"; the same) in New York. Visas are granted by both sides.
2. (A photo in words): One day a few weeks ago, I was walking down a side street to the MRT (metro) station after lunch; when I reached the main road, a divided 4- or 6-lane affair, I noticed that there was literally no traffic. "Wow," I thought to myself (being me), "That's odd. The Taiwanese must really take their lunch hour seriously." Glancing at the blinking red pedestrian light, I crossed, not noticing the policeman on the other side of the street until he blew his whistle at me. "Damn," I thought, "I guess I wasn't supposed to cross at that light." I said I was sorry, and he told me something that involved "don't walk." Assuming he was talking about the crosswalk, when he turned away I headed back up the road in the opposite direction. About 30 seconds later, another whistle, from another cop farther up the road. This time I got the message: "You can't walk." ("Here? Or here?") "No, you can't walk. Rest here for a while." ("How long?") ("Half an hour.") Not sure if I was being penalized, I did as I was told, loitering near a shop doorway and finally taking a better look around. I now noticed that there were also no people on the street, and that others were doing the same as I. Half an hour later, at 2:00 PM, horns sounded from the tops of stoplights, and the flurry of activity that is Taipei traffic began once again.
It turned out that this was an air raid drill. People were supposed to get off the streets, probably both for safety reasons and to make the area look less populated. It's a holdover from times when the threat of Chinese attack was more real, when U.S. backing was nonexistent. In 1949, Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists were routed from the mainland by Mao Zedong's Communists, and since then Mao's China has claimed Taiwan as its own, first bombarding Taiwan with cannons and then continually threatening it with attack. That threat of attack is not voiced by China today, but Taiwanese still feel it very faintly in the back of their minds. The Communist government's policy has always been and continues to be that Taiwan is an inseparable part of China, and a Taiwanese spokeswoman pointed out in a recent visit to the United States that Taiwan cannot help but feel threatened when the mainland has 13,000 missiles aimed at the island. Taiwan and China share a military border, at which Taiwan's military practices regularly; Taiwan has long held tightly to its outlying islands (besides the main island, it has a handful of decent-sized outliers) as buffers against potential Chinese attack. Most Taiwanese believe that the status quo will most likely continue, though, despite posturing on all sides. And they like that idea - enough that the current president, whose party's platform supports "eventual" reunification with China, had to promise not to pursue that reunification, in order to be a viable candidate for election.
3. Guess the connection: a university, a sign with a laptop on it, and people dressed in fantasy/anime&manga costumes.
Well, it turns out that the costumed people (and the horse) have been hired to make a still ad proclaiming that all freshmen who enroll will have a chance [I don't know what %] to win a laptop computer.
After recent high school graduates take the national university entrance exams and receive their scores back, they can list up to their top 100 department choices (from as many different public universities as they want) on a form, which they then send to the government education ministry. Most people choose public schools, because they're insanely cheap - 台大／TaiDa, Taiwan's one-uni Ivy League, costs around $1700 USD per semester for Taiwanese - and generally better than the private universities. Clearly, the college being advertised is not one of the better ones...
The visual method of advertisement is really interesting too, though, isn't it? I don't know that a horse and some folks in fantasy costumes would ever be well-received in the U.S. when put on a billboard in connection with a university. While still definitely in the minority, the percentage of people who are into fantasy and role-playing here in Taiwan is definitely much greater than that in America, where after a certain age it tends to be seen as absolutely ridiculous. You can see this simply in the sheer amount of media around - on the metro TVs, on billboards, etc - advertising MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online roleplaying games). And, even (to us) stranger: When I first showed a small version of the above photo to Jun Xiang, he said, in a very matter-of-fact tone of voice, "Oh, it's probably cosplay." Cosplay, for those of ye who don't know (probably the majority, is a "performance activity" in which people (usually young) dress up as a character from their favorite fantasy or sci-fi series (usually fantasy here, particularly manga/anime) and either act out scenes, roleplay their character, or just kind of walk around and look crazy/attractive/frightening/awesome/hilarious/a combination of all of the above.
In fact (drum roll please) there is a weekend cosplay convention going on right now at TaiDa, right between my apartment and the ICLP classrooms. And on second thought, I think that's where I'm going to go instead of doing homework; the library's sweltering, I can't find the air conditioning, and I'm meeting my language exchange partner soon anyway. And after all, how many opportunities will I get back home to take pictures with awesomely dressed Asians? That's just... not my crowd, so much.
Look for Snapshots, Part 2, next week. Hopefully I can also include some of David's or my own cosplay convention photos for your enjoyment.
~Ethan
Thursday, July 23, 2009
quickie
I've been feeling unnaturally tired for the past few days; for most of the day my entire body will feel like I've been wrestling all night in my sleep, and my lower back goes beyond tired to hurting some. Even got a solid 8 hours of sleep last night because it's really quite uncomfortable, but if it's just because I'm tossing and turning or something, I guess there's not much I can do about it.
I've decided to go on an adventure to see if that solves the problem. (And also because... I really want to go on an adventure.) Tomorrow, barring illness, bike shop issues, or bad morning weather, I'll be renting a bike and traveling around from about 8:00AM to 2:00 PM. What I really want to do is bike along the river and then just hit some side roads to the south of the city, where according to Google Maps I can find hills and less civilization. I'd go earlier if I could, but the rental place doesn't open at 8:00; the 2:00 return time is to 1) beat the classic Taiwan afternoon thundershowers (knock on wood), and 2) get back in time to see HARRY POTTER. Today I've got some language exchange/dinner plans with Jun Xiang & co today, so I'll be blogging tomorrow; don't expect much new information, but hopefully some great pictures will be coming your way.
~Ethan
I've decided to go on an adventure to see if that solves the problem. (And also because... I really want to go on an adventure.) Tomorrow, barring illness, bike shop issues, or bad morning weather, I'll be renting a bike and traveling around from about 8:00AM to 2:00 PM. What I really want to do is bike along the river and then just hit some side roads to the south of the city, where according to Google Maps I can find hills and less civilization. I'd go earlier if I could, but the rental place doesn't open at 8:00; the 2:00 return time is to 1) beat the classic Taiwan afternoon thundershowers (knock on wood), and 2) get back in time to see HARRY POTTER. Today I've got some language exchange/dinner plans with Jun Xiang & co today, so I'll be blogging tomorrow; don't expect much new information, but hopefully some great pictures will be coming your way.
~Ethan
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
bah
Today's news: The mold is back. I missed the eclipse. I'm up late again. I found myself unable to express myself given 50 minutes to respond to the "[your] life in Taiwan" prompt and 10 sentence patterns to use. Did I mention that the mold is back?
Remember that excellent Livejournal feature? Current mood: discontent.
Better post on Friday, I promise.
Remember that excellent Livejournal feature? Current mood: discontent.
Better post on Friday, I promise.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)