Ten Ten In Taipei Taiwan

2008-10-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

The English teaching assistants (ETAs) and my wife and I traveled the weekend to Taipei to celebrate the nation's birthday: Zhonghua Minguo Wan Sui is a proud shout: May our nation live 10,000 years! (translation mine: no guarantee for accuracy).

We were invited to an evening party at the Taipei Bin Guan, or the Taipei Guest House. To give you an idea of how classy a party it must have been, here's a little description of the place, and I'll also tell you that the president of Taiwan was there:

The Taipei Guest House, located in Ketagalan Avenue, is not open to the public. It is used mainly by the President to entertain VIP guests or by the government to hold National Day receptions and other important functions. It was constructed from 1897 to 1901 and remained the governor's residence throughout the Japanese occupation, which ended in 1945.

The House is rectangle-oriented along an east-west axis, with a U-shaped two-story main structure. On the first floor, there is a reception room in the east wing and a banquet hall in the west. The second floor is also for receiving visitors. Inside, the ornately carved columns are ubiquitous. The whole space looks tasteful and imposing, thanks to the column tops with carving of spirals and leaves, the friezes, the nicely shaped crystal lamps and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling, and the delicate arches carved with deer heads or leaves.

The House is surrounded by gardens, in particular the backyard, where there are ponds and dense foliage, trying to portray the Chinese legendary abode of immortals. With all these, the Taipei Guest House may be rated as the most elegant baroque style architecture in contemporary Taiwan.

Wendy and I had a good time, sampling the food and drinks, stargazing (that is, gawking at the VIPs), and watching Taiwanese Opera performances that were made more interesting by the fact that each performance represented a different style or aspect as the opera changed over time (for instance, the inclusion of jazz instruments as part of the musical band in the latter half of last century).

Today Wendy is in Taipei, trying to get an official copy of her diploma from National Taiwan Normal University. I'm in my office at San Min preparing for Wednesday's workshop on classroom management and discipline. It is also about time for me to review for my Chinese class this evening. I'm learning common Chinese characters, based on their radical. So, I'm learning characters that use the ren2, shui3, xin1, nu3, mei3, zhu2 (person, water, heart, woman, beautiful, bamboo, respectfully) radicals. It helps the old man remember....

Dr. Phil in Taiwan

First Time For Everything

2008-10-05T06:34:00.000-07:00

This is my first blog site. I feel like a child riding a bike for the first time. This first entry might well be clumsy and unbalanced. Welcome to all of you who have stumbled into my cyberspace world.

I was asked by a friend this weekend to proofread his book of folktales from the Amazon . Got a call in the blue. We go back, me and Juan Carlos, oh, 25 years. I finished in 2 days, and love the collection. Book comes out next month, in November. I'll be dreaming about dolphins for awhile now, I guess. Anyhoo, if you like folktales, be on the lookout for his book: Folktales of the Amazon, by Juan Carlos Galeano. Perhaps just as interesting is his documentary film on these oral traditions that is also coming out: The Trees Have A Mother.

That was after I was told I needed to write a speech for 80 elementary school principals on the state of foreign language education in the elementary schools (FLES) in the US. I have a PowerPoint presentation and written speech ready to go: just need to find someone to translate it into Chinese.

I'm an adviser for a team-teaching program in the elementary schools in Kaohsiung. The team teachers teach English. In each team, one of them is a local teacher, the other is a bright university graduate from the US. People are nice and are trying hard to make this program a success. This is the first year for such a program in the city and lessons are learned daily (no pun intended). I feel like we are planting a tree: it needs time to grow.

I don't have anyone to play soccer with, so I do 75-100 push-ups a day, but I miss my team sports and their competitiveness.

My son is getting married next year. My daughter is performing for the city ballet again. My wife is bored here in Taiwan. Soon, however, she gets to start to teach English for the adult education program in Kaohsiung County (Niaosong). She will enjoy being more active.

I'm going to start my drawing and painting again. I watched a TV show today with the artist demonstrating how he paints a landscape. I love painting: it sets the soul free. It'll help safeguard some sanity, too, I'm sure.

Okay, be good. Take care of yourself,

Dr. Phil in Taiwan

Kentucky in Taiwan

Ten Ten In Taipei Taiwan

First Time For Everything