What I've been up to

I have been negligent of my blogger duties. Alas, perhaps my dreams of being a celeberty blogger will not come true. But things have been busy here.

As most of you (I think) know, Colin and I got engaged two weeks ago. We had been talking for a while about a quite romatic wedding in Italy at the end of the Great Journey which will follow our time in Taiwan. We had mulled, talked, more or less decided, but not done anything that could make it official in my mind. We went on a hike above the hotsprings town of Jiaoxi and in meandering conversation came upon this odd nugget of official vs. supposed. I'll keep the details to us because it is so distinctly us that I almost feel like sharing is telling a little secret bit of us and I don't want to do that. Anyway, despite the fact that we both anticipated this and nothing inside ourselves has changed over it, we were fuzzy and excited all weekend. We told our parents, but kept the secret mostly to ourselves until the next week.

The reaction in Taiwan has been interesting. In part that is because of the difference between what and engagement means in the US and what it means here. Here it is an elaborate ceremony, half of the whole wedding process and if we were Taiwanese, Colin would have gone to my parents' house, asked their blessing, probably prayed to my ancestors and been involved in a traditional ceremony. Then we would have had a big dinner with our friends and I would have given everyone cookies or a traditional wedding cake. It took me a little while to figure out the best way to say in Chinese that I was engaged so that it would correlate to the American meaning. Our doorman gave us a box of Taiwanese foodstuffs to celebrate and my housemates took me out to a drink where the friendly bar owner asked if I was pregnant after buying me two drinks on the house to celebrate the engagement. I was triplly insulted, first that he thought I would be getting married because I was pregnant, second that I looked pregnant and third that I would go to a bar and drink while pregnant. Other funny things have popped up too. Apparently while local teachers were discussing the teaching of Fulbright teachers, my co-teachers had said there were no problems and I was fine. Someone quickly attributed this to the new fact that I was going to be a wife (Or was that reality actually conflated to mother) and thus was obviously more mature. Humm. I mean, I think I'm mature, but I wouldn't attribute it to our engagement.

Finally something both Colin and I had been thinking has come out of the mouths of our American and Taiwanese friends alike- "Are you going to get pictures taken in Taiwan?" I wouldn't expect anyone to know this, but Taiwan has a wedding photography industry famous thoughout Asia. Colin first heard about it from a Japanese classmate, but the industry has also been exported by Taiwanese businessmen to the Mainland which is crazy about it. I'm not sure I can explain the visual difference between these outfits and wedding photography in the states, but I can definately explain how the process is different. Taiwanese couples go to the wedding photographer's studio sometimes months before their actual wedding. They spend a whole day with the photographer and his crew. The bride's hair and makeup are done not once, but up to five times. Each change of face and hair is also a change of outfit. The bride chooses different wedding dresses and different formal dresses. The men also change suits or tuxes with the bride and I can't be sure, but they might get some makeup done too. Some couples take pictures as basketball players dressed up in jerseys and some dress up in traditional Chinese costumes akin to what those of you who have been to the Mainland would recognize at tourist sights as traps for proud parents of little emperors to get their pictures in. They also have Kimonos and ninja suits to daun. The couples have a variety of shots done indoors and then go on location to parks and farms and gaverment buildings.

Today Colin and I went over to a coworkers house in the afternoon where several other teachers showed up with their suitcases (no I am not exagerating) filled with huge wedding albums. These teachers are all quite young, married in the last five years with tottlers running around the house, but how different they look from the pictures is incredible. We all got a good laugh as Grace opened her album up to her 2 1/2 year old daughter and the girl pointed at her father and made the correct assessment "Baba!" and then when asked who the woman was said "Aiyi!", aunt. I could barely recognize my own co-teacher in photos taken five years ago. She and her husband joke about having kids and getting fat, but that camera lens or makeup artist seems to have done more than time could have. As we passes the books around we also jokes about the size. Each album is a huge 18' by 22' and when you opend them almost evey page had a full picture of the couple or the bride some printed with photoshoped flowers on cardstock and some just large durible matte prints. Roxanna had one book, she joked because she was poor. Both Sonia and Grace had two, but that is not the entire standerd package. The standard package includes the huge albums, two giant framed photos, a scroll photograph or a metal wedding certificate, a small album for the brides family (since presumably she will leave her parents and live with his) and wallet size shots of the framed photos to give to wedding guests.

So this is something that Colin and I have to do, it's expensive (though not as expensive as American wedding photographers), but I think it is a cultural experience we can't pass up. We will have to figure out how we can get away with only half the basic package (please don't make me take giant framed photos of myself back to America), but I think we will figure something out, we jsut have to walk down nuptual lane near ChangKaiShek memorial hall were all the wedding planners are.