One year in Taiwan

So today is the first. I have been in Taiwan one whole year. Infact, next year's Fulbright group is arriving today and I will go down to Yilan to talk to them next week. Hum... Strangely fitting, my schooling has trained me to see things in year long chunks and I am consiquentially ready to get going and start something new. I have felt a little purposeless these past few weeks, and this past week that felling compounded with worrying about my Aunt Susan's health was a lot for me.

i guess I figured I would have a lot to do these to months, with travels and the wedding and all. It's turned out that it's really not that much. We are leaving a lot of our time around Asia free and relatively open. We bought tickets and have the Trans-mongolian part planned. Yesterday I looked into Thai cooking schools since Colin has gotten really into cooking and I love food too. Plus I love activities. Really though, I could leave tomorrow without much fear oof things not being ready.

Now the wedding is a different story. I've done everything I can do, designed a wedding dress, chosen flower colors, worked on ring designs. Now all I have to do is wait for Bonnie, our wedding planner to pull things together, and give us some options, after that all I have to do is say yes or no, this one or that one.

I managed to get some more tutoring on accident yesterday. I guess I didn't realize we were talking about adding another tutoree. Oh well, I guess I can use the money. It's a little far away and in the evening, but I don't know how to get out of it now and it will be less then a month of classes.

What I'm trying to get at with all of this is that I am planning on focusing on my art and photography these next few weeks. I'll get closer to mastering my camera for the trip (color adds a lot of problems for me). I'm having fun with Barb's drawings and I just got a gridded sketchbook for drawing/writing on our trip. It's amazing how quickly I get back into the drawing swing if I do it regularly. I could certainly improve my drawing, but for now just doing it is the best way. I joined a flickr phot group a few weeks ago that I get weekly assignments for. I am having a really good time and you could say I have internet friends, very international group of active members. Anyway, I won last week's assignment (group vote) on public transportation with this photo:


I have another photo tip website that I'm paying attention to to. Now all I need is photoshop and a computer that can handle that. That will wait for when I get home and probalby when I have a job.

That's about it. I'll try to do something interesting that I can write about soon. I'm going to the library today. I think that is exciting, but I can't really write about it.

I good vision of my disillusion

I found this quote by Paul Valery on entering a museum yesterday and need to reproduce it:

My pace grows reverent. My voice alters to a pitch higher than in a church, to a tone rather less strong than that of every day. Prenestly I lose all sense of why I have intruded into this wax-floored solitude, savoring the temple and drawing room, of cemetary and school... Did I come for instruction, for my own beguilement, or simply as a duty and out of convention? Or is it perhaps some excercise perculiar to itself, this stroll I am taking, weirdly beset with beauties, distracted at every moment by masterpieces to the right and left compelling me to walk like a drunk between counters.

This feeling is what I have often felt in a museum and I've liked it, I do like it, but it is cut off. The museum distinguishes itself as different as separate from the rest of the world. A place for peace and repose. I want museums to remain as an alternative sanctuary. It seems to be history has given this roll to museums, primarily art museums. It is also for this reason that I don't want to make my life within this structure. I really believe that art has a place in life, in a dynamic communication with the world. I have seen people, especially in Portland, who have made this a mission with fine art, but it's hard. Fine art's more recent (since the seventeenth century?) history has tied it so close to the elite educated classes that an attempt to bring it back into the world or to make the museum part of the world is always a struggle. It's a valiant and worth while struggle, but it's not what I would be best at. Even at Reed, where being educated was not the issue, it was difficult to get students to step into the gallery on the way to or from the library. At the time I thought it must be that everyone was too busy, but I think now that perhaps the Reedie deep seated fear of seeming like a moneyed elitist kept people out, though of all the museums I've been to, it certainly did not give that vibe. The history of association may just have been to strong.

I think that for me the best mode of bringing art into life is through architecture. This is a field that is inherently tied to the world as it is the creation of spaces that people must interact with. The opportunity exists to affect a person's movement and interaction with the world even if they refuse to acknowledge it's presence. It also has little problem accepting the necessity to bend to the will of the world because even without the will of the client, there is already great restraints placed by the material, location, use of the location and the public law.

Just thoughts.

peaches

I ate a peach from California today. I've done it before here and it gives me pause every time. I sit and think about how global economics allows for me to buy a peach that has has traveled all the way from my home for little more than 20 cents, but it takes $1000 for me to make the same trip. The peach tasted like California too. I know, all this is obvious, but my life has become much more sedate of late.

The Present Tense

So I realized I haven't really been talking about anything I'm doing except in broad sweeping strokes. I guess that is because I'm thinking (agonizing) more about the future right now. Nonetheless I have collected some stories to tell so I suppose I will.

This past Wednesday, I went with Geoff on his second to last day in Taiwan out to YangMingShan to go on a hike. We decided to climb the tallest peak in Taipei county, which isn't so incredible except that it was very very hot and there is no such thing as switchbacks in Taiwan. It took a while to even find the trail we wanted and I climbed the last 1/2 with my umbrella up for shade, but we made it. We climbed up to where everything except silvergrass couldn't grow and the view at the peak was clouded, but the feeling of space was liberating. On the way down we passed a bunch of geothermal spots with steam spouting out and sulfur in the air. The bus ride down was less than pleasant. Old people had (rightfully, I suppose) taken all the seats and so we stood, overheated, in the isle of a minibus as it jerked around mountain turns. I hadn't been to Yangmingshan except to run a 10K and I don't think I would have gone without Geoff's prompting. I suppose it will probably be my last hike of the season.

On Thursday, I got the joy of going to the hospital for a dose of HepA vaccine. The National Taiwan University hospital is in an old Japanese era building with stark western style columns and a lobby with a high ceiling and details that deceived you into thinking you weren't in a hospital. Perhaps this hasn't been changed so that mother's have an easier time getting their children to the doctor. Anyway, the illusion is discarded as you enter the new much more sterile wing. Then we sat down to wait and any feeling of not being in a Taiwanese hospital went away. Since Taiwan has socialized medicine, almost any medical attention you need you go to the hospital to get. You sign up for a number and sit in front of a closed door in a long corridor of closed doors and wait for the bell sound and the digital number to change enough times that you get to go in. I finally went in, got asked a few questions and given a printout. After that it was downstairs again to pay for the vaccine and then to pick it up at the prescription counter and then back up the stairs to have the vaccine injected.

While we were waiting, we found out that Colin is malnourished. The waiting area had these cool scales. When you stand on them a sensor is alerted and a bar comes down and taps you on the head. You can then turn toward the machine and see your height and weight. I have gained five pounds since coming to Taiwan (down from gaining 15 in February). Colin on the other hand has lost nearly twenty pounds. He didn't believe it and weighed himself at least 3 times on various scales. I just laughed. I had said a few weeks ago that we were going to be like the farmer couple in the painting "American Gothic," I was just going to get fatter as we got older and he would just get skinnier. Ah, how right I was. Although I must admit I enjoyed this discovery, it drove Colin to an internet search of exactly what qualified as being underweight. I'm sure he would like you to know that he is only underweight according to some calculations. He has also begun eating pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds for extra protein, though I don't think they'll do much as it must take the same number of calories to open one of those things as there are calories inside. I'm trying to convince him that more icecream would be a better tactic.

Back to the future again, Colin and I have been looking for wedding bands. Besides the fact that all the sample rings we've tried on have been too small for me and too big for Colin, we are not having much luck. We went on Friday afternoon to a wedding expo at the convention center, but only one place even had weddingbands out and none of them were very remarkable. A few of them weren't ugly, but that's not saying much. Afterwards we thought we'd do more research by going to Tiffany's and Cartier in Taipei 101. Of course they were all outrageously expensive, but nothing even perked our interest. When we left Taipei 101 all that had come of it is that Colin had learned that I was once given a piece of Tiffany's jewelry as a gift and we had bought to books on Taiwanese cooking. Maybe we should just exchange books on our wedding day. They are much easier to find and like and want to purchase. We were also very hungry, probably more from looking at cookbooks than from looking at rings, so we went to the only place nearby, Jason's, the uber Western grocery store. Not only was it super Western, it was like a Whole foods or a Pavillion's. I'm talking about high class grocery shopping. We bought some French bread that to our surprise wasn't sweet and didn't taste exclusively like butter and wandered around eating and pretending like we were traveling through Europe and bread was all we could afford.

We want back out on a ring hunt today and things were pretty abysmal. There are no rings that are really wide enough for Colin and no one here seems to do matching but not identical rings for male and female. That's probably because no one wears their wedding rings here. I think they put them in safes. Ah, what to do? Colin suggested we exchange bagels at our wedding, but I reminded him that bagels will probably be just as difficult to find in Umbria as rings are in Taiwan.

The travel plans

Here is a visual rough plan of our trip across the world. I'm sure it will be wrong, but when I get home I'll make an accurate one and we can compare. I'm also going to put this in the heading or my porfile or somewhere where it can be found during the trip.

Disconnect

A typhoon is coming on here. I've become Taiwanese in my emotion towards typhoons. They in no way scare me and are instead a lovely excuss to stay inside all day, which is what I do a lot of the time anyway, but to have too, ahh. To get the need for more space out of our system we walked though the pre typhoon rains to the movies and saw Pirates of the Carribean. I was so wet you might not have known that I had an umbrella.

We home again and I feeling a little disconnected. I've been feeling this a lot recently. Colin and I are planning such big things and I keep wanting more council. More people to tell me the dress looks fine, you will be a good architect, don't bother applying to schools where Colin couldn't find a job. I know all this but I want my people, my friends and family closer to share with. I guess part of it is that my nearby close relations have shrunk as of late. I have Colin, but I guess I didn't realize how much my housemates and co-workers meant to me.

My solution seems to be to have checked my e-mail and blog more than neccessary. I have also become obsessed with flickr and am in the process of belonging to my first online community. Oy vey.

The satisfaction of getting things done.

I have been intensly productive today. I went to FSE and checked out the Architectural School Guidebook. Those 5 hours plus a few other hours have helped me narrow the choices down to ten. Here they are:

Harvard
Columbia
Illinois Institute of Technology
Univeristy of Washington
University of Pennsylvania
University of Nebraska
Berkeley
University of British Columbia
University of Oregon
University of Illinois at Chicago

Now all I have to do is more research to cut the list down to 4 or 5.

In Bridal news I found a picture of that dress I want go to http://insideweddings.com/bridal-fashion/2006/spring/angel-sanchez/ It's dress number 12. If I become a millioniare, Angel Sanchez will recieve all of my money because he is an amazing designer.
This picture is sort of the idea too but not as awesome.
I also like this dress but it is completely different from the other styles.
Tell me what you think about all three and their relationship to my drawing.

Wedding Post #1- The dress

So you might know that I'm going to have my wedding dress made in Bangkok while we're there. That however means that I really need to know what I want. This is a post all about my dress desires and I'm looking for some input. If you're not interested in hearing me sound extremely girly, I would skip this post.


Here's the dress. It's based on a dress by Angel Sanchez that I found in Bride's magazine (yes I read a bridal magazine, but I did not buy it) on page 70. I haven't been able to find the dress anywhere in photos online, though many of his dresses are lovely (I hope I don't get sued for posting this).


There was no back picture so I am not in love with a particular back, but here are my options.

Let me explain the dress a little more. I think it is sort of Italian muse Botticelli Primavera like sort of Edwardian England. It is silk underneath with a thin tulle on top. The tulle is bunched or folded over at the top and then is pulled together in an empire waist by a thin cord. Below that it spreads out into a bunch of fabric. I was thinking that it should be a lower empire that is around my ribs instead of right under my boobs. It should just skim the floor. In the back there are the three possibilities. I have to think of the fact that the shoulder straps are a bundle of fabric and what would look best. The middle option would be to keep a bunch of fabric all the way around, perhaps loose, but loose probably wouldn't work with the flow of fabric down to the empire line. The other option is the truncated V and the deeper boat but similar to the front.

So that's what I want, classical, easy comfortable, free flowing. Here's where I need help. First I am worried about the Empire waist, people in Taiwan only wear empire waists if they are pregnant. I wore the one summer dress I had (empire waist) to work two times and both times people asked if I was pregnant. Will I look pregnant? Do people think that other places, say Italy or America? Please, alleave my fears. Second, what kind of shoes would go with this? I should buy them here because, well where else am I going to buy them. Third if anyone can find any pictures, photos, that look like this, send me to where they are. Forth, which back is best. I'm leaning to the V.

You can e-mail me comments or comment on the blog or if you go to the flickr page you can highlight areas of the picture and make notes. You might have to be my Flickr friend to do this, but that is easily done.

Pulling things together

It's been a while since I've posted given that I was posting nearly every other day. I've moved to Taipei and I felt a strange need to organize my computer and myself before I posted again. Plus, nothing seemed important enough to post or I was too tired by the time I would have posted. So here's a brief rundown.

I've changed a lot of my Flickr photos to private, if you want to see them, ask to be my friend and I will invite you or sign yourself up and friend me.

I moved to Taipei, Colin couldn't figure out why I didn't send more things home and my answer, that I might need them, proved unsatisfactory but fair.

I got two tutoring jobs. One I haven't started with 2 really cute little kids and one with a woman who wants to learn hotel English in a month but who I think secretly hopes to master English in a month and be my best friend. I might have to level with her.

We've moved forward on the wedding, but a separate post on that.

We went back to Yilan to pick out 30 of 300 photos for our Taiwanese wedding album. It's a riot, I'll post when I get them.

I decided to be an architect. Oh yes, I suppose that's a big one, I might post my reasoning a little later, or maybe I'll just post my personal statement when I write it because this means that I'll apply this winter and I have to do a lot this summer given the 2 months of travel and weddings.

I've been out and about in Taipei trying to appreciate the range of activities here. My friend Geoff is here on a Luce grant and though he's only been here about a month and an half he's become involved in all sorts of things and met all sorts of people. I went to watch his Capoeira class, which is truly amazing, but I also went because the metromall that they practice in, off of the zhongshan stop, is the gathering spot on Wednesday nights for tons of teens and twenties practicing hiphop. Some of them have teachers, some are just friends sharing moves and practicing routines. Apparently there are some big competitions out there. It was crazy to see kids really working to hone a style in Taiwan. I don't see that much.
The Taipei film festival ends today and like all festivals, I had big plans to go see a bunch of movies, but I ended up seeing just one "My Nikifor," a Polish film about a 'famous' Polish folk artist who was pretty much insane, or at least extremely eccentric. It was beautiful but really didn't delve into any of the stories it presented.
Last night was probably the most fun of all these recent events. We went to see Cloud Gate with Geoff and Melati, another fellow Reedie, plus Geoff's dancer friend and all of his friends. Cloud Gate is a modern dance troupe in Taiwan that Geoff is doing his Luce about. They are huge on the international modern dance scene, but you'd have to know about the international modern dance scene to know that and most of us don't. The show was free and outdoors and the stadium was filled. They showed 3 early pieces from the 70s and one recent piece from this year. I enjoyed about 3/4 of them so I will unwriteoff Modern dance. Apparently it can be good if you see good troupes. It is as if I had only ever seen Kinkades and decided painting was bad.

So that's about it. I promise to keep up now

Audio posting- I am a technologically competent

This is just a test. Unless you want to hear my voice you don't need to listen to it. This is how all my posts will look when we are travelling. Now I just need to figure out how to get a map to track our travels with.