Eyes wide open

What an odd, lazy weekend…in Taiwan! From my dormitory window, I could imagine that I'm in a small town in Ohio. Green trees blowing in the breeze, partially hiding a few concrete buildings and basketball and badmitten courts. But one need only walk a few paces outside the university gates to realize that this is an entirely foreign place. Shirtless, sunbaked men gather around the TV in the back rooms of little shops, holding ceramic cups of “mian,” or noodles, close to their mouths. If I strain my eyes, I can see a farmer in a pointy, wide-brimmed straw hat heading out to work in the adjacent rice fields. I can't get a feel for this place. It seems like a very local, semi-rural village from where we are. But on my morning run the other day with one of the other students, we ran up the stairs of the seven-story library and clambered up the fire escape ladder of the interior level up to the roof. Buildings for miles and miles around. Taoyuan  City's downtown is only a short bus-ride away and is buzzing at night with neon lights, big shopping malls, and roadside stands of unidentified meats on skewers.

“Mei guo?” passersby ask of us if we are with any local students, wanting to know if we are Americans. Or sometimes we catch them off guard, as on Friday while winding through a market on the northeast coast after a day at the beach. A little boy did a double-take when he saw me (I was strolling with a group of Korean international students), tugging his mom's hand and pointing at this strange creature with the pale skin and red hair. I've only seen one or two other white girls this whole week. Which was perhaps more than this little boy ever had. “But Western girls usually have big bodies,” one of my roommates said matter-of-factly, “I think you are Asian!”

The campus is quiet today. Most the international students went to Taipei. My pocketbook is getting a little too skinny a little too fast, so I decided I'd better pace out my traveling a bit. I traveled all day Friday on a school-sponsored trip, and my local roommate offered to take me traveling next weekend. Yesterday was spent reading and playing guitar. After I signed up for this trip I second-guessed myself, wondering if I was scheduling myself too tightly. But I'm finding I have more unstructured time than ever. I was beginning to wonder if I should ration out my reading list, because I'm almost through my second of the four books I brought with me. But then I found out that the school library has a whole big section of English books. I actually have a chance to read for pleasure!

Last night a few of us walked down the street for a dessert of shaved ice, chocolate pudding, egg custard, little bits of sweet gelatin that reminded me of the Turkish Delight my roommate Lauren brought back from Cyprus last year, and pickled pineapple. It was quite the sensory experience. I don't think I'll order it again.

“Let me ask you a funny question, ” said Alex from Russia, as I attempted to find an English channel on television by poking the buttons with a chopstick because their external levers were broken off.

“Sure,” I mumbled, poking past a low-grade horror flick.

“Do you believe in God?”

I gave up my poking.

“Yeah, I do,” I said as I sat back down.

Alex, who has lived in Taiwan for a year, had a crazy tragedy happen with his family this week. I'd heard that he spent entire nights drinking and chain-smoking , just trying to put it out of his mind. Now he spoke easily, accepting this new turn of events as just another challenge to his character. I spent an hour in front of an American crime show with the volume turned off, grimacing at the gory scenes and talking with a kid from Moscow who's seen too much for someone my age. Talking about religion and politics and Russia and foreign cultures and why some students drink so much.

It's been a random week, with a trip to Hollywood on my layover, a dorm bed so hard I'm accumulating a pattern of bruises on my legs, a noisy cacophony of languages at every mealtime (English, newly-learned Chinese, Korean, and other random Asian languages students have learned to try to find a common mode of communication), huge bowls of noodles, vegetables, tofu, egg, and chicken that costs about one dollar U.S., bubble tea, quiet afternoons with a book and guitar, and new friends who barely speak my language. One week down. I wonder what the next five will bring.

~Mariah