Apparently my language aspirations here in Taiwan may have been a little too high. I figured that around 1 month into my studies I would be walking the streets conversing with everyone I see... not the case! I will say that in the last five weeks I have learned an incredible amount of Mandarin. None-the-less, I continue to utter a common phrase, (不懂 - budong), meaning, "I don't understand." I may as well write it on my forehead...
Taiwanese people are always willing to help. They are incredibly kind, engaging, and and very genuine. I am approached nearly every day in a coffee shop somewhere as I study... A Taiwanese will strike up a conversation and ask about my (功課 - gongke), meaning homework. I am constantly reminded of the importance of total emersion when studying a language. I go from learning a new phrase one minute, to having the opportunity to speak it the next. I feel that a new language is like an addictive drug that you just can't get enough of.
I recently watched a youtube video of a speech given by the current US Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman. He emphasized the importance of language study, and specifically Mandarin Chinese. He said, "Learning a new language does something magical, it opens the mind and allows us to embrace differences." I couldn't agree more. It's most definitely a special feeling to communicate with someone by reaching out in their own language.
I spent the last weekend in Taichung, Taiwan... which is located in the middle of the island. I was visiting my Up with People host family from last year. I took Taiwan's high speed train which travels at 270 KM per hour! The trip took just 45 minutes as we literally "flew" by the Taiwan countryside. It was a great feeling to spend the day in Taichung being able to communicate somewhat in Mandarin Chinese. My host mother (嗎嗎 - Mama) in Taichung speaks very little english. Having the opportunity to speak to her in her own language is motivation enough for my entire time studying in Taiwan. It's building these kinds of relationships that make language study so amazing! We made dumpling with the family on saturday and Grandma tried to teach me how to form the perfect (水餃 - Shuijiao) or water dumpling. (See video below for "Dumpling Lesson 101")
I've been lucky enough to get out of the city a little over the last couple weeks. The mountains around Taipei are beautiful and people love to take advantage of the many hiking trails. Some friends from class took a great hike the other day with amazing views of the city. I also headed up to the northern coast for some surfing recently. Taiwan is definitely capable of world class waves! The surf culture here is alive and well and it was great to get back into the water!
I move into a new apartment in just a few days where I'll be living with three other people. I'm excited to get settled in and have my own place in Taipei. Studies are going well, but continue to be a big challenge. I do look forward to learning something new everyday and enjoying the great Culture of Taiwan. This Friday I will fly to see my Up with People friends for their final shows in Manila, Philippines. I look forward to some familiar faces! All the best to you from here in the last of the Rising Sun! Hope to talk to some of you very soon... -馬修
Well I can officially say that I've made it through my first two weeks in Taiwan.
I can already use many words to describe these first days... exciting, difficult, confusing, vibrant, exhausting, delicious... It's been a lot of fun!
I arrived on March 1st in Taipei, Taiwan (台灣） which is the capital located in the North of the country. This will be my home for the next 10 months while studying chinese here in the city. I began classes only a few days after my arrival and things started moving along FAST. I'm enrolled in an intensive Mandarin Chinese course at (Shida) University. The Mandarin Training Center (MTC) has nearly 1500 international students, representing over 70 countries, studying Chinese at varying levels. My class meets three hours a day, five days a week, and has only six people. 2 Americans ("Meiguoren" 美國人） , 2 Swede's, 1 Canadian, and 1 Korean. We're expected to keep up with the course work by studying at least 4 hours a day outside of class... WHAT?... That's what I said.
We'll the good news is that I feel my language skills beginning to move along at a fast rate. Writing chinese characters over and over again is brutal, but there is also something kind of soothing about it. I'm not a fan of spelling anyway, so what better than learning a language that is completely based on ancient pictographs! Hopefully some of my blogging can show off Chinese characters at some point...
I've been living with my original Up with People host family from my last visit to Taiwan. It's been a great way to get comfortable with my surroundings. I can say that my chopstick skills are much improved and I kind of prefer them to a fork and knife. Maybe I was Chinese in another life. Between classes I cruise over to the local "night market" by the school and pick up a bowl of beef noodles at my favorite place. At around 75 NT ($2.15) for a big bowl of noodles（"mian" 面) and tea, the price is hard to beat. Panda Express has nothing on the real thing...! Food here is great, and I highly recommend trying to find "real" Chinese food where you live. Loads of fresh vegetables, seafood, great meat, and of course rice... not the orange chicken we find in the USA. I won't even begin to talk about the fruit... my heaven!
Last weekend I traveled with students from my school to a lantern festival being held in a city nearly 45 minutes outside the city. It's the site of an incredible festival every year where hundreds of lanterns are released into the sky after dark. Each lantern has a flame that causes it to fly high into the sky. The tradition is to write your hopes, wishes, and dreams on the paper lanterns before they are sent up. What an amazing spectacle it was to see hundreds of lanterns go up at one time! We even had the chance to write on a lantern ourselves. You will see the video I created below...
You may be surprised to discover that nearly 65% of Taiwan is covered in mountains（“shan” 山). I'm hoping to head up into the mountains surrounding Taipei for some hiking this weekend. For now, I'm back to the books for more studying. By the way, I hope you enjoy the Chinese lessons as you read along! I'll be updating as often as possible, so check back!
您好 (Hello!) I leave for Taipei Taiwan on February 25th, 2010...! Plenty of great updates to come after I make the move to South East Asia. Be sure to check back at the beginning of March. If your interested, my archived blog from Up with People Cast B 2007 is below... 盡快與您交談 (Talk to you soon...!) - Matthew
I can honestly say that the last 4 weeks of my Up with People tour were some of the most impactful of my life. My cast flew from Brussels, Belgium to Manila, the capital city of the Philippines on November 12th. I had no idea what to expect considering my lack of information regarding the Philippines, and this my first time anywhere in Asia. A small bit of information regarding Manila…It’s one of the largest cities in the World with more than 12 million people. There are basically never ending metropolitan areas with around 8 different cities grouped together to create what Manila. Because of its massive area, our cast had to be spread out in completely different regions of the city, some almost 2 hours apart with traffic. This made it difficult to group together every day, so we were involved with special CI (Community Impact) projects that we would go directly to and from on most days. Some of these included; home building sites, spending time with children in the slums, and school groups. Most were centered on direct involvement with the poorest people in the area, working deep in the slums.
My project was with Habitat for Humanity. This was a Filipino branch of Habitat that was building a massive housing project in one large area of slums. I was with a team of 8 Up with People cast members. We were also along side a large group of Filipinos that had been working on the project for 1 year, with 1/3 being completed. By year 3, there are to be homes for an amazing 350 families. Each family is required to work a total of 700 hours to receive there home, so we had the pleasure of building side by side with the home partners. It was difficult labor, but I was so honored to be apart of this life-changing project. Just over the wall from our compound were the homes these people had been living in all their lives. Literally plywood nailed together, some as high as 6 stories, dangling over the side of a river. The worst poverty I have ever seen…I can’t imagine it getting much worse. We built bricks from sand and cement, created long brick throwing lines, painted walls and metal roofing, mixed cement on the ground with only shovels, separated gravel, cut re-barb, basically anything you can think of. One moment that really sticks out in my mind is a brick throwing line that stretched probably 50 yards on the ground, up a horribly unstable ladder, across a balcony, and into one of the homes. I realized that of the 15 or so people in the line, there were 5 Americans, 1 Danish, 1 Ugandan, 4 Filipinos, 1 Swede, and 1 German…All working together to rebuild these people’s lives. I felt so taken back to be there in the Philippines doing this work.
The people were amazing! Every day we would walk a mile from the Train station to our Habitat site. Along the way were communities of slums, and people that were always so happy to see us. They always greeted us and walked along as our group came through every day. Most people yelled, “Hey Jo!” to me because I’m a white guy, and the kids playing basketball in the streets wanted me to stop and take a shot as I walked by. Honestly, I had a hard time wrapping my head around the idea of extreme poverty and the joy that these Filipino people expressed. There had never been any connection between the two in my mind. One day, a home partner offered to take us behind the wall into the slums where he lived. We walked through a tunnel under all of the homes and saw first hand the living conditions they lived in. It was hard. I would hope pictures could give some explanation or feeling to it all, because I don’t know how they could ever give it justice.
My host family in the Philippines was great! I stayed with Jennie Shepherd from Arizona, and Josh Stevenson from Texas. We also had 4 other staff members that rotated staying in our house and the hotel. I’ll be honest, when I was first picked up by our host family and returned to the house…I was totally mixed up. I wasn’t sure who was my host mom, dad, sister, brother, friends of the family...there were so many people in the house. We really had 2 different host families. My host mom’s Ida and Grace were so much fun and really made our stay amazing. My host sister Kristal was always showing us around and showing us unbelievable hospitality. Many nights we would go out to local restaurants a sample the Filipino cuisine. That’s another story in itself. Every morning we woke to an amazing breakfast. Many times it was fish and rice, which is an interesting smell in the morning…Here are some other dishes that I had the pleasure to discover:
• Duck egg with cooked duck embryo inside – this thing was huge…first you crack the top and drink the juice inside, then break the egg and eat the yoke complete with an easily distinguishable duck embryo (If your lucky it has grown hair!).
• Chicken feet – fried and delicious, although not much meat…mostly bones and tendons.
• Chopped pigs face – skin, snout, lips…what else could you wants? Served on a hot place with raw egg cracked over top and cooked in.
• Pork cooked in it’s own blood
• Basically any inside part of a chicken, pig or cow…you name it, I ate it.
It was an interesting experience for myself, as well as most cast members, to stay in upper-class affluent families. The poverty in Manila is everywhere, not grouped into clusters like people might think. Our families had drivers, housekeepers, cooks, handymen, guards…people hired to do everything. We would spend the day in extreme poverty and come back to a life of complete service. It put things into a different perspective for everyone. I would walk outside my house every morning and right there on the street see families sleeping in boxes, naked children, old men and women begging for money…it was hard to understand.
The Philippines is a very westernized country. Most people speak perfect English. The history of western occupation can be seen everywhere, including their main source of transportation. We traveled around the city in “Jeepneys,” which are old Jeeps left behind by the US military. They are much longer than a normal Jeep and you just cram in and pay a small amount to travel a specific route. We also rode in side cars. These were motorcycles and bikes with a metal cart attached to the side. As many as 4 people can ride on one and I can attest it got a bit crazy on many occasions as we flew through the streets.
Our Cast on a few occasions would meet during the week for different regional learning activities. We saw museums, and also visited a community of families living in a site comparable to Habitat for Humanity. It was called GK, and basically this organization builds homes for the poor, while also creating a community with education for the kids, leaders holding different positions of responsibility, and jobs. We spent the afternoon playing with the kids and learning more about what the organization does. The kids ran up to us and grabbed our hands, holding on as tight as they could. They even performed some songs and dances for us which were the cutest things I've ever seen. See the video below:
Two children, a brother and a sister, lead me around the different homes. I just kept thinking that my family could be the ones living here. It wasn’t the decisions they made, but just what they were born into that brought about this lifestyle. As I had seen time and time again, they were so filled with joy and happy to spend time with us. Most the kids were in awe of Jules from Uganda. I don’t think they had seen another person before in their lives!
We performed two shows in the Philippines, which were the last of our tour. At the end of our final rehearsal, our cast joined in a circle and sang the UWP song “Well be There,” to one another. It’s about coming together to make a difference and that as a group, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish to help humanity.
We’ll be there; we’ll be singing one more song. We’ll be there, even though the road is long. We’ll be there, and the feelings growing stronger. When tomorrow comes, together, we’ll be there.
I’m proud to say that my cast is made up of people who are equipped to make a difference in the world. I know that these will be the future leaders, and the people working to help others and change people’s lives. It was hard to end our amazing semester of performances. In the end, 25 performances in 7 countries.
The final 3 days of our tour were spent together as a cast in Bagyo, a city 6 hours north of Manila. We stayed at the Philippines Military Academy. It was great to wrap up our tour together while also spending time with cadets from the academy. We played soccer matches, ate in the mess hall together, and even raced through the military obstacle course. So much fun! We ended the tour with a beautiful final banquet and wrapped the semester up together before flying home to our different countries. Our stay in the Philippines was unforgettable. I saw things and learned things that will never leave me. It’s a beautiful country with beautiful and amazing people. I hope to return soon in the future.
Alright...So I know I'm a complete jerk for waiting this long to update my blog, but these last weeks of my tour have been non-stop. Because I'm so far behind, and already in the Philippines, what I want to do is go through the last 3 weeks of my tour in Europe and highlight some of the most memorable moments. These places included Prenzlau, Germany; Dronten, Netherlands; and Leuven, Belgium:
Prenzlau, Germany is way northeast in what was considered the DDR during the times of the Berlin Wall and the complete separation of Germany. This was very apparent because this part of the country is completely unlike the south where I visited Zell the week before. I was roomed with Stefan from Germany, who I had already stayed with back in the states. I was glad to be with a native German speaker, and we stayed with a great family, Ines and Peter Rothmay-Vetter. They lived in a small village of only around 500 people that was 20 km outside Prenzlau. During the week, we heard from a panel of people on German/Polish immigration and relations...Prenzlau is just a few km from the Polish border. There is a situation not unlike that of the United States and Mexico, other then the fact that it’s an open border, between these two countries. Also included in the speakers was an asylum refuge from the country of Iran who is now living in Germany having escaped certain death in his country. We heard his amazing story of escaping Iran because of political disseverance, and he is actually still in hiding under the protection of the German government. The CI (Community Involvement) project I worked with during the week was related to our topic of German/Polish relations. I worked with 6 other cast members teaching a dance class to German and Polish dance students. We taught choreography from the show for two days and had the opportunity to perform with the students during a couple of moments in the show. One of the most exciting parts of our week was the day our cast spent in Berlin. Some of the most memorable sights included the Brandenburg Gate, Holocaust Memorial, and Berlin Wall. It was amazing to spend time at these historical sights, and especially to experience the Berlin Wall, and the division of Germany. There are even some ruins of churches and buildings left behind from the bombings of WWII to commemorate that time in Germanys history. To go back to something I talked about that week with my host dad...we discussed his experience with the division of Germany and what it was like living in the DDR, the side of Germany where people really weren't allowed to leave. He expressed to us that contrary to what most people think, or what history books might tell, his life was better off during that time of separation. He owned an auto repair shop, and because the government controlled the businesses and competition, he was the auto repair specialist in his area. He said business was good, and because he knew the right people, it wasn’t difficult to get the everyday food and supplies that he and his family needed. After the Wall fell, competition started and he lost business and fell into a worse financial situation. When I asked him if he would rather the Wall still be up, he said that because of the pain it brought for some, he was glad it is down, but for himself, times used to be easier. I found this conversation so interesting because it is something you would never expect to hear...especially learning history in the States. Our show on Saturday was special again because Stefan and I also sang the German song we had done the week before. There were also guest performances by a local rap group and a Polish dance team. On our free day, our host mom took us to the Baltic Sea and we toured some of the cities near where she grew up.
I was so excited to spend the next week in the Netherlands because my host brother Johan, who stayed with my family for 4 weeks in Denver, was from there. I had heard so much about the country, as well as made so many jokes, that I was ready to experience it for myself. We stayed in a city called Dronten, which is on the northwest coast. Dronten was actually created around 40 years ago when the sea was pumped out of a particular area that created a new group of towns. There are dikes around this area to keep the water out, which actually makes Dronten 5 meters below sea level. We went to see these dikes, as well as the locks where water level changes so boats can enter and exit the sea. I stayed with Jeff from Taiwan and an amazing family, the Loopstra's. They had 3 sons, just the same ages as me and my brother...I fit in fast. The first things I noticed in the Netherlands is how flat it is and how many people are riding bikes. It's crazy!...you ride your bike everywhere! Every morning we would ride our bikes 20 minutes to the facility. Our house and the students being hosted in the one next door created a bike gang...south side. We beat up little kids, old people, ran anyone off the road who got in our way...not really, but we did ride together. It was a pretty funny sight to see with most of the cast arriving by bike and parking them in front of the building. We did a lot of internal time in Dronten, talking about immigration and racism among other things. Our group also visited two Muslim mosks in Dronten, one a Turkish. Let's clear up some stereotypes about Holland...#1 People in Holland wear wooden shoes...True! Our neighbor’s host dad wore wooden shoes on multiple occasions and I even tried a pair for a day. #2 There are windmills everywhere in Holland...True! Not the wooden ones like you would think, but there are large steel windmills all over the place to harvest wind power. My breakfast every morning was pretty amazing…bread with Nutella (chocolate spread) and Hagel Slag (breakfast sprinkles) on top...more like desert. I also fell in love with Vla, or Dutch Pudding. My host family gave me a carton for our travel day! We spent our regional learning day in Amsterdam. I went with a group who took a tour of the red light district. It was a shock to say the least. Our guide was an ex-prostitute who now works for a center that helps prostitutes with equal rights. It's just like you would imagine it...the women stand in small doorways and windows wearing underwear. People just walk by and if there interested then they let them in. It's totally legal and there are around 500 spaces in the red light district filled with women. Amsterdam is a beautiful city, but there are just some things including the legal prostitution and marijuana that kind of taint it for me. Our show was a great turn out and I sang a song completely in Dutch by a famous Artist from Holland named Marco Borsato. It was a really great night. Shout out to all the Dutch high school student who spent the week with us...it wouldn’t have been the same without you all! One of my host brothers worked at an indoor ski and snowboard spot in Dronten, so on Sunday we went and did some snowboarding below sea level. It was basically a rotating piece of wet carpet that mimicked a ski slope. Really fun!
The last week of our European tour was spent in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Leuven is a beutiful city and our cast was really excited because there was a lot planned and a very busy schedule of great events. Our project for the week was with two people, an artist who was building a massive "CosmoGolem" and Sister Jeanne Devos, a Nobel peace prize nominee. The "CosmoGolem" was a 5-meter high wooden sculpture that has been placed already around the world. It has a large hatch on the side and represents the safe keeper of children’s hopes and dreams who can come place them in the Golem. Sister Jeanne Devos was involved because she worked with children in India who are kept as household slaves per say, working at young ages in homes, sometimes physically and sexually abused. She saw the possibilities of this project and also helped us connect with a village in Chile where the Golem will be eventually sent. We helped to build the golem and also unveiled it on our "Day of Hope" in downtown Leuven. We performed a mini show and revealed the Golem, opening it up for the children to share their hopes and dreams with. Also within this project, my smaller group went to a children’s hospital to perform and spend time with very sick kids, most with cancer. At the end of our time, they gave us their box of wishes to place in the Golem because they were to sick to do it themselves. It was a tough day, but one that also shed a new light and showed us the strength of these young kids. I was hosted that week with Johan from Sweden. We stayed with Eric and Lieve Giskes. It was so much fun and Eric made sure that we had our opportunity to tastes the beer tour of Belgium...after all, they do have the best beer in the world. According to Eric, we had the #2 beer in all of Belgium, Westmalle Triple. Most of the best are still brewed by monks and they can only create a small amount each year. We also enjoyed famous Belgian fries (eaten with mayo), chocolate, and shrimp from the north sea. I will certainly be back to Belgium some time soon! Our show was on Thursday, and was to be the biggest of our cast’s tour. It was held in a sports arena and we had a little over 2200 people come. There was also a guest performance from the Belgium Idol runner-up Sandrine. She performed 2 songs after our intermission. We raised 20,000 Euros for a charity's...pretty unbelievable. We also visited the European Union headqurters and parliment in Brussels. We had a tour and got to see where the parliment sits. My mom was visiting a friend in the UK, and they came down to see the show. Afterwards on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, I left the cast and my mom and I took a train to Paris. We stayed in a really great hotel and saw most of the famous sight on Saturday...the Arc De Triomphe, the Louvre, Notre Dame, and of course the Eiffel Tower. It was so much fun and we had a nice mother-son time in France. After saying goodbye, I joined the cast on Monday and we left the Brussels airport that evening for a new continent...ASIA!
My next blog will be coming soon because I have already spent almost 2 weeks in the Philippines...were staying in the capital of Manila...
Let me know what's going on and please leave some comments...
For the last 2 years I've been traveling the world with the International Organization Up with People. Now I take off on another great adventure. I'll be living in Taipei, Taiwan for one year, studying Mandarin Chinese. I hope you enjoy reading about my experiences...
