Da Ge
Doug Stephen Joined: August 25th 2007
Logged in: August 21st 2010
Logged in: August 21st 2010
This is the story of our first year living and working in Hualien County, on the east coast of Taiwan ROC. I am a schoolteacher in the junior high in Guangfu Township, and Lao-puo (Suzanne) studies Chinese at Buddhist Tzu Chi University in Hualien (where we live). My blog is called "The Land Where it's Already Tomorrow". The blog for our second year is now under way at http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Pagan-Dan/
Travel Blog Posts
April 13th 2007
It’s altogether too pleasant, in my beloved East Rift Valley, to remain angry and upset for too long. There is nothing like the patch of wildflowers at Ji An Station, or a bush of burgundy hibiscus blossoms at an unexpected train stop, or a proud-as-Lucifer ringnecked pheasant strutting about, or pagan dan pin for breakfast in Fong Lin, or 90 km/h on 11A as dawn breaks, to knock the spots off any bout of ill temper. Da bei Taiwan pi jo doesn’t do any harm either—and it’s not nearly as strong or fattening as Canadian beer. Besides, Lao-puo rang this morning again, and she is in good spirits. Dr. Lee has her on full bed rest, and traction, for at least three days, in the hope that her disc will work its way back into alignment ... read more
The wrath of all Gods fall on the misbegotten forgotten-the-eight-virtues turtle-egg of a neurosurgeon at Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital, and all his generations! Chinese swearing is quite a bit different in style from our own, and completely called for in this instance. Lao-puo was ready for her procedure yesterday afternoon; after the resident had assured her that she would be sedated. Then the Flemish Mare of a surgical assistant told her, in no uncertain frank terms, that the surgeon had made no such preparation. After a week or so of virtually-unrelenting pain, controlled only with morphine, Lao-puo still had the strength to take issue with the old cow. Then His Imperial Majesty sawbones waltzed in, announced that Suzanne was “too emotional”, for the procedure, and cancelled it on the spot! He referred her to Dr. ... read more
Lao-puo by the Pool
Does anyone besides me remember “The Jeffersons” (Archie Bunker Spin-Off)? Moving, even from the fourth floor of a walkup, can be fun—and not just because we have neither a piano nor a freezer. It was astonishing, nevertheless, how much rubbish we have accumulated in a short period of time. Our new landlady kindly let us borrow a truck. To my great delight, it was an old blue Toyota half-ton—even older and rustier than the one I was driving in Canada. The muffler rattled (at least it did until I booted the tailpipe), and the exhaust would gag a moose, but it got the job done. There was no heater or defroster in the truck. (I don’t mean “no” in the sense of ones that don’t work—I mean there was neither installed in the first place.) Behind ... read more
March 26th 2007
Relaxing in the Park...
Some of the most interesting things happen around here, just by serendipity. Lao-puo is often tied up with her Chinese studies on Sundays and (not wanting to disturb her) I explore the neigbourhood. Can you imagine what would happen, in a Canadian park, if someone dragged an old lounge chair and just left it there for his own use? Well someone did, and I enjoyed my beer in comfort. While I was at it, I snapped a few pics of a lady teaching her little guy to ride a bicycle. The interest lay in the fact that she chose the riding-double method—forbidden when I was a kid. No wonder Chinese people seem to have a natural ability on motorbikes. Riding style, by the way, seems to be gender-specific. Do you remember the old rhyme from when ... read more
March 20th 2007
View of the Mountains from the Rooftop
Anyone plotting to assassinate me (maybe one or two of my students for all I know) would have an easy time of it. I have become a real creature of habit. I’m up at 0500, out the door at 0520, in 7-11 to buy my orange juice and coffee at 0530, on the train at 0545, and rolling at 0600. I’m at the same breakfast place in Guangfu (at the same table) at 0705, and at school at 0730. My contract requires me to be on the school grounds all day, and I leave at 1630 for my 1711 train home. I arrive at Hualien Station at 1810, and I’m home again at 1830. I have a standing physiotherapy appointment at BTZGH at 1900, and I’m home again at 2030. Life in the fast lane. By ... read more
March 12th 2007
The Submarine
I remember a “Far Side” Cartoon, from some years ago, depicting a Neanderthal man holding an enormous club the size of a Douglas Fir log and saying to his friend, “Let’s hope we never have to use it.” The same concept applies to first aid, but Lao-puo and I had to use ours the other day. A fellow spilled off his motorbike near our digs, seconds before we arrived at the accident scene. His young son on the back was unhurt, but you didn’t have to be a sawbones or a paramedic to tell at a glance that the dad had broken his leg. Being somewhat analytical in a crisis, I remembered a martial arts friend of mine telling me some years ago that it only takes 7 psi to break a human bone. Or was ... read more
March 8th 2007
Peter and Lao-puo
A cold snap has rolled in from China, although it feels more like it’s from Mongolia or even Siberia. It’s hard to believe that a few short days ago we had the air conditioner on, and I was wearing sandals without socks and short sleeves even in the evenings. Recently, we’ve even had to turn on the portable radiator overnight. To make matters worse, we have had a few days of real West Coast Canadian rain—the kind that makes you feel as if you will never see the sun again. Smack in the middle of our cold and wet snap, we had our first company from Canada. Peter is a former colleague, whose sardonic humour made it easier for me to ride out the last few months before I could strike my tent and retire. It ... read more
East China Sea
Lao-puo had a stack of pictures, from previous weeks, on her camera, so I thought I would like to include them as a photo essay. ... read more
February 27th 2007
National Academy for Education Research
February 27, 96 (as I start to write this) This week will be short and crazy. I must start the new semester with a two-day week, with the Peace Memorial Day national holiday breaking up the week on Wednesday. We (the Hualien County contingent of six foreign English teachers) will be using Wednesday morning to travel to Taipei for a conference, and I will not be home again until Sunday afternoon. Lao-puo is staying home, because it is really easy to get behind on her intensive Chinese course. The conference will be over at noon on Saturday, but I’m staying until the next day to have dinner with some friends and to hang out in the big city. There are only two national holidays left in the school year—Tomb Sweeping Day on April 5th and ... read more
Getting Ready for Hualien by Scooterback
The Gods are Kind Therefore, this week I took pictures instead of wrote notes, and my weekly missive is a photographic essay as opposed to a verbose one. ... read more
