I know there is probably no more silly comment to make about Taipei, but it is like a huge honkin' big Chinatown!
I settled into my apartment yesterday, spending most of the day cleaning it since there had been construction work done, leaving a choking dust on all surfaces. I need to make the landlady make note that I did not receive the apartment in a clean condition. Great landlady, though. I like her a lot, although no landlord is ever to be trusted. Have to remember there is no relationship there, it's all about money, and in the end, they will try to keep as much of your deposit as possible.
I'm falling into my old bad habits. We had orientation this morning at Shida. Afterwards, I promptly looked for an internet connection in the school building, and having found one, I have not moved for the past two hours, and I still have to open a bank account and get a cellphone. There is no wireless signal in my apartment, but the landlady mentioned to two of us renting there that she will look into getting ADSL for the building with a wireless router. You see, she's nice, but she's still a landlord, and no landlord is ever to be trusted.
Classes start on Wednesday, and it's going to be a whirlwind of intensive language classes. One 3 month semester here is said to be the equivalent of almost 2 years of college level language class.
I reminded myself earlier about a friend of mine at Oberlin, Dwight, who was dyslexic and had particular trouble in math. What did he do about it? He became a math major. How impressive is that? You know you suck at something, you know you have trouble with it, and you major in it?
Well, I've always sucked at languages. With all the effort I've placed into learning Japanese, I really should be able to speak by now. And now, not only am I going full-on to learn another language, but it's a language I really don't care to learn. Chinese sounds all the same to me, I can't tell one road from another and have zero retention in most street names because they all sound the same to me. They all become one big Chinatown blur. Except in Chinatown, the roads are in English. Grant St. Stockton. Mott St. Mulberry.
But I couldn't be more pleased being here. I know my trouble with languages touch on a lot of other issues that I'm watching my mind go through, and I'll be tracking them during my stay. If I was in Japan, I know my neurotic would be peaking. And it would be halla more expensive there. And at least my family is from Taiwan, I have some claim to being here, even with no interest in the language or culture. Issues, dude.
I walk down the streets and see the routines, the lives, the lifestyles. I'm on the outside, and the key barrier is language. Once I unlock the key with language, I could actually participate in this. I could be here. I could belong here. I hope I'm not kidding myself. In the end, I just can't see myself speaking this language.
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| February 27, Roosevelt Rd and Heping West Road intersection |
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| Footbridge at the southwest corner of Da'an Park over Heping East Road with Taipei 101 in the distance. I think this will be my "default shot", subject matter that I come across often and shoot repeatedly at different times, capturing its different moments. |
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| Feb 26, 10:29 a.m. - elevated MRT line coming down Fuxing South Rd and turning left onto Heping East Rd. |
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| 11:44 a.m. - Da'an Forest Park, across the street (Heping East Rd) from my apartment. |
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| 12:00 - 12:01 p.m. - this four-way foot-bridge was also in "Yi-yi" (the boy is shot (not in the American sense) walking on it when he sneaks out of school during naptime to get his film developed). Southwest corner of Da'an Park (Heping East Rd. and Xinsheng South Rd). |
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| 12:03 p.m. - default shot |
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| 12:32 - 12:33 p.m. - smaller alleys in the Shida (pronounced shr-da) area. |
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| 9:56 p.m. - my apartment. Compaq laptop on the desk, portable film scanner to the right which I used to digitize all my film negatives until I learned photo-finishers could scan them and put them on a CD for me. To the right of that is an external hard-drive that needed to be plugged in for power. I'm guessing it didn't have even 1 GB capacity. 2006, baby. |
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| Feb 27, 6:25 p.m. - Da'an Park footbridge too cloudy to see Taipei 101. |
1. A Kind of Loving (The Police)
2. Pass It On (The Wailers)
3. Strange (R.E.M.)
4. Happy Boobooster '99 (The Pugs)
5. Ruby My Dear (Thelonius Monk)
6. Watch the Silverware (764-HERO)
7. Hainumikaze (Chitose Hajime)
8. Death of a Minor TV Celebrity (The Candyskins)
9. While My Guitar Gently Weeps (The Beatles)
10. Lovely ("A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum" - Sondheim)
