The Roving Reporter

Likes, dislikes, and just plain differences...

Posted by: Amy Reiter

Monday, March 19, 2007 10:23 AM

The last two days have been interesting.

Some likes: I saw possibly the most beautiful worshipping place I've ever seen yesterday, the biggest Buddhist temple in Taiwan. It was located in the mountain just northeast of Kaohsiung City, and just opened in March. At the center of the temple was a room that was probably 40 feet tall. Inside, every surface was covered with color, pictures of flowers, deities, dragons. Even the ceiling was painted.

Then, in the middle of the room was a golden goddess, probably 30 feet tall, her eyes gently glancing downward as though benevolently pardoning or listening to the people who came to kneel at her feet. In front of her lay platters of offerings: soda, cookies, juice. It was almost incongruous to see something as mundane as a can of juice in the midst of such incredible beauty. Our host that day, a man nicknamed Judo who lived part-time in San Francisco and part-time in Taiwan, said that the temple took eight years and thousands of people to construct it. You could totally tell. I was in awe. (I couldn't take an interior picture, but I'm posting the exterior below. The other picture is of me and Tina Steel entering a the dragon's mouth I talked about in the last post.)

We also stayed at a hotel that had a pool heated by hot spring. That was pretty relaxing. And today we got to tour and talk to kids at a cram school, like an afterschool program that's all about academics. These little kids are expected to study hard and often.

Dislikes: What's been frustrating is that sometimes I've felt like I've been babysat. I think maybe it's cultural courtesy, but people order for me even when there's an English menu. One woman took my hand to walk me to the bathroom, then waited for me and took my hand to walk me back. They put food on my plate whether I want it or not, tell me where to stand to take a picture, where to sit for dinner. I'm independent, probably stubbornly so, so I'm having a bit of a hard time trying to be flexible. Hopefully, I'll adjust to it, or people will give us a little more room to make some decisions for ourselves.

Differences:
-The traditional toilet is a hole in the ground you're supposed to squat over. Thankfully, the Western style is getting popular here.
- Food is all shared, so even eating Italian, people pass around dishes.
- Stray dogs are everywhere. People seem to feed them, so I haven't seen too many ribs showing. But the traffic is everywhere and they're always walking in the street, and I keep seeing dogs with a limp, which makes me think there was a traffic accident, which breaks my heart every time.
-When people exchange business cards, which they always do, they always look at them and frequently comment or repeat the person's name.
-So many people seem to be bi- or tri- or multilingual. It's amazing how integral language acquisition is to their educational system.

Tomorrow we're supposed to see a factory and a university. I'm hoping it'll be fun, and I'm hoping for a hotel where I can get on the Internet, so I can get back to regular posts.

I hope everyone in the U.S. is well and enjoying the lack of hole in their bathroom.

Amy

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