Quick Christmas Eve & Day

 Chiayi Does It Up

The whole country really puts on, or plugs in, Christmas starting about the week before Thanksgiving.  No need to wait till black Friday here.  It actually has been quite touching at times checking out all the ways holiday is turned on.  Of course this is not a holiday of this culture, no kidding, hum.  People are pretty jovial about the whole foreign experience and willing to wish you well.  People are interested but still working on what they think and understand about the whole thing.  For the ardent holiday addict, there are many places to get the fuller feel, as numerous churches have holiday masses and music.  So, much of the glitz is just that, glitz.  It all goes up... and things get sold.  Some cool school competitions happen with big events, and large groups of kids performing.  Which is very cool, no pics just happened to catch a glimpse one night coming home from work.  The event was right in front of the building below.  The one above, yes, is the police station. 

They deck it out here.  Lights galore and kind of a welcome place to languish.  The front of the country/city government center.

Since Chiayi county is the heart of agriculture in Taiwan, it's not much of a surprise to see veggies and fruit part of the light display.

Santa and Merry Christmas

Even put lights on the palm trees, I was impressed.  But that is not all.  Chiayi is the home of the international marching band competition.  It is a week long, multi-event celebration of all levels of the marching band.  Most of the visiting bands come from various parts of Asia but there was a group from Germany.  Even watched the drummer drink a beer while marching down the street.  This is not an adult level, drum corps, type event.  All the bands are from high schools or younger levels.  This next shot is off the main circle in town with all the usual big ad boards converted-within a week of the event-to display solely for the marching band shindig. 

The event starts on Christmas day, why not no one else has plans and it is a national holiday which no one really celebrates.  So why not have a parade filled with music?  It turned out to be a grand time!

We have our own Eiffel Tower.  Oh, and for those trying to guess, 19 C is 66 degrees Fahrenheit... at night!

So here is my Christmas Eve.  Only have one class so it's off to the mountains for a hike. My buddy Jean joined me for a 70 degree Dec. 24th.  A fantastic scooter ride with just jeans and a short sleeve shirt.

This is where I wandered.  No snow, no threat of snow, no possibility of snow.  Definitely no snow shoveling in the future.  Nice.

The river bed we followed.

Rain forest with requisite small water fall-just a small one.

We joined a large crowd of people to cheer on the big parade of marching bands coursing through the city for our personal Christmas day.  It was absolutely grand!  So many actual tubas, it was childhood hilarious!  More shots to come of this!

So next comes the big feast of the day.  After standing on a corner for a moment, it was Thai food.  We ordered from the menu by recognizing a very few Chinese characters-fish, veg, beef, shrimp, chicken, pork-and throwing ourselves on the mercy of partial chance.  It worked out great!  Green Thai curry, pumpkin, pineapple and shrimp wontons, squid and shrimp ceviche, garlic and black bean sauce green beans and more fab stuff.

It's everywhere.

Potentially the most dangerous tree in all Taiwan...  Even with the fire extinguisher.  This is a gas station just to be clear.

Why, I could only find out it was for a political rally.  I stumbled across this one night.  Dude second from right rambles-I believe-about the high speed rail-depicted in the frame right behind them.

Yes, it exists.

 

Christmas English party at the school.

Gotta make displays.  Making Christmas...

What is the snowman saying about the USA...  oh, it's just a figurine that fell over.

Just outside the new school I work at.

Right next to the stadium where the marching bands were competing.  I want the push-button for my house.  This place worked on repairing these things.  Eventually....

The Strays

Graveyard Dog

One of the first things I noticed here that I found very sad was the number of stray animals wandering the streets. It’s heartbreaking. Most of the visible animals are dogs but every once in a while I see a cat slinking down a side street. Many of the dogs travel in packs and hang out in the “no man’s land” areas of overgrown grasses and banana trees between buildings or down by the riverbank. But there are lone dogs all over the city streets.

On His Own

These dogs are of many breeds but most seem to be a typical black dog that people just refer to as the "Taiwanese dog".  They’re about medium height with curious pointed ears and a curled tail. Occasionally you see one with a collar but most are on their own. Even the collared ones wander the late night streets making you wonder at the person who put the collar there and if they care where there pet is. Some of the other colored dogs look like mixes of German Shepherd or Spaniel. Some are grizzly looking in their fur and coloration and look more hyenas. There are so many and they are obviously breeding. 

That’s the truly sad part. The population keeps growing. Every once in a while the city rounds them up, holds them for a week in case there are any inquiries and, if unclaimed, they euthanize them. It must be a full time job. What seems like a better and more humane solution is to spay and neuter these animals so they stop reproducing. An educational campaign would be good to encourage people to sterilize and take better care of their pet.

Much of the attitude towards pets here seems very different from the United States where dogs are generally treated like part of the family. Many people here use dogs to guard the home or crops and if they wander off, they’ll get a new one. There are some people who truly do care about the plight of the homeless dogs and take them in. But if you start feeding one, others will arrive and then your neighbors get upset at the population of feral dogs you’ve attracted to the neighborhood.

This poor old guy lives right outside the school where I work. He had been hit by a car in the past so his hip is crooked and he's very skinny. But my employer says people in the neighborhood feed him. He is very gentle when you go to pat him. You see many of these strays lying on the road like this as all the scooters and cars zoom by.                                      It's amazing more aren't hit.

The dichotomy of this situation is that at the night markets, where they sell everything from food to shoes to electronics, you often see cute little puppies in a cage. People love to buy the cute purebred puppies. There are cutesy animals everywhere – on greeting cards, pencils, clothing, advertising, motorcycle helmets, and more. But there doesn’t seem to be enough heart given to real animals who are truly in need.

In my classes, the teaching material often includes stories or pictures of children with their pets. But when I ask students how many of them have dogs or cats, only a few raise their hand. And when I ask of those few if they walk or play with their pet, few seem committed to spending the time. Some say they used to have dogs but they wandered off. One said their uncle eats dogs.

So, this is a sad blog entry and I don’t have nearly enough pictures to demonstrate the scope of the stray animal problem here. I did find a couple organizations that are working to help the situation. They rescue the animals and treat their wounds and spay or neuter them and try to get them adopted. Since I cannot readily take in a pack of dogs, I donate money to these groups. You can click the logo below to go to the website of Animals Taiwan and learn about the great work they do to help homeless animals.

Bounce Back

Oh so long since I've been here.  I've been ESL Taiwaned.  My first job at a school here ended with a month-long catharsis of meetings that clarified nothing.  From talking with many other teachers here, a good half of new teachers to Taiwan end up in a back contract with a school that abuses them.  I could be over estimating, but from speaking with the group of about 40 teachers I know, easily half have had a similar experience.  I just decided not to put up with it, and resigned.  I do have a part time gig, and I've had some great teaching experiences-the students were great (most of them) and my coworkers are top notch, just the biz was not.  So, I am forging ahead.  Please pardon the three week break, but I've been in, arrrrggggg, meetings in almost every free moment-except weekends where we get out into the world. 

So here are just a few shots to end a week where officially I am done at one place and moving on.  Here's some shots of things that keep me going when the heat turns up...

Skinks, where would we be without skinks?

Food

Tiny fried shrimp

Art, especially art with barbarella

The scooter

Without a doubt this lovely gal

Mt. Ali part I

Mount Alishan is probably one of the most famous, visitor accessible and contradictory mountain experiences in all of Taiwan.  The peak is nestled almost in the center of the Alishan National Forest Recreation Area (qualities of both a US national and state park if you can imagine such; picture the immensity of nature and minibikes in the tight camping area).  In actuality, the overwhelmingly gigantic beauty of Alishan can almost overwhelm you if you can actually find a way to sit silently alone for more than a few moments.

This was on our last day here, with only an hour left, but we found it.  A whole twenty minutes.

Within the first week of arriving in Chiayi we started hearing about how we had to go see Mt. Ali.  It lies on the western edge of the central mountains.  The trip is an eye popping, heart stopping trip of awe and fear up the heavily trafficked mountain/country crossing "highway"; provincial highway 18.  We were in a bubble of a bus watching cars, massive buses, motorcycles and yes, scooters battle their way around each other up the serpentine tarmac. The alternate choice to the typhoon-death highway is the quaintly/cheesily advertised red train that used to ride to the main park; appropriately titled the Alishan Railway.  Supposedly a perfect ride up the mountain in April at the heart of the cherry blossoms popping.  You can't miss the shots of this if you type Mt. Ali into yer browser.  This rail was originally constructed by the Japanese to take as much lumber feasibly possible out of the old growth forest to the nearest port.  The history of the occupation has a real brutal heart to it.  Through the not-forgotten but not-present memory of that past also has a side to it of modernization.  There's a lot out there about this to check out, but my main mention of this is at the heart of Alishan.

The tree is thousands of years old, doubt if he will live to a hundred

The whole area of Mt. Alishan is a juxtaposition of massive, MASSIVE, tourism encapsulating the mythical past of Taiwan, ancient trees in the mist and all.  Kind of like Disney in the redwood forest of California.  I was overwhelmed right to the core. I was drawn to photograph some touch of the gorgeous majesty that I enjoy so much in the silence of the deep woods, in midst of pack after pack of boisterous tourists.  Smokes, cameras, kids with cameras, phones, and phone calls right next to each of the remaining ancient trees.  There is a lot of respect for these Goliaths of the past, but it is weird how little time each group stays at the base of any given tree.  Stop on the path, take tons of photos, have a sit down or smoke, them move on to the next.  I guess we all kind of do this at parks, but it's kind of like a crowd from some bar going on a short hiatus.  Oh yeah, there are miles of well paved roads all round these sights, so you don't have to walk too far if you don't have the urge.  

The striped part of the road I guess was deemed for us walkers, but we knew better than to believe we were actually safe.  Front, back and to the side, car death could come at any moment.

One of the meanings for the pinyin word Shan means mountain.  The Chinese character is quite lovely and fitting.  The full name, not surprisingly, comes from a culture of people called the Jou people about 250 years ago.  A wise and prosperous leader named Abali led to the modern name of the mountain. Great hunter and tracker as well, knew the place like the back of his hand.  Still trying to get a handle on the human settlement history of Taiwan so I can get a better picture of the population changes. There's more pics and perspective on all of this, so we will have another entry this weekend.  So better than talk anymore, here's the wacky and beautiful.

I couldn't get a clear answer on how old the stone walk ways are, but I don't believe they span before Japanese occupation.

The shuttle stop is about 50 feet from here.  The path this troop walked on goes for about a half mile.  But they don't have to walk the entire distance.  The tarmac road, frequently clogged with shuttle buses, intersects most of these walking paths at multiple points on any one of the trails.  So, instead of walking the whole way you can walk 300 feet and catch a five minute ride to the next spot to gawk.

The majority of this crowd looked more at their own pictures on their tiny screens, than the actual 2,500 year-old tree directly in front of them.

If you can look at her screen closer, that is exactly what she snapped.  From peeking over shoulders, most shots are just taken as a record of the thing rather that trying to compose a shot.  Many of the photos I saw were like her's, where there are portions of arms, heads, hands, you name it, and nature.

Buddhist monument to the local god of the trees. 

This winding path was a rather recently built.  Suspended above the earth between five to twenty feet, the cedar walkway went through most of the central park.

This cedar towered 165 feet about me.  My few decades dwarfed by its 2,500 years.

For those Python fans, just think "Course it's a good idea!"

At the very modern train station crowds gathered twice a day to watch a troop of dancers.  The photos at Ali show previous dancers outside of the station.  The inside was airconditioned just like the traditional dance grounds...  Well not really.

A very odd experience.  This troop of traditional dancers romped around the lower entrance lobby of the train station.  They danced to modern teckno and local cultural music.  One of the members spoke to the gathered crowd, in Chinese, about the purpose of the dances, where to get the music (including the techno, no I didn't buy one but should have).   Part II of the blog will have more on these guys.

That table in the background is the gift shop.

This walk was a lovely roll around a hilltop without a sole for a good while.  A Sunday morning misty relxing strole