Friday, January 29, 2010

Dream the...um...well...really weird dreams...

For whatever reasons, and I'm sure there are several, I have not been sleeping well of late. I toss and turn and generally get about 3-5 hours of sleep a night. However, the times when I have actually fallen asleep have been filled with dreams that would make Dali wet his pants. The dreams don't include melting clocks or things of that nature, but they have a unique surrealism that may only apply to my own twisted subconscious. I have to wonder where some of these images come from. Are they a product of my youthful psychadelic experimentation? Are they metaphors, albeit very strange metaphors, for my life? Am I simply going mad?

The dream I had last night is about me as a cadet at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. This is odd in its own right given the fact that I've never been in the military or to Annapolis. The other thing that adds to the surreal nature of the dream was that, despite this being the Naval Academy, no one, with the exception of a lone MP in a Humvee, was in uniform. The dormitory was a five story steel and glass structure that would never grace the stately, hallowed grounds of Annapolis in a million years. The place looked more like a shopping mall than any thing else. Also, there were a lot of cats.

Most of the dream consisted of me running around in my underwear desperately trying to find my dorm room so I could be on time for roll call or class or whatever. Despite this constant state of unreadiness, the only time I got in trouble was when I showed up at inspection without a deck of playing cards. Apparently, had I read the Naval Handbook, I would have known that all cadets are required to possess a deck of cards at all times. Who knew? A deck of cards? I had to do twenty push-ups. The fact that I could actually DO the twenty push-ups only added to the weirdness. Anyway, I woke up at a part of the dream where I was in the library, perched upon a really tall ladder, reading a book with a large, grey cat on my lap.

Another fine example of my twisted subconscious state came a couple of weeks ago. The scene was walking around a place that could have been New York, Seoul, Paris, San Francisco, or a combination of the bunch waiting for a Patti Smith concert to start. In the dream it's a very nice day, the sun is shining, and there are a lot of people milling about. The weirdness starts when I run into two of my friends, Chip and Glenn (Mannerin, for those who know who I'm talking about), who are both on their way to the show. Not an especially weird moment until you realize that they are both dressed in the most fashionable Glam-rocker/cowboy chic (think Clint Eastwood meets Poison meets Stevie Ray Vaughan and you might get the picture). Those of you who know Glenn and Chip can understand how odd this might seem. Anyway, the three of us chatted for a bit and I wandered off.

Now one thing about my dreams is that I seem to be able to wake up, and even stay up for a while, and then slide right back into the dream when I fall asleep again.

The second part of this dream is in the same setting only now I'm walking into this immense, oval, ballroom with giant, doric columns about every ten feet or so. Between the columns or on the floor of the room are hundreds of nude women covered in bronze body paint posing as ancient Greek or Roman statues in various positions from the zodiac signs to "The Thinker". As I'm wandering through this scene, I bump into my friend Dawn, who is also covered in bronze body paint (even her glasses are bronze) and ask her if she knows where the bathroom is. She points it out, and I wake up ( I had to pee, what can I say).

I've had numerous dreams of this nature in the past few months...well for many years actually (there was the dream in Korea where a former co-worker went around the office smelling eveyone's feet to find out whose were the smelliest!?!). What do these dreams mean? Your guess is as good as mine.

Friday, January 22, 2010

It's a simple twist of fate...

Taiwan 1 - Eric 0:


For whatever reasons big or small, it seems that my first stab at Taiwan will end with my inglorious retreat back to Korea. Obviously, my all out, frontal attack strategy didn't work. I will have to sit back, regroup, and come up with a more devious plan for next time. It is a hard decision to go back, but one that is, unfortunately, unavoidable. I have to be thankful that I have friends and family willing to help me get through this. There is also the idea that, short of it suddenly sinking into the ocean, Taiwan will be around for a while.

The Blunt Trauma Irony Dept.:

After formally commiting to the job in Korea yesterday morning, I went home and found my shiny, brand new ARC card (work permit for Taiwan) waiting for me in the mail. And the gods laugh!

In the end, there is really only one thing to say....and so it goes.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Conundrumming...

ratatatatatat trrratata tat tat tat..

Should I stay here? In this place I want to be. Where frustration and uncertainty seem to follow every step I take. Where opportunity seems to mean more work for meager pay. Where the line between sanity and insanity is a simple three day shift. Where every path seems to lead to yet another dead end. I'll be damned if I know.

To leave is to admit defeat. To leave is to step backwards. To leave is to see the woman I love twice a year instead of twice a week. To leave is to have certain employment. Should I leave? I'll be damned if I know.

What I do know is that I have about two weeks to decide.

ratatatatatat trrratata tat tat tat...

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Trippin' in Yilan!

This my friends is not a travel piece, but more of a "these people are trippin'" thing.

As some of you know, my job search so far in Taiwan has been an adventure to say the least. Part of my problem has been my unwillingness to leave Taipei in search of work. I'm comfortable with my apartment, the MRT makes everything within the city and it's suburbs relatively convenient, not to mention there are a few watering holes that I've become attached to. However, I decided to take the plunge when a headhunter I talked to said she had a job in Yilan if I wanted to move. She noticed my hesitation and basically laid the deal on me: I'm too old and have too much experience to get work in Taipei in the current economy. Talk about a rather discouraging word. During the holidays no less! Anyway, I told her I'd think about it. About twenty minutes after I left her office, she called me up and said that the school in question needed someone desperately, so why didn't I go out there for a couple of days and fill in while they looked for someone and see if I liked it, and if I did, I could take the job. I hemmed and I hawed for a bit and then thought, "What the hell, it's paid work, and if I don't like it, it's only a couple of days." So I went.

I got to the school yesterday afternoon and within ten minutes of stepping out of the cab, I was in a classroom. I wasn't quite prepared for that (or the four classes that came after for that matter), but fortunately I had taught the books before and muddled through. I finished the day and was taken to my dorm room (their free housing if you take the job), given the keys and left to my own devices. So here I am, standing on a small balcony in a Taiwanese suburban wasteland with not a store in site, having a smoke and wondering what in God's name I was doing there. However, after talking to Rebecca and running into one of the guys that worked at the school, who showed me a place to get food, I figured, since I had to be there until Friday, I'd make the best of it.

Well, after a fairly decent night's sleep, I grabbed a cup of coffee and went off to the job. The school wants teachers in a half hour early so they can plan their lessons, which as fine by me because I didn't know what I was going to be teaching anyway. The first thing I realised was that it felt good to be actually working again. This was helped by the fact that my first four classes were all little kids between the ages of 4-6. Many of you who know ne know that I love little kids, so this started the day off pretty well. I got through that, went home for some lunch and a couple of smokes thinkjing this wasn't too bad; maybe I'll take this gig. The rest of the afternoon went by quickly, and I was feeling that, yes, I'll put tomorrow under my belt and probably take the job. This of course was because I was under the impression that it was my job to refuse. Ooops.

I finished today and went down to the office to tell them that I'd pretty much decided to come back but that I needed Monday off to take care of some pressing things in Taipei (mainly finalizing my work permit). The response I got was, "Did you talk to Jenny (the headhunter)?"
I said, "No-o-o-o. Why?"
"She called to say they hired someone for next week," the office lady replied.
"Oh," says I.

It turns out that the school was so paranoid that I would work the two days and say no, that they pulled the trigger and hired some other guy. Maybe I'm wrong, but it doesn't seem that unreasonable to give a person at least one full day to figure out if the job fits, especially if it involves a move. One crazy half day of work is nothing to go on. They didn't even ask me what I thought of the job! Oh well, it's their loss.

...and so it goes.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Day Tripping!

Over the weekend, Rebecca and I took a couple of day trips out of the city. One to a place called Jho Fun, which means "nine pieces" or "nine rice" depending on how bad your Chinese pronunciation is, and the other to a small market town called Beipu.

Jho Fun was a copper/gold mine during the Japanese colonial period and is situated up in the mountians nearby the port city of Keelung in Northern Taiwan. The place is well known for it's night market and traditional tea houses. There are a couple of ways to get there which take about te same amount of time depending on traffic. One way is to ae the train to Keelung (pronounced Geelung) and then catch a bus from the train station, or you can take a bus from downtown Taipei.

Rebecca and I went fairly late in the day on New Years so we got there after the sun had gone down. This would be a great trip on a nice day because the town is high up in the mountains and probably offers a spectacular view of the ocean and surrounding countryside. The night market is a tiny warren of covered walkways weaving in and out of the town. The market is full of food salls, nicknack shops, and, of course, tea houses. I would recommend going here on a day that wasn't so busy, simply to avoid the constant jostling of hundreds of people in a very cramped space. Also, fewer people would give you more time to check out the shops and food stands. Since I tend to get a bit claustrophobic in big crowds, I was very happy when Rebecca suggested we stop to get something to drink. We sat in a nice little tea house with an outside patio that offered a great view of the coast. After that, since it was about 8pm, we decided we should head back home. This is where going on a less busy day would really pay off. We ended up waiting in line for a bus for about 45 minutes simply because there were 500 other people all waiting for the same damn bus! Anyway, we finally got home around 11pm, very tired from the day's events.

Beipu is another fairly short day trip, but is a little more difficult to get to in the fact that you have to catch a bus to Jhodu (Jhongdu?) and then catch another bus to Beipu. This would have been tough without Rebecca because EVERYTHING is in Chinese and there are no English signs anywhere. Beipu is a small market town which Rebecca told me was very popular with tourists. There wasn't much info in my Lonely Planet other than the place is famous for "Lei Cha", which stands for "pounded tea". Apparently this particular tea is popular amoung the Hakka farmers as a kind of energy drink. It's made by grinding tea and other stuff together, pouring hot water over it and adding rice. The stuff looked like split pea soup to me and tasted a bit like tree bark (not bad if you happen to like tree bark tea). The other thing the place is known for is having some of the oldest examples of Japanese colonial architecture. The Japanese buildings are classsic baroque style concrete structures and don't really do much for me personally. The local temple, which is the centerpiece of the market is another thing. Although many Buddhist temples seem the same, it's the detail in the decorative carvings that are amazing to me. The scenes covering the roof and wall mouldings are so intricate and they don't seem to be repeated anywhere else. Each corner has it's own scene.

Of the two places, I think Jho Fun was the most impressive. I want to go back there earlier in the day to be able to take in the scenery and possibly hike the mountain. Beipu was good for a day, but I don't think I'd go back. Either way, it was nice to get out of the city for a little bit and check out some of the countryside.

(Sorry there are no photos, but I don't have anyway to post photos until I get my own computer.)