taipei to pingtung

in the old days, it took months to reach taipei from the south of taiwan. then there was the bus, which took 6-8 hours, and the train, which took 4.5 hours. now, there's the high speed rail, or 台灣高速鐵路 (sounds like french "gauthier" in chinese), which takes under 2 hours and is as smooth a ride as you can imagine. not until we were actually seated did i believe that we were really leaving taipei. the train wasn't nearly as crowded as i expected it to be, and people seemed very casual about heading south. after all that i'd heard and seen through word-of-mouth and t.v. news, i was a little on edge. everything inside the train was completely ordinary (down to the stewardess pushing a cart of hot box lunches and snacks), but the scenery flashing by was surreal. water everywhere-- fields were flooded, roads were submerged, and the rain was still coming down.

my seatmate jean looked at me like i was crazy when i told her i was headed to pingtung, and asked, "have you seen the news lately? do you know what it's like there???" she teaches english at a cram school, or buxiban which is where people of some means can get ahead in various subjects. she bought me grapefruit juice and told me how dry these same flooded fields had been just a week before-- the country had been in a drought. the 2 hours passed quickly, and before i knew it, we were at kaohsiung's zuoying station. fatbat mike and pingtung annie had escorted us down, and they were the most reassuring part of the whole experience. even when mike told me that mr. chung and mr. chung (my principal and co-teacher) were there, i still wondered if i'd make it to gaoshu that day-- i'd heard various reports that the bridges were down and the town had been evacuated! sure enough, mr. chungs appeared and immediately handed me a red envelope. inside were NT$66 (~$33NT = $1US) and a slip of red paper with the characters for "peace." mr. chung the younger also gave me a postcard with a phenomenal boddhisatva that he'd painted. the mr. chungs were so cool and so nice, and they chatted to me the whole drive back to gaoshu. gaoshu was not underwater, the bridges seemed fine, and we had no trouble getting there despite the pouring rain. we headed straight for gaoshu elementary school, where i'll be teaching (and which has been in use as temporary barracks for taiwanese troops who are assisting with disaster relief). the school had beautiful metal sculptures of musical grasshoppers all around, alongside big puddles and lots of fallen branches. we had some noodles and stewed seaweed, and then they took me apartment hunting. #1: the top floor of a family's home, very clean & nice & friendly. #2: a tiny cramped room above an elderly woman's living space. #3: a small empty room above a garage, accessible through a back alley. as mr. chung the younger said, "have you made your choice? there is only one choice." i chose the family. the dad (shu-shu, or uncle) is an incredible artist-- he made the musical grasshoppers at school as well as these butterflies. he's a mechanic in the first place, but he realized 2 or 3 years ago that he could make sculptures from the spare parts... and so he went to town-- talk about hidden talent.

that's mom (she looks like young janet carr!), sister u (19), sister yen (22), brother jun (17), shu-shu, mr. chung (the principal), and mr. chung (the other english teacher). the family is ridiculously cool. and nice. they gave me a phone to use, found me the tiniest bike ever, and they laugh all the time. they also love to eat fruit. this area is big on agriculture, and mainly fruit-- papaya, jackfruit, dragon fruit, pineapples, melons, chinese guava... the list goes on. oh! and they have 3 crocodiles and a 3-legged mountain pig. here's a view from my room(s):

the mountains beyond are where much of the worst morakot damage took place, and they are off limits for now. the scene below is from a rainstorm on tuesday; i was trying to capture the intensity of the rain! can you tell how hard it is coming down??? i've never seen anything like it before. oh, and that's another one of shu-shu's sculptures-- his general themes seem to be dragonflies, butterflies, herculean beetles, and the occasional person. his work is on exhibit in gaoshu's town hall, if you happen to be passing through!

also on tuesday, we drove into pingtung city to apply for my alien resident card (ARC-- necessary to get a phone or bank account). my awesome entourage included mr. chungs and the sibs. mr. chung the principal saw me looking at this taoist temple, and asked if i wanted to go inside. he ended up leading us on a prayer tour, going from altar to altar. we all kind of imitated his motions, with a lot of bowing and clasped hands. mr. chung jr. is very interested in religion, and he explained most of the scenes and rituals to me. at the end, i cast some sort of wooden blocks to find my fortune. i had to ask a burning question and get 3 "yes" answers in a row from the gods. it took about 20 minutes of everyone watching and saying, "yes! yes! oh.... no." but i finally got it. and my future looks bright, although i will face some hurdles early on. right on.