Day 36 || Christmas Time

Even as an adult I find it difficult to sleep on Christmas Eve. Yuletide excitement is a potent caffeine, no matter your age.

~Carrie Latet

Christmas has been always my all time favorite season. Time of sharing, time of caring, time of giving bundled in one special day. No matter how many times I had known Christmas, I had never gotten bored of celebrating it, even if it is just a small visit to Church, it kept me awake throughout the night.

Taiwanese, whose majority are Buddhist and Taoist, did not celebrate Christmas much. It is really hard to find a protestant church around the city. Even though I am not a Christian-addict, going to church on Christmas was something I find it necessary. Kiki brought me to Church on Christmas eve to a catholic church (note that it is a catholic church XD, all protestant churches were closed by the time we went to visit at 10.00pm).

In the morning, I was so nervous whether I could do a good job in delivering Christmas spirit to the elderly that I wrote the whole script. From sentences to movement haha..just want it to be perfect.

The program starts with the typical health check up, and then a teacher came to talks about caring for the environment. And then my event starts at 10.00 am. It was really hard to catch their attention at first as they were all busy chatting,but thanks to Teacher Cai, she helped me throughout my presentation.

I have never seen of how a good teamwork could easily win a battle, till today. Volunteers around...starting from the usual elderly volunteers to my working colleagues sacrifice their time to help me through the activity. Never thought that the whole event took 1 hour 30 minutes. I should have prepared more carefully and complete next time.

During the process, I could see myself getting stressed.

Ina .. need more string
Ina .. how to do this
Ina .. I can't write
Ina .. help me to sew
Ina .. I can't put the string to the needle

I should have attached the string to needle before handing them out XD
Other than that, I really enjoyed every second of it. From presenting what Christmas is all about, writing down their wishes, helping them to sew and paste, and seeing them hanging the ornament on a Christmas tree .. .. :)

Really want to say thank you for the helpers that have made this come true.

Can't wait for my next assignment on 5th and 12th January. Masquerade time~~~

Day 35 || Christmas Eve

Woo could not imagine 1 month has gone past so quick. 18th January 2010 is soon approaching and I will finish my internship here.

First time celebrating Christmas and New Year in a country beside Indonesia XD. Felt a bit blank somehow without my parents. Good thing my sister is coming here to accompany me.

Tomorrow (25th December 2009) I was assigned to host an event for the elder of Kangle. It was really difficult to come up with any activities as my earlier suggestions was brought to rubbish dump as they were seen as inaccurate.

The musical chair ? Too quick, requires fast and agile movement
Card making ? Too detailed, requires too much hours to cut and paste
Singing a Christmas song in English ? Too difficult for non-english speakers and non-chinese speakers
Dancing Christmas dance ? Have no idea on this :X ... what kind of Christmas dance are there? I do not think I have ever seen one

And finally I made a decision to do

.. . ...
..
....
.....

Christmas Tree Decoration.

At first I wanted to allow the elders to sew and cut the model themselves. However after heavy discussions and agreements, I had to change my earlier plan (which I felt was originally good as 2 hours could be wasted on sewing and cutting,but too bad). In just 3 days I would have to sew every model that I had think of. Somehow .. all the skills that my mother showed me when I was young become in use here. Cooking, cleaning, sewing .. everything a lady need to know.

Back in Australia, I was comfortable of doing things alone as such asking for helps or request was a little bit strange for me. Thankfully, my colleagues offered to help me in sewing a bunch of them without me asking. Thanks to them, my earlier bulk responsibilities become so much lighter. XD the teamwork spirit....teehee

I wonder how they turns out tomorrow. Hopefully they turns out good tomorrow. *Finger cross*

Day 30 || Tainan – The Old City trip

On 19th to 20th December, I went to Tainan with Kiki. The weather was freaking cold those 2 days, lucky to escape Hsin Chu for those 2 days. I could not imagine how I could survive the low temperature and the strong wind if I had stayed. The temperature drop to 12-13 degree celcius, the lowest I had encounter since my first day in Taiwan.

As I get accustomed to Taiwan’s way of travel, some of things that I noticed :

• Free coffee and tea inside the bus (which is offered often). I was surprised that the kettle could maintain the temperature for quite some time. The way they service the coffee and tea is the most eye-catching. The tour guide would hold a kettle on one hand and another hand with paper or plastic cups…and how they smoothly pour out the drinks to the cup. One thing I have to learn >< … I can’t even pour out properly on table let alone standing with hands full of things

• Karaoeking and dancing (sometime) throughout the bus trip. I can handle non-stop musics but non-stop karaoke? XD that’s ..
  

• Hotel room is given in advance before our arrival (wonder how the hell they get the room key from when they ask what room you want on the same day)

• Knocking on the hotel door before coming in (which I thought only apply to Thailand)

Back to the trip, we alighted at a duck’s farm. The place was really old and at first I thought we were tricked in going there somehow. It is not fit to be a tourist place…but never did I realized that the place was really famous, especially their cuisines, three-color egg and the traditional cooking of food. We spent the whole day there…

my comment? B O R I N G

Everyone was sleeping when the tour is on, I somehow pity the owner as he could see falling heads when he was talking >.<. For dinner, we had to do the traditional way to get our food cooked. Before Process After Comment: The chicken is not cooked very well. Wasted too much time just waiting for the food. The DIY activities could have been improved better…really feel like wasting a day of nothing.

BUT BUT BUT.. finally a night market to see on the way back to hotel (yesh!!!) And straight after hotel check in, we went straight to the nearest night market in Tainan. And up in my food list right now – Brown Sugar Fresh Milk Teas. Oh my god.. I had never tasted one so good in my life.

Maybe I could replicate how they did it

1. Melt Brown sugar to liquid form
2. Put pearls in a cup
3. Take a spoonful of liquid brown sugar
4. Open up a bottle of fresh milk and pour it inside
5. Mix them well first
6. Pour in hot water and cover it

7. Drink it

Have not actually try it… but will soon!!

The second day, we visited “Lao Jie” / Old Street. Was it really old? Mm not really…but their snacks ..ohh so good. Especially the “Tounge Cake” (not sure if this is the correct name though)

Day 24 || Tai Ping Shan and Loudong

Another weekend trip with my TN. This time, I went with all of the volunteers of Kangle community. It is a weekend trip to go to another Kangle community in Taipei city, however, we spend the whole Saturday at Luodong, Yilan.

The trip started at 6.30 am. As usual, we volunteers would have to sweep the neighborhood before we head off. Choo choo choo.. heading off to Tai Ping San. And as usual, K-ing during the whole bus trip is no longer new to me.

-Stopover toilet break - -100m toilet waiting line -

Honestly, before I came to take this trainee-ship, the only thing that came up from my mind about Taiwan is her bustling cities and night markets. I did not know that Taiwan have such beautiful and natural landmark such as Tai Ping San. Tai Ping San is located at Yilan, east of Taipei, it took around 1 hours from Taipei to Yilan.

We had to walk from the bus parking site toward the site...Mist and greeneries everywhere~~ it looks like as if it comes out from a chinese calligraphy painting. The weather was extremely cold that day and I was wearing sandals >.>'

- Tai Ping San -- Group Photo - Besides the sceneries, Tai Ping Shan is also renowed for their Bong Bong Train .. where it tooks the visitor to another site. There are time slot for that special train. Why is it called the Bong Bong train? The train had not been renewed yet .. it still holds that old train feeling. When we move... the conductor would sounds a signal "Choo Choo". Below is the video of me inside the train (the train sound and the beautiful sceneries). It tooks us 15 minutes to go to the other site.

- The Station -- Old Couple waiting for the Train -Don't they look cute together? They were so shy when asked to hug each other for photo taking hehe.

What beholds on the other site??

The forbidden forrest in Hogwarts!

- Forrest in LOTR -

where Frodo hides from the Black Riders

Haha too bad it is NOT!! .. it's Taiwan National Forest Recreation. Beautiful eh?

I felt like I am inside in both Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter movie site already. It feels so mystical~~
As I walked through the tall trees, a strange feeling come upon me. Somehow, I began to miss my parents a lot, I wished they were here with me. Though I have been accustomed living overseas for years, this is probably the first time I felt so strongly about missing them.

Day 22 || Interesting bits about Taiwanese

It has been almost 3 weeks since I first came to Taiwan. Everything came so fast. Here are some of interesting things I have found as I live in Kangle society (though I am not sure if it’s correct or not)

1. Manual Rubbish Dumping
The locals would wait at the front door with their rubbish packed for the rubbish car to pick up their stuff. For Kangle, it is done every day at 1.30pm. One that amuses me was the fact that the locals would have to throw rubbish by themselves. This was unexpected as even in Indonesia, all you need to do is to dump your rubbish in rubbish bin outside your home and the rubbish company would pick them up.

And oh, they really have a cute and distinct sound when the rubbish bus is coming :)

(pictures and video coming)

2. Milk Teas
Almost every 100m, there is always a milk teas shop XD and they are priced reasonably cheap, starting from 15 Yuan to 50 Yuan. Their milk teas have so many flavors such as rose milk teas, chocolate milk teas, green tea milk tea, it is just too many to mention them all. Even green tea have four different brand...geez..Aren’t they just taste the same??! Now that I think of how much I loved Easy Way back in Australia…they must be making big bucks over there! I am just going to buy a pre-packed boba pearl and pour it with iced green tea.

3. Da Lu vs China
One funny thing I noticed that Taiwanese refer China as Da Lu. Have asked them why but they say it’s their habit. Strange …

4. Cute packaging
Ta-da..and never forget their super cute packaging. Everything is packaged well and designed really well.

5. Automatic Cup Sealer for drinks
Never think that only the milk teas shop have this! In actual fact, every restaurants or food stalls have this installed. So whatever drinks you bought from anywhere…looks as if you bought one from a milk tea shop.

6. Bakery Shops - Breads
Never had I seen so many varieties of breads in my life. They have the toasted maple syrup bread, the rose and cheese bun, strawberry rose bun, French bread, polo bun, pork floss bun. My gosh..no wonder 85 café is so popular in Sydney. Sydney’s bread looks so plain comparing to Taiwan’s…not to mention Indonesia..even plainer. I should have taken photos when I am inside the bakeries. Next time..next time …

My TN had asked me to do another assignment which is designing and translating their current website to English. At first I thought it’s going to be pretty easy but …I was proven wrong, especially when you had to do edit photo using Chinese language with Photoshop. Or even basic translation…Thankfully the TN did not expect me to translate them word by word but instead write them on what I had known.

Been spending 3 days and I finally managed to translate almost of all the pages (though I did skipped some hehe) and designed a front page for the English site. Cant wait till it's done.

Day 18 || Election and Hua Lian Trip

On 5th December 2009, Taiwan was having the election, while me and my TN went to a cultural exchange trip to Southern part of Taiwan (Tai Dong and Hua Lian for three days two nights). However, the day before the important date, my TN and I had volunteered to help one of the parties – no 13, guided by Mrs. Lee Huang Jing Yan.

We spent the whole day rallying across the Eastern part of Hsin Chu. This brings memories back when I was in Indonesia when they were having election as well. I could vividly remember I was inside my parents’ car and whenever the green party group came, I would show a hand signal to show my support and changed it once another party came. I find those times really exciting!!

So what we have in party no 13?

- A set of drummers

- A pair of 4 Wheel Drive cars

- A fellowship of cars

It is a sad thing that they did not win in the end~~ I wonder how Mr Lin felt since party no 13 has helped Kangle Village a lot when they ruled for the past 20 years.

I do not know much about politics. Part of me always think that parties participants are bunch of people who have too much free time on their hand

…and by me participating in this …

…has it really changed my mind?...
..
….
Has not :P

Anyway, back to the 5-7 December weekend trip, we went to take the train at 8.20 from Hsin Chu Station (Platform 3). It was quite a rush morning trip as my TN had to do the election in the morning before we leave for the day.

This trip was organized kindly by Hsin Chu National Arts Centre. Their aim was to exchange cultural information from one Shi Qu to another Shi Qu, hoping to create awareness and local pride among Taiwanese citizens. Since there is not such a thing in Indonesia nor Australia, this “Shi Qu” has confused me a lot since my TN was not able to properly explain to me in Mandarin due to my lack of Chinese vocabulary. However, it is getting clear to me now. For each Li (100kms?)…one Shi Qu is created. This Shi Qu is hugely run by retired peoples who gathered together and use their surrounding environment to create something unique. These can vary from art works, food, historical places, etc. Every year, panel from local government will look around these Shi Qu and award one of them. I think this is a brilliant move from Taiwanese government and the citizens as not only it gives the elderly (retired) activities but also bring out local pride.

Due to the landslide, we would have to go to a long road instead (Go all the way to Taipei and down). The train ride itself already wasted one whole day. Never in my life I had get bored of sitting down, felt my whole bum numb!!

We get rewarded at the end of the day with complimentary entry to Spa and Hot Spring. Wee...my first time ever in hot spring. I thought it would have been as comfortable as what I had seen in movies or dramas, but apparently….it’s too hot for me. The atmosphere gets too stuffy and hot for me after 5 minutes. It was a great experience though for someone who never went to hot spring before

The real trip starts on 6th December 2009, with our first visit to Ata Aboriginal Product Centre. Their products was really simple but! So overpriced!

A pair of earring costs TWD590 (AUD$20, Rp170,000) >.< which I bought it nonetheless hehe

Next we went to visit Yong Wan Shi Qu in Tai Dong. One of the most interesting visits is their “Yu Long Quan”

- 72 Old vs 36 New Steps -What’s so special behind this place? Besides the beautiful architecture~~

Apparently, this normal looking water fountain… strangely during Duan Wu Jie , the water will keep up rising up to those stairs.

- This normal looking stone and the magic water -It was quite a huge local event where the Shi Qu volunteered would make gave a Zong Zi and a bucket of water from the fountain to each visitor. This water was believed to have some medical power. Whether this is true or not … I cannot really comment on it.

We had our lunch at this beautiful place up in the mountain where there are tea gardens everywhere!
The food was all prepared made with tea. I was not able to taste the tea flavor sadly…but they are damn good!

On the 7th December, da-da-da the happiest day of my life! We went to a mochi factory….Hua Lian, besides famous for their stones, mocha is the next big thing. I was not able to take photos much as I was busy tasting the samples hehe. I wished I had more time to look at the stores. I had never seen so many mochis in my life!! XD

Today, I finally able to grab a video on how to eat fish without hassle by taking out the bone first!

Day 14 || Bo Cai and Cai Bo

But I would like to dedicate this post to a special kind of Bo Cai which is one my TN's product.

Bo Cai is made from radish which has been dried. What made this Bo Cai differ from those in supermarket? They contain no preservatives, organically grown and takes the whole 2 month to process from this :
My TN only did this operation once a year. And the fact that they are sold only for TWD 100 ( AUD$3 or Rp 29,000) for those hard work - isn't it bit too cheap??! Unfortunately, I would not have the chance to see the harvest time :(

Day 14 || Rice Dumpling (粽子)

Posting about my activities every day...is a chore for me as I was not used to it. I have never thought of its usefulness till now~

Though today is not the actual day for 粽子 or Rice dumpling , I would like to share about what my TN did for this annual "98年新竹市 - 市區創造成果品".

This event is to exhibit some of the local communities' products. Hsin Chu in itself have many 市區 (She Qu) ... Kangle Village is one of them. As in what is this 市區 about? I can't really explain it very well here, but one 市區 is similar with one village. For example, Kensington area in Sydney is one 市區, or Pasar Besar in Solo Indonesia is another 市區. Each of these 市區 typically have community hall which brings together the people living surrounding it.

Anyway, straight to the cooking steps:

Ingredients
- Bak Cang Leaves for wrapping -- Sauced Tofu - -Mushroom Enoki -- Seasoned Pig Soup -
-Glutinious Rice Soaked -
- Cai Bo -- Dried Small Shrimps -

Steps

1. Firstly, stir fry garlic and already fried onion and dried small shrimps with butter and oil. Add salt for seasoning.

2. Add in Cai Bo and more salt, sugar and pepper. After frying all together, put them aside
3. Steamed glutinous rice for around 30 minutes or so in a steamer.
4. Get ready for packing time!

-Er Nai Packing the Rice Dumpling - I tried to help in packing the 粽子 (Rice Dumpling) but failed miserably :(

And since these are for sale, it is better for me not to help packing any other than one haha

The event is located at a community hall in Yu Ting, Wu Yi Ji.

- Kangle Stand - - Other works from other 市區 -

I have heard of Taiwan packaging before. They are one of the most innovative when it comes to packaging. Food packaging, beverage packaging, cups, chopsticks,etc ... it is all very creative. Kangle has work together with a local high school (Kuang Fu High School) for their design project. I wished at that instant that I am still in young and able to enroll one high school in Taiwan as they provide packaging design courses!!

Here are the people behind the screen:

And here are their products :