I’ve since started my third and final semester.  More on that later.   The following posts are from what happened during the blackout.   I’m posting them with the dates when they occurred.  Keep checking back, I’ll be filling in the gaps.

Traditional Taiwanese mud oven

Su Lâoshī’s house is awesome.  Actually, it’s a bit more like a compound for the whole family.  It’s a farm with a few houses, a pottery studio, and a huge garden.

Here are some photos of the mud oven construction.

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Be sure not to put too much effort into building the oven… would have been nice if somebody told us… after the fire gets good and hot, you put the chicken and mud eggs inside and then flatten the whole thing with a shovel.   People were running back and forth and jumping on top of mound of dirt long after it had been smashed.  Keep in mind, the chicken and eggs are still in there, you have to patient… for about 2 hours before knowing how all of the work went.  In the meantime, shortly after the oven had been leveled, a few started to circle the mound to give all of our hard work a proper closing ceremony.  Talking to a guy next to me, I said “doesn’t seem like this is part of the Taiwanese tradition…”, to which he responded, “No man, this is how traditions are born”.

Sun Moon Lake is a huge tourist destination within Taiwan.  It is a beautiful place [if you knock down all of the high rise hotels].

Sun Moon Lake (hotel-free view)

Pre Setup

It had been a while since I set up a tent and campsite.  I am proud to say that I passed “camp craft IV” at camp back in the day.  Unfortunately, my ability to survive in the wilderness did not quite shine through as I set up shop.

“Wow, it’s really taking a long time.  It’s almost dark out”

“Ya, I know, I know, I’m just:

a.  Being careful not to rip the tent

b.  Making sure the tarp keeps us from getting wet

c.  Trying to remember how to tie this knot I learned before”

I turned my set-up time into a bit of a refresher on basic knot tying.  I think I was getting a bit too into it.  After a while of no practical progress, the coming darkness motivated me to expedite things a bit.  Patience.  Patience.  By the end, the angle of the tarp was fully adjustable and we could take the whole thing down in a few minutes.  Not a big deal, but it definitely helped in the rain and on the last day of oversleeping + getting out before checkout time.  Time well spent… although screwing with rope in the mosquito filled darkness kind of sucks.

Setup

Late night TW BBQ (Pants optional)

$1.75 grill does the trick

Sunset

The cable car

View from the cable car

All packed

The goal is to get our own tent and camp it up more often.  Camping is very good in Taiwan and most places have campsites.

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Lot's of people. We ended up getting a pretty decent seat. NT39 (about $1) Mat from Daiso made all the difference.

3shien was staring down other dogs in the park like there was no tomorrow. He'd stare without moving for minutes straight. This prompted me to try a little something... He was totally unphased... come on, I had to...

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-Yulho

How’s class going?  It’s going.

Studying Mandarin has made me reevaluate a few things.  I’ve been thinking.

I’d have to say, I like to do things well.  I try to keep it pretty simple.  If I put time into it, I want to see it done well.  That’s basically how it is.  I’ll go so far to say that I usually try my best.  However, I’ve come to realize that learning a language is much different than… say… well, anything other than learning a language.  A language has a clever way of hitting you from all sides.  Every side.  Strengths and weaknesses, patience, and perseverance.  It tests them all.  Or I should say, it is testing them all.

This semester’s class:

Girl from Germany:  2+ years of Mandarin

Taiwanese / Canadian Guy:  Fluent, but cannot read or write

Korean girl:  my level

Japanese guy:  7 months of Mandarin.  Retaking this semester.  Can read and write with no problem.

There’s no bar for this class (Which, by the way, is exactly how summer class was too).  This blurs things a bit.  I’d say that it is almost instinctual to measure up “the competition” in whatever situation we find ourselves (classrooms are usually at the top of the list).  ”Competition” is not the right word here, but isn’t that where “competitive” stems from?  It is always easier to measure things through comparison.  However, when the class is a mixed bag, the only barometer in this type of atmosphere is yourself.  So one can ask, “how am I doing?”.  The answer sounds something like, “Well, how do you feel? Do you feel like you’re learning?”  Keeping up.  Slacking off.  Fast.  Slow.  Easy.  Hard.  These are all relative terms.   Relative to what?  Relative to whatever you relate them to.  What if you don’t relate them to anything?  Things become a bit more simple.

Just keep truckin’.     The Norwegians say “Onward”     The Taiwanese say “Ja yo” (add oil)

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I painted a barn in high school.  It was 2 1/2 stories.  It took me the better part of a summer to do it.  I bring this up because this too was a very sizable task.  However, it was also a very straightforward task.  One can see a clear beginning and end.  Progress is easily measured.  Jump down off the ladder, step back a few, and take a gander.  Remember where you started.  Compare it to where you are now.  Instant gratification – dirt cheap.

So here’s another lesson:     Painting a barn ≠ learning Mandarin

Let’s talk motivation, or better yet, determination.  When instant gratification is in the mix, motivation is usually pretty easy to come by.  Painting a barn is tough work, but you can at least see where you stand.  If you can feel yourself chipping away at something, you at least get the idea you’re making some headway.

Again:     Painting a barn ≠ learning Mandarin

The reason why I think determination is a better word here is because it is established from the get go.  To me, motivation is something that can fluctuate.  Determination is something that stays solid and carries you from beginning to end.  Even as early on as I am into my Mandarin madness, determination has become key.  Motivation flows from determination.   Set the determination high and motivation will follow. This has been another realization.

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Foreign languages are clouding my thought processes.  I think I’m getting brain damage.

And what is class like?  Well, I actually have 3 classes.  3 hours of class per day and a different teacher every hour.  It’s nice, having the different teachers breaks up what could be a grueling 3 hour chunk of Mandarin and makes it a bit more digestible.  Classmates:  a guy from Idaho, 3 Vietnamese girls, and 1 girl from Thailand.   And we’re all at different levels.  When I say different levels… different levels.  To my right:  He’s reading the majority of the lesson in Chinese.  To his right:  She’s basically fluent beside the fact that she can’t read or write.  To her right:  They’re conversational but find learning Mandarin using an English/Chinese textbook a bit difficult… especially since they don’t understand either language.  So ya, different levels.  Not too much room for slacking here…  It’s either keep UP or get totally left BEHIND.

Fortunately, I managed to hold my own during the summer semester.  I obviously still found myself near the lower end of the class … which had been clearly established and claimed by the lone Thai girl.  Presented with a book that lacked her own native language, she took quite a different approach than the 3 Vietnamese and decided early on to forgo the whole “studying” part of studying Mandarin.  Instead, she pushed the limits of the of the few words she had managed to pick up.  The “Gongche” (bus) became the setting for countless examples of ”Kan shu” (reading a book) and “Chi miembow” (eating bread).  She found a way to squeeze these basic building blocks into every chapter and almost every grammatical example being taught.  Our chapters are based on typical situations and places, meaning that the bus somehow found it’s way into the post office, the supermarket, and the bank.  Eating bread and reading a book became obsessively habitual actions.  And when the bus, bread, and books failed to do the job, “Wo bu dong” (I don’t understand) sufficed and lead the teacher with no other choice but to skip her.

Summer Vocab

Anyhow, I’m slowly finding my way out of the dark.  2 months of turbocharged summer classes have left me with a pretty decent vocab.  I now feel like I am nearing the end of the ‘totally confused stage’ and am transitioning into ‘kindergarten stage’.  Right near the end of my summer classes, I began having a few Mandarin breakthrough moments in everyday life.  All of a sudden, buying something at the hardware store or interacting with the lady at laundry place has become surprisingly rewarding.  These few, short moments of semi-”conversation” have made all of the studying feel like it is going towards something and slowly paying off.

Yidian dian (little by little)

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“Hey, what happened to the blog?”

At some point over the summer, Patchesweaver developed a [pain in the ass] virus.  Tepid and stagnant from its  lengthy neglect on the back burner, the site fell into hard times and was in desperate need of immediate attention.  Once again, Otto has proven himself to be an invaluable asset to the patchesweaver blog.  After dodging a few close calls, a fake site administrator, and a handful of login\password troubles, the doc was able to revive the blog and send it on it’s way.

I’ve taken this as an opportunity to do a bit of housekeeping.  As I am now on the second (or third, depending on how you look at it) leg of the patchesweaver journey, the site’s gotta reflect the changing of the times.  Hip to the trip if you know what I mean.

http://archrecord.construction.com/archrecord2/work/2010/august/kafka.asp

Although the printed article does very little patchesweaver promotion, the online article published quite a few images from the build-a-bar-two-weeks Kafka experience.  Follow the above link and click on “View Slideshow” for photos and more details.

And for those of you who missed it, the original March 2009 article can be seen here:

http://archrecord.construction.com/archrecord2/work/0903/laidoff.asp