No on Prop 8!

I sincerely wish that people won't let their personal discomfort justify marginalizing the rights of California citizens- please vote NO on Prop 8.

Dawn and dusk- Taiwan vs. California

When I first arrived in Taiwan in mid-August, I was surprised that the sun set pretty early for the summertime... around 5:45 or 6 o'clock... wasn't the sun supposed to set around 8 o'clock in the summer? It also seemed to me that dusk was strikingly shorter in length of time than in California, the sky seemed to darken very quickly after the actual sunset.

Well, finally putting two and two together, (as an earth science teacher I'm supposed to have this stuff down by now... so embarrassing...) and remembering the tilt of the planet and its influence on different latitudes, I realized that the sun here in Taiwan has a more direct path overhead than in California, (closer to the equator) so the sun lingers below the horizon for a shorter amount of time than in California, where the sun moves at more of an angle through the sky. This would also mean that there would be a less pronounced difference in daylight hours between winter and summer.

Wanting confirmation and actual figures to prove my mini-enlightenment... I did a little internet research and found a very cool site:

http://www.gaisma.com/en/

where you can look at dawn, dusk, sunrise, sunset, daylight hours, etc. for a great variety of locations in the world! Complete with visuals! For example,

Táizhōng, Taiwan - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph

Darkness: light blue Dawn: dark blue Sunshine: yellow Dusk: pink

Compared with

Vacaville, California, United States - Sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk times, graph

Notice the thicker bands of dawn and dusk times for California! (The chopped look is not an error- it is offset for daylight savings time). There is also much greater variation between the length of day during summer and winter in California.

I thought it was so interesting!

The good things are the little things. Specifically, food.

Today, as I was finishing up my little box of fried rice from the little vegetarian place around the corner, I realized that I was starting to get the hang of chopsticks a little bit! Not that I am good, by any means, but I can eat rice dishes pretty efficiently now, I can scoop the little grains up many at a time, instead of grain by grain (very time consumning, let me tell you!)

After I made this realization, it occured to me that as the newness and shock of the experience of moving to and living in Taiwan start to fade a little, that there will be a lot of things about this place that I will really miss when I leave. Food, I have to admit, will be the formost on the list at this time. Beautiful, delicious, cheap, and all kinds of vegetarian food is everywhere! Can I even begin to talk about the fruit? Maybe it is that they have so many different kinds of fruits-- they have everything you could buy in the U.S. plus a wild assortment of tropical fruits that I have never seen before. I haven't even begun to try them all! Next time I go to the store I will take pictures I can show what I mean, words don't do justice.

I used to love the pearl milk tea, because that was the only thing available (granted, one could add an assortment of flavors to the milk tea...). Once I got to Taiwan, my goodness, the tea stands here are incredible. Fresh juice, either by itself or blended with green tea, black tea, red tea, whatever you fancy! My favorite is passionfruit with green tea (百香綠茶). So delicious! And people here are so friendly... they always want to let me try new things that we don't have in the States. Haha, people who know me know to win my heart with food, not flowers.

Traffic Laws in Taiwan

At first, when I saw people running red lights and breaking every traffic law in the book, I would shake my head... "tsk tsk.... how can they just go through the light when it's red, even if there are no cars coming the other way, it is illegal." or "my goodness! they just park their cars wherever they want! Even if it is half in the road, they think it's ok!" or "seriously, what kind of person makes a five-point u-turn on a busy two way street during rushhour?"

Then, one hot day, I was at a red light. And the traffic lights aren't like in America, there are no sensors that will recognize if there is actually traffic coming that way or not. You just have to wait the full minute and a half for the light to turn again. I felt the sun beating down on me, the sweat pouring down, and I thought... "what the heck! everyone else does it! when in Rome, right? there's no one coming the other way..." and so... I ran the red light. What a liberating experience, to be suddenly set free from years of being conditioned that I had to obey traffic rules! And now... I really quite enjoy it. It is so convenient, if you can make it, just go! If you feel like driving the wrong way down a one-way street, go for it! Everything is ok here, especially on a scooter. And you get where you want to go much faster. :)

Hualian

Hualian-- I think I found my vacation spot in Taiwan! Had a wonderful trip... here are some pictures. Fall in Taiwan is really a wonderful time of year, like a summer night in California but all the time...

All the cyclists on the road remind me of my Dad! He would love the roads and scenery... although perhaps not the humidity. Maybe later in the season would be best for cycling!




This is the view from Qiuxing's temple, looking out across the pacific (at california!)

















Me at the National Park. I know it's a bad picture but I don't have many with me in them-- too busy taking the pictures myself!






The coast- looking south. I went swimming on the far side of the cove, the water was as warm as it is in Hawaii.


This is a suspension bridge crossing a large canyon. It was quite an adrenaline rush to cross, it is several hundred feet up and as you can see very narrow... and make of rope. Good fun!



















This is the view from the suspension bridge. The picture doesn't do it any justice though! Definitely a cool place. I actually ran into a group of Mormans on the other side. They're everywhere! Sorry to any Mormans reading this... I'm just kidding...

Around the house...

The view of the mountains behind Taichung (from the 4th floor of the school where my office is).



This is the park I found-- two blocks from my apartment! Spent a quiet sunny afternoon reading here...

This is my room! I know it's beautiful...
small but does the job. There's another picture below.











Just a quick post-- I've had requests for some pictures of my apartment, so before I head off to Hualian for the long weekend (yeah! fun) I thought I'd put a couple pictures up. I'll take more pictures in Hualian! Should be beautiful.