Laowai Links

Thursday link roll is kind of boring....so Laowai links. If you look further down, you'll see it isn't exactly original but oh well.

My personal favorite isn't here (mǎmǎhūhū, 马马虎虎, meaning "so-so") but there are some of the funnest Chinese words to say in this post on Laowai Chinese, my new favorite site.

Funny: What Your State is Good At, And What It's Lame At

Interesting: Women as Academic Authors - I didn't expect the percentage of female academic authors to be so low even with the 1991 - 2010 period but it's also interesting to see what parts of each discipline, particularly anthropology, that women tend to publish more in - dance ethnology? That might be one of the few subfields that I never really read much about in college.

Good to know: Baking Supplies Store Locations so that I can make this. Or this. Also useful to anyone out there wondering where to find baking tins in Yilan because Carrefour DOES NOT have anything useful, except for tin foil (which apparently damages toaster ovens) or little, crappy throw away pans and tins.

Bwhaahahaha, fulbright funds are responsible for this: Laowai Gangnam Style
 

The Caoliang Trail (Dali)

This is from a while ago but I've been meaning to post about it - partially because I want this blog to be a resource to any future Yilan Fulbrighters or anyone else traveling in Yilan. The blogs belonging to previous Fulbrighters have been useful to me and so I'd like to do the same for others. Anyway, there's an old hiking path called the Caoling Trail (草嶺古道) that stretches from Dali (大里) to Yuanwangkeng (远望坑), which is near Fulong (福隆) and Gongliao (貢寮). A friend and I took the train from Yilan, although you could conversely take it from Taipei, and got off at Dali. The ride there is really scenic: rice fields, mountains, and sandy coastlines.

There's an information center and a temple at the start of the trail in Dali that's worth checking out. We only hiked for about an hour or so before turning back to Dali but we got high enough to get a good view of the coast. Hiking the whole thing would probably take around three to four hours.

 

 

 

 Back near the temple, we found some food stands down the stairs across from Mr. Brown Coffee. We had some pretty oily noodles and fried spinach egg roll. Good if you don't mind having your food prepared in a wok filled with old oil. Afterwards, we went down to the beach and watched the waves crash against the shore. There had been a typhoon the day before so the waves were much bigger than normal. It was one of those things that are both beautiful but also slightly terrifying.

10/10 National Day

Yesterday was the 101st anniversary of the Republic of China's founding. All the Fulbrighters were invited to attend a reception at the Taipei Guest House (臺北賓館). Most of the guests were foreign and local officials. The president and the vice president of Taiwan were both there, so we Fulbrighters were pretty low on the totem poll. Nonetheless, I got to shake hands with the vice president.

 There was music, wine, and food. Tables and tables of Taiwanese food, Chinese food, as well as Japanese, French, and Indian were spread out across underneath tents outside. In addition to eating mini quiche lorraines, people-watching was one of the best parts of the reception. There were men and women dressed in all kinds of clothes: black suits, cocktail dresses, flowy Hollywood gowns, qipaos, and even a sari or two. Reporters flocked around the most high ranking figures. Men in black suits with earpieces held the small crowds at bay. Somehow though, I managed to get close enough to take a photo of President Ma Ying-Jeou.

My favorite part of the reception was the performance by a children's choir. The children were members of the Paiwan aboriginal tribe from southern Taiwan. They sang traditional Paiwan folk songs. Taiwan Today covered the group's development and success. I was even able to talk to them for a little afterwards and we got a photo together.