Happy Moon Day!

No, it's not a typo. Yesterday was the Autumn Moon Festival here in Taipei. Most people get the day off to celebrate the coming of autumn and to admire the full moon while eating little moon cakes. Moon cakes are round and brown and usually decorated with auspicious Chinese characters. They are filled with date or fruit paste. B and I went to a free festival in front of the Presidential Building, which featured traditional Chinese song and dance, Taiwan aboriginal song and dance, hip-hop dancing, breakdancing and Cirque du Soleil-like performance art involving lots of fire, smoke, people on stilts and a hot-air balloon dangling a singer over the crowd of excited Taiwanese. It was very interesting. There was also a strike yesterday of all the railway workers, who protested in Taipei. They picked yesterday because it's one of the most popular days to travel, as the Autumn Moon Festival is sort of like Thanksgiving, when families are supposed to gather together and eat special food.

I quit my job at the Julia American School because they misled me about my hours and working conditions, and because the pay was much too small for the work I was supposed to do. But I have good news! I got a new job at CNN English School, which should start Tuesday of next week. The pay is quite good (about $2100/month) and the school seems nice enough. I will be working 9-4, 9-5 or 9-6 depending on the day. One positive aspect of the job is that it's located in Peitou, a suburb of Taipei bordering Yangmingshan National Park. Peitou is a tourist destination (for Taiwanese of course, since Taiwan has basically no foreign tourists) due to its numerous hot springs, scenic location and Japanese architecture. It was one of the biggest spa resorts during the Japanese occupation. So probably I will be living in Peitou. We will be looking for housing shortly. I am very tired of not having a little area of my own, and hope the search won't take long.

B doesn't have a job yet, but that won't matter so much as my job pays well. He is enjoying school and learning Chinese. Chinese has incredibly simple grammar: it basically has no tenses, no pronouns and no clauses. To say "How are you?" you literally say "You good?" To say "I am American" you literally say "Me be America country person". The word for the United States is "the beautiful country" (mei guo). Isn't that nice? However, pronouncing it is ridiculous. B was trying to teach me how to say the word for "five" and I just couldn't do it, as my mouth was unable to cooperate. Also, the tones don't sound different to an English speaker but are very important, as (for example) "ba" can mean father or eight (the number) depending on the tone.

I am finally getting better after lying on death's door for weeks. The doctors finally decided that I had a virus, which seems to be the standard medical explanation in both America and Taiwan for when they don't know what's wrong with you. But my appetite is coming back and I can walk around the city again. Unfortunately, all my new beautiful clothes no longer fit me because I lost so much weight. I can't wear my jeans without a belt because otherwise they fall off. Maybe a potsticker diet will fatten me up.

The stereotype in the US of Asians is that they are very short and skinny. This was true in Vietnam, but I think it's because they're malnourished. In Taiwan, we're both about average height; there's plenty of tall Taiwanese, especially if they're from the mainland. The upper classes in China are quite tall. The Taiwanese aren't as fat as Americans, but many of them are definitely chubby. The main difference is that Asian people, especially the males, aren't as muscular or heavily built. Skinniness for women is the fashion here, just like in the United States, but tan skin is considered hideous. Many extremely expensive beauty products are sold which claim to whiten the skin. No Taiwanese woman would go out during daylight hours without her parasol, to prevent sun exposure, and they wear sunscreen and UV blocking clothing. All the models and actresses have very pale skin, like the color of flour.