The Taiwanese Life

I've actually been a terrible blogger lately (surprise, surprise!) and have not been very good at updating, despite the constant reminder on my Google calendar to post at least once a week. I've even tried to be better at bringing my camera places, but life has been busy here! So the next few posts will be pictures from the past month or so.

This entry (with all pictures borrowed from friends!) is entitled "The Taiwanese Life" because it highlights my scooter and a KTV party.

First, this picture is from Bonnie's visit to Yilan from Taipei (she is another Fulbright grantee doing research on mental health stigma) for our Thanksgiving party. When I picked her up at the bus station, it was only the second time she had ever ridden on a scooter, so we had to commemorate the event with pictures! Note: This photo really only shows an adapted Taiwanese life. If I were truly living a Taiwanese life, my scooter would double as family mini van with at least three kids and the family dog also squeezing on for a ride. No lie.

Next: KTV.

KTV (karaoke) is a huge phenomenon in Asia, as I understand, and Taiwan is certainly no exception! A bunch of teachers from one of my schools (三星國忠） got together for this party last week. Peter (on the right, holding the blue microphone) has been doing his military service in literacy promotion at the school, but he will be done in another week. So what better way to say goodbye than with gut-wrenching love songs set to hideous music videos from the 80s and 90s? (Actually, there is quite a large range of music, but those videos are the best!)
Angus made sure to keep the flow of English songs pumping (I believe we are singing "A Whole New World" in this picture...), but I quickly found that it was actually great practice to read along with the Chinese songs! I even learned a few new characters from listening and trying to sing along! (The only curveball is when a Taiwanese song comes on. The characters are the same, but the pronunciation is veryyyy different!)

All in all, though, it was a very fun time! For some reason, though, the men seemed to end up singing a lot of the female parts, and often sang duets together. I think they just really love to sing!