We're heading home for christmas break on Wednesday and I'm so excited! Knowing this trip was coming up got me through a weekend of homesickness a few weeks ago. Coming here I was braced for more nights of tears over being away from home, but it hadn't really happened until this one Saturday morning when all I wanted was to be around family, eat food I know I love and be surrounded with english. It's funny what can bring on the desire to be transported home - sometimes it is the lack of anything familiar, but sometimes it's the most familiar things that do it. Equally, what brings you out of the funk can be one of two opposites - adding or removing the familiarity. In my case, Jeremiah made me tofu scramble for brunch and we watched a favorite movie. I also made a few calls home.
As Christmas approaches we navigate incorporating new traditions with the old and making adjustments to fit our new home. This is big for me because I have been pretty rigid in my holiday traditions in the past. I think I've done a good job of loosening up in recent years but those things can run pretty deep and all this change just invites homesickness. I love this holiday - making cookies (bone of contention in our marriage, I say Santa likes sugar cookies, Jeremiah holds firm that he likes chocolate chip) and gingerbread houses, decorating the house and the tree, reading christmas stories the night before and eating cinnamon rolls in the morning. So, going home for christmas was a good call on Jeremiah's part - he knew I would need this. And in the meantime, we've got our artificial 1 foot tall tree complete with lights, favorite christmas movies and music.
One christmas song that comes on every once in awhile is To Heck With Ole Santa Claus. Very unchristmasy and Jeremiah balked at me when I asked him to play it. I can understand why, I mean, it doesn't exactly evoke feelings of cheer and happiness. So why do I like it? Because every time I hear it, I think of sitting in front of my grandpa's stereo system while he transferred the song from record to tape for my mom, sister and me. I remember singing it with him, along with a number of other funny songs at other times of the year ("sometimes you are the windshield, sometimes you're the bug", "I'm married to a waitress, I don't even know her name"). This year when the song came on it was one of those instant homesick moments.
I'll leave you with the lyrics in case you've never experienced this doozy of a song.
TO HECK WITH OLE SANTA CLAUS
Loretta Lynn - 1966
(To heck with ole Santa Claus)
Last year I hung my stockings by the chimney
and ole Santa didn't bring me anything
Well I wrote a note and I told him what to bring me
But I didn't even hear his sleigh bells ring
So to heck with ole Santa Clause
When he goes dashin' through the snow I hope he falls
I like to hit him (ho ho ho) with a bunch of big snowballs
To heck with ole Santa Claus
(Instrumental Break)
This year I'll built a big fire in the fireplace
I'll be like a little pig I read about
If that big bad wolf in red comes down my chimney
He's a gonna scorch his whiskers there's no doubt
So to heck with ole Santa Clause
When he goes dashin' through the snow I hope he falls
I like to hit him (ho ho ho) with a bunch of big snowballs
To heck with ole Santa Claus
Yeah to heck with ole Santa Claus
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Earthquake
6.4 earthquake hit the east side of the island this evening. More info here and at the Central Weather Bureau. I didn't think it was as bad as the last one, but we were sitting on the second floor loft of a store and I had to fight the urge to run down the stairs.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Friday, December 18, 2009
Push here for english
Our bank has this amazing addition to their ATM - it sucks in your bank book and prints on it all your transactions. I love it. If you have more than one page worth it spits it back out and waits for you to turn the page. Great for people who can't read their online bank site because it's in chinese.
At first we couldn't figure out how it worked, but we were told we need to do this at least every 100 transactions. Jeremiah asked the nice guy next to us if he would just do it for us thinking maybe the english version of the ATM instructions didn't include this option. Turns out you don't even have to stick your debit card in the ATM like we were trying to do, just put the bank book in the slot and it knows what to do. Xie xie to that nice guy who helped us!
At first we couldn't figure out how it worked, but we were told we need to do this at least every 100 transactions. Jeremiah asked the nice guy next to us if he would just do it for us thinking maybe the english version of the ATM instructions didn't include this option. Turns out you don't even have to stick your debit card in the ATM like we were trying to do, just put the bank book in the slot and it knows what to do. Xie xie to that nice guy who helped us!
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Is that the ice cream truck?
You know when you wake up in the middle of the night and realize you forgot to take the garbage and recycling out to the street? Or you hear the truck at 6am passing your house and it hits you that you have to go another week with garbage piling up? Taiwan has come up with an idea to solve this problem. Good thing too, because when you live on a small island with lots of people in a subtropical weather system piling garbage can be a nuisance to say the least.
Taiwan's solution? To let people bring their own garbage out to the truck daily. But, how do people know when the garbage truck is coming you ask? Well they play classical music of course. It's kind of like the ice cream man - kids hear the song and come running with their money, only it's adults with their garbage. You can see a video here. It's genius, but a bit loud.
Our apartment has its own garbage collection, so we aren't a part of this neighbor bonding time, but we hear it in the evenings along side the trucks that blast audio advertising and kids practicing violin, piano and recorders.
Taiwan's solution? To let people bring their own garbage out to the truck daily. But, how do people know when the garbage truck is coming you ask? Well they play classical music of course. It's kind of like the ice cream man - kids hear the song and come running with their money, only it's adults with their garbage. You can see a video here. It's genius, but a bit loud.
Our apartment has its own garbage collection, so we aren't a part of this neighbor bonding time, but we hear it in the evenings along side the trucks that blast audio advertising and kids practicing violin, piano and recorders.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Taichung christmas
Walking around Taichung there are a lot more christmas decorations and items than I expected. A lot of it seems a bit... well... odd or out of place. There are trees in the 7-11s and OKmarts. Malls have "x-mas" signs hanging (most references to christmas are written as "x-mas"). Stores are stocking christmas foods like these "broiled rib" santa and "crispy salmon" snowman chips. Interesting, no?
It's fun to see the differences in christmas decor, but I'm not sure how many people actually celebrate this holiday. Maybe somebody knows?
It's fun to see the differences in christmas decor, but I'm not sure how many people actually celebrate this holiday. Maybe somebody knows?
Sunday, December 13, 2009
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