Despite the fact that it has been raining constantly since Sunday, it has been a solid week. Fishing this past weekend was fruitful, and I enjoyed some good time with my host family, too. I’ve laid pretty low during the week, as I’ve been trying to get rid of my cough once and for all.
Last Friday was pretty uneventful. In the morning, I managed to record a shaky video of my drive to school, which you can find here. I got out of class and went to the gym before grabbing dinner with friends at a nearby Korean restaurant. I haven’t had much authentic Korean food in the States, so I’ve enjoyed having tons of great Korean fare near my place in Luodong. I ordered the naengmyeon, an ice-cold noodle dish of North Korean origin. The broth was light and refreshing, and the buckwheat noodles were chewy and thin. Some places will serve these noodles with ice in the broth, but mine weren’t quite that freezing. It struck me as a great summer dish, but it turns out that it was historically consumed during North Korean winters. Strange.
I woke up early on Saturday morning for another shot at fishing. My guide picked me up at 6:45 am, and we drove an hour and a half south to Nan’ao Township. On the way to Nan’ao, my guide Ding regaled me with a tale of the time he saw Jay Z perform in Taipei in 2006 and worked through a playlist of his favorite 90s rap tunes. We arrived at the same river we had been to two weeks prior, and found the fishing conditions much better. We trudged upriver, at times wading stomach-deep to cross fast-moving water. My khakis and Chacos felt insufficient for the task at hand.
I started the day fishing a grasshopper pattern in hopes of getting a dry fly bite. No such luck— I switched to a small streamer and had similar results. Ding suggested casting towards eddies behind rocks and slower water near the banks, as the river was flowing pretty fast. I switched to a green soft hackle (weighted down with a small split shot). A few casts later, I felt a small tug on my rod and pulled out a small mahseer, but it wriggled away before I could snap a photo. Between untangling my line (split shot is my nemesis) and wading precariously across the river, I caught a few more small mahseer and a jungle perch. On our way back to the car, I pulled my largest fish of the day from some deep, slow-moving water next to a bridge. Overall, it was a super rewarding day, and I’m glad to have finally caught some fish. I plan to fish again next time I have a free weekend, as I’ve heard the mahseer are bigger and stronger further down Taiwan’s east coast.
On Sunday, I woke up sore and tired from fishing and was picked up around 9:30 am by my host family. The plan was to go for a hike, but the weather got progressively worse as we approached the mountains. A quick change of plans led us to the 清水地熱公園 (Qingshui Geothermal Park), which was slam-packed, even in the heavy rain. A small stand rented baskets and sold various foods to be cooked in a steaming, sulfur-scented pool. We sat under an awning snacking on corn, peanuts, and boiled eggs. Given the sulfur smell, everything we cooked needed to be peelable. My host mom had been here as a kid, and when I asked her what had changed, she said “There used plants and rocks everywhere. It was awful.” I suppose the surrounding infrastructure is necessary with how much traffic this place gets, but I wouldn’t have minded more natural surroundings.
My host dad randomly ran into an old friend while at the geothermal park. The friend worked as an AC repairman, and he was casually enjoying a 保力達 (Baolida, a Chinese medicinal wine) at around 11 am. I found this kind of strange, and after asking my host dad, I learned that many manual labor workers in Taiwan drink this stuff all the time. Not just in the evenings after work— literally ALL the time. A concerning statistic from Taiwanese Wikipedia (maybe not entirely accurate) says that 60% of male workers who drink do so “before and during” work, especially those in “high-risk occupational environments”. Baolida’s alcohol content is around 10%, and my host dad explained that workers use it to improve their “physical vitality” and “spirits.” His friend insisted I try a cup of it and it was gross. Complex notes of licorice, Nyquil, and menthol.
After these sulfur-scented appetizers, we went to a famous restaurant in Sanxing Township (a rural inland township of Yilan County) serving traditional Taiwanese fare. They specialized in卜肉 (burou), which I can only describe as a country-style mini corndog. Strips of pork are breaded, fried, and placed atop crispy fried handfuls of cabbage and carrots. This dish originated in Sanxing and my host family insisted that it wasn’t worth having anywhere else. The only accouterment available was salt, but the dish didn’t need much else, as the breading was delicious. Some honey mustard wouldn’t have hurt, though.
We also ordered 高炸 (gaozha), which are fried cubes made of chicken stock, pork, and shrimp paste. Like 卜肉, these are also a local specialty and are not easily found outside of Yilan County. The outside cools down quickly, but the soft and soupy inside stays molten hot for a long time. I think I burned my mouth upwards of 5 separate times while trying to eat these. Not a big fan, but I can see why my host family would get a kick out of watching me attempt to eat them.
The rain hasn’t stopped for more than a couple hours since Saturday evening, which made for a dreary week. On Tuesday, after a very wet commute, I realized that the rain always seemed to get more intense as I drove back into the valley surrounding my school. I decided to look up an annual precipitation map of Taiwan, and my suspicions were confirmed.
My branch campus is in/near the darkest blue, heaviest-raining area on the island. My apartment is a bit further away from this spot but is still solidly in the medium-blue rainy region south of the Lanyang River. I’m anticipating a very rainy winter but should be able to find some nice weather on weekend trips.
I’ve recently found a few good late-night snack options near my apartment. Although this blog probably makes it seem like all I do is eat, I sometimes feel like I don’t get enough food for lunch (gross meat) and dinner (small portion sizes). The meat we get for school lunch sometimes has a ton of bones or is really tough, and on those days, I typically load up on white rice and veggies to hold me over until dinner. Highlights of my recent late-night snacking have included fried curry beef udon noodles ($2 USD) and fresh dumplings (10 for $1.25 USD). I appreciate how eating out at a restaurant is often cheaper than buying instant noodles or a microwaveable meal from a convenience store. I got an electric stove a few weeks ago, but it hasn’t come out of its box yet. I suppose old habits die hard.
On Wednesday afternoon, we had our second Fulbright workshop. Thankfully I left my branch campus early— I was just a few minutes down the road (in a massive downpour, of course) when my engine light began blinking. My throttle stopped working, and my scooter slowed to a stop. I was forced to push my scooter for 15-20 minutes to the nearest scooter shop for a repair. A connective wire needed replacement, and I was in and out pretty quickly.
About the workshop… every 3 or 4 weeks, Fulbright sends someone from Taipei to lead a teaching workshop for all the ETAs. This sounds cool in theory, but the first two have felt like a waste of time. The speaker discussed strategies to keep our classrooms under control and talked about the benefits of a warm but controlled class environment. Maybe this would be useful for LETs, but my role (as of now) is to assist my LET and help students have fun learning English. I am ultimately a guest in someone else’s classroom. Any attempt to change my LET’s existing systems of punishment and rewards (beyond maybe a light suggestion) I feel would be pretty disrespectful. My job here is to make English fun and be a resource for students and faculty at my school, not to fix classroom dynamics. Besides, trying to control students in English is pretty useless when they only understand a few words of what I am saying. Maybe I will get a bit more autonomy in the classroom later on, but the workshop didn’t feel super relevant to my current work.
Our coordinator distributed safety kits (protective earthquake hats, flashlight, poncho, emergency blanket), Chinese name seals, and a fat stack of personalized business cards to each of us. The etiquette (from what I have read) surrounding business cards in Taiwan dictates that when giving a business card, I must stand up and present my card with both hands, text facing the recipient. When receiving cards in return, I should always take a moment to examine the card instead of putting it straight in my wallet. I’m going to try and hand out as many of these cards as possible while I am here, so this is important to know.
Soundtracks to my week have included…
Sophistakitted! by Sophistakits, Eddie Roberts, and Eric McFadden
Goin’ Down Slow by Duane Allman
Listening To The Rain by Doc Watson (fitting)
Thanks for reading. If you’ve got any good songs about rain, send ‘em my way… I'm anticipating plenty of time indoors to listen over the next few months. Feel free to email all complaints or concerns to bwcopel@gmail.com.
Think I will Google songs about rain.
Another great blog. Congrats on catching fish! Love, nana
Awesome name seal!