Updates to come: More Taiwan, and some Poland too!

I promise.

I haven't forgotten this blog, or all of you who may read it. Every few days I get a reminder that I haven't updated in a while, but when your sole source of computing is a 7" constantly-overheating-in-the-summer laptop (with no pictures on its 8GB hard drive), it's hard to get motivated to type more than a few sentences.

Anyway, from August 26-September 23 I will be embarking on Katie's Polish Adventure (take two). Armed with my external hard drive and Jonathan's powerful self-built PC (and being left to my own devices during working hours), I will hopefully finally find the time and energy for updates. So in addition to my wrapping up writing on Taiwan, you can also expect more posts on Krakow, and possibly a little on Budapest and Prague (our tentative weekend plans).

Until my triumphant return to the blogosphere, feel free to leave your input on any or all of the following:

• What I should do/where I should go in Krakow, Poland, Prague, Budapest, and the general areas;
• What you'd like to hear more about from my experiences in Taiwan;
• Whether I should continue this blog (or start a new one, or give up on blogging) once I hit the world of full-time employment;
  
• Any books you think I should read, as I've suddenly started reading again, a lot, and will need reading for my trip; and/or
  
• What you think of Project Runway's transition from Bravo to Lifetime.

Until we meet again!

The most irritating thing about Poland?

Okay, it's probably not the most irritating thing about Poland. And I'm sure it exists in more countries than Poland. But for my brief trip, I found great annoyance in the way Polish television is dubbed.

You all know I take my TV seriously. Fortunately, Taiwan has a great deal of American movies and various sports broadcasts, which we are able to get in English (with Chinese subtitles); even if there is a Chinese dub, we can hit a button on the remote to take it back to the English audio track. Anyway, there are no American sitcoms whatsoever. I think I took for granted the six times a day you could watch syndicated episodes of "Friends."

When I turned on the TV in Krakow, I was excited to see many different American shows: Friends, Grey's Anatomy, et cetera. Except every character in every show was dubbed by the one same, angry, bored-sounding Polish man. Interrupting the English track underneath, which was still at least slightly present.

Can't imagine it? Think it's not as bad as it sounds? Here's a clip of "Scrubs," another one of my favorites. Try to watch it without wanting to hunt down the dude who keeps interrupting what you actually want to hear.

Television musings

One of the things that minimizes the homesickness and keeps me sane is being able to watch good old American TV, whether found online, recorded via Slingbox, or rented at Blockbuster. There are a handful of shows that I'm keeping up with, and by "keeping up with," I mean some days I can't wait to get home to watch my recording from a few hours earlier, and other days I'll realize I haven't seen the show in weeks and should probably catch up. In any case, my TV repertoire strikes an interesting balance.

Mondays

• Chuck (NBC): half-action, half-comedy with a dash of never-gonna-happen romance.
• How I Met Your Mother (CBS): romantic comedy, twenty-something humor.

Wednesdays

• Private Practice (ABC): total guilty pleasure. Primetime soap opera.
  
• Pushing Daisies (ABC): whimsical, artistic, clever.

Thursdays

• Grey's Anatomy (ABC): total guilty pleasure. Primetime soap opera.
  
• The Office (NBC): smart, awkward comedy with a dash of romance.
• 30 Rock (NBC): smart, awkward comedy.

Anyway, mid-season schedules have been released, and it appears that Chuck will be on hiatus until February, and Pushing Daisies is being canceled completely. If you take a look at what's left, that leaves a lot of awkward humor and guilty pleasures. Where's the substance? Where's the legitimacy?

Many of you laugh at how seriously I take TV (whatever, please observe my stress levels, even during peak thesis season at Harvard), but I'm not the only one. I read this article mourning the cancelation of Pushing Daisies, in the meantime jabbing at this season of Grey's Anatomy. The comparison was too entertaining to pass up:

Well in terms of artistic legitmacy (which is a relevant topic when talking about “Pushing Daisies”) at least ABC still has “Grey’s Anatomy,” right? Aren’t the critics wild for that [...]? Yeaaah, no. My wife still watches it despite the fact it officially jumped the shark after the second season... “Grey’s Anatomy” seems to circle around and find a new stunt to jump over the shark every week. The other week it had a robot on it. Yes, a [...] robot! And then I noticed the other night they’re telling a ghost story with the dude who died from a bad heart a few seasons ago. It’s time to retire the phrase “jumped the shark.” We’re now in the era of “Grey’s Anatomy” and when a show screws itself beyond repair I’m saying it’s either “gone robot” or “ghosted Denny.”

Anyway, of my few loyal blog readers, I'm sure that none-to-one of you actually cares about the content of this post. But still, I had to throw it out there. When English storytelling competitions and teaching observations and travel plans and scheduled-and-rescheduled events are around, it's nice to have something that keeps me sane.

Yet another reason I'm glad I bought a Slingbox

I may have to stay up until 1am to watch kickoff, and it may have a pretty slow buffering process, but at least I can watch the 125th Harvard-yale game, live, from my bed, in Taiwan.

Also, every time I hear the words "great football weather," "cold, windy day," and "below freezing," I feel a little less jealous of all my friends back in Cambridge this weekend.

And, I just heard the band play. Aw.

Who ordered pizza?

Saturday accomplishments:

• Finish another NYT Sunday crossword with Jonathan
• Buy groceries
• Discover that Taiwan does sell deodorant, razors, and hand sanitizer, at least a little bit
  
• Clean entire apartment (thanks to 小清)
• Wash and air-dry sheets, pillowcases, and blanket...
  
• Wear a sweatshirt and long PJ pants, however briefly and artificially, thanks to a strategically aimed air conditioning unit (I miss being cold)
  
• Watch some actual TV on my Slingbox
• Get the most expensive thing at Ice Art (actually on Friday): 雪花冰 with fresh mango, kiwi, and strawberry, and a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream for just over $7 US... probably the most you could spend on a single food item in Kaohsiung
• Find and navigate the online menu, then place an online order (all in Chinese) at必勝客; have a phone conversation with the server there, and pick it up
• Purchase three tubes of SPF 50+ sunscreen
• Watch "Pretty Woman" with Chinese subtitles
  

Tomorrow's to-do list:

• Write my weekly reflection (assigned by Fulbright and the Kaohsiung Bureau of Education)
  
• Go to Costco and a bookstore with my host family
  
• Plan lessons?
  
• Find a song to sing for demanding 4th graders
• Make a list of the top players in the MLB to help my baseball classes pick English names ("Po-sa-da!" "But Posada isn't his name... his name is Jorge... so you can be Jorge, or George!" "PO-SA-DA!")
• Triple-check that my DVR will be recording all the new TV starting up this week (via Slingbox, of course): Grey's, The Office, How I Met Your Mother, Chuck, and (many) more

With such a big day ahead, I better get started on sleep. More inspiring posts to come, but my mom said she wanted me to post more. So post more I shall.

Earning my reputation as tech geek of the group...

So, because my brothers always had to be ahead of the curve with technology, I got a lot of techie hand-me-downs growing up. Pioneer discmans (discmen?) before I really owned any CD's, bulky 56MB MP3 players before the iPod had even been conceived, and every video game system that was released during the 1990s. Because of their behavior, I was only destined to follow their wired-turned-wireless lifestyles. So now I find myself writing a post on all the cool technology I'm using to stay connected and entertained in Taiwan.

First, a shout-out to my classic and reliable Dell Inspiron E1505, purchased at the beginning of junior year of college. Still going strong and satisfying all of my computing needs. But beyond needs, there are always wants, and that's where the next three products come in.

One of the best pieces of software on this Dell: Slingplayer. Costing less than $100 for the basic version, my handy little Slingbox connects to any cable/TiVo/whateveryouwatchstuffon box and then sends the signals over the internet. In short, a small box is connected to my cable box at home, and I have a small piece of software on my computer that allows me to control and watch the cable box from wherever I have an internet connection. This even entails turning the box on/off, changing the channel, and setting the DVR to record things. Of course, if my parents happen to be watching the same cable box, it can become a very remote control war from 8,000 miles away. Considering I'm a television addict and ABC/NBC/CBS.com don't allow people outside the US to watch their videos, this software will definitely come in handy. For more info, check out slingmedia.com.

The key piece of technology that allowed me to keep in touch with some of you before I had internet in my apartment is my new cell phone, a Nokia N78. A purchase funded by my brothers to replace my long-broken basic Nokia flipphone, this phone has way more features than I'd ever need (FM transmitter?) but a ton of features that are extremely useful (Wi-Fi!). It also has a 3.2mp camera, which has allowed me to forgo bringing my camera (Canon SD-1000) everywhere. A lot of the lesser-in-quality pictures on the blog have been from the phone camera... I realize these images are not the sharpest, but for quick everyday pictures, it does the job. Anyway, with the combination of wi-fi, a Skype subscription, and a great program called fring, I can use my cell phone to make free calls to the US when I'm near an internet connection. No extra fees involved-- I just use a pay-as-you-go Taiwan SIM card.

Finally, my newest, kind of unnecessary, completely awesome toy: an ASUS Eee PC 8G. This little guy has a 7" screen, a very tiny keyboard (with both "English" and Chinese typing), and a basic Linux OS to become the ultimate in convenience for cheap, portable computing. This "baby laptop" comes with Firefox, Skype, OpenOffice, a built-in webcam/mic, and a bunch of small learning/playing-oriented programs. Who cares if it's made for 12 year olds, this laptop will be able to fit in my purse and go more safely to and from school than my big one would. And to prove to you I'm not a huge weirdo, after I decided to get one of these, three others in my program followed suit-- and a few more are now considering it. Four of us went to a sort of technology district and, after bargaining with a dozen different storeowners, we paid 9600 NTD (about 320 USD) each. A great deal, if you ask me... but on my Taiwan teacher's salary, don't worry, I won't be spending like this very often.

And now, I leave you with a picture of the little technology family. Don't worry, I'll have some stories and pictures of what I've been doing in Taiwan soon enough...

(normal Dell laptop on left, tiny ASUS laptop on right, Nokia N78 in front)

Olympics in Taiwan?!?

Or is it "Chinese Taipei"?

In any case, a lot of people have been talking to me about the Olympics, saying how it must be so exciting to be so close to the action. I'm actually in the same time zone as all of the Olympic events, and I suppose a lot of the Olympic coverage could actually be watched here live, unlike most of what's playing right now in the US.

And yes, it was extremely exciting to go to a big ex-pat sports bar to watch the Opening Ceremonies in HD, counting down to the infamous 8:08 on 8/8/08. I watched the whole thing with several of my Fulbright ETA peers, slowly ordering pitcher after pitcher of Taiwan beer to justify our presence at the bar counter. It was fun to listen to the lively and loud cheers for Australia, New Zealand, England, Vietnam, and Austria, among others, as they marched out. We all cheered from the US, and the friendly Taiwanese bartender (Paulo?) cheered with us. And of course, the bar exploded for "Chinese Taipei." No one cheered for China when they finally came out, but I could easily chalk this up to exhaustion after watching so many countries parade out, and not the political atmosphere (but let's be honest, I'm tempted-- Kaohsiung is known for being Pan-Green and the center of pro-independence support in Taiwan).

Before moving onto the first instance of complaining on this blog, I'll show a picture of some of us having fun at the "Pig & Whistle" on 8/8/08 (me, Billy, Dani):


Now for the disappointment: apparently NBC has paid Beijing so that all of the "exciting" events (at least by US standards: gymnastics, swimming, basketball...) are aired live during primetime in the US, which means when I'm asleep or at work (8am/9am) because of that lovely 12 hour time difference. I realize that I am indeed from the US and perhaps the rest of the world doesn't find these events as exciting, but I'm still allowed some disappointment at never seeing these controversial China-crushing-US gymnastics competitions.

I heard that NBC would be putting all of the events online in full, so I thought this would be a good way to catch up, but of course, those videos are blocked to everyone outside the US. So all I've seen so far of the Olympics is clips that show up on the nightly news here, or whatever is deemed worthy of evening airtime on our actually very comprehensive Taiwan cable-- so far, I've seen archery, volleyball, and handball (I didn't even know that was an Olympic sport). The Asians love their handball?

The good news is that, thanks to my Slingbox, I can at least record the events on my home cable box and stream it here whenever I get a chance. But the moral of the story is that even though I'm a few hours away from where the action is, the US is still the only one that gets to experience it. Sadness!

It's alright, just four more years until another summer Olympics... and less than one year until the World Games in Kaohsiung! But that will have to be the topic of yet another post... For now, bedtime.