Spring Scream

As I mentioned briefly in my last blog post, last weekend (Thursday to Sunday) I was at something called Spring Scream. Basically, it was a three-day outdoor concert by the beach in Kenting. I like live music and I like the beach, and ever since I saw 海角七號, the big Taiwanese hit released this fall, I thought Spring Scream looked like a fun time.

If I ever get the opportunity to go to Spring Scream again, I'm not sure I'd choose to camp outside in a tent next time around (apparently North American hippies are alive and well and living in Taiwan). In any case, the whole tenting thing was certainly an experience. Maybe waking up at 3, 4, and 5am to the sounds of a drum circle is a rite of passage into adulthood?

Anyway, I had a good time watching dozens of different bands in probably the most beautiful concert setting I'll ever see.

Saturday afternoon, before the action started:

I also got to use the awesome backpacking backpack that I had gotten as a going-away present (thanks Aleecia!).

I'm supposed to be "pointing to adventure"? Or maybe I'm about to rough up some hippies.

As you can see, in embracing the obnoxious fashion trends of Taiwan, I procured a very neon hat and a very pink fanny pack. (Okay, fanny packs aren't even a trend here, I just found it awfully convenient not to carry anything around. Why bother to blend in when you already stand out anyway?) You can also see evidence of the removable tattoo on my arm, which served as the three-day concert pass.

Faux glamor shot by the beach to showcase the ridiculousness of my hat, fanny pack, T-shirt, and tattoo:

Here is one poor attempt at photographing a music act from far away in the dark. I like the three girls in the foreground wearing matching light-up red devil horns. (I later purchased blue ones.)

There were also some new experiences, like visiting the southernmost point of Taiwan...:

... and drinking wine in a can:

And the staple beach experiences, like watching the sunset over the water:
So I was once again reminded that Taiwan is a very beautiful place. I guess I can't really blame the hippies for coming here, then, can I?

Conferencing in Kenting

The past three days, I've been at a conference in Kenting. In case you were wondering about my lack of blogging/emailing/calling, that's the reason. As you may remember, I also went to Kenting with Jonathan in October. It is sort of the vacation spot in Taiwan. But it's still January, and it was still a conference, so the visit wasn't all sunshine and beach. Though both played a role.

There's no need for me to describe the conference. It was a conference. Lots of things that are very interesting when presented individually become lost when they are presented one after another, Powerpoint after Powerpoint; though, I think the overall accomplishments of this year's Fulbright group are pretty impressive and certainly worth presenting. In addition to the presentations, there was a trip to the aquarium, some touring of an arboretum-ish area on a mountain, and some good quality beach time. There weren't any other tourists in the water with us, but the water was certainly warm enough for swimming. (The air, on the other hand, wasn't so warm for us running back to the hotel.) To think I went swimming in the ocean and got sunburned yesterday, and will be in freezing-cold Krakow next week with nought but a flimsy fluffy Carrefour "winter" coat... 真奇怪.

Anyway, this conference definitely made me appreciate Kenting's beauty. My visit with Jonathan was during the rainy season, and we were often too overwhelmed by figuring out where to stay or what to eat that we (or at least I) forgot to notice how amazing our surroundings were. This weekend, staying in the fanciest resort I've ever stayed in, feeling less of a need to take pictures and do everything, I finally realized why everyone loves this place.

Now, the pictures. Note: you can click on any picture to see it full-size in a separate window.

A group of high school kids oooh and aaah over the whale shark at the Taiwan National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium:

Our room at the Caesar Park Hotel:

The view from our balcony:

Sites from an arboretum area of Kenting National Park:
(a garden)

(banyan pathway)
(view from the arboretum)

I could probably look at this water all day:

Though, the landscape isn't too bad either:

Thank you, Fulbright Foundation, for all that you've given me, and for all that you continue to give.

Long weekend #2: Kenting

I've been neglecting the blog lately. I have two excuses, but I won't bother to tell you about them. Instead, I'll do a mostly-pictures update of my second weekend trip when Jon was here. We went to Kenting, which is on the southern tip of Taiwan. The setting of "Cape No. 7," Kenting is the Taiwanese resort town. Except we stayed in a small inn, not a huge resort, so much of the weekend was spent figuring out how to get around and what we were supposed to be doing. Regardless, Kenting was a beautiful place to be, and thanks to a friend of a friend of a friend (remember what I said about how getting advice from locals was a necessity?), we did end up at some good restaurants and on an excellent snorkelling excursion.

And now, some pictures.

Jon overlooks the main Kenting beach:

A view of the landscape on the east coast of Taiwan:

The Pacific Ocean. Look really hard, can you see California?

A nice trip to the national aquarium:



And a great snorkeling trip by the nuclear power plant. Seriously. Once you swim through a few yards of trash, you get to an amazingly diverse and beautiful coral reef:
(our snorkel-guide had an underwater camera. Phew.)

I still have some other Jon pictures and stories, but they are smaller. This will probably be my last in the "Jon summary" series, as I'm getting way behind on blogging on actual current events. But I hope you've enjoyed these stories. All this and more could be yours, if you visit Taiwan, too!

Go Phillies!

As many of you know, baseball is the sport I've more than half-cared about throughout my life. So imagine my excitement when I got off the bus to Kenting today, signed online, and found that finally, the Phillies are in the World Series.

I remember back in '93 when my parents were fortunate enough to get four tickets to see them play the Blue Jays (of course, I was 8 and there were four family members older than me...), but I remember it was a very exciting time. And now, here I am in Taiwan, tuning into the beginning of games as I get ready for work, or catching the highlights on a Chinese-dubbed ESPN later that day.

What a disappointing time to not be in Philly... then again, I did name the majority of my 5th grade baseball class after Phillies players(I definitely have a Cole, Chase, and Shane), and I'm planning to do some class activities with the World Series... maybe having a bunch of enthusiastic 11 year olds will be adequate replacement for not being home during such an exciting time. Too bad the Yankees have the only Taiwanese baseball player in the MLB, and thus dominate the Taiwanese baseball merchandise market.

Unrelatedly, I'm writing from a hotel in Kenting, a beach town on the southern tip of Taiwan. It's raining a lot. We're going to an aquarium tomorrow. I'm laying off the blogging until Jon leaves (Wednesday), but don't worry, there will be blog posts and pictures aplenty soon after.