The Blonde Noodle

Milton Glaser

2010-10-24T10:36:00.000-07:00

Ten Things I Have Learned
Part of AIGA Talk in London
November 22, 2001

1
YOU CAN ONLY WORK FOR PEOPLE THAT YOU LIKE.
This is a curious rule and it took me a long time to learn because in fact at the beginning of my practice I felt the opposite. Professionalism required that you didn’t particularly like the people that you worked for or at least maintained an arms length relationship to them, which meant that I never had lunch with a client or saw them socially. Then some years ago I realised that the opposite was true. I discovered that all the work I had done that was meaningful and significant came out of an affectionate relationship with a client. And I am not talking about professionalism; I am talking about affection. I am talking about a client and you sharing some common ground. That in fact your view of life is someway congruent with the client, otherwise it is a bitter and hopeless struggle.

2
IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE NEVER HAVE A JOB.
One night I was sitting in my car outside Columbia University where my wife Shirley was studying Anthropology. While I was waiting I was listening to the radio and heard an interviewer ask ‘Now that you have reached 75 have you any advice for our audience about how to prepare for your old age?’ An irritated voice said ‘Why is everyone asking me about old age these days?’ I recognised the voice as John Cage. I am sure that many of you know who he was – the composer and philosopher who influenced people like Jasper Johns and Merce Cunningham as well as the music world in general. I knew him slightly and admired his contribution to our times. ‘You know, I do know how to prepare for old age’ he said. ‘Never have a job, because if you have a job someday someone will take it away from you and then you will be unprepared for your old age. For me, it has always been the same every since the age of 12. I wake up in the morning and I try to figure out how am I going to put bread on the table today? It is the same at 75, I wake up every morning and I think how am I going to put bread on the table today? I am exceedingly well prepared for my old age’ he said.

3
SOME PEOPLE ARE TOXIC AVOID THEM.
This is a subtext of number one. There was in the sixties a man named Fritz Perls who was a gestalt therapist. Gestalt therapy derives from art history, it proposes you must understand the ‘whole’ before you can understand the details. What you have to look at is the entire culture, the entire family and community and so on. Perls proposed that in all relationships people could be either toxic or nourishing towards one another. It is not necessarily true that the same person will be toxic or nourishing in every relationship, but the combination of any two people in a relationship produces toxic or nourishing consequences. And the important thing that I can tell you is that there is a test to determine whether someone is toxic or nourishing in your relationship with them. Here is the test: You have spent some time with this person, either you have a drink or go for dinner or you go to a ball game. It doesn’t matter very much but at the end of that time you observe whether you are more energised or less energised. Whether you are tired or whether you are exhilarated. If you are more tired then you have been poisoned. If you have more energy you have been nourished. The test is almost infallible and I suggest that you use it for the rest of your life.

4
PROFESSIONALISM IS NOT ENOUGH or THE GOOD IS THE ENEMY OF THE GREAT.
Early in my career I wanted to be professional, that was my complete aspiration in my early life because professionals seemed to know everything - not to mention they got paid for it. Later I discovered after working for a while that professionalism itself was a limitation. After all, what professionalism means in most cases is diminishing risks. So if you want to get your car fixed you go to a mechanic who knows how to deal with transmission problems in the same way each time. I suppose if you needed brain surgery you wouldn’t want the doctor to fool around and invent a new way of connecting your nerve endings. Please do it in the way that has worked in the past.
Unfortunately in our field, in the so-called creative – I hate that word because it is misused so often. I also hate the fact that it is used as a noun. Can you imagine calling someone a creative? Anyhow, when you are doing something in a recurring way to diminish risk or doing it in the same way as you have done it before, it is clear why professionalism is not enough. After all, what is required in our field, more than anything else, is the continuous transgression. Professionalism does not allow for that because transgression has to encompass the possibility of failure and if you are professional your instinct is not to fail, it is to repeat success. So professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal.

5
LESS IS NOT NECESSARILY MORE.
Being a child of modernism I have heard this mantra all my life. Less is more. One morning upon awakening I realised that it was total nonsense, it is an absurd proposition and also fairly meaningless. But it sounds great because it contains within it a paradox that is resistant to understanding. But it simply does not obtain when you think about the visual of the history of the world. If you look at a Persian rug, you cannot say that less is more because you realise that every part of that rug, every change of colour, every shift in form is absolutely essential for its aesthetic success. You cannot prove to me that a solid blue rug is in any way superior. That also goes for the work of Gaudi, Persian miniatures, art nouveau and everything else. However, I have an alternative to the proposition that I believe is more appropriate. ‘Just enough is more.’

6
STYLE IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.
I think this idea first occurred to me when I was looking at a marvellous etching of a bull by Picasso. It was an illustration for a story by Balzac called The Hidden Masterpiece. I am sure that you all know it. It is a bull that is expressed in 12 different styles going from very naturalistic version of a bull to an absolutely reductive single line abstraction and everything else along the way. What is clear just from looking at this single print is that style is irrelevant. In every one of these cases, from extreme abstraction to acute naturalism they are extraordinary regardless of the style. It’s absurd to be loyal to a style. It does not deserve your loyalty. I must say that for old design professionals it is a problem because the field is driven by economic consideration more than anything else. Style change is usually linked to economic factors, as all of you know who have read Marx. Also fatigue occurs when people see too much of the same thing too often. So every ten years or so there is a stylistic shift and things are made to look different. Typefaces go in and out of style and the visual system shifts a little bit. If you are around for a long time as a designer, you have an essential problem of what to do. I mean, after all, you have developed a vocabulary, a form that is your own. It is one of the ways that you distinguish yourself from your peers, and establish your identity in the field. How you maintain your own belief system and preferences becomes a real balancing act. The question of whether you pursue change or whether you maintain your own distinct form becomes difficult. We have all seen the work of illustrious practitioners that suddenly look old-fashioned or, more precisely, belonging to another moment in time. And there are sad stories such as the one about Cassandre, arguably the greatest graphic designer of the twentieth century, who couldn’t make a living at the end of his life and committed suicide.
But the point is that anybody who is in this for the long haul has to decide how to respond to change in the zeitgeist. What is it that people now expect that they formerly didn’t want? And how to respond to that desire in a way that doesn’t change your sense of integrity and purpose.

7
HOW YOU LIVE CHANGES YOUR BRAIN.
The brain is the most responsive organ of the body. Actually it is the organ that is most susceptible to change and regeneration of all the organs in the body. I have a friend named Gerald Edelman who was a great scholar of brain studies and he says that the analogy of the brain to a computer is pathetic. The brain is actually more like an overgrown garden that is constantly growing and throwing off seeds, regenerating and so on. And he believes that the brain is susceptible, in a way that we are not fully conscious of, to almost every experience of our life and every encounter we have. I was fascinated by a story in a newspaper a few years ago about the search for perfect pitch. A group of scientists decided that they were going to find out why certain people have perfect pitch. You know certain people hear a note precisely and are able to replicate it at exactly the right pitch. Some people have relevant pitch; perfect pitch is rare even among musicians. The scientists discovered – I don’t know how - that among people with perfect pitch the brain was different. Certain lobes of the brain had undergone some change or deformation that was always present with those who had perfect pitch. This was interesting enough in itself. But then they discovered something even more fascinating. If you took a bunch of kids and taught them to play the violin at the age of 4 or 5 after a couple of years some of them developed perfect pitch, and in all of those cases their brain structure had changed. Well what could that mean for the rest of us? We tend to believe that the mind affects the body and the body affects the mind, although we do not generally believe that everything we do affects the brain. I am convinced that if someone was to yell at me from across the street my brain could be affected and my life might changed. That is why your mother always said, ‘Don’t hang out with those bad kids.’ Mama was right. Thought changes our life and our behaviour. I also believe that drawing works in the same way. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. It makes you pay attention to what you are looking at, which is not so easy.

8
DOUBT IS BETTER THAN CERTAINTY.
Everyone always talks about confidence in believing what you do. I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation. I think that is also true in a practical sense. Deeply held beliefs of any kind prevent you from being open to experience, which is why I find all firmly held ideological positions questionable. It makes me nervous when someone believes too deeply or too much. I think that being sceptical and questioning all deeply held beliefs is essential. Of course we must know the difference between scepticism and cynicism because cynicism is as much a restriction of one’s openness to the world as passionate belief is. They are sort of twins. And then in a very real way, solving any problem is more important than being right. There is a significant sense of self-righteousness in both the art and design world. Perhaps it begins at school. Art school often begins with the Ayn Rand model of the single personality resisting the ideas of the surrounding culture. The theory of the avant garde is that as an individual you can transform the world, which is true up to a point. One of the signs of a damaged ego is absolute certainty.
Schools encourage the idea of not compromising and defending your work at all costs. Well, the issue at work is usually all about the nature of compromise. You just have to know what to compromise. Blind pursuit of your own ends which excludes the possibility that others may be right does not allow for the fact that in design we are always dealing with a triad – the client, the audience and you.
Ideally, making everyone win through acts of accommodation is desirable. But self-righteousness is often the enemy. Self-righteousness and narcissism generally come out of some sort of childhood trauma, which we do not have to go into. It is a consistently difficult thing in human affairs. Some years ago I read a most remarkable thing about love, that also applies to the nature of co-existing with others. It was a quotation from Iris Murdoch in her obituary. It read ‘ Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real.’ Isn’t that fantastic! The best insight on the subject of love that one can imagine.

9
ON AGING.
Last year someone gave me a charming book by Roger Rosenblatt called ‘Ageing Gracefully’ I got it on my birthday. I did not appreciate the title at the time but it contains a series of rules for ageing gracefully. The first rule is the best. Rule number one is that ‘it doesn’t matter.’ ‘It doesn’t matter that what you think. Follow this rule and it will add decades to your life. It does not matter if you are late or early, if you are here or there, if you said it or didn’t say it, if you are clever or if you were stupid. If you were having a bad hair day or a no hair day or if your boss looks at you cockeyed or your boyfriend or girlfriend looks at you cockeyed, if you are cockeyed. If you don’t get that promotion or prize or house or if you do – it doesn’t matter.’ Wisdom at last. Then I heard a marvellous joke that seemed related to rule number 10. A butcher was opening his market one morning and as he did a rabbit popped his head through the door. The butcher was surprised when the rabbit inquired ‘Got any cabbage?’ The butcher said ‘This is a meat market – we sell meat, not vegetables.’ The rabbit hopped off. The next day the butcher is opening the shop and sure enough the rabbit pops his head round and says ‘You got any cabbage?’ The butcher now irritated says ‘Listen you little rodent I told you yesterday we sell meat, we do not sell vegetables and the next time you come here I am going to grab you by the throat and nail those floppy ears to the floor.’ The rabbit disappeared hastily and nothing happened for a week. Then one morning the rabbit popped his head around the corner and said ‘Got any nails?’ The butcher said ‘No.’ The rabbit said ‘Ok. Got any cabbage?’

10
TELL THE TRUTH.
The rabbit joke is relevant because it occurred to me that looking for a cabbage in a butcher’s shop might be like looking for ethics in the design field. It may not be the most obvious place to find either. It’s interesting to observe that in the new AIGA’s code of ethics there is a significant amount of useful information about appropriate behaviour towards clients and other designers, but not a word about a designer’s relationship to the public. We expect a butcher to sell us eatable meat and that he doesn’t misrepresent his wares. I remember reading that during the Stalin years in Russia that everything labelled veal was actually chicken. I can’t imagine what everything labelled chicken was. We can accept certain kinds of misrepresentation, such as fudging about the amount of fat in his hamburger but once a butcher knowingly sells us spoiled meat we go elsewhere. As a designer, do we have less responsibility to our public than a butcher? Everyone interested in licensing our field might note that the reason licensing has been invented is to protect the public not designers or clients. ‘Do no harm’ is an admonition to doctors concerning their relationship to their patients, not to their fellow practitioners or the drug companies. If we were licensed, telling the truth might become more central to what we do.

http://www.miltonglaser.com/pages/milton/mg_index.html

Green Capitalism

2010-10-02T10:33:00.000-07:00

In light of the death of nature, I believe that we have only three options.

The first option is to do nothing: ignore the warning signs and continue on the path of reckless consumerism. Under this model, we simply keep living our lives, building our careers and believing that everything will be fine. We place our faith in the corporations and the American way of life.

The second option is largely the same as the first but it appeals to liberal-minded environmentalists. This is the so-called “green capitalism” option whereby we keep consuming but we make ourselves feel better by purchasing “green” products. Ultimately, this path only appeals to the very rich who can afford to shop organic, buy hybrids, use bamboo flooring and follow the latest corporate endorsed trends.

In the end, these two options are basically the same. They refuse to accept the need for a dramatic reduction in First World standards of living. As such, they are not options at all because they merely ensure the extinction of nature. These two options guarantee that when the collapse happens it will bring an ecological dictatorship. Both “green capitalism” and consumerism, in their refusal to endorse a spiritual turn-around, lay the foundations for eco-tyranny.

The third option is to immediately take the threat of ecological collapse seriously and to re-organize society around confronting that threat. This requires a fundamental change in the goals of society: an end to economic development, to the acquisition of things, to the desecration of the earth. And it requires an essential shift in the nature of humanity: a moral and spiritual uprising against the soul poisoning of advertising. This option is the only viable alternative to eco-tyranny. It asks the most of us, but it is also the only way to prevent an authoritarian post-apocalyptic society.

Some believe that averting ecological catastrophe may no longer be possible. Regardless of whether this is true–after all, how could we know?–the best strategy may be to assume that the tipping point has already occurred and that preventative measures are no longer sufficient.

Instead, what is needed now is a frank discussion about what will happen the day after. If all we can imagine is that it will be a terrible dictatorship of violence, then we must immediately begin the process of initiating a spiritual revolution, an inner-insurrection that lays the foundation for an egalitarian post-consumerist society.

Adbusters

2010-10-02T10:31:00.001-07:00

http://ftp.adbusters.org/blogs

Interesting article about consumerism and the environment.

a list

2009-09-26T18:32:00.000-07:00

taken from the wish jar...

1. life and people are impermanent.
2. slow down.
3. look people in the eye.
4. drink tea.
5. be kind.
6. simple things hold the secret.

2009-09-24T07:32:00.000-07:00

Keelung beach.

the hike.

keelung beach .

me with my favorite co-teacher, David.

this was a big spider on our hike.

a little hike near Keelung.
the wonderful Shanon King for one night only.

my Tuesday drive.

Rhonda, my lovely scooter.

Dynamic Demo

2009-09-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Last Friday I had a parent's demonstration with my favourite class. These kids are so smart and are incredibly enthusiastic to learn English. I always look forward to my Friday nights with them.

We sang a song called '10 Little Indians' so I made them all headbands with feathers.

Betty, Lisa and Cindy. These 3 girls are the chattiest, sweetest students I have.

This is Benny from one of my older classes. He was being punished for speaking Chinese in class. He had to perform the 'model walk'. Basically, you have to strut down the center of the classroom and pose at the front. He is such a character, he pretends like he doesn't like to but I know he secretly loves doing it.

The Taipei Zoo

2009-09-14T08:25:00.000-07:00

These are some pictures from our field trip to the Taipei zoo with my summer classes. This was the day before the big typhoon so there was tonnes of rain.

Chris and Johnathan.

My co-teacher David with a few of the kids.

Most of the day poured rain.

Don't these kids look happy?

Johnny and Johnson, identical twins that also dress alike.

Poop Art! They are obsessed with poo.

100 ideas

2009-09-14T08:20:00.000-07:00

Katie and I are going to work through this list every time we have a spare moment and make a book of it!

http://www.kerismith.com/funstuff/100ideas.htm

Here are a few pics of me and my lovely room mate Katie:

Baishawan or White Sands Beach

2009-09-06T22:26:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Steph, Carley, Danielle, Jon, Jimmie and I drove to a lovely little beach 2 hours away. The beach is called Baishawan or White Sands Beach, more like Brown Sands but still nice. It was a long trek by scooter but was definetly worth it in the end.

On the way we stopped in Danshui for lunch at an awesome Mexican restaurant called Eddy's Cantina. The owner is from northern British Columbia, small world!

There were life gaurds everywhere and everytime you went deep enough where the water was past your waist they would blow their whistle at you. Taiwanese are really weird about swimming. Even though the country is an island surrounded by water and most people live near the coast many people do not know how to swim. I've heard that it has something to do with their continental shelf. Most coastal areas in the world have a long continental shelf so it is safe to swim far out in the ocean. Where as, Taiwan's shelf drops off right away and creates strong rip tides. As well, this month is ghost month and the superstition is that ghosts will drown you if you go swimming. With these reasons combined I'm a little surprised none of us drowned.

some new artwork

2009-09-02T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of paintings I have done since I have been in Taiwan:

This is a pink bird painted on a T-shirt for Jamie (Bobo's daughter) for her birthday. I hope it fits!

This one was for my beautiful cousin Sarah:

She is a true Leo so I decided to paint her lioness alter ego.

Taiwan Stardom!

2009-09-01T07:20:00.000-07:00

I had a totally Taiwan moment on Monday. Mike (another foreign teacher) asked me to be his pretend girlfriend for the day in a hot pot commercial! It was definetly one of the most interesting days I have experienced since being in Taiwan.

Since I forgot to bring my camera with me here is a picture of Steph and I eating hot pot when she came to visit.

All Mike and I had to do was eat hot pot and act like it was delicious (which it is not) and then cheers all of our Taiwanese friends. We did that for about 15 takes and then had a bunch of pictures taken for a newspaper ad. The Taiwanese actors spoke little or very little English so it was pretty funny trying to have pretend conversation with them while we were filming. Mike and I would say things like "mmmm this onion tastes so good". Fast forward to take 15 "mmmm this onion still tastes so good". The Taiwanese actors and director had no idea what we were saying. I am pretty sure that it didn't matter and they will probably just dub over the sound with some cheesy Taiwan music.

After eating the hot pot for 2 hours we were filmed being given a tour around the restaurant. You can put anything you want in the hot pot. Delicious items including stomach, lung, congealed pigs blood, squid balls, processed mini weiners, liver and whole squid with eyes intact. Doesn't that make you want to hop on a plane, come to Taiwan and try this exceptional local meal?

The newspaper advertisement comes out on Friday and the commercial is going to be played in movie theaters in Chungli (the town south of us) probably in the next few weeks. To sum it all up it was a fun and different way to make $50 and I hope to do it again soon.

me, me teacher!

2009-07-03T08:40:00.000-07:00

I made an observation today; I have been in Taiwan for 4 months now and I have yet to report anything on the teaching side of things here. I think this is interesting since my main motivation for coming to Taiwan was to gain teaching experience.

As I get more comfortable with my classes and the method that Gloria English is set up the more I can learn to be a better teacher. A few things I have learned so far:

It takes ALOT to motivate a group of teenagers
Kids 7 and under learn a million times faster than everyone else
Spending 4 hours everyday playing games from when you were a kid is good for your health
Students have about a one minute attention span
Once you notice a class is no longer listening to you make them all do jumping jacks and start again (seriously works)
A smile goes a long way in a beginner's class
Pre-teens aged 12 to 14 are the worst to teach (too cool for EVERYTHING!)
Taiwanese kids are cuter and chubbier than North American kids

I am really happy and thankful that I ended up at this school. The money is good and we only have to work 4 hours a day. As well, every class has a Taiwanese co-teacher that helps keep your class on track and can translate to Chinese when needed. As a foreign teacher we have almost zero responsibility. We don't have to mark homework, make up exams or even correct tests. Basically, we are only there because it makes the school look good to have foreign teachers and for the North American accent.

Today I had a new student in one of my classes named 'Smile'. You will come across some bizarre English names because the kids are allowed to pick their own when they first start at Gloria. So far I have had Apple, Kiwi, Pinky, Ting, Angel, Rain and Yoyo. I think Smile tops the list.

Lots of times with a new class you will have 4 or more kids with the same common name. This happened to me in my brand new beginner's summer class. I have a Johnathan, a Johnny and a Johnson. This is extra confusing because Johnny and Johnson are identical twins that wear matching outfits. Yesterday was the first class and they showed up wearing matching sponge bob square pants T-shirts. I think I will just call them both John so I am always safe.

The other fun thing that we get to do is pick out names when a kid doesn't have one yet or it is still early enough to change their English name. So yesterday I had a new student in one of my beginner's classes named Laurence. He didn't like it so the whole class got to collectively choose him a new one. Most of the kids wanted his name to be Michael Jackson but he eventually went with Brad, kinda boring, I was hoping for a new weird one.

Since I have yet to have a teacher Tess picture taken here is one of me in front of a sign near one of my schools.

Taroko

2009-06-15T00:51:00.001-07:00

More of the tunnels.

Watch out for those rocks!

This is supposed to look like a frog and the pagoda is the frog's crown.

Crazy ants trying to drag a dead stick bug into their ant hill. Dad and I tried to help them in their feat but probably only made things worse by jamming the dead bug into a crack, oops!

more from Taroko

2009-06-15T00:17:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures from the majestic Taroko Gorge.This area of the gorge is called the tunnel of nine turns. There was a rock slide before we went so all the tourists had to wear hard hats as they walked through. Sparrows nest in the cracks in the rocks. There were so many flying about feeding their little chicks.

Mom and I coming out of the water curtain cave.

The one thing that will continually amaze/annoy me about Taiwan is the sheer number and amount of people everywhere. You can never get away from the people! When I go back to Vancouver I will probably have reverse culture shock because we are so used to having so much space. Taiwan is about the size of Vancouver Island with a population of 23 million people. Apparently, the Taiwanese feel that foreigners live a lonelier life because we like our personal space and time to ourselves. They are always used to having people around them at all times. It is nearly impossible to find a one bedroom apartment in Taiwan because it is unheard of for people to live on their own. Many families still live with their parents and grandparents. One of the questions I teach in my beginner's class is "How many people are there in your family?" So many of the kids reply with "There are 9 (10 or up to 11) people in my family; they are my mother, father, 2 brothers, grandmother, grandfather.....etc and me." It is going to take forever to do our demo when all the kids have to present to their parents.

Taroko Gorge

2009-06-08T09:37:00.001-07:00

Crazy Sunday!

2009-06-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

Went hiking up spectacular Yangmingshan with Katie yesterday. Just can't get enough of the Dr.Seus trees, stinky sulphur vents and majestic tree ferns. It's like going on a mossy stairmaster for an hour.

Met up with Danielle and Chris for dinner and found ANOTHER pub with Guiness on tap and POUTINE! I can now be a complete and happy person. Have you ever seen me look this joyful before?

Dragon Boat Festival

2009-06-08T08:11:00.001-07:00

Here are a few pictures from the Dragon Boat festival when my parents came to visit. The first day was pretty relaxed. We decided to see the main sights of Taipei. I took them up Taipei 101 (my second visit) and then to Ximending for some shopping and beers.

The next day I thought I would take them up Yang Ming Shan. I absolutely love this hike and have done it 3 times now. It is one of my favorite things to do in Taiwan so far. I think mom found it a little grueling but dad loved it! It's a bit like Taipei's version of the Grouse Grind but a million times prettier and more interesting.

The bus ride off the mountain was crazy. Because it was a holiday everyone was out hiking so we didn't have any seats, the bus was crammed and the road was incredibly windy . Mom claimed it was one of the craziest bus rides she had ever been on.

After the hike we decided to head back to Taoyuan. I had never taken the train back to Taoyuan from Taipei (only the bus). So I wasn't totally sure how to do it. We asked a couple of people to help us and they sent us on the wrong train. We were going in the right direction, the only problem was the train did not stop in Taoyuan, it just flew by my train station. It turned out we were on the express train to Taichung which is another city halfway down the country! Thankfully, Taiwan is not that big so it was only a 2 hour train ride and another 2 hours back. We made it back to Taoyuan by 10pm, just enough time to take my parents to Great White Shark one of my favorite places to eat in Taoyuan.

Dad and I posing along the east coast highway.

Mom and I in a tunnel in Taroko Gorge.

This is a town we stopped at for a nasty seafood lunch along the east coast on our way to Taroko Gorge. We ordered our food by pointing at the seafood tanks in front of the restaurant. We got some gross tiny crabs, prawns with heads, eyes, shells intact (yes...I ate prawns, my environmental morals are going downhill) whole squids complete with ink sacs and eye balls and topped it all off with a water, ginger, oyster soup. Mom and I stayed clear of the squid but Dad actually ate most of them. The plate was left with a pool of black ink, mmm-mmm.

Mom and Dad in Taiwan

2009-06-01T18:14:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad came and visited me for the 4 day Dragon boat festival. It was a very fast trip but we managed to fit in as much as possible. I loved having them here and it was so nice to be spoiled and sleep in a REAL bed! They left early this morning. That means back to work for me.

My First Painting!

2009-05-26T21:46:00.000-07:00

This is my first painting!

Surfing in Yilan

2009-05-19T09:55:00.001-07:00

This is a surf beach in the north east called Yilan. My co-teacher Andy invited me for an early morning surf last Wednesday. He picked me up at the dorm at 6:30 am, we arrived in Yilan by 8:00 am and we were back by 2:30 pm to teach our classes at night, what an awesome day!

Surfing is such a difficult sport. I have had lessons before but every time I have forgotten how hard it is. You really need a lot of upper arm and core strength, two things I have always needed to work on. We rented our boards from an extremely tanned, 50 year old Taiwanese guy named 'Cool' (I have just decided on the name for Jack and Kyla's first child). It cost a little under $20 to rent them for the day. I had a hard time at first but 'Cool' took it upon himself to get me standing up by the end of the morning. Basically the only time I caught any waves was when 'Cool' stood behind my board and pushed me as I paddled as hard as I could. All morning he would just yell 'Jai-oh, Jai-oh' (go! go!) as he knew this was one of the few Chinese words I knew.

We ended the day with me getting stung by a small jelly fish, next eating some mystery meat from a beach side Taiwanese lunch box, then buying special, pink, hot spring tomatoes on the road side and finally napping in the car on the ride back. I am definetly looking forward to going again!

Andy and I teach together on Tuesday nights at a school in the south. He is my favourite co-teacher and is the most helpful. I have been meeting up with him for a half hour before our class to go over our lesson plan. Most Taiwanese are worried about 'saving face' so if you are doing something wrong they will usually not say it directly to you. I like that Andy is straight up with me and he will tell me whenever I am not doing things correctly. He is definetly improving my teaching skills.

We also went for hot pot together one night after class. This is a Taiwanese specialty where you put a bunch of food in a pot and cook it yourself (pretty self explanatory). The first time I went was with Steph and we had no idea what we were doing. We didn't realse you could turn down the tempearture on the broth so during our whole meal we had steaming hot broth boiling in our faces. As well, we completely overcooked all our food, boiled down our broth too fast and didn't even realise that the broth was unlimited so you could just ask for more.

When I went with Andy he got me to try some random squid balls, oysters and congealed pig's blood, mmm-mmm! It was actually not bad and I am eager to try hot pot again once mom and dad arrive.

Waterfall Weekend

2009-05-18T02:28:00.001-07:00

I had the most amazing sunday. Nine of us went into the mountains on our scooters and hiked down to this awesome waterfall. A bunch of us Canadians were remiscing about what we usually do for the May long weekend so we decided to make one ourselves even though we only had one day off.

This was our scooter brigade. We tried to set off by 11 am but with this many people we didn't get going until nearly noon. Then about a block from the dorm we lost Dane and Katie, Dane's scooter had blown a tire so we had to double 3 of the scooters. The drive through the mountains was probably my favourite part of the day. It took about an hour and half and it finally made me realise how tropical Taiwan is. The forest is very moist and jungle-y.

When we first arrived there was a large Taiwanese family enjoying the swimming spot too. They were so friendly and I think they got a big kick out of all the foreigners drinking beers and acting boisterous. When we first arrived they gave each of us a large slice of watermelon and then kept feeding us their leftovers throughout the day. It was a true show of Taiwanese hospitality.

Josh and Katie. Josh is from Indiana and Katie is from North Carolina. They were friends from before. They both did a school exchange in Belgium. Josh is very musical and is always on his guitar. Katie went to school for graphic design and is an amazing artist. She is hleping me learn how to paint.

That is crazy Jon, trying to lick the girls legs.

This is how I spent the majority of my day!

Cherry Blossoms and Buddhist Temple

2009-05-11T00:54:00.002-07:00

These are a few pictures from last Sunday. Megan, Allen, Alex, Dawn and our Chinese tutor, Bobo with her family went to a Buddhist temple in the mountains outside of Taipei.

Me with my fellow English teachers and Bobo with her husband Jack and daughters Jamie and Joyce. Her kids are two of the cutest Taiwanese girls you will ever meet.

At this time of year the cherry blossoms are in bloom and when a breeze hits the tree all the flowers drift to the ground. The Taiwanese call it white snow! I guess this is a popular time to go as it was crazy busy. The temple gives out a free Buddhist lunch. Men and women eat separately. We all had to sit on benches facing one direction and eat out of small metal bowls. The lunch comprised of rice, tofu with bamboo shoots, mashed squash with a mystery vegetable and some gai-lan. If you didnt finish every last morsel they put a ladle of water into your bowl, swished it around and then made you drink it! Thankfully I made sure to eat every last grain of rice to avoid this. It was a truly Taiwanese experience.

Me on the mountain walk. Bobo put the cherry blossoms in my hair. I let her kids decorate it further with some fern fronds.

Yangmingshan

2009-05-11T00:13:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Danielle, Chris and I got up early and headed off to Yangmingshan http://www.ymsnp.gov.tw/HTML/ENG/INDEX.ASP for a gorgeous mountain hike. The hike was about an hour and a half long. We saw tree ferns, a lizard with an electric blue tail, Dr. Suess looking trees and some sulphur 'pits' or springs. The day was hot and humid so we all got really sweaty on the walk up. Thankfully Danielle and I had a change of clothes with us for the afternoon.

All day the 3 of us talked of the food we were missing from home. Guiness on tap, hummus and veggie burgers were on the top of our list. We decided to check out a Western style pub in Taipei called the Brass Monkey. We were all ecstatic to learn they had both Guiness and veggie burgers. Although, the 'veggie' burgers turned out to be deep fried mashed potato on a bun but the Guiness was sooo worth it. We also wanted to check if Angels & Demons was playing at the IMAX but decided just to head back to Taoyuan as the beers made us super lazy.

trip to Taipei

2009-03-21T06:08:00.001-07:00

These are a few of the pictures from a day trip into Taipei last Sunday. Jon, Chris, Danielle and I went to Ximen Ding for some shopping and general sight-seeing. I had previously been to Ximen with Kyla and found a funky little area with a bunch of bars and outdoor seating. After siting there for about 20 minutes Kyla and I finally realised we were in the gay part of town. It is definetly one of the funkier neighbourhoods in Taipei. I look forward to taking Stepho there when she comes to Taipei.

This is Jon, he is from Oregon. He likes to have various animals put on his head.

Chris and Danielle are a couple from Toronto.

life turned upside down

2009-03-20T01:22:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of my new room, with a WINDOW! I can't beleive how much my quality of life has increased. I also made a trip to IKEA and picked up the mirrors and bulletin board to add my own touch to the room.

I am finally starting to feel settled and getting into a day to day routine. At first I thought there was 'no way' I was going to spend my year living in the dorm. However after living here for 2 weeks now it really isn't that bad. It's nice to come home after a hard day and have 14 other people know what you have just gone through. They can cheer you up, make you laugh, give you some perspective or just listen. I think if I moved out on my own I would start to get lonely. As well, I can save more money and travel for longer in the end!

2009-03-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

This is the dorm where I live. I didn't know before I arrived that the dorm is also one of the schools. I live with around 15 other teachers and everyone gets along really well.

my first week!

2009-03-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

This was my tomb bedroom that I had for the first few days that made me feel like I was going crazy!

I had no window and only fluorescent lighting, yuck!