Posted in Medicine, Taiwan on Jul 18th, 2008 2 Comments »
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I don’t know where I found this quote. But, it makes sense. People often ask me what to look for in acupuncturist; I think they should seek a practitioner like the one described below:
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I don’t think a doctor needs to be particularly clever.
He needs to be moderately intelligent, but he doesn’t need to be anything [...]
Posted in Taiwan, Travel on Mar 20th, 2008 3 Comments »
Xinyi Road is a forest of drills, cranes and mushroom like ventilation towers. Taipei’s already excellent subway system sprouts new lines like clematis tendrils climb a trellis. This one will connect the financial nerve center and the world’s tallest building “Taipei 101” to the main train station and the highspeed bullet line that now renders [...]
Posted in Taiwan, Travel on Mar 19th, 2008 2 Comments »
There is something of a cat meow in the way Taiwanese girls say 歡迎光臨, it is as irresistible to the ears as ice cream on a soft breeze summer night. It seeps into the ears like spilled honey, the audio equivalent of the fragrance of lily.
Flocks of scooters that roar a turbulent surf.
The emotional tags [...]
Posted in Culture, Taiwan, Travel on Mar 14th, 2008 No Comments »
I’ve been through terminal one of the Taoyuan International Airport enough times to know which way to turn out of customs to catch the bus that is a nap away from Taipei main train station.
Down two flights of escalator, a short flight of stairs and into the slipstream of Taipei subway rush hour. You could [...]
Posted in Language, Medicine, Taiwan, Travel on Mar 12th, 2008 1 Comment »
It is not that time changes things. But, that things change as they flow through time.
Seven years ago about this time of year I boarded an airplane with the destination of Taiwan. Armed only with determination and desire to learn enough language to engage the medicine in Asia. Tonight in the deep beyond midnight I [...]
Posted in Language, Taiwan on Jan 8th, 2008 No Comments »
A flashback travel log from the summer of 2001. Back when every new word of Chinese learned was a luminous experience.
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I like spending time with my friend from Brazil, Marcelo. His name in Chinese is
Ma Rou-Zi. The sound comes off my tongue like cranking up an old metal windup toy. The kind that had [...]
Posted in Culture, Taiwan on Dec 27th, 2007 No Comments »
It has been a desire of mine to spend the Christmas holiday season in a non-Christian country. A place without that holy mix of commerce and religion. A place that didn’t blare for months on end the message that if you love someone, you will certainly open your wallets to the merchants. I was hoping [...]
Posted in Taiwan on Dec 11th, 2007 No Comments »
I love this about Taiwan.
When they decide to have an election, or do politics. The gloves come off, and they kick some ass.
They take their democracy seriously over there. They often have voter turn outs of over 80% for a presidential election, and they need to return to their hometown to vote too!
And if the [...]
Posted in Taiwan, Travel on Nov 7th, 2007 No Comments »
The rain of Taipei falls with a gravity that blooms umbrellas. Unlike Seattle, where any humidity is dispersed by precipitation, Taipei rains into an ever present dampness.
After a month on the mainland, Taipei is orderly and clean, polite as a whisper, and comfortable as well worn shoes. I feel my well cultivated mainland vigilance [...]
Posted in China, Taiwan, Travel on Nov 1st, 2007 No Comments »
It finally rained after an accumulated humidity, like the slow build up to a good cry, there was a feeling of relief in hearing the rain fall into my last night of this journey to China.
Arriving early for the Guangzhou to Kowloon train, riding up several levels of escalators, and then through a giant expanse [...]