First Detour: The Maine Event

Well, as per usual, it’s been a few days! Our journey has officially begun. We started it off well: when the cab came to pick us up Friday morning at 5:30am, we got halfway down the street when Dave realized he forgot his BA certificate (most job postings require the original, no copies allowed). The cab driver obliged when we asked him to turn around, so crisis averted. Since then, the list of forgotten things (that we’ve noticed) is as follows:

1) Both toothbrushes

2) All my jewelry, which I neatly packed in a box and just simply forgot to put the box in my suitcase

3) Dave’s shave brush and cake (though I remembered the actual razor and refills)

And I’m sure there’s more to discover along the way. But the Maine (pun intended) thing is that we remembered all our paperwork.

And now, we’re in Maine! While I am Canadian by blood, I partially grew up here, and it’s very familiar to me. But for Dave, this is his first time in New England. The reaction seems to be that it’s a lot like Nova Scotia, but more touristy – without the tourists. No one’s here for the Prelude activities just yet, the Christmastime weekend that Kennebunkport is so known for, and it’s far past the summer season. And better for it: it would be awful for him to visit when it’s so insanely busy in the summer:

image from laughmaine.com

The only downside is that Maine isn’t exactly brimming with things to do, besides shopping and seeing sightseeing. The latter is only exciting when you’re not used to Maritime scenery, and Dave is of course very familiar with that.

So generally we’ve just been relaxing and spending some time with my family. Dave is doing very well at impressing everyone from conservative Marines to art teacher hippies. We took a few photos on our trip downtown. One of the funnier finds was a boat in the harbour bearing the same name as my sister:

Maybe she has a secret admirer?

We also had a lovely night with my friends from my old workplace, Abacus. Sarah, Mary, and Paula treated us to Thai food at Mekhong Thai (best Thai food in Southern Maine) and then we had drinks at Bandaloop (a funky bar with excellent everything and music). Sarah’s friend James came along as well. As quiet as he was, he seemed like a pretty cool guy, and I hope we didn’t freak him out with our gregarious nature. I would show a photo of us hanging out, and we took plenty. You’d think we’d have one good photo of us together, but trust me – we don’t. So sad.

Anne Marie, my sister has been highly entertaining as usual and then my mother also played stylist for us. She dyed my hair back to its original colour (extremely dark brown; almost black), and then she cut Dave’s hair. As he says, it’s much more “grown-up.”

Just because his hair has grown up doesn't mean he has to

And that pretty much brings us to today: we are leaving tomorrow from Boston and landing in LA. My dad is bringing us to All Day Breakfast, his favourite place around here and I have to say, I love it as well. My mother has played 40 questions with us, making sure that we’ve covered all our bases, buying us extra socks and underwear, just in case they don’t have those things in Taiwan. Ah, Mom. She’s being an excellent sport about all this.

And as for me, I’ve finally calmed down. I was extremely anxious about this whole trip. Certainly I was excited as well, but I was split right down the middle with the two. But now we’re on our way and there is quite literally no turning back, so I have no choice but to press forward. And that has forced me to think positively – and I like that.

In LA, we will be checking out Project Blowed, a hip-hop open mic, and then spending the rest of the time with my grandparents who are graciously keeping us for the next few days after that. This will be our last leg before heading out to Taiwan (!!). More updates soon.

Three Days Until Takeoff

Well, it’s been quite the last few days! Dave and I have been doing a lot of packing procrastinating, but pretty much everything is in order. I had my last day of work yesterday. As is appropriate for a coffee house, they sent me off with a lovely ceramic mug and a card signed by everyone wishing me well. My favourite goodbye was from a coworker in the cafe, “Don’t leave me!!” Another told me my “tuna melts rocked,” and another asked me to “send food xo.” I’ll do my best. Dave also finished off his last day, and both of us celebrated by doing absolutely nothing.

In any case, there is little news to report. This is more like a “checking in” entry. What little news there is:

1) There will soon be official itinerary changes to mark this, but it seems we will be taking a stop in Borneo to break up our first month in Taiwan. Not a bad break, eh?

image from destination360.com

2) We’re taking any and all mailing addresses and we absolutely promise a postcard to anyone who gives us an address. You can send me a private message on facebook with your address or email it to me. I would assume if you are reading this blog, you have one of the two. But if not, comment on here and we’ll do something about that.

We’ve been starting the long line of visiting and people calling to send us off (which is very nice of everyone, and I am genuinely more than happy to see everyone). All balanced between getting a few more last minute shots and then going to the police to get our background checks started. Oi vey. But I’d rather try and get all my ducks in line before we get to Taiwan rather than after.

This is my first trip ever to anywhere outside North America besides Ireland, might I add. The nerves are piling up like firecrackers, and I feel like I’m going to explode. But that’s normal. Right?

Taiwanese Goal #2: Storyland

What I didn’t say at the beginning of my last post was that I’m planning on coming up with a list of twenty goals for my experience in Taiwan. I figure this is quite doable since we’ll be there for a year. But, especially since I’d like to get some of this done in the first couple weeks of us being there, I’m trying to pick especially cheap endeavours. Next item on the list: Storyland!

No, not the Storyland you would find in New Hampshire, US:

photo from headtripusa.com ... how appropriate.

The Storyland you’d find in New Hampshire is themed around kid’s fairy tale stories, and features Humpty Dumpty and everyone else in between. It also features a large fake cow with rubber udders from which you can squirt water. No joke:

I don't want to know how many kids have secretly put their mouths on it.

But I digress.

The Storyland in Taipei is much, much different than Storyland, USA. The Taipei version is a recreation of Taipei streets in the mid 60s-70s. Using all the aesthetics like ice shops, cart vendors pushed into crammed, dimly lit streets with paper lantern lights, it’s supposed to be a really accurate depiction of life back then before Taipei became very mordern.

Taipei then, according to Storyland:

image from filigallery.com

A street from Taipei, present day:

image from wikipedia.org

As a foreigner, I think it would be very interesting and maybe even valuable to see Taiwan as it was before. I’m extremely curious about the culture, even more so than I was about Japan when we were planning to go there. I think perhaps because Taiwan seems to be quite prideful – but for much different reasons than other countries. It is a very new culture, the Chinese intermingling with the Aboriginal Taiwanese to create something brand new, only in the last century. And because they are so brand new, they stress so much of their old culture as well as finding ways to create new culture, in order to preserve it in the future.

This is all my own observation from afar, of course. I don’t know this for sure. This is just what I read and hear. From what Dave tells me, most Asian countries are all about preserving their old culture. But not all seem to be that concerned with creating new culture. More about that in a future entry about artist villages. But I am just aching to see this other side of the world. I am romanticizing everything a bit, admittedly. But why the hell not?