Food Poisoning!

Damn Subway Subs!!

I had Subway Monday night (my favorite, Italian BMT) for maybe the fourth time since coming to Taiwan. I usually eat in the markets or one of the local teahouses. Once or twice a week we'll eat Western.

Well, this one's for my family, so if you're otherwise, don't read on....(this means Danielle was smart enough to go veggie).

NEways, I've never been sick like this before in my life. Food poisoning really sucks! I mean, I puked all night (about 12 times) and just had the worst diarrhea ever!! Nasty stuff. Once when I was a kid, I was barfing non-stop when my dad took me to the hospital to see Dr. Leckie (thanks dad). I think this was worse. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. My chest is sore (two days later) from continuous vomiting. Danielle says it was like the puking scene from Team America....

At least I know my immune system is strong cause it got rid of everything. I drank a ton of Supa Supau (Taiwanese Gatorade) and the next day, I could eat again. It's taking my bowels a little longer to come back online, but wow, what a ride.

We eat at all sorts of places, market food, etc. in Taiwan, and it's a damn Western restaurant that makes me sick. Go figure. I can even drink the water....

BTW...I'm just looking for sympathy... *puppy eyes*

Pollution

Heads up folks!! Multiple posts here. Scroll further down for the apartment.

But right now, I want to talk about the single worst problem here. The pollution is aful. I mean, it's really bad. You can taste it. You can see it. People need to wear pollution masks when going outside. I'm glad there's decent air filtration in buildings and air conditioners, or else we'd all be goners.

Typhoon season is coming, so lots of mixing of air masses, which means lots of wind. Very brisk this morning. Kept things moving along nicely. The picture below is a nice one of the southern mountain range. Not often that we can see it, since it's usually obscured by smog.


Below is a picture to the south of Will's apartment. It's the scene we see every day, except today (Saturday morning) it was clear.

Here is the same photo a few hours later, when things picked up in Taichung (people woke up). This is typical of many days here. The smog you see is not fog, but pollution. Yes, it's THAT bad....

Here's a photo to the southeast of Taichung. Just to the right of the white building in the photo above. Notice the clouds of pollution being blow eastward where they become trapped by the mountains. This is how it is in Taichung. Fortunately, most of the pollution blows past us since we're central. But I'd rather be west....

So if our time in Taiwan is shortned, this will be the only reason. We're going to have to learn to deal with it....

Gotta love Taiwan...

Yep. Sore throat today. We walked to 3C to buy a printer and the pollution was so bad today (literally coughing on exhaust) that my throat is sore now.

But in better news, we signed for our apartment. I signed the contract, and then dipped my thumb in red ink and 'marked' my signature with my thumbprint. Here, everyone has what you could think of as a seal, which they use to sign contracts, cheques, etc.

So we can move in tomorrow. Watch for pictures....

Too Much Sugar!!!

Well, so much for my 'special diet'. Everything here is loaded with sugar. The other day, I had a drink from the vending machine which had the consistency and taste of liquid pudding. They seem to like their pudding here (it tastes very much like my grandma's English custard... mmmm!). Bubble teas are also infused with a load of sucrose/fructose (you can see them pour it in -- it is syropy and clear). You have to request that they don't add sugar by saying, "Wu boo laow tang," which means, 'I don't want sugar', or "Boo tang," which means, 'no sugar'. James has commented that even the spaghetti sauce is sweet here (and gingery).
On a more positive note, we don't have to do our own laundry anymore! :) We just picked up our laundry from downstairs, where a lady did it for us for 210 NT (about seven bucks Canadian -- the same as we would have spent in the laundry room in our apartment building in Ottawa, where we had to do our own laundry). We see no reason why we should do our own laundry in Taiwan -- if we have a local do it for us, we are giving them business, and, of course, it reduces our own work load for a very low price.
Apartment hunting is proving to be quite challenging. Many of the apartments we see are either too small or too large (and therefore more expensive than what we're looking for). Others do not have furnishings or air conditioning -- things that we don't want to buy ourselves, as we will have to try to sell them and take a loss later when it comes time to get rid of everything too large to bring back to Canada. Some apartments are dirty or need fixing up. Yesterday, we saw a perfectly-sized apartment with just the right amount of character. Unfortunately, within about five minutes of being in the apartment, we also saw three large roaches (which promptly scattered and hid behind garbage that had been left by the previous tenants). It seems that the neighbours to this apartment were also taking over the halls... and by the looks of the amount of shoes on the shoe racks outside of the door, we would have had about 20 neighbours!
Well, this is Danielle signing off. Have to get our advance from work and get motivated to buy some work clothes.
Later!

I Felt My Chi!

I did. It was really very moving. I guess I can do it too. Now, it wasn't like The Force in Star Wars or anything, but I've been studying, learning about the sources of external chi, and the major meridians in which the flow within the body. And during the description of the Universal Chi, I could feel it running down my spine. It's a slightly warm feeling, with waves, not tingling, but waves. Gentle waves moving down my spine. Now I'm trying to work on a cct that brings it back up my front, but I haven't been able to feel that yet.

Studying a bit of Tai Chi on my own (working on basic forms), but I haven't been able to feel my chi since that first time. I'm going to keep at it, but at least I know it's there!

More on Chi

Chi (or Qi) is the life force running through our bodies, according to Chinese medicine. It's called Ki in Japanese. Most people would be most familar with it through its cultivation in Tai Chi. It is also the basis of theory for Acupuncture.

Really, there is still a great debate around it, but I'm more insterested in results, regardless of their nature. There is so much science is still unable to explain, although String Theory might be able to provide a suitable method of action for such a force (amongst a million other things, including Time Travel, which I believe we will see in a practical application within my lifetime.

NEways, the point is, I need to learn more about this. I think I'm going to begin studying two forms of Martial Arts, traditional Tai Chi Chuan (Chinese), and Ki-Aikido (Japanese) once I'm overseas. Actually, I've sort of begun Tai Chi now, but there's only so much Danielle and I can do on our own.

For Alyson, I've come across this in a number of different ways, however, the main one was through a BBC Series which had a Western-Taught Kung Fu Master travel the Orient exploring many types of Martial Arts.

Crazy Martial Arts stuff!

Who knows about Chi?

I've been watching and reading about some things...and I don't know what to say. I watched a man knock another man down with the power of his voice. No fooling. No tricks. No hocus-pocus. He was able to ring a cauldron with his voice, as if he were hitting it with a hammer. He could concentrate his yells, and focus them, at a specific point, to use his power against an opponent.

I've read about Chi before, but how real is this stuff? How does one find the power and strength to absorb blows from a wrestler, or maintain balance against 5 people pushing, or focus the power to push away an opponent without ever touching them....

This is obviously something I need to learn about

My car is gone

Greetings all!

Thanks to everyone who posted or emailed me concerning my last blog; your suggestions and comments were welcome. Well, we've decided on Taiwan. We decided on Sunday. We're just going to go over and get a job. This is the advice posted on numerous sites, and after a shaky beginning to our job search (suspect practices and ever-changing details of the job), not to mention my friend Will, who will be graciously providing us with a place to stay until we get on our feet.

So, as a sign of our commitment, I sold the car today. It's gone, no longer in my possession, or under my ownership. It now belongs my family's long-time auto dealer, Gold Fleet Subaru (thanks Cliff). This gives us the cash to pay off some bills, book our tickets to Taiwan, and a little breathing space (money is always tight for us).

I guess that's it for the time being....I'm walking again. Hopefully this will help me lose weight, that being my goal and all. I just can't believe it's gone, in the blink of an eye!

I miss my car...

Misc Ramblings

"My brother and I used to say that drowning in beer was like heaven, eh. Now he's not here, and I've got two soakers. This isn't heaven--this sucks!" - Bob McKenzie

So, New Mexico is poised to ban the artificial sweetener, aspartame. Oddly enough, it was introduced to the consuming public by our good friend, Donald Rumsfeld.

So, for those of you paying attention. Danielle has opted out of teaching a brutally bad course schedule at Widdifield. It's sad the way the education system works, and the way in which they tried to dupe her into taking the position. We're just both feeling good, that though our choices, and our discipline, she was able to refuse the position without too much sacrifice on our part.

Given our restrained financial situation, we're moving, and liquidating many of our possessions. Longer-term, everyone around is (you know who you are, people!) are supporting us in going to teach overseas. Taiwan looks like the locale of choice (and I was just starting to get comfortable with the Japanese language!). We'll see how long this takes....

Most Depressing Day of the Year!

It is.

Here's proof.

So many things seem to go wrong these days. Or as Danny would say: "The hits just keep on comin'!"

So, as it turns out, Danielle is without a job by the end of the month. That means no income. It's a blessing, really, but it just comes at a bad time for us, money-wise. I won't go into details, suffice to say that she was having a hard time at school.

However, I think we need to sell our car (I need the exercise) and sell off most of our crap (we have too much anyways). Good thing we have our real estate, and we can afford (just barely) to live on my wage alone. Too bad we woke up with no heat again (there goes another $500).

Oh, and the real estate we were looking at, it sold under our noses. And to add insult to injury, the people who bought it received an offer to purchase--on the same day they bought it--for $10k more than they paid. Nice way to make 10 grand for a day's work. We missed out on this one....

Today's the federal election, and the country's about to elect a Conservative government. I think that's the last straw! We're going to go teach overseas, and get the hell out of Canada!!

Sick! (But I Get a Free Guitar)

Well, I'm sick. No surprise, really. I've been feeling bad all week. Puked a couple of times, but c'est la vie. At least I'm getting a free guitar (follow the link). Kinda cool, since I've never gotten anything free before. Did get my stove. But too sick to use it. :-( Downloading software to learn Japanese with shareaza. Danielle is ticked off because Memoirs or a Geisha isn't playing in North Bay. Figures.

Slept some, did some bookkeeping, helped gradma with groceries, slept some more, watched Kids In The Hall. Going to get something for supper and pick up Danielle.

What excitement. This blog is straying somewhat. At least I can communicate with the world this way.

Manifesto 2006

Merry Christmas and all that shit....

The word I couldn't think of last night was manifesto. I'll be stating my manifesto here in the next few days, as the plan is for me and Danielle to work on our long-term business plan over new year's eve. We will most definitely have a long-term plan for wealth worked out in a greater level of detail than ever.

Further, my plan for health is in the works, and will involve a greater involvement in Buddhist teachings, and elementary meditative techniques. I'm currently investigating breathing techniques for improving health. I'll keep everyone (or anyone who's actually reading this) posted.