So here's the story.

My girlfriend and I moved into a place near Tai-Da in early February. Within a month - that is to say when the first big rain occurred, we discovered leaks in the ceiling. We immediately called the landlords and they came and slapped some sealant here, slapped some there, and said "oh we can't do anything really until it stops raining." Heard that before?

Oh yes, and in the kitchen the sink leaked every time we used it - water crept out from underneath. We mentioned this to the landlord and they said "oh zenme keneng?" [“How is it possible?”] Because, see, they had just redone everything in the kitchen.

Continuing on, over the months since this time the leaks have appeared, we've called, they've come and been repeatedly useless. Finally they hired some shuidian (plumber & electrician) dudes to come check the sink. The dudes said it was clogged a bit, but mostly it was the way the plumbing was done (water flows down, water sits on a level surface, the plumbing is all level, etc). However, this did fix the sink leak. The ceiling leaks, on the other hand, continued.

Let me pause for a moment to quickly describe the place. It's two bedrooms, one living room, kitchen, bathroom, tiny. The apartment was extended a bit by enclosing the balcony - and it was from the metal-tube and plastic enclosure that the first leaks appeared (dripping onto my desk and computer). In the living room an enormous patch of ceiling discolored, water welled through, collected in a seam, and began dripping all along the seam onto our brand new 15,000NT sofabed. We moved it out of the way and put down buckets (something we ended up having to do every time it rained). Over the front door a discolored patch appeared. In the corner of the living room a discolored patch appeared. However, these two patches never actually dripped.

Okay so fast forward (through repeated "hello, it's leaking again" "oh zenme keneng" [How is it possible] exchanges followed by more inept slapping on of sealant with no results) to early this month. Plum rains finally arrive. Ceiling discolors in huge patches. More water dripping. We tell the landlord that's it, we've gotta move out. How will we deal with the deposit. They say oh we understand, please don't worry a bit about that (shoulda known). So we've been searching for a new pad (anyone moving out of a decent 2 bedroom close to MRT with kitchen and balcony? Please?!).

So now move to this last week. I go to work. Girlfriend goes to shop. We meet for lunch. We come home. Living room has an inch and a half of water covering the floor. We jump in, grab bags, realize the water is lapping over the powerstrips that power the running computers (holy sh*t unplug those fast before we die), call the landlord, evacuate the living room, start slopping dirty water into mop buckets and dumping it down the drain. Landlord comes over with his son (who asks his father repeatedly how much he's had to drink... oh did i mention he smells like he's been in the bottle... and I really mean soaking in the bottle like it's a hot tub... every time we see him? or that his wife wears the pants and runs the business but he's always the one that comes over first shouting "oh zenme keneng [HOw is it possible?]! hen kwa zhang![That’s outrageous!]") and stands around until I tell him in my terrible Chinese that we need to get it cleaned first, then figure out how it happened. We clean - can't figure out where the water came from. They leave saying "oh so sorry we'll try to figure out what has happened."

We continue looking for a new place. Start packing.

Today. I do recording work - work cancelled today. Girlfriend teaches - in between terms. We're both home this afternoon. Xia hen da yu [It was pouring rain out]. I head to the bathroom and hear "Ahhh! Water!!!" from the other room. Water is shooting into the apartment from the balcony. Small fountain in the balcony drain. Call landlord. Try to stem the tide. Frantically move furniture, bags, books, etc. (did I mention the loss - to the tune of around 7000NT - of property in the flood last Saturday?). Drunk landlord again arrives and fiddles with the drain spouting useless words. I tell him "nin youmeiyou [Do you have a]... babe how do I say pump... choshuiji?" he says "no - I don't know where to find a pump." I say "ni shibudhi fangdong!" [Are you the landlord or what?!] and something like "you should know how to find one. we need one. you must call someone!" (girlfriend said my sloppy Chinese wasn't quite correct but it got the meaning across)

okay I'm going on. I like to tell stories. let's cut to the chase. gongren [workers] come, try rooting out the drain. tell us the problem is that when the landlords split their apartment into two and put in the plumbing in our half they plumbed terribly and plumbed into the roof drain so every time it rains big there's a risk of this happening. we spend all day (cancelled work - more money lost) getting things cleaned, start packing. invite landlords' wife over to talk business.

Here's where you come in. I need advice. landlord is balking at returning deposit - returning all our deposit. I said look, we've had problems since we moved in so we think it would just be simplest to return the full deposit and we'll go on our way and you can deal with your property without the hassle of tenants. She says but when you shower and hair goes down the drain... but this, but that... it's not our fault... We've been so worried every time it rains. Bascially she left without any numbers or agreements made (other than me saying no we're not simply going to act as if this is a normal move-out, we need to discuss this again), so now I'm thinking oh boy... we're gonna have trouble after all. I need to find out how to best prepare for some kinda mediation. Of course this is the brief version (yep that's right - this is the brief version. the long version is coming soon to a theater near you), and because I've been man man xue-ing [slowly learning] the Chinese, I'd need someone who can help in both languages. I also just want to find out, in general, what our options are: small claims court for damages, breach of contract? the threat of blacklisting by agencies like tsuimama? things like that...

Congratulations for reading this far. Now tell me what to do.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! Lisa & Scott!!!

After I hung up the phone with you, Lisa, I realized....
You're 3-month pregnant now, so does that mean you guys found out.....say....right around the time of your anniversary?

Adieu

[interj.] used to express farewell

[N] a wish of happiness of welfare at parting, especially a permanent departure; a separation of two or more people

This word has been in my head all day long, so I wanted to use it as the title of this blog entry. After I put it down on paper, however, I wanted to write about the usage of the word “wind” as a metaphor for changes in English. Next thing I knew, I was looking up idioms such as “to be in the wind”, “to see which way the wind blows”, and “a straw in the wind”. Of course, there’s also “run like the wind”, “sail close to the wind”, and “break wind” (ha!) After relishing in childish indulgence with words that express bodily functions, I came back to the new Word document where a bolded “adieu” stood and found the strings of words of definition wordy and unnecessary.

After all, it’s nothing more than a gesture, a phrase, a disyllabic word.

I don’t know where I’m going with this, so I'm gonna stop.

The Money Pit

It was a lazy Saturday afternoon.

I gave PP a call. We talked about Seattle and Taipei, about heading back to North America, about the where and when and why and how. Then Bill called, asking me to meet him for lunch in this restaurant 10 minutes away from our place. I finished the conversation with sleepy PP, took a quick rinse, and headed out the door.

It had just started to drizzle when I walked out the door. By the time I met up with Bill at the restaurant, however, it was pouring down so hard it made using the umbrella a laughable behaviour. In the restaurant, Bill and I talked about our plans: moving out of the apartment, going back to North America, and the where and when and why and how.

Little did we know, something completely unpredictable was happening inside our apartment.

If I remember correctly, I was talking about the changing shape of my body when I unlocked the door and stepped into the pool of water that had gathered in the Situation Room. The entire room was flooded like the nightmare of a person with a fear of drowning! Considering the circumstance, Bill and I were remarkably calm and we talked to one another in a disturbingly civilized manner. We tried asking Nuage, the only possible eye witness, about what happened, but he offered no help ‘cause he had just woken up when he heard us coming in. We asked the landlady’s husband to drag his pickled butt over, but regretted doing so right away ‘cause he was, as usual, too drunk to be of any help. In fact, when he saw the amount of water in our apartment, he stood by the threshold and repeated as if possessed by Rain Man: “Wah~ That’s A LOT of water! How did this happen?” Fortunately for us, the landlady’s son, whom we met today for the very first time, also came over to assess the situation. While the landlady was trying to pin it on us and suggesting the possibility of leaving the faucet on, the son yelled into the phone to silence his controlling mother. When his dad was pathetically fiddling with a mop that he obviously had no clue how to operate, the son stared on in disbelieve and quietly asked, “How much have you drunk today?”

With their help, we cleaned up the apartment. We’re moving out of this place for sure, and we’ve got an appointment set up to view an apartment on Monday.

This was a lazy Saturday afternoon turned crazy.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BILL & BEN

We drove down the east coast to camp on the beach for four days. Try copying and pasting the link below to view pictures. If it doesn't work, we can invite you to view the album via Yahoo! Photo.

http://ca.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/kateintaipei04/album?.dir=/
ee85scd&.src=ph&.tok=phonJ8GBLhlFiGM0

in the Eye of the Beholder

The rain finally stopped! That huge piece of rain cloud had idled right on top of the island for so long that I wondered if the earth was still turning. In some neighboring countries, it's known as the monsoon season. In Taiwan, it's called Plum Rain, which usually occurs around late May. Incidentally, the Chinese pronunciation of "plums" is identical to the English pronunciation of May. I've always liked that.

Stormy weather never bothers me much. I feel more exuberant because of the energy and electricity in the air. I love looking down at the street from inside a building, watching streams of color dots flow by like sails in dark seas. Raindrops are mesmerizing, too. Whether it's raindrops that travel in high velocity splashing on window panes or raindrops that quietly shimmer downward like pearl beads, they all present beauty and grace.

I checked the weather in Vancouver and Seattle and, sick as it may seem, it made me feel closer to you knowing that we were all getting rained on.

B&B's Bday Lunch


My mom invited Bill 'n Ben to a restaurant up in the mountains near where she grew up. It'd been raining all week, so the trees were clean and fresh-looking. The restaurant was up some winding road deep in the woods. Nonetheless, visitors pour in for the beautiful mountains and fresh air. Oh, and for the creative and organic dishes it serves.



This dish is made with the fuzzy whiskers of a betel nut tree. I wondered how they climbed up the trees 'cause they really don't look all that sturdy.





After lunch, we went for a drive to explore.

FREAKY-DY-FREAK

TOKYO, June 5 (Reuters) - Kansei frowns when he hears the word "bomb," smiles at "sushi" and looks scared and disgusted when someone says "president" -- and he isn't even human.


"What we are trying to do here is to create a flow of consciousness in robots so that they can make the relevant facial expressions," said project leader Junichi Takeno, a professor at Meiji University's School of Science and Technology.

Kate's thoughts:
"..... to create a flow of consciousness in robots"...... can we "create" consciousness? Is consciousness created? What is consciousness anyway? A set of learned behaviours or emotional reactions? A set of learned standards or values?

You wouldn't teach a dog to read 'cause that's not what dogs do. Why is it important for robots to have consciousness?

The robot has 19 movable parts underneath the silicone face mask. When the robot hears the word "president," the online database picks up associated words such as "Bush," "war" and "Iraq" and creates an expression which the researchers said is meant to mix fear and disgust.

Now now..... that's not fair! If we really want Kansei to utilize his so-called consciousness, we'd have to allow him to draw his own conclusion in regard to associations and emotions. Oh wait! Robots can't feel. Even if they are able to make an expression (which researchers take the liberty to translate for us) as fear and disgust, that doesn't mean they they actually feel scared and disgusted.

With Japan's population expected to slide by around a quarter by 2050, and immigration a sensitive issue, some laboratories have developed humanoid robots that can work as maids.

Does that mean they'd rather create robots than to loosen immigration policies so real human beings can be hired as caretakers? Can someone get me a lab technician to translate/explain the rationale behind it?

Though you do have to give Japanese engineers some credit.
No one would ever mistake Kansei for a nationality other than Japanese.

Peace. Love. And Lots of Drinking

This is what happened after the News Update posting.

1:30pm
Bill came home from climbing.
Went out for lunch, packed a towel and light shirts, and went to get the car at Karen's.

3:00pm
Picked up Roberto and Dorion at an MRT (the skytrain/subway system in Taipei) station.
Headed for the Peace Music Festival in Longtan (literally translated into Dragon Pond), which is about 1.5 hours outside of Taipei City.

4:45pm
Stopped by a 7-11 to get Slurpees (Personally, I think the black current one was yucky).
Tired from anticipation. Kind of lost.
Drove around looking at maps and signs. None of us had any idea where the place was. However, Bill, the driver, insisted that he was just "exploring".

Drove through a neighborhood that resembled North American suburban neighborhoods: one-story houses with front yards and fences. Kids riding ther bicycles on the streets around a big park that is located in the center of the neighborhood..... like around 12th and Ontario, y'know?!

5:20pm
Arrived at the Chinese Medicinal Plant Botanical Garden. Got some Peace Money and temp tattoos. One of the organizers told us that long time ago, the English name was directly translated from Chinese as the Drug Plant Recreation Garden (hee hee hee). It's nothing like a typical "garden" because it covers an entire mountain top. The only building is one by the parking lot where visitors can take herbal baths. Aside from a few very realistic-looking statues, there's nothing between the bath house and the top of the mountain.

5:30pm
Took the shuttle bus up and deep into the woods.
There's a temple on the top of the mountain, and the stage is right in front of it. When we arrived, tents were already set around the main stage area (it's a 3-day festival) and people were just chilling out. There were a few food stands and mobile toilets around. All in all, it's very hippish and BC-like.
Got some beer (only with Peace Money) and found a nice flat rock-free patch of grass.





Bill and Roberto chilling out.







Dorion looming.


dusk to midnight
Ben and Brook finally arrived on their motorcycles. When asked if they were lost, both men said, "We weren't lost. We just chose a bad place to start our journey."
"David Chen and the Muddy Basin Ramblers" were on and got almost eveybody on their feet with their fun music and stage presence. Bill and I tried swing dancing, but my two left feet left him uncertain whether to continue or stop. It was a lot of fun dancing and singing to the music.











I stopped taking pictures after dark 'cause nothing looks good under the flash.
At around 7pm, we were told to hold each other's hand and make a big circle. Next thing I knew, we were making waves and the circle started moving inward and outward. It was pretty cool having a huge group of strangers running around hand-in-hand.
Can someone teach me how to put videos on Blogger? I"ve got it on tape.

We left the festival at 1 in the morning and drove back to Taipei.

NEWS UPDATE

It’s 6:15 Saturday morning.

Bill just left to meet Ben. They’re going rock climbing up on Yangming Mt this morning. They want to get an early start to avoid the scourging sun. Frankly, I don't know why I'm up, and you have to excuse me for using only simple sentences in my writing.

Birds in the neighborhood are also awake, chirping and singing and teasing Nuage out of his skull. He lowers his body and swerves across the floor when he hears them, his motions smooth and fluid you'd think he's skating on ice. When he realizes his can’t get the birdies, he takes his frustration out on his furry mouse toys. Every once in a while my leg gets smacked as well for no reason whatsoever.

Thank you all for your birthday wishes. I’m not big on celebrating my own birthday, but I live in a country where it’s unacceptable not to make a big deal out of it. I had planned to go shoe shopping that morning, but I got called in to sub for two hours (oh well, now I can get TWO pairs of pretty sandals, guilt-free). My colleagues bought cake and ice cream and crackers and one very strong cup of iced coffee. My students gave me a surprise party with flowers and (more) cake. By the end of the day, I was so high on sugar and caffeine that poor Bill had to listen to an extra long and fast and completely disorganized Kate Report.

Now we’re planning for Bill and Ben’s Birthday Bash. The weekend after BB’s birthday is a 4-day weekend here because of the Dragon Boat Festival this year, so we want to drive down the east coast and camp in Hualien.

BB want to rock climb and I want to go river trekking and hiking in the Golden Valley (check it out at http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/hualien-travel/article?mid=1921

The river belongs to Taroko National Park and it has been closed to ensure growth in the population of species in the river. Now that the ecosystem is stabilized, it is recently open to the public. Only a certain number of visitors are allowed each day, and each group of visitors needs to get a permit. The community center then assigns a guide and a life guard to each group of visitors for a day tour in the valley. You have to swim across three natural ponds and climb up big river rocks to get to the waterfall inside. The place got its name because the waterfall looks like a fountain of gold when sunlight dances off of it.

Doesn’t that sound like the perfect way to spend the day?

In other news, I got accepted into the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language Program at NTU. I guess I passed the exam, eh (though I don’t exactly know how)? I’m excited ‘cause this program’s got my name written all over it… in reverse!!! Since the course covers the semantics, syntax, phonology, and phonetics of Mandarin, I’ll get to do the linguistics of Chinese in Chinese. Hey, I may get some questions answered as well. After all, I do seem to remember wanting to do comparative research on the articulation of, and the differences in, vowel sounds in Mandarin and English. That was the proposal I wrote before I came back to Taiwan (boy, it seems like eons ago). I will, also, get to see if what Dr. Berwick taught us in our TESL training program can be applied in a Chinese class (yes, Lisa, I will write you a report on that). Most important of all, (voice volume increasing) and what I’m most excited about, is that I’LL GET TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW AGAIN! I'll get to use my brain and stuff it with all kinds of new and interesting information again!! It’s great to be a nerd, and I’m damn proud of it.

That also means no more summer weekend excursions for Kate.