On an Island Far Away

 

When I first saw Rain's prompt for this week, "Far Away", I thought that I would skip it. But it got stuck in my head and was working its way until I knew exactly what I could write about - an island far far away I had the privilege to get to know a bit better during my study abroad. This is the furthest away I ever got from my home country (Germany) in order to live somewhere else. It wasn't only the furthest away in regards to kilometers or miles, but also in regards to culture.

It was 1983 when I moved to Taiwan, when it was still under Martial Law. I had just finished my second year of Chinese studies at Tübingen University and thought that now, after my first big and important exam, would be the perfect time to practice the Chinese language that I had learned so far. I had learned Mandarin or Han Chinese, but in Taiwan Fujian dialect is mainly spoken which, after a certain time, I finally picked up. Maybe in some post later I will write more about the Chinese language and its transcription into Western languages that often lead to very weird pronunciation. Let me just say that in this post I'll stick to the Wade Giles transcription which was used in Taiwan and, to my knowledge, still is. It is different to Pinyin which is the official romanized spelling that is used in the People's Republic of China, Singapore and the United Nations. Please keep in mind that these photos are from 1983.

Above is the dormitory where I was very lucky to live in a single room - true luxury. Fortunately my room was in the back, away from the sun and therefore slightly cooler. I had a fan in my room - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stand the oppressing, humid heat. I felt constantly like living in a washhouse. I started to sweat when I just moved my fingers and my curly hair became even curlier.

This is the street I walked along every day - to get to university, to the small supermarket, to the street food booths. You will notice the "cages" in front of the windows - they protect the windows during the heavy and strong taifuns.

The dormitory was under the ownership of Dominican nuns with many of the nuns coming from the Philipines. On the first floor was a preschool and I enjoyed watching the kids lining up for the national anthem of Taiwan, San Min Chu-i. In return, the kids were very curious about the "long nose".

My daily walk to the university passed through rice fields where I would see egrets stalking through the crop. My dormitory was behind those newer buildings to the left in the photo below. Sometimes the street was covered with rice laid out to dry.

It was just a 15 minute walk to the University. While I lived in Taishan, Fu Jen University was in Hsinchuang, both suburbs of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan (officially the Republic of China). Nevertheless, it was just a short walk there by taking the shortcut through the rice fields. I sometimes got into awkward situations on that road, but that is stuff for a later post.

The beautiful campus of Fu Jen University, a private Catholic university, that was founded by jesuits in 1925 in Beijing and re-established in Taiwan in 1961. It is one of the finest universities in Taiwan.

I mentioned street food booths - street food was my main source of food I had in Taiwan. It was delicious and cheap and I ususally got it both for lunch and dinner. When you live on a student's budget and can get a filling and delicious meal for the equivalent of 50 cents, you don't ask twice. I never became sick, in case you were wondering.

Street market in Taishan

Street food in Chunghua Lu bazaar in Taipei

The village temple just up the mountain from Taishan:

I often took the bus into Taipei - at that time there was no subway, only buses. Sometimes I splurged and paid a little bit more to ride the air-conditioned bus that was also faster. Most of the time, though, I took the regular bus which sometimes became - interesting.

A view of Taipei with the Grand Hotel in the background (which had a disastrous fire in 1995). 

Chunghua Lu with the three-storied bazaar which, I think, is no longer there

I loved walking in the parks and watching people exercise Tai Chi.

I didn't have much money back then, but friends and I were still able to go on a few trips.

Taroko Gorge on the West coast

Sun Moon Lake in the center of the island

and a trip to a little beach town on the Pacific.

Before I finish this post, I want to introduce you to Bawan, who became a good friend. He is not Chinese nor Taiwanese, but is a member of the Shan-Ti Jen (mountain-earth people), a native people of Taiwan. The first photo of him and myself was taken near Sun Moon Lake and the second one is with his family when my friend Barb and I were asked to cook some European meal. If I remember correctly we prepared something with pasta which was readily available, but what I remember vividly was a wonderful time spent with this family.

You can see some food in some of these pictures, that's my dinner contribution to Rain's Thursday Art and Dinner Date. And since there are a lot of faces, I also link to Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Away She Goes

 

Last Tuesday Kaefer started the next chapter in her life. She boarded a Lufthansa flight to Munich where she will pursue her Masters in epidemiology. 

After she had graduated from UC Davis in June she stayed the summer with us, which was a big gift since we had so much time to spend with her before she left for her next adventure. During those months she tried to sell a lot of her things, was looking for a flat in Munich online (and found one), applied for a student job at her faculty (and got it) and also did a lot of fun stuff like playing cards and Rummikub. She and I went to the beach and hiked in our regional parks and tried to make the most of these restricted Corona-times. I'm so glad that we have all these beautiful memories.

On Tuesday afternoon, after a last round of Rummikub, we put her luggage in the car and drove her down to San Francisco Airport. It was the first of the eerie days (but by far not the worst) when the fog and smoke were hanging low and the day presented itself in a mustard-yellow hue - not particularly appealing. Kaefer was very quiet during the drive, looking around and admitting that it felt a bit odd to see all these familiar sights for the last time.

The international terminal in San Francisco was eerily empty and when I asked I was told that there were 193 seats left open in the plane that Kaefer would soon board. I was quite relieved to know that the flight wasn't full, and indeed no one sat next to Kaefer and she had the row to herself.

One restaurant in the food court was open, so we had some dinner and took the last family photos afterwards.

Then it was time to say goodbye. It was hard and my heart was heavy. At the same time I am so excited for her - that she got into this program (they only accept 30-40 students worldwide), that she got the job and that she has the opportunity to live, work and study in another country - her native country.

She arrived safely in Munich, got tested within 10 minutes after departing the plane, took public transportation to Marienplatz where she met the cousin of a friend of ours who had the key to her flat (and had bought some groceries for her to survive the first few days of quarantine until she receives the result of the test) and then made her way to her flat which she said is cute (and tiny). Today we will Zoom with each other - I do look forward to that.