Last day of May

This is the last day of May and I suddenly realized that I'll leave Taipei pretty soon. I know that I'll miss this city a lot. And since now I will try to tell people more about Taiwan. It is nor faire, that political issue with China leaves Taiwan behind. Europeans have no clue about this wonderful country. It is not their fault, but it is fault of Chinese government, which tries to suppress every little information about Taiwan to go to the worldwide press. Taiwan has to prove all the time, that what it achieves has nothing to do with China. ASUS is Taiwanese, not Chinese, ACER – the same HTC – the same. Taiwan is Taiwan, not Thailand, not China. The heritage that this country has is just marvelous. That is the biggers reason why I don't want to leave - cause I love this city, the atmosphere, people, culture and of course nature.

taipei 101

Chinese Drama

One of my classmates invited me to the school theater, where she played a small part in traditional Chinese drama. So I took my Taiwanese friend and we went there. Traditional drama is extremely interesting, maybe not the plot, because I could not understand anything, but clothes. Clothes, the way of actors played, music and stenography – it looked beautiful. My friend tried to explain shortly, what is the plot about, and which characters are “elves”, “judges”, “humans” and so on… The point is, that suddenly I felt so lucky, cause I had a chance to participate in such an event. The Chinese drama theater is completely different from European – not only the clothes, but the way the actors moves, express feeling, show emotions, talk and sing. Male actors, who plays young man use special voice, they must raise the tone, so they sound girlish. The language they use is not typical – we had a subtitles, because the way of speaking and singing is different form the spoken language. My friend mentioned, that this “language” is even difficult to understand for natives. It was not mandarin, not Taiwanese – it was a special drama language, so subtitles were necessary. It is hard to express the filling, as everyone perceives the art in a different way. For me the performance was unforgettable and I will definitely go again if I have one more chance.

Performance poster

Taiwan - pictures

One of the Chiang Kai Shek's residence in Taipei

Hualien

Why traveling is my passion...

The main reason is because of my migration. I emigrated from Ukraine when I was 10. Before, when I was 7, I also emigrated from eastern Ukraine to Western Ukraine – might seem as not a big change, but it was. Eastern Ukraine and Western Ukraine use different language, culture is different and, what’s the most important, people. Suddenly I had to use Ukrainian, when we moved to Drohobych. Before, in Donieck I used only Russian language. Two and a half year later I moved again. I suddenly changed Ukrainian to Polish. It might seem silly, but for a child, which is changing the environment pretty often, adaptation is crucial. As me and my mom were often moving to different cities – Rybnik Mysłowice, Sosnowiec – I changed my primary school about four times. Again – adaptation and flexibility.

As a kid I was not afraid of changes, what is more I liked it. Now I think that traveling is one of the most important part of my life. Not only going abroad for a weekend or spend one week on a beach, but being somewhere for a longer time. I am not bounded to any place and so far I can explore different cultures, study different languages, try food – I love food – and meet so many people. I love Ukraine and Poland, but I also love every place, where I had a chance to stay longer. I loved Greeley in US,  Vienna and now is time for Taipei.

Raining season in Asia

Besides small earthquakes every couple of days, raining season it’s something really cool to experience – of course only for people who like summer rain. It is warm and it is not that annoying as in Poland. So the obligatory “tool” in here is umbrella and raincoat. It is not like we’ve heard on Discovery channel, that in southern part f Asia it is raining two months without break – it’s not true, sometimes it rains three days without a break, but then we have a great sunny weather – and it’s not that humid anymore.  So this is another reason, why I love Taiwan so much... 

陽明山

Snake is not a tasty food…

Taipei is famous from one place, where tourists can taste a snake. Well I did. It’s too bony and too disgusting. But you never try, you never know. So I had a snake soup, and snake blood. The soup has a strange taste of spoiled chicken in vinegar. About the snake blood – it is mixed with some cheap vodka – so the taste is like “bloody merry” with no salt. Anyway I prefer the food which Taiwanese people eat, not the one which is reserved for foreigners.

Snake soup + snake blood, snake poison, and something else that I don't remember...

"Snake restaurant" 

This nice feeling when you find a belarusian restaurant abroad :D

Last time when went to Hualien – I found a Belarusian restaurant. I was so happy, extremely happy, cause after two months of Asian food I missed European cuisine. So I ordered boscht, draniki, pancakes and of course my favorite kefir. Now I'll try to find a Polish restaurant - which is one hour form Taipei as I know... :D