jenny's thoughts

Sometimes as I write, I drift into la-la land...land of cloudy memories from the past. Sometimes these memories become physical cravings, like the one I just had. The urge to stand and walk down 9th St to Astor Place and Broadway for a stroll through Warehouse Wines. I don't want a drink (although a bottle of vodka or some honey wine, or maybe a small bottle of that German ice wine I loved would be nice), really, but just want to GO there.

Landing was the easy part. It's dealing with the memories that are hardest.

Part 2...
So, after memories, the second hardest part of living in a foreign country is realizing you have no idea where to go. In the city, I knew where to get the cheapest bananas, which Duane Reade had the best selection of holiday candy, and which gallery had the free open bar that night. Here, in a place where I can't read the local paper and I'm constantly being treated as a foreigner, you feel lost. The door to fun is locked and you weren't given a key. Granted, the key -- mastering the language -- has to be earned, and my desire to learn is starting to weaken.

OK, time to return to proofreading something that was due last week. No time for strolls to the cube, even if the stroll is only in my mind.

Every week, nay!: every day there seems to be a new post debate on Forumosa about romanized Chinese systems versus Taiwan's bopomofo system. The posting war always goes the same. A says ZhuYin is superior. B says China uses PinYin so it's better and more useful. A says ZhuYin is superior because its authentic. B says ZhuYin is a relatively modern phonetic system. A says ZhuYin is just the most awesome thing ever. B says something stupid in response.

It never ends.

Since I'm in Taiwan, I'm totally for ZhuYin. I <3 ㄅㄆㄇㄈ. Taiwanese know the system, so when I'm stuck for a character, I can write the ㄅㄆㄇㄈ and they get it. When filling out a hospital application, I didn't know how to write my address. The foreign minder was off chatting with her friend, so I wrote in pencil the words in ㄅㄆㄇㄈ and she later filled them in. If I had written it in PinYin, they would have shook their head in confusion. My Taiwanese friends know ㄅㄆㄇㄈ, not PinYin.

Lest I not mention cellphones. If I want to type Chinese into my cellphone, I must use ㄅㄆㄇㄈ. How are these PinYin enthusiasts typing Chinese? They can't, using a phone manufactured for the Taiwanese market. The other day I was writing a friend to tell her I couldn't go to her parent's house for Moon Festival...and couldn't figure out how to type her city's name. The guy next to me helped me with the ㄅㄆㄇㄈ and with choosing the characters. Beat that, PinYin.

For me, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ is the way to go. Yes. ㄅㄆㄇㄈ

I'm going to backtrack a little and fill in the holes, but I really haven't blogged since the end of July. In the last few months, things have been quite busy, with a new job, a MA paper on testing and evaluations, doing laundry, and trying lots of new foods.

There are lots of changes in the air, including the recent email from NaNoWriMo notifying me that I'm a regional moderator...so I guess I'll be writing a 50K wd novel this November. My job is melding into another one, pending approval from the Taiwan government.

Before I run off to review my pictures and figure out what I haven't been blogging about, here's a pic of the terror that's on it's way... (can you find Taiwan?)

Today was a day off because of a typhoon. From radar pictures, the island was covered by a giant white cloud...but on land, there was only a little rain and some strong winds. No matter, I -- and the rest of the 23 million (population officially hit 23 million on Thursday, says the Taipei Times) Taiwanese here (well, not all 23 million are LIVING on the island, but whatever) -- had the day off from work.

Tomorrow, work resumes. But today was a productive day off. :+)

Labels: population, typhoon

Anyone know how to get in touch with NPR and ABC correspondent Robert Krulwich?

Labels: krulwich, NPR

The following posts were originally posted on my jennywilsen.com/thoughts site. When you don't pay to renew your URL nor your hosting service, you have to revert back to the free Blogger.