Small Vignettes of Great Importance

These notes from my island may seem inconsequential to some, but matter a great deal in the grand scheme of things. My good friend, Ingrid Wenzler, once told me that the finer moments in life were the smaller gestures and the subtler actions. I don't think she could be more right.

Let me start of with cute, and thus I turn to my students. In my advanced seminar, I assigned an essay where the students had to research and write about an event in the space race. One young lady, about 9 or 10, decided to write on an astronaut who happened to share the same name as the author of your favorite blog. When she turned it in, she did a masterful job- writing a page over the required amount, she developed an essay that was grammatically precise and quite informative as well. At the conclusion of the essay, she printed out a photograph of this young astronaut and included the caption below- "Dear teacher Michael O'Neill, you are much more handsome than he is!" She then drew her name in block letters around this caption and handed it in. Of course, she got an A!

At my school, my manager is like my own little Confucius. In addition to practising Chinese medicine on me in the school lobby, (basically she rubbed a quarter on my neck for about 5 minutes and applied tiger balm) she proffers to me sage advice as well. For example, she asked me one day, "Do you know any Chinese?" I told her that I knew how to say hello, thank you, yes/no, and long time, no see, but really my Chinese is non-existent. I then recalled that I knew one more phrase, but first I had to set it up. I informed her that my cousin came to Taiwan and married a girl and my uncle came to Taiwan and married a girl, so I knew how to say, "Ta se wo taitai" which means "she is my wife". Of course they got a good laugh out of this. But then my manager became very serious and said to me, "Michael, why have only one tree when you could have the entire forest." Ahh, Zen.

Sometimes in life, food takes precedent. Last weekend, my friends and I decided we needed some familiar food from home. So we rounded up the troops and had a Tai-pancakes party. My friend Kate and I were the chefs. Our first attempts were closer to scrambled pancakes, but then we got the hang of it and made some flavors that still dance upon our tongues today. The first batches were the traditional blueberry pancakes, but the second were something quite extraordinary. Using waffle batter instead of pancake batter, we added Cadbury malt balls and diced up bananas. Cooked to perfection, we smothered it with peanut butter, whipped cream, syrup, and more bananas. The evolution of this masterpiece is chronicled below. Warning- jealousy may ensue.

The Chefs

The Peanut Butter

The fruit is added

Oh yes, generous helpings of whipped cream. I would have done the entire can if someone didn't stop me...

Close-up of perfection

And yes, we eat pancakes with chopsticks in Taiwan

I conclude my vignettes with a transportation story. My ride home last night was particularly exceptional. I looked out the window and saw a man riding a scooter. Attached to the scooter was a trailer. In the trailer was a dog. And on the dog was a helmet!! Then, at one bus stop, an old woman was getting off the bus and pulling a small carriage behind her. She was a bit slow disembarking so it was no surprise when the bus doors closed on her lagging carriage! With her belongings trapped on the bus, she didn't let go! This didn't stop the bus driver from pulling away, dragging the old lady along with him. She started yelling, "HEY HEY HEY," I was horrified and yelling "STOP STOP STOP," The bus driver kept driving like nothing was wrong as the poor woman was trying desperately to keep up without losing her precious cargo. Thankfully, the doors opened and the carriage was freed, leaving the woman relatively unscathed as she walked away into the night.

And that does it for this installment of the taiwanablog. For those keeping score at home, the number of Dunkin' Donuts I have found is now up to five. Glory days. From your day dreaming, astronaut beating, hunk of the high seas, Michael.