Merry Xmas

聖誕節快樂! Christmas Eve is here, and I'm noticing that I have been forced to culturally adapt to the Taiwanese way of life.

December 24th in the Czech Republic for me would look something like this:

Get up at 10 a.m. Have a breakfast and watch several classic fairy-tales on TV (Pyšná princezna, Šíleně smutná princezna, Tři oříšky pro Popelku) by 12. Then, go for a walk in a nearby forest and leave some apples and nuts to the wild animals (or alternatively, go skiing) with my family. Come back by 4 p.m. Help my mom finish the preparations for Xmas dinner. Eat fried carp, potato salad & home made cookies around 6 p.m. Open presents, have a good time, eat, drink for the rest of the evening.

December 24th in Taiwan:

Get up at 7:30 a.m. Eat breakfast, finish up some school work. Start class at 9 a.m., do a serious presentation. Watch other people do their presentations and discuss De-westernization in social sciences, while eating chocolate and other sweets (at least that) Finish class at 12:30 p.m. Have some noodles, which my classmates kindly brought to have a Xmas lunch together. Take a Chinese class, 2 - 4 p.m. Come home, prepare another big presentations due tomorrow. Eat a takeaway 韓式泡菜鍋 (Korean kimgee and noodles) for Xmas dinner (that's a first). Finish school assignments by 10 p.m., then sit in the cafeteria, drink beer and laugh about this with several other foreigners.



The only positive thing about this is that Chinese new year is coming up in a month, and that, together with the semester break, means 6 weeks completely off!

Other than being busy with school recently, I also joined a newly formed 'hiking clique' and went for a very entertaining hiking trip outside Taipei to 平溪 last weekend. Entertaining because of the landscape (see a few pictures below), and also because Taiwanese hikers get extremely excited when they run into a loud group of 8 foreigners in the middle of the woods.

This is what the landscape looks like. Reminds me of Český ráj a bit.



It is possible to go up most of these rocky needles. The trails are surprisingly comfortable and appear safe.



and they are great. These are not my feet, the picture is taken from a fellow blog.



On a side note, i find myself explaining the unique Czech holiday customs fairly often, and they inevitably draw shocked reactions. For example..

Buying the carp (Xmas fish) alive and having it live in the bathtub in the bathroom for a week.. So i guess people who only have one bathroom can't take a shower for a week, while the fish is there? Also, the children often create an emotional bond with the fish and protest loudly when the father brings out the 'hammer' and the big knife to kill the fish. Some compassionate individuals decide to let the fish live, give it freedom and release it back to the river, instead of eating it. It is a paradox that the fish usually die soon back in the river, because they can't handle the temperature shock and don't know how to find food (being brought up commercially just for the purpose of being eaten on xmas eve).

December 6th: Mikuláš (St. Nicholas day) - streets are swarmed with people dressed up as angels, devils and Mikulášové (something between a bishop and a Santa Claus), for the purpose of scaring the bad children, and giving sweets to the good ones. After a succesful mission this year, my friend Petra went to a pub, dressed up as an angel, and someone accidentally set her wings (and hair, t-shirt..) on fire. I wish i could see that. (Péťo, to si prostě nemůžu nechat pro sebe :)

Easter - after explaining the concept of pomlázka, koledování, Czech men usually get accused of domestic violence on women, being discriminating, brutal and all that. But we're really gentle.. seriously!