A Christmas Abroad

A Christmas Abroad

 

Merry Christmas Everybody! (Slade, 1973).  I can still say it till 5^th January.  I had a great Christmas and I hope you all had an awesome Christmas, too!  This is my second Christmas abroad, in a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas (that’s not saying Taiwan ignores Christmas entirely).  All I can say is, like at home, Christmas is what you make it.

 

Our Christmas Tree

There are different ways expats deal with the holidays.  Some seem particularly disenchanted with it all, some love it, others just go with the flow and expect what will be will be, and some fly home for the holidays.  Me, I love Christmas!  I am one of the ridiculous foreigners who tries to spread Christmas joy.  I don’t know why, but I find myself celebrating Christmas more the less, for lack of better a term, white folks are around.  Last year, Christmas day was the only day I had off in my first 11 months in Taiwan.  It’s a time of year to be foolish, after all the best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing loud for all to hear! (Elf, 2003).  This year I decided to spread Christmas cheer in my school by wearing a Christmas Jumper or T-shirt every day, the kids loved it!  I also brought an Advent Calendar into class and decorated my classroom; the kids of Taiwan may not celebrate with the same kind of consumerism as the western world, but they still love Christmas.  I remember Yellow Sugar once told me she used to ‘hope Santa would come to Taiwan this year’. 

 

Our Stockings (can you guess mine?)

Last year, I didn’t have a busy teaching schedule and was allowed Christmas day off, so I had quite a relaxed Christmas; making it feel kind of like a mini holiday.  This year, I was much busier.  Not only do I have a more crowded teaching schedule, but I had to work late on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (with half pay).  To compound this, the government decided the country would work the Saturday after Christmas, so the only day of rest I had on Christmas week was the final Sunday.  Your brain is so used to having most of Christmas week off that it is strange and frustrating working extra hours over Christmas.

 



I am Santa!

The reason I was working extra hours, was because I am the only white guy at my school, I was Father Christmas!  As disillusioned as I was to working late on this most sacred of days, I was still delighted to be Santa Claus.  I never thought, considered, or ever really wanted to be Santa before, but it seemed something that would look good on the bucket list and something I could tell the children with grand kids (but, not the grandkids).  I can tell you, when you are as fat as Ol’ St Nick it is very hard to bend down and it is particularly hot!  I was not much use at helping clean or carry things.  The reaction of children and parents alike is enough to bring a smile to even the most scrooge-est of faces; I had to stay a long while taking photos with people.  As part of my performance as Santa I had to speak a mixture of Taiwanese, Mandarin and English, which was interesting to say the least.  This was followed by giving candy (I’ve been teaching American English too long!) to all the children, who are like vultures when Santa and sweeties are about.  My first performance of Santa was very amusing, my jacket kept coming undone and my man-boob pillows were determined to escape.  Fighting this was made all the more difficult as all I could see was my manager trying to stopping laughing.  The 2^nd event went much more smoothly, as I’m sure the 2^nd ever Christmas did; it takes time to learn how to become Father Christmas.

 

Christmas presents and Die Hard

Christmas Goose!

As I have mentioned, I was working late on Christmas Day.  This meant I didn’t get home and have Christmas Dinner till about half past nine!  Turkey is hard to come by in Taiwan, but goose isn’t, so I have been having Christmas goose since I’ve been in Taiwan; it is delicious!  This late start to Christmas Dinner was only one aspect of what was a strange Christmas Day.  Everybody works on Christmas, so my housemates left for work in the morning and I didn’t return till late; also I only had to go to work in the afternoon, so I was relaxing in our flat surrounded by all our wonderful presents.  I made it through this part of the day by watching Match of the Day and The Greatest Christmas Story Ever Told, Die Hard.  It was strange waiting all day to touch presents and not have that mid-afternoon, early evening relax because of that mixture of over stimulation and over eating.  So, after my TV marathon, teaching, being Santa, and finally eating Christmas Dinner, it was half past ten and time to open our presents.  It definitely felt an odd order to things; who has heard of Christmas Dinner before Christmas Presents!  My family go crazy at Christmas and sent both me and Yellow Sugar lots of presents, so it is almost like being at home.  In November, I went home and on my return I felt like Santa Claus himself; I was carrying over 30kg of presents from the UK to Taiwan, I know the big man uses reindeer, but a mixture of Airbus 380 and Boeing 777 worked a treat.  Although, over this transit a few tags and bags had moved, so I was up at 4am trying to work out what was what; how Santa does all those houses in one night I will never know!  I had a wonderful time sharing gifts with everyone even though it was at such a late hour and we had no time to play with them!

 

My classroom board

There is a good chance if you teach in Taiwan, you will have a responsibility to add Christmas into your lessons, and even if you don’t, it can be fun to do it anyway.  In my school we had loads of Christmas activities to fit into our lessons, but no extra time given, so it has been very hectic.  I enjoy adding Christmas into my lessons in small segments.  It’s fun to do Christmas warm-ups, let the kids make Christmas team-names and sing the odd Christmas carol if you have time at the end of class.  As I’ve mentioned, I brought an advent Calendar into class, this worked as good way to teach about Christmas, vocab, and as a great motivator for the kids; I should mention it wasn’t a chocolate calendar, just a normal one, I didn’t want to open that can of worms.  One thing I would suggest is to make sure that you keep track of who has opened a window or it can lead to arguments.  I’d also recommend decorating your room/s (if you’re allowed); make them a jollier and more welcoming place.  My many Christmas jumpers also added much interest and intrigue (and Christmas spirit) to the classroom.  My kids certainly enjoyed the decorations and jumpers, and they give you new and interesting examples to use in class.  One fun thing I got to do during my Christmas lessons was prove the existence of Santa Claus to my class.  My kids told me ‘he didn’t exist’, so I asked them ‘who gives me presents, as my mum and dad are in England?’  This worked as an unexpected teaching tool, as it made the kids name all the family members they could as they tried to work out who gives me presents.  As they are all in England, my kids finally accepted it must be Santa (I’m not sure they all believed me, but at least they were confused about it).

 

I've got the gifts, run!

I will also warn you Christmas shopping can as/more brutal in Taiwan than in the UK.  If you are buying normal things it is fine because people aren’t all buying presents, but if you are buying a Christmas themed gift it is another story.  The stores by X amount of stock and it all goes quickly; Taiwanese people love Christmas things!  I had been on a scouting mission for gifts to see what people would like and then I came back a week later without said people and it was all gone!  So, if you want to buy Christmassy Christmas presents plan early and act fast!

 

Christmas can be great abroad, if you want to celebrate you can, if you want to ignore it you can, and if you just want to do what the rest of the population do… you can.  Sometimes you may have to work longer, but generally the bosses of the schools are very understanding.  They have loads of foreigners coming through and know the drill.  Also, you may get to be Santa and that offer doesn’t come around too often!  You have the opportunity to make Christmas your own; have it your way!  Embrace this opportunity celebrate Christmas in your own style. 



Santa at the North Pole

 





Last Year my mum sent me a reindeer head



If you’re worried about being lonely this Christmas (Mud, 1974), have no fear you can always find Christmas cheer!  Drink, Sing and be Merry!  I was a little concerned, especially, about my first Christmas, when I left home, that I would miss my family and feel alone.  I don’t know if I’m strange, but I have never felt lonely abroad and maybe because of good cheer, even less so at Christmas.  I have only missed home once and that was a few days after my family left when they came for a visit; probably because it reminded about having family around (and I found out my visa was getting cancelled in a week).  With Skype and all the modern technology it is so easy to keep in contact with family at Christmas time and throughout year, so there is no need to fear.  If you are a little worried remember, as long as you put a little effort in you can have a great Christmas time.  I know I did!

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Hot Tea

 

Here are some strange Christmas snaps!

My toilet seat at Christmas

Everyone loves stockings!



The United Colours of Santa



Is this against the spirit of Christmas?

The even more united colours of Christmas

Merry Sithmas

The Sith taking over Christmas

A Holiday Home

A Holiday Home from Abroad

 

When I left England and set off for new pastures, I had no particular plan to return to the green, green grass of home for many a year.  I did, however, contemplate several people who I would consider returning for if they got married or had some particularly special life event, if time and circumstance allowed.  Unfortunately for me, one of these inconsiderate souls decided to get married.  My friend who I set off travelling with many a moon ago and helped me catch this travel bug decided the knot must be tied.  He is partly to blame for my affliction and being in Taiwan, how could I say no.

 

If you have read my blog before you will know it’s been nearly a month since I returned from my trip, but a holiday home is tiring endeavour and I needed another break to catch up.  The jet lag lasted a week, but my body clock only caught properly after a couple of weeks.

 



Congleton Town Hall; my home town!

A trip home is a very particularly peculiar experience.   It starts on the plane when you start considering you’re going to be heading back soon, but you’re not going to be somewhere tropical or exotic, you’ll be at home; mundane, regular, ordinary home.  You also have to consider your time constraints; there are people who want to see you and people you want to see.  You cannot see everyone in your short time frame.  Who will get more time family or friends?  You may also have to face the fact that with all your friends working it is very much up to you to get up and down the country to see everyone, unless you can offer them a weekend.  This is where it gets tough, who gets the few valuable weekends you have left?  You will feel inexorable guilt to whoever you don’t get see or don’t have the quality time you would have hoped to.  Another question, are you allowed a day off to relax?  There are going to so many things you want to do (it’s your home after all, you know too much!).  You may feel more guilt for being lazy or maybe do stupid things you wouldn’t normally do.  Personally, transport was a key issue, I had no car at home, so it was terribly tricky to get around during a weekday (and expensive).



 

The oatcake shop; a Congleton must!

When I arrived from an incredibly long flight, I was picked up by my dad.  As I have mentioned it felt very strange.  It had the feeling of returning from holiday, but very much in the knowledge I was going back soon.  I should mention, despite living abroad for 18 months, I very much feel as though I am on holiday right now.  I am on stage one of my mega journey, so it was like a holiday from my holiday.  It was also odd going on holiday to normality.  No matter how long you have been away nowhere is more normal to you than home; it is called home for a reason.  It took me all of twenty minutes to get back into the swing of things of being back home, although I may have reverted back to younger age than I should have.

 



Elland Road; part of the to-do list.

The key difference between my prior days of England and current visit to the homeland was my lack of my own transportation.  This made the time constraints of the holiday even harder.  I considered renting a car for the period, but I decided the cost-benefit factor was not right for me.  England may not be the largest of countries, but large enough to inconvenient to get around.  I relied on getting lifts with friends and family to many places and sent far too much on trains.  When you are in a place as familiar as your country, there are many places you know, too many.  You want to do so many things as you don’t know the next time you will get the opportunity.  I did pretty well, but still missed the odd thing.  I was into my list almost immediately off the plane; I had a pub dinner the night I arrived back.  It was delicious, but it was too soon off the plane, my stomach was not ready for heavy English pub grub right off the plane.  (To anyone in England or heading there soon, I would highly recommend ‘The Bear’s Paw near Sandbach, Cheshire).  Then the next morning I was hitching a lift to the train station on my mums drive to work to do things on the other side of the country.  After this I had to do more cross-country traveling, as unfortunately I had a funeral to attend.  A sad time, but it did bring the family together for me, which I am thankful for and will always be grateful to my aunt.

  

Trip to Leeds: LUBS

Leeds City Market

 

Leeds Uno Business School



This brings me to what was maybe the hardest part of trip home; how to split my time between family and friends.  Weekends become valuable commodities with everybody being grown up and having jobs.  You may have enough time and days to see everyone, but not everyone has the time to see you.  You find yourself trying to fit into everyone else’s schedule.  You come down to earth with a thump after you realise you’re not the minor celebrity you thought you were when coming off the plane.  I only had two weekends and I gave one to my friend’s wedding (after all, it was the key reason I came home).  So, I had one weekend.  My friends happen to be from all of the country, but a large chunk has ended up in London.  This offered the choice of an expensive London weekend with my friends, or a relative cheap family weekend.  Cheap and expensive didn’t come into to be fair.  I was out and about very often and my family were at work, so I would have felt worse to not spend that time with family than with my friends.  It was also our ‘first’ Christmas, where we celebrate a month early because we live in the four corners of the country, it is always a most enjoyable weekend; this one was spent in a Hilton, we felt very posh indeed!  I felt terrible that I could only offer my friends a weekday and they let me know how annoyed they were that this was all I was able to give them.  We had a great night, even if it was not the riotous night I was expecting.  To great thing about good friends is, it doesn’t matter how long you’re apart, after about thirty seconds it is like old times; so very little time was wasted with idle chit chat.

 

 

Tower of London (glad I could be back to see it)

 

 



Double Cheese Oatcake!

Mow Cop: It's all folly!

You have guessed I was brought up in a catholic household by the amount of guilt I felt and am talking about from holiday.  My last piece of guilt for this evening is the guilt of wasted time.  You’ve had a long flight, you’ve been busy racing around the country, are you allowed a day to relax in your child home?  You have a long list of things you want to do, can you afford to take a day from this?  In the middle week of my holiday, I had very few plans during the day, so I thought “I can’t waste these valuable time, what can I do in my beautiful home town”.  As I have mentioned I had no transport, so I had to make a plan within walking distance.  I live in Congleton, the local area is known for one thing; walks, canals and pretty views.  I decided to take advantage of this, so I walked into town to get one of my favourite things in Congleton (a double cheese and bacon oatcake from The Oatcake Shop) and went to walk down a canal to a pretty view; “two birds with one stone” I thought.  The canal was Macclesfield Canal; the pretty view was Mow Cop Folly.  It’s called Mow Cop Castle, but it’s a folly; it never had any practical purpose, it was built to look aesthetically pleasing, to call a castle would be… well… folly.  This walk would put me on a near 10 mile round trip, which was not flat or on beautiful pavements.  We’re in England in winter, walking along a canal, any of you who have done something similar will attest to slippy slidely journey you are about to embark upon.  After a near hour on the canal, mostly trying not to fall over or more importantly fall in, I got to solid ground.  After a short walk along the roadside, I arrived at Station Bank.  This is a hill known as ‘The Killer Mile’, it starts off as fairly steep hill, but at the end it really ramps up, you’re not sure whether to try and climb it or keep walking.  At this point it is a 25% gradient; to put this into context I used to put my 1.2 Vauxhall Corsa into first gear to keep moving, I know it’s far from Land Rover, but that’s still steep.  By the end of the hill, I was actually tempted to run up just finish the job, it sounds crazy, but I just wanted it to be over.  The views to be fair were stunning and on balance probably worth it, but it was very, very cold and windy up top.  I hadn’t really considered the walk back; I was pushing the falling sun.  By the time the sun was setting, I was not yet home.  I was stuck with the choice between slippery canal walk at night and walking along a country road at night.  What scared me more falling and drowning or getting hit by a car.  I decided the car was preferable.  I was walking along the roadside, periodically jumping into bushes for safety; don’t worry I made it home.  I’ve been told it was the wrong choice, but I know too much people falling into canals and getting grabbed by things underneath (plants mostly); I don’t know too much about being hit by a car (not that I was keen to find out).  After this experience, I allowed myself the next day off.  If you’re going to make use of your time, make sure you think your ideas through.  Don’t go on slippery, steep, 10 mile round walk just because you feel guilty for wasting your holiday.  Saying that, I don’t regret thing and I learnt something, so you could say it was a productive journey.

 

Jodrell Bank from Mow Cop

I had a nice trip home, but as all holidays are, it was too short and I needed another holiday to recover.  If you are considering a trip home, remember you will have a lot of decisions to make.  If I were to give any advice, it would be to do what comes naturally to you.  You have been away for a while, so I’m assuming you have not had much family time or what is normal time for you with your friends and/or family.  As strange as it may feel, getting back into old routines is kind of like a holiday, and let’s not forget you’re on holiday to relax, so you are allowed day or two taking everything in; it can become overwhelming, having people aspiring to have your acquaintance.  As is life, you can’t do everything, so just make best of it!

All the best,

 

Hot Tea

 

Now check out some of my photos!

 

Congleton Town Centre



Macclesfield Canal



More Macc. Canal

Station Bank, Mow Cop

Mow Cop Folly

 

View from the top of Mow Cop

Heaven Café< leeds

Best Hot Choc in Leeds, Heaven

 

Billy Bremner Statue, Elland Road

All Aboard the Alishan Express

Alishan

 

About four months ago, I promised to write a blog about my trip to Alison.  My family came to visit Taiwan, so we decided to take a long weekend in Alishan in Chaiyi County.

 

Alishan Express

 

If you have ever read this blog, you may have noticed I am loath to plan ahead.  So, as you can imagine, I under-prepared for our trip to Alishan.  Yellow Sugar and I decided to travel down to Alishan on the Friday evening after work.  We decided to use the high speed rail (HSR) for the first time; it’s expensive, but we had some benefactors to help us along.  I have been on the Shinkansen (bullet train) in Japan and it reminded me of being on an airplane.  The HSR is, no doubt, nicer, cleaner, and more spacious than the regular trains in Taiwan, but it is just a normal train that goes like the clappers.  We arrived at Chaiyi Station know we would just miss the last bus and train to Alishan, but we assumed there would be good links between Chaiyi and Alishan.  We were dead wrong.  To be honest, I hadn’t even looked at a map, so I didn’t know how far away Alishan was from Chaiyi.  As it turns out, it is long way away; it is about 40 miles up to Alishan.  This does not seem too far, but you have to consider most of the journey is up a windy mountain road.  This is not to mention it can get very foggy and misty, the type of mist you only get in the middle of nowhere, where people do not tread very often.  So, our journey consisted of pitch black road with thick white fog like driving through a marshmallow.  It was only possible to drive by follow the eye of cats in the middle of the road.  It was a long arduous trip for both us and the driver, lasting two hours.  It is the kind of road you would much prefer to drive by yourself, as it is much more stressful having no control over your destiny and fighting the backseat driver in you not to scream.  Eventually, we made it, only to be greeted with a NT$300 entry fee into the park, which surprisingly we didn’t know about.  We were dropped off at, what claims to be, the highest 7-eleven in Taiwan.  Taiwan opened it’s 5000^th 7-eleven in July 2014, so it is some claim to be the highest.  If it is indeed true, I think that is one to check off the 7-eleven bucket list (highest 7-eleven in Taiwan!).  We got a shuttle bus to the hotel, were greeted like celebrities (which was nice) and then it was time for a well deserved sleep.

 

Foggy Alishan

I only really knew one thing about Alishan and that was it had a funky red train.  I had seen it on many a post card, and this is how I do my research.  The first thing we decided to do, after omelettes from the omelette bar, was to have a wander and find this train.  My friends had warned me to avoid this train, as it was old and there were often landslides.  One even warned me not to get on if there were Chinese tourists, as they are bad luck (and sometimes less than polite).  I’m not a train fanatic, but this train was the main reason I had taken such a harrowing journey, so I dutifully ignored all my friends’ advice and we tried out the train.  We took the short trip down the mountain to the little ‘town centre’ of Alishan.  The train is old and rickety and noisy, but it has character and it is nice to take step back from modern life and travel the same way they would have in 1912 when it opened.  The ‘town centre’ is essentially a small selection of restaurants, tea shops, shops, and the traditional 7-eleven surrounding a car park.  It was pretty foggy at this part of the park, you could barely a few feet in front of you, so we decided to go into a tea shop and have a nice cuppa.  We walked in through a gift shop and up thin staircase and immediately Yellow Sugar was greeted by small child presenting her with his rubbish.  The proprietor, and I can only assume parent, was mortified, but we found it most amusing and a nice, relaxing way to begin our break.  After a short break we decided once again to get on the train that shall not be rode and have a stroll through the park.

 

Three Generations Tree

 

Sacred Tree

Alishan is like a small version of the Lake District in England.  It is full of large green trees and you can gaze over beautiful uninterrupted scenery for miles and miles.  Normally there are no lakes, but this weekend was special.  Alishan really wanted us believe it was a Taiwanese lake district and it rained so much, it created a myriad of small lakes.  Unfortunately this meant that everyone had their umbrellas up.  I don’t really want to perpetuate stereotypes, but this meant dodging, ducking, and getting hit by untold amount of Chinese tourists.  People just did not want to share the thin walkways that wind around Alishan.  We’re all just trying to get somewhere and have a nice time.  We had three generations of my family on this trip, so we were on a mission to find the ‘three-generation’s tree’, as it seemed symbolic.  On our hunt we stumbled upon one of my favourite things about Taiwan, a primary school at the top of a mountain.  Where else in the world puts a large primary school at the top of a mountain, you see them all over and I just love it.  We also found the oldest and tallest tree in the park, the sacred tree.  It is said to be over 50 metres tall with a circumference of nearly 25 metres, it is a whopper of a tree to say the least.  On top of this it is supposed to around 3000 years!  That’s older than Jesus and the Roman Empire; it’s older than the Persian Empire! In fact it is nearly as old the Egyptian’s; we’re talking about the Old Testament! After a nice stroll around the park, we found our tree, took some snaps, found the token temple and went back the hotel to relax.  In the next morning we were to be up before the crack of dawn to see the sunrise.

 

Alishan Sunrise part. 1

 

Zingy at the Sunrise

The morning was a foggy in more ways than one; it was early so the details are fuzzy and it was as it often is in Alishan, foggy.  I think we got up around 2am to catch the shuttle bus to the train station. If you go to Alishan and want to see the sunrise make sure you book this the day before.  We yet again got on the train we weren’t supposed to, to get to the top of the mountain.  At the viewing platforms there are various stalls to get a little snack or something to drink, so you don’t need worry about starvation or dying of thirst.  The train gets you there a while in advance, so you will have the wait in your position to hold it.  There is crazy tour guide who stands on the fence shouting lots and lots of things.  I have no idea what he was saying, but it was mildly amusing, although maybe a little loud for that time of the morning.  After what seemed like an age, the sun finally began to rise.  At this point the reason people get so early becomes apparent.  The morning sky is filled with an abundance of colours; reds, blues purples, oranges and mixtures in between. We then learned the fickle nature of Taiwan and the importance of good fortune.  A stray cloud slowly stole in front of the rising sun and took away so many of our lovely colours.  After this mixture of joy and disappointment and deciding that the sun was finally up, we went for a snack and cup of tea/coffee.   Before leaving we had one look over the mountains, just in time to see another reason to come up so high.  The clouds were streaming over and creating a blanket over the mountain.  It is a sight I have only seen on Angel Island by San Francisco, but it is a sight to behold and one of my favourites.  We had a decided to only get a ticket up the mountain in order to give us freedom and the chance to see more of Alishan.  Although, the logic seemed sound, it is a decision I personal regretted at the time.  I was extremely tired and just wanted a nap before breakfast.  A 45 minute walk, no matter how pleasant and picturesque, it was not what the doctor ordered.  As it was, we got back, particularly light-headed, in time for breakfast.  I was determined to have an omelette, but I had not considered the vast swarms of people you get up for an early breakfast in Alishan… and the amount who order multiple omelettes.  Eventually I had to give up on my dream of an omelette and go to bed (6 months later and I’m still a little mad about!).  A nap and a wander was all that the day had in store for us; a sunrise day is not a busy day.

 

 

The Cloud rolls over Alsihan

 

The next day we got the bus from the incredibly high 7-eleven.  It was a much more pleasant journey than a taxi, in the rain, at night.  It took around an hour and a half, but we got back to Chaiyi station and had a quick bite to eat before we were back on the HSR.  It was an unpleasant journey where adults turned seats around and encouraged children to shout and scream.  It took the train staff over an hour and half to ask them to be quiet and this quiet lasted all of three minutes before the parents started the noise again.  It goes to show, some people complain about having class systems and quiet carriages on trains, but I would have killed for one on that train.  The HSR is nice, fast and more importantly expensive, but this does not guarantee a peaceful journey.

 

Alishan Sunrise part. 2

With this moan over, I have a recommendation for Taiwan.  Taiwan is a nation with many bikes, a nation that makes many bikes, and a nation of many mountains and beautiful untouched scenery.  Let’s create the tour of Taiwan!  All I was thinking of during my trip down the mountain was how perfect this would be for a bike race.  Let us promote Taiwan and its beauty!

Alishan Express

 

Sorry for wait,

 

Hot Tea