When the weekend finally came (April 29th that is) I recovered largely and went with the gang of the BOT dorm to dinner and Karaoke. Let me say a few words about this gang. Once upon a time NTU mixed exchange students with local students across several dorms on campus. After too many complaints NTU decided to offer only places to exchange students in two dorms one for the well-endowed and the budget option (my dorm). Let me drop a few words about complaining in Taiwanese culture. According to our teacher a Taiwanese person would never, ever, ever complain directly in your face. Instead s/he would rather spread more and more rumors until it reaches the alleged wrong-doer, or in an extreme case s/he would complain to an authority such as the dorm supervisor (which happened in this case). Since Western people would generally choose the exact opposite strategy, conflict is quite likely to happen. Back to the gang: the majority of exchange students being distributed on only six floors in three buildings in the BOT dorm, they almost inevitably live in a bubble inhabited virtually only by exchange students. That’s the gang ;) I am saying this without prejudice because this is hardly preventable and for most students not even undesirable.
So I went to dinner with the gang. We had all you can eat Movenpick and Hagen-Dasz ice-cream. After desert I also had some traditional Taiwanese hot-pot, which was also worth every penny. Karaoke in Taiwan is radically different from European Karaoke since friends rent a little room in which they sing among themselves. It is also radically different from ‘Sing Star’ nights that I am familiar with because people are actually singing well, instead of mocking the song.
On Saturday, April 30th Lisan took me to an awesome film festival/ art party in a transformed brewery to arts-space (there are many of these places in Taipei. You must only know about them). There were several live-acts and apparently all artist expats of Taiwan convened at this place on that night. It was great to just dance all night long until sunrise. We also met Chung who is one of Niko’s couchsurfing friends. Lastly, I got to know a famous Taiwanese newcomer artist who wants to come to Germany to display his paintings. While I liked his works, I thought that they all looked very much alike. Sunday was lazy.
Crazy party...
The band with bike helmets. Lisan and me in the far back.
Monday night Iri and Bruno invited me for a dinner. I have to say I have never in my life had pasta this good. With little more than eggplant and tomatoes Bruno performed a true miracle. Deeply satisfied I went to sleep and had enough energy to go to language class the next morning (the first time in a week).
Realizing that I a) wanted to become less of a hypocrite in environmental matters and b) that I like adventures I decided that I wanted to take the sea/land route back to Europe. Taipei – Keelung – Xiamen (China) – Beijing – Moscow – Berlin. It looks so easy and you only need to take one ferry and change trains twice when you are in China. Spending 8 days on the train is also an experience worth making and a little price for the environment given that the trip pays you with exciting experiences. However, two weeks later I must admit that efforts for this trip already failed at first instance: without a Taiwanese resident visa you cannot apply for a Chinese visa. They didn’t let me have a resident visa. Taking the plane on June 25th.
Being somewhat of a political activist I stumbled across the following documentary.
Actually my sister recommended it to me. Unfortunately I could only find it in German but being appalled that apparently all of the chocolate available in supermarkets (except for specifically certified one) has been done at least partially with the help of child labor, I send two angry emails (in nice language of course) to Nestle and Albert Heijn. Only the latter responded with the following email, basically not denying that their chocolate is done with the help of child slaves (NO we are not talking about child LABOR, which would commonly denote paid labor but we are talking about SLAVERY, meaning no-wage labor):
“Dear Mr.,
Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we are unable to answer your question in English. Therefore you will find our answer in Dutch.
Albert heijn is bezig haar gehele chocolade assortiment te verduurzamen. Momenteel zijn er nog niet voldoende duurzame cacaobonen beschikbaar. Wij volgen een schema waarbij tot 2015 alle chocolade duurzaam is. Euroshopper zal ook verduurzaamd worden, maar is dat op dit moment nog niet.
Sincerely,
Marjan Schoon
Albert Heijn Klantenservice”
Sad story but enough information for me to not buy any chocolates (or other cocoa products) that are not certified until 2015.
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