Hello Green Island, Medical stuff and life in general

So it has been a long time since I have laid finger to key to let you know what is going on her in Taipei, the only working democracy in south east Asia. As Garrison Keller would not say, “ It’s been a wild week in Lake Wobegon.” Life is so full it is hard to know where to start.

We have had typhoons that took down huge trees and reduced me to stooping to walk. We have had heat that would drop those of us from Wisconsin to our knees. And now, almost the end of October, while Wellcome grocery store is carrying huge pumpkins from USA, it is still 27-33C. aka hot and humid. We have had some few days that hint of “winter” and the boots have come out every now and then and an occasional down coat has made its appearance, but the bears are still in shorts and sandals and I just turned on the AC to cool down. Yes my brother, my blood is getting thinner and a Wisconsin winter seems like a romantic memory not to be relived with grace.

Carol has been a wild woman!!!!!! She will blog about her tai chi exploits but just let me say that I cannot believe her courage and will to compete in a world class sized arena (known here in Taipei as “The HUGE Egg) with World Cup Winners in Tai chi, with over 7000 people watching and all her Tai chi class in the front bleachers in class A1….the most difficult class. My beautiful wife was just that…beautiful and graceful as she moved through forms designed to block, maim, and kill people foolish enough to assume fragility. Her 9.15/10 score in no way reflects her accomplishment under fire. WOW!. She is now in her other life as an artistic director of Midsummer Nights’ Dream presented at TAS. And next week she takes over the Asia conference dance program while the instructor is on maternity leave. No rest no rest no rest.

I, the other hand, got to go to Green Island in the SE corner of Taiwan for the 10/10 holiday. Carol could not go because she had final play rehearsals so there was no one chaperoning me and I have the scars to prove it. A group of us from TAS who normally travel together got in 8 dives in 2 days, had great scooter expeditions around the island and lived in local Chinese B & Bs eating local food and loving it.

There were several highlights on this trip. #1 I got bitten on the hand by a largish Batfish at 28 meters depth. Cheeky bastard thought I was the other white meat and had ¼ of my hand in its mouth and tugging it off into his lair. NOT!. Also I had opportunity to photograph numerous sea snakes up very close..some by design and some because that is where they wanted to go. They are incredibly poisonous but everyone keeps saying they can’t bit you through a wet suit which would be comforting except I do not wear a wet suit. No problems though. The other find was a giant Mantis shrimp which is not at all a shrimp but very large and aggressive. This fellow was out of his lair and I got so close that he could not get up the motive force to smash my mask or camera lense. Truly this was a major find. I will include pictures below.

During this trip, I had great fun on the scooters. I kept trying to shift like my motorcycles but there was not shift….just ride. We drove around the whole island, which is not that big, and braved the crazy people who stop in the middle of the narrow road to look at a goat or deer, who park and completely block the lane while the garbage truck is coming or who just stop suddenly to talk to each other. Take your eyes off the traffic one second and OOPS! I compared the driving to a day in Sturgis on smaller bikes and people.7-11 is the hot spot gathering point in the little village because if you can not get what you need at 7-11, you don’t need it. From medicine to meals, wine to batteries, hot dogs to fish bits, it is all there. Some people eat exclusively from the “fresh” and frozen meals and snacks at the store. Not a great idea but it works. And you can pay all your bills there as well. As I mentioned before, in Taipei, there is one for every 1756 people….given the millions of people in Taipei, that is a lot of red white and green signage.

Part of the trip was to a unique hot springs that is ocean tide pools heated by volcanic venting. One goes into the hot pool and cools off by going in the ocean. When we were there, the tide was coming in so the surf was very very high and crashing waves. My buddy and I got tagged by the Spa police for being too far into the surf and getting upended by a huge crashing wave. He kept eying us suspiciously like we belonged on the Group W bench (Ah Arlo where are you?).

Green Island once housed the infamous prison that Chiang Kai Sheck (sic) used for all his political prisoners. The cave behind the prison was the site of many executions. The facility is now closed but accessible to those of us who choose to venture in, even at night. It had a very ugly aura to it. It did not help that my scooter key fell out of the ignition while I was poking around the compound. Luckily, we found it after suffering a panic attack. Nothing a Taiwan beer could not help.

We stayed in local digs which are alternately rustic ala the UP of Michigan, or uptown odd, like an older hotel with marble everything. I can not say enough about the warmth and kindness of the Taiwanese people. Given one bit of a smile, most will respond with exuberance and seek to help you do or get whatever they think you want. The sense of family and community is powerful here. Example: the cook at the restaurant where we ate all our evening meals did not serve us the pineapple shrimp (a delicacy) that we requested because she thought that was too common for us. Instead we were served fresh caught oysters on the half shell which was, in the cook’s mind, a better gift to us. Like I said, it is what they THINK you want.

I have been plagued by nasal congestion, drainage and middle ear infections like I have never ever had in my life. I do not know why but the upshot is I am a major proponent of socialized medicine. I have had my ear drum punctured for drainage 3 times ( sorry about way too many details) and received massive amounts of medicine for no more that $6 USD a visit to a major ENT doc. And the problem with this is????????? Absolutely no complaints and major raves instead for this system. I hope the condition with go away but many folks here are suffering as well. We are going in for full physicals this coming week and expect to pay $500 USD for a full day of tests, full cardiac workup, complete blood work etc. etc. etc. AND they give you breakfast and a cute warm up suit to wear, a translator to accompany you, give you a complete report at the end of the day, and put all data on a DVD for you to take with you. I repeat, the problem with this is ??????

I think this has gone on for enough space but I just wanted to let anyone know that we are so very happy here on this wonderful island. I adore my students, love the opportunities for adventure and find every day marvels around each corner. Be well! Write to us on email or through this blog. We miss hearing from a lot of you.

PS please remember to click on the slide show and go to Picassa Web albums for many more pictures of our adventures.

Bill