我即將離開我的台灣家

Wǒ jíjiāng líkāi wǒ de táiwān jiā. (I'm leaving my Taiwan home soon).

I'm getting all reflective and stuff. Almost two years (by the time I leave) here in Taiwan, and the time before I left feels worlds away. I've met so many wonderful people and learned a lot.

So, for the next 2 months and 10 days, I'll be going about my Taiwan days wistfully looking at everything I do here. Or wistfully having my iPod camera look at everything. I'm taking lots of crappy video and will make a crappy movie later. I'm really looking forward to having video of life here to look back on as years go by. But here are some screenshots of a fun little city drive and market walk that I had today.

Tree thinking

After a little bit of googling, I found that the average American gives of about 54 pounds of carbon a year.

The average tree sequesters 10 pounds a year.

So, if people plant around 6 (maybe more just for fun?), they could offset their carbon emissions (of course there are also other emissions like methane – and it's not just the cows we eat that give it off).

I'm going to make it a goal to plant 6 trees this year. Somewhere. Somehow.

I guess this oil spill is realllly getting to me. Makes me really sad. But things like this make me happy. There's hope.

At the end of the Cradle to Cradle book, they ask you to think back to what the world was like 100 years ago. Crazier changes have occurred, and I imagine in the next 100 years, we will have some crazzzzzzy changes, too (for good).

Blahhhh.

I'm on a bus!

A few teachers and I did a photo shoot for our school a couple of months ago. Here we are on a bus!

*I sort of feel bad posting this just after a post about a painting that talks about how wasteful we are as human beings. This is just yet another example, isn't it. I'm just holding out for a day when a huge advertisement like this is made from biodegradable materials that end up being a nutrient for the Earth (or maybe for ants). That's what McDonough is doing, and I hope there are many other innovators and designers following suit.

Ants weigh more than humans

One of my favorite, favorite books is Cradle to Cradle. A really wonderful fact (of many) that I got from reading that book was that the ant biomass is greater than the human biomass. McDonough uses this idea to compare our impact on nature with that of ants. Ants have a natural way of interacting with the environment without harming it (despite the fact that there are so many of them, more than humans). In his work, McDonough works to change the way we design things in order for humans work with the environment in a similar way.

The results he has had are really amazing. Water coming out of a factory cleaner than it went in, fabric from chairs that is so chemical-free you could eat it (he doesn't recommend eating it though), and office buildings with windows that open to allow fresh air to come in (this project was so monunentally different that it made headlines). The best part about his work is that it usually ends up being cheaper because of all the waste and destruction that is involved in our current industrial procedures. Another good part is that his buildings and factories are beautiful. And another good aspect about what he does is that he works with big companies who are doing so much of the harm and companies that reach mass audiences with the idea that these sort of changes will become infectious.

So...while realizing that art is not exactly environmentally friendly (trying to think of ways to fix or offset that. hmm), I hope for this simple idea, expressed visually as a painting, to ignite changing opinions, ideas, and practices for anyone who catches a glance.

I plan on submitting this to artSPARK. Fingers crossed!

August 15th

Didn't make the artSPARK deadline, but here is Ants Weigh More than Humans. Finished. I wasn't sure about it a little but feel pretty good now. Trying to echo the fragile but simultaneously strong idea of ants/humanity/ and the world.

Fresh Lychees!

Nothing like fresh picked lychees from a student's grandmother's house. Deliciously delectable.

Ignite

I'm going to do a painting for artSPARK. Due June 30th. That gives me 25 days. The theme is extinguish/ignite.

I'll keep thinking about this one and the best way to approach is. Fun to have a new painting to start.

In the spirit of SPARKcon, the artSPARK Gallery will feature juried 2D and 3D artwork based on the theme(s) IGNITE/EXTINGUISH. Interpretations of this theme may be literal, metaphorical, abstract, or anything in between. Artists of all levels working in any style or medium are encouraged to apply! Click the link below to apply online now! Deadline: June 30.

Ouch

So, this idea comes up a lot in my stay here. Some mundane sort of thing that you do a lot back home is very intriguing when done abroad. There are just a bunch of little differences that come up that catch your attention.

Today was an opportunity to do some cultural observation...in the Emergency room. Yuck. Nothing serious, but a glass of boiling water shattered on my leg. OUCH. I ran around the apartment screaming (my roommate was very confused), and after icing for a minute, found blistering 2nd degree burns. Nothing to crazy but it hurrrrrrrrrts.

The hospital feels pretty similar to back home. They took pictures of all my burns. I don't know if they do that back home, but that was interesting. The nurses and doctors were so nice – wracking their brains to use that English they studied probably forever ago but don't need to use very often. As an English teacher here, I wish they knew how much I really appreciate the practical application of their hard work.

I've lost my health card so the whole visit without insurance was 130 American dollars. I can go back and be reimbursed once I get a new card. But speaking of prices, I noticed at the checkout that one night's stay in a hospital bed here costs the equivalent of 3 American dollars (but without insurance, it's 30 dollars). I know there are many different opinions on American health care, and I am not well-informed enough to have the best opinion either way. It just makes me wonder exactly how ours can be better in terms of cost . I really don't know the answer, but Taiwan seems to have it figured out in a way that works pretty well (for them that, is – the two country's situations would certainly not be congruent). Again - I'm not the most informed. This is just the reaction of a combination of a different anecdotal situations.

OUCH. Boiling water and leg do not mix.