Columbia Heights to the White House

Perhaps it two things in the post's title seem strange: 1) Columbia Heights, and 2) White House. Columbia Heights, years before, was a pretty scary neighborhood in DC, where murders and riots were routine. In the last 9 years or so, the area has gentrified quite a bit, enough so that my Cleveland friend JK felt "relatively safe" coming in at about 2am. Now it's known as the place where my friend Jason rolls his oats and makes his own bread; the only inconvenience seems to be that garbage sprouts out of gardens like flowers, and cockroaches come out to the sidewalks to play at dusk.

As for the White House, it's usually not a destination I have in mind when I go running, but regardless, I decided to go for a jog today since I hadn't done so in more than a week. From Columbia Heights to the White House was about 6 miles roundtrip, which I did in a decent 52 minutes. Running through DC was relatively easy, though as you near downtown, they seemed to space out the traffic lights so that at running speed, every time you near the next block, you hit another red light (which I did not count as part of my time). Perhaps the sequencing is great for walkers or drivers, but extremely annoying for runners.

Anyhow, all that extra time waiting around caused me to be running late for my flight out of Dulles Airport, and so I ended up having to take a taxi from West Falls Church after missing the bus there - it was $38! And when I got there, the flight was delayed (even though it was fine when I checked on it before I got in the taxi). Ridiculous.

At least I got to see a crazy red sun.

DC

Since in all this time that I've been on the East Coast, I haven't been able to go to Washington DC (it's been about 8 years), I decided I should first take a short trip out there before I head out of the country. I had a friend from Cleveland that was nice enough to let me stay at his place, and the timing worked out well since it ended up that another old friend from Cleveland was going to be visiting there as well. So we hit up the local Mexican restaurant which was quite good and cheap. My friend Jason, the amateur food critic, wrote a review of the place at:



http://dc-restaurante-critic.blogspot.com/2008/08/taqueria-del-distrito-federal.html



Anyhow, it was awhile since I was back here, but I didn't realize that: 1) Washington DC had a Chinatown (I guess they must, right? It's a big city staple), and 2) DC's Chinatown lacks a Chinese community - in fact, most of the stores are Western chains.

Okay so the gate looks nice, but...

See!!!! They just have Chinese signs, but they are all Western stores! What a joke. I guess it's a strange zoning regulation that forces everyone to make up Chinese names for their establishments in the area...

Restaurant Week and more

I ended up not doing very much in New York except meeting up with friends and eating at various places:

Filip's Going Away Dinner (7/15):

WIB Opera Picnic in Battery Park (7/18):

Lunch/Dinner at Sakagura - I ended up going twice (7/20, 7/21):


Dinner at EN Japanese Brasserie (7/23):

Lunch at Cafe d'Alsace (7/25):

Dinner at Delmonico's:


There were a few other extracurriculars:

Taking a ferry to Manhattan - okay not that interesting, but the first time I've done it since I started living here (7/18):

Watching the Opera Volleyball post-championship friendly (7/23):

Watching people camp out for Hannah Montana (7/24):

Going to Naomi's play with Evan and Brianna (7/24):

Walking around Wall Street and watching people ride the bull (7/25):


Goodbye Party for Maya (7/25):

China Visa

So today I finally got my China visa, though people weren't kidding when they say it's quite a hassle. The first time I tried to drop off my passport and application was on Wednesday, after I had spent a good amount of time thoroughly reading through the Chinese Embassy's website. I studied the requirements, made sure I got every little piece, and even tried to visit at the recommended non-peak hours (of course I didn't get up early enough, but it didn't matter, when I got there, there was no line anyways).

The lady at the window looked through my paperwork. Passport? Check. Application? Of course. Passport-sized pictures? Yes. Plane ticket? Enclosed as well. She eyed me closely a few times. Then she pushed all of my documents back to me, and said that I still need to show documentation for a hotel reservation. I protested that I was not staying at a hotel; I was going to visit a friend. She responded that in that case, I would need an invitation letter from my friend.

So Wednesday night, I had my friend in Beijing write me a letter and email it to me. I printed it out, and on Thursday, I once again set off for the embassy to try my luck a second time...

Once again, everything went smoothly... until the invitation letter. This time, the woman at the window frowned. "This is a copy," she stated matter of factly, "and we do not accept copies."
"But my friend is currently in China! It would take some time to get the actual document!"
"We only take actuals or faxed copies," She added, tersely.
"Fax copies?" In my disbelief, I had to check twice. She nodded.

Defeated, I headed out of the embassy somewhat annoyed. They accept fax copies but not printed copies? What kind of logic is that? Don't they look exactly the same except fax copies are slightly less readable?

I was not immediately sure what my options were. I did not own a fax machine, and would have to designate one for my friend to send to. In addition, I don't think my friend has a fax machine either, and since Beijing and New York are 12 hours apart, that probably means one of us has to be up in the middle of the night trying to send/receive this fax. Clearly, this was not ideal.

However, another idea struck me. I took a bus back to the Times Square area, and asked around until I found a Staples. I checked with the store clerk, who said that they can accept faxes, and gave me the fax number. Next, I found a Fedex Kinko's around the corner, and set my brilliant plan into motion: I would fax my copy of the invitation from Fedex to next-door Staples!

The copy came out, the only difference major difference being that it was slightly harder to read, and there was also a line on top which said "FAX" and had a timestamp. With renewed energy, I marched back towards the embassy for a third time, and successfully submitted my paperwork without further incident. Indeed, perhaps even if they knew how I obtained my fax copy, it wouldn't have mattered. After all, I had provided what they had requested, they had abided by their strict but silly regulations, and no one was any worse for it. And it's not like I forged the invitation letter, right? Utterly ridiculous regulations should be handled via utterly ridiculous workarounds.

Back in NYC

Well, my short trip to Taiwan is over now, and I am back in New York City. First things first - I bought a new camera to replace the one that fell into the Pacific Ocean. I looked around some, but I enjoyed the low-light performance of the Fujifilm Finepix F-series so much that I ended up looking mostly there again. They no longer sell the old Fujifilm Finepix F20 which I lost (or the F30 or F31fd, which I wouldn't mind getting either), instead the latest in the F-series is the Finepix F100. The camera seemed to have received mixed reviews online, though the features sound nice: 28mm wide angle, 5x optical zoom, greater dynamic range, updated face detection, additional ISO sensitivity, etc. The F100fd is also compatible with SD cards (finally)!

However, I was still hesitant - the price point was much higher than where I usually bought at ($300+), and the battery life was shorter than the F20. Truth be told, I really just wanted another F20 - I had fond memories of that camera, its exceptional battery life, huge LCD screen, and excellent low-light capabilities (which should continue on in the F100).

And so when I actually bought the F100fd, I couldn't help but be a little disappointed. The improved dynamic range did not seem to make that big of a difference in high contrast shots, the battery life was noticeably shorter, and even the LCD screen seemed smaller (though I think it is actually bigger - the perception must be due to my romanticization of my lost F20). Plus, some of the photos seemed noisier than the F20 upon zoom - it was very apparent that there was no need for 12.0 MP, as the 6 MP or so from the F20 was just fine. The controls on the camera also seemed a bit weird - instead of using the traditional buttons to zoom in and out, there was a mechanical swivel that was very hard to control. In fact, when the swivel and the push button broke, I almost got a refund instead of a replacement. However, I kept with it, and the F100fd is slowly growing on me.

Danshui

So we're back in Taiwan now, at the ILT Debriefing session in Danshui, an area in northern Taipei. Not surprisingly, it is named after the Danshui River, which mean "freshwater." We got to go around and tour some of the old historical sites as well as go walking along the "Old Street," where many of the vendors are set up.

This is 紅毛城 (literally translates to, "Fort of the Red-haired people"), also known as Fort Santo Domingo. It was a fortification originally built by the Spanish, but was burnt down a couple times before the Dutch controlled it. The Qing Dynasty took it from them, but then the British used it as a consulate after that, before handing it to the ROC in 1927:

We then walked along the Old Street. Some interesting things include:

So apparently this traditional Danshui dish (roughly sounds like "Ah-Gei") has been termed "Arcade" in English...

There's a tractor in the middle of the river.

I can't help but feel sorry for Snoopy.

I must concur.

Leaving Lanyu

Leaving paradise is never easy, but my time here is about over. From one perspective, we didn't do very much - there were no kids around expecting us to give English lessons or to lead bible study; there were no houses to be built or reconstruction projects to help with; there weren't even that many people to spread the gospel to, as 70% of the population was already Christian. We did help with church mailings, got to help out with activities with kids for a couple days (including conducting a random skit on traffic safety), and help paint the church walls, but these all felt like things that were fairly inconsequential, we were fairly certain we left no life-changing impact on the people of Lanyu.

However, after further reflection, it seems sometimes it's not so much what you can do and offer to others, but what you are able to digest, absorb, and learn, especially in a foreign setting. It's perhaps a more selfish perspective, and a little cliche, but oftentimes those who try to seek out and enrich the lives of others find their lives enriched the most. Hey, what can I say, trying to help others is very therapeutic in of itself. Anyhow, I just wanted to reiterate that this place is absolutely gorgeous - the weather, though hot, is bearable, and the high humidity is balanced with lots of strong, cooling wind currents. There's flying fish to eat almost everyday, along with fruit and seafood unique to the island. We've gotten to go swimming by corral reefs, along sandy beaches, in cold springs, and in shipdocks. The people here are kind and friendly, and they speak very good Mandarin as well as Taiwanese, though retaining their own language. It's familiar enough to be like home, yet different enough to retain its allure.

Final thoughts:

1) The sun in Lanyu is scorching. And since I've been out running/swimming/diving/snorkeling/playing basketball every single day, people have started to ask me if I'm one of the aborigines due to the color of my skin.

2) Being blessed with nice weather, beaches everywhere, amazing scenery, etc, really makes everyone... well not exactly lazy, but very easygoing. The culture here is very laid back, the police have nothing to do but to go out and play in the water, fish for food, etc. If we didn't get to accomplish what we set out to do today, it's okay - there's tomorrow, and it looks exactly like today, with beautiful weather, lots of free time, and nothing pressing at hand.

3) The people are much more reliant on God due to their close relationship with the land and nature. This reliance sometimes seems much more of an abstraction in New York - we don't have to catch or hunt for our food, or depend on good weather to ensure supplies from boats and planes can come through.

4) Some of my minor health issues have largely gone away. I think it must've been mostly the stress of the job and not sleeping enough. I sleep a lot more now, though not always 8 hours still. Yet with nothing lurking in the back of my mind, I've been able to enjoy myself thoroughly without having to think ahead about anything at all. Sometimes I feel I could live here forever...

5) I've gotten ridiculously efficient, so much more than I was before I started working at Opera. The pastor here wanted us to help type up about 150 addresses to put on envelopes and mail out - between using copy and paste techniques, typing quickly, using the keypad, etc, I blew away the others on the trip as well - most of them are still in college. Having been trained on the art of getting things done extremely quickly for the past 3 years has really helped.

Here's some final pictures:

Here I am with the evangelist who invited us to come:

Michael is posed with Jay's sister and Jay's sister's random friend:

Jay and Yo-Yo on the boat:

Driving off...

The ocean never looked so blue...

Completing the Circuit

Oh and an update on running - so I finished my circuit around the island, yay! We ended up living in 4 of the 6 villages so that helped in terms of changing the starting location. In the last two days, I realized I still had a ton of road to cover, and so I really got to it. Here are the pictures from my run (over 2 hours, though I stopped to take pictures regularly) around the southern tip of the island:

It was a cloudy day for once in Lanyu, which helped keep things cool even late morning:

View of Small Lanyu island (小蘭嶼) from the dock. 小蘭嶼 is uninhabited and used for target practice by the Taiwanese military.

View of the dock:

There's a nuclear waste facility on the southern part of the island as well. Apparently in the 1970s, the Taiwanese government tricked the illiterate governor of Lanyu into signing over some land for this purpose - the unfortunate governor thought the land was to be developed as a national park. Protests occured in the 90s, and the islanders blockaded the port to prevent further shipments of nuclear waste from coming in, but nothing yet has been done to remove the waste thus far. Here is the entrance to the facility:

Curious enough, a fairly nice residence seems to be next to the facility as well:

Some older, unoccupied buildings are next door:

The road around the southern tip is more treacherous and may be subject to falling rocks. My first time in the area was on motorbike at night, and it was downright scary. You still can't help but be in awe as you pass by:

After completing my journey, I had no energy to continue on to the village. Luckily, I managed to hitchike with a nice lady on a motorbike. She brought me to Dongqing even though she was only going to Yeyin.

Here is the excursion across the northwestern area (probably the most windy part of the island), which happened later that afternoon:

Interesting (and perhaps unfortunate) graffiti:

Large caves were accessible for exploration but I had no time:

The road and the mountain bends in strange ways:

Just on the run around the southern tip, the clouds and fog threatened to invade the landscape:

The port at Yeyou:

The only gas station on the island:

One more major bend to cover...

The airstrip... And airport...

Passing by a map of Lanyu on the road...

By the time I got back, I was soaked - I was sweating, and it was raining outside...

The next day, I went up the mountains once more to take some final pictures. These are all shots of the western side of the island, of the villages Yuuren and Hongtou: