Radical³⁰

Learning Chinese is something radical. Speaking is not so difficult. I take that back, it isn’t easy, just easier than reading and writing. It’s writing that’s the hardest. Unless you write everyday. This stroke, that stroke. I enjoy learning and reading Chinese but it is so not easy.

[01] Everybody should learn to skate.
Shortboards are for tricks. Longboards are for cruisin. Life is for living.

您的肚子裏有沒有火？

I got in around 4:30am this morning from Tainan. Woke up at 7:48am. At 8am sharp the game began. That is, trying to reserve Alishan train tickets online (Alishan Forest Railway Online Ticket Reservation System in Chinese). Tickets can be reserved a month in advance and must be reserved online. Each train has only 25 seats. Each person can reserve up to four tickets. So, there could be as few as 6 people online and the tickets would be gone. The count was 41 when I entered the system. The thing is to fill in the form as fast as possible. I started practicing last Saturday. I got it down to a system with the help of DLMSoft Copy/Paste Clipboard Extender, a great program that helped me have all my info ready to paste, line by line as I entered it. I had it down to less than a minute. But I’m sure all the other travel agents must have some tricks too. There are built in shortcuts to the website already, like Alt + N to jump to entering your name, etc. The website doesn’t accept foreigners’ names and ID numbers (what kind of business is this?). I found this out on Saturday when I was practicing enter my info. Much thanks to 宗庭 for sharing his info with me.

There wasn’t much time. I was in this frenzy and I felt I wasn’t going to get the tickets. But I got the chance and hit send. When I first saw the confirmation page, I thought I filled in the wrong date. At the top was today’s date. I tried to go back and lost the confirmation page. I tried to cancel what I booked but couldn’t because I didn’t have the reservation number. I went back to sleep thinking I didn’t get the tickets. I did have one more hope, one of the ladies at the train station was supposedly helping me to book the tickets too. I called them Saturday when I found out my ID# wouldn’t work. She said she would help me to reserve the tickets. She didn’t call me today so I guess even she couldn’t get the tickets.

After I woke up at 10:30am, I got back on the computer. I thought, maybe I did get the right date. Luckily there is a search for the reservation number (電腦預約號) by name and ID number. Somehow, I got the tickets. Woohoo! My sister, brother-in-law and I are going to ride the train and hopefully see a beautiful sunrise. Alright!…

Ticket confirmation with a missing reservation number.

Aiyah, my headphones are broken. My camera is broken. Next should be my cellphone, my mp3 player is pretty die hard. I’m good at wearing things out. I want to work on handling things with care. I haven’t felt the urge to blog lately. I have been keeping busy and enjoying myself. I’ve had quite a few adventures these days. With the broken camera, my adventures may not get captured. I’m not sure what to do about that yet.

I very happy these days. Over the new year, 大舅 (dàjiù or uncle [Wuma’s older brother]) asked me, “你在台灣有沒有快活 (Are you living happily in Taiwan)?” I’m glad I can say, yes. I practiced Chinese chess on my own over the break. I participated in a beginner’s chess competion last Sunday. Two nights ago I beat dàjiù in a chess game. I’m glad I improved enough to do that. Of course, last night he beat me three times. He was paying more attention than the game where he lost. He did say he was going to get revenge (報仇). A few months ago when I played him I never wanted to play him again. It was no fun. I had no chance. Only Wuma was my adversary (對手). Now, I can at least make him think (思考). My goal with chess is to get good enough so when I travel China I can play with the locals (當地人) in whichever province I land. That will be fun.

Speaking of which, I’m making plans for a move to China. I’m having more fun and making better use of my time nowadays in Taiwan than ever, but I’m looking towards the future and still have lots of exploring to do (whether the adventures are captured and told or not). I’m thinking the suburbs of Beijing for a year. Then you know what, after a year it’ll be time for the Olympics. It’s good to have a plan, like when playing chess.

Maybe one of these days I’ll post photos from when I went to Hualian with 宗庭 and friends last Mid-Autumn festival. Or of the eats I had over Chinese New Year at Wuma’s. Or maybe of the day trip to Pingxi last Tuesday on the train. Definitely, I will post my travels of my trip around the island before I leave Taiwan. “Life is Good.” Really, tomorrow after work I’m going with 宗庭 to Tainan for the “beehive of fireworks (蜂炮)” at Yanshui (鹽水). Peace…