Campuses

May 21, 2007 - The main gate of the Shida University campus. On the gate is full name of the university: Xue Da Fan Shi Wan Tai Li Guo. Crap, probably no one got that joke. That's actually backwards. I practice being able to read it fluently backwards to get a rise out of cute Taiwanese chicks, but, alas, to no avail. Yet.


Looks like a department graduation pic outside the Taida Main Library. Oh hey, and you can see the two cubes of the Casablanca art exhibit in the distance, right in front of the library.

Here's a boring camera shot of the Casablanca thing in front of the library from this side of it. I would think that I would have shot it from this side, but it just never came up. Lomo fisheye shooting is pretty spontaneous and rarely planned (says I as I'm about to embark on a project to make sure I finish the current roll before I go back to the U.S. next Friday)

iTunes soundtrack:
1. 1542 (Mary Timony)
2. Secret Journey (The Police)
3. Graffiti (Throwing Muses)
4. Hot Fun in the Summer Time (Sly & the Family Stone)
5. Love Like Ours (Elastica)
6. Duke's End (Genesis)
7. Mabudi' (檳榔兄弟 - Taiwanese aboriginal)
8. Shine (Django Reinhardt)
9. Destroyer (The Kinks)
10. Roxie ("Chicago")

more classmates...

November 17, 2006 - The previous lomo of my classmates was a sneak shot, but I'm not super tight with these people, and to just sneak a shot is a bit rude, so out of courtesy I showed them Bebe and let them shoot. Koike took this one of Kyoko, whose English was decent, and a helluv annoying American guy. What is it about annoying Americans coming here and embarassing the rest of us? He was a loser idiot. Yankee go home! But the Taiwanese love the Yankees because one of their pitchers is a Yankee. I wear my Mets hat here, but that's probably too subtle a signal that I'm American (any Taiwanese here wearing a New York hat would be wearing a Yankee hat, so wearing a Mets hat should tell people I'm not Taiwanese. too subtle).


Koike. I really liked her for some reason, even though she didn't speak English.


And Kyoko took this one. My hand is wrapped because I had a fractured wrist from getting hit by an idiot Taiwanese motorist. It was very slow speed, so I got away with just a fracture from the fall. My bike was completely undamaged. There's something to say about cheap mountain bikes that are built like tanks on two wheels.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Heart-Shaped Box (live) (Nirvana)
2. Sister (Steve Vai)
3. Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
4. Close...But (Echobelly)
5. Suberidai (live) (Shiina Ringo)
6. Welcome to the Machine (Pink Floyd)
7. Alleluia & Fugue (Hovhaness)
8. Jesus He Knows Me (live) (Genesis)
9. Hachimitsu (Spitz)
10. Nirujarini (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)

going down

November 9, 2006 - No more my school. This is the main gate of the Shida Annex Campus, with the main library on the left and the language school behind it. Can't say I miss anything about it. The Shida Mandarin Training Center classrooms are mostly on the 8th and 9th floors, and the elevator situation trying to go up or down between classes was a nightmare, contributing to my daily hostility. So much so that I opted to take the stairs.

People trying to go down the elevators during these times got smart and would hop on the elevators going up. Sure you have to go up several floors before going down, but you save time because if you wait for the down elevator, all of them (4) would always be full. And slow going it was, because all the down buttons have already been pushed so you stop at every floor anyway.


November 17, 2006 - And here we are inside my previous classroom on the 8th floor. Those are two of my Japanese classmates. I liked them well enough, this was our second semester in a class together. This was after our teacher had left for vacation for the semester. She informed us less than a week before she left that she was going on vacation. It was head shakingly lame. I mean, how does a teacher get approval for that anyway?

She goes to the administration and tells them she's going on vacation for the last week and a half. The administration says, "What about your students? Won't this disrupt their education? They are, after all, paying students, and to force them to adjust to a new teacher at the end of the semester isn't really fair."

"That's OK, I'll tell the substitute at the last minute so she won't be able to prepare anything. The students will at least be happy they won't have any more tests or a final exam."

"Aren't tests a good thing that forces students to review the material and gain competent knowledge of it?"

"Those glazy-eyed slackers?! I have nightmares about those hollow, vacant stares. They don't say anything in class, I end up speaking almost the whole time! They're so slow I end up having to complete most of their sentences for them!"

"Very well, off you go!"

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Love Struck Baby (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
2. A.B.C. (The Jackson Five)
3. Priere de "Bon Augure" (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)
4. Up the Hill Backwards (David Bowie)
5. Bleed (Echobelly)
6. The Body Electric (Rush)
7. Floors (Rainer Maria)
8. Symphony No. 5, IV. Allegro (Beethoven)
9. Winter (David Byrne - "Music for the Knee Plays")
10. You Can Always Count On Me ("City of Angels")

Tale of Two Language Schools

Just so we're clear on these things, old school (posted before):

September 18, 2006 - Shida University Mandarin Training Center, a horrible school that I can't say enough bad things about, but I'm probably being jaded and a spoil-sport because there are people who are able to learn the language through their program.

I would recommend this language school for people who have a natural affinity for learning languages, a high frustration threshold for bureaucratic and administrative incompetence, or who don't have money.

vs.

New school:

December 1, 2006 - Taida University Chinese Language Division. Unfortunately it was a rainy day when I took this, and not the day when I was walking home and there was a rainbow in the east. Well, actually, that was a shitty weather day, too. Because if there's a rainbow, there's water in the air. The water doesn't have to be raining on you to see a rainbow, but in this case, it was. Spitty, misty, surreal-sunlight rain which fits right in with my weather experience in Taipei. All the science majors were outside looking for the rainbow because they all knew the conditions were right to spot one.

That's my bike front and left. And this is the new lomo fisheye 2 that I still haven't named yet. I think I'll name it Bebebe.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Stir It Up (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
2. Try, Try, Try (Smashing Pumpkins)
3. Who Dunnit? (Genesis)
4. Good Night (The Beatles)
5. Moribund the Burgermeister (Peter Gabriel)
6. Oh I... (Sakura)
7. Tengoku Rensha de Yukou (Bakufu Slump)
8. Dandy (The Kinks)
9. Red Vines (Aimee Mann)
10. Onaji Yoru (Shiina Ringo)

good riddance

September 18, 2006 - Mandarin Training Center, Shida University. My soon not-to-be school. I applied for the language program at neighboring Taida University earlier this month and got in, so I'm switching schools when next term starts at the beginning of December.

I can't say enough bad things about this school. The latest travesty is when my teacher announced that she was going on vacation for the last week and a half of this term (I won't say anything about her announcing it the week before she left). She's visiting her parents in San Francisco. I like her, so I didn't think anything of it at the time, but after a week of a lame substitute teacher (lame only because she's a substitute, she's probably a decent teacher in her own classes), I realized if a student takes off on vacation during a term, that's their loss. They paid for the tuition, it's their choice to take off. But for a teacher to take off and disrupt her students' education is lame得沒話說!! (lame beyond words). Unbelievable.

I just don't want to give this lame school any more money. I also signed up for and paid for a tutor this term, but she was so horrible that I stopped going after a month.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Real By Reel (XTC)
2. Rosetta Stone (Throwing Muses)
3. Run Like Hell (Pink Floyd)
4. Let Me Love You Baby (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
5. Rudie Can't Fail (The Clash)
6. Don't Bring Me Down (David Bowie)
7. Houses in Motion (live) (Talking Heads)
8. Scentless Apprentice (live) (Nirvana)
9. Cappricio Italien (Tchaikovsky)
10. Libation Doree (Monks of the Gyuto Monastery)

I See Dead People...

July 21, 2006 - Shida Mandarin Training Center, sixth sense floor. Rounding out school shots, here's a shot of what should be referred to as the "place of great evil". Students armor up to go in here to battle the school registration/administration bureaucracy which makes the New Jersey DMV (Division of Motor Vehicles) look like a cafeteria lunch line.

Everyone who works there needs to be fired, shot, or sent to multi-cultural sensitivity training classes. They're rude to you even when taking your money. And when you give them money, don't entertain any idea of ever getting it back for any reason. Sucky tutor? Too bad. Useless "cultural" class? You're stuck.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Pneuma (50 Foot Wave)
2. Going to California (Led Zeppelin)
3. Chelsea Bridge (Duke Ellington)
4. Getting Closer (Wings)
5. You and Whose Army? (Radiohead)
6. String Quartet No. 8, V. Largo (Shostakovich)
7. Nirujarini (Shoukichi Kina & Champloose)
8. Da Da Da (Elastica)
9. Funkytown (Lipps, Inc.)
10. A Place to Call My Own (Genesis)

3 Inside

June 23, 2006 - Shida Mandarin Training Center. Hanging out after class on the 7th floor, waiting to go to lunch. Left to right is Pierre, Naoya, Takako, JC, and EMma.


June 2006 - The 7th floor atrium from the 8th floor. Not bad architecture, not a very good language school. It's not just me being negative, I hear from various English-speaking people how frustrated they are with the administration, policies, teaching quality, and the elevators at this school. I even got a tutor this term, hoping that one-to-one attention will improve my listening ability and sentence generation. Nope. If you have bad teachers, and you make them into tutors, it just means you get a bad tutor.


June 9, 2006 - Same place on the 7th floor as the first lomo. From left to right, Naoya, Takako, and Matsubara-san.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Crazy Little Thing Called Love (Queen)
2. Innocent When You Dream (78) (Tom Waits)
3. Bitter Suite (live) (Marillion)
4. Abacab (remixed) (Genesis)
5. Tales of a Scorched Earth (Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Bee-Beep (Puri Puri Summit) (Princess Princess)
7. Candle (Sonic Youth)
8. My Mummy's Dead (John Lennon)
9. You Started Laughing (live) (Supertramp)
10. The Voyeur (I Like to Watch) (Fish)

Self-portrait

June 22, 2006 - Just on the Shida Annex Campus, where the Mandarin Training Center (read: crap school) is.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Devotion (MC Solaar)
2. Frame By Frame (King Crimson)
3. Slowdive (Siouxsie and the Banshees)
4. Birthday (J Church)
5. Here Comes the Big Rush (Echobelly)
6. There Is a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute ("Barnum")
7. Goodnight Goodnight (Hot Hot Heat)
8. Texas Flood (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
9. Cello Suite No. 6, V. Gavotte (J.S. Bach)
10. Precious Love (Sakura)

surprise!

June 21, 2006 - Former classmates class. I passed their class every day on my way to my class. On this morning. I was able to see into the class from the area outside the window in the back to see who was there. Then as I walked around, I took out Bebe and charged the battery for the flash which I knew I needed for an indoor shot. Then when I got to the door, I pointed the camera, probably made some noise to get their attention, shot, and continued on my way to the sound of Takako laughing. From left to right, Pierre, Hyun Ae, Spaniard, Naoya, and Takako.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Blood Tree (Mary Timony)
2. Gratitude (The Maupin/Williams Project)
3. Julia (The Beatles)
4. Marry Me a Little ("Company" - Sondheim)
5. Made-Up Dream (Built to Spill)
6. Give Up Your Love (Edith Frost)
7. Reason the Night is So Long (Rainer Maria)
8. Forgotten Sons (live) (Marillion)
9. The Bravery of Being Out of Range (Roger Waters)
10. Words and Guitar (Sleater-Kinney)

classmates - Shida Mandarin Training Center

June 2006 - Pierre, Hyun Ae, and El Spaniard. Only Pierre and Hyun Ae were my classmates. El Spaniard joined their class after I left, so I never got to know him, never got to like him. He didn't speak English, so of course I didn't like him. What is anyone doing in the world not knowing English? I can say that because only English readers can read this!

El Spaniard left to go back to Spain last month, and that was good riddance. He was reported to be hilarious, but I never laughed. Pierre left last week to go back to France, and he was probably the most stable and sane person I know here, so he'll be missed. Hyun Ae may leave in February to go back to Korea, after she's sufficiently fluent in Mandarin. That's the nature of being a language student. By next February, I'll probably still not even be at a 1st grade level. I may leave Taipei at the end of November, but if Hyun Ae is definitely leaving in February, I might stick around for one more term before transfering to Kaohsiung.

For this shot I successfully executed my trick of not showing Bebe until the moment of shooting, ergo their looks of bewilderment. The telltale sign of success is that Hyun Ae had no time to react and put her fingers up in a V. And believe me, she's quick!

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Amor de Loca Juventud (Compay Segundo)
2. Gallows Pole (Led Zeppelin)
3. Happy Jack (live) (The Who)
4. Shane (Liz Phair)
5. Far East Medley (Bela Fleck & the Flecktones)
6. Male Model (Sleater-Kinney)
7. Brandenburg Concerto No. 4, I. Allegro (J.S. Bach)
8. Hold My Life (The Replacements)
9. Rape Me (Nirvana)
10. Tomorrow Belongs to Me ("Cabaret")

not to be bitter or anything

June 1, 2006 - It was still rainy and dreary the first day of my second term studying Mandarin, and would continue to be for some time after. This was the view outside my first classroom, which had a balcony. However, I didn't stay in that class because the teacher was really beyond below what my standards of what a teacher should be. The class I switched to was only marginally better. There are good teachers at this school, the Mandarin Training Center at Shida University, but it's a crap shoot to get one of those teachers.

This view is from the annex campus looking towards the main campus across the street. Not far from here is the campus of Taiwan University (Taida). Taida has a real campus that makes Shida look like a community college. Taida also has a Chinese language program, which costs 3 or 4 times as much as Shida, but from what I hear is light years better than Shida. They must be a bunch of preppies.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Kiss Me, Son of God (They Might Be Giants)
2. Misunderstanding (Genesis)
3. Dream On (Aerosmith)
4. A Spring Dawn at the Jade Tower (Gong Yi, Luo Shou-Cheng)
5. The Everlasting Gaze (The Smashing Pumpkins)
6. Angel (Sarah McLachlan)
7. Two of Us (The Beatles)
8. Spin the Black Circle (Pearl Jam)
9. Come Dancing (live) (The Kinks)
10. Learn How (Mission of Burma)

The Downstairs Cafe

Ah, the downstairs cafe. Not sure what to say about it. They got to know me and what I wanted, so I was able to stop asking. When they saw me, they would just confirm, "美式咖啡?" (Americano coffee - espresso with hot water), and I would nod or give them a thumbs up or do a little dance. That was last term when I had afternoon class and before I started making coffee at home. This term, I have morning classes and make coffee at home. But sometimes during breaks, if a former classmate asks me to go get coffee with her, I'll go, and they still know what I want.



iTunes soundtrack:
1. Manbi no G*Spot (Southern All-Stars)
2. Me and My Charms (Kristin Hersh)
3. The Joker (Sakura)
4. Heading For The Light (The Traveling Wilburys)
5. One World (Not Three)/Love is the Seventh Wave (live) (Sting)
6. Every Word (Belly)
7. Flores De Los Muertos (The National Joy Band)
8. Is This Love? (live) (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
9. Strange Magic (Electric Light Orchestra)
10. Capri Pants (Bikini Kill)

Sun!

April 19, 2006 - Shida annex campus (across the street from the main campus) from the 9th floor of the language building.

After all my griping about gloom, clouds, and rain, here is photographic evidence that the sun has, in fact, come out during the past three and a half months that I've been in Taipei. It's hard to believe.

Sorry, I'm not impressed.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Domino (live) (Genesis)
2. You Make My Dreams (Hall & Oates)
3. Sunday, Part II (Cibo Matto)
4. I'll Be Gone (Tom Waits)
5. A Bowler Hat ("Pacific Overtures" - Sondheim)
6. You Started Laughing (live) (Supertramp)
7. Who Cares (Unwound)
8. Artists Only (live) (Talking Heads)
9. Cello Suite No. 6, II. Allemande (Bach - Yo-Yo Ma)
10. Gospel Truth (764-HERO)

low light

Here are some examples of the poor performance of the lomo fisheye in low light.


April 19, 2006 - The MTC language lab. The tape players don't have speed control, which doesn't seem right for a language lab. It's just another item in a list of things that I find lacking in this school. But really, we're getting what we pay for, and tuition is pretty cheap - about $550 for a 3 month term. There's a better program at another nearby university, but it costs about $3000 for a 3 month term.


April 19, 2006 - Shooting into my previous classroom from outside the window that overlooks the central atrium.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Candyland (Kristin Hersh)
2. Gone! (The Cure)
3. Once I Had a Love (demo) (Blondie)
4. The Rhythm (XTC)
5. The Fruit That Ate Itself (Modest Mouse)
6. Security of the First World (Public Enemy)
7. Island of Woods (Ryuichi Sakamoto)
8. It Is Accomplished (Peter Gabriel - "Passion")
9. Symphony No. 10, III. Allegretto (Shostakovich)
10. Whipping (Pearl Jam)

Walking to Shida Street sequence

April 11, 2006 - A rare sunny day, crossing Heping East Road, the major street crossing for Shida University.


Hanging out with classmates, we were probably going for dessert - shaved ice if I know me. They all know that if they ask me along, we will inevitably end up going for shaved ice. This is kind of a reverse shot of the previous one. The D shaped building of the main library is in the background, and behind that is the Mandarin Training Center.


Weird probably street art thingie on top of the phone booth. I think you'd only find this sort of thing around universities in culturally conservative Taiwan. I'm still looking for the underground.


Longguan Street. It's actually the next street down from Shida St., but is the main drag of what becomes the Shida night market. So it's not Shida St. at all. Low light and expired film, I didn't expect this to come out. I was shooting for the light reflecting in the mirrors of the motor scooters, and that stands out at least.


iTunes soundtrack:
1. The Acid Queen (The Who)
2. (A) Face In the Crowd (The Kinks)
3. All You Need Is Love (The Beatles)
4. Mali (Charlie Hunter Quintet)
5. Suite for Flute & Jazz Piano Trio No. 2; VII. Intime (Bolling-Rampal)
6. Blown A Wish (My Bloody Valentine)
7. Give A Little Bit (Supertramp)
8. Song 2 (Blur)
9. Coastline (764-HERO)
10. Obsoléte (MC Solaar)

Buildings of Shida University

April 6, 2006 - I don't know what building this is. They put a big bow on it to celebrate something like a 50th Anniversary.


From a 9th floor balcony. Our current classroom doesn't have an outdoor balcony. I'm switching out of our current class next term to go to a slower class, because I'm like, slow, but I did suggest to the rest of them to put in a request for a class with a balcony. The teacher said they had nothing to lose and just might get it. Taiwan's a weird place.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Tamuke (Katsuya Yokoyama) shakuhachi
2. Perfect Indian (Sinead O'Connor)
3. Time (live) (Tom Waits)
4. Ghost Story (Versus)
5. Lavender (Marillion)
6. Hole In My Life (The Police)
7. The Way Back (Whysall Lane)
8. Dinosaur (David Byrne)
9. Future Legend (David Bowie)
10. The Path of Least Persistence (Figure II) (Shannon Wright)

Shida University, Taipei, Taiwan

March 10, 2006 - This is what it looks like from the window of my classroom. Except that it's in fisheye view, and Bebe doesn't do well in low light so the exposure isn't great.

The language school at Shida (pronounced shr-da) is the largest Mandarin language school in Taiwan. It was established not long after the Chinese Nationalist Government was kicked off of the mainland by Mao Tse-Tung, and gained control of the island, previously a Chinese province, by massacring thousands of locals and establishing 40 years of martial law. Go team!

It makes me feel a little funny that this school was established partly to promote mainland Chinese hegemony over the island, but the reality is that I think there is a good possibility that in the next 50 years or so, Mandarin Chinese will be the most important language to learn, not English. And I don't see that as a good thing. Just a possible reality.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Speed Is the Key (The Sugarcubes)
2. Sugar Mice in the Rain (Marillion)
3. Warszawa (live) (David Bowie)
4. Stop Your Sobbing (The Kinks)
5. Perfect Sense, Part II (Roger Waters)
6. On the Sunny Side of the Street (Ella Fitzgerald)
7. I'm Afraid of Americans (David Bowie)
8. Dyke March 2001 (Le Tigre)
9. So In Love (Chick Corea Akoustic Band)
10. A Better Son/Daughter (Rilo Kiley)

Shida Road

February 23, 2006 - I have this one last shot before I run out of Taipei shots, but I'm almost done with the next roll. This is the first lomo frame I took in Taipei when I went out walking and exploring on my first day. But as you can see, it was dark and overcast and not much to look at. It has largely been overcast like this ever since I got here.

Further on up this road is the popular Shida night market, which gets crowded with students and foreigners since Shida University is right there, along with its language center (which I'm attending).

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Dizzy Miss Lizzy (The Beatles)
2. June (Camper Van Beethoven)
3. One Love/People Get Ready (Bob Marley & the Wailers)
4. Jigsaw Youth (Bikini Kill)
5. From My Window (Keiko Matsui)
6. The End (The Doors)
7. Omegaman (The Police)
8. A Very Nice Man ("Carnival")
9. Breathe (Pink Floyd)
10.Spock On (Miss Gloria) (The Pugs)

Shida University

March 3, 2006 - This is where I'm studying. The building on the right is the languages building. The building on the left is the main library for the university. I don't know if foreign language students have access to the main library, but I wouldn't mind going in and looking around. It's looks like a pretty cool building. It's a weird D shaped building.

This was probably the first blue sky I had seen in over the one week I had been there. I guess it is supposed to be Winter, with monsoon season coming up. So I hear.

iTunes soundtrack:
1. Cross the Street (Versus)
2. Baby I Love Your Way (Big Mountain)
3. Heathaze (Genesis)
4. Technopolis (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
5. The Plan (live) (Built to Spill)
6. Dance Song 97 (Sleater-Kinney)
7. Hide Away (live) (Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble)
8. Maximum Consumption (The Kinks)
9. High (The Cure)
10. It's So Hard (live) (John Lennon)