6 colored stones, 6 red roses

This weekend, I visited the Ba Gua Master. It was the first time in about 5 years... It was very much like my former experiences in Korea... except that I started my session inquiring about an Yi-Jing hexagram that had been given my brother over a decade ago by a fortune teller in Vancouver/Victoria. This was actually the real purpose of this visit. My own reading was mostly to see if the methods matched that in Korea and how the Yi-Jing coins could be used.

The information below consists of my reading... for those interested in the kind of information divluged in such a session, read on... Although it is personal, it is NOT like a tarot card reading where you should keep your questions and answers private.

The first thing he told me is that I was destined to be a teacher (or some field related to education)... I have heard that in every "Ba Gua" reading I have received! I always wondered if it was because people in Asia assume that all foreign people living here are teachers? Anyway, after determining my time of birth... he wrote down a list of about 13 Chinese characters determining 8 points re: my character/personality. As I can't write out the characters here, I will list the meanings: 1. child, 2. male, 3. energetic, 4. run (busy), 5. rise/upper (ambitious?), 6. replace father's position in the family, 7. passionate, 8. kind

Key points re: my existence are things that need to be overcome. Seems I am full of good ideas, but I defeat myself when it comes to putting them into effect. I need to overcome my own mental block (indecision, waffling, considering too many options/too many sides... worrying too much about the negative effects on others). Same is true in other areas as well... I have the potential to be articulate, but again there is something keeping me from articulating to my fullest potential. I unfortunately already forgot the final point.

He then divided my life into periods and let me know that in terms of position, I need to be in the Northeast now/soon. Every time I have had my fortune told, I am confused by these kinds of directional suggestions... for example, does it mean that I should be in the Northeast of the neighborhood, city or country of where I am now... or in the general Northeast of any country? As I am currently in Taipei and have been considering moving to New York... I asked if this was an option (being both Northeast of where I am now... and Northeast of the US). He then used the turtle shell/coin method described in the Barbados posting to determine the answer. Answer = NY would be good! Although Taiwan may have been a good place for me to be some time ago, Ba Gua is time sensitive... Now is NOT a good time for me to be here. He said that I started to consider this recently and that from the time I started considering it as an option, that if I really wanted to move there, it would happen within 3 months (the start of the lunar new year) with summer (on the solar calendar) being the latest time for me to relocate (if it is to be NY). He then returned to his original reading (using my date of birth) and told me that from 2005-2007 I would begin to experience success - learning more things and rising in terms of career.

I was given another opportunity to ask questions. When I have consulted Ba Gua experts in the past, they have mostly talked about my character and career... However, in Canada, a crazy fortune telling tarot card reader told me I would soon get married, move to the suburbs, have three children and be very happy. I asked the fortune teller about this. He said that Chinese wisdom infers that marriage is not a prerequisite for happiness for all. My reading predicts that my happiness isn't predicated by the need of a partner until about the age of about 45 and that he will be very successful and learned person. However, this isn't to say that I have to wait until then. There is a possibility that I may have already met a potential partner... but it may take 2-6 years to take root. In the period from now until 2 years later, it will be mutual indecision. After that, I am the deciding factor... there fore, it could happen as early as 2 years hence... or as late as 6. The person I choose should be a "wood" person as I am. Just out of curiosity, I gave him the birthdate of someone I know... the only date I could remember (I have difficulty with numbers). If only I could have remembered a couple more (this part was fun).... Anyway, that person turned out to be fire. In terms of the Chinese zodiac, I guess that would be terrible for me... he would burn me up! But in the case of this kind of reading it was not so bad... a relationship could be mutually beneficial, but I would have to keep some control (especially financial) or he would be inclined to wander. Of his 8 gua, one was the sun and one was middle daughter... Don't know what this means, but it would appear to be good. There are no "REAL" readings without time of birth.

Finally, he told me that if I want to have luck with love (am I greedy for asking about this as well as career success?) that it is possible to adjust with a little Fengshui. In my room, I need to place 6 red roses with the thorns removed, 6 stones of different colors in a bowl with water... or a pink crystal sphere. I think I will pass on the pink crystal ball. On my way home, I visited the weekend flower market as it was closing... I came home with bundles of the left-overs; flowers for the living room - exotic purple and yellow sprays of (don't know name), green leafy stuff, roses... oops, only 7 white ones! How could I have neglected to pick up my 6 red roses?

Capoeira Comes to Taipei

About a month ago, my friend arranged for a demonstration of her favorite pastime to be put on at a favorite Taipei salsa spot... Brown Sugar. This was due to the arrival of a Capoeira teacher from Brazil. Shapely and athletic, with 2+ feet of braided hair half tied up in knots on her head and all dressed in white, she came out carrying a berimbau (instrument with strings and played with a bow). She was followed by my friend and a local group of Taiwanese Capoeira enthusiasts. They made a circle and the teacher commenced playing the berimbau and singing/chanting in Portuguese. Another girl accompanied with the pandeiro (tambourine) and all the others in the circle clapped in time to the rhythm and echoed the teacher's lyrics. Two people entered the roda (circle). WOW! They performed a sweeping defensive dance around each other while kicking, flipping, spinning and executing other acrobatic feats.... all in rhythm with each other and the berimbau. I was hooked even before the teacher took her turn.





(Above pictures are from Capoeira site on the Internet, they are not of the group in Taipei... Will replace with pics of the local group after digital camera is repaired.)

After the first time, I had blisters on my toes and I could barely move the whole day after practice... But this week was better than last and I am looking forward to learning more. If you live in Taipei, there will be more demonstrations this weekend (at Club 75 on Saturday and Brown Sugar on Sunday). I think there will also be open Capoeira in Ta'an park every Sundays at about 4:00. This will be the chance to learn to play berimbau, pandeiro, and atabaque (regular practice uses recorded music).

Office Ladies

Yoshiko is an "OL" (office lady). Generally you can recognize her easily. She works in a computer company in an office building next to City Hall in Yokohama. She rides a bicycle to work and parks near Kannai Station. She may be wearing a knee-length navy skirt, black pumps, white nylon stockings and a baby blue (or pink) pinstriped shirt with a white collar and cuffs (the unofficial OL uniform?). She has long straight hair held back with an "Alice in Wonderland" type headband. She might be pretty, but I couldn't say for sure because she is invisible somewhat. She punches in on time at work an sits at her desk all day (save a short lunch break -during which she eats the lunch box she brought with her on the bench in the park adjacent to the office) typing and occasionally answering calls or getting up to fax or photocopy something. Then she goes home to her shoebox apartment. Someday, a shy "salaryman" living a similar life and who lunches in the same park may notice her and find a way to ask her to lunch. Then she will probably get married and quit work.

Hyunsook is also an OL... but she is also an "Old Miss" (meaning that she is over 30 and not married). She works in rather conservative publishing company. Her life is much like Yoshiko's except that she makes efforts to wear something beautiful and different every day and takes pains with her make-up. Her make-up regime takes almost 2 hours everyday... starting from skin care to make-up base, make up and finally the drawing in of eyebrows. She is not as invisible as Yoshiko as she would like to be promoted and everyone knows it. They secretly (or not so secretly) find her abrasive and wish she would just get married and stop causing friction in the office. (Marriage is considered to be the answer for all problems from inability to sleep to pimples). As she does't even seem to have a boyfriend, it is rumored there must be something wrong with her... is she a man-hater, a lesbian or simply too obnoxious and pushy to find a man? After work, she goes home to her little apartment, cleans the floor and watches TV, ignoring the several calls in her voice mail. They are probably all just her mother calling to nag her about going on another match-maker arranged date.

Lots of people ask me whether I prefer living in Japan, Korea, or Taiwan. Everytime, I am often tempted to say Korea, but the truth is, the life for women is probably the best in Taiwan. For a foreign person living in each of these countries, there is a certain immunity. As a foreign woman, it is isn't unreasonable to say that I get treated differently than a local woman. No one asked me to make the coffee of serve the men at company dinners. I didn't find the Korean men who asked me out to be completely chauvenistic and domineering (as is rumored). But then again, what Korean man who expects to completely control his girlfriend would even bother asking a foreign woman out on a date (given that the stereotype of "American" women is what it is)? But there are reasons I left. Just before leaving, I applied for a job where I was the most qualified applicant. My interviewer did not even flinch when he told me he couldn't offer me the job as I was both female and not Asian-looking enough. Therefore, the older Korean men in the office would feel uncomfortable dealing with me in Korean. Here in Taiwan, things are a little more free. Office life can be frustrating and demanding... and I never seem to have time for a personal life. This aspect is the same for local women. But I never feel that I cannot advance because I am female. If I don't advance, it is likely to be because I consider other aspects of my project to be almost as important as cost-efficiency and profit... or that I don't smile enough while putting in my overtime.

If I were to tell you about Yi-in... her life is somewhat more free than Yoshiko's or Hyun-sook's. She gets up early and picks up breakfast at the food stand on the way to the office. She eats at her desk while deleting junk mail from her inbox. She spends her day allocating duties she feels she shouldn't have to do (like faxing and photocopying... there is another staffer more junior than her), replying to her manager's e-mails (manager is also a woman) and trying to get her work done in the remaining time. She goes for dinner with coworkers at about 7:00 before returning to the office to work a little longer. Between 9:00 and 11:00 she leaves work and browses the might market for something special. The girl in the neighboring cubicle bought a really cute handbag in the same market last week. On her way home, she calls her boyfriend (someone she met online) to complain about the stress levels at the office. At home, she browses online for a new job. She has already been at the last one for over 4 months and she has already put in an extra 2 weeks of overtime, has black bags under her eyes and is in need of a day off - a day which she won't be eligible for for another 2 months. Anyway, she can probably demand a higher salary at a new job since she has some inside knowledge of her current company. She can be an asset to current company's competitors by revealing her inside knowledge.

SPAM - Taiwan Ranks Fourth Worst

Yes, this weekend was the weekend to get caught up on blogging. Unfortunately, Hinet didn't deliver my posts and I have had to copy and paste them. Hence all are dated with today's date. Some of my mail has not been getting delivered either... and all weekend, the server was up and down again.

I really dislike using Hinet, but my Hinet address is now the email address that everyone knows. Why do people not get my mail? I tried to find out if others had this problem and discovered the following: My chosen country of residence ranks FOURTH in the world for being the WORST SOURCE of SPAM (after the US, China and South Korea). Apparently ISP providers here are so irresponsible that some people in other parts of the world want to have nothing to do with those using Taiwanese ISPs. Some spam blockers brag about being able to block mail from the entire country of Taiwan!

It's true. I probably spend about 10 minutes or more cleaning spam out of my inbox everyday! I tried to find out why it is so terrible and found the following:
1. No law defining illegal spamming... (other unsolicited advertising is legal -like commercial faxes, advertising via loudspeaker, etc; 2. No inverse address records; 3. No abuse/postmaster mailboxes (Hinet has, but is infamous for not checking/replying); 4. Possibility that ISP providers receive revenue from spammers.

Friday Night Poker

Last week was utterly exhausting. I am not proud to say that I don't take good care of myself well here. All this desk-sitting and paper-pushing really makes me tired... makes my nerves worn and brittle. Although not really prone to anger... when tired, I am prone to expressing my opinions before really thinking them through or considering the consequances.

On Friday night, there was a poker party held at my house. I knew that this was going to be a trial, so I warned my roommates that I had to work on Saturday morning. (Yes, I have 2 now, but one is only temporary). Well, at 2:00 am, after a catching up chat with a friend in a different time zone, I decided to take a sleeping aid and try to sleep through the constant murmering of the poker playing boys outside my bedroom window... Yes, you heard me right! There is a HUGE frosted window between my room and the living room. So the light shines through and the voices are as clear as if the gathering was actually IN my room. (I know that if I pay enough money, I can obtain a black-out curtain for this window, but unfortunately there is no such thing as a voice-out curtain). Everytime someone stands up to go get another beer from the fridge, my bedroom window rattles like another earthquake is hitting. And worse still... everytime there is a party, the mess sits in the living room until I decide to clean it up... or put my foot down.

Anyway, at 4:30 am I woke up and the boys were STILL playing. I knew the meaning. My roommate must have lost and was keeping all there to try and win back his losings. Not willing to take another sleeping pill, I waited for the party to end. At 8:30, I got up for work... I could hear the boys thanking Tommy for a good night and promising to play again soon. I couldn't help myself. I ran out to tell them, "Not here you won't!" As I was leaving for work, I ran into one of the guys on his way back to our apartment as he forgot his cell phone. He was looking at his feet bashfully and asking permission to enter. I felt like the wicked witch of the West. All weekend I wondered how mad Tommy would be for me making him lose face in front of his friends... and thinking about what kind of present I could bribe him with to get peace back. Crazily enough, he wasn't upset at all. (Guess he prefers poker to end before 8:30 am too).

Adventures in Bra Shopping

To continue discussion of beauty ideas and physical features...

This was the title of a group email sent out by a female friend here in Taiwan. I once wrote a restaurant review for the Yokohama Echo entitled Adventures in Squid Wrestling, but I suppose that story is not really related and is best saved for another post.

Anyway, this female friend has a TINY ribcage and a less than tiny bust! Imagine trying to find something suitable in Canada, let alone Taiwan. Even Taiwanese women's backs are not so small... and as for the cup size, well.... When reading her story, I really had to laugh as she pointed out a few things that I just never gave much attention to... namely that there really is an obsession with breasts and bust size here in Taiwan (not that this is an obsession exclusive to Taiwan)!

When I first arrived, I remember noting that during the daytime, every second channel had an infomercial about miracle bust enhancing drug + massage regimes. In fact, a foreign English teacher I knew here in Taipei was recruited to "play doctor" for one of these infomercials. She got to put on a white lab coat and walk around the set guesturing at the Taiwanese women's busts while babbling about anything in English (there was voice over, so she didn't need to say anything clinical at all). Mind you "Jennifer" was recruited both willingly and unwillingly a lot. Being blonde, she was swamped with attention. One day we actually saw a picture of her teaching her kindergarten kids on the side of a bus... but the funniest part was that it was advertising a cram school she didn't teach at (again... a story deserving of it's own post).

Second obvious clue that there is a bust obssesion... women actually size each other up! Sometimes when gong to lunch in the elevator, women will say things like, " Julie, you should be second in line and then we will be lined up in order of bust size!" (Of course this is a translation, so I am not sure if it is exactly accurate). Anyway, I find it a little strange as I would certainly never comment about my coworkers' bodies back home. However, I guess I don't really feel that uncomfortable with it as I lost some of my ability to really be surprised by these types of comments at some point during my stay in Korea. I suppose that here, as in Korea, there are a lot of women with sugically enhanced busts and who waste lots of money at the spa on "size-up" treatments. I suppose there are some back home as well, but I have been in Asia too long to really know current North American trends.

The final clue is the number of "bra accessories" on the market. (Actually there are a lot more clues I could enumerate, but it might get a little tedious for those of you who don't need bras). Anyway, the number of bra accessories rivals and maybe even outnumbers the number of PDA accessories and would appear to be beat only by cell phone accessories. How's that for excessiveness? You can buy a HUGE variety of clear plasted bejewelled and otherwise decorated detachable straps. How about gel pads to bring you up 2 cup sizes, but keep that natural feel? There is also bra jewelery and converter straps and... well, you get the picture. The only problem is that ALL of the"hardware" items are massively uncomfortable... too many wires and stiff bits, too much inflexible plastic, too many scatchy decorations. Most of these come from China and can be bought on the market for as cheap as $5.00 Canadian, but the slightlier skin-friendly ones come from France or Spain. However, they can reach prices of approximately $300.00 Canadian. I, for one, will wait for my next trip abroad to go shopping.

Seoul Revisted

Its been a few weeks since I last wrote it seems. The biggest news is that I took a rather spontaneous trip to Seoul. It was the most unprepared I have ever been for any trip. I had a business trip on Friday and returned just in time for a friend's farewell party. At 3 am, I threw some things in a bag for the next morning's Seoul trip.

Saturday morning, we were leaving the apartment when my cell phone rang and I had to dump all the things out of my handbag to find it... Of course I arrived in Taoyuan (the airport) only to find that I didn't have my ticket. It must have been the one irrelevant item I didn't cram back into my bag after using the cell phone. Thai Airlines didn't have any staff working on Saturday and the other companies couldn't help me in any other way than to sell me a new ticket for double what I paid. However, the lady at the airport said I might be able to make it if I went home to get the ticket and returned to the airport before 12:30 -note boarding was scheduled for 12:20 (it was already 11:10). It took over 40 minutes to get home at TOP SPEED by taxi (usually an hour+ ride), so there appeared to be no way to make it. But then on the way back, the driver got the bright idea of driving on the shoulder of the road. I arrived at 12:40; the plane had already boarded, but somehow (with the airport staff tag-team relay-racing me to the gate) I made it! Anywhere but Taipei, I don't think you could make an international flight arriving only 10 minutes before the plane needs to taxi down the runway.

Anyway, the flight was short, but the ride into Seoul wasn't. Seoul has moved too farther away from the ariport than it used to be (or rather the airport has moved farther away from Seoul)... and I must say the traffic on a Saturday night is horrendous- 6+ lanes jam packed with cars barely inching along. We got in late and starving. Anna met us for dinner in Chamshil and we went for a traditional type meal seated on the heated floor and served by women in "hanboks". You sould have seen Tommy and Peter's faces the first time they tried real kimchi (not the mild kind made for export) and makoli (a slightly sour milky-looking fermented rice wine). It was priceless. Anyway, that was just the start of many firsts for them. I think it was also the first time for both guys to share a room in a love hotel (a lovely place named Eros located in the Shincheon University district - they were on a tight budget)! The room on one side of them was occupied by a bunch of studnets having a party.... and the one on the other side, by a group of Korean transvestites. (I could have taken a couple of useful make-up tips. They were VERY pretty).

Overall, the trip was rushed and I didn't get to meet any of the Korean teachers I had hoped to catch up with... but I did get to spend some time with friends from my Korea era... Anna (who never left Korea) and Heather (who is there again).

On the way back, I had another airport incident when the bag of "omiyage" for Taiwanese friends broke and the bottle of "baeksaeju" (100 years wine) went crashing to it's demise on the escalator between arrivals and departures. Oh, well... Charlie will have to wait for the longevity liquor till my next trip to Korea. he is likely to live to 100 years without it anyway.