Point is, I just get more and more excited for autumn...

Especially now that it is Fall Break (a four-day weekend!!).  The fact that it is after a crazy midterm week makes it even more appealing.  Tonight I was reminded of how busy I was over Fall Break last year, and I am grateful I am simply resting right now.  So what have I done so far?  Basically, food.

For some reason I feel my camera doesn't focus well a lot of the times anymore, so the pictures are not that great, sorry.

One reason that food can take up so much of my time and thoughts is because I bike (or walk or bus) to do my grocery shopping.  In case you didn't know, that is the hip way to do it.  What could be cooler than tying a cauliflower to the back of your seat and zipping through the neighborhood?

Autumn is for spicy cooking!!  Actually, I like spices and herbs all year round, and now I am especially addicted to buying them in bulk (bulk sections are the joy of my life).  Note the Curry, Garam Masala, and Edelsüsspaprika from Naschmarkt.  Also shown are some sage and ginger root powder.  You need to smell this picture!  The smell of ginger is especially strong.  Love it.

Pile the vegetable high. (Notice that the cauliflower is no longer attached to the bike seat).

I cooked the cauliflower and potatoes for a bit too long... so it doesn't look very pretty.  But I think my favorite type of dish is just a bowl of grain and vegetables all mixed together.  I like my meal in one big bowl.

I couldn't resist lighting this candle.  Lemongrass.  My sister placed the candle there when she helped me move in in August, but it has never been lit until now.  Unfortunately I am getting a stuffy nose... also appropriate for the season?

I visited the new building on campus – brand new for the semester.  You can still smell the fresh wood (why do I keep talking about smell when I obviously can't smell with my stuffy nose?).  Of course I do not have a class there.  (I am a humanities major and always have classes in the oldest buildings on campus!)  When you climb to the third floor, the view to the east is terrific, as you can see Mt. Rainier on a clear day.  Not today though.

Looking to the north.

Sometimes braiding my hair is as crafty as I can get in a day.  I really love the autumn-colored scarf though.

I love fall

Preserving autumn – leaves in brown bag!
Ja, die sind meine Schwester und ich, in Manhattan, Kansas, 1994.

This post has almost nothing to do with fall.  I simply remembered that there was one more photo I wanted to post.
My "jewelry box" for this semester is a cup I painted at a pottery when Kourtni visited a few years ago.  The cup got a small crack and since then I have refrained from using it for hot tea.  Here's my new idea.

Two things I am looking forward to in this season: spiced apple cider and delicious soups, stews, chowders and borschts using autumn vegetables such as winter squash soup.
These are also my two favorite and very inspiring blogs!

Minimalist

I cannot generate too many things because I move so much and often have to store a few boxes during those gap times when I am away or when the location of my new home is not yet known.  Like this semester – I am finishing school in Tacoma, I may stay here for another few months, I may move to some other cities in the area (Seattle, for example), or I may just go to somewhere far away.  There will also be a few weeks when I simply have to leave my things in boxes when I go spend Christmas in Taiwan.  But I still want to be a bit creative when decorating my room, so here's what I have done.

Here's the door to my room.  Big Dipper Ice Cream Truck from the endearing Missoula,  Montana.  A scrap of lace that I found when going through my boxes... I didn't know what to do with it yet so it then ended up on my door.  I hung some earrings on it.  A vintage chest from Dublin, Ireland, and a fall leaf.  Oh, and my class schedule... 

I wish I have a curtain, but I don't.  I just have an abundance of scarves and this table cloth.

By the way, it was cool and a bit rainy today.  Das gefällt mir... I just want to say, I would be delighted to give up summer weather for beautiful fall days!

Back in Tacoma, August 2011

I made Russian Cabbage Borscht at the lovely kitchen at my summer sublet. 

I don't have a picture of the final product but the result was delicious!

Just an ordinary view of Karlen Quad and the Music Building.  I was rather excited to have a campus again!

I went to Seattle when my sister was here in August.

Researching others, discovering myself

It's been a week since I set off my research project here in Taiwan.  I have encountered some minor difficulties in my research, just some tiny obstacles that I sort of expected before I landed.

One of the problems being I am still a little unsure about my role in this community.  I have yet to decide how I want to define myself when I face my informants – who could be... who would potentially see me as their family, friend, as one of them, who perhaps share their knowledge and sentiment toward the subject; or they may see me as an objective researcher, an outsider...  I know I have the ability to create an image for myself, but I don't know what I want it to be.  It is possible that I am not ready to carry out a project on Taiwan yet.  Take for example this ethnomusicology research in Singapore that I am reading.  Here is a mature American researcher and professor who has already had fieldwork in various other places under his belt.  It was not until when he was well into his career that he found himself back in Singapore, where he grew up, conducting fieldwork using his "family tongue" (that's precisely how he calls it; he did not use terms such as native language, mother tongue, and the like).  Way back at the start of his career he did not even imagine that his researches would bring him back to this place.  My relationship with Taiwan, this community, this place, and these people, is still so ambiguous to me, as funny as it may seem.  Frankly I usually find myself confused and uncomfortable about this relationship.  I know, I usually wouldn't even admit this to myself.  It is not home, no; I only called this place home when I lived here, and I moved away some years ago.  Although I may have spent most of my childhood here, to me, I owe much more of who I am today to somewhere else (Missoula is one of these places).  To my grandma or my aunt or my uncle, this summer is simply another summer spent at home, what sort of project I am doing is beyond their concern.  When I explain my project, I imagine sometimes people would think, well what a clever plan, right?  Just find a familiar topic and do it at home (and yet how little I know about the musics in Taiwan and Taiwanese identity!); it must be so easy!  Or, they might think, oh here's a perfect excuse to go home.  Although I know perfectly well that, when I was forming my research ideas, I only thought I'd do something on music of the diaspora and its relationship with identity issues.  I did NOT begin with something on Taiwan.  As a matter of fact I even tried to avoid anything regarding Taiwan, anything that would lead the thread back to me, myself, and rouse my own identity crisis.  Isn't it almost more challenging to conduct fieldwork in a community with which the researcher has close connections, than in a community where the researcher is without a doubt a stranger?  I can observe from a secure distance, yet I knew I was not ready to face myself in the mirror.

Oh don't ask me why then, why I nevertheless ended up with this topic.  If you know me at all, I never felt like I was in control with anything that happened to me, hahahaha.

How awkward is it to discuss my project with my parents, when even they can easily turn into my informants?!  Sometimes they sound like my advisors, being professors and researchers themselves.  The thing is anthropology research is completely different from, say, my father's scientific research!  Please, not all these structured questions, and I am not a journalist either.  Lots to learn, researching others, discovering myself.

And there is translating.  Make up my interview guide in English, translate it into Chinese before I pose questions, responses received in Chinese and Taiwanese; notes in English, or, to catch the some of the names and some particular phrasing, notes in Chinese... reading materials in English, websites in Chinese... lalalalala.  See?  I can't even write anymore!  Can't think anymore.  I am going to bed.

Nächstes Projekt: Sommer Forschung

I have no idea why I stopped writing after the previous post in April.  Please don't think that it's because I did a serious post and felt like I can never write casually about my travels and random amusements again, at least for a shot while.  Please don't think that, because that would be completely wrong.  May was the last month in Vienna, and the month was concluded with travels to Traunsee in Austria – probably one of my favorite places so far, then Germany.  I think I just wanted to focus all my attention on the present and where I was living, to spend time with people whom I can actually see face to face, and whom I had limited time with... and I was meeting some new friends that last couple of weeks too.  Now I start a new post without any definite intention, without knowing how often I plan to write or how I would like to document my life.  Well, I will admit it.  I am just here early at the gate waiting to board my flight in about ninety minutes... and I am just bored.

I jokingly say that I have been traveling every Monday in the past few weeks.  First, Wien to Gmunden; the following Monday Gmunden to Altmünster (supposed to be a five-minute train ride but I had some issues so it became longer), then (on a Thursday) Salzburg to Fürstenzell (that sort of turned into a disaster too); the next Monday Fürstenzell to Brakel/Schmechten (a little longer, about a five-hour train ride, you could actually put these places on Google Map if you are that curious); the following Monday to Düsseldorf Flughafen then London, and a marvelous excursion to Devon during my stay in the UK; the following Monday was London to our very endearing Tacoma, Washington – you see, the journey just grows longer and longer every Monday!  And now, guess where I am embarking for?  Hint, it's another continent.  Destination: Taipei, Taiwan.

The story goes I was very fortunate and received from University of Puget Sound a summer research grant in the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.  I proposed an ethnomusicological research project.  Personally I believe it's more anthropology than anything else, so think anthropology, qualitative research, etc, and that will get you a more accurate picture.  Basically for the rest of this summer I will be investigating the relationship between music – specifically the juxtaposition of two Chinese Opera styles – and national identity in Taiwan, doing some fieldwork in Taiwan, and then some more library research in Tacoma, Washington.  This is sort of another adventure for me, so maybe my blog posts will be focused on my research project.

Woher kommen Sie?

A few months before I came here to Vienna, I sort of fell into a panic... when I read a discussion about how Austria is (possibly) the most racist country in Europe.  Is this true?  Of course it is debatable.  Austria is the furthest east of the German speaking countries on this continent; it is more conservative compared to its neighboring West European countries.  Apparently it is not too welcoming to outsiders, especially those who came across the boarders from its eastern neighbors.  I even read that the Viennese would opening show their disgust at the presence of whoever it is that they don't like, an obvious outsider, an Asian tourist, for example – and, may I note, as the IES center is located in the first district, I have spent considerable time in the most touristy area of Vienna and have seen plenty of Asian tourists.  That seemed like a devastating news to me when I read it.  Since I already confirmed my study abroad, whether this claim is true was for me to find out.  I decided it is best to not step into the country with any presumption.  If it is true, then I will just have my default reaction – ignore it.
So I stopped thinking about it.  I have lived in Vienna for almost three months now.  I have had many people – sometimes even random people on the streets, in Belvedere Garden, at Stephansplatz – stopping and asking me, "woher kommen Sie? Where are you from?"  Or simply, "japanisch?" Hahaha.  In these instances I always ended up having a friendly conversation and never felt hostility (or sometimes I was just irritated).  There's definitely more curiosity, and people do not try to hide the fact that they clearly notice the different appearance, not at all.  They won't take "ich komme aus Amerika" for an answer either!  But where are you originally from, where are you really from?  They would say.  In such a relatively homogeneous society, and a society in which people normally do not move too far away from where they were born, it must be very difficult to understand how an Asian person could come from America.  Eventually I became less sure and started changing my answers depending on my mood and depending on what I thought they wanted me to say.  It is true that the society influences how you think about yourself and your identity!  Sometimes I rather like it this way.  Compared to what I experienced at home in the States, this is much more direct.  I don't call it racism or anything like that, it's just being (strongly) aware of the differences in appearances.  I am used to being in the minority, too – I lived in Missoula, Montana for crying out loud, and my sister and I were probably the only Asians at my high school... oh wait, maybe there were two others!  Anyway, what I am tying to get to is, where I lived in the States, I could always feel it, and when people treated me differently, even though it could well be for other reasons, I had to wonder to myself: is it "racism"?  However, it's a terrible thing to point it out!  You could wonder about my ethnic background, but you must not ask me directly about it!  Sometimes the awkwardness becomes way too absurd.  Whereas here, it is one of the first questions people ask.
We talked about this in my German class too.  My German instructor cannot explain this phenomenon, because she simply is one of the Austrians who think this is the most natural question for people to ask!  People are curious, we don't mean it in an unfriendly way, she would reply.  When she saw me, she immediately assumed that I have a completely different culture background than others students, that I must speak an Asian language, Korean or Japanese was what she guessed, and she would frequently single me out in discussions, asking, for example, Joan, you come from a different background, what do you say?
A fellow student, who is Asian, who came from Chicago, seems to have a different take on this matter.  We, including some other friends, were all standing at the back of Musikverein große Saal during a concert intermission.  A tall, gray-bearded, stern looking was standing close to me.  He glanced back at me several times, and finally turned around, shouted and spitted passionately, "I know there are more countries than just Japan and China in the Far East!! I know!!!"  He subsequently repeated the statement a few times, uttered something else that we couldn't make out, turned around, and then, as if remembering something else, turned to face us again and excitedly said something else that we couldn't understand, although he was speaking English.  I didn't know what to think of it.  His demeanor made it sound as though he meant it to be hostile, yet I didn't catch anything truly offensive.  The man moved away and was crazily shaking and swinging around for the second half of the concert.  I shrugged.  But my fellow Asian student, who has been here since September, apparently took it to be somewhat offensive, as he said to me, "don't worry, you will get used to it!  The first two months I was here I felt so uncomfortable.  I could always find someone staring at me.  When I go back to Chicago I will be so glad – there will be ten sorts of rice to pick from, gosh – but then I know I will still miss it!"  Should I feel uncomfortable?  Where I lived in the States, there aren't that many sorts of rice to pick from...  Have I already started ignoring everything since day one – is that why I don't feel offensive at all?  Sometimes I'd rather people admit what they are thinking and be more direct, but sometimes I get irritated for being ask so frequently the same question, for people always singling me out.  I still don't know what to make of this!

Hallstatt – a spontaneous weekend getaway

I have always wanted to go to Hallstatt, just to see it.  For people who have never heard of it, it seems to be a nice and quiet place by the lake; for people who have heard of it, it probably is a touristy name!  I am rather embarrassed to say I wanted to go there, just a bit, because I really think it's a touristy place.  Honestly, if I just wanted to find some outdoor trails by a lake, I would perhaps choose some other locations by the Salzkammergut lakes.  However, part of the reason I decided to take this trip this weekend is to avoid all the tourists in the summer, so of course I will have to visit Hallstatt first!  I plan this trip rather hastily.  I bought the train tickets three minutes before the ÖBB office closed at five on Friday afternoon, and took the morning train on Saturday.  The idea started to form when S, her Austrian language buddy M, and Sam, whom we met, who is from the UK and was only in Vienna for an academic conference, were sitting in Cafe Hawelka late at night one day this week.  M went home last weekend (she is from the countryside) and she started talking about the perfect view she had from her bedroom window.  The weather just started to get warm this few weeks, the grass was bright green, and in the background was the towering mountains, still with snow on the top.  Then Sam said he is going to Innsbruck this weekend, where one can supposedly see the beautiful Austrian Alps from Universität Innsbruck.  I really want to see the mountains.  M suggested that I should go before summer comes and all the snow melts away.  The conversation ended without me having any serious ideas about leaving Vienna this weekend.  This week was concert week, meaning the Music Performance Workshop class held a chamber music concert.  I have to admit that the class is rather unorganized and many things happen at the last minute, which greatly added to the stress.  Towards the end of the week I, like many other students, felt quite burnt out.  I really wanted a break to get away to somewhere quiet and close to nature; I even wanted to just be alone, and be able to think clearly to myself.  The desire grew bigger.  There were always moments like this when I was at Puget Sound, when I just really wanted to leave all that I am working on and take off, but I was always just a wish.  Then I realized that here, I can actually make this come true.

So Saturday morning, I hopped on a train.  The train ride itself was absolutely gorgeous, the weather was perfect, too.  I arrived at Hallstatt station early in the afternoon and took a ferry across the Hallstätter See to get to the little historic salt mining town.  I walked around the town for a bit, and of course, took the picture that appears so frequently on the cover of travel magazines and books.  But the thing is, I was actually there!

Then I decided to move on to the less touristy place.  I found a trail that I think is supposed to be the Malerweg, the path which poets and artists in the precious century have taken and where they found inspiration.  I could always hear the rushing sound of Waldbach (Forest Creek) as I walked.  The trails should lead up to a waterfall, which I eventually found.

I wandered around some more and ultimately decided to spend the night there.  So I went to a youth hostel and got a bed.  It seemed really quiet there and I was given a dorm room all to myself.  After securing a room, I took a different Wanderweg behind the hostel, this time up the hill to get a good view of the lake.

For the evening I sat by the lake to watch the nightfall and read until I could no longer see what's printed on the pages.  In the morning I got to see the morning sun shining on the Hallstätter See, which was part of the reason why I decided to stay for the night.  Overall, I guess not much happened, not very exciting, not too eventful, but I thought it was, to me, very... mentally fulfilling, which was exactly what I needed.  I was very glad I went, and I was fully aware of how foolish it could be, going there by myself and all.  But this is what I will be doing during my tour after my study abroad program ends in May anyway, so I might as well get some practice, hahaha.  Of course, next time I will choose some smaller, obscure places that are just as charming but less touristy!