Clyde and Mike's Excellent Adventure Begins
Today I headed over to Changhua Teacher's College with my Axis and Allies buddy Malv to visit Clyde Warden, our mutual friend.
The secondary campus of Changhua Teacher's College
Clyde's office is in a branch campus located atop a giant mountain overlooking Changhua city, about forty minutes from my house. On good days you can see for miles, but today the heavens opened and it poured felines and canines all day long.
Malv and Clyde hadn't seen each other for a decade.
It's a sad commentary on our insulated foreigner lives that Clyde and Malv had worked for a decade in the same town but never crossed paths, although they had been fellow teachers at OCIT many years ago, back when Hoover was President and radio was multimedia technology.
The branch campus had just two buildings...
The campus is located near the famous Buddha statue on Pakuashan.
Clyde's grad students are doing a presentation tomorrow.
Clowning around with Clyde's attractive graduate students.
Clyde has a fat office and some slim graduate students to brighten his days atop the mountain. Malv and I, hicks from the sticks, were suitably impressed.
Clyde makes a point.
Malv replies...
After hiding out from the rain in Clyde's office, we ran into Changhua for some lunch.
Ma Po Tofu. Do you dare to eat it?
The Taiwanese consider Ma Po Tofu to be a hot dish. Note to self: take inhabitants of Taiwan to India this summer.
Clyde treated us to lunch at the local fine dining joint. Malv and I were suitably impressed, especially since Malv survives by scrounging dropped change at bus stops and eating at 7-11, while I have to eat my own cooking.
Were it not for the rain, it would have been a photo-filled visit. But at least we had a great time shooting the breeze and terrorizing random waiters and grad students.
Thanks, guys!
Mmmmm...I miss the Baowan/Rouyuan in Changhua. Where is Changhua Normal located, anyway?
ReplyDeleteAny idea how old the buildings there were? I'm curious because a lot of that city is incorperates and/or is built on top of older Japanese colonial structures. Lots of fun history from the pre-colonial days, too!
Mike, have you read Shepherd's book "Statecraft and Political Economy on the Taiwan Frontier?"
It's a new branch campus, built on top of a hill, so recent. The buildings are all in the modern fold-up-like-accordions-in-an-earthquake style. A friend of mine once dubbed the tile and concrete architecture here "Urinthian" which has never failed to crack me up.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I read Shepherd's book when it came out , was in school at the time. It's really a wonderful book, I thought.
It’s great to see good information being shared.
ReplyDeleteThank you...