Rash, Rash, Go Away…

Come again some other day. Wait, no. Don't. Maybe that was a poor choice for a title. How about "Don't come back another day." There, that's more like it.

So, since I've been in Taiwan (13 months now), I have found it hard to avoid small traces of wheat. As a Celiac, I should know better. If there could be wheat, I should not eat it. Plain and simple. But I became complacent fairly quickly, and occasionally had little "bouts" where I suspected I had been glutened. I still didn't take it all too seriously.

Then, one fateful night - October 15 (this date is burned into my brain, because I can't believe I've had rashes this long) - I ate some delicious, homemade curry. Yum. The next day, I started to have some rashes. "That's strange," I thought. "I haven't had rashes for years. In fact, not since I was diagnosed with Celiac disease." Bing! Light bulb moment. Uh oh. 

The following day, I still had the rashes. Raised, hot, itchy hives. So I investigated. The curry I ate was made from a Japanese curry base, which for some godawful reason contains wheat. Why on earth do they put wheat in curry?? It's so unnecessary. I am less than impressed. I was also less than impressed with myself, because I already know that some curry bases contain wheat, and that there's only one kind of curry paste I can buy at the supermarket. So, I should have known better. But I was hungry, so I ate it. This is my downfall. 

I didn't do anything about the hives, because I thought for some reason that they would get better and disappear. I had clearly forgotten the months of on-and-off discomfort I experienced in my teens. A week went by, and it was not better. The rashes had actually got a lot worse - to the point that my friend (who is battling breast cancer, and should not have to be dealing with other people's random ailments) advised me to find a sub for my class that afternoon, and drove me to our local dermatologist. 

There began my dance with the medical system here. Thankfully, Taiwan has excellent medical insurance, which is mandatory for workers to pay into. As a Canadian, I am used to my doctor visits being completely free; however, to see a specialist would mean going on a long waiting list, missing work, and taking an expensive trip over to the city to see this busy specialist. As a foreigner in Taiwan, I am incredibly grateful that we are allowed (even required!) to use the same heath insurance system as the locals. Because of the high population here, there are specialists everywhere! You can walk in to any hospital to see their specialists, or stroll over to the dermatologist or ear-nose-throat doctor in your neighbourhood. Or the dentist. Dentistry is also covered by National Health Insurance. So, any time you see one of these specialists, or any doctor, you pay a deductible which includes the cost of your visit as well as any medication you might need. It's a pretty good system. 

What did this dermatologist do, you may ask? Well, he prescribed me nighttime and daytime antihistamines, and informed me to "avoid my allergens." This ticked me off a bit. Of course, avoid my allergens! Do you think I'm going around stuffing my face with breads and cookies? Please. I wish. 

I went on my way, with my 7-day supply of antihistamines. I really thought that would be the end of it. Little did I know, this would quickly become an ongoing theme. 

Let Me Tell You My Story About Celiac Disease...

So, I've badly neglected this blog, and now feel the need to write about some health problems I've been dealing with. Since it still has to do with life in Taiwan, its health care system, and food (yay, food!), I figure this is as good a place as any to write about it. Plus, it's my blog, so I'm gonna do what I want. Yeah! I'll still include pictures whenever relevant though. I like pictures.

This tomb guardian in Muzha also likes pictures.

Here is my introduction to my ailments (I like to be a little melodramatic): I have Celiac disease, which is an autoimmune disease. This means that any time I eat wheat/rye/barley or other related grains, my immune system gets super confused and instead of sending out troops to fight off the "Enemy Gluten" it instead attacks... me. I have had this since I was at least 6 years old. I remember not being allowed to run in the Terry Fox run, because my knees hurt so badly it was like I had arthritis. At six. One time, my Grade 1 class was on some field trip, and when I complained to the TA that my stomach hurt, she told me to "walk it off, and think about something else." Really, who tells a 6 year-old kid with stomach pains to think about something else?  I also would frequently be doubled over with stomach pains after lunch time.

In my early and late teens, I would get urticaria (hives/ wheals) all over my body. There were a few times when my face swelled up. I still went to school, and my friends didn't even recognize me because my face was so misshapen. The pharmacist gave me white cream to help cool it and bring the swelling down, but living in a small town, our choice in doctors was slim. My doctor had retired, and his successor was a largely useless fellow who wouldn't send me off-island for an allergy test because I could be "allergic to a specific brand of detergent" and thus deemed it pointless. I don't recall him offering any solution. We tried eliminating various foods from my diet in a vain attempt to pinpoint the cause of my allergy, but with no results.

Doctors prescribed me antihistamines, which I took almost every day. When those still didn't keep away the worst of the flare-ups, I was prescribed Prednisone, a very powerful corticosteroid. When I went away to university, I saw the campus dermatologist, who diagnosed my rashes as "idiopathic urticaria." I was excited to have a diagnosis, until I looked up what it meant: a rash for unknown reason. What an ass, I thought. I could have told you that myself, and saved myself an hour of waiting in your office to find out.

Around the same time, my maternal grandmother was diagnosed by her naturopath as having this strange thing called Celiac Disease. Ten years ago, none of us had ever heard about it - no, not even on the health-conscious West Coast. That was the first time we had heard of wheat being the potential problem; before, it was the go-to comfort food. If my stomach hurt and I was too sick to really eat much, some home-baked bread, buttered toast, or soup and crackers was a safe bet. After my grandma's diagnosis, I began to observe my symptoms more closely. If I drank a lot of beer one evening, I inevitably awoke the next morning with fingers so swollen I couldn't close my hands into a fist.

I finally moved to Vancouver, and got a new doctor. My first visit with him, I asked him if he could test me for Celiac - and there began my path to health. He sent me for a blood test, which tests for antigens that react to wheat. Once that came back positive, I was then sent to a gastroenterologist for an endoscopy. The biopsy results would determine if I was merely wheat intolerant, or if I indeed was a Celiac. They used local anaesthetics during the procedure, so I was able to lie on my side and watch the little camera on the screen as it travelled down into my severely damaged small intestine. A healthy small intestine has plenty of folds, called villi, to slow down digestion and absorb nutrients. When a Celiac eats gluten, those villi become inflamed and collapse, resulting in dramatically less surface area from which to absorb nutrients. Which means we're basically wasting away and malnourished.

These dancing, dead birds were probably healthier than I was.

Anyway, when the camera passed my duodenum, instead of seeing all these super awesome healthy villi, we saw a smooth pink tube with small ridges. Kind of like little pink speed bumps, where big folds of tissue should have been. The doctor told me right there, "Yup Britt, I think you're right. Looks like you have Celiac disease. We'll still take a tissue sample to confirm it though." Then came the tiny little pinch as the little pincer things nabbed a bit of what was left of my small intestine. The nurses, who had assisted in countless endoscopies, colonoscopies, and who-knows-what-else-scopies, said they'd never seen anything like it. So finally, at 22 years old, after at least 16 years of suffering, I had a real, conclusive diagnosis. Although there is no cure for Celiac Disease (nor for any other autoimmune disease, as far as I know), at least it can be controlled through diet.

I certainly thought it was as simple as no breads/pastas/pastries, etc. Through trial and error, I slowly learned that there is gluten in almost every processed food out there. From soy sauce, to Twizzlers, to pickled beets (damn you, malt vinegar!), tempura, soba noodles, you name it. Nothing is sacred. Being gluten-free was not as easy a task as I thought it would be. Eventually, I learned how to be gluten-free, and that "cheating" was absolutely not worth it. At all. The last time I ate something from Tim Horton's, I thought I couple Tim Bits couldn't hurt - and let me tell you, the next day, it felt like I had eaten razor blades. I have never been tempted by Timmie's or by regular donuts ever again. Another ill-fated day, I quickly grabbed an orzo salad at a deli, thinking it was some type of rice. As I ate it, I thought it felt a whole lot like pasta. Turns out, orzo is a type of pasta (who knew?) and I was going to be really sick by the next day. I then ate a hot cross bun, because it was Easter, and dammit, if I was going to be sick, I may as well enjoy it. I don't think like that anymore.

Living on the West Coast, it became increasingly easy to find gluten-free foods. Entire bakeries dedicated to gluten-free products opened up, like Panne Rizo. I could eat gluten-free hot cross buns at Easter! What a treat. Restaurants began to have gluten-free menus. I could order gluten-free pizzas. It was heaven. Then the whole "gluten-free fad diet" started, and although I have mixed feelings about it (such as not being taken so seriously when I ask for GF food), it definitely increased the availability and selection of the products I could eat.

Then I moved to Taiwan, where a package of imported gluten-free pasta costs $300NT ($10 CAD) - if you can find it. The locals don't know what Celiac disease is - nor, as I've recently discovered, do many doctors. Even telling someone that I'm allergic to wheat is tricky, as people here often don't make the connection that flour (麵粉) is made from wheat (小麥). Because of this, and because for my first year here I had no real kitchen, I let my guard down and was not as vigilant against Enemy Wheat as I need to be. Taiwan and its eating-out culture is no safe place for Celiacs. With that, I'll sign off for the night. More to come soon.

This beautiful vegetarian dish? Not safe to eat.

Wish List and a Confession

So, I have finally settled on a date and booked my flight back to Canada. Wait, wait - not moving back, no. Just a visit. It sounds mighty strange to say that I am visiting my home country, but there you have it. I will have a glorious 10 days of September weather (during which time I will probably be freezing my butt off!), and then head back to Taipei in what will hopefully be more temperate Autumn weather. 

Over the past few months, I have been building a wish list of things I will bring back with me. Things that I contemplated bringing, but opted not to (for absolutely no good reason). Things that I didn't know I would miss until I got here. Things I didn't know I couldn't find here, or at least without paying exorbitant prices for ($7 for a box of mint tea, for example, or $5 for a bag of Lay's Salt and Vinegar chips). Taiwan is lovely, and Taipei is incredibly convenient, but there are just some things that would make my life here an awful lot more enjoyable. 

Proof that Taiwan's sky-gods love Canada

• Maple syrup. Just kidding, I'm so non-Canadian in this regard. It's not something I miss at all. Take it or leave it. Also, it's sold here too, just not in cute maple-leaf bottles. 
• Loose leaf mint tea. Just plain mint, not "digestive tea" combined with licorice, thank you very much.
• Chamomile tea. For those times I need to fall asleep asap. Like now. I really shouldn't be up at 1am writing a blog post.
• Yerba Maté. Also incredibly expensive, and in bags, not loose-leaf. 
• Rice pasta. $10 a bag, if you can find it. Eek! 
• Crackers. Normal, crunchy crackers. Nut Thins. Rice cakes. Whatever. I'm getting tired of super-salty Want-Want brand rice crackers.
• My small hiking backpack with camel pack. MEC, you should expand to Taiwan. Please. 
• GF veggie gravy mix. It's not great (understatement of the year), but there is zero chance of getting it here.
• My non-slip Keen sandals. So ugly, yet so functional. Perfect for Taiwan! For that matter, I should really bring my: 
• Crocs, for precisely the same reason. Ugly, comfortable footwear seems to be the norm here. Plus, shoes that dry out on their own after you get caught out in the afternoon thunderstorm are genius. 

  

  These clouds mean a nasty, mid-day torrential downpour is about to happen,
  and you have to leave for work. There is no escape. Wet feet are inevitable.

• Magic Bullet. Really, what was I thinking? That I would just buy a $40 blender when I had no income? That thing works miracles, and it would probably make me an awful lot healthier than I am now! Just think of all the fruit/veggie/non-gmo soymilk smoothies I can make - yum! 
  
  

  

  My $6 purchase from the fruit stand. Good smoothie material, no?

I'm sure I'll come up with a bajillion more things that I want to pack into my suitcase and bring back with me, so I may update this list over the next couple of months. Those are the ones that have been nagging at me for a while though. 

Also, my apologies for not updating this blog as frequently as I would like. To be honest, I had been in quite a funk for a couple of months, and the only thing I would have been capable of sharing was how crappy the weather was, or how much I felt sorry for myself (for living in a tiny apartment with no kitchen, on the top floor of a 5-story building with no elevator, for example). Luckily for all of us, I don't believe in spreading the negativity, so you didn't have to read about that crap. I also don't feel creative when I'm down, so writing and photo-taking fell to the wayside. 

I have managed to pull myself out of it, and on the plus side, my legs are stellar after walking up 5 flights of stairs every single day for the past eight months! I have a major, ghetto-living, confession to make too: I used plastic cutlery from 7-11 for 7 months. Mostly because ONE fork or knife costs at least $2 each in this country. What the heck!!!!?! What is up with THAT? Anyway, at the end of June I finally got fed up at feeling sorry for myself about eating with plastic cutlery at home, and went to the store to buy metal cutlery. About freaking time. Bonus: the store had brought in some cheaper versions, only $1 per knife or fork. And I have to say, that helped get me outta the funk almost as quickly as finding cheap, local avocados did! Til next time... here is the before and after shot of my cutlery collection: 

Goodbye depressing plastic cutlery, hello functional metal cutlery and
wooden spatula! 

Teaching Moments

About a month ago, I entered the wonderful, wacky world of teaching. Teaching English as a foreign language, to be exact. After less than a week of training, our small group of teachers were sent off to our schools, where the REAL learning takes place. 

Something you have to understand about Taiwan children, is that they are raised in a Confucian society. I still don't really know what this means, but it results in students who (mostly) respect the teacher, and who don't seem to pull a fraction of the crazy stuff that I pulled when I was in school. 

The worst I have encountered in my first month of teaching is a small group of 12-13 year-old boys who give me attitude, and who, understandably, are less than enthused about participating in a 2-hour English class at 6:30pm. This is by far my least favourite class, but still, it's not like they throw spitballs or anything (Have I said too much?).

My favourite class, of 8-ish year-olds, has a rambunctious, loud boy who somehow hurts someone nearly every day. He is not a bully, nor is he mean-spirited. He just doesn't think before he acts. Or before he speaks. So, I pull him aside and make him apologize to his injured friend and tell them he won't do XYZ again. I'm also telling him not to yell in class, oh, about every 20 minutes or more. It kind of drives me insane. 

Then, there are moments like I had this past Thursday. We had Science class, and the students were begrudgingly writing about magnets in their workbooks, when somebody randomly started singing "You Are My Sunshine". Then, more of them joined in, and when I told them I absolutely love that song, the entire class started the song over and serenaded me with what I think is one of the sweetest songs out there. My heart grew three sizes that day… 

I also have laughing-out-loud moments when I mark their quizzes and tests. Spelling word number 8 was supposed to be "listen to stories" and one student misspelled both "listen" and "stories". Actually, I only now realized that I only corrected "listen", because I was too busy laughing about the resulting error. 

Listen to stoners. Teehee. Thanks for the laugh, students! 

Why Living in Taiwan is Awesome

After living in Taiwan for about 6 months, I'm in a bit of a "culture-shock"/homesick rut. Since nothing works better to get you looking on the bright side than a gratitude list, I thought that's exactly what I should do. So, here is a bit of a gratitude list for Taiwan, and why I LOVE living here, even though my home country is by far one of the most beautiful places on earth.


Weather
It is warm here in the subtropics! Today is a chilly 16 degrees, while the rest of the week was in the high-20s. As a Canadian, I never thought I would be saying the phrase "chilly 16 degrees" without the same sarcasm we use when saying "a balmy 5 degrees". Here, there is no sarcasm in those words! Ahhh so warm. The humid, non-sarcastically-balmy weather is like a cozy blanket on your skin.
Edit: When I wrote that, it was 16 degrees... by the time I've actually got around to publishing this post, I am thankful for the cool 23 degree weather after a week of humid 30 degree, air-conditioner-needed heat.

This was in February. A beautiful, hot sunny late afternoon hike in Yangmingshan National Park.

Flowers
Learning that these colours exist in nature - what?! Amazing. All throughout the year, flowers bloom in exciting, exotic hues that I have never before seen in nature. It blows my mind. I'm kind of a nature nerd. And what's up with those orange flowers on the trees, which remind me exactly of autumn, but bloom in early spring? My senses are incredibly confused by this. It's all very exciting.

My new favourite flower. It smells amazing, and I wish I could buy a perfume made from its scent. Plus, it grows on trees!

A statue in a tea garden in Pinglin, with a camellia flower placed in his cup. Oh, and rows of tea bushes. Lovely!

Generosity
People here are overwhelmingly kind and friendly. I have had someone try to help me with my Chinese homework in a public library, random people offer me directions at an MRT station, restaurant staff offer to call a taxi for us because it's cheaper than flagging down a cab, vegetable shopkeepers add cilantro to my bag for free, been invited through the back of a restaurant for a tea ceremony when the shop was closed for the holidays, and had a bus driver allow me to sit in the front of a particularly crowded shuttle bus. These things become more evident outside of Taipei, as it is certainly easy to get caught up in the frenetic pace of the city. It is these little things that remind me that I am living on an island, and island people are great people.

My first tea ceremony, during Chinese New Year. We were literally welcomed into this family's home!

Convenience
To have such a large population function in a relatively small space, efficiency is key. This means public transportation options, restaurants, tea shops, banks, convenience stores, markets, you name it - everything is easily accessible and probably within a 10-minute walk from your apartment. Also, you can easily sign up for a city-operated bike rental program called YouBike, and use bikes for free, or for super cheap. I love it.

Taking the YouBikes to the riverside trail. This is way easier than exploring the city on foot!

Novelty

Dude. I freakin' live in Asia. That thought usually crosses my mind at least once a month. Whether it is a narrow street lined with bright flashy signs, or yet another incredibly elaborate temple, or the rain streaming off the typically-Asian clay tile roofs, or the selection of fresh local produce at my neighbourhood fruit and vegetable stands, I am inevitably struck by a sense of wonder that I am actually living here. It is impossible to be bored here. The moment you step outside, it is sensory overload time. Oh, and did I mention the night markets?

Keelung City's Miao-Kow night market during the Chinese New Year holiday

The Story Begins…

Hello… welcome to my very first blog post! After living in Taipei, Taiwan for nearly three months, it's well past time to start a blog. Better late than never I hope!

Because my Facebook posts and photos have been flooding people's news feeds with enviable tales of life in a subtropical country (or so I'd like to think), blogging may be a more reader-friendly way to see what I've been up to. At the moment I'm composing this post on my iPhone user the Blogger app, because I'm actually to lazy to open my laptop and type on the computer right now. But I figured that if I can maybe just get this first post out into cyberspace, then perhaps I'll be less nervous about writing future posts! So bear with me here if there are some weird formatting issues or anything.

Why am I here? As a tourism major, I have been lucky enough to meet people who are from, or who move or travel, all over the world. This past fall I had the opportunity to join someone in Taiwan (a small island in the Pacific, roughly between Japan and the Philippines) and so, off I flew! To give some perspective, it's about the same size as Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Yes, I moved here from another small island in the Pacific: tiny and eccentric Salt Spring Island, notorious for goat cheese, organic food, hippies, sheep and [a plant that carries the death penalty here in the ROC]. To paraphrase Gary Fjellgard: an islander I'll always be!

So, the last couple of months I have been studying Mandarin Chinese full-time at a well-known university not far from my apartment. Let me just say, I am far from fluent. When I arrived here in November, I learned what it feels like to be illiterate. Being immersed in a language that shares no common roots whatsoever with your native tongue makes language learning incredibly difficult, and makes communication hugely frustrating. I have felt like a frustrated, tired child and have learned patience and humility at a level I didn't know was possible. So every word, every phrase I learn feels like a major accomplishment and makes my life easier every day.

It's not all tough though! Last week for example, I looked up at the full moon, framed by tall palm trees, and was awestruck at how I had ended up in such an exotic-looking setting. Oh, and let's not forget Thursday afternoon, when I rode a bicycle along the riverside and past a meadow of butterflies. That's right, there were so many butterflies fluttering over these short yellow flowers that I actually rode through a flock of butterflies! In the warm afternoon sun. In January. It's okay to be a little jealous right now. Just know I'm sending warm, sunny vibes back home to all of you in the grey and the cold.

This blog is hopefully going to be where I share my tales of daily life in Taiwan with you! I welcome any feedback, comments, questions, and send you all a ton of love!

And yes, there will be pictures. :)