一些觀察 － Some Observations

Tonight might be my last night with in-home internet for a while. If everything goes as planned, I'll be moving to my new apartment tomorrow night, and they're having work done on the internet cables, so it's no internet, or Starbucks for me for a while.

I thought I'd leave you guys with a few more observations from the past few weeks. Enjoy!

1) Scooters: Everybody and their uncle (along with the rest of their extended family) seems to own a scooter. This has led to a few problems which the Taiwanese people, for better or for worse, have solved with what they have available. For instance, left turns. If they went along like normal traffic, cars would have to wait for an endless stream of scooters cutting across the road. The solution: make a special area in the crosswalk next to cars that are currently stopped on the intersecting road. This way, scooters can just go straight (thereby completing their left turn in two steps) when the light changes and never have to cut across oncoming traffic. Kind of confusing, yeah. Another problem, where should everyone park their scooters? The sidewalk of course. Surely the pedestrians won't mind struggling through a maze of scooters scattered across every walkway. (This is quickly becoming one of my least favorite things about walking around here, especially since sidewalks are also open game for riding your scooter...)

2) Face Masks: It's pretty common to see about ten out of a hundred people wearing surgical masks at any given time in class, on the street, in restaurants, etc. Whenever you get sick, it's considered polite (as well as sanitary) to put on a face mask for the duration of your illness. I've already had to wear one once, not because I was sick, but because so many kids in my school were. It makes teaching a class highly focused on oral communication very difficult. Who knows how effective these masks are since the number of people wearing them always seems pretty high.

3) Walking, Lining Up, and Personal Space: Another thing I've learned to be aware of is watching for people, scooters, and cars when I'm walking anywhere. Since traffic rules are really more like guidelines and suggestions here, it's not surprising to see people run red lights, cut across a sidewalk corner to make a turn, or honk at you while you're in the crosswalk. However, I always find myself watching out for other pedestrians just as often as traffic in the streets. Someone is always stepping out in front of you, stopping to light a cigarette, veering across your path, or walking veeeeerrryyy slowly in a narrow area (lined with scooters, naturally). So far, lining up has been much better than on mainland China, but a lot of the time I'll find myself at the local 7-11 in a big group at the counter, everyone up in my business. It's more up to the cashier to call out who's next rather than when you got there, and good luck getting your stuff off the counter and grabbing your receipt before someone deposits their purchases in front of you and nudges you aside.

I've gotta go over my contract for my new place now and hopefully get it fully translated tomorrow before I sign it. Any guesses as to where my contract was drafted? You got it, 7-11, your all around everything store. Oh Taiwan...