Ok, so I still don't have internet, but my roommate Rodger is letting me use his connection while he is at work.
Last night I finished a beer (Kirin Ichiban) for the first time. Laurel would be/should be proud. Since I'm a little past the month mark here, I thought a list of things that I miss about home and things I like about Taiwan might be interesting for people (all two of you).
Things I miss
1. comic books (mainly sort of weird ones like Same Difference, or Love and Rockets)
2. Asian Americans
3. hipster music, you know, the Decemberists, the Gossip etc. They just have top 40 stuff here and smooth jazz
4. people who are my age
5. a reliable access to the internet
Things I don't miss
1. The food, I still haven't been to McDonalds, Burger King or Starbucks
2. Tall people, here I'm not really very short
3. Usher
Things I like about Taiwan
1. The food
2. Cheap DVDs
3. The ability to see almost any Asian movie that I want to
4. The people, who except for the one lady at one restaurant that I went to have all been pretty nice
5. 7-11. High Life, Quanjia and all the other convenience stores
6. The fact that every cup of coffee is really an Americano
Things I don't really like about Taiwan
1. people who stare at me, and they do ALL THE TIME
2. the traffic
3. dog crap lying on the sidewalk
3. MSG
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
hey
so i hope that the email i sent you before you went was good help and accurate information? have you seen the beetlenut beauties yet?
I think Taiwan is going to suffer the consequences of its disregard for the environment pretty soon. Already I am hearing about acid rain with the pH of 4 in some areas. (yikes, always bring umbrella, Clara) A few years ago, the government abolished the use of plastic bags, although I suspect people still use them a lot. Plastic bags were really popular when i lived in taiwan. Everything could be put in plastic bags, even hot soup and noodles you buy from street vendors. As you can imagine, plastic bags were the number one waste hazard...
-Michelle
Oh, how are the street (feral) dogs and cats? have you seen a lot of them?
when i lived in Taiwan these animals were everywhere, carrying skin diseases and other nasty things. the government doesnt do anything about them...not even putting them to sleep.
Taiwanese are terrible about this...a lot of people buy puppies and kittens, and when they grow up and "get ugly" they just throw them out on the street. I was at Kending once and I encountered a box of about five puppies just thrown at the side of the road. Its terrible...
Animal rights activists would die of grief.
I wont even begin how they must treat the animals they sell in flea markets. I dont know if you've seen those vendors, but they break my heart. All animals big and small go in these tiny, suffocating cages. The baby bunnies they sell come from (i hear) research labs that use them and are usually sick--they dont live beyond a week after you buy them.
sigh. i hope things are better now since then.
-Michelle
The email that you sent me was useful and helpful. People have generally been much nicer than you cautioned me about. I have seen a betelnut beauty once when I got myself lost in order to explore, I didn't look too closely but that's what it looked like to me.
The plastic bag thing really hasn't changed much, anything I get comes with the offer of a plastic bag, which I usually refuse.
There are a lot of wild animals I think. It's sometimes hard for me to tell the difference between wild or just the storeowner's dog. But the tame dogs tend to be much better groomed, almost to the point of rediculousness sometimes. I've also seen wild cats wandering around as well, it's sort of novel, I haven't really seen things like that before. Other than that, I have seen many many animals in very small cages.
thats good to hear, im glad that the email helped. *false sense of importance*
:) Michelle
Hey, are betelnuts green and do they sort of look like acorns? Because if so, I think they're selling them on the corner of where I live and I just haven't noticed. I'm so clueless about some things. Like the time I walked in on one of my students getting chewed out by the head secretary of our school, I waved and he tried to hide so I wouldn't see him getting yelled at.
Post a Comment