Just had a new experience and felt the need to share. Most evenings when we eat at home, will run to the Shi Dong Traditional Market a block away from our place to grab some fresh veggies. Got into this habit last summer as it was so stinking hot that stuff would nearly spoil from the walk home from the store. The heat is back by the way...at 2PM yesterday afternoon, looked at the local weather website and the temp was registered at 95 degrees, but said that with the humidity, it "felt like" 105.
Anyhoo, I've talked about the Shi Dong Market before, how it sells not only veggies, but meat and fish, dumplings, flowers, house hold items, just about anything you need. I went to the Shi Dong for some garlic and broccoli today and as I was heading across the market to my coffee guy for a cup, a GAWDAMN SNAKE slithers right between my feet. And not a little one either, had to be at least 3 feet long. And I mentioned it was hot, so I'm wearing shorts and flip flops when this thing is making a run for it between the wickets. Hot on his tail were two dudes dressed in traditional Taiwanese snake handler apparel...wife beater undershirts that were once white but are now a unique shade of grey (I call it Taipei Granite)...who coral their pet in a bucket while their delightful "women" looked on.
Honestly, I played it very cool and did not scream or jump when it went by, but know that was due to the fact it happened so fast and that it was totally unexpected as I'm sure I would have freaked given a millisecond more time to process what was happening. After I got my coffee, walked past the booth where the group with the snake were sitting. The women were chatting, some of the men were playing cards, while the snake handlers were attending to the little fella who they had strung up in a noose on a pole, still very much alive. Had to stop and ask what they were going to do with it, but our mutual lack of knowledge of each other's language prevented a quick answer. After a bit of back and forth, including the international version of sign language that people of different dialects use around the globe, one of the dirty undershirt guys gets an excited look on his face and says to me, "Dinner!" and starts laughing maniacally. Good times.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Monday, May 27, 2013
May 27, 2013
Less than two weeks away from hitting the road for the summer. Next week, our friend Bob is coming to town for 5 days, so I will get to put my tour guide skills and knowledge of Things To Do in Taipei to the test. The whole family and Bob then head to Seoul, Korea for 4 days, where we will be visiting the DMZ and basically kicking it Gangnam style, and then to SF, Seattle and LA through August 8th. I hope to meet up with everyone a lot, please feel free to invite us over for dinner any night of the week (seriously, look at your calendars and book us cause we are going to get really busy), but please don't expect us to bring trinkets. For the life of us, we cannot think of anything to bring that would be universally enjoyed that we probably couldn't buy cheaper in the States. They do have some nice tea here, but don't know anyone that does proper tea...if you do, shoot me a note and will bring along some of the famous Taiwan stuff for you.
Heard a new term used to describe me three times over the last week...Trailer Spouse. The definition is pretty obvious, but I looked it up anyway and Wikipedia seems to nail it in this case. Other than lack of support by the company (Costco has been great to us), things like professional sacrifices, work challenges, even down to the extra issues seen by male gender trailing spouses are identified. I am not complaining cause as Tommy Lasorda would say, 98% of people don't care about your problems, and the other 2% are glad you have them. I really hadn't even thought much about it until I heard the term, and it was the moniker itself that bumped me a little. Synonyms for trail include; bedog, drag, hang and trudge. Could not find one that sounded positive although I will say that if I am a trailer spouse, then I am definitely a Doublewide.
Seems about the same time I was hearing this Trailing spouse thing that I was asked the question "what do you do all day?" by just about everyone I know, even the kids. I remember an old work acquaintance of ours who stopped working to stay home with her kids getting so bent about that very question that she would end friendships over just being asked it. While I thought (and still do) that she went over the top with her anger, I must say that I do feel a bit insulted as the question often comes out sounding condescending or accusatory. When I see you this summer, try inquiring a different way, but if you can't, here is the standard reply...my year has been busy getting the kids settled and thriving. I mostly keep busy with them, take some language classes and keep the house running. Next year is when I get to start replenishing my soul. Am looking to start working and have applied at the school to do some temp substituting/teacher aid/support staff, and if that doesn't happen, I might just write that book that's been kicking around in my head for years. Moving on...
Winding down the school year, the kids have been so amazingly adaptive and know that they will feel proud of themselves one day for making such a big life change so successfully. I'm certainly proud of whatever I did to get them to this point this year. Carolyn is in 4th grade and is not really given letter grades, but her teacher's all give great reviews of her efforts and her social calendar is always full having made a bunch of new and delightful friends.
Paul keeps his social life pretty close to the vest, but whenever I spy him at school, he has a bunch of kids around him and is always laughing. Fingers crossed that it continues, but he kicked some serious ass academically, getting straight A's all year, winning the 8th grade outstanding achievement award in math (not a small accomplishment in a school which is over 90% Chinese even though he is only 50%) and earning the President's Education Award for keeping a 3.7 or higher GPA throughout his 3 years of Middle School (complete with a signed letter from Barak himself). And he just won his baseball teams home run derby.
Heard a new term used to describe me three times over the last week...Trailer Spouse. The definition is pretty obvious, but I looked it up anyway and Wikipedia seems to nail it in this case. Other than lack of support by the company (Costco has been great to us), things like professional sacrifices, work challenges, even down to the extra issues seen by male gender trailing spouses are identified. I am not complaining cause as Tommy Lasorda would say, 98% of people don't care about your problems, and the other 2% are glad you have them. I really hadn't even thought much about it until I heard the term, and it was the moniker itself that bumped me a little. Synonyms for trail include; bedog, drag, hang and trudge. Could not find one that sounded positive although I will say that if I am a trailer spouse, then I am definitely a Doublewide.
Seems about the same time I was hearing this Trailing spouse thing that I was asked the question "what do you do all day?" by just about everyone I know, even the kids. I remember an old work acquaintance of ours who stopped working to stay home with her kids getting so bent about that very question that she would end friendships over just being asked it. While I thought (and still do) that she went over the top with her anger, I must say that I do feel a bit insulted as the question often comes out sounding condescending or accusatory. When I see you this summer, try inquiring a different way, but if you can't, here is the standard reply...my year has been busy getting the kids settled and thriving. I mostly keep busy with them, take some language classes and keep the house running. Next year is when I get to start replenishing my soul. Am looking to start working and have applied at the school to do some temp substituting/teacher aid/support staff, and if that doesn't happen, I might just write that book that's been kicking around in my head for years. Moving on...
Winding down the school year, the kids have been so amazingly adaptive and know that they will feel proud of themselves one day for making such a big life change so successfully. I'm certainly proud of whatever I did to get them to this point this year. Carolyn is in 4th grade and is not really given letter grades, but her teacher's all give great reviews of her efforts and her social calendar is always full having made a bunch of new and delightful friends.
Paul keeps his social life pretty close to the vest, but whenever I spy him at school, he has a bunch of kids around him and is always laughing. Fingers crossed that it continues, but he kicked some serious ass academically, getting straight A's all year, winning the 8th grade outstanding achievement award in math (not a small accomplishment in a school which is over 90% Chinese even though he is only 50%) and earning the President's Education Award for keeping a 3.7 or higher GPA throughout his 3 years of Middle School (complete with a signed letter from Barak himself). And he just won his baseball teams home run derby.
Saturday, May 25, 2013
May 25, 2013
I do a fair amount of Taipei bashing, but that is more the nature of this beast rather than an indictment on the city as I have well documented issues with being hyper-critical. The infrastructure is good; efficient and cost efficient transportation, convenient and accessible health care, and clean drinking water being the most obvious examples. The architecture overall is uninspired, but I think that is mostly do to the speed with which the city and country grew from basically an afterthought before 1949, into today's Asian Tiger. You do see a lot of the newer stuff having a bit of architectural flair and creativity. The reason I got to thinking about this today was I saw them repairing a pot hole this morning and it struck me that I hadn't drivin into a pot hole before. With all the precipitation and pounding the streets get, that fact seems most amazing and is a testament to a well run city. When you see construction or maintenance projects going on around town, the speed at which they are completed just astounds. Coming from Seattle and LA, dealing with the most minor of fix-it projects taking months of traffic snarling detours was expected, and watching the same kind of street repairs being completed in days is so refreshing. Am all for "code" and government approval processes, and living in seismically active spots like all of the above, understand that strict adherence to building standards is critical, but just feel like they are handled far more efficiently in this society. We'll see what happens when the shit hits the fan as there are notorious stories of corruption with regard to the Taiwanese government officials.
I think we've either grown accustomed to Taiwan, or have lived here too long. In Chinese class a while ago, we got on the topic of bugs and how the teacher was afraid of spiders. Coming from the PNW, spiders are THE bug, and waking through a spider web, getting your face tangled up in one is just part of daily life. Haven't noticeda significant spider population but rather, the cockroaches here are THE bug. The teacher was saying that growing up with them, that they have become her pengyou (Chinese for friend), but they still make me uneasy. We were walking to dinner the other night, and a big one is crossing the street in front of us, and whereas before, Carolyn would freak and run behind me for protection, she just sorta non-chalantly pointed it out and said "that's a big one". We might as well embrace their love. I just read this article about them that says they can have virgin births, can survive for hours without oxygen or in a nuclear war, and can live for hours without their heads. I was betting on the kids to take care of me in my old age, but think the cockroaches might be better suited to the task.
Another little cultural difference tidbit for today is how time is perceived. Westerners view time on a horizontal line while Chinese view it vertically. Grew up with terms like last and next describe time, while their counterparts are above and below in Chinese. For example, next Wednesday becomes below Wednesday. Doesn't seem like much, but it carries into everyday life in odd ways and it explains something that has always confused me. When we (Westerners) wave to some one to come here, we will pull our hand towards us horizontally. I kept seeing locals waving their hands in a top to bottom vertical movement, like one would imply another to quiet down, but realized that that is the "come here" motion. One of my favorite scenes from Inglorious Bastards is the one in the bar where the guy wants three beers, but holds up three fingers as an American would, not in the German way. The German sees it and his suspicions that the guy is a spy are confirmed, and as it's a Tarantino film, a bloody shootout ensues. Think I better work on learning more of the hand motions so I don't cause an international incident. I am a big fan of flipping the bird on the road, but don't feel satisfied with the responses. Haven't figured out what the local equivalent is. Will get back to you on that.
Finally for today, saw the new Fast and Furious last night. So mind-numbingly great. Was watching CNN International the afternoon before going to see it and they were having a sit down interview with Vin Diesel and were discussing his acting "craft". I know...CNN International has time in their schedule to interview Vin Diesel? But I was impressed that he knew the meaning of the word archetype and used it correctly in a sentence (and yes, wearing a wife-beater IS an archetype). Anyhoo, once you suspend your belief in reality and the laws of physics, the movie was everything I could hope for from the Fast franchise. My favorite line in the flick, and one the kids are already tired of hearing me quote, was when Diesel character, Dominic Toretto, says to his old girlfriend (that has risen from the dead, natch)..."Show me how you drive, and you show me how you live." Truer words my friend.
I think we've either grown accustomed to Taiwan, or have lived here too long. In Chinese class a while ago, we got on the topic of bugs and how the teacher was afraid of spiders. Coming from the PNW, spiders are THE bug, and waking through a spider web, getting your face tangled up in one is just part of daily life. Haven't noticeda significant spider population but rather, the cockroaches here are THE bug. The teacher was saying that growing up with them, that they have become her pengyou (Chinese for friend), but they still make me uneasy. We were walking to dinner the other night, and a big one is crossing the street in front of us, and whereas before, Carolyn would freak and run behind me for protection, she just sorta non-chalantly pointed it out and said "that's a big one". We might as well embrace their love. I just read this article about them that says they can have virgin births, can survive for hours without oxygen or in a nuclear war, and can live for hours without their heads. I was betting on the kids to take care of me in my old age, but think the cockroaches might be better suited to the task.
Another little cultural difference tidbit for today is how time is perceived. Westerners view time on a horizontal line while Chinese view it vertically. Grew up with terms like last and next describe time, while their counterparts are above and below in Chinese. For example, next Wednesday becomes below Wednesday. Doesn't seem like much, but it carries into everyday life in odd ways and it explains something that has always confused me. When we (Westerners) wave to some one to come here, we will pull our hand towards us horizontally. I kept seeing locals waving their hands in a top to bottom vertical movement, like one would imply another to quiet down, but realized that that is the "come here" motion. One of my favorite scenes from Inglorious Bastards is the one in the bar where the guy wants three beers, but holds up three fingers as an American would, not in the German way. The German sees it and his suspicions that the guy is a spy are confirmed, and as it's a Tarantino film, a bloody shootout ensues. Think I better work on learning more of the hand motions so I don't cause an international incident. I am a big fan of flipping the bird on the road, but don't feel satisfied with the responses. Haven't figured out what the local equivalent is. Will get back to you on that.
Finally for today, saw the new Fast and Furious last night. So mind-numbingly great. Was watching CNN International the afternoon before going to see it and they were having a sit down interview with Vin Diesel and were discussing his acting "craft". I know...CNN International has time in their schedule to interview Vin Diesel? But I was impressed that he knew the meaning of the word archetype and used it correctly in a sentence (and yes, wearing a wife-beater IS an archetype). Anyhoo, once you suspend your belief in reality and the laws of physics, the movie was everything I could hope for from the Fast franchise. My favorite line in the flick, and one the kids are already tired of hearing me quote, was when Diesel character, Dominic Toretto, says to his old girlfriend (that has risen from the dead, natch)..."Show me how you drive, and you show me how you live." Truer words my friend.
Friday, May 17, 2013
May 17, 2013
Some random thoughts for today.
I heard a quote on a podcast the other day that rang true for me. "My pet peeves keep multiplying, so am having them spayed/neutered."
Yesterday was the Wanan Air Raid drill. At a designated time and date each year in the major cities, they test the air raid sirens and certain crowd control procedures. They tell people to get off the roads and indoors for a half an hour and will fine you if you disobey. Not great audio, but this it what it sounds like. I remember they used to test the sirens in SoCal when I was young, early 70's, but they stopped doing it around then for whatever reason. And also recall seeing a lot of Fallout Shelter signs around in those days but haven't noticed one in years. Obviously, the fear of the mainland taking out the island was more of a recent real possibility here, but you don't feel a lot of fear of that from the population these days. I read two articles about the Taiwanese military recently. The first was about the recent change in the Taiwanese army from conscripted force to volunteer army, but they are coming up woefully short in numbers as the society is doing well and kids have a better chance of making more money outside of the military. The other was an interview with the US State Department attaché on Taiwan affairs admonishing the Taiwanese for not being responsible for their own defenses by not keeping up with the mainland on arms purchases. Such bullshit and so transparent. Which got me thinking that Taiwan should go the way of Costa Rica and do away with their military altogether. The mainland would never militarily attack Taiwan at this point as it is far too valuable as is, and they are so damn patient that they will just wait until the day they will voluntarily unify. We get so pissed at the PRC for not being more engaged with things like North Korea, but they have it right in just letting the game play out as they know they will win in the end more often than not. Such a smarter way of conducting policy rather than the feeling of needing to intervene somehow that is de rigueur in the US. I think going military-less would be the ultimate power move, they could throw that money into an already impressive domestic infrastructure, and be the darling of the free world. Proposed this in the car to Betty and she was horrified, and know there would be uproar from the older generation with direct memories of the exodus from China, but think it's a genius move.
The other day we're stopped at a traffic light, and the Chinese people in the car in front of us all get out and shift positions in the car. Surprisingly, the kids knew what a Chinese fire drill was and they were excited to see one performed by actual Chinese. I asked if they knew what a Polish fire drill was...that's when they get out of the car, but lock the keys inside. I miss polish jokes...Why wasn't Christ born in Poland? They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
Have noticed they name a lot of things Mister. There is Mr. Christmas (which has never been open so don't know what's going on inside)
The racially insensitive coffee chain Mr. Brown (more iPhone picture issues)
Felt hat and lederhosen wearing Mr. Mark.
And Taipei's favorite donut mogul, Mister Donut
Mister Donut is the hugest letdown. When you look in the case, you see these beautiful looking, Homer Simpson mouth watering donuts, but bite into one and it tastes like a piece of cardboard. They left out the gawddamn sugar!. And what do you think they do with all of the sweet stuff they didn't use in the donuts? Of course they put it into their bread and sausages. It's truly a bizzarro food situation.
Talking about this sweet and sour / ying and yang at dinner (at Din Tai Fung, so yummy. Locations in both LA and Seattle and you need to go and have the soup dumplings if you haven't already. Go today.) with the kids the other night, and Betty and I related one of our favorite food stories. It was at breakfast before a long ago day at Bumbershoot and our buddy Howie was in town. We went to Beth's (home of the 6 egg omelet, and surly aggressively pierced and or tattooed waitresses), and Howie orders the breakfast special of bacon and eggs served with pancakes, waffles or French toast. The problem was that Howie didn't notice the word or on the menu, and when the waitress asked which of the three he wanted, he gave her a look that was half confusion/half disappointment. Not skipping a beat, she looks at him and says, "you thought you were going to get all three, didn't you?" His sheepish reply of 'Yes' was so damn priceless.
Carolyn has been playing a little baseball at school. Nothing much to say about it, but thought she looked cute in the catcher's gear so had to share. This is when I asked her how many outs there were?
And it's hard to see her expression, but this is when I asked if she had her cup on.
I heard a quote on a podcast the other day that rang true for me. "My pet peeves keep multiplying, so am having them spayed/neutered."
Yesterday was the Wanan Air Raid drill. At a designated time and date each year in the major cities, they test the air raid sirens and certain crowd control procedures. They tell people to get off the roads and indoors for a half an hour and will fine you if you disobey. Not great audio, but this it what it sounds like. I remember they used to test the sirens in SoCal when I was young, early 70's, but they stopped doing it around then for whatever reason. And also recall seeing a lot of Fallout Shelter signs around in those days but haven't noticed one in years. Obviously, the fear of the mainland taking out the island was more of a recent real possibility here, but you don't feel a lot of fear of that from the population these days. I read two articles about the Taiwanese military recently. The first was about the recent change in the Taiwanese army from conscripted force to volunteer army, but they are coming up woefully short in numbers as the society is doing well and kids have a better chance of making more money outside of the military. The other was an interview with the US State Department attaché on Taiwan affairs admonishing the Taiwanese for not being responsible for their own defenses by not keeping up with the mainland on arms purchases. Such bullshit and so transparent. Which got me thinking that Taiwan should go the way of Costa Rica and do away with their military altogether. The mainland would never militarily attack Taiwan at this point as it is far too valuable as is, and they are so damn patient that they will just wait until the day they will voluntarily unify. We get so pissed at the PRC for not being more engaged with things like North Korea, but they have it right in just letting the game play out as they know they will win in the end more often than not. Such a smarter way of conducting policy rather than the feeling of needing to intervene somehow that is de rigueur in the US. I think going military-less would be the ultimate power move, they could throw that money into an already impressive domestic infrastructure, and be the darling of the free world. Proposed this in the car to Betty and she was horrified, and know there would be uproar from the older generation with direct memories of the exodus from China, but think it's a genius move.
The other day we're stopped at a traffic light, and the Chinese people in the car in front of us all get out and shift positions in the car. Surprisingly, the kids knew what a Chinese fire drill was and they were excited to see one performed by actual Chinese. I asked if they knew what a Polish fire drill was...that's when they get out of the car, but lock the keys inside. I miss polish jokes...Why wasn't Christ born in Poland? They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.
Have noticed they name a lot of things Mister. There is Mr. Christmas (which has never been open so don't know what's going on inside)
Talking about this sweet and sour / ying and yang at dinner (at Din Tai Fung, so yummy. Locations in both LA and Seattle and you need to go and have the soup dumplings if you haven't already. Go today.) with the kids the other night, and Betty and I related one of our favorite food stories. It was at breakfast before a long ago day at Bumbershoot and our buddy Howie was in town. We went to Beth's (home of the 6 egg omelet, and surly aggressively pierced and or tattooed waitresses), and Howie orders the breakfast special of bacon and eggs served with pancakes, waffles or French toast. The problem was that Howie didn't notice the word or on the menu, and when the waitress asked which of the three he wanted, he gave her a look that was half confusion/half disappointment. Not skipping a beat, she looks at him and says, "you thought you were going to get all three, didn't you?" His sheepish reply of 'Yes' was so damn priceless.
Carolyn has been playing a little baseball at school. Nothing much to say about it, but thought she looked cute in the catcher's gear so had to share. This is when I asked her how many outs there were?
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
May 15, 2013
When the calendar turned over into May, the weather started to get sticky hot again. On a "clear" day, you really can't see the sky as the humidity and pollution combine to give the visual effect of a really dirty steam room. Even the afternoon rain showers don't cool it off for long and the sweat river running down my back, and into the Chatahoochee canal, flows non-stop. And it doesn't get much better when the sun goes down, routinely waking up to go pee only to come back to feel the sheets wet from a puddle of sweat. Am up to two body temperature lowering/sweat cleaning showers a day and they don't seem to be able to wash off the BO for long. It hasn't even hit the unbearable stage yet but the kids and I are very much looking forward to the apartment pool opening in June, and hitting the road to the states on June 8th. So for those of you keeping score, totally avoid Taipei June-September, with October/November and March/April being the sweet spots.
Carolyn's Sunday soccer games, which started in October and are nearly every week, finally ended, so we took the opportunity of a free day with mom in town to go see something new. Had heard about Yehliu Geopark from a few peoples, so decided to check it out. About an hour north of Taipei on the coast, it's a spit of land that has some interesting rock formations due to erosion (wind and water). The linked website claims it is "one of the most famous wonders of the world", but we had never heard of it before. They did have a rock shaped like a slipper
This is supposed to be some kind of bird
Pretty cool way to spend an afternoon, but world famous?
As is my tradition, left my scent for the rest of the animal kingdom to enjoy.
WARNING! The rest of this entry is going to get into some pretty graphic potty talk, so if that ain't your thing, please skip to the next entry.
Yes, peeing in exotic places is one of my "things". Not proud of it, just kinda takes over my mind, body and soul. Betty posted the above picture on Facebook and our friend Laurie offered to share the photo from my last night at college. This is one of the events from that time that always seems to get brought up whenever two or more of us get together. It was my last night in DC after graduation (I graduated in January, so was the only one leaving town), and a pile of us went out drinking. Drinking age in DC when we went there was 18 (how great was that), so we had the bar hopping thing down by senior year. Not a lot is remembered about that night, I do recall finishing the night off at the Charring Cross before heading back to the group house a lot of us shared for a night cap. My flight out the next morning was at 8AM and remember puking for the bulk of the flight home. A couple months later, Laurie calls me up and said she just got her film (this is '87, you had to wait to see your snaps, the youngsters can look up the word "film" on the Internet) back from that night and there is a picture of me half naked (the wrong half), standing in the shower peeing on her vacuum. I later saw the photo and you can see the stream from me hitting the vacuum. Quite a good shot actually. The photographer remains anonymous.
As I reflect on this personal affectation, I was thinking this was the initial episode, but then remembered another story that gets tossed around every time the family gets together. It seems as a young child (6ish), I enjoyed peeing on/in things around the house. For some reason, the curtains in my room were a favored target. In later years, when I was around 20 or so, during some family function my mom decided to talk about the day she discovered this particular peccadillo. I felt it was time to come clean about another place that I liked to urinate, and that was in a decorative brass bucket/urn that was in the living room. Horrified, and unaware this was also defiled a decade previously, she ran to the bucket to investigate. While the liquid had evaporated long ago, its residue had tarnished the brass into a (rather attractive) green mold/mildew. My dad bought that bucket on a trip to Japan years previously and was quite nice, so she cleaned it up and put it back in its location. Years later, as she was moving out of the family home into a small apartment, it was a piece that I knew I had to have, and it now sits in our living room as a totem to this simpler time.
Completing today's body function jag, the toilets here are a revelation. Am not talking about squat pots, which are barbaric and are thankfully working their way out of this society, but the Western style. Remember the below"do/don't" sign posted in bathrooms around town (funny in so many ways), and the second on the right helps inform people that are used to squat pots not to use the western toilets as you would a squat pot.
And what the hell are they fishing for in a toilet by the way? Makes you think twice about ordering the seafood special.
I'm not a toilet engineer so cannot say how they designed it, but am amazed that they have developed a toilet that seems impervious to being clogged. No matter how much paper is needed, or how large the movement is, it just never gets stopped up. I have a long history of plugging a drain, and Paul must have inherited this gene as he is also more than capable of doing so as well, but we have not managed to clog it once in 11 months. While they must exist, have never stumbled across a plunger being sold at any store. Kudos to the locals for their ingenuity.
The only drawback to this toilet, and is probably due to the above flow-through technology, is that you can never see your feces in the bowl. Dating back to the college days and hanging out at my buddy Matt's apartment, examining one's output has been a...let's call it a hobby...of mine. We didn't always eat very healthily in those days. Add to that some borderline alcoholism, and we would produce some pretty scary bowel movements. In a way, I think we were subconsciously looking at them to make sure we had not done damage to our insides. Kind of a self diagnosis, but we would often be so amazed at what we left in the bowl that we would call to each other to come look, and marvel, at it. This habit has followed along to this day and cannot resist taking a peek at what's what after using the commode, but it has been some time since I've been able to check it out due to these toilets. I know that we were not the only ones with this affliction as there is a website called Rate My Poo, where people submit photos and name their excrement for others to rate and comment. Always a favorite site for the kiddies. I am not an exhibitionist and have never submitted, but it is good to know that I am not alone.
I knew you would stay with me even though I warned you about the poopy talk, but know you are still sorry you did. And if you want to check out Rate My Poo, you can do it here.
Carolyn's Sunday soccer games, which started in October and are nearly every week, finally ended, so we took the opportunity of a free day with mom in town to go see something new. Had heard about Yehliu Geopark from a few peoples, so decided to check it out. About an hour north of Taipei on the coast, it's a spit of land that has some interesting rock formations due to erosion (wind and water). The linked website claims it is "one of the most famous wonders of the world", but we had never heard of it before. They did have a rock shaped like a slipper
And a piggy snout
This is supposed to be some kind of bird
A bit further down the peninsula was a cave
As is my tradition, left my scent for the rest of the animal kingdom to enjoy.
WARNING! The rest of this entry is going to get into some pretty graphic potty talk, so if that ain't your thing, please skip to the next entry.
Yes, peeing in exotic places is one of my "things". Not proud of it, just kinda takes over my mind, body and soul. Betty posted the above picture on Facebook and our friend Laurie offered to share the photo from my last night at college. This is one of the events from that time that always seems to get brought up whenever two or more of us get together. It was my last night in DC after graduation (I graduated in January, so was the only one leaving town), and a pile of us went out drinking. Drinking age in DC when we went there was 18 (how great was that), so we had the bar hopping thing down by senior year. Not a lot is remembered about that night, I do recall finishing the night off at the Charring Cross before heading back to the group house a lot of us shared for a night cap. My flight out the next morning was at 8AM and remember puking for the bulk of the flight home. A couple months later, Laurie calls me up and said she just got her film (this is '87, you had to wait to see your snaps, the youngsters can look up the word "film" on the Internet) back from that night and there is a picture of me half naked (the wrong half), standing in the shower peeing on her vacuum. I later saw the photo and you can see the stream from me hitting the vacuum. Quite a good shot actually. The photographer remains anonymous.
As I reflect on this personal affectation, I was thinking this was the initial episode, but then remembered another story that gets tossed around every time the family gets together. It seems as a young child (6ish), I enjoyed peeing on/in things around the house. For some reason, the curtains in my room were a favored target. In later years, when I was around 20 or so, during some family function my mom decided to talk about the day she discovered this particular peccadillo. I felt it was time to come clean about another place that I liked to urinate, and that was in a decorative brass bucket/urn that was in the living room. Horrified, and unaware this was also defiled a decade previously, she ran to the bucket to investigate. While the liquid had evaporated long ago, its residue had tarnished the brass into a (rather attractive) green mold/mildew. My dad bought that bucket on a trip to Japan years previously and was quite nice, so she cleaned it up and put it back in its location. Years later, as she was moving out of the family home into a small apartment, it was a piece that I knew I had to have, and it now sits in our living room as a totem to this simpler time.
And what the hell are they fishing for in a toilet by the way? Makes you think twice about ordering the seafood special.
I'm not a toilet engineer so cannot say how they designed it, but am amazed that they have developed a toilet that seems impervious to being clogged. No matter how much paper is needed, or how large the movement is, it just never gets stopped up. I have a long history of plugging a drain, and Paul must have inherited this gene as he is also more than capable of doing so as well, but we have not managed to clog it once in 11 months. While they must exist, have never stumbled across a plunger being sold at any store. Kudos to the locals for their ingenuity.
The only drawback to this toilet, and is probably due to the above flow-through technology, is that you can never see your feces in the bowl. Dating back to the college days and hanging out at my buddy Matt's apartment, examining one's output has been a...let's call it a hobby...of mine. We didn't always eat very healthily in those days. Add to that some borderline alcoholism, and we would produce some pretty scary bowel movements. In a way, I think we were subconsciously looking at them to make sure we had not done damage to our insides. Kind of a self diagnosis, but we would often be so amazed at what we left in the bowl that we would call to each other to come look, and marvel, at it. This habit has followed along to this day and cannot resist taking a peek at what's what after using the commode, but it has been some time since I've been able to check it out due to these toilets. I know that we were not the only ones with this affliction as there is a website called Rate My Poo, where people submit photos and name their excrement for others to rate and comment. Always a favorite site for the kiddies. I am not an exhibitionist and have never submitted, but it is good to know that I am not alone.
I knew you would stay with me even though I warned you about the poopy talk, but know you are still sorry you did. And if you want to check out Rate My Poo, you can do it here.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
May 14, 2013
Had our first opportunity to engage with the local health care system today. Received a call from the school nurse that Carolyn fell and smacked her elbow, and that she may have broken it. Ran over to school and it looked pretty swollen, and poor baby doll was looking very sad and hurt. By that point, she was starting to worry about her hair, so I suspected it wasn't too bad, but the nurse and I agreed that having an x-ray was in order. Taiwan has universal health care, and after a couple of months living here, you are allowed to apply for a National Health Card and it is supposed to cover all your health needs. As this was our first time, did not know exactly what to do, but the nurse and our cousin Sharon said we should go to Cheng Hsin General Hospital, which is about 5-10 minutes from our house and school. There is another hospital across the street that is supposed to be better, more for longer term care, but is also busier. Cheng Hsin was said to be less crowded and more foreigner friendly, which was important as it was just Carolyn and I.
A taxi dropped us off at the emergency room entrance and the first impression was it was a busy as a subway station just before rush hour. Went up to the 'take an number' counter, grabbed one, and then said to the lady behind the desk, "Yingwen?" (Chinese for 'English'). She jumped up and took us around the corner to another lady, who brought us back and took us right up to the counter (and in front of the other pile of people in the waiting area). They both helped us fill out the form, and 5 minutes later, led us to another waiting area. This one had about 10 office doors that I guess were for different ailments and they parked us in front of one that said Orthopedics. After about 15 minutes, they called our number and we went into see the doctor. He spoke enough English to get the gist of her issue and sent us over to the next building for an x-ray and told us to come back afterwards. A 5 minute walk and they took her right in for it. Then we went back to the doctors office. He called us in about 10 minutes later and we looked at the x-rays together. No breaks, just a deep bruise, wrapped it up and gave us an icing schedule for a few days. He did offer to prescribe her some pain meds, which I thought weren't needed at that point so said no, but in retrospect...NEVER SAY NO TO PAIN MEDS! 5 minute taxi ride back to school and she was back in time for lunch.
Have to give the system a big thumbs up for efficiency. Had to take Paul in for a similar situation in Seattle a few years ago, and it entailed going to the regular doctor, then getting sent over to the hospital for an x-ray, then come back the next day to get the break (wrist) put in a cast.
I should probably note at this point that I took him in two days after his initial injury not thinking it was broken. Mom was out of town and she would have taken him in immediately, but I follow the "rub some dirt on it" style of parenting. Also remember having to deal with insurance companies, bills, etc. Didn't have to pull out my wallet other than to get the health insurance card today, which was nice. I hear that the Filipina maids that come here all get the cards and have whatever work needs to be done taken care of before they go home. Not sure how this Obamacare is going to shake out, but this deal worked really well for us today. Didn't have a lot of hope it was going to be easy as we're sitting there watching the gobs of people shuffling about (Carolyn commented that they were all old people) seemingly in chaos. I'm used to hospitals that feel more like libraries and thought there was no way we're getting out of there before sunset, but they have the system down and from the time I left home and we got back to school, it was about two hours.
Monday, May 6, 2013
May 5, 2013
I never put a cap on Paul's MUN trip. From what I can gather, he and the team did well, and with the real UN, there are no winners or losers, just a lot of meaningless chatter. He did win an award as Most Improved Delegate, which he didn't seem overly pumped about. His teacher said he should be, but Most Improved implies that one didn't suck nearly as bad at the end as he did at the beginning. The experience is great for any kid as you need to study issues and prepare a stand on them, then debate them on the fly in front of your peers and adult observers. He worked hard getting ready for it and am happy to report that he is still interested it pursuing it next year as he is applying for a Chair position at a Shanghai conference in November.
In the "What goes on in people's minds" file this week are the reverse walkers. On occasion, I will head over to the local sports complex to exercise with a few laps around the track. Bad knees prevent running, but it gets some cardio work in, and when it is stinky humid/hot (most of the time) you can work up a better than decent sweat. There are usually quite a few other people out there going in a typical counter clockwise direction, but about a 1/4 of the times I go, there is some oddball that is walking or running in the opposite direction. In all of those cases, they seem fixated on staring at everyone and it feels like an invasion of privacy and almost an attack. They are always Chinese, so it can't be a confusion coming from a country where they drive on the opposite side of the street or, like in Australia and the UK, where the horses race in a clockwise fashion. Seems like a simple cry for attention to me but wish they'd knock it off.
Something the kids and I goof on all the time is how some (a lot) of Chinese girls will do baby talk. The word for thank you is Xie Xie (pronounced shay shay), and the frequency with which we encounter young female sales people that will say it like they are 5 years old is alarmingly high. Whenever I hear the female baby talk in the States, years of listening to Loveline has taught me that it is usually due to arrested development caused by abuse as a young child where their speech patterns get locked into the age that they were molested. I pray that is not the case here as it is way more common. Betty pointed out that it is only the young unmarried girls that use the baby Xie Xie's and they jettison the infant speech when they get married. Must be a shock to the groom on wedding night after they consummate the marriage and he hears his bride give him a husky Xie Xie. To complete the cycle of life, there is another instant where women turn the corner into old lady mode, and I'm talking Chinese old lady mode here First of all, much like the baby talkers turn into "normal" women the day they get married, it feels like the normal women turn into cranky old Chinese shrew overnight. Much like there is no transitional fossil evidence that proves birds evolved from dinosaurs. First of all, they cease to use Xie Xie at all and just barrel through life like a bull. And watch your kneecaps if you are in a line or pushing your cart at the supermarket for the old bats as they will not think twice about taking you down. The cultural sociologist in me thinks they turn the day their sons get married and the daughter in law moves into the house, and they go from being devoted to their little prince, to taskmaster over the woman who is obviously not as good of taking care of their little baby as they are. This would also explain what happens to the baby talk Xie Xie'ers as their previously happy care free life just turned into a prison sentence with the mean old mother/warden crushing their spirit.
In the "What goes on in people's minds" file this week are the reverse walkers. On occasion, I will head over to the local sports complex to exercise with a few laps around the track. Bad knees prevent running, but it gets some cardio work in, and when it is stinky humid/hot (most of the time) you can work up a better than decent sweat. There are usually quite a few other people out there going in a typical counter clockwise direction, but about a 1/4 of the times I go, there is some oddball that is walking or running in the opposite direction. In all of those cases, they seem fixated on staring at everyone and it feels like an invasion of privacy and almost an attack. They are always Chinese, so it can't be a confusion coming from a country where they drive on the opposite side of the street or, like in Australia and the UK, where the horses race in a clockwise fashion. Seems like a simple cry for attention to me but wish they'd knock it off.
Something the kids and I goof on all the time is how some (a lot) of Chinese girls will do baby talk. The word for thank you is Xie Xie (pronounced shay shay), and the frequency with which we encounter young female sales people that will say it like they are 5 years old is alarmingly high. Whenever I hear the female baby talk in the States, years of listening to Loveline has taught me that it is usually due to arrested development caused by abuse as a young child where their speech patterns get locked into the age that they were molested. I pray that is not the case here as it is way more common. Betty pointed out that it is only the young unmarried girls that use the baby Xie Xie's and they jettison the infant speech when they get married. Must be a shock to the groom on wedding night after they consummate the marriage and he hears his bride give him a husky Xie Xie. To complete the cycle of life, there is another instant where women turn the corner into old lady mode, and I'm talking Chinese old lady mode here First of all, much like the baby talkers turn into "normal" women the day they get married, it feels like the normal women turn into cranky old Chinese shrew overnight. Much like there is no transitional fossil evidence that proves birds evolved from dinosaurs. First of all, they cease to use Xie Xie at all and just barrel through life like a bull. And watch your kneecaps if you are in a line or pushing your cart at the supermarket for the old bats as they will not think twice about taking you down. The cultural sociologist in me thinks they turn the day their sons get married and the daughter in law moves into the house, and they go from being devoted to their little prince, to taskmaster over the woman who is obviously not as good of taking care of their little baby as they are. This would also explain what happens to the baby talk Xie Xie'ers as their previously happy care free life just turned into a prison sentence with the mean old mother/warden crushing their spirit.
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