Hey there...a few non-sequiturs for today.
Had second semester parent teacher conferences for Carolyn yesterday. I know I've said it a few times before but really love all of the teachers at that place. Would much prefer to hang out with them than the parents, but I understand why they are reluctant to engage the parent community on a social level. Takes some huevos to come halfway around the world to this place to teach. And I know that they don't go after crappy teachers that are just looking for a paycheck and free airplane ticket, so what you get are almost exclusively interesting people that are excited to teach. I do feel bad for the single females though...and there are quite a few. I don't think they get much action as the local dudes aren't really appealing to them for the most part. The local girls do have an attraction for the single male teachers, so that pool of possible mates is shallower than they would like. These ladies don't come on to me obviously, but I have heard them lamenting this aspect of the overseas life several times.
Had good talks with all of Carolyn's teachers...they all feel she is smart, that she asks questions in class (which is unsual in this environment apparently) and they all think she has a positive personality. There was room for improvement in all cases of course, but their criticisms were mild compared to others that I heard. The conferences are set-up in the gym and each teacher has a table and you have 5-10 minutes to chat. If he is engaged with a parent/student, you sit in chairs behind them and wait, but you can easily hear what the teacher is saying. You are allowed to bring your kid if you want, but I prefer not to so the teacher talks to me, and not the kid, which is what happens every time the kid is there. The teachers don't pull any punches either...I heard the math guy, who is fairly aggressive in a nice way, talking to this kid and was saying, "if you don't understand what is going on in class, why are you not asking questions?". Pretty sure the kid gave the 'I dunno' shrug, cause the teacher then said, "Are you afraid of me?...You shouldn't be afraid of me but you obviously are." Yikes...the mom is looking at the kid and while I couldn't see her face, the poor kid must have been horrified. I was.
There is always a line-up at the core class teachers tables, and usually no one at the fun ones, like PE or Art, so I end up chatting with those teachers while I wait for lines to die down. The art teacher is a personal friend by this point, having had both kids, so I was telling him about the field trip he led that the entire 6th grade took a couple weeks back to some ceramic making district. I asked Carolyn how it was that night, and she said it was a little bit boring, but still fun, and that she was completely annoyed by one of her friends. I would consider the school to be affluent. Certainly more so than Seattle Public or any school I went to. A bunch of her chums all have chaufers, multiple nannies, planes, exotic cars, houses around the world, you name it. While I think we lead a pretty rich life, I pray that I am keeping my kids humble. I related to the teacher that Carolyn said that one of the classmates was bitching about how 'boring' the field trip was, and how she was disgusted when the friend said that she was going to call her driver to come pick her up and take her home. This is a 12 year old right out of some bad reality show. I told the teacher that if this was the only lesson Carolyn learned on the trip, then it was totally worth while.
Have railed on the long pinky nail before I'm sure. I understand that it is a symbol of the Chinese that indicates you are wealthy and don't have to do manual labor (and not the only indicator by the way) The fact that they (and this goes for anyone in any culture, cause there is plenty of that shit everywhere) feel it important to signify openly that they are somehow superior to those that have to work in the fields for their livelihood, and that they are somehow better because of it, gives me weltschmerz. (Great word weltschhmerz...think we all are feeling a lot of it these days) You are not only NOT better than the manual laborer that has the dark skin or fingers worn to the bone, you are the opposite of not not better than.
Now if you are using that nail for purely body grooming reasons, ewww. In either case, let's just agree that I won't touch anything that you have touched ever and that I will cease to have any interaction with you going forward. I was in line at the 7-11 the other day and saw the dude behind the counter open an envelope with his nasty colored (I wouldn't call it coffee colored, but it looked like coffee after you have poured in the milk but before it is stirred...kinda swirly) pinky nail. I thought, great use of his Chinese Army Knife and walked out before making my purchase. Could have sworn that I have heard people refer to the pinky nail as a Chinese Army Knife before, but a web search shows no such usage, so I claim coinage of that term. Think I'll put it on a t-shirt.
Have been to a lot of places last few years, and an experiment that I do in each of them is, when they tell me how much something is in the local currency, I ask them how much is that in real money. With the exception of countries that use the Euro, it is always assumed to mean US dollars and the answer is given in USD without hesitation or annoyance. Don't really have a comment or gag for this one, just an observation.
Something that confuses me in Taipei are handicapped people. I should say that Taiwan has National Health for all, that it is rated as one of the best in the world and that my experience (both personally and by word of mouth) is that it is exceptional. If any of my American friends think ACA/Obamacare is a socialist conspiracy, or whatever it is that makes people see red about it, I would love to have a conversation with you. You are obviously cool in that you are reading this, so have hopes that you have a rational mind and have simply been misinformed.
Anyhoo, the type of handicapped you see here is so different that what I grew up seeing in the States. I have never seen a deaf or blind person...not one in 2.5 years. We live around the corner from a place that treats kids with severe Down Syndrome and see them being wheeled around quite a bit. But other than them, I rarely see any other handicapped anywhere, with one exception...club footed people. See them everywhere all day long...people walking around with huge limps and one foot/leg turned at a 90 degree angle from their body. Young adults to old people...but never kids, which is why I don't think they have real club feet and suspect that 99% have been crippled in scooter accidents. This realization hit me when I saw one of these 90 degree-ers walking with a Chinese "little person" the other day. This was the first "little person" Chinese I have ever seen in my life...have you ever seen one? No, cause they are extremely rare, and I have a feeling that those that do get rounded up and sent to the Kingdom of the Little People.
Here's another one. Chinese people don't use tampons. This was not on my radar, but the other day, an acquaintance that knows where Betty works asks me if Costco could please start selling tampons. While I appreciated that she felt comfortable enough in our relationship to be able to ask this question, my reply was, "they don't". I then received a lesson from this group of ladies that they do not sell tampons in Taiwan (or China) period. That was really bad...sorry. Obviously a cultural thing...in researching it, can find no definitive answer as to why, but the reasons given range from that it is considered unhygienic to that it causes you to lose your virginity. These expat broads all said they end up bringing a suitcase full of them back from the States whenever they go. Delightful...glad I'm a dude.
Finally, and apologies in advance cause it usually ends up here, but saw some show the other day that demonstrated how astronauts poop in space. I could have guessed that there is some sort of suction that made sure the feces made it out of the spacecraft, so was not surprised by that. Nor was it unusual to note that they have to practice using the special toilet...what I did find interesting is how they have to practice. It is important to align your sphincter up to the suction tube perfectly, but how can you do that if you can't see either? With a camera and display obviously. Science is so great.
In related news recently, one of the rovers on Mars found an essential building block for life...methane. NASA is pretty sure it originated from Uranus.
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