July 27, 2012

July 27th, 2012

Two things you just don't see here that are not missed? Utilikilts, and dudes with big holes in their ears/aggressive piercings. Perhaps they haven't caught up to the enlightened PNW style, but have yet to even see one tattoo. Two things that we've see enough of already...deep core public nose picking and giant flying cockroaches. Actually, am starting to understand the nose picking thing. It's not super polluted (I grew up in LA in the 70's), but with all the scooters and life in a dense city must cause a lot of build-up and have found myself mining a bit more than usual. Like most of us, that activity is usually addressed in the anonimity of the car, but with more use of public transportattion and a lot fewer solo car trips by the locals, guess it's a gotta do what you gotta do situation. The cucarachas will take more time to acclimate to unfortunately. You can say that they don't bite and are harmless all you want, but it's still a total freakout when they come out of no where...and they always come out of no where. Cleaning up crumbs and putting food away from being exposed is a hyper-critical activity. Food waste can't go in the trash or even on a little counter compost bin...it must be put into the freezer. Then, you take it directly from the freezer down to the garage and put that into another common area freezer. Where it goes after that, just don't want to know. Not a bad habit to get into I suppose, but am starting to feel like the old guy in the movie Creepshow with the ultra-clean room. It's a Friday morning and am about to go p/u the loaner car (our car is a couple weeks from being ready). Totally pumped about getting behind the wheel but also a bit aprehensive. Have been watching the driving styles of the locals and it is a first to the spot game. Whoever gets their nose in front always has the right of way. Can live with that, but already am feeling like I'll be similar to the Asian drivers in the US forever looking for an address. Finding our way around while driving has it's obvious problems...first and foremost is the street signage. There are English words on many of the signs, but not all. We bought a Garmin GPS as we were told it was English compatible, but found out they discontinued that service recently due to lack of demand. Our new plan is to use Googlemaps in conjunction with a portable hot spot. Have been trying it out while cabbing around town and seems to work OK. The streets on Google are in Chinese, but at least the directionality has been correct so far. Betty just left on a two week business trip and the kids and I are gonna hit the road this weekend for the East Coast in search of cooler temps and play in the surf. Literally and metaphorically, this is where our rubber meets the road.