September 26, 2012

At this point in time, am still unemployed...last day on the j-o-b was June 22nd.  Must say that it's been weird not working, but have felt busy for the most part with moving, getting the family acclimated, dodging the heat.  With Betty on the road and the kids settling into a routine at school, thought it was time to get started with some activities for me and visited the local Community Services Center.  It is an English based organization that have classes and groups for the Expat community, and I went there as they offer a Survival Chinese language class that was recommended by a bunch of parents I've met at school.  Other than signing up for that class, also put my name down to attend some other one-day classes...a bunch of cooking classes and also some on learning about Taipei.  I attended a couple so far that were good, but they made me realize how much I can't stand "people".

Of course I like people...but realized that it takes me a while to like someone and probably longer for them to tolerate me back.  Let's put discussion of what "type" of person I am for the end of the discussion.  At these classes I encountered two types that make my skin crawl.  First, went to a cooking class on "how to" make Indian Paneer.  Was quite easy...to make Paneer, you boil milk, then add white vinegar or lime juice...the curds separate from the whey and the curds are basically paneer.  I've recited Little Miss Muffet a thousand times, but until that moment had never understood what curds and whey were.  Curds and whey are quite the super food apparently and are huge in a vegetarian's diet.  Add some half and half to the paneer and you have some cottage cheese, which I've always found to be gross, but is yummier in this form, especially when it's still warm.  Made some for breakfast and served it with mixed berries and jam this morning. Kids weren't over the moon about it, but I liked it OK and think I can do better next time. Later, you can compress the paneer into cubes and add them to kebabs, or put them in a butter curry (which we also learned how to make and will be trying soon)  So the class starts and about 10 minutes have gone by when this (loud) woman comes strolling in.  Some of the other students in class must know her cause they weren't surprised that she was late and started making jokey comments about how she is always late.  This gal seemed to be proud of the fact cause for the next few minutes we had to hear from her how she is always late and why she was this time (she said it was do to a long workout, but from the looks of her, wasn't nearly long enough).  And there was no remorse about disrupting the class but rather, it seemed to be a point of pride that she is always the one showing up late.  Of course she proceeds to ask every question possible about things that those of us that arrived on time had already learned.  "Hey bitch, it is not funny, it is NOT an endearing personality trait, and you are a huge pain in the ass!"  But her friends seemed to make light of it and I could only see it as encouraging her to continue along this annoying path she has chosen in life.  Making an open plea to you to not help enable these people, and if you happen to be one of these people, I beg of you to please get your shit together.

The other "type" was met at the class called "Taiwan Law and You".  Pretty essential to know some of the stuff they shared...I'm lucky in that a lot of what they covered about immigration and taxation has been handled by the folks at Costco, but the seminar was worth it for the section on driving laws alone.  While they have rules of the road that are nearly identical to ours, they are rarely enforced and are usually only cited when there is an incident or accident.  So all those BS maneuvers that the scooters/cars pull are totally illegal, but there is no ramification for pulling them unless there is a crash or injury.  It provided yet another reason to go against my nature and drive as defensively as possible...the last thing I need is to get into an altercation not on my home turf no matter how much in the right I am.  So in this class there was the "know/comment on it all".  The instructor is a US lawyer that has been in country for 40 years, so I'm going to assume that he know his topic, yet the elderly gal from Indiana had to add a comment for every point the guy made.  I'm good when a person has a relevant anecdote to enhance a class, but every time lady?  Here is how bad it got...talk was about wearing helmets on scooters and how it is one of the laws that is rigidly followed...if you aren't wearing one, you will be fined and it must be true as I have yet to see a scooter rider without one.  Someone mentioned bicyclists and how the law doesn't seem to apply to them as you rarely see a bike rider with a helmet.  This topic runs its course and then Indiana pipes up and says, "I know of no law that requires a bicyclist to wear a helmet, but I strongly recommend that you wear one.", and then goes onto describe the brain dead child of a friend of hers that wasn't wearing a helmet.  No shit lady...really?  I have been turned around on this helmet thing and thank you for that great recommendation...what's your position on smoking?  She reminded me of the lady at Carolyn's (4th grade) Back to School night that thought the kids would benefit from doing a book report every week.  It was obvious to me (and every other adult) that the draconian, eye-sight killing Tiger-mom style wasn't in this teacher's playbook.  The teacher was very diplomatic about it...not wanting to destroy a kids love of reading by making them hate it, and all would have been fine with her comment had she not then launched into a long diatribe about it and how she "strongly recommended" it become part of his curriculum.  I have never understood how people can miss-read social cues and go off on these sermons to groups of strangers in the belief that they are going to convert them to their points of view.  Doesn't there seem to be one of these in every crowd?  And there is absolutely no polite way to derail them.  Towards the end of the Taiwan Law class, I raise my hand, look directly at Indiana and say I have a question for (the teacher) Fred.  The question was about the law that says you can't wear "shower clogs" (flip-flops) while driving and I was curious about bare feet (as I drive barefoot almost exclusively).  He said that he did not know that for sure but I should assume no due to the "shower clog" law.  Indiana felt the need to add that "I would assume that too and who would drive without shoes?"

Yikes...have rambled on too long for today so no time to discuss what category of person I fall into.  Maybe some other time.