October 11, 2012

Was able to attend Carolyn's Field Day at school on Tuesday.  As with everything at the kids school, it was run like a well oiled machine.  Things start on time, are organized with kids moving efficiently and politely through their games, and done so with good humored discipline.  Got this photo of Carolyn and her new buddies (with Courtney on left and Valerie on right).  Their teacher said they are thick as thieves.

During the games, saw Paul's PE class coming in from their activities.  Is there a Middle Schooler that is ever excited about having their parent at school and call out to them to smile for a picture?

And the picture does not lie...he is looking more Chinese every day.

The kids played a bunch of really fun games with the big tug-o-war game at the end. 

The grand finale was the parent/teacher tug-o-war battle.  Cannot remember the last one of these I was in, but it was as fun as I remembered.  That's yours truly supplying the beef at the end of the rope.

Speaking of "beef", walking home from the school after Field Day and past by this place...not so much a store or even a truck, but rather an open air card table/rolling rack meat market.

Sitting at the computer showing Betty these pictures, and she says that this only seems weird to Americans, that this is how the rest of the world handles their meat, and that food safety professionals will tell you that this is fine for fresh meat.  By the looks of this vendor, there's no question the meat is hygienically prepared and that he is abiding by all the local FDA standards.

On Tuesday night, Betty and I went to the local Brauhaus (Wendel's) for Oktoberfest.  Great great time...hilarious German entertainment and beer fueled mayhem.  This clip is from a couple years ago, but it was the same guy leading the fun (although he's lost the mustache and gained a few pounds).  Fortunately, we were at "that" table and much like the tug-o-war earlier in the day, cannot remember the last time I danced on top of a table (although not remembering that is easier to believe than the tug-o-war).  Our girls (which were flashing the most cleavage by far) attracted the attention of the gay guy table and the most flamboyant of them was dancing with our table for the night.  We learned  that he teaches math at an all girls Catholic elementary school and has lychee martini parties every Friday night, which Betty was invited to but I was not.  I hate discrimination. 

Was taking a break on the smoking patio with some of the other Westerners (including Russians, S.Africans along with some Americans), most of them having been in country for several years, and talk turned to local driving customs.  It was heartening to hear them all describe their experiences exactly the same as I've been feeling, and that is, on the street, the Taipeinese are the nicest and most helpful people we've ever met, but once they get behind the wheel, that they turn into the biggest assholes on the planet.  They all agreed that the only way to deal with it was to drive just like them.  I am gonna come back to the states with driving skills that are so perverse as to merit jail time.  It really is an ugly side of them and cannot help but look at the "nice" people on the street and not think that they must be total pieces of crap.  It's my belief that for this society to take the next step in their development, they are going to have to do something about this dichotomy.

So I'm relating the above conversation in the car to Betty as I'm dropping her off at work this morning, and we are on a street with two lanes in each direction.  It's early and the roads are relatively clear in this part of town, and as we are driving on the road, getting ready for our right turn onto the Costco street, one of the local "blue" trucks is ahead of us in the left lane and slowly veers in front of us into the right lane as the light turns red.  So we're sitting there in the right lane with the truck in front of us waiting for the light to turn green, and the blue truck decides to go through the red light and MAKES A LEFT TURN!  Who remembers Bill the Cat?