March 28, 2013

We had a 6.1 earthquake here yesterday...I was in the car and missed it.  It was centered in the middle of the island so Taipei didn't get the brunt of the force.  Watching the local news, they showed the obligatory camera shots of convenience store shelves falling over and people in elevators rocking and rolling.  One person died due to being crushed by the falling wall at a temple.  As you see around the world, the buildings that suffered the most damage were the un-reinforced cinder block style and everything else that was up to code was fine.  Someone told me the other day that the lovely mountain that our town sits in the shadow of is really a dormant volcano.  Good times.

I know that some parents award their kids with cash by bringing home good grades, but learned that they also offer other types of rewards here.  Was talking to some parents watching Carolyn's soccer game and it was a particularly heavy mosquito day at the park.  A couple of the parents said they offer money to their kids for bringing them dead mosquitoes.  Such a great idea, so have instituted a bounty system at home.  NT$10 for 51% of a mosquito carcass.  The compensation doubles to NT$20 if the mosquito was killed with a belly full of blood. 

Need to digress into a couple of quick road comments, so skip ahead a bit if these bore you.  First, I think that we have figured out the sticks on the front of cars are for.  Since a lot of bumpers on vehicles slope away from the driver and you cannot see where your car ends, and the fact that space is tight everywhere, the sticks help gauge how much room you have to maneuver into an small area.  Makes sense and they have been given my seal of approval.


The other road trait that has been bugging me of late is the use of turn signals, particularly when changing lanes.  Many drivers will start veering from one lane to the other without indicating, but once they are halfway, or more, into the new lane, they will hit the turn signals.  A bit late for that my friend.  THis is one of those tactics that whenever you see it happen in the States, you assume the driver is Chinese and it usually is.  Seeing it so widespread here makes you unbderstand that it isn't that they are novice drivers, but just bringing their style along with them.  Doesn't make it right in my book, but am willing to open it up for discussion to see if there is there is some reason for this totally annoying trait. 

There are a few interesting buildings around town, and had the opportunity to tour one of the more striking ones last week, the Grand Hotel.  The hotel sits on a hill side over looking the Taipei basin and can be seen throughout the city while offering commanding views of Taipei. 

 
It was built after the Nationalists came to Taiwan in 1949 as Chaing Kai Shek felt there were not adequate places for dignitaries to stay.  The architecture is traditional Chinese style and it's sheer size and hilltop location makes it quite an impressive site.  The decoration inside is also very ornate and they've done a decent job of keeping it in good condition. 


We got to see inside one of the rooms where we heard about some of the bad Feng Shui.  After the hotel was completed, the city planners routed the major freeway in town directly in front of the hotel, which cut off the flow of the building to the city.  The tour guide attributed this bad mojo to the death of General Chang a couple of years after the freeways completion.

Walking in the hallway to the rooms, the smell reminded me of they way the hallways smelled in Las Vegas when we'd go in the 70's.  A touch of mold combined with decades of cigarette smoke.  I must say that it wasn't offensive to me but rather brought back some childhood memories.

One of the big attractions of the tour was the chance to see the "secret" tunnels.  There is a lot of legend surrounding them, like they were connected to the far away airport and built so that General Chang could escape his enemies, and other ghost stories, but the reality is that they are air raid tunnels that connect the hotel to nearby parks and are big enough to hold up to 10,000 people.  The constant fear of the mainland attacking Taiwan for many years caused the Taiwanese to construct a lot of these shelters around town, and for good reason.  The tunnel we went into had a slide for the disabled to go down rather than the steep spiral staircases.  They wouldn't let me try it, and my Western butt didn't look like it would fit into the Eastern size, but am planning on sneaking Carolyn in there to go for a ride soon.

Spring break is next week, and to combat the stress we all are feeling from school, work and unemployment, we are off to Boracay in the Philippines this weekend for a few days.  Forecast is sunny and 84 every day, going down to 75 at night.  White sands and mango smoothies.  



Oh baby.