We can't vote obviously, but we did enjoy all of the propaganda. On every available space around town, banners touting candidates sprouted up about a month before the contest. As we couldn't read them, our choices came down to the aesthetics of their advertising.
Ultimately, the DPP routed the KMT's island wide, which does not bode well for the KMT holding onto power when Presidential elections happen in 2016. The older people that feel reunification is inevitable are giving way to the younger Taiwanese that were born here and feel a sense of national pride. With the shit that went down in Hong Kong and the realization that the one country/two system thing was a pipe dream at best, can't see as I blame them. China dumped a lot of cash into this election to help the KMT and still came up with nothing.
The dude who won the Taipei mayoral race, Ko Wen-je, is a total character. An outsider that still takes taxis and the metro. If you have a few minutes, check out this interview with him from Foreign Policy magazine. My favorite line of his was about Asian history and colonization...
"For the [world’s] four Chinese-speaking regions — Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Mainland China — the longer the colonization, the more advanced a place is. It’s rather embarrassing. Singapore is better than Hong Kong; Hong Kong is better than Taiwan; Taiwan is better than the mainland. I’m speaking in terms of culture. I’ve been to Vietnam and mainland China. Even though the Vietnamese are seemingly poor, they always stop in front of red traffic lights and walk in front of green ones. Even though mainland China’s GDP is higher than that of Vietnam, if you ask me about culture, the Vietnamese culture is superior."
I said 'Wow" out loud when I read that one. I can't think of any conspiracy theories where the Chinese have taken out a foreigner by assassination attempt, but this guy is looking for it. And totally like how he put Taiwan #3 and didn't puff up his chest about the island's place in the world.
Speaking of taxi's, when I pulled up to Betty's office this morning to drop her off, a taxi was parked in the loading zone in front of us. The driver (complete with the 3rd season Brady perm), gets out and opens his trunk, and it is a hoarder's paradise...newspapers, tissue boxes, etc.
Betty gets out and the dude starts fumbling with his pants. She now has a better angle on the dude and I yell out to her asking if he's taking a piss. I wish I had a picture of her face, but picture her with mouth agape in horror. She yells back at me, "he's wiping off his dick with a tissue!" If he understood English, us catching him in the act didn't deter his cleaning regimen as he was working that thing over.
As soon as I pull out, I get behind this truck.
Carolyn has turned her math grade around and seems invested in getting good grades...is proud to show off her scores. She also has never burped in her life. None of us have ever heard it and she can't remember ever doing it. Is that weird and should we be concerned? She is also continuing with gymnastics (can do an aerial and contort her body in unnatural ways), and soccer. Her game is improving quite nicely and she could be a factor someday if she can get past playing nicely. She is as fast as they make 'em, has a decent leg and is the teams best at throw-ins, and if she ever learns it's OK to run someone over and take the ball away, she may be able to play on the school team.
She is playing currently on the Taipei Heartbreakers, which is a parent run club. We hire in coaches, but all of the administration landed in my lap a few months ago as the lady that was doing the bulk of the work got fed up and resigned. Some of the things are kind of a hassle, but I find the benefits outweigh those. Getting to interact with the parents is a nice social activity for the most part and yesterday, I got to coach them in their first ever time playing full field 11 v 11 game. Not a soccer guy and have no idea what to do at practices, but I love being on the sideline and working on game tactics. Some of the best days of my life was coaching Paul's recreational Seattle team for 3 years...the 360's. We were awesome and I loved channeling the spirit, humor and aggression of those boys into a team that was loathed but respected city wide. Yesterday's game was even played in low 50's weather, dark and grey skies, with rain spitting sideways in a constant wind. Pretty much all of the parents and players were whining about the weather, but to me, it felt like home.
We practice again tonight, and the head of our corresponding boys team, which is new this year, emailed to ask me if we were going to practice in the inclement weather and included this from the National Weather Bureau...
10 - 13 Celsius is Extremely Cold -Cold. That's 50 - 55 degrees Fahrenheit. I know I am a total wuss when it comes to the stinky humid heat, but that is ridiculous.
And Betty seems good. We are filling out our taxes and one of the criteria in paying local ones is the amount of days she spends in Taiwan or on the road. In 2014, she was on the road for 193 of them. Brutal. She does get to see a lot of things (the Taj Mahal and African safari last year with Machu Pichu coming up, but that is still a brutal amount. We do get to go on the odd family trip too and have a 6 day jaunt to Palau for Chinese New Year.
As for me...still recovering from that brutal Super Bowl ending and looking forward to pitchers and catchers reporting in less than two weeks. And the Aussie Rules season kicks off the end of March. Doing the volunteer thing at school, the Community Center and with the soccer club keeps me kinda busy, and working on our fabulous trips helps too. I forgot to mention in the Budapest post a conversation we had with our guide Judit. We were walking on the street and she turns to me and ask what I do for a living. Without skipping a beat, I point to Paul and Carolyn and say, I do volunteer work with special need kids. They were not amused.
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