I will get to Germany write-up next time...I have to...but for today, thought a brief What's happening - Coronavirus edition would be in order. I have to call it the Wuhan Coronavirus instead of the new Covid 19 as that is a WHO term and Taiwan isn't in the WHO. Thanks China
Have to assume that you are getting the broad strokes, but here are a couple local one I feel compelled to share. Not surprisingly, hording has begun. First it was the face masks and understand that those are sold out in the States too. Here, there has been a run on rice, toilet paper and feminine hygiene pads. Rice and toilet paper I get cause if we are truly quarantined, you gotta eat and you gotta go although I have been stocking up on water intsead of toilet paper cause I can find alternatives for that. The pads are interesting as they are being used to supplement and/or replace the lack of face masks. The government is rationing face masks and people are allowed to buy a certain amount per week. Have seen lines around the block on face mask selling days with people waiting for their allotment.
While you may have seen those reports, I bet you didn't know about the drastic steps Taiwanese soap operas have taken. They are toning down their kissing scenes out of respect for the measures the populace is taking during the outbreak. I don't think that is gonna stop the locals from making more locals and predict that with all the voluntary quarantining that there will be a surge in (year of the) rat child births 9 months from now.
Babydoll's High School, as with all schools in Taiwan, is still scheduled to remain closed through February 26th. Hong Kong just extended their closure to March 13th and fear we will follow suit. So far, the on-line thing hasn't been too bad for her. She likes getting up at 10am to start work. OK...1pm. Fortunately for her, she is a disciplined student and seems to be working hard but we will see what happens as the real test as to how this worked will be when she takes the AP exams. Have talked to many of the teachers and administration over there about this situation. While the school had procedures in place for just such a scenario, they had never been initiated so everyone is learning what works and what doesn't. I offered, and all have agreed, that this process is a great learning experience for them and the kids as tele-anything is obviously more prevalent in the world. They offered a few things that weren't working so well. One is a Middle School teacher and while most of the kids are behaved in an on-line class setting, there are always that handful of squirlley boys that can't control themselves and ruin the class for everyone. They are learning how to give them virtual timeouts and hope that the boys learn a valuable lesson here. The other comment I heard was that for some of these kids, the ones that have difficult home lives with overbearing/abusive parents, that school is their sanctuary and they are now stuck in a bad situation 24 hours a day. That one hurts. Anyway, here is an article from the China Posts that talks about our schools efforts in this area. A bit of a fluff piece, but still.
All in all, not so bad for Taiwan. The political pressure that China is exerting (like WHO denial and pressuring places like the Philippines to treat Taiwanese like mainlanders by excluding flights from here) is total bullshit. So far, the biggest effect on me personally has been with the cancelling of things. We have a trip to Melbourne planned for late March and the route we booked months ago has a layover in Hong Kong. So far, we seem OK with that transit as we're not entering HKG but that could change as Australia is rightfully quarantine conscious. With the overall reduction of passengers from Hong Kong, they cancelled the flight and booked us on another one later that day. Not completely awful but does mean that I am not going to be able to attend the Opening Game of the Australian Football League season by my Essendon Bombers that I had planned around months ago.
On the flip side, the school has cancelled two of the planned baseball trips (the third is pending). While that sounds bad, Betty has to go on a work trip to Egypt and folded in a few sightseeing days. As this is/was during the busy baseball season, as I was committed to that could not join her. With the baseball trip cancellations, am now in position to join her. Not a done deal, but close. I am giddy with excitement about that as I have been a nut about the place since the 5th grade. I vividly remember learning about Egypt in history class that year and that it was the first time I remember falling in love with history. It must have been obvious to the teachers as I was one of 10 kids chosen to go with the school to the King Tut exhibit in the Spring of 1978. You have to be at least my age to remember the hype that surrounded that tour. In reading that Wikipedia entry, I learned about the geopolitics involved with the dates between Russian and the US and the evolving alliances with Egypt /USSR/USA. It was the first time any of the Tut artifacts had been allowed outside of Egypt and King Tut mania was sweeping the globe. Tickets were hard to get and getting to go for free (and miss a day of school) was the greatest thing to 12 year old me. Who remembers this?
Other than that, pretty normal. We can go out and do stuff and need to cause you can get a bit stir crazy without human interaction. For example, last Saturday, talked Betty and a couple of friends to go to the Van Gogh Alive exhibit. That exhibit projects the works of Van Gogh all over a huge room and is worth your while should it come to your town. It wasn't crowded but wasn't as empty as I thought it would be due to the virus thing.. In the exhibit, they project some images on the floor and the shape is that of a catwalk. When you go in the staff tells you not to touch the walls but that you can walk on the floor projection space, but the locals all sat around it like it was made of lava.
After the show, we walked over to my favorite restaurant in town and getting out in the downtown area for a stroll reminded us how cool this little town is. We walked through the furniture district, saw a bunch of cool places to eat and drink, even a bespoke shoe store. I know I bash this dump with regularity for shitty food, poor driving and relentless heat, but have come to love it. We are probably blissfully immune to a lot of the political divide that the island has, but it sure feels a lot less split than what is happening in the States in this era.
One more unrelated Taiwan thing...this morning I ran into the first Chinese albino I've ever seen. Dude was giant too...like 6'2". I was walking along and he came at me perpendicular and kinda stopped me in my tracks. Striking he was. Walked behind him for a bit and all the locals would pass him going the other way and then all turn around to stare at him. That must happen to the poor guy all the time. No gag here, just sayin'.
One quick follow up that I forgot to share about Oman. On our drive with the tour guide we loved and who we talked about culture with, a question he had for us was about the cops. As we were driving, saw a bunch of speed cameras. He asked why is that only in America do cops pull people over for speeding. I had no good answer for him. We talked about racial profiling and police shootings, but had never thought about that before. Have been mulling that one ever since.
Finally for today, have a tip for you. If you loved and miss The Far Side comics, they are publishing a daily dose of them on the internet. Never a day where one of them doesn't put a smile on my face.
Talk soon.
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