Hey there,
The headline in town this morning: Taipei park visitors horrified by plants in pants. Some new planters at the park where plants are in pots that have legs coming out of them have caused an "uproar" with visitors thinking that there was a crime or "supernatural occurrence". I know they frown on drugs in this culture, but they are obviously on something with all the supernatural shit they see. The installations are quite cool looking and there are several pictures in that article. I should say were cool cause they park officials removed them due to this outrage.
I don't have numbers, but would guess that the number of scooters is a bit more than cars on the roads. At intersections with traffic lights, scooters are not allowed to make left turns like cars do, but are required to drive to the perpendicular lane that has the red light and wait in a 'scooter box' until the light turns green in their direction. Works well and makes sense. Taiwan News had this brief article that explains this 'fishhook' maneuver, but the crux of the story is about how two women were spacing out crossing an intersection and stopped to chat in the scooter box. One of the scooter drivers even snapped a photo of the ladies. There is a fine for doing this of NT$300 (about nine bucks), and while no reports have been filed, if one were to be submitted, "the perpetrators will be punished in accordance with the law."
Finally, we closed on our condo this week so we have a new address. Since we were not physically present, had to do everything on-line and spending a small fortune was shockingly easy. We did have a small hiccup as the people that were handling our funds needed some verbal authorization to their manager and since we were sleeping, delayed the transfer for a day. I had to answer a couple of security questions and one was the name of my high school mascot. I replied "Apaches" and heard an audible snort from the guy. Told him that it was a different time and not to be so judgy.
Not a ton this week. Going to a baseball tournament in Hualien this weekend and trust there will be some fun things to share. Hasta
