Here is a street scene of Taiwan:
You'd hear rumours about how taiwan is a rough place where people don't really care about anything. I've heard those rumours also. They may be true, but i'd like to say a few good things about taiwan.
1) People are so friendly when you ask for directions. They'd spend some time telling me how to get to somewhere and would even go the extra mile to take me there. Then they'd ask: "where are you from?" and "then how come you can speak chinese so well?" etc. It's the same every time.
2) Thank-you is a word i hear often. The bubble tea lady would say: "xie xie xie xie xie xie xie xie" even when i buy a small drink and would give a big smile. Next time i will capture one and show you. Only the small street stalls give the smiles though, because it means so much to them when you buy something. How nice.
3) I've felt very insecure leaving my shoe at the door of the houses i live in. The door is almost touching the street, so my shoe would be very close to the public area. I asked my aunty why people don't steal the shoes left outside the house (because i thought taiwan was a corrupted country) and she told me that it is because nobody wants to steal such poor things. That did not make sense to me, because the average shoe left outside did not look poor. In fact, if i was a thief, the first thing i would steal would be those shoes. Actually, I've always wanted to be a thief and steal something. But that would go against all my values, not that i would do such a thing even without values. I've often imagined myself on game shows which allow you to go into department stores to do something sneaky and perfectly legal. One day i hope. So the point i'm trying to make is that so far i have encountered many friendly communities.
4) The Taiwanese are fair people. In Australia, when you get off the bus you would probably raise your hand or say a small thank you. In taiwan, the whole bus would chorus: "thank you bus driver!" to show their appreciation.
5) The first piece of advice i received from my uncle when i stepped off the plane was that the taiwanese road is very dangerous. They said that, unlike australia, there are pedestrian crossing lights, and that cars don't follow traffic lights, lanes or the general road rules. It was quite a scary experience the first few days but i slowly got used to it. Because the traffic here is so jammed, and most pedestrians do not follow the rules, cars are always on the look out to stop. I have concluded that it is almost impossible to get run over, so when i cross the road nowadays i barely use my eyes. Overall I enjoy the friendly culture.
Taiwanese kids barely get a life. I heard that school starts at 7:00am and finishes at 5:00pm. They go to tutoring after school and return home at 8:00. And if you want your kid to be a little bit better than the rest, they would need to learn some instruments, so that takes up another hour. Dinner at 9:00pm, have a shower and a rest and do your homework until bed time. It is no wonder I heard my cousin sleep-talking these exact words: "Kao shang ye mei yong" which means: "even if i get the scholarship and get into a good school, there is no use." I couldn't believe it when i heard it.
I walked into 7/11 with a friend holding two half-drank bubble tea cups. I placed the two cups on the counter and asked: "Hi can you throw these away for me?" "Sure," said the check-out boy. A granny who was lining up suddenly pushed in front of me and interrupted: "Why throw it away young man, doesn't it taste good?" I repiled: "No no no, it tastes really good, but it is not healthy so we don't want to damage our bodies." She said: "wowzers, you young man are so good!" She glanced me up and down and spotted a fruit wrap in the place of a sweat band on my arms. Fruit wrap:
She said: "Ni gan ma dai na ge?" ("why are you wearing that?") I said: "because i couldn't find a bin to throw and i don't litter." She choked a bit, opened her mouth wide for a while and stuttered: "ni zhe ge nian qing ren zen me zhe me huan bao?" ("why are you young man so environmental"?) I was sure that she was about to collapse onto the ground in awe of my environmentalism. I have finally figured it out - the reason why streets in taiwan is a bit trashy is because there are hardly any public bins or because people do not keep an eye out for the environment. From this, we can see that taiwanese people are less considerate and less well-mannered; if they have something to ask or say, they will do it. I enjoy this type of culture.
We visited some farming areas of taiwan and a highlight i saw was the way the farmers hit two birds with one stone.
The big yellow thing is a tractor and the white things which follow the tractor are the baby geese. The tractor would plow the soil thoroughly up and down and the baby geese would eat all the tasty worms and bugs which get flipped from the bottom of the soil to the top. Isn't that >nice!<>
"How to sell?" i asked. "8 dumplings for 30 or 14 dumplings for 50," was the reply. I thought about it for a while and gestured a thank you and walked away. The stall owner seemed a little flustered and said: "ey ey, or 28 for 100, or 56 for 200 or 112 for 400!" That didn't make any sense to me after thinking about it for a while. And I didn't stop walking of course. On the topic of stalls, i have learnt not to ask for the recommendation of the stall owner, because she (more often a she) will give you the worst item on display. e.g. i was conned into buying an unjuicy and unsweet 2kg-sweet-juicy guava which took me about 2 hours to eat.
I haven't talked too much about the tour because i am not as interested in going to places and seeing sights as i am interested in people. I have made many interesting observation and have learnt a lot about people. The motivation for this trip would probably be 80% people and 20% sight seeing. The motivation i'm talking about is the current motivation, not the motivation which drove me onto this trip. My mum was the force that drove me onto this tour; at first i did not even want to come back to taiwan. But now, i am loving it. What is the moral of this story? The moral is to listen to your parents in whatever they say. It is very easy to do. When i was young, my mum sent me to everything, yes that's everything, and now, i do not regret any of those things i did, in fact i would regret it if i had not have done those things. And if your parents tell you to learn chinese, learn it to the best of your ability. Take it from me, if not from your parents.
Now, come back and visit me. I will share my experience with you later. personally.
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