I.(am).Miss.America.
Okay, I get it. Everyone here has black hair and brown eyes. I have red hair and bright blue eyes. I know I stick out. I GET IT. But even so…does that really mean people have to stare? It’s mainly the older generation. I walk down the street and the old ladies just stare and the old men say HELLOOO because I’m sure that’s all they know in English. Okay, fine. I can deal with that.
It’s the totally random, broken English, conversations that people try to start that I am still trying to get used to.
Today: I get on the bus like usual, with my headphones in, trying to just enjoy the begining of my day.
I feel something on my shoulder from the seat one row back….tap…tap….tap.
I take out my headphones and turn around to find a semi-crazy looking man staring at me with a goofy smile.
“hi??”
“Were..do you come..fron”
“Hi..America..I’m a teacher.”
I smile politely and try to put my headphones back in.
Tap…tap…tap
“Were do you work?”
“I’m a teacher, I work for Gloria English School”
Still, he’s smiling with this crazy grin. From here on, I couldn’t understand anything else he said. His English was poor, which was okay, but I think his speaking abilities in general were somewhat off. He kept trying to say things to me and at this point I wasn’t even sure if he was speaking English or Chinese at all. I didn’t want to make a big scene on the bus, so I finally did my best to nicely say “I’m sorry, I don’t understand,” and hid away in my headphones.
I’d love to see someone in America walk up to a Japanese looking woman and bluntly just ask..”where do you come from??”
Found this on Youtube. So awesome.
Playing the crazy ping pong game at an arcade in Taipei.
(via cakebeef)
(i didn’t film this - but it’s something I see everyday)
Fun Taiwan Tidbit - Volume One
Don’t be fooled, that lovely tune is not the ice cream man….it’s actually the garbage truck?! Almost once a day I hear this tune somewhere in Taiwan, as the garbage man comes down a street, and the residents come out of their houses and put their trash into the truck as it slowely drives by.
I wonder what a Taiwanese would think if they heard a similar toon in the US, and came out with a bag of trash in hand, only to find ice cream?
One hippie in a sea of hipsters at Bumbershoot. Oh Seattle..
I got this e-mail from my brother about our old house is California. Let’s take a moment and be happy that he didn’t take me! Yipes. (click image of e-mail to be taken to googlemap link)
A smile of reassurance.
Today - on my way downtown to fill out my Visa paperwork to enter Taiwan - I happen to sit across from a happy Chinese man on the Blue Line. He was busy at work folding something into something. As it took shape, I tried not to stare but he was so intensly folding and happily gazing at his creation. Soon he finished what was now an origami bunny made from a map of O’hare airport. He sat it down next to him and looked up - while I was still sitting there watching. At that point I couldnt look away so I smiled and told him I really liked his bunny. He picked it up from the seat and gave it to me with a giant smile. I was more than happy to accept his gift and I think everyone else on the train was a little envious.
Life is good.
