Little tidbits

Taiwan seems to be a year of so behind the US in the great "social movements".

They are currently getting concerned with childhood obesity (with visible good reason) and have removed all vending machines from the schools. Everyone talks about healthy eating and they are religious about recycling. The garbage men can fine you if you don't separate your garbage properly! I have not been fined, but I have been yelled at.

There is a definite decrease in the amount of smoking. I rarely see anyone smoking and when I lived here last, everybody did.

In 1972, we drank the tap water. With the increase in heavy industry, that is no longer possible. The heavy metals will kill you now or later.

Some things never change, though. We all have lunch from 12:00 until 1:15. A rather pleasant time with quite good food shared by all teachers in a nicely cool room. For everyone except me, though, lunch is something to be bolted so that you can get back to your desk and take a nap.

We have no water in the school today. Some plumbing issue that has caused an increase in employment for the plumbers of the area, but still not resolved. At lunch I mentioned that if this was in the United States, the Health Department would close the school. They all looked at me in confusion and wondered why.

Last night, they gave me a television! I never realized how much I missed it but with no TV, no radio, and no telephone, the nights are pretty empty. I've been going to bed too early, then waking up too early. The school had one they weren't using and my building is prewired for cable so now I am all set. There are 99 channels, only 3 in English, but Discovery, National Geo, and CNN (British version) will definitely improve my life.

This weekend, two of the other American teachers from the program and I are meeting in Taichung for a little R&R to the big city. It's not all that far but when limited to public transportation, it's a bit of a production.