Annoyances

I was awoken this morning by thunder and lightening at 4:30 AM followed by a torrential downpour. Lucky for me, this is the first morning rain we have had since, remember, I am a bike commuter. I have a long yellow plastic raincoat with a hood and I rolled up my pant legs and wore plastic flip flops but was still pretty miserable when I got to work. This has put me in a mood to talk about the annoyances of living in Taiwan.

Let me start by saying that I basically really like it here, love the people I work with and most of the students. I have made some great American friends through this program that I hope I never lose track of. But there are things...

1) Obliviousness. I've decided this is the best way to characterize this very common trait among Taiwanese. This is what allows a woman with two half-grown children to ride up an escalator and stop dead at the top. It allows people to stop their cars right in the middle of the road (only one lane in each direction) while they run in and buy breakfast from a street vendor. This forces all of the traffic behind them over into the oncoming traffic. It allows intelligent, educated teachers to work in a school where the world's largest backhoe is ripping down sections of the school and not even wonder why or what will be done with the space. It allows the same teachers to look out the window at all of the students being summoned to a special "assembly" out on the field in the middle of the day and not even be curious why. Now, I recognize that I have always been a curious person (some might say nosy) but this drives me crazy!

2) Doors that talk. Fortunately I do not have to work in a store that has automatic doors. It is common for shops (both large and small) to have doors that open as you get close to them. Some have been set so that they don't open until practically your nose is on the glass, but the real rub is when the doors say "Welcome" and when you leave, they say "Have a good day!". I would lose my mind if I worked there.

3) The lack of "Yield" signs. This is something one becomes particularly aware of on a bicycle. Most roads in Taiwan have a dedicated lane on either side of the street for motorcycles and bikes. At an intersection, the merging lane has the right of way to turn and ride through this lane at speed. Quite a thrill for your average bike rider!

4) Being over mothered. I know I should not complain about this because it is really just because they care but I have managed to live 45 years without a mother and now find I have at least 10. Most of them telling me what I can't do. "You can't go there, it's too far", 'You can't eat that it will make you cough", "You can't ride your bike there, it is too dangerous". They all think I am absolutely a wild woman for taking bike jaunts (one for 27 miles each way to visit a friend in a not-too-distant city). Once I did that, they kind of backed off on the bike stuff. Then I walked to the nearest town -- 2 hours -- caused quite a furor, but they seem to have backed off a little on what I can or cannot do. Now unfortunately, they think all Americans must be crazy.

There is a flip side to all of this, of course. In those bad traffic situations, no one honks or swears (or shoots!) and it has also been a while siince so many people cared about everything I do. I just have to get used to the obliviousness...