Shopping

Shopping is one of the most common activities for us here. Most of the teacher friends that I came with were not able to bring much with them, or didn't on purpose, knowing that they could shop here. Buying clothes is quite an experience.

Let's start with shoes. There are LOTS of shoe stores around. (Not in my little town of course, but everywhere else I go). Shoes come in two major price groups -- leather or not leather with a vast price gulf between them. To buy good leather shoes will still cost you north of $60 up to 3x that but if you will deal with cloth or vinyl, they can be had for as little as $5.

I wear a 7 1/2 in the States, sort of the average American size and they are medium width feet. Here, people tend to have shorter and wider feet (all those years in the rice paddies) but I rarely have trouble getting shoes. I wear size 39 and most shoes run up to 40. Friends that wore US size 9, though are really in trouble and spending LOTS of time and money buying shoes.

My trouble is finding shoes that aren't outrageous looking. Taiwanese women tend to really be "into" shoes and wear really outlandish ones and, at these prices, can indulge themselves. It is much harder to find a simple pair of brown flats that aren't so wide that I walk out of them. But it is fun looking.

Clothes are a different matter. If you can get past the sequins and the bad spelling of word decorations, then you must find something in a western size. This can be a bummer when you walk into a store and the sales girl says "We have nothing big enough for you in this store". This greeting, all too common, is also often not true. What it really means is "I am not comfortable with westerners and I would rather if you just went away". However, sometimes it is true, and one's ego must learn to deal with suddenly becoming XXL!

It's all part of the "Taiwan Experience" and must be treated as such.