Everybody loves a deal, Chinese are no different. We are coming into sale season so the "discounts" are intensified. Only they go about it a little differently.
1) When you buy gas, you will get a "present" -- something odd like a papaya.
2) To get the advertised 60% off, you must buy a LOT of them -- like 10 pairs of jeans.
3) At "better" stores, you may or may not get a discount but you will get a present -- like a blanket.
The only one that is especially enjoyed is that teachers get a discount on lots of stuff -- hotel rooms, books, not clothing usually but I have had it work. At payment time, you just mention that you are a teacher and see what happens. You might get a papya.
星期三, 3月 14, 2007
Spring
After a couple of false starts, and disappointing backslides, it appears that spring is finally here. It's funny, though, mornings are dark grey, cool, kind of foggy but by 9:00 it is glorious.
I thought this called for an agricultural update. I have told you that I am in a very rural area (or as my brother says "Karen's time in Green Acres"), and the second rice crop is now in. In between the fileds grew something else -- vegetables, sunflowers, garlic, etc. but now it is rice again. It isn't quite as backbreaking as it used to be. The small plants come in a roll like turf and a tractor kind of thing lays out the roll. Then they flood the paddies.
It's quite nice, actually. The plants are a lovely green color and egrets come and walk up and down the ropws. The only bad part is that at night there are frogs that are loud enough to keep me awake and all this standing water brings mosquitoes.
I thought this called for an agricultural update. I have told you that I am in a very rural area (or as my brother says "Karen's time in Green Acres"), and the second rice crop is now in. In between the fileds grew something else -- vegetables, sunflowers, garlic, etc. but now it is rice again. It isn't quite as backbreaking as it used to be. The small plants come in a roll like turf and a tractor kind of thing lays out the roll. Then they flood the paddies.
It's quite nice, actually. The plants are a lovely green color and egrets come and walk up and down the ropws. The only bad part is that at night there are frogs that are loud enough to keep me awake and all this standing water brings mosquitoes.
星期四, 3月 08, 2007
Hot Springs
Taiwan is volcanic. It is easy to forget that in the flatland west where I live, but the whole middle of the island is mountainous and most of the beaches are black. The side benefit of this history is hot springs. There are many hot springs around the country, most have been "included" into a hotel so that for some you must be staying at the hotel to use them but most are also open to the public.
We went to a couple at the beginning of our vacation. We went to Taitung, a lovely small city on the southeast coast of Taiwan. The first night we went to the hot spring at our small hotel and it was okay, but no great shakes. Kind of like a big bathtub but not as hot.
The next afternoon we went to a "real" one. A huge place associated with the fanciest hotel in the area. The water comes out of the ground hot enough to boil eggs so the different temperature of the pools is a result of hot much cold water is added, not the other way around.
There was one huge pool which had a bunch of different stations around the sides where water jets came out to massage different parts of your body. Quite nifty. Then in a different room there were hotter small pools with the temperature displayed on the wall above each one. I went into one that was a little hotter than the big pool but there were four hotter ones, the hottest could have cooked a chicken.
Great fun.
We went to a couple at the beginning of our vacation. We went to Taitung, a lovely small city on the southeast coast of Taiwan. The first night we went to the hot spring at our small hotel and it was okay, but no great shakes. Kind of like a big bathtub but not as hot.
The next afternoon we went to a "real" one. A huge place associated with the fanciest hotel in the area. The water comes out of the ground hot enough to boil eggs so the different temperature of the pools is a result of hot much cold water is added, not the other way around.
There was one huge pool which had a bunch of different stations around the sides where water jets came out to massage different parts of your body. Quite nifty. Then in a different room there were hotter small pools with the temperature displayed on the wall above each one. I went into one that was a little hotter than the big pool but there were four hotter ones, the hottest could have cooked a chicken.
Great fun.
訂閱：
文章 (Atom)