Sept. 21
I just drove by this prostitute on the side of the road. She was approximately 40-45 yrs old, she wore a hot pink miniskirt and a black bra... she was hula-hooping (yes, with a hula hoop) and had her finger shoved as far up her little nose as possible. She looked bored to tears. It's a wonder she wasn't busy - very sexy!! I almost fell off my motorcycle laughing.
Nose picking holds no shame for the Chinese / Taiwanese, nor does, farting, belching, spitting, scratching one's butt-crack, or staring/pointing/laughing at whities (foreigners). Several people have nearly had fatal motorcycle accidents trying to rubberneck a good look at us on the way by.
What an honest race! A girl in my kindergarden class pointed out that I have boobs where my Taiwanese counterpart does not. They like to grab my brests when they think I'm not looking. Children are unabashedly honest. They also smell like pee almost all the time. Being surrounded by children, and not having to stop them picking thier noses, is keeping my soul wet. I just don't like them touching me much.  
And, of course risk of natural disaster is imminent... creeping out of your subconcious and into your face every once in awhile...
Sept. 15
First earthquake today! Wow, how exciting... it was just over 3.1 or something we barely felt it. It was a bit nerve wracking though because you don't know if it's going to get worse or not... 5 minutes from my home last September there was a ... ... well, I won't mention that. Anyway, safe and well, not even a drop of yesterday's typhoon rain yet either. Smog: Oh smog! You keep our eyes safe from the sun's nasty rays, you save us from Melanoma. You make the thought of a cigarette nauseating, and you ensure that a blue sky is appreciated. My athsma thanks you for making it strong, and you make pretty sunsets. Food - Glorious food!
Ok, so the Buddists don't eat meat, milk or garlic or onions... I should be in heaven here right.
Nope!
Firstly, there is only one vegetarian food stand in Er-shui, and she's only there every once in awhile at the oddest times of day. She serves noodles with a cool sauce.
Otherwise, I can choose from Chicken butts, chicken feet - various intestines, many delectable innards and hoofs and the usual beef, pork and chicken as we know it. Even the fish has a nice ground pork sauce on it.
Tara and I - we are the vegetarian community of Er-shui - were so excited at the night market when we found a tofu soup. Never mind the foul smell, we thought, maybe it's just the sewage in the area. This was our introduction to "stinky tofu". It tastes as bad as it smells. Whoah! The Taiwanese love it!! It's as if you left your feta cheese sitting in your skankiest pair of socks sitting on your sunniest window sill in the most humid part of your house for 4-5 weeks, then you threw it in a pot and cooked it up with ginger and carrots. Mmmmmmm
Cheese... that reminds me. How important do you think cheese is to a vegetarian's diet? Very. I'd never have guessed until it was completely unavailable for 7 months.
Then there's the "China Threat". Every day or so I see a huge procession of army vehicles, laiden with big guns and boys in uniform. They're everywhere! It's a little unnerving.
In Kenting, the southernmost tip of Taiwan, there is a radar station.. Hitch-hiking one day, I was picked up by a military truck heading to this station and was told that what they do is "look for the Chinese attacking" I'm pretty sure that there is more than just the one in Kenting.
We watch the US's moves closely, as Taiwan could be an important pawn in their little power struggle with China. Taiwan would also make a fabulously unsinkable aircraft carrier for any countries wishing to have a good vantage point on invading China. We vaguely consider these things in our day to day lives, but not because the threat is so real, but because we have nothing better to do. We often wonder to ourselves, do the american people even think about Taiwan... is it a big deal to them whether the US grant them the weapons they want? Do they even know that Taiwan's "president" was allowed to visit New York on the way to Latin America? Do they care about the implications of this in their China-relations?? Do they care about Bush meeting with the Dali Lama... do they even know? Would we know any of this if we weren't in the middle of it? Does it actually matter or are we being geocentric? |
