Thursday, February 12, 2009

Taiwan: Things of Note

A short list of peculiar things about Taiwan:
  1. There is very little litter in the city, but I can NEVER find a trash can when I need one.
  2. The garbage trucks play songs just like the ice-cream man does back in the states! They do it so that people know when the garbage man is there to pick up the garbage. When we told our friends that the garbage man at home doesn't play any music, their (logical) first question was “well then, how do you know when the garbage man is coming?”
  3. Our doorbell makes the sound of a bird chirping when someone rings it!
  4. In order to make sure that all stores report their sales to the government, there is a receipt lottery. Every receipt has a lottery number printed on it and once a month, or every other month, they have a lottery where you can win up to $10,000NT. I am hoping to be a lucky winner this year!!
  5. The food is very sweet. Every time I see something that I think is going to be salty, I am always disappointed to learn that it is sweet. (no, that is not salt on that bread… its sweet bread, and we’re going to dip it in icing!!) ahhhh!!!
  6. In my quest for buying some more face moisturizer I realized that all of the face creams are skin lightening creams. Its just amazing to me that half the world spends money and time trying to have lighter skin and here us white people are, paying money for a tan… what a weird world we live in.
  7. Burping...burping is cool here. No "excuse me" no muffling or holding it in, just go for it. Burp! It’s no big deal. The other day I was working out next to a woman who was with her trainer and she was burping more than she was talking. It was ridiculous… and totally acceptable behavior. (maybe I do belong here! Haha)
  8. Napkins... yeah they don't much use them! Sometimes at a resturant the will bring out a box of what is basically kleenex for you to use as napkins, but thats only about 50% of the time. I usually need to use like 5 tissues for any given meal.


Well, that's all for now, but don't worry, there will be plenty more installments of this type of post!

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