Living a life lost in translation

Hello there. I think I'd like to commit this post to out of the ordinary things I've seen here in Taiwan.

First of all, pretty much everyone here has a scooter or motorcycle. I plan to get a scooter once I get my ARC card. An ARC card is basically just a card saying you have a job here and place to stay. I wish I could get a yellow scooter like in FLCL. That would be awesome. Outside my building, there are about 100 scooters parked. It is pretty crazy to see. I have also seen three people on one scooter, and a baby being held on a scooter. No offense to Taiwanese people, but they are not very safe with cars and scooters. On scooters, a child will just stand where you normally place your feet, and the parent will just put their legs around them. In a car, parents often just hold their kids in their lap, in the passenger seat. No seat belt or anything. On top of all of this, people here drive like crazy people. They drive into oncoming traffic if they think they can turn in time, they rarely wear seatbelts, and don't get me started on how crazy scooters will be. All-in-all, getting around in Taiwan is a dangerous business.

There are tons of "rules" that I've discovered over the past few weeks. For instance, I often sit cross-legged on chairs. Totally inappropriate here. It's the equivalent of spreading your legs wide open on a chair. Women are expected to sit with legs completely together at all times.

Let's see... what else? Well, we take off our shoes here, just like in Japan. If you enter someone's house, you take off your shoes. At school, the kids have "inside shoes" and "outside shoes". So, we're allowed to wear shoes inside, but those shoes must never be used outside. I've noticed that these inside shoes usually get just as dirty as outside shoes, but oh well. Haha. My kids in the afternoon usually just walk around in bare feet or socks. Boy do their feet and socks get dirty. Taiwan has this weird atmosphere in which everyone thinks things are "clean" but someone in America would surely think that same room/floor is dirty. It's strange. The water here is even too dirty to drink or cook with. We bath in it though, which makes me think, are we ever really clean?

I met some new caucasian people on Thursday. Another lady that tutors at the school, Michelle, introduced me to her friends. They are all from South Africa, which is very interesting to me. I think I might be hanging out with them tonight, weather permitting. Right now the clouds are floating past my window faster than I have ever seen in my life, and it's not ever raining. We are supposed to get another typhoon soon. haha. So many typhoons here!

All right, that's all for now. I miss all of you like crazy. You have no idea.