|Home alone no longer|

ok. so my dad came back a week ago, and since it's been back to our non-conversant selfs. damn. I had a good time alone though.

So during that week, my friend stole his company car one day and at like 11 pm we decided to make a trip out to kaoshiung (2 hrs away). So we got lost twice and ended up only staying in kaoshiung for 20 minutes (stopped at the river, and 7-eleven. that's it), and came back at around 3 am, but we had an awesome time. Road trips are fun. Especially spontanious ones...even if your friend isn't used to driving. hehe

|The Dark Life|

Taiwanese people love Japanese people and Americans. Correction - white americans only. I have to say, it was much more difficult for me to get a job as a teacher because I'm not white. And if your teaching kids to speak English, they wanna see a white guy. If their parents pick up the kids and see some dark guy, they start complaining. Nevermind that my English is probably the best in their school, and I could easily teach college-level grammer here in taiwan - I'm not white, so I can't even get a job to teach kindergardeners to count to ten. I got passed up for some Brit bloke who didn't even speak proper British english (just the street kind, if you know what i'm talking about), but he was white and blond, so he won the position.

Asians haven't yet accepted the fact that the US is a multi-ethnic society. I keep telling people that there's more asians than white people in nor-cal and more latinos or asians than white people in so-cal. I guess people here are just ignorant, but in the States were bred to believe that rasism is so evil, it still makes me cringe.

Example, I told my friend that wants to visit LA to call me up if he goes cuz you don't wanna be lost alone at night in the wrong part of LA. So he then says, "there's a lot of crime there cuz there's a lot of black people huh?" I can see some of you laughing, but I was kinda ticked off a little.

Then another time someone assumed I don't eat pork. Normally I would've been ticked cuz people assume Indians are muslims, or that Hindu's and Muslims are the same thing, but instead I was impressed that he at least knew a little bit about Islam. But unfortunetly he makes things worse for himself by expressing his dislike for Islam and it's followers. Of course, if you guys know me, this is where the easygoing me starts to get a little upset. I would've been more tolerant of his views if he had only researched them better. But his opinions were such blithering misconceptions that it pissed me off. Needless to say, I tried to set him straight.

All I'm trying to say is that I hate it when people always accuse Americans for being so unworldly and ignorant. I'm sick of hearing that. A lot of what happened in our country in the past is happening in their country now. They have no idea of what goes on around the world unless it's in their country, which is when they develop this Huge amount of national pride for whatever the hell it is. And they've proven time, and time again, to be far more ignorant, and discriminatory than we are.

With all my travelling experience, I still say that America (probably Canada even more though) is one of the most accepting, worldy nations. I, and many of us, sometimes think not, but when compared to other uni-ethnic (yes, there's a better word that i can't think of at 2 am) nations, we sure are.

|On a lighter note|

So i guess another thing I like doing here in Taiwan, is making people feel embarrased. People naturally assume (hey, i would too) that I don't understand any Chinese. Well....surprise. People like to stare at me all the time. And they usually make no effort to make it discreet. I used to feel uncomfortable, but now I'm getting used to it. So anyway, i usually hear people say in chinese, "woah, look at that black guy!", or "hey look at the foreigner over there!" or the more intellegent ones will say "look an indian!" Well, sucks for them in elevators, cuz guess what, i talk back to them. mwhaha. I never get mad at them cuz they usually don't say anything offensive, but i admit, i have a little fun with them...Especially when they think all dark people come from africa, or I'm dark only because I spend too much time in the sun. No, my pasty, scrawny, computer nerd, I'm naturally dark and not from africa. Then I, for some odd reason, enjoy watching them squirm in embarassment in elevators, etc.. hehe

Otherwise doing fine in tainan. I should be back on 9-11. Yes, I know i pick good days to fly. I swear to my friends though, that i Will shave that day And i will Not wear my "I'm not a terrorist shirt." ...It might be funny on a liberal college campus, on the ground, but not so much on a plane...on 9-11. In fact. I probably shouldn't wear that shirt in september at all. Yes.

all right. this is too serious now so i'm gonna stop. i swear i'll write something more interesting next time. Props to anyone who actually read all of this.

all right. i'm done.

later!

|Home Alone|

Finally!!!!!!!! I get the entire week to myself! No father to drive me CRAZY! He went to the states for a week and I'm the happiest little brown man in Taiwan. Needless to say, i've been having my friends over virtually every day now. Coming home when i damn well please. And drinking. ...well, just a little cuz no one here seems to ever wanna drink for fun. They don't even understand the concept of going out to a bar on the weekends. They stare at me blankly and ask why.

|Weekend|

With my dad gone, i had an awesome weekend. My friend aya came down from taipei to visit lovely, Tainan - more like the real taiwan in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, Taipei is awesome! I could even see myself living there, but it's really just like New York or Tokyo. Super modern, huge city. There are only a handful of high rise buildings here and like every good asian city, squatting toilets everywhere and no sidewalks to be seen. Unlike taipei where even little kids know english, in Tainan people speak taiwanese, and if you're lucky, they know mandarin too. Anyway, so my friend came down and I tried to show her around. So saturday we go and rent a scooter (you know those asian ones that manage to fit a family of four and their pet dog too). After some struggle and refusal to give them my passport, we managed to rent thier crappiest scooter. It was tiny. No shocks. I had to spend 5 minutes trying to start the damn thing, the side mirror was dangling and the seat kept jiggling. Keep in mind that this was my first time driving.

Lemme tell you. Driving a scooter is not as easy as it looks, especially when there's 50 other scooters right next to you driving like psychos. After several hours, I finally learned how to weave through traffic...a little. Cuz at a stoplight all the bikes weave through traffic to wait at the front. If you don't weave with them the 50 people behind you will run you over. So from sheer fright, i learned how to a little. But i'm still not as talented as to drive through the gutter area 2 ft wide on the side of the street to pass all the cars. I have to say, it was soooo much fun driving.

So anyway, i took aya to what's said to be the first fort in taiwan set up by the crazy Dutchmen's 'fashers' in the 1600's or something. Apparantly before taiwan was formosa, it was called Zeelandia. Thank god, cuz Zeelandia sounds retarded. ....freaky dutch. (sorry lilly and reinier)

That was fun and on the way we had these kick ass shrimp rolls/tempura thing that I'm dying to be able to get in the states

|Losing Face?|

So maybe I shouldn't have cooked for my friend. I was flattered that he really liked it and wanted to take the rest home with him, and that he gave some to his sister who also liked it, but now his sister Insists that i show her how to make it! I mean really insists. I first said yeah, but they gotta come over to my place cuz i'm not transporting everything to their place cuz they don't have western ingredients. She still insists that i come over and she'll buy everything. 1) that's ridiculously expensive, and 2) they live with their parents! i can't out-do her mom!! How insulting! I'll never be welcome again! ....especially after the last time when i was playing with their cat in the dark...and i'm dark too, so naaaaaturally she didn't see me i and scared her to death. I, on the otherhand, though it was funny so i laughed, as she ran away. I later thought, shit, all she saw was me holding her cat down on the floor in the dark and laughing maniacally! crap. way to go, nestle, way to go.

|Again, do I really look that shady?|

So one of my local friends calls me up at night and says he has a question for me and it's odd. He says his friend is lonely tonight and wants to meet some american/european (really just white) girls. He then continues to say that his friend will pay...for sex. {:-O  .. So at this point, i'm thinking to myself, sure "his friend" wants this...yeah nah. But get this, he actually asks me if i have any friends that would be willing to sleep with him for money! Are you kidding me?! I am not that kind of pimp! (Note: to all my lady friends back home, i would never (well.....ok almost never) sell you away to a guy). Of course i thought this was freakin hilarious, but i was also a little shocked (for once) cuz my friend was sincerely asking. I told him just to go to a bar and try to meet someone...by talking to them, that is.

Anyways, thought you guys would get a laugh outta that.

I gotta go, this entry is way long enough. later

ps. i later found out that it really was his friend and not the proverbial friend i thought it was....oops. I felt a little stupid afterwards. hehe

alright, so i know i haven't updated in a while.

|Kaoshiung|

well, apart from the gimping around. it ws pretty fun. i had to walk hella though and yes my cankle got worse when i got back to tainan, but hey, i had fun w/ my friends that i'm probably never gonna see again, so i think it's worth it.  We pretty much went bar-hopping and then tried to go see the tallest building in kaoshiung (like the Taipei 101 of South Taiwan). It was pretty cool looking but the observation deck closes at 10 pm on a saturday night. Why the heck would you close Kaoshiung's prime attraction/bar at 10 pm on a saturday night?? crazy. Oh, and i finally got back my cell phone, so those of you in taiwan can call me again. Or if you need to get a hold of me from the states, 001-886-93-847-0128

|Bugs|

So I thought i was blessed with being able to live in tainan and in a place where there's hardly any bugs. Yes and No. Yesterday i cooked for my friend but when I walked them out and came back, the kitchen was teeeming with cockroaches. They're huge, fat, and fast too! I swear it only took me 5 minutes to see them to the door! I don't mind a cockroach, or two, or three, but seriously, there was like 50 of the fat bugs. I didn't even know how to begin to kill all of them! So spiders still top my chart of phobias, but then i'd probably say teams of 5 or more coackroaches comes second.

|Cheap?|

Ok. Everyone says taiwan is dirt-cheap. What the hell are they talking about. Things are not that cheap here, and western things are particually expensive. It still costs about 8 US bucks to see a movie here, which is a lot of money for the taiwanese, yet everyone goes. It costs 4 US bucks for a cup of coffee, which is rediculous cuz tea stands sell boba for about one dollar. Taking a taxi is about the same, 4 bucks for a short trip or 5-6 for anything longer. Eating decent food is about 3-5 bucks per meal. I guess this may sound cheap, but i probably spend the same or less in the states. I guess clothes are cheaper, but the fashion here isn't something i'd wanna bring back to california. haha. Plus everyone here wears pink. I swear 1 outta 3 guys have a pink shirt on. I don't understand the fashion!!! And keep in mind it isn't usually the more manly light pink polo, it's the hot pink, the shiny pink, the pink stars, and honestly combined with the fob mullet, i'm completly dumbfounded.

all right, i try to keep updating, but i gotta go now.  

later all.

|Kan Zhong Yi|

I swear I could write chapters in chinese books, "mai huo che piao," "kan yi sheng", "kai ji che", "gen 'Gar' de mama zuo ai". Translated: buying train tickets, seeing the doctor, riding a motorbike and (I'll leave that last one up to you guys to translate. hehehe)

So I continue on my escapades to the traditional chinese crackpot, i mean doctor. And i was right, this time it was accupunture. Thank god I have this morbid curiousity for lots of needles poking outta my body, otherwise i probably would've killed her. She was right, it didn't hurt at all....until i touched one of them. Yes, i had a little fun with the needles, later to my own pain. I did, however, make sure they were all sterile and then even asked the doc to take a picture of my foot! hahah. too bad it came out really bad though (it's not like i can upload anyways). Then the doc and I were just chatting around. It turned out that she'd been to India to travel. And I had been to all the places she'd been to. So having my camera on me, and having the knack to hoard all my pictures since november on the camera, the doc and I were going through all my india pictures and telling stories. Haha i'm such a nerd.

But i'm still skeptical on traditional treatment. She said the swelling will go down in about 2 weeks..... Ok. No. That cannot be a normal sprained ankle. Anyone pre-med out there who would know? Cuz i'm not getting any answers here. My dad insists that i see a western doctor with x-ray capabilities...and at this point i might even say ok. Even though most of the pain has gone, it's still really swollen.

|Winter Melon|

In the meantime, I'm trying to eat as many different foods here as I can. Each time I go out w/ my friends, we try to eat something different. They have this tea which tainan is apparantly known for, that uses winter melon (i've never seen this in the states). Dong gua cha. Don't particularly like it. The taste is really strong and heavy, it's not too bad though. Maybe it's aquired? On the other hand, I've had amazing fried spring shrimp roll things and other snacks on the side of the road. And of course the infamous "tap-ex chicken" can be found anywhere. mmmmm

|Still Curry|

So I'm loving the local food here (most of it at least), but my dad really hates it. So on the weekends he cooks one dish that lasts the ENtire week. I hate that. Every night, same thing. Plus every weekend these really irritating bengali's come over for dinner. I have NO idea how my father managed to find the only other bengali's in Taiwan, but he did. Where do these people come from?? They, like a "proper" indian, hold my father up on this golden pedestal that i'd just love to knock him off of. They call him "older brother" and ask him stupid questions that he would never know, but being an arrogant, pretends to know it all father, makes up any answer, which they hold as the indefiable truth.

If i've lost you, i'm sorry. I'm rating now. Anyways. What i was going for, is that i still, in lovely taiwan where good food surrounds you, am still eating the same curry for 2 weeks straight.

|The weekend|

I think i'll meet up some friends from the states this weekend. Yes, i'm gonna leave small Tainan and venture out into the big city - Kaoshiung. ooooh

Stay tuned...

|You think I'm Shady???|

So, ankle update: Still the size of a baseball. This sprained ankle is taking way too long to heal. It's been four days now. My calf sorta blends into my ankle now...into a "cankle" i suppose. It's just a straight line down to my foot; no curves. It actually makes my other foot look anemic, but it's not. I've finally grown out of the old-people walker thing. At last! I don't look like the poor indian polio victim!

 So I finally go to class, and apologize like mad to my teacher for missing the midterm (which she was totally cool with after seeing my inflated ankle). After class, about a million people gimme advice on what to do with my ankle. Most of them said to see a chinese medicine doctor. Since i don't have insurance (exactly), they'd be a lot cheaper, plus chinese people use them religiously. I say ok, not knowing at all about what i've gotten myself into.

I walk into the place (with my local friend) and they immediately direct me to the nearest hospital. ...I should've taken the hint. Instead, I insist that i am in the right place and would like to see a traditional doctor. I fill out some forms that I had no idea how to fill out and very well could've mistakingly filled out that I have aids. But I suppose all went well. We'll see. The doctor insisted on using half taiwanese and half mandarin which completely confused me, so I pretty much let him just do his thing. So, I thought he was taking my pulse, little did I know, he was determining all of my ailments from my wrist. Here's where I start to become skeptical. Outwardly so, in fact. So ask the guy, what he knows about me now. He says i have a cold and starts to take out herbs for my cold. I immediately tell him, no, it's ok, i don't have a cold, just look at my foot. He then lies me on the table/bed thing and tells me to relax my foot. He walks aways only to return with a 1800's brutal looking contraption and a needle. .....At this point, I Really start to get skeptic and demand him to stop and tell me what the hell he plans on doing with that. He says my ankle is swollen so he procedes to take the "water out of it." He then takes his needle, and pokes my foot 10-15 times to let it bleed. I'm thinking, "What the HELL are you doing." He insists he's getting the water out. He places this glass cup thing filled with a little toilet paper (yes, toilet paper), takes this old rubber hose, attaches to the glass and begins suctioning my soul from my foot. My god, did that leave a mark. After a minute of fierce suctioning, he removes the glass and shows me a bloody toilet paper and says "see, i'm removing the water." I immediately snap back and say "that's not water! it's my Blood!!!!!!" and glare at him. .......I don't know why I let him do that to me 3 more times. Maybe i figured the pain wasn't excruciating, so it must not be that bad for me....unless, that is, the unsanitary conditions of the clinic led me to contract the aids that i mistakenly might have put on my application....Dammit. We'll see. So after, i'm looking at my bloody bandages and thinking, what the hell did i just go through. I go over to pick up my medicine which i'm supposed to take 3x's per day after each meal (damn, now i have to eat breakfast). I look at my "medicine" to discover it was a packet of ground up Wood that i'm supposed mix in hot water and drink!!!Damn. it tastes just like wood too!!!! ARGH.

Well, I was supposed to go with my friends to the beaches down south, and to the dragon boat festivals and to the international drum festivals here....but because i have to go to this freaky doctor, and drink carboard, I can't do anything.

A little miffed.

Oh and tomorrow, I think i'm getting accupuncture. I'm scared as hell. If those needles aren't sterile, i'm walking out! screw looking like the intolerant foreigner!

More to come tomorrow, i'm sure.