10 Funny Things About Taiwan

10. Old men have 2 prerequisites: crazy spider eyebrows and at least 1 fingernail more than 2 cm long.

9. It's harder to fall off of a motorscooter than it looks (I was worried).

8. They collect food scraps to feed to small pigs and/or dogs, depending on who you ask.

7. Tomatoes are actually treated as fruit here (novel idea).

6. I look more like my dad in America (or Europe) and more like my mom in Taiwan (who knew?).

5. The Taiwanese calender works exactly like the Gregorian calendar, except that the year and era are different. (We are now in year 98...I think)*

4. They worry you might get cold if the temperature drops below 32 degrees Celsius.

3. Being tan is considered coarse and ugly for a girl; women here go all out to avoid the sun. In some ways, it's like being in Paris a century ago: parasols are all the rage.

2. Closing your eyes and crossing your fingers when crossing a really busy street in hopes that you won't get hit actually works; Taiwanese drivers are used to dodging.

1. Imagine: it's a hot summer day and suddenly you hear music coming from a truck that's rolling slowly down the street; you watch as people run out to meet it. If you're hoping it's for ice-cream, both you and Beethoven will be disappointed. It's the Taiwanese garbage truck! People run out of their houses and give the man riding on the back their trash and he tosses it in.




*This is because the Republic was founded in 1911.


As for the rest, I'm heading to Tai-Zong tomorrow to go to a clinic there and next week I get to go to the Chinese medicine department!