In Which I Learn I Need to be Less Friendly

Chiayi Park

UPDATE, July 12^th!

I have met the cockroaches. I am fairly certain there are two different species since one was enormous and dark and the other was small and pale, but the bigger one may have been obscured by being outside and in the night time. Todd kicked it – that’s how big it was, he didn’t smash it, he kicked it. Todd also crushed the other one with a pen. Apparently he’s the resident bug destroyer.

View Up My Apartment Complex

This week has largely been made up of me staring blankly into space and pretending to watch other people teach classes. Not that they are bad teachers – very much the opposite – but it’s hard to watch a lesson on how to spell apple. I also have led a conversation class with a 19-year-old girl named Vikki Wu every day for 2 hours, which means we really had to scrounge for things to talk about at the end of the week. I learned about typhoons (we haven’t had one yet) and fruit. Actually, we spent a lot of time talking about fruit. Oddly versatile as a conversational topic. We also discussed global warming, and whether Pluto should be considered a planet.

Move to Taiwan, Get some Groupies... 

They ran up to me in the park and asked to take a picture with me.

I’ve now met Y-C at the Freen, a nice man who speaks English and likes to combine words together to make new flavors for his juice bar… like pineberry, kiwapple, and several others. Just this afternoon, I walked all the way from my house to his shop, which is a 45 minute journey each way. He was impressed, and horrified, and offered to drive me home. I think he was just trying to get my sweaty self out of his shop that much more quickly… I was sort of dripping. Still haven’t gotten around to getting that handkerchief.

I also met the security guard, and his mother. She only has 3 teeth, and speaks excellent English – no trace of an accent, though that might have been the complete absence of dentition…

And of course, as some of you may know, I met a lovely old man at the park. It was about 8:30 at night, I was returning from a nice long walk, and made the fatal mistake of saying hello to him in Chinese. He started babbling in something I believe was Taiwanese and not Chinese, pointing over the side of the bridge. I said “Frog?” and he got very very excited, nodded, and grabbed me by the arm. Since he was at least 60, sort of decrepit, and very very small (as I have mentioned, I’m a giant to these people!) I figured that was ok, and so we walked up to a gazebo for what I thought was going to be some sort of bird watching, Taiwanese-babbling good times.

And then he hugged me. And didn’t let go. And sort of patted my shoulder while whispering sweet nothings into my ear. I was a bit frozen out of weirdness for a few moments, and then pushed back and said “Ok, Bye!” and waved at him. He stood up, and followed me out of the park, babbling the same thing over and over, alternating between pointing at his hand or trying to hold mine. Finally, I stopped him, and he pointed at his watch. I said, “Ok, I’ll see you this time tomorrow,” tapped my wrist, waved, and booked it the long way home.

So basically I need to stop talking to old people, especially ones who don’t speak my language. I think I may have accidentally gotten engaged.

City Janitor, with AWESOME hat that doesn't show up very well here.

Things that May Be of Interest:

-  Really? You think something’s going to beat that?

Giant Snail!