Wow maybe I ought to start getting older girlfriends?? I feel motivated !
[quote=“housecat”]Thus, I can’t hold a conversation with a lot of people around here because, A) they’re too bussy talking ABOUT me to talk TO me (and that happened a lot in Taiwan, too, even with other foreigners), B) they always want to ask me zillions of questions about all the stuff they find so different about me so that the next time they have a conversation with someone else, they’ll have some new stuff to say, & C) They just cannot relate to anything I want to talk about in the first place.
[/quote]
That’s the sad reality some of us go through on a daily basis. I haven’t had many good, long and intellectual conversation with anyone in person ever since I arrived in Taiwan in September. I had a “discussion” about the energy crisis and global climate changes last week, and it was mostly me talking to a group who thinks it’s realistic to build a gas absorber and design catalytic additives to put in air conditioners to absorb in all the extra carbon dioxide we emitted into the atmosphere since trees make it seem so easy.
Often than not, most of my little chitchats include stuff like “what do kids do after school in America,” “so what kind of food do you eat in America?” or “what kind of music do people listen to in America?”
None of which I have good answers to, as how’s little old me a fair representation to a nation of 300 millions?
Not out on a Saturday night? Geez, Tommy, maybe my expectations of you were too high :discodance:
OMG the secret is out. The real tommy is loyal to his GF (when he has one) and is not out cruising for bruising . Nitelife here is extremely boring !! Not an adventure like it is in Taipei city !! Most of the bars pretty much die by midnite. Over in SF there are places that stay open longer but you could get shot. Over here in tony Walnut Creek (nicest small town in the East Bay) theres a few pubs and all that. All pretty boring really. Everyone hangs out with whoever they came with basically. Its a small town mentality in a real small town. I think only college students in berkeley with their frat parties have the real fun. Im too old to hang with that crowd !!
I think in Taipei theres a greater number of people willing to live life on the edge more. I think all the earthquakes and all that make people more daring. More “alive”. Plus with so many millions of people , if you get a connection its easy to exchange numbers and get working on a relationship. Its a tuff game here. If your 411 aint all that hot, you are NOT gonna get no honey, ya punk. Cool people are mainly interested in hangin with their “cool” friends and all showing off how cool they are. Thats the deal here. Cafes here are either places almost as quiet as a library where everyone is on their notebook or where people chat but only with those they came with. Theres not the possible interaction you find in Taipei. Last time some girl sitting next to me actually engaged me in conversation, i was so shocked i didnt respond for a few seconds.
LIve it up over there guys. It aint ever gonna be like that back over this side of the pond.
p.s. catfish. the language barrier may be what keeps you from “intelligent” conversation? Cuz you be with mandarin speakers while you be english speaker no? Thats where its not adding up.
am i suffering from generation Y?
perhaps you need to try preparation H.
I think a lot of the issues come with modern living, not much community anymore, same everywhere I’ve gone. People are shutting themselves off from their neighbours. Most Taiwanese don’t have many friends either…certainly the ones I know. Low birth rate, big city living, busy work lives, family obligations…
Plus if you move around you obviously have to try and make new friends and that’s not easy when you’re older. Taiwan is even more challenging because people come and go here and most Taiwanese are a little bit intimidated by foreigners, limited exposure to outside world results in boring conversations…and language barrier. Then you’ve got fairly limited type of foreign community here…
Taiwan is a small country aswell, for instance in my industry there almost no foreign individuals…that sucks sometimes for peer business discussions and advice. I think some people (including me) can outgrow Taiwan.
Of course it comes from the individual too, you really have to make a considerable effort here to go out and make a social circle for yourself.
Well, damn! :bravo: My wife is 26. Hope she looks like that when she’s 40. 
Then again, I’ll be almost 50 then, so I guess it wont matter all that much. 
You be sure to tell your lady friend she has impressed me. I would not have guessed she is 40.
[quote=“bismarck”] My wife is 26. Hope she looks like that when she’s 40.
Then again, I’ll be almost 50 then, so I guess it wont matter all that much.
[/quote]
If it matters now it will matter then I’ll bet. People don’t change that much, their bodies just get older. Many Taiwanese women though are blessed with bodies that other races would kill for. My wife is forty, doesn’t exercise and still looks “almost” like that woman in the photograph. She seems to be getting into hiking and running now too so who knows, she may be fit as a fiddle for another twenty years.
I should fess up about the woamn in the photo now or I’ll get nailed on it later…
I don’t know her or how old she is. What I do know though is that when I saw her face I was startled. That photo was taken from quite a distance and I felt really weird taking it. Generally speaking, for whatever reason, I feel odd taking pictures of people I don’t know, especially women in bikinis, but the setting and her form were so striking that I sort of violated my own code with that photo. Then, ever since I took it, I’ve been dying to post it.
Anyway, I saw her face later and I’d put her at about thirty five or forty easily.
[quote=“bob”]I should fess up about the woamn in the photo now or I’ll get nailed on it later…
I don’t know her or how old she is. What I do know though is that when I saw her face I was startled. That photo was taken from quite a distance and I felt really weird taking it. Generally speaking, for whatever reason, I feel odd taking pictures of people I don’t know, especially women in bikinis, but the setting and her form were so striking that I sort of violated my own code with that photo. Then, ever since I took it, I’ve been dying to post it.
Anyway, I saw her face later and I’d put her at about thirty five or forty easily.[/quote]
You had me going there! Thought it might be your missus. 
But yes, her form and the shot in general looks great. Not something (woman in the waves holding a board) I see often down here, if at all.
[quote=“bob”][quote=“bismarck”] My wife is 26. Hope she looks like that when she’s 40.
Then again, I’ll be almost 50 then, so I guess it wont matter all that much.
[/quote]
If it matters now it will matter then I’ll bet. People don’t change that much, their bodies just get older. Many Taiwanese women though are blessed with bodies that other races would kill for. My wife is forty, doesn’t exercise and still looks “almost” like that woman in the photograph. She seems to be getting into hiking and running now too so who knows, she may be fit as a fiddle for another twenty years. [/quote]
True. It doesn’t really matter to me. It’s more important that my wife is my friend and that she loves me unconditionally (and vice versa, of course), than what she looks like now or twenty years from now.
I’d like it if she exercises more, but more out of concern for her health. Especially as women tend to be prone to things like osteoporosis etc, that can be staved off with exercise. Looking good is just an added benefit.
There’s a Taiwanese teacher who I work with who must be around 50 judging by her neck and face, but does she have a killer body! Would put most 20 year olds to shame. Taiwanese women do seem to be blessed in that area. Same can be said for most of the Taiwanese guys I play rugby with. Quite a few are in their fifties or older, but still look great. Flat stomachs etc. 
Well, damn! :bravo: My wife is 26. Hope she looks like that when she’s 40.
Then again, I’ll be almost 50 then, so I guess it wont matter all that much.
You be sure to tell your lady friend she has impressed me. I would not have guessed she is 40.[/quote]
40 is the new 30, haven’t you heard? 
Seriously, we have to rethink our parameters. Our generation will live ten years longer than the previous one, in average. I am thinking my Granny made it to 90, Mom is still going strong at 70 -volunteer work, walking everywhere as she doesn’t drive, cleaning and cooking by herself- so wew kids must make pans for a longer, different life pronto.
I don’t think it’s you. I also feel like most people are boring and one dimensional. I’m 22 almost 23.
There are a lot of people out there with the hobbies of sleeping and eating. Can you believe that?
and shopping.
But all the talk on this thread about, “OMG, she’s 40? I hope I look like that when I’m 30…” 
I’m happy to break it to you kids, but 40’s not even middle-aged, and 50 may be mature but it’s not old.
At age 46, Randy Couture may have lost some hair, but he can still kick just about anyone’s butt.
At age 66, Mick Jagger may be uglier than ever, but he still rocks like none of us ever will.
At age 96, fitness guru Jack LaLanne is still working out. And check out how he celebrated a few past birthdays.
[quote] * 1954 (age 40): swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, underwater, with 140 pounds (64 kg; 10 st) of equipment, including two air tanks. A world record.
* 1955 (age 41): swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco while handcuffed. When interviewed afterwards he was quoted as saying that the worst thing about the ordeal was being handcuffed, which reduced his chance to Star Jump significantly.
* 1956 (age 42): set a world record of 1,033 push-ups in 23 minutes on You Asked For It, a television program with Art Baker.
* 1957 (age 43): swam the Golden Gate channel while towing a 2,500-pound (1,100 kg; 180 st) cabin cruiser. The swift ocean currents turned this one-mile (1.6 km) swim into a swimming distance of 6.5 miles (10.5 km).
* 1958 (age 44): maneuvered a paddleboard nonstop from Farallon Islands to the San Francisco shore. The 30-mile (48 km) trip took 9.5 hours.
* 1959 (age 45): did 1,000 star jumps and 1,000 chin-ups in 1 hour, 22 minutes and The Jack LaLanne Show went nationwide.
* 1974 (age 60): For the second time, he swam from Alcatraz Island to Fisherman’s Wharf. Again, he was handcuffed, but this time he was also shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
* 1975 (age 61): Repeating his performance of 21 years earlier, he again swam the entire length of the Golden Gate Bridge, underwater and handcuffed, but this time he was shackled and towed a 1,000-pound (450 kg; 71 st) boat.
* 1976 (age 62): To commemorate the “Spirit of '76”, United States Bicentennial, he swam one mile (1.6 km) in Long Beach Harbor. He was handcuffed and shackled, and he towed 13 boats (representing the 13 original colonies) containing 76 people.
* 1979 (age 65): towed 65 boats in Lake Ashinoko, near Tokyo, Japan. He was handcuffed and shackled, and the boats were filled with 6,500 pounds (2,900 kg; 460 st) of Louisiana Pacific wood pulp.[18]
* 1980 (age 66): towed 10 boats in North Miami, Florida. The boats carried 77 people, and he towed them for over one mile (1.6 km) in less than one hour.
* 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.[/quote]
SO, yes one will get wrinkly and ones hair will get thinner and grayer with time, and yes one will gradually get tied down by grown-up responsibilities such as earning a living for oneself and ones family and trying to prepare for good vacations, a house, other major expenses and eventual retirement, but what’s inside should remain pretty much the same. So if you find yourself surrounded by boring people you don’t find much fun, then look for others. There are plenty of people who enjoy more than eating, sleeping and shopping.
Those are nice age-breaking achievements…for a man who might need a pick me up, MT. 
But what about the ladies over 40 who are kickin’ butt?
Good point. Sorry.
Here’s Tina Turner at age 68. Not bad for an old lady, eh?
Great post, housecat! It is great to hear that other people have the same experience.
What is weird is that I used to feel like this when I was a child growing up in a small town. We would come back from visiting relatives in an even smaller town, where the women were making the lunch, and the men sat in a separate room watching rugby and napping with brandy and coke all day. I used to tell my dad I thought it would be great to be able to just be some normal person like that who was happy with normal people stuff.
Then I went to Varsity and it was just the most insane fun ride ever. People I could relate to were everywhere! They were writing poems and lying naked on tables. All the guys had long hair and four o’clock was an early night.
Now I’m going back to that weird feeling again and most people just don’t seem all that interesting to me, and I to them, I’m sure.
Normal people live their whole lives happily being normal. They don’t really get extreme success in the eyes of the world but they’re generally happy it seems. Then you get the Henry Millers. It can go two ways. You either are weird and make it and become Henry Miller. Or you are weird and don’t make it and become just that loser dude that lives on other people’s couches. And live with that perception (real or imagined) that you could have been Henry Miller but you’re not.
Would life not be just so much easier if you got along with 99% of the people you met rather than just 1%
I think you should move to Ximen. You’d feel better there.
[quote=“twonavels”]Great post, housecat! It is great to hear that other people have the same experience.
What is weird is that I used to feel like this when I was a child growing up in a small town. We would come back from visiting relatives in an even smaller town, where the women were making the lunch, and the men sat in a separate room watching rugby and napping with brandy and coke all day. I used to tell my dad I thought it would be great to be able to just be some normal person like that who was happy with normal people stuff.
Then I went to Varsity and it was just the most insane fun ride ever. People I could relate to were everywhere! They were writing poems and lying naked on tables. All the guys had long hair and four o’clock was an early night.
Now I’m going back to that weird feeling again and most people just don’t seem all that interesting to me, and I to them, I’m sure.
Normal people live their whole lives happily being normal. They don’t really get extreme success in the eyes of the world but they’re generally happy it seems. Then you get the Henry Millers. It can go two ways. You either are weird and make it and become Henry Miller. Or you are weird and don’t make it and become just that loser dude that lives on other people’s couches. And live with that perception (real or imagined) that you could have been Henry Miller but you’re not.
Would life not be just so much easier if you got along with 99% of the people you met rather than just 1%[/quote]
What you describe sounds much like me at times. I label it as “existential anxiety” Had this since I was a kid as well. As a kid watching others play basketball or any other type of sport I would ask myself “What are we doing?” “what is the purpose of playing sports?” What does this all mean in the big scheme of things? These are crazy questions I was asking myself at age 14 ! haha
Dude…
Are you in Taiwan yet?
Oh, come on! I don’t believe this!
- 1984 (age 70): Once again handcuffed and shackled, he fought strong winds and currents as he swam 1.5 miles (2.4 km) while towing 70 boats with 70 people from the Queensway Bay Bridge in the Long Beach Harbor to the Queen Mary.
Maybe if the “strong winds and currents” just happened to be going his way . . .