[quote]The streets are crazy – if there are rules, no one follows them
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severe hyperbole
[quote]Imagine putting your head over a sewer on a really humid day and breathing in as deep as you can. That’s what it’s like here, everywhere, all day, all night
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complete and utter BS
Is she a paraplegic?
[quote]The tiny island is part of the Republic of China
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Is she a circa 1950s KMT party member?
[quote]After three flights and 28 hours in transit
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From Toronto? the fuck?
[quote]When we exited the airport, the smell from the sewers was worse.
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this, also complete BS, outside the airport may smell like vehicle fumes, but sewers? C’mon girl, you know better…
[quote]he signs on the streets were all written in Chinese
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and this is odd, why exactly?
congratulations! you are the first North American who has never had Chinese food! :bravo:
[quote]When I saw a pig’s snout hanging from a hook at a Taiwanese market, I was revolted. “This is what they eat?”
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Oh my fawking GAWD!!! Why don’t you look inside your hot dog sometime sweetie, plenty of snout to go around.
[quote]The Australian who had been living there said it was “safe” during earthquakes.
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Yes and ‘The Australian’ also used air quotations while explaining this. Correct me if I am wrong, but the building is still standing.
[quote]Cliff found a job as a science teacher at one of the wealthier schools.
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I even think this is BS, I got a funny feeling Cliff did a lot more ESL teaching than science teaching. Just added this bit to show our storyteller’s aversion to accuracy.
[quote]Even worse were streets marked only in Chinese. Once, I had to find a doctor’s office by turning right “on the street after the sign with the apple.” Given that the apple was hidden in a smorgasbord of Chinese signs, which I had to scan while weaving in and out of cars, trucks, scooters, three-wheeled contraptions and the occasional dog, I spent half an hour searching for it, missed the appointment and had to reschedule. (Cliff and I eventually found it together).
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yes, this because taxis in TW are so rare and so expensive.
[quote]The next day I made my first major purchase in Taiwan – a collection of RAID and a roll of duct tape.
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First major purchase? RAID? Really? Spend a little on yourself darling…did ya steal your scooter?
[quote]Given that my rent contribution was less than $200 per month, it went a long way.
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If you are putting well less than 10% of your pay towards rent, don’t bitch about the roaches, get a better place, then it won’t be an issue.
[quote]For example, every day I saw people throwing some sort of paper into roadside ovens. I initially thought they were burning garbage, but eventually learned it was “ghost money” – special paper people burned as a gift for deceased relatives.
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Silly Orientals and their strange rituals.
[quote]When a taxi driver brought me to the bus terminal instead of the train station, I had no other recourse but to raise my arm and say, “Chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-chug-a-choo-choo.” (Thankfully, my ingenuity worked).
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Sadly your ingenuity didn’t allow you to take ten seconds to learn how to say the word properly.
[quote]“You know, beat him, so he act betta.”
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Oh, he act ‘betta’…I bet in class he make a good Englishee too! Man, Taiwanese, they be like: “ching chong ching chong chang!” And I be like: “Fix your English signs!”
[quote]I was trying to connect with my new world
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Of course you were, which is why after a half year you didn’t even have the most basic phrases in the local language.
[quote]Taiwanese women treated Caucasian men like Hollywood stars. The bigger the nose, the more handsome the man, they said.
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Gotta get my ass to Taichung!
[quote]In Taiwan, women don’t leave their parents’ homes until they are married
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I knew those TWese chicks I knew in college were Mainlanders parading as Taiwanese, DAMMIT!!!
[quote]The impact of my experience in Taiwan was lasting. I’d accepted a scholarship to do my master’s degree at the University of British Columbia, but when I arrived, I didn’t have the energy to adjust to yet another new place. I wanted to go home.
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lolwut?
[quote]I suddenly realized the impact Taiwan had had. A few hours later, I dropped out.
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LOLWUT???
[quote]Having lived as a minority, I have a profound appreciation for the challenges new Canadians face.
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Yes, because educated white people who are voluntarily in Taiwan to work and make a decent wage face the same obstacles and challenges as refugees and asylum seekers… :eh:
Yeah, I guess you are completely right, nothing offensive here, I should know ‘betta’.