I’ve been living in Kaohsiung for two weeks now, and not a morning has passed where I wasn’t woken up by the sound of bottle rockets screaching past my window, firecrackers exploding, someone yelling over a loudspeaker, and the incessant beating of drums. When I first arrived, this would start around 9am or a little after. However, as the elections have gotten closer and closer, the noise has started earlier and earlier. This morning it was at exactly 8am. Trying to see the bright side of things, perhaps this early morning racket has helped me get over my jet lag by making sure I didn’t sleep in too late.
While I appreciate a political candidates right to campaign, I just wish they’d do it a little more quietly. Obviously I can’t participate in these elections, but if I could, I’m the type of person who holds grudges. If for a particular race I couldn’t decide between two candidates, the tiebreaker would be that I would NOT vote for the candidate that was bombarding my laundry drying on the balcony with bottle rockets and waking me up at un-Godly hours every morning. Perhaps some Taiwanese feel the same way?
Last night, they closed down a lane on Yisin First Road and set up a stage and a couple hundred chairs for a demonstration. They brought in some performance artists, a Russian group which featured some scantily clad ladies and one guy dancing around (it was rather dull), and a group from South Africans which showed off some impressive talent in acrobatics, flexibility, playing with fire, and dancing. My wife and I watched for about 45 minutes as the two acts and a speaker for the political party took turns on the stage. It was at that point that a Taiwanese man not-so-politely told my wife in Taiwanese “You should take him (referring to me) and leave, he doesn’t belong here.” In a way, I guess he had a point, as 1) I can’t participate in the elections and 2) All of the speakers were speaking Taiwanese, so I didn’t understand anything. However, apparently it never occured to him that I was accompanying my wife who can and will vote. While she’s traditionally not a big fan of whatever political party that rally was for, she told me that she definately wouldn’t vote for any of those candidates now after my un-welcome reception at that event. Not that one man’s ignorance is representative of the whole party, but my wife tends to hold grudges, just like me. 
So, thank God the elections are tomorrow. Now maybe I can get some sleep!