this is definitely her kind of thread
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Ok look I do not want to freak anyone out, but what if he looks right in your face with a big smile and says "How you doing today ". I know it is rare, very rare, but what if ? Then what? I shudder to think about it. 
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That was me, I was only pretending to buy budweiser so you wouldn’t start a conversation. Worked well for both of us.
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Tommy was watching and waiting behind the Pringles…To report on that scintillating conversation .
@tommy525
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Yes. This. It happened to me in early 2002.
A tall, curly haired white guy having a smoke on the sidewalk outside of a Circle K convenience store. I stopped, smiled and said, “You must be new!” He replied that he had just arrived the night before and this morning was his first day in Taiwan. I “innocently” asked him why he was here and he of course said…wait for it…“to teach English”!
He had nothing lined up and basically knew nothing about the job hunt in Taiwan. I asked his name and told him to follow me around the block as I was about to give him his first job. No… @tommy525 …not that kind of job around the block…get your mind out of the gutter…sheesh.
Anyway,I took him to a friend’s kindy who had desperately asked me to help him find a foreigner to play with children for money (“teach English”), since I wouldn’t do it. I walked him in, introduced him to the manager and that’s how he got his first job in Taiwan.
I always nod, make direct and intense eye contact and say hello, good morning or good evening to everyone I pass by…foreigner or Taiwanese alike. If you don’t like it…get used to it because I’m not going to stop.
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I want to share my experience as well with other foreigners in Taiwan. Usually when another foreigner approaches me for a chit-chat or a simple “HI”, I usually roll my eyes and completely ignore the individual, sometimes I move my position a bit far away to avoid any additional attempt for a conversation. Also walking on the street, if I spot another foreigner coming towards my direction, usually I try to cross the street or if not possible, I just try to get into the nearest mall just to avoid any contact attempt.
I hate those types that does a nod with their head like if we were bro or something alike. Also eyes contact is something that disturbs me, usually I make an unfriendly face and always roll my eyes.
One day I was at school to pick up my kid and there is this another foreigner asking me “How I was doing?”, I looked at him and roll my eyes and completely ignored him. I don’t know if he noticed or not.
Hey, I’m just joking :), actually I never roll my eyes.
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What??? That would be tantamount to saying the Pope practices Budhism !!
Maybe he does. How would we know? 
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They may have heard that westerners that come to taiwan are all frickin wierdos (except for them of course ) and treat you accordingly.
nobody approaches me because i have this thousand yard stare that even the police are not sure about.
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I don’t “do” guys but I do HELP guys just like you did/do.
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I have never changed my name, except once when i came in disguise as tommy526 but that didnt really work
Get back eavesdropping behind those Pringles Tommy , don’t be shirking yer duty.
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honestly if you be a honky and you see another honky cat just be CALIFORNIAN AND NOD AND IF NEEDED SAY “WASSSUP?”
i MAY have stepped up my game today at the laundromat. A place where people generally DONT talk to strangers .
I parked my car and i was just kinda enjoying the lazy afternoon, sunny and HOT 91 degrees F.
I see this lady get out of her car (shapely figure, honky chick…bout 30s? mid to late? )
and by chance I was just about to go into the laundromat as well.
she gets in first, i follow but not “following” ya know.
Puts two fives in the change machine for coins. Know im gonna need at least 10 to wash . .6 for the three loader big mama machine and bout 4 to dry the sizzel.
Anyway i go to my fav machine and the door doesnt stay open on that machine so I use the next machine’s door to prop open this one (do that all the time so its a natural for me). She is standing there… And I said 'Oh pardon me were you going to use this machine? She said yes unless you were planning to use it?
I said no just propping up the door with your door?
so we awkwardly a bit crouch down and load our respective machines. She must see the bras Im putting in there (wifey bras/clothes) if she was watching anyways.
nothing else said i Load and go as we do in our covid days.
People load the machines and disappear outside to sit in their cars to wait for the next cycle, setting a timer.
But because I have to go back in and get the clothes and put them in a dryer and then go back and get them again. I end up seeing her next to me in 30 mins for the drying session and awkwardly say hi.
And then we meet at the dryers again and actually have a conversation. she was very friendly, not like people normally are at such establishments…volunteered shes from arizona, and we talked about all the wild fires, and what not.
Well i was ready in case she pointed out the bras , i would say. Oh those are not mine …not my size…
but anyhow nothing was mentioned. I did mention something about wife hating the fires too, just to let her know im not a womanizer (anymore).
And we said some pleasantries and that was that.
Im kinda proud i was able to talk to a honky girl/lady/woman in california and actually have a conversation?
i’ve seen (player) Joe do it…course hes actually single and ready to mingle. He would LOVE this girl for sure.
It is so easy for ladies to meet men at laundromats if they want to really.
Come to think of it. there are a whole row of wash machines in the joint and why did she pick the one next to me?
And ditto bout the dryers. there are literally a whole row of dryers , a whole row and shes picked the one next to me again? There was only her and me there and the owner of the place who was unloading the machines of coins and putting them away in the back room.
Hmmm…odd …isn’t it… she must like me.
Because in a room full of machines her fav happened to be the one right next to me ? and again the dryers? I used two (faster that way) and she was using the adjacent two next to my two?
I may have dodge a bullet there !!! Fatal Attraction anyone?
She was very cute… as i said shapely figure in those body hugging jeans, light red sweater, big ol light blue eyes. you can see her smile under her mask…very cute.
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Only rich men buy Pringles at 7-11. Tommy has no G650.
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very true. and besides they put this antifat large fat molecule in the pringles so we can’t digest them…and you get the shits.
i almost never eat them anymore but once i open a can i CANT STOP…the dang things.
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dang! i am about to venture next door to the safeways to get more cat sand (three cats ya see) and now i feel i need to get a can of pringles… i will look for the mini cans. And perhaps while there see if I can “overhear” any conversations? Just fer you dudes.
Edit: got the cat sand, sorry forgot about the pringles , saw 12 bottles of corona on sale for 10.99 instead of six bottles for 9.99
beer is expensive now, everything is basically 9.99 for a six pack.
summer is coming and beer is selling
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At least once a week I get on a bus and I either see a foreigner that I actually know or foreigner that I actually know gets on a few stops later. Sometimes they’re people I really actually know and sometimes the bus is really crowded and I spend the whole time I’m on the bus trying to decide if that person way on the other side is the person that I think it is but I don’t really know for sure and whether or not I should approach them. But I’ve had quite a few interesting conversations with foreigners that I half-know already on buses. People I’ve met but would never initiate interaction with if they hadn’t just gotten on the same bus as me. But I do wonder what everyone else thinks. Like, do the Taiwanese on the bus think these white people just strike up conversations with each other even though they don’t know each other? We’re not in Canada / Minnesota, after all.
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Guy
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