Positive stories in Taiwan:
“Do Something Moments” which are stories about people, either Taiwanese or expats, who have had a sudden,
life-changing transformation while here in Taiwan pr overseas.
“Elevator Stories” – stories of ordinary Taiwanese or expats accomplishing something that
made their life better, conveying an emotion of elevation with a goal of
“spiralling” this emotion out to readers.
Any good stories to tell here? [First person singular, plural, or third person…]
Taiwan
Taipei
September 2005
My fianc
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[quote=“derek1978”]Taiwan
Taipei
September 2005
My fianc
Then he would have had to pay for the garlic.
Damn moochers/freloaders rant rant rant.
Dang you guys are so cynical. I thought this was supposed to be about positive things happening in taiwan??? :s
I think they could be having a little go at your taking 12 or so paragraphs to say “a nice old lady gave me some garlic” Nice story all the same.
I was running in the rain last night for one hour and really tried to come up a good story. Couldn’t do it. I run to a schedule and the rain doesn’t stop me btw. It is also enjoyable if you have a baseball cap so the rains not running down your face.
A Taiwanese friend stopped to demand I get in her car and she’d take me home. That was probably as close as I get to a nice Taiwan story. She also suggested my clothes were wet and maybe I should take them off. Also part of the nice story.
I think they could be having a little go at your taking 12 or so paragraphs to say “a nice old lady gave me some garlic” Nice story all the same.
I was running in the rain last night for one hour and really tried to come up a good story. Couldn’t do it. I run to a schedule and the rain doesn’t stop me btw. It is also enjoyable if you have a baseball cap so the rains not running down your face.
A Taiwanese friend stopped to demand I get in her car and she’d take me home. That was probably as close as I get to a nice Taiwan story. She also suggested my clothes were wet and maybe I should take them off. Also part of the nice story.[/quote]
Yeah, I see your point. What can I say…I was in a good mood and felt like writing. 
Girls demanding you get in their car and take your clothes off 
sounds like you are having fun 
I think they could be having a little go at your taking 12 or so paragraphs to say “a nice old lady gave me some garlic”.[/quote]
It’s all in the telling. That wouldn’t have made me feel nearly as warm. Great story. :bravo:
I think they could be having a little go at your taking 12 or so paragraphs to say “a nice old lady gave me some garlic” Nice story all the same.
I was running in the rain last night for one hour and really tried to come up a good story. Couldn’t do it. I run to a schedule and the rain doesn’t stop me btw. It is also enjoyable if you have a baseball cap so the rains not running down your face.
A Taiwanese friend stopped to demand I get in her car and she’d take me home. That was probably as close as I get to a nice Taiwan story. She also suggested my clothes were wet and maybe I should take them off. Also part of the nice story.[/quote]
wow, i feel so sorry for you if thats the best you can do.
[quote=“derek1978”]Taiwan
Taipei
September 2005
My fianc
Derek, it was a nice story. I’m sorry for making fun of you. A bit.
I was out with the dog yesterday and we came to the spot in the forest where there’s a little shrine. There was a woman there dressed in one of those red flannelly suit things that are so poular with middle-aged women, black wellies, a backpack and a slightly silly hat.
She appeared to be doing some kind of vigorous Taiji, but as I got closer she started moving even faster and burst into some traditional-sounding song. She didn’t see me until I was really close, and had a second of near-embarassment because I was standing there with a daft grin on my face. Actually, I love this kind of thing. Taiwanese may be very ‘straight’ in many ways, but they’re a lot less self-conscious than most westerners and it’s nice to see someone unashamedly having a good time. When she realised I wasn’t laughing at her she decided that I should dance with her instead…
She didn’t suggest I take off my clothes though.
Great Story, Derek. :bravo: Very well observed/reported.
I was hiking in Taroko Gorge my first summer in Taiwan (well, as first as one can get when they arrived in August the prior year). I had my handy, abso-fucking-lutely inaccurate Lonely Planet Taiwan guide in my bag along with some dried fruit, crackers, tea and water. I had gone down the paths on the right hand split of the road earlier that morning and wanted to go down the left-hand side to see some of the other sites. Well, being a poor geography student, I had misjudged the distance from that entrance to the first interesting site. By a few kilometers. On a hot muggy July day. At 1 pm. After having spent four hours hiking already. I had already depleted the saltiness of my body and was just dripping with pure water after getting about 5 kilometers on the way. I was at the point of giving up, and thought, hell, sticking out my thumb wouldn’t expend too much energy and the worst that could happen is I’d get a breeze from the cars as they passed by. The one first car didn’t give too much of a breeze. The second one was more effective. The third one stopped. A young woman rolled down the window and started fussing at me in English to get in the car because it was too hot to be walking. Then after I closed the door, she passed me back a bottle of ice cold water from the cooler at her feet and told her boyfriend to turn up the air conditioner until I had cooled off. She asked me where I was headed and when I told her, she exclaimed that they were headed there too. I wound up spending the entire day with them, exchanging numbers, and they helped me get to the train station back to Hualien where I was staying. They had offered me a ride back to Taipei (since they were just doing a day trip), but I was in the middle of (my soon-to-fail attempt of) travelling around Taiwan so I refused. When I got back to Taiwan, we hooked up a few times for lunch. If it weren’t for them, I would have never seen Taroko Gorge and probably would have been very badly off in trying to get out of there back to Hualien.
Hmmm, I still can’t think of anything.
Circa 1989…
The girlfriend and I went up to Jyo-Fen for a day at Chinese New Year. Had a great walk around - this was when the place was still largely “undiscovered”. In our explorations we met a Taiwanese Movie star, who my gf reckoned was quite well known at the time. He inivited us in for tea, and a chat on the deck of the little house he had fixed up as a weekend getaway house. Later as we were walking the streets a little kid tried to give me NT$500 of his hong-bao money because I was the first foreigner he’d ever met.
We missed the last bus, and ducked into a shop at the bottom of the village to ask if there were any hotels, or a later bus. The shop keeper told us that we were totally out of luck in all respects. After a second’s thought, she invited us to stay with them, in their home above the shop. My gf sounded her out a little bit, to make sure we weren’t imposing, and then she told me that the lady was just very kind, and sincerly wanted to help us. We were shown to a room - with a double bed. No questions asked, and in the morning we all had “chou” (water-rice) together, and then we said our thanks and goodbyes, and the lady and her husband said we were welcome any time.
The very nice thing about this unexpected hospitality is that they were so cool about it, they gave us a room and then left us alone. They didn’t dote on us, or impose with questions, and forced conversation. Very kind people.
I’ve thought of something, but it’s about some foreigners that’s been here for a while, one foreigner in particular actually.
When I just arrived in Taiwan, which was not too long ago, I was really homesick. I missed my ski season and was pining for my sailing season which just ended. I searched online for information about sailing and came up with a name. This person invited me to go sailing along with some friends of his that also loved to sail, without knowing me very well.
So I’ll like to formally thank you for saving my sanity (I know you are reading this). But I won’t trade for blowjobs! :no-no:
Last summer I left home early, and it was a beautiful day: no jacket.
By the time I got back on the bus (10 min. walk from the stop to my door), it was absolutely pouring. The bus driver called me back and handed me an umbrella.
Yesterday, I hopped on the bus and the bus driver pulled out a pair of sunglasses I’d lost a couple of weeks ago, asking “Are these yours?”
The guys who slide around corners, lay on the horn all of the time, or simply drive too aggressively still scare the hell out of me, but thumbs up to these guys. 
[quote=“Jaboney”]Last summer I left home early, and it was a beautiful day: no jacket.
By the time I got back on the bus (10 min. walk from the stop to my door), it was absolutely pouring. The bus driver called me back and handed me an umbrella.
Yesterday, I hopped on the bus and the bus driver pulled out a pair of sunglasses I’d lost a couple of weeks ago, asking “Are these yours?”
The guys who slide around corners, lay on the horn all of the time, or simply drive too aggressively still scare the hell out of me, but thumbs up to these guys. [/quote]
In my time here, I’ve encountered some of the kindest, genuinely warm and helpful people that I’ve met anywhere. Most people I’ve met would fall into that category. I guess it is because we are living on a small, densely populated island that the d-i-c-kheads stick out so much, even if they aren’t all that numerous in reality.