Red light runners and pedestrian traffic

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
81

[quote=“pgdaddy1”][quote=“asc”]Shit, I seem to have unintentionally stirred a classic Madrid-Bcn dispute, just by being here! hahaha
We all (Spaniards/Catalonians) know what a tricky subject this is… I’m sorry, but I’m not getting into it here. Maybe another day, in person, with a beer in hand. Much better! But I won’t even promise I’ll get into it then. One of the reasons I left Barcelona/Spain is politics. See, I’m son of a Basque and a “Maña”, grandson of a Navarro and an Andalusian (one a communist, the other one a cop), and I’ve lived all my life in Barcelona. So my answers won’t be short…

Back to the topic: thanks for your replies! I left my skateboards in Barcelona and haven’t bought a bicycle yet (but I really want to, Neihu seems safe enough, specially the mountain trails). Regarding my English, short answer: I was a very lucky little dude because my parents gave me a proper education when I was a kid. I’ll keep the long answer (if anybody cares) for that beer.

And pgdaddy1, you’re back in Barcie? How are the panellets this year? I hear there’s not too many bolets due to the lack of rain. What kind of a guiri are you? I have many guiri friends back home. I bet we have some connections in common.[/quote]

Hi Asc, we are living in the Sagrada Familia area of BCN. What a great city right ?! I’ve only seen one other Eurasian couple here and they were tourists ! We get quite a few looks walking the streets in our area (not nasty ones, but it really pisses me off that the locals here find it so difficult to crack a smile ! The streets of BCN are really quite sombre outside the city centre/ beach area ) but no negative comments and generally a lot of positivity towards us. BCN is so multicultural now and you see quite a few locals who have adopted Chinese children, hence I have already been asked a couple of times whether our little one is mine !

I am the British type of guiri but maybe not the typical one as I speak Spanish along with several other languages, and even took one of the free Catalan courses provided by the Generalitat.

Let me know when you are headed back this way !

Regarding Catalan identity, I don’t see that it has anything to do with politics. If you feel Catalan then you have a right to call yourself one. Ditto for any number of nationless identities such as Palestinians or gypsies.[/quote]

I sent you a PM some time ago. My wife and me were living in BCN 5 years (I’m from there, my wife’s taiwanese). If you want to meet more taiwanese people or mixed couples, we know a few. There’s also a school in Sants where they do chinese classes (traditional chinese) for the taiwanese community (my wife and some friends taught there for a while). If you need anything, just ask.

82

Is Taiwan’s driver test actually easy though? I’ve always thought it was quite technical, requiring you to perform quite a number of maneuvers. The test I took in Maryland, USA was a joke. They just had you drive in an enclosed course doing parallel park, backing up, and turning around. You could pass the test with couple hours of practice even if you never drove.

83

It’s technically somewhat difficult, with an odd backwards S-maneuver, but does absolutely nothing to prepare you for other vehicles being on the roads - i.e., the part about driving that’s actually important.

I suppose the driving test here teaches driving about as effectively as a calligraphy class teaches Chinese.

84

[quote=“Blaquesmith”][quote=“pgdaddy1”][quote=“asc”]Shit, I seem to have unintentionally stirred a classic Madrid-Bcn dispute, just by being here! hahaha
We all (Spaniards/Catalonians) know what a tricky subject this is… I’m sorry, but I’m not getting into it here. Maybe another day, in person, with a beer in hand. Much better! But I won’t even promise I’ll get into it then. One of the reasons I left Barcelona/Spain is politics. See, I’m son of a Basque and a “Maña”, grandson of a Navarro and an Andalusian (one a communist, the other one a cop), and I’ve lived all my life in Barcelona. So my answers won’t be short…

Back to the topic: thanks for your replies! I left my skateboards in Barcelona and haven’t bought a bicycle yet (but I really want to, Neihu seems safe enough, specially the mountain trails). Regarding my English, short answer: I was a very lucky little dude because my parents gave me a proper education when I was a kid. I’ll keep the long answer (if anybody cares) for that beer.

And pgdaddy1, you’re back in Barcie? How are the panellets this year? I hear there’s not too many bolets due to the lack of rain. What kind of a guiri are you? I have many guiri friends back home. I bet we have some connections in common.[/quote]

Hi Asc, we are living in the Sagrada Familia area of BCN. What a great city right ?! I’ve only seen one other Eurasian couple here and they were tourists ! We get quite a few looks walking the streets in our area (not nasty ones, but it really pisses me off that the locals here find it so difficult to crack a smile ! The streets of BCN are really quite sombre outside the city centre/ beach area ) but no negative comments and generally a lot of positivity towards us. BCN is so multicultural now and you see quite a few locals who have adopted Chinese children, hence I have already been asked a couple of times whether our little one is mine !

I am the British type of guiri but maybe not the typical one as I speak Spanish along with several other languages, and even took one of the free Catalan courses provided by the Generalitat.

Let me know when you are headed back this way !

Regarding Catalan identity, I don’t see that it has anything to do with politics. If you feel Catalan then you have a right to call yourself one. Ditto for any number of nationless identities such as Palestinians or gypsies.[/quote]

I sent you a PM some time ago. My wife and me were living in BCN 5 years (I’m from there, my wife’s taiwanese). If you want to meet more taiwanese people or mixed couples, we know a few. There’s also a school in Sants where they do chinese classes (traditional chinese) for the taiwanese community (my wife and some friends taught there for a while). If you need anything, just ask.[/quote]

That’s exactly what we were looking for ! Never received your original message, will PM you shortly.

85

It’s technically somewhat difficult, with an odd backwards S-maneuver, but does absolutely nothing to prepare you for other vehicles being on the roads - i.e., the part about driving that’s actually important.

I suppose the driving test here teaches driving about as effectively as a calligraphy class teaches Chinese.[/quote]

Unfortunately short of actually make one drive in the streets it’d be hard to test for that in an exam I guess.

86

I don’t see any problem with conducting the test on the streets, but I guess if it makes it any harder to pass, you’ll just get more people skip the whole thing.

87

well there would certainly be more topics on forumosa a la “God this new driver almost ran me over taking his road test today!” :slight_smile:

88

A great city indeed! But with its fair share of problems to… Just the “mossos” thing going on for the last 2-3 years drives me crazy.
Anyway, I sure know what you mean with the looks you get on the street… My girl spent 6 years there and some people still looked weird at us.
Oh well…
I also agree with you on the multi-culturality, one of my favourite aspects on the city. I met so many people from around the world, that has allowed me to travel heaps. But I’ll admit that I don’t mind being the “exotic” one around here, it has its advantages hahaha

89

I have visited Barcelona only a couple of times. It has lots of interesting things and people. Now, the pee-smell of the Gothic area killed me :frowning:

90

Different areas of Barcelona have different concentrations of urine odour. It’s kind of a thing that unites the whole city. In the Barrio Gotico, you get the faeces thrown in for free !

91

Here is the answer :slight_smile:

92

I saw a baboon that looked a lot like that once.

93

[quote=“shiadoa”]Here is the answer :slight_smile:
[/quote]

Bike police?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

94

I know someone that runs red lights in the car in Taipei all the time. Usually when turning a corner. Sometimes after the light turns red and sometimes just drives in the middle of waiting.

They never get a ticket so seems like corners are not monitored much automatically or electronically.