WHAT? Nekkid from the waist down? ALL the time? That is a SCARY notion.
obviously you don’t need get lost in taiwan in order to develop certain habits…
rumor has it that there is an austrian exchange student guy who is stealing his breakfast every morning at a chengchi university’s 7/11. the girl working there knows. and he knows she knows. but he keeps stealing and she feels too embarrassed to report anyone.
It’s a two year old thread, so I don’t think it’s gravedigging. Temp this if it is.
One thing that has struck me since moving to Taiwan is the number of foreigners who I call ‘single issue expats’. They just have one topic, often a political issue, that they are completely obsessed with. When you meet them for the first time all normal social conventions go out the window and they launch straight into whatever issue it is that bothers them. I’ve noticed that this type of person is way more prevalent in Taiwan than in the UK.
This does mean that foreigners often come across as odd. Just to give an example, this is a conversation I had with a stranger who approached me at a party recently:
Him: So, what do you think about American politics?
Me: I don’t really know, to be honest.
Him: ‘I don’t know.’ What sort of an answer is that?This is by no means a rare occurence. I’ve met loads of people who only seem to want to talk about one thing, and they keep on bringing it up again and again. It could be some conspiracy theory, immigration into their home country (that one always makes me smile), a problem they have with Taiwan… they just seem to launch into their obsession and refuse to discuss anything else. Obviously, people who bypass standard social conventions are going to come across as a bit odd.
Damn, you nailed it (kind of), the most annoying foreigners I come across these days are the goddamn conspiracy fuckwits. They don’t shut up about it and as soon as someone cracks the door anywhere near those topics they got their foot jammed in it for the rest of the night, yabberin loud at a pub or ruining your night at a friends for beers.
Nothing worse than a gullible moron thinking they have the inside scoop on something.
A guy came for a demo at our school and didn’t really want to go after he didn’t get the job. He told us how he can improve the school. He also asked the teacher of the class why the kids weren’t familiar with the posters (but we get new posters every month) and told us he was in the Canadian military and how he can use that on our 3 yr olds who weren’t sitting quietly.
My boss didn’t hire him, but he came back…and handed out namecards to parents.
may be one of you! But yes, was weird.
and…whatever happened to that Martial Arts guy that used to hang out between Spin and Roxy?Big bald guy…
may be one of you!
Is it ok to talk about people living in Taiwan now?
Heard about a guy living now in Hualien that tries to direct traffic like a traffic cop, even to the extent of knocking on drivers windows to talk to them. He gets drunk and then gets beat up by gangsters or someone about once a month. The cops are apparently used to him now and I guess they just put up with him. Hmmm, maybe he is on this board also and can help make it not sound so odd.
It’s a two year old thread, so I don’t think it’s gravedigging. Temp this if it is.
One thing that has struck me since moving to Taiwan is the number of foreigners who I call ‘single issue expats’. They just have one topic, often a political issue, that they are completely obsessed with. When you meet them for the first time all normal social conventions go out the window and they launch straight into whatever issue it is that bothers them. I’ve noticed that this type of person is way more prevalent in Taiwan than in the UK.
This does mean that foreigners often come across as odd. Just to give an example, this is a conversation I had with a stranger who approached me at a party recently:
Him: So, what do you think about American politics?
Me: I don’t really know, to be honest.
Him: ‘I don’t know.’ What sort of an answer is that?This is by no means a rare occurence. I’ve met loads of people who only seem to want to talk about one thing, and they keep on bringing it up again and again. It could be some conspiracy theory, immigration into their home country (that one always makes me smile), a problem they have with Taiwan… they just seem to launch into their obsession and refuse to discuss anything else. Obviously, people who bypass standard social conventions are going to come across as a bit odd.
Ain’t that the truth.
If I hear about “Zeitgeist” I just look at them like they’re a VHS player - “they still MAKE you??” i can’t believe people are still going on about that tripe, but incredibly, they are, and they never shut up.
Is it ok to talk about people living in Taiwan now?
Heard about a guy living now in Hualian that tries to direct traffic like a traffic cop, even to the extent of knocking on drivers windows to talk to them. He gets drunk and then gets beat up by gangsters or someone about once a month. The cops are apparently used to him now and I guess they just put up with him. Hmmm, maybe he is on this board also and can help make it not sound so odd.
Thank you. I don’t know this guy, but visualizing him made my day.
Don’t know if he’s been mentioned yet…but there is a strange fellow who hangs out in a certain underpass in Taipei, singing songs to try and get money. His appearance is quite ragged and his songs seem to be in some Scandinavian or Northern European language, although I wouldn’t know.
Is it ok to talk about people living in Taiwan now?
Heard about a guy living now in Hualian that tries to direct traffic like a traffic cop, even to the extent of knocking on drivers windows to talk to them. He gets drunk and then gets beat up by gangsters or someone about once a month. The cops are apparently used to him now and I guess they just put up with him. Hmmm, maybe he is on this board also and can help make it not sound so odd.
I dunno. That sounds about par for the course for Hualien foreigners. The East Coast is special.
Early 2000s was a wild time
Exchanging phone numbers with a man you meet in a book store would qualify as bizarre behavior in my book. Unless you are a homo.
Did people really sling homophobic asides so casually only 13 years ago?
Did people really sling homophobic asides so casually only 13 years ago?
And they didn’t get removed, not even temped.
No, it was probably accepted talk back then. Or at least no one cared enough to do anything. Hell, I’m sure the mods did it too.
Don’t know if he’s been mentioned yet…but there is a strange fellow who hangs out in a certain underpass in Taipei, singing songs to try and get money. His appearance is quite ragged and his songs seem to be in some Scandinavian or Northern European language, although I wouldn’t know.
I saw a guy matching this description earlier this year in the underpass at NTU. Guess he’s been around awhile.
Wolf was kind of given leeway. While obviously a bit homophobic he was openminded and genuinely curious about matters gay.
Usually the ones who talk most about it are indeed the ones who are most “curious.”
Formosa Superstars:
Steve from the West Coast. A quintessential nerd, about 40 years old, and a world class creep. His M.O. was to hang around McDonald’s chatting up high school girls. “Excuse me Miss, can you help me with my Chinese…”, kinda shite. He always wore the same unlaundered clothes, had terrible hygiene, and wore a ratty pair of shoes, split at the souls with his purple sock clad feet poking out the sides. He had involuntary ticks, and to see him at work, when he was in heat, at McD’s was a nightmare. The poor shao-jie victim squirming in her seat, too embarrassed to tell him to sod off. At night he would indiscretely masturabate, in a room shared with 7 other people.
Juice, from Bostson. Juice was a black guy who slowly unraveled on us. In the begning he was just moderately odd, but by the end, when the police came and carted him out of the hostel, he was obviously headed for disaster. The last two weeks of his stay he took to bringing the worst kind of Buffalo Town skanks home and boneing them in his bunk ( he had 3 room mates in a tiny room with no wondows). Anyone who has lived in the hostels knows that the rule of thumb was to use a love hotel, an MTV., or whatever. On the night before he was evicted, a mate of his called him while he was infalgrante delecto with one of the deaf girls that hung aroung B.T… He came out into the crowded living room to answer his call with only a wash cloth wrapped half around his ass and over his boner. I think he moved down to the Taipei Hostel and not long after was busted trying to sell ice to an undercover cop. Got 7 years hard, out in Taoyuan for that.
Chris from Hawaii. A rasputin looking guy with coke bottle glasses. He once told me that his biggest life accomplishment, to date, was the 5 weeks he spent living as a nude recluse-hermit in a cave on the Big Island.
Then there was this broken down alkie Englishman, whose name escapes me. He’d pass out in the same chair almost everynight, after drinking himself senseless, and wake up in the morning wrapped in toilet paper, or sporting lipstick and dangling earrings. He hated everyone. In the end, when he finally pulled out of Taipei, he cursed us soundly and bragged how he was on his way to score a couple of 12 year olds in the Philipines - gender not specified.
Jerry from Frisco. Grew up on Alcatraz where his dad was a screw. He lived at the Formosa for about 5 years (must have been that early affinity for prison life), and each and every night he’d be up to the wee hours drinking his regular 6 big bottles of Taiwan pijo. He was prone to hurling bric-a-brac at people when one of the endless ridiculous arguments he’d get into got out of hand.
John from the States. He had a bad case of bi-polar disorder that was eratically medicated. Like most people with the disease he was a bit too intense when he was up, and when he was on the down beat - unsufferably maudalin. He was big into frottering and knew all the prime buses to ride to maximize close contact with school girls heading to and from school.
And there were heaps of people that weren’t screwballs, but were colorful characters, none-the-less…
Ed, the classic '60’s hippie that left his job working in a factory attaching spinners to the top of beanies, to teach kindergarten in Taipei. He was a great guy, with the best stories. He told me of the year that he dropped acid each and every day - just to see what it would do to him, and about the time, when he was unemployed and living with his grandma, that he decided to watch T.V. 12 hours a day, 7 days a week for 6 months, so that he could gain a better insight into what it means to be an American.
Taylor from L.A. She was the 19 year old, freerange child of a couple of hippies. She had been educated in all kinds of alternative schools, and was really sharp. Tall and shapely, she got into hostessing at Piano Bars on Lin-Sen, as did quite a few of the girls at the hostel in those days. Eventually, when offered enough money, she slept with one of the customers, making the leap from drinking compaion to hooker. She did 10 tricks after that, saved every dime, and left Taiwan after only a couple of weeks of horizontal employment, never to return, with a US$7,000 travel kitty.
Jaycee, from Nevada also became a prostitute. He worked for a pimp who sold betel nut down the street from the Hostel. He had quite a few odd experiences as a midnight cowboy, including several scenes invloving shagging the Mrs. whilst hubby wanked in the shadows. In the end he happened on a couple of very rich female clients who showered him with gifts and money, and helped him escape the life of hustling for the bin-lang pimp, for the life of a… kept man.
Paul from Glasgee, had a unique angle during his years in Asia. He reckoned that while all the other western blokes where getting lost in “yellow fever” chasing after local girls, he would concentrate his affections on the sea of neglected western womanhood. He only dated white women, and he always had a date. Then one day, he bedded down with a fellow Britt after some rave on Lamu, and in the morning when he woke up, she’d split and written in lipstick, on the mirror, “Welcome to the Wonderful World of AIDS.” He returned to Taiwan soon after, and spent the rest of his time there shitting himself about his status. He went home to sort it out.
British Gavin made his living as a smuggler, mostly of gold - up his bum - to Nepal, before becoming a kindergarten teacher in Sanchung, and working for the DPP.
Boston Thos, collected all kinds of bizarre street salvagings like a pack rat with o.c.d., and brushed his teeth with bleach. Thos was a tosser, if you ask me.
I’ve never met one foreigner who was as crazy as any of these characters, let alone known the 20 or so he lists here. It’s like Batman’s rogues gallery. Either this guy has a great imagination, or this island used to be like “Escape from New York.” (Except with more pedophiles, smugglers and prostitutes. Wtf…). Maybe it’s still like this and I just lead a super boring life.
The weirdest guy was an mixed asian Australian guy who worked on a farm in Australia who only liked western (white) women. He was having a lot of trouble with dating and just general social interaction. His frustrations with the opposite sex often led him to have misogynistic rants in person and on facebook. Like, true misogyny, and crazy angry views.
I met him actually on here, he was asking for help and advice so I decided to meet up with him and just kinda take him out to socialize and give him some advice and maybe meet some people to build a social circle. So initial interaction was that he was just socially awkward, he wasn’t very well spoken and couldn’t draw you in with anything, very little care of his own grooming and fashion. But I guess some of it was from living on a farm and probably and could easily be fixed by getting a proper haircut and learning how to dress.
Added him on facebook and he began to get really weird. Posting very racist and misogynistic views and ranting. Saying some pretty racist things about women of different race, like one moment he would say western women were too independent and should know their place. And another moment he would say asian women were too submissive and love the white man. Thing about how men where superior to women and how they belong in the kitchen. He also wasn’t too keen on immigrants, which was confusing because he is a immigrant…and praised trump on the whole pussy grabbing thing… I would told him to delete them, and he usually would.
So one day, he posted something about trump, apparently he added my gf on facebook and she disagreed. He later deleted me. I had no idea why at the time. I later reported back on what happened on here. He signed on and said he deleted me because we had an argument about trump…but we never talked about politics. Noted I’m not a fan of trump but I never spoke to him about it and made it look like i’m bashing him because of political differences. Last I heard, he went to learn to be a scuba diving instructor in kenting. I can’t even explain how strange of a guy this was.
I really haven’t met any strange foreigners here (partly because I’ve had no real social life since my baby was born shortly after coming here), but in Korea I knew a crazy chick who got evicted from her apartment that her school was paying for (she got fired for repeatedly showing up drunk or hungover to her cram school job). Since she was now without job, without shelter and without a work permit, the logical thing would be to cut your losses and go home… so she did the complete opposite and started camping out behind our local 7/11. She was essentially homeless. We’d see her sleeping at the plastic tables outside the 7/11, or curled up against the dumpster. One time we tried to talk to her, and I forget what you call this type of condition, but she had the kind of nonstop verbal diarrhea that seems to stem from extreme social anxiety. We were trying to help her, asking if there were any friends she could contact who would take her in (we’re good samaritans to a point, but we’re certainly not going to let her stay at either of our places), and it was like what we were saying wasn’t even registering. She was just pulling at her hair, not making eye contact, and ranting word-soup about how her school was trying to have her arrested, how she was wanted by the police, not super crazy stuff, but just crazy enough… it was more how she said it and her behavior than what she specifically said. So after that we just kind of avoided her, and one day she wasn’t there anymore.