I think Taiwanese parents for what I’ve noticed tend to be way more willing to shell out immense amounts of money to coddle their children. I noticed quite a few tattoos guys I thought were gangsters when I originally arrived, but turns out they are just rich kids who basically work at bars or clubs for fun as opposed to be “gang” related or actually needing the money. Good place to pickup chicks I guess.
Next to my mother-in-law’s house there is a young guy who works part time at a pub at night. He sleeps during the day and leaves for “work” around 1:00-2:00am…and gets home around 4:00-5:00am. He drives his mother’s new AMG Benz. Mother’s brother gave the car to her because she was elected to be a government official so he thought she should drive a nice car to events.
Last week I was at my mother-in-law’s house. I saw the young guy cleaning the exterior of his mother’s car so she could go to work. When he finished with a big blue towel he simply threw it over the tall fence into our neighbor’s yard (they are not living there so land is overgrown with weeds). I do wonder how much trash is thrown over there by him.
The young guy’s wife gave us the evil eye when we asked her to move her Benz from in front of our house. I thought was reasonable request that we could park our cars in front of our house but she seemed very inconvenienced at moving the car to in front of her house.
Yes, not going to obstruct scooter/driver vision as they watch movies -messaging-ordering dinner on their phones whilst driving.
Yikes 
University handed ban on foreigners
Chung Chou University of Science and Technology has been banned from accepting international students after it was found to have mistreated students from Uganda, the Ministry of Education said yesterday.
The plight of students from the East African nation was exposed after online news site The Reporter uncovered illegal practices at the university in Yuanlin City, Changhua County.
While students were promised English-language courses, scholarships and paid internship opportunities before they arrived, the report said that the university did not provide the scholarships and only a few courses were taught in English.
A bus is parked outside a building at Chung Chou University of Science and Technology in Yuanlin City, Changhua County, in an undated photograph.
Photo: Lin Hsiao-yun, Taipei Times
The so-called “paid internship opportunities” were in reality blue-collar jobs in factories, and the students worked mostly overnight shifts, the report said.
University handed ban on foreigners - Taipei Times
In 2018, a similar incident involved students at the University of Kang Ning in Tainan sent to work in a slaughterhouse. This was followed in 2019 by reports of Indonesian students at the Hsing Wu University in New Taipei being forced to make contact lenses in a factory, as well as at five other universities, and students at the Yu Da University of Science and Technology in Miaoli from the Philippines being forced to work in a tile manufacturing factory. Likewise, in June 2020, it was reported that 40 students from Eswatini at Mingdao University were forced to work in a refrigerated factory skinning chickens.
Yeah definitely not a one time thing…the previous incident was through a pretty shady recruiter hired by the school who pocked all the money. The thing was that he already had a bad record, so not sure if the school failed to do a background check on him or what…but it must of hurt being the students being taken advantage of and find out all the money that was supposed to go to the school was taken by this guy and the school still demands they pay the full tuition that their recruiter stole.
Fortunately the backlash at least made them waive the previous school fees/tuition…but at that point it feels like they should just get a free ride for the remainder of their degree.
It is essential for a good “mourning” (sorry 
)
Saw a guy with the hose out washing his car off…while it was still raining.
A few weeks ago saw a guy tending to his hair out of the corner of my eye in the gym restroom while I’m letting nature take it’s course and as I go over to wash my hands I notice the guys is just a few licks away from being bald…I guess he was just practicing for when it all grows back.
Whoah, and I thought my old habits were dumb. Once a month or so I’ll catch myself doing a very old instinctive head shake to get hair out of my eyes. Yet my hair hasn’t even been on my forehead for a good decade, and it’s been far longer than that since it’s been in my eyes.
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Say “NO” to;
Gambling
Drinking
Smoking -
The Grim Reaper wants to shoot up with you.
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2 in the pink, 1 in the stink.
I got the exaggerated foreigner pronunciation today. Getting my booster, an older lady asked me which shot I came for. I said the “Moderna 3rd shot.” I said Moderna in my normal American accent. She then handed me a clipboard and pen, and told me in the foreigner accent that I needed to fill it out.
This foreigner accent thing is wack. But what I found amusing was that the form was all in Chinese. If I’m so obviously not from this place, why assume I can read and write all those highly advanced squiggly lines of yours? Anyway, I dutifully checked the boxes and filled out the form.
Modena in Taiwan.
Dogs, dogs, everywhere. I was in Alishan National Park last week. In the courtyard in front of the temple was a pack of dogs relaxing. At the back of the stores nearby were 7 puppies playing together.
Went to the main square where two dogs were fighting…running next to each other at a mad clip…barking and snapping at each other. (Amazing the speed and ability to fight at same time.) They headed for a crowd of people in front of a store who all scattered as the dogs ran into their group. The dogs stopped and faced each other snarling with teeth bared and only about 20 cm from each other. People were just waiting for the conclusion to the fight. We moved on.
Later we went hiking where we were met by a pack of dogs on the trail. Then when we returned to the trailhead, another pack was relaxing near the entrance.
Taiwan really needs stricter laws to stop people dumping their dogs. I don’t think I can go a hike or a cycle in the countryside without coming across a pack.
Luckily, here, most aren’t dangerous—the only encounters I have with bad dogs are owners who have an overly-aggressive one guarding their property which come hurtling out barking and yapping if I decide to explore a bit off a beaten path.
There was a pack of dogs near me who used to go for a walk around one of the large, cheap department stores. The store workers did nothing to stop them–they just walked in and had a wander around. Haven’t seen them for ages though.
I don’t understand why people feel the need to put jackets on dogs like huskies in this weather. Also find it wack that I see more people pushing dogs in strollers than kids.
Yesterday was walking to a hospital where outside is a vendor selling sausages. I see a lady buy two sausages and then walk over to a dog and throw the sausages on the ground for the dog. The dog sniffed at them for awhile then picked one up.
I looked at the sausage vendor who was old and thin with a very craggy face. My thought was this guy looks hungrier than the dog.