Trash!

So, let me ask: What do you think we do with trash in Taiwan?

We give it to old people! Seriously, there are guys driving around on rickshaw type things that take your trash for you. The city pays hobos and old people to collect garbage. People will put and empty can or bottle on a window sill and just leave it. Sure enough, within in 20 minutes and old dude will run over and snatch it off.

Seriously, it is pretty cool.

Cold toilet seats

Alright, so toilets here are sometimes outside of the building, in both apartments and office buildings. Normally, I don't mind so much. In fact, I usually consider it better. However, today I realized the error of my ways. Early this morning, the temp clocked in at about 8 C, which isn't too bad, except that you look at an outdoor freezing cold toilet seat with a bit of apprehension.

Nerdery

Alright, so just a frame of reference to keep in mind when dealing with me. I am a gigantic nerd... like a huge one. AND I can prove it. For a long time, I have had a habit of walking, when on tiled floors, only in acceptable moves for chess pieces, as specified at the time (I usually just pick one, but knights are my favorite.) I also imagine other people are opposing pieces, which limits my available moves. When I did this in the States, no one really notices. However, over here, I get a lot of odd looks...

Back in T-town

I've been back in Taiwan for a couple days now... Really haven't felt like posting much. However, today, I did want to make a comment about Chinese. There is a reason Chinese is so hard to understand. I will give you an example why.

The number 4 is considered a bad number in Chinese. Why?

Four is pronounced Si (starting from a high tone, going to low). This also means temple.
Death is pronounced Si (starting from high tone, going to low, then returning to high).
Si (starting high and staying in a high tone) means to tear... and silk... kind of.

That is 5 meanings for one word. This is common place. Another example:

Ma (staying in high tone) is like a question mark.
Ma (high, low, high) is horse, as well as a yard(measurement).
Ma (low high) is mother.
Ma (high low) is a curse.

Ma (high, low, high) fan means troubles. Well, is that ma part of mother, is he talking about a horse? Is he cursing me? OR does the fan go with the ma? You just don't know. Sigh...