7 Things I Hate About Taipei

I’m sure that many people are asking…come ON…it’s not ALL lollipops and roses? You mean that it’s that EASY to move to the other side of the globe to a country where you can’t speak the language?? You’re right. There are good days and bad. I feel very fortunate that the good days definitely outweigh the bad; however, there are a few annoying things about Taipei that can definitely drive me crazy. I’ve decided to share with you some of my favorite pet peeves about Taipei from the most benign to the #1 which drives me absolutely bonkers.

#7 - Carrying Everything

I do find it a big adjustment that I cannot simply purchase what I need at the grocery store, hardware store, Ikea, etc. While there are ample taxis available, it’s not as easy to simply park and make multiple trips from the car inside the house. I find that I have to carefully plan my day and ensure that I don’t wait too long to go to the grocery store. I also keep forgetting to bring my bags with me and wind up having to purchase more bags, which just adds to the collection which is already too big!

#6 – Laundry

I’ve accepted the fact that Taiwanese people mostly don’t use the dryer. I’m fine with that. I HAVE used our washer/dryer combo on occasion; however, in the process I’ve melted one of Elaine’s nightgowns. So, I reserve it only for towels! The problem I have is that while my laundry smells clean, it certainly doesn’t LOOK clean. No matter how hard I scrub, it seems that I just can’t get stains out! At first I thought it was the washing machine. However, a friend of mine has a new theory which I’m anxious to try out (to help keep me from replacing MORE socks!). She found that the Taiwanese detergents were simply not strong. She gets her detergent from Costco…the American kind…the good stuff, she says…TIDE. I’ll try it out. I realize I’ll pay an arm and a leg for it; however, I figure it’s cheaper than replacing the girls’ socks each week!

#5 – Sidewalks

The building in Taipei is quite haphazard. I don’t anticipate that the City Planning Commission is very particular or picky. It seems that when someone wanted to remodel or build, they simply build over what was there previously. If the elevations are slightly different, then a step is built. Sometimes the steps are marked with a yellow strip to differentiate the elevations, but not always. It’s not uncommon to have a 3-ft gap in one sidewalk and then have the same gap with 2 steps to help ease one down to the street. All I can say is that it would absolutely BITE to be crippled or handicapped in Taipei. If you visit, better get in shape first…especially one’s knees!

#4 - LONG Street Lights

Everyone walks in Taipei. It is a densely populated region where use of public transportation is quite the norm. It also has a lot of people on scooters and buses. To help ease the traffic, the lights are typically about 2 minutes each. What that means is that when the girls and I cross the street TWICE to get to school, if we don’t time it JUST right, it could take us 4 minutes to cross the street; 2 minutes to cross from East to West, and then an add’l 2 minutes to cross from South to North. While we live less than one mile from school, it takes us about 25 minutes using public transportation and about 10 minutes using taxis, mostly due to the long lights.

#3 – Cooking

Taiwan kitchens are ridiculously small. They’re more like galley kitchens. There are no dishwashers and the stoves are typically 2 gas burners. They are typically away from the action, and off to the side of the apartment…out of sight, out of mind. The feminist in me sees this as the patriarchal society’s way of ensuring that women stay out of sight, out of mind; however, perhaps I’m skewed? The absolute most WORST part of cooking in Taipei is that THERE ARE NO OVENS IN TAIWAN KITCHENS. I have found that many of the expats living in Tienmu have more ‘Western’ style kitchens and have ovens. We’re deliberately stayed away from the expat area of Tienmu to get more of a local flavor (and that public transportation is not as readily available in that neighborhood, as beautiful as it is!), so that’s what we must live with. I do have a microwave oven which has a convection oven feature. I have yet to try it out, and the oven itself is very small; however, I figure I’ll try out some cookies first. Worst case, we’ll just eat the dough! So, cooking is just not fun. I’ll keep you posted as I have hope that perhaps I’ll just become the queen of sauté!

#2 – Weather

I understand now more than ever why people pay exorbitant amounts of money to live in CA. The weather in Taipei is just plain icky. It’s very wet and sticky most of the time. It’s now November and it can be as chilly as 65 degrees one way, with winds that are simply biting as the weather is still damp, and then 82 degrees the next. My clothes are never quite dry even after 48 hours, and I’m never sure whether to leave the house with the umbrella or not. I put on makeup as it makes me feel pretty, but it simply melts away within the first few hours, leaving me feeling sticky and icky. I find myself showering twice a day and finding that I cannot get too close to the girls as I always find them sticky. This is definitely not something I am adjusting to….I’m simply accepting.

#1 - Slow Walkers

Yes. That’s it. My NUMBER ONE pet peeve is SLOW WALKERS. I HATE THEM!!!!!! I tell you, when I am on the streets, I typically have a purpose. I must get from one place to the next. The walkways in Taipei are fairly narrow, and there are a lot of people walking around. The frustrating thing is that many of them are completely oblivious to those around them. These slow walkers will meander across from side-to-side of the walkway as if they had all the time in the world. I feel like screaming at them ‘GET OUT OF MY WAY…DON’T YOU PEOPLE HAVE ANY PLACE TO BE??!!!’ It’s crowded enough around Taipei. I’m not certain why people don’t simply step to one side if they must stop to pick their nose or look up at the moon. I get the fact that there are a lot of people here…I just don’t like that people seem to congregate right in front of me while I’m trying to get from one place to the next.

So there you have it. That’s the 7 Things I Hate About Taipei. If you catch me on a particularly hot day where I haven’t had much sleep, have had to wait in one too many stop lights with very heavy grocery bags, have missed the bus because I was late wearing wet clothes and have been slowed down by one too many slow walkers…yeah, I’ll tell you that Taipei sucks! Well, it sucks on that day, anyway. Thankfully, I haven’t had a day like that yet :).

Half Term Holiday Day 6 - Halloween

In case you’re wondering what happened to Day 5, I didn’t forget about it. We had planned to go to the Fine Arts Museum, as I’d referenced earlier. The kids and I lounged around in the morning and left around 11am. We arrived at 11:30 to see a line which wound its way around the museum into the parking lot. After giving it 30 minutes in wait time, I began to see that the line wound its way up the stairs, and then wound around three times before one could see the sign which said ‘Buy Tickets’. I realized that all of the people in line were going to try to see the same exhibit we were…I have NO idea how they pack THAT many people in the museum. We decided to pitch the idea and we spent the day eating a nice lunch and lounging around…nothing exciting.

Saturday was Halloween in Taipei. While it is true that Halloween is not a Taiwanese holiday, there are many stores with decorations and a few places which were offering trick-or-treating. What I found are that all of the pre-schools and kindergardens celebrate the holiday; however, the older kids are mostly left on their own to find an American community in which they can trick-or-treat. Brianna had managed to spot a sign advertising a haunted house and celebration in Tienmu square, which is up the street from our apartment. Knowing that a lot of expats live in Tienmu, we figured this would be as good as it gets and decided to check it out late that afternoon.

Before we went to the Halloween festivities, we began the day with some new friends, the Hodowanys, at an American brunch (THANKS again Judy and John for a GREAT treat!). We then split up a bit to do some shopping and errands. Terry, the kids, and I stopped by an arcade where Terry and I tested our strength. Oh yeah...I beat him that first round 12-11; however, he beat me the next 11-12...so I suppose we're equally as strong (thankfully my man is comfortable enough with his masculinity that this didn't seem to bother him :)!!). Our family then went to the Taipei Coffee Festival, as Terry and I are STILL on a search for a good cup 'a joe here. What we're finding is that there are some decent places out there, but the beans are quite expensive. While Taipei does grow and roast its own beans, it is a small market and therefore highly priced. Sigh. For now, we'll stick to asking Terry's co-workers to bring our favorite coffee beans from CA when they come to Taipei (THANK YOU McCarthy!!)

Later that afternoon, we met up with the Hodowanys at Tienmu Square for the Halloween festivities. When we arrived, it was PACKED…and HOT HOT HOT. At 4:30pm, it must have been about 80-85 degrees. This Halloween was definitely the warmest I could remember! At first, it simply appeared to be a bunch of booths with people selling crafts, food and stuff. However, we saw a sign for a haunted house, and decided to give it a go. I have to say…the Taiwanese did a pretty good job. While this haunted house was not quite as elaborate as those we see in CA, it had plenty of good stuff. There were some simple wood coffin-outlines, a few grave sites, and lots of black cloth draped here and there, creating a labyrinth-effect. The creepiest thing which really scared the kids were the various teenagers dressed in ghoulish make-up, who jumped out at every corner. THAT was pretty creepy…even I jumped when someone grabbed my ankles!

After the haunted house, we saw that a few girls playing MC were going to start some kind of show. While we couldn’t really understand much of what they were saying, Judy, her children, and mine decided to sit and watch while the dads talked shop. Within a few minutes, the MC’s were asking for volunteers to come up on the stage to participate in a game. Judy’s daughter, Audrey, was one of the first to volunteer. Not to be outdone, Elaine raised her hand and was soon whisked away up onto the stage. Mind you…the whole thing is in Mandarin!! While Elaine stood there looking as cute as can be, the next thing she knew, a microphone was shoved in her face and people were screaming at her to shout something out…I think she managed to shout ‘Tienmu’. Next to her, Audrey, who can understand both English and Mandarin, took up the slack and shouted ‘Tienmu gou sen me gui’ (Tienmu…what’s happening!). The surprising thing in all of this was the smile which appeared on both Elaine and Audrey’s face and participating. I was so proud of Elaine for not being shy and walking right up there…even though she had NO clue what was going on!

After the kids took their turn screaming (I think there was a prize for being the loudest), we were treated to a dance troup (dancing to Boom Boom Pow, which, along with ‘Poker Face’ is ALL we hear around here!!) and fire-throwers. While the dance troup was fun for the kids (VERY amateur, but hey, one couldn’t beat the price!), the fire throwers were really fun to watch. All of the acts were amateurs who were volunteering their time to perform, but still very fun to watch. We managed to keep everyone sitting and watching for about 1.25 hours!

After the show, we all hopped in a few cabs and had the best pizza we’ve had since arriving in Taipei…Alleycats thin crust. Yummy (Thanks John for introducing this to us!)!!

To ensure that the girls didn’t miss out completely on Halloween, we stopped by 7-11 on the way home and bought a bunch of candy. Terry and I then took turns hiding in the bedrooms while the girls, dressed in costume, knocked on our doors and said ‘trick-or-treat’. While it wasn’t the same, we tried to stay as true to tradition as we could. Certainly we ALL miss the pumpkin-carving, the baking, the smell of a warm fire and cookies baking. We miss riding our bikes through Golden Gate Park admiring the changing of the leaves. We miss our friends and the Halloween parade and the AWESOME haunted house on Shearwater Court. While the holiday of Halloween found us all a bit homesick, I’m thankful that it wasn’t quite as bad as I was expecting. We found that the company of new friends helped to lessen the homesickness and helped us to create new memories which I know we’ll cherish for a lifetime.