Well, my city made international news this week after a croc attack at our zoo. Visitors are expected to flock to the zoo over the weekend to check out the now famous reptile.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Thursday, April 12, 2007
get out of town
Last week we had a Thursday-Sunday 4 day weekend. Despite having winter vacation just 2 months ago, I was already feeling a desperate need to not only get out of town but out of the country for a few days. My sights were set on Japan, specifically Tokyo. The timing seemed perfect. A cousin currently has a house there so not only could I visit with a relative, I'd have accommodations. Second, the cherry blossoms where in bloom. For some reason, since I've come to Taiwan I've had a goal of making it to Japan during Cherry Blossom Festival but until now, I've never had the time off to do so. Finally, it would have been a cool way to spend Easter and my birthday but alas, it was not to be. In the end, a one hour Saturday morning obligation for which I could not find a sub kept me in town. I've recently been encountering frustrations with this particular obligation so to loose a 4 day weekend due to it was to add insult to injury, especially when in the past we've rarely had these mini-breaks during the year. Of course no one wanted to sub because they too had the same idea - get out of town, and I couldn't blame them. Responsibility won again, blasted!
I did, however, manage to escape for at least 2 of the 4 days and spent time relaxing with friends on a nearby island. The break was filled with plenty of reading on the beach, beach combing, exploring tide pools, aimless driving, and sea-gazing, a perfect prescription for life as of recent. The holiday in observance that weekend was Tomb Sweeping Day, a time to pay respect and honor the dead. Incidentally, this island was the very place I spent the holiday last year, though under slightly blue-er skies. Photos from my most recent trip and not ready to be developed, so here are a few from last year in my tribute to the holiday and escaping city life.
I did, however, manage to escape for at least 2 of the 4 days and spent time relaxing with friends on a nearby island. The break was filled with plenty of reading on the beach, beach combing, exploring tide pools, aimless driving, and sea-gazing, a perfect prescription for life as of recent. The holiday in observance that weekend was Tomb Sweeping Day, a time to pay respect and honor the dead. Incidentally, this island was the very place I spent the holiday last year, though under slightly blue-er skies. Photos from my most recent trip and not ready to be developed, so here are a few from last year in my tribute to the holiday and escaping city life.
apparently, I don't live here anymore
In Taiwan, most apartment buildings and housing compounds are equipped with 24 hr security guard service. As a result, in addition to paying rent each month, there is a building management/maintenance fee (in short referred to as guard fee). For my apartment, it's about $45US/month, a price that to me seems a bit steep for a building that appears to have seen its glory days about a decade ago. Don't get me wrong though, I love my apt., which is why I choose to live at present locale despite the general decline of the compound on the whole.
So, imagine my surprise and delight at the end of February when I received my March guard bill and discovered the amount had been reduced by half. Yippee! There was a handwritten note in Chinese on the line beside the new fee. I had a Taiwanese friend translate the note but not much sense was made from it. What she surmised was that the fee was reduced because of giving up a car parking space. However, I had never had/utilized a car parking space, so why was I now getting a discount for giving up something I never had to begin with? I'd have to wait until the landlady came to straighten things out. Perhaps she'd have some insight.
March came and had almost passed entirely while the bill remained unpaid as I awaited a visit from my landlady. (note: in Taiwan individual apartments within an apartment building are usually owned by different people so the owner of mine does not actually live nearby.) The night of her visit finally arrived by the end of the month. One night after work, a run, and finally, a shower, I found myself leaving my bathroom wrapped in a towel just as my landlady, her sister, and one of the security guards were frantically making their way into my apartment. Umm, okay, mind if I put on a bit of clothes? They appeared to be as surprised and flustered to see me as I was to see them, for you see, I had apparently moved. In their defense, they had knocked and rang the bell several times before resorting to having a guard let them in, but being that I was in the shower, the commotion was drowned out. Anyway, it was all news to me that I no longer lived here, but someone got the idea in their head that I had moved out, perhaps as long as a month ago, and alerted my landlady that I no longer lived here. She, in turn, was confused as to why I'd leave without saying anything or trying to re-claim my security deposit and skip out on paying the rent.
The notion that I had left was totally ridiculous! As a friend pointed out, at least several times a week friends stop by my apartment, friends who must pass by the gate guard before getting into the compound. These are friends who come often and are recognized by the guards as friends of mine and considering they didn't stop frequenting my apartment since the time I supposedly "moved," why the heck did the guards think they were still coming here and why did they keep letting them in if they didn't think I lived here any longer?
Secondly, if the landlady was so panicked, she could have tried calling me. Granted, I'm not home much so reaching me via land line isn't always easy. And as for calling my cell, well, there had been only one call from her and it was on the same night that she came by. I had missed the call and hadn't seen it until after she left. Furthermore, she has my work phone number and once had to reach me there, so if all else failed and she truly thought I moved, she could have called my school to verify.
Finally, if the shoe rack with at least a dozen pairs of shoes outside my front door wasn't a give away that someone just might still be inhabiting the place, then I don't know what would be. Why would I move and leave most of my shoes behind?
So, obviously it became apparent rather quickly that I very much still live here. Clothed and with guard bill in hand, I joined in the process of trying to sort out the mess. Luckily for me, I'm blessed with a very kind and reasonable landlady. We proceeded to the guard station to try to figure out why the blunder occurred and also to find out the reason for the guard fee discount. It turns out the discount was because I had moved out. A half price fee is passed on to the owner of the apt. while it remains empty, so for over a month, despite my passing in and out of the building daily, someone came to the conclusion that I had moved out. Despite the fact that we've maintained a good rapport, now that the idea was planted, my landlady became worried that I may just one day up and move out without warning. It took a bit of convincing to ease her mind. By the end of the night, rent was paid, full guard fee paid, rounds of apologies made, and everything cleared up, or so I thought . . .
Not more than a few days later, I received my new guard bill for April. This time instead of being surprised by a discount, I was surprised by an additional fee of about $24US! Now what?! A few days later a friend stopped by and serving as my translator, we made our way to the guard station to get things straightened out. Now I was being charged an additional fee for the cleaning out of my parking space since I had moved! All this after establishing the fact that I indeed did NOT move. Furthermore, on the bill, I was being charged full price for the guard fee, further indicating I had not moved, yet on the same bill, I was being charged a cleaning fee because I moved. Next, how/why am I being charged a cleaning fee for a parking space that I never had/used? And finally, what exactly is done to "clean out" a parking space, especially, what could possibly be done to warrant a $24 cleaning charge? It's a parking garage! Except for some occasional sweeping, there's nothing ever done to "clean" the place. The charge was naturally dropped and the guard we dealt with, who is the most senior of the lot, was mad that such mistakes were being made and was both reasonable and apologetic.
In summary, despite what some may have you to believe, I have not moved.
So, imagine my surprise and delight at the end of February when I received my March guard bill and discovered the amount had been reduced by half. Yippee! There was a handwritten note in Chinese on the line beside the new fee. I had a Taiwanese friend translate the note but not much sense was made from it. What she surmised was that the fee was reduced because of giving up a car parking space. However, I had never had/utilized a car parking space, so why was I now getting a discount for giving up something I never had to begin with? I'd have to wait until the landlady came to straighten things out. Perhaps she'd have some insight.
March came and had almost passed entirely while the bill remained unpaid as I awaited a visit from my landlady. (note: in Taiwan individual apartments within an apartment building are usually owned by different people so the owner of mine does not actually live nearby.) The night of her visit finally arrived by the end of the month. One night after work, a run, and finally, a shower, I found myself leaving my bathroom wrapped in a towel just as my landlady, her sister, and one of the security guards were frantically making their way into my apartment. Umm, okay, mind if I put on a bit of clothes? They appeared to be as surprised and flustered to see me as I was to see them, for you see, I had apparently moved. In their defense, they had knocked and rang the bell several times before resorting to having a guard let them in, but being that I was in the shower, the commotion was drowned out. Anyway, it was all news to me that I no longer lived here, but someone got the idea in their head that I had moved out, perhaps as long as a month ago, and alerted my landlady that I no longer lived here. She, in turn, was confused as to why I'd leave without saying anything or trying to re-claim my security deposit and skip out on paying the rent.
The notion that I had left was totally ridiculous! As a friend pointed out, at least several times a week friends stop by my apartment, friends who must pass by the gate guard before getting into the compound. These are friends who come often and are recognized by the guards as friends of mine and considering they didn't stop frequenting my apartment since the time I supposedly "moved," why the heck did the guards think they were still coming here and why did they keep letting them in if they didn't think I lived here any longer?
Secondly, if the landlady was so panicked, she could have tried calling me. Granted, I'm not home much so reaching me via land line isn't always easy. And as for calling my cell, well, there had been only one call from her and it was on the same night that she came by. I had missed the call and hadn't seen it until after she left. Furthermore, she has my work phone number and once had to reach me there, so if all else failed and she truly thought I moved, she could have called my school to verify.
Finally, if the shoe rack with at least a dozen pairs of shoes outside my front door wasn't a give away that someone just might still be inhabiting the place, then I don't know what would be. Why would I move and leave most of my shoes behind?
So, obviously it became apparent rather quickly that I very much still live here. Clothed and with guard bill in hand, I joined in the process of trying to sort out the mess. Luckily for me, I'm blessed with a very kind and reasonable landlady. We proceeded to the guard station to try to figure out why the blunder occurred and also to find out the reason for the guard fee discount. It turns out the discount was because I had moved out. A half price fee is passed on to the owner of the apt. while it remains empty, so for over a month, despite my passing in and out of the building daily, someone came to the conclusion that I had moved out. Despite the fact that we've maintained a good rapport, now that the idea was planted, my landlady became worried that I may just one day up and move out without warning. It took a bit of convincing to ease her mind. By the end of the night, rent was paid, full guard fee paid, rounds of apologies made, and everything cleared up, or so I thought . . .
Not more than a few days later, I received my new guard bill for April. This time instead of being surprised by a discount, I was surprised by an additional fee of about $24US! Now what?! A few days later a friend stopped by and serving as my translator, we made our way to the guard station to get things straightened out. Now I was being charged an additional fee for the cleaning out of my parking space since I had moved! All this after establishing the fact that I indeed did NOT move. Furthermore, on the bill, I was being charged full price for the guard fee, further indicating I had not moved, yet on the same bill, I was being charged a cleaning fee because I moved. Next, how/why am I being charged a cleaning fee for a parking space that I never had/used? And finally, what exactly is done to "clean out" a parking space, especially, what could possibly be done to warrant a $24 cleaning charge? It's a parking garage! Except for some occasional sweeping, there's nothing ever done to "clean" the place. The charge was naturally dropped and the guard we dealt with, who is the most senior of the lot, was mad that such mistakes were being made and was both reasonable and apologetic.
In summary, despite what some may have you to believe, I have not moved.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
It's been one of those days, weeks, months, years?
I guess you could say I've been dealing with the ugly side of life in a foreign culture.
Life under the microscope: where if one more person comes up to me at the grocery store for the purpose of peering and occasionally prodding in my shopping basket, I'm may just do the same thing right back to them.
Life at the zoo: where if one more kid points and declares "foreigner" or "American," I'm going to point right back with a few remarks of my own. What is it with the need to state the obvious here?! Furthermore, I'm not a monkey at the zoo!
Life as a punching bag: where I'm to take every blow given and expected to bounce right back and with a smile nonetheless. Speaking in defense is futile. Nothing is heard because nothing is listened to and so I'm always wrong, always ridiculous, always stupid.
Life in a construction zone: who wouldn't want jackhammering, pounding, and drilling on the floor above them at 7:oo a.m.? Seriously, how often does one apartment need re-modeling/repair work done?
Life at the circus: where a clown seems to be behind the wheel of just about everything moving, regarding life and safety with great carelessness. If I have one more scooter driving straight for me on the wrong side of the road, I may just snap and decide to play chicken, seeing who moves out of the way first. I'm so tired of being forced out of the way by people going the wrong way.
Throughout the day, I feel like I'm forever being bombarded by so much stupid stuff I just wouldn't have to deal with if I threw in the towel and went home. I suppose a part of me thought by this stage in the game, life would have moved beyond the point of caring about and being frustrated by all this stupid stuff and yet, the garbage in life still amasses and makes a stench to overpower anything good.
I guess there's an ugly side to living just about anywhere and perhaps even for those with a semi-charmed life, if you stick around a place long enough, it's bound to push a few buttons. Some buttons have now been pushed so often, they're just about worn out and ready for retirement.
Life under the microscope: where if one more person comes up to me at the grocery store for the purpose of peering and occasionally prodding in my shopping basket, I'm may just do the same thing right back to them.
Life at the zoo: where if one more kid points and declares "foreigner" or "American," I'm going to point right back with a few remarks of my own. What is it with the need to state the obvious here?! Furthermore, I'm not a monkey at the zoo!
Life as a punching bag: where I'm to take every blow given and expected to bounce right back and with a smile nonetheless. Speaking in defense is futile. Nothing is heard because nothing is listened to and so I'm always wrong, always ridiculous, always stupid.
Life in a construction zone: who wouldn't want jackhammering, pounding, and drilling on the floor above them at 7:oo a.m.? Seriously, how often does one apartment need re-modeling/repair work done?
Life at the circus: where a clown seems to be behind the wheel of just about everything moving, regarding life and safety with great carelessness. If I have one more scooter driving straight for me on the wrong side of the road, I may just snap and decide to play chicken, seeing who moves out of the way first. I'm so tired of being forced out of the way by people going the wrong way.
Throughout the day, I feel like I'm forever being bombarded by so much stupid stuff I just wouldn't have to deal with if I threw in the towel and went home. I suppose a part of me thought by this stage in the game, life would have moved beyond the point of caring about and being frustrated by all this stupid stuff and yet, the garbage in life still amasses and makes a stench to overpower anything good.
I guess there's an ugly side to living just about anywhere and perhaps even for those with a semi-charmed life, if you stick around a place long enough, it's bound to push a few buttons. Some buttons have now been pushed so often, they're just about worn out and ready for retirement.
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