1.) The fact that every time I commute back and forth between work and home I constantly have heart-in-mouth-lungs-stuttering near death experiences...
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| found at: http://livingintaiwan.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/motor-scootering-in-taiwan/ |
Traffic in Taiwan looks a little like a chaotic sea of smoke and metal and shimmering plastic smudged with soot, crowded with people wearing a variety of helmets (from the "pudding bowl" helmets, and the ones reminiscent of World War II fighters, to the full-protection motor cycle helmets — or my favorite: the construction worker hardhats) blue trucks, taxi drivers, cars, fork-lifts, large trucks and buses. 
All of which drive with what appears to be, at first glance, very little rhyme nor reason. Rules don't seem to apply, people force their way across on left turns — regularly cutting off traffic with reckless abandon. Red lights are run and people simply lay on their horns as if this makes the fact that they are zipping across a large intersection on a red perfectly safe. Driving carefully and cautiously seems to only get you in trouble — a lesson that I learned after I got the lovely scar on my right arm when a taxi bowled me over and I wiped out through a large intersection in front of several oncoming vehicles. After a while you start to pick up on the method to the madness. Basically it's this: Expect any vehicle of any kind and size to come out of anywhere (whether you think there is a roadway there or not) at any moment (whether you have so-called "right of way" or not) and expect that any of the vehicles around could pull a harebrained/illegal/questionable move at any minute. Remember this and you'll fare a little better. Also: BEWARE of the blue trucks.
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| found at: http://blog.greenlaker.com/2009/03/taiwan-little-blue-trucks.html |
They drive like erratic bats out of hell with no care or consideration for any other vehicles on the road. The number of times those blue beasts have almost killed me or tried to kill me — I swear — is something I lost track of months ago. They are the spawn of hell. Haha.
Since moving to Taiwan I am sad to admit that my easy-going, patient, careful driving personality has been replaced by traffic-weaving, impatient, road-rage prone aggressive tendencies.... I think it has something to do with the fact that every day I drive it's like I'm in a horde of drivers that seem intent on one thing: to get me killed or seriously maimed — the faster I can get away from the crowded traffic, the better. In order to do that, one has to go faster than the masses and get to the FRONT and STAY there.
It may have something to do with the fact that I love the sound of the revving engine too, though. (^_~)v
2) The sidewalks are almost never made of concrete (and that's when they even exist in time and space!)...
Well now, why is that a problem, you ask? That's because they are usually made of some slick, polished marble-like surface...
Pretty? Certainly. Looks posh and classy? Most definitely.
So, the problem?
Taiwan's average annual precipitation is approximately 2,471 millimeters. In American, that's about 97 inches of rain on average... some areas get up to 6,000mm or 236 inches of rain. So my friends: heavy rains + slick stone surface + no grippy surface = back-wrenching, neck-twisting, dangerously-close near-wipeouts. The number of times I have almost biffed it and fallen backwards — let's just say that if I had a dollar for every time it's happened I'd have a nice wad of cash in my pockets.... It's as bad as the sheets of ice in winter, except maybe worse...because it was actually DESIGNED that way. Haha.
3)POLLUTION
I've been told that the pollution is MUCH worse in mainland China. And I believe it. That doesn't change the fact that it is still absolutely repulsive here. I wish I had a photo of one of the many vehicles coughing out thick, billowy clouds of blue smoke — I've been hear about 9 months and I still can't believe it when I see one...Which is all the time. You know that there is something wrong when you are outside for a few minutes and you scrape your skin with a nail and you get a line of black soot that rolls off. It doesn't even matter if I'm in my apartment with the windows closed and have showered. By morning when I wake up I'll be able to remove some amount of soot from my skin. To say that my complexion has suffered would be an understatement....
Not to mention my lungs and my general health.
Most days the humidity and the barometric pressure of the area keeps the pollution down in a fuzzy grey cloud of smog that coats everything and makes the rare non-cloudy days not so blue... Days where the sun is shining down out of a clear blue sky not marred by smoke are so rare that I become absolutely stir-crazy when they do occur... And I thought Iowa was cloudy and dreary at times... I guess it's all about perspective, huh?
Welcome to life in one of the so-called armpits of Taiwan — whoot whoot. A smoggy, choking, sooty armpit.
On a closing note: if I sound like a bitter, angry person that is not my intention. I like Taiwan. I really do. It's just like any place though, there are things that can drive you nuts and sometimes it's good to get it off your chest. Mostly though, I thought I'd share some of the things that make daily life different from home, har har.
