Christmas Made me Homesick

Believe it or not Christmas is a huge and much loved holiday in Taipei which is currently in full swing. There are lights and decorations everywhere. It's still being celebrated right now as a companion to the Chinese New Year which is coming up around mid February. I went to eat at one restaurant that had a strange Christmas display. It was a purple manger with no baby inside surrounded by reindeer. A combination of the Christ birth story and Santa Claus.

In the courtyard in front of the enormous capital building of New Taipei I sat down to watch the show provided by a giant Christmas tree made of pure light. Holiday music poured out of a very nice sound system. Good bass tones. Good mids. Rich and crisp. Images of Christmas joy wound around the tree up to the top in time with the music. It paused on an image of Santa Claus giving the "rock and roll" hand sign. I started thinking about home. That's about when it happened. I suddenly craved a hamburger that tasted like a hamburger. I craved the salty, vaguely cardboard-like flavor of fast food French fries. I needed a coke. And it was all Santa's fault. Christmas made me homesick. McDonald's filled the void.

Best Mickey D's Meal Ever!

Haggling Prices in Taiwan

I can't decide if I have culture shock. Eddie was saying that with culture shock there's a gradient between people either falling in love with the place when they travel or totally hating it and wanting to leave. I definitely don't hate it. I'd say I'm way more on the loving it side. But I don't want to go too far down that path because it might blind my perspective.

Speaking of choices and perspective, I have a curious moral dilemma to propose. I had heard that people in Taiwan haggle prices. In fact I've heard that you're supposed to offer the shop owner half of what the price says and if they say no you just walk out. If they're willing to make a deal they'll stop you from walking out. I've never been much of a wheeler and dealer, but I thought I would give it a try.

So I wandered into a small shop that sold electronics and home supplies. I needed to buy a wall adapter to allow me to plug my three prong laptop charger into a two prong socket. The price said $35. I handed them a 1000 NT note hoping they would make change for me. They sort of looked at me funny and didn't take my money.

So I went home and sent a facebook message to Eddie asking what was going on. I wondered, was the price 35 units of coin money? Or was it something ridiculous like 35 dollars US in which case the 1000 NT note would have been just short of that.

Eddie said they should have just made change for me out of a 100 NT bill which is around 3.20 US. $35 NT was around 1.21 US.

Image of the front and back of a 100 NT Note

So I went back down there with an NT 100 note in my back pocket and 29 NT in change which was all the change I had. US value: exactly 1.00. I figured I would try haggling and show them the 29 NT first and just see if they would take it assuming I was a clueless american. We negotiated by writing amounts on paper. I showed her my largest coins which equaled 25 NT. She asked for 30. I showed her my last four pennies. She nodded her head and waived her hand to signify the deal had been made.

Considering that NT 35 was basically what you would pay at US prices (Price at Staples) I think she was probably overcharging and I got a decent deal by haggling. Eddie thought it was cool that I haggled, but suggested I might have taken advantage of her by implying that I was just a clueless American. He said he never haggled. He had tried, but nobody ever negotiated with him and he always paid full price.

Did I play the game well and get a deal? Was it okay for me to haggle with her? Or was I out of line trying to get the merchant to drop her price? I don't want to screw anybody over, but if you're supposed to wheel and deal then I definitely want to play that game.

Looking for feedback guys...

p.s. The shop owner actually called out to me as I left and asked me to come back. I had left my keys on the counter. Awful nice of her. I should probably keep better track of those.

SOME OBSERVATIONS:

So many weird smells. I feel like I'm living in a Chinese restaurant.

Making some food. I can't read anything on this box, but there's a picture of pork on the top. Luckily I think I have enough experience with Ramen noodles to make this edible. It came with a bag of peanuts. Nice touch.

Eating on the third floor terrace. I'm the only one staying at this hostel, so I'm basically paying 22 bucks per day for a three story house.

The garbage truck is picking up the trash. So weird. It plays a loud children's song over and over again like an ice cream truck.

American influence? There's a 7-11 on almost every street corner downtown.

At McDonald's they serve fried chicken.

And of course, there's a Starbucks in the train station.

The Journey of 7,809 Miles Begins with the First Step

6:36 a.m.
I think my plane to Detroit is arriving. It doesn't seem real yet. I wonder if it will ever seem real. An amazingly large amount of change in a short time. So far I've learned that when you fly it's not good to have a bunch of crap in your pockets at the baggage check. I forgot to put on deodorant this morning. I just learned that "help" and "shoulder" are the same word with different tones. Bang. Need to learn how to get to Ya Ya Hostel. Ya Ya tsai nar?

5:15 pm
Wondering what the fuck I was thinking. I'm about to land in a country on the other side of the world with no job, an inability to speak the native language, no friends, and very little money. I really need to get a nice looking résumé worked up. So far the plane ride has been sort of luxurious. They have it set up so you can watch free new release movies and listen to the latest musical releases. I listened to Eddie vedder's ukulele album from start to finish. It was awesome! Eddie Vedder - Ukulele Songs I'm watching the Bourne Legacy now. Occasionally I doze off. When I jolt awake I just think to myself, "I hope I was asleep for a while". It's almost worth a thousand bucks just to take the plane ride. In eight more hours we'll be in Tokyo. Holy shit.

1:13 a.m.... or is it 5:13 p.m.? What exactly is time anyway?
In Tokyo. So far no sign of Godzilla.

22:54 pm
I'm in Taipei on a bus heading to my hostel. I'm so fucking lost. Only white person on this bus. I certainly wouldn't call English usage rampant among the locals. I look strange compared to all the natives and we can't communicate very well. So it's not That different from back home...

I need to not be afraid to ask for help from the people I've met online. This is gonna take some work on my part. I used to have trouble finding my way around in America, so Taipei will be even more fun. Someone wrote down my address in Chinese to show to people if I got lost. Already misplaced the damn thing.
Oh yea and I'm sooooooo tired and late to check in. What if the hostel rented out my room?
So many scooters. Even the police drive scooters.Scooters. Swarms of scooters. It's like cricket season in San Marcos only with scooters.I want one really really bad.

2:49 a.m.
Met up with Eddie Kaye. He's awesome. Runs some English schools. We walked around, had some weird food and talked about Tai Chi and life in Taiwan. First friend!

5:30 a.m. 
Sleep. Real sleep. At long last, sleep.