Fili’s world

Things that you notice:

1. TV - Business channels. Lots of channels all discussing the various stock markets around the world with very detailed information.
2. TV - We call them “boob channels”, advertising 24×7 how to help the Chinese ladies increase their bust size with all kinds of techniques. Super funny.
3. Fashion - You think you’ve seen mini-skirts before? Think again. The mini-skirt fashion redefines laws of nature as to how much material is needed to cover certain space. Sometimes, when walking around, all I can see is legs. No matter what the weather is like and how cold it is. Extremely sexy.
4. Fashion - To make up for the cold and the skirt-miniskirts fashion there’s the socks phenomena. Long socks being pulled up 3/4 of the way. So, instead of revealing the lower part, like I’m used to …
5. Fashion - I’m in trouble, with my limited backpacker summer ‘collection’. Most people dress pretty cool around here., and it’s winter. Leading brands - Bossini, Hung Ten and Balini, but you got loads of western/Asian brands…
6. Technology - The green men in the stoplights are animated, showing you how fast you should cross the street, together with the usual Asian how much time left you got.
7. Technology - Huge screens advertising on the street. Small screen advertising in the MRT, buses and at the shopping counters.
8. Technology - most ATMs and change machines will include talk-back instructions and high-color touch screens.
9. Technology - Almost no internet places, just loads of people with laptops using the ever popular free wireless offered everywhere (Taiwanese laptops, like Acer, Asus, MSI, Benq are extremely cheap - going around the 1000$ for a fairly advanced one).
10. Shopping - Life is a receipt. They have to give you the receipt and you have to take it. Not taking one is considered unhonorable. Once this lady chased me along a whole street with the receipt for my Diet Coke can (18NT$->2 shekels) with “Sir, sir, you forgot”, and when I shrugged and said “thanks, but I don’t need it” she replied “oh no, sir, very important”. Following the law, managing your money and paying your taxes is a “citizen’s duty”, or so I’ve been told. (Late addition - I now realize that an explanation for this is that the receipts are also lottery tickets in a government attempt to educate people to care for their finances. Isn’t there a self contradiction there?)
11. Shopping - Bags will cost you an extra 1-2NT$ (A few agorot) and will sometime be frowned upon. I think it’s got to do with the environment and recycling, but I have no idea.
12. Street Food - The common hotdog I see on the street is actually meat wrapped around in a different kind of meat cut in the middle with a nice collection of herbs inside.
13. People - Girls’ laugh is more of a giggly thing, covering up their mouth. Extremely happy girls will sometimes dance around on the same spot. A bit like all the animated Japanese Anima characters that I’ve seen. Super cute. Boys, on the other hand, seem a little more held back. How come?
14. People - Not many people wondering about alone. Seems like everything is with either friends or family, involving some handholding and hugging. Heartwarming.
15. People - “what do you mean you don’t have a business card?”. If you don’t have a business card, you’re not a serious person. How will people keep in touch with you? It’s absurd to see the contrast between the technology and this bizarre insistence on the small paper with details. Oh well…
16. Leisure - So many arcades everywhere. While other countries have things like pop-dancing machines, here you got basketball machines in every corner. I’m guessing it’s very popular over here, which would explain why Taiwanese I talk to bring up the question of whether I play basketball pretty early in the conversation.
17. Leisure - Foot massage path. Take off your shoes, stay in your socks and walk over this random stone positioned path so by walking from one side to another you get a good foot massage. I’ve seen it in most parks and some of the main streets…

(I’ll add more as I think of them…)