Do I look pregnant?!?!

Even though this is so utterly embarrasing, I'll still share the story anyway. You guys can all have a good laugh at my expense.

It is generally known that subway etiquette requires that people give up their seat on the subway or train if there is someone who is either elderly, pregnant, or holding a small child. So this morning, I was kindly offered a seat by a very maternal middle-age woman. To my horror, she was offering me the seat because, to her, I looked pregnant. Just to get this image for your head. I am wearing a white fitted t-shirt under a blue spaghetti-strap dress that ties and bells out at the waist. It's very cute, trust me. And paired with that, I'm wearing my sort of sporty off-white walking shoes. I say walking shoes because they're sort of flats, but not quite. But they're also not really tennis shoes, although I can run in them if I want to. ANYWAY, when she offered me her seat, I was a little confused, I'm neither old nor pregnant nor do I have a small baby attached to my side. So when I refused the seat, she actually says to me "You're pregnant aren't you? You should take a seat." To which I laughed, out loud, and politely corrected her. Then she got really embarrassed (not as embarrassed as I was!!) and admitted that she thought I was pregnant because I was wearing "tennis shoes" with a dress.

What a nice lady, she was so nice to offer me her seat and then save me face by blaming my shoes for her apparent mistake. Ironic, I thought I would lose weight with all of the walking I do here but apparently I just look pregnant!

Also, yesterday was the Lantern Festival (so Happy Lantern Festival Day?), which apparently is the 15th day of the first month after Chinese New Year, and also when the moon is at its fullest. This day was just like Chinese New Year, lots of fireworks! This will sound familiar if you've been following the news about how some CCTV staff set off some fireworks for the festival and then accidently burned down a 40 floor luxury hotel next door. Oops, at least they said they were sorry. But, to be serious, that was a tragic and deadly mistake. On a lighter note I just found a pretty video of a Lantern Festival in Taiwan from 2007 that I'd like to share.



And as always, here is a song! "Paranoid" by Kanye West. Sorry I can't find a video for this, and I didn't like the live performances I found either.

Life So Far

I suppose I should make a first post since I've been living in Taipei for over three months now.  Life is good, I like my work and my coworkers.  Taipei is a good city, everything is fairly convenient as long as you're not too opposed to walking for a little while or spending some money for a taxi ride.  

The subway system is wonderful here, although its odd that everyone seems to like to either sleep on the subway or conciously avoid eye contact by any means possible.  My general consensus is that people here are afraid of strangers and as a stranger to me, they'd like to keep the status quo of the relationship.  

I went to go see a play last week with some friends, it was in Chinese so I'm pretty proud of myself for understanding most of it.  My language skills have definitely improved here.  The play was called "Speaking in Tongues," a play originally from Australia, I think, but reproduced by the National Taiwan University theatre club.  It had a good plot line that was well written and well performed, which delved into the issues of marriage and extra-marital affairs.  

The end of this month should be a lot of fun.   A bunch of us from the office are taking a hiking trip in the storied Hualien area of Taiwan.  We'll be hiking and bike riding around the mountainous area that is a favorite nature area of Taiwan.  Hopefully I'm not too out of shape...

Then for Christamas I'll be heading to Japan to go skiing with a friend from back home who is living in Kyoto right now.  I've never been skiing before so that should be entertaining.  I've always wanted to go to Japan so this will be a fun way to get a taste of it.  Although I'll only be in Japan for five days, it should be enough for now.  

Then New Years will be spent with Rudy!  He's coming to visit for about two weeks so I can't be more excited.  I'll have to show him around Taiwan and its a trip that I'm really looking forward to.

Note: Picture is of a mountain area north of Taipei that my cousin took me to.