For my recent birthday (39 again – hah!), I tried to keep it under wraps, hoping that if no one remembered it, I would not age. Word got out and my work mates feted me with a lovely tiramisu cake. Several friends took me out for dinner, one came over for dinner bearing gifts, another took me to my favorite pizza place (fifteen pizza!) and gave me a beautiful artisan tea set. My assorted friends, “adopted” children, and friends of friends threw me a party at a local vegetarian buffet (and wow, what a spread it was!). Thanks everyone for taking the time to wish me well….
Birthday in Taipei
14 Apr 2012 Leave a comment
in Daily Life, Taiwan Tags: birthday, party, tiramisu, vegetarian buffet
Taiwan National Lottery
04 Apr 2012 Leave a comment
in Daily Life, Taiwan Tags: lottery, post office, receipt, winning
When you make a purchase in Taiwan, you will receive a receipt, on which is printed a “uniform receipt number”: several letters and eight numbers, and a 2-month date range. These “lucky” numbers are used as lottery numbers and every other month, a list of winning numbers is published online. Lottery prizes range from 200NT (~8 USD) for matching the last three numbers in a series to 2 million NT (67K USD) for matching all 8 – gee, wouldn’t that be nice to win?!
On the 23rd of each January, March, May, July, September, and November, the government’s lottery website is bombarded. Then, on the 6th of the following month, winners show up at their local post office to claim their prizes. How do I know this? Because I was recently a “winner”!!
I save my receipts, put them in numberical order (according to the last 3 numbers), and check the numbers every other month. Finally, last month, a receipt for a 249NT purchase at Shengli paid off: I matched 4 numbers and won 1000NT! woohoo!
At the post office on the corner of Anhe and Tonghua, I marched my receipt upstairs to the post office bank, took a number and when my number was called, presented the receipt with my ID and walked out 1000NT richer (ok, I had to pay 2NT to process the ticket but I still WON!). And this month again, I won: 200NT. Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick! Can the 2mil be far off?
Tomb Sweeping Day
04 Apr 2012 Leave a comment
in Culture, Taiwan Tags: tomb sweeping day, Tomb; tomb sweeping
Today, in Taiwan (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in China) is reserved for families to clean and spruce up their family’s tomb. Everyone looks forward to the time off, but interestingly, most of the young people I spoke with were not looking forward to the manual labor in the rising heat. They do acknowlege that the day is for remembering ancestors and seemed surprised that we don’t have anything similar in the States. Does Grandparents Day count? <smile>
actual sunshine
29 Mar 2012 Leave a comment
in Travel Tags: humidity, laundry, weather, wintertime
No one told me, prior to coming to Taipei, that winter is – how to put this nicely? – rather dreary. Day after day of no sun. To be fair, there is often no rain as well, but just as often it does rain. And, it gets COLD. It’s exciting to see the sun this time of year. It means it’ll only take one day to dry my clothes on the line, instead of the standard 3 days, during the worst of the weather.
This week, it’s been balmy with a few well-placed clouds during the day and a slight breeze in the evening – plus nearly no humidity (less-than-usual anyway). Lovely! Perfect weather! Wish it would last a while but I hear that the thermometer is taking a dip downward this weekend again. Guess I’d better get my laundry done…
So happy to be back…
29 Mar 2012 Leave a comment
in Travel, US Tags: Charleston, grandchildren, Pink Dolphin, Tallahassee
in Taiwan!
The time in the States went by too quickly.
Packing up the house was as big of a pain as it sounds like. Dealing with the mover and storage place, also painful. (Shoulda gone back to the place in Tallahassee I used for the years I was in CA.) Seeing my friends was nice. Getting to spend time with my birdie dearest was nice. Spending a week in Charleston was wonderful! (If you’re ever there, check out the Pink Dolphin B&B in Summerville – amazing homemade breakfasts and some of the most cordial innkeepers you’ll ever meet.) I was happy to see how well my folks and children are doing. Of course, the highlight of the entire trip was getting to spend time with my grandchildren! Can I just brag? Seriously, they are each one more adorable than the next!
It was heartwrenching to hear the oldest ask me “Gramma, why do you have to go?”. And then I remember the relationship I had with my own grandmothers. Neither of them lived near by and I saw them infrequently, but I always felt close to them. Now, the necklace Oma gave me once many years ago, makes sense. It was a series of small silver hearts on a silver chain with a word on each heart: forget, me, not.
Sticker Shock
01 Mar 2012 Leave a comment
in Travel
In the months that I’ve been overseas, either a lot has changed (not for the better) or perhaps things were so bad on a regular basis that individual events did not register. I went to buy groceries and was stunned to find that oatmeal packets now cost 4.09! The chocolate peanut butter wafers I like went from 99 cents to 1.79! And gas? Anywhere from 3.41/gallon to 4.62 (in soCal). What is going on? As a former collegue of mine put it: “death by a thousand paper cuts”. Guess I’d better buy some bandages – while I can still afford ’em!
Journey Home, part 1
12 Feb 2012 Leave a comment
in Japan, Travel Tags: Delta, Narita, shower, Sky Room, tea, Tokyo
I’m sitting in the Sky Club in Narita International in Tokyo, having just emerged from a SHOWER – yes, you read that correctly! Let me back up…
My day started early. I set the alarm for 0415, having fallen asleep somewhere around 0200. Needless to say, I stumbled out of bed thinking “this is waaaaaay too early to be up”. I had arranged a ride to the airport with a driver I found on Tealit.com: Mike Wang. Since the entrance to the apartment is down a one-way alley, he’d arranged to meet me across the street from Watson’s, and sure enough, at 0524 he texted saying he was waiting. What a pleasant ride that was! (I highly recommend Mike’s limo service; 1000NT each way and you get to learn a little about Taiwan’s history as you drive.)
At the airport, Mike jumped out and got a cart for my luggage. I waited in a short line at the Delta counter (while I was in line, a friendly staff person took my passport and returned with my boarding passes.) Luckily I’d packed well and the ONE allowable free bag was under the 50 lb. limit. Then I went in search of food/coffee/the Delta Sky Room. Unfortunately my Sky Room membership had expired and in TPE, China Airlines runs the VIP lounge and could not renew it for me. A little over 2 hours later we were landing at Narita where I of course went in search of anything Hello Kitty for my oldest granddaughter. (Mission accomplished!)
Next, I found my gate (Terminal 1, gate 26) and then headed to the Sky Room. The super friendly Japanese staff offered me a one-month membership for a price I could not refuse. Then to make things more interesting, they asked if I wanted a shower. (A shower? Do I look in need of one?) At any rate, in the spirit of adventurous travel and new experiences, I said “Yes!”. Half an hour later, after consuming rice crackers and tea, I found myself in a lovely LARGE private bathroom area and, despite having showered only hours previously, took another one. Heaven! It must be something in the water because I emerged totally refreshed. (They even had a hair dryer for use.) Ah….
Photos to follow
Preparing to return home
07 Feb 2012 Leave a comment
in Travel
In just a few days I’ll be heading back over the ocean, headed to the country I left 8 months ago, to work in Taiwan. I’ve been writing about my experiences here on this happy, friendly island westerners seem to confuse with Thailand!
I think about what I’ve missed (in addition to the obvious – friends and family and my sweet little conure, Neptune):
- an oven
- a “large” refridgerator
- a clothes dryer
- licorice (strangely, the Taiwanese don’t like this healthy treat)
- my car
And what I really like here:
- how well behaved, honest, polite, and self-disciplined people are
- no tipping – ever!
- the plastic covering on cups that prevents spilling
- the HUGE variety of really inexpensive food
- the HUGE variety of restaurants
- how safe it is to walk everywhere any time of night/day
- the amount of fun activities available within walking distance
- walking
- the reliability of public transportation
- how inexpensive any form of transportation is
- the different shopping districts
- my apartment
- Temples are on nearly on every block
- the all-you-can-watch movie theater
- the fact that I can pay ALL my bills in a single hour, every month
- incredible customer service
CNY 2012
29 Jan 2012 Leave a comment
in Culture, Shopping, Travel Tags: Chinese New Year, CNY, dragon, hong bao, red, xin nian kuai le
Xin nian kuai le (shin knee-en coo-eye luh) Happy New Year!
You gotta love it when an entire country literally takes a week off to celebrate the lunar new year. Festivities abound and firecrackers are in the air! The color red (one of my favorites for any occasion) and dragons are seen EVERYWHERE! 
Everyone is in a good mood: the people who have time off are happy and those that don’t are typically in service industries (transportation, food, retail) – they’re happy too ’cause they know they’ll make a ton of money. Stores are having HUGE sales and despite the chilly weather, a warm, inviting atmosphere prevails.
I was invited to Yingge to spend an evening with the family of my Melaleuca upline. She told me the “rules” for observing CNY with your family. Unmarried children go to their parent’s home for at least the first 3 days (Sunday, Monday, Tuesday) of CNY. Married children, spend the first few days with the wife’s family and the next few days with the husband’s. Parents give their small children hong bao (red envelopes) filled with money. Sometimes, the older children give their parents hong bao (I haven’t figured that one out yet….). It’s a sign of respect and, as far as I can tell, more of a symbolic gesture than a means to pad ones bank account. I think I shocked the nice people in the Temple below my apartment by handing them a red envelope. It wasn’t much; just a way to say “thanks” and to help towards the cost of updating their interior, which looks amazing.
Lots of people take extra time off in conjunction with the national holiday so I’m sure the party feeling will continue…
Preparing for CNY 2012
18 Jan 2012 Leave a comment
in Culture, Travel Tags: banners, Chinese New Year, firecrackers, hong bao
It’s the “Year of the Dragon”, y’all! In preparation for the Chinese New Year, red, black, nd gold decorations are being hawked in nearly every store and street corner. The selection is mind-boggling: dragons in every size, “blessings” and wishes for health, wealth, and happiness. Red velvet and brocade “firecrackers” on a string. Hong bao (red envelopes) waiting to hold gifts of money to share with loved ones.
Chinese New Year decorations
At work, they hired three members of a local calligraphy club to create personalized red banners for each of us, to be placed above and next to our apartment doors. The ancient ones labored for many hours to share their “gift” with us. We had 60 different sentiments to choose from. Mine are in place – I’m really not sure what they say or even that I placed them correctly (for all I know they could be upside down!). A local business placed a wish for “heavenly blessing and protection” in our mailboxes.
The Temple downstairs has been busy renovating half of it’s interior with incredible bas relief tableaus carved out of stone, statuary, and other architectural elements I don’t the names of! Everyone is preparing for a week of celebrations with family and friends. My Chinese teacher is headed to Shanghai to visit her parents. Wellcome has aisles and aisles of specialty foods. I’ve been invited to several parties which I’m guessing are mainly about eating but I’ll find out soon enough…
Asia's best kept secret... 