Kung Fu back from the dead!

Well my trusty stead Kung Fu almost bit the dust this week, but thankfully with a little help translating from Julia (Chinese Teacher at my bushiban) and a little money (well a lot actaully by Taiwanese standards) Kung Fu is back in good health. It all started with what was a little problem that started a couple of weeks ago. My scooter started shutting-off when I was stopping at red lights. This is pretty embarrassing in the world of scooters, and so I went to the shop to get everything checked out. It's a pretty interesting experience trying to communicate with mechanics when you have only a very little Chinese. It consists of thinking like a kindergarten teacher and really choosing your words wisely. Everyone here in Taiwan has a little english so it just takes picking the most well-known english words they know. Everyone here seems to know, "That's okay", and "very good" so when I was trying to explain to the mechanics that I understood that I had the choice of getting used parts for my scooter or brand new ones, I threw out those words and finally there was communication at last. They thought it was pretty funny though, and laughed about it for like 10 minutes, "Chinese Chinese Chinese that's okay ha ha ha ha....etc". I'm like the Taiwanese people's source of great enjoyment some days I swear.

Anyhoo, all in all in the end I have pretty much a brand spanking new scooter, yes I would have been fine with just my plain old one from before, but at least now I know it will be dependable for the rest of my stay here in Taiwan.

On an interesting and exciting note I ordered my new lonely planet for Japan online today. It's coming in a pack with a phrase book, so I can start practicing numbers etc. I'm also getting a guide book on how to order the food there, which I really should have invested in for Taiwan before I came here. Having a little knowledge of Chinese is a must here in Taiwan if you're going to be able to order food here and not starve. That's one of the reasons I lost a little weight after I was here for a couple of months. It's so daunting the first couple of months here, that most nights I just went without dinner. That's not the case here anymore, which is really too bad in some respects since I think I'm gaining back some of that lost weight.....But anyhoo, I'm starting to get in the mind set of Japan. I think it will be another month before I really start applying for jobs. I'm having a little trouble trying to decide if I want to move to a large city like Osaka where there is a good transit system and more of a nightlife, or move to a smaller city like Hsinchu where I might be able to get a contract with a car. Nice restaurants vs a car hmmmmm......Well I still have 6 months to think about it so no hurry yet.

But let me know how everyone is going. It seems that everyone has started emailing me instead of commenting on my blog which is fine. As long as I hear about what is going on in all of your lives I'm happy.

-Lindsay