05 May 2006

5 am thoughts on Taipei

I've been on reverse sleeping pattern this week. I work all night and sleep all day. It started with the need to get a work project done and now it's turned into a routine. It's nice cuz Nevada is home for the whole time I'm awake. I get to hang out with her until she goes to bed and I get to chat with her in the morning. This morning at 5 am I decided I needed to go for a bit of a walk so I went to 7-11 for a snack. A few things hit me that I thought I would share:

1) As soon as I walked out onto our lane there was a police car going by. It looked to be patrolling the neighborhood. It was nice, it made me feel safe and protected. Although....does that mean there are criminals in my neighborhood? Oh well...it's good to have the boys in blue looking out for us.

2) When I was at 7-11 I struck up some conversation with the worker (in Chinese)...during the transaction he said, "Your Chinese is so good." Believe me, my Chinese is not that good but I get that a lot and I think it's more of an acknowledgment that they appreciate I am making an effort to learn their language. I starting talking to him about the struggle I have in Taipei of people always wanting to speak English...even when I use Chinese people often speak back in English. He said that the same thing happens to Chinese people...they want to use English and some of us speak back in Chinese. The funny part was that he understood my problem and said that we both end up speaking in the other tongue and neither person can understand in the end. Isn't that a funny thought? We both speak the other language in order to better communication but in the end neither person can understand and it's a wasted exchange.

3) I got home and sat down to drink my canned Vanilla Latte that I bought at 7-11. I got to thinking...this is something Asia gets that hasn't quite caught on in Canada. The cold convenience store coffee beverages. I know they exist in Canada and are equally as tasty but they're everywhere here and everyone drinks them. They have many brands and many flavors. It totally hits the spot on a hot day and I guess it probably gives a little caffeine buzz. I just finished the Starbucks biography I've been reading and he talked about how they got the idea for their bottled Frappucinos in Japan in the early 90's. They've been doing cold coffee and tea here for years and I am definitely a fan.

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