Friday, March 6, 2009

end of day 5 .... beginning of day 6...

FINALLY! it is the weekend.  I cant believe i am still standing...seems like this week went on forever.....
I think my time is finally adjusted...because it is past midnight and i am still awake.
so i also managed to sleep all night last night.  I woke up once and felt very awake, when i looked at the clock it was 5am. I was shocked!...then i looked at the clock again...thought "wait, the alarm should have went off?!? hmmm".  Thats interesting...so i forgot to set the alarm and what do you know i wake up right on time!   Pretty Coool!  

So lets see...i collected a bunch of pictures today...it pretty much rained all day...and when i say rained....i actually mean "it rain like cat and dog!" or at least that is whatthe locals say... : )  

This first image is of a bus.  These types of buses are on the highway all the time.  the decorations and paint are always random....completely random.  This one in particular was very bright as you can see and had some sort of horse theme.  Check out that horse on the back of the bus....oh and they always have curtain
s with the little fuzzy balls and fringe on them...very 60's.

This next picture(to the right) is in front of the hotel....The mighty Hotel Windsor.  This picture is taken as you are looking to the left side of the hotel....O and what is that i see in the back ground?  the infamous Golden Arches!   ah yes!  you are correct!  yep there is a mcdonalds directly beside the hotel... I would say that with a little excitement, but i have eaten there on previous trips and i have to say its "Dicey" at best.  I dont want to say it, but sometimes i wonder what they are putting in that food. Its obvious that it is extremely greasy...even compared to McDonald's in the states....but really for that matter, pretty much everything cooked in Taiwan (an i emphasize "cooked", only because there is certainly a fair share that is not!) is cooked in oil or somehow oil is added to the recipe...and i dont just mean a dab of oil....gallons of oil... its rough....definitely not a weight loss diet.  i will address more food later...along with some interesting pics...

This next photo is also in front of the hotel...it is taken as your look to the right in front of the hotel....oh and what was that?  did you ask if that is a starbucks in the background...."yes"  yes infact it is! i will admit, this i am quite excited about.  This was not a starbucks on my last visit, so it is new to me...i manage to stop by for a visit every morning.  Nothing like a recognizable coffee to get you energized for riding thru traffic to work....ah yes, that reminds me...the driving here.....hmmm how to explain the driving.  Well lets see basically, at least to me there seems as if THERE ARE NO RULES!!! by no rules i mean, no lanes, you can ignore a red light and simply pull out in front of on coming traffic. Im not sure there is really a speed limit, but maybe...oh and basically there are about oh i dont know, 10 million scooters!!! yes i said scooters.  I will get some shots of that to show you!...its incredible! Hence the reason nike sets up a driver for visitors....so basically i have 1 person who is assigned to drive me around.  So he will meet me where ever and take me where ever i need to go.   It is primarily for work use, but an extra trip here or there is no problem....now at first this didnt seem to odd. but "the driver"  is actually paid all day for driving me... so that means if he takes me to one factory then he waits there until i am ready to go somewhere else.  Since i am only at one factory for the most part, he will pick me up at the hotel (with a nike van), and drive me to the development center and sit and wait all day for me until i am ready to go back to the hotel.  It is an interesting concept.

and on to another topic.....
so i have always been told when traveling to another country, it is polite to try to speak their language or try their customs.  It gains respect with them, plus broadens my experiences.  so i enjoy this alot....i always ask alot of questions about how to say and do some basic things, like greetings.  How do you say "hello"?  do you shake hands, or bow or nod or what? when you great someone or meet someone?  a couple other things i find out are how do you say thankyou and your welcome.  and it always seems when i try to speak the language, they absolutely appreciate the effort! they are also laughing at me because i butchered the language but at least they are having fun!....so when you great in the states, you say "hi how are you?" typical response.."im fine, thank you for asking" ...well in Taiwan, they say "hello, have you eaten?"...of course they say it in either Mandarin(Chinese language)  or Taiwanese (Taiwan language)....Interest huh!  well so i further explored this and the reason they ask if you have eaten was because back in the day a sign of good life in Taiwan was having food everyday and getting a chance to fill your belly.  What a difference!  it took be back for a minute on how lucky i have been to have grown up always having food.  Wow and i take it for granted.  here is a culture that struggled for centuries just to have some or a little food everyday.....this is so evident that years and years later, they still great each other and ask if they have eaten today.

think on that!  

ok off to bed...thanks for reading! and thank you for all the responses...I am glad everyone is enjoying my trip : )!

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