Lessons Learned

1. Sometimes, there are shortages of things like chopsticks. Other times, there are shortages of things like rice. But it all works out.

2. Sometimes, as an American in Taiwan, the only stores that have dresses that fit you are maternity stores.



If desiring further information or details, please see the stories below.

1. One day this week, the cafeteria delivered the teachers' lunches. But we had no chopsticks. Easy fix, go to the cafeteria and get some. I tried this. A man yelled at me in Chinese. He got the point across that there were not enough chopsticks even for the students so I had sure better not try taking any for the teachers. That is what I gathered from his motions, and that was fine. But being yelled at in Chinese is no fun.

Saturyday Michelle and I went searching for a sushi restaurant we had heard about. Michelle had a hand drawn map from another teacher in the office which was helpful, but it was really Michelle's amazing navigational skills which brought us to our destination. Upon entereing the restaurant, we expected to be addressed in Chinese. Except no one addressed us in Chinese or otherwise... nor did anyone really acknowledge our prescense. Hmm. It was very small and very busy. We finally observed that everyone new coming in would grab a blank sheet of paper and jot down their order. Great. I had been prepared to convey our order verbally and with motions, but writing characters... this was a whole new kettle of fish. We were hungry. We had worked hard to be there. I grabbed a piece of paper and got to work meticulously copying each small line and stroke of what I guessed to be the item we wanted. (The menu, like many places here, was displayed on the wall for easy ordering.) I think the people were pretty amused (or amazed?) to see me writing Chinese. The attempt was, as far as I could tell, quite successful. Though there seemed to be a problem. One nice young man working there attempted to explain to us..."Not enough rice." (Rice is a definite ingredient in everything here, including the sushi we ordered.) Interesting problem. And this was at around 1pm when they still were supposed to be open 5 more hours. We really did not understand, but we smiled and nodded. With the help of another customer, we communicated that that was okay, we would take... something different? We got close to what we ordered, but I guess there was not enough rice to give us exactly what we ordered. It worked.

2. Saturday night, after some karoke, we went to a night market to walk around and to see what there was to see. Anne and I stopped in a couple clothing shops. Some nice things... but really, nothing that would fit us well. Then we came across a third shop with some cute dresses and things that seemed like they would fit us! "Those clothes look billowy enough," observed Anne. We noted that there seemed to be quite a bit of elastic... and older lady store perhaps? No, the pictures were of young ladies... and the styles were cute and youngish. We started holding the clothes up, considering what we would try on. Then a store worker came up and taped me on the arm. She kind of shook her head and explained, "Baby," as she illustrated with a round motion at her stomach. Ah. We got the point, and we got out of the store. I guess it's a good thing she thought to tell us and not to simply assume we were expecting.