Night of the Bugs

So I had a rude awakening last night. I got up to go to the washroom at 2:30am and as I stepped foot in the washroom a new friend was there to say hello. A cockroach crossed my path and I must have jumped 6 feet in the air when I saw it. I tell you Michael Jordan never had the kinda vertical I had last night. It took me a minute to compose myself and then I decided to say hello back with the sole of my shoe. Good old new balance, they do everything. He was probably the size of two loonies placed side by side but man he had me scared for a second or two.

After that it took me a while to get back to sleep, but when I did wake up apparently another new friend had greeted me, several times, as I was asleep. I woke up with 6 or 7 mosquito bites on my back. Lovely! Oh well I guess it was bound to happen, in a way I'm kinda surprised I haven't encountered more bugs since I've been here. It's all part of the experience right? Right?!

Anyway I have more things I have noticed that I thought I would pass on to you. The whole scooter phenomenon still cracks me up. You really do see entire families on a scooter. It's not just a Russell Peters joke. So far the most I've seen is 4 on one scooter. The funniest I've seen is 2 people and 2 dogs on a scooter. What's even funnier is once I saw a scooter with a dog stopped at a light and while it was red the dog got off and relieved himself on the corner then got back on and the scooter took off. I was on the back of a scooter at the time and I couldn't stop laughing at it. No one else thought it was so damn funny. And for some reason when there is a child on the scooter with a parent, only the parent has a helmet, not the child. Are you kidding me?! I rarely seen children on scooters with helmets on. Nice.

And let me tell you I'm glad I brought my motorcycle helmet cause the helmets people wear here I wouldn't wear on a bicycle forget about a scooter or motorcycle. They're paper thin and stop before the ears. I don't think I've seen more than 5 proper helmets that would meet safety standards in Canada.

A lot of people wear masks here too. And I don't mean surgical masks but ones that have been customized. You can buy them around town that have pictures and sayings on them and come in many different colours. And they don't just wear them when riding on scooters, some people wear them all the time. There are kids in my school who wear them all day. It's kinda weird because you never get to see they're whole face but it seems to be common place. I don't blame them the air here is much worse then in Toronto, and people in Toronto complain about smog.

The only thing so far I really dislike about Taiwan is the shower situation. They don't seem to have real bathtubs or shower stalls. Showers consist of a drain in the floor of the bathroom and a faucet. Essentially the whole bathroom becomes your shower. It's unfortunate because I used to love showers in Toronto but I have grown to dislike showering here and make them as fast as possible.

Well I guess that's about it for now. Catch you on the flip side.