New apartment for the hairy foreigner

Breaking news - I've got a new apartment, and its awesome.  I moved out of the hostel this morning, much to my relief.  It was getting a bit tiresome having a dozen people around at all times, with too few fans to offset the massive body heat and a landlord unwilling to use the A/C.

I did, however, meet some pretty interesting people.  There was a French couple staying in the hostel that fitted to a T every silly stereotype about the French, ever.  They'd been traveling the world together for about 2 years, having already been to the U.S., the Caribbean, and Taiwan, and on their way to the mainland to work the Beijing Olympics.  After zat, zey do not know.  They both sallied about in varying stages of undress, and the guy seemingly had few compunctions about full nudity.  I made a few restrained guesses about the couple's socio-political views, which were delightfully confirmed during a conversation in which I was told they were traveling to "de-program" themselves of French "social conditioning," and integrate themselves more fully with the broad masses of humanity.  I neglected to asked if, in their regression, they were going to forsake their healthy bank accounts.  Ah, the spoiled children of capitalism

Although the nudo-anarcho-nihilo-vagabonds were my favs, I made a couple friends that I'll probably keep in touch with later on.  There's an Ed from England who's a cool guy, just arrived in Taiwan a month ago from the mainland to improve his Taichi.  Warren (notice that I don't have any last names...) is a Kiwi who's something of a peripatetic, and who now wants to settle down in Taiwan and teach for a little while - and perhaps follow up on a few love leads in Taipei.  There's no one else of real note, although one of my readers has already noted that I've already reached my natural friend quota, and am likely incapable of making any more.  Wiesz, którzy jesteś.

Back on task - my new apartment.  It's a goo bit further south of the hostel, and is right on the Danshui River that bisects Taipei from west to east.  This is great, because there's usually a strong breeze on the river that softens the press of heat and humidity here, and because the view is pretty good.

The Common Room:

My room (during unpacking):

The view, looking south, from west to east:

My room also has A/C, which is absolutely phenomenal.  A fan cools one off a little bit, but it doesn't stop perspiration, and it's no fun waking up in a sweat pool.  Another great thing about this place is that the neighborhood is more authentically Taiwanese - every block has row after row of small shops, there are spiderwebs of lanes and alleys (xiang and nong, respectively, in Chinese) connecting the major roads, and, most importantly, there is next to no English, anywhere.  This a pleasant change, since in the center of Taipei, almost every sign has the English translation beneath it, and a good many of the residents have passable English.  Here, this is not the case.

Readers may by now be wondering about the second half of this entry's title: "I get the new apartment bit, but why is he pointing out that he's hairy?  We already know that."  Well.  I had my first experience two days ago with the famous Chinese fascination with the Western body.

I was in the Taipei MRT Station (the metro), sitting between two elderly men, who, so far as I could tell, didn't know I was there.  We were all comfortable on our three-man bench when a young fourth arrived and sandwiched his way in unceremoniously.  Not restrained by the usual Taiwanese reticence around waiguoren, he immediately launched in a conversation with me, of which I understood little at first.  After a few rounds of "speak more slowly, please" I finally understood the words "shenmao hen duo," or "a lot of body hair." Ohhhhhh.  He was tickled to death that my arms were hairy, and explained (in Chinese, he didn't speak a word of English) to me the all-too-obvious point that Asians are different. Thankfully, the train showed up, and I made a point of walking two or three cars down, so that he got the hint.  Once inside I double over in laughter, and everyone was staring at me.

It's a curious thing, the way the Taiwanese relate to Westerners.  In many cases, they're thoroughly intimidated.  I did my first language exchange this past Monday, and one of my partners had never, ever talked to an American before, and couldn't even finish her sentences.  She was having problem remembering how to write Chinese characters, and kept getting up from the table.  There's a real difference in emotional confidence between the average American and Taiwanese I think.  We're bred to be robust individuals, and they are taught deference and piety, and seem to have a fantastical view of the West, and of the U.S. in particular.  They treat us like VIPs.

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There's more coming later, including photo documentation of the hilariously bad English on signs in Taipei.