Trip to the Department Store

It has only been less than 4 days here on the Island and I feel like I've experience a month's worth of experiences. Nonetheless, I still have a great deal to learn. I came from complete disorientation the first day to a comfortable feel for the campus today. I still have not wandered off campus into the city by myself. The campus is full of walking paths and peaceful scenery while the city is bustling with scooter bikes and a dizzying whirl of bright lights, interesting smells, and the deafening sound of traffic. I can't wait to explore the rest of Taiwan.

I've been sleeping the last few days with a rolled up sweater as a pillow. A pillow was too big to pack in my luggage. Willy, the graduate student which I live with, offered to take me to the nearby mall. So he picked me up at 8:00 pm on his moped. I was nervous at first. I had never ridden on a moped, and I did not want this to be my last moped experience. Nonetheless, I donned the spare silver gray helmet that Willy had taken from his seat compartment and off we went. Willy probably could feel my nervousness and I was a little bit concerned that my jitters would cause us to be strung across the pavement. Either Willy is a more cautious driver or he drove more conservatively for me. I could tell that he was not weaving in and out of traffic more than the other moped drivers. They would run red lights, narrowly miss other mopeds, and weave in between cars and buses. There were mopeds everywhere. Hordes of them waiting at traffic lights, and countless others parked on the sidewalk. I tried not to entertain the fact that any miscalculation or off balance during turns would mean our faces being plastered against the asphalt. My knees occasionally shook from the adrenaline of this first-time experience. The ride wasn't even that scary or dangerous by Taiwanese traffic standards, but the excitement of feeling the air rush past my face and my body shift weight as we weaved in and out of traffic was exhilarating.

We finally reached the department store. If it weren't for the Chinese lettering, I could have believed I was in any department store in the States. Florescent lights brilliantly lit the shiny, plastic covered merchandise. Sale here, sale there. Impulse items by the cash register. We did not have as much time as I would have like to peruse through the store and compare prices; Willy had to get back to the lab. Just like America, every item has hundreds of variation. There were countless number of pillows to choose from. An extra 100 NT for a pillow with anti-bacterial filling. Ten different pillows felt and looked exactly the same. The detergent and toothpaste were much the same. Fifty different brands of toothpaste and detergent. I just chose the Colgate equivalent and picked a brand of detergent that had decent looking packaging. "As long as the clothes get clean," Willy told me. Once I had the items in hand, we were off again.

Willy hadn't eaten dinner yet so we quickly pulled a u-turn and stopped in front of a small street vendor. He was frying some bacon, onion pancakes [chong yew bing], and eggs. First, he would dump a circle of egg onto the skillet. Then he would take your fillings of choice, probably some bacon, cheese, and Chinese cabbage, heat them on the skillet and place that on the semi solid egg. Then he took the pancakes which had been frying on the side and covered up the filling. After a while, he would flip the pancake, paint on your sauce of choice, fold it in half and stuff the Asian calzone into a paper sleeve. They were delicious. Meanwhile, as he was doing all of this, his wife had thrown him a pack of cigarettes and his son was throwing a tantrum next to him. Willy told me this vendor was a popular destination for locals. I could see and taste why.

Long story short, the pillow is infinitely softer than my rolled up sweater.