Day Wan

With about 2 hours to go before landing in Taiwan it suddenly occurred to me - I should try to learn a little Mandarin... So I thought back to the Matrix, how Neo plugs himself into a program and seconds later his eyes open with, 'I know Kung Fu'. With this in mind I plugged myself into my iPod, closed my eyes, let my eyelids have a bit of a flutter for effect, and...

I still don't know Mandarin!

Nor do I have any idea what those pretty pictures are supposed to mean - they tell me that around here those pictures are 'words'. Fascinating!

One thing I learned from my Mandarin podcast is that the Chinese tend to talk in proverbs. I like that. Little stories to explain situations away. It means that you could turn to your friend and say, 'Never pull on your shoes in a melon patch' and he'd completely understand what you're talking about (apparently that one means don't act suspiciously if you want to avoid being suspected).

But for now I'm far away from talking in tales. I'm focusing on avoiding the time bombs that are inherent in learning this language. The word 'ma' means mother, numb, horse and swear depending on which tone you use. Ticking tongue bombs...

Still, there are advantages to being the dumb foreigner. It affords me far more time to amuse myself with thoughts without the risk of someone interrupting them. It also lets me view a completely different world without any understanding of what's going on. Much the same way that you look at an ant farm and imagine how they all know what they're doing and where to go next...

All in all I'm impressed with Taipei though, as far as big cities go. It's clean. There are about a billion scooters running around and they treat them like bumper cars - scratched up to the hilt. They seem to stack them one upon the other to save space and drive them on the sidewalk. It gives the place the feel of a Theme Park, if it weren't for the seriousness...

Upon Noodles's recommendation I tried out the chocmilk, and it is up there with Masters Choc in Perth. Thanks for that Noods, it made my first day in a strange new world far more tasty...

My dad, Harry, is known for his understated pieces of wisdom. On one ocassion, when I went to his house for dinner, he had a word written on his whiteboard. It was the word 'Improvise'. And that, my friends, is exactly what I'll have to do as the adventure begins anew tomorrow.