Better
at the jetlag thing today. It
seems once I pass 6-7 PM without konking, I start to regain alertness.
This
morning I woke to the sun peeking in at 5:30AM and went back to sleep again,
though not deeply, and woke to the sound of the phone at 9AM. It was GuMa (Aunt,
meaning “father’s older sister”) saying JuLing (her
daughter, my cousin) was coming in about half and hour
to take me out. Apparently this
was what we’d discussed during my disoriented conversation with her last
night. I frantically showered and
dressed. When she arrived, I
recognized her as a face from the past; she’d gone to business school in the
states and had her engagement party at our house.
She
had a van with a chaffeur who also called her Cousin, who took us to the police
station so I could apply for my Alien Resident Certificate (ARC). I had to take a number and wait—Groan,
I thought it’d be MTC all over again. When called, they peered at my Fulbright letter like
it was written in ancient heiroglyphics and asked me if I had anything in
Chinese, like an official work document.
FSE never said I needed any, and JuLing asked them, Why would they give
me that? Finally after a lot of
back and forth polite arguing we called FSE who faxed over what they
wanted—some kind of government employment certificate.
Then
we went to the company where JuLing and her brothers work—Butyl Corp., the
company my late Uncle Tom started.
I’m still not sure what they do.
I grabbed the chance to email, but after a few minutes they were all
waiting for me for lunch. The
chauffeur took us all—JuLing, her husband who I call JieFu, her younger brother
ShinYing who looks just like Uncle Tom, her youngest brother ShinHui who looks
more like GuMa. We went to a big
mall, Breeze Center, which they said was the newest one (SOGO, in front of the
place I’ll be living, is considered “old”). It was only a 15 minute walk from my apartment, they
said. We had a 10-minutes wait
outside the restaurant so I looked around, dazed. This mall was GORGEOUS! Immediately I saw BCBG, Kenneth Cole, Mango, Starbucks,
Godiva, and endless displays of beautiful, bright-colored, frilly, cutesy,
glittery, girly things! I was
going to hyperventilate. If everything
else this year sucks, MTC and my Fulbright project and my apartment and all, I
will not care, because of this mall.
And I’d only just seen the first floor.
The
Chinese restaurant food was yummy—they ordered a beef with tofu, bamboo with
vegetable, veggie dumplings, soft shell shrimp, NianGao (sticky rice cake) with
noodles, and two baskets of ShaoLongBao (soup dumplings). If only Dave and Ben were here! I told them how there’s only a few
places in NY we get these, and JuLing said, “You could come eat them here every
day!” I waited for the next dish
to come out when JuLing got up and paid the bill. I couldn’t believe it, was that it? I wasn’t full at all, and I’m so used
to being almost uncomfortably full after a meal.
Dad
had told me to keep a low profile about my scholarship funds, but JuLing and
ShinYing both asked me point blank if I was getting paid and how much. I hadn’t planned on what to say if this
came up, though I’d been warned people here are very frank about salary-talk,
so I stammered and finally said [“I’m not sure”]. That must have sounded idiotic and very unconvincing.
After
lunch we got iced coffees at Starbucks.
There are coffee shops everywhere here. I dunno why the FSE guide said that coffee is rare here and
makes a good gift. Good thing I
didn’t bring any Starbucks over as a “U.S. gift” or I’d have been laughed out
of town. Outside this one were free samples of an iced
frappucino drink with little coffee jelly bits at the bottom that you sucked
through a tiny straw, but the bits not small enough or the straw not big
enough. Obviously they were just
trying to copy pearl milk tea.
JieFu
walked me around to see the other stores.
There was one brand of shoes he said was his friend’s company, cute and
cheap but not comfortable looking.
At around 2PM we returned to Butyl where I tried finishing email but was
again rushed off by JieFu who wanted to take me to Costco to look for stuff I
might need. I definitely do
appreciate the attentiveness, but I don’t think they realize they could stick
me in a corner with a PC and internet and I’d be set for the afternoon. But I was definitely happy to be out
and driven about—no getting lost and missing bus stops and getting dropped in
the middle of nowhere, today!
His
car is a Lexus GX300, very new and leather-smelling. ShinYing has a Porsche, their middle brother has an Astin
Martin, and ShinHui has a Benz.
Sheesh! And cars here are
MUCH more expensive than in the States, so you get the idea. I had to wonder, where was this money
coming from and why wasn’t it, er, flowing through our family ties somehow?
On
the way to Costco we picked up their son, 10-year-old “Little Henry” who was
actually not very little, width-wise, and had been at his grandma’s playing PS2
all day which he carried with him in a PS2 carrying case. He immediately zonked out and snored
the whole way. At Costco I was
ready to see all the “weird” Chinese things in bulk, like 100-lb bags of rice
or huge turtles, but it really looked very American—Honey Bunches of Oats,
Neutrogena, Skippy, Ragu, even Cheesecake Factory cheesecakes! There WAS a whole section of just tofu
and other sections of Chinese buns, dumplings, sausages, etc. The kid, now very awake, ran about
grabbing a platter of cookies, pointing at cakes and loading stuff into the
cart. JieFu sounded like he
worked for the Taipei Board of Tourism, repeating over and over how everything
is available here in Taipei, and cheaper than the U.S. I agreed, but wasn’t sure what we were
doing here—was he going to help me pick out stuff for my apartment? I wanted to just start pulling things
off the shelves—TV, stereo, food, cosmetics, etc. But he said, [“We’re just looking now. When you move in we’ll come back. Don’t worry about anything.”] So I didn’t. He added that this Costco was owned by a friend of his.
Was
starting to get zoned and he could tell.
Back at Butyl we waited for JuLing and he asked me lots of questions and
talked on about the conveniences of Taipei. I was really getting dazed, once I switched to French and
said, “Oui,” instead of “Hao.” He
showed me an ad for an elder-care equipment company that was owned by a friend
of his.
ShinHui
took me to the MRT to teach me how to take the subway. It was amusing how much they worried
about me—I’d had to learn a dozen different subway systems in western Europe
this past summer, a new one like every other day, never in English. This one was so easy—just five
different colored lines with English and Chinese names for each stop. The whole system is impeccably clean
and air-conditioned. The fare
varies by ride but is on average 30NT, and buying a multi-use card gives you a
20% discount. If you don’t have
enough left for a full ride you get the last one anyway, wherever you go. So a lot of people save a card when
they have a little bit left on it, to use when they’re taking a long trip out
to the suburbs.
We
went to ShinYing’s for dinner where I met his wife and two kids, a boy of 15
and girl of 13, who go to an American school so speak perfect English, but were
shy and didn’t say a word to me.
Their dad kept repeating, “Grace went to YAY-loo! YAY-loo!” After dinner it got awkward and I went back to GuMa’s who
lives right across the hall. She
offered me a room but I didn’t have any of my stuff and wanted to stay in my
awesome hotel. They don’t seem to
understand; they think my hotel’s a crap-hole and that I’m being polite about
staying there.
ShinHui
dropped me back in his Benz. My
college friend Gary had called and left a message. He’s in Taipei for week with a friend and they’re going to
China after this. They’re at a
hotel near mine, so we planned to meet tomorrow.
Lucy
called me from work, then Dave called just when I was konking out, saying he
was impressed I’d made it this far through the day.