Wed 9/18/02:                        Moon Cake and a Bored Chauffeur

W&R got up to leave by 7 to meet M&D, who like yesterday called to “wake them up” even though they were long up, and Mom asked me if I could pour some bleach into a small bottle to send her via Ruby so she can wash some clothes.  The requests she makes at 7AM!  I sleepily poured some into a water bottle (“Make sure they don’t drink it”) and they left, leaving me a leftover lunch box, cake and some M&Ms in the fridge.  Will asked, “Do you have enough money?”  When I said Yes he said “OK” very quickly, as if saying “Whew.”  One day I’m going to say I do need some, just to see his reaction.

Weather much cooler today.  I automatically think that means typhoon. 

During school they gave out free moon cakes on the 7^th floor for “ZhongChiouJie”, Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, one of the three biggest holidays of the year.  It’s on Saturday and apparently they just celebrate by handing out moon cakes to each other, individually wrapped cakes about 2” in diamater with different fillings.  I went to line up, it was a mass of lines and you had to sign your name to get one, as if this way they could make sure you didn’t get more then one.  I chose a round white flaky cake with powdery sugary filling which was quite good but I was told it was a DzaDohBing, not a real moon cake (YueBing), which are golden brown and have designs on top and sticky filling inside.

            I got to NTU MC in time for the last 20 minutes of napping.  When I got home right away my cell rang, it was Juling’s chauffeur who was coming to see about the apartment repairs.  He said about the water leaking over the door, they’ve already talked to the people upstairs about it and they’re supposed to fix it soon.  He taped up the loose tube under the sink, then kept asking if there was anything else.  He kept laughing at my Chinese and making small talk about the US--was it dangerous?  I said some places maybe, just like how all cities, even Taipei have their dangerous parts.  He didn’t believe me.  He asked what did I like to eat, had I eaten yet?  And said GuMa instructed him to take me wherever I wanted to go, but I said it’s ok, feeling kinda weird just to be eating out with this guy with no one else around, and no one had ever even properly introduced us, even though a nice, free meal was tempting and I was starving (stuffed W&R’s cake in my throat when he wasn’t looking).  He said I was being KeChi (polite, not wanting to take advantage of his hospitality) and really, to ask him if I ever needed anything, because he was ShinYing’s um, ah… “bodyguard” he said finally, proudly straightening.  Dubious, I wondered if he had incorrectly translated “chauffeur”, because he was a scrawny little thing.  He was scrubbing my aircon filter then he gave up saying it’s too old and dirty.  He finally left after repeatedly asking if there was anything else, adding It’s after work hours, so I’m a little “WuLiau.”