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Published: September 19th 2007
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He's a Nice Enough Little Dog...
...but a bit of a nuisance for the time being. Once he settles in, he should be OK. I have a lot to say this week before my news gets stale, and the next chapter will be about Viet Nam. So, I have another blog entry already. I hope that my video successfully attached itself. Click on the film icon by my picture. Please let me know if you have problems opening it.
In Canada, kids (and teachers) get “snow days” off school. In Hualien, they get “typhoon days”. Another was headed for us, and then the worst befell. The typhoon veered off north, so school remained open, but we got the lashing rain that goes with a tropical storm. Being prepared for any eventuality (including getting my shoes and socks soaking wet on the motorbike on the way to the train) I keep a pair of plastic slippers to wear in class while I dry my footwear. So. I’m a teacher. I can’t read and I teach in my bare feet, but aside from that I’m normal. Really. Trust me.
Speaking of being prepared, I bought an “all-purpose” umbrella the other day. It has a rubber foot so you can use it as a walking stick, fabric that has been treated with some kind of UV
It was the Devil's Own Job...
...to get the little perisher to stay still long enough for his picture to be taken. I finally gave up and went for action shots. shield stuff, and it can blow inside out without getting wrecked. It has everything except a brandy flask concealed in the handle, but since I’m now on half-rations and stoppage of grog that doesn’t much matter anyway.
Our little canine foundling Xiao Bai is on the mend quite famously, and she is an excellent companion. All is right in her little world now, EXCEPT THAT (from her point of view at least) an imp or a minion or something has escaped from the Nether Regions. Blast Lao-puo’s tender heart! She was out yesterday morning, and came upon a rain-soaked, obviously-abandoned little Maltese-Shiatsu cross. He has an infected eye and was quite hungry, but aside from that he was in pretty good shape. All Gods be thanked that vets don’t cost the moon over here—Lao-puo took him in and got him fixed up for about twenty-five Canadian dollars.
We are sure that it will be very easy to find a home for him when we bring him back to Canada. I think I will lose in my choice of a name. “Lu” = street and “go” = dog in Mandarin, so I figured “Lugo” is a good name. Lao-puo
Long-suffering Xiao Bai...
...has (for the most part) been able to hold her temper. doesn’t like it at all—neither did she care for my second choice “Chuckles”—the English name of the scooter mechanic who patched my flat tire the other day. (I ran over a Phillips, and got screwed).
Whatever-his-name-is-eventually-going-to-be is a going concern—if he were a pink bunny I’d take his battery out. He runs around, and torments Xiao-bai who (bless her heart, is very patient and hasn’t bitten his head off yet). He jumps. He squeaks. He entertains. He demands attention like crazy. At least I don’t jump or squeak.
Even such a mundane thing as running out of eggs is interesting in Hualien. They sell eggs by weight, not by the dozen, and they are never refrigerated—even in the supermarket. We wanted “pagan dan” (bacon and eggs—my pen name) for breakfast the other day, and Lao-puo asked me to nip over to the market for three eggs. I rode my scooter through the crowded market without seeing any eggs for sale, until I realized that because of the heat they would be indoors, in the shade. So, I rode into the building, past the pork-cutters and the chicken-butchers, to the egg guy. Without even dismounting, or shutting off the
Perspective is Everything.
Lao-puo took this picture, and captioned it "New Friends". I would have called it "Job's Tormentor". engine, I chose and paid for my eggs, hung the little plastic bag of eggs on my handy-dandy helmet hook, and cut through the flower sellers and underwear stalls to the nearest exit.
I try to do as the Romans do, but yesterday I felt I went too far. Western people consider spitting to be really low-class and rude, probably because of the tuberculosis contagion in the old days before antibiotics. Chinese people have no such idea, and even the most refined-looking people will make Belgian refugees (expel phlegm). I’m still getting over my nasty cold from the weekend and RIGHT IN FRONT OF EVERYONE on the platform at Guangfu Station, and WITHOUT EVEN THINKING ABOUT IT, I coughed and spat on to the track! I’m still bothered by having done so. No matter how long I live here, or how much I learn about this place, or how much I try to fit in, I realize that I will always be a western guy.
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Bob
non-member comment
Spitting
Your comments about spitting in public brought back memories of when I lived in Shantou China. Every morning at precisely 6:30 AM my alarm clock went off. My "alarm clock" was my neighbour horking and snorting and spitting in the street. After listening to him for at least 5 minutes, I felt so repulsed that I wanted to do the exact same thing. The strange thing is that nobody seemed to care except me!!