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Renee at School
Everyone knew she was coming, but not exactly when. She was a big hit, and all the kids were very curious about her. Sleepy little Guangfu has a great doctor. Nobody in the clinic speaks any English at all, so I dreaded having to go there. Not that my fellow-patients mind me being there--it's a break in the routine to watch the foreigner play charades in the waiting room to explain what’s wrong. All I had to do was get a colleague to write "viral throat infection" in Chinese but I didn't think of it. It's the least Lo-wen could have done, since I caught it from her (it's highly contagious)! Anyway, the doctor is a young guy who speaks English with an American accent. I waltzed in without an appointment, my fee was NTD 100 (3 bucks or so)--including medication from the pharmacy next door--and I was done. The pharmacist didn't speak English, so I had no idea how to take the medication. The suppositories tasted awful, and they didn't work. For all the good they did, I might as well have...
Lao-puo is responding well to her thrice-weekly physiotherapy treatments at "Men Nua" (Mennonite Christian Hospital). She pays NTD 50 (a dollar and a half) for each treatment--as opposed to the $45 per treatment (for the first twelve, then $75 per treatment after that) it would have cost at home.
Who says there's no such thing as a free lunch? I noticed the other day that the plastic covering the little engine in my scooter was cracked and flapping in the breeze. It must have happened when I parked indoors at the train station the other day--someone manhandled Esmerelda carelessly to make room for his or her own machine. There was a bit of delay at the shop to get it fixed, the guy from the parts place brought the wrong colour, and it was lunchtime while I was waiting. The wife of the mechanic (she can speak OK English) asked if I was hungry, and I politely declined. A few minutes later, the restaurant lady pulled up on her motorbike with lunches for everyone!
Only in Taiwan does the landlord provide free beer and a steak dinner. Our landlord lives next door, and he is developing a townhouse complex in the next block. They are designed for extended families--four storeys, four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and even a gas fireplace. Prices here are enough to make you cry--you can buy a really nice four storey, two decks, three bedroom two and a half bath townhouse, brand new, for $175,000 Canadian. Anyway, the landlord was in the sales office as I walked by, drinking beer with his pals. Nothing would do but he invites me in and puts a beer in front of me. A few minutes later, take-out steak dinners arrived for everyone! The landlord is a decent old stick, and even though he can't speak English at all we somehow manage to communicate. Mind you, we don't discuss the origin of the universe or anything like that.
It's now April 29th. Time marches on! We drove to Taipei last weekend to collect Renee. Legendary Taipei traffic is fun on a motorbike, but nothing short of a royal pain in a car. There is NO PARKING whatsoever, and it takes longer to find a spot than to drive where you're going. We ended up ditching the car at the "Doug Inn" (the apartment in Neihu where I've stayed a few times) and taking a taxi to our lunch meeting with Kim Angevine--a friend of ours from church. We had a wonderful seafood dinner with friends, and an early start.
We had to get up at 0430 to get to the airport in time for Renee's flight, but we awakened at 0300 from sheer anticipation. The poor girl was exhausted, but she gamely stayed awake for the three-hour drive back to Hualien and then until regular bedtime. That is the only way to deal with jet lag.
The Central Weather Bureau was kind enough to arrange an earthquake for my darling girl--a 4.7 but it was far enough away and deep enough to just be a little shake.
There is a lot for Renee to see in Taipei, so she and Lao-puo will take the train back on Thursday morning. I'll join them on Friday night, and stay until Sunday night. They will leave Taipei for Hong Kong on Tuesday, for the first leg of their Southeast Asia blast.
It's Thursday morning already! Lao-puo and Renee are off to Taipei--they will be there by now as a matter of fact. Yesterday the two of them came to the school with Betty, on our way down to Shi Ti Ping for (yet another) gourmet seafood feast. We had tea with Principal Lin, who made a point of asking if Renee was a qualified teacher--presumably with a view to snagging her. My colleague Suzanne translated. We talked until the dismissal assembly, and nothing would do but I would introduce Renee to the entire school and she would say a few words.
The people in the picture are from left to right Principal Lin, Amber (head English teacher), Renee, Lao-puo, Pagan Dan, Lo-wen (a.k.a. Ashley, about whom I wrote in an earlier chapter) and Stephen (academic director).
This is probably a good place to end off. I'll have a lot to say about my weekend in Taipei that will start tomorrow night, and my month of solitude thereafter.
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becky eston
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nice to have a friend sending me travel paged
thank you doug i feel like am travling also you always make things very intesting i look forward to haring from you again who no maybe i will travel but ino no it will not be so exciting as your nice stories of travel i thank you becky write again