wet. stuffed. definition of acronyms

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BBA = aunt
SBA = aunt
CU = SBA's husband
guava = SBA's son (not 'little cow')

Second full day here. I'm sleeping at SBA's house and using her internet. Originally I thought I was going to be at grandma's but
a. they don't have internet,
b. they sleep early, and
c. i'm too messy?


It's been pretty uneventful so far. I'm eating a lot (and have some photos to show for it), mostly carbs and doughy things. I really want fruit but I guess it's not quite the time yet. I went walking with grandmother for a bit today inside "the Mall". She had to run an errand in the bank and I took my blood pressure. wtf? It was free!
Y'all may be glad to know that I measured
102/67 with heart rate of 51/min.
See, pretty uneventful, or else that heart rate should be, like, 65/min.
Then we went to see the grocery store inside "the Mall", where they sold really pretty things for really high prices. Well, they are high if you are local but they seem like just regular US grocery store prices for me... 500 NT for a basket of blueberries may seem like a shitload of money , but I pay about the same for that back at home.

One thing that sort of makes me uncomfortable (scratch that, makes me really uncomfortable) is that everyone seems really concerned with the price of things. Everyone has to ask the price of everything, and the cheapest wins no matter what? I guess I'm coming from the land of no bargining, but when something is 2 for 30 NT, my first inclination is to just say ok and buy it, but everyone will say no that's too much, we can get 2 for 25 somewhere else. But I want it now... Or I don't really care that it's only a 5 NT difference. Walking another 2 blocks to save 10 cents? Good gawd.

And, everyone keeps telling me it's cold outside. Ok, fine 14 C sounds really cold (I just googled, it's 57.2 F). That may be cold for Taiwan, but it's not THAT cold. It's colder INSIDE mother's house! And it was colder inside my house back on Shasta (52 F). Big deal, but I get scolded when I say it's not cold...

But, like a good girl, I've thus far managed to keep my big mouth shut. Mostly because I don't know how to talk back in Chinese, hahahahah.

It's getting late now. I don't have jetlag but I am tired. I went swimming yesterday and I'd really like to go again, but it seems like such work -- I have to ask CU to take me there. We went on his scooter yesterday, in the rain. I wish I had a scootercam, we were doing those wizzy dodgy moves in traffic, pretty cool. What I'd really like to do is find an outside heated pool. Anyway, the pool yesterday was really nice, but it was 30 C (86 f). Every few laps I had to stop and cool down. I'm used to btwn 79-82. Doesn't sound like much difference, but it was. I sound like such a complainer, eh? Bitch bitch bitch, oh woe is me!

How am I going to survive for 4.5 months if I need everything 'my way'?!

I managed to upload the first of the photos (email me for link if I haven't sent it to you already) but haven't gotten around to captioning them or deleting the ones that are blurry or with my eyes closed -- there are quite a few, what are the odds? Apparently pretty good.


Post Taiwan, I'm not sure I will have such ready internet access, so this may very well be the first and last entry!

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