Sometimes I feel at home

Josh often asks me, as we return from an overnight trip, "does it feel like home yet?"

Because my schedule is so disjointed with all of my friends, sometimes I sit at home without fully embracing life in Fengyuan. and subbing kindy didn't help, as my only free time was taken with lunch out with Josh or two hours in Taichung during which I graded homework. Every morning I tutor, which is good to get me out of the house. And this morning I went to the kindy early to laminate some things (I subbed for a friend yesterday and Monday).

Today, on the way home from tutoring, I stopped to buy vegetables from the woman with the truck and table of vegetables. Every day these shop keepers (laoban) set up vegetable stands along the road between the railroad tracks and the inner ring road. In Chinese class we are learning a lot about foods, how to ask for things, and how to ask the price. So, I said "please give me one jin of tomatoes (a jin in 600 grams...), a loaf of cucumber (seriously, the measure word for bread (actually, they call it toast), banana, and cucumber are all the same because they are long), and this thing (brocolli...I don't know how to say it in chinese). Yes, I want that (the stalk)." Total price, 95 NT or aprox. 3 US dollars.

The tomatoes and cucumber are marinating in the fridge in some dressing compliments of Mom bringing me a packet of Italian dressing powder.

THEN, the next "stand" over, really a card table, was selling flowers. Maybe sweet peas? and roses. So I asked "how much for this" (a whole bundle). 100 NT-too rich for my blood. "How much is 1?"

Aside: Chinese is difficult. Here's why. First of all, your inflection has to be perfect, or you end up saying nonsense, or worse, curse words. For example, Lin (second tone) Laoshi (teacher) means Teacher Lin. Lin (first tone) Laoshi (teacher) means something that noone will tell me because it's so bad...I think it means something like "screw you teacher" to be said when angry.

SECOND, they have a measure word for everything. "ge" is the generic one you can use most of the time..."Wo yao ei ge mian bao." I want one bread. (Bread means roll here, toast means bread in loaf form...I don't know what they call bread after it's been toasted...they don't seem to think that's toast.) We say "one" cucumber. They say "one loaf" cucumber. So we say "a head" of broccoli, and there's another measure word for that. Maybe in the US you walk into a restaurant and say "Give me a coke." Here, you have to specify between bottle (ping) and cup (bei) and can (not sure if it's ping or bei)...even if you don't KNOW or CARE about the container.

Basically, you can't say "Give me one." You have to add a word onto one that describes the thing you want. Which is fine because I mostly say "ei ge" and they understand. But I'm getting to the point where I can sort of understand what people are saying, or at least follow it a little. So today I want one flower, and the shopkeeper (laoban) says, "ni yao ei zi hua ma?" (You want one flower?...hua is flower, ma is the question mark that you actually say) It's fast, but I hear it! Ah ha! Zi is the measure word for flower. So I used it in conversation with the flower lady. Sounds trivial to you, but that's a big deal to me :0D

Back to the story: Then this lady next to me starts asking if I speak Chinese, I say"...uh...a little." They laugh. Next question. "Are you married?" I say I don't understand. They say "husband." I say, "Haha, I don't have a husband." Then she touches my waist and in English, says "beautiful" and the woman behind the table makes the typical womanly figure shape. I blush and laugh. Say "xie xie" (thank you) and as I'm getting on my scooter, the younger girl (my age) who spoke English pretty well, hands me a rose and says in English, "for you."

And that's why I like Taiwan. Because people are really freakin nice, if not a little nosey. I'm fine with nosey...and the nice is much appreciated.