More Random Thoughts During My Last Day in Taiwan

• Green tomatoes not only are edible, they're tasty! They won't give you food poisoning because they were genetically created to remain partially green, or so I'm told.
• If you hear a lot of courtesy flushes coming from the bathroom, you know there's an American in there. As I've mentioned before, most toilets in this country will clog if a bunch of toilet paper is flushed at once. You are left with two options: either throw your dirty toilet paper into a one-gallon trash can located in nearly every bathroom here, or flush a small amount of toilet paper at a time (hence the five courtesy flushes by Americans refusing to change their ways - thank goodness)
• Beginning April 1st, chicken's blood no longer will be shed iin front of everyone shopping at the day market. It is now safe for Chick-Fil-A to introduce their Taiwanese fried chicken and dominate the market.
• I'm going to miss having great sashimi whenever I want. You can buy it from almost any food store here.
• The forecast called for rain every day this week, and every day was sunny for most of the day. The most rain we had was for 12 hours between Monday night and Tuesday morning. So don't be deterred from the weather forecasts in the spring.
• Walking on the trails around Yang Ming mountain may be one of the most memorable experiences here. On a suny day, we climbed a few thousand feet into the fog of Yang Ming mountain. You really can lose yourself on the walking trails. The only thing you need to pay attention to are the huge piles of cow dung from the wild cows that roam the hills. You won't get this kind of detail from Lonely Planet guides!
• I will not miss the driving in Taipei. The scooters have a lane on the right side of the road, and they weave through traffic whenever they are moving faster the cars. Because of this, I have closed my eyes and prayed while changing lanes more times than I ever have in any other driving situation. I not sure why you don't see pile-ups on a daily basis.

A Can of Worms

I had a grammar school teacher who made us memorize all the animal phylums. At the time, I think there were 17 and I remember the "worm" phylum making no sense. My college biology professor pretty much explained that the worm category isn't supposed to make sense - it's where scientists place everything that doesn't fit neatly into the other phylums. Hence the phrase, "a can of worms" (it's also my feeble attempt to include a link to something no one in Rochester has heard of but will find this interesting). So I give you the random things I've noticed in the past few days that weren't substantive enough to write about on their own:

• Three sheets of toilet paper will clog any non-commercial toilet in Taipei (read the "Bathroom Etiquette" post for more insight on this one).
• Public toilet seats are heated. This is so very important in a place where the temperature in March is already above 70F.
• Dentists wear sandals without socks (I think this would be a health code violation in the US), but wear the standard mouth guard. Maybe this isn't such a terrible thing.
• People driving on scooters will wear a fairly heavy winter coat and sandals...?
• People shopping indoors wear scarves. It's 70F, I'm wearing a tee shirt and I'm sweating.
• Taiwanese recycle everything. I'm not clear how this works yet, but the kitchen trashcan only holds a gallon or two and the trash bag hasn't been replaced since I arrived 3 days ago.
• "Go" is a popular game played by the father-in-law and looks like a bastardized version of "Othello". I play the simplified version against my wife and lose 3 times in 5 minutes.
• I'm not going to get much sleep tonight. The shopping district across the street from where I am staying is celebrating the spirit of their market. That means two things: bad karaoke and firecrackers. I love that they celebrate on a Sunday night. At least I would have if I went to college here.