its just simple: May 2008

Tuesday 27 May 2008

So today's adventure was to 乌来, alone, a mountainous area preoccupied dominantly by the Atayal tribe （泰雅族）It was raining the whole day, so except for the waterfall and the streets, I didn't get to visit many places. I want to go to the national park!!!! :(

Ok, two interesting encounters today.

I was on the mrt, and was about to take my motion sickness pill as the road up to the mountain would be a long and winding one. There was this police woman opposite me. Tall, strong and big built. Just as I was about to turn on the cap of my water bottle, she shouted " 小姐！这里不能喝水！”. I was a little taken back by her stern tone. I then showed her the pill on my tongue and told her “不好意思我得吃药”and guess what follwed? She stared at me with the "你敢喝给我试试看！！”look. Mind you, it was a 6 second long, cold hard stare. Me being me, ( ever since i came to Taiwan), I returned her with a stare too, with my big eyes and 不以为然 look. And so, it was a slient war of staring. We both didn't utter a word, just stared into each other's eyes. And throughout this 6 or 8 seconds, I wasn't hesitating whether to drink the water or not, because I'm determined to drink it, even if she's going to send me to the police station or the Mrt office or whatever. And so, i opened the cap, and i drank my water. Seeing the need to explain again, i said “不好意思”. She alighted 2 stations later. I understand that she's just carrying out her duties, but laws are laws, humans are humans, the former is made flexible by the latter isn't it? And I really need to take my medicine, if anything is going to happen to me( if in this case, it isn't just a motion sickness pill) who is going to take responsibility for it? The police woman? The MRT personnal?? And there isn't such a need for such a rude stare, seriously. Too bad, I'm not someone to be trifled with. And it's just your misfortune to choose to stare at me, coz you've chosen the wrong person to stare at, for obvious reasons. If I've put on mascara today, the effect would have been greater. Morale of the story: 1) its understandable why we have laws on the abstinence of food on trains, but the enforcement of such a law or rule should also depend on certain circumstances. 2) civil servants should treat people with respect, law enforcement should be done in a professional manner, and not by disrespectful, rude means. How do you expect the people to feel safe in the society they are living in, to trust and respect the government if the poilce behave like gangsters? 3) stick out your tongue and show the evidence in case you need to drink on the train.

Next up, I met an American at the musuem. It started with him asking me about the explanations of the exhibits, though he could read and speak Mandarain, and yeah we started talking about politics, different countries, alcohol, sale of alcohol and tobacco..... He came to Taiwan to stufy about the farming here, and his main purpose of this trip is in fact, to study mushrooms! How interesting. He had lived in China previously for 3 years, and in Korea for 2 years. And so, we started talking and talking, for about half an hour and I had to leave, coz I haven't been to the places I intended to visit. A rather abrupt departure initiated by me. But yeah.......

Thursday 22 May 2008

Right now, I can't wait to be back home. Was watching the news just now, and there was this report on the Taiwan 921 earthquake. Apparently, Taiwan has 44 分层地块, and there is a high likelihood there there will be another earthquake, how soon? I don't know because the news didn't state! :( A few weeks ago, days before the Si Chuan earthquake, my rommie was telling me she felt the effects of an earthquake around 3AM. Shucks. It's really really scary, the possibility of it happening, just that you don't know when it will strike, and you can't do anything about it. These days, there are several news on the Si Chuan earthquake, shocking, traumatising, dramatic but real kind of news ( you know how their media function here) and I was really really disturbed by some of the reports. It's simply too scary and heart wrenching. There was this man who was trapped under a rubble for 100 plus hours, and when the rescue team located him, he was still alive and able to speak. They then made a call to his wife, and over the phone, he was telling his wife that when he gets back, he hope that they would be able to live in harmony, and he would press on in the hope of returning home. But because of the difficulty in getting him out of the rubble, the rescue took several hours and stretched into the night, by the time they got him out, he had already stopped breathing. The news showed him talking to his wife, him being determined to get back home, the rescuerers trying to wake him up by calling his name many many times, in vain.

So to all of you out there, please treasure all the love that you have around you.

I love all of you :)