R&S in Wonderland

The Caucus Race - Excerpt from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

"At last the Dodo said, `everybody has won, and all must have prizes.'

`But who is to give the prizes?' quite a chorus of voices asked.

`Why, she, of course,' said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, `Prizes! Prizes!'

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round.

`But she must have a prize herself, you know,' said the Mouse.

`Of course,' the Dodo replied very gravely. `What else have you got in your pocket?' he went on, turning to Alice.

`Only a thimble,' said Alice sadly.

`Hand it over here,' said the Dodo.

Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying `We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble'; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

I haven't blogged in quite a while but lots of things have happened. D and Ray have updated some things but one of the main sentiments I've been sensing lately has been the strangeness and oddity of how things work and are done here. In fact, some of it is becoming quite annoying.

Many say, that when you experience culture shock you go through the W-curve. You may miss some of the steps but these are the main elements of the curve. The first hump relates to your entering the foreign location, whereas the second hump is for those who return home after adjusting to the foreign location. Well, for me I can say that my honeymoon phase of Taiwan has quickly lost it's peak and I'm descending into the crisis period. I am definitely not in crisis, but there are moments when I get quite frustrated with how things work.

The most frustrating thing about Taiwan has been their administrative processes. I've been trying to get my resident visa for some time now, and between the Canadian Taiwan Consulate, the Canadian Trade Office in Taipei and the Consulate of Foreign affairs in Taipei we've been getting so many different requirements, responses, and answers. Our poor friend LW has sadly been dragged into the murky depths of red tape and bureaucracy with us. It's been 2 months now and I still don't have my visa! Yesterday, while applying for my mandarin course (which is a whole other can of worms), I bumped into a fellow who was trying to extend his visa in Taiwan so he decided he would go the student route. He's already been in Taiwan for 8 years! Now how does that work?

Number 2 hitting my "Annoying things in Taiwan" list has been their garbage. Although a very good system in theory (they recycle everything from styrofoam, paper, clothing, compost, tetraboxes, etc.), in practice it is very tedious! Each day you are required to throw out something different. So for example, on

Monday - we can throw out Paper items, clothing, clean plastic bags/wrapping (rinse before throwing)

Tuesday - Clean styrofoam, bottles (plastic/glass), metal cans, smal electric appliances, battery, tetra boxes, and light bulbs

The difficult part is that each item needs to be bagged separately before you bring it down for disposal! Oh, and the best part of it is that the disposal trucks (yes, there are more than one to facilitate the different materials) arrive at our street corner exactly between 9-9pm. Therefore, if you miss the disposal for that day, you miss it until the next day (or you can drop it off at some disposal site). And of course, if you have paper items on Tuesday you cannot dispose of that until Friday (that's when it is next on the schedule). Smelly compost items are everyday except for Wednesday and Sunday. When Ray and I went to throw out the garbage for the first time it really was quite the event! The entire neighbourhood comes out! They of course know exactly what to do and do it with such ease and finesse that Ray and I look like total duds. Yesterday when trying to figure out how to separate my styrofoam from my plastic bottle, the garbage man got so annoyed with my "pokeyness" that he just said "Hiiiiy!" and grabbed the whole bag from me and did it himself. "I was trying...really I was trying!"

Another "interesting" thing about this whole garbage thing is that most of the neighbours just do their business and then go home with their plastic bins (that held their green compost - needless to say Ray and I have been trying to figure out the best system of holding all the different garbage at home). The maids however, many of them from the Philippines, make it a, in the words of our landlord, "garbage party" and hang out downstairs for another 20 minutes or so before heading back home. They chat, rummage through other people's garbage, watch other neighbours and laugh. I actually have no idea what they're talking about.

Here are some pictures of my Adventures in Garbageland.

The exciting event of garbage collection. (Ray always says to me "Don't be so excited!" People look rather bored though)

Here is a view of 2 of the trucks. There were 3 present at the time though but hidden on the left side. (I was surely wishing for a panoramic function at this point!)

If you look carefully mid-right between the truck and the SUV, behind the pizza hut delivery man, you can see the garbage party happening.

For those of you who are interested in this garbage regiment (I know there are many of you out there), here are some articles about it.

http://english.taipei.gov.tw/TCG/index.jsp?recordid=2971

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2003/04/10/201513

http://163.29.36.51/dep/index.jsp?categid=2494&newsid=2234

http://163.29.36.51/dep/index.jsp?categid=2494&newsid=2235

But... in the end, as Alice would say, "Oh dear, this is getting curiouser and curiouser." I like how Alice handles her stress of being in an unfamiliar land, she goes with the flow and at times she's very real with her emotions and would just break down and cry, but most of the time she has a goal (finding the white rabbit, what can be a nobler goal?!) and she enjoys her time in Wonderland.