Ahh, plans! We got to the security office and had our Nintendo DS in hand. I purchased a game called "My Chinese Coach" which not only teaches you how to speak Chinese, but also has the phrases written in Chinese so that you can show the person you are trying to talk to what you are trying to say. It has worked well, I have found the bathrooms, the laundry room, and even some foods. When we get to the security guard, we ask him to call a cab for us. Complete language breakdown. So then we decided to call Scott, a wonderful man from work, to talk to the guard to ask him in Chinese to call us a cab. We also needed the security guard to write down our address so that we could find our way home.
While this was happening, one of our neighbors pulls up and asks if he can drive us into town. A complete stranger. But hey, this is Taiwan, one of the safest places on Earth. We accept his invitation and climb into his car. Wally did get our address so that we could get home. The ride to Dashe was quite enjoyable. The Taiwanese love to talk in English so that they can practice the language, which makes things easier for us! They dropped us at the 7-11 and we thanked them for the ride.
The cell phone that we got is a prepaid cell phone, much like the ones that we have in the US. Unlike the ones in the US, you can not refill your minutes using your phone, you have to go and buy a card. I was told just to hand the lady my phone and my money and she would get the right card for us. If things were only that simple. We bought a card and the lady was nice enough to load the card, except that she had sold us the wrong card! Thank goodness that she was the one who tried to load it, because it was all in Chinese. After she realized her mistake, she refunded the money that I had spent on the wrong card and sold me the right one, again loading it onto my phone. Success!
7-11's are amazing here. You can do anything there. Pay the water, elec
tric, rent, everything. Just a simple kiosk and things are done. Lovely!We decided to walk around Dashe for a bit and found a place that cuts hair. Ben's hair was in need of a cutting, so we walked in. Charades commenced and we were able to ask for Ben's hair to get cut. As we were waiting for his hair to get done, two other women started to style Liz's hair. They braided it and made it very cute. The whole thing was not very expensive and was a wonderful experience.
Next we walked more and found a bakery. Ben picked out some cookies and Liz picked out a custard cup.
We found a fish store and fell in love with many of the fishes they had for sale. We can't wait until we can set up a tank here, our first family tank!
We also went into a book store where we found, wait for it, a hamster! I was attracted to the display because of the large beetles they had for sale. So pretty! Then we spotted the hamsters and were amazed at the price. We fell in love with this little girl and decided to take her home. Her name is Betsy.
After buying Betsy, we decided it was time to call a cab to take us home. I went into the 7-11 again and showed the girl my DS that asked her to help me call a cab. As we were starting to use the kiosk (again, an amazing thing), Scott pulled up and offered to take us home.
He was driving by and saw us. I guess we stood out! He was so nice.We got home and found that we still don't have water, but after a nice day out, things look great! We are really liking it here!
No comments:
Post a Comment