- The sun, beaches and palm trees!
- Jellies in about 50% of all drinks sold at the supermarket. Sometimes they're gelatin cubes and sometimes it's aloe chunks, but I bought an orange pop today that was the consistency of half-set orange Jello. Although I could hardly get it to pour out of the small hole in the can, I still don't really mind the jelly chunks. It's like Orbitz never really went away!
- Is it starting to rain? Nope, just air conditioners always dripping on you from above.
- Scooters
- A family of four riding around on their family scooter (a 50/50 chance that the kids are wearing helmets)
- $100 NT ($3) scooter helmet stores on every block of every street
- All roasting chickens are sold with the head attached :(
- Bread sliced too thick for a toaster (why!)
- Popular cutesy cartoon characters selling everything. Among the most popular: Butter Lion, Doraemon, Hello Kitty and Domo. I really like Domo.
- People saying "WEI" in a loud, nasally voice. It's how you anwser the phone.
- Just as many bags of "pea chips" as potato chips for sale at the supermarket
- An interesting garbage system. Every day at 6:30 we go downstairs and put our trash bags in the garbage truck as it slowly drives by. They're never late and you always know they're coming because the truck plays Beethoven as it approaches. So beautiful and a good way to meet your neighbors.
- Pet stores and scooter repair shops on every block.
- School uniforms. It can make it really hard to remember your students' names when they all wear the same clothes every day. Mel had to take pictures of her 100 or so students holding up their nametags so she could remember who is who when it comes to doing her bi-weekly student reviews.
- Loads of stray cats and dogs. The cats are really timid, but the dogs are friendly, mellow, and sometimes seem to hang out in packs. Our neighbors have adopted 3 really nice stray dogs who now live on our roof.
- KFC hot dogs
- DFC chicken.
- Ready-to-go beef hearts at the grocery store.
- Locals wearing sweaters, jeans, hats and using umbrellas on the hottest days to avoid any possible tanning.
- Temples, temples, temples. Like on every street.
- Awesome t-shirts
- Lots and lots of people burning paper money in trash cans on the side of the road.
- Your temperature being taken before entering any major public space because of H1N1
- 110 volt plugs. The same as at home! I was able to bring my Wii :)
- Billboards selling unrealistic "dream weddings", which Mel's boss tells us is what every young bride in Taiwan wants. In this picture you can see the bride and groom entering the wedding from the ceiling which appears to be held at the Academy Awards?
- Seal Oil pills at the pharmacy. Imported from Canada. Does Paul McCartney know about this?
- American chain stores: McDonalds, Pizza Hut, 7/11, Starbucks, Cold Stone Creamery, KFC, Dunkin Donuts, T.G.I.Fridays, Outback Steakhouse, Subway, Blockbuster, Burger King
- Canadian chain stores: sadly, no Tim Hortons, but there are a lot of Roots stores. I saw a polo shirt there for $110 and moved on!
- The health claims of American food blacked out with marker! Cheerios is LYING to us as home!
- Monks
- TEA! Milk tea, bubble tea, tea tea tea is big business
- Facebook magazine?
- A really good variety of cheap restaurants selling international foods.
- 80 cent beer!
- Duck/Pig blood popsicles
- Noodles. Lots and lots of noodles.
- People doing funny spontaneous stretches and exercises on the street. Please note that none of these exercises look like they could ever result in physically toning anything.
- Yummy street food! Custard filled cakes! Thai pork and rice wraps! Fruit smoothies!
- HUGE BUGS in your living room (it was the size of my palm!)
- Assigned seating at the cinema. If you want to pay a bit more you can sit on a sofa!
- It's legal to drink beer on the street... anywhere. But nobody does.
- Really, really nice and helpful people. One guy took us to an address we were trying to find which was 3 blocks out of his way. The other day Mel was waiting in line for the bathroom and someone in line ahead of her let her go ahead to take the last "western-style" toilet. The people here are so nice.
- CASH. I don't think they do debit.
- Tiger Woods doing really creepy razor ads
- CNN is the "international" version, which means no Anderson Cooper *sob*
- Boy bands. Super Junior (from Korea) seems to be the most popular. On their lunch breaks our students are often seen practicing dance routines from their videos. I think a lot of kids here aspire to be in boy bands.
- Signs everywhere, bringing very awesome things to your attention.
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