Alternatives, Animals, and Adventures

We received our national health insurance cards about a week ago! As some of you know, Taiwan has universal health care. Another plus: it includes Chinese medical treatment! I’ve decided to take advantage of this and try acupuncture. Again, some of you may know this already, but for about 10 years I’ve had issues with my neck and shoulders. About a year and a half ago, while in Beijing, I fell down a half-flight of cement steps, further aggravating this condition. Fortunately nothing was broken, but it was a long recovery that required physical therapy. I do consider myself recovered from this fall, but my right shoulder and neck have never been the same. This also can be attributed to having children—as much as I love them and wouldn’t have it ANY other way, they have DEFINITELY added MORE TENSION AND STRESS to my life! And it didn't help that during my recovery, against medical advice, I kept lifting the children. I’m thinking that this is the time and place to try other options!

Greg, the PhD student, took me to his doctor, who has treated him for headaches. This particular doctor does reflexology and acupuncture. Greg was my translator and the doctor seemed to completely understand what I needed. AGAIN—I barely had to fill out any forms! I was treated immediately, and after the doctor promptly inserted 8 needles into me—the neck and shoulder areas, my hands, and my feet—I laid on a table for the treatment to take effect. Later, Greg relayed to me that the doctor thought I was VERY tense and should come for treatments EVERYDAY! And he also told him it was obvious I’ve had this tension for a long time. Greg immediately said, “no, she can’t come every day—she’s a professor, she’s too busy” to which the doctor nodded, understood immediately, and said, “ok, she should come twice a week!” YES!! I’m in a country where PEOPLE ACTUALLY THINK PROFESSORS WORK!! WHAT A REFRESHING CHANGE THIS IS FOR ME!! The entire session, including several doses of some yucky-tasting powdery Chinese herb medicine, cost a little over $3 USD! I could get used to this, that’s FOR SURE!

In the last blog, I forgot to include another observation concerning style of dress here—NO hoochie mamas! The women here dress stylishly, but modestly, MUCH more so than the women in the U.S. Obviously the Britney Spears culture has not taken over! And so far I have not seen any tattoos in the small of the back, very common in the U.S. Honestly, in the U.S., sometimes I don’t know how the male college students can concentrate in class! Oops--I take that back—I spotted ONE hoochie mama on a subway the other day and it really attracted my attention because I had never seen one here until then!

I MUST comment on the dogs here! There’s DEFINITELY a dichotomy—unleashed mutt dogs vs. pampered princess dogs. As I’ve mentioned earlier, in lieu of children, many young couples have pets instead. These young couples tend to favor small, purebred dogs, and they OBVIOUSLY spoil them. They’re usually leashed, immaculately groomed, and sometimes they’re even in STROLLERS! Yes, here in Taiwan, some people actually use special strollers for dogs. The unleashed mongrels seem to be on their own. BUT, they have collars, so SOMEONE must own them. They’re all over the National Chengchi University campus, and they pretty much roam everywhere. To their credit, they’re VERY well-behaved—they rarely bark, and they don’t try to jump on anyone or get in anyone’s way. They’re also quite skilled at crossing the street—they do a better job than I do! I honestly HOPE I don’t see any get hit by a car—so far I’ve been fortunate in that I have not witnessed any such tragedy! I do see quite a few cats, but they don’t roam around as much. The weirdest cats were a few that were obviously shaved. They had plenty of fur and all, but the body portions were considerably shorter than the head portions, so they resembled little lions! Maybe the owners wanted to keep the cats cooler? Or maybe they’re just having a little fun with them? I’ve had cats, so my first thought was, HOW DID YOU MANAGE TO SHAVE THEM? Any cat owners reading this would COMPLETELY understand what I mean…..

With the children, we made a small excursion to a place called The Living Mall. The building looked very unusual (see pic—one of the buildings is shaped like a ball) and this place was very kid-friendly. Anyway, Luke and Lauren enjoyed themselves—there was an outdoor playground, and inside the mall, there was a play area that contained little rides. You needed tokens to pay for these rides, and it was pretty inexpensive, but man, totally OVERSTIMULATING. Luke and Lauren enjoyed themselves, but it was OBNOXIOUSLY LOUD! And of course, since this was a mall, it had a very extensive food court, which we took advantage of!

Our day trip this past week-end was to Danshui, a small town north of Taipei. It’s completely on the other side of town from us, and it’s about a 70-minute subway ride. Danshui is on the coast and very picturesque (see pictures), and this past Sunday the weather seemed so beautiful we thought it would be a great day to go. Well, apparently EVERYONE IN TAIPEI had the same brilliant idea because the subway was COMPLETELY PACKED all the way to Danshui, which is the last stop on the line! And Danshui was VERY crowded! AND it was HOT and HUMID! We were sweating bullets, and there were people wearing long sleeves and sweaters!! But it is definitely a very lovely area—the ocean looked beautiful and many people were riding bikes along the coast. There is a huge walkway with billions of restaurants and shops along the ocean. We decided to take a ferry to Tansui Fisherman’s Wharf. You can just IMAGINE Luke and Lauren’s excitement; they could barely wait in line! The wharf was also gorgeous and the walkways were even wider than the ones in Danshui, so it didn’t seem as crowded. Luke and Lauren really enjoyed walking on this really cool white bridge (see picture). We also enjoyed the local Danshui snack food—fish ball soup and rice noodles! And Luke was GREAT!! He didn’t barf, pee in his pants, or have a meltdown!!

I have to mention that it’s SHEER LUCK that I’m able to get to these places w/o reading any Chinese! I still have NO IDEA how I got tickets to the ferry boat, and how we knew when to get off the boat. I’m TOTALLY winging EVERYTHING, I’m telling you!

Next up…my sister-in-law’s and mom’s impending visit…..