- Squat toilets
- How the people throw toilet paper in the trash can instead of flushing it down the toilet... which completely stinks up the restroom
- Finding lizards in the bathroom while I'm taking a shower
- The polluted, muggy air of the city
- Feeling like I pissed in my pants every time I walked outside in the humid air in jeans
- Having to worry if I'd get food poisoning from eating food from the night markets
- Getting lost trying to figure out how to transfer lines on the metro
- Spending at least thirty minutes trying to figure out how to meet a friend
- Having someone go up to you in the park and ask if you're from Thailand (because your skin is so tan compared to everyone else)
- Having a saleslady go up to you in the department store and ask you if you're looking for a skin whitening cream (because your skin is so tan, and pale is beauty)
- Having to wash clothes in the hotel room's sink because all the laundry machines are taken
- How some areas of the city smell horrendously of sewage
What I do miss:
- Being able to shop freely at the night markets because you have no sense of cheap/expensive when you have to keep converting the prices into American dollars in your head
- Teasing my students and training them to make fun of my teaching partner as well -- all in good humor, of course
- Making fun of teaching partner and laughing at his atrocious accent during class
- Hanging out with my Kinmen family -- who really did become like a family to me
- Staying up until 3 am talking to my "exes" (ex-roommates) -- taking silly pictures on the roof, discussing certain "fruits," coming up with silly English dubs for TV dramas that we didn't understand
- Really getting to know my paternal grandparents, whom I have not seen in four years and have rarely visited in my 18 years of existence
- Talking to my maternal grandmother, who I deeply admire -- even at her age, she is very headstrong, independent, and active. When I grow old, I would much rather be like her than sit around the couch all day watching daytime soaps.
- Letting my cousin take me around the city and showing me around
- The FOOD (everything is delicious until you realize you've gotten food poisoning)
- The PEOPLE -- groupmates, roommates, friends, family -- I miss them like hell.
Pear (1:10:01 AM): WOW
Pear (1:10:05 AM): u done yet?
Pear (1:10:08 AM): woman...U SLOW
Sophelia (1:10:18 AM): shut it
Pear (1:10:18 AM): MAKE ME A SANDWICH
1 comment:
At least you only had lizards, I found tarantulas in the bathrooms I went to in China. I'd take reptiles over atrociously sized arachnids any day.
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