Oops, it's August!

Hello family and friends and total strangers,

I have successfully arrived at the 2 and nearly a 1/2 month marker here in Taiwan. This last Tuesday I lived through my first "typhoon" experience, and it's been raining ever since. It didn't actually hit Kaohsiung; so it was more like a really heavy rainstorm.

This time around I thought I'd share two of my favorite new activities; something for both the adventurous and the not-so-very-adventurous to appreciate. First the adventurous:

My Daily Video Game Adventure. Also known as riding a scooter. First, I compared it to a whole body video game in my own mind. Since then I've heard at least two other people (both guys) compare riding a scooter to playing a video game. One of them actually used that comparison in a sermon he was preaching! I think of it as somewhere between Mario Kart and one of the Star Wars games my brother had. You have to maneuver around various obstacles: pedestrians, other scooters, cars, the garbage truck, bicycles, cardboard... And if dodging weren't enough there are the overpasses, the tunnels, the people who drive the wrong way down your side of the street, and of course the car doors that swing open unexpectedly from cars parked along the right. Add to all this the fact that you have to go slowly and look both ways when the light is green your way! Ahh, I love it! The adrenaline rush, the feeling that I'm mastering some amazing skill...

Ok, now for the less death-defying activity. I call it The Haircut/Spa Experience. I got my hair cut a couple of weeks back and it was amazing. Step 1: establish that you want your hair cut and styled, not dyed or permed (I went with my roommate, Kim, who speaks enough Chinese to make this step easy). Step 2: shampoo and scalp massage. This lasts somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. Not only is the massage wonderful, but the ambiance is superb. The place I was at had blue lights, fun music, and silvery draping everywhere. Step 3: the actual cut. But not only a haircut! You get a magazine to read and your choice of tea or coffee. I had a very nice iced coffee drink, but I couldn't read the magazine as it was in Chinese. It had nice pictures though. Step 4: work through linguistic confusion. Do you want bangs? Only it took a lot of hand motions to establish what she was asking me, so when I finally figured it out I said sure why not to make it worth the headache. Step 5: time to pay up. All of this pampering for the bargain price of about $18.00 US. So ladies, if your tired of paying that much or more for just the basic cut, style, and maybe a shampoo you should come on over and visit!

Well, there you have it. Two uniquely Taiwanese experiences that I have the opportunity to enjoy. Of course there are many other experiences--but these are two things that I have enjoyed and that make me laugh a little inside, so I thought I'd share them with all of you :)