Interesting Indeed

I saw a robot on the way to the library this afternoon. At first I thought it was one of those signs that tells you how fast you are going, but as I got closer I saw that it was indeed a robot. It was kind of shaped like a big trash can, with a blue plastic hull, and where the opening would be to put in trash, there was a computer monitor and I think there were a couple video cameras above that. My main clue that it was a robot, was that around the base in yellow letters it said "NTU Robot" (NTU is National Taiwan University). I wanted to look at it a little more, but I was scared and confused about why there was a robot in the middle of the street so I kept going.

Before that I had spent a couple of hours looking for a place to buy envelopes. The post office doesn't sell them, and I biked around for ages, but didn't see a sationary store or anything similar to that. I did, however, buy nice electric pan. It's pretty deep, and non-stick coated, and came with a free spatula. I already had an electric wok, but the heating is uneven and I couldn't cook eggs. Now that I've got this, I think my kitchen is basically complete. Except for tupperware. I think I need some tupperware.

I also went out to lunch with one of the teachers. He had substitute taught in one of my classes the other week, and just seemed like a nice guy. His name is Golden Dragon. Or something like that. His last name is gold, and while someones last name has it's own meaning and isn't just a last name, I think people usually ignore the meaning of the last name, and only attribute meanings to the two given names. But one of his given names definitely is dragon, and I don't know what the other one is, but I bet its cool too.

Later on that night, I ended up finding a place that sold envelopes, right across the street from my house. I think it might not have been open when I first went by, but regardless, its a pretty sweet store. In addition to envelopes, I got a broom and a toilet brush and some toilet cleaner. The store has a bulk bin section, which I'm really excited about, but its hard to tell how much things are because I'm not familiar with the measurement increment. They mostly have candy, but they've got nuts, and dried tofu too. So that's pretty cool.

I had my first experience with Taiwanese trash service today. There is a notice out in the hallway saying what I needed to do with my trash, but I had been unable to completely decipher it. I went out to look at it a couple of times, and had gathered that I needed to take my trash somewhere. After I had figured that out, I had bad visions of me walking around Taipei for hours with a bag of trash asking for directions, so I got scared and quit trying to figure out what to do with my trash.

My trash bag had reached capacity, so I finally took the notice down, and brought it into my room, and sat down with my dictionary.

I have to say, I think they've got a pretty awesome set up going on. First of all, all of the trash trucks play ice cream truck music, so you know where they are, and can hear them coming. It is important to know where they are because you have to meet them to give them your trash. Everyone gets a time and a place (I think mostly where the alleys intersect with the main roads. I only have to take my trash about fifty feet.), and they have to bring their trash and recycling out to that spot. The recycling comes through first, and as far as I can tell they take everything. They even take organic stuff, like fruit peels and egg shells. They must just have a huge compost pile somewhere, cause I bet 2.6 million people create a lot of organic garbage. After the recycling truck comes the garbage truck, happily playing its music. Everyone goes up and throws their garbage in their own selves, its not just one poor guy handling everyone else's trash. Its a really cool thing to see, because it's sort of like a mass exodus. People come out of everywhere, in their bathrobes and slippers, or whatever, sometimes carrying a dog in one hand, but always bringing little bags of trash.