Humility, Scooters, and Other Mysteries

One of the biggest things I've learned in Taiwan so far is just how humbling it is to be in a foreign country. You can't speak the language. You don't know the customs. You can't navigate by yourself. You become, in essence, an infant, taking once again those first wobbly steps toward self-sufficiency, and trusting in the mean time that those around you will keep you from harm.  In short, you are entirely dependent on other people.

So, tonight I stepped out and put my life wholly in the hands of a stranger. Karina, who has lived abroad before, had connected to a local Kaohsiung resident who wanted a conversation partner; they met via a website for conversation partners and had never met in person. Until tonight, that is, when the friend, Carissa, offered to take Karina and I out to dinner. The restaurant she had in mind was too far for the MRT, she said, so she and her cousin, Joy, came on scooters to pick us up. So it was that, after saying hello, we were each handed a helmet and invited to sit behind these new friends, who then shot off into the night, with us behind them, clinging to the back railing. Where we were going was anybody's guess.

To be clear, we weren't stupid about it. We told several people what we were doing, and  checked back with them once we got to our destination. But still, it was a complete leap of faith in my mind; a moment of absolute, infant-like trust that the person we were sitting behind would get us safely to the right destination. And they did. And it was AMAZING.

I don't think Carissa or Joy fully grasped just how much Karina and I just enjoyed being on the back of their scooters. We've been doing scooter practice in the parking lot behind Sanmin for two days now, so that I now feel comfortable starting the scooter moving and driving it slowly in circles (for the most part--right hand turns are hard! My theory is that it's because the throttle is also with your right hand; opposing motions to turn and keep moving), but putting around a little lot is ENTIRELY different from zipping through rush-hour traffic, easily looping around turns and zipping around buses while surrounded by other scooters doing the same thing. The whole thing reminded me of a school of minnows shooting past slow and stately whales, really--scooters are definitely the way to go around here.

Carissa and Joy took us to a fantastic little shop that served us fried chicken, fried egg, rice with veggies, and some sort of fish-tasting soup, which we thoroughly enjoyed while asking them about the schools they go to, the instruments they play, and other little chit-chatty topics. Occasionally Carissa wouldn't know a word and would switch to Chinese, which Karina was usually able to interpret, and somehow we managed a pretty good conversation.

Then we hopped back on the scooters (oh, the wonderful joy of cool(ish) night air rushing past!) and went to get milk tea from a vendor who, Carissa told us, has been in business for 68 years. This guy knew what he was doing, alright--probably the best milk tea I've had since I've been here, or ever, really!

From there it was a hop, skip, and a jump (by scooter, of course :) ) to the Love River, which is absolutely GORGEOUS at night, with lights festooned all along the walkway and the bridges so that they reflect off the water. We even took a little boat up and down the river; a tour guide explained all the sights, but I tuned him out (it was in Chinese, anyway) and just soaked it all in. Here are some pictures from that part of the night:

We took a boat just like that one!

I really, really love this city. And I think that, after tonight, it may be hard to keep me off of scooters around here. But we'll see what coming days hold. In all likelihood, more time on the learning curve, trusting others to keep me afloat while I flounder in the humbling knowledge of my own ignorance.