I won the lottery!

Well, sort of. I mean, I did, but I won't be going out and buying a yacht with my winnings anytime soon. I might, however, go out and buy a pair of workout pants or something.

Remember when I said the Taiwanese are obsessed with receipts? Well, I decided it was an obsession worth hopping on board with, once I realized that the lottery it is based on can yield as much as 10 million NT (~$338644USD). Of course, that's if your receipt happens to match all 8 digits of their chosen number, and the chances of that happening are infinitesimally small, but it's still a possibility.

As is the chance of winning smaller amounts. And I did! On Dec. 11 at 8:17pm, I bought something for 80NT and unknowingly won myself some money. (For the life of me, I have no idea what I was buying--我看不懂--but it's still cool.)

Whereas the big prizes go to a full 8-digit match, I won on the "bonus" numbers, two series of three numbers that they give you 200NT for matching at the end of your receipt. So, in this case, 680 won me 200NT!

My reaction if I had won 10 million NT with this receipt...

...and my reaction having won 200 NT with it.

So that was cool. Now I just need to fill in the back and take it to the local post office/bank (they're combined here) to redeem it! Now, to pray that my odds of winning big in the future aren't hurt by my previous winnings...