Probably I have not introduced my girlfriend on my blog up to now, so here we go. Her English name is Ruby, she works as a hair designer in a huge hair salon at the busy Ximen district of Taipei. Since we met in October her English improved a lot and from early January she attended to an English course beside her busy work schedule. Apparently, she creates much of my motivation in learning Chinese. :)
The first trip I made with her since I’m back in Taiwan was on the 22nd of February. Our plan was just to spend a nice Sunday in Jioufen at the north-eastern coastline. Everything begun perfectly…I went by my scooter to the Main station to meet with her after she finished the English class at noon. In one hour we got to Rueifang, where we changed to a bus which took us up to the mountains where the famous tourist destination, Jioufen took place with its amazing sight to the Pacific-ocean. After we got off from the bus which was completely full of families who brought their loud children for a walk, we had to face with a massive tourist invasion. Plenty of Japanese tourists occupied all the places at the edge of the mountain road where you ultimately want to make pictures of this beautiful coast and of the mountains nearby. Of course they had to take pictures of each other from all possible positions, so it’s easy to understand why they freaked me out a bit after a while. Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day so instead of nattering over them we were heading into the narrow market street which is the most famous and obviously the most crowded place in this small village. The atmosphere of this long and a bit smoky walking street is much different from what the usual night markets have in Taipei. You can get the feeling that this place is an excellent representation of the ‘real’ Taiwanese culture with all the nice foods, decorations and little souvenirs sale by the nice local people.
I bought a calligraphy brush whit special papers what I can use to practice the Chinese character writing with water as the writing disappear after a half minute . She also graved my Chinese name into the bone part of the brush…this is what I call customization!
We really enjoyed the time together in this lovely place but till the lunch I didn’t realised that my keys are not in my pocket as I believed but in my scooter in Taipei! Huupss! “Ok, let’s get back to Taipei immediately!” Ohhmy goodness! My girlfriend told me that nobody will steel it, I shouldn't worry so much...;)After one of my most stressful hours in the bus back to Taipei Main station I found my intact scooter at the same place with the keys in it...:P Afterwards I had to calm down with some Taiwanese beer...:)
Comment: Taiwanese people does not steel…!
