Unfortunately, they only had the Women’s Bikila model. However, they were very cheap. I’ve never been more happy (that VFF were available in Taiwan) and disappointed (that they had no men’s sizes or other models) at the same time.

Hopefully, this is a sign of good things to come. Here’s hoping that we’ll soon see more VFF in Taiwan.

Update: I have heard there are more VFFs at the Neihu (Taipei) Costco and the Kaohsiung Costco. I headed down to Kaohsiung and saw more female sizes, but there were 2 pairs of Men’s KSOs in the middle (no boxes), both size 42, which was OK for me. I bought one pair (NT$1999). I have yet to see any other models besides Women’s Bikila and Men’s KSO.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Vibram FiveFingers spotted in Taiwan!

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I think the fact that they make these plaques for scooters says something (not good) about Taiwanese society. The sad fact is, many people do take their children and infants on scooters, often without helmets (Why buy them helmets? They’ll grow out of them too soon!). The government should really crack down and do something about this.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Baby in Car

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However, just these past few days, Mrs. Expat and I found out that there were several kittens stranded on a ledge on the top floor of one of the buildings of our school. Of course, we were interested to know if they could be rescued or if we could do anything. I’m not sure how they got up there, but the mother cat had apparently given birth on the roof somewhere and had gotten them down onto this ledge.

Unfortunately, last Friday/Saturday, one of the kittens got scared and jumped off. Naturally, it didn’t survive. The other one was there on Friday night. Helpless to do anything, we started talking to people. They said they were hoping the mother cat would come back and rescue the kitten. I checked again on Sunday – still there. Someone had managed to put a small plank in between the ledges (there were 3 or 4 and led over to the walkway), but it didn’t help him much since he didn’t want to jump down. Mrs. Expat and I did put a can of food up there on Sunday morning. On Sunday evening, I checked again. Still there, but he had eaten, so I felt a bit better about it. I checked again yesterday (Monday) morning and the kitten was still there. I started thinking about what I could do to help and started scouting the roof out and looking for a way to climb down (really a dumb idea – it’s 6 floors up, no ropes, nets, or any other safety gear). The ledge happened to be where the AC was mounted, so they could have opened the window and grabbed the cat or maybe gotten him to jump over to safety. Apparently, sometime around noon yesterday, that’s what they did. That kitten got scared and jumped off the ledge, too. Another one gone.

We figured that was it, but someone told us there was still one more kitten and he was up on the roof on another ledge. Naturally, I went to go take a look. It wasn’t so much a ledge as a platform with a gutter in the middle. The kitten was hiding in the gutter under the roof, unable to be coaxed out. One of the interested students/assistants had gotten some mouse traps (the cages, not the snapping kind) and rigged it with some meat to lure him out. I didn’t think it was big enough, and I was right. 3 times the cat went it, tripped it, and managed to squirm out.

Eventually, after feeding the cat, watching him, trying to coax him out, I figured I’d better do something because he wasn’t going anywhere. I went to the local hardware store and bought a butterfly net. It was extendable to 2 meters or so. Knowing that the kitten liked to sleep in a particular corner of the platform (I had been watching him quite diligently), I quietly snuck up. Sure enough, he was sleeping there, the trap sprung again (I had put a can of cat food inside). I got my net down, he saw it, freaked, and ran right into the net.

He almost escaped but I managed to net him again and get him up. I then eased him into the cage, threw the can of cat food in there, called Mrs. Expat to tell her how awesome I was, and brought the kitten down the ground floor. We had seen the mother cat prowling around, also apparently unable to help her baby. On Friday evening I had found 2 other cats and I knew where they were hanging out at – they had a small burrow underneath the sidewalk and garden around our school. I brought the kitten there, snapped a quick picture, and let him go. He looked perfectly healthy – didn’t have any open wounds or infections. I knew that he had eaten recently, and I didn’t feel that it was necessary to bring him to the vet for a checkup. Since he was entirely afraid of people, it probably would have caused more undue stress on him after living the first week of his life alone on a ledge. I left the can of food and a bowl of water, put the cage back, and went on my merry way, hoping his mother would pick him up. Here is the only picture I have of the kitten I shall henceforth name Icarus (he climbed too high).

Mrs. Expat and I stopped by later that night, around 6:30 or so to check the food. We were both very happy to see that the kitten had found the food and water and his mother – both cats stared curiously at us as we moved off, hesitant to disturb them from their meal.

That makes 3 cats in about 9 months that I’ve rescued. The first one, Gecko (later renamed to Lady Gaga), we gave to a friend. The second one, 眨眨 Zhǎzhǎ, we kept. This third one, we returned to his mother. I’m glad I could help make three happy endings this year.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Rescued another kitten

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The other day I was out hiking in the mountains, looking for trails. I passed by a small farm where an older man was gathering some bananas from one of his trees. He loaded them into his little blue truck as I walked past and continued up the road. Soon he was driving by me and speaking to me, although he was quite old and his accent was so thick, I couldn’t immediately understand. He stopped his truck and mumbled something about 香蕉 (xiāngjiāo). I breathed a sigh of relief as he took out a knife because I realized that he wanted to offer me some of his bananas. He cut off two bananas and offered them to me and cut a third for himself. The bananas were more natural… not long and thin like what you might find in an American grocery store, but short (about 5-6 inches), fatter, and had small black seeds them.

It looked much like this, but with fewer and smaller seeds.

The banana was also much sweeter than the variety you find in grocery stores. As we ate our bananas together, we made some small talk, him asking where I was from, where I worked, etc. He said something I didn’t understand at the time, but when I later asked Mrs. Expatriate, I understood that he had said “這個噴藥沒有” (zhe4gepen1yao4mei2you3), meaning “These bananas don’t have any pesticides.”

I finished my banana, thanks him several times, and said goodbye, continuing on my walk. It was a very pleasant exchange and one that, even though it happens fairly often, I have not gotten used to.

Recently, I have run into one of my students from about 2 years ago. She lives not far away and works with her parents making soap and running a small cafe. We stopped into her shop to catch up and were literally treated as royalty. Free samples, free coffee, take this and try it at home, would you like some tea, etc. I had never given them or my student anything such as special attention (at least, I don’t think so) although I like to think that I had been a good teacher. However, time after time after meeting up with former students or their parents, we’ve always been offered free samples, free food, discounts, etc.

Are Mrs. Expatriate and I different? Do other foreigners experience this? I’d really like to know. Is this just as common with other foreigners in different parts of Kaohsiung? Please let me know.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Random kindness

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This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Bicycle security

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Most stray animals you see on the streets will be fine and healthy. The dogs will look well fed, perhaps a bit worse for wear, but certainly not starving. Cats, also, tend to find enough food to stay alive. While I certainly appreciate the efforts of the organizations in taking care of these animals, it’s just not for me. I simply don’t have the time or resources or go around rescuing every animal to get them off the streets. Besides which, if an animal looks well fed, is happy, full of energy, and looks reasonably healthy, what am I to do?

What I can do, however, is help those animals that obviously need help: the starving dog, the kitten with no mother, etc. These tend to be fewer and far between, thank goodness, but its one simple way I can help.

About two months ago, I rescued a cat that was living in our area. Now, admittedly, that cat looked really healthy and happy. I took it in because it was 1) Calico (very odd for a stray in Taiwan) and I thought it was beautiful, and 2) it ate like a velociraptor and I assumed it wasn’t getting a steady source of food. Mrs. Expat and I took it to the vet, had all the blood tests and everything done to make sure the cat was OK, and then found a nice home for her. We would have kept her, but she didn’t like our other cat, 彎彎 (Wānwān). On her own, she’s a wonderful cat and purrs like there’s no tomorrow. At any rate, she now has a happy home and can have a wonderful, happy life filled with food and toys.

A few weeks ago, Mrs. Expat and I went to Beigang for the Matsu Birthday celebrations. After wandering around a bit, we found a small, black kitten that was obviously in need of help. Her right eye was severely infected, and her mother was nowhere to be found. We packed her up and brought her back to the vet to get her taken care of. The pictures below might be kind of graphic. If you don’t have a stomach for these sorts of things, it’s best to skip them.

The Vet obviously had to keep her under observation. What happened was that she actually had some sort of nasal/breathing infection, and that had spread to her right eye. After a few days, we could tell it was getting worse.

What was great to see, however, was that no matter how bad her eye was getting, she was really playful. This little kitten had so much energy and loves to climb the walls of her cage at the Vet’s. Unfortunately, a few days ago, we realized that the eye was definitely getting worse. The infection on the outside had kind of gone away, but her eye socket was still infected and the pressure on the inside was forcing her eye out. It’s somewhat common, our Vet told us, and either her eye would pop out, and it would have to be taken off, or it might get sucked back in eventually. Either way, the kitty was definitely going to lose that eye.

So, the Vet decided that she had gotten big enough that she could survive the surgery. Later that night, he took her eye out. He showed it to us later (our Vet always takes pictures and shows us all the gory details later), and he said the eye came out in shards, just like glass.

The good news it that 2 hours after the surgery, the kitty was awake and climbing the walls of her kennel again. He is still so full of energy! Now, he’s all stitched up and has a second lease on life.

A few more days of observations, maybe some blood tests (to make sure he can’t spread anything to Wan1Wan1, and we should be able to take him home. I’m not sure if we’ll keep him or try to find a home for him. Either way, I’m glad we were able to help.

Now, it was rather expensive, all in all, mostly due to the NT$700/day charge by the Vet for keeping him there, but we didn’t have any choice. I will say this, however: if you go into any reputable pet store in Taiwan, you’ll find cats on sale for NT$15,000 or more. I figure, I can buy one of those healthy cats and spend nothing on the vets, or I can rescue a small kitty and spend almost the same amount of money on giving them a chance to have a good life. The cats at the vets already have their health, food, toys, etc. Nothing much would change for them. Giving a small kitten a chance to live a long, healthy life makes me feel better, however.

At any rate, we still need to think of a name for him. Any suggestions?

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Where the Wild Things are

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No, actually, I’m just kidding. One of my absolutely favorite things about Taiwan is the weather. When it isn’t raining or incredibly hot, the weather is incredibly wonderful. It’s 81 degrees Fahrenheit today. I just had a nice bike ride to the grocery store and back wearing sandals, shorts, and a t-shirt and managed to work up a sweat. I love living in a semi-tropical zone!

The forecast for this week shows high 70s to low 80s, so things are looking great! I’m looking forward to a long Taiwanese winter like this!

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Harsh winter

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Americans in Taiwan who wish to marry a Taiwanese person.

That’s it. If you are from somewhere else, then the process will most likely be different. I will not be talking about changing your Visa or other such information (I’ll write about that later next year when I do it myself).

So, if you are an American in Taiwan who wishes to marry a Taiwanese person, here is what you must do:

Step 1: Visit AIT
Required materials: ARC (Alien Resident Certificate), passport, money
Required time: 10-30 minutes

It doesn’t matter if it’s in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Taipei or wherever. Just go. You can make appointments online, but when I went to the Kaohsiung office, I still had to take a number and wait, so I don’t see the point of making an appointment. Once at the AIT window, tell the officer working there that you need to fill out a Single Affidavit form. Preferably, they should give you one that is in Chinese and English. If you get only Chinese, you’ll probably be confused. If it’s only in English, you may encounter troubles at stop #3: The Department of Household Registration.

So, get the Single Affidavit form and fill it out. Should be relatively straightforward. Give your information, check the box that says you aren’t married, and give it back to the clerk. They’ll stamp it and make it official. Pay the fee (NT$990) and now it’s on to step 2!

Step 2: Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Required Materials: Single Affidavit form, ARC, passport, copies of ARC and Passport, money
Required time: 20 minutes to 1 hour

Again, it doesn’t really matter where the office is, just go there. You’ll need the Single Affidavit form, your ARC and passport, and copies of each. In Kaohsiung, you’ll want to go straight to Counter 11: Authentication. In other offices, just ask. Give them the Affidavit and whatever other information they’ll need. They’ll tell you it’ll take 4-5 days and cost NT$400. This is normal, so plan ahead. For an extra NT$200, they’ll have it done in 24 hours. I paid the extra fee and, indeed, they had it ready the next morning at 10:00 when I walked in. With your authenticated Singles Affidavit, you are ready for the last step!

Step 3: Department of Household Registration
Required Materials: Authenticated Singles Affidavit, ARC, passport, Marriage Agreement, money, possibly witnesses
Spouse will need: Household Registration form, Taiwanese ID Card, passport photos, witnesses IDs
Time required: 20 minutes to 1 hour

You can NOT go to just any Household Registration office. You must go to the Household Registration office in the district where your spouse has their permanent address. Miss Expatriate is from Kaohsiung and her permanent address is in the Lingya district, so we had to go to the Lingya Household Registration Office.

Before you go, you’ll need to fill out a marriage agreement. You and your spouse will need to fill it out, sign it, and stamp it with your chop (see the comments for picture). You’ll also need two witnesses to fill it out, sign it, and stamp it with their chops.

Once there, it’s fairly straightforward. Give them all the materials and do what they say. You probably already have a Chinese name, but they’ll give you a form to choose your official Chinese name. I chose to keep the one I’ve been using. There are a few other forms to fill out, in both English and Chinese.

Hopefully, the office you go to will know the procedure. I think I was the first foreigner ever registering a marriage at the Lingya district, so the whole thing took about an hour and the clerks were a bit confused. The supervisor had to come over a few times, some calls were, but in the end everything was sorted out. You’ll have the option of getting English or Chinese marriage certificates. I recommend at least 1 of each. Personally, I got 2 of each. If necessary, you can always go back and get more printed out. Certificates are NT$100 each. Your spouse will also need to change his/her ID (your name will be put on it), so he’ll/she’ll need a passport photo. That will be an extra NT$50.

Overall, it’s a rather drab process. It takes some time and none of the offices are quite exactly sure what the other offices are supposed to do. I called AIT and asked: Do I choose my Chinese name at MOFA or HHR? I was told HHR. I called the next day and was told MOFA. This is pretty standard in Taiwan. There is nothing that can simply be done entirely in one building or one office. Everything is spread out and no office knows what the next step is or what gets done where. They only know their job from doing the same exact thing every day.

Anyway, hope that helps you. Your mileage may vary with things such as the witnesses and their IDs, stamps, and time, but overall that is the process. 3 stops, 2 papers (Singles Affidavit and marriage agreement), and some cash. Good luck registering your marriage!

Helpful links:
AIT webpage concerning marriage in Taiwan
Marriage Agreement (PDF)
Forumosa Marriage subforum

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Getting married in Taiwan

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Every foreigner knows how horribly antiquated and un-foreigner-friendly Taiwanese banks are. Today, however, I had the displeasure of finding out another horrible aspect of it. It all started when Miss Expatriate signed up for online banking with Bank of Taiwan so she could wire money back to her American account without going to the bank. Since we send money back every month, this seemed like a good deal. This past week, however, when she logged in, it simply wouldn’t let her do it. She tried a few more times until she finally called them today. Their answer? You can’t use Internet Explorer 8.

That’s right. The online banking system that allows you to wire money to other accounts doesn’t work with IE 8 (or Firefox or Safari for that matter). You can use IE 6 (and, as an aside, I absolutely detest IE 6 and would gladly slap the hell out of anyone that insists on using it. I’ve strongly considered blocking IE 6 users from this site.) and possibly IE 7, but they won’t support IE 8 until mid-July.

Now, I’m no stranger to this. Oddly enough, it seems to be a preoccupation with Taiwanese web designers to make apps run only with IE 6 and no other browsers. Even my school had a web app that didn’t work until I complained a bit and now it works on IE 8. But my questions is this: how is this even done?

The Bank of Taiwan main page

The Bank of Taiwan online baning login

After looking the site over, I found out that the online banking application was written in ASP.Net, the Microsoft coding language. This was shown by the link to the actual Online Banking Login.

The Bank of Taiwan main page with link

So, this begs the question: how can a webapp written in a Microsoft Language not work in a Microsoft browser? I don’t know. I’m not a programmer. I can do HTML and CSS and I’m learning Javascript, but I know nothing of ASP.Net, Ruby, Perl, or other webapp development languages. Is this something that has to do with the age of the code? Is it a nuance of IE8? Did the developer do this on purpose? I wish I had answers to these questions or that the bank would hurry up and offer support, but I guess we’ll just have to wait until mid-July to find out.

Oh, and Miss Expatriate ended up finding a school computer with IE6 on it (*shudder*) and it STILL wouldn’t work. Of course, the people at the bank were clueless and said they’d look into it. So it goes…

UPDATE: Well, Bank of Taiwan has launched a new online ATM/Banking application that runs with both IE8 and Firefox 3.5, so all is well for now. Long overdue? Yes? The nice thing is that we’ve been using it for several months now to switch money between accounts (sending money to her parents, for example) and also sending money back to an American Wells Fargo account. All of this is done online and is relatively simple. Good work, Bank of Taiwan.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

Online banking woes…

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We started off with lunch. Miss Expatriate had heard about a Muslim Restaurant that was getting very good reviews among the locals, so we decided to give it a try. The building was very drab and unassuming. The only giveaways were the green signs hanging out front.

Inside was quite small and packed. This place was definitely very popular with the locals – always a good sign.

The menu for the Muslim Restaurant

A peek into the kitchen

Another peek into the kitchen.

Customers enjoying their dinner

Being a Muslim Restaurant, they served no pork. As it was, they didn’t really serve any Muslim food whatsoever. Rather, they served Taiwanese food with a Muslim twist. Dishes include Beef or Goat soup, beef or goat dumplings, a very popular hotpot (good for larger groups), and a variety of sides. Miss Expatriate and I opted for the Goat soup, goat dumplings, and a side of beef, including cow’s stomach.

It was nice to have a seat near the kitchen where we could watch them prepare the dishes. They also made several hotpots, which are very popular. Next time, I’m definitely going to try one. Outside, you can see them prepare the hotpots and coals.

The outer part of the kitchen

A view from the street

If you’re going…

Business card for the Muslim Restaurant

After lunch, we headed off to the Jade Market (玉市 / yùshì), also a very popular attraction. We’ve gone several times before, but it’s always nice to wander around and talk to the locals and see what they’re selling.

The place is huge... this picture does it no justice

You can find almost anything here – jewelry, beads, tea supplies, statues, geodes, antiques – you name it. The variety is endless.

Small collections of decorative beads

Necklaces are popular

A guzheng sits in front of a painting

Small, decorate tables. I believe they're used for Ancestor's Worship tables

Tea trays

Many varieties of teapots can be found.

Several different types of tea, sold in discs.

The tea master must have been off on a break. This one is quite friendly and always says hello to me.

Large decorative stones

Turtle shells are popular - meant to bring good luck, I believe

These two sellers were engaged in several games of Chinese chess.

A large, decorative geode. These are quite popular.

Various beads for necklaces and bracelets

More beads

Old Chinese coins

Various types of money - he has money from several countries, including some very valuable gold and silver coins

Large statues

small statues

One of the many stores in the Jade Market

If you get hungry at the Jade Market, you can have a snack

If you’re going…

One of the helpful ladies at the Jade Market information desk.

Another helpful lady at the Jade Market information desk.

After that, we headed off to the Shinkong Mitsukoshi Department Store to do some window shopping (Why do Citizen and Seiko watches cost 3x as much as they do in America?) and watch X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which was quite good. If you go, I highly suggest you watch it in the digital theater for the best audio-visual experience.

This is a post from: An Expatriate in Taiwan. If you are reading this somewhere other than An Expatriate in Taiwan, please report it to the webmaster and please visit the blog at http://www.expatintaiwan.net.

A day in Taichung

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