Finally, We Can Stop Hiding from the Police

Finally, we can stop hiding from the police! Our ARC cards arrived today, making us official legal alien residents of Taiwan. Our insurance cards also arrived today, meaning we can get sick with impunity. Okay, for the low, low price of NT150 (US$5.00) we can get sick. This is all very exciting. The card has two photos on it, one of which is flattened and widened to the point where I look an awful lot like Mom or Grandpa Kraemer. I also appear fairly dark, which reminds me of one of Taiwan's best quirks. Often times the first thing a person will say to you after "hello" is a flattering compliment. For Westerners, the usual ones are "Your eyes are so beautiful" (because they're colored), "you are so white" (because the Taiwanese, particularly the older generations, prize white skin, although many are quite dark themselves. You'll see older ladies covering their arms and wearing wide-brimmed hats or carrying huge umbrellas. On a side note, old ladies with umbrellas are quite the safety hazard because the bike lane, parking, and sidewalk are usually the same and while the women themselves generally do not occupy much space, their umbrellas can project into the traffic lane, which is already a mess because no one gives a darn about the law, except most stop for red lights. Remind me to write a post about Taiwanese traffic some time. Also, the pokey part of the ribs is right at eye level.), and "your hair is so pretty" (because, again, it's colored). The final option is "you are beautiful," which I hear all the time. I highly suspect this is because my hair and eyes aren't colored, and there are a number of Taiwanese who are fairer than I am. I have a girl in my 3A who fits the description of Snow White perfectly. On the upside, I get hit on a lot less. (Audra is tall, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and she speaks Mandarin, so she gets various proposals every day. Bridget, who has dark red hair, green eyes and freckles, has children who will just stare at her. She finds it very creepy.)

Oh, and lest you were worried, we really have not been hiding from the police. For one thing, it would be very difficult as the police station is on the corner. Second, our only encounter with them was very positive. A ton of police had evidently just raided the huge arcade next to McDonalds (really) and were crossing the road en masse. They stopped so we could ride through. The resident English-speaking officer said hello and told us to pass through, no problem. Paul later described it as his only positive encounter with a foreign police officer.