Tai WANDER YEARS

I am an American technology worker who just moved to Taiwan.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Height less 110

It's interesting how quickly your frame of reference adapts to a new place. How long does it take before a new place seems like "home" and your past life is now foreign to you? I wonder what it will be like to return to the U.S., just for a visit, as after coming to Europe, I have realized that may everyday life is centered around Taipei. Two things contribute to this realization:

  • The weather: The weather in the Netherlands has been amazing, a little hot for my taste, but blue skies and bright sun are something I have yet to experience in Taipei. Clean air, clean streets, still light at 10PM, I could go on. So far, Taipei is always hazy, cloudy, smoggy, rainy. I hear there is a season where Taipei weather is decent but I get the impression it's like when Steve Martin pays a carnie in The Jerk and is standing in front of a rack of prizes and describes for the winner which prizes they can actually choose from:
"Uh, anything in this general area right in here. Anything below the stereo and on this side of the bicentennial glasses. Anything between the ashtrays and the thimble. Anything in this three inches right in here in this area. That includes the Chiclets, but not the erasers."
Our tour guide in Sun Moon Lake said the weather is nice there in November. I think she went on to qualify that as "mid-November". Chicklets...

  • I used to travel to the Netherlands and notice the level of obesity being quite low. As and on again/off again marginally serious athlete, I notice these things. This time I thought that the obesity level is high and realized that it has not changed, it's just that my frame of reference is now calibrated to Taiwan, where people are quite thin. One of the ex-pats out at the bar had mentioned that there is a "height less 110 rule" that guys have in Taiwan. That is, take a woman's height in cm, subtract 110, that is what she should weigh in kilos. They all immediately started admonishing this rule and how ridiculously unhealthy and sexist it is. Meanwhile, I'm crunching some #'s in my head... I'M HEIGHT LESS 110! I had better keep quiet about this.
...and the beer is quite good, which leads to height less 105 after spending a week here.

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