"take your chances" drugstore

ok, seriously, tonight i saw a big store, with the name "take your chances" on it. as i looked at it closer, it said "drugstore" in small letters next to the sign. yet another reminder that i'm living in a country where english is most definitely not the first language. some things get lost in the translation.

i stopped by a cell phone store today to try to get a sim card so i can make calls here in taiwan. it was quite an ordeal, as most things are when you don't speak the language. first, i had to go back to my room and get my spare cell phone, since there is no sim for my blackberry apparently. so, i came back to the store 15 minutes later with my old nokia and the manager, who spoke pretty good english, thankfully, began to try to help me. i didn't have my charger and the phone was dead, so he sold me one for about 5 bucks. then, i had to have a battery, because my battery was no good, so that cost me about 10 bucks. then, he was about to sell me the sim card, but he remembered he needed two forms of i.d. i already knew this and was ready with my passport, which has my visa in it, thus making it two separate i.d.'s. well, this was of great concern for the other manager of the store, who thought i didn't have the right documents to purchase the sim card. (why you need i.d. for this, i don't know.) after about 20 minutes and a phone call to the authorities, they let me purchase the card. then, i had to fill out a form, and didn't have the phone number or address for the school where i'm living (which is a shame since i just received my business cards from my employer this week...but who carries those things?). when i told them i didn't have my info on me, they began to pace a little and speak in rapid fire chinese. then i said, "i am staying at kang ning english school" and they both said "ah, kang ning!" and that seemed to make them both happy. within a few minutes i was walking out of the store a satisfied customer. so glad to know that my school has name recognition in this part of the world. just another day in the life, here in taiwan!

here are a few pictures of the town where i live, standing on a walking overpass looking both ways up the streets, just to give you an idea of what it looks like. on one side of the street, i took this picture of a residence that has been added to the top of a building. it just struck me as interesting. hope you think so too.

see you next time.