Category Archives: daily life

Tipping

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You’re an Adult, Learn How to Tip!

Read the blog post above. As a former server, tipping poorly/not at all is a deal breaker for me.

In the US, tipping is part of the cost of eating out, among other activities. It really shouldn’t be optional, and it should be calculated into the budget when you’re traveling or going out. It’s like having to pay sales tax. If the service is awful, say something and then tip accordingly, but service is still a luxury, and you need to pay for it. That’s why in some countries, there’s a 10% service charge added. It really would be easier if it was just automatically added to the bill, but here you have a choice, where the culture doesn’t dictate that service should be beyond satisfactory and tipping is not required. (Re: Tipping in Taiwan)

P.S. If you’re not so good at the math-stuffs, in Nashville, just double the tax. That’s at least 15%.

Sleep Cycle

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I may have discovered the next best thing since sliced bread. It’s called Sleep Cycle, and it’s an alarm clock app that wakes you up at the right cycle of your sleep so you don’t get dragged awake at the wrong time of your REM cycles and you feel all crappy in the morning. There’s a 30 min. window for it, and it uses the phone’s accelerometer to track your movements in bed. I never knew the iPhone was so sensitive, but it did nicely nudge me awake, and I was all refreshed in the morning.

It records the stats throughout the night, and it’s pretty accurate. I was really awake at 7-ish because I’m a light sleeper and loud noises wake me pretty easily.

Went to bed / woke up: 1:04 / 9:10
Total time: 8h 06m

My sleep graph for the entire night:

Analysis made by the Sleep Cycle iPhone app.

Looking Forward To…

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  • Watching movies/tv without Chinese subtitles (It’s really hard not to read them. So distracting.)
  • Having access to a kitchen (especially an OVEN!)
  • Central air-conditioning EVERYWHERE
  • No humidity
  • Getting to drive again! ROAD TRIPS
  • Taco Bell, Fat Mo’s, Papa John’s, Mexican food, real HOT DOGS
  • Buying a variety of soda that’s not triple the price
  • Getting a cell phone I can actually understand and that does more than texting and making calls
  • Having a backyard
  • Living in the suburbs where I can go running without worrying about getting run over by cars
  • More green stuff = cleaner air
  • Buying things online again and not having to pay for international shipping ($2 cheaper for Kindle books!)
  • Getting my southern drawl back
  • Desserts with real SUGAR
  • Being tanned without feeling ashamed
  • Listening to country songs (kind of a closet fan)
  • Libraries with more selection of books
  • Seeing my friends again!

New Hair

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I got a hair cut. I was tired of looking like a high school student. Or rather, I was tired of people’s jaws dropping when I told them I was 24. I mean, I’m all for looking younger, but 16-18 is a bit ridiculous, don’t you think? So voilà!

Do I look my age now?

Saturday Adventures

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I went to the gym today, and there was a girl there wearing a Texas Longhorn shirt. She was trying the machine next to the area where I was stretching, so I thought I’d be friendly and ask her if she was from Texas. She noticed my Vandy shirt, which probably helped a bit to lessen the awkwardness of some strange sweaty girl asking her random questions while she’s trying to work out, and talked to me for a bit. But she didn’t seem so keen to talk, so I finished stretching and left.

Then I went to Ryan’s to get lunch, this sandwich shop in Neihu with pretty good wraps, and I ordered a BBQ chicken in English (cause I didn’t know how to say it in Chinese). The girl at the register took my order, and then asked me if I was an ABC. She then went on to ask if I taught English and that I looked really young to be teaching. After our short polite chat, I was just waiting for my wrap when she then started the conversation with me again and asked me if I minded helping her with some English phrases. Sure, free English lessons are what I commonly do while waiting for food, no problem. So she whipped out this notebook with a few lines in Chinese and asked me to translate to English. The gist of it was some English-speaking guy/girl was mad at her and not speaking to her, and the girl wanted to make up but didn’t know to communicate her intentions.

This is what I do as an “ABC” here, although technically I’m a TBART (Taiwanese Born American Raised Taiwanese). I approach fellow ABC’s in awkward situations and give free English lessons to strangers all over Taipei.