Winner Winner.. Chicken Dinner?

It’s about 45-50 minutes of a bus ride, about 40 minutes to walk to the subway, take the subway, then hop on a bus, to get to my job from where I’m staying now. I think we found a place that probably would not make a difference in the commute time. But that’s the price you pay to live in an area like this to be close to everything convenient.

We are this close to finding an apartment. We just have to like the place when we visit and convince the landlord to like us. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find an apartment online? Ok, how about trying to find one already furnished? And with air conditioning, especially here in Taiwan? Now try doing all of that in Chinese. Yeah, not fun.

Oh, and you know another thing that’s really not that fun either? When I get stopped on the street by people passing out surveys. They’re all, Oh it’ll only take a minute. Just one minute, just check a few boxes, and that’s it. Then I glance at their half-page survey and it’s covered in Chinese, and I’m all like, No thanks. And then pretend I’m in a big hurry to get somewhere and really don’t even have a minute to spare. Just because I look like I should know what I’m doing, do they have any idea how long it would take me to take their little survey? Try half an hour. I would probably have to ask them what every other word meant, and then they would think I’m dumb, so why don’t we just spare everyone’s feelings and call it a day?

People don’t want me because I’m not Caucasian, and yet other people assume I’m straight up Asian and should be doing everything like I’m supposed to. It’s like I can’t win.

Hopeless

Today I experienced my first taste of blatant discrimination. I certainly talked about it enough, but it actually happened to me.

I called a school today asking about a position. “Hi, my name is Tina, and I’m responding to your ad online about the part time morning position.”

A nice lady answered, “Oh, yes yes. Are you available to come in for a face-to-face interview? How’s today between 2:30 and 5?”

“Oh sure, today’s fine,” I replied.

So she asked, “How does 3pm sound?”

Of course, I’m excited for such a quick response. “That sounds great. Can I get an address for the school?”

“Sure. But first, can I get your name and number?”

“Ok, my name is Tina Wu. And my number is…”

She interrupted me, “Wait, what? Tina Wu? Did you say Wu?”

Confused, would I have to spell it for her? “Um, yes…” I replied.

“Ok, no offense, but are you Caucasian?” She stumbles over her words.

Ok then, actually I am a bit offended. “No, I am not,” I huffed.

“Oh. Sorry. We only want Caucasians.”

How do you respond to that? I gave up, “Great. Thanks.” *Click*

In other news, I accepted the job in Neihu! It sounds fantastic. I know it’s only part time for now, but I’m sure there’s enough room for me to add more hours, tutoring and what not, when the school year starts. You know the one aspect that kind of decided it for me? They have a Christmas program! It’s going to be adorable.

And now the hard part, on to the housing search. I think Jen is going to go with something that’s about 30 minutes from my job, so we’ll have to find someplace in between with easy access to the subway and buses. I’m ok with commuting for a bit to get to work, as long as our place is close to lots of stores.