Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh fack I am so lazy. :) Another quiet afternoon. In my defense, it started raining again. I was going to go to ximending today during the afternoon, but when I heard the rain I turtled up and napped til it stopped. And by that time it was evening already....
Since the rain was unpredictable, I decided to go to the Taipei central station underground mall. I remember that the signs for the R underground mall said it would reopen in May so I was rather curious whether that had happened yet or not, and if so, it would be fun to browse around there.
Oh. But on my way to Guting station, the strangest thing happened.
When I'm walking around by myself I usually have headphones on and music playing, and today was no different. Right before I got to the station, though, I see some guy walk up to me and say something that I can't make out. I assumed it was one of those people that solicit near the station, to take a survey or to make you register to vote or something. I'm usually pretty good at deterring them by saying "I don't speak Chinese" in my bad Chinese accent, so I took off my headphones and said "what?" and here's the conversation that followed:
Him: Can I have your Facebook account?
Me: ...what?
Him: Can I have your Facebook account?
Me: ...what for.
Him: To add you as a friend.
Me: ........uhhh.........
(Ok so that's pretty weird. Never been asked for my Facebook info by a random person, but I know that Facebook recently became popular/widely used here in the last couple of years, so maybe this guy is trying to collect friends or something. Or maybe he advertises on Facebook. Since I'm not 100% in tune with the social norms here....even though I'm a little weirded out and confused, it might be a legitimate and not-strange request here.)
Me: ....sure.....
Him: *hands me his cell phone*
Me: *punches in my email address into the phone*
Him: So are you an ABC?
Me: Haha yah you can tell?
Him: The way you dress and the way you talk.
Me: Haha mmmk.
Him: What's your name?
Me: What?
Him: Your name?
Me: Oh I'm Stephanie.
Him: *garbled noise*?
Me: (Why can no one understand my name here) Steph.
Him: You can call me Roberto.
Me: *tries not to laugh in his face. where are we, spain???*
Him: ...phone number?
Me: *more suspicious* I don't have a phone number here. <-- this is a lie
Him: Oh never mind then. So......if I were to ask you on a date, how would I reach you?
Me: *the light dawns* ahh...................facebook me. I have to go, meeting a friend for dinner.
and I skipped off before he could ax murder me and rape me (in that order) in some alleyway. Nah I'm jp though, he honestly looked harmless enough which is why no warning bells went off in my head to begin with. Looked like some big dorky nerd. With bad teeth. But I didn't sense creepiness in his face.....I hope my creepdar is not broken.
Anyway I just thought it was pretty odd to have a stranger ask for my Facebook info. Haha. Is that how people do it here??? Cuz if he had mentioned a phone number I would have just yelled at him in English and left right away. The Facebook thing threw me for a loop.
The rest of the evening was pretty mild. I.......didn't have anything specific to shop for, but somehow right away I stumbled upon a shoe store that had a lot of shoes that I liked. It's weird though!! Cuz there are TONS of shoe stores here, and they have HUNDREDS of styles of shoes, each. Most of the styles are very slight variations of each other, and many stores share the same styles. So even though yes there are tons of shoes here, really if you simplified them all there aren't a whole ton to choose from. But somehow this store had a lot that caught my eye.
So......I ended up getting 5 pairs.
lol. And to be perfectly honest I'm embarrassed to be relating my shopping experience in so much detail (like I did for the last couple of days), since I don't know, I feel like it's sort of a private thing that I don't like talking about. :) But I do feel like I have nothing else to mention otherwise so please forgive me for my shallowness. mOm
Also I am thinking Janet would like to see some of the goods.
Almost all the shoes here (in these kind of stores) are 390nt/pair = ~$13. D::::::: It's a wonder they don't disintegrate into dust as you're wearing them! Knock on wood. There are of course, fancier shoe stores that have more expensive shoes, and if you go to a department store that's a whole nother ballpark. But at this...particular...type of shoe store, they are almost all 390nt across the board. So best to get a ton of shoes here and then not have to shop for them at home. :) Plus I like Asian-styled shoes more than at home.
Well there you have it. And now I am feeling a little embarrassed. :3 Oh well.
Haha so lugging around a huge bag of shoes kind of put a damper on the shopping experience, but I did wander around for another coupla hours. Didn't manage to make it to the R mall (the malls are on the same clock as normal stores, so they all close at 10ish).
As I was walking back towards the station though, this big sign for contacts caught my eye. And I was like oooo! it's the special contacts. :3 So I drifted over to get an idea of pricing and selection and whatnot. But...the lady started telling me bout the contacts and asking me about mine. And....one thing led to another and before you know it I was buying some boxes. D: D: Now, it's not that I didn't want them, just that the lady sort of smooth talked me into it like so many of the sales people here do. I kind of hate it!!! I kinda hate that they prey on people like that, but what I hate way more is that I'm so susceptible to it and that I'm perpetuating their tactics. :(
Like typically what they do is, see you admiring something. Then they come over and start talking it up, maybe try to get some back story on what you're looking for, get you talking, etc. Then they ask you questions about the product like "Do you like this one or that one?" and you'll say "This one." and they'll be like "oh ok I'll get you a box then" and before you know it you're handing over money????? O_O;; Yah I know, you only have yourself to blame for your retardedness (well sometimes your coke snorting mother is to blame) (omg so bad) but still I feel like it's not right for them to take advantage of people being polite. :( I mean what do I say at that point??? "Oh, no, I don't actually want it" and walk away?? And especially cuz I'm not comfortable with the language, it's harder for me to protest. Sometimes I'll be like "I'm still thinking" but they stay with you and keep talking to you about positives until you buy it just so they'll shut up. I mean, I used to think that my mom was kind of rude to store people sometimes, but I wonder if it's just a skill she picked up growing up in Taiwan. You have to be a bit heartless and just be like "no I don't want it" and leave. But I can't!!! I'm trapped trying to be polite and I get strong armed into it. I hate feeling feeble like that. T_T
Anyway, sigh. I am now the owner of a bunch of weird contacts. Janet is excited, I can feel it across the ocean. hehe. What's your prescrip? I think mine has to be way worse than yours :( If not though I could get you some boxes?? Like the way it works is the first pair of boxes is full priced, any ones you buy after that for a whole year are half priced. But it has to be all the same prescrip (to prevent you from buying for all your friends........). Mine is -3.00........let me know.
That pretty much knocked out the rest of the cash I was carrying on me, plus the stores were closing up, so I went home.
They were pretty good. :) Oh, and, kinda nice, the reason there are two pairs of chopsticks is cuz I grabbed a pair on my way out, but dropped em on the floor when trying to slide them into the bag. This guy that was eating at a table outside reached over to the canister of chopsticks on his table and pulled out a new pair for me. I know we all like random acts of kindness but I always feel particularly touched to see one. :) And....I think little things like that do win me over from Tokyo to Taipei. That just wouldn't happen in Tokyo, you know? People are too detached there. But here it does kind of feel more homey.
Blerg! I finally caught up! And it is only 5am. When will I wake up tomorrow............sigh. Haha.
i...FREAKING LOVE YOUR SHOES. omg omg omg omg omg, they are so cute. Your skank shoes are HOT. Damn. I am also in love with the work shoes. Sigh. Work those kicks, mama.
ReplyDeleteCircle lenses~ I can't wait to see them on you! :D I actually don't know my prescription because I haven't gone to the eye doc in years. (need to do that, i think i'm going blind) :( I will dig around to find my perscrip.
We are salad-masters during the off season. :) I would eat a shitload of that stuff too for $1. I also like the idea of putting food into a bag...it's weird but I kinda like it.