I walk out my front door and dont almost get hit by cars like i did in several of my old neighborhoods. Thats because in front of my current place theres a driveway of sorts, so there is space between the apartment's front door, and the scooters which occaisionally zoom by. Actually my hood is quite quiet, considering its Taipei, and considering the number of shops just down the road from me. i guess the only reason my particular road isnt positively insane is because its a pretty narrow one-laner; traffic has to be pretty careful when it squeezes through.
There are construction noises here and there. Not monotonous ones like you get some places. There is the sound of people coming and going from the parking garage right behind my house (i am on the first floor so i hear it all too clearly). It is one of those vertical jobs where the cars are basically stacked atop one another. When they come out - or go in, i am not sure which - the parking attendant always bellows "Lai lai lai lai lai (pronounced lie)" which means come. He wails pretty regularly, and sometimes it is annoying, but like i said, the noises in this neighborhood pale in comparison to some of my old ones.
A small block away is the bustling small-shops and market street. Basically there is everything but a grocery store. There are fruit stands, vegetable ones, tea shops, desert carts, sweet potato guys, breakfast stores, jewelry stores, and a hardware store, not to mention a few restaurants, a bakery, and a convenience store. You can walk this strip in roughly 3 minutes.
Right now im drinking Organic Vitality Qi-Strengthen Tea (it should be Strengthening, but they of course dont know grammar) So this tea is supposed to strengthen my chi and stuff, which is cool. It is actually really good and i dont think people back home have ever tried such a flavor in tea before. Cant really tell if my chi points have gone up or not though. i want a refund.
So yeah, its interesting to see people literally frying things in the street, or at least right on the side of the road. Right near the organic restaurant where i eat is one or two outdoor meat-eating places where old guys use huge frying pans to cook up who knows what on a hot day. Despite the increasing heat, Taiwanese people still sit outside and eat next to the hot stoves. The air next to some of these places is hot, unidentified-cooking-substance, mixed with the smell of burning metal (from the gigantic pans). But i guess if youre into that sort of food, it smells pretty darn good.
