someone like you makes it hard to live without somebody else.

so i keep forgetting to mention some things we've seen so far here that are much different from home.  like anna's bathroom, especially the shower:

 

as you can see, there's no separate tub or stall for the shower.  there's a drain in the floor under the sink.  so the entire bathroom is pretty much the shower stall.  when we got here on friday night, i was so exhausted and felt incredibly crusty and gross from the long trip.  when i saw this bathroom, i had a bit of a crisis because, if you know me at all, you know that i can "tend" to be anal retentive, compulsive, uptight, and a bit of a perfectionist.  (i like to think that i just like things to be tidy and in their proper place.)  (tomato, tomato, potato, potato.)  so i was standing there that night contemplating this shower and wondering how i was gonna use this every day for 2 weeks.  but i figured i didn't have a choice, so i did what i had to do.  and i'll say that it was a very liberating experience for me.  (i'm fully aware of how sad that is.)  and i feel like i've already gotten used to it now and it doesn't bother me.  success!

just like the squat toilets!  i think i mentioned them before........  if you don't know what they are, the only way to describe them is that they're like a toilet in the floor.  there's still a bowl-typeness to them, but it's in the floor - thus the squatting aspect.  i know that's probably a pretty unpleasant, unwelcome image.  and ashley and i had all but vowed to ourselves that we would never use one.  but when you need a bathroom and that's your only option, you don't have a choice.  and our second night here, we were faced with that very situation.  and now that we've done it, it doesn't seem so bad.  squat toilets conquered!

another weird thing is the garbage pickup.  the garbage truck comes every day, i think, or every other day.  do you know how you know it's coming?  it plays fur elise over a loud speaker.  i think it thinks it's an ice cream truck.  your garbage has to be separated very specifically and put in these designated blue bags and then you line up and hand your garbage to the garbage men.  

oh!  and speaking of lining up - apparently the chinese/taiwanese LOVE to line up.  they line up for samples in the grocery stores!  and if you're not in line, you don't get a sample.  they line up for the subway trains.  there are actually lines drawn on the floor and you stand inside the lines.  anna says that she's seen people line up for nothing.  they just accidentally formed a line and didn't even know what they were waiting for.

also, they're not super into washing their hands and toilet paper seems to be optional.  when we used the bathrooms on saturday night - the squat toilets - there was no toilet paper (luckily i was carrying tissues), and there was no soap, just a sink.  but we had hand sanitizer.  otherwise, we would've been sore out of luck.  i have a hard time with that one.  you absolutely need toilet paper and soap and water.

what am i forgetting?  well, you don't tip for seemingly anything.  and it's incredibly cheap to live here.  we ate breakfast and dinner yesterday, took the bus to and from the hot springs, and spent half the day at the hot springs and spent under $20 per person.  that's for everything!  i don't even know how much a day like that would cost at home.  the hot springs alone would've been at least $100.  but probably more.  um, you're not allowed to chew gum or eat or drink on the subway.  and the subway trains and the buses are unbelievably clean, and the buses have televisions.  all the taxis we've been in so far have been clean, too.  

some useful expressions we've picked up in a few days (some of these i know we've learned before, but they seem suddenly useful and easy to remember):

"bu cuo" - not bad (as in "this squat toilet is not bad!")

"shuai ge" - hot (as in "that spaniard is hot!")

"zhen de" - really (as in "really?")

"manman zou" - go slow (as in - wait, that one's pretty self-explanatory)

"bu zaihu" - i don't care 

"ri de" - hot (as in, "i want my spaghetti hot!")

*my spelling may or may not be correct on some of those.  but you get the idea......