AWOL Geordie - Steve’s global adventure

No? How do you know for sure? I know because I received my medical report back from the Hospital here in Taiwan where they have confirmed I am the healthiest individual they have ever seen. Even the jellyfish sting scars have almost vanished (almost 2 month now). I have no blood-bourne diseases. I have no Sexually Transmitted Diseases. I have nowt except a sore knee from playing football in Vietnam 6 month ago. So I am all set to be an immigrant in Taiwan. I am relieved after traveling around filthy places for over 1 year with scrapes and cuts etc. Heaven knows the things I have eaten and drank. I have even escaped malaria despite (rather stupidly) never taken precautions. I think I am lucky that mosquitoes seem to prefer other peoples’ blood to mine.

Immigrant. That’s a funny word. It raises strong emotional feelings in England when the subject regularly comes up. Even the Brit expats I have met object to “Foreigners over running our country” while they happily over run someone else’s with no effort to learn the host language or adapt to their culture. (Foreigners apparantly reluctant to adapt to our culture is a huge complaint - the hypocrisy is outstanding). Anyway, I too am now an immigrant or I will be when all the paper work eventually goes through. I promise to learn the language and adapt as best as I can to the local scene. It just makes sense. Imagine not being able to talk to 99% of the population where you live?

I am enjoying the job and the kids make me laugh alot. It is “hen hao wan” (a lot of fun). They are very cute. One kid came to school with a hat (maozi) made from the skin of a grapefruit. This is all the rage here for young kids. It reminds me of a rage in Indonesia where the local kids build bicycles with ridiculously long handle bars or frames or massive wheels. There are many odd things I have seen that I have forgotten or neglected to write about.

I am going to my new discovery in Banciao tonight. Bravo Bar. I think I will get suitably hammered as I am going to wait until my first pay cheque before hiring motorbikes etc. So this four days off work could be a write off. I am in the Shulin “Wanka” again for lack of anything better to do.

I suspect I might also be going through an African phase just now. I have recently watched two movies: “The last King of Scotland” and “Blood Diamond”. Both about the madness of life in Africa. Adi Amin in 1970’s Uganda and slave diamond mines in 1990s civil war torn Sierra Leonne respectively. Pretty horrific stuff but well worth watching.

I see Newcastle are back to normality with a defeat against the bottom club - some things never change. I see last week’s typhoon affected the Woman’s World Cup. Not that too many people would have been bothered about that.

I am thinking of going to the Philippines for 5 or 6 days towards the end of October as I feel like I deserve a break! Let’s see if the boss will let me go.

Shei zui paiulian nu ren zai yinggou? - Who is the most beautiful woman in England?

Qing wen, ji dian zuihou bashi dao Shulin? - What time is the last bus to Shulin?

Wanshan wo qu he pijiu - The neet am gaan ti get mortal.

youmeiyou da huoji? Gorra light marra?

Zaijian

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