A Connection

On Sunday afternoon I was waiting for the bus to take me into Taipei. I was going to visit Tony in Nankang for the first time which is close to Taoyuan. (Taoyuan is where the international airport is). A Taiwanese man next to me asked me if I had two five dollar coins for a ten dollar coin. I did, but he was just looking for a reason to start a conversation. He speaks excellent English, but the main reason he wanted to talk was because he recognized me from the area. He kept asking where I lived which freaked me out a little, because you just don't tell strange people where you live.
It turns out that we live in the same building. He and his family live on the second floor. His name is Oscar and he is a salesman for LG. (He sells liquid crystal displays to HP). Pretty cool. As we were talking I told him that I was headed to Taoyuan and he told me that he also has a house there that he and his family often stay in on the weekends. They live in Sihjih during the week because his wife works three minutes away from where they live. He then offered me a ride to Taoyuan anytime I happen to be headed there for a weekend. Wow. You may be asking yourself why this man who has a car is taking the bus into Taipei. I was curious myself. He told me he was going to pick up his father's car to borrow it for a day. He was taking clients around the next day and didn't want them to know that he has a new car.
I love meeting people at random here. They are generally so friendly and if they speak English they are eager to practice. It's amazing. Many days I'll just be walking down the street in Taipei and people will smile and say hello. It may be the only English word they know (much like it's one of the only Chinese words I know), but they are happy to connect if only for a second.