Easy rider

I got a new toy today. This is my "Hardly Davidson", a four year new low mileage Yamaha scooter. It has a 125cc engine, zero to 60 takes a lifetime but is great for around town. Including taxes, license and two years insurance: $1100US.

Helmets are compulsory here. It is awesome to feel the open road and cool breeze on a hot day. My international driver license is endorsed for a year here, same length as my Taiwan resident card, which is renewable after one year. I am now a Hong Kong Chinese with Canadian citizenship officially resident of Taiwan. It gets more complicated when I try to explain to locals in Mandarin. What frustrates me the most is that when I speak Mandarin to them, they reply in Taiwanese which I have no clue. So, instead of feeling stupid, I now just speak Cantonese to them and watch them scratching their heads......They know I'm speaking Chinese, just not sure what dialect. So, instead of me feeling stupid, they now feel inadequate........its pretty funny and a great ice breaker.

Btw, I finally met a person from Hong Kong. We were at a KTV and getting food at the buffett table, and I hear some guy speaking Cantonese to his boy. I turned around and said to him, that this was my first time hearing Cantonese in Hualien. Turned out he is a teacher at the same high school as Rebecca's brother, but people don't know he is from HK because he speaks perfect Mandarin. I have a long way to go.......