This is just a short blog to comment on what seem to be the overall characteristics of the Taiwanese people. They are courteous, kind, honest, gracious, caring and helpful.


We continually have found this trait to hold true. A few examples:

1. Here in Kaohsiung, people are always offering us (us oldies!) their subway seats if none is immediately available.

2. In Taipei, when, like idiots, we could not locate the lockers into which we had stored our suitcases and computer while we were sightseeing, a young woman saw our befuddled looks and asked if she could help. We explained our dilemma and showed her our locker receipt. On it was printed our locker number and password code, but no clear indication of where that batch of lockers was to be found. She indicated she would find help and off she went, with our locker ticket in hand. When she did not return in about eight or so minutes, we decided we really had been duped. But no, it simply took her about ten minutes to locate someone who did know how to identify the numbers on our receipt as to where that batch of lockers was. So TWO of them appeared, walked us to the locker, helped us open it (the instructions were in Taiwanese) and then asked if they could be of further assistance!!!

3. Today, I was not quite sure the way to the library to return the books I had checked out. Maren and I put on our (by now perfected) befuddled faces. Soon, three young student gals asked if they could help. Again, instead of just pointing in the general direction, they accompanied us to the library to be sure we knew the correct way.

4. Today, too, because Maren and I had gone off for the day and Ted was working, Janet, the Dept of Human Resource Management's wonderful office assistant, gave up part of her lunch hour (we did not find any of this out until after the fact) to come to our villa and let in repairmen to fix our air conditioning unit.

And on the stories could go. There are too many to enumerate, but every day, someone here offers us a kindness that truly makes our time here so uniquely special.

I end with a few pictures first of the gorgeous sidewalk tiles we find throughout the city (almost always of a fish motif), of Maren and me playing Mah-Jongg and me in a bus shuttle to the Dream mall for some shopping!!