Taipei has forever ruined "Fur Eliese" for anyone who's ever been here for more than a week. Or after you leave here, and miss it, the song will have special sentimental significance to you. The first week I kept hearing "Fur Eliese" echoing up from the street, I thought it was an ice cream truck. I thought it was funny that they had ice cream trucks playing music just like we do back home. Now I don't know if they have ice cream trucks here, but I bet they don't play "Fur Eliese." When you hear "Fur Eliese" you check to see if you have any garbage that needs to be taken out, because here we don't seem to have garbage cans and scheduled pick-ups. The garbage truck just rolls through every day or two playing "Fur Eliese" and people run out to toss a special stamped and paid for garbage bag into it. It's kind of a neighborhood event, you get to see all the neighbors. I wonder what people do who are away all day.
But today is not just about garbage. Today I bought a Mosquito zapper, made in Taiwan. It is a beautiful instrument that looks like a tennis racket and emits a satisfying blue spark when a mosquito passes through it's grill. You can also, as Brian showed me, tap it with your finger to create the same spark, and it doesn't hurt at all. But I don't want to get in a habit of doing that, I need to save it's juice for mosquitoes. Where are they when you want them?
Revision: Tapping the mosquito zapper with one finger doesn't hurt at all. Squeezing it from both sides when you forgot it was on, could probably kill an "ordinary man." ...and makes you feel like your heart stopped for a second, in addition to making your whole body hurt. Poor mosquitoes. (edit 283) Permalink