Afternoon naps
Everyone (well, mostly) in Taiwan takes an afternoon nap. This starts in elementary school and continues into the workplace. Since I work part time, sometimes I come in after noon and I see everybody with their heads on their desks, snoozing away. It's very strange. I like the idea though, hehe. Gives me a chance to take a nap after lunch.
Taiwan BBQs
So last week I went to a BBQ. First of all, it's pretty hard to find a good place to BBQ cuz there's no room in the city. So you have to drive out of the city, or find a park or something. Anyway, the weirdest thing is that they eat their meat with bread. They just bring a bunch of sliced bread, cook the meat and make sandwiches. Kinda weird, but I guess it works. The fish is really good though.
Umbrellas
Taiwanese have a strange attachment to their umbrellas. First of all, if it's raining and you don't have an umbrella, you REALLY stand out. People look at you weird and everyone thinks your hair will fall out (cuz of the acid rain). The other strange thing is that if it's really sunny out, ALL the girls will take umbrellas with them to shield themselves from the sun. I heard a story where someone went to the US to study and the first time it was sunny, she took her umbrella. Everyone looked at her weird. That's the last time she did that in the US.
Bowling
I skipped work one day and went bowling with some friends. It's pretty much the same as the US, except their heaviest ball (at that bowling alley) was a 13. AND all their scoring machines are pretty messed up. It kept giving the wrong score and resetting the pins when it wasn't supposed to. Taiwanese bowl with only 1 ball (they don't grab two so you don't have to wait for the ball return).
Burping
Everyone here burps. Guys, girls, kids, adults, old people. You name it, they burp. Out loud. And they think nothing of it. It's kind of surprising at first, but then you get used to it.
Restaurants
Two things you need to be aware of about Taiwanese restaurants. First, is that the food comes out when it's READY. This means that everyone's food comes out at DIFFERENT times. Every few minutes somebody else's dish will come out, and everyone will encourage them to start eating. This frequently leads to the last person's order being forgotten by the waiter/waitress and them having to start eating 20 min after everyone else has started.
The other thing about restaurants is that if you find a worm, bug, mosquito or any other thing in your food, this is NORMAL. Happens all the time. You tell the waitress, and they first make sure that it's actually a bug, then they'll either 1) say "oh, that's nothing" and you just keep eating or 2) they will replace your food. It is considered a pretty good thing if they will do the latter without arguing. This comes from first hand experience by the way.
Clothes
If you go to a regular clothing store, you will notice one thing missing: a dressing room. Unless you go to a shopping mall, or to a very upscale store, usually the clothing stores don't let you try on clothes before you buy them. After you buy the clothes, you can't get a return, only an exchange. And no gift certificates. You either exchange it for something then and there, or you don't exchange it.
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