Funny thing about time in Taiwan is they don’t use the same standards that we do in the US. For example they love to use military time here and hate A.M./P.M. So unless you know how to convert it, your gonna have a hell of a time here. Let me help you figure out this simple math problem. Take the time it says and subtract 12, like if they say its 19:43, by subtracting 12 you would have 7:43pm, easy! They don’t like to use normal dates either. In Taiwan it is not the year 2005, it’s the year 94, why you may ask, well read this: Following the imperial tradition of using the sovereign’s Chinese era name and year of reign, official ROC (Republic of China) documents and most people in Taiwan still use the Min Guo (literal meaning: “The Country of the People” or in this case, “Republic”) system of numbering years in which year one was 1912, the date of the founding of the Republic of China. For example, Year 2005 is the 94th year of “Min Guo” (”94th year of the Republic”) or “Min Guo 94 in Chinese.

Pretty stupid, huh? Yeah I thought so too, but you gotta live with it. They are kinda stubborn here and won’t listen to my suggestion that it is stupid and they should change it.

Currency is another thing to get used too. They have no cents in their money, just dollars(thank god they call it dollars!) Oh but they still use coins and lots of em, their smallest bill is a 100 note, which roughly translates to $3USD, so be prepared to carry change if you visit here. One thing nice I must say is that everything on the shelves is tax included, so if you see a CD for $208, when you go buy it, it’s gonna cost you $208!

Well that’s it for todays lesson, that will be $18USD, please pay the cashier on your way out.
Teacher Frost-Out!

OK not really, as MTV kinda sucks balls, esp the MTV they get over here. What I really want and miss is my American TV. Quality programs that entertain and enrich the mind. Back home I could sit back watch the History Channel, or Discovery Channel and learn or relax. I don’t have that luxury here. I don’t care what people say, I have learned alot by watching TV, and I kinda feel the lack of English TV here is somehow making me stupider(see what I mean!). I would say about 60% of there stations here are crappy ass news channels that are worse then the American media scum. They get so bad here for new that I have even seen them interview a fucking dog! They care less for people’s privacy here, it’s not unusual to see cameras in a hospital filming some guy who just came in with a gunshot wound and taping the entire surgery with personal details about the guy.
They lack programming so much that 30% of the other stations are import stations from Japan, which are half dramas and half stupid gameshows/interview type shows. They throw some Chinese subtitles on it and call it a day.
The last 10% of the channels here is 5 English movie channels, all of which love to play the worst low budget B rated movies you will ever see. Maybe about once or twice a month they might play some decent movie, but don’t expect anything new, the new movies they show are over 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
I know I shouldn’t complain too much since this is Taiwan, but fuck you, I want my TV, even if it is that crappy MTV.