Dial-up, sweat and soaps

I thought I'd die using dial-up at grandmother's house in Taipei, but I'm actually getting used to it. Scary. But I have a coping mechanism that goes something like this...dial-up, brush teeth, click, wash face, click, eat cereal, click...yay, open gmail.

It's sweltering hot here, like August in New York hot. It's so hot that getting on the subway is a treat for it's a/c. It's so hot I take two hand-held showers a day, and do like the local women do, walk around with a 'sun'-brella. That's right, I walk around outside with an umbrella. The Taiwanese women do this because they don't want to get dark (of course), but I do it because I can't deal with sun on top of heat.

Initially I thought it'd be a good idea to take Chinese classes, but then I realized I really don't want to study. So, to brush up on my Chinese, I've been watching korean soaps because they are dubbed in Chinese and have Chinese subtitles. There are three that I follow, and they all go something like this: Girl A falls in love with Guy A, but Guy A loves Girl B (or, Guy A cannot love Girl A because of his family), but Girl B loves Guy B, who of course is in love with Girl A. Other common dramatic elements include the stern grandfather, fighting brothers, and a daughter who doesn't know 'uncle' is her father. All the women live in apartments that look like a 10 year old girl's room, with wallpaper of pink or red flowers or hearts, frilly bed sheets, and lacey curtains that cover the doorway.

The one that I like best is of a country bumpkin (Girl A) who comes to the city to live with the family of her deceased husband. She falls in love with the son (Guy A) of the family, but for some reason their relationship is forbidden. Then, there's a rich family of which the son (Guy B) is a manager of the company at which country bumpkin is a cleaning lady. The rich son is in love with country bumpkin, but she doesn't know this of course, while the sister (Girl B) of rich son loves the son of country bumpkin's in-law family.

Koreans do know their drama. But I have to admit, they are addictive, and it's better than the Taiwanese ones, which is mostly a lot of crying and wailing.