Wordanista

I had the privilege of heading into Taipei today to get a chest x-ray for my work visa application for Australia. I woke up about an hour later than I wanted to which is typical for me. I got to the hospital about an hour later than I wanted to, so I got there at a pretty busy time. I went to the front desk, where they instructed me to go down a hall and turn right. I followed their directions and ended up at the same place I started. Another woman helped me and got me into a line, where they proceeded to tell me to go to a different place in another building. Finally, I was in the right line. They took a photo of me and then weighed me. Then the x-ray was painless but I also had a get a physical exam which was unexpected. The exam itself took about a minute, but what was funny was waiting to see the doctor. I was in a waiting room with maybe 15 other people, and while we were sitting, a doctor came out and set up shop in front of all of us with big posters and a giant toy cigarette. She was giving a speech about how smoking is bad. She was very into it and speaking very quickly in Chinese of course. She must've thought I understood her because she came over to me at one point during her speech and asked me a question, which I responded to by staring back blankly and saying "wo ting bu dong" meaning I don't understand. She was talking to what initially seemed like an audience just for her, but about 2 minutes into her speech, most of the people left to go see their respective doctors. She kept on talking though, and of course into a microphone that was plugged into a speaker that wasn't turned on. She didn't notice it. No one in the audience said anything about it. And her assistant standing by her also didn't say anything. Hmm, kinda funny.

Tonight, when I got home I expected to find the repairs on our floor complete. Wrong. When I got out of the elevator, there was a pile of tiles sitting there, as well as our couch and dinner table. Inside, our entire apartment living area is bare. The walls are now dirty in a lot of spots and some of the concrete beneath the tiling they ripped up is chipped. So now, what was supposed to take a day or two, could now take weeks. Who knows. I'm ready for whatever, because it's Taiwan and nothing is ever quite what you'd expect! I'll keep everyone posted. I have a feeling it's going to be quite the little saga.