Itinerary: Telephone from crazy neighbor, Coco Curry, clothes shopping @ the Net, Mollie
Fleur and I were all set to go out for a proper Chinese breakfast this morning. But a phone call from our downstairs neighbor threw our plans out the window.
The first week we were here, he had called the 鄰長 or the head of the association (I think), who then called us to tell us we were being noisy. Thirty minutes later, while I was taking a shower, the security guard shows up at the door to see how noisy we were. Thankfully, the children were all sitting on the sofa just watching TV.
I get a call from him a few days later about how he has not been able to sleep, even went out to get some sleeping pills, because of noises from upstairs. We went around and around in circles where he tells me his woes and I ask him to tell me when he heard the noise, only to have him continue to go on and on about the noise, but no specifics.
Finally, after a long while, I determined it could be because of the chair scrapping on the floor when we pulled it out. We’d been keeping late hours because Mama Fleur was visiting. I will skip most of the crazy circling talk. However, he did mention his previous upstairs neighbor in his old apartment, and how he chased them out by pounding on the ceiling continuously when they were unwilling to work with his complaints.
To me, that was a veiled threat. In any case, we bought some chair socks, stopped the kids from jumping around too much, and thought that solved the problem.
But apparently not because he called just as we were happily going to go out to our breakfast, about how while the noises have vastly improved, he still hears them. This talking in circles went on for another 30 minutes! I finally determined that it’s either us walking up the staircase, or he has SUPER hearing. Because he was talking about hearing noises in the middle of the night, while we’re sleeping on the 3rd and 4th floor. At most it’s us going to the restroom.
That’s our 3rd floor, technically the 4th or 5th floor of the building.
The whole thing put me in a terrible mood because after that call, I had to talk to my landlord as well, then when I called the guy back to tell him the landlord will be talking to him, he goes on and on yet agin. (And no, my landlord was very nice about the whole thing, but to have to rehash the horrible conversation yet again…)
So what do you do when you’re in a bad mood? Coco Ichibanya!
The kids and I went out after all that drama to 公館 Gong Guan MRT stop for some Coco Curry right around the corner. The kids loved Coco Curry in Japan. The Taiwanese version is definitely different! First off, the menu has fewer choices but easier to read. (And not because it’s in Chinese!)
We ordered 2 kids meal and a spinach with shrimp curry omelette. The portions are much bigger than the Japanese versions. The curry isn’t as strong nor salty. The spaghetti that came with the kid’s meal apparently isn’t spaghetti sauce, but rather ketchup! Very strange.
I loved the green tea with red beans on top 奶酪. I don’t really know what 奶酪 is. Is it yogurt? Because it doesn’t taste like it. And that dollop you see on top? It doesn’t taste like whip cream.
After lunch, we went off to the Net to look for some black pants and shirts for the kids because they want to be black cats for Halloween. As I told Fleur, I want Target prices! Just like the last time, I’m finding that the cheapest clothing from China are actually in America.
A trip to the bookstore also improves the mood. So even though I didn’t really need anything from Mollie, and all the books people are requesting aren’t there, we went anyway. It’s just right off the ally of Exit 4 of the MRT stop, so why not?
But the kids were tired by now and kind of loud so we didn’t stay long. We went to pick up some more food from our co-op and then went home to have some miso chicken and tomatoes+eggs (番茄炒蛋).
I’ve lived in many apartments in my life and I’ve never ever dealt with crazy super hearing neighbors before. The whole terrible neighbor thing really got to me. I couldn’t take a nap this afternoon. At every noise I would wake up and think, is it too loud for the neighbor?
When the phone rang tonight, I had that sudden rush of adrenaline, dreading another long conversation. I really hate dealing with people in such a manner. You have to concentrate so hard on what to say, it saps all my mental energy.
Five hours later, I’m starting to think: Hey, it’s not my fault if you can hear something 4 floors up. If you lived in a high rise, are you going to be knocking floor to floor asking all your upstairs neighbors to be quiet? It’s unreasonable.
But we’re only here for a few months, I don’t want to expend my happy energy dealing with Taiwanese people who talk in circles. I know it’s over-generalizing, but this has been confirmed by several of my friends. It’s the most frustrating part. They don’t get to a point! And when you ask questions, they circle around the answer! This is one cultural difference I’m having a hard time adjusting to.
