Taiwan facts and observations (I)

Ever since I arrived here, I've been trying to notice the little things that are somehow unique to Taiwan, or the Far East, and that are not too obvious to someone who's never been to this region before. This is my first list of Taiwanese observations, hopefully there will be more observations and more lists in the future.

Now, a word of warning especially for the Taiwanese readers. Having just finished my assigned readings for the Research methods class, I am fully aware that it's a lot of generalization and everybody is not like that. 

The Taiwanese people

• Sleep on really hard mattresses, at least by western standards. IKEA sells soft ones, hence saving many foreigners here from insomnia.
  
• Love to sleep in the library (I saw that in Hong Kong as well) 
• All seem to have mastered the art of pencil-twirling. 
• Over 50% of people wear glasses, 80% of those are the thick-framed ones.
• Never leave the building without an umbrella. Umbrellas are used for protection from the rain, or from the sun, or as a fashionable accessory.
• Speaking of umbrellas, every shop and public building has a very convenient rack to leave the umbrella at the doorstep.
• Baseball is the most popular sport. The biggest sports star is Wang Chien-Ming, a pitcher for the New York Yankees.
• Love to eat eggs and often boil them in tea. 7-11 sells boiled eggs.
• The idea of tourism is, find the most crowded place possible, hang out there, eat, go shopping.
• By far the most popular means of transportation is the scooter. There are special scooter traffic rules, areas for them to wait at the traffic lights etc.
• Speaking of that, a lot of people wear face masks to protect themselves from pollution when driving around, and yet act suicidal on the scooters (why even bother getting the mask?).
• Stand in orderly lines when waiting for the MRT, but then get stuck by the door and block the entrance / exit once inside.
• Can often be seen dancing in public places (parks, squares etc.)

Other random facts

• Taiwan uses its own calendar. At the moment, we have year 97. The start of the calendar is apparently the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.
• MRT announcements are in 4 languages. Mandarin, Taiwanese, Hakka, English.
• Just about any food can be purchased in the "on the stick" version from street vendors.
• To order in a restaurant, one usually has to fill out a special "form" and take it to the staff.
• Most toilets are of the squat type.
• Every bus seems to have a different stop signal. Sometimes, the signal is very long, loud and annoying (how can the drivers listen to it all day long is beyond my understanding).
• Last but not least, it is Taiwan, not Thailand.