Welcome home and good morning

For the next month I'm calling apartment 280 on the fourth floor home. What the address of the building is, I have no idea. The hallway outside the door smells exactly like the Daoist and Taoist temples I have visited here. I sometimes leave the door cracked to let that spicy incense smell waft in and overtake the place. I always hope foreign locals have uniquely exotic smells. So far, I haven't been disappointed.

The door to the apartment has some kind of blessing taped onto it to keep evil spirits away. I rather like the Chinese characters even though I have no idea what they mean. But alas, a lot of things are fuzzy here. While I spend 90% of my day confused the Taiwanese are little confused themselves.

No one here speaks fluent English. If you're lucky you might find someone who can sputter out a few phrases but that hasn't stopped the Taiwanese from integrating some English into the their lexicon. Not surprisingly, this has gone terribly wrong.

No matter the time of day, you are greeted by "good morning." Apparently, everyone thinks it means "hello." Walk into a convenience store at 4:30 pm and it's a bow and "good morning." Walk into a bar at 10:30 pm and the bartender is sure to offer a "good morning." I have to bite my tongue every time. You can't help but want to laugh; but attempted cultural immersion means going with the flow. Taking Jessie's lead, I have learned to sling it right back. So no matter what time it is for you, a very good morning.