Thursday, July 02, 2009

You know what's awesome?

The Taiwan Post Office. Seriously.

For one thing, my postman can barely speak Chinese, let alone English. And even adult Taiwanese who speak pretty good English have trouble contemplating English addresses, between the romanization and the fact that everything's in a different order. And yet someone can mail me a letter from the US with the messiest scribble of an address and it magically gets to me.

Moreover, I can mail a card to the US or South Africa for just a little more than it would cost to mail a card within the US.

And there are lots of post offices that stay open in the evening, even until 9 or 10.

And I just went to sign up for 2 races, and the people were so helpful and it turns out you just send money through the mail and they put it in a special envelope and charge you a few bucks.

There's also a bank associated with the post office, where you can do normal banking or get your receipt lottery money. And apparently you can buy different kinds of snacks and imported items there? I don't really understand that part but I've seen people buy like Japanese tea from the lady who sells me stamps. Also, they have a whole assortment of tape and glue you can use for your packages for no charge.

Seriously. So good.

1 comment:

Charlie@TSTA said...

Dear Christina,
This is Charlie, a member of Taitung Super Triathlon Association. I got your mail about accommodation three days ago, but all the mails that I replied via jwchao@url.com.tw were returned by the mail servers. I tried to send you back by yahoo mail system yesterday and there was still no reply from you, so I can not be sure whether you have got my mail or not. Anyway, I tried to google your e-mail and then found this nice blog, so I will answer your question again here.

The answer is "you will share your room only with females whatever room style you sign up for."

Hopefully you will see this notice.

Best Regards,
Charlie