Getting my scooter fixed

Occasionally I hear foreigners complaining about getting "the foreigner price" for stuff, like getting stuff fixed or buying stuff at the traditional market or taxis. Honestly, this stuff is all so cheap compared to back home that I seriously wouldn't care if they marked it up 20%, but I really think this has never happened to me. If anything, I've found people go out of their way to be helpful- like once in Taichung the taxi driver got lost and didn't make me pay the full meter; on the occasions that I buy meat and veggies at the market they usually give me free stuff, etc.
I've mentioned before that just getting them to fix stuff- like shocks or springs or whatever, and speedometers- that aren't strictly necessary to the functioning of the scooter is kind of tough. I guess they don't want to rip me off but I guess scooters are pretty non-luxurious to start with, so I don't mind paying a little extra for "luxuries" like a working suspension.
The scooter guy I go to now, near my apartment, is so funny. He always insists that I stay and then shows me piles of crud that fall out of certain parts of my scooter, or some barely-hanging-together part that only becomes apparent after he's unscrewed 3 layers of innards, and says things like "It's so dirty!" or "If that would break, it would be really dangerous!" I've found the best course of action is to act really shocked and thank him for showing me. This time I did get him to let me leave with the promise that I'd come back later. I told him, Whatever there's a problem with, just fix it. You're very skillful, I trust you. He was like, you don't want me to call you and tell you what's wrong? No, it's OK, I said. Just call me when it's done. He did save the old parts to show me. I'm like, charge me extra, I don't care, just don't show me all this stuff! Haha. Cause seriously it's so cheap.

That's just Carrefour....

So, I can only go to Carrefour in the morning because other times there are too many people and it drives me too crazy.

They play this song- it's pretty long- that sings in Chinese about how great Carrefour (jia-la-fu in Chinese) is. It's kind of a pop rock tune that builds in intensity. The only part I can understand is "jiu shi jialafu"- that's just Carrefour.

Being me, I make up words. At one point they sing, in English, "Thank god there's jialafu". At another they sing "xie xie nide naixin"- thanks for your patience.

Also I didn't share my embarassing experience on my first trip to the new Carrefour, before I knew they sold salt & vinegar chips. So the store is on the 2nd and 3rd floor and you go up this escalator ramp to go up and down. It's magnetized so you can put a shopping cart on it and it goes up too. So between the up and down ramp there was a display of thousands of bags of chips, and I was scanning intently for salt and vinegar, and my eyes played that trick where it looks like I'm not moving, I'm just watching a conveyor belt of chips go by. So when the escalator ended I stumbled and let out this big yelp of surprise. Oops.

Thank you, Carrefour, for thy bountiful plenty

It finally opened!  The Fong-Yuan Carrefour (2 minutes from my apt) opened on Tuesday but I didn't go the first couple days because I figured it would be extra-crowded.  And they have all my staples!  I was scared that they wouldn't have the Weird Foreign Food aisle where I stock up on beans, olives, whole wheat noodles, and, on occasion... Salt And Vinegar Potato Chips!

I took the day off (Thurs) because I only teach one class and Friday is a holiday so it means 4-day weekend for me!  The morning was normal- service and Chinese lesson- but after Carrefour I got my first massage in Taiwan.  There are "spas" everywhere- like 3 in walking distance from my apartment- but I never know if they give like weird Japanese fat-flushing treatments or actual massages so I've never tried to go.  Also there are massage parlors and there are "massage parlors" and I'm a little nervous about getting the wrong one. 

One of the NSTs told me about a massage place with blind men but his directions were vague and I wound up parking my scooter and going in a random place.  I really wanted a place where they speak English but the lady could say "body massage?" in English and it wasn't too expensive and, you know, I'd already parked my scooter and I'm lazy.  So I went for it.

They had me take a shower first and it turned out to have a bunch of rooms.  I told the girl my back has the most problems and if there wasn't time to do my whole body she could just concentrate on that, and maybe my legs.  It was okay at first but my back definitely isn't knot-free now.  She also put these weird things on my legs and mid-section that like wrapped and got hooked up to electricity and compressed you.   I said I didn't want that but she said she'd work on my shoulders while they did their thing.

One weird thing- I now have tons of broken blood vessels on my upper back (like shoulder area) and going halfway down my spine.  Chinese people love breaking blood vessels- they think it stimulates healing- but I probably won't be back for another one.