On my way from one job to another today, I passed …
On my way from one job to another today, I passed two guys talking near the MRT exit. One was on a bike, and as I passed he said to the other, “Uh-pa, Uh-pa”. Up, up. I knew they were speaking what they thought was English for my benefit, as Taiwanese tend to do when they spot a ‘foreigner’, but I couldn’t understand why he was saying “up.” Then I realized he was translating the “shang” in “shang che (?ãŽÔ)”, which meant he was telling the other guy to get on the back. Yesterday as I was sitting in a park I saw two old ladies walking nearby. One old lady said to the other, “Puh-leazu”, motioning her to sit down. They glanced at me and laughed.
In other news, I’ve finally finished learning the 55-step sword form I’ve been studying for the past several months. It’s taken me a long time, probably longer than I should have taken, but I wanted to make sure I had every move down before moving on to the next. Also, due to filming I did miss several lessons. It’s nice to have the whole thing there in my head, though. Now I just need to practice the whole thing and correct all of the mistakes I’m making.
The agent called again today and said the landlord, who is in Canada, wanted 12 pre-signed checks from me for one year’s rent. The reason for this, I was told when I asked what this ancient form of currency was for, exactly, was that the landlord doesn’t trust whomever is going to rent the apartment and is afraid they will try to get by without paying rent. The landlord also wants me to pay half of the lawyer’s fees for transferring power of attourney to their relative in Taiwan so that they can sign the rental agreement for the landlord.
I really, really do not want to have to open a checking account and mail a year’s rent to this person, and I don’t see why I should have to pay for the lawyer either. I told the agent to arrange a meeting with the relative to see if we could work something out face-to-face. This is getting ridiculous.
We’re filming the first part of the commercial tomorrow morning. Da Shan is going to pick me up in his new van, and I’ll then show him how to get there. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.
