I got in a fight...

...with a car. 

On Monday night, I was riding my bike with Allison.  I was actually on Lien's bike because I hate my bike.  Anyway, we were almost home, on a smaller dark street.  There were no street lights.  I was cruising and kind of daydreaming.  When I looked forward, I saw a car backing out right in front of me.  I didn't have enough reaction time and ran into the car's back right side.  I fell off my bike and stood there stunned.  I looked back at Allison, who was several feet behind me and said, "I was just hit by a car."  Call me Captain Obvious.  I pulled my bike out from behind the car.  The Taiwanese came out and started to ask me if I was okay, a man in his twenties and an older man, probably his father.  The younger man spoke okay English.  He apologized and apologized and asked if I needed to go to the hospital.  I just felt bad for their car and the scare.  There was a nasty scratch on their nice car.  As far as I was concerned, I was not hurt.  The man's father kept patting his arms and his legs as if to ask me if I was hurt.  So I checked.  My legs were fine, but when I pulled up my shirt sleeve, I noticed a bloody 4-inch scrape on my right forearm.  Then the stinging pain hit me.  And my shoulder started to kill.  I think that it is interesting that sometimes injuries don't hurt until you become aware of them.  When the Taiwanese saw my scrape, they freaked out a little bit and offered to take me to the hospital or help me bandage it up.  I told them it wasn't that bad, that I was almost home, and that I would clean it up when I got home.  They asked if we were English teachers at Berhan, and we eventually found out that I am one of the teachers of the man's cute 3 year-old son Curtis.  I soon went home, showed off my battle wounds to my roommates and went to the secretaries to bandage it.  They decided it would be better if it air-dried and put some smelly yellow powder on it.  When I asked what it was, they just said Chinese medicine.

A couple days later, Curtis' mom came in to see if I was okay.  How sweet!  She came bearing gifts and offered to pay for my nonexistant hospital bill.  She gave me expensive hand creams.  I love how thoughtful the Taiwanese people are. 

I know that I made this all sound very dramatic, but now I can say that I have been hit by a car in Taiwan, and I will have a scar to prove it.





Chinese Medicine

A couple days later...
Healing nicely.

Hand cream