Ouch! Something I have forgotten for the last 22 years of my life is how painful broken bones can be (not that I really remember my the last time I broke a bone, I was still a toddler). In what has to be described as a 'scooter accident' but could more accurately be described as 'clumsy and unfortunate', I tipped my scooter while it was going less than 10km/hr in front of my apartment, and thankfully there is no damage to the scooter (it fell straight over, no scraping) and very manageable damage to me (don't get me wrong, I gladly would have taken a reversal of those to results). I successfully braced myself in a standing position as my scooter fell, so no part of me was trapped under it, but I lost my balance and fell butt-first onto my scooter, thus fracturing my coccyx and sacrum. Both the benefit and curse of a fracture in this location is that essentially nothing can be done, no cast can be placed, no surgery is necessary, the healing process is just time and pain medications. Most of the time it doesn't affect me much, I have gotten used to most of the pain when sitting, standing, and lying down, it is just the transition between those positions which is almost overwhelming. Every day I have felt a little better, so hopefully the recovery process won't be too long, in the meantime, it isn't slowing down my work or social life.
Butt-pain aside, I had a wonderful weekend in Kaohsiung. Apparently I have already been in Taiwan long enough to be celebrating the next 'annual...' of events, so the sequel to one of my first Taiwan adventures occurred this weekend with the celebration of Kaohsiung Gay Pride. While I have not consulted the records, I would predict that the event's turn out (at least the parade portion of it) was much smaller this year, and the parade route seemed shorter as well (though that could have been because we skipped the first portion of it).
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| Marching in the parade - Kaohsiung 2013 Gay Pride |
The rest of the weekend involved some of the necessary adventuring around Kaohsiung. We traveled to the top of the tallest building in the city: Kaohsiung 85 (also known as the Tuntex Towers). To be honest, the building isn't much to see, the ground levels are filled with a shopping area which had no patrons, and in the lower levels, had no store clerks either. The empty but not abandoned feeling was strange to experience, but not worth going out of your way for. As far as the 'top of the tower' is concerned, you can really only visit the 74th floor, because the higher levels are residential. The 74th floor has viewing windows to look out over the city, a small gift shop/cafe, and nothing else. With all that being said, I personally enjoyed our time in the Tower, but that was due to the people, the sunset over the harbor, and the much appreciated air conditioner. We also spent time around the Lotus Pond, which is one of my recommended sites in the city, especially if you like temples and really tacky designs (like dragon-shaped walkways and deity-shaped pavilions), and the Liuhe Night Market.
My final thoughts on the week are:
*In comparison, while the seats on a bus are more comfortable, long travel on a train is more tailbone-friendly
*Students are strangely compassionate about broken bones, but far less compassionate about my distaste for wearing shoes in the classroom
*There is an Outback Steakhouse in Taiwan, which might now be my favorite place here (it already was my favorite place back in the states)
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