A lot of people in Canada might be thinking that the weather in Taiwan isn’t cold. Come on, it’s only ten degrees. That’s nothing like the sub-zero temperatures we’re getting here. Yes, that is true, but the problem is that people in Canada are prepared for the cold. People here are not.
In Canada, houses, stores, schools, office buildings, buses, et al are all heated, heated so much that it is only slightly uncomfortable walking around in a T-shirt. If there’s a roast in the oven, it’s darn hot in the house. Well, my grandfather thought the house was always cold, but he was special. In Taiwan, other than department stores and big supermarkets, the only heating we have is closing the window to stop the wind and drafts from coming in. These cement walls don’t help either as they don’t retain any heat. I often find it’s colder inside our house than it is outside.
Also I don’t see people in Canada riding motorcycles or scooters when it gets even remotely cool. If the temperature gets below, what, twenty degrees, people are putting their bikes away for the winter. Here we have to ride scooters all year round, and that includes times like now when it is ten, eleven degrees and raining. That, I tell you, is cold.
I almost prefer the winters in Canada. Yes, it’s much colder, but only outside. I can put on a heavy coat, gloves, cover my head and my ears, and I’m fine. I go inside and can take all that off and sit in comfort with the central heating we have. But here I can’t do that. I have to ride my scooter in the cold and wet and then go inside where it’s not any warmer and try to eat or type or wash dishes or clean up, all with very cold hands. Thank god it only lasts for a couple months. By the end of February or so it will only be slightly cool and by the end of March I can get my shorts out again.
