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Scooter collision on Veteran's Day

On Thursday night, eleven/eleven, which was Veteran's Day, Kelly got home from work and I took the car to the FE-21 with Christopher. We stopped by Hi-Life, a popular convenience store in Taiwan, to grab a quick snack to take back home to Kelly before we headed to the mall. Evening traffic was busy and I pulled over to flip a u-turn to head back to our apartment, then a scooter came crashing into us. Luckily, he wasn't hurt too badly, other than a small scrape on his left hand. It took the rest of the evening to resolve everything though, when I eventually got home at midnight.
The young man, Xin-Ting, is a 19-year-old college student, who thought I was just parking the car, rather than making a u-turn, so he kept going. It was quite an ordeal since I don't speak Chinese and none of the police officers and Xin-Ting didn't speak much English. I called a couple of friends to see if they could help translate, then Sonia, the Taiwanese wife of the school principal, saw us and stopped to help. We sat in the police van and filled out the reports and it was scary, but I'm glad it wasn't worse. My friend, Jennifer, came to the scene so Sonia could get home. Jennifer recommended I take Xin-Ting to the hospital to make sure he was fine. So he met me at our apartment so I could drop off Christopher, then I took Xin-Ting to get x-rays and he was fine. Jennifer came along with us to translate. I felt bad for him since he had a test (in English) the next morning, and really should have been home studying.

Apparently, both of us were at fault. I did not put on a blinker to make the u-turn, which I didn't know was required, but apparently it is, and Xin-Ting was going 50 to 60 kph in a 40 kph zone. I took the car in to work the next day so the HR personnel could look at it, and since the damage was minimal, just a tiny dent in the bottom of the Corolla bumper, they didn't need to make a claim. The next day, Christopher didn't have school since (it was a teacher's meeting day or something), so we took the same route again, heading to the FE-21. We were glad to get there safely and he and I had a fun time at the mall shopping for a few school supplies and then went out to dinner at Din Tai Fung for dumplings, fried rice, and pickled cucumbers. It was nice time with the two of us, our first time out to dinner here together. Kelly was happy that we brought some food home for him as well.
Dinner for the two of us, plus Kelly's food to go, cost about twelve hundred dollars. Luckily that's in NT dollars instead of US! It was delicious!
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Comments

Traci and Richard Larson said…
Glad everyone ended up okay, but I can only imagine how stressful that language barrier must feel at times. Thank goodness you've made some good friends to help translate!
November 15, 2010 3:26 PM
Bobbi said…
I'm glad you are okay, and that the young man is too. I understand the stress because I hit a pedestrian when we lived in Germany. Waiting at a red light, I saw that it turned green and I started forward (barely). An old man had started crossing on his red light. He was okay, just wet from the rainy street, and a kind person stopped to give evidence to the policeman that I was not at fault. The officer started repressing a laugh when he was slowly explaining to me about the old man. "He's 90" he told me in German. "You hit a 90 year old man!" which he thought was hilarious. Who says the Germans don't have a sense of humor?
November 17, 2010 11:05 PM
Dianne said…
Kellie, thanks for visiting our blog, so good to make the connection. Maybe we'll get a chance to meet Lindsay during Thanksgiving break, they seem to be having a great time at BYU-I.
Your blog is fascinating, what an adventure living in Taiwan with your family. I'm sure your missing Lindsay, not easy seeing them leave home for the first time.
Do you mind if I add your blog to my favorites bar?
Glad everyone is ok after the fender bender, I don't know about there, but driving in China was scary.
Have a good Thanksgiving!
November 18, 2010 5:37 PM
Jennifer said…
My goodness...I'm so glad everyone is okay. Hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving!

lv,
jenn
November 19, 2010 1:30 PM
Melody said…
that was intense! I'm glad no one got hurt~ :) I am so jealous that you get to go eat din tai fung!!
November 21, 2010 8:43 PM
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