A fun lost in translation moment. (and a note about the natural association-process of a smart mind):
***I need to add pictures
I stopped by the mayor's office today (21 Dec 2018), in Tainan City, Republic Of China (Taiwan).
I saw that they were setting up a bunch of chairs and making a big display. I wandered around looking for the main office on the second floor of a huge 20-story City Hall building.
A security guard came up and asked me if I needed help. I noticed the stars on his uniform, and wondered if he was just a security guard.
I thanked him, and took him over to the place with the chairs. I asked, "What's going on?" ( it took several polite re-phrasing of that same question, and much mutual patience, to be understood.)
He said the mayor would be talking there tomorrow.
Next I took him back over to the mayor's office entrance, or the sign that said the mayor's office, and explained that I needed a card with the mayor's name and address to be able to write a letter to the mayor. I suggested that the mayor might also have a website submission, and I wasn't sure which was preferred.
The man was actually a police officer. So the police officer made sure that I was looking for a card, which I happily confirmed. He asked me to wait on the chair, a seating area with sofas outside the office.
I waited for a short while. Then I heard the police officer approach out of the office. I was facing away from the entrance. I turned my head, and saw two beautiful women following the police officer. Then the police officer stopped and started talking to the women. As I sat in my chair looking at the scene, I realized that he didn't have that bad of a job helping me.
Everyone seemed thoroughly confused. I sat there just looking at them. They didn't seem to notice me. So I took a couple pictures.
More people came. I figured, well, this is typical when I ask someone a simple question.
It seems every time I'm asking someone, half a dozen people become involved. And if I didn't have a picture, I doubt anybody would believe me. So I took a couple more pictures.
A girl in the group took notice of me. She came over, and spoke with extraordinary English, "You want an invitation card? It's open to the public, so you can come without one. Normally we reserve those for VIPs. We can give you one if you like."
"Ok! That would be great!" I replied.
I did get everything I needed before I left, and had a great conversation with a bunch of new people. I did tell one girl that I was building a university in Canada. That's the reason for asking for the mayor's information, to introduce him to the story.
Looking at the pictures I took, the last girl to join the group isn't in the picture. Truly, it took six people to tell me, "Sorry, we don't have printed contact material, everything is online. But we can write it down for you." :)
Stay tuned for updates: http://talk2dream.com
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