Spreading American Values on Elevators

Overall, Taiwan is a great place to live.  The food is good, the weather is mostly fine, and the people are nice.  However, anytime you live abroad, it's inevitable that there will be moments of frustration with the local culture.  Heather had one such experience a few weeks ago with the elevator.  Here's what happened.

A two minute walk from our house is one of the best malls in Taipei.  Heather was running errands at the mall one afternoon with Sienna when Sienna, being tired, started to get fussy and cry.  It was time to head home.  Heather was on the fourth floor and so headed to the bank of elevators.  She pushed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive.  And waited, and waited.  The mall elevators are notorious for taking forever to arrive.  One can literally wait 8 minutes for the elevator; there are four of them in this one area, so it's kinda ridiculous that it takes so long.

As if the waiting with a crying child was not enough, right in front of the bank of elevators was a small vendor with a lot of balloons.  Sienna desperately wanted the balloons, and cried all the louder to get one.  Meanwhile, Heather was still waiting for that stupid elevator.

Finally, after enduring several minutes with a fussy, screaming baby, the elevator arrives.  And it is jammed packed full of people.  And I don't mean that it's full of old people with canes, pregnant ladies, or kids with broken legs, it is full of people all fully capable of using the escalator (which is located right next to the elevators).  To fully understand how frustrating this is, you must understand that the Taiwanese have a love affair with elevators.  If the Taiwanese have the choice between walking one flight of stairs, taking the escalator, or waiting 10 minutes to take the elevator one level, they will take the elevator.  For parents like us that often have a large stroller with two kids and bags, it is aggravating to have to wait for 2-3 rounds of perfectly healthy people to go on the elevator so we can finally use it.

Normally, Heather would've taken the escalator, but this time, she had the large stroller and it was loaded with groceries, so taking the escalator would've been challenging.  So when the elevator finally arrived after enduring a solid 6-7 minutes of a blood curdling screaming Sienna, Heather was a bit peeved to see it was packed full of perfectly healthy people.  But she gritted her teeth and forced her way on the elevator.

Of course, now that she was on, the "too heavy"  bell sounded when the doors tried to close.  Everyone looked at Heather expectantly since she was the new comer.  Heather ignored them.  Finally, someone in broken English said to Heather "too heavy" and pointed to the door, trying to tell her to wait for another elevator.  And that was the last straw for my Texas fire ball.  Heather roared back loudly to all in the elevator with big hand gestures, "I HAVE A BABY STROLLER!!!"

At this subtle hint, the other passengers on the elevator finally understood.  Several of them sheepishly muttered "of course, of course" and got off the elevator to allow Heather (the mother with a baby stroller, screaming infant, and bags full of groceries) to ride the elevator.

This is just another example of how we have shared America's cultural values, such as common courtesy and thoughtfulness, with the locals.