week 27_musical cars

I was talking to my Mom on Skype earlier this morning and we were discussing how different it is here. When you get out of bed to weigh yourself it is in kg instead of pounds. Take the MRT to work, and the distance is in kilometers. You buy lunch with Taiwanese money and get off work at 18:00 instead of 6:00... Not to mention that everything is written and spoken in Chinese! (for the most part... or frequently, incorrect English...) I don't find any of this to be a bad thing, and I actually mentioned in our discussion that I enjoy the challenge... but, ha! It sure is a challenge!

Anyways, I think that the differences are entertaining, amusing, and just interesting to observe every single day. So this weekend's unusual difference was my friend's parking arrangement. If you can remember playing the game "musical chairs" when you were a kid, I like to think of this as "musical cars":

The goal: Drive off in the silver Honda.
The setup: 6 car spaces created in the space of what might usually hold 2...

First, the bottom left space (23) needs to move up out of the way...

Progress.

Next, the black car needed to move out of the way...

Success.
(You get a peek in this picture of the parking space below on the right)

Next, lower the silver Honda to ground level...

Raise the gate, and go!

And voila! There you have it folks. Musical. Cars.

This is all done at the touch of a button. Simply push the button with your car's parking space # on the nearby wall, and watch the shuffle. It is actually pretty quick and convenient. When the driver returns, they just park on whichever space is at ground level and know that their car will be shuffled as needed until the next time they return to drive it out.