away from home

forgetting the onset of a certain function of the female anatomy at home is stressful enough, let alone waking at 4 in the morning  in a hotel on the other side of the world to the realization that i don’t know how to say “tampon” in mandarin. after embarrassingly motioning to the front desk clerk the nature of my ills, i marched to the Hi Life convenience store down the block. i stared at the available products for a few minutes, hoping to go unnoticed, when i was approached by the young woman clerk. while i quietly tried to explain to her what i was looking for, the tall young man working with her lumbered over and, in a fit of misplaced kindness, started translating from English into mandarin the characteristics of the product i sought. i walked away from the store empty-handed, sorely embarrassed, and still under caffeinated. halfway through the day, i was pointed to the western import grocery store, where a box of tampons cost NT$380, or about $12USD. not to be left unnoticed by the Angry Menstrual Gods, I didn’t have enough Taiwanese cash on me, and Wellman’s didn’t take card. mercifully, the clerk offered to take American dollars, whereupon i nearly cried for gratitude before teetering back to the hotel as quickly as i could on my towering platform sandals.