The sliding doors at major establishments in Taipei have provided much amusement to the residents of Taiwan and other cultured travelers, not including myself. See, a while back, I laughed at this video that my friend made me watch on automatic sliding doors. I, ironically, laughed at the stupidity of said situation and never thought this would happen to me. But it has. So please check this out before you read any further:
The automatic sliding doors in Taipei are not fast enough for me! For example, I was literally breathing on the sliding glass doors at the hospital for a good minute in order to get it to open. After multiple failed attempts at heavy breathing on the sliding doors–hey, I thought that MAYBE, perhaps even remotely, the technology here involved heat-sensitive glass that would magically open the doors–I decided that flailing my arms at the motion detector located on the top of the doors would be a better idea. So much for great ideas.
The minute I decided to do this, a family stepped out of the cab and started walking towards the door in deep admiration for my lack of talent in opening sliding doors. The grandmother started giggling, so I just stepped back and felt my face flush in embarrassment. All of a sudden, almost magically (and instantly), the first set of sliding doors open. I go through and walk towards the second one. But I failed. Miserably.
I was stuck in between both sets of sliding doors – neither of them wanting to open. I walked up towards the second set of sliding doors, so close that I was almost kissing it. Maybe the motion detector was not functioning? Maybe I was so skinny that went by undetected? (Hah! I wish.) Well, maybe, just maybe, the same kind of thing happened to those individuals in that YouTube video.
As the grandmother and the rest of her family walk up towards the hospital entrance, I notice their chuckles here and there–most likely about my inability to perform an action so simple, yet so difficult for people like me. As the family approaches the hospital entrance, the sliding doors open up again. Just like that.
The grandmother turns to me and laughs, just a little. And then she just hurried along. Sigh. I laughed because what else CAN you do in these extremely awkward situations, right? I laughed and walked out the door.
[On another note: a McDonald's here in Taipei actually has a button that you press in order to slide open their entry doors. I found this out because I saw another person press the button before going in. Otherwise, I would've been standing there attempting to open it in great misery and utter humiliation.]
So the next time you watch a video like the one I just posted, don’t laugh. This has, in fact, happened to people like me. And I’d like to think I’m smart enough to operate a set of sliding glass doors. Or maybe this was just one of those days. [I just tend to have more of those than the rest.]
