MICHAEL!!!!!!

you just can't make stories like this up!
When i was here late last year, i got a cell phone to use while in taiwan. if i'm not in my hotel room, no one could get a hold of me....family, work, or customer. i got the cheapest no fancy function phone and the smallest minute package i could get! it made life so much easier. i have several numbers of people that i work with at my customer that i can call them while at the plant or they can call me.
the fun part was signing up for the phone....there are cell phone outlets everywhere! i went to the motorola store across the street, thinking i could just get a sim card for my US phone, no! different technologies! so while walking around, i found a MYFONE store by where i often eat dinner. at least one of the girls there spoke more english than i did chinese! i do not have a work permit, visa, national health card, taiwan drivers license or other national i.d. after much discussion and calls to the "head office" i filled out the paperwork using my US Passport and Ohio drivers license and the hotel address. (i'm not a terrorist!)
it still took 2 days to get the service turned on!
when i came back in january, i found that my minutes had expired after so many days of non-use! dammit! so i went back to the same store! this time the two girls that were there could speak no english! my original number was no longer valid! but they did find in their records where i had signed up before! so i got a new number and minutes! they new my name as "michael" and that was that! a lot of thank you's and we're out the door. i knew i was coming back this month, so i knew that'ld i'ld be okay for my number not expiring.
after only one day, i can't make int'l calls! i check and i only have $1.50NT left. woops! not enough! after work i head over to the store to buy more minutes! i stick me head in the door and the 2 girls behind the counter call out loud togeter "MICHAELLL"! funniest thing you ever heard! the same two from january! they knew exactly what to do because i only needed minutes!
3 days later i'm back again! that's okay, we're in and out in 2 minutes!