exotic?

Sarcasm. No, really. And I suppose that's a good thing.

Foreigners speaking Chinese?

National election.

4-car garages. 2-car garages. Garages.

Clothes dryers.

My first trip to Taiwan, I decided to use my girlfriend's "all-in-one washer/dryer."  This thing was so cool and modern-looking to me.

My girlfriend was at work and I put my clothes in to wash.  An hour later, I go back to dry them.  Mind you all buttons were in hanzi so I couldn't figure out how to get the "dryer" part to work.  I think I pressed every button at least once.

So I just decided to wait for the gf.  She gets home and I ask "How do you get the dryer to work?"  ...Blank, dumbfounded look. 
"What dryer?"
"You know, to dry your clothes."
"No no no, Chinese don't dry clothes with a machine."

Oh, that's why you see clothes hangers all over Taiwan!

And unfortunately I decided to wash all of my clothes 2 days before heading back to the states...needless to say with the damp climate, pretty much all of them were still wet (aside from the hair dryer dried clothes I wore on the plane)!  Ah, memories.

Automatic dishwashers! European friends tease me when I visit them because I love to load their machine. It's like a big puzzle, very fun. Do these things come with a porthole, like a clothes washing machine?

I'm surprised nobody's mentioned blondes.  And, since Changye mentioned national elections above, I wonder if this video qualifies as exotic?

Actually in Taipei blonde (dyed) hair seems pretty popular this year. I've been seeing a lot of blondes that turn out to be local.

lostinasia, sounds like I need to revise my expectations of Taiwan.  It's always been a surprising place:  Beautiful scenery, vibrant culture, and a democratic government that proved Mao, Chiang Kai Shek, and Lee Kuan Yew all wrong.

Still, nice to know that I can surprise people by jumping into a lake or turning off my cell phone.

Large families. Part of this is generational and geographic, to be sure. But I would be shocked to see a family with a lot of kids in any Chinese community.

What's exotic in Taiwan... (and changye's suggestion above isn't exotic here!)

The idea the foreigners can like spicy food.

Any concept of "pub". I say "pub", Taiwanese think "seedy bar." I say "My mom and dad love going to pubs for dinner", Taiwanese think mom and dad are a couple of pathetic drunks.

Having the tea or coffee at the beginning of the meal, rather than the end.

Drinking ice water on hot summer days (see the lesson Cold Will Kill You)

Solitude.

Photographs without the silly V-sign (see the lesson Group Photo)

Photographs that don't include all twenty people in your group obscuring whatever it is that you're photographing.

Photo albums that don't include all twenty variations of group photo, to ensure that every last person is included as photographers rotate in and and out.

Traveling in groups of fewer than 10.

The absurd waste of space in North America. Especially suburbs. Related: the fact that when I visit my parents, if need eggs, I need to drive five minutes or walk thirty each way.

Jumping in a lake on a hot summer's day.

The off button on cell phones.

Copyright.

A day without rice.

Bread that isn't white or fluffy or airy or a bit sweet or downright awful.

And many things more.

(The washing machines in Taiwan do spin dry for a bit, and it makes a big difference... as for hanging the clothes: this time of year they're dry in a few hours; winter it can take a day, but seldom longer. Hot air clothes dryers are a massive use of energy anyway.)