Well 2008 is quickly coming to an end here in Taipei. The comfortable weather that has been a constant blessing for the last month has also come to an end. This is the third day straight of rain, and as such I'm curious if they'll be able to launch the fireworks at Taipei 101 at midnight. The building management are letting us up onto the roof at 11:45 til 12:15 to watch the fireworks. They normally close it down at 10 for safety reasons. I may head up or just watch the fireworks on TV since Felicity is working tonight.
I guess I need to come up with some New Years resolutions, as that is the thing to do this time of the year. I can think of a few things that I want to do in 2009 that I didn't do in 2008.
First is to work out a minimum of 3 days a week. I have been doing well last week and this week on that goal. The next is to study at least one hour a day of Chinese. I have found that when I sit down to study, I use up an hour pretty quickly. The catch is finding that hour every day and forcing myself to do nothing but study.
The next goal is to get a job in Taipei. This one seems to be pretty easy to solve, but it has proved to be the most difficult. The job market in Taipei is shrinking and the requirement list seems to be lengthening.
The last that I can think of is to give up drinking soda. I've recently read some reports on the artificial colors in processed foods and links to several different medical conditions. The oddest thing though is that the artificial colors are petroleum products.
The only other resolution I can think of is to update my blog more regularly!
Have a happy New Years! Welcome 2009!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Xinjiang mummy Exhibit
Yesterday (12/13) Felicity and I met around 4 pm to head to the National Taiwan History Museum. It didn't start out well because I was about 5 minutes late. The real problem was she got there 15 minutes early and so had to sit for 20 something minutes before I got there. Oops!
We walked from the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall station over to the museum. She and I both wanted to see the exhibit, which is a really rare event since out interests are so different, so we agreed to head over.
The exhibit is called the "Legends of the Silk Road" and is fantastic. I've included the link at the end of the post. They have some pretty amazing stuff from a wide variety of historical periods. The centerpiece is the "beauty" herself. She was between 40 to 45 years old when she died around 3800 years ago. It was remarkable to see her still have eyelashes after so long. There was one very odd thing though. She's not Chinese.
Her features, and the artistic representation of her face, has her looking like a European. They call her Indo-European but I swear she looks French. Either way she was a long way from home.
The mummy was interesting, but I found some of the other stuff far more interesting. They had clothing that was over 2000 years old. Felicity and I were both really surprised because the clothing was huge. I stood next to it and the shirt went from my shoulders down to my knees. The guy who wore it must have been huge. We are talking 200 years ago but this man (it was a male's shirt/jacket) had to be well over 6 foot. That was a rare height for most Chinese men before the last 40 years.
There was also some calligraphy from around 220 AD. Felicity could read and understand it pretty clearly, and I could guess my way through the meaning. I could read Chinese that was written 1800 years ago (about a loan on a winery) but have difficulty reading Shakespeare due to the language change.
I wanted to take pictures but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't purchase anything from the gift shop but I'll have to go back again. They had a book with pictures from all of the exhibits. The exhibit ends on 3/15 so I have some time but not all that much.
In other news, I'm almost done with Anthony's book. I'll finish the Braille this week and then I just need to proof it and format it for printing. I'll be so happy to get it done before Christmas. I'm also flying to Hong Kong to extend my visa for the last 60 days before this one expires. After that I'll have to get a new visa right after Chinese New Year.
I also found out how wonderful Ender's Game is. It's a sci-fi book that has me so hooked I haven't been sleeping. I stayed up well past 2 am the last couple nights just to read a few more pages.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/06/2003430422
We walked from the Chiang Kai Shek memorial hall station over to the museum. She and I both wanted to see the exhibit, which is a really rare event since out interests are so different, so we agreed to head over.
The exhibit is called the "Legends of the Silk Road" and is fantastic. I've included the link at the end of the post. They have some pretty amazing stuff from a wide variety of historical periods. The centerpiece is the "beauty" herself. She was between 40 to 45 years old when she died around 3800 years ago. It was remarkable to see her still have eyelashes after so long. There was one very odd thing though. She's not Chinese.
Her features, and the artistic representation of her face, has her looking like a European. They call her Indo-European but I swear she looks French. Either way she was a long way from home.
The mummy was interesting, but I found some of the other stuff far more interesting. They had clothing that was over 2000 years old. Felicity and I were both really surprised because the clothing was huge. I stood next to it and the shirt went from my shoulders down to my knees. The guy who wore it must have been huge. We are talking 200 years ago but this man (it was a male's shirt/jacket) had to be well over 6 foot. That was a rare height for most Chinese men before the last 40 years.
There was also some calligraphy from around 220 AD. Felicity could read and understand it pretty clearly, and I could guess my way through the meaning. I could read Chinese that was written 1800 years ago (about a loan on a winery) but have difficulty reading Shakespeare due to the language change.
I wanted to take pictures but they wouldn't allow it. I didn't purchase anything from the gift shop but I'll have to go back again. They had a book with pictures from all of the exhibits. The exhibit ends on 3/15 so I have some time but not all that much.
In other news, I'm almost done with Anthony's book. I'll finish the Braille this week and then I just need to proof it and format it for printing. I'll be so happy to get it done before Christmas. I'm also flying to Hong Kong to extend my visa for the last 60 days before this one expires. After that I'll have to get a new visa right after Chinese New Year.
I also found out how wonderful Ender's Game is. It's a sci-fi book that has me so hooked I haven't been sleeping. I stayed up well past 2 am the last couple nights just to read a few more pages.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/12/06/2003430422
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Its finally comfortable in Taipei
Well it's December in Taipei and as the title states, I am finally comfortable. The skies are clear, the winds blow and generally its cold and crisp. I love this weather. It's not cold enough to have to wear jackets yet but soon I will be able to. Lately the Taiwanese in my neighborhood are dressed as if they are living in the arctic, wearing large North Fleece jackets, beanies and scarves.
It feels like it has been a lot longer than two weeks since I updated my blog. So much has happened since then. Work is the same. Every day I get up, get my coffee and start typing. I've taken to listening to podcasts while I type, but my mornings are typing or editing and drinking coffee. I get lunch, or eat veggies that I bought from the store, and then work in the afternoon. Workout with Ryan and then get a small dinner and go home. Sometimes hang out with Felicity, sometimes not.
This last weekend Ryan finally went home. Natalie left the week before Thanksgiving and Ryan the week after. Now I'm here by myself in Taipei with Felicity. As luck would have it, last Sunday Felicity and I were shopping at the Eslite bookstore near Taipei 101 when I ran into an old classmate of mine from three years ago. Kevin has been working and studying here and so his Chinese has become almost fluent. We exchanged numbers and so now I should have someone else to hang out with, but I'll need to start making more new friends and acquaintances here.
I went for a job interview this week at a chain of afternoon English cram schools. The location is great, less than 10 minutes by bus north of me, and the hours looked good too. No working on Saturday, afternoon and evening work, and they provide a curriculum. When I arrived they had me fill out a form with all my information on it, which took 15 minutes. I was a little peeved at that, given that they could have emailed it to me and I would have shown up with it printed. Then came the "interview"
I was expecting an actual interview. They were expecting a teaching demonstration. I was given 5 minutes to prepare and then explain how I would teach the students a section on new vocabulary and grammar. I did fine on the vocabulary, but not the grammar. I didn't prepare to do a demo, just what kind of questions they would ask me about my resume. They didn't even ask if I had a degree, just if I had teaching experience or not. I told them I didn't and they looked surprised. They thought I was responding because I had experience, but I responded to an ad for "1st time teachers wanted!".
I'm still looking for work that is in Taipei, not horrendously far from my apartment, and provides a work visa to stay. As I am unlikely to finish that process in the next two weeks, it looks like I will have to fly somewhere. flights to Manila seemed to be the cheapest route, but they only have one flight per day. I would have to stay the night there. Given that Manila has so many attractions, I want to have a bit more time to see things than one day. To renew my visa, I'll just fly to Macau and back and plan to go to Manila in a few months.
It feels like it has been a lot longer than two weeks since I updated my blog. So much has happened since then. Work is the same. Every day I get up, get my coffee and start typing. I've taken to listening to podcasts while I type, but my mornings are typing or editing and drinking coffee. I get lunch, or eat veggies that I bought from the store, and then work in the afternoon. Workout with Ryan and then get a small dinner and go home. Sometimes hang out with Felicity, sometimes not.
This last weekend Ryan finally went home. Natalie left the week before Thanksgiving and Ryan the week after. Now I'm here by myself in Taipei with Felicity. As luck would have it, last Sunday Felicity and I were shopping at the Eslite bookstore near Taipei 101 when I ran into an old classmate of mine from three years ago. Kevin has been working and studying here and so his Chinese has become almost fluent. We exchanged numbers and so now I should have someone else to hang out with, but I'll need to start making more new friends and acquaintances here.
I went for a job interview this week at a chain of afternoon English cram schools. The location is great, less than 10 minutes by bus north of me, and the hours looked good too. No working on Saturday, afternoon and evening work, and they provide a curriculum. When I arrived they had me fill out a form with all my information on it, which took 15 minutes. I was a little peeved at that, given that they could have emailed it to me and I would have shown up with it printed. Then came the "interview"
I was expecting an actual interview. They were expecting a teaching demonstration. I was given 5 minutes to prepare and then explain how I would teach the students a section on new vocabulary and grammar. I did fine on the vocabulary, but not the grammar. I didn't prepare to do a demo, just what kind of questions they would ask me about my resume. They didn't even ask if I had a degree, just if I had teaching experience or not. I told them I didn't and they looked surprised. They thought I was responding because I had experience, but I responded to an ad for "1st time teachers wanted!".
I'm still looking for work that is in Taipei, not horrendously far from my apartment, and provides a work visa to stay. As I am unlikely to finish that process in the next two weeks, it looks like I will have to fly somewhere. flights to Manila seemed to be the cheapest route, but they only have one flight per day. I would have to stay the night there. Given that Manila has so many attractions, I want to have a bit more time to see things than one day. To renew my visa, I'll just fly to Macau and back and plan to go to Manila in a few months.
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Fall has finally arrived!
I was waiting until we had 3 consecutive days of cold before I posted this. Fall has finally arrived! After having hot weather from when I arrived in August until November, cold weather feel WONDERFUL! I talked to my friend Mike who is in Northeast China and he got snow this week. I know he'll wish he didn't have snow come February...
Its windy and cold outside right now. Weatherunderground.com has the temperature at 61 F (16 C), humidity at 55% and 10 mph wind. Not quite cold enough to wear my coats yet, but cold enough that I can't wear shorts outside anymore. For the first time in a while, I didn't run my Air Conditioner today. Pretty soon I'll need to get a heater and heavy blankets for my bed.
I'm still looking for jobs teaching English to fix the problem with my residency requirements here, but my student Anthony gave me an interesting idea. Apparently Skype has a new service that you can purchase at a premium that acts like a virtual classroom of sorts. You can be an "expert" in some field, decide how much you want to charge per minute, and what hours you are going to be available for. People call you (the first call is free) and the Skype deals with the details. They withdraw the cost amount for the call from the persons Skype credit and add it to your account. Pretty nifty idea that I am thinking about trying. My buddy Ryan suggested that I postpone it though, otherwise I'll never leave my apartment and will become depressed. He makes a very good point.
I have almost caught up with my schedule for work at CSULB. I was a month and a half behind schedule in the middle of October. In 1 month I was able to reduce that to being only two weeks behind schedule. I can finally start translating the braille now and I will be able to get everything done on time. I'm extremely happy, and very tired of looking at my computer screen!
Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm still looking for places that are doing a US style dinner. If that doesn't work I'll try Anthony's suggestion of heading to Costco, buying turkey lunch meat and grilling it on my hot plate. Really what I want from Costco is pumpkin pie. They have every other type of gourd here in Taiwan except for pumpkins.
I don't know what I'll do for the holidays yet. My buddies Ryan and Natalie will be leaving soon. Natalie flies out this Sunday and Ryan a week later. It will be weird without them around but I'll find a way to manage. If I get a job quickly then it won't be a huge issue. What will be interesting is Chinese New Year. Mike and my friend Jeremy want to go to Japan for a week and I really want to go. Meeting up with the two of them in Japan for a week would be a lot of fun. The only issue is that during Chinese New Year, everyone who is non-Chinese tries to leave to island. Flights to Japan from Taipei are mostly full already and look to be about 600 US just for economy class tickets.
I'll see what I can do. At least I'm not in Korea right now. I saw that the Korean Won fell in value by 30% in the last three months. It use to be around 1050 Won to the dollar, now its 1450 Won to the dollar. Great if you want to visit Korea, but for my friends who went there to teach English, it makes it much harder to pay off student loans when you now have to pay 30-40% more for every US dollar.
Its windy and cold outside right now. Weatherunderground.com has the temperature at 61 F (16 C), humidity at 55% and 10 mph wind. Not quite cold enough to wear my coats yet, but cold enough that I can't wear shorts outside anymore. For the first time in a while, I didn't run my Air Conditioner today. Pretty soon I'll need to get a heater and heavy blankets for my bed.
I'm still looking for jobs teaching English to fix the problem with my residency requirements here, but my student Anthony gave me an interesting idea. Apparently Skype has a new service that you can purchase at a premium that acts like a virtual classroom of sorts. You can be an "expert" in some field, decide how much you want to charge per minute, and what hours you are going to be available for. People call you (the first call is free) and the Skype deals with the details. They withdraw the cost amount for the call from the persons Skype credit and add it to your account. Pretty nifty idea that I am thinking about trying. My buddy Ryan suggested that I postpone it though, otherwise I'll never leave my apartment and will become depressed. He makes a very good point.
I have almost caught up with my schedule for work at CSULB. I was a month and a half behind schedule in the middle of October. In 1 month I was able to reduce that to being only two weeks behind schedule. I can finally start translating the braille now and I will be able to get everything done on time. I'm extremely happy, and very tired of looking at my computer screen!
Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm still looking for places that are doing a US style dinner. If that doesn't work I'll try Anthony's suggestion of heading to Costco, buying turkey lunch meat and grilling it on my hot plate. Really what I want from Costco is pumpkin pie. They have every other type of gourd here in Taiwan except for pumpkins.
I don't know what I'll do for the holidays yet. My buddies Ryan and Natalie will be leaving soon. Natalie flies out this Sunday and Ryan a week later. It will be weird without them around but I'll find a way to manage. If I get a job quickly then it won't be a huge issue. What will be interesting is Chinese New Year. Mike and my friend Jeremy want to go to Japan for a week and I really want to go. Meeting up with the two of them in Japan for a week would be a lot of fun. The only issue is that during Chinese New Year, everyone who is non-Chinese tries to leave to island. Flights to Japan from Taipei are mostly full already and look to be about 600 US just for economy class tickets.
I'll see what I can do. At least I'm not in Korea right now. I saw that the Korean Won fell in value by 30% in the last three months. It use to be around 1050 Won to the dollar, now its 1450 Won to the dollar. Great if you want to visit Korea, but for my friends who went there to teach English, it makes it much harder to pay off student loans when you now have to pay 30-40% more for every US dollar.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Macao Trip
Macao was awesome. I got a package deal from a travel agent here that included 2 days 1 night at the hotel plus airfare for 350 US. The original quote was for 200 US but they taxed the hell out of me in airport taxes. They do that to everyone, but I thought it was pretty ridiculous that the airport taxes were almost as much as base cost for the plane ticket.
There was also an issue with Immigration leaving the country. I left on the 60th day (or 61st) depending how you counted. The immigration guy counted on his fingers a couple times before realizing I didn't overstay and then just gave me an exit stamp.
Flying to Macao was easy. It was about an hour and a half flight and then I landed. Immigration gave me no trouble and neither did Customs. The cab took me straight to my hotel (supposedly a 5 star hotel) and I got checked in. The cab fare was about triple what I expected and this was foreboding of what was to come. On the weekends, Macao institutes a "tourist tax" where everything increases in price dramatically.
I took a shower at the hotel and went exploring. Unbeknown to me, my tourist map was incorrect. It showed streets as running straight when really they all went in circles. I got lost and found myself a couple of times before ending up downtown. I saw the casinos there and then walked up to the San Leonardo square. After figuring out where I was and taking some pictures, I went to the Saint Paul Cathedral. Right as I was going to take a picture, my camera battery died. I trekked back to 7-11 and bought a disposable camera. Took some pictures of the Saint Paul Cathedral and then the fort protecting the Cathedral.
Walking around for 2 or 3 hours really tired me out so I went back to the hotel to shower and sleep. I got up in the morning and walked around some more. I was looking for a bakery that opened up early to buy some Portuguese egg tarts. I found one but it wasn't very close. I walked to the store, bought a box and took a cab to the airport.
Customs and Immigration were easy, and the boarding didn't take very long. They started boarding passengers late but we still took off on time. Boarding looked like it was out of the 40's, walking up a gangway to get into the plane. 2 hours later I was back in Taiwan, and shortly after that on a bus back to Taipei.
Here are the pictures:
http://tinyurl.com/67kjnz
There was also an issue with Immigration leaving the country. I left on the 60th day (or 61st) depending how you counted. The immigration guy counted on his fingers a couple times before realizing I didn't overstay and then just gave me an exit stamp.
Flying to Macao was easy. It was about an hour and a half flight and then I landed. Immigration gave me no trouble and neither did Customs. The cab took me straight to my hotel (supposedly a 5 star hotel) and I got checked in. The cab fare was about triple what I expected and this was foreboding of what was to come. On the weekends, Macao institutes a "tourist tax" where everything increases in price dramatically.
I took a shower at the hotel and went exploring. Unbeknown to me, my tourist map was incorrect. It showed streets as running straight when really they all went in circles. I got lost and found myself a couple of times before ending up downtown. I saw the casinos there and then walked up to the San Leonardo square. After figuring out where I was and taking some pictures, I went to the Saint Paul Cathedral. Right as I was going to take a picture, my camera battery died. I trekked back to 7-11 and bought a disposable camera. Took some pictures of the Saint Paul Cathedral and then the fort protecting the Cathedral.
Walking around for 2 or 3 hours really tired me out so I went back to the hotel to shower and sleep. I got up in the morning and walked around some more. I was looking for a bakery that opened up early to buy some Portuguese egg tarts. I found one but it wasn't very close. I walked to the store, bought a box and took a cab to the airport.
Customs and Immigration were easy, and the boarding didn't take very long. They started boarding passengers late but we still took off on time. Boarding looked like it was out of the 40's, walking up a gangway to get into the plane. 2 hours later I was back in Taiwan, and shortly after that on a bus back to Taipei.
Here are the pictures:
http://tinyurl.com/67kjnz
Thursday, October 30, 2008
School and Work Situation
Due to my complications with work and school here I had to go on a quick trip out of the country to renew my visa. Normally all I would have to do is go to the police department and get my visa stamped again for another 60 days. The reason that didn't work for me is because my grades in school have been pretty poor.
There are several reasons for this, including lack of effort on my end, but the major reason was out of my control. The wonderful Chinese Department at my Alma Mater decided to update to the brand new edition of the Chinese 301 textbook. While I would normally have been happy to hear this, due to the old version being 15 years old, I was furious. I spent 6 months translating the first half of the book for Anthony, the visually impaired student at CSULB who is studying Chinese.
When the book finally arrived near the end of September, I had to glance through it to see what the changes were and how severe they were. I was hoping that the changes would be minor, take a week at most to fix and I could continue with on schedule. This turned out not to be possible.
This edition has significant changes from the previous one, enough that I have to type it all over again. This is a serious problem since I didn't receive the new book until the 3rd week of September. I lost a month and a half from my schedule and have to start from the beginning. I hoped that I could still study and work but that turned out to be too naive of me.
If all I had to do was work, attend school and study, that would be challenging but attainable. Having to play catch up with work meant something was going to fall by the wayside. First it was sleep, then came homework and finally school. I skipped school the week of the 13th to type. I was able to get a lot done that week and the next. In fact, working 10 hour days I was able to get about a month's worth of work done in two weeks. I was able to get two weeks closer to my deadline, but at the cost of not studying.
It came down to a very difficult decision, but I dropped out of school. By missing so many days of class, they weren't going to renew my visa. My grades were also extremely low from trying to juggle all those balls in the air. My classmates were starting to get aggravated that I wasn't studying, and I just didn't care. Scholarship or not, MTC was not what I expected. The extra hour of class a day didn't help when we had 8 students in the class. Their materials all state that the average class size is 5 to 6 students. I later found this to be a lie. They will only open a class if they have at least 5 students. The average class size is 7 which is not too bad compared to my college class sizes. However here they don't separate students in the manner they should.
Western students have different strengths and weaknesses than Japanese or Korean students. My class had three Japanese students who scored upper 90's or perfect on every test. They had no difficulty writing, but major difficulty pronouncing the characters correctly. My pronunciation is much clearer than theirs, however I couldn't write very well. Since the tests are written, with only a small token section towards listening comprehension, I did poorly. As time went on, with less chance to study, I did worse. I finally made the decision not to return to NTNU.
I don't plan on stopping my study of Chinese though. I still plan on studying albeit at a different school. Its called Taipei Language Institute, and they have reasonable class rates for 1 on 1 instruction. That should help me work on my pronunciation and listening (which need some work) and a pace that will work for me. Most importantly though, I don't care about writing. Recognition is fine, I don't need to waste time writing characters.
There are several reasons for this, including lack of effort on my end, but the major reason was out of my control. The wonderful Chinese Department at my Alma Mater decided to update to the brand new edition of the Chinese 301 textbook. While I would normally have been happy to hear this, due to the old version being 15 years old, I was furious. I spent 6 months translating the first half of the book for Anthony, the visually impaired student at CSULB who is studying Chinese.
When the book finally arrived near the end of September, I had to glance through it to see what the changes were and how severe they were. I was hoping that the changes would be minor, take a week at most to fix and I could continue with on schedule. This turned out not to be possible.
This edition has significant changes from the previous one, enough that I have to type it all over again. This is a serious problem since I didn't receive the new book until the 3rd week of September. I lost a month and a half from my schedule and have to start from the beginning. I hoped that I could still study and work but that turned out to be too naive of me.
If all I had to do was work, attend school and study, that would be challenging but attainable. Having to play catch up with work meant something was going to fall by the wayside. First it was sleep, then came homework and finally school. I skipped school the week of the 13th to type. I was able to get a lot done that week and the next. In fact, working 10 hour days I was able to get about a month's worth of work done in two weeks. I was able to get two weeks closer to my deadline, but at the cost of not studying.
It came down to a very difficult decision, but I dropped out of school. By missing so many days of class, they weren't going to renew my visa. My grades were also extremely low from trying to juggle all those balls in the air. My classmates were starting to get aggravated that I wasn't studying, and I just didn't care. Scholarship or not, MTC was not what I expected. The extra hour of class a day didn't help when we had 8 students in the class. Their materials all state that the average class size is 5 to 6 students. I later found this to be a lie. They will only open a class if they have at least 5 students. The average class size is 7 which is not too bad compared to my college class sizes. However here they don't separate students in the manner they should.
Western students have different strengths and weaknesses than Japanese or Korean students. My class had three Japanese students who scored upper 90's or perfect on every test. They had no difficulty writing, but major difficulty pronouncing the characters correctly. My pronunciation is much clearer than theirs, however I couldn't write very well. Since the tests are written, with only a small token section towards listening comprehension, I did poorly. As time went on, with less chance to study, I did worse. I finally made the decision not to return to NTNU.
I don't plan on stopping my study of Chinese though. I still plan on studying albeit at a different school. Its called Taipei Language Institute, and they have reasonable class rates for 1 on 1 instruction. That should help me work on my pronunciation and listening (which need some work) and a pace that will work for me. Most importantly though, I don't care about writing. Recognition is fine, I don't need to waste time writing characters.
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Long overdue update
Due to internet problems at my apartment, I haven't been able to access the internet unless I run over to Starbucks or KFC and use their WiFi system. The problem was fixed recently but I've just been too busy to sit down and type. That, or when I sit down to type, I get a mental block. I'll try to keep the updates coming more frequently in the future.
My apartment: I like it here. The building is nice, area is convenient and my neighbors don't seem to bother me too much. Except for the sewage leak two weeks ago there haven't been any major problems yet. The two typhoons that hit Taiwan didn't do much more than blow a lot of wind and rain. The one lightning strike that was nearby flashed out my window and the thunder left my ears ringing, but no major damage.
As for the sewage spill... Even though we have a new building, with new pipes, it is connected to the old waste lines that the city built 50 years ago. As such, there is a problem with the size of the pipes and how easy they can get clogged. The issue happened on the 2nd floor and caused the 1st floor toilet to overflow on one of the hottest days of the year. That was a horrible horrible stench that is burned into my sinuses forever.
The neighborhood: It's very convenient. I have the MRT station less than 10 minutes away by foot and right next to it is a bus stop that goes to my school. I can get from my apartment to school by bus in about 15 minutes without traffic. The odd thing about my block is that the restaurants are all soup and noodle places. It has been pretty hot lately, and everything close by is really hot food. It will be nice in the winter, but I don't want to eat hot pot when its 90 outside. I also don't want to eat beef noodles in a soup broth, boiled vegetables in a Korean broth, shaved noodles in a beef/pork/chicken broth, etc etc etc. The nice thing is that by the MRT (subway) station is Ximending. It's a very trendy area with lots of restaurants, food stalls and (illegal) street vendors. Whenever the police come, the street vendors go running, but they serve cheap snacks that are tasty.
School: NTNU's Mandarin Training Center hasn't lived up to what I expected it to be. We have currently have 8 students (the max), at one point had 10 students in our class, and all of their literature says that 5-6 students is average size for the intensive classes. The difference between their regular and intensive classes are two students and one extra hour of class a day. That is, there are 10 students in a normal class and they only meet for 2 hours a day instead of 3.
I'm also disappointed in MTC's teaching methodology. It's focused mostly on writing. We also have to do a lot of homework outside of class. My issue with that is that writing is my weakest area. I haven't written characters for three years now. I always use computers to do my homework, and as such have practically forgotten how to write. My classmates are 2 americans, a Chinese-Indonesian guy, 2 Japanese guys, a Japanese girl and a 16 year old Mongolian girl. I joke that the Japanese girl is a walking character dictionary. She always knows how to write whatever character we are studying.
I don't care much for writing characters. It wastes a lot of time and I'm poor at it. I don't have years in which to dedicate myself to writing a single character hundreds of times until it is correct. I want to work on speaking and recognizing characters. To me, being able to communicate with other people in Chinese is why I'm here. Squiggly lines don't interest me. If it isn't clear, I'm very unhappy with my current school situation. Of our tests and everything else we do, 20% is speaking, 20% is reading recognition and the last 60% is writing. This is opposite of what I want for myself and is making me less and less happy as time goes on. I keep scoring poorly on the tests because I write the characters wrong. Its frustrating always asking the teacher for more time while my Japanese classmates have finished their tests and are napping while waiting for us to finish. Even though I have a scholarship from NTNU, I can't see myself staying there in the future if the situation doesn't improve.
On that note, in about two weeks I'm planning my first trip out of the country. I'm planning on going to Macau! It will be fun to get another stamp in my passport and allow me to relax a bit. The promo rate I found is pretty fantastic. 250 US for round trip airfare tickets and either 2 days 1 night at a 4/5 star hotel or 3 days 2 nights at a 3 star hotel. I'm excited and need to book the ticket on Monday.
My apartment: I like it here. The building is nice, area is convenient and my neighbors don't seem to bother me too much. Except for the sewage leak two weeks ago there haven't been any major problems yet. The two typhoons that hit Taiwan didn't do much more than blow a lot of wind and rain. The one lightning strike that was nearby flashed out my window and the thunder left my ears ringing, but no major damage.
As for the sewage spill... Even though we have a new building, with new pipes, it is connected to the old waste lines that the city built 50 years ago. As such, there is a problem with the size of the pipes and how easy they can get clogged. The issue happened on the 2nd floor and caused the 1st floor toilet to overflow on one of the hottest days of the year. That was a horrible horrible stench that is burned into my sinuses forever.
The neighborhood: It's very convenient. I have the MRT station less than 10 minutes away by foot and right next to it is a bus stop that goes to my school. I can get from my apartment to school by bus in about 15 minutes without traffic. The odd thing about my block is that the restaurants are all soup and noodle places. It has been pretty hot lately, and everything close by is really hot food. It will be nice in the winter, but I don't want to eat hot pot when its 90 outside. I also don't want to eat beef noodles in a soup broth, boiled vegetables in a Korean broth, shaved noodles in a beef/pork/chicken broth, etc etc etc. The nice thing is that by the MRT (subway) station is Ximending. It's a very trendy area with lots of restaurants, food stalls and (illegal) street vendors. Whenever the police come, the street vendors go running, but they serve cheap snacks that are tasty.
School: NTNU's Mandarin Training Center hasn't lived up to what I expected it to be. We have currently have 8 students (the max), at one point had 10 students in our class, and all of their literature says that 5-6 students is average size for the intensive classes. The difference between their regular and intensive classes are two students and one extra hour of class a day. That is, there are 10 students in a normal class and they only meet for 2 hours a day instead of 3.
I'm also disappointed in MTC's teaching methodology. It's focused mostly on writing. We also have to do a lot of homework outside of class. My issue with that is that writing is my weakest area. I haven't written characters for three years now. I always use computers to do my homework, and as such have practically forgotten how to write. My classmates are 2 americans, a Chinese-Indonesian guy, 2 Japanese guys, a Japanese girl and a 16 year old Mongolian girl. I joke that the Japanese girl is a walking character dictionary. She always knows how to write whatever character we are studying.
I don't care much for writing characters. It wastes a lot of time and I'm poor at it. I don't have years in which to dedicate myself to writing a single character hundreds of times until it is correct. I want to work on speaking and recognizing characters. To me, being able to communicate with other people in Chinese is why I'm here. Squiggly lines don't interest me. If it isn't clear, I'm very unhappy with my current school situation. Of our tests and everything else we do, 20% is speaking, 20% is reading recognition and the last 60% is writing. This is opposite of what I want for myself and is making me less and less happy as time goes on. I keep scoring poorly on the tests because I write the characters wrong. Its frustrating always asking the teacher for more time while my Japanese classmates have finished their tests and are napping while waiting for us to finish. Even though I have a scholarship from NTNU, I can't see myself staying there in the future if the situation doesn't improve.
On that note, in about two weeks I'm planning my first trip out of the country. I'm planning on going to Macau! It will be fun to get another stamp in my passport and allow me to relax a bit. The promo rate I found is pretty fantastic. 250 US for round trip airfare tickets and either 2 days 1 night at a 4/5 star hotel or 3 days 2 nights at a 3 star hotel. I'm excited and need to book the ticket on Monday.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Pictures of my apartment
Late but never say never! The internet here has been a little weird but no matter.
Looking down from the lofted bedroom
My Bathroom
My Kitchen
Looking in from the doorway
A picture showing the stairs up to the bedroom
TV shot from the couch
Looking down from the lofted bedroom
My Bathroom
My Kitchen
Looking in from the doorway
A picture showing the stairs up to the bedroom
TV shot from the couch
Monday, September 8, 2008
First Day of Class
Today was the first day of classes at ShiDa's MTC program. I'm enrolled in the intensive program, which consists of class for 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I left the hostel at 9 for a 10:20 class. (yes I'm still sleeping here despite having an apartment. Long story that I'll post about later). The cab got me to school quickly, but it's getting expensive to always take cabs so I need to finish the move to my new apartment quickly. Anyways though, I grabbed coffee and a notebook from the convenience store next to the university to go with the bread I had for breakfast and started to review for the first day of classes.
What I neglected to do was check and see if my schedule said what chapter we were starting on. I assumed chapter 1, instead we started on chapter 7, so my preparations were for naught. I'm on the 8th floor of the foreign language building in one of the many rooms. I thought there were only going to be 4-6 students in the intensive program, as the website said. Instead the schedule says there are 8 but only 5, including myself, showed up today. Three of the five are continuing students who took classes together last semester. There are a guy and a girl from Japan, a Chinese guy from Australia and a girl from Mongolia. Of all of us, the Mongolian girl's Chinese is the best, despite only studying for 3 months in Shanghai. She is here with her brother, since her brother got into a prestigious university for Art.
All of us have graduated from College except for the Mongolian girl. I would use her real name if I could spell it, or pronounce it. Closest I can mimic to the sound is to imagine the wind rustling through trees. It sounded something like that. Our teacher will help her choose a better name than the last teacher did (Guan Ting) since she didn't like it.
The teacher is good, but strict. She has taught for 19 years now, however this is her first semester at NTNU. Before she taught at the TLI program. It's a different setup with most people going there for 1 on 1 classes, or the teachers go to foreign companies here who have employees that want to learn but can't make it during the 9-5 time frame.
Every day we will have homework and a "ting xie". The "ting xie" is a listening test where the teacher will recite some words we are supposed to have memorized and we write the character. Tonight's homework was writing examples for 12 words that she randomly chose. It took me over 2 hours due to the fact that I have completely forgotten how to write Chinese. I can speak it, read it and TYPE it, but not write it. Its been 3 years now since I wrote any Chinese at all. In my college classes at the higher level, we would do our homework on computers, using word processing. It's coming back slowly, but I will need a lot of practice, very quickly.
Its time to move the last of my stuff to my apartment. Now that I have a mattress, I need to get sheets for it and I can move in. That and get the Internet to my apartment. Of the two, I think the Internet is the more important thing to get. I can live without sheets, I can't live without the Internet, especially having forgotten how to write so many Chinese characters.
What I neglected to do was check and see if my schedule said what chapter we were starting on. I assumed chapter 1, instead we started on chapter 7, so my preparations were for naught. I'm on the 8th floor of the foreign language building in one of the many rooms. I thought there were only going to be 4-6 students in the intensive program, as the website said. Instead the schedule says there are 8 but only 5, including myself, showed up today. Three of the five are continuing students who took classes together last semester. There are a guy and a girl from Japan, a Chinese guy from Australia and a girl from Mongolia. Of all of us, the Mongolian girl's Chinese is the best, despite only studying for 3 months in Shanghai. She is here with her brother, since her brother got into a prestigious university for Art.
All of us have graduated from College except for the Mongolian girl. I would use her real name if I could spell it, or pronounce it. Closest I can mimic to the sound is to imagine the wind rustling through trees. It sounded something like that. Our teacher will help her choose a better name than the last teacher did (Guan Ting) since she didn't like it.
The teacher is good, but strict. She has taught for 19 years now, however this is her first semester at NTNU. Before she taught at the TLI program. It's a different setup with most people going there for 1 on 1 classes, or the teachers go to foreign companies here who have employees that want to learn but can't make it during the 9-5 time frame.
Every day we will have homework and a "ting xie". The "ting xie" is a listening test where the teacher will recite some words we are supposed to have memorized and we write the character. Tonight's homework was writing examples for 12 words that she randomly chose. It took me over 2 hours due to the fact that I have completely forgotten how to write Chinese. I can speak it, read it and TYPE it, but not write it. Its been 3 years now since I wrote any Chinese at all. In my college classes at the higher level, we would do our homework on computers, using word processing. It's coming back slowly, but I will need a lot of practice, very quickly.
Its time to move the last of my stuff to my apartment. Now that I have a mattress, I need to get sheets for it and I can move in. That and get the Internet to my apartment. Of the two, I think the Internet is the more important thing to get. I can live without sheets, I can't live without the Internet, especially having forgotten how to write so many Chinese characters.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Apartment Hunting
Well I narrowed down the hundreds of ads I looked at down to ten that I deemed "acceptable". With Felicity's advice about the different areas, and costs, I narrowed those ten down to three. While the one apartment a few blocks from DaAn "forest" park was in a fantastic area, I just couldn't afford the 1000 US a month rent. Then there was management fee (for whatever managers manage), water, power, DSL, and other things. So it was out of my reach, just barely.
Of the three I chose, I visited one on Friday night. One ad had the wrong phone number listed, and the other was an agency that had already rented the apartment. The apartment I saw was fantastic. It had a kitchen, a decent bathroom and the bedroom area was "up stairs". They partitioned the studio into two floors. The upstairs that had the bedroom was inspired by a Japanese style, wooden floors and everything wooden. Tons of cabinets to store clothing in. The only worry was that the stairwell was to narrow to get a proper mattress up there. That and the bathroom was an all in one bathroom, but they got around that with a heated floor that dries the water.
The roof had a fantastic view. You could see 3/4 of Taipei easily. Not only that, they had a spa and little BBQ pits. On the first floor was a workout room, a computer suite if you didn't have a computer and a KTV room. The KTV room wasn't my thing (Karaoke) but everything else seemed cool. Since it was the first place I saw though, I was being practical and said "I'll look at some others and let you know".
Today when I found out that all my other choices had issues, I had Felicity's sister call the landlords of the place I saw last night. Unfortunately they had already rented it. The people who viewed it half an hour after me decided not to wait. That was a shot to gut because I realized over night how great the apartment was. Good area, safe (because of the RFID key to get to your floor) plus everything else. I guess I'm going to have to find new ones now. The rest of today is set for looking for new apartment listings to check out tomorrow!
Of the three I chose, I visited one on Friday night. One ad had the wrong phone number listed, and the other was an agency that had already rented the apartment. The apartment I saw was fantastic. It had a kitchen, a decent bathroom and the bedroom area was "up stairs". They partitioned the studio into two floors. The upstairs that had the bedroom was inspired by a Japanese style, wooden floors and everything wooden. Tons of cabinets to store clothing in. The only worry was that the stairwell was to narrow to get a proper mattress up there. That and the bathroom was an all in one bathroom, but they got around that with a heated floor that dries the water.
The roof had a fantastic view. You could see 3/4 of Taipei easily. Not only that, they had a spa and little BBQ pits. On the first floor was a workout room, a computer suite if you didn't have a computer and a KTV room. The KTV room wasn't my thing (Karaoke) but everything else seemed cool. Since it was the first place I saw though, I was being practical and said "I'll look at some others and let you know".
Today when I found out that all my other choices had issues, I had Felicity's sister call the landlords of the place I saw last night. Unfortunately they had already rented it. The people who viewed it half an hour after me decided not to wait. That was a shot to gut because I realized over night how great the apartment was. Good area, safe (because of the RFID key to get to your floor) plus everything else. I guess I'm going to have to find new ones now. The rest of today is set for looking for new apartment listings to check out tomorrow!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Registering for Classes
After my aborted attempt to register on Wednesday (I didn't have passport sized pictures with me, I was picking them up Wednesday night), I headed over early to ShiDa's Mandarin Training Center. Its off of HePing and ShiDa road. The school is actually cut in half by HePing road. It was easy enough to find the building after I spent some time on Wednesday looking for a map, so Wednesday wasn't a total loss.
I was the 2nd person in line when they opened at 8:30 and because I was a scholarship student, it was even faster. Go to station 1 to check my name off the list and pick up paperwork, then to station 2 to get my student ID made (which isn't a 3X5 card but more like a 5X7 half laminated thing). Except for using an ink pen instead of a ballpoint there weren't any major problems. I even got a discount on the registration fee I had to pay.
After that I walked over and waited my turn to go in and do my oral interview. The lady was a rather stern Chinese lady but I did much better in this interview than in the ICLP one 3 years ago. I made some mistakes like using the wrong verb "to send". I used one that means literally to hand someone something, instead of mailing it to them. The interviewer was impressed that I had done ICLP before, even if it had been a while and I forgot a lot of my vocabulary. She said that I could take the Intensive courses, which are 3 hours a day instead of 2, if I wanted. My only concern was that the morning classes are for continuing students, and I wanted morning classes. She said if I tested well enough that they would put me in the Intensive courses.
I'm both happy and sad about that. Happy because it means that my Chinese will improve faster. I'm sad because I read what the Intensive courses require. 3 hours of class every day, M-F and 4 hours of prep work outside of class. My work week is going to get filled up pretty quickly at the rate I'm going. We'll see what happens though. I took the listening test which was a standardized Chinese test of vocab, grammar, listen to a paragraph and respond, and got an 83/140 on the Intermediate level. That's not bad but a little less than I had hoped for. Either way, it shows what my level is and helps me to improve.
After getting that straightened out, I went back to the Hostel to read for a while. It's too hot to go outside and I hate the grime that sticks to me after walking in the humidity so I have begun to take cabs everywhere. I'll balance that out by riding the bike I plan to buy when it cools down some. That and eating at the vegetarian places close to my hostel, including this yummy organic vegetarian place that also offers meat if you so desire.
After reading for a few hours I was getting bored just about the time my friend Natalie called me. She and I went to High School and College together and she has been here since February. I jumped at the chance to get out and hang with her and the other grad student who is over here, Ryan Dalton. We met up at a relaxing little bar named the Penguin where Natalie was having a Language Exchange with a Taiwanese girl name Wendy. Wendy seemed nice, a little nervous, but nice none the less. After she left to go back to her dorms (its a school night for her) we sat around and chatted for a long time. They kicked us out of the bar at 12:30 because it was slow, and we weren't ordering enough for them to keep it open. Its a mixed bar/hookah place/tea shop.
I almost forgot to mention the best part. As I was walking up to the bar, on ShiDa road, there was a guy selling food out of the back of a blue truck. That in itself is nothing special, until I saw someone petting his animal. I thought it was probably just a cute dog, until I saw that it was white and had a beak. The guy had a pet goose. A big fat white goose that sat there and let you pet it. I did a triple take and almost ran into someone. I wish I had my camera with me. I mean who has a pet goose?
Anyway, it was good to see Natalie again and talk to someone else who went through the same experience I did. Hers was a little different since every quarter, people she knew left and she had to meet new people. The foreigner turnover rate in Taiwan is pretty high. I expect she, Ryan and I will be hanging out a lot since we all know each other pretty well.
Ohh and one more thing that I found out. Grandpa was right. The Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ restaurant is still here and doing well. I found some reviews for it from last weekend so I am going to have to go pretty soon. Its amazing that the place is still open after 30 years in a town that has a turnover rate on restaurants of approximately 3 months. Just when you start to like a restaurant, they rip it out and put something nasty in its place.
I was the 2nd person in line when they opened at 8:30 and because I was a scholarship student, it was even faster. Go to station 1 to check my name off the list and pick up paperwork, then to station 2 to get my student ID made (which isn't a 3X5 card but more like a 5X7 half laminated thing). Except for using an ink pen instead of a ballpoint there weren't any major problems. I even got a discount on the registration fee I had to pay.
After that I walked over and waited my turn to go in and do my oral interview. The lady was a rather stern Chinese lady but I did much better in this interview than in the ICLP one 3 years ago. I made some mistakes like using the wrong verb "to send". I used one that means literally to hand someone something, instead of mailing it to them. The interviewer was impressed that I had done ICLP before, even if it had been a while and I forgot a lot of my vocabulary. She said that I could take the Intensive courses, which are 3 hours a day instead of 2, if I wanted. My only concern was that the morning classes are for continuing students, and I wanted morning classes. She said if I tested well enough that they would put me in the Intensive courses.
I'm both happy and sad about that. Happy because it means that my Chinese will improve faster. I'm sad because I read what the Intensive courses require. 3 hours of class every day, M-F and 4 hours of prep work outside of class. My work week is going to get filled up pretty quickly at the rate I'm going. We'll see what happens though. I took the listening test which was a standardized Chinese test of vocab, grammar, listen to a paragraph and respond, and got an 83/140 on the Intermediate level. That's not bad but a little less than I had hoped for. Either way, it shows what my level is and helps me to improve.
After getting that straightened out, I went back to the Hostel to read for a while. It's too hot to go outside and I hate the grime that sticks to me after walking in the humidity so I have begun to take cabs everywhere. I'll balance that out by riding the bike I plan to buy when it cools down some. That and eating at the vegetarian places close to my hostel, including this yummy organic vegetarian place that also offers meat if you so desire.
After reading for a few hours I was getting bored just about the time my friend Natalie called me. She and I went to High School and College together and she has been here since February. I jumped at the chance to get out and hang with her and the other grad student who is over here, Ryan Dalton. We met up at a relaxing little bar named the Penguin where Natalie was having a Language Exchange with a Taiwanese girl name Wendy. Wendy seemed nice, a little nervous, but nice none the less. After she left to go back to her dorms (its a school night for her) we sat around and chatted for a long time. They kicked us out of the bar at 12:30 because it was slow, and we weren't ordering enough for them to keep it open. Its a mixed bar/hookah place/tea shop.
I almost forgot to mention the best part. As I was walking up to the bar, on ShiDa road, there was a guy selling food out of the back of a blue truck. That in itself is nothing special, until I saw someone petting his animal. I thought it was probably just a cute dog, until I saw that it was white and had a beak. The guy had a pet goose. A big fat white goose that sat there and let you pet it. I did a triple take and almost ran into someone. I wish I had my camera with me. I mean who has a pet goose?
Anyway, it was good to see Natalie again and talk to someone else who went through the same experience I did. Hers was a little different since every quarter, people she knew left and she had to meet new people. The foreigner turnover rate in Taiwan is pretty high. I expect she, Ryan and I will be hanging out a lot since we all know each other pretty well.
Ohh and one more thing that I found out. Grandpa was right. The Genghis Khan Mongolian BBQ restaurant is still here and doing well. I found some reviews for it from last weekend so I am going to have to go pretty soon. Its amazing that the place is still open after 30 years in a town that has a turnover rate on restaurants of approximately 3 months. Just when you start to like a restaurant, they rip it out and put something nasty in its place.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Apartment shopping
The heat and humidity is murder here. I'm drinking about two liters of water a day, or more, as necessary to keep myself from dehydrating. Even then, if I am outside for more than 15 minutes I look like I have been swimming. I need to find some handkerchiefs to carry around until it cools down.
I seem to be adjusting to Taipei better and faster than last time. It helps that I have a basic idea of the layout of the city so that I don't get lost as easily. I just really wish it was cooler so that I could go travel more with the free time that I have. Until it cools down some more in fall, I think I'll postpone traveling and instead just focus on apartment hunting.
I spent a couple weeks researching apartments on TEALIT.com before I came here. The only problem is that apartments on that listing service have an unofficial "foreigner tax" due to the fact that the landlords speak English and can raise what they charge for rent on unsuspecting new arrivals. It does help to get an idea of what is available to rent in Taipei though. If I want a studio, there are hundreds of options. A 1 bedroom apartment is much harder to find on listing services. More common are 2 bedroom places. The western style bathroom (separated tub/shower area) are harder to find than the "all in one" traditional Taiwanese style.
There was one apartment I found that I was interested in. It's a studio, but the bedroom is lofted above the entrance to give it a more open feel. Its in an area south of the city, further south on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) than my previous place by two stops. The nice thing is its right above the MRT station and you can't hear a thing. There are actually two apartments there that I was interested in; the one I found on the listing service, and then one that Felicity's aunt owns. Her aunt bought the place for Felicity's cousin Emily when Emily was studying the last year of high school so she wouldn't have to take the half hour bus ride to and from home everyday. Now that Emily is starting college, she'll be in the dorms and doesn't need it anymore.
Its a nice place with west facing windows, which will help keep it warm in the winter, but I'm still going to look around a bit more. I have reservations about the place since it is a studio, and owned by Felicity's aunt, but she was understanding. She didn't want me to feel pressured to rent it because her family is offering it to me for about 100 US cheaper than the other apartment. We'll see what happens.
I seem to be adjusting to Taipei better and faster than last time. It helps that I have a basic idea of the layout of the city so that I don't get lost as easily. I just really wish it was cooler so that I could go travel more with the free time that I have. Until it cools down some more in fall, I think I'll postpone traveling and instead just focus on apartment hunting.
I spent a couple weeks researching apartments on TEALIT.com before I came here. The only problem is that apartments on that listing service have an unofficial "foreigner tax" due to the fact that the landlords speak English and can raise what they charge for rent on unsuspecting new arrivals. It does help to get an idea of what is available to rent in Taipei though. If I want a studio, there are hundreds of options. A 1 bedroom apartment is much harder to find on listing services. More common are 2 bedroom places. The western style bathroom (separated tub/shower area) are harder to find than the "all in one" traditional Taiwanese style.
There was one apartment I found that I was interested in. It's a studio, but the bedroom is lofted above the entrance to give it a more open feel. Its in an area south of the city, further south on the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) than my previous place by two stops. The nice thing is its right above the MRT station and you can't hear a thing. There are actually two apartments there that I was interested in; the one I found on the listing service, and then one that Felicity's aunt owns. Her aunt bought the place for Felicity's cousin Emily when Emily was studying the last year of high school so she wouldn't have to take the half hour bus ride to and from home everyday. Now that Emily is starting college, she'll be in the dorms and doesn't need it anymore.
Its a nice place with west facing windows, which will help keep it warm in the winter, but I'm still going to look around a bit more. I have reservations about the place since it is a studio, and owned by Felicity's aunt, but she was understanding. She didn't want me to feel pressured to rent it because her family is offering it to me for about 100 US cheaper than the other apartment. We'll see what happens.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Arriving in Taipei
Thirteen hours is a long time for any flight, especially trans-pacific where your knees end up in the back of the chair in front of you. Happen to me every time, like clockwork. However, rather than having some weird passenger sitting next to me that I actively try to avoid, I had a nice lady who is on her way to Ningbo, China to teach elementary school there. I didn't look forward to her flight, with a delay in Taipei, then a flight to Hong Kong, a delay there, and a transfer onto a puddle jumper to fly into Ningbo. She was nice though, and made for some pleasant small talk for most of the flight.
I got off the flight at 5:30 local time, walked to immigration and saw long lines of 20 people or more. Figuring it would be awhile, I waited behind two people to change my USD into NTD (New Taiwan Dollars). When I turned around, the crowds had dropped to 4 people per line. In the 3 minutes that it took me to wait in line and get my money, they processed a couple hundred people. I jumped in the shortest line, got through, and went to collect my baggage. However, I wasn't paying nearly enough attention to which carousel I went to.
Since there were two flights from LAX to TPE, one a half an hour earlier than mine, Murphy's law dictated that I had to go stand by the wrong one, that was almost empty, and look like a fool. I figured out quickly enough (with minimal embarrassment) that I was in the wrong place, and hurried over to the correct carousel. I grabbed my bags as they came right by and breezed out of customs without having to declare anything.
Having had 3 years pass since I last landed in Taipei during summer, my brain actively worked to shield me from how miserable this much humidity is. The cab ride was fine, although walking into the wall of humidity is a nasty wake up call at 6 in the morning. When I got out of the cab at my hostel, World Scholar House, I quickly realized why my brain had tried to protect me. My glasses immediately fogged up and I immediately started sweating profusely. This was at 7:30 am mind you, not the middle of the day (which was far worse).
I got situated in my prison cell style room; 6X10 with one window an AC and a fan. Its not bad for now, but I need to find my own apartment quickly. Hostels have the ability to attract weird and socially inept people. Grunting and staring seems to be on par for the current guests, in contrast with when I stayed here last. That time had some nice fellow guests to chat with and watch movies with.
I grabbed breakfast with Felicity at 11 or 12 am and then we walked around and chatted. It was miserable weather but great seeing her again. She's offered to help me find an apartment and I took her offer up. She has one in mind that I'll talk about in a later post.
I got off the flight at 5:30 local time, walked to immigration and saw long lines of 20 people or more. Figuring it would be awhile, I waited behind two people to change my USD into NTD (New Taiwan Dollars). When I turned around, the crowds had dropped to 4 people per line. In the 3 minutes that it took me to wait in line and get my money, they processed a couple hundred people. I jumped in the shortest line, got through, and went to collect my baggage. However, I wasn't paying nearly enough attention to which carousel I went to.
Since there were two flights from LAX to TPE, one a half an hour earlier than mine, Murphy's law dictated that I had to go stand by the wrong one, that was almost empty, and look like a fool. I figured out quickly enough (with minimal embarrassment) that I was in the wrong place, and hurried over to the correct carousel. I grabbed my bags as they came right by and breezed out of customs without having to declare anything.
Having had 3 years pass since I last landed in Taipei during summer, my brain actively worked to shield me from how miserable this much humidity is. The cab ride was fine, although walking into the wall of humidity is a nasty wake up call at 6 in the morning. When I got out of the cab at my hostel, World Scholar House, I quickly realized why my brain had tried to protect me. My glasses immediately fogged up and I immediately started sweating profusely. This was at 7:30 am mind you, not the middle of the day (which was far worse).
I got situated in my prison cell style room; 6X10 with one window an AC and a fan. Its not bad for now, but I need to find my own apartment quickly. Hostels have the ability to attract weird and socially inept people. Grunting and staring seems to be on par for the current guests, in contrast with when I stayed here last. That time had some nice fellow guests to chat with and watch movies with.
I grabbed breakfast with Felicity at 11 or 12 am and then we walked around and chatted. It was miserable weather but great seeing her again. She's offered to help me find an apartment and I took her offer up. She has one in mind that I'll talk about in a later post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)