Day 5/6 -- May, 29-30

So day 5 I can't talk about until I get back in the States due to confidentiality. I promise I will tell you once I am home. It wasn't anything bad (in fact is was a really epic experience) but I have to wait until I am back home.

Today was slightly less eventful. I was on the computer most of the morning, just chatting with friends and family. It was really good to here my Dad’s voice. I missing lots of people. It’s slightly exacerbated by the fact I go through random times of isolation. My morning included going out to the WELCOME grocery store to get tea and find a steam bun for lunch. I will be honest with you, street food is probably one of the best things about Taiwan. I’ve been having fun playing the pointing game to order my food.

    I was supposed to meet with Yen at 14:00, when I met her on the Hi-Life patio we ran into Mikey and Claire. Mikey is from UNR and Clair is from France. We stayed and chatted for a bit, then Sean turned up with Daniel and Tai Chi. We had some Chinese students come up ask a few questions for their homework. Yen and I decided to head off, we had plans to visit a large shopping district.
    We went pretty far down the Blue line (Bannan) and ended up at Houshanpi station. We hopped off the train. Almost immediately out of the station we found a small little temple. Yen laughed and I went exploring for a a few minutes. All the temples here are very colorful I really like looking at them all. We would later find yet another temple just wandering around the shopping district. This one was bigger and had more color and decoration. It was interesting again being a tourist in a place of prayer.

  The shopping district was absolutely huge. So many street vendor shops. I really wishing I had a lot of money so I could have bought a bunch of things but alas, I am a poor muffin. So instead Yen and I wandered around. She kept calling me a hippie with my choices in clothing. I will probably head back there at some point a pick up a few things before I leave. Some of the styles were really odd. They had tons of parachute pants and well as shirts with strange English writing on them. There were a few dresses I really liked in some of the smaller shops! We also ate some street food as we were walking. Originally we got Guava, then later I bought chicken on a stick along with a few fried bread with sweet potato in them. Freaking awesome!

    On our way home I had to use the MRT all by myself. It wasn’t too bad I am feeling more confident, hopefully I will work my way up to just going wherever I want to. I ran into Mikey again and chatted with him outside the dorms for a while. He’s a really nice dude, I look forward to getting to know him as the summer goes on.

    I talked with Sean via Facebook and fond out about a little vegetarian restaurant near the school, it’s a little more pricy but I was really craving some vegetables. It turns out to be a Buddhist specific place. The food was awesome as usual. I actually ad an interesting experience. I went into the store and another foreigner also was in. I sat down then she came over to talk to me. We ended up eating together. Her name is Lindsay, she I think is a teacher of English as well as a student here. It was nice meeting a friendly person. She is from Toronto, Canada. It was an excellent and reinvigorating experience. I am happy I went out. Now it is time to sleep.

Day 4 --- May 28

So the morning bell is an interesting alarm clock. I was awake at 8 am. I need to get a better pillow, mine is much too small and it’s very uncomfortable. I really didn’t have any plans so I at dinner, which was my left over bread from the bakery Yen and I went too. I essentially just sat around trying to upload pictures to Facebook. I then went on an adventure to Shida market, which not very exciting during the day. I bought some cup of ramen soup for lunch went back to the dorm and ate it.

    I got bored of sitting around so I went to wander. I walked around the area just looking at things. Today was particularly warm during the early afternoon. I walked around for maybe an hour, stopped into a bakery and bought some bread to enjoy. I then went into NTNU and wandered up to one of their open roofs. I ended up ding a little video just talking for the first time that day. It’s a bit strange not really being able to communicate. I then headed back to the dorm.

Chloe and I in the boy's dorms wearing our safety vests

    On my way back, in the lobby were most of the Nevada exchange students. I ended up hanging out with them for a little bit before we decided to go to a park to drink tea and play games. We walked about 10 minutes to the park. On the way we made a quick stop for snacks. I bought strawberry flavored popcorn.... Which sounds incredibly odd but is actually quite tasty. Sean ended up having to go back to the university for tea cups and the tea boiler. We then went and found some shade.

    Originally we were going to play card games but Johnny ended up suggesting a weird pic-tionary game. We played two rounds is was really amusing. Drawing and describing each other's pictures. At the end the rest of the UNR crew showed up and we decided that dinner was indeed a good idea. So we headed back to the dorms to drop off stuff and get more water.We then walked into the back area where we stopped at a little shop. The shop served wonton soup, which was excellent. It was around this time I realized everyone was calling me Dr. Strange, an marvelous nickname if I do say so myself.

    I then went back to meet up with Yen. She wanted to go to the street market again. We got a little turned around not realizing how big the market actually was and thought we needed to take the MRT. It was really funny when we ended up on the other side of my dorms. We laughed and wandered again. It was a good time. Now I am back in the dorms and ready for bed. Tomorrow is an early day.

Days 1-3 May 25-27

Well I am here! So I’ve actually been in Taiwan for about 3 days, but getting settled and everything has prevented me from writing anything down. The plane flight was about what you’d expect. Long, difficult to sleep on. Though I was surprised about the food, it wasn’t gourmet or anything, but it was decent. I essentially stayed up the whole time on flight maybe dozed for an hour or so. it was difficult to sleep because of the excitement. And the 747 was rather noisy plane. Some how I managed to have window seats which was incredibly pleasant, I love watching the world pass in the window.

    I arrived in Taiwan and customs was easy to go through, they didn’t even take a finger print, just a picture. Then I went to find Yen, this was about 6:15 in the morning Taipei time. (Subtract 15 hours for PST) It was very crowded in the airport, but I found her. Then we got a car into the city, Taipei is not a particularly beautiful city to look at. It’s utilitarian. We got to Yen’s house and I unloaded my stuff. We then hit the streets around her house for breakfast. Food is incredibly cheap here, we got breakfast for two people plus special drinks about 300 NT or $10.00. It was a rice roll with egg and vegetables. It was quite good. Yen took me to explore the open air market by her house. That was definitely a different experience. People, scooters, bikes all moving around each other in a cacophony of different languages (Mandarin, Taiwanese and Fujin) and car horns.

    We took the MRT (subway) to NTNU campus and met Sean there. He took us to the night market (though it was noon), there we got lunch. It was beef noodles, made there in the store. We wandered around the campus and got a tour of the area. I also got to hang out on the roof of one of the buildings for a bit. Then we hopped the MRT to the Chaing Kai Shek (CKS) memorial. It was interesting, in the historical implications. We went into the memorial house and got stopped by students wanting us to fill out a survey. I did but I was only 12 hours off the plane so I really couldn’t answer the questions. Sean pretended to take it very seriously and kept asking for clarification when the English was a little strange. Yen and I were trying not to laugh too hard.

    After touring the Park, Yen and I headed back to her house. We took a bit of break from the heat and watched TV. I played a game with the Mandarin subtitles trying to guess the meanings of words. It was fun and I did alright at it. Then dinner with Yen’s parents started. It was actually really good. So far all the food I have eaten here has been delicious. After dinner we settled down for a movie. We originally were going to go out with Sean but we were both so tired that we ended up falling asleep around 8:45ish. So ended day one.

    Day two was a little bit more relaxed. It started with a steam bun filled with vegetables. I had asked the night before about going to a temple and the 228 peace park. Yen's mother suggested we go to Longshan which is a famous temple in Taiwan. First we stopped at the 228 Peace Park, which by day is a very fun place at night apparently it’s a famous gay hookup spot. I toured the museum with Yen. The history of the park deals with a Taiwanese rebellion against the government which was over taxing and essentially being an evil government. We wandered around for a while then got back on the MRT and headed for the buddhist temple.

    The Longshan area is in the sketchier of neighborhoods. Lots of people some of them very sick or poor. (I would later find out that this area had lots of prostitution) But it was safe, we didn’t have any problems.There was some kind of ceremony going on in the temple. Many people were there praying and chanting. It was very interesting to watch. We also went to the back of the temple and saw some of the minor buddhas. Over all a very strange experience, to be tourist and watching people around me devoutly praying.
 We then headed back to the MRT so we could eat lunch. Sean ended up coming to dinner which was a lot of fun. We sat at the table and talked about characters and I received my Chinese name. 鍾思華 or Zhong (bell) Si (think)  Hua (flower) and at present I have no idea what it means (I have since learned). The middle character means to think but that’s all I remember. I will need to ask again so I can tell everyone. That concluded day two.

    Day three was a little bit more stressful, I got up and packed up. I was headed for the dorms and NTNU. Which while a good thing, I was sad to leave Yen’s. My luggage was too big to take on the MRT so we ended up in a taxi. I got to NTNU and accidentally stumbled across Julian and Nick, who are also from University of Nevada. They helped us find the international office and get set up in the dorms.  I went to my dorm and walked in, there were two Chinese girls and one Korean staring back at me, rather shocked. Yen was able to explain that I was to live here, they all seemed unsure. None of us can communicate so it’s a little odd.

    I then had to run around MTC or the Mandarin training center. They wanted to give me a Mandarin proficiency test, but I just told them I definitely didn’t speak any Chinese. The teacher then asked me if I wanted to be put in with the beginners.... I thought that odd, but I told her I did. I chose the intensive classes instead of the regular. I hope they’ll be able to help me learn faster.

    After a while I came back to set up my dorm. I had to buy a mattress which was strange to me, but I didn’t want to sleep on wood. Everything I needed was purchased at the “everything store.’ As the name suggests it is intended to be a one stop shop. It can be a little pricey though.The mattress has a bamboo side, which apparently keeps you cooler. I messed around on the internet and met Sean for dinner. I also saw Yen again and we explored the night market some more. It was different in the night, many more shops and lights. I unfortunately forgot my camera, I will bring it tomorrow as it is a common place to eat dinner. Now I am back an utterly exhausted. Thus ending the third day.