Day 37 -- June 30

Local Wildlife

So as I predicated today was a rest day. I didn’t wake up until almost 11 and then I only made as far as the the 7/11 on campus for lunch. I ran into Sean whilst there, again his method of greeting was to bodily run into me. We chatted for a bit and realized neither of us were really up for anything.  Before I left, a small family shared the table with me, which I think is really neat. Here if there isn’t room but only one person at a table, people will just come sit with you. I find it very efficient. The weather outside wasn’t too bad, there was a breeze a slightly overcast. I went back to my dorm and did homework for a little bit.

    Meiling (my Thai roommate) is ill so she has been sleeping on and off. She’s got a bit f a cold and a nasty cough, hopefully no else will catch it. I will use this time to report that my bug bites are slowly getting better. I have been putting anti-itch and some other more local remedies on them. I am probably going to go pick up pants at some point this week, I would really like a buddy to go shopping with. Perhaps I shall ask Jillian to come with me, though both Yuzu and Eungyu have expressed interest. We shall see. So after essentially homework, studying and goofing off I wander out into the night market to go find dinner. The market was particularly alive tonight, there were street performers and lots of people just running around. I actually ended up at a small shop called Sabara. I ended up with some call G-Pai, it was quite good. I chatted with the stall owner who was from Canada. It was nice. I am beginning to get my bearings as to where things are in the night market. It’ll probably be a whole month before I am comfortable though.

    Coming back to the dorm I ended up studying and relaxing. I really just needed a day with no obligations or places to be. I feel very much rested and I am ready to take on the week. Hopefully it will be fun! Tomorrow I talk to mom via skype that should be good. Good night!

Day 36 -- June 29

Today started off on an interesting note. After about 15 minutes of being awake a small earthquake occurred. This will be my third earthquake since arriving in Taiwan. It lasted a good 10 seconds before dying down. It freaked my roommate out a little bit but it wasn’t too bad. We are sitting right on the rim of the Ring of Fire, earthquakes are apart of the existence of Taiwan. After that fun little adventure with Mother Nature, I got ready to go to Alex’s send off brunch.  I met up with Johnny and James and we walked over to the MRT. We met up with everyone including Dr. Shaipro’s nephew Isaac, he is in Taiwan to go study Mandarin in Tainaan. Breakfast was incredibly enjoyable, I had some blueberry toast and cheese omelet. I was good to say good bye to Alex, I will miss him greatly. He is a very good friend, I am hopeful our paths will cross again. There was a big trust hug circle at the MRT and we watched him go. He’s probably in Shanghai by now.

    After that I decided that Wulai wasn’t really going to happen. The hiking I was going to do was relatively difficult and in a remote location. No one wanted to joining this weekend, I decided to be cautious and stay here. I instead decided to go with Jillian, Johnny, Daniel, Mikey, and James to Elephant Mountain. It’s a really nice stair hike that takes us up to see Taipei. It was an awesome hike, not for the faint hearted tough. At some points the steps were incredibly steep everyone was a little bit winded. The views were really fantastic and it was nice to be out of the suburban sprawl that has become my jungle. I got to see some really interesting wild life. That includes the spider that was the size of my fist. We essentially goofed off on the mountain until we realized it was getting late.

    We walked back to the closest MRT station, stopping for a moment to enjoy a 7/11 snack break. We got back into GongGuan about 4 in the afternoon. I broke off from Johnny and James to go find food. There are a lot more foreigners running around the GongGuan area. MTC has a program that runs for only the month of June, so there are students here for only a month. I met two girls who are living next door, Sally and I believe Utomazi (At least that’s how I remember her name... It is something like that). It’s sorta odd seeing all of them running around, they are traveling in groups of three or four. I am used to being the only group, how odd is that? I went and got a vegetarian dinner. As I was getting ready to eat Sean ran into to me, literally. He apparently had just made it back from Taichung and was also on a quest for food. He saw me sitting there and decided to announce his presence by bodily pushing me, I thought it was hilarious. We ate together and then did some wandering.

    I came to the dorms. I have been incredibly exhausted. I will have an early night and a late morning. I just need t catch up on some sleep without the need to go do anything. I may go shopping tomorrow for pants but other than that the day is free. It’s actually quite lovely not having plans. I will say good night, tomorrow’s post will probably be short.

Day 35 -- June 28

My bug bites kit...

It’s Friday! And an excellent day, it was. Last night after typing up the blog i had a bit of scare. My feet were noticeably swollen, I think I am having and allergic reaction to all the bug bites  have received. I have over 50 bites all of which are below my knees. I never get bit anywhere else. It’s a pretty nasty looking thing but i have recently taken some benedryl and the swelling in my feet has been reduced by a significant amount meaning it is very likely just an allergic reaction I am considering pulling out money to go buy pants, but I am concerned about my budget. If I buy pants then I may have to tighten down my food money and start walking to school instead of taking the bus. Not an ideal solution but I gotta figure something out, owning pants is becoming necessity. We’ll see how all that pans out. I will keep you updated to the state of my legs.

    Class was much more fun, we are starting in on talking about the family. These sections are usually not very useful in everyday conversation but it works out, gotta know the words one way or another. It turns out that everyone in the class has a pretty significant family size. Laoshi was surprised, but it’s not uncommon for Taiwan families to be small. Having a kid is expensive. Class ended on a fairly high note, I feel much better about learning this chapter than I do the other chapters. Hopefully that will all work out. I headed home and took a short break. Tonight was Alex’s last night in Taiwan, so we went to a little Mexican food joint. I kinda laughed at the thought of doing it Taiwan but we wanted to see how it was.

    I met up with Mikey, Daniel, Johnny, James, Nick Jillian, Alex and a new person Steven. We all walked to the place, I had actually run into all ready and kinda laughed at it. We went in and ordered our food, I got a burrito and enchilada combo. I will say this, Taiwanese people don’t know their Mexican food. It was very bland, I have mostly definitely made more flavorful food. I think that in terms of palate Mexican doesn’t mesh so they adjusted it to fit the taste. All the Americans were disappointed but the Europeans thought it was excellent. They need to try the real thing before they can understand how good Mexican food is. Something I will enjoy back in the states. The company was good and that is all that matters.

    We wandered around for a little bit and actually looped our way back to Shida, we decided hat tomorrow we would go have brunch as a send off for Alex who will be leaving at noon. After that Johnny and I walked back to Gong Guan because he had things to do and the bendryl was making me incredibly sleepy. (it still is as I type this, there may be more Engrish than normal in this blog post) We chatted for a bit, I got talk to him about living abroad and things. It’s always good to talk to the people I have traveled with to this place, in many ways they are becoming a family of sorts. It’s all very good. I will be going to Wulai tomorrow to do the hike I have been threatening. It looks like only Nick will be coming with me, but that’s chill we should have a good time. Well I am going to go to bed, Good night!

Day 34 -- June 27

It was a quiet day today. I got up worked on some homework. I chatted with Reece for a bit on skype then headed out early to class. I swung by the bakery n Shida to get some bread for breakfast, fresh bread is awesome! I was asked to come to the conversation class by one of the teachers. So I went I was pleasantly surprised by the fact that Jillian and Nick were also there. Along with some other familiar faces, regular class students have to attend extra hours at MTC to get in their 15 hours a week. Because I am an intensive student I get 15 hours by simply going to class, anything I do after that point is extra. Class itself was enjoyable, Laoshi always chooses us as I sit in the front she now knows my face. She encouraged us all to come, I think I will if noting else a chance to speak in a room where people won’t switch o my native language upon difficulty.

    Lunch was an indulgence of dumpling from my favorite lady of the Shida night market. Though it’s been a while since I’ve seen her and was able to string some sentences together into a very simply conversation. She smiled so awesomely and gave me extra dumplings for it. Apparently I have improved from the initial “Nihao”. I also grabbed some coffee to supplement the exhaustion I feel. I am having trouble sleeping due to the bugs bites I have currently littering up my legs. I am not sure what happened, but the last two days I have broken out in very nasty bug bites. I think the problem is in the movie theater, whenever I leave I also have more bites than before. So anyway, after lunch I headed off to class.

    The test was difficult for me, something about chapter four simply did not click in my head. I’m not really sure what it was, but I will endeavor to learn the material even after the test is over. From what I was seeing no one really did very well on the test. Apparently this chapter is one of the more difficult ones for beginners. Because the chapter was about numbers I feel like we simply need more exposure to the concepts presented. We headed out with our usual massive load of homework. I took the bus back to Gong Guan, I swung by the Family Mart to get some band aids for my bug bites. Something to remind me not to scratch myself. I now own a significant about of bug spray, anti-itch cream and band aids. So never fear I am dealing with the problem.

    When I got back my roommates had some food they wanted to give me. It was from a festival is what I gathered from the explanation. I don’t know what it is but many of my new friends give me food. Today before class Eungyu brought me a snack and then my roommates give me food. I have also received food from other people just in sort of a random way. I keep wondering if I look malnourished, but I think this is a cultural thing I am not super keyed in on. I think I will ask around and maybe do some research about it.

 
  I got a call from Alex who wanted to go out for dinner, I told him to come to Gong Guan which has many more options for food than Shida. We went for a wander and we ended up at a small pizza joint. It was actually very good, both of us were very happy with out selection of food. We chatted for a bit, I will be sad to see my Englishman go. He leaves saturday, but he has promised me a place on his couch should I ever come to England along with a free tour of London. I think now I have to go to Europe at some point, I keep making friends and these friends keep inviting me to stay on their couch.

    I came back to the dorms and worked on my homework, I like to save the last part of it for the morning. it gives me a chance to refresh my memory of all the characters. This week for some reason has flown by, I keep getting the day of the week wrong. I kept thinking today was Tuesday when it was most definitely Thursday. Not really sure where I am losing time, but hey it happens. i guess it just means that I am busy or very tired... 我很累！So very tired, so off to bed I go!

Days 32-33 -- June 25 & 26

I decided that today I would go find the the breakfast joint I had seen the night before. I have been craving a good hearty breakfast since I got here. Breakfast is usually a hodgepodge of things, so it’s hard to find some scrambled eggs with pancakes. It’s also hard to find food places open before 11:30. I walked over to Shark Bites and sat down. The waitress didn’t speak and English and was embarrassed by it. I really need to learn to say “speak slowly, I will try to understand”. I ordered an omelet, which was actually more a eggs sandwich, but close enough. It was very good! It was what I needed, I then headed back to the dorms to study before class. I took the bus over to Shida.

    Class was enjoyable though a bit difficult. Today was the first day where my Japanese knowledge was interfering with my ability to learn Mandarin. I will just need to memorize characters for a now and muddle through. Hopefully it will get easier. I was given a ton of homework that evening so ended up just staying in. Except for a short jaunt for ice cream and a whimsical purchase of a new purse. Something I am very happy about, I finally got my Taiwanese flag. I essentially then holed myself up at my desk and stayed there until I went to sleep. Not a super exciting day, but these things happen.

Student food!

So June 26 rolls around I ended up just sleep in. I had done so much studying the night before I just needed a morning to sleep. I finally managed to get myself out of my dorm around 12:30, I would be meeting the group for a goodbye lunch for our French friend Claire. We went to the green restaurant  had some awesome food and good company. It makes me sad that I only had a short time with Claire, Alex, and Mikey. All of them are leaving soon, but such is the life of an exchange student. We have to come and go, but I feel like the connections I make here with be long lasting.

    After that I dashed over to class. Class was difficult but fun. I keep getting hungry right in the middle, I am going to go find me some kind of snack I can pack away. Maybe a nutrition bar or something. On one of the breaks I ran onto another Teacher, the one that taught my pronunciation class, she has instructed me to show up tomorrow for her conversation class. I will probably go as I need to really get speaking down. I think Laoshi has assigned us a group project but no one was very clear about it. I hope she will explain tomorrow. The end of class is always very chaotic because she really tries to not hold us over too long. So more on that at a later time.

    After class I went to go meet up with Yuzu and Eungyu, who I met at the old dorms. we were going o go for dinner. We decided on a ramen shop and for essentially 6 hours I couldn’t speak English. I had to muddle my way through my other languages. I got to practice my Mandarin a lot. I am incredibly pleased about this, I realize that just throwing myself into situations where I have no choice but to speak Mandarin is really the best way to practice. What was so nice about hanging out with these ladies is that they would speak slow and repeat as many times as I needed them too. The biggest issue I have is people get frustrated and just start speaking English, but here that wasn’t and option. After walking around for a little bit we decided to go see a movie. I have finally seen Superman! It was kinda a trip to see such an American centric movie in a different country. It makes me realize how far globalization has affected this world. Also hearing the English words with the Mandarin subtitles was fun trying to figure out characters now that I understand very basic structure of sentences.

Yuzu

Eungyu

    I came back to the dorms, worked on homework. I have my chapter test tomorrow and it’s the first one I am actually concerned about. I will probably be up early to get in so last minute studying. I chatted with Ryan, it’s been a while since we had talked. I really am trying to keep up with everyone back home but goodness gracious a 15 hour time zone difference is frustrating. Well I am off to bed so I will leave you at that. Good night!

Day 31 -- June 24

OK, so this blog is about my honest experience with day to day life in Taiwan. I am going to honest with you –– today was a terrible day until the end. So bare with me here, it’s perfectly ok for me to have bad days, this is actually my first one in Taiwan. I am very happy with my overall experience in Taiwan, but these things do happen and bad days creep up on you. This post is going to act a cathartic tool for me as well. If you don’t want to read it, no hard feelings. We’ll be back with our regular program tomorrow. Ok, on with the show.

    Waking up I had managed to forget my alarm but that wasn’t bad I woke up about eight. I munch on a few snacks I had been given. Nothing was really happening so I went back to sleep for a few hours. I got up again and decided to go get breakfast/lunch. And that’s when life started falling apart. I backed up because I figured I’d head over to Shida after I ate, my backpack when fully load is a good weight on my back. Not uncomfortable but in this heat it makes me sweat like a pig. My first issue is I had not really been shown around GongGuan. Everyone kept talking about awesome food a breakfast but had not shown me or even remotely pointed me in any direction other than the casual “go that way”. So I did not find food because I was unaware of where to look. I be came overly frustrated and just decided to head to Shida because I know where I can find food there.

    I ended up getting turned around trying to find the bus station and walked in a giant circle. Mildly irritated and incredible sweaty I caught the bus to Shida. I found a restaurant that i have eaten at before, but for whatever reason the people seemed mildly disturbed that I had come into the shop. I’m pretty sure they had just opened and weren’t expecting customers for a while. I sat down and studied while I ate. Then I left giving the lady a compliment on how good the food was, she promptly ignored me. I headed over to the school. So apparently yesterday the air conditioning broke so instead of heading in a cooling down the longer I sat there the hotter I got. That’s just life here I wasn’t too bothered by the eat.

    Class itself wasn’t too bad. I was in a mood though and it felt like Laoshi was absolutely railing me for pronunciation. She was and that’s her job, I am not mad about that I just wasn’t in a very good state of mind to learn and take direction. Class ended with the test which I actually appreciated, loaded up with homework, I swung by the 7/11 to pull out cash. I met up with Jillian and Nick so we could go to dinner. And then my foul mood turned worse as i had a moment to think about everything. I was stewing in my own loops of frustration and irritation. In talking with Nick and Jillian I realized that my biggest problem was I didn’t know the area I was living in. I was comfortable in Shida and now had been forcibly removed to a place that was essentially more inconvenient.

    Well we arrived and I went to go open the door only to find out that my card was not working. I couldn’t get into my dorm. Sean had mentioned something about the post office so I tried going there to see if we could get my card working. Turns out the post office was already closed and the one lady who was just leaving didn’t understand what I was asking for and couldn’t help. And then I had a break down. This was more an internal breakdown though there were some tears shed, for a moment I really could handle anything. Jillian and Nick however walked back to the dorm and we essentially waited until someone was heading out. Jillian and I immediately went to the front office. The woman working there didn’t speak English but essentially we mimed and pigeon Mandarin-ed our way through. After a two minute call my card was up and working just fine. And I suddenly felt much better, it was the first thing to go right all day. I dropped off my bag and headed out to go get dinner.

    Nick gave both of Jillian and I a tour of the area. One quick turn and suddenly there were shops of food everywhere. I have even found breakfast places open before 10am!! (In this country that’s a bloody miracle.) Nick walked us around in true tour guide fashion and we munched our way to dinner. I was feeling significantly more comfortable with life at that point. We sat down and had an yummy dinner that involved an egg and rice. I chatted with my lovely companions and was able to relax and just unwind from the day. We also stopped at the cheap ice cream place and I got peanut butter and red bean ice cream. Surprisingly delicious though next time I’ll probably go for the fruit flavors.

Peanut Butter Red Bean Ice Cream

    I headed home feeling again like a human being. I was able to get all my homework done and had my Thai roommate, Meiling, checked it over. I did pretty well only a few tired mistakes. Today was long, but I am able to learn from the day. First, I needed to eat more regularly spaced meals, I am pretty sure I was low blood sugar all day, which is a terrible idea; just ask my mother, she has horror stories about these things. I can not operate without food. Two, when arriving in a new place I need to ask more specific questions and orient myself as quickly as possible. Getting vague direction doesn’t cut it, I need to locate at least one shop for breakfast and for lunch. Three, there are some epic people in my life willing to help me through the rough patches in my life, and four bad things sometimes happen and it’s ok. The thing that is not ok is dwelling on it and making it harder for me to function. I am going to take this day and chalk it up to experience. Tomorrow I know, will be infinitely better. So I will see you all tomorrow, big smiles. Life always manages to work itself out!

Day 30 -- June 23

Well today was moving day and my 1 month anniversary in Taiwan. It began promptly at 7:30 announcement over the loud speakers that today was moving day. I was not particularly happy about this but i figured I would get up anyway and pack up my bed for moving. Once I have everything cleared out if kinda piled into into a corner and waited for Jillian and Nick. They arrived right on time and I went to the Main Gate to meet with the international affairs coordinator to help me get to the new dorm. It was a bout a 10 minute cab ride. She helpfully paid for half and we got my stuff unloaded. Jillian and Nick had taken the bus with some of my bulkier stuff and they met us at the dorm. We quickly dropped off my stuff.

    I was not super thrilled about my dorm at first glance. It’s half the size and twice the people. My roommates hail from Thailand, Japan, and Korea. In total we have 5 people in the room. The lockers are smaller for hanging up things. On the plus side I now have a bathroom in the room, which could be a good or bad thing. Good as I no longer have to plan out bathroom trips bad because the water from the shower will make the room more humid. After dropping off my stuff I headed back to Shida so I could check out. I also grabbed some bread from the Wellcome bakery for breakfast. As fate would have it I instead ran into Sean.

    So it turns out that the guys had gotten to bad intel about where to meet the coordinator. Instead of the Main gate they thought they had to go to the Dorm gate. It all seemed slightly hectic. Sean wasn’t too stressed but the others really were. Johnny is really upset about this move because we are now going to be further from campus. I really can’t blame him, it’s about a 25 minute walk or a ten minute bus ride. We are no longer very close to an MRT line so it’s all a little bit frustrating. I will make this work though, I am determined to figure it out and make it work.

    I ended up catching the cab with Sean so I could help him unload. It was another short trip them I had to haul a bunch of stuff over to the boys dorm. It was fine, I am happy I got to help the boys move in. After that I went back to my own dorm to unpack and hopefully get settled. It only took me a little bit to get everything set up. One of the joys of packing light. I am in the corner desk and I think out of everyone I have the best set up. It’s still very cramped with five girls in here, many of them have much more stuff. They are trying to make it all fit but I suspect there will be throwing away.

    Sean got my on Facebook and we headed out for a later lunch. I ended up with soup but next time I’ll get what Sean and Johnny had. Rice with chicken meat looks very good right now. We wandered around the area GongGuan had a more lived in feel. The Shida area is much more modern a well kept but here it feels like a city. I went for a wander with Sean, we ended up at a little artist village. There was also a large temple. I lit some incense and the rain started to come down. It happens like that in Taiwan, no rain then boom thunder, lightening, and buckets of rain. After first we tried to wait it out. Sean and I sat on a wall and had a lovely talk talk abut things and life, but after a while we knew it was only going to get worse, so we managed to walk back in the rain. We also decided that tonight we would go see Superman, because we could. The movie theater is very close to our dorm.

    So we went out to KGB and it just kinda spiraled from there. We didn’t realize it but it turned out to be an American night. We had burgers, went for Ice cream, then

ended up going to see a movie. We decided on World War Z as it was a movie that Mikey had not seen. Overall the night was awesome. i didn’t realize I needed to have a little piece of home until then. Hanging out with the guys is always so much fun. I can’t think of a better time. When I got home I had found one of my new Korean Friends had left me a present. I had an assortment of snacks and food. Which is absolutely so sweet! I have to get her something as a thank you... But what to get her. Well school tomorrow and the Chapter three test!