Getting in the Groove

A lot has happened in the last 5 or so days, and it feels like I've been here much longer than I really have.  I guess I'm already starting to get used to life in Taipei!  My mom said that I needed to post a more upbeat entry than my last one, so here's an overview of these past few days:

On Thursday, my friends Eva, Elaine, Mami, Austin and I headed over to the campus to register for the semester and receive our student ID cards.  The line was really long, so we ended up going to get lunch and beat the crowd when the office opened back up.

Registration did not take long, but was kind of frustrating for me because I got scolded for not having a photo on my health form (apparently they need about 5 passport photos to be satisfied) and not having a local phone number.  Once we were all finished, we walked around the streets for a while doing some window shopping.  When our feet were too sore to continue, we returned to the dorm to rest a while, but met back up for dinner.  On my way to the lobby I met Xuan, an exchange student from Singapore, and invited her to dinner.  The fact that she reads Mandarin was a big help when ordering dinner, which we got at a "bao" shop in a small local street market. 

Yu, an exchanger from the 13th floor, was also at the restaurant and ended up joining us for the rest of the evening.  After dinner we explored some more, ordered some bubble tea and checked out a really cool underground book shop.

Friday we went to lunch with a large group of other exchange students (mostly Europeans) at a really nice Dim Sum restaurant called Din Tai Fung.  Apparently Tom Cruise has visited it.  The food was amazing and plentiful, and the group very lively (cheering loudly everytime the waitress poured our tea), so it was a lot of fun.  It was quite expensive, $450 each, but I feel that it was definitely worth it.  After lunch, most of the exchangers took the MRT to Pingxi for the lantern festival, which I really wanted to go to, but it was pretty far away and there was a possibility that we might not get back until extremely late, and with the Chinese placement test the next morning, Mami and I decided to go to a closer lantern fair in Yuanshan instead.  It was a huge display of handmade lanterns at the Taipei Expo park, and they looked really beautiful once the sun set and the lanterns were lit.  We explored the surrounding streets as well, but there wasn't much to be found, so we returned to the dorm around 7 pm.

On Saturday, Eva, Elaine, Mami and I all got up pretty early to go register for the Chinese placement test.  The first written part was pretty difficult, focusing on grammar and writing, and I missed ten (they graded them right in front of you), whereas eleven got you sent on directly to the oral part of the test. So since I missed ten I had to take a second test, which was a thousand times more difficult than the first. I probably only recognized about 15% of the characters.  The oral part didn't go too great, as I had no idea what to expect.  The instructor just asked my name and about where I was from, and then had me read a paragraph from a textbook.  I had to skip a lot of the traditional characters because I couldn't recognize them.  Luckily my placement here doesn't matter very much though, because I will have to take a placement test when I return to UNC anyways.  After we had all finished the test, we met up and got lunch together at some random restaurant nearby.  After that we window shopped, as is the norm, and then returned to the dorm as Elaine had to leave and Mami and Eva wanted to go for a run.  I am not nearly motivated enough for that, so I hung out in my room until they came back.  Mami went out, so Eva and I got on the MRT and headed to Shilin night market, meeting Elaine on the way.  The night market was incredibly crowded but incredibly interesting. There was so much food and merchandise that it was hard to take it all in, but somehow we seemed to visit every shop anyway (*cough* Elaine *cough*).  We walked around for hours, and I bought some nice souvenirs to bring back home (even though that's in the distant future), as well as some tasty snacks.  Unfortunately we shopped just a little too long and missed the subway back, and had to take a cab.

Sunday was a very lazy day as I slept until about noon after staying out at Shilin pretty late the night before.  I got up and and then had a chance to FaceTime with my friends Sarah and Amanda back at UNC for about an hour, before they went to bed (the time difference is hard to wrap your head around).  When we hung up it was about 2:00, so I just ran down to the 7-11 to grab some lunch as I was starving.  It was a pretty pathetic lunch, but I didn't know where my friends were or what they were up to, and desperately needed to do laundry, so it was a quick and easy fix.  I stayed around the dorm most of the day, cleaning and doing laundry, until about 8:00, when I went to meet Mami and her childhood friend at the MRT station.  We went to Ximending, where there is another (smaller and less crowded) night market. I scarfed down dinner, and when Mami and Shou finished (at a normal pace) we walked down the street a bit and eventually ended up in a dessert shop where they serve 雪花冰 (snow flower ice, pretty much), which is frozen condensed milk with toppings.  We ordered two, but I mostly ate the mango one, as the other was more traditional, with beans and yams on it, which was a little strange for me. 

This shop also allows people to write all over everything, so of course Mami and I added our mark so that a part of us would stay in Taiwan forever. 

When we got back to campus, I met up with Elaine and Eva to play some pool, but the rec room was closed, so we tried to figure out our course registration instead.  Registration at NTU is so complicated and stressful that it makes UNC's look like a piece of cake.

Today was the official first day of classes, but I don't have any scheduled until Thursday.  I will however be sitting in on some in the coming days to try to see if I can add them.  After I got up this morning I FaceTimed with my parents for the first time since I've been here, since they left on a cruise the day that I arrived.  I ask my parents for their advise very often, so it was stressful not having them available to bombard with questions all the time, but it was good for me as I was forced to figure things out on my own and make financial decisions, etc.  I was very happy to see them nonetheless.  I met my friends at 12:30, and we walked to campus to get lunch at the outdoor cafeteria.  I had 飯糰 (rice ball) and 鍋貼 (fried dumplings).  It wasn't great, but it's cheap and there are a lot of options.

We also got waffles from the campus waffle shop (why the heck we don't have these in the US, I don't know).  After eating we just made our way through campus trying to figure out where things are. 

We also checked out the sports center, which is pretty impressive.  Later, Mami, Eva and I took the MRT to the Social Science campus, which is quite far from the main campus, and very inconvenient as I have a class twenty minutes after that one on the main campus, and there is no way that I can make it back in time.  This area of Taipei seemed less crowded and was very pretty, with old historic looking buildings and a lot of trees lining the streets.  We got back to the dorm in time for the new student welcome party, where we did an ice-breaking activity, ate dinner, wrote calligraphy, made dumplings, and met lots of new people.

An Ignoramus Abroad

I honestly don't know where to start. These past few days have been the most hectic of my life, and I'm still pretty jet-lagged so the fact that I'm writing a post right now is pretty surprising.  I started my journey in Greenville, SC on the ninth, headed towards San Francisco.  Everything went smoothly until San Diego.  I was supposed to stay on the plane, since it was a pit stop on the way to San Francisco, but at the last minute I (and 11 other passengers) were told that we were going to switch planes.  No big deal, right? Wrong. I ended up sitting in an airport that I was never supposed to step foot in for about 2 hours, due to heavy fog and rain in San Fran.  My international flight, however, was still scheduled to take off at 12:40 am, so as the the minutes ticked by, my impatience and anxiety grew.  No matter how many times I annoyed the desk attendants, they assured me that there was no way I could get there sooner, as all the flights going into San Francisco were backed up and Oakland was full as well.  Finally the weather improved enough for the flight to depart, and I, along with the other 11 flustered San Diego passengers, got to board first.  So I sat myself in the front-most isle seat I could get and waited for the rest of the passengers to board, getting more and more pissed off as they took their sweet time to stow baggage despite the constant reminders from the attendants that we were going to miss our window of opportunity if they didn't hurry.  Luckily we made it, and I was met in San Francisco by my aunt Ellen (who is the patron saint of finding lost baggage).  We waited and waited for my bags, but they never showed.  Turns out good ol' Southwest Airlines failed to transfer the bags in San Diego.  Not quite as much of a pain when San Francisco is your final destination and you don't have to go through security again and catch an international flight which only flies this route about every 24 hours.  So thanks to that particular nightmare, I lost the time that I had planned on using to eat dinner with my aunt, and was only able to spend a couple hours with her (during which I was a bundle of nerves; couldn't even eat a sandwich because I thought I was going to throw it up).  Luckily, Ellen was able to retrieve my baggage at the last minute (they came in on a later flight) and get them up to the EVA Airlines counter in time for them to be put on my plane.  Or so I thought.  When I was boarding the plane I heard over a worker's walkie talkie one of the luggage handlers saying that a bag just arrived.  The woman responded that there should be two and to put them on the plane immediately.  He said he only got one.  My heart dropped because I knew the bags they were talking about were mine.  But I got on board anyway with the hopeful knowledge that I would be getting at least one of my bags.  Or so I thought.

Fifteen hours later I arrive at the Taoyuan airport baggage claim and see my name on a poster saying that I need to speak with an EVA airlines official. Great. I waited anyway to get that one back that I was so sure was coming. I waited, and waited, and waited, until the "end of baggage" sign circled around.  Horrified, I went and found the lost-baggage desk and tried to hold myself together as they told me in their broken English that my bags did not come across the Pacific with me.  They gave me a form and a number to call- can't do that, don't have a Taiwanese number- okay, an email address, and said that they would contact me when my baggage arrived. Right.  So I went through customs (which is super easy to do when you have nothing but a backpack), feeling completely hopeless.  I called my mom and just broke down, not caring how much money this international call was costing because I was scared and alone and wanted to talk to my momma who always knows what to do.  After I stopped being a big baby, I exchanged my US dollars to New Taiwan dollars, and set up the iTaiwan wifi (which is supposed to be all over the city-it's not).

Finally I went and found the NTU students in charge of the shuttle to campus and prepared myself for another couple hours in an airport (yay). I decided to give the baggage disaster one last go, and got one of the NTU students (who "no good at talking English") to help me with the phone call.  Turns out they did get one of my bags, but the other was still in San Francisco (not sure how that works since they were both taken to the check in counter at the same time, but whatever). So I had clothes, but nothing else. Finally the shuttle (which was a double decker and super fancy) took us to our dorms, which are about an hour away. 

Then began the check in process, where I could tell I wasn't quite as welcome as the Chinese-speaking students.  I had to buy a mattress, quilt, shower curtain, pillow, electricity card and ethernet cord for my room, since hardly anything is provided.  The mattress is about as comfortable as a carpeted floor and the shower curtain is completely useless as it is a foot too short, but hey, what can you do?  Since I had no toiletries whatsoever and hadn't showered in two days, I went to the 7-11 around the corner and bought a bar of soap, some shampoo (couldn't find conditioner), and some (what I believe to be) toilet paper, and took a long shower, following which I discovered the water heater blasts through the units on my electricity card.  Eventually my fellow Tar Heel, Eva, arrived and checked in and once she was settled we walked down one of the main streets checking out the shops.  Neither of us could read any of the signs, but hopefully that will change.  We ate dinner with a friend that Eva made at a small place across the street from the dorm, where I kind of just chose a random dish. 

Most everything here is super cheap; especially food. This dinner only cost 70元, which is a little over $2. After dinner I went back to my room because I was freezing and utterly exhausted, but ran into Austin, and hung out with him a bit.  I was really looking forward to a night of sleep, but as it's freezing cold and rainy in Taipei, and they don't use heat, I was pretty disappointed.  I slept in a sweatshirt and sweatpants tucked into 2 pairs of socks, and was still pretty cold. And despite my exhaustion, I woke up about every two hours.  Apparently there was an earthquake during one of my brief periods of sleep, but I was oblivious to it.  The second day in Taipei was certainly better than the first, but still stressful.  I got breakfast at the 7-11 with Eva and then we joined up with our group for the campus tour.  I still have no idea where anything is, but the campus is very nice and has a ton of restaurants and other cool facilities.  Afterwards was orientation, wich lasted about 3 hours, though I cut out early before the ice-breaking bingo in order to go back to the airport and get my second bag, which had arrived in the early morning.  One of my tour guides walked me back to my dorm and had the front desk call me a cab (they don't really speak English).  The ride over cost me $900 (steep, but worth it to get my stuff).  I tried to ask the cab driver how much a return trip would cost, but I couldn't really understand his response, though I get the feeling he pretty much said that he couldn't take me back to campus. Not what I asked, but that's the language barrier for you.  So I went into the airport and got sent to about 3 different places before I finally got my baggage.  I then started trying to figure out how I was going to get back when a cab driver flagged me down asking if I wanted a ride. I asked him how much it would cost to take me to campus: $1,200. No way. He was very kind even after I turned down his offer, and he even helped me find the bus ticketing area.  I got a ticket to Taipei main station for $125 (much better).  The luckiest part of my day was definitely meeting the girl who sat next to me on the bus.  She is a graduate student at NTU and was getting off at the same stop.  I had planned on taking a taxi from there because I didn't want to bother with the subway (Etowah, NC girl doesn't understand public transportation) but she showed me exactly what to do.  She said she thought us meeting was destiny, which is probably right.  She certainly was easier than anyone to speak Chinese with. Access to the MRT was only $20 (crazy, right) and I counted the stops with the utmost attention. 

I got a lot of dirty looks from the natives because my large suitcase was taking up so much room on the subway, but I made it to Gongguan station without a problem.  I tried to follow the instructions in my student guide on how to get from there to my dorm, but couldn't figure it out, and nobody could really understand me well enough to help, so I hailed a cab (a first for me), and pointed to the address.  It wasn't far away at all but I still couldn't tell you how in the heck we got there.  I'm unbelievably relieved to have all of my belongings now, but unfortunately having to go back to the airport made me miss my dinner with my student volunteer (whom I may never meet, at this rate), and any other opportunity at going to dinner with someone else I know.  So I unpacked my bag and enjoyed my American products.  To give you an idea of how completely devoid I was, I brushed my hair for like the first time in 3-4 days today.  I then went to the 7-11 to grab something to eat (though I have no idea what it was) and came back to my dorm room and started writing this ridiculously long account of my nightmarish journey to Taipei and its gradual improvement.

The end.


Oh and I also found this random chest X-ray from 2010 on top of my closet. Strange.

The Final Countdown

Well first off I'd just like to apologize at how utterly horrible this blog looks, but I already had a Google account to make blogs and was too lazy to go elsewhere. So you get a tacky globe and plane background to painfully reinforce the idea that this is indeed my travel blog and that I'm no longer in America.

Except I am. Here I sit in possibly the most unimpressive town (it's not even a town) on Earth, Etowah, North Carolina. It's my last day at home and as my bags are packed and I started my hiatus from work (Ingles Deli, holla) about a week ago, I've nothing to do but while the time away until I finally board those planes and work my way across the globe (see background image). Fervently studying Chinese has been one of my main activities these last few weeks. As is usual, I procrastinated until the last minute to cram traditional characters into my brain and try to remember how to form coherent Chinese sentences. So I'm panicking a little bit, but hey, what's a 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Taipei for? Studying Chinese of course! (Maybe.)

So tomorrow I leave the sleepy "town"/village/collection-of-churches-and-gas-stations that is Etowah and begin my 24 hour journey to Taipei, Taiwan. [HERE'S WHERE IT GETS CLICHÉ AND LAME] I know tomorrow will be very bittersweet as I leave my parents and home and venture into the unkown, but as I've been told ad nauseam, this will be one of the greatest experiences of my life.  Though I am just as terrified as I am excited, I welcome the challenges and once-in-a-lifetime experiences that I will face. Wish me luck.