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.