My first class, Market and Economic Development of Taiwan was on Tuesday, February 18, and it's already so boring that I, along with the rest of the class, struggle to stay conscious. The professor is from Ohio and speaks English (obviously), which is great for me, but I feel sorry for the students whose first language is not English. He speaks very fast. After class, Austin wanted food, so we got waffles at the on-campus shop. I got banana and chocolate, nom. For dinner that night, Mami and I went to the super good and super cheap 餃子(dumplings) place with a large group of exchange students. Afterwards, I decided to stick with the group and go with them to a jazz bar. It was kind of lame in my opinion, but worth the experience, I guess.
The next day, the four of us made sure to get to class (Exploring Taiwan: Topics on Culture and Society) extremely early, since we were auditing and knew that there would be a lot of competition to get enrolled. The room was packed; people lining the walls, sitting on the steps, even awkwardly standing behind the projector screen. We got there early enough to get seats in the front, but it didn't matter because they chose who would get in by lottery, and I never win anything (except an NTU hoodie, woot woot!), so I didn't get into the class. I hear it's pretty awful though, so maybe that was a good thing. On the way back from class, I bought another mattress from 7-11, because they are so pathetically thin and my hips were starting to hurt. I thought I was being smart by buying it from 7-11 instead of the dorm lobby, since it was cheaper, but when I got back to my room I realized it was slightly smaller than the first mattress. Oops. Oh well, it was still a great purchase. I do still miss my memory foam, though...
That night, Mami really wanted to go to club Myst (near 101) with a lot of other exchangers, so Eva and I said what the hell and joined her. I'd never been to a club before, so I figured what better time to try it out than when in Taiwan? The club was pretty amazing- almost exactly the kind of thing you'd see in a movie or something. A huge dance floor packed with sweaty bodies dancing to painfully loud music, bouncers, and even pole dancers. Also, it was ladies' night, so we got free drinks until midnight. The night was a lot of fun (except for the brief part where someone slammed into me on the dance floor and popped my knee out), and I'm glad I decided to give it a try. We got back at around 2:30am, and I slept like a baby, even with a melty ice pack on my knee.
On Thursday, Eva and I got lunch at a pretty sketchy looking place up the road, but we were starving so we ate the bland food happily anyway. We got Bubble tea (we're all addicted) and shopped around a stationary store before heading to our class (Exploring Taiwan: Natural Resources and Environment). The class was interesting, but it went a little over on time, so we were late to our next class (History of Free Will), which is really far away. I hate philosophy and the class is taught by a really boring German man who doesn't seem to have the course planned out, so I know that I will dread it every weak. When it finally ended, Eva and I scarfed down our 7-11 "dinners" and met Mami at the dorm to head back to campus (my poor knee) for the club expo. There weren't very many clubs there, so it was a little disappointing. However, we did find out about a 2 day trip to Nantou, which is in the center of the island, and we all decided to sign up. It is next weekend. Afterwards, we went to the dumpling place and ate until it hurt, before returning to the dorm. Mami and Eva went to play ping pong, but I was tired and my knee was still in a lot of pain, so I went up to my room and iced it while I watched House of Cards. Season 2 is fantastic, by the way.
Friday, we had to take the MRT to the other campus for our Cross Taiwan Strait Relations class. The class seems interesting but the professor is a hard ass and made everyone stand up and introduce themselves and tell him how much background they had in International Relations theory. Luckily I'm an International Politics major, and that seemed good enough for him. When we returned to Gongguan, Mami and I got a baozi snack before heading to another class. Mami was enrolled, but I wasn't, and decided to audit. It was Economic Development, something I've studied a couple times before, so I decided not to take it. Also, the professor said that Coach K was his hero, and I couldn't let that slide. That night, Mami and I took the MRT to the Shilin night market, and met Eva and a couple new friends there. I had a popular "snack", a huge slab of fried chicken. It's no Bojangles, but still delicious. When we got back to the dorm, we decided to watch Crazy Stupid Love in Mami's room, but everyone except me fell asleep, so I pretty much watched it on my own. Weaklings.
I slept until about noon on Saturday and had to rush to get ready since I was meeting a group of friends at 12:30 to get lunch and then go to the zoo. We ate at the dumpling place (I think we might have a problem) and then decided that we hadn't allotted enough time to do the zoo that day. We instead decided to go for a hike up Elephant Mountain. The trail was more of a never-ending staircase, but it was a fun work out with some amazing views. Desperate for a snack, we walked to Taipei 101, hoping to go up to the Starbucks and enjoy the view from within, but it had closed for the day, so we ate in the food court instead. I got ice cream because that is kind of a tradition with me and my Dad after we hike/backpack, and it just felt wrong to get anything else. Finally, we went to our Karaoke appointment, and butchered every Avril Lavigne and Coldplay song that they had, but it was fun.
Sunday was a lazy day without much excitement, excluding me dying my clothes blue in the laundry, but I was more than okay with such a day because I was exhausted from all the activities of the week. I cleaned my room and watched House of Cards until it was time to FaceTime with my parents. I made my mom a Facebook so that she can see my Taiwan pictures. I hope you're not creeping too hard, Mom! I also found out my Chinese placement that morning- Intermediate level 1. It was a higher placement than I expected, since everyone else who has taken through 203 got placed into Beginner level 3 or so.
On Monday, we got pizzas at a small outdoor place called SoFree Pizza. They were good, but small and meatless. I was still kind of hungry, so luckily we went to a well-known shaved-ice shop nearby. I got a chocolate and banana one, which was tasty but looked like poopy water once it started to melt. We then returned to the dorm and did some horribly boring readings for our Market class. We had Chinese class at 6:30, so we got an early dinner at a steak restaurant, but the meat looked very questionable to me, and I was still pretty full from lunch, so I just stuck with some bubble tea. We then headed to class. Everyone seems really surprised that I placed into such a high level, which seems a little insulting at times, but honestly, I'm pretty surprised too. I guess my studying over winter break paid off. The class is super tough, I can hardly understand what's going on most of the time, but I'm going to stick it out because I think that it will be really beneficial. The vocab and grammar isn't bad at all; I've learned the majority of the first chapter back at UNC already, but the speaking and listening is where I need to improve. After three stressful hours, the class ended and we went to buy our textbooks.
Tuesday started out with Eva and I going shorts shopping. Most of the shops were still closed, even though it was about 11:00, but she still managed to find a couple pairs before we met up with Elaine, Mami and Austin for lunch at the outdoor commissary. I tried a chicken burger that Austin claimed was "life-changing." It was quite delicious, but not as filling as I'd hoped, so I got a peach and whipped cream waffle to eat on the way to class. After being lectured about tea for two hours, we returned to the dorm to study. I went to the gym and ran for half an hour instead. Later, we met up again and accompanied Mami to her cheer practice to offer our support. However, we were starving, so we didn't stay long. We went to a restaurant that serves Italian food, and it was actually pretty good. I got some of 7-11's killer soft serve ice cream on the way back and then studied Chinese until about 1:00am. So difficult.
Wednesday consisted of lunch at a Japanese place, more Chinese studying, some House of Cards, dinner at the Gua bao place, a Chinese quiz and another stressful three hours, bubble tea as a reward, more studying, and reading for Free Will. (Can you tell I'm realizing how ridiculously long this post is?)
The hike on Friday was the hardest I've ever done, and I've made some pretty intense climbs before. The Taiwanese apparently don't believe in switchbacks or trail maintenance, so it was pretty much ten miles straight up and down two mountains: Datong and Wulai. It was beautiful, but a lot of hard work. Despite the extreme soreness that we felt for the next couple of days, I'm really glad I decided to go. I'm not a city girl, so getting away from all the bustle and noise and into nature was really refreshing. When we finally made it out, we walked through the night market in Wulai and got some snacks before going to the nearby hot springs. Hot is an understatement, and at one point I accidentally stepped in the hottest pool there and nearly boiled my skin off. The locals laughed at us as we squealed and complained, but eventually we got used to the pain and had a good time switching from the hot springs to the cold river. It helped a lot with our muscle soreness. Eventually we headed back through the town to the bus stop, getting some more snacks on the way. The bus ride, just as in the morning, was a miserably uncomfortable twenty-minute ordeal, being thrown around into strangers and nearly dislocating our arms. When we got back to the Xindian MRT station, we decided to get some dessert with some really cool guys that we had met on the hike. I got two cupcakes and a cookie for $120, and I will admit without shame that I ate all three that night. I also bought some real toilet paper that I found in a supermarket nearby. Good day.
The next day I forced myself out of bed and met Eva to head to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, which I had been wanting to go to for a while. I don't think my body had ever hurt so much, so the walking and stairs were pretty difficult, but we survived. We met our friend Jennifer there, and I took a bunch of pictures, and we even got to see the changing of the guards, which was very long and elaborate. There were also some really beautiful gardens along the outside of the plaza. Afterwards, we took the MRT down a few stations and went to a carrefour to get some supplies. I finally got some clothes hangers, and bought some Coke and Doritos because I had a moment of American weakness. We then went to Taipei Main Station via bus and got a hot pot dinner in the underground mall. It was then time to say goodbye to Jen and head back to the dorm. I got a lot of weird looks from people, probably because the saw my purchases and thought I was reinforcing the image of unhealthy American, but screw it. They've probably not tasted the incredible deliciousness that is Doritos.
Sunday, I got lunch (at a disappointing Greek joint) and went to the library with Eva and Elaine and studied Chinese for a few hours. The library closes as 5:00 on Sunday, which is...unusual. We studied some more in our rooms until about 6:00, when Eva and I met up to play pool. Jennifer and Mami joined us shortly after, and we paid for our Nantou trip before getting Guabao and....you guessed it, dumplings. Back at the dorm I studied more Chinese and had my weekly FaceTime session with my parents.
And finally, we're almost up to date. Yesterday (Monday), I slept in really late and was finally soreness free. Everyone was following different schedules so I ran down to 7-11 and bought some fruit for lunch. Then for the rest of the day I did laundry (successfully, this time), cleaned my room and studied Chinese. I met up with Elaine for dinner, and then headed to Chinese class. This time it wasn't so bad because we mainly did partner work and only had to present one thing in front of the class. That doesn't mean that my mood doesn't greatly improve the second the class ends though.
And that's pretty much it. If you've stuck it out and read this entire thing, go find something better to do. Seriously.
