MRTs and Fast Trains

My dorm room is very simple. I have furniture and the necessities, but even so, if I'm going to be living here for four more months, I want to enjoy coming home and find comfort in my room. So, a couple of friends and I went to Carrefour, Taiwan's fake Costco. In recent years, Costco has come to Taiwan, but in the past, I remember going to Carrefour to buy cheap household items and stock up on food. Earlier on in the day, Lawrence and I went to the Zhongxiao Xinsheng MRT stop to get ethernet cords and fruit from the farmer's market, so I was able to meet my friends right after.

This picture was taken across the street from Ximending, a popular night market by the Ximen MRT station. I met the girls here and we walked from there, four blocks to Carrefour.

The entrance to Carrefour. We originally thought the store was 7 floors, but the 4th floor was for restaurants, and the 5th, 6th, and 7th floors were parking lots. 

We were very, very excited to be here, and ended up buying too many things. Nevertheless, we bought our items and pushed through the crowds on the subway to make sure we brought all our goodies home.

My grand total came out to: 1,047NT

The snacks: Minced meat cup noodles (59NT), individually wrapped bags of green peas (59NT), small bag wasabi peas (63NT), small bag original peas (63NT), Extra peach gum (29NT), and lychee gelatin (78NT)

Household items: bathroom rug (99NT), air freshener (59NT), bathroom cleaner (44NT), closet organizer (199NT), bath towel (149NT), washing machine net (49NT), sponges with hook (38NT), washcloth (18NT), and broom (38NT)

I have a feeling I didn't the best deals on a lot of the items, but to be able to get them all at once was an obvious benefit of the trip. In addition, there are some items that I can take home once the semester is over. And lastly, now my room is one step closer to being completely furnished and comfortable.

Bend and Not Break

This week was a little bit shorter because of our three-day weekend. However, the week in itself seemed to last forever because of homework assignments and testing. The program's focus is to better our Chinese at a faster pace than we have ever experienced. I do not enjoy learning 50 new words and phrases per week, but I do think that I will appreciate it later on. Having fun students in my class definitely helps the three hour-long classes go by quicker.

After class, all the students gather into one large group. Since we always eat lunch/dinner when our class ends at four, several groups form as people decide what they want to eat. This becomes especially difficult when the options are endless. So far this week, we've eaten dumplings, pizza, and fried chicken. Because there are several people who were here last semester, we often let them lead us to places they think are good. While there are many places that are delicious, not anyone can make burritos and noodles taste good.

As of now, the only thing I really want is a Tommy's burger. I don't miss food from home because I've found almost everything I want, here in Taipei.

Other than that, I've successfully avoided any sicknesses, and I'm still trying to get used to the humidity here. On most mornings, I put on soggy clothes because of the moisture in the room. Hopefully, when the weather warms up, the humidity won't seem as bad.

Current Events

85 Degrees are everywhere in Taiwan. I was interested in the quality of their coffees and cakes, but I can truly say that I'd much rather eat local desserts. The price was really good (40NT), especially in comparison to Irvine, but it was forgettable.

I went with some friends to a cantina/bar on Friday night, and we got drinks and Mexican food. I wouldn't say the nachos were good. But I wouldn't say the nachos were bad. I think that I was looking for fake yellow cheese, and thus this high-quality stuff didn't meet my low-quality standards...if that makes any sense. 

Ramen in Taiwan is so cheap! For only 90NT, I got tender, flavorful pork slices with all the goodies in a miso-based broth. And the bowl was too big to finish. And they gave us free red tea. This was probably one of the best places I've eaten at.

The green bean and grass jelly milk comes from a stand right by my dorm. I would probably have to wait 1-2 minutes on my way to school, and maybe 2-3 minutes at night. But on the weekends, the line is over 40 people long. A friend and I waited over 15 minutes to get our drinks, but obviously people think it's worth it.

Auntie and Mom took me to this local stand for dumplings one day, and I'm terribly excited about the find. It can be expensive, as this is 60NT, but the flavor is so comforting. Part pepper, part ginger, part green onion&pork. And, they usually include a small shrimp on the top of each one. But I got too excited and ate them all before I was able to take a picture. 

My favorite vegetable here: pickled cucumbers with garlic&hot peppers. 

Sing Song

In regards to the things we've done lately, I'm neither disappointed nor satisfied. I've gotten to try a lot of new foods since I've been here, but I'm missing Kaohsiung favorites that I'm used to eating. There is not a single restaurant that has gotten my attention. The only plus would be that I've found several small stands that sell exceptional snacks. Particularly, the fried sweet potato, steamed pork bun (gua bao), green bean and grass jelly milk, shrimp dumplings (shao mai), and pickled cucumbers. But these are not items that I can eat as a meal, so I will continue to look!

This past weekend, a lot of students went to Hualien for a weekend trip, but I decided to stay behind to 1. save money, 2. meet up with Miya, and 3. catch up on some sleep. They estimated the trip to be 2,000NT (not including food and activities), but the total ended up being close to 5,000NT. For this alone, I'm glad I opted out. In addition, Miya only had a couple of days off work, and since she plans on taking trips with her family later on, I knew I didn't want to miss out on a day of hanging out with her. We had a really good time eating lunch and shopping together. I didn't realize how much I missed her and her company until I was able to chit chat with her again. And as for sleep, I definitely caught up. Especially in comparison to how little sleep the Hualien kids got.

I also think I'll make a trip every weekend to Yong He Dou Jiang Da Wang (Soy Milk King). I can not believe how much food I can get for $3. I went again this past weekend at around 3 in the afternoon (after waking up at 1pm). I ate lunch, saved the rice roll for dinner, and didn't eat another meal for the rest of the day. The only downside would be that the meal as a whole is very oily. But other than that, I'm so thankful that it's only a 30 minute walk from the dorms.

And my favorite purchase of the week has to be my new shoes. Another pair, in case you didn't know. I needed more walking shoes because the Vans have two very noticeable holes that seem to catch people's attention. So I knew that I should invest in a pair of Taiwan's infamous fake ones. I found fake Keds/Vans for only $13 and I'm more than impressed. They're very comfortable, and I find them to be more fashion forward (in design) than my Vans. Not to mention, they're not faded, with holes, or smelly.

In the Stillness

My ICLP courses have not been disappointing. I'm currently taking Practical Chinese Reading&Writing, Chinese Moral Tales, and Far East Everyday Chinese.

Practical Chinese Reading&Writing: When it comes to vocabulary, this is my easiest class. We're learning words like mom, dad, school, library, etc. The only reason a lot of us are taking the class is because in our placement process, we made it clear to the staff that we know how to speak and listen, but we aren't so sure about reading and writing. This class ensures that we still know how to recognize simpler vocabulary. And the teacher goes extremely fast and gives us a lot of homework. It's only Monday of Week 2, and we're on Lesson 4. In addition, she tends to give us 4 sheets for practicing our writing, an oral speech (about different topics), and 4 pages in our workbook. This class is definitely the most work.

Chinese Moral Tales: My teacher is known for being one of the cooler, younger ones. Even though there's over 60 new characters in each lesson, she goes slow and helps us out. Her humor also makes it easier to learn, because we don't feel pressured to get her questions right every time. The lessons revolve around old Chinese tales that inevitably end with some type of moral. We've covered one, and the story was about how rumors are a terrible thing. We end each week with a small quiz and oral speech. I got 100% on my last quiz, and thus received a piece of chocolate cake. It was small, but exciting nonetheless.

Far East Everyday Chinese: This class contains the hardest, useful vocabulary. The moral tales class uses intellectual and advanced words, whereas this book has words such as accident, hospital, headache, etc. I completely underestimated this class because of the speed we initially started at. But now that I know how much work needs to be put into it, I look forward to learning how to write all of these words (that I originally only knew how to say). The teacher is the quietest, and least interesting of the bunch. She speaks slowly and monotonously. I'm pushing through because I know it will help me to pay attention.

My Best Friend

I've had the opportunity to go to the gym several times, and I wasn't a big fan at first. But, I knew that the first step to staying somewhat fit in an environment filled with delicious food, was to get my exercise in regardless of the gym's quality. However, I am pleased to say that I look forward to working out every day because of one, and only one, reason.

My stationary bike encourages me.

I would take my camera with me one day to show you, but I don't want to risk losing the camera. Nor risk losing my reputation as being sane. The bottom line, every five minutes or so, a phrase runs across the electronic screen of the stationary bike. Below is a sampling:

- "You are doing great." (This one was the first one I ever read. I thought it was super exciting at the time, but  this was only the beginning of several sentences to come).
- "Make this a good work out." (The messages started to get a little deeper. Did the machine know that I was getting tired? Was my speed letting it know that I was getting low on energy?!)
- "You make this look easy." (This one nearly made me blush. I must have been on a roll!)
- "Focus on your goal." (At this point, I was looking around the room to see if anyone was controlling the thing. The phrases were starting to get a little too deep for me, and I was also wondering if anyone could see what I was seeing)
- "Nicole, I am your father." (This one isn't real, but I've gotten different messages each time I've worked out, so it's definitely plausible)

Room Tour

So, when I first found out that the dorm rooms would be very cheap, I also thought that they would be old, smelly, and uncomfortable. I was so pleased to find out that they were opened in 2009, so the facilities are very nice and nearly unused. In addition, I previously assumed that several girls would share one bathroom, but each room has it's own bathroom. This includes a sink, mirror, toilet, and shower. Wooo weee!

The view out of my window is of the other buildings, Building B and C. 

My very, very firm bed. I bought the mattress from 7-11, and it helps for the most part. The mattress is very thin though. I would have to compare it to a Japanese mattress in that it's probably 1/4 the size of any mattress I've seen in America. I generally like having a harder surface to sleep on, so it hasn't been rough. I keep all of my luggage underneath.

By the door, I have a closet with a shelf for storage and a rack on which I hang some of my more important clothes.

I have a very large desk that I keep a lot of my schoolwork on, and the bookshelf is really handy because I have a lot of miscellaneous items from home. And since the fan in my bathroom isn't as strong, I keep most of my toiletries on the bookshelf so they won't get wet with each shower I take.

My beautiful and open shower. I have an electricity card that I have to use in order to get hot water and electricity. My first night here, I used 20NT worth of hot water to take my shower. Even now, it costs about 8NT to take a hot shower each night. It's funny to see my electricity costs being deducted each day.

The bathroom is very clean, but the only downside would be that the air doesn't circulate as well. The ground stays wet until morning, so I don't have the opportunity to get ready in the bathroom at night. So instead of risking falling in the bathroom, I wash my face and brush my teeth while I'm still in the shower.