Living Abroad

Well how long did that last for? Not only have I not updated this blog, but I dropped the ball on my journal too until just yesterday. It's not so bad though, I think the more important blogging will be coming up in the next 2.5 weeks as I go around China and Japan! Anxiety is being replaced excitement as I prepare for this to happen.

Just to summarize, here are some things that have happened over the past couple weeks:

• Moved out of the old dorm! Had about two restless nights in three, and mosquito bites everywhere. I couldn't take it. I asked Lim and he found me place on the 5th floor really quickly. He's such a nice guy.

• Went to Beitou on Saturday to check out the hot springs. Going into almost scalding hot water in 35 C weather, and then bouncing from hot to cold bathing water afterwards is a bizarre but refreshing feeling.

• Checked out Wulai on Sunday with Erin and Adam. It's a really beautiful place there, nestled in some mountains. Did a lot of walking, saw a lot of waterfalls, and did a little bit of swimming in the cold river water.

• Got introduced Rita, the next exchange student here, who is coincidentally in the same lab, and even more coincidentally is from Canada. She just finished her second year at UWO. Spent the last couple days showing the ropes here; a nice change of pace for me, I must say.
  

That's about it for now! I'm definitely ready to go, I'd say 4 weeks was a good amount of time to spend here. I think I'd be a bit bored/restless if I spent any longer...

• Chinese is extra difficult to learn properly because I am probably tone deaf. I can hear the tones fine but more times than not, I just can't say it the way I want. At the same time though, I've been told I have an excellent accent!

• Some old Taiwanese men like to take 3 AM walks.

• The awesomeness of a trip is more a result of the company than the destination itself.

• My overall health, fitness and my good eating habits soar when I'm living on my own.
  

Last Wednesday, when I first arrived I had about 5 minutes of panic. Expecting to have that fun feeling of walking through the gates, seeing your name on a sign, and seeming very important, I found no one there to meet me. I frantically pulled out my laptop to find out the cellphone numbers of my contact persons, but met up with him (Lim) about two minutes later. Phew. We dropped off my luggage in my dorm (with which I'm sharing with a local student), and went out for lunch. I decided to jump off the deep end and asked Lim to take me to somewhere local and authentic. If we're going to continue the metaphorical swimming pool, let's just say I took a few mouthfuls of water when I jumped in. I enjoyed the beef noodles, but as for some of the other appetizers (100-year old egg) I wasn't ready to warm up to that just yet. He and Wei-Yi (other contact person) said I had a small appetite. Ouch.
In a way, I guess I underestimated the immensity of the language barrier. Not only did I not speak the language, but having only Chinese characters everywhere made me feel completely lost. That evening I could only really go to the 7-Eleven and grab a few snacks for dinner because I couldn't read anything else anywhere and nothing was familiar. I wanted out!

On Thursday, we met up with my supervisor for the exchange, Dr. Liu. He showed me around the lab briefly. Lim, Wei-Yi and I got me familiar with the transit route to/from work, and we also stopped at a nearby night market. I tried the stinky tofu, and it didn't taste half bad. Honestly I didn't realize the smell of it until about 3/4 of the way through for some reason.
My roommate is super introverted. He talks maybe a sentence or two to me when I'm in the room, and it's mostly about rules. Oh well, at least I know that I can get peace and quiet when I need it.

Friday was a turning point for me. Went to the hospital on my own, and I did not get lost. The workday was pretty boring until around 3 PM when Dr. Liu took me around to see some patients. He made me put on a white coat, and I looked ridiculous because I was wearing sneakers and shorts. Oh yeah, I'm a tall foreign-looking dude too. Some of the looks I got from the patients and families were pretty funny, but some of them said 'xiexie' to me. Really don't know what they were thanking me for haha...
On the way home, I decided to jump off the deep end again. I attempted to go back to that same place we went to on Wednesday, this time on my own, hopefully ordering the beef noodles. The owners didn't understand me, so they called their daughter, who translated it to them. She also wrote it down in my journal, which was nice! On top of that, while I was enjoying my dinner, they gave me these two dessert candies for free! And when I was leaving, the whole family said bye, it really made my day. So to keep the momentum going, I ventured down the market near TMU, and got myself some $1.25 bubble tea and the best green onion cake I've ever tasted with hand gestures and pointing. I was pretty proud of myself that day.

On Saturday, Wei-Yi, Ronald (her boyfriend) and I went to the National Palace Museum. It was all right... it was mostly just artifacts and pottery art from all the different Chinese dynasties. It was actually kind of neat to see that the art reflected the philosophy/policies of the leaders at the time. Turns out their 'prized' exhibit were these pieces of jade, one carved into the shape of a bokchoy (complete with accompanied louse) and a porkchop slice. The bokchoy was pretty detailed and impressive... and I don't even know how they got the jade to look like porkchop. Honestly, if it were on my plate at a restaurant, I would've eaten it. That's how real it looked. That evening we went to the Shilin. I think we were all pretty tired at this point, so we really didn't stay for that long. It was pretty massive, so I'm sure I'll make at least one more trip back.

Sunday I decided to go on a little adventure on my own. I decided to check out the shopping scene at the Sogo department stores and Taipei 101. In a nutshell, it was kind of disappointing. I've never been a big department store shopper, and the prices were pretty much similar to that in Canada. In the end, I didn't buy anything. Taipei 101 is where all the posh stores are at, so I just speed walked through the first floor. However, when I was downtown, imagine my surprise walking out of the department store, and having the street FLOODED with people. They were wearing bandanas, carrying signs, making noise, blowing horns. I had no idea what was going on. Soon after, they all started marching and chanting. Half intimidated, half fascinated - I had just seen a foreign protest! Cool beans.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday have flown by. I visited Xiemen on Tuesday which was definitely the coolest shopping place I've been to so far. Bought a couple shirts for myself, a couple gifts for others... and I'm for sure going back there for a day. It seemed like there was a lot of Japanese influence, so I imagine I'll be breaking the bank when I hit Tokyo...

This leads me up to today, Thursday. I'm currently waiting for the ethidium bromide to settle into my gel before taking some pictures. Shit, I just heard some thunder and I do not have my raincoat.

Off to Taitung tomorrow! Wow, I can't believe I just recapped an entire week.