The Deets.

For those of you who aren't familiar with abrevs, The Details.

It will be Week 3 in Taipei on Tuesday, I can't believe it! I've been accused of being vague in my blogs about Taiwan so far (sorry Nik haha) so I will do my best to now write down all the Deets about life in Taipei :)

School

So right now I'm attending Shi Fan Da Xue, which means Shi Fan University, or ShiDa for short. I have classes every day from 10:20-1:10! To be honest, being in class for three hours is kind of straining, just like the 3 hour classes I had to take at USC, but I'm actually really enjoying learning Chinese. We started on Lesson 5 and we're already at Lesson 7, only a week and a half into classes!! So, as you can tell, the teacher is moving our class pretty fast through the textbook, which is also a struggle--to keep up and learn all the vocabulary. We have a quiz every day; the teacher will say a sentence out loud and we have to write the whole sentence down. The sentences are getting longer and longer, and harder and harder! And then every couple days we have a chapter test... But even though the class is harder than I expected, I really enjoy the challenge! During class, after our quizzes, we usually go over the vocabulary from the chapter. There are 8 students in my class, including me, 4 girls and 4 boys, and we all rotate reading the vocabulary and the examples out loud (which is actually kind of hard because in the beginning they put the zu ing fu hao next to each character, but now they don't. Zu in fu hao is like the Chinese alphabet that all kids learn in the beginning when they're learning Chinese to help them sound out the characters). After the vocab we go over the grammar and the examples as well. We do all this.... for THREE HOURS.... :)

Night Markets

The night markets are a HUGE thing here in Taipei. Let me explain what they are... it's kind of like a farmer's market, but at night, with a LOT more stalls, and a LOT more people. Thing is, here in Taipei, the apartments are all really small, few have kitchens. In the States, we think of home as a safe haven and a place to relax and hang out, but here in Taipei, people don't spend that much time in their own places bc they're so small! So everyone goes out at night to these night markets to eat, shop, walk around, and hang out with friends... well, young people at least haha! At the night markets there are ALL KINDS of different foods: buns with meat and veggies inside, fried anything and everything, steamed, boiled, sauteed things of all different kinds! There are also lots of clothing stores, too, that sell clothes for cheaper than you'd find in a regular mall. There's stationary stores, pet stores (where they apparently they sell baby baby animals that shouldn't be separated from their moms yet!!!), seriously, stores of ALL different kinds. The night markets are really fun, and just filled with people!

Transportation

I'm not really sure what the local people use most, but I wanna say the bus and the MRT (Metro) system. Even though taxis are really cheap here for US standards, most locals can't afford to take taxis anytime they want, so if you use the taxis it means you're really spoiled. And/or rich. The bus system is something I'm getting used to, since I've always had my own car back home, but they're all air-conditioned (thank goodness!!) and fairly straightforward. The MRT is also really convenient, and fast, and much cleaner than I was expecting!

Exchange Rate

1 US dollar = about 32 NT, or Taiwan money

But, don't misunderstand and think everything is like 1/32 of the prices we pay in the states. For example, an iced tea at the 7/11 is 20 NT, and a cab ride from my apartment to school is like 85NT. So it's just annoying because every time I buy something I have to divide it by 32, and that's not quite as easy as dividing it in 1.5 like I did in Europe.

My Apartment

I live in a "studio" ?? on my own in an apartment complex called Chung Gong Guo Zai, which is just a couple bus stops down the street from school, and really close to the Taipei branch of my Dad's office. I have my own bathroom (thank God!) and then just one room with a bed, a closet, a desk, a bookcase, a small tv, and a small fridge. My bed is SUPER hard, nothing at all compared to my super comfy memory foam back home *sigh*, but it's pretty clean and pretty big compared to a lot of the other ones my Dad and I looked at while he was here. The bathroom is pretty standard: sink, toilet... but get this: there's no shower! Well, I mean, there's a shower head and tile floors... so it's pretty weird showering because I have to stand butt naked in my whole bathroom haha! So... I either have no shower... or I technically have a really BIG shower! :) All the buildings in this complex also have elevators, which is a rare thing here in Taipei! There's also a lot of old people and young families living here, because it's mostly government housing for veterans. My landlady just divided up her apartment to 5 rooms that she lets out to all females. It's pretty safe here, I believe, and in a good area.

Going Out!

Is a HUGE thing here, like really. The big nights to go out here are Wednesday (ladies night at a lot of places), Friday and Saturday. But you can pretty much go out anytime you want haha. I'd say the living standard here is pretty cheap, but going out is SO expensive. The nicest club in Taipei, called Primo, costs 1,000NT to get inside (unless you know people, and thankfully I have met people!), which is about $30!!! Drinks are also expensive, so basically going out in general will cost a good amount. Girls here are also pretty slutty, I heard from a friend that they sometimes go out in bikinis and high heels!!!! Isn't that ridiculous?!!? It's like WHO ARE YOU. Oh, and they're all really freaking skinny. FML. Whatever.

MTV Asia

I've been watching it like 24/7, listening to songs in Chinese and trying to read the subtitles to get myself to learn more Chinese. It really helps! It's helping with recognizing characters, plus, the music is pretty :) all girly love songs of course haha! I'm scared that I'm going to turn totally fobby in the year that I'll be here, singing Chinese songs, wearing Chinese style fashion.... YIKES!!!

Ok, this is all I can think of for now... will update again soon! :)