Nothing Interesting

The previous weekend was pretty lame. Saturday I went to a night market, and ate some more Taiwanese food. I saw this really dirty street food vendor where they had converted a garage by day into a restaurant at night. There was even a car behind the stove, and like chemicals probably on the floor used for car work. I didn't see any of the meat hanging off hooks like I did at most street places, which I found rather odd, but the look on the animals at the pet shop next door kinda queued me in :( On sunday I went to two really bad restaurants. The one for lunch was ok, but the food was really greasy and lacked flavour, and the one for dinner was just plain bad. It could've competed with the makeshift garage one, except with one was an actual restaurant with an air conditioned eating area. It was fun though, because everyone else who ate there got bad food too, so it was amusing. I would watch the waitress bring the food and than the ppl would stare at their food and make this sick face, priceless....priceless, definitely worth 80NT :)

Ok, its Monday and it rained like a typhoon. Crazy weather....I did my laundry without bleach, because no one had any. I subsequently went out and bought some. Later at night I walked around for a few hours, there was one night market I went to, but it sucked. Really really small night market. Pretty relaxing here thats for sure.

Learning Mandarin numbers, got dictionary and vege buffet

Friday.

TGIF! Well actually, everyday is like saturday for me since I have no work or job :) This should be a short entry, I didn't go anywhere, really~! I woke up and started studying mandarin, I have got a good handle for the numbers now... I than ventured outside looking for the chinese fried rice place I had been given directions for. Well....I didn't find it....so went back to the breakfast place and got my usual (around noon). I than headed back home and continued studying mandarin and watched some t.v. Around 6 I went back out for dinner, and decided to try the vegetarian restaurant. Unfortunately, my roommate cancelled on me, I received a note from him this morning, apparently Richard had a lot of work to do and would be unable to make it for dinner with me.


So anyways, I decided to go to the restaurant by myself. Well I must say the vegetarian restaurant was really good, for $70NT ($2.80) I got a all you can eat vegetarian buffet that was quite decent. Especially for the price, although everything there was cold, since it was all vegetarian that was ok :) They even had sushi, and gluten and fried tofu and stuff. Any one of the 30 dishes there would've cost more than $3 at ANY place in Toronto, so ya it was good food. Afterwards I went to my usual bubble tea store but asked for Taro Bubble Tea. Unfortunately, they couldnt understand and I tried calling ppl, but no one here in Taiwan apparently knew what "taro" bubble tea was, argh. I gave up, but than the girl behind da counter figured out what I was asking for. Once I got it, I went to the bookstore, I think it was time to get the dictionary. I found this really good one, but when I tested it, it failed (there was no taro in it :P ). I than found another really good one, and it passed my test, taro in chinese is yutou :), granted there are some accents and stuff in there. The dictionary was cheap too, only $11. Nice thing about Taiwan, no tax :)

After grabbing the book I went to the bubble tea store and showed the girl the meaning of taro...ok so I was being tight, but I had nothing else to do hehe :) Well, after that I came home and one of my roommates showed me how to use the washer. Its pretty advanced, it also dries the clothes somewhat as well. I should wash my clothes tomorrow, creating quite a pile. I could easily last another week or so but I don't wanna risk it, need buffer time in case it takes long for clothes to dry, although in this heat I honestly don't see how that could be possible :)

Afterwards, and it was boiling in the apartment, besides my room with the air conditioner, I decided to head out and grab a drink. I should invest money in this company, OceanSpray, their cranberry juice is delicious, and even here everyone loves it. So expensive though, at a dollar a bottle, I know I should switch to something cheaper. MAybe if I get stocks in the company I can get a wholesale discount :)

On my way to the 7-11 I came across a cockroach on the road. It stopped half way...I wanted to scare it so I stamped my feet near it, but strangely it came closer to me. Freaky, so I back off and stamped again and it came even closer to me! Stupid bug, so I just walked away cause I didn't feel like killing anything :P Well on the way back from the 7-11 near the same part of the road the same bug I think (don't all roaches look the same?) started running after me~! What, is Canadian a delicacy or something around here? Well i just walked a bit faster and got home and typed up this journal :)

Till tomorrow, I am supposedly going back to the Shilin Night market, and Sunday I am meeting up with Maggie again...I wouldn't mind hitting some of the night clubs in Taiwan, but OMG, they cost soo much, same prices as Toronto and drinks just as much, what a ripoff. Perhaps later once I start working and have money to burn :P

I went to the Zoo and Shilin Night Market :)

Thursday.

Well, I woke up around 11 and chatted till like 1 p.m. getting my University letter and stuff in order. I than thought, why not go to the Zoo? So off I went to the Zoo :O) and in somewhat of a hurry as they closed at 5. I put in a fresh 64 meg xD card into the Digital Camera and headed for the MRT station. On the way there, I picked up a egg burger for breakfast/lunch. Delicious :) and only $1.20? bout 30NT I believe. I got lucky the place was still open, I think they were about ready to close, as most of their business was about done for the day. There are 2 types of stores in Taiwan it seems, those that open in the morning and close in the afternoon, and those that OPEN in the afternoon and close at night.

Anyways, on the train ride there I started talking to someone on the MRT because they seemed to be going to the Taipei Zoo station as well (they were white so I knew they knew english :O ). Apparently they had also come recently and were trying to land a job as an english teacher. Interesting....

Well I got to the Zoo and started taking pictures. IT was HOT there! As soon as I got there I grabbed a drink from a vending machine. Now this is weird, a 600ml Nestea Ice Tea was only 80 cents, whereas a coke bottle was $1...shouldn't ice tea cost more than coke? Well it was good for me cause I prefered Ice Tea over coke. That was a good price, I thought since I was at an amusement park they would charge an arm and a leg for food but it was actually normal street prices inside there. Even admission was decent 30NT for student ($1.20) and 60NT ($2.40) for adult. Well than after paying and getting a drink I headed for the animal cages, after all thats what I did pay my $2 for :) Now I get to the first area and the stupid animals are inside their little mud homes. I think they were some sort of kangaroo/deer hybrid. Not sure, I will post pictures next week of all the animals at the zoo, but unfortunately it was really tough getting pictures for the animals who were living out doors. The lazy animals, including the koala bears were inside some shelter cause it was too hot to be outside. They probably were laughing at the humans who were sweltering in the 30+ heat trying to grab a peak at them. I must say, it was dumb that the zoo was not open till later in the evening when its cooler, since otherwise half the animals would never come out and just stay asleep. Than there was the monkeys, they loved making faces, but the minute I took out my camera, they would turn their back at me. It was soo annoying, and they pretended like they weren't doing it on purpose. Granted I did not pay a HUGE admission fee, but I WANTED pictures. argh. Well after the monkeys I headed over to the elephants which were much more accomodating. The hippos were also quite good about showing themselves, although they were sooo large they didn't have much choice. Surprisingly, I also saw several indians there, more than I had seen anywhere else since I had been in Taipei. I will leave it at that, lest ma friends start making jokez of finding so many Indians at the Zoo. I than went to the reptilian section, but than ran out of storage space on my Camera :( Hopefully, by next week I will fix this issue. The turtles were quite pretty, there was a lot of them, but it was weird how the other visitors were eyeing them, not like animals to be studied, but almost like they were pointing at which ones they wanted for dinner. Very weird. I also saw a lizard that I was 90% sure was dead. I also saw some Brown Bears, you know, the ones that are like everywhere in the Canadian wilderness? Well as someone from Canada, I can tell you their Brown Bears were not normal. First of all, they were really really thin, what do they feed these guys? They looked soo sad and skinny, it was really sad to watch too. Secondly, their fur was soo short, it looked like it had been cut or shaved, it was really thined out. In summary, the bears didn't look like bears, but hairy monkeys. This is what happens when you take a bear used to forests and cold weather and high protein diets and ship them 20,000 km to a tropical country where they are subjegated to 30+ degree temperatures and chinese food.

I than headed back to the exit cause I was getting bored. It was still very hot outside so I grabbed another drink, yes only 80 cents for 600ml Ice Tea bottle :) It than started raining :( Stupid weather network said it wouldnt rain, like 30% chance, bahh...luckily it only rained for like 10 mins, so I wasn't too wet. Basically, morale of the story is to ALWAYS carry an umbrella with you. Once I got back on the MRT, I decided to go to the Shilin Night Market, as it was about 4:30 p.m. and I could get dinner/snacks from there. It was still a bit early for the night markets, as they weren't really open yet, so I walked around the neighborhood to kill time.

I passed by Sea World, the Taiwanese version of an aquarium, guess what, $400NT approx for admission, screw that, wayyy to much. So I just killed more time by walking around. I than walked through the Shilin night markets as it was about 5 and they were open. Wow, once again I was astounded by the variety of foods, although most of it was meat. The deserts were quite impressive as well. Truly good food here. I bought a tofu on a stick, it was BBQ'd, it didn't taste that good, but it was decent. I also grabbed some cold noodles for dinner later that night, once again my broken mandarin came in handy :) (I am vegetarian), hehe. Ya, so the lady than just gave me noodles with some shredded cucumber I think. She asked me whether I wanted the sauce hot, I was like definitely, since everyone knows how bland chinese food is. I than headed to the MRT station, but passed one of these clothing stores with nice dress shirts. I bought one, cause it looked good and I would be starting work soon so needed some shirts. I got a blue one, it was like $200NT ($8) so I figure I couldnt go wrong :) Anyways, on the way home I also picked up some bubble tea to have with my cold noodles (in hindsight, very good move!). I also asked the bubble tea lady where I could get some egg fried rice (but in chinese, I had written down the chinese words for it) I think its Dong Fang Chow or something. Anyways, she didn't know english so drew me a map to the restraurant, which was quite nice.

Well, I got home and started to eat my noodles and type on the computer. Woa, the noodles were sooo hot after I put the spicy sauce on. Dang, it was soo hot, I was in tears, I used like half a box of tissue and most of my drink trying to eat the noodles. I definitely learned my lesson, from now on I will respect Chinese noodle sauce :) Anyways, after I finished I was too lazy to move my box from the desk, which was a BIG mistake, because it fell over right onto me, covered my t-shirt, shorts even my socks and leg and made a huge mess on the floor. I had to work fast, because I knew the roaches probably hear my shriek and would come for da food. Luckily I had bought the paper towels and mop earlier in the week. I cleaned up the mess and put my clothes in a plastic bag and tightened it. Now I really had to find a place where I could have my clothes washed...crap. I than typed up this journal entry and its now 8:30 p.m. I should take out the garbage, cause the ants and roaches might be attracted by the smell of the sauce...um...I kinda feel sick from the noodles now, they were soo hot. Perhaps the bakery is still open, could TOTALLY use some sweet buns, maybe a coconut one or something.

p.s. I opened the blue shirt, its nice, a bit of a tight fit, next time I will go with large instead of medium. Its half-sleeve, not long sleeve as I originally thought. Quite good, I will definitely buy some more of different colours next week. At $8/each these are great, I may even haggle them lower when I buy several.

Officially the end of my 1st week in Taiwan

Wed.

Well, today was a hot day, so I didn't spend too much time outside. I woke up pretty late,

around 11:30 I think. I didn't do much besides stretches and exercises until about 4 p.m. I

really needed to get into shape after losing at bball :( PErsonally, I bet it was the shoes,

everyone else on the court had Nikes, I had some Reeboks :( Anyways, I left the house around 4

p.m. in search of breakfast, and due to the heat I took the drink I had bought yesterday with me

from the fridge. It was actually the freebie carrot juice I had got from buying the soya milk.

It tasted pretty bad, just like a real carrot :P, but I figured it must be pretty healthy as it

was 100% Carrot juice, or so I assumed so from the numbers 100% in big lettering and the giant

carrot on the side...and it made me feel like Bugs Bunny, so it really must've been carrot juice.

Well, I got to the breakfast place at about 4:10 p.m. and naturally they were closed, I guess its

not all-day breakfast over here :P Well instead I went over to the bakery, and surprisingly they

had this giant egg sandwhich for 20NT?, good price, only 80 cents canadian, and it was very

filling. Well, I ate that on my way to the grocery store. Again they had the watermelon pre-cut

for 80 cents, but I already had breakfast. I bought some more hangers and moth mall clones as

well as a drink. It was really hot today, I heard it was like 12 degrees in Toronto, hahaha

sucks to be them. Well, after shopping I headed over to where place Pete was at, as I wanted to

get the basketball in his trunk, so I could practice some more. It was quite convenient as it

was across the streeet from the grocery store. After I got the ball I headed back home, because

it really was too hot to just be hanging outside. After some time of playing computer games, I

decided around 7:30 p.m. to go get some dinner at a restaurant. I didn't want to go alone, so

tried to invite my roommates. Naturally, considering there is 4 of them, I was sure one of them

would be interested. I tried Ted first, he did help me get internet cable afterall. Boo, no

such luck, not home. Than I tried Allan's door, than Richards, and than Viona and Chris's.

Amazing, no one was home. I than rhetorically asked if anyone wanted to chill with me, but

naturally I was greeted with silence.

Its like, when I need to use the bathroom, EVERYONE is home, but when I actually NEED them, bah

they all "out". Anyways, I decided to go to the bakery instead, but when I got there, I couldnt

figure out what didn't have meat in it, that actually looked tasty. I tried asking the shop

keeper, I pointed to some buns and asked vegetable? pork? cow? beef? She gave me a blank look,

than started talking to me in Chinese....I remembered how to say the 2nd phrase that I know (I

only know 2 phrases in Chinese, Shu Shie for thank you and Wo Chih Su for I am a vegetarian), I

used the 2nd phrase and she finally gave me a non-catatonic look. I felt like a surgeon bringing

a patient out of a coma, LOL. Anyways, she indicated that everything was no good for me, except

for some tray of sweets, and this other tray. I took the "other" tray which had apparently

(after eating it), curry buns. They were actually pretty good, and for 20NT a fine dinner price

:) Well, I took the bun back to my house where I ate it with the soya milk I had bought.

What a fine day its been, and I still needed to meet up with Sheldon at 9:30. l8r.

Ok, I met up with Sheldon at this big giant mall, that looks like a GIANT golf-ball. Its biggest

selling point is that its open 24 hrs, but the stupid thing is most of the stores there close

after like 9 p.m., except for the movie theatre and the bar and night club on the top floor.

Gee, that doesn't make the mall that special. Its weird though cause as it was closing at 9

p.m., the mall was empty, but all the store owners lined up outside their door. This was scary,

cause I would be walking down the mall (think of something like Fairview or Yorkdale Mall), and

all these shop keepers are staring at me...and I was the only guy there.....very weird. Oh, I

forgot to mention that the MRT subway doesnt even go up to the mall, I had to take a taxi there.

Naturally the taxi driver didn't know english, so I called up a friend on my cell and gave the

taxi dude the phone...LOL, who says U need 2 know mandarin, just need friends that know mandarin

:)

I met Sheldon and his friends in the mall, and we went to this bar called Coyote Ugly. It was

good because they had a live band, but their drinks were pretty expensive, like Toronto's prices

and the drinks were pretty watered down. Even their food sucked. At least the live band was

good, they were quite talented as they were chinese but singing spanish and white songs. Naturally, since the food and drinks sucked, we left after an hour or 2 i think. Anyways, one of Sheldon's friends had a car, and they were nice enough to take me home. When I got home, I slamed the front door a little too loudly, it woke up Richard, my roommate. Oops, he was nice enough about it, but wished I would stop. I better remember in the future, my roommates all work and its 1:30 a.m. right now....ooops. Soon I'll be working ...ewwwww. Vacations are fun :)

Well nothing planned for tomorrow, hopefully it will be relaxing and boring :)

l8r.

p.s. maybe I should check out this place Saturday nite :) http://www.thingsasian.com/goto_article/article.2493.html#top

p.p.s Wow, I can't believe I have only been here for a week, it seems like months. I feel like I really know the city now, just need to know the language and I;m all set :)

Mopped and Cleaned my Apartment :) Still need more hangers

Tuesday, May 25.

Mom and dad would be so proud, no clothes on the floor (cause floor so dirty, bugs might hide on

the floor). Crazy, there's bugs that actually eat clothes...insane. Anyways, woke up late this

morning (not like I had a reason to wake up early :P) and watched Shrek2, wow, what a great

movie.... than it was like 1:30 p.m. once the movie ended. I showered and went out and it was

like 2:30...oh no, all the food stores were closed cause lunch was over....and since today was

Tuesday ....I got a chocolate bar from the 7-11. I had to get cleaners and mops from the grocery

store to clean ma apartment, so went shopping there. I found watermelon already cut up, the type

you can buy from Longo's , it was cheap only 80 cents (20NT) so I bought it, wow so tasty, great.

Now my lunch wasn't that bad, chocolate bar and a watermelon :) Some lady was giving free

samples of a drink...she insisted I have some, it was some sort of soya milk. Not bad actually,

and so I bought it, it was 33NT(like $1.25 and it came with another bottle of pure carrot juice

as a special). Amazing deal, in Canada a bottle of pure carrot juice alone would cost like $2.

Anyways, I also bought some hangers. Once I got back home to my apartment, I cleaned up the

place, putting almost EVERYTHING on the hangers. Its easier this way to ensure bugs aren't

hiding anywhere. Its pretty sad but bugs are a big part of life here....argh. Another idea I

had while walking home from the grocery store was how Taiwan should change its working hours.

The Night markets are a good idea in the right direction. During the day its too hot for people

to work anyways, so we should sleep during the day and work at night! Its brilliant since people

in N. America would than be working at the same time as us and we would save so much money from

not having to air condition so many places...I don't wanna go out during the day to eat or shop,

far too hot. I doubt the rest of Taiwan will go along with my idea...its light years ahead of

its time :)

Anyways, its 4 p.m. right now, better get back to cleaning the apartment. Ewwwww update at 5

p.m., found a dead roach in one of the closet drawers....so sick...hate them....nasty. Well, no

one can accuse me of having a dirty apartment, its extremely clean....really.

Well its 5:40 now, and I;m off 2 play some basketball, l8r. The mopping went weird, how do ppl

mop, you put the chemical and water mixture on the floor and than what? does it dry by itself?

um...ah well...

Ok, its 11:30 p.m. and I just got home. When I first met up with Pete, we went to the

supermarket, apparently, in Taiwan you need to keep two things in your closet. One is something

similar to mothballs that you use to stop bugs from EATING your clothes, secondly is a spunge with rocks. IT basically absorbs all the humidity and moisture in the air so your clothes don't get

spoiled. Its pretty kewl, eventually, it will actually be FULL of water...wow. Expensive stuff, must've set me back at least 300NT ($12?). Afterwards, we went off to

the bball courts by work. Basketball was fun...but I sucked so bad. I;m not used to running so

much, so was pretty bad, well I was ok, but I got tired so fast. Had to sub off pretty quickly.

It didn't help between games I went to the 7-11 and got some ice-cream...so when I got back and

was playing I felt sick...one of the other guys gave me his water yay! Once again the people of

Taiwan R so friendly :) they invited me back for the following week, so nice...well we must've

finished bball around 9, cause around 9:15 I was dropped at the MRT and home by 9:30. Yet, when

I got home I realized I had left my keys in Pete's car, CRAP! Well he realized this too, as he

called me, but was unable to meet up with me until at least 10:30. To speed things up , we met

at the Technology building MRT station. Well, nevertheless I had some serious time once again to

kill....So I picked up some bubble tea (35NT...large with tapioca), what a great deal...only like

$1.25 Canadian, man...Canada sucks LOL :P Anyways, eventually I got home, as previously stated.

So now 11:45 p.m. and boy am i tired. I really need to work out more if I am gonna beat Pete at

bball... :P

Still need to harass UT to see if my letter is ready...um...goodnite

I got a cellphone!

Monday, May 24, 2004

Wow, what a day. IT started this morning at like 9 when Pete picked me up and took me to work. I was surprised i woke up early enough, I was afraid I'd sleep in because it was the first night I had slept with the lights closed, it was very relaxing. Its been 2 days since I saw a LIVE roach, so hopefully they are retreating...What was suppose 2 B a short meeting turned into a very long one, and I ended up reading magazines in the reception area until like 1 p.m. at work. Why was I at work? Thats cause I needed to go to work to get someone to sign up a cellphone for me....so had to wait there for people to be free. My co-workers were so nice though, some of them brought me magazines to read after I finished reading the old ones :)

Anyways, I met some of my co-workers again and we all went to lunch, and guess what?! One of them is a vegetarian too! Finally, someone that can share my frustration. Like Taiwanese food is great, but soo much of it has meat in it, its tough sometimes finding vege food when you can't read or speak the language....Now I have someone I can follow and just eat whatever they are eating :)

Anyways, after lunch, I read some more magazines and than went to the bank around 3:30 p.m. (there is a bank in the lobby of the building) to get some cash for the cellphone....and than FINALLY we were off, it was about 4 when we got to the cellphone store. They still didn't wanna gimme a cell, but Pete was able 2 get one for me, THANX PETE!! Anyways, I got this kewl Benq one that even works in N. America, it has like 64k colour so you can see fancy animations on it...pretty neat features on it....wayy to powerful for most of my uses, but whatever :)


After getting the cellphone, we went back to work where I checked how much money I had spent, I better cut down, my Canadian bank accounts are starting to get low.... :( If I don't start work soon, I will be getting very low on funds...and I also tried looking for a cellphone manual online that was in English, as the one that came with my phone was in chinese :( Unfortunately, Benq doesn't make cellphones for N. America, so they didn't seem to have an English manual for their phone...but most of the keys seem obvious, although it took me about half an hour to actually save names to a phone book. I loved my old Samsung Sch-8500 phone, its better than most of todays models and its over 3 yrs old!

After work, it was about 6:40 p.m., Pete was pretty tired, although I wasn;t, reading magazines all day isn't exactly hard :P. Afterwards, we went for dinner in "the zone" at some restaurant called Saints and Sinners....Pete introduced me to his friend Maggie. She didn't talk much at first in english to me, mostly to Pete, but later she did. She is very very nice, extremely kind person. She so friendly, and said she would help me if I ever needed anything. Taiwanese ppl are so friendly :P. The food there was ok, for such a fancy place, I expected better quality, but whatever....I guess the night markets have spoiled me :)

Speaking of night markets, after dinner we went to a night market that was walking distance from the restaurant, it wasn't as big as the other night markets I had been to, but I did get a great deal on an excercise mat and a pillow. Yes, finally I have a pillow~! I guess cutie pie can rest easy @ nite hehe.

After the night market shopping, it was like 10 so Pete dropped us off at the local MRT station where we went up to the MRT station near my house. I than went to a local store their that she had to supervise. Maggie seems so nice, and so comfortable talking to her cause her english was quite good, yes unfortunately most Taiwanese I have met don't have very good english skillz, and my Chinese still sucks... After chilling there till like almost 11:30 I got a ride home from Maggie's friends, this really sweet couple who were wearing matching shirts...I thought that was like soooo kewl :), ok kinda corny, but neat nevertheless. Ok, so than back at my apartment (still hadn't seen a roach, sweeeet ) and I wrote up this web blog :)

No real plans for tomorrow, but I maybe playing some basketball or badminton or something....besides that....er I guess I;m still on vacation till da UT letter comes in...

guys msg me and I'll send ya my phone # :)

I got Internet at Home!

Hey, yesterday (Saturday) I got Internet @ home, which was pretty great...lets see...and I went out for a few hours and didn't do much else.

Today, it was pretty hot, I went to the Taiwan National University, looked for an indian hindhu temple that I thought was in the area, but didn't find it. I ate like junk food from bakeries all day long. In Taiwan, bakeries are EVERYWHERE, its hard to resist them....I had a cheese bun for breakfast, and a cranberry bun, strawberry bun and cheese danish for lunch and dinner.....

I also spent like 7 hours today searching for a pillow, but couldnt find one :( It was soo hard, because only the dept. stores seem to have them, and they charge a lot, like $100 Canadian for a pillow :(

Most people I talked to today didn't quite understand me....The Taiwan National University is very beautiful, quite peaceful too, read Sports Illustrated over there....

I called home several times today, but no one picked up, I guess they are on a party now that I am gone from home. The MRT is becoming like second nature to me, quite good at travelling on it. Its like the TTC back home, except the stations are closer to each other, and some stations actually have an underground mall attaching them with eachother, that are air conditioned. This is good , cause today was hot so U didnt wanna be walking outside during the day...

Hopefully, I will get my cellphone tomorrow, frustrating always using a payphone, although a lotta payphones are everywhere....just like the 7-11's :)

Not as much interesting stuff to report now, perhaps later once I am able to upload some pictures....I am surprised though how skinny Taiwanese ppl are, there is food everywhere and it is so tasty... ~! :)

First few days in Taiwan

Taipei Journal

Wed May 19th, Taiwan time.

Landed: 5:20, 10 minutes late due to high winds during flight, amazing actually that the EVA stewardesses didn’t drop any of the food they were serving…some of the turbulence was quite severe, it was like being on a roller coaster.

6:00 finished customs and went to pickup my baggage. Amazing, the carts are free thank goodness, much better than Pearson where it costs a dollar…

6:30 called Peter, woke him up LOL. Thanks James for the phone card, without it I would’ve been in deep trouble as I had no TWN coins and the phone stores weren’t open yet….

6-7:30 took nice bus, $120 NT to downtown main Taipei train station. Nice LCD screens on the bus, it was like a coach bus, but there was nothing playing on the LCDs, granted the trip wasn’t very long. One of the fellow passengers was very helpful, told me the stop to get off at for Main Taipei Station AND gave me a pack of bubble gum, yay . Really nice, considering he really didn’t understand most of what I was saying, but later I would find that neither did most of Taiwan :P.

8:40 Peter arrives after an hour! It was pretty hot outside considering it was early morning, scary with so much luggage out in the open….hard to carry it places.

9:30ish we got to the general area of my future apartment, stop by a food vendor to get breakfast -> $1 for a egg and cheese sandwich yumm.

10 we go to get drinks from a convenience store, soo much choice over there also recognized some of the Chinese brands I saw at T&T supermarket….

10:15ish find landlords parents, take mt o apartment, um…….they don’t know ANY English, I don’t know any mandarin, things get interesting here cause Peter has to go to leave (work). I go with Melinda’s grandfather (landlord’s father) to the bank to get my traveller’s cheques exchanged. When I get there, the stupid bank doesn’t except my traveller’s cheques, apparently ONLY American Express bank accepts American Express traveller’s cheques. The first bank wouldn’t even accept American dollars (Cash) because it didn’t have any holograms on it (apparently new American money will soon have holograms on it ), soo ghetto they said my American money printed in 1996 was too old….Anways, after wandering for an hour we finally found an American Express Bank to get the money exchanged, all thanks to me, my guide (Melinda’s grandfather kinda gave up….interesting walking with him considering he never understood all the stuff I was saying, I felt like Tom Cruise in da Last Samurai, LOL….).

12ish I get back to apartment and pay my rente deposit than start putting away my clothes into the closet, I get my apartment keys but no coat hangers  I want to ask for some, but they really don’t know what I’m saying.

12:15 Melinda finally calls says her grandparents want to take me to a free lunch at a budhist temple down the street…oh ya in Taipei literally everything is just down the street, one of the advantages of living downtown.

12:30 I’m at a budhist temple in the basement of an apartment building. Whenever people come in they bow and nemeste to da Buddha in the room.

12:45 The people at the temple go to eat, there is tons of food on a large long table, similar in style I think to an Indian temple. Anyways, I’m really freaked out now cause all the Chinese are staring at me, so I convince Melinda’s grandparents that I’m really tired (How-lay, Say-jow), and wanna sleep, Emily’s 5 words of mandarin came in handy, LOL. I than kinda run outta there…

I go back to the apartment, get Peter’s number, and go shopping with a list of stuff I need for my apartment, cleaning supplies, paper towels, etc. I get to the OK convenience store (like 7-11’s, they are EVERYWHERE in Taipei). I buy some stuff, and call Pete, he not answering, so I go walk around da neighbourhood, CONSTANTLY avoiding cars and even scooters on the sidewalk, transportation here is a mess unless you use public transit which is quite decent. I come by a computer store, and I ask about buying a monitor. The guy and girl there don’t understand English and just giggle, they gimme some glyer and I leave….er….

I see a bubble tea store near the OK convenience store I was previously at, wow bubble tea for 2-25NT (80 cents to $1), lotta ppl seem 2 B buying, but I’m scared they won’t understand me…cause menu is in Chinese.

Saddened, I walk back to the payphone outside the OK and call Pete, he answers this time (1:30_ he tells me how to order in Chinese, then he gotta go 4 lunch, says meet-up after 5:30. Um…k. that’s like 4 hours from now so I go back home, shower, shave, it would’ve been releaxingf if the shower head was handheld and their was a shower curtain, argh!! I also cleaned da apartment somewhat…

I definitely gotta tell the landlord today or tomorrow about that…

Anways its 3 now so I write this journal (didn’t bring any paper with me so wrote it on the back of my VLSI lab  #2)

Everything eerile reminds me of India, must get a cell so everyone can reach me and a monitor, handwriting this journal is tough. Yikez! Bugs everywhere, even saw a massive cockroach  but Pete said itz normal in Taiwan. Man, really starting to miss Canada now, but at the same tyme everything here seems so kewl. Just wish everyone spoke English, than this place would be really awesome 

New Journal entry May 20th, Thursday morning:

By the way, my apartment room is the same size as my bed room back in Canada, so its pretty decent.

K, here is what happened yesterday, I left home, went to Pete;s place (left at 4:30) its only like 10 mins walk, took 40 mins cause walked in a circle couple of times, horrible directions, got there 5 p.m.

Pete’s office building really nice, very modern, beautiful foyer, prettier than BCE place, huge pond at basement with fish, will get photos later, waited 2 hours downstairs for him, grrrr!! Till 6:45 p.m.

k. he apologized and we went shopping 

There is this area just filled with computer shops! Krazy, just amazing, anyways, I picked up a monitor Samsung 753DFX….same one I have at home, but in Canada its called 753DF, I dunno why there is an X on the end of it here….after that computer store the fun REALLY started ….

We hit this night market, woa! Such cheap stuff, bought slippers ($4) , hangers ($1), garbage can ($2), and dinner ($2). It was like taste of the danforth, or the CNE, soo much food and soo cheap, everything $1 or $2 Canadian. It was great, Peter I suggested I buy an umbrella but I was like I;m not afraid of a little rain.

Anyways, after we hit the car (we had spent several hours at da food vendors, its worth coming to Taiwan just for the food! ).

It was 10 p.m. and I was exhausted, I hadn’t slept in 24 hours. I fell asleep in da car and woke up at ma apartment and unloaded all my stuff, monitor, food and other stuff I had bought. I bid Pete a farewell, his gf was waiting for him (and dinner) and went upstairs and fell asleep. (Dang I forgot to buy a pillow  )

Wow, and that was my FIRST day in Taipei, not bad, I had an apartment, somewhat settled in , and most essentials in my apartment to survive for some time. I had also spent about $1500 (that includes like $1350 for the apartment rent for 4 months and the $180 approx for the Samsung monitor). I still hadn’t met any of my apartment neighbours.

I woke up at 7 a.m. (mom would be proud) and my neck hurt, I started to install my monitor but no powerbar, doh! Hence writing dis journal entry on paper still  ! Oh, I also talked to my neighbour around 7:30 dis morning (his name is Richard) he knows English, woa!

Anyways, its 8 something a.m. and its raining like crazym been raining all night, dang I shoulda bought an umbrella….I shower, shave and eat some cold noodles with sesame sauce I had bought the previous night at the Night Market for breakfast, delicious! And it only cost a $1  . During shaving I saw this giant giant cockroach, argh I was gonna have to do something about my apartment bathroom, I really don’t like it, besides that my apartment is great ( well da one room I get ), I don’t use the shared kitchen , or living room but than neither does anyone else  . Ok time to go out and brave the rain and buy an umbrella.


4 p.m. Ok I just got home, time to write about what happened, on the computer yay  I am soo exhausted. I bought an umbrella ($4) from the OK store, a powerbar ($14) very expensive powerbar, but that guy through in a converter for free to fit the wall socket the store I bought it from was very high end. FMAC which is inside Asia world, a very upscale shopping mall where I saw several white people.

Soo tired, I walked several kms in different directions from my apartment, I took some camera shots and used the MRT, Taipei’s train transit system, its quite advanced, very clean and efficient. The ride cost is about 74 cents but changes depending on how far you are traveling. It’s a pretty kewl system, I think TTC can really learn from it, I know Matt will be impressed by it, I should upload their transit flyer….thanx Alex for your maps, they proved to be very very valuable.

I also bought some strawberry bubble tea, its not dat good but it was only 80 cents...it was cute how they had me write out ma order in english cause dey couldnt understand my words :P This is the same place I didn’t try buying from yesterday.

Anyways, I am now typing on a computer, yay~! thanx 2 da powerbar...

Remind ma self 2 buy a chair next tyme i get some cash...tyme 2 go type up all da stuff I been writing on paper for the last two days, argh...

Anyways, its 4:50 p.m. now, my second day in this country ( or republic of China? ) and Peter should be getting off work soon, so I’m gonna step out and give him a call, I really need to get a cell! Still haven’t called home, but they shouldn’t be too worried, otherwise they would’ve called Pete’s cell rite? :P. I also bought a English newspaper, Taiwan Times, but it doesn’t have much local news, except some stuff on the Taiwan / China, crisis, and a special feature on the election issues in India and poverty in India, who are they to judge?? But I think I;m da only Indian in Taiwan/Taipei, so I don’t think I’ll start protesting outside their bldg just yet… :P

Argh, still raining outside, been raining for more than 12 hours, straight, amazing, the streets practically flooded, anyways, a change of socks, and a top and I’m off for Pete’s Office Bldg.

Peter took me to some places, including this area where a lot of students and teenagers hang out, very colourful at night, lots of large neon displays.

Ok I don’t remember what I did but when I got home (around 10:15), I met my fellow room mates (Ted, Richard, and Allan). I spoke to Ted, and he called someone to hook me up with cable internet by Saturday, yay! Meanwhile, Richard took me to a local internet café where I could @ least login and tell people I am alive  When I got home I was tired as I was @ da café from 10:30-11:30 p.m. Anyways, when I got home I broke my umbrella fighting with a GIANT cockroach that was trying to crawl into my room, I finally beat it back and it crawled into one of the other tenant’s rooms. That totally freaked me out! The bugs here are MUCH bigger than Canada, wahhhhhh  now I am starting to regret coming here .

I slept horribly, I kept the lights on, and the air conditioner on, I had to use the bed sheet to stay warm, I kept waking up every hour to see if the bug would try coming back, luckily it didn’t 

Journal Entry for Friday May 21, 2004 (day 3 in Taiwan)

This morning I woke up @ around 8, I met another one of my fellow Tenant’s (Viona) and told her bout the bug that went under her door, I than went to Pete’s office building and tried opening a bank account at Citibank, but they refused cause they said like most foreign banks they wanted a balance of $10,000 Canadian, I was like what?!

Anyways, around 10:30 or so I met up with Peter and we went to the company I would be working at, and I met my co-workers, I got soo many business cards, adding them to the pile I have from just my roommates, I knew I had to do something about it….um…anyways, we left that place and Pete took me to a very large mall/office tower, called Taipei 101, its HUGE, almost the size of the CN Tower. Right next to it are some other malls as well, very large, it was basically like being in the U.S. or Canada, the malls were very modern, in fact more modern than N. America I think…In the basement of all the malls they have these really nice food courts with great food. I can’t say enough how great the food in Taiwan really is…..its great 

Anyways, I chilled at this mall area from like 12-3 p.m. (I bought ANOTHER umbrella  ), and than met up with Pete again at 3 p.m. where we went on some errands. I got a bank account setup with a local company, I tried getting a cellphone on a monthly term but was rejected since I’m not a citizen  , and I think pay as you go is a rip-off so didn’t get that…We also went to some markets, and went back to Taipei 101 tower, as they have like a Dominion Supermarket (its called MarketPlace, but very modern, similar to Loblaws or Dominon) in the basement. I met some Indians in that supermarket, soo surprised, they told me where I could find a hindhu temple in the city, wow, yay! I guess I am not alone, they said they had been here for like 4 years, wow!....

I picked up some baked goods in the bakery at MarketPlace supermarket, the stuff there was delicious, seriously soo tasty….great food in Taiwan  Ok we than went to Pete’s house to drop off the groceries, than met up with one of the company co-workers for dinner. I finished up around 9:45 p.m. and window shopped till like 11 p.m. although I did buy some RAID bug spray and some cockroach bait killer. The bugs really bugged me, grrrrr. I also wrote this journal entry starting from yesterday right now until 11:45 p.m. Supposedly, when I called Ted earlier today, he said the Internet people would be coming tomorrow to hook up my computer to the internet, that sure would be sweet, I could than post all my journal entries online .

Well time to sleep now, almost 12 midnight, and I did a lot of walking today. Hopefully I will lose some weight soon, cause I sure need to , man these Taiwanese soo fit, they mostly have really nice bodies.