Hsinchu City/Taipei City September 17-18

I booked a trip to see Amber in Hsinchu, finally! Surprisingly, it was super easy. The train website translated to English and I could purchase tickets on there. All of the high speed tickets were already sold out so I just got a regular ticket which was an hour and a half trip. Not bad, and it was cheap. I was so proud of my independent train ticket purchasing and travel plans. Pretty soon I’ll be booking trips to Rome. I needed a sturdy backpack just in case we do some of the outdoorsy things that Amber likes to do. Hike, go to the beach, things like that. I found one at the night market for a good deal. Small black backpack but sturdy and comfortable, only about $20 USD..better than my original plan which was to go to the North Face store in the mall and splurge..She told me to pack for a random weekend. Maybe the beach, maybe some hiking, maybe a day trip, and then clubs at night. I like to overpack! Makes me feel better.. and CLUBS?? Loud music, Dancing and Drinking?? Count me in. I’ll pack 2 outfits! I spent Friday night packing and setting my alarm 3 times and I already had my ticket printed. I was ready to travel alone. Reminded me of taking the train downtown for the first time..that still scares me. I can’t find my way out of Oglvie station to save my life, I don't even know if I spelled it right...

Saturday morning came around and I had 2 bags so I wasn’t thrilled about walking to the train station, I decided to grab a taxi. I had my Iphone “Learn Chinese” app out and was ready to butcher their language some more. I said train station and the guy laughed at my attempt but was excited that I tried. We pull up to the train station which is a typical half circle drop off, and I pay the cab, say SheShe! Open my door abruptly and completely CLOSE LINED an old lady on a scooter. Yep. That just happened. She decided to zip through about 2 feet of space between the passenger side of the taxi and the curb of the station, and I opened my door just so, and knocked this lady over. I thought it bent the cab door. I was shocked. I had a mixture of teary eyes and trying to keep uncomfortable laughter from bursting out. All I could do was ask the lady “OH MYGOD ARE YOU OK, I’M SO SORRY ARE YOU OK,” (but I really wasn’t that sorry, what the heck was she thinking?? Theirs a reason humans exit on the passenger side of cars. Idiot. There’s a reason you don’t speed directly next to a cab after it pulls up to obviously let someone out.) then I panicked some more and yelled at the cab in English “WHAT DO I DO OH MY GOD WHAT DO I DO!!!” I checked out his door, a little paint chipped but I didn’t even want to mention that. And Honestly, the most shocking thing out of the situation, wasn’t the fact that it was my very first solo traveling trip and I almost had a foreign lawsuit on my hands, but it was that allllllllllll of these people who were sitting around on the sidewalk, playing jacks and cards and what not, only stopped to look up at the lady and gasp, for not even 3 seconds!! Literally, one one thousand two one thousand three, and boom, they were back to their merry lives. Even the cab driver waved me away from his car like, leave, it’s no big deal. No one got up to help her, no one said anything to me. (And ok, let me just clear the air here, the lady wasn’t THAT old, she was like..50’s.) She picked her scooter back up, brushed herself off, shot me a dirty look, and sped right back out of the lot. The entire situation took about 40 seconds out of my life and if it happened in Chicago, you know damn well I’d be giving my insurance information to this woman and then paying some sort of money for a chipped yellow cab. Also, I couldn’t help but think about these bystanders and how they weren’t following the typical First Aid protocol.. . The first thing you do is, “YOU..in the blue shirt CALL 911, You in the red, go grab some water..” or whatever you say, I forgot. Anyway, I think the shock had to leave my body somehow so as I walked past a crowd of people assuming they’re looking at me like I’m a dumbass foreigner, I burst into laughter. I couldn’t help it..I think it also had to do with the fact that I couldn’t just pick up the phone and text my friends or call my brother and sister about it and say,”ok don’t tell mom because I don’t want her to worry, but you wouldn’t believe what just happened.”  I was like..doing this chuckle where your laugh is deep in your lungs and makes that hiccup noise. It was just too hilarious. Only me. Only in my awkward life would that happen. Of all cabs to drive next to, she had to drive by the clueless girl who just got here a month ago.

Anywho, after that little situation, it was smooth sailing from then on. Train ride was great, sat next to this nice kid around my age who you could tell was just interested in every little thing I was doing and probably wanted to speak some English. (you can tell when you’re near someone who knows English because they don’t avoid eye contact or polite gestures and they usually offer to help you when you give the slightest look of hesitation and confusion.) He ended up telling me he was on his way to see his girlfriend in Hsinchu and that they only see eachother once a month. I don’t know why, it’s not very far..he gave me a 5 minute warning when we were approaching the station too which was nice, because I can never make out what the announcements on the busses or trains say. Once I got out of the station, it was beautiful outside and I immediately saw about 10 foreigners. Amber was there to get me within a matter of minutes on her scooter and right when she pulled up she recognized another foreigner friend and then even on our ride to go get some tea and lunch, we ran into MORE of her foreigner friends. I’m pretty envious of the sense of community. I also loved the way the city was. It almost reminded me of Taipei because it had pretty scenery and an updated downtown area where there was always something happening. Taipei is way bigger of course and more city like, but you can still see how pretty the country is around you. I honestly don’t feel that in Taichung..it seems more like an old run down town..it’s like the crappy side of Glendale Hts, and Hsinchu is like the Naperville of Taiwan with it’s half suburban/half city feel and Taipei is like Chicago. Amber’s friends that we ran into by the teashop/breakfast place were so nice. This one guy Warner was really funny and cool and the other two guys were just very down to earth and nice. They ordered me some breakfast for lunch which is always a plus when it’s actual breakfast food J I had hashbrowns, eggs, bacon, and toast. Yummm. And mango green tea. Love that stuff. We ended up chatting for a while and headed back to Amber’s apartment. She drives her scooter kind of crazy but I got used to it. I lost my Marc Jacobs sunglasses at some point between the train station and breakfast..maybe that lady purposely ran into my cab door so she could cause a commotion and rob me. Amber and her girlfriend, Sarah, live on top of this beautiful hill that overlooks the city and the ocean on a clear day. Its so cool. Hsinchu is also known as the “windy city” and always has a breeze so it never felt too hot to me. Their apartment was really nice, spacious, had a kitchen with functioning kitchen like appliances that I know I won’t be possessing in the next year, and they had TWO balconies, and two bedrooms and then two cute puppies which made me so happy. I miss dogs. I miss Charlie. One of their dogs, Layla, was a puppy that they rescued and the other, Baxter, is not a puppy but an old man, he’s 12! But still cute and scruffy.  They told me some sad things about the stray dogs and the pounds in Taiwan. The reason all the stray dogs I see have these red collars on is because there was this thing called the “Red Collar Project” and it’s where people went around and put collars on stray dogs so they wouldn’t get taken into the pound. I guess Taiwan’s pounds are the worst in the world and they only keep the dogs for 8 days and they don’t spend money on proper euthanasia so it’s some really depressing stuff that goes on there. I don’t even want to type it or I’ll cry. We hung out for a  bit at the apartment and then packed a day bag to go out to Taipei for the day/night. It was South Africa day in Taipei and they have a lot of South African friends who were going. I was excited to meet South Africans! 

Before we headed out to yet another train station, we stopped at their friends place, Gretchen and Juan (John) and then we all went together. Gretchen is awesome! She reminds me so much of Gina! Looks and personality, really bubbly and pretty and has the same sense of humor as my friends from home. She’s from Texas. Her boyfriend, John, is South African and he’s also really funny! He had a bad hangover so he drank a beer on the way to Taipei. These are my people. South Africa day was pretty interesting. They all knew each other and there’s some political stuff going down in South Africa so a lot of them take these teaching positions to get out of their country. It’s so weird that I literally have never paid attention to the rest of the world..I should look into that. They were all really loud and fun and drank a ton all day long. We were all drinking these Savanna Ciders that were good. The band was terrible... Once they sang Maroon 5, I checked out. But they were still entertaining because they were bad, no one else mentioned how bad they were though..so I just kept that opinion to myself. We had a few options for the rest of the night, one of which was going to the Paul Van Dyke concert, and the other was going to a lesbian club with everybody. The club was $500nt all you can drink and it was this kids birthday so everyone pretty much voted for that option.

The parents wanted to stay out later, solution=block out the noise of the party for their baby

The club was cool, it had good music and the drinking was super cheap. Everyone was having a good time. The only downside was it was super smokey, people chain smoke like crazy out here, oh and that there were no straight guys there, but it was still a lot of fun. Gretchen's and her boyfriend played a little prank on me where they would pinch my butt when I was getting drinks and I would turn around and it was just all Asian lesbians behind me, and then after about 3 times I finally realized it was them. They said my face was priceless, but I swear I was playing it off like nothing was wrong..I would just nonchalantly turn around and see who was around me, and they said I had this scared look on my face haha. Somehow we were out until 4am at the club and then we got back to the scooters at the HSR station and rode to a place that was still open to eat somehow. I was starving and didn't care that it was nearing 5am, all I had at the fest was some pasta salad, a measly chicken skewer and beer. We went to a place that had some dumpling type things. It was good. Got back to Amber's place and passed out. The guest room was nice and comfy and had air conditioning. I just reeked of smoke which sucked, I felt bad leaving that stench on the pillows. 

On Sunday morning, I slept in til about 10:45 am. I was going to go to the dog shelter with Amber and Sarah to help wash dogs, but the lady who set it up rescheduled the event. So we just drank coffee and they made this awesome breakfast for me. They claimed it didn't turn out good, but I don't think they realize the lack of breakfast I've had here.. It was an Israelian dish with fresh chopped vegetables and sunny side up eggs. Kind of like a scrambler (omg I just thought of how good a Denver scrambler would be right about now..) And then we had Mimosas which went down like water. They were so refreshing. That's one of the most dangerous drinks for me because I can't taste the champagne. We used to pregame with those in the sorority house..and it wasn't even breakfast time..But I just had a few, and we talked about lesson plan ideas and strategies for working with the teachers and students. They were very helpful because they could tell I was stressed and they offered a helping hand with whatever questions I had. They said everyone feels overwhelmed in the beginning, they did, it's normal. That's extremely encouraging because I see how many friends they have and all of the things they know, the amount of Chinese they know, and that's something that I want to have immediately even though it's not realistic. I need to be patient. It's only been a month. They had two of their neighbor friends stop by to hang out and they were from South Africa and were super outgoing and friendly. After they left, Amber, Sarah, and I headed out to go shopping. I love this Muji store, it's dangerous though..some things are affordable and others are a little pricey..I almost bought a reallyyyy cute scarf but it was $700 nt..and although it was so pretty and soft..spending that much on a scarf..in Taiwan when it's 90 degrees outside..is a little crazy..so I had some will power and put it down. I walked around the store with it for a while though. I do that when I'm rationalizing a purchase in my head. I walk around and see how it feels. Then after 20 minutes I put it back. When I worked in retail, I would be an example of what they consider a "potential shoplifter"..so I try to make it obvious that I'm just holding it and have no intentions of shoving it in my purse. We got dinner at a Tapanaki place which was sooo delicious and by far the spiciest thing I've had in Taiwan. It reminded me of a quicker and cheaper Japan 77. I need to find a place in Taichung like this. We got my train ticket settled and they sent me off at about 7pm. I dreaded going home, I knew I'd have about 4 more hours ahead of me stressing out about a lesson plan. Ugh I suck. Why must I procrastinate so much. I do think it has to do with the lack of organization from the department because I'm not even sure what I should be teaching anymore..when I was student teaching, I had idea after idea, and I'd procrastinate a little, but I at least knew what I was creating until 3am.

The train was delayed 30 minutes which was annoying. The ride back was easy and I asked the guy sitting next to me if he could translate my address into Chinese symbols so I could take a cab home. I didn't feel like dealing with a bus..bad idea on my part though. The first two cabs had NO clue what the address was, and I  should've taken that as a sign that the address was written wrong, but I decided to try for cab #3 who acted like he knew where it was. We drove in his cab for a while and then I didn't recognize anything and I'm like, "I live close to the train station, taichung park, yizhong night market, swimming pool..we shouldn't be this far.." then he proceeded to ask me to call a friend who spoke Chinese, I'm like..uhh ok..OR how about you turn on your GPS or you call someone?? I called everyone in my phonebook which is a whopping 5 people. Finally, Chiao answered and spoke with the guy. He grabs my little sheet of paper with the Chinese symbols and crosses out one tiny symbol, and that made all the difference. That little symbol some how got me 25 minutes from my apartment. I cried. Of course, it's just what I do. Confusion=tears, it's getting better though. I'm growing a tougher skin I swear. (after all of this acid rain exposure it won't be so tough though..)