The Gugong Bowuyuan (National Palace Museum) - the reason one should come to Taiwan. A professor at Yale once told me that this museum holds the "creme de la creme" of all Chinese artworks and artifacts in the world. After visiting, I can only agree. I have never seen such a wide array of famous and historically important artworks, all displayed in one place before. The works presented there were part of the collection of ancient Chinese emperors. One may wonder why the works are in Taipei rather than Beijing, China. In fact, Beijing actually has a museum of the similar name "Palace Museum" located in the Forbidden city. However, in the 1920s this museum was split into two, one remaining in Beijing and one leaving China being moved to its permanent location in Taipei, Taiwan. The general Chiang Kai-Shek (who's name you will here a lot if you decide to come to Taiwan) was the key figure in the initiation of this split. During the Chinese Civil War, he ordered that all essential collections of the Chinese collection be removed to Taipei, later claiming that they would have been destroyed during the cultural revolution in the 1960s. The legitimacy of the removal of these artworks is still in question, but the fact that these were truly the most essential is definitely not. You can find everything from Bronze, Painting, Jades, Ceramics, Calligraphy, Rare books, Documents, and Curios. Luckily, I had just taken a class on Chinese art history and were able to identify the value and importance of all of these artworks and artifacts.
The museum itself is located in Shilin (a stop on the red subway line), which is a suburb of Taipei. Going into this part of town, one does not feel like being part of the city anymore. Shilin is wealthy and remains a naturally preserved part of town. Many villas, parks, mountains, trees, and traditional Buddhist temples surround the museum, which on the contrary has an exterior and interior that is quite modern. Entering, you may also be surprised by the very large number of visitors (especially Japanese) who seem to view the artworks at all hours. I was certainly glad to be visiting this place after following my routine of studying Chinese and going to Taida for so many days. So for any future light fellows out there. Visit this museum! It's a must!
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Week 7
And I even had the opportunity to experience the tropical typhoons of East Asia, which so often lurk around the island of Taiwan. This time, it was the Fung-Wong typhoon that forced all offices, businesses, restaurants, markets, and most directly affecting me, schools in Taiwan to close down for the day. The city of Taipei, in a matter of hours, turned from the never-sleeping ever-living metropole into a seemingly dead place.
The evening before the storm, I received several emails from teachers informing me of the advent of this natural catastrophe. I went to bed a the usual hour, waking up at the usual hour. However, the morning did not welcome me with the customary sunshine. Taipei was cold. I left my apartment and encountered nothing but a disoriented black dog. No businessmen following their daily trail to work, empty streets, no local shop about to open, was it nighttime? It was definitely dark. I walked for a while with the hope to find a place to get breakfast. The wind was rather strong and the rain overwhelming. I could hardly hold my umbrella. It was surreal, encountering these Chinese alleys as empty as ever. Luckily, I found a convenient store (apparently the only open business during the advent of a storm). I bought water, bread, Japanese candy and rice buns. I made my way back to the apartment, safely, and then stayed in there for the rest of the day. It was good to be in isolation for a while. Just me, a book, and music, something I rarely had the time for during those busy days.
Tomorrow class will start again. I will also start getting busy writing Chinese again, since my teacher selected me to write the script for a class performance, which is to be acted out some time this week. This should be exciting.
The evening before the storm, I received several emails from teachers informing me of the advent of this natural catastrophe. I went to bed a the usual hour, waking up at the usual hour. However, the morning did not welcome me with the customary sunshine. Taipei was cold. I left my apartment and encountered nothing but a disoriented black dog. No businessmen following their daily trail to work, empty streets, no local shop about to open, was it nighttime? It was definitely dark. I walked for a while with the hope to find a place to get breakfast. The wind was rather strong and the rain overwhelming. I could hardly hold my umbrella. It was surreal, encountering these Chinese alleys as empty as ever. Luckily, I found a convenient store (apparently the only open business during the advent of a storm). I bought water, bread, Japanese candy and rice buns. I made my way back to the apartment, safely, and then stayed in there for the rest of the day. It was good to be in isolation for a while. Just me, a book, and music, something I rarely had the time for during those busy days.
Tomorrow class will start again. I will also start getting busy writing Chinese again, since my teacher selected me to write the script for a class performance, which is to be acted out some time this week. This should be exciting.
Monday, July 21, 2008
Week 6
I can't believe how quickly this Summer went by. I have reached the sixth week. Midterms are over, but the workload picks up. I now complete twice as much homework and memorize about thirty more characters a night. In my classes, we go through lessons at three times the usual speed. I am spending more and more time studying with my language exchange partner. Life has become more stressful, but certainly not less enjoyable. Quite the opposite, actually. Learning Chinese has become part of my daily routine. I knew that back at Yale, Chinese had already taken over my life. Now, I can confidently say that Chinese is my life. I feel the improvement and I am quite content. I remember the first day of classes, where I didn't understand a word my teacher was saying. Now, I can sit back and almost understand everything. I remember the first time I entered a convenient store, and felt embarrassment to even say "xie xie" ("thank you" in Chinese). Now, holding small talks with the local Family Mart cashier is a part of my social entertainment. I remember the first time I had to write an essay about Taiwanese parks. I had to constantly review my sentence structure and check if my characters were correctly drawn. Now, I approach the writing of an essay with nonchalance.
But apart from language skills, Taiwan has also given me a new sense of independence. I came to this island, not knowing anyone, not knowing anything about the culture, not knowing if I would find an apartment, not knowing what my daily diet would be. It certainly took its time, but I have finally assimilated into this once alien culture. I feel comfortable, now. I have many formed many relationships, I have learned to find an apartment, learned to take out the trash in Taiwan, learned the intricacies of Chinese food, and most importantly learned what it takes to be by oneself in a foreign Asian country.
But apart from language skills, Taiwan has also given me a new sense of independence. I came to this island, not knowing anyone, not knowing anything about the culture, not knowing if I would find an apartment, not knowing what my daily diet would be. It certainly took its time, but I have finally assimilated into this once alien culture. I feel comfortable, now. I have many formed many relationships, I have learned to find an apartment, learned to take out the trash in Taiwan, learned the intricacies of Chinese food, and most importantly learned what it takes to be by oneself in a foreign Asian country.
Monday, July 14, 2008
Language Exchange
For all future Light fellows in Taiwan. Do not miss the opportunity to find a language exchange partner. It is such an valuable asset to your Chinese learning experience. Go on either http://www.tealit.com and click on language exchange, where you can find students offering their Chinese knowledge for your English in exchange, or look at the bulletin board in the ICLP building.
If you are lucky you will find someone with whom you can meet up almost every day of the week.
It is really helpful!
If you are lucky you will find someone with whom you can meet up almost every day of the week.
It is really helpful!
Week 5
I highly recommend a place in the mountains called Maokong. I went last Friday, once again with my teacher Weng Laoshi. We started our trip in Gongguan (Taiwan University) and took the brown-line subway all the way to Taipei Zoo, the last stop. From there you take the gondola up into the mountains until you reach Maokong. The view from up there is spectacular. You are 300 meters above ground and all you see is forest and Taipei 101 soaring into the sky, quite a surreal juxtaposition of nature and the modern times.
Up in Maokong you are no longer surrounded by cars, motorbikes and 7-11 chain stores. Clean air, few people, and family owned tea houses everywhere you go. What a good feeling. We took a walk and ultimately settled in one of the tea houses facing the mountain cliff. From there on the balcony you get the best landscape perspective. We ordered local green tea brewed in traditional ways. You get a large tea kettle with hot water, local tea leaves, tea cups and a small tea pot. The pottery is crafted buy local ceramists, maintaining an artform appropriate for its tea and its area. It was quite an aesthetic experience. The tea tasted excellent and the manner in which it was prepared was an art performance in itself.
Up in Maokong you are no longer surrounded by cars, motorbikes and 7-11 chain stores. Clean air, few people, and family owned tea houses everywhere you go. What a good feeling. We took a walk and ultimately settled in one of the tea houses facing the mountain cliff. From there on the balcony you get the best landscape perspective. We ordered local green tea brewed in traditional ways. You get a large tea kettle with hot water, local tea leaves, tea cups and a small tea pot. The pottery is crafted buy local ceramists, maintaining an artform appropriate for its tea and its area. It was quite an aesthetic experience. The tea tasted excellent and the manner in which it was prepared was an art performance in itself.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Week 4
I went to Longshan Simiao Yeshu, a strange part of town. This supposed "tourist night market" was far away from glamorous and welcoming. Quite the opposite, actually. Snake restaurants, turtle snack bar, birds sold by the dozen, stinking tofu, and fried tiger tail, all make for the right ingredients for a shocking adventure.
Three days earlier in class, my language teacher Weng Laoshi suggested to take me there, claiming this night market would blend right in with our current chapter on night life in Taiwan. I liked her idea, and so we met at the metro station at 7:00 pm on Friday after class.
Our first sight was the local "Longshan" temple. Visiting this temple was an interesting experience, especially having seen many Heian period temples in Kyoto. This Taiwanese temple, rather than presenting itself with simple ornaments and colors, as would be the case in Japan, was flashy with its rainbow colored walls and overwhelming in its opulent architecture. The smell of incense was also overwhelming. I was surprised by the number of people seeking solace and good fortune. Everywhere I looked were people sitting, standing and taking bows in front of archetypal Buddhist statues. It was quite an original sight.
When we left the temple, I was all psyched for our next and final stop - the night market. It was an indoor market, consisting of one long, narrow hall leading from one main street to another on the other side of the building. The entire hall was occupied by restaurants and fish markets. Not of the usual kind, however. Every dish sold here was apparently the product of native Taiwanese culinary creativity. Creative it was for sure, tastiness remains a subjective matter. At the first restaurant was a man comfortably seated on a stool in front of the main entrance. In his left hand he was holding his favorite pet, a large yellow snake, and in his right hand he was holding a microphone, inviting hungry people to try the dish of the day, spicy python soup. Behind him, was a neatly stacked row of cages with all different kinds of snakes, corn snakes, gopher snakes, pythons and of course the infamous rattle snake. I couldn't believe people would actually want to spend a Saturday night eating rattle snake before going to their weekly performance of the Taipai Symphony Orchestra. Apparently, it happens.
Our next restaurant was just as, if not more, perverse. A woman was standing in front of the restaurant showing off her well fed and freshly butchered turtles. I wasn't sure if I was dealing with turtles at first, when I saw her holding one up, until I realized she had already removed the shell. It was quite shocking and I definitely did not want to eat there either.
A few steps further, there was an old man selling birds trapped in fishing nets. In my hope to liberate some of them, I asked him if he would sell me one net for 200 TN (about $7), but unfortunately my bargain did not lead to success. What a hopeless evening for all these innocent animals.
Nevertheless, since my teacher and I hadn't eaten dinner (and were not planning on eating at this night market), we went to a local chou (stinking) tofu place. This is old tofu drenched in a thick spicy soup. Every time you walk passed a chou tofu restaurant, you can just based on the distinctive, quite unpleasant smell, infer immediately what kind of restaurant you are dealing with. I had never tried it, and although the smell is not inviting, I did not want to make a final judgment before eating it. We stopped at a good restaurant and I ordered a full plate of chou tofu. To all foreigners out there who are not yet accustomed to the taste of chou tofu. Be cauteous! It tastes terrible!
Three days earlier in class, my language teacher Weng Laoshi suggested to take me there, claiming this night market would blend right in with our current chapter on night life in Taiwan. I liked her idea, and so we met at the metro station at 7:00 pm on Friday after class.
Our first sight was the local "Longshan" temple. Visiting this temple was an interesting experience, especially having seen many Heian period temples in Kyoto. This Taiwanese temple, rather than presenting itself with simple ornaments and colors, as would be the case in Japan, was flashy with its rainbow colored walls and overwhelming in its opulent architecture. The smell of incense was also overwhelming. I was surprised by the number of people seeking solace and good fortune. Everywhere I looked were people sitting, standing and taking bows in front of archetypal Buddhist statues. It was quite an original sight.
When we left the temple, I was all psyched for our next and final stop - the night market. It was an indoor market, consisting of one long, narrow hall leading from one main street to another on the other side of the building. The entire hall was occupied by restaurants and fish markets. Not of the usual kind, however. Every dish sold here was apparently the product of native Taiwanese culinary creativity. Creative it was for sure, tastiness remains a subjective matter. At the first restaurant was a man comfortably seated on a stool in front of the main entrance. In his left hand he was holding his favorite pet, a large yellow snake, and in his right hand he was holding a microphone, inviting hungry people to try the dish of the day, spicy python soup. Behind him, was a neatly stacked row of cages with all different kinds of snakes, corn snakes, gopher snakes, pythons and of course the infamous rattle snake. I couldn't believe people would actually want to spend a Saturday night eating rattle snake before going to their weekly performance of the Taipai Symphony Orchestra. Apparently, it happens.
Our next restaurant was just as, if not more, perverse. A woman was standing in front of the restaurant showing off her well fed and freshly butchered turtles. I wasn't sure if I was dealing with turtles at first, when I saw her holding one up, until I realized she had already removed the shell. It was quite shocking and I definitely did not want to eat there either.
A few steps further, there was an old man selling birds trapped in fishing nets. In my hope to liberate some of them, I asked him if he would sell me one net for 200 TN (about $7), but unfortunately my bargain did not lead to success. What a hopeless evening for all these innocent animals.
Nevertheless, since my teacher and I hadn't eaten dinner (and were not planning on eating at this night market), we went to a local chou (stinking) tofu place. This is old tofu drenched in a thick spicy soup. Every time you walk passed a chou tofu restaurant, you can just based on the distinctive, quite unpleasant smell, infer immediately what kind of restaurant you are dealing with. I had never tried it, and although the smell is not inviting, I did not want to make a final judgment before eating it. We stopped at a good restaurant and I ordered a full plate of chou tofu. To all foreigners out there who are not yet accustomed to the taste of chou tofu. Be cauteous! It tastes terrible!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
24 Hour Bookstore
Here is a piece of advice for anyone traveling to Taipei in the future. This past weekend, a friend dropped me off at a place called "The Eslite Tunhua" bookstore at 1:00 in the morning, which is located at 245 Tunhua S. Rd., Sec. 1, Taipei (台北市敦化南路一段245號). The bookstore is open 24 hours a day and has a collection of Chinese as well as English works, including books that I definitely did not expect to find there. You will also be surprised by the well selected classical music in the background, and most importantly, the large number of people sitting on the floor reading books at any hour of the day. It almost feels as if you are entering a popular mainstream clothing store during the afternoon on a Saturday of shopping, except this store only sells books and was just as popular at 1:00 in the morning.
Week 3
I knew that finding people practicing Taiji at 1:00 in the morning is a difficult task. My friend and I went anyway.
We had spent the entire Saturday in a place called Ximen. Wu Laoshi, a teacher from the ICLP program, had taken us there to dinner. This is the "Japanese" part of Taipei. The streets are pedestrian friendly, clean and lid up by advertising. Everywhere, Japanese restaurants, Karaoke bars, and 7/11 convenient stores with colorfully dressed Asians buying Pocari Sweat drinks.
After a long meal and conversation in Chinese, Wu Laoshi went home, leaving my friend and I alone in this rather queer part of town. Since we had nothing better to do, we hit a cinema close by. By the time we finished, it was almost 12:00, the last possible time to catch our train home. We frantically ran to the next subway station and luckily, made it. In the subway we realized that Chang Kai'shek Memorial Hall was one of the stops, which according to our teacher, has an interesting Chinese park. This park was only a couple of stops away from the apartment, so we decided to stop there to visit the park and possibly interview some people, in the hope to find adequate answers for our homework for Monday.
We came out of the subway station, and encountered a grand plaza with large buildings with typical Asian roofs, two on the left, and one tower in the middle. This place reminded me of the imperial palace in Kyoto, but definitely with its own touch of Chinese culture. Astounded by the ambience, we aimlessly walked through the area in the hope to find a park. Finally, we reached it, and surprisingly at this hour, there were people to, unfortunately, no one practicing Taiji. We asked five different people if we could find a place to do Taiji, but everyone with responded with the same confusion: “no, only at 5:00 in the morning.” We were contemplating on whether to stay in the park and wait for the sunrise and join the Taiwanese in their daily Taiji, but it was getting too late, so we took a cab home.
We had spent the entire Saturday in a place called Ximen. Wu Laoshi, a teacher from the ICLP program, had taken us there to dinner. This is the "Japanese" part of Taipei. The streets are pedestrian friendly, clean and lid up by advertising. Everywhere, Japanese restaurants, Karaoke bars, and 7/11 convenient stores with colorfully dressed Asians buying Pocari Sweat drinks.
After a long meal and conversation in Chinese, Wu Laoshi went home, leaving my friend and I alone in this rather queer part of town. Since we had nothing better to do, we hit a cinema close by. By the time we finished, it was almost 12:00, the last possible time to catch our train home. We frantically ran to the next subway station and luckily, made it. In the subway we realized that Chang Kai'shek Memorial Hall was one of the stops, which according to our teacher, has an interesting Chinese park. This park was only a couple of stops away from the apartment, so we decided to stop there to visit the park and possibly interview some people, in the hope to find adequate answers for our homework for Monday.
We came out of the subway station, and encountered a grand plaza with large buildings with typical Asian roofs, two on the left, and one tower in the middle. This place reminded me of the imperial palace in Kyoto, but definitely with its own touch of Chinese culture. Astounded by the ambience, we aimlessly walked through the area in the hope to find a park. Finally, we reached it, and surprisingly at this hour, there were people to, unfortunately, no one practicing Taiji. We asked five different people if we could find a place to do Taiji, but everyone with responded with the same confusion: “no, only at 5:00 in the morning.” We were contemplating on whether to stay in the park and wait for the sunrise and join the Taiwanese in their daily Taiji, but it was getting too late, so we took a cab home.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Week 2
I have finally settled into my permanent apartment. It was last Sunday evening when I carried my heavy suitcase through half of Taipei. I took the subway from Taipei Power Station, which is where I was living for the first week, to the busy Yongan Market. Yongan is a lively area with many shops, restaurants and lights. My apartment faces the the main attraction, Zhonghe Road, but the noise, fortunately, does not reach as far as the top floor. I have a peaceful and considerably large apartment. It was recently renovated and feels quite comfortable. The only problem is my Chinese communication with the landlord, who shows up every now and then to check up on me. She does not speak one word of English and my Chinese is still not advanced enough to seal an affordable monthly deal for a student apartment. Thus, for our first meeting she had organized an interpreter to translate what I said to her, thank god. In English, I was able to settle business and persuade her that I could move in on Sunday, the day before my classes.
I arrived at 11:00 pm. The apartment was empty. White walls, minimalist decoration and no sign of life. I went outside and bought three plants, fruits, and some speakers, so that I could finally listen to my favorite Bruckner Symphony, the 7th. When I came back it was already quite late and I was ready to go to bed, anxious about my first day of classes. I read a little, took a shower, prepared my bed, which was still a blank mattress at the time, and fell asleep.
My first day of classes went well. My daily schedule begins at 10:10 a.m. which makes my life much easier than some other students who have to show up as early as 8:00 a.m. I have three classes of intensive Chinese every day. Surprisingly, none of my classes is larger than three people (including myself). In fact, I have two classes with only three people, and one individual class where it is only me and the teacher. I think it really promotes fast learning and understanding. As far as I am concerned, I already feel improvement. For homework, I have to memorize about thirty words a night (which is about fifty characters, although some of them I have already learned). I also need to do grammar work, which is ok because so far most has been pretty much review from what I have learned at Yale. What's really good though are the teachers. My individual teacher, for instance, seems really experienced at what she is doing. She just has a great way of asking me questions so that I would have to use my new words and put them into practice. So, essentially the individual class is mostly for improving my speaking skills. One class is on Taiwanese culture and the other is solely on grammar and vocabulary. In the Taiwanese culture class, we only speak and debate in a group, and then in the other it is mostly our teacher who speaks and explains grammatical more theoretical aspects of the Chinese language.
One aspect about ICLP that is difficult getting used to is that everything is absolutely in Chinese and the teachers speak very fast, assuming that you already understand them. It is literally a total language immersion! They want us to get into the mindset of only using Chinese and hearing it in its natural setting, all the time. The funny thing is though, when we got our sheet for this week's homework, I couldn't read anything and thought we had almost no homework... Until of course the next day I realized we had to write a report and prepare an oral report. It's really intense, as we have to read a long text and answer questions about it orally. We also have to write essays in Chinese (basic Chinese in my case, but i am improving). Overall it's an exciting experience so far.
I am happy to have completed one week of class. I will have to study very much this weekend, but I plan on doing something outside of class, as in going to the museum or night market at some point over the next few days. Actually one of our homework for this weekend is to go to a local park and interview four people about their experience there. This should be an interesting activity as well.
I arrived at 11:00 pm. The apartment was empty. White walls, minimalist decoration and no sign of life. I went outside and bought three plants, fruits, and some speakers, so that I could finally listen to my favorite Bruckner Symphony, the 7th. When I came back it was already quite late and I was ready to go to bed, anxious about my first day of classes. I read a little, took a shower, prepared my bed, which was still a blank mattress at the time, and fell asleep.
My first day of classes went well. My daily schedule begins at 10:10 a.m. which makes my life much easier than some other students who have to show up as early as 8:00 a.m. I have three classes of intensive Chinese every day. Surprisingly, none of my classes is larger than three people (including myself). In fact, I have two classes with only three people, and one individual class where it is only me and the teacher. I think it really promotes fast learning and understanding. As far as I am concerned, I already feel improvement. For homework, I have to memorize about thirty words a night (which is about fifty characters, although some of them I have already learned). I also need to do grammar work, which is ok because so far most has been pretty much review from what I have learned at Yale. What's really good though are the teachers. My individual teacher, for instance, seems really experienced at what she is doing. She just has a great way of asking me questions so that I would have to use my new words and put them into practice. So, essentially the individual class is mostly for improving my speaking skills. One class is on Taiwanese culture and the other is solely on grammar and vocabulary. In the Taiwanese culture class, we only speak and debate in a group, and then in the other it is mostly our teacher who speaks and explains grammatical more theoretical aspects of the Chinese language.
One aspect about ICLP that is difficult getting used to is that everything is absolutely in Chinese and the teachers speak very fast, assuming that you already understand them. It is literally a total language immersion! They want us to get into the mindset of only using Chinese and hearing it in its natural setting, all the time. The funny thing is though, when we got our sheet for this week's homework, I couldn't read anything and thought we had almost no homework... Until of course the next day I realized we had to write a report and prepare an oral report. It's really intense, as we have to read a long text and answer questions about it orally. We also have to write essays in Chinese (basic Chinese in my case, but i am improving). Overall it's an exciting experience so far.
I am happy to have completed one week of class. I will have to study very much this weekend, but I plan on doing something outside of class, as in going to the museum or night market at some point over the next few days. Actually one of our homework for this weekend is to go to a local park and interview four people about their experience there. This should be an interesting activity as well.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Week 1
Taipei has already been quite an adventure. Exactly one week has passed since my arrival on that rather humid day. I had been double-jet-lagged, tired, hungry, anxious, but exited to finally enter Taiwan. I had spent a week in Kyoto, arrived in JFK to spend one night before flying home to Düsseldorf, then after a week home, I finally arrived here in Taipei. At the airport, I felt welcomed, not interrogated. by the customs official. Surprised by how nonchalant he asked me for my purpose of stay, I handed him my passport. He glimpsed at it for a few seconds and without asking me for fingerprints or any personal information, which I expected him to ask me, he simply handed it back and welcomed me to Taiwan in his rather Chinese accent. I was ready and comfortable to enter the island. I picked up my luggage, I ran to the first spot for a taxi and frantically handed the driver a piece of paper with the address of the university written in both English and Chinese characters. He seemed to know where I needed to go and drove me to the place. It was an unexpectedly long drive. After an hour, I arrived at the building for international students. I paid the driver and entered the building. It was noon and I arrived at the right time to register my arrival as a student. Joanna, the secretary at the office, asked me sign a couple of forms and took a copy of my passport. Then, to my surprise, she handed me a schedule of the exam I was supposed to take the next day. In the midst of my state of anxiety and extreme fatigue, I was shocked to have to take an exam the next day, but without hesitance I marked the best possible time to take the exam. After marking the time, she handed me an envelope with a key. This was the key to my provisional apartment, which my landlord had left for me to pick up. I was to stay there for ten days before moving on to something long term. With the key, I left the international student office and looked for a taxi, once again. This time in less of a haste, I found one and asked the driver to take me to the location of my apartment. It was a short drive and the driver tried to converse with me in both English and Chinese. After ten minutes he dropped me at the door of the apartment. At this point, the only thing I needed and wanted was sleep, long sleep until I would wake up the next day. I entered the apartment. It was a small room, about half the size of the room I had at Yale. I took a shower, turned on the air conditioning, and fell asleep, instantly. I slept for fifteen hours when I woke up at five in the morning. I felt energized, ready to explore my area. First, I unpacked my suitcase, sent out emails informing my friends and family of my arrival, and finally took another shower. Then at seven in the morning I went out to get breakfast. I had Taiwanese fruit, which consists of guave and unusual pears, some noodles and green tea. Then I went back to the international students office and met a friend of mine from Yale. The day passed quickly. In the evening we went to the Shida night market, located closely to my apartment. The rest of the week also passed quickly as I would spent my time trying to find an apartment and getting to know some of the classmates I will be in close contact with over the course of the next two months. Today, I finally found a suitable apartment which I am excited to move in this Saturday. Tomorrow is orientation and then classes will begin next week. I am really excited for everything to start.
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