Taiwan Day 1

After traveling for approximately 28 hours, I was finally reunited with Charlotte at Taoyuan International Airport in Taiwan! 

Once we took a bus + taxi back with our wonderful escort 林先生 we made it back to our apartment in Taipei and met up with Connor. So many 威廉大学生 (Williams students) in one apartment! Plus two other people who we have not yet met.

This morning (probably due to jetlag, since I never wake up before 11 AM voluntarily) I woke up at 7:30. After unpacking etc. Charlotte, Connor and I went to the nearby 7-11 which is literally on every other block in Taiwan. They also sell anything you would really need, and are open 24 hours. 非常方便unlike American "convenience" stores -__-

Afterwards, we met one of our other apartment-mates, who I will now refer to as "Tron" who I think is Norwegian and none of us can really pronounce his name. He showed us a hidden supermarket in the middle of the night market, that was actually underground... o___O Then afterwards we met up with Khan at Gongguan station - more Williams students, yay! ^__^ I don't think any other school has as much representation at ICLP. I think there must be 7 of us in total. We wanted to watch the Dragon Boat Festival races in Danshui, so we took the MRT there, only to be told by a Taiwanese man I had been asking for directions earlier that the boat races were over Q___Q Got off at Danshui anyways and walked around. 

Blinded by the beauty of 淡水

Also, it was VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY HOT. And humid. I expected it to be tropical, but I really do not like hot weather, or 出汗-ing. But with the weather and all the walking, it was pretty much inevitable .__. The weather forecast for the next week is straight 90s for highs, and Tron says that's pretty mild -___- 不。 高。兴。

Other than that, walking around to see all of the shops and stuff was really cool. Found a shoe stand where  Khan, Connor, and I all bought shoes because it was 2 pairs for $5...I feel like despite packing extra space because I knew I would be bringing home stuff that I buy in Taiwan, I'm still going to buy wayyy too much. Everything in Taiwan is just super cute and cheap, or delicious. And cheap. AND IT'S EVERYWHERE. Exhibit A: these coconut drinks which were like 70元.

Charlotte: Khan looks like a model (he does)

Walked by the river some more, then found this interesting vegetarian fusion restaurant, which was actually really good despite the fact that I usually don't like vegetarian stuff :9  I guess the menu which claimed to have food that would "dance at your tongue to bring you surprise" was actually accurate, bwahah. As we left the restaurant it kinda started raining (read: torrential rainfall) and none of us had umbrellas looool. 

Took the MRT (Mass Rail Transit - very very efficient, cheap, and 发达) back and walked around the explore the NTU campus. Later on (since Khan went back to his own apartment) Charlotte, Connor and I went to the street market for dinner and got these really yummy pork buns from a vendor that we befriended. If anyone is ever in the area, Jack Lan has internationally famous pork buns. He even showed us an internet review. And he speaks good English...which was a nice reprieve from the motioning, flailing, and basically just failing to speak Chinese throughout the day. 

As for the improvement of my Chinese after one day, at the very least I have moved past the "blank stare" phase and actually try to engage in Chinese...and speaking English less, since my assumptions that everyone knows at least some English were VERYY VERYYY WRONGGG. I think more or less we were successful with buying stuff / asking for directions :D

And now to sleep before placement exams tomorrow .____. meeeep