Taiwan. Weeks #3 and #4

Оригинал записи / Original post

Studying has started, so every post will be about 2 weeks and contain less photos :(

September, 24
First normal class of subject "Digital Media and E-marketing" and teacher for al 3 hours (that's how much most classes here last) was talking about "Life is a bitch and then you're dead" and "Living is highly overpraised" What is the connection with digital media and e-marketing? This teacher has other subject called "New Media Technology Civilizaton" but it is absolutely the same. So, local education system is a disappointment for me. I know everybody goes for exchange not for that but still I want something useful.

September, 26
Went with my buddy to a club fair. There are about 150 clubs in NCCU. Most remembered are: make-up club, which gave me washing eggs for facebook check-in and magazine for like, trick club and mixology club, which members made coctails and gave them everybody to try. So, at 12.30 p.m. I was drinking vodka-lime right in a campus.
Also, remember I was writing about posing for poster? All in all, me and my buddy are walking and here - oops! - and I am hanged.

September, 27
At morning I got the first postcard by postcrossing system. It's from Singapore

There was a Russian night in one club of traveling and language learning lovers so I was telling about Russia, our culture and stuff

I was making presentation for several days and it was awesome. However, my presentations are always cool, that's nothing to be modest. Also, there were a guy who traveled in Russia and a girl who had studied Russian in St.Petersburg.

Then I teached Taiwanese (and girls from Mongolia and India) Russian. That was funny

It's impossible to determine age of Asians. You think they're 23 and actually it's 30. Day before that I was in class where in 100 people only 10 were Europeans. It looked like adult men and women (also, there were many bearded Spanish guys) got to a high school. There was a boy in front of me, he looked like he is 12 or 13, even a voice was of a child.

At night I didn't even got to my room because met German and Dannish guys and went to a club with them. Exchange goes perfectly.

September, 28
This day was LEGENDARY! Why? Find it here.

By the way, I was dreaming about T-shirt with dates only of Asian concerts, now I have it

Me and my buddy came early, so our places were not so bad - about 5-7 meters from the stage, good view.
The Killers were unbelievably awesome, charismatic and energetic. Ones of the best almost two hours in my life.

 

 

Also there were 3-4 drunk Americans, as I understand, fans, because they knew all the songs. They sat at each other's shoulders and suggested people to sit. So, when I got suggestion didn't refused. Dudes, that was SO AWESOME! You sit, can see everything and it seems that you're seen from the stage. The moment of unbelievable kaif.
When we went home, I didn't want to do a half-circle on MRT and pay 10 NTD more so decided to go from one place on a bus. I didn't find my stop, went somewhere, asked, went, changed direction, took random bus hoping that it'll pass some MRT. But board in this motherfucker was broken and he showed all stops as one the same. Of course, driver named stops. In Chinese. I started to ask him to tell me when there will be MRT but, of course, he didn't understand anything. Fortunately, there were young guy and girl and they told me where is MRT. So I found myself on a line that even don't cross mine.
Didn't want to go for a long, yes. Wanted to save 10 NTD, yes.

September, 30
On 3rd week cultural shock reaches its 2nd stage (1st is when you excited and like everything), when you start to realise that not everything is so good. So, a minute of hate. Except disappointment in local education system I hate the fact that I can't eat normally. It's impossible to cook in ihouse, so I got lazy and eat somewhere. I deeply hate local cuisine, especially after case when I wanted to came to eat noodle which turned out to be overcooked and cold with a hot chiken on top. And I hate sushi, it's useless food.
Every time I need to eat I suffer. Before that I didn't really like thinking about food and now it turned out to be a curse.
Till recent time I was freaking out because of fact it is impossible to buy normal green tea. It's or sweet or cold or both. Shit, you are almost China and don't have normal green tea! But I solved this problem buying a pack of 100 pieces in local supermarket.
So today my anger reached its peak when I had heavy bag, heavy pocket with a pack of paper  (which I managed to buy only after 10 minutes communication with 2 Taiwanese women who didn't understand English and talked to me in Chinese), I was terribly hungry and didn't know where I could solve this problem. Also, it was raining and I had to carry an umbrella. All in all, I was staying waiting for green light and cussed out. Then I came to Subway as to the closest to a familiar cuisine place, almost shouted at people who put all this stuff into bread (because they didn't understand me again, how you can't understand phrase BMT working in Subway?!), they didn't have 1000 islands, so it wasn't completely familiar taste, I had to take this disguisting chipotle.
So, I calm down only in class after making two presentations (one was about Russian culture again), love presentations.

October, 2
At evening I suddenly wanted to eat toasts with cheese, I went to supermarket and met a frog (and on Friday night I met a rat having a diner in the Taipei city center).

October, 3 
All week I couldn't sleep at night and was sleepy all day. So I got sick of it. I was late for the morning class (and the only reason I came was that we needed to tell presentaton but we didn't have time for it anyway), after it I fall asleep and didn't go to the afternoon class. Estimate the scale of my insolence: study 3 days per week and skip classes.

October, 4
Ilya had a birthday. At morning (I mean 4 p.m.) we went to Hot Springs. It looks like that: full of old naked Taiwanese 4 puddles, smelling like rotten eggs, each hotter than other (the hottest is something about 50 degrees) and 2 more but cold.

When you take a pic angry woman in swimsuit and pink shower cap jumps out and shout "No photo! No photo!"
Also, it was raining so we had double fun.
On my way back I saw Asian albino and Taiwanese gay couple.
At night there was a celebration in a bar but I had unsuccessful relationship with buses again. I missed my stop thinking I'll leave at next one but no! Bus makes circle so it came to the place I started. And it is 15 minutes in the tunnel without stops. So I turned up almost in the same place I started and was late for 1,5 hours. But Polina wasn't very sad because all this time she was in a bar with 5 guys.
Then we went out in a club where I've forgotten my favourite umbrella and half of the next day was upset because of that. This is our last photo together (with umbrella, I mean) :((

October, 5 
Decided to go shopping but there were shops with European stuff (what for I need that, I'm from there myself) and with something superexpensive. I came to 2 girls to ask if they know places I needed they asked their boyfriends so finally there were 7 people. But they gave me advise, yes.
Actually, I'm ill but it was raining and I my umbrella stayed imprisoned. I was walking and couldn't find my stop. All in all, that was sad. But then I came to a shop with Hello Kitty, bought pink umbrella and some diches, so life got better.  
At evening we had a videoconferention with 6 participants from Saint-Petersburg, Vienna, Toronto, Lissabon and Taipei. We were chatting for more than 3 hours, I have awesome friends :)

October, 6
I'm ill here, so decided to do without partyhard this day (despite the fact that Sunday night fits this purpose the best). I went to club to try save my umbrella but they told me "we can't help you", assholes, won't go there again (actually, I will because I go where others go, don't have much choice). Resisted exchangers' persuations to go with them (inspite there was a free entrance), went home and made something awesome. What exactly is a secret now, you'll see in the next post :)

October, 7
I was DJ in a class, told about my favourite music and showed videos. I had Take Me Out, Right Action and Read My Mind. People listened attentively, don't know if they liked or not.
Finally, I'll tell about Asian girls. Mostly, they don't make up and dress up so when a girl has good make up and dressed stylish she automatically becomes superbeautiful, I want to admire them. Maybe some day I'll grow insolent, go to the street, ask them permission to take photo and publish here. Like I'm a Russian blogger :D

Taiwan: Week #2

Оригинал записи / Original post

September, 17
I met my second buddy, she's so little I felt like a giant with huge feet (which doesn't happen often to me). But she's very-very cute and was so happy to meet me, awesome :)
In the evening I suddenly found myself at the night market with some people from i-house. 
Night markets in Taiwan are the same must-see as Taipei 101, for example. I heard so much of "Have you been to night market? You have to visit night-market!" but still didn't understand what is sold there. As it turned out, everything: food (a lot of unknown food), clothes, casies for iphonies and galaxies, stickers and other stuff.

 Many people ate different food, like octopus (as for me, didn't like it)

Or weird milk balls

And I wanted to try this (despite the fact I had no idea about what it is)

Turned out it worked this way: you choose from this heap everything you like, it is put on ice, from above more ice and water with some sweet stuff. Tasty, actually.

 September, 18
On 19th Taiwanese selebrated Moon Festival (because it's 15th day of 8th month of Moon calendar). So they have day off, gather with family and eat moon cake and barbeсue. From this list I had BBQ.
Went with some exchangers and buddies (actually, almost everybody wAs Asian so I couldn't understand who was an exchanger and who was his buddy).
I had no idea where we were going, I thought we would sit outdoor and BBQ but no, we came to some cool place where meet was fried in the things which were on the tables

Also, that day I received a letter from i-house about typhoon coming for weekend so we should stock up food&water and not leave home.

September, 19
Finally went shopping. Have bought loads of everything but still have nothing to wear. Wanted to buy a bag bigger than mine, have bought three each bigger than other.
In evening I went in the corridor from laundry, met some girls and here I am again in the night market. It had something that previous one didn't. For example, that (I didn't understand what kind of food it is)

Different stuff for catties and doggies.

 Then we wanted to come to a bar called Fucking Place but left on wrong stop and went to other one. Oh yeah, and I was forgotten. I went to a restroom in metro and when left it everybody had gone. But fortunately, moved about 100 m away, they remembered about me.

September, 20
It was a day of a real typhoon. Initially, I actually planned to stay home, do first homework, write blog and make film but got bored, left my room and somehow (don't realy remember how it happened) went to National Palace Museum with everyone.

It is prohibited to take photos inside (and nothing, to be honest, there are only some ancient stuff). When we was riding to museum by bus Chinese guy working in Chicago and went to Taiwan for business sat next to me. With him we watched exposition, this is how easy is to make friends here.

And typhoon looks like that: once it's dry and next moment it's pouring.

September, 21
I got totally sick of sitting in my room and got out to lobby to make my big and small business. Met many new people.
Then me and some dudes went to supermarket and bought something to drink (Hello Kitty beer for me), sat next to it and watched at typhoon (and how our lives were passing)

September, 22-23
At 22th night I went to a club and all next day long suffered from hangover. The best ending of my second week here.
At 9 a.m. we had earthquake drill. We had to hide under a table and then come to a lobby. But I didn't hear if anyone took part in it.

Taiwan. Week #1

It is English version of my My Russian blog
Оригинальная запись / Original post
It's time to write about my exchange in Taiwan! Taipei is a modern city, people are nice, there is a lot of cute stuff, prices for everything are ridiculously small

Some information about my life here
1. It's 30 degrees every day but Taiwanese people shockingly wear cardigans, jeans, and timberlands.
2. You don't even understand yet that you need a help but a Taiwanese stranger has already suggested it.
3. Everybody stares at White people as we're exotic. Not like we stare at Black people in Siberia, but still there is some attention. For example, a little girl cried when she saw Polina, a homeless man took selfies with Ilya with Ilya's own camera. Actually, I don't have such stories yet, it's even upsetting.
4. In the most shops and restaurants people don't understand English. They call for someone to help, use Google translator on a laptop (it was in an electronic store), call someone by the phone and then give it to me, briefly saying, they find solutions. As for me, I use skills developed playing charades for several years.

Day #1
The adventures have started already in Beijing. My expectations were: I connect to wi-fi, WhatsApp everyone, make a check-in in Foursquare, and go to sweetly sleep in the airport's hotel (I was told it's cheap). As usual, the reality turned up to be different. The hotel was expensive (over $200 for a night), I was greedy and went to a hotel that exists in every airport in the world: sleeping on the chairs like a homeless and "taking shower" in a WC. But a homeless doesn't have so much stuff as I did, I was afraid someone could steal it, so I laid on my stuff, which doesn't provide comfort. Still I was worried about my property and haven't normally slept.
The situation with wi-fi wasn't better. They have system where you shove a passport in a machine that registers you and gives an access code. First of all, it needed 4 times to scan my passport (the problem was it had a cover) and when I finally connected I still didn't have access to the internet.
To Taipei I flew on a huge plane - about 150 rows with 8 places in each of them. The bottom view was shown on a TV during take off and landing (it's scary actually). For the breakfast they served some weirdly looking food. A man next to me saw my efforts to understand what it was and explained everything. So already the first impression of Taiwanese people was great. That is how my buddies met me in the airport, they are cool and helped me really a lot.



I live in the i-house, dorm, which is more like a hotel, for foreign students. A single room, house keeping once every 2-3 weeks, my own bathroom, wired internet, a terraсe. There are a cafe and wi-fi in the lobby, dining place and laundry on the floor. Everything you need, briefly saying. Also, at my first day they gave me a bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a comb, a shampoo, a shower gel, a facial foam, a bar of soap, a towel and a glass. Walking in the corridors you say hi to everyone, if you eat or take elevator you can even chat with someone.










Day #2
We went to see the main Taipei landmark, the skyscraper Taipei 101. With the height of 509 meters  it was the tallest building in the world from 2003 till 2010 and now it's the 3rd one.



There are two observatories - one indoor and one outdoor. You're going to the 89th floor in several seconds thanks to the super fast elevator. Inside it the ears get the same feeling as in the plane that takes off.



As expected, the view is great.



There are loads of interesting stuff inside. For example, this thing helps the skyscraper not to collapse during earthquakes, that are pretty common on the island.



You can locate your city.



In this corridor there's a firework, then snow, then you're a train and ride on rails in the forest



Something like a diary with every month



You can send a postcard



or make a wish



or take a photo



all in all, there is plenty of stuff I absolutely had to take photo with





Day #3
The orientation day in the university. NCCU campus is huge and despite the guided tour we had it is still difficult to orientate here. Some photos of College of Commerce (my department) building




In a classroom number first two figures stand for building, second two for floor, and last two - for a classroom itself.



In this yard many dogs walk or sleep.



There will be a partner school fair where exchange students will present their universities. For this purpose we had photoshoots to make posters and hang them in the campus. Soon I'll be a star :P And then, I can take a poster with me.



Also, I sent postcards to my family and friends. Liked it so much that I registered at postcrossing.com and signed postcards to random people in Russia, Holland, USA, and Germany



Day #4
The most awesome event of the day is that I finally took the metro (3 times even) and it exceeded my expectations. We went to a big digital mall then walked in the city. Here's a photo of a cinema.



Day #5
I haven't been to any interesting places but I bought sheets and other stuff for my future photo album (there are many cool and cheap things for scrapbooking).
Also, I found this cosmetic innovation. You put feet in these socks, wait a bit, your skin terribly fall for a week and then you get baby feet.




Day #6
Walked it the city with Polina, Ilya, and two buddies. More precisely, we were riding Ubikes a lot. These are city bikes, the first hour is free.


When we were registering, a guy was taking pictures of us.



Then we went to some place where Japanese soilders used to live and now it is a touristic market.




It is a good place to take photos with Taipei 101. When I was taking mine it started raining horribly but at least there was no competition for the view.



For the lunch we had dumplings. One piece costs 5 NTD ($0,20), so with 50 NTD you are full. I have a special mode for the food in my camera, so I think it's my duty to take a photo of every meal I or someone next to me has.


Then we went to a 24h bookstore. On our way we met a cat standing like Marylin Monroe on a beetle.


In the bookstore many people sit on the floor and read. At the Recommended stand you find THIS


(The big penises book 3D, yes).

Also, they have this



By the way, books in the bookstore are only in one floor (out of 5), the rest is occupied with boutiques and restaurants. The day finished with buying the tickets for Franz Ferdinand concern, yay!



Day #7

The time has come - classes have started. I've been to one, the teacher was nice, promised a lot of creative work. For the homework we need to write self-profiling: tell about ourselves, our interests, dreams, and interesting life stories.

That is how my first week was, I have so much impressions and 4 months ahead. The beginning tells they are going to be exciting ;)