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 ;)
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 ;)
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