Friday June 6, 2014
For the first week, I stayed at a hostel. The place was good. http://www.taiwanmex.com/ I stayed in a two-bedroom. Per night it was 9000 TWD/10USD. The bathroom was modernized and all utilities, drinking water, shampoo, soap, microwave, and towel was included in the stay. It was nice. I stayed there from May Monday 26 to Saturday 31. About a day or two later a girl from China came. She was my roommate. She came only to tour for about a week. Her name was really long but she told me to call her Xiao Yi. We both traveled to so many places in Taipei! =) Some places were Yang Ming Shan (mountain), Bopiliao Historic District, Beitou Hot Spring Museum, and a few Night Markets. It was a great experience! Thank God for sending me a friend for the first week. She really helped me get more used to Taiwan.
Oh! I forgot to mention. When my Chinese friend and I were traveling we stopped in a restroom. I opened the stall door. Looked straight ahead of me (to where the “toilet” should be at), but my eyes went straight to ground. The toilet was NOT modernized! Omg! I didn’t know how to use it. I was so afraid and nervous but I had to use it. Haha. I had to ask my friend how to use it. Haha. I was going to let it go but then I wanted to try it for the first time, so I did. Man, I thought I was going to wet myself. Haha. What a different and interesting experience! =) Haha.
Monday June 30, 2014
The people in Taiwan (locals and those whom have lived longer) are very welcoming once they know that you’re a foreigner. After my week of stay at the hostel, I moved to NTNU B—a two bedroom apartment. Lun (30-year old) was the first woman I met after Xiao Yi (my friend from China) left. Lun was so welcoming and funny! Before we left she said, “Whatever you need even if it’s just something small, very small…let me know.” She said something like that. It was sooo…wow…warm and wow. =) Haha. Also, the first time I met Mr. Lin (my assistant landlord) was on Sunday June 1. Yesterday I met an older man from church—I think he’s Filipino. He lived in Taiwan for quite a while now. Both of them said “welcome to Taiwan”. =) So warming and loving. It’s great to hear people welcome you—it makes you plan to visit again. ^____^
Saturday July 19, 2014
Yesterday Kasey and I went to the Shilin Night Market in Taiwan. It’s one of the famous and biggest one in Taipei. When we got there I only expected a lot of food and mini clothing and shoe shops like the rest of the night markets…BUT…they ALSO have those “fair booth games”!!—haha of course, it’s one of the famous ones! Haha, anyway, Kasey and I played at a booth. It was my first time playing at a booth! We had to shoot the balloons with a gun! It was so cool and fun! AND…..I shot a balloon with my FIRST shot!! Omg! I felt so good and cool! Haha! XP
Monday July 21, 2014
Yesterday, Kasey and I went to Queen’s Town with some friends to barbeque and hangout. The food was awesome! The people were awesome! The place was awesome! Everything was awesome! =) I met two girls—Kai Ling (25 years old-HeHe’s friend) and Irene (HeHe’s other friend). There was also another girl sitting at my table (also 25 years old). She was so nice! The men (and a mom) were grilling prawns. The girl kept pealing the prawns and giving it out. She was so nice! Anyway, some foods we grilled were Taiwanese sausage, bacon, chicken drum sticks, slices of beef, mushrooms, a type of bamboo shoot, and something that looked like intestines—I forgot. We would eat meat with a slice of bread (like a sandwich), etc. and for snacks we had tofu, a gooey pancake-like sea-fish flavor, pieces of seaweed, chopped sour lettuce, black sticky rice cubes, etc. I ate and tried almost everything. Everything was so good!
Monday August 11, 2014
So, I just took my big exam today. The exam covered from lesson one to lesson eleven. It included speaking/answering, listening and answering, reading, multiple choice, fill in the blank, fill in the blank with characters (using the pinyin word provided as a guide) and my own answers with provided grammars. Man, it was my first time. I couldn’t really concentrate when it came to the part where I had to speak because I could hear everyone else talk and it was hard to listen to my own voice and think about my answers. I was also very nervous. But the exam wouldn’t hurt me though—it’s not for a grade but I do hope I did well. The language is part of my major and I do hope I improved. I’m still learning at the intermediate level. Hope I could get to the advanced level. =)
Haha, I just came from ShiDa Night Market. While I was there I was trying to buy two “Taiwanese cakes.” I was thinking for a bit—kind of struggling—then I told the guy “wo yao OB zhong.” He said “ni yao liang zhong?” I was trying to say that I wanted two kinds (a salty one and a sweet one). Haha, and I caught myself. I accidentally said “two” in my language (Hmong). Haha. Silly me. XP This is what happens when you speak more than two languages, haha. But yeah, I was surprised I understood most of what he was saying. Yey! We had a little conversation. He asked me where I was from and I told him I’m Hmong—Hmong from Laos—but I grew up in America. We kept talking and then he asked me how long I have studied Chinese. I told him I’ve been here (in Taiwan) for about 3 months but I’ve already been studying Chinese in America. Haha, then he said “no wonder you could understand so much. You’ve only been here for three months”. Haha, and of course he said everything in Mandarin. Before I ordered, I also said that I couldn’t really read his menu and for him to just say which flavors they had. He gave me the most famous ones: cheese (salty) and coffee (sweet). It was bomb! 😉 It was crunchy, nice and warm and fresh, and yummy! ^-^
About last week, I also went to a lady who sold “guo tie”—flattened/grilled dumplings. We had a conversation/introduction in Chinese, etc. Anyway, she sold green onion flavor and pork flavor. It was good! It’s kind of crunchy and mushy and hard. =)
It’s so nice to have conversations with the elders. =)) They’re so nice and they sell their stuff cheap. Hehe. The guy sold the cakes for $10NTD each (for the cheese and the coffee). The woman sold hers 5 for $25NTD, so basically each was $5NTD.
Saturday October 18, 2014
You know, when I was in Taiwan I realized some things different. I went to eat at a new restaurant called, “Roadrunner”—it’s a hamburger place. I ordered the peanut butter burger. It sounded weird and new and interesting, so I purposely got it. It wasn’t bad. It just tasted like peanut butter. But anyway, they have gloves for the customers to use when eating the burgers. Haha, cool! I should’ve used one, but I didn’t. -__-
I also went to Cold Stone. The workers would wear this “mouth-mask” when they work—it could also be seen in Taiwanese dramas. I thought it was interesting—I don’t see it as often in America.
Oh! For their food (in general), Taiwan would also have this sour lettuce as a side dish—it’s in their store-bought food, night market, and maybe more. It’s good. Everything’s good.
Mmm, so when I was at the airport (to come home), it took me forever to get things situated! Good thing I left about 2 hours early to the airport!! My flight was around 8:45am but I got there around 6 am. Oh! That night, I stayed up until 2 or so! Man, it was NOT my plan. I also went searching for a shirt for Tub Looj around 11pm at the ShiDa night market. I wanted to buy him something—that was also when I bought the mini Majong game. Fun game! 😉 Anyway! So, I arrived at the airport and was trying to find the right station to retrieve my ticket. Man, it was harder than I thought! I kept getting in the wrong lane and the workers kept telling me wrong information—they could speak English by the way. But whew! Once I finally got into the right station/lane, I had to rearrange a lot of my luggage items (the ones brought and bought to Taiwan)! I had a book bag and two big suitcases. I wanted to take the book bag as my “personal item”, make the medium size bookbag/suitcase as my “carry-on”, and make the suitcase as my “big item”. The bookbag/suitcase was too heavy to be a “carry-on,” so I kept having to go back and forth two or three times to take some stuff out of my “carry-on” and put it in the main suitcase! It was a hassle. Haha, that’s why I said, “good thing I left 2 hours early.” And guess what? I used up (maybe) about 1.5 hours! Yeah. First time alone abroad. That was me. Haha, man, it was a good experience though—all those good and bad/embarrassing moments were definitely worth my time and experience abroad “alone”. =))
