Taipei Summer

Greetings from Taipei! I will be here for the summer, and am going to make a gallant effort at diligently posting my adventures (such as they are). I am wishing I had made this blog title more general, but the site is so venerable at this point that I hate to start over. Humorously, it took me about half an hour to figure out how to log back in. I guess it has been too long since I posted...

Anyway, I arrived last night. Exactly one year ago I was also in Taiwan, giving a paper. And 12 years ago, I spent the summer here doing exactly what I'm doing now: studying Chinese language. But what a difference! What a difference from both previous occasions. The first time I was here, in the year 2000, I had almost no Chinese. I stumbled confusedly out of the airport and ended up getting wildly overcharged for a taxi to the city. On the other hand, I had the hotel address wrong (I used real pinyin rather than Taiwan pinyin!) and the guy ended up driving around lost for more than an hour. One year ago, I was met at the airport by two exhausted looking college students (with a sign) and whisked off into the mountains. I felt the obligation to make conversation with them (in Chinese), which was tiring and stressful.

Last night, though, I had simply arranged an airport pickup. The driver was supposed to have a sign but instead just had my name in big letters on his ipad. I missed it at first, but saw it on the second pass. I didn't let on that I spoke any Chinese, which made for a restful drive into the city. (He didn't speak any English.) The place I am staying is not really a hotel, more like a very short stay furnished apartment. It is perfect, all set up as a living space, even with a washer/dryer, fridge, electric kettle, AC, TV, and (best) working internet, both wireless and wired.

Here are some pictures:

Bed and desk

Window and Closet

Desk, Door to outside, Bathroom door

Bathroom with Washer and Drier

I had a little trouble getting to sleep because of the jetlag, but managed to sleep for about six hours. 

Cool Flower

This morning I went out for a walk to find some breakfast and get my bearings a little. The weather was nice, not too hot, a little cooling drizzle. It's my Oregon roots--I don't mind being rained on. Although my little room was thoughtfully supplied with two umbrellas. One problem, though, was that navigation is definitely a challenge. Coming out a tiny door on a tiny lane--I knew it would be hard to find again. I looked at it very hard, but still almost didn't manage to find it coming back. I walked all around. As usual, I had gotten up too early so most things weren't open. But I walked down small lanes and looked at how people where beginning their day. I like being in a place where plants thrive so exuberantly.The smell of everything--so foreign 12 or even 6 years ago in Beijing--is nostalgic to me now. I can read almost all the Chinese characters on signs.

Breakfast on the Windowseat

There were many breakfast stands selling sandwiches (which I don't like) but I finally found one that was selling normal Chinese breakfast things. It's interesting, the variation in what you get when you order a danbing 蛋餅 (sort of like egg sandwich). In this case, I got a rice flour crepe rolled up with scrambled egg and scallion inside, cut into thick slices and slathered with delicious sauce. I also had hot soy milk (re dou jiang 熱豆漿). I came back to my room to eat, mostly because I was concerned about being able to find it. I'm not sure if this big windowseat is actually for sitting on, but I did it anyway. I really like breakfast. I should have gotten twice as much food (my body is saying that it's dinner time), but on the other hand, I can make another snack excursion all the sooner. For some reason, I still find buying food very intimidating, but there's no reason to feel that way. Now my reading is so good!

Goals for the day: buy a SIM card for the crummy old Motorola Asia phone. (I really hate doing that. But should be able to do it at the nearest convenience store.) Get my bearings for real, maybe try to ride the subway system (MRT) and get to the university. Start pursuing apartment listings. Most important: just stay awake.