Dear all,
Welcome back, I hope you've had a great week! First I want to apologise for the typos (now that I've pointed them out I'm sure you'll all go back and look for them) and the run-on sentences in the last email. I haphazardly pressed the 'send' button without proof-reading it or sending the picture attachments and only realised my error after the fact (it's that dreadful micro-second after you send the embarrassing Christmas party photo to your boss which results in the inevitable unrelenting knot in your stomach knowing there's no way to recall it; or in my case I just thought 'oops' and sent a second email with pictures, tomato, tomato. I'm American, that's how I always say it.) Second, I realise I made a big fuss about keeping things chronological in previous emails but I think it may be better to relate the entire housing saga in one go so that we can get on to more exciting things in future. That being said, third, this email is going to be a bit more mundane than previous and future updates as I want to catch up on all the daily-life things that have been happening so you can understand why I got so behind. Keep in mind that while all the following was happening, I was still studying twenty hours a week which meant I was out of the house 12 hours a day, going to the doctor every third day, and I began teaching on Tuesdays to supplement my income!
The story begins around the third week of June; Ansy has very kindly let me stay with her thus far, but the hour-long journey to school is wearing thin real fast. Time to take action! Kim from church introduced me to two French-born Vietnamese students (one also named Kim and the other Eric) who are also studying Chinese at the National Sun Yat-sen University and they have a room open in their big apartment. The same week, my French-born Chinese classmate, Tek, says he knows of a place that's right by the university and is much cheaper, but not nearly as nice as the one that Kim recommended. So I managed to find my way through the public transport system to each of the different houses and then proceeded to spend about a week weighing the pros and cons of each, but finally decide to go with the more sensible one, i.e., cheaper place which is only one bus ride from school rather than the expensive one which is a train and then bus ride away. I asked Leanne to help me go look at places (apparently she helps all of the foreigners arriving on David's doorstep as his doorstep is half an hour away in another town). We went to look at the place, it was in a back alley and Leanne was uncomfortable from the beginning, but then we found out there are actually two businessmen in their late 30s living in the other rooms (something the landlady neglected to mention before) and I decided it wasn't the ideal place so we respectfully declined. Then I waited another week to finally say that I didn't want the nice, expensive one either as it's too far away from the school.
So. Still without a house two weeks later. On the week of July 11th, I went to look at a place from a guy whom Leanne had spoken to on my behalf who told her he has a single room available in a building literally right next to the university entrance which is entirely inhabited by female students. So I went to look at it, climbed to the fifth floor to find a massive room with a decent balcony view; I was satisfied but the two single bed frames sitting side by side was a bit concerning, so I asked, 'Is this for one person?' 'No, it's for two.' 'I just moved here, I don't have anyone to live with, will you find someone else?' Then he started asking over and over if the friend I lived with now could move in too, I answer firmly no, she's not a student and she's moving back to the UK in a few months so she's not leaving her house. He kept asking until finally I called Leanne and they argued for a while in Taiwanese and then he politely told me to go look somewhere else. I don't know what happened, Leanne was just as confused, but there you have it. The man pointed me across the street to a restaurant and said to go look there. I wandered over apprehensively and the man at the counter asked what I wanted, expecting me to say 'kung pao chicken'. Instead, I said 'I want a room'. After a few confused glances on either side, he said 'OK' and got out his keys. His rooms were right above the restaurant, but his 'most expensive and largest' room was a closet with no windows and it had a communal bathroom to share with loads of male university students...yeah…I politely refused saying I was hoping for one with my own shower so it wasn't what I was looking for.
On Thursday, the 15th, Leanne got in touch again and we went to meet a friend of her husband's boss. This building is sort of like a dorm, but not affiliated with the university. They only rent to female university students, it has five floors, a washing machine on the roof, a fridge and a clean-water dispenser on the ground/first floor which is also where you park your scooters and/or bikes inside, and all the rooms are singles with their own toilet and shower. There is no actual kitchen or living room. Apparently, this is a pretty normal type of student house in Taiwan as my teachers and Leanne were not at all surprised by the lack of stove (or, in my case, microwave) or couches. Food is so cheap and the building is right next to day markets and food stalls so most people eat out or just get fruit/vegetables for the house.
Welcome back, I hope you've had a great week! First I want to apologise for the typos (now that I've pointed them out I'm sure you'll all go back and look for them) and the run-on sentences in the last email. I haphazardly pressed the 'send' button without proof-reading it or sending the picture attachments and only realised my error after the fact (it's that dreadful micro-second after you send the embarrassing Christmas party photo to your boss which results in the inevitable unrelenting knot in your stomach knowing there's no way to recall it; or in my case I just thought 'oops' and sent a second email with pictures, tomato, tomato. I'm American, that's how I always say it.) Second, I realise I made a big fuss about keeping things chronological in previous emails but I think it may be better to relate the entire housing saga in one go so that we can get on to more exciting things in future. That being said, third, this email is going to be a bit more mundane than previous and future updates as I want to catch up on all the daily-life things that have been happening so you can understand why I got so behind. Keep in mind that while all the following was happening, I was still studying twenty hours a week which meant I was out of the house 12 hours a day, going to the doctor every third day, and I began teaching on Tuesdays to supplement my income!
The story begins around the third week of June; Ansy has very kindly let me stay with her thus far, but the hour-long journey to school is wearing thin real fast. Time to take action! Kim from church introduced me to two French-born Vietnamese students (one also named Kim and the other Eric) who are also studying Chinese at the National Sun Yat-sen University and they have a room open in their big apartment. The same week, my French-born Chinese classmate, Tek, says he knows of a place that's right by the university and is much cheaper, but not nearly as nice as the one that Kim recommended. So I managed to find my way through the public transport system to each of the different houses and then proceeded to spend about a week weighing the pros and cons of each, but finally decide to go with the more sensible one, i.e., cheaper place which is only one bus ride from school rather than the expensive one which is a train and then bus ride away. I asked Leanne to help me go look at places (apparently she helps all of the foreigners arriving on David's doorstep as his doorstep is half an hour away in another town). We went to look at the place, it was in a back alley and Leanne was uncomfortable from the beginning, but then we found out there are actually two businessmen in their late 30s living in the other rooms (something the landlady neglected to mention before) and I decided it wasn't the ideal place so we respectfully declined. Then I waited another week to finally say that I didn't want the nice, expensive one either as it's too far away from the school.
So. Still without a house two weeks later. On the week of July 11th, I went to look at a place from a guy whom Leanne had spoken to on my behalf who told her he has a single room available in a building literally right next to the university entrance which is entirely inhabited by female students. So I went to look at it, climbed to the fifth floor to find a massive room with a decent balcony view; I was satisfied but the two single bed frames sitting side by side was a bit concerning, so I asked, 'Is this for one person?' 'No, it's for two.' 'I just moved here, I don't have anyone to live with, will you find someone else?' Then he started asking over and over if the friend I lived with now could move in too, I answer firmly no, she's not a student and she's moving back to the UK in a few months so she's not leaving her house. He kept asking until finally I called Leanne and they argued for a while in Taiwanese and then he politely told me to go look somewhere else. I don't know what happened, Leanne was just as confused, but there you have it. The man pointed me across the street to a restaurant and said to go look there. I wandered over apprehensively and the man at the counter asked what I wanted, expecting me to say 'kung pao chicken'. Instead, I said 'I want a room'. After a few confused glances on either side, he said 'OK' and got out his keys. His rooms were right above the restaurant, but his 'most expensive and largest' room was a closet with no windows and it had a communal bathroom to share with loads of male university students...yeah…I politely refused saying I was hoping for one with my own shower so it wasn't what I was looking for.
On Thursday, the 15th, Leanne got in touch again and we went to meet a friend of her husband's boss. This building is sort of like a dorm, but not affiliated with the university. They only rent to female university students, it has five floors, a washing machine on the roof, a fridge and a clean-water dispenser on the ground/first floor which is also where you park your scooters and/or bikes inside, and all the rooms are singles with their own toilet and shower. There is no actual kitchen or living room. Apparently, this is a pretty normal type of student house in Taiwan as my teachers and Leanne were not at all surprised by the lack of stove (or, in my case, microwave) or couches. Food is so cheap and the building is right next to day markets and food stalls so most people eat out or just get fruit/vegetables for the house.
This is where I decided I would live. It's right next to the bus, the subway, and down the street from the entrance to the university, the house is run by a team of people in the office right next door who are all friendly, and hopefully I'll be able to meet some Taiwanese students while I'm here (I'm the only foreigner in the whole building, they're bound to notice eventually). I signed the contract Thursday, they still write and read in columns from top to bottom, right to left here which I find intriguing. Due to the vertical-nature of the document, I had to use my Chinese name to sign it so it looks like a five-year old's handwriting, they were amused, but it got the job done. Leanne was kind enough to co-sign for me since I don't have an ARC (social security) number. And that was that! After searching for almost a month it was done in a matter of minutes. That Saturday Mike, the pastor of a bilingual church, brought his van round hauled all my stuff out and I left Ansy's keys on the table as an informal farewell. I live on the fourth (and worst in Chinese numerology since four is a homophone for death in Mandarin) floor. There's no elevator, thrilling. Just a reminder, the only fridge is on the ground/first floor. At least that's a clever way to lose weight! Because everything molds so quickly here, I have to really want to eat to be willing to traipse down stairs in my PJ's! After two weeks though, I'm already used to the 57 steps it takes to get to my room.
Saturday night Elizabeth, a friend from a different church, and I went to 'furnish' my room, a process which took us about 5 hours as it was an excuse to get dinner and be with a friend for a while. It's not normal for a furnished room to come with a mattress in Taiwan as most people bring with them their own hard, flat-cushioned mat which is bamboo-panelled on the top. I opted for the self-inflatable air bed which we found at Costco for about 13 USD. We also found large quantities of muffins, a few cups and plates, and a tea kettle for my instant noodles. We went to Ikea after that, it was my first time ever being in one so those of you who have seen them will probably find my amazement amusing! It was HUGE. One level was all micro-houses with 'this is how your room could look' sections, but they were actually full rooms set up and divided by type and cost. We also had dinner there, Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes with free-refill Cokes, life rarely gets better. After wandering around in awe for a bit, we finally moved down a floor to where you can actually purchase all the items on display in the top level which is where I bought sheets, towels, etc, and then we moved down to the bottom level to pay and made our way to Carrefour. This is the French version of Wal-mart and all three of these enormous super-stores are right next to each other so we just made our jolly way from one to another. We bought other sundries and an ice cream cone then decided we'd had enough.
I couldn't fit everything onto her scooter so I took at taxi home. This was actually much more complicated than I realised because I assumed he would know the word 'MRT' or the Chinese word 'ditie' for subway; as it turns out he didn't know the English and the Taiwanese use a different word, ‘jieyun’, so I couldn't explain that my house was near the subway station which was the only way I knew to get home. I told him the district I lived in and said it was near the university, he must have thought I meant up on the mountain in the dorms because he took me along a fast route the back way. Of course, I had no idea how to get home from that way because I'm not great with directions in the daylight and I'd lived in my new home a grand total of two hours before I went to meet with Elizabeth. Finally after a lot of frantic gesturing (he only spoke tiny fragments of Mandarin and then tried to talk to me in Taiwanese of which I know nothing) we figured out where I lived and he explained how to tell future taxi/bus drivers where I live. Apparently if I say 'Xizhiwan' which is the name of the MRT, they take me to the other side of the district, but if I say 'Gushan Market' they'll take me to my road. Learning experiences all around.
I finally got up the stairs, set up my 'bed' and collapsed, happy to be home finally! There is a tiny gecko who comes and goes throughout the building who has made his way up to the fourth floor to visit me and hide in my luggage. I've named him Brian. Apparently the word for 'gecko' in Chinese means 'wall tiger', in case you were wanting to know. (Since writing this, there has been another gecko to visit, a tiny one barely an inch not including the tail; I’ve named it Brianna.)
Saturday night Elizabeth, a friend from a different church, and I went to 'furnish' my room, a process which took us about 5 hours as it was an excuse to get dinner and be with a friend for a while. It's not normal for a furnished room to come with a mattress in Taiwan as most people bring with them their own hard, flat-cushioned mat which is bamboo-panelled on the top. I opted for the self-inflatable air bed which we found at Costco for about 13 USD. We also found large quantities of muffins, a few cups and plates, and a tea kettle for my instant noodles. We went to Ikea after that, it was my first time ever being in one so those of you who have seen them will probably find my amazement amusing! It was HUGE. One level was all micro-houses with 'this is how your room could look' sections, but they were actually full rooms set up and divided by type and cost. We also had dinner there, Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes with free-refill Cokes, life rarely gets better. After wandering around in awe for a bit, we finally moved down a floor to where you can actually purchase all the items on display in the top level which is where I bought sheets, towels, etc, and then we moved down to the bottom level to pay and made our way to Carrefour. This is the French version of Wal-mart and all three of these enormous super-stores are right next to each other so we just made our jolly way from one to another. We bought other sundries and an ice cream cone then decided we'd had enough.
I couldn't fit everything onto her scooter so I took at taxi home. This was actually much more complicated than I realised because I assumed he would know the word 'MRT' or the Chinese word 'ditie' for subway; as it turns out he didn't know the English and the Taiwanese use a different word, ‘jieyun’, so I couldn't explain that my house was near the subway station which was the only way I knew to get home. I told him the district I lived in and said it was near the university, he must have thought I meant up on the mountain in the dorms because he took me along a fast route the back way. Of course, I had no idea how to get home from that way because I'm not great with directions in the daylight and I'd lived in my new home a grand total of two hours before I went to meet with Elizabeth. Finally after a lot of frantic gesturing (he only spoke tiny fragments of Mandarin and then tried to talk to me in Taiwanese of which I know nothing) we figured out where I lived and he explained how to tell future taxi/bus drivers where I live. Apparently if I say 'Xizhiwan' which is the name of the MRT, they take me to the other side of the district, but if I say 'Gushan Market' they'll take me to my road. Learning experiences all around.
I finally got up the stairs, set up my 'bed' and collapsed, happy to be home finally! There is a tiny gecko who comes and goes throughout the building who has made his way up to the fourth floor to visit me and hide in my luggage. I've named him Brian. Apparently the word for 'gecko' in Chinese means 'wall tiger', in case you were wanting to know. (Since writing this, there has been another gecko to visit, a tiny one barely an inch not including the tail; I’ve named it Brianna.)
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| Brian |
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| Brianna |
Now that that's taken care of, we can get back to the other chronological events of the past. It's too confusing to waffle back and forth between house hunting and everything else that's happened!
All the best,
Amanda
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