Taipei

I thought about posting the following on Facebook but it seemed to cynical: it rains, it is cold, and the locals speak a language I don’t understand, I could be in Maastricht.

BUT no – I am in Taipei! Yesterday night I arrived and was taken to my dorm by a shuttle bus from National Taiwan University (NTU or Tai Da). On the way from the airport I realized how big this city would be. The 90 minute bus ride went along endless stretches of houses, some as tall as 30 floors. And even before we crossed the bridge that would bring us into Taipei proper Taipei 101 appeared on the horizon, watching over the nightly city. Taipei at night is a true sea of lights. And one of the scary things was that once we arrived downtown, almost everything was in traditional Chinese characters (Taiwan is the only country in the world that has not simplified…). The traffic is as bad as I heard it is and the motor scooter is ubiquous.

My dorm (Guo Qing dorm) was the last stop on the shuttle bus and it turns out to be the last thing (not the latest) in every other aspect. Expressed differently, there is a reason why I only pay 180 euros for one semester. The inside of the dorm looks like a really run-down German youth hostel: linoleum floors, fluorescent lights, a shabby ‘common room’. The rooms themselves a tiny and it reminds me a little bit of the first room that I slept in in Bangkok (remember the picture?). When I entered it I was panicking a little bit and afraid that I would not survive this room for half a year. The heating does not work and it is literally less than 10 degrees in the room. The weather is supposed to get better on Wednesday but until then…

One of the things I will probably miss the most is privacy. The most private it will ever get is the shower cabin or together with my English room mate who I have not met yet. Being used to having a room larger than this one for myself, I will just have to adapt really quickly (or travel extremely often). Summer will begin fairly soon (or what I would call summer). Statistically, day-time temperatures will be above 20 centigrade starting from March. Oh did I mention that the aircon heater does not work? Needless to mention I guess. This dorm really gets me going… I met several exchange students on my floor and always smiled at them and said hi, only to receive the same reaction from everyone: looking down and speeding up.

I want to end on a good note, however. My student volunteer is very nice and is helping me where she can. She is… very Chinese I would say. She took me to buy some basic supplies last night and I had my first stinky tofu!!! It tastes really well I think.

Now, the day after I finally have found a fast internet connection. I went for a walk through the neighborhood, looking for the tourist office unsuccessfully so far, so I sat down in a café (ok – Starbucks I admit) to warm up a little. It is really cold outside – somewhere between 7 at night and 12 at daytime.

Taipei at day triggers the same impression that I had last night: the city is huge and Taipei 101 is visible from everywhere, kind of like the Eiffel Tower in Paris (just twice as tall). The streets are busy and now I will get back into the insanity in outside of this Starbucks café!