Typhoon 3

A third typhoon has rolled through Taiwan in the three weeks I've been here. This one was a strong one though... even classes were cancelled yesterday. It was pretty unnecessary to cancel class, since it was calm by the time we woke up in the morning. But it was nice to have a free day off! :D

20 days

It's been twenty days since I've left Vancouver,but strangely, it feels like it's been longer. I am definitely missing my own bedroom and a non-stinky bathroom. But other than that, dorm life is pretty awesome. :) Haven't had a boring day since I arrived. But all this sleeping late business is not faring well with me, as I slept in and was 10 min. late for class yesterday. It's also true what they say, the closer you live to school, the later you will be. Ugh.

So I've bought a lot of stuff already P: But everything is so cheap and awesome... it's so hard to resist!!! I think I've been to most of the major shopping districts, haha. Taking a toll on my wallet. :D

I went clubbing for the first time on Saturday, and it was pretty cool. Prior to that, I rode a bike across campus whilst carrying someone on the back of a bike. Keep in mind that I hadn't ridden a bike since I was 10. I thought that was pretty amazing... Oh, and the MRT system here closes super early because we left the club at 1am, and the MRT was already closed. So we walked for an hour from the club back to our dorms. That was exciting P: The worst part about it was that apparently the club was super smokey... I washed my hair 5 times and I could smell smoke. Bleeeeeeeeech, lung cancer...

The Typhoon

Things happening during the typhoon that took place this weekend. Which consequently made everything super wet... Since it was Mid-Autumn festival, I got to spend the weekend at my relatives' houses. I even got to hit up Costco and Carrefour to stock up on snacks... That made walking in the rain (back to the dorms) really hard, as I had one small umbrella and three huge bags...

The typhoon has caused major havoc around this tiny island. Insane rainfalls and heavy winds... We're talking waist-deep water in places, and winds so heavy that people can't walk forward and signs are ripped from the side of buildings... Such a scary weather phenomenon.


NTU students at a Clubs Day fair. The entire gym was packed...



The view out of the NTU library. It looks out onto Royal Palm Avenue.



Some palm trees that line the main road of campus (and the dreary grey skies)...



I tried to take this three times. :) Finally. I just really like the splash...



This is to show the ZILLIONS of people in Costco due to the typhoon. Either avoiding the weather, or stocking up on food...



Another photo depicting the people jam



The torrential downpour that had me trapped at the library today...

The last couple of days- with photos

Photos from the last few days.


A sign that's found in my dorm building. It's supposed to translate to 'watch your step,' not 'watch the step.' I should stop being such a smartass.



We went to eat this shaved ice stuff at the ShiLin nightmarket. Let me tell ya, this stuff is AMAZING. I had this two years ago (same thing, actually). :)



We went shopping at a place called WuFenPu, which is a crazy shopping mecca. There are a billion tiny store fronts with clothes for CHEAP. We're talking 100NTD (~$3 CDN) per item, on sale. Most things are under $10 CDN. The alleyways are super narrow, and jerks on motorcycles still insist on riding through.

Good stuff though, I bought some clothes/accessories (8 items) for < $40 CDN. Sick.



This is one of the MRT transfer stops during rush hour. I don't think I can get used to this gross amount of people in this city. EVER.


There's a typhoon coming in this weekend, so the weather has been so schizophrenic. There'd be sunshine (And > 30 deg), then within a couple minutes, it would start POURING. Good thing I packed board shorts and flip-flops. Standing out in that rain (even with an umberlla) still soaks your clothing and shoes. Torrential downpour doesn't even describe it. Hopefully the weather will calm down soon! :)

New Friends!

At the student orientation yesterday, I managed to meet a lot of new people. During the orientation, we had a 1-hr campus tour. I am sorry, but that tour wasn't very useful at all. Maybe I just have a high standard for tours, haha. But walking in the sweltering heat and gross humidity for an hour is not my idea of fun.

We also went looking for bars around campus yesterday. We found one and stayed for a bit; then we attempted to find another. Ended up circling campus (and going 4 blocks EXTRA) for a long while. At least it was nighttime and cooler (that's just relative; it was still WAY too warm).

This morning was international student registration, so I had to pay for dorms & internet access. I also got my student card :D

The weather here is pretty schizophrenic... It'll be super sunny and then the clouds will come in and it'll start to rain. I bought an impromptu umbrella today because I was NOT prepared for rain. (It was > 30 deg. and super sunny when I woke up). Boo.

Supposed to go to the nightmarket tonight. Woot.

Asian Oddities

Here are some things that may strike you as strange, but are perfectly normal in Taiwan:

1. A two-layered bike rack outside my campus

2. People using umbrellas for the sun



3. People chauffeuring others on the back of bicycles (with umbrellas)

Moved in!

My plan to conquer jetlag in fact DID work. Woot, woke up naturally- 11 hours after I fell asleep. I then functioned normally. Yay.

I spent all of Saturday and Sunday with my extended family. Ate every meal at a restaurant, haha. SPOILED.

Today is Monday, September 8. My aunt took half a day off work to help me move my stuff from my grandma's house to my dorm. This dorm isn't accessible by car, so we had to park and manually move luggage about 500m. It was weird walking on a sidewalk with multiple suitcases, haha.

I checked in before my roomie so I got to call dibs on everything- bed, desk, closet, storage space. Everything was pretty dusty though... good thing my aunt brought me cloths so we wiped down everything. This place is pretty ghetto, par example: there are pieces of PACKING tape used to hold the ceiling tiles, since they shake when the door is opened. Yeah, ghetto. The walls are pretty dirty too. Kinda makes me want to repaint :D

This campus is pretty big (there will be pictures coming soon! I just hooked up internet and set things up). There are palm trees EVERYWHERE! Yay.

After I called dibs on everything, my aunt took Pam and I out for lunch and a brief tour. (She used to attend NTU). Then Pam and I did some shopping. I bought some things I need, and some that I wanted. Haha. It was really hard to find a plastic basket though, to hold toiletries. We looked in a TON of places, finally found one. And they didn't have pink ones, so I had to settle for turquoise :P

Things are cheap here. I am excited. No shoes yet though! ;D

International Orientation is tomorrow. Hopefully meet a lot of people then.

P.S. The bathrooms are pretty sketchy too. Only 1 western style toilet, all others are squatt-y types. EEK. One good thing though- air conditioning is included in our dorm fees. Supposedly local students have to pay extra. Ha.

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Edit: My roomie moved in; her name is also Sherry. Haha.

Arrival in Taiwan!

September 5th (post dated)

I'm here! The flight took around 11 hours after being 50 minutes early. :) I almost got three seats to myself since the two next to me weren't sold. But then a lady came and sat with me (she was sitting with 2 others), and I couldn't think of a reason for her to not sit there. I still managed to sleep for 6-7 hours though.

Economy class food tastes pretty bad. I was lucky enough to fly business last time, and the food was so much better. Maybe I'll try to upgrade my plane ticked for my return trip...

After arriving at 5am, I was determined not to sleep until nighttime to prevent jetlag. (We'll see if this logic works). I ate breakfast with my grandma (who told EVERY neighbour we saw that I was her "granddaughter from Canada."). Then I went to my grandpa's house to hangout with him and my cousins. Ate lunch there and watched lots of TV. Got a chance to check my e-mail too... My cousins had a Wii, and I basically unlocked all of WarioWare. I even resorted to watching a Korean drama to prevent myself from falling asleep.

My grandma eventually called so I went back to her house. She took me out for dinner (3/3 meals have been bought, that's how cheap food is here). We then went to a Costco-like place to buy all my toiletry needs (and snacks). I brought JUST enough money, only $1CDN short. Booyeah. (I also <3 the fact that tax is included, so you don't get a major 12% increase at the till, yay).

Managed to stay awake until 9pm. Goodnight, from Taiwan!

T-minus a couple hours

Last entry typed from the comforts of my own home. In a couple hours, I'll be jetting away to Taiwan!

I finally finished running all sorts of errands and settling all kinds of issues over the phone today. Finding and meeting with the notary public definitely was the highlight. -sigh- At least that's all settled. I'm just looking forward to all the errands I have to run upon my landing in Taiwan. Can't wait until I'm settled down.

I've also made some last phone calls to several friends; it's rather odd as it doesn't feel final yet. I think it'll finally kick in that I'm leaving when I'm actually on the plane. Oh well.

See you later, Vancouver!