Taipei

So today I wanted to check out a school (Taipei Language Institute aka TLI) that I read about that was supposedly really good and teaching Mandarin but it was in Taipei, which is maybe the biggest city in Taiwan. So not knowing where I was going in Taipei, I hopped on the bus and tried to improvise. The bus ride to the city took about an hour and while we were on the highway I saw a bunch of rice paddies which made me chuckle. So we got to Taipei but the bus had multiple stops and since, like I said, I had no idea where I was going, I got off at the first stop and started walking around. One of my friends told me that TLI was right by the National Taiwan University (NTU) so I asked someone if they knew where it was. It was far away. They told me to take the MRT, which is the subway.

I went to the MRT station and asked the guy at the booth how to get to the university and he told me to get off at so and so station. Okay, this is good. I got onto the subway and saw another white guy whose name was AC. We talked for a bit and he told me that he was getting off at the station for NTU and I could just follow him. The station was different from the what the worker at the MRT booth told me but I figured he didn't know what I was talking about and gave me the wrong directions. AC and I got off the subway and walked over to the school but it ended up being NTNU and not NTU. Whatever, I made a new friend and we might meet up for drinks this weekend.

At NTNU I asked some people if they knew where NTU was and it was pretty close by so I just walked in the direction that they pointed to. Once I got there, I didn't see TLI and I didn't write down the address (stupid) so I just asked all the foreigners that I saw. There were a lot of them and I figured one of them would have taken a Chinese class there. Some of them told me one way while others told me another. So while I was walking around trying to find this place it started raining and I didn't have an umbrella. I was walking around back on forth for maybe a couple hours since I remembered the street it was on but not the actual address. Since I still couldn't find it, I stopped into a YMCA and asked them if they knew where it was. They didn't but they had access to the internet and looked it up for me and gave me the address.

I eventually found the place and met with the director of the school and she went over the times they had available. I wanted a morning class but they were pretty much booked during the mornings but they had 7:30am or 8:30am available along with scattered times throughout the afternoon. I think I'm going to try to schedule 1 on 1 lessons 10 hours a week for a couple hours each day. However, if I want to be able to pay for it I'll have to find a full-time job first. I'm going to find one in Taipei because schools are a lot easier to get to because of the subway system and there are a lot more options.

So by the time I left the TLI it was getting dark so I figured I would head back home just in case I got lost, which I did. I had a map of the bus line that was supposed to take me back to my house. So I got onto the subway and headed to the station I was supposed to get off at. I asked around if anyone knew where the bus stop was and once again, people pointed in different directions or they didn't know. So I walked around for about an hour and a half and eventually found the stop. When I got on, the guy didn't make me pay. Apparently you're supposed to pay when you get off. I got to my house and asked the driver how much it cost and the woman behind me who was also trying to get off was like "this much" and grabbed some change from my hand. She said 60NT, but totally grabbed an extra 50NT while she was "trying to help me." I don't know how to yell at people in Mandarin yet so I just let it go. C'est la vie.

Now that I know my way to and around Taipei, I can start looking for a job there. Even after I get a job, I'll keep living where I'm living, at least long enough for me to save up enough money to move closer because I don't want to spend 2-3 hours a day commuting.

Instead of going home right away I went to the night market and got some dinner. The night market is essentially just a group of little shops that sell cooked or uncooked food. I also stopped by a store that only sold fruit and picked up some bananas. Since I was cold, wet and hungry I thought I deserved a beer and got one from the convenience store. It's a 24 ouncer and boy is it delicious!