Day 4

So my jet lag is getting better...slowly but surely. I woke up at 3:30 AM the first night, 5:00 AM last night, and 6:10 AM today. I think part of it is also the bed.... I'm not sleeping on a mattress it's like a thin pad and tatami mat over the wood...I've tried to compensate by putting the comforter underneath me but to no avail. I also need two pillows to sleep well and I only have one...I guess this can be easily remedied..I need to walk around and look for things more often (I miss Target and Wal-mart!!). I feel so lazy all day in my room not wanting to do anything because of the weather.

I need to have energy today because my cousin is taking me and his family to some lao jie (old street) to walk around and see the sights. Then we are going back to his house, which is in a Taipei suburb so it's really far and I'm going to be there all day. I can't believe it's already Sunday.

Oh in unrelated random news...I've noticed they say le se instead of la ji for trash, leng qi instead of kong tiao for AC, and li bai instead of xing qi for week. So last night I noticed there was this light flashing on my AC unit remote so I called my aunt. I knew that the last character meant xi (to wash) so I was pretty sure I had to take out the filter and rinse it, I just didn't know how to remove the grill it seemed fastened down and I didn't want to break the thing. So my aunt had the landlord come up, she started talking gibberish like this is how you turn on the AC and this how you change the wind...NO SHIT, SHERLOCK...well I politely played along for awhile until I geared her back to the issue at hand. Then they old lady kept trying to change the subject finally I was like you can't read it can you? I was like why don't you put on your glasses? She was like that makes it worse...so then she said she would come back. She came back with her bastard son and he brought a flashlight. Then he told me some cock and bull story about how new AC units wash themselves, etc. Well, I didn't really believe him but I was sick of them in my room so I just nodded.

Later that night, two other people knocked on my door. When I pointed out the flashing red light they knew it had to be washed so they fumbled with my AC unit until they got the grill off and washed it. They were reading the instruction booklet too and apparently you have to wash it every 2 weeks. Also, you need to turn off the machine and unplug it in order to reset it after washing. Simple as that.

Later my aunt made me nervous because she was telling me to lock my door and stuff...and I realized I left out my Ipod Nano, my MacBook, and my wallet lying around, etc. (Well, I wasn't expecting anyone!) And I even left the room to go with the other guy to wash the filter...then I realized the lady was still in my room, so I went back to my room. I checked after they left though and nothing was missing.

Oh yeah and as I was doing laundry last night, I met one of my neighbors. He was a tall, lanky fellow. I introduced myself and I reached out my hand and he looked confused at first but after hesitation he shook my hand. I told him my name and that I just moved in, etc. He replied by saying not to throw trash in the bathroom trash receptacles......I told him that I didn't know that and my aunt said to throw my trash there (I don't think anyone recycles in Taiwan....maybe the big businesses do but I haven't seen recycling bins...in fact I haven't seen any trash bins but maybe it's bc I haven't been looking).

Anyways, I told him I was from America and some other information and he lightened up a bit. He's already working and taking night classes in computer science at TaiDa. He's moving to America next year. When I told him I was from de zhou (Texas) he replied, "Oh it's pretty cold in Texas, right?" At first I was so shocked I didn't know what to say...then I recovered: "Well if you compare Texas to Taiwan then sure it could be considered relatively cold..." That was certainly the first time I've ever heard someone say Texas has a reputation for being cold.

I found out that there are only 3 people living on this floor including me with 2 empty rooms. I haven't met the other guy yet. I think I'll let Zack and Mike (the only foreigners/Americans I know in Taipei) about the empty rooms. They are both acquaintances, I met Zack at kung fu (gong fu) training at Emory (his primary purpose to come to Taiwan was to train in kung fu but he's teaching English on the side for income) and I met Mike randomly at the airport during customs (he's the one who had his luggage lost; he's also doing the same program as me at ShiDa).

[Update 10:30 AM.
I got some more sleep, did laundry, showered, and now am about to eat breakfast.

So comparisons between Taiwan and China are inevitable for someone like me who has been to the PRC several times. I have to say that China is much more accommodating to foreigners than Taiwan is. Perhaps, it's because in Taiwan foreigners are pretty commonplace so the novelty has worn of decades ago. Well, in China there are many people that know English and are eager to use it. There are also menus and signs that are written in both English and Chinese, but in Taiwan people never speak English...in fact they are more inclined to speak Taiyu than Mandarin Chinese, which is extremely frustrating.

Taiwan and China seem much more similar than I would have expected. Taiwan is definitely cleaner and I haven't had diarrhea which is a pleasant surprise because I had plenty of that in China.

I'm really glad I know Chinese because I think it would be extremely difficult to be in Taiwan without it. In China, I think it wouldn't be that bad since everyone is so eager to help foreigners. Oh yeah and in China everyone assumes I am a foreigner and treats me as such but here people just assume I am native-there's good and bad to that of course.]

OK I'm going to try and go back to bed. I'm departing at 9 AM for my trip to the suburbs today. It's going to be a day long trip-adventure so I'm going to bring my camera and take pictures. I'll update tonight if it's not too late.

Oh and I have to say....this constant rain is somewhat depressing, but mostly just annoying.