Ten hours here and I have already misplaced my keys to the hostel. Even for me this is impressively fast. (Note: I found them fairly quickly. They were still in the bed, between the bedframe and the mattress.)
Goals for today:
1. Phone! Get at least a SIM card for now, and hopefully a phone contract.
2. Scavenge for food. If up to it tonight, explore a night market.
3. Make headway on finding an apartment (this is technically happening through my school, but I am trying to push it along, because as much as I love living out of a suitcase, it isn't what I want to do while starting a new job/life thousands of miles away from home).
4. Explore Taichung!
Conversation with the hostel owner about moving to Taiwan:
Auntie Julie: "Is this your first time in Taiwan?"
Me: "Yes! It's very new."
Auntie Julie: "You have no friends here?"
Me: "Nope. I have a few in China, but it is kind of far."
--Understatement of my life
Getting a SIM card seemed to be quite an ordeal, but it was actually quite simple. The hostel owner's son came with me, because he speaks perfect English (they lived in South Africa for years, then moved back to Taiwan) and Mandarin. The man at the FarEasTone counter gave us a hard time at first because I do not have my visa yet, but I gave him my passport and passport card, and then provided the information for the school, and he gave me a SIM card, which began working almost immediately.
Note: Skype, Facebook, and e-mail are still the best ways to contact me if you aren't in Taiwan.
Lunch (also breakfast): I walked around looking for something quick and close, because I was REALLY hungry and didn't want to get too lost. I found a FamilyMart and bought a bento-box-type meal, a honey roasted chicken sushi triangle, and what I thought was chocolate rice milk but was instead peanut rice milk. I had the sushi triangle and the rice milk, and both were delicious. I have found my new favorite snack (until I try the next new and scrumptious food).
For now it is raining, which in my (probably jet-lagged) world means naptime!
Oh! When I was outside looking for lunch, I discovered that I am two doors down from an arcade. Definitely picked the right hostel.
Just had my first real food-scavenging episode. I walk-sprinted in the rain on sidewalk-less streets, weaving through cars and scooters, which was not as dramatic as it sounds--I was in little-to-no danger of being hit by a car or scooter. After a few minutes, I found what seemed to be a neighborhood hot-spot. There were a bunch of people inside, and a short line had formed at the food-serving counter, which was only partially sheltered from the rain. Most of my interaction with the people at the counter involved smiling, pointing, and nodding, with the occasional "yi ge" ("one of these", but in the wrong context; most of my knowledge of Mandarin is from high school, though I remember a surprising amount of single words and short phrases). Luckily I love to engage in pantomime*, and naturally talk with my hands. Getting dinner was fun, though--with the pointing and nodding there came a lot of scooping of rice and vegetables, topped off with a large piece of chicken. With many "xie xie"s (thank you) and "zaijian"s (goodbye), I paid and left, walk-sprinting back to the hostel in the rain.
Back at the hostel, the hostel-owner was showing new guests to their beds. At one point she turned to me and asked if I had dinner. I pointed to my bag and said yes! She then told me that there was a McDonald's and a KFC nearby, but I told her that I don't usually eat from there anyway.
The only real negative about this hostel is that there is one girl who snores so ridiculously loudly. Right now I don't know if I'm awake at 3:30am because of jet lag, going to sleep too early, sleeping with my contacts in (whoops), or because of the jet engine in the bed diagonally above me. Oh well!
*For some reason I always thought this word was "pantomine", no idea why. I guess one really does learn new things every day!
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