Taiwan, Days 0-1

Taiwan
August 13-18, 2013




Day 0
My roomie, Mary, was planning to go to Taiwan by herself, but then I said I wanted to go too. She'd bought tickets via a Korean travel agency, and she helped me to reserve the same flights. I booked on Saturday, though, and couldn't pay (via bank transfer) til Monday, and somehow they ended up not actually booking my flights (though I paid). We didn't find this out til the night before, when Mary was able to check in, and all I had was a confirmation number for my payment (no actual airline ticket number). The travel agency didn't open til 9am, and our flight (well, Mary's) was at 10:30am, so after she spent quite a while talking to airline staff and the travel agency, they ended up booking me a seat on the 4pm flight, and switching Mary's flight to match (which was good, because by that point, it was after 10). So we had to kill 5 hours at the airport. The adjoining building has a movie theater, but we were too tired from waking up at 6, so we ended up napping in a cafe with big cushions on their seats, then walking around for a while, and finally sitting at the gate for a couple hours. Sucks we had to arrive in Taipei 5 hours later than planned, but... at least we both made it there. And somehow my hostel reservation was also not actually booked, either. I emailed them myself and received a confirmation email... but, apparently, my luck that day was not very good, heh. Anyway, they had a spare bed, so I had a place to sleep, but the hostel ended up being kind of dirty, so we only booked two nights (of the 4 we'd be in Taiwan), hoping to find a better place in the meantime.



A view from the plane, and the (dirty) $12/night hostel.


We ate noodles (and drank what we guess was plum tea) at a nearby noodle
shop, then had beer and snacks at a 7 Eleven. The green fruit is guava.

Day 1
We woke up about 9 and had breakfast at McDonalds. (Though, they didn't actually serve breakfast foods.. so it was more like an early lunch.) At about noon, Mary's high school friend and her sister met us at our hostel. They helped us book a different, much nicer hostel a couple subway stops away. They took us to Tamsui (formerly Danshui), a seaside tourist area in the NW corner of New Taipei City (conveniently located at the last stop on the Red subway line). Unfortunately, it was a hazy/rainy day, so the view wasn't that great, but it was still a nice atmosphere. We ate lots of cheap street foods. After that, they invited us back to their house in Taichung with them (Taichung literally means "Central Taiwan"). We rode a bus for about 3 hours, then headed to a night market, where we had more street food, including stinky tofu.



A view of Taipei 101 and a mass of motorbikes from/at our subway stop;
our first hostel's alleyway; the new hostel intersection.


We bought bubble tea before our hourlong subway trip to Tamsui.



Tamsui streets and street food (flavored quail eggs and pastries filled with cream).



A view of the mountain across the water, and a "deep water" sign.
There was a man fishing next to it, but I didn't take a picture.


Pens!!! So many pens at a store in Taichung.



The night market in Taichung, where we ate dough balls filled with
radish, an egg omelet, and stinky tofu. Man, that is an accurate name.
It smelled so bad...and didn't taste all that great either.^^

Days 2-5 to follow.

Goodbye, level 3!

This post is a little late in coming (a recurring theme, it seems), but... better late than never?

On 8/3, Hera and I went to Junsu's concert at COEX Hall D in Gangnam. We bought Standing VIP tickets, and ended up 2 rows back from the main stage. However, he spent a large portion of his time dancing on the stage in the middle and behind us, and it was awkward to turn around... so next time, I think standing further back would be better (at least you'd only ever have to look forward). He sang a number of his songs, and had some fan interaction time in the middle, but he didn't sing my favorite song (of his), You Are So Beautiful, from Scent of a Woman's OST (from Aug/Sept 2011). :( It was the background music to a slideshow during a costume change, so I guess I'll have to settle with that, heh.



Top: A building near the mall. Bottom: Concert logo.

The rainy season here hasn't been too bad (the "humid season," i.e. summer, is far worse), but there have been a few days where it's just poured. Luckily, my $3 Daiso umbrella I bought in the spring has continued to serve me well. I have to wear flip-flops most days, though, because sneakers just end up soggy.


Heavy rains at SNU.

Class ended on 8/9. I did well, but I wasn't the top level 3 student (as I was for level 2). Ah well. :)


Rows: Reading (of 20), Writing (30), Listening (20), Speaking (30).

After the final class, six of us went to see the Busan Lotte Giants play the Seoul LG Twins at Jamsil Stadium. My friends bought $13 tickets for the Giants (the away team), located right behind third base. We ended up losing pretty badly, but it was still a lot of fun. :)



Top: It's BYOB/F, so everyone brought something to share. My contribution
was two Pizza School pizzas. Bottom: A view of the outfield and infield.

Baseball in Korea thankfully follows the same rules as in the US. They don't have baseball in China, so the Chinese kids had no idea what was going on. They speak English well, and I tried explaining it, but... it's kind of hard to explain because the vocab isn't something most people would know, unless you know baseball. (How do you explain a "double play" or an "RBI" without using other baseball terms?)

One thing that is different is that Korean teams have cheerleaders. Ours were located just above and behind us (about 20 rows back from the field). Unfortunately for us (and fortunately for the guys in front of us), this provided a nice up-skirt view of all the girls while they were dancing. Some boys filmed every time they danced... as high schoolers will. Still...ugh.


Me watching the guys watching the cheerleaderz.

Also, they're big on things to help with cheering/team spirit. They sold these inflated...sticks (that you beat together to make noise) for $2 outside the gate. And at about the midpoint, they passed around these orange bags (our colors are orange and black). Most people inflated them and tied them off, and hooked the handles around their ears (me included... but I was super-sweaty, so I'll spare you from the photos heh), but a few girls instead made pretty bows.



Top: Noise sticks. Bottom: Bags on our heads for team support...

On the three hottest days of summer (sambok or boknal), people eat hot foods to cool down. 8/12 was malbok, the final "hottest" day. Previously, people ate dog meat stew (bosintang), but these days, most (younger) people eat chicken ginseng soup (samgyetang). Iza and I went to the same restaurant in February (when I had a cold and wanted something like chicken soup). It was practically empty then, but we went the day before malbok and the place was still packed.


Samgyetang (chicken gingseng soup).

I'll have another post soon about my trip to Taiwan. Hopefully it doesn't take a long to finish as the Japan ones...^^

머리 (Hair)

Yesterday, I finally managed to tick one item off my non-existent bucket list: blue hair! I remember talking about dyeing my hair blue back in high school.... though, at that time, I meant 100% dyed. This time, I just added some streaks. My American classmate (who coincidentally has purple highlights) was kind enough to take me to her hairstylist in Hongdae, and in 3 hours or so, I went from medium-brown to medium-brown + blue (plus gradient)! Because my hair was medium brown and I wanted blue streaks, he first had to bleach my hair. It was a little surreal to see my hair anything other than brown! After that, he washed the bleach out, then dyed everything "peppermint blue." Sadly, the bleach didn't fully take on all parts of my hair, so I actually have a nice gradient, from greenish-blue to teal to bright blue (the color I originally desired). Because it didn't turn out as anyone intended, he offered to remove the color, and rebleach and redye my hair for free it at my earliest convenience. Unfortunately, I have finals coming up midweek, so Monday and Tuesday were out, he's closed on Wednesday, this Thursday is a vacation day for him, Friday I'm going to a baseball game (which I hear is INSANE in Korea), then we're approaching packing time for Taiwan... so, basically, I decided on Sunday... only 3 days after the first dye attempts. I read you're supposed to wait 10-14 days between bleach attempts, so I'm a little nervous to do it again so soon.... but my hair ended up in pretty good condition (seriously, it's softer than it was before, I think). So it could probably withstand the second bleaching, but... I dunno. The (unintentional) gradient is kind of growing on me. So maybe I'll just take him up on his free deep conditioning offer instead, and consider re-bleaching in 2 months when the color fades and I need to get it redone anyway. Thoughts? :)

8개월 (8 months)

Yesterday marked 8 months in Seoul. It really is crazy to think I've been here that long. It feels like three or four at the most. Level 3 midterms came and went. This time, listening was my worst area. I mentioned before how quickly everyone speaks (the teachers, the MP3s). It's a lot to process so quickly, not to mention remember until the questions are asked at the end of the passage. Regardless, I did pretty well on the midterm (second in the class, behind the girl who was second to me last semester).


The midterm column reads: Reading (of 20), Writing (30), Listening (20), Speaking (30).

For about two months in the summer, Korea has a rainy (monsoon) season. It starts in late June and goes til mid-August. During those two months, almost 30" of rain falls. There have been several heavy days (though, thankfully, mostly nights) of rainfall so far. Overall, it's been a little underwhelming, but I still wear sandals most of the time now to avoid soggy, wet tennis shoes.


Left: The back of the classroom on a rainy day. (Though I put mine in a bag,
because it's probably going to get wet again on the way home.) Right: Rain Woman.
My backpack conveniently came with loops (which I use as an umbrella holder),
which is good for me, because unless it's pouring, I don't bother opening mine.

The skies here have mostly been overcast and ugly grey/white, so on sunny(ish) days, I tend to take a lot of photos.



First: Looking up at the language buildings at SNU (I like the clouds' reflection in the
glass building). Others: The sun setting at the end of my journey home, and at the start.

On 7/12, Vicky, Joana and I went to a cat cafe near Bongcheon Station (one stop west of SNU Station). There were probably two dozen cats around. The admission fee is $8, but you get a free drink (probably $4-5 elsewhere). Minors (<19 I think?) can get in for $6. At first, there was no one there but us, but eventually two high schoolers showed up. Seeing these cats really made me miss Ony and Nef back in VA. :( They were cute, but not particularly playful. Vicky said the other cat cafes she went to (in Hongdae) provide string, etc for you to use to play with the cats. This place did not.






So many cats. The last 2 were my favorite.

On 7/13, my roomies and I went to a fancy party at the fancy Banyan Tree hotel in Seoul. We dressed up in formal dresses. It was fun, but less fun than I was expecting. Unfortunately, I don't have any solo shots of me or my dress.


There was a pretty water area (a pool with public lounge chairs and private cabanas)
with pretty lights... and it was dark so we mostly used that lighting to take photos.

In the US, I didn't really do much with my hair besides pull it back into a ponytail. But in Korea, I've been trying a few different styles, mostly involving Dutch braids (inside-out French braids, where you braid under instead of over, so the braided part sticks out above the rest of the hair). A few weeks ago, I discovered the waterfall braid as well (where you French/Dutch braid at an angle and leave 1/3 of the newly-added hair out each time). However, I've found the simplest way is just brushing it out and letting it dry with some waves/curls. This works pretty well for parties... and less-humid days.




The first is my "AMG, is the fan even working?" at-home style. The second is my "party" style.
The 3rd & 4th are twin plain Dutch braids, and the last are my attempts at Dutch waterfall braids.

French/Dutch braiding is surprisingly annoying to do to yourself. One trick I've found: lay down on the bed and do it! (The same goes for high ponytails. Though in the picture above, I bent forward.) My embarrassingly weak arms get less tired this way. :)

Finally, food!




Korean muskmelons, our fish dinner before and after, Indian food, ice cream waffle.

Korea has a yellow muskmelon called 참외 ("cham-way"). I'm not a fan of seeds, but the seedy pulp is the sweetest part, so I'm slowly getting used to eating them. There are also a lot of roasted/grilled fish (생선구이, "saeng-seon-gu-ee") restaurants here. The other day, a few classmates and I went to one of the more famous ones in Dongdaemun. We ordered one serving of each of four different kinds of fish. The same classmates and I (plus a few more) also went to an Indian restaurant near where I used to live. I actually really miss Thai food (here, it's mostly just noodles, not the big variety of dishes like in the US)... and I'm not a huge fan of Indian food, but this was pretty good. Alissa and I shared two dishes (and paid about $12 each, for the dish + bread), and I'd definitely get them again. Finally, there's a coffee shop under the student cafeteria that sells waffles for 90 cents each, plus 15 cents per topping. They also sell gelato, and you can get it as a topping, but it's another 90 cents. The green tea gelato is delicious, so I usually do that.

I've been writing another post on culture shock/cultural differences for a while now... I'm almost done, but.. speaking of food, it's dinner time.^^