Hey there everyone,
You have no idea how excited I was about 2.5 seconds ago before I realized that I did NOT bring the proper cord to hook my camera up to my laptop. It was like falling off cloud nine and landing in the middle of a very busy intersection. I put in extra work for you all today and to have it all swept away in a matter of moments is indeed rather disheartening. Do not fret however, as I do have the photos and I will have the proper cord by tomorrow thanks to the abundance of shops that sell them. I will hold off on explaining all the trip in detail until then but I do have a few other photos from today for you to enjoy. As I said earlier I really put in a lot of work. I have been walking about since 9 this morning through rain and shine to get you all the best views and shots of Taiwan.
I finally moved into my official residence this morning at nine in the morning. When I pack, I pack as though where I am going may not have civilization, so I therefore bring it with me. Unfortunately, when you pack this way you are really limited in mobility. I thought about taking the metro, but I got down the stairs of my temporary flat huffing and puffing when a taxi driver read my mind and pulled over for me. The burden of civilization is a very heavy burden indeed. So I added a few pictures of the flat that I will be staying in. You can find those on the right hand side and they have simply been added to the Taipei 2014 pictures because they aren't all that special to look at. It is a pretty snazzy looking place and thanks to all the amenities that I brought with me, it is a very livable place. I met a few of my flat mates today: Cindy from California, Hugh, Midori, Carlos and Ahmet. Unfortunately, this was Midori's and Carlos' last day so I had to say goodbye as soon as I said hi. The others all seem like really great people. I am the youngest here which many people have remarked upon already. If they only knew how old I really am (Many of you will understand what I am talking about when I say this LOL). Anyway Cindy and Hugh are here in Taiwan to teach English, but both are just about fluent in Chinese. Now that could prove useful, for me anyways with Chinese.
After I arrived here and unpacked civilization from my two over sized bags of course this is when the realization hits that some of civilization got lost in transition. I raced out to the edge of Shida Market which is a shopping area for just about all your needs. I would have stayed longer, and taken more pictures, but I already had my mind set on going to today's main attraction which unfortunately will be featured tomorrow. So at least tomorrow will be a double feature.
I will though tell you about today's failures in Chinese. It began today with the taxi driver at 8:30 this morning. We went through the standard procedure of packing in my bags and then to the part where he asks me where I needed to go. Me being clever say in my best Chinese Guting-zhan which is a metro stop where I was to meet my landlord who would direct me to my new flat. He gives me a look and asks me to repeat what I said. We went back and forth for a while before I gave him the printed address for my flat. It took me all the way until this evening to figure out that even though I was saying it correctly my tones were way off. It just goes to show how important tones are so much so that the taxi driver could not understand what I was even saying. Next example hooray!
So I really don't know how to correctly pronounce a lot of food in Chinese and I know even less about reading traditional. I go up to order at a lunch bar and I instantly recognize chicken and beef. I'm not sure what it was but I immediately go up and say niu-rou which is beef in Chinese and then sandwich because the picture looked like a sandwich. Go Singlish which is the term for the combination of Chinese and English. The cashier lady smiles and then says in Chinese sanmingzhi. I look back at the menu and I recognize all three characters, but my brain didn't put them together so that I could pronounce it correctly. The cashier even goes further to say that my Chinese is pretty good in perfect English. I take my receipt and go sit in a corner in shame.
The last, but certainly not least is my attempt to get a sim card for my phone, so that I will have a local number while I am here. I was so busy thinking about how to make sure that my living quarters was completely civilized that I did not look up the vocabulary for dealing with cell phones. I head into the store say ni hao and the stop when the clerk asks what I needed. I didn't know how to say it in Chinese and then glancing around the shop I realize that nothing is in English which is a good indicator that it is not spoken within the store so I quickly make something up. I asks if they have a cell phone card. These are the only words in relation to cell phone that I know: shouji for cell phone and then ka for general cards. What I really needed was a prepaid sim card but me and the clerk spend five minutes trying to make it past the language barrier to finally realize what I neede was not in the store. It was tough. I would speak in my slow elementary Chinese and then he would followup in a rapid fire Chinese in which I could only make out a few words here and there. To think we spent five minutes with neither of us knowing what the other was talking about or referring to. Thankfully on my next try I just used a picture of what I needed along with cell phone.
Traditional Chinese is very difficult because many of the characters are very complex and the parts of the character are more difficult to decipher such as the parts for pronunciation and then for the other part that gives an indication for what the character to relates to. I have tried to translate and find the pinyin for just about everything there is, but there still seems to be so much more. Anyway it seems that life is not going to be too easy here until I get a better hold on the traditional system of Mandarin Chinese and then the local language as well.
Many of the residents of Taiwan speak Hokkien or Haka which are Taiwanese native dialects which I have a difficult time understanding, but hopefully I will be able to catch on in no time. Don't forget to check out the new photos under Taipei 2014!
Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more daily updates.
Also don't forget to add comments. Questions? I have answers. Requests. No problem.
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