The trip from Barcelona to Taipei wasn’t nearly as
exhausting or as nerve-wracking as I thought it would be! First off, no one
cried when dropping me off at the airport, not even me, which is a very good
thing. This has to be a positive experience, and even though we’re going to
miss each other, crying only makes it more difficult to get through.
I flew Barcelona – Paris (CDG) – Hong Kong – Taipei
(Taoyuan). Air France is a good company, but China Airlines was better (and the
flight attendants were ridiculously pretty). I only want to comment on how easy
it was to find my way around, because I really didn’t expect to come across 0
problems throughout my trip. Charles de Gaulle in Paris was very easy to get
around, even though I had to change terminals. Hong Kong was even better! The
airport is incredible, clean, and efficient. I had to take some shuttle train
just to print out my ticket and then take another back to find my gate, but I
did so in minutes without having to ask anyone! I even tried to change my Euros
into TWD there, but apparently you can only do so in Taiwan. I arrived at my
gate with 2 hours to spare, so I went to go get myself a caramel latte at
Pacific Coffee. It was so good! And when I got back to my gate, I met a French
girl (Chinese, from Mauritius Islands I think she said!) who is also doing
exchange at another university around here and took the flight to Taipei with
me, which was very pleasant.
Once at Taoyuan, I exchanged my money and passed customs in
less than 20min, and by that time my luggage was already waiting for me! The
volunteers from NTU were also waiting for me outside the arrival hall and were
very easy to spot. They took us on a bus straight to the dorms, and that’s how
I got here! I know I’m very lucky to have had such a smooth trip, trust me!
I want to write about the Prince House Shui Yuan dorms in
detail, so I’m going to leave that for another entry. I want to take photos and
talk about a bunch of things I wish I had known before coming, because it was
difficult to find information about it online. Moving in was a little
frustrating, but the NTU volunteers were everywhere and eager to help and made
the whole process a lot easier than it could have been.
In the afternoon going on evening, I was super thankful to
get Raquel, my only classmate from the same grade at university back home, to
meet up with me at the entrance to the NTU campus. She brought her Austrian
roommate along, and we tried looking for something to eat or a 7-11 along
Roosevelt Rd., but my stomach wasn’t having any of it and we found no 7-11!!!
We ended up getting a bag of cut fruit for 25TWD off a street vendor. I tried
to use some rusty Chinese and ask the vendor if a bag of apple-looking fruit
was indeed apple, but it wasn’t. I had no clue what he said it was, though, so
I ended up getting a bag of pears simply because he said pear in English. Fail.
We then took the Zhoushan road to the Guoqing dorms, and went to the 7-11
there. I bought an onigiri which I only ate half of (I ate the other half when
I woke up before), a water battle to prevent dehydration, and 200mL of what I
thought was matcha milk, but ended up being a mix of matcha and green tea (if I
had read the label, I would have known, but alas). I had it when I woke up,
too, and it’s actually pretty good.
I also had to copy some document for the dorms, but I didn’t
know how to do it, and the cashiers spoke no English. I mean, when I asked him 你會說英語嗎? he answered in Chinese and did not know
what 英語 was. We
worked it out in the end, but it left me feeling like my 3 years of Chinese
were worth nothing at the moment. The moral of the lesson is that you have to
persevere and keep trying, even if it’s very frustrating.
My initial fear as I walked back to my dorms was that the language
barrier will stop me from trying to buy things I want, like clothes or food.
It’s not that I don’t think it could be done, it’s just that I’m not used to
being anywhere where I can’t communicate easily with people. Having someone
else with me always gives me a confidence boost, even if they can’t speak
Chinese any better than I can, so on my first day I was very happy to have the
two girls with me. When you start to get overwhelmed by the weight of the
language barrier, I think it’s important to have someone with you. I have a
bunch of people I can contact, so during the first few weeks, if I can, I’m
gonna try to always go with someone when I’m off campus.
I also want to mention and thank the glory that is Google Maps’ Street
View! I got made fun of when I told my classmates back home but, in preparation
for my stay here, I looked up on Google Maps how to get from my dorms to the
campus. It came in so handy yesterday, especially when it got dark, that I
wanted to build Google Maps a monument. It was like I had already been here,
like I already knew my way around! The entry to the campus is only a 5 minute
walk from the dorms, and now I just have to find my buildings on campus.
One last thing I want to mention is the weather. When I got here
yesterday, it wasn’t nearly as hot as I thought it would be! But I think I got
lucky, because Raquel told me it had been much hotter in the past few days.
It’s still hot though, but it’s really nice when you don’t have to walk much,
and especially when there’s a breeze. It’s stuffy, and I didn’t really notice
it at first, but when I walked back to the dorms at around 8pm, I started
sweating. Nothing much, but it kind of creeps up on you without you noticing. It
also surprised me that I felt cold while I was sleeping! I took a shower before
bed and slept with damp hair, but I don’t think that was it. I didn’t bring
sheets with me nor did I buy a blanket because I really didn’t think I would
need one the first night, but what do you know! As I’m finishing this, it’s
6:24am and I’m already feeling stuffy in my room, but it’s bearable if you
don’t move around too much. I thought the hot weather would turn me off at
first, but I got a little lucky, and I think it will grow on me.
To close my first entry, yes, there are scooters everywhere and you have
to be super careful when walking because they will run you over. Yes, there are
also bikes everywhere and will also try to run you over. It felt so weird
practically being the only person walking around campus, but I always prefer
walking, so I’m not gonna get a bike. I will also mention that I was also the
only white person in a lot of places, like the last flight, the airport,
walking back to my dorm, etc., but I didn’t get stared at much like I was told
I would, and no one made me feel uncomfortable. I’m sure people around the NTU
area are used to it, but it was a relief.
So yes, don’t be afraid of the jetlag, or the unsettled stomach, or the
overwhelming feelings on your first few days. Raquel has been here for a week
and told me her sleeping patterns are still weird and is only now easing into
the food. I haven’t encountered mosquitoes yet, but she had a lot of bites, so
don’t fret over those either and come prepared! I’m writing as if I’m talking
to future exchange students, but I just really hope my entries will be able to
help people like I wished others would have helped me when deciding on what
university to choose and how to prepare.
Well, 6:30am and I’m actually gonna try to sleep a little and see how it
goes. I still feel tired, but being tired doesn’t always mean you’ll be able to
sleep! I’m planning to try and get more supplies for my room today and to ask
people to tour campus with me and get lunch, so we’ll see how it goes!
