first week at prince
i’ve been so busy going out hanging out recently, didn’t have time to update tumblr! everyday when i get back to my dorm i’m exhausted and just want to shower and mindlessly aimlessly fb/chat/skype. but now im gonna force myself to update this with a general outline of what i’ve been up to for the past week.
monday: 1st aunt and wenyu helped me move into my dorm at NTU Prince House. single room, private bath!! that same night, went and ate traditional chinese food at a place near gongguan (near my school/dorm/where i am now based) with ruby (cousin) and 2nd aunt.
tuesday: ICLP placement exams. first was the oral portion which was in two parts: once with 2 linguistics professors (i sucked), then second time with the head professor lady who placed us in whatever level she thought suitable for us. in the middle of the oral with head professor lady, she busted out in taiwanese saying “can you speak taiwanese? =D” complete with the jolly smile. and i was all like “uhhhh i can understand but i can’t speak ittttt =(” complete with the frown. apparently she was gauging the students’ interest in taking a taiwanese class, if it were to be offered. after the test we waited for everyone and this is when i met pretty much everyone in the program (46 from california alone). then we walked to a nearby street off campus to get lunch. in the afternoon we had our written test, which was not as bad as i thought it’d be because it was all multiple choice. that night we all went to shifan nightmarket and just walked around.
wednesday: orientation #1 for all the NTU foreign exchange students. afterwards we did something (forgot ! crap i gotta start writing these earlier next time)………… and got dinner.. then got ready for clubbing.. then went clubbing with almost 30 of us at LUXY. the club was on the 5th floor, and the second the elevator doors opened, green lasers flooded the room it was AMAZINg. we got 2 tables and ordered bottle service yet the bill turned out to be only $500 per person. amazing. at one point they held a lesbian kissing contest onstage. the first couple was a femme kissing a butch with a baggy shirt, sports bra, and tatts. legit. then the otehr 4 couples were slutty straight girls awkwardly trying to turn guys on. most guys fell for the act but i thought they looked ridic and awk!
thursday: orientation #2 for all the cali students. afterwards i think we went to ximending (a mostly shopping area mostly for young people), went to DAISO (japanese version 99 cent store), walked around looking for MUJI (japanese eco friendly store with really good pens), had dinner at a japanese restaurant, and headed back
friday: orientation #3 for ICLP students. yes we were sick of orientations by this point. how many times do i gotta be oriented? shiet i know my orientation just fine… we also got the results of our placement exams. i’m taking “thought and society” , “news and views” , and “taiwanese language”! the class sizes are very small maybe 4 students max, and we’re not allowed to reference our textbooks during class so i’m a little bit concerned about that. but i’m uberly excited to be learning taiwanese!! friday night we went to ximending again to sing karaoke at a place called Holiday. we had a bajillion people (21 at one point) and stayed for 3 hrs and ordered beer, vodka, and food, yet the bill for each person was still only $330. everything here is so much cheaper!
saturday: first day not required to wake up at 9am, but got up at 930 am anyway to go to the clubs fair held on campus. the students here are very passionate about their clubs, a rough US equivalent might be the greek system in that they show a lot of pride in their group, but these clubs are a lot more welcoming and open than the greek system. many people kept talking to us and handing us flyers, and trust me theyre a lot harder to refuse here than the flyer people on bruin walk because theyre just so warmhearted and benevolent and happy about it.. i’m gonna join the chinese traditional music club fosho cuz they have yangqin, and i’m also interested in tap dance club and calligraphy club. Lol. after the fair, some of us had dimsum near prince dorm and thought we ordered way too much food, it was still only $300 per person. thenn some of us went to the taipei main station area and checked out xinguang department store, NOVA, DAISO. saturday night some people went to shihlin nightmarket but i didn’t because it’s super crowded there on saturdays and i was pretty much dead/heat stroked.
sunday: had 割包 (guabao) for lunch with some prince people IT WAS AMAZING………. then they went to the main station area again to shop in the underground mall. i went with ruby and shopped at guanghua shangchang (electronics market) for a cell phone. bought one and it’s touch screen and has wifi and should work back in the US! too bad it lacks a qwerty keypad. afterwards went and shopped around at 後車站 which just means behind the taipei main station. they sell little trinkets charms jewelry and other japanese goodies there. bought some gifts and a badtz maru asian bag for my own use b/c plastic bags cost money here! had dinner at momoya near the CKS memorial station with ruby and 2nd aunt, then headed back to prince dorms.
loving taiwan =) and the weather is cooling down! class starts tomorrow, daily M-F, 1-4pm. we’ll see how that goes..
