third day in taiwan: ongoing

I have got to learn me some Mandarin. It's absolutely impossible to get around here without knowing basic phrases. I need to get some things down, starting with numbers. If I don't check prices before I buy something, it's a hassle trying to figure out what the cashier is trying to tell me, and it can't be a picnic for them trying to tell me what they mean, either.

Also, this morning, a young man came to my hotel door and I think he was giving me a message from Joy that she was going to be late, but I didn't understand a word. This makes me want to not just learn competent Mandarin, but complete Mandarin, or as complete as I can get. Susan recommended a forum where you can meet people who will teach you Mandarin in return for lessons in English, sort of an informal language exchange program. I might go for that, because I really need help, and I hate not being able to understand what people are trying to tell me and not being able to tell them what they need to know to help me.

Today I'm being moved from the Hsin Jhuang hotel to a hotel in Taipei, which thank god has internet (so I hear), and I've been eager to get online and go on Facebook, post on my blog, and pull up some programs to help me study Mandarin.

When I get to Taipei, I want to spend a little time shopping, too. I don't have much that a) fits this climate or b) fits this culture. I really like the fashion here, though, it's very loose and easy and also exceedingly stylish. One of my goals is to get a t-shirt that has nonsensical English on it. I have seen t-shirts with good English on them, though, like one that said "Naps are my happy hour," which I thought was hilarious. You get stared at a lot here if you're a foreigner, so I want to at least match the culture's fashion sense so it looks like I'm making an effort to be in tune with local sensibilities.

I might go to a bascketball game later with Susan, Amelia, and possibly some others. I need time to decompress, but I'm also having so much fun hanging out with people. Also, from what I understand about the training, it's going to be a bit intensive, so I'll have less time to do fun things. I'll have to focus on the information and possibly do some homework. I may even have to come back to Hsin Jhuang to do more shadowing of the classes, so I don't know how much time I'll have to myself.

One highlight that I am looking forward to is shopping for my apartment. I won't need much, but I'll need basics like towels and bed sheets and cleaning supplies and a mat for my bathroom, because bathrooms in Taiwan don't always include a separate area for showering or bathing. My bathroom is a toilet and a sink with wall-to-wall pink tile, and the "shower" is a hand-held showerhead that hooks up to the sink. The door to the little bathroom closes like a shower door, so the whole bathroom is basically also the shower itself. I'm going to need to make sure I clean it regularly so it doesn't get mold or bacteria, and I'm going to need a mat right outside the door so I don't get my floor all wet when I come out.

It's different, but I'll get used to it.

Later, after the move to the hotel:

I'm starting to think that Taiwan is not aware that such a thing as "free internet" exists, much less that anyone may want it. There's no internet at McDonald's; I'd have to log in to use the internet at Starbucks but I can't read the directions telling me whether I have to simply create an account or pay for it, and the internet at the internet cafe near my hotel is down.

I give up. Damn it, Taiwan, I haven't been online in days. This isn't me tweaking for an internet fix, this is me needing to get online so I can talk to my friends and family, which I could really use right now because I'm severely overwhelmed. I don't understand anythign anyone says, my hotels are all "love hotels" where the quality is just good enough for people to stop by and have sex in them, I'm terrified of drinking the tap water because I don't want to get sick so I'm on a constant quest to find either a water filter or a place that sells bottled water, I don't have a phone yet, and every meal I eat I'm afraid will make me sick simply because I'm not fully used to the food yet.

All I want is to get online. Is that too much to ask.

The internet cafe said their internet would be back on in an hour, so around 3pm. In the mean time I'm going to charge my computer and immerse myself in The Sims until 3pm rolls around because if I have to even think about how much I want contact with my friends and family right now, I'm going to start crying again. I can't wait until I get to move into my apartment, because then I can clean it my way, decorate it my way, scent it my way, use internet in it all the time, and actually have some kind of refuge from the craziness that is having to deal with an entirely new city, language, and culture. I'm enthusiastic about learning and I know I'll be happy later, but right now I'm really upset because I just want to talk to my famliy and I can't. At all.

So. Sims.

STILL LATER:

I'm at the internet cafe now, and obviously able to get online, so I'm feeling much better. I also played Sims until around 3:45, so I'm late. I am, however, online, on Facebook, and posting on my blog, which is WONDERFUL. Now my family knows I'm not dead, I have some contact with the English-speaking world, and I can do a few normal things, which will make me feel much better.