First Day in Taiwan

I have created this blog in order to keep up with my time in Taiwan, and so after my time here is over I can look back and see how much I've progressed. I have come to Taiwan to teach English, experience a new culture, and hopefully learn some Chinese. Plus, it'll look great on my resume!

So far I've only been in Taiwan for like, 28 hours, but it has been a busy time already. As soon as I got here, I moved my two suitcases into my apartment and I slept for a good 11 hours because it took a lot to finally arrive here. I had a 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Shanghai, a 20 hour layover in the Shanghai Pudong airport, then an hour and a half flight to Taipei Taoyuan airport, and a two hour car ride to the city of Changhua. The road I live on is called Min Tsu Road, and it is a very busy street.

Min Tsu Road

After I got some rest, I started my day early by touring around the city with the head of the school that hired me. We visited the Big Buddha of Baguashan. It is something Changua is very famous for, and it was beautiful. There were a lot of temples and koi ponds around it, and the statue is HUGE.

Big Buddha of Baguashan

I spent part of the day running a bunch of errands navigating my way around the packed Min Tsu road. It's pretty difficult to navigate because everything is in Chinese. All the signs, all the menus,... it was intense. A lot of people here ride scooters, and they have no fear. It is terrifying to me. Everyone parks illegally everywhere and it is pure chaos. I'm going to start out small with a bicycle.

I also did my first sit ins on some of the ESL classes today. That was really great. They students are all very friendly, as well as the staff.

Here are some things I've learned in my first day here that I want to remember later:
-the garbage trucks play a song that sounds like an ice cream truck. The purpose of this is so that when people here that sound at 5pm, they know it is time to take their trash out and throw it in the truck. So do not be fooled into thinking there is ice cream right around the corner, because it is really trash. Here is the song if you're curious: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0C6W_CCI0U

-There is a weird nut here called the betel nut that is found in the mountains of Taiwan. These nuts are sold on the side of the mountain by girls in bikinis called "Betel Nut Beauties" (and I have no idea why). It keeps you awake and makes your chest feel all warm. Its the number one case of mouth cancer here because the nuts are really not good for you at all.

-Do NOT write people's names in red ink because it reminds the Taiwanese of death. You can use a red pen for anything else, though.

-Lastly, Taiwanese people do not know their age usually. A lot of people count the 9 months a baby is in the womb as how old the baby is when its born. Some people consider the Chinese New Year as like a second birthday. So if you were born three months before the Chinese New Year, the day after the new year you would already be 2 years old, whereas in America you would just be 3 months old. Also, the number 4 is closely related to death so sometimes people skip birthdays that involve a 4. People are so superstitious about the number that it has been banned from being used on license plates.

I would say for my first day here, I accomplished quite a bit!