Erica in Taipei 席艾芮在台北市: Made it to Taiwan in One Piece.

Ciao a tutti!

This is the introduction to my blog documenting my travels through Taiwan and Asia. I am currently in a study abroad program at National Taiwan University in Taipei, Taiwan. I love it already after a couple days. The campus is beautiful and people are very nice. Also, the city feels very safe. An old Taiwanese man was on the flight from Minneapolis with me. His son lives in Minneapolis and he ended up helping me tremendously. He helped me find the right bus into town and even gave directions to the taxi driver for me to the dormitory. I guess you could call this one of the many lessons of the hospitality of the Taiwanese people.

I have seem a little bit of this very large city so far. Although very large, campus is easy to navigate. Especially since the Royal Palm Boulevard intersects it, going west to east. The Japanese built the street during their occupation to add to the university. The sun rose over the Main Library and set on the most eastern gate. I have been told that during the summer the street is awfully hot--since the palm trees don't much shade. There are plenty of food places on campus, two 711s, and even a shop that sells agricultural goods from the things that university grows.

My dormitory is exactly what I paid for, nothing less, but as time passes starts to exceed my expectations. Between the communal squat toliets, dingy rooms, and a few insects, there are fun people from all over the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, mainland China, Switzerland, Poland, Chile, etc (I think you get the picture) and of course high-speed internet. This is a really great place to get to know other exchange students. Also, I am right next to campus. [I will put pictures of my dorm room up next time].

I have already seen a couple night markets that Taipei is famous for. There are so many cute clothes, good eats, people and bright lights. I just wish I could read the traditional Chinese menus. I have learned a couple characters pretty quickly, like lizard. I don't think I am ready to try lizard yet. Also, I went to the annual latern festival that is held after the end of the Chinese New Year celebrations. Since this is the year of the ox, the laterns were focused on ox-based themes. The plaques were very sobering as many mentioned the global financial crisis and that the ox represents overcoming hardship. From the energy in Taipei, it's hard to tell that the country is struggling like the rest of the world financially.

I met one of my buddies from the exchange program. The university sets each exchange student up with a NTU regular student to help them adjust, find things and really make us feel like we are not alone. The buddy I met up with is name Andy. He came to my dormitory and gave me a ride on the back of his bicycle to Gongguan. It was quite the funny sight, as I am bigger than he is and he struggled as he peddled over a rather inclined bridge. We had a spectacular lunch that included soup, rice, chicken, shaved ice topped with mangoes and fruit tea. He even helped me find a SIM card for my Taiwanese cell-phone. I have been learning a little bit of survival Chinese here and there. I am pretty excited to take the Chinese course this semester. Andy is a big help as he says everything in Chinese first and then English :).

Today, I saw the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall off the red line. You can see the pictures below to see how pretty they are. For those who do know who Chiang Kai-Shek (or as he liked to be called the top of all generals, the "generalissimo") is, he was the leader of the revolutionary army in mainland China, a disciple of Dr. Sun Yet-Sun, and was eventually exiled to Taiwan upon the failure to eradicate the communists in China. He fought the warloads that precided over the many regions to unify China and create a much stronger country. He stared with 500 soldiers and quickly gained a large following--due to the oppressive rule of the warlords at the time.