Study in Taiwan – Just arrived

I arrived safely in Taiwan yesterday. The travel went well but I would have appreciated some sleep on the plane. From Frankfurt to Beijing I had a seat next to a lady with a baby in her lap. It was a pretty nice seat, next to the window and with decent place for my knees. Before takeoff a flight attendant asked me if a could take another seat so that the lady with the baby could have some more space. The new seat was one of the not so good ones. Surrounded by flushing toilets and not enough space for the knees made it impossible to get some sleep. So I was pretty tired when I arrived in Taipei but choose to stay awake until the evening to adjust myself to the time difference.

The welcome at the airport in Taipei was surprisingly good. A couple of girls greeted me and made sure I got myself some cash and food before a taxi picked me up and drove me to the accommodation. A strange thing was that we were three people going to the same place but we all had to have one taxi each, but I should not complain and the taxi was for free. The standard of my room was more than I expected, the bed is big, I have my own balcony and shower, and the AC is working.

After getting 11 hours of warm welcomed sleep it was time to get a quick view of the city. I first had to take the bus for five minutes to the metro station and then it wass around 15 minutes to the main station. I only stayed in the Zhongzheng district and I did not see anything special except  the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, an impressive memorial park with three big temples.

I am quite impressed of Taiwan and Taipei so far. The weather is more than good, the city does not smell bad, everything is very clean, food is cheap cheap cheap, and compared to Japan people seems to be more familiar with using English. Last, I went to a small supermarket next to the accommodation and it turned out they had three different brands of natural and original oats. Well there is one bad thing and concern the lack of a kitchen in the dorm. There is a microwave so to get some eggs with my breakfast I mixed down eggs in my porridge and microwaved it for a minute. Taste was very much ok and it took no time to cook.

Tomorrow is the start of school and I am excited about the class mates and to learn some chinese. It feels very frustrating not to be able to communicate with the locals,at least I know ha to say thank you (Xie xie!).

Per, Gunilla, and Hanna

The view from my seat

Inside an airplane toilet

Beijing Airport

Smog and rain outside at Beijing Airport

On my way to Taipei

Dressed for success

Zhongzheng district 

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

   Cheap sushi