Archive for July 2013

Home Archive for July 2013

The good thing about staying in Taipei city is it's very convenient to go from one place to another. Taipei's public transport is very good. If you don't like waiting for the bus, you can traveling via MRT (or subway) to a lot of places. You can see that the MRT lines cover a lot of areas in Taipei.

The only drawback is the MRT line to Taoyuan Airport is not yet built at the moment. But let's hope that the Government will finish it soon, shall we? =P

How to spot the entrance to MRT station? If you spot something that looks like an entrance to the underground, that's most likely is one of the entrances/ exits of an MRT station. Anyway you will see the name of the MRT station once you get closer to it.

You can buy the ticket by using this machine. If you want to get an Easycard (悠遊卡/ Yōuyóu kǎ), you can buy one at the ticketing counter.

You will see that there are queue lines (i.e. the white lines) on the train platform and people do stand in lines according to that white lines. Good manner. I wish this can happen in Indonesia too but..oh well. Anyway, we don't have MRT, yet.

People are not allowed to eat and drink (and chew bubble gum) inside the train. And that's the reason why the MRT looks so clean. The seat in dark blue (see bottom left corner) are meant to be for those in needs i.e. pregnant ladies, the elderly, and people with babies/ kids.

Another info about the MRT, the Taiwanese refer to the MRT as "捷運"/ "Jié yùn". When I just arrived, I asked the whereabout of the MRT but I said "地鐵"/ "Dìtiě" and yeah, nobody understand what I'm referring to. (P.S. If you use Google Translate, both Jié yùn and Dìtiě are actually referring to MRT).

And if you want to know whether Maokong Gondola is operating or not (it sometimes closes due to thunderstorm), you can listen to the announcement at the MRT station. The screen displays at the platform will also display the weather forecast for that day. Cool, right?

If you want to know more about the MRT, you can visit this website: http://english.trtc.com.tw/

Find great hotel deals in Taipei here!

I know that typhoon are common in Taiwan during summer but I never thought I'm gonna have to experience it. O_O.

Hmm wait, what is a typhoon anyway? Is it like the one we see in the movie "Twister"? Aren't we screwed if Typhoon Soulik looks like that????

Apparently, a typhoon is a combination between a very heavy rain (called "torrential rain") and a super strong wind (which can break shop signs and blow up trees). And this is how Typhoon Soulik looks like from the outer space. It looks like a whirlwind of clouds.

I've never experienced typhoon before so I did a lot of Google-ing about what to prepare. My Mandarin teachers have been telling the students one thing and another but they have been consistent in telling us to STAY INDOOR during the typhoon.

So, how are we supposed to know when the typhoon is going to make a landfall?

To be honest with you, there's no way to know when unless you follow the news. The sky looks clear in the morning before the typhoon. There's even a rainbow!

The government will make an official statement which will be broadcasted by all local TV channels in Taiwan. If you are studying Mandarin in Taiwan, most likely your teachers/ schools will update you on the timing. This time, Taiwanese government allowed the offices and schools to close at 2PM (hours before the typhoon made a landfall). If you see the characters "停班停課"/"Tíng bān tíng kè" on your TV screen, that means the government has declared a "stop-work-stop-school" policy which means everybody can go home to prepare the necessity for the upcoming typhoon.

More clouds built up in the afternoon time.

In the precious few hours, you can prepare a few things in your house against the typhoon.

1. Stocking up food and drinking waters. (Typhoon usually lasts for max a day but heard that there's an occasion where it's reluctant to leave Taiwan and stay for days. Horror!)

2. Stocking up water for bath usage (just in case of 停水/ stop water).

3. Tape and cover your window. I didn't really tape my window but I taped over a cover behind it to make sure that in the event of breakage, the double cover can at least reduce the impact. I guess putting a wood or something strong will be better but I don't have any "carpentry" skill and there's no man in the house. So yeah. U_U.

4. Buy a flashlight (just in case of 停電/ blackout). The Mandarin teachers told us that this will be unlikely as the Government has made some improvement over the years to avoid this (well, the country does get battered by typhoon every year).

When the typhoon made a landfall around 3-4AM on Saturday (07/13), it's really scary and you can hear the sound of the strong wind slapping your roof, your window, your door...oh well, the whole building. The door keep on slamming up and fro and at certain point, you can feel the building is kinda swaying (although not as hard as one in an earthquake). Not a pleasant experience but since there's nothing I can do (except praying that it will die down very fast) and go back to sleep. Thanks goodness there's not much damage around my neighborhood but I did saw some bad damages all over Taiwan. U_U.

Please don't let there be another typhoon in Taiwan this year. (Well, I can make a wish, can't I?)

Few days before I arrived in Taipei, the school informed me that I could not stay in the dorm because I merely came for studying Mandarin. Does that make me "half-student?" Geez. I suppose they don't have enough rooms to provide all students studying in Shida. =(

Anyway, no point in grumbling. The only way out is to find a room near the school so that I can save both money and time in commuting.

Oh man, where should I start? Well, good thing for you, as I've been going through this hassle, now I can share with you on few places to find information about accommodation while you are studying. =)

1. Ask the school

When your language school tell you that you cannot stay in their accommodation, it does not mean that they cannot help giving you suggestion on where to look for outside accommodation. One of the helpful staff in Shida's office asked me to go to level 7 of Mandarin Training Center building to see the notice board. And she's right, there are a lot of adverts offering rental and most of them are located quite near to the school. In fact, I got my place now from this notice board. Cool!

2. Online house hunting

These days, most of information can be found online and that includes adverts about rental. You can go to www. tealit.com and go to the apartment/ rental category. In short, you can click this link -> http://www.tealit.com/ad_categories.php?section_id=31

Most of the landlords who offer the place in the above website can speak at least simple English. So there should not be any problem when you call them to inquire further about the place.

There is another site called http://www.591.com.tw/ where the Taiwanese often posts their accommodation adverts on. But the hardest obstacle in browsing this website is it is written in Mandarin. If you have zero-ability of reading Chinese character and zero-patience of using Google Translate, then I suppose this website is not for you. =P

If you have tried the above and still has not found an ideal place to your liking, you can try to get the help of Tsuei Mama (http://www.tmm.org.tw/english/). It is said that they can help you to find accommodation but you have to pay certain fees (which I heard is not that high). Not sure about their efficiency as I did not use this method to find mine.

Good luck with your house hunting!