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Published: April 7th 2006
As soon as Will and I made it through immigration on the 29th, I noticed the differences between Taiwan and South Korea immediately... the main one being that all the signs and the announcements were in English as well as Chinese and most of the airport staff could speak English.
As soon as we made it out into the arrivals lobby, Will was whisked away by a driver for the school with whom he is going to be working, leaving me to make my own way to the hostel I had booked online - managed by a bloke from England called Chris. I wandered over to the Tourist Information desk and was immediately bombarded with offers of help. I paid a little over twenty pounds to take a fancy taxi on an hours ride to the centre of Taipei.
The taxi dropped me off at the end of the road where Fortuna hostel was located and I sat and waited in the sunshine for Chris. I took this time to take in my surroundings and I have to say Taipei is as pretty if not more so than Seoul; There are more trees here and the buildings aren't as high rise I could see the sky! Every person who walked past me smiled or nodded hello, I didn't get that kind of treatment in Korea until I had lived in the area for at least a month! I felt at ease and realised that I was going to enjoy living in Taipei.
About ten minutes after I had been waiting, Chris turned up and showed me to the hostel. I had a private room for seven pounds a night and there was a full kitchen and a living room with a TV and DVD for guests use. It was clean and tidy and in a great location near to the student hub of Taipei. I had landed on my feet.
Chris and I chatted for a while about home and he advised me on how and where to look for teaching work. When he left, I had the place to myself for a while and had to fight not to fall asleep. I was determined to get in synch with the timezone I was in, so didn't want to go to bed til at least 9pm Taiwan time.
I met the other guests that evening: Rachel from the States who is in Taipei studying Mandarin, Vicky from New York and Jason from Toronto who were a couple about to embark on their first ever teaching positions. They were all really easy to get on with and had lots of advice on what to visit and how easy it would be for me to find teaching work.
After a short trip alone to the local supermarket where I found everything I needed (yes - there were signs in English), I hit the sack and didn't wake up until 10am the next morning. I can't say I was feeling bright and breezy, but I was ready to go outside and explore.
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JO.
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Glad your settling in!!
Hi. Glad you made it okay. Thanks for not giving me the lurgy before you left!!!! I guess your'e busy as I haven't heard from you in a while. Just to let you know your mum dropped the plates off and they're great! Hope you've found a job. Keep in touch. Jo xxx