change

Today marks Day 2 of arrival in Taipei.

The flight over was pretty amazing.  The lady at the the airport counter asked if I was moving after noticing the two seriously overweight bags to check in and the one-way ticket status, and asked about seating.  I asked for a window seat, and she was happy to oblige.  After about an hour in security I spent some time finishing up some work, then boarding began a few hours later.

I arrived at my seat, one of the last people to get on the plane.  I had a whole row to myself, so I’m pretty sure she hooked me up.  FIRST WIN.

I watched a movie (Captain America: The Winter Soldier, pretty awesome) and then decided to get some sleep.  If you haven’t traveled internationally with a whole row to yourself, I highly recommend it-I ended up sleeping the whole time, stretched out across three seats.  I had some pretty weird dreams but whatever, sleeping is sleeping.

A friend picked me up from the airport and a great adventure to the hostel I was staying at commenced.  There seem to be several locations, so it got a little confusing once we entered the city.  After a bit of navigating we made it, and I was in bed by 2:30 am, to have one of the deepest sleeps I’ve ever experienced.  More weird dreams, but at least I made it in one piece.

The following morning I woke up and went for a walk.  I found a coffee shop, and decided to go back and get my laptop to do some apartment/job hunting.  While I was mulling this over, a man came up to me who could barely speak a lick of English.  After some awkward communication, he invited me to lunch.  We walked a few blocks away to this place called “Taipei Buffet”, where staff served you what looked like anything you could ever want.  We ate silently, clumsily trying to communicate, but it was pretty fun.  He bought me lunch, which was quite kind.  The catch, however, was on the way back, where he told me that he really liked me, and that we should go to a motel.  Motel motel motel, he kept saying.  “I’ll pay you,” he said.

First job offer? Hah!

I declined (several times, might I add) and high-tailed it back to the hostel.  I gotta say this was probably the funniest thing that’s ever happened to me.  Apparently in the area I’m staying, this is not too uncommon.  Plus I look like a gypsy, which helped(?) my chances of this happening.  Pretty hilarious.  Who knew my first job offer would be so…um…unique?

The rest of the day was spent catching up with a dear friend (the same that picked me up at the airport), and eating many delicious things.  We walked through the city, and went to a coffee shop on the fourth floor of this government building.  The shop had been opened by a filmmaker who makes really artsy films, so there were props and Golden Horse awards littering the place.  It was starting to get late (8:30 is late if you’re jet-lagged) so we stopped for dinner at this noodle place down the street from the hostel.

GUYS.  THE NOODLE WONTON SOUP HERE.  GUYS.  IT COST 60 TAIWAN DOLLARS.  THAT’S TWO DOLLARS.  IT WAS LIFE ALTERING.  MOST DELICIOUS SOUP EVER.

I’m pretty sure I slept so incredibly last night just because of that soup.  I should have taken a picture of it, but I was too busy stuffing it into my mouth hole.  Now that I think of it, I might go there again, since everywhere else is closed and I could eat that soup for the rest of my life.

Today is funny.  I woke up early with the hopes of arranging a list of apartments to go look at today, and so I did. Showered and ready, I left at 9:30 to go to the coffee shop I had originally planned on going before the “proposition”.

Apparently this is not a good place to be a morning person-the shop opens at 11:00am, so here I am sitting on the side of an alley wondering what to do before then.  But the noodles are calling…so maybe I’ll go do some of that.  Here’s a picture from where I’m sitting.

I miss home quite a bit already, but there is so much to look at and do here, it dulls the pain.  Wish me luck/pray for me so I can find an apartment soon!