So there have been a few strange occurrences over the past few days in my dorm. Just let me first say that I stopped getting mosquito bites!!! I don’t look like I have chicken pox anymore! Turns out that bug repellent really works; I pretty much started bathing myself in that stuff. Always remember to bring repellent around with you when you’re traveling.

The other night, I was sitting at my desk studying for a quiz and all of a sudden, I hear this high pitched shriek coming from next door. I just assumed it was laughter so I stayed in my room. I then hear spraying, whacking and lots of people talking really loud. I run next door and find out that there’s a lizard in the girl’s room next door. It had crawled into her bed and some guys from our floor were trying to help get it out. After about 20 minutes, they finally caught it and the girls were saying, “Throw it away!” while the guys were saying, “Let’s keep it as a pet!” It was hilarious. Then today, a heard another girl scream, even louder this time. My roommate came in telling me that a 3 inch cockroach had just crawled past her foot outside the bathroom. It then ran under the shoe rack of a girl on my floor, who was the one who screamed. Another guy on my floor started chasing the cockroach down the hall with a rolled up stack of paper and eventually killed it. The cockroaches here are huge! I also heard they could fly! They’re like super cockroaches and I think they’ve evolved to become so strong that they’re even resistant to bug spray.

There is also something tragic that has happened. The only normal or “western” toilet on my floor is clogged. I knew this day would come, since it’s the only toilet that all the girls on this floor use, I just wish it didn’t happen so early in the program. Living in the dorms here make me appreciate how the dorms were back at Davis. During my freshman year, I stayed in the dorms that people referred to as a “four star hotel”. Custodians came to clean our floor every single day but here, they come once a week and their idea of cleaning the bathroom is dumping a bucket of water across the bathroom floor and leaving it there to evaporate. I really miss being able to go to the bathroom without worrying that I’ll catch a disease.

On the bright side, the weather here is starting to cool down! I also got into a tennis class at NTU that I’m really excited about. The first day of tennis class was in a classroom and I sat in the front row hoping to add the class since I didn’t register for it. After the teacher passed out the forms (which was all in Chinese) to add the class, he asked me, “Why aren’t you filling it out?” I responded with, “I can’t read it.” I felt like a little kid! A girl next to me helped me with it and the whole situation was hilarious but it made me realize how much I really want to be able to read and write in Chinese. I can’t wait until the day I can fill out a form in Chinese!

But in the mean time, I’ll keep all of you updated on which new creatures move into my dorm. Take care!

Posted by Natalie at 05:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

You’d think a typhoon would be enough to keep us locked up in our dorm rooms for a weekend. Nope. There were two concerts going on this weekend and there is no way I would pass up a chance to see THE Jay Chou live. I’m going to just assume that everyone knows who Jay Chou is because if you don’t, where the heck have you been the last 6 years?!?!?! Just kidding! Jay is one of the most popular musicians in Taiwan and Taiwanese people (especially the girls, but guys too) are absolutely crazy about him.

The weekend started off with an outdoor Coco Lee concert on Saturday at Xi Men Ting night market. She was promoting her new album which is why the concert was free. It was raining but my friends and I came prepared with our ponchos and umbrellas. The performance was great and I had a lot of fun. On Sunday, a popular Taiwanese radio station was celebrating their 8th year anniversary and invited about 20 artists to come perform on an outdoor stage. The concert started at 3PM and we arrived at about 3:30PM. It was already jam packed and we just pushed ourselves closer and closer to the front. About 100 feet away from the stage, there was a bike that was laying flat on the ground with a group of girls standing on it to get a better view of the stage. After about an hour, the girls left and my friend Angela and I stood on the bike for the rest of the performance. We had the best view and spent the night watching the performers while waiting for Jay Chou who was the last performer of the night. During the middle of the concert, the rain started to pour and everyone’s umbrella came popping up. This made it impossible to see the stage but luckily, the rain stopped after 20 minutes and the weather started to clear up again. We stood on that bike from about 5PM-11PM, a good 6 hours but it was worth it! Coming to Taiwan, I knew I had to watch a Jay Chou concert before leaving so I’m really happy I got to see him! His performance was amazing and now I’m back in my dorm room studying for a Chinese test tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Posted by Natalie at 06:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)