Opening a bank account

I have been here for almost two weeks now, and I have still a lot of things to do in order to settle down. I don't want to rush and do mistakes so I'm taking my time. This week I decided it was about time to open a local bank account.

When your dreams come true

I didn't mention it before but the first reason why I wanted to learn Chinese was because I am a big fan of asian dramas and my favourite one is taiwanese: 下一站幸福 (Autumn's concerto). But also my favourite singer is Taiwanese too! 羅志祥 or Show Luo is a tv host, a singer and an actor famous around Asia (but not in South Korea you can guess why) I discovered in a taiwanese drama 海派甜心 (Hi my sweetheart) 5 or 6 years ago.

Coming to Taiwan of course I had the not so secret hope to be able to meet my favourite idol... but I couldn't imagine I could do so that fast, not a month after I arrived!

Following Show Luo's SNS my eyes catched a post (all in Chinese of course) with many dates and hours in different places. I asked everyone I could for help in order to understand the content of this post and it came out that Show Luo's new album was out and there was a special event: buy the new album, go to meet Show Luo, get your album signed and get two tickets for his concert in Taichung on the 20th of December. But that was not all, buy 3 albums and you can take a picture with him, buy 5 albums and you can take a picture AND HUG HIM! xD On the date of the fan meeting in Taipei I was to be in South Korea... so I decided to go on an other date in another city: Taichung! So that I would be a little familiar with the transportation to go back on the 20th for the concert. Not so bad idea right?

But now you must wonder how I can buy transportation tickets to Taichung and do all the way to there with my still really poor Chinese. With a little help from the locals (really really really nice people once again^^) and a bit of crazyness everything seems possible here! I mean, 7-11 are so great you can do quite everything in there x) if you are a little bit sensitive about filling your credit card info on the internet there is no problem: you can select the "pay in 7-11" option and you can also select "deliver in 7-11" and select the closest one to your place. That's what I did for the train tickets to Taichung and to buy Show Luo's albums. Soooo convenient right? I just love it~ Just be aware that you may have to pay by cash (that was the case for the CDs).

First days of my new life

During my first week in Taipei, I had a hard time because I was jet lagged and the weather was way too hot and humid for a mid-November (my biggest source of trouble with my hair in particular^^).

I also had only one week to find a place to live. I had searched on the internet when I was in France already to get an idea of the price and what I could find comparing english and chinese websites. Actually that was a bit depressing as I couldn't find any place that I wanted to live in by seeing pictures on the internet. As I may be staying for a while I should find a nice place and not a small closet under the stairs in a house full of foreigners and only one bathroom! x) So I was willing to pay the price for a really nice studio which seemed to be in a high standard building... Guys, do never agree on anything before visiting the place. Trust me, I could barely recognize the studio I saw on the pictures. It was okay to live in for a student I think but way too expensive for what it was in reality. Hopefully the following day I visited that place I found a really nice shared appartment of 3 bedrooms where I could have my own bathroom. Two hours after I visited I already took it, fearing that someone else took it before I set my mind. It was this or the creepy studio ahah!
In final, it took me only 3 days to find a room. But I could only move in at the end of the month so for the remaining days in Taipei before going to South Korea for 10 days I registered to the university... and mostly waited for the time to pass.

I think it was a really good thing for me to spend a few days in Seoul before the winter term began so that I could releive my stress meeting with friends I've been missing A LOT and also make new friends, eat tasty korean food and party (a bit too much I must say =p). But I needed so to be able to now focus into studying again and having the willing to go back to a healthy life ;D

I already had my second day of class today. I'm starting from the level 2 in a class of 7 students all coming from around Asia (half of them South Koreans) except from me ahah!
I don't want to make it sound like a complaint but it is already hard: I feel like there are a lot of stuff I don't understand and I may be the only one... unless my classmates fake very well understanding xD Yesterday after 2 hours of class I spent like twice as much time studying at home! But in fact I find this situation quite challenging and I am doing my best to succeed in the path I chose to follow.

I hope everyone is also doing their best for their dreams to come true. There is no easy way, we just need to decide to work hard until we succeed and to not give up halfway.

Thank you for reading my blog.

Floppy