Floppy in Dubai

It's quite amazing that I got the chance to visit Canada, Japan and Dubai these last 2 months. 3 environments all really different from France and so full of interesting things to discover!
I planned the trip to Canada months ago to visit a friend but Dubai and Japan trips were decided one week to one single day before leaving! That kind of surprise I like~ ahah

If I had to sum up my week in Dubai I would say WOW! Before getting there I had absolutely no idea of what I was about to live: one week of shopping and resourcing while eating loads of food.
One of my friend told me the day I left "What are you going to do in the desert? Buy a cactus?"

So yes, I found myself in the desert... but in a city where things have to be bigger and better than anywhere else! Did you know that the world's tallest tower and the world's biggest shopping mall are located in Dubai? And did you know that you can find a ski resort in the middle of a shopping mall there?

Hotels are also really luxurious. I stayed in a suite at the Intercontinental Festival City, which gave me free unlimited access to the lounge bar on the 26th floor. This hotel is a really nice place to stay with the pool with view on Burj Khalifa, the spa, the sauna and the steam room, the gym, the food, the service... everything!!! And it is located 10 minutes away from the airport by car, that's really convenient.

Taxi rides are cheap, you can go everywhere easily: there will be a taxi spot in every shopping mall you'll find yourself into. But did you know that there is a subway in Dubai?? Isn't that amazing? I didn't take it though, only took taxis... and a cute little boat from Al Qasr hotel to the thai restaurant my dad booked because he knows that I'm always craving for thai food~

Over the 6 full days I spent in Dubai, I spent 4 days shopping, in 3 different shopping malls, one day farniente at the hotel and one day at the Wild Wadi waterpark. I hesitated between Aquaventure and Wild Wadi since they looked quite similar and finally chose Wild Wadi because it was close to the thai restaurant we had a reservation for on the evening. It was my first time going to a water park and I enjoyed it! The first ride I tried was a slide which opens under your feet and let you slide for a few seconds at the speed of 80km/h... yes quite impressive like that and considering the fact that the place where you get in reminded me of a Egyptian sarcophage. But it was really fun as well as the other rides which allow you to move across the park on a tube. I wanted to try also the pool where there are quite big waves every 15 minutes. I put on a safety jacket and swam until my feet couldn't touch the ground anymore and waited for the waves to begin... About to get sea sick tossed by the waves I didn't stay long there! xD

And like this it was already the time to go back to Paris. In this conditions I could have stayed longer! Ahah! But I still need to ask for the Taiwanese student visa and empty my room before leaving, right? We're almost one week before the next big adventure... I can't wait!

Thank you for reading my blog!

Floppy

One month before departure

So, where should I begin this?
Hi, I'm Floppy, 23 years old, French, and about to go on an adventure!
Now that I just graduated in multimedia project management, I have decided to leave France to start a new life in Taiwan.

Here comes the question: WHY Taiwan?
First of all, I got the Asian virus few years ago. I studied Japanese for two years in Paris before going to South Korea for 1 year and a half in 2012 where I studied Korean at the Seoul National University and then did a 6 month internship in a cool digital agency in Seoul. I had to go back to Paris to finish my studies and get my diploma, but now that this is settled I am free to leave with no plan of coming back just yet.
I also visited China and Japan twice but this time I chose to leave for the unknown. Even though my favourite singers and my favourite drama above all are Taiwanese I still haven't stepped a foot on this island.

But understand that I am not leaving without any preparation. Just not my style. For a project manager.. it comes with the job, huh? I have been learning Chinese for a year and a half now in Paris. No way I plan to live in a country I don't speak at least a bit of the language! I spent also a lot of time to select a university to study Chinese in Taiwan and I set my choice on the Mandarin Training Center of the National Taipei Normal University. They don't provide dormitory for Chinese language students so I will have to find a solution once I get there.. but everything will go smoothly right? If not I still could write about it in this blog.

So here I am, one month before I leave my life in Paris, leave my family and my friends. There are quite a lot of things to settle but I also have a LOT of free time so thank you my friends for keeping me busy every day going out to grab something to eat or just hang out together!

I created this blog linked to a Facebook page to keep in touch with the crowd and share my experiences in Taiwan as I couldn't find a lot of information on this country. I think French people are not really interested in Taiwan... There are a lot of Japan lovers and recently South Korea got a lot of interest too but I never ran into someone who expressed a real interest in Taiwan. Maybe I didn't search enough. Never mind, let's discover what Isla Formosa has to offer together! I am sure there are plenty of tasty things to eat and interesting things to learn there!

I will do my best to relate the most interesting part of my life there but you can also leave me messages on the Facebook page if you want to know more about something you read or heard somewhere and you want me to write about it! Anything! Just tell me and I'll look into it.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Floppy