Being a foreigner in Taiwan

Wow, it's been 2 months since my last blog :-)

2 months ago I got two blog topic requests. One about what it's like to be a foreigner in Taiwan and another one -- I can't remember coz it's been so long :-)

Before I left the Philippines, I asked some friends what the hardest thing was for them about being away from their home country. Here are some of the answers and my personal take on them:

1) Food. Missing Jollibee. - I'm not very picky about food. My brother used to say I can survive as long as there is a bakeshop nearby. I love bread, and I can get lots of it here. I'm not a big fan of sinigang and kare-kare, and I'm allergic to hipon and bulad. So I'm generally fine without them in Taiwan. All other Taiwanese dishes are almost Filipino, I think, because I seem to like everything. Taiwanese are big on vegetables, I noticed. And I like the wide choices of drinks (soy milk, milk tea, etc.) they have. But I DO miss Jollibee :-)

2) Standing out as physically different. - This isn't much of a problem for a Filipino in Taiwan. I know Filipinos have an idea of the distinct Chinese look. But if you come here, you'll see the wide range of Chinese looks, and most Filipinos would easily fit into that spectrum. In fact, people who don't know I'm a foreigner always mistake me for a Chinese.

3) Public transportation. - No car. No jeepneys. No tricycles. Taxis are expensive (P150 flag down rate) and the buses are few. What do you do? You walk. You find a church, bank and stores that are within walking distance and you walk to get there. Otherwise, you modify your definition of "walking distance," slightly increasing the mileage to include the place you want to get to, so you can walk to get there. :-) Actually, everyone either has a bike or scooter here, but since I'm only staying till January (this is another blog altogether :)), i thought I'd just walk.

4) Language barrier. - Ahh, there are two sides to this. There is something liberating about having a language barrier. It's hard to explain, but I think it's that I don't always have to listen or to speak. I don't have to answer the phone at the lab, and my teachers never call me in class. Plus, people are more inclined to do things for you by themselves so they don't have to explain them to you. And you can break the law, and blame it on the language barrier. Kidding :-)... BUT, there are times when you DO want to listen and when you DO want to speak. And when you wish people talked to you instead of elbowing one another, when you walk into the group, and urging one another, "You talk to her. -- No, YOU talk to her." :-) Many Taiwanese I've met are only as good in English as I am in Chinese. A note for Filipinos: We speak better English. But no matter, foreigners don't really care about how good our English is. So just talk to them :-)

5) Religious persecution. - There is religious freedom in Taiwan. I've met a lot of people here who find it hard to believe that there is only one God to worship and pray to. What about all their other gods? Also, here's something interesting: most nonChristian Taiwanese will drop their jaw if you tell them you go to church EVERY SUNDAY. You are truly righteous! :-) They are praised if they go to the temple twice in a year, I think. And what about Sunday picnics?

6) Being away from family and friends. - Ahh yes... This can only be explained by experience. If you've ever been away from family and friends, you KNOW what this feels like... We're certainly much better off now with internet and text. But somehow, distance still has a way of making you miss out on the latest tsismis (and I don't just mean showbiz balita). :-)

I can't possibly look THAT young!

People always tell me how young I look. That's why I had to start wearing my hair long after college so I'd look a little older to my students. Then I had to start dressing like an adult. :)

Since coming to Taiwan, I've met many people who don't get surprised when I say I'm a first year student. But they get surprised when I say I'm a first year PhD student. Tonight I had the most amusing incident so far. A French-Chinese classmate in my new Intermediate Chinese class asked me how old I am. She herself looks like she's only 17. Plus she's an undergrad so you know she's young! It turns out she's 20 and she was most surprised when I told her my age. She thought I was younger than her! Kaya pa la parang meimei and turing niya sa akin. [So that's why she treats me like a younger sister.]

Siguro kaya ang babait ng mga tao dito sa akin. Baka mukha akong minor na walang alam; kawawang napadpad sa ibang lupalop. At hindi na kasi ako teacher, kaya balik UP style ako dito, shorts at tsinelas. :) [Maybe that's why people here are so nice to me. Perhaps I look like a naive minor, unfortunately cast into some foreign land. Plus, since I'm no longer a teacher, I've gone back to my college dressing style -- shorts and slippers.]

One good side to it is people don't expect a lot from me. (I don't know about you, but that's a good thing for me. :)) My lab does work in nuclear imaging which I'm entirely new to. But I do have a very related background in Physics. Still, people think I don't know anything so it's relatively easy to impress them. I say Gaussian distribution and they gasp. Haha. :) Oh, and this especially works with my Chinese. I say one word -- one word -- like shenme? (what?), and they gasp. Hahaha. :) Hay...

我台灣的第一個三個星期

我喜歡台灣。現在台灣的天氣好像菲律賓的。我喜歡台灣的食物, 也喜歡台灣人。
我上星期日一個人去台北了。我在台北看我朋友。我們去了台北101。很好看！我八月三十號那裡回去。我，我的同學，我的老師，一起去。
我喜歡我的中文課。我已經會寫一百五十個字！我每天學很多。我跟我的同學都一點累，
可是我們都很快樂。

Note: This is my homework composition. Only 11 sentences but composed in a period of one and a half hours. Kaya, next time na ang translation :) (Who knows if it's right? Hehe.)

Balit, here is the theoretical translation. :)

My first 3 weeks in Taiwan

I like Taiwan. Right now Taiwan weather is just like the Philippines'. I love Taiwan food and Taiwanese people.

Last Sunday, I went to Taipei by myself. I met a friend there. We went to see Taipei 101. It was pretty! I'm going back there on _________ (I've been advised not to disclose date for security reasons :) ). I, my classmates, and my teacher will all go together.

I love my Chinese class. I can already write 150 characters! Everyday we learn a lot. My classmates and I get a little tired, but we're happy. :)

5 Good Reasons to Learn Mandarin

1. Mistaking the fire alarm switch for the light switch. This is a true story :) On my 1st day I couldn’t find the light switch in the bathroom. There was a small orange switch on every cubicle and everything was in Chinese. Now I know how noisy the fire alarm really is. Of course they forgave me :) Do they really have to put one in every cubicle though?? Siyempre, the moral lesson here is not just to learn Mandarin, but also common sense :)


2. Having to spend 5min to explain using sign language to the store lady that I need a shopping basket.


3. Having to draw this to find out if the oats my friend saw at a store were instant.


4. Being limited to ordering from food stands with pictures of the food.


5. Unknowingly buying a seafood sandwich that looked like ham and egg. :) (I’m allergic to seafood. No, my eyes didn’t swell. Thankfully. I just itched. But it wasn’t bad. Maybe it wasn’t all that authentic seafood.)

Ni hao!

Wow, I just realized I've been here for a week!

Temperature was 39oC when I arrived. Very much like the Philippines and maybe even more humid!

These are the very nice people who made my first day smooth. (Left to right) Ning, Juani, and Dennis. Ning is the Taiwanese undergrad who got assigned to show me around my dorm and the campus. She continued to help me the next day. She was really nice. Juani is a high school schoolmate and Dennis is a Fil-Chi who grew up in Iloilo! He speaks good Mandarin. Unfortunately, they both stay in Taipei, which is an hour away.

My dorm room. Mine is the left half. The bed is on top of my desk area. You have to put together the pictures to get the whole picture. The dorm is a little old. There are 5 floors and no elevator. I'm on the 4th floor :) But it's clean. All rooms have aircon but we need prepaid cards to operate them. Interesting, huh? :) Common bathrooms have hot and cold showers. Somehow, my floormates and I never use the bathrooms at the same time; they're always empty. Because I underpacked, I have more shelves and closet space than I have stuff for at the moment. I just found out that our dorm has a TV area, cooking area, gym area (there are treadmills!), and a laundry area (with washers and dryers).

This is my roommate, Lopi. She's Taiwanese and she's very sweet. This is her half of the room, and how I imagine my half will look in a few months :)

These are my classmates in the Mandarin program (left to right): Sumit, Kannan, Bi Na and Fu. All are Indian except Fu, who is Vietnamese. We didn't know there would be so few people who would sign up for the free Mandarin course. Sayang, it's a really useful course. Lately, we've become comfortable enough to laugh at one another's Chinese :) In Chinese, among Filipino, Vietnamese, and Indian, the hardest to say is Filipino. It's really difficult, even for me. So I've given them a hard time. The class joke is that I should just change my nationality to make it easier for everyone. :)

Lunch food. The one in the bowl is mine. The others are Sumit's and Kannan's. Food options here are similar to those you find in the Philippines. There's American, Chinese, Japanese, Korean. So it's not a problem for me who's not a hard-core Filipino-dish fan. Food is not expensive and servings are huge! So we'll see if I'll gain weight :) For the record though, I didn't finish that bowl. :)

I went downtown Last Wednesday night with Sumit and his friend and found this Filipino store! It's named Bing Go (Ate Bing!). Guess what I bought? Lucky Me, Yakisoba, Chippy!, Chips Delight! Haha. The store had a TV and it was showing TFC's coverage of Cory's funeral. Filipinos flocked to watch. That was the first time I felt a bit homesick.

This was downtown. Note the temple-looking structure in the background, and the McDonalds' iced tea I'm holding! :)

I haven't had to adjust to a lot yet since arriving. We have 7 hours of Chinese class everyday, Mon-Sat. By evening, we're really just sick of Chinese :) Haha. I realized I'm actually unwilling to learn the Chinese language as a way of life. I thought I was. I know a little but not enough to be able to express myself. I realized that many times I actually think "Well, they should learn English!" Maybe I'll feel differently over time. :)

Soon I will have to do my laundry. There are no manangs here :), and even in the laundry shops people have to do their own laundry. I know this is a trivial thing for most people, but next to Mandarin, I think this is the hardest thing so far. :)