apartment hunting
food, living, money Post a Commenti made my third trip to the bank today. the guard at the door and the bankers at the counter know me now, if not by name, then as the sweaty guy with a backpack who doesn't speak mandarin. the banker at the first counter, monica, even laughed a little with me because she knew i was coming in to do the same thing i did yesterday. things went a lot smoother. one more trip and that should be it for a while.
afterwards, i walked from the mrt station to the language center to see if i could find anymore studio for rent flyers on the bulletin boards. i found two more and tried to call, but when they realized i couldn't speak mandarin, they hung up. i called two others from the tsuei ma ma (tmm/催媽媽) apartment listing service but didn't get much further. i was pretty lucky that the landlord with the first listing spoke english. i might just go with that one if it's not already taken.
my roommate told me that he found his apartment through www.tealit.com, a website for english teachers in taiwan. i took a look at it, but i'm a little reluctant to be roommates with a lot of expats or living in an expat neighborhood. it just seems like i'd be living in an inferior imitation of home. if i want to be reminded of home, starbucks is the place to go. i keep hearing rem and grizzly bear. one way or another, i'll find a place to live and then i can get on with the business of actually studying here.
i've been doing more walking today to get a sense of distance. riding the mrt all the time is expensive and probably unnecessary for all the places i'm going. it turns out the walk from daan (大安) station to the north gate of ntu is 10-15 mins. not too bad. riding the mrt that far doesn't save me from sweating (the brown line stations aren't air conditioned), so i might as well just walk.
last night i had a crash course in menu reading followed with a pop quiz by walking around the eslite basement food court, trying to identify what each shop served. i failed. need more practice. however, i'm getting to be a pro at picking food in 7-11. soymilk good. brown rice milk disgusting.
Haha man, good stuff!
But 3+ trips to the bank? Is this just to set up the account out there or is it part of transferring everything?
I learnt what expat meant! Thanks dictionary.com!
What's the weather like out there? I figure since its a small(ish) island that it might be humid from all the coastline? Is it blazingly hot or mild or what (especially in comparison to Houston). I mainly ask because I figure that would affect your travel plans (walking vs. mrt-ing). Is there no such thing as a monthly mrt pass, or is it pay-as-you-go?
one trip to get an account. it took so long, i didn't deposit any money. more trips because there's a daily limit on how many traveler's checks they'll cash. it's okay, monica is cute :)
weather is hot and very humid. a/c costs extra in my dorm room, so we only use a fan. our window is in a bad position so there's not much airflow from outside. when i wake up, the thermometer says it's 30C which is 86F, but as soon as i walk outside, i'm drenched. i think it's getting better though...
the smart thing to do is stay inside between 11 and 3. that's where all the food courts and starbucks come in handy.
i have an easycard for the mrt which gives a 40% discount. still, it adds up. i'm spending maybe $2-$3 a day. just like buying gas in houston.