So after lunch with Joyce, we took a cab to my new home in Xindian (south part of Taipei) and she dropped me off to be all by myself. How exciting! At first I didn’t have ANYTHING set up. I had to go to the lobby to use the internet. Later I figured out how to get on the internet in the rooms (It’s a poorly named access point, guys!) and didn’t have to use the lobby for anything. Phew, obstacle one, overcome.

Then I tried to get money. FAIL. My debit card wasn’t set up to withdraw money from a bank ATM. Go figure. I would have to call my bank at some point and see if I could get them to set me up immediately. Nick’s gotta eat, son.

At this point I would have tried to do more administration things, but my dad’s buddy Steve picked me up for dinner. When I say picked me up, I just mean he met me so we could walk to the indoor/outdoor restaurant where we would eventually have hot pot, cigars, and duck testicles. Yes, everything is THAT close.

So yeah, we had ciagars, Taiwan beer, and various animal body parts! It was crazy fun :D It was also one of Steve’s best friend’s birthday. There were 6 of us altogether. I feel somewhat bad for crashing the party because I stole the spotlight most of the time just by being foreign. Oh hey look, that foreigner is trying this crazy awesome Taiwan favorite that most westerner’s would puke at (all body parts, when cooked, taste like meat, what’s the big deal??) But I suppose it was also just another night for the boys. They were all in their upper 30s and lower 40s, and this was their way of life. Work by day, hot pot** and stories by night. 

** Hot pot, for the uninitiated is a DIY dinner where you cook raw food in a boiling pot of broth with sauces and tofu mixed in. It’s very delicious and very fun.

When all of this was said and done, I had to rush off to the next event of the night: pregaming for the club. I met up with Ruby and friends (all but one are Chinese kids I know from America) and we played kings cup and just shot the breeze for a bit. Ruby’s place is super awesome and had a fun hang out room. We turned up the music, got our drink on, and prepared ourselves mentally for the awesomeness that is clubbing in Taiwan.

Fastforward to the club: It’s all the same great music in the states with WAY more dancing. We got to SPARK, a club at the base of Taipei 101 (2nd tallest building in the world, dear readers) where we immediately got ushered into the club (still not sure why we didn’t have to wait in line). I threw my stuff in a locker and put my game face on. It was dancin’ time. 

But it wasn’t. At least not yet. So I enjoyed the free alcohol and orange juice lying around. Now this, dear readers, is a note to all who might drink with me at some point. If you challenge me, I will accept. I was preparing a drink for a friend and in the process appeared to be double fisting two whiskey-orange juices. Someone noticed this and dared me to down both instantly. YES! I love this club already. And so I became ever more inebriated after a dinner of drinking Taiwan beer and playing kings cup with vodka sprite. I was so ready for dancing.

And dance I did. For hours. It was FANTASTIC. Why had I never seriously gone clubbing before? I dunno.

Finally, I hopped in a cab with my new friend Johnson and made it back home. We somehow got on the topic of running and I, of course, spilled my heart out about how inspirational the book “Born To Run” was for me. We both discovered we were runners and decided to set up a running date at a later point in time. God I love this sport.

Sleepy time.

Overall my first night in Taiwan was thoroughly and ridiculously awesome. How can I ever leave?

So Joyce and I had to wake up SUPER early because we wanted to get to Taiwan as soon as possible and booked an 8 o’clock flight. We got up at 4:45 because we thought it would take a while to get a taxi, the ride would be an hour, and we figured we could use a 2 hour buffer for international travel. Checking out was as simple as handing over a key (yay Korea!). Then, it turned out that when we got downstairs the dude at the desk (which is where he slept…) got us a taxi in like 15 seconds. At that point we relaxed a bit because the hard part was over.

When we arrived at the airport, we got hungry and started looking for a place to eat. That’s when I discovered two very important facts. 1) Burger King burgers (and probably all burgers) in Asia are TINY 2) If you want to find another white person in the airport, go to the Burger King! I don’t typically eat at fast food burger joints, but on decided to check out BK at the behest of my younger brother. It was so worth it, if only because the burger was adorably tiny and proportional. Apparently this (http://thewvsr.com/adsvsreality.htm) doesn’t apply in Korea :D

After eating we walked around Incheon Intl. airport for the next 1.5 hours. The place is basically a mall, so we had tons of fun checking out stores and enjoying the whole east meets west meets lots of money thing. Note that this primed me to believe that Taiwan would be even prettier with even fancier stores given it’s status as an economic power house. I would find this belief to be both right and wrong for various reasons.

Finally, it was time to depart, so we hopped on the plane and said anyong kashipshio to beautiful Korea. The flight to Taiwan was only 2 hours so I had just enough time for a movie (1911, appropriate eh?) We landed and were picked up by Joyce’s dad. He drove us to his place and we grabbed lunch at a fancy restaurant nearby. To get to this restaurant, we just walked a couple of blocks.

This is when Taiwan REALLY hit me. Taiwan, you see, is very, VERY old. Despite having lots of money, Taiwan still has a lot of buildings standing around from earlier decades. In addition, it’s not common to power wash the buildings or the streets. For that reason, the place has a very “used” feeling to it.

On top of that, everyone always seems to be out and about, walking, buying food, and consuming services. What’s more, most services and businesses are just out on the street, and these stores offer everything imaginable. You want to buy a motorcycle helmet? There’s a helmet store just around the corner. You want to get some Chinese food? Walk 1 block and pass 5 consecutive restaurants all competing for your business. Want bubble milk tea? If you stood in the middle of the road and turned around you’d quickly spot at least one place that sold it.

This is when I decided I never wanted to leave. This is when I realized that Taipei is cooler than New York will ever be. This is when I fell in love with a world so wholly alien from the clean, packaged suburbs of my youth. The streets of Taipei are pure excitement, deep fried and covered in msg and soy sauce. The consumerist heaven that is the modern US city pales in comparison to the streets of Taipei. Moreover, the products you get are high quality, the experiences you have are unique, and the people are all genuinely nice.

I’m going to have a hard time when I have to get on my return flight..

Arriving in Bucheon (20m from Seoul)

We got to Bucheon where our hotel was, paid the cab driver (we didn’t have to tip, yay!) and began life as Koreans. We put our stuff up in our room and headed out to have a bit of fun. We found that Bucheon, like many developed Asian cities**, is a beautiful blend of eastern market tradition and western neon consumerism. There was just so much to buy and eat out on the streets. This was completely new to me and an entirely wonderful introduction to life in the east. Seriously, who doesn’t like the idea of walking ten feet and discovering delicious food?

** Okay fine, I’ve only been to two. WARNING: WHITE GUY ABOUT TO MAKE GENERIC STATEMENT ABOUT ASIA

We didn’t have that much time to go shop around, and it was FREEZING outside, but we did manage to buy earrings, socks, and some notepads for making diary entries. On the way back, we entered this one really awesome looking restaurant for dinner. It turns out, we picked the fanciest style of eatery which is known in the west as Korean BBQ. It’s like hot pot but you cook your food on a hot metal plate instead of boiling it in a fired soup. We had our choice of meats (the fancier cuts of raw meat being the more expensive entrees) and we ended up going with bacon and beef/steak cuts. It was DELICIOUS.

Side note: at the restaurant, there was one lady who spoke Mandarin. We were having trouble with the first waitress but as soon as we said the magic word “Chinese”, she got another waitress to come out and all of our problems were solved. It was in that moment that she became our BEST FRIEND. I can’t tell you how relieved I felt to have her at our table. Now I understand :)

Finally, we retired to our hotel. Bellies sated and minds full of excited thoughts, we laid our heads to rest to speed up the lengthy, night-long layover. Soon, very soon we’d get to continue our journey to that beautiful island, Taiwan.

Korean: Lesson 1 - Korean script is super fun!

So the korean alphabet turns out to be really simple. Each discrete character you see is actually a syllable constructed from smaller alphabet characters. You could read all of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_alphabet but I’ll spare you the trouble. All you have to know is the set of consonants and vowels (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_alphabet#Stroke_order) and the block structure. The block structure is dictated by what characters you want in your syllable. If you want just a vowel, for example the sound “a” as in father, you’ll need the null consonant (looks like a circle) on the left and the a character on the right. If you want a consonant + vowel, you’ll place the consonant on the left and the vowel on the right. (NOTE, the exception to this rule is when your vowel consists of a horizontal stroke. Then the block structure is consonant on top, vowel below the consonant) If you want a syllable that ends with a nasal (n, m, ng) or an s, you first place the consonant and vowel, then the final character goes below both.

GOOD! You can now read and write Korean (sorta).

Korean: Lesson 2 - Hello, thanks, airport, taxi, water

So Korea probably offered more of an opportunity for culture shock than Taiwan. Prior to my arrival, I didn’t know any Korean save for hello, thank you, I’m/you’re crazy/weird, you’re going to get it/”chugole!” (the last few being pretty useless unless I was looking to get into a fight) As such, most of my interactions revolved around pointing and waving credit cards. To make things a little easier, Joyce and I studied our asses off (in those 30 minutes in the cab) to learn how to apologize, how to ask for a taxi to the airport (“taekksi, Incheon kong hang”, wave credit card, “BOOMSHAKALAKA!” **), how to ask for water (but we forgot to learn the words for bathroom…) and how to ask for the closest most badass, non-western restaurant in the vicinity. This served us pretty well for the remainder of the trip.

** to emphasize your Americanness

It’s been really hectic and there’s been so much to do. I wanted to blog about it, but the last thing I wanted to do is stop all the fun and sit at a computer for 2 hours to put all of this excitement into words. I’ve finally hit a lull though, so hopefully I can catch you up somewhat.

Day 1 abroad: South Korea (awesometown)

Joyce and I got into Incheon intl. airport after 12 hours of flying. It was my first time to be in a plane for that long of a period, but Korea Air, our airline of choice for this trip, did a fantastic job of keeping us fed and entertained. The back-of-the-seat consoles had a huge selection of movies, a fancy navigation display, and a bunch of namco video games. I finished a book, started another, and watched 2 movies, Jane Eyre and Another Earth. Upon finally touching down, I found myself to be less sore and worn out than an Alaska Airlines flight from Houston to Seattle. Altogether I really liked the experience. My only qualm was that the first meal of the flight had a secret menu neither Joyce nor I knew about. The menu was beef, chicken, (bulgogi), (some other awesome Korean thingy), (etc…). I didn’t fly all the way out to Asia to eat bow tie pasta with beef chunks, guys!

Upon landing, Joyce and I got through immigration and customs pretty easily. I proceeded to drag her around the (most excellent) mall-like outer skirt of the airport in search for a book store. If I was spending even 1 hour in Korea, it wouldn’t do to not have a dictionary, a phrasebook, and a book on Korean script. I quickly found and purchased all 3 :D (I’m a sucker for foreign texts. LIKE IT’S REALLY REALLY BAD GUYS, YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW)

Armed with some basic knowledge of the Korean language, we hopped in a cab and thrust some Google maps print outs at the cabbie. The ride was pretty long because of traffic, so that gave us some time to acquaint ourselves with Korean.

So tomorrow is fly day. I hop on a plane and sit for a really long time. BORING. But thanks to my Kindle and my impulse book purchases that have accumulated over the year, I have enough reading material to last me for the flight there AND the flight back. I also brought my laptop and loaded it with Taiwanese dramas <3

So what have I been up to since? Let me recap…

Saturday: Hop on a plane at 8 in the morning. Fly to SFO. Get a rental care by 11:30. Drive to San Bruno mountain (immediately south of SF, overlooking the city) at 12. Run around the summit of the mountain for a couple of hours (literally! I got like, 6 miles in, it was AMAZING). Take zillions of pictures (of the mountain, of the city, of everything gorgeous and everything not). Drive to Mountain View/Cupertino/Saratoga area at 4. Lounge in coffee shop with a friend for a few hours. Get invited to friend’s xmas eve dinner. Proceeds to crash an xmas dinner and stays till 9:30. All in all, it is not bad for my first day of vacation :D

Sunday: Lounge day. Sleeps in, opens presents, eats delicious chinese food for breakfast, and reads some Neil Gaiman in down time. Naps a bunch (post run days are THE BEST), goes to a world festival of lights thingy, books hotel for the one night lay over in Korea, prints a million maps of the Korea area so as to not get lost =P Discovers the coolest web app ever (http://sori.org/hangul/conv2kr.cgi). Blogs about the trivial happenings of the previous two days.

I am SO ready for tomorrow.

Life is a game. The world is a stage. I’m player 1.

Here are some simple ideas I cooked up. (I’m eventually compiling this into a scavenger hunt list)

.

0. LOST

Goal: Get SUPER lost, find way back home.

Rules: No cell phone, no GPS, no internet, JUST an address. Must start at least 15 miles away from home. (I will probably take a cab and ask the driver to just pick a direction and just go. Obviously I’ll have to keep my eyes closed :)

Inventory: A map or money for one subway ticket, but not both.

—

1. Foreign Pop Star

Goal: Get some multiple of 10 Taiwanese girls to take a picture with me.

Rules: I MUST dress up like some American pop star (I’m leaning towards pinstripes and fedoras: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRSH-egVyzk&ob=av3e)

—

2. Buscar la embajada de Honduras

Goal: Find the equivalent of a Honduran embassy.

Rules: I can speak only Spanish.

My Spanish is like my Chinese, embarrassingly incomplete. If and when I manage to find a Spanish speaker, I’m going to make a complete fool of myself when I’m out classed :D (bonus points if I get owned by a native)

—

3. Cowboy

Goal: Dress up like a cowboy and try to teach passing pedestrians how to speak Texan.

Rules: The cowboy outfit must be purchased in Taiwan. 

Bonus: Buy a second set of clothes. Get people to dress up and have their picture taken/video taken.

—

4. House Intruder

Goal: Get someone to invite me to have tea in their house

Rules: Best of luck…

—

5. Bad Accent

Goal: Convince someone I have a bad Mandarin accent. I must speak so poorly that they insult my Chinese in front of me assuming I can’t understand them.

—

6. Nick Hirsch Vs. The World

Goal: Find a Taiwanese US cover band performing live

Bonus: Help perform at least 1 song (God I hope they know Weezer)

—

7. Foreign Aid

Goal: Find a couple hours of work or become a street performer to earn enough money to eat and make it back to housing.

Rules: Must make enough money for at least 2 meals and a fare home. Must stay outside for at least two meals.

Inventory: Scruffy clothes, 1 permanent marker, 1 Chinese-English dictionary, 0 dollars

I’m heading to Taiwan for the Christmas break! I’ll be there for nearly 2 weeks, and I plan on making the most of my experience. I’ve been looking forward to going for a long time as I’ve never been abroad despite the fact that I started learning Mandarin 5 years ago. That being said, the primary goal of my trip is to use my Mandarin as much as possible to see what kind of situations I can get myself into (and out of). I plan on using this blog to organize my journey and serve as a record for my attempt at forced culture shock. 

Forced culture shock? Surely, Mr. Hirsch, you must be joking? Won’t there be culture shock to begin with?

Yes and no. Thanks to my parents’ wacky sense of gustatory adventure, I’m perfectly at home with whatever food walks, crawls or scuttles my way. (I’ve already tried stinky tofu stateside, guys. It was DELICIOUS) The language barrier will also be an interesting hurdle, but given that I know enough Chinese to get by, I don’t think I’ll feel the same sort of shock that non-speakers would feel.

What about the city? I’ll be staying in the very western city of Taipei, so no strangeness there… (I might need to trek out to the countryside if things get boring)

And the culture? Fortunately, there’s a culture component to language education classes. I don’t think I’ll be surprised…

BUT I WANT TO BE SURPRISED. Therein lies my problem.

So here’s the deal, I’m going to post challenges here for myself to attempt when I get to the Ilha Formosa. These challenges will hopefully put me in awkward situations whose only means of escape is clever use of my limited vocabulary. As I always say, “I love comfort zones, all the interesting things are marked by the perimeter”.

LETS DO THIS