So I'm trying to keep updating this about once a week if not more often, and since I've caught some form of respiratory infection (probably/hopefully just a cold), I have plenty of time to write now. Several of the other Americans are going out this evening but I opted out so I could rest and hopefully recover. We're all going to go to karaoke (which they call KTV here) on Sunday afternoon so I definitely don't want to miss out.
I think I posted last on Monday. This week was occupied by the normal classes, and the routine Thursday test. I did fairly well, though I have a tendency to accidentally not write the second character of many phrases. As my high school Chinese teacher said, I am "迷迷糊糊" [mimihuhu], which means "careless" and is also (perhaps) wordplay on the phrase "馬馬虎虎" [mamahuhu], meaning something is alright, neither great or awful.
On Tuesday, I and a couple of the Americans went to Shilin Night Market [士林夜市], the most famous of Taipei's "night markets". These wondrous places consist of many shops and vendor carts that set up at around 5 PM and stay open until late at night. There is food, souvenirs, and clothing at low prices and of questionable quality and origin. Also, you can haggle there! In short, they are wonderful places to eat while window-shopping. I finally found the delicious chuanr [串儿], or seasoned kabobs, that I had been craving since coming back from mainland China. As a northern Chinese specialty, they are hard to find in Taiwan.
I also I went with my flame dame to visit Carrefour. She needed to buy some supplies and I found a nice leather wallet for just $150 NT (just under $5 US)! I think I enjoy shopping here a lot more than in the US, mainly because things are so much cheaper.
On Wednesday night, several of the Americans went to a bar to hang out, play cards, and celebrate St. Patrick's Day the drinking way. It was a lot of fun, but unfortunately there was another large group of Americans who were very loud, very drunk, and very irritating. We came back fairly late but luckily, having an afternoon class means that I can go to bed at 3 AM and still get 8 hours of sleep.
Thursday began my illness. I think/hope it's just a cold as my symptoms have included cough, runny nose, fatigue, a slight headache at times, and lack of appetite. I had my test and then went to hang out with a Taiwanese friend. We ate dinner (corn dumplings and wonton soup) and were going to venture into the city but I decided it would be more prudent for me to get some bed rest, so I headed back to my dorm. Today has been more of the same. I went to my early afternoon class but my throat was so congested that I couldn't speak very clearly or loudly, and so I talked to one of the CIEE coordinators to check on seeing a doctor as well as getting out of class for some rest.
This evening I went to the clinic and saw a doctor, who gave me lots of medicine (four different pills to take 3x a day, one pill to take 2x, and two other medicines to take as necessary). My afternoon rest had me recovered to the point where I could speak again and had some energy, so I decided to go with some of the other Americans to eat dinner near Taipei 101 (it's actually fairly close to campus, and was lit up blue today). We then parted ways and I headed back here to rest more and do laundry.
The karaoke competition (or, as my flame dame calls it, Drageoke) is on Friday morning so I hope to be better very soon so I can prepare the song and the outfit I'll be wearing.
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