Today I was more motivated to go out and speak some serious Chinese. First I went to the store to buy some toilet paper, underwear, and trash bags. I saw some tasty Mochi balls along at the store and picked them up as well. Speaking Chinese in this situation wasn't any problem at all, in fact, there isn't much Chinese involved in this type of transaction. I mean all I did was pay for the items. It would've been tricky if I couldn't find the toilet paper or the trash bags because I don't know how to say either of those things in Chinese. Perhaps I should've learned that as vocabulary before I went, and then just asked a worker for help finding them as a form of practice. In hind sight, this would've been a good plan.
After this morning trip out I settled in and worked on my lesson plans for the rest of the morning. It did take some time, I have quite a few classes and since it's my first time teaching anything it's only natural that the planning will take some time. After a couple weeks I think this will hardly take any time at all, though.
My next move was to hit downtown, find the big department store and then find the bookstore inside of it and search for a Chinese textbook. On the way I would look to cross a few more things off my list: clothes, underwear, a hamper, and food.
First I went into a clothing store, NET. It looked like a J Crew shop, perhaps for a bit younger audience but of the same quality none-the-less. I got some Polo's, 2 for 500NT. That's $15.25 USD for two nice Polo's. I saw some shorts on sale and grabbed those as well. Micky Mouse is really popular here, not only was he in this store but so many other ones as well. That dude is on tons of different T-shirts, I almost bought one but sided against it.
Then I found my way to the department store. When I walked in three teen boys were sitting on the steps and greeted me in pretty reasonable English, "Hello!" This was of course followed by laughter from some of the friends there. I followed with a "Hi, ni hao, ni de yingwen hen hao" Then he spoke in Chinese saying something I couldn't understand at all. But I was on my way anyway and they were saying good bye.
It's interesting being a foreigner here. It's kind of like being mildly famous, you know famous enough where people will look at you for a while and wonder whether or not they know you. Of course there isn't anyone I know here, but that's how quite a few people look at me. I don't mind, honestly I feel a bit popular. Although sometimes I do feel a bit uneasy, I'm certainly not used to that type of attention.
The department store was not a department store as I would call it. It was a huge, 9 story mall. And it had like 2 or 3 basement floors. I mean I am not even located in one of the biggest cities in Taiwan, I am about 15 minutes outside of the third largest city but this place was pretty big, regardless. The Chinese textbooks were hard to find but when I did find them I could only find one book that I liked, it was too expensive so I left to shop for underwear.
I bought a pair of Schiesser German underwear. They were way overpriced but I had sort of been practicing my Chinese with the staff so I felt a bit compelled to buy something. Eventually I just said the underwear was too expensive, my attention was directed to the cheaper underwear. Still quite expensive, but the Asian underwear I bought earlier was not comfortable so I figured, eh try the German pair. It was about $20 USD, so they better be ultra comfortable. My exchange with the staff here was pretty decent too.
Finally I went to look for food at the bakery. I was able to find and buy so many delicious breads. The bakeries here really outdo themselves, I should've been taking pictures that I could post. It's way better than the Asian bakeries in Boston, of course. Oh and it's so cheap! I spent less than $7 I think, and got what would've cost at least $20 in the US. To make things better as I was checking out the cashier woman asked me if I was an English teacher and gave me a bonus Taro cake for free! Then she said I was speaking Chinese _____. The blank I'm sure was a synonym for good or excellent. It was biao___. Maybe a Chinese person can help me out and fill in the blank for me. Anyway I told her I actually spoke quite poorly, thanked her and left.
People are really nice here. Later on I just went for another jog with my boss. I haven't had any luck finding any thing even remotely related to Kung Fu lately... it's sad. I will try to go to the park later and find those old people studying Tai Qi, hopefully they can direct me to a gung fu district. If not then I will probably buy a triathlon bike and start training for that. I hear there is a triathlon at a famous spot here: Sun Moon Lake. Perhaps I'll look more into that.
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