Transitioning to an office job & XiMenDing

Our typical workday began at 8 and we would leave by 4pm to get home by 5 pm on the MRT. Since P (my coworker and apartment mate) and I live on the Brown line (Wenhu), we actually have to transfer 3 different times and then walk to our office. It is definitely a change as we really enjoy sleeping. We now have a routine where we get ready to go to work, knock on each other’s door to make sure we are both awake and then head out, sleep on the MRT and walk to work. We also found a breakfast diner across the hospital where we love ordering dan bing (Chinese: 蛋餅). This is a common Taiwanese breakfast dish that is basically a thin crepe with an egg on top. Here is a recipe I found on google if you ever want to try: http://the-cooking-of-joy.blogspot.com/2014/03/dan-bing-taiwanese-egg-crepe.html . It’s a simple great easy recipe to make as a great meal for the morning.

P and I get home relatively early in comparison to our apartment mates. I have been looking to see if I can get a gym membership or try a local gym since I really need to work out! My roommate gets home around 630 so it is a lot of time to kill before we all go out to eat dinner or explore at night. I love napping and I think relatively most of the time that will be happening. I forgot to mention- we moved locations! We found this out a few days ago and actually wanted to ask our landlord to let us stay in the one floor apartment because the rent would have been cheaper. We also didn’t want to split up as a group. Luckily for us, we managed to bargain with Yakuba, our don manager to let us all stay together and we moved! As much as we were very happy in the one room apartment, we didn’t realize how much we had been taking granted of simple stuff such as a washroom inside your room or an actual bed to sleep at. We moved in the middle of the night and it was hilarious because our landlord and don manager came in a car to move the suitcases and then we walked down to our new place. It’s a very central location as well! The other girls in the apartment are in the University dorms I believe. We realized that if we were at TMU it would just be a lot farther for us and we pushed for this dorm instead. No regrets there! The only downside is that we only have a mini fridge and no kitchen. I really love cooking but it really isn't a common necessity for apartments and dorm rooms. Everyone simply eats out because it is cheaper.

Anywhooo, R is a girl that I met during orientation week and she is just a doll. She lives with her Grandma and her cousin at the other end of the line of the MRT. Her institution is working with children camps, I believe specifically Aboriginal children.

We met up at XiMenDing the other day to explore the busy popular district. This is where you will find all the trends, young adults, and popular stores. Very pricey but definitely worth a look. They do have some areas that are small vendors and you can bargain for certain items. I got a totoro cell phone charger because I find that having a cell phone is key to surviving. Although I know mandarin and Taiwanese, I have the worst sense of direction and have gotten lost many times. Luckily, the MRT is very easy to use and Taipei is very foreign-accessible. The most amazing thing about XiMenDing was the popular shop: Ay-Chung Flour Rice Noodle. In English- it is known as Pig Skin Noodles. It sounds a bit odd to eat but it is actually amazing. The broth is super flavourful and the pork intestines are very tender. I am addicted to this taste. My mom made something similar when I was back in Canada. I am finding that a lot of the stuff I am eating is familiar to me which shows how much my parents valued keeping our traditional culture in Canada. My parents did not want me to lose my Taiwan traits and I was very lucky to be surrounded by a lot of my culture when I was growing up.

I am excited to continue exploring Taiwan. It really is a different trip because I am living on my own (well with roommates) but I am not with my family. I love my family, I truly do but I think it was necessary for me to try living away from where I usually stay back in TaiChung to really understand my cultural background. I think that I am often spoiled and given a very privilege vacation when I stay with my family members because they will bring me out instead of me wandering to explore.