Two beats in Asia

As every country, Taiwan has their favourite songs as well. There were two of them which were played in every club at least twice a party... and, the funniest of it all, both of them were NOT Taiwanese! :)

First one: a bunch of guys from Korea:




for more curious people:

Super Junior (Korean: 슈퍼주니어), often referred to as SJ or SuJu (슈주), is a 13-member boy band from South Korea formed in 2005. Sorry, Sorry was a critically and commercially successful hit in Asia, becoming 2009's best-selling Korean-language album in South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, China, and the Philippines. Sorry, Sorry won a Disk Daesang (Album of the Year) at the 2009 Golden Disk Awards.

Cool, huh?

And this one is even better! :)

The song actually starts at 2 minutes;)

"Nobody" is a dance pop song produced by Park Jin-young and recorded by Korean girl group Wonder Girls. Released as a digital download single on September 22, 2008 in their native Korea, the song became popular within hours, becoming a top search term and ranking #1 on various digital music sites.

so far this semester there are no hits like that.

Well, waiting for them! GO Korea! :)

The big comeback!

It is extremely annoying when others are right about you and your doings. And even more annoying, when they know you better than you know yourself. This is what Jimmy reminded me about a week ago - he said that I would be able to write only for a couple of months and so it happened. But I decided to say no! I am stronger than that and I will prove to him and myself that I can finish what I started. And there is one good motivation for that: I really want to have something to remember after I come back home :)

Actually, there are a couple of reasons for me stopping writing. First of all, going away from home for such a long time is more difficult than I expected. There are moments of apathy, loneliness and sleepless nights. Of course one might say that in that case you can be bloging and writing all the time. Yes, that is true... But what about? At the time nothing seems worth mentioning, and afterwards it seams it is already to late for it. Than there are some trips you make abroad, but when you come back some stuff has to be done, presentations to be made etc. and you are not in the mood for writing. And then you forget about writing, and there is another trip, holidays, break, exams... what to say, a lot of excuses. But recently there was a lot of time to make some thinking as well and that is why I decided to make this small comeback. So than... here I go! hopefully it will be better than the last time :)

And there is some stuff to write about: trip to Philippines, one month in China, Christmas in Taipei, New Year's  Eve, some cool parties, Sun Moon Lake, exams, break time, shitty weather (raining right now...),studying Chinese, new semester and much more I guess.

And NBA Playoffs. Go Suns and Jazz! :)

So - let's get it on!

Taxi's - party people's best friend:)

This is really cool thing. There are so many of them! and they are everywhere! plus, not only they are fast and comfortable, they are very cheap. And the capacity of one normal taxi is up to 5 people:)

It looks like a pic from NYC, not from Taipei! well, maybe except for a different fonts;) honestly, there are thousands of them. Waiting time is around 30 seconds. And even though they do not speak English, it is possible to get to terms with them:)

And the traffic is not that bad either. It is something Polish can dream about:) 3 lines everywhere, not to many traffic jams, great signs... It seems impossible to get lost around here!

But let's get bask to economic point of taxis:) We use them usually to get to parties, which are mostly held in one district. And that is the center of the city. And the coolest thing - it never cost more than 200NT$ for the whole travel! If 4 people are going, it is 5 PLN per person. and in fact it is a couple of kilometres! Not to add that taking the MRT (metro) would cost around 25NT$. So lets say that the cost is doubled, but you get door to door transfer... That's so convenient;)

And you can have so much fun in the taxi... coming back from Jonas's b-day party, we got a taxi-minivan. Although at the beginning we thought that he was arguing with us, he simply had this way of talking;) and when he caught that we are coming back from b-day, he turned into greatest taxi driver ever! He turned up the music, playing some hiphopish tunes, started dancing and laughing with us, opened the roof window so that Jonas could play with his baloon and stand up and shout "I'm the king of the world!" :D Finally he did a little tokio drift coming into final corners. Best car ride in Taipei so far!

I should not mention that we took his business card and wil call him before next party, should I?:)

And Taipei at night is breathtaking...

Weather

This is probably the most convenient time of the year for the Europeans.

It is neither too hot nor too cold, temperature oscillates on the level of 25 degrees. Recently it has not been raining, although there was already a week when it rained heavily for a couple of days in a row. But it was the time when two typhoons were going near Taiwan - unfortunately neither of them visited Taiwan (maybe it sounds suicidal, that I am waiting for typhoon, but locals tell that it is unforgettable experience:) ). So autumn and winter are nice:)

But this was not a case at the beginning. 2 months ago it was all time time around 35 degrees, enormous humidity, and it seemed impossible to stay outside during the day for more than 20 minutes. Walks to school, which take about 10 minutes, were unbearable and mostly ended with sweaty t-shirt and bad moods. That is why so many people did catch cold at the beginning - including me.

The other thing is that it is impossible to live without air conditioning. Wherever you go, there are fans blowing in your face. It is great and pleasant and all, but guarantees a cold before you get used to it. Constant temperature changes are tricky.

So, if you are coming to Taiwan - be prepared!:)

Some things about the exchange... :)

Well, if I a to write about the impressions, let's write about exchange itself at the beginning:) this should make things easier:)

The People

There are around 50 people at exchange at college of management. Overall, there are probably more than 20 of the at the whole NTU, not including GMBA students, who are here in a number of 80 or more. But all those people can be divided into some ethnic groups basing on the country of origin:)

The Francophones

Mostly French, but there are some cases of Belgium people as well. No one knows why, but they represent the biggest number of exchange students - maybe up to 25%. It looks like they want to conquer Taiwan through silent establishment of student colony:) One way or the other, there are students fro best universities - Paris, Lyon, Toulouse... Because of them French is the second most spoken language here - after Chinese :P And it gives me a great opportunity to perfect French. It is funny how surprised they are when it occurs that I can speak their native language - but I did improve in just these 2 months:D

German group

Germans and Swiss. I do not think that there is someone from Austria. Do not now why... To my surprise, they are more open minded and more "European", without German classic attitude;) but I guess that there are only guys from these countries.. and they represent around 15% of people.

The Dutch

Quite a lot of them around here, mostly from Erasmus University. But they represent many different ethnics, like Turkey, Taiwan, Italy... Dutch can be heard around here quite often, not that there is a big difference between it and German:P

Scandinavians

Mostly Swedish and Norwegians. Mostly tall. Mostly cool:) and with a great fashion taste;)

English-speaking group

That is Americans, Brits and Aussies. Quite a bit of them, although they do not stand out of the picture. Most of them came here for intensive Chinese course - 2 hours of Chinese every day. kinda cool, but they do not have tie to travel:P

Rest of the world

hmmm, difficult to say from what countries is this "rest"... There are some people from Spain, a couple from Latin America... Some Japanese... And that's pretty much it. At the exchange, I am the only representative of my beloved country;), what makes me quite exotic:) At GMBA there is someone from Russia and Slovakia, but at the exchange I guess I am the only representative of Eastern Europe. Not that it bothers me, but it would be cool to have someone to speak Polish with from time to time...

Overall there are more guys than girls. And they are much cooler than girls. No kidding. Open minded, creative, outspoken, intelligent, eager to travel around. I did not expect that I will meet here so many people, who will become my really good friends.

There is a great chance for a Euro Trip in the future:)

Peace of mind

Finally, some peace and quiet and I can write a bit on the blog...

Well, it is not that I am lazy. Or not systematic. Not even that there is no time. There is. But for the last month there was rarely time to sit down, chill, focus on my own business... It has been just a month of school, but I feel that it was already 5 months! There are always some papers to write, cases to read, presentations to be made. As it occurs, you have to work here maybe not much harder, but more often than at SGH. Professors expect you to be always prepared for the discussion, to have read the chapter and be ready for in-depth analysis. But luckily I have already made my share of cases and presentations, so I will be able to focus on other aspects of living in Taiwan... Finally.

And maybe it is time to write about some impressions after these almost two months of living here? :)

Why is it so hard to be systematic and work with schedule?

Nah, Jimmy, you were not right - I am still here, trying to create something. But the first two weeks of school are usually disastrous, more annoying and irritating than examination session (well, maybe this is only mine opinion). Although I thought that everything is well planned, I did not forget anything, the truth is - if it seems to go smoothly and without any problems, something has to mess up:/

Having to fight bureaucracy on many levels in two countries, I cannot focus and sit and finally spend 5 hours on Chinese without being interrupted. Or I want to write something. or visit new places. All in all, the day looks like this:



Well, maybe not like that:) but there are so many distractions that it becomes really difficult to start doing something in systemic way!



Hopefully next week it will be easier to get ready:) and thinking of it, this is more or less the way student's life looks like during the examination session:) somehow these short videos cheered me up a bit:)

After the weekend, because on the weekend there will be trip to the mountains!:)