Monday 9/2: First day at School and Work, ending with a Hot Springs Bath

Woke before my alarm and went to the bus stop, after stopping in the ChuanJia for my red bean bun breakfast. Based on the bus stop diagram, I had about 12 stops until ShrDa so I started counting. But after about 6, as I was eating my bun, I saw the huge gate with golden letters on top and wondered, did we get here that fast? Possibly, because sometimes the driver doesn’t stop (after once watching one drive right past my dumbfounded face, I learned that you have to wave them down. Energetically). I crammed my half eaten bun in my bag, jumped out and realized it didn’t look right, then watched as a whole bunch of little kids walked into the gate. On the sign I noticed the word “shou” meaning small. This was a grammar school.

I waited for the bus again. This is how I spend down my whole bus card.

I got to class just in time but the teacher was late. JiaLan was there, as were two French guys, one white and one Chinese. On my other side was a girl from LA, the only other one from the US. A tall chubby guy was from somewhere I didn’t understand in Chinese, another girl was from Brazil (“Ba Si”), and another girl from a place I didn’t understand (“Nan Fei”). I kept trying to deduce where it was from her conversations with the teacher. I gave up and asked LA girl; it was South Africa.

The teacher was short, roundish, and very nice with a pleasant face. She assessed that we all knew writing well enough that we could skip learning stroke order and had us all fill in the blanks to a paragraph: My name is ___. I am a ___ person. I have ___ I don’t have ____. Taipei is very ____. I filled it in with my name, USA, an older brother and sister, an younger brother or sister, and hot. We could use pronunciation symbols when we didn’t know the characters, which for me was almost every word. JiaLan, LA girl and Brazil girl were clearly better speakers/listeners. JiaLan kept taking notes on things like a precocious student. LA girl didn’t take a word of notes and just seemed amused the whole time. The white French guy struggled the most, not understanding the teacher most of the time, while the Chinese French guy was funniest. He spoke slowly and seemed not to understand the teacher either, yet said he’s come to Taiwan quite a few times and had been here eight months. The teacher couldn’t believe it and told him he sounded like he was just learning Chinese. I wondered if he was faking it, because once in awhile he’d come out with some vocab words I didn’t know and weren’t so common. He was from Provence and when the teacher asked him what was good/nice about Provence, he paused, widened his eyes, and said, “Wahh!” We all cracked up.

The teacher asked us if 8AM was our favorite time. We all snorted, shook our heads and I said it was our least favorite time. She asked for a show of hands of people who didn’t like the time and it was unanimous. But she said she couldn’t teach at 10, and she doubted we’d all get into the 10AM section--maybe only one or two of us. The Chinese French guy pointed at his friend and himself, saying [“One, two”]. At the end of class she signed the forms for whoever wanted to switch out. The dumb thing is that you need your teacher to sign that you’re leaving before you can audit another, but there’s no guarantee you can get into the other, and if you don’t, you can’t return to the first. Can we put the Duh in DUMB? We looked at each other when she said we couldn’t come back, but shrugged and I said I’m sure she would let us.

Next I had to find TaiDa Yi Yuen (National Taiwan University Hospital). Dr. Cheng had given me directions on the phone that sounded kind of complicated, but said I could ask if I got lost, commenting my Chinese was much better than he imagined. Gary had pointed it out before when we passed it so I recognized the yellow buildings. It’s not all that attractive, for the largest, most prestigious medical center in the country. I wandered around looking for the street names he’d named, then braced myself for another afternoon getting lost as I asked the guard standing at what looked like the main entrance. She pointed me toward Information, who pointed me toward signs that had “National Taiwan University College of Medicine” written on them in English. It was a snap.

I knocked on the door and opened it, a bunch of young people were looking at me. I looked back not quite knowing what to say or if this was the right place, until a girl said “Grace?” and the oldest guy who I figured was Dr. Cheng, just said “Come in, hi, we’re expecting you,” and brought me over to his desk. He seemed laid back yet straightforward and unsmiling, like a “cut the crap” type. He never even formally introduced himself, looked kind of annoyed as if he had other things to do, and the first thing he asked me was What he was supposed to do for me and what was expected that he do, and Did I need to submit a paper or something at the end? I assured him it was nothing formal, just a mid-year informal presentation and end-of-year report to show what I found. He seemed very relieved to hear that, and said I’m the first Fulbright Student they’ve had here (all past have been Fulbright Senior Scholars/lecturers). We agreed I’d come in 2-6pm each day and he introduced me to his two assistants, the small cute girl who greeted me (YuJung, English name Jenny) and a skinny guy with glasses, ChiYuan, who was flustered and stammered that he was a little bit nervous.

Dr. Cheng explained they wanted to practice their English with me, I wanted to practice my Chinese with them, so we were going to have some awkward conversations with each other. He showed me the desk where I’d work, sharing the office with two girls. There were others that were finishing their theses or PhDs and would stop in once in awhile to use the internet. I asked him about my affiliation and whether I can use the facilities (he thought library, I’m thinking gym) and he asked around. They said I could probably get a library card for here but nothing for TaiDa. I asked about the TaiDa gym, but he said I’d have to pay the regular fee which was kind of expensive, and the facilities here at the Medical Center are very poor. Then he let me use the internet for awhile. People started to order lunch and asked if I wanted some, but I still had my ChuanJia buns in my bag. I hadn’t eaten all day.

Now I had to find my way to Butyl so Juling could help me hook up my phone service. ChiYuan gave me his cellphone number and told me I could ask him for anything, so I asked him about getting there, and he advised me to take a different bus than what ShinHui said, and walked me to the bus stop, saying something about needing to take his motorcycle somewhere anyways. I was hoping he’d take me on it for a ride, but we just walked. He was really nice and tried to speak English, but struggled a lot and usually resorted to Chinese. He counted the number of stops I’d need to wait until I got there and finally I told him he didn’t have to wait around. On the bus, I showed the driver Juling’s name card with the address. He wasn’t sure exactly where it was, but he was one of the nicer drivers I’ve had because he actually thought about it.

I found it and went up but it was dark and quiet; everyone was gone to lunch and the receptionist invited me to sit and wait. I wrote in my journal awhile (as you can see). It was 2:15 and I wondered about these 2 hour lunches. She asked if I needed to use the computer, so I went back to use the one I usually do, just when they returned. Juling gave me a bag of some cups/glasses for my apt and asked her secretary Dolly to take me to the phone company to get the phone and cellphone service.

We took a cab there and the phone place was like the police station—you take a number, get served, they ask a lot of questions, you sign a bunch of things and hand over your ARC card a lot. He showed me five pages of cellphone numbers and said I could pick one. Wanting an easy one, I picked one that ended with 44 and Dolly laughed, “Si Si?” Then I remember no one likes the number 4--it’s unlucky because it almost sounds like the word for death, so I chose another. Turns out the cellphone would cost me 880/month. I was perplexed. Gary and Kate had told me I could just buy cards at 7-11 and use time as I wanted. I told her I didn’t think I’d use 880/month, she said the cards were too expensive though (about US 30 cents a minute) and called her own customer service, finally told me YiFu cards (Sim Cards) are the cheapest thing, which is exactly what my friends had said, and I told her I thought that was what we were coming here to get in the first place. So then we had to return the number I’d just gotten.

We asked about DSL and it was complicated. They had a promotion now that if I signed up the phone service was free, but I had to take a 2-year contract or pay them 4000 if I ended it early. Or, not get the promotion but pay 3000 up front to initiate the phone. Dolly looked perplexed as if this was a difficult choice; I said Isn’t 3000 less than 4000? Maybe I was missing something. Anyway, it was a long, tiring time there. They provided free tea so I had some to stay awake, and we left not having accomplished much except that the phone guy would come Wednesday afternoon to hook up the phone and I needed to wait for him then.

I got dropped at the nearest MRT and called Gary, who instructed me to take a bus (another !@#$ bus! Hate them!) to where they were—the big shopping place that just sells clothes, for really cheap. But when I asked Information which bus to take to ZhongShan train station, and found it outside and got on, the driver asked where I was going and told me to take a different bus. I found it and got on that, and it was too crowded to even see or talk to the driver, but as soon as I could I went up to him to ask about ZhongShan train station. We went a long, long way until I asked him again if we were close, and he just nodded and said, [“Train station, get off here”]. I got off but knew this was Taipei Main Station, not the right station. Fed up, I saw ShinGuang Mitsukoshi department store across the way and in the MRT station, called Gary from a payphone who said they were at the train station on the other side of town and I went completely the wrong way. I could take an actual train to where they were, or just wait for them because they were coming back this way. I chose to stay, shop and plant my butt where it wouldn’t get lost.

Starving, I went down to the eating area and got some fried rice with a fried pork loin and side of Chinese broccoli. There are times when you’re surrounded by an exquisite variety of Asian foods, but you just want fried rice. I wrote in my journal to kill more time (as you can SEE), then went up to meet them by the entrance, wandering around the makeup counters when I still didn’t see them, and heard a guy behind say “Shau Jie?” (Miss?). Thinking it was someone trying to sell me something, I was about to dismiss him by shaking my head as usual, but this time I decided to humor him for the hell of it. I was in a pissy mood and ready to rattle off at him in English to just to watch his face collapse in utter confusion. I turned around and it was Gary. “Oh, hi,” I said, pretending I wasn’t surprised. He said he should’ve tried to say something more offensive to me to see what I’d do.

I ranted to him about my nightmarish bus stories and how bus drivers are so mean and unhelpful. He said “You’re not supposed to talk to them! There’s a sign next to the driver that says don’t talk to the driver.” Once again…here’s to literacy! He said I should ask other passengers for help instead.

Kate was as usual taking advantage of trying on free makeup (Gary says she comes out wearing no makeup, then goes to any makeup counter and tries it all on and never buys anything), and Art came over and as usual said I looked nice (I was now wearing my short blue sundress because have gotten fed up with trying to look like a local by covering up and dying of heat) and when I told him I’d had a long, kinda bad day, he gave me a lollipop on a long stem that resembled a flower, very cute. I asked where he got it, thinking there must be some special roadside shop selling lollipops resembling flowers. He said “7-Eleven.”

I looked around for hand lotion and saw a body lotion that I used on my hands even though the saleslady said [“That’s for body, not hands.”] and when we turned to leave, they said the lady looked pissed. I said, “Why? Can’t I use it?” They said “Yeah, but that’s the same lady who just made up Kate!” Oops. We got out fast.

They were planning to go to YangMingShan to a hot springs place. I’ve done that before with my mom and figured it would take them awhile so I thought I shouldn’t go, and get more sleep tonight than last. They egged me on and I said “OK, if we get back by 10:30,” and Kate said she couldn’t guarantee it, but probably, so we went right away. First we stopped in a drugstore to buy small towels which was all we needed to bring, then took the MRT, then a cab up into the mountains, and started smelling the sulfur (Art: “What reeks? You mean the whole time we’re gonna be sitting in this stuff that reeks?”). Gary and I wondered why the sulfur’s good for you and why can’t they then bottle it somehow and sell a product with it? But then I said, Stuff that reeks won’t sell well.

The place looked nicer than the one I went to with Mom a long time ago. It was an actual “resort”-like place with outside restaurant, waterfall, trees, log cabin where the private baths were, and across are two doorways leading to the men’s and women’s public ones. Kate asked if I wanted to just take a look at the women’s, “Just a look!” so I said OK, even though Gary and I were adamant about going to the private ones. Gary said, ”Grace what’s up, you wanna look at naked women?” I said, “It’s your girlfriend, she’s influencing me!” and followed her in. The tubs there were big and women stood around nonchalantly wearing nothing but shower caps, which are required. That was enough looking for me.

We went into the private area and found booths next to each other and Gary said we’d yell when we wanted to communicate (the roof is open), but Art said these were so much smaller than the public ones, so “Fuck that! I’m going to the men’s one, there was hardly anyone there,” and Kate agreed and went to the women’s, so Gary and I agreed we’d communicate to each other when we were done, and then get the other two (“Man, does that mean I gotta see Arthur naked?” said Gary). “Or, I’ll knock on your door,” I said.

“We can just yell!” he immediately insisted.

“Chill, I’m not gonna bust in on you.”

As I ran the water and started pouring it over myself using the small plastic bowls, I was glad I came. It felt really good and was what I needed after such a long day, I was grimy from running around on buses and streets. The whole place was pretty romantic and I wished Dave were here, though I wasn’t sure he’d like it. I got edgy after about 40 minutes, I can’t sit in a tub doing nothing that long, and I was sweating so I rinsed off with cold water and dressed, yelling at Gary, and we got out and went in to get the others. I peered down at the women, they were frolicking and splashing each other and having a great time, all innocent. Except for the shower caps, this easily could’ve been a scene on Playboy channel. Kate yelled “Grace!” And said she’d be done soon. Back outside Gary reported that Arthur was sitting alone looking sad in a tub by himself.

When Art came out he said he thought some guy might have been hitting on him because he’d talked to him a long time. We said, “Yeah maybe, after all you’re there all alone, butt naked in a tub,” and Kate said a lot of gay guys do come to these places to pick up guys. Gary and I asked her if she thinks there are hidden cameras here, she shrugged and said a word. Gary translated, “Perhaps!!” She said she doesn’t care, it’s not like she’s doing anything sexual. I said she might not think it is, but I knew that people in the U.S. would find it um, entertaining to watch.

We got a table in the restaurant and I’d gotten a couple more bug bites, !@#$. I let them order again and we got my favorite vegetable Kongshing Tsai, a soup of black chicken (just like chicken, but it’s black. Kate says it’s supposed to be better for you) and mushrooms, cold baby bamboo with mayonnaise, and tofu. Then Art brought up the guy in the tub again, said he was massaging his hand and foot to show him massage techniques, and went all the way up his calf. We said OF COURSE he was hitting on you, duh, and why did you let him massage you and keep talking to you? Art looked disturbed and got defensive. If the guy had gone any higher up his leg he “woulda kicked his ASS! I woulda said What the fuck you DOING! Bam!!” A naked brawl in the hot springs, that’s something people would like to see on those hidden cameras.

We were all pretty tired, there’s something about the hot soak that makes you sleepy.

Back at home the roach was in the middle of the room as soon as I opened the door, just waiting for me. This time I put a newspaper under my shoe and prepared to swat it dead, but the thing was fast and got away. Gary had told me I needed to get the spray, I vowed to get it tomorrow.