Almost 2 Weeks In

I've been here for almost 2 weeks. I haven't danced a drop in exactly 2 weeks. Argh.

Anyway, life is more bearable now than when I first left. I'm managing to keep myself busy (somehow - mostly by sleeping really hahaha) and working on translating my résumé (pain in the freakin' ass, lemme tell ya! GAA!). I got my Taiwanese ID card yesterday, as well as registering myself at my auntie's address. Registering one's address isn't something that we do in the UK or the US; I guess it's a sort of proof of residence besides a bill or bank statement. I think... Anyway, with my ID card done and out of the way, I can go renew my Taiwanese passport.

Life in Taiwan is so totally different from where I've used to live. Like this whole address registration thing...say what? Exactly. However, I will have you know that the drivers here are completely mad - they're worse than the Italians - and I'm just talking about Taipei. Let's not even bring up Taichung or Tainan. Apparently, or so my cousin Ray tells me, Taipei drivers are pretty good at keeping to the rules of the road. What, you call that good? He says that in Taichung, they rules are like guidelines only and in Tainan, the signs and such are just decorations. Geez louise.

In Taipei, the lanes are like guidelines. People pretty much stay in their own lanes on the freeways but in the city...man...lanes, what lanes? Cars and mopeds zigzaging all over and around each other. It's amazing that there aren't more accidents. And blinkers/indicators? Haha, you'd be so lucky. Most don't bother to signal when they're changing lanes or turning. Remember the 3-second rule? (I don't know if we have that in the UK.) Ain't no such thing here! It's like, 'Oh, there's a space there; I'll squeeze myself in.' Oh geez! I'm, like, 'OMG we're gonna craaaaaaaaash or something.' *Wheeze* It's like when the buses were squeaking past the cars down those residential lanes back in Cambridge; if the window wasn't there, I could've reached out and touched the car next to us.

B&Q is also huge here, too. When I saw it, I was, like, 'Hey, we have that in England, too!' Ray's, like, 'No way! I thought it was only big here. You know it's owned by a Taiwanese guy?' O rly? Apparently so.

The weather is completely different, too. I didn't think I'd ever say this but I'm so sick of this damn heat. It was about 25°C/76°F today. Gaaa, I want rain, cool air and I want to start wearing jumpers/sweaters and tall boots! Sigh.

I know there's a whole bunch more to say but I've forgotten them.

Tomorrow, I'm going to Taipei City Centre with a couple of mates (the ones I knew from primary school). Cool! I am setting out by myself first, taking the bus to the nearest MRT (mass rapid transit system) station, meeting Ya Fang there, then we're taking the MRT to downtown. We're gonna go do some shopping - I am so going to the big bookstores because I'm dying without any (English) books to read - and then meeting up with Li Wun and we're going to the cinema. So my goal tomorrow is figure out the MRT system, which should be fairly simple as most public transport systems are pretty similar, and buy myself a book or two. Yay.