Things I'll miss when I leaves Taiwan

The post below was drafted one month ago, and that was my feeling and knowledge of it one month ago, it was dragged till now only I post it because I find it really time-wasting to spend a few hours to do a post and 30 minutes to upload a picture. So yes, throwback to one month ago's feeling and updates:

I pretty much have around two and a half months left before I board my flight back to KL. At this point of time, I'm not sure if I'm ready for that. Sure, I'll miss some Malaysians food here and there, but not always, it only happens when I see close up photo of Msian food on Instagram or Facebook. Other than that, I'm pretty much fine. The reason I'm not sure if I'm ready to leave Taiwan is because I have become very comfortable living here, so so comfortable. And what are the factors that make it so comfortable?

Well, let's see:

1. Convenience store and supermarket

Yes yes, people who knows me well enough know that I'm quite a fan of awesome 7-Elevens, not those that are in Malaysia please, but those that in our dear neighbor, Thailand's. And Taiwan's are equivalently as AWESOME.

But if you were to ask me to choose, I think I prefer Family Mart more, because I prefer their instant food. If it is chips I'm looking for, I'll head to 7E then, because they have awesome seaweed sprinkled potato chips.

And convenience store is not the only shop that open 24H, there is also Welcome supermarket that open 24H too. So yeah, need not to worry if you need to get some fruits or stuffs when is close to midnight. plus it is really safe to go out at night, so there is no worries at all of being robbed or what nonsense thing that could happen in msia.

2. 光南大批發

Located nearby the main gate of my uni, this should be the shop I most frequently visit other than convenience store. Me and my friends loves this shop due the fact that they are distributor like their name suggest, they offer the cheapest price in town yo for all the things they offer.

3.湳山剧院
This is a second round cinema where they screen movies that was out 2-3 months ago. With just a ticket price of NTD150, you can watch as many movie as you want and bring in whatever food you want, super duper awesome! Imagine having a hot bowl of noodle or rice or whatever snacks you wish to have it cinema. In Msia, this is illegal you know.

4. The very central location of my Uni.
Since my house is not at the Golden Triangle in KL (like duh), I have never came to realize how convenient it is to live at the central of it all. To give a bit of background, my uni, that is National Taiwan University, is located at Taipei, precisely, Daan district. It is one of the most expensive estate area according to my Taiwanese friend. I'm very close by to a lot of places, I literally can cycle to Taipei 101 if I want, it'll take me just 20 mins I think.

Blue ones are the popular tourist destination, between purple line are like our Pavilion or Orchard, where all the high end shops are. Red dot is the exact location of my dormitory, so literally, everything is just in front my door step, I can just cycle to wherever I'm able to. In Alam Megah, I can only cycle to Giant sia, I can't even cycle to One City Mall. In Penang, I have no idea where can I cycle to from my dormitory.

That's all for now, will update this post if I could think more, because I really doubt I only miss so little of Taiwan.

Taiwan, thus far.

Just had a good 3 hours afternoon nap from 1pm-4pm just now, so thought that I might as well update my blog before dinner time since I'm fully energized now.  I was exhausted from the trip to Taichung that I just got back from yesterday night.

Other than dayre which I sometimes I spammed it with photos, I did not actually wrote any diary or journal for the moments I'm in Taiwan. And I thought that if I did not even blog anything about it, I will surely regret later, as I have not left any thoughts nor reflections on the days when I'm in Taiwan. Is just like the university days when I'm in Penang, being caught up with lots of things happening around, I did not stop to capture the moments I feel at times where I felt is worth jotting down. And days just passes really really fast, and humans like we, will forget about it real soon.

So, how's Taiwan thus far? It is real good. My tolerance of away from home when I was in Penang is 2 months. Getting close to it will makes me really homesick and I would feel that I just want to get home as soon as possible no matter what. How long have I been in Taiwan? 6 weeks. Do I feel homesick now? Not really. Other than missing Malaysians food occasionally, I did not feel the urge that I want to go home as soon as possible now. In fact what I do wish now is that may time passes really really slow as I have only 3 months left in Taiwan and I don't want it to comes to an end so fast. At least that's what how I feel currently.

So what do I like or enjoy about Taiwan thus far?

Firstly, I really love the sense of safety and security it gives me. It is really safe to roam alleys at night and it is safe to leave your belongings unattended. There's minimal chances that anyone would rob anyone here or steal anyone's else things in this country. Not to say hundred percent it won't happen, but the chances of happening? Really really low. And when it really happens, it is caught on camera, this is when it is on news. CCTVs is everywhere, so for any crime one attempt to do, it will be caught on camera, so just don't do it. I have a chat with one of Taiwan friend about this, I told her about it and I compare it in Malaysia. Crime is so prevailing in Malaysia that we are so used to robbing and such. Robbing in housing neighborhood is so common nowadays that it is bound to happen on anyone, and not just one time. She told me that this is because back in the older days of her mom, Taiwan is not as developed as now and everyone is very poor. There's no one that would want to rob anyone because everyone is equally very poor. So because of that, robbing or stealing is really not common.

Second, the quality of education it gives. NTU is ranked between 61th-70th in the 2015 Times Higher Education. Thus the quality of lecturers, academic resources, education systems it provides is really good. Lecturers are really proficient in their own field and held great commitments to their responsibilities. It was first time in my life I receives email from lecturer apologizing to us because he came late to the class (some misunderstanding of administration). Lecturers frequently encourages interaction and participation in classes. The database, statistical softwares are also much better (which I believe much more expensive) than those that I use in USM.

Third, the absurd convenience of everyday living. If there are 10,000 students in NTU, then there are 9,900 bicycles in NTU. I can get to to anywhere in campus and out of campus conveniently using my bicycle. All roads are paved according to the need of bicycles, bicycles parking is everywhere in the city. There is huge underground parking for bicycles in the campus, huge bicycles parking nearby the MRT stations. And the 7-Elevens, Family Mart at all corners of the streets, opens 24/7 serving at your convenience. MRT can pretty much get you to anywhere you want to go in Taipei. As far as to the Zoo, to the beach, to the domestic airport, and to your house at suburbs.

Forth, the people. Taiwanese are generally helpful and friendly people. If you are lost or anything, they will try their best to help you. Two days ago I was in Taichung, after I got off from the bus, I not sure which direction I should head towards to. And like anywhere else, there'll be taxi drivers at the road side hoping to get customer. I was looking at the map, so the taxi uncle asks me where I want to go. I refuse to answer at first as I afraid that he'll persuade us to get on taxi. But still clueless on which direction I should go, I told him I wish to go Feng Jia. Then he told me the direction on how to go there, and told me that just walk for sometime and I'll reach. He is generally sincere to help me. Do you know what I would I expect if I'm in Malaysia? The taxi uncles will tell me that my destination is freaking far away and I can't reach there by foot and he can fetch me with taxi.

That's what I can think of thus far that I like about Taiwan.


Some pictures of my campus:

 椰林大道

Main Library

Bicycle level: NTU

Main Entrance gate. NTU is built by the Japanese during the colonial era, thus the strong hint of Japanese architecture can be found in campus.

A lot of locals likes to come in to relax and chill in the campus ground during the weekends. On those days, you'll get to see a lot of families simply spending quality time together cycling, jogging, exercise, picnic etc.

I guess that's all for now. Sincerely hoping that I'll update as much as possible during the course when I'm in Taiwan.

Cheers,
Lee Xiang