(no subject)
Two nights ago night I was channel surfing in my overpriced hotel room in Taipei and hit one of the English-language channels that was doing international news—I think it was the BBC—just in time to watch this footage of a gigantic, surreal looking dust cloud with a bizarrely clear and defined devouring edge advancing over some metropolitan area. "Wow," I thought, "what a strange and unfortunate thing to be happening in a place I have no connection to." Then it said, "And now, in Arizona, the dust cloud has left thousands without power and..."
I think I've finally accepted the fact that most humans in fact live near water and our deserty hazards are somewhat frightening and freaky.
Last ... Saturday, I think, I set out on an epic backpacking adventure! Except on my first night I got locked out of my hostel, which led to me wander the streets of downtown 花蓮, as![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thor talked to me on the phone in a bid to stop me from passing out on the sidewalk and getting robbed or something. I was extremely sleep-deprived before I got there, so that was a distinct possibility. At six-thirty I eventually caved and stumbled into a random hotel that I spotted and mumbled something in Chinese about getting a place to sleep, and they sold me a deeply discounted luxury hotel room I guess was going unused. They even extended checkout time until four in the afternoon!
Unfortunately starting out the trip that stressed out and never getting a chance to either rest or recover led to my lizard brain sort of tilting at windmills for the duration of the rest of the journey. Oh god did you HEAR THAT NOISE. Man look at that guy SUSPICIOUS ISN'T HE. Dude there's nobody else in this trail are you sure you aren't HOPELESSLY LOST IN THE GORGE? I did get to see 花蓮, finally, and 太魯閣—which is sort of like Yosemite, except more like a jungle—and the Taipei Zoo!
I'm now pretty confident I can get anywhere in Taiwan that I could ever need to be, though this has more to do with a solid understanding of how public transport around here works, rather than like, any particular language skill or special cleverness. It is sort of trippy suddenly being able to understand the vast majority of conversations happening around me, which are mostly mundane things like, "Where's the elevator? There's too many people on the stairs!" and, "Dad! Dad! Look, the panda is eating something!" It's like suddenly tuning into a radio station that was all staticy and weird sounding before.
No pictures because I was alone and I actually had to carry a book around to write down my thoughts of frustration and irritation. I wil go through it later and see if I wrote down anything interesting. I think I had some thoughts about the hugeass temple I visited, which was really nice and expensive and creeped me out like woah.
Five more days in Taiwan! I have to pack, clean my room, finish buying various shit and uh see some people before I go! Also I want to download more comics. I can't have enough comics. In five days I can get them legally!
OH WOMEN'S WORLD CUP. AMERICA VERSUS BRAZIL. WE GOTTA STEP IT UP, MAN. >:|
I think I've finally accepted the fact that most humans in fact live near water and our deserty hazards are somewhat frightening and freaky.
Last ... Saturday, I think, I set out on an epic backpacking adventure! Except on my first night I got locked out of my hostel, which led to me wander the streets of downtown 花蓮, as
thor talked to me on the phone in a bid to stop me from passing out on the sidewalk and getting robbed or something. I was extremely sleep-deprived before I got there, so that was a distinct possibility. At six-thirty I eventually caved and stumbled into a random hotel that I spotted and mumbled something in Chinese about getting a place to sleep, and they sold me a deeply discounted luxury hotel room I guess was going unused. They even extended checkout time until four in the afternoon! Unfortunately starting out the trip that stressed out and never getting a chance to either rest or recover led to my lizard brain sort of tilting at windmills for the duration of the rest of the journey. Oh god did you HEAR THAT NOISE. Man look at that guy SUSPICIOUS ISN'T HE. Dude there's nobody else in this trail are you sure you aren't HOPELESSLY LOST IN THE GORGE? I did get to see 花蓮, finally, and 太魯閣—which is sort of like Yosemite, except more like a jungle—and the Taipei Zoo!
I'm now pretty confident I can get anywhere in Taiwan that I could ever need to be, though this has more to do with a solid understanding of how public transport around here works, rather than like, any particular language skill or special cleverness. It is sort of trippy suddenly being able to understand the vast majority of conversations happening around me, which are mostly mundane things like, "Where's the elevator? There's too many people on the stairs!" and, "Dad! Dad! Look, the panda is eating something!" It's like suddenly tuning into a radio station that was all staticy and weird sounding before.
No pictures because I was alone and I actually had to carry a book around to write down my thoughts of frustration and irritation. I wil go through it later and see if I wrote down anything interesting. I think I had some thoughts about the hugeass temple I visited, which was really nice and expensive and creeped me out like woah.
Five more days in Taiwan! I have to pack, clean my room, finish buying various shit and uh see some people before I go! Also I want to download more comics. I can't have enough comics. In five days I can get them legally!
OH WOMEN'S WORLD CUP. AMERICA VERSUS BRAZIL. WE GOTTA STEP IT UP, MAN. >:|
no subject
And that has to be one of the nicest ways I've heard for describing understanding a foreign language. ^-^ (Also, 'frightening and freaky' sums up that cloud. WTH? I've never seen anything like that! O_O)