I’m out. I’m a free woman now! After 15 days in quarantine, locked in the same hotel room for all hours of the day, I got to walk free. Not exactly walk, more like drag my luggage and waddle carrying all my bags down. Me and my 4 bags made it into the taxi I had called and were off destined for the city. I was pleasantly surprised that my Chinese didn’t get as bad as I thought being away from Taiwan. I’m not saying I’m anywhere close to fluent, but being stuck in a room for 15 days I had enough time to start worrying that out of the 6 ETAs in my county I was sure my Chinese competency was heads smaller than everyone else’s. However, when I made it to the “guest house” I reserved with two of the other ETAs, Corrina and Amanda, I actually understood the hotel owner explaining everything. It was a vote of confidence that I understood that they hadn’t swept my room yet and that I could bring my bags up and they would lock them in the room as soon as they finished sweeping, there’s free tea and coffee, a washing machine for our use… The list goes on and on and I actually understood. I think part of it was that it was just me. I get somewhat nervous and embarrassed when I’m with others that have more confidence in their speaking ability. At least during quarantine, I tried to change that by attempting to study a little bit of the textbook Sean lent me.
After finishing checking into the guest house, I had made no plans other to spend my day walking. I wanted to make up for all the time I just sat in my hotel room. Taiwan weather did not agree with me though. At what feels like 95 degrees of pure humidity my shirt is two different colors. I know super attractive. I made a quick stop for a bubble milk, my how I missed them, and went on my walk. The walk ended up being shorter than expected. With it being so hot I found a nice tree to sit under in the park where the art night market is in the city. I was hoping to find a nice secluded area in the shade so that I could take off my mask completely, Taiwan’s government asks for the week following quarantine to wear a mask in public because the COVID incubation could be up to 22 days.
I thought sitting here waiting for a couple hours till Amanda and Corrina get back from Guanshan, where they got to move directly into their year-long housing, is as good as any time to write another blog post. Quarantine wasn’t as bad as I had expected. Once I got some better food (thanks again Sean, Peter, Augie, and recently Zihui who brought some twix) it was manageable. I never ended up binge watching any show. I filled my time reading articles and books, watching the occasional movie, and talking to Amanda on the balcony. I think the balcony was my saving grace. Listening to music and watching the fog on the mountains was peaceful. Sometimes I even took a bath, listening to music seeing as the hotel water was coming straight fom the hot springs behind the hotel. There’s something that has to be said about having your only job being to stay in a room with no other work expectations or anything expected of you at all. Although there were times, I felt that I needed someone to give me something else to do they paled in comparison to the rest of the time.
Now I guess I should explain what has to happen going forward seeing as I tried to explain it to Morgan this morning and she was just getting confused. My Fulbright grant doesn’t officially start till August 1st, therefore, I can’t move into my Fulbright housing until then. In the time between then and now I will be trying to renew my ARC, Alien Resident Card, and shopping around for a second-hand scooter to buy (yeah, Fulbright now wants us to buy one rather than rent so it’s more in my hands while I try to navigate the scooter stores). I’m a little nervous to find a scooter all going back to my lack of confidence in Chinese. Amanda agreed that it might be best if we go together so that we can tag team it so neither of us get ripped off. I’m not as worried now that I know it won’t just be me. I plan on getting both things done rather quickly so that I can go to the beach and relax for a day with everyone. Not sure the likelihood I can do everything fast. My backup plan is to just continue looking for a scooter at least for the next week after this and then if I can’t find anything maybe approaching Ina, my Fulbright coordinator, again to see if she will allow me to rent again instead of buy. After all this craziness, come Thursday early afternoon I just bought a ticket to go to Taipei and cannot wait to see Sean! Taipei will be a nice reintroduction to Taiwan where I can start getting accustomed to everything that’s different while enjoying the more urban amenities like bars.
- Home for now
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