More Raman - Ippudo, Taipei

I was coming back from the Taiwan Beer Garden one night and I stumbled upon an Ippudo. I had to check it out because I usually only get a chance to get some Ippudo Ramen when I'm in NYC and the line is always out the door with a 2+ hour wait. Not so in Taipei. This place was empty. I came in, got a table and ordered the Akamaru Ramen. It was amazing as Ippudo Ramen usually is.

I have tried a number of great Ramen places in Taipei and Ippudo is still one of my favorites. I also learned that Ramen was actually a Chinese dish brought to Japan in the early 1900s. The dish became so popular in Japan and in other parts of the Japanese Empire that Ramen is usually associated with Japan. In addition, because Taiwan was a Japanese territory from 1895 to 1945, Taiwan has a great deal of Japanese influence, including the food and culture. Surprisingly though, the people here don't usually have the same dislike for the Japanese as you find many people in Korea and Mainland China have. I still don't know exactly why that is but there is always more to learn.

Move D

I went to this dance party on Saturday night that was held in an abandoned building complete with a cement wall with shards of glass embedded at the top and barbed wire above the glass. Intruders beware! There was a DJ playing house music and a make shift bar to order drinks from. It had the makings of a small bottom of the basement Rave. It was a fun time hanging out with some classmates, dancing and exploring this abandoned building. Apparently they will be having a few more parties this spring so I might have to check that out.

Learning Mandarin Chinese

I have always wanted to learn another language but never found the right environment for it. I studied Spanish in high school and college but didn't learn or retain much. I have contemplated the idea of learning another language for a while and figured it needed to be done in an environment where there were plenty of opportunities to use it and really where using it was a requirement for survival. Taipei is such a place. Yes, you can make it without learning Chinese and many people in service jobs here speak and understand enough English for you to get by but that is the limit. You are just getting by. You can't participate in much that is available or make any local friends unless they speak English, or whatever your native language is, well. Unfortunately, I have met westerners who have lived here for 5, 10, even 20 years and they can barely speak enough to order a cup of coffee.

I decided this would be a good opportunity to take another crack at learning a language and so far I think it was a great choice. I enrolled in an intensive mandarin class at National Taiwan Normal University's Mandarin Training Center. It is one of the oldest, largest and most well known MTCs in the world. My class meets 3 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 12 weeks and we have about 3-4 hours of homework assigned per night. It is a lot of work considering I'm also taking classes for my MBA and am studying to take level one of the CFA in June but well worth it. My teacher is great and my classmates are all nice and good people to work with. I have been in classes for 3 weeks now and feel that the class is moving at a good pace. I wish I had a full year to study so I could learn a lot more but I might just have to continue my studies in the States. The great thing about studying here is that I learn things in class that I hear everyday on the street and have an opportunity everyday to test out what I've learned in class on real people. This will be much harder to do outside of a Mandarin speaking country.

Kaohsiung City

I decided to check out another city this weekend so I jumped on a speed train to Kaohsiung City on the south side of Taiwan. It's about a 5 hour drive but the speed train made it there in 1.5 hours. Yay speed trains. It's a cool place with nicer weather than Taipei and probably nicer people but I was only there for a weekend so that statement is based on my limited experience and what others who live there have told me about both cities.

I stayed at the Angels' Backpacker Hostel near the Formosa Boulevard station. It was cheap and had a very centralized location.

I checked out a few local bars that cater to westerners. These were the Brickyard Pub, Brickyard Beer Garden and Lighthouse Bar & Grill. I actually ended up going to Brickyard Pub each night I was in Kaohsiung and met a great group of cool people.

Besides the bars, I went by the Kaohsiung Museum of History, the Dream Mall, Lotus Pond and the Love River. You can take a ferry to Cijin Island and visit the Cihou Lighthouse.

Amazing pork and rice at a restaurant down the street from my hostel.

Pier 2 Art Center, which is a strip with local street art.

Just in case you didn't know, don't drive off the cliff.

I walked up to the old British Consulate and looked at the museum. There is a lot of history in Kaohsiung and a great view of the city from the consulate.

After a long day of walking around I found this awesome dumpling place so I parked myself there and cleaned them out. This place became a regular late night visit for me.

The Rueifong Night Market was a must.

Brains, anyone?

If Taipei is the NYC of Taiwan than Kaohsiung is the Los Angeles. It is a big industrial city that is more spread out than Taipei and more laid back. It has great weather and the cost of living is much cheaper than Taipei. I'm paying NT $14,000 per month for my small room in a 5 bedroom apartment and am sharing a bathroom. I meet multiple people who have their own 1 bedroom apartment and are paying NT $5,000/month in Kaohsiung. It seems that most of the foreigners in both Kaohsiung and Taipei teach English because it is a relatively easy job to get and to do but your money goes so much further in Kaohsiung.

I still haven't figured this out yet but people put the toilet paper in the trash can next to the toilet instead of inside the toilet.