Photolog Update, Thailand, Coming Home, Seven Months
Thailand
The last time I went to get my visa, they said (among other things) that because I went to Amsterdam for Christmas and missed a full week of classes, I was not taking my time here seriously and were not going to give me an extendable visa. So, it has already been sixty days since then, and it is time for me to go abroad and get another visa.
I don't like going to the same place twice, so Japan was out of the picture this time. I have heard nothing but bad things about Hong Kong. Everyone is telling me they are very strict there and if you don't dot every "i" and smile just the right way, they will refuse your application. So, my options were Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. I have a friend from Simon's Rock who used to live in Singapore and his parents still do right now and said if I ever want to go there, I will have a place to stay. So, I thought that would be a good idea. I looked into prices of tickets and what not, and found out that Singapore Airlines has amazing deals right now - like $120 USD roundtrip from Taipei to Singapore.
I began researching some more, and talking to my other friend from Simon's Rock who lived there for a couple of years. It turns out that even though it is very cheap to go there, everything else there is extremely expensive. Knowing that, I went to my favorite travel agent here and told her my deal; that I am going on a visa run, and I don't have very much money, but would like to see the place I am going to, as well as get my visa. She said Hong Kong and Okinawa are the cheapest, but since I did not want to go there, Bangkok, Thailand is the next cheapest. I mentioned to her about Singapore, and she said the same thing - that getting flights there right now is very cheap, but everything else is very expensive. So, in the end I decided that since I have three more months here in Taiwan, I should go to Singapore when I have a lot more money to spend, and just do the cheapo thing now. I ended up getting a ticket to Bangkok for about $210 USD, and she assured me that I can find a decent place to stay for $15 to $30 USD.
My flight leaves this Wednesday at 11:50PM and arrives in Bangkok at around 2AM. My friends and the travel agent said that there are tons of places in the airport to go to in order to find a place to stay and it shouldn't be a big deal at all. My ticket is sort of neat - I can come back any day I want from the Thursday I arrive until fourteen days later. So, if I get there and hate it, I can just get my visa and book it back home (aka to Taipei), or if I love it, I can stay and explore until Sunday at 5 in the afternoon and come home.
I was not all that excited to go to Japan because, at the time1, I didn't have much of an interest. Though, for some reason, I am really interested in Thailand, and very excited to go. Justin gave me his Lonely Planet guidebook to Thailand and just after flipping through a few pages, I was totally sold. I really wish I had more time to spend there. I guess this time around I can go there, get a feel for the place and figure out what I would want to do the next time I go. This should be really good experience, no matter what happens.
Coming Home
As you have read in the past few entries, I am now in my last trimester here in Taiwan. My plans for returning home have been up in the air since I got here, but I have mostly been bouncing between trying to stay here until August or coming home the first of June, the day after my classes end and my visitor visa expires.
The problem with me staying all summer is that there is no way I can legally stay here because I won't be in school anymore, and leaving the country every thirty days just to get another landing visa will be expensive and I think will look very shady. In my paranoid little mind, I think if I do that more than once, they are going to think (albeit correctly) that I am teaching English illegally and will not let me in.
So, the plan (at the moment at least) is that when my sixty day visa I will get this week expires at the end of May, I will go traveling outside of Taiwan one last time. I am thinking about going abroad for a week to either Singapore, or flying to Hong Kong, then taking a train out to somewhere extremely remote/random in mainland China. After that week, I will come back to Taiwan and have thirty days until I have to leave the country again. So, it would appear that I am coming home around the last week of June or the first week of July. Coming home the last week of June is probably the best thing to do so that I will be home in time for the Fourth of July - which is when all of my relatives migrate to the beach/my neck of the woods in South Carolina.
Photolog Update
Day Hike: Linguang (14 pictures) view
Justin wanted me to take him on one of my "famous adventures". So, we went for a hike on this mountain just outside of Taipei. It started out normal, until we found ourselves in a cemetery.
Taipei Zoo (18 pictures) view
David, Justin, and I went to the Taipei zoo for a fun little Sunday afternoon.
Seven Months (this is really rambly, sorry about that)
I just realized, after posting this, that yesterday, March 20th, marked the seventh month I have been here. That means I have three months left here. I am well over the half-way mark, which is funny because I have gotten so used to living here that I forgot that I am going home and there was, at some stage, indeed a half-way mark. So much has happened in the last seven months that I feel as though I have been in Taiwan for years and years. Wow oh wow. Seven months. That simply makes no sense to me. I remember when I first got here and I couldn't wait until it had been a month so I could break my previous record of time spent outside of the States. It seems like as soon as I hit that mark, the fact that I am American and not in my own country completely slipped my mind. That is not to say that there were not tons of times when I really wanted to go home, but even then "home" had already become such a foreign concept that I am not sure I really knew what I was thinking. This is a really neat feeling. I guess I have proven to myself that no matter where I am, I can be happy. At the same time, this had made me realize that everywhere I live has its own little presence, and it's up to me to make the best of it. neat.
1) I have never ever had an interest in Japan, for no apparent reason. Though, a few months ago, I was listening to these two girls speaking Japanese and admitted that it is a really cool sounding language. Then, just recently, like within the past couple of weeks, I have been having weird urges to learn Japanese. So, I sort of regret going to Japan when I didn't have any interest in it, but oh well. I am young and have tons of traveling and language to learn ahead of me.
The last time I went to get my visa, they said (among other things) that because I went to Amsterdam for Christmas and missed a full week of classes, I was not taking my time here seriously and were not going to give me an extendable visa. So, it has already been sixty days since then, and it is time for me to go abroad and get another visa.
I don't like going to the same place twice, so Japan was out of the picture this time. I have heard nothing but bad things about Hong Kong. Everyone is telling me they are very strict there and if you don't dot every "i" and smile just the right way, they will refuse your application. So, my options were Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines. I have a friend from Simon's Rock who used to live in Singapore and his parents still do right now and said if I ever want to go there, I will have a place to stay. So, I thought that would be a good idea. I looked into prices of tickets and what not, and found out that Singapore Airlines has amazing deals right now - like $120 USD roundtrip from Taipei to Singapore.
I began researching some more, and talking to my other friend from Simon's Rock who lived there for a couple of years. It turns out that even though it is very cheap to go there, everything else there is extremely expensive. Knowing that, I went to my favorite travel agent here and told her my deal; that I am going on a visa run, and I don't have very much money, but would like to see the place I am going to, as well as get my visa. She said Hong Kong and Okinawa are the cheapest, but since I did not want to go there, Bangkok, Thailand is the next cheapest. I mentioned to her about Singapore, and she said the same thing - that getting flights there right now is very cheap, but everything else is very expensive. So, in the end I decided that since I have three more months here in Taiwan, I should go to Singapore when I have a lot more money to spend, and just do the cheapo thing now. I ended up getting a ticket to Bangkok for about $210 USD, and she assured me that I can find a decent place to stay for $15 to $30 USD.
My flight leaves this Wednesday at 11:50PM and arrives in Bangkok at around 2AM. My friends and the travel agent said that there are tons of places in the airport to go to in order to find a place to stay and it shouldn't be a big deal at all. My ticket is sort of neat - I can come back any day I want from the Thursday I arrive until fourteen days later. So, if I get there and hate it, I can just get my visa and book it back home (aka to Taipei), or if I love it, I can stay and explore until Sunday at 5 in the afternoon and come home.
I was not all that excited to go to Japan because, at the time1, I didn't have much of an interest. Though, for some reason, I am really interested in Thailand, and very excited to go. Justin gave me his Lonely Planet guidebook to Thailand and just after flipping through a few pages, I was totally sold. I really wish I had more time to spend there. I guess this time around I can go there, get a feel for the place and figure out what I would want to do the next time I go. This should be really good experience, no matter what happens.
Coming Home
As you have read in the past few entries, I am now in my last trimester here in Taiwan. My plans for returning home have been up in the air since I got here, but I have mostly been bouncing between trying to stay here until August or coming home the first of June, the day after my classes end and my visitor visa expires.
The problem with me staying all summer is that there is no way I can legally stay here because I won't be in school anymore, and leaving the country every thirty days just to get another landing visa will be expensive and I think will look very shady. In my paranoid little mind, I think if I do that more than once, they are going to think (albeit correctly) that I am teaching English illegally and will not let me in.
So, the plan (at the moment at least) is that when my sixty day visa I will get this week expires at the end of May, I will go traveling outside of Taiwan one last time. I am thinking about going abroad for a week to either Singapore, or flying to Hong Kong, then taking a train out to somewhere extremely remote/random in mainland China. After that week, I will come back to Taiwan and have thirty days until I have to leave the country again. So, it would appear that I am coming home around the last week of June or the first week of July. Coming home the last week of June is probably the best thing to do so that I will be home in time for the Fourth of July - which is when all of my relatives migrate to the beach/my neck of the woods in South Carolina.
Photolog Update
Day Hike: Linguang (14 pictures) view
Justin wanted me to take him on one of my "famous adventures". So, we went for a hike on this mountain just outside of Taipei. It started out normal, until we found ourselves in a cemetery.
Taipei Zoo (18 pictures) view
David, Justin, and I went to the Taipei zoo for a fun little Sunday afternoon.
Seven Months (this is really rambly, sorry about that)
I just realized, after posting this, that yesterday, March 20th, marked the seventh month I have been here. That means I have three months left here. I am well over the half-way mark, which is funny because I have gotten so used to living here that I forgot that I am going home and there was, at some stage, indeed a half-way mark. So much has happened in the last seven months that I feel as though I have been in Taiwan for years and years. Wow oh wow. Seven months. That simply makes no sense to me. I remember when I first got here and I couldn't wait until it had been a month so I could break my previous record of time spent outside of the States. It seems like as soon as I hit that mark, the fact that I am American and not in my own country completely slipped my mind. That is not to say that there were not tons of times when I really wanted to go home, but even then "home" had already become such a foreign concept that I am not sure I really knew what I was thinking. This is a really neat feeling. I guess I have proven to myself that no matter where I am, I can be happy. At the same time, this had made me realize that everywhere I live has its own little presence, and it's up to me to make the best of it. neat.
1) I have never ever had an interest in Japan, for no apparent reason. Though, a few months ago, I was listening to these two girls speaking Japanese and admitted that it is a really cool sounding language. Then, just recently, like within the past couple of weeks, I have been having weird urges to learn Japanese. So, I sort of regret going to Japan when I didn't have any interest in it, but oh well. I am young and have tons of traveling and language to learn ahead of me.