Foray into the Taipei bus system

The route I picked out yesterday did indeed work like a charm, the only downside is that it involves a fair amount of walking. About ten minutes from the bus stop to the actual language center. But looking at the map, I think it would be about ten minutes from the MRT and/or the bus stop on Fuxing South Rd. too. The bus also drops me off a bit of a walk from the apartment as well, but really not that bad at all, maybe ten minutes as well.

I'm also taking a look at some other routes that will get me to MRT stations, since I still need to get myself over to the immigration office and apply for my ARC. It appears that I can take a free shuttle to and from the bus stop at Yong He City Hall, or I can take the 214 bus, and get to Dingxi Station (free shuttle) or Guting Station (214). The really fun thing about this whole exploration is that Google maps in fact has real-time information on each and every bus stop and MRT stop here in Taipei, all you have to do is zoom in and click on the little icons. Once I figured out how it worked and how the bus system was laid out, I realized I could get myself pretty much anywhere if I need to.

Something I've noticed here is that whenever I complete a transaction and a clerk or a shopowner gives me something, like a receipt, they present it with both hands. I remember in Korea that this was a sign of politeness, but in China there was never anything like that.

I'm also starting to pick up slight differences in the Mandarin spoken here as opposed to the standard spoken in the mainland. For instance, people here often add the modifier 'man' to things, for instance, 'man hao,' meaning 'really good.' On the mainland, I don't remember hearing that particular modifier very often. Also, I hear a lot of people prefix each sentence with 'ah,' which I think is a carryover from Taiwanese, and a characteristic of Cantonese as well. And finally, people tend not to distinguish between the zh, ch, sh and z, c, s sounds. So “是" (shi, to be) becomes "si" and "这" (zhe, this) becomes ze. My host family in China had an accent much like this, but I venture to say that it's even stronger here. Spencer mentioned to me a couple days ago that he's been having a bit of trouble with the accent after such a long time in Beijing.

Supposedly there's supposed to be an air raid drill this afternoon around 2:30. On the expat forum that I'm a member of, people were saying it's no big deal, but that it's just easier to make sure you're not on the roads at 2:30, otherwise you'll end up having to stand around for half an hour in the blazing sun. So I'm debating whether to go to the immigration office today and try out the bus system some more, or wait until tomorrow when I'll be in Taipei already for my orientation at Tai Da.