Day 1

The experience of studying abroad is amazing. But sadly, I am a forgetful person. So, I will write my life story in Taiwan here. Dear my subscribers, I hope you can bear with me since I plan to post daily. If you’re bothered by the notifications, I do not forbid you to unsubscribe this blog :3

(I’m sorry if there are any terrible grammars or sentences because I don’t have enough time to edit them)

My first day : Tuesday, 5 September 2013

00.00 am. My friends and I were still in Taoyuan Airport because our baggage were come last. The weather was not very different from Indonesia. Three members of NTUST-ISA picked us up: mas Hadziq, mas Rama, and (sorry I forgot his name) (Most of Indonesian students here are from Java, so we used ‘Mas’ and ‘Mbak’ to call the other Indonesian :3). We went to NTUST using NTUST minibus. I noticed that the driver seat was in the LEFT side.

(no pic in airport 😦 )

00.30. We arrived at NTUST and found that some members of NTUST-ISA were already waiting for us. Mbak Vania and Mbak Nafi helped the girls registering in dormitory. The NTUST-ISA guys sold beds & pillows.

200 NTD : Dorm Registration
900 NTD : one set of bed & pillow

01.00. I got in my room. Fifth floor.
01.45. bobok

08.45. Uki (my roommate) and I hadn’t had breakfast so we took a look at foods in 7-eleven. Fortunately, we met Yogi, a new Indonesian student. He explained to us which foods are halaal and how to identify the haraam ingredients. I bought onigiri with fish & wasabi and strawberry milk tea.

39 NTD : one set of onigiri & milk tea

09.15-12.00. NTUST-ISA has scheduled and organized Indonesian students’ activity in the first week to help us to adapt this new environment. Mas Randy & Mbak Pipin guided us, The Shopping Group IV, to RT-Mart, one of supermarket here. We went there by bus 275.

riding bus 275 with friends

The prices of goods are not very different from prices in Indonesia. But most of the packs are in big sizes! For example: body soap (min 1 liter), detergent (min 2 kg). You will not find shampoo with sachet package here @.@

About 660 NTD : blanket, sandals, flip flops for clothesline, apples, detergent, etc.

12.45 pm. My friends and I went to canteen to get lunch. This time we bought food from halaal canteen. What makes this canteen unique is that the food price is decided by measuring the food mass instead of the food type. I bought some kind of “ca jamur” and cooked fish.

22 NTD : lunch (5 NTD : rice)

13.15-19.00. Mas Rendi & Mas Yusuf invited some new Indonesian students (me, mba Mona, mba Nurul, Pak Taufiq, and mas Antoni) to watch Yonex Open 2013 (badminton competition) in Xinzhuang Gymnasium. We walked to Gongguan Station (5-10 minutes from NTUST) to get MRT (about 30 minutes), got off in Xinzhuang station, and walked 5-10 minutes to Xinzhuang Gymnasium. It seemed that this competition is not very prestige so the Indonesian athletes who joining this were not so well-known.

riding MRT

I was excited when I got in because this was my first time watching international sport match. Five matches were played in the same time so it was hard to focus in just one match. Then, I was soooooo bored in the middle of the matches. In most matches who Indonesia were in, Indonesia were lost (just won once). I even tried to sleep to pay off my lack of sleep but I just couldn’t. But the last match we watched was so exciting. I could feel the high pressure atmosphere. Susanto & Rijal from Indonesia played beautifully. They fight against Korean.

Xinzhuang Gymnasium & Yonex Open Chinese Taipei 2013

Indonesian spectators were so unique among the other spectators. The usual spectators here were so calm. They gave applause if the athletes showed us such as nice technique. They did not scream except “Chayoo” with not-so-high voice. Indonesian screamed many kinds of encouraging words such as “Semangaat!”, “Ayo ayo!”, “Bisa, bisa!”, “Indonesia! *prokprok prokprok prok*”, etc. There was one Indonesian student, Taufiq, who can scream alone but the whole people in the stadium could hear him.

Korean players also scream loudly when they can attack nicely, maybe they did that to boost their mood and to scary their opponents.

70 NTD : MRT tickets (@35 NTD)
33 NTD : Dinner. I had fish sausage and apple extract drink (bought from 7-eleven).

20.00-22.00. NTUST-ISA distributed 4 free simcard for new Indonesian students! Uhwow! We just need one and NTUST-ISA gave us FOUR for FREE! Haha. But the cards haven’t been activated yet, so I still cannot get in touch with my family and friends in Indonesia.. Using campus’s WiFi need to have username & password which will be received maybe in the next 2-3 days…

FOUR simcard for FREE! Yuhuuy!