The eye of the tigre…

Yesss....I am back in Taipei again :). Actually, I have already been here for one week now and it surprised me how quickly I got accustomed to the Taiwanese way of life again. That probably started in Bangkok when I went to the toilet at the airport and was greeted by my fellow passengers by a lot of rattling and ‘nose clearing’ noises. At that moment there was no way back….Taipei here I come...haha :D

The first couple of days I stayed with friends of mine....very nice, not only to catch up, but also because from that ‘base’ onwards I was able to arrange a few things. Trivial things such as a phone subscription and a subway card, but also my Chinese classes; the reason for me coming back to Taiwan in the first place. I already started with my classes and I am not disappointed with how it’s going so far. In fact, when I left Taiwan last year my goal was to try to maintain my Chinese at the same level, but now I must conclude that I have actually improved quite a lot :). Up till the point that discussing things such as different types of goldfish, the nasty French chauvinism and the fact that bapao is supposedly a Taiwanese word (haha...LOL), doesn’t prove to be a problem anymore. Still a long way to go though, until I speak fluent Chinese...

Besides getting settled in, studying Chinese and (trying to) work on my thesis, I did a lot of fun things such as inhaling stinky tofu scents at the Shilin night market. Together with Simone I also went to kickbox training on the middle of Chiank Kai Shek memorial square (a smaller, Taiwanese version of the Chinese Tianmensquare). On our way to the square an ‘eye of the tiger / Rocky Balboa’ feeling got a hold of me....I could see myself doing the magnificent Bruce Lee kick and a Jackie Chan killer summersault ‘killing’ the numerous villains attacking me, whilst casually removing a sweaty tuft of hair from my eyes. Jaaaaa....the picture was complete....in my mind at least. The reality...was a bit different. ‘Training’ meant doing shitloads of pushups, working on your abs without the help of the abmaster2000 and kicking your opponent while he/she had some kind of pillow in front of him/her. Oww, and I would almost forget….it was about 32 degrees and very humid. Pfffuuuu....at some point during the training I came to the conclusion that it was fun to do but that my body had not yet recovered from the desk-sitting marathons I regularly held the past 12 months. Therefore, the outcome of the kickbox training was me walking as an old man and moaning like Serena Williams hitting an ace when sitting down the next couple of days after the training...sore muscles....ongehoord!

By the way, with the help of a friend I have also found a nice apartment here. It is close to the university I studied last year, and situated on the side of a mountain resulting in a nice view over Taipei city. I have added some pics for you to get an impression of my new digs.

Then finally a small update on the Holland Heineken House. I read somewhere that every crewmember is getting at least one ticket to one of the games, but they won’t tell you which one in advance of course. Huuuu....I hope I get a ticket for swimming or cycling (sprint) :D. Update 2: a good friend informed me that Jan Smit is also coming to perform at the HHH and she advised me to hide in my laundry room and hope it would be well isolated. Haha. I am actually more afraid of Guus Meeuwis with his brabantse nachten...whaaaa.

If you want to reach me via telephone...don’t try my Dutch number as it’s temporarily disconnected. Instead dial this number: +886955516427

That’s it for today...have to go get my new transportation device: a scooter. Thanks for all your messages...really cool...hope we stay in touch!

Zaijian,

Mike

P.S. 1: If you still don’t get what I mean with the ‘eye of the tiger feeling’ after my description, check out this link: http://tw.youtube.com/watch?v=LrOawFUdFfU )
P.S. 2: Oop...heb alles meegekregen natuurlijk...volhouden, laat je niet kisten!