Hotpots and Buses

STEADY STATE

My Taiwan life is slowly being established, and I do think this is more or less what life here will feel like for the next six months. :-)

Weekday mornings, I attend school from 10:20am until 1:10pm. By the time class is dismissed, Michelle and I are hungry and ready for late lunch. We'll meet-up with Jen and Heidi and whoever they feel like bringing to have lunch around the campus.

Weekday afternoons and nights, I'll do my homework and eat dinner with my housemates (unless there are plans to meet up with other Filipino-Chinese peeps.)

Weekends, I try to go out and visit places in Taiwan with other people. It's also housework day.
Last weekend, I went to IKEA and Daiso and Muji to buy stuff for my room. (I want to go back and buy curtains!!)


HOTPOT

Last Saturday, Ah-ming's sister brought us to a hotpot place for lunch. The cool thing is that the place is directly at the back of our house. So, I just need to go to the adjacent street behind our home to eat yummy hotpot! :-)

Here's a "before" photo:

**Side note: Stef, you see how pandas are everywhere here?!

And here's an "after" photo (can you tell how much I love it?):

A hotpot meal costs NT$100 (around Php150) and you can eat all the rice you can eat, drink all the juice you can drink, and most importantly, eat all the ice cream you can eat. There's also a cotton candy machine which you can use if you want to eat some.


BUSES

I just learned this the other day when Jen told me about it.

Ever since I've started using the buses here in Taiwan, I'm never sure when to pay for my fare. The rule of thumb I made is to pay when I get off the bus, and pay when I get on the bus ONLY IF the driver tells me to pay right away.

Apparently, the correct way has been staring me in the face the whole time. Every bus has 3 or 4 of these signs in them; and the signs basically tell you when to pay.

If the 上 character in the 上下車收費 sign is lit up, then it means you have to pay when you get on the bus. On the other hand, if the 下 character is lit, then payment is made before you get off the bus. Hah!


Anyway, that's all I have for now, I'll make sure to tell everyone if I discover or learn interesting things here. For now, I need to study and do my homework - have a quiz tomorrow! >_<