Lost in Translation..

Jet lag. An aspiring writer's best friend...

It's been over 12 hours since I set foot in Chiang Kaishek International Airport after a seemingly endless journey. Paranoia over DVT, a selection of decent movies to distract me and the fact I'm not much of a good flyer have all taken the tole on me. My only respite was the hour-long stopover in Bangkok, where I was greeted by rows of cute and colourful elephant statues and endless supplies of dried fruit packs.

How I envied my partner's ability to get some sleep on the plane. By the time breakfast was served, my mental capacities were negligible and, due to confusing the words' Chinese' and 'cold', I was faced with an uninspiring rice and chicken stodge and a pile of green beans swimming in sesame oil. Cursing myself, I poked at my 'porridge' while Sander tucked into sausages, an omlette and a nice creamy yoghurt.

Arriving in Taiwan was somewhat surreal and conjured up memories of my arrival in Beijing Capital Airport several years ago during my year studying in the mainland. All of a sudden I was surrounded by posters of beautiful bright-eyed Taiwanese people and characters which seemed to almost jump out at me while I tried, and failed, to get my brain in working order again.

After clearing customs and the baggage hall, we made our way out to the arrivals lounge where we were met by our driver. It was good to know Sander had been able to sort transport out for us prior to arrival as neither of us had the coherency to do so. I let myself drift off into sleep as we made our way towards Hsinchu...

Moments later, or so it seemed, I woke up as we were nearing our hotel, taking in the sights and sounds of the bustling city. The car pulled into the drive in front of the hotel, where we were greeted warmly by some of the staff who were, to put it lightly, very service-oriented. After exchanging greetings and money, I was introduced to the reception staff. Sander had spent several months living in this very hotel so he knew many of the receptionists by name and it seemed that my name was rather well-known too! Struggling to remember even the most basic Chinese, I thanked one of the ladies for the cute little chicken she presented me with (this year being the Year of the Chicken).

As our room was not yet ready, we left our sizeable luggage at the reception and made our way into Hsinchu City in search of two important things : food and adapters for our laptops. The first was satisfied with a BBQ chicken sandwich courtesy of the local Subway while the other took a little longer and some originality on Sander's behalf (who proceeded to draw a power convertor when language barriers presented themselves).

With exhausation beginning to set it, we made our way back to the hotel to catch a couple of hours' sleep. While trying to adapt oneself to the local timezone is important, our bodies just refused to listen to that advice and we woke up a few hours later refreshed and a little more human. After catching a movie on HBO (Timeline, featuring the ever-dashing Gerard Butler's sexy Scottish accent), we made our way to the nearest '7-11' to stock up on snack food and then stopped by the hotel's KTV bar to make use of the free drink coupons we'd received.

A diet Cola and some music videos later, I found myself back in the hotel room booting up the laptop..

Tomorrow's another day and it seems like it will be a wet and educational one as Typhoon Longwang is making its way across the island in our general direction. I wonder what my first typhoon experience will bring me...

K.