raining cats and dogs; female toilets and a little lord

Bad news first: The weather here is shit! For two weeks it's raining all day long plus beeing supercold!
As I'm writing this post (on a Sunday), I'm sitting in the library because I had to flee from my frosty room. After getting up today I literally ended up lying in bed under my blanket with jacket and shoes on! And still feeling cold! The problem is that there's no heater in m room (just my air conditioner - not so helpful) and as I'm leaving soon, I don't want to invest money in any equipment. Furthermore because of the enduring rain, the humidity is really high and my windows are always fogged with water pouring down the glass. So I'm afraid stuff might mold -.- (heard of problems regarding molding cloth from former exchange students...)

Nevertheless not owning a heater is a major advantage for my energy saving challenge (did I write about this? I've challenged myself to only consume one elecricity card (500NT$/~12,50€) for the whole semester - don't ask why!) by now I'm still left with about 50NT$ for the last 2,5 weeks. I guess I'll need to travel around Taiwan in case I come short ;-)

I can't remember having ever seen someone in Germany riding a bike with an umbrella in his hand but here it's totally normal. So to integrate culturally recently I had my own first bike ride holding an umbrella. And I must have looked pretty neat: A grim-faces white guy on this ridiculously high bike seat; holding a transparent green-dotted umbrella like a lance in front of him like a knight in a duel...
However, my brakes are already shit when it's dry, but that day with wet ground + only one hand remaining to break (for the other hand was holding the umbrella) my breaking distance knew no limits!
So at the first red trafficlight that I encountered, I bumped with an amazing 2km/h speed into a scooter waiting in front of me ... really awkward situation.

Oh and by the way - my bike is a bit fucked up by now - look at that piece of shit:

Those holes in the bike basket are very convenient for carrying long umbrellas!

Nevertheless JiaXiaScha agreed to buy it for 1000NT$ when I leave. What an idiot!

Yesterday I have been to an authentic hot spring place again with good old Lee Johann Gemüsemann!
Unfortunately the pools there werea bit too hot for me (~42°!) and it was even advised to stay not longer in the water than 3min. And as the place was outdoors, I was in a constant shift between too hot and too cold -.-
Nevertheless all in all it was quite an enchanting experience again: some Taiwanese guys there had brought a tea set and invited us to drink some tea with them. And now imagine sitting there, a view of misty mountains and exotic forests around, these steaming pools emiting a mild smell of sulfur and a bunch of naked, old taiwanese guys around! That's the magic of travel! :D

And by the way, Jiaxiascha - I've just been kidding, the bike's working smooth of course ;-)

Next topic: Learning Chinese.
My motivation is highly fluctual. It's kind of funny - I sometimes make notes for things to write about in the next blogpost and while I was just about to write that I'm highly motivated again, I found a note about my frustration regarding learning Chinese. I guess its changing about once per week.
My newest investment has been a new flashcard app (Pleco, ~10€) that has really neat features and every possible way imaginable to learn flashcars such as multiple choice, fill in the blanks or just hearing the vocabulary and then having to write the character. While my reading and speaking skills are pretty okay, I found that my weak spot is listening what is probably due to me beeing a visual learner. I'll try to improve on that with Pleco.
However, last week in the middle of my frustration with Chinese I had already thought about postponing my Chinese studies and first going for becoming fluent in Spanish (these two are on my bucket list)... well, let's see what next week brings ;-)

Now a random impression from life in Taipei:

Visualization of toilets currently in use!
So if a female friends goes to the restroom and you are a creep, you can check which cabin she's using - awesome!

JiaXiaSchas birthday party!

Some updates on my lovely macroeconomics class. I decided to stick with the course as I got a B- on the midterm and feel positive that I can make an A- for the final grade if I put some effort into the remaining assignments: A presentation I had this week, that went pretty well and a literature review assignment I'm currently working on. If I can finish that in the next days I'll be only left with my Chinese class, what would be nice.
Additionally I just stumbled on the official course questionnaire, where I can evaluate my taken classes.
My first impulse was to write a really bad and slightly mean evaluation for macro - muhahahaha
But I refrained from sending it to get more time to sample the pleasures of thinking about it! >8-)
(the credit for this wonderful phrase goes to http://dict.leo.org)


Yesterday way also very nice - movie night to see good old "Little Lord Fauntleroy" (Der kleine Lord). I hadn't seen this movie for ages, at least 30 years! Very contemplative movie to watch around christmas ;-)

And guess what - I might go for playing paintball on christmas :D That's the spirit, right!?