Apartment Adventures

Where do I begin?  It’s hard to choose between the typhoon raging outside my window, the cockroaches infesting my bathroom, and the fascinating educational innovations to be found in this city. 

I suppose I’ll start with the most outrageous and work my way down to a relatively normal degree of outrageousness.  Thus we commence with the cockroaches.  I would like to first state that I am quite pleased with my apartment.  I have my own room, and while it’s not enormous, it’s enough space for me.  The rent is rather cheap, which appeals to my frugal nature.  We have a nice common area with a TV and a DVD player as well as ample amenities such as an iron, a microwave, and a miniscule toaster oven.

The bathroom, though, is in a rather heightened state of disrepair.  True, it still functions, and I’m only sharing it with one other person, so that in and of itself is not so bad.  However, the troubles begin when trying to close the bathroom door.  By which I mean it frequently chooses not to close.  The outside panel of the door has separated from the rest of the door, which means it sticks somewhat severely and has to be coerced into closing if you actually want to spend time in the bathroom when no one can see you.

If the troubles ended there, I wouldn’t complain much.  It’s not a challenging fix; our landlord will take care of it for us.  However, once you manage to satisfactorily shut the door, don’t think you’ll be treated to a hot shower.  Or even a cold shower.  In fact, your shower will inevitably be tepid on the cool side.  No matter how long the water runs or where you put the spigot on the temperature scale, the water only comes out at one temperature.

Now, if you don’t mind the tepid water, that’s fantastic.  But don’t think you’ll be able to shower like a normal person, either.  If you’ve ever seen European showerheads, you know that they attach to the wall of the shower, but you can easily remove them and fling them about at your will.  On the other hand, if you’d like to shower like an American, you still have the option of showering with the showerhead attached to the wall so that your hands are free.  In my bathroom in Taiwan, though, this is not the case.  Yes, we have a European-style showerhead.  Yes, it has a clip that attaches it to the wall.  No, the clip is not in one piece and no, the showerhead will not stay on the wall.  Which means we have to hold the showerhead ourselves every time we want to shower.

But the coup goes to the cockroaches that live in the air vent.  Whenever we turn the lights on in the bathroom, we are greeted by a cacophonous clattering of exoskeletons and legs from the ceiling and occasionally a dismembered cockroach leg or two falling down from the vent.  I’ve already sprayed the vent, which apparently was not enough of an impetus to make them go away.  I thought loud noises scared them off for a while, too, so whenever I heard them I would tell them to shove off.  Unfortunately, this has also failed to keep the bathroom cockroach-free.

I remain optimistic that the door, the lack of hot (or cold) water, and the showerhead will all be dealt with by our landlord in due time.  I also hope that “due time” is not actually “three months from now.”  However, I’m not sure what to do about the cockroaches.  I suppose we could attempt to find an exterminator, but I’m not sure the problem is relevant enough on this island nation to warrant an exterminator.  I wonder if this is a normal level of cockroach infestation for an apartment in a subtropical climate and if we should just get used to it or launch a full-scale cockroach genocidal offense.

On the scale of the slightly less absurd, I have been here less than a week and I am already experiencing my first Taiwanese typhoon.  I should revise that; I am experiencing my first typhoon ever.  Upon being hit by a typhoon, I realized I didn’t actually know what the technical definition of a typhoon was.  A wikipedia search later, I found out it was simply a hurricane in Asia, another name for a tropical cyclone.  Since my current location is in a port city on an island, this has resulted in high winds and quite a lot of rain.  Every once in a while, I hear the wind pick up and whistle through the wind tunnel created by the proximity of the buildings to one another and the narrowness of the alley that my apartment looks out on.

Being subtropical, Taiwan doesn’t really get snow, and so the poor, deprived Taiwanese children never get snow days.  However, a typhoon effectively shuts down the city, so instead of snow days, we get typhoon days.  What this means for me is that I am happily enjoying a day off (read: less than a week of orientation and I am already in dire need of a break).  Stores are closed.  No one is outside.  It’s just me in my apartment with Typhoon Morakot.  Fear not, though; apart from perhaps a few broken windows on my street (and not in my apartment), it’s just like a particularly virulent thunderstorm, though up to this point, thunderless.

So in conclusion, someday I'll have the time and evergy to deal with the cockroaches, the bathroom's disarray, and a full description of the amazing things this city does for English education.  For now, though, I think I'll just watch the storm.