After Arrival - EAP to do list

Many of the students on EAP are Taiwanese, so there are many-a-relatives to go and see. Personally, my cousin's drove to the airport during the biggest typhoon of the summer to pick me up. If you do not have relatives here, thats ok too!

YOUR NTU BUDDY
NTU assigns a "buddy" or volunteer to help you get things done and even pick you up from TPE airport. If you are lucky, you'll get an incredibly active volunteer who will alway see if you need anything. In some cases (or many cases), the volunteer is very busy and you won't see him/her very often. I actually borrowed someone else's volunteer to get my registration stuff done.

TO DO LIST:

1. Get your room. With the money you were wise enough to get before arriving to Taiwan, $1000 NTD will go to the key deposit. For this process, you need to give the person $1000 NTD, fill out and sign some paperwork, AND give them a passport photo. For girls, the office is on the 9th floor (no guys allowed, not even a dad).

2. Clean your room. The international student dorm is considered the best on campus. Each room has its own air conditioning, so that's incredibly helpful during the humid September. One thing they do not tell you is that when you want to move in... you must clean your own room first. The school does not clean the room for your arrival. In most cases it will be incredibly dusty with some dead/alive bugs because it has not been lived in for 8 months. On average, people spend the first day cleaning.

3. Buy a matress. Yes, you must buy something to put on top of the wood where the bed is. My cousin took me to a supermarket and I spent about $60 US on a very comfortable foam thing. Prices vary and you can get one for as little as $20 US, but remember you'll be sleeping on it for 4 months- a year, so get one you can actually sleep on.

4. Go Register and get your student ID. This is a complicated and tedious process that your volunteer will help you with. It's tedious because you must go to 3 different places, pay for different things, get a stamp at each office, then return to the first one to get your ID. This is when you pay for dorm fees ($7000 NTD), internet fees ($600 NTD), and other misc things you might need to handle. All the forms are in chinese, so if you're like me and can't really read forms, then...again... that's why your volunteer is there. In the end, you need to give the school another passport photo in order to get your ID.
HINT: get registration done on a day when the rest of the regular NTU freshman ARE NOT supposed to come...otherwise...long lines

5. Go out and enjoy Taipei!!! after you get everything done and get unpacked, there is a week of free time before classes start. ENJOY THIS FREEDOM!!! Go everywhere and go crazy. Don't forget to buy a "jie yun" or metro card. Students get a lower rate so flash your ID when you go buy one. It costs $500 NTD (100 for the card, 400 on the card). You'll get the $100 back if you return the metro card before you leave Taiwan. Soooo go out, have fun, and see the sights.