I went to my first couch surfing event! It was a great experience : ) The guy that organized the ride has biked around the world. He's started about 10 years ago and has biked all through the Middle East and Asia; he is really incredible. There were about 20 people at the event both foreigners and Taiwanese of all ages. There was one Taiwanese lady who was in her 60s, she was in great shape! There was also a guy from Pakistan. He was on a two week business trip and had the weekends off to enjoy the city. Another guy, who I had the pleasure of talking with during the ride started his own company in Taiwan. Originally from Canada, he and his co-founder came with the idea of "making the ordinary, out of the ordinary." Take a look www.mohzy.com/world/en The ride was 20 kms total, 4 of which were up a steep hill overlooking Taipei 101 building. The hill, known as Elephant mountain, goes through the biggest cemetery in Taiwan. Most people call this path the cemetery walk. We made a circle, starting at Gongguan MRT station, up the hill and down past Taipei zoo and along the river route and then back to Gongguan. It was a nice easy ride with views of south Taipei. Afterwards, most of us stayed and ate at an outdoor mexican restaurant outside Taipei water park. It was fun chatted with the group, sharing our cultures and stories. The couch surfing community is a great way to met so many diverse people from all over the world while sharing and learning from one another.
The following Sunday, I went on my second couch surfing event, but it didn't go so well.. I fainted before we even began our ride.
Sunday, October 21st
I woke up early, made myself a nice balanced breakfast and made perfect timing on the MRT. I spotted the CS right away, the guy with the bike kinda gave it away ;) I introduced myself to a German girl, Finland guy and a Taiwanese. We all began talking and getting to know each other. The rest of the group were sitting by some benches, which we didn't see at first. It was great to see many familiar faces from last weekend. The people who didn't have bikes all went to rent ones. When we got back the group had doubled in size. We all were talking like usual. I was standing talking to a guy I had met last weekend, originally from Africa who later moved to Australia and now has been teaching in Taiwan for almost 20 years. All of a sudden, things began to get blurry around me and in the middle of a sentence I quickly went to my bike to grab my water bottle, thinking it would help. I drank my water and about 30 seconds later, I said to myself I think I need to sit down. I sat down on the bench and apologize to this girl because there really wasn't any room on the bench, but I needed to sit down. I told her I think I'm going to faint. She said, I wasn't looking too good and to continue drinking water. Not even a minute later, she is like yeah your not looking good. The guy next to her said, she needs to lie down. As he was having me lie down, I just fainted.
I could hear the group of CS around me say, open your eyes. But, all I wanted to do was lay their for awhile. They grabbed someone working at the train station and asked me if they should get an ambulance, but I just said to them, no I'm fine. The sweet girl from Germany told me my face had turned purple. We all agreed I shouldn't ride today and instead take it easy. I returned my bike with the help of the nice guy from Africa. I was bummed I couldn't go on the ride. But, it's better to be safe than push it even more. So, instead I decided to at least enough the day around Xindian, where I was, and explore the area.
As I was walking across the bridge, not to long after I left the CS group, I ran into a girl I had met through Torin (the guy I stayed with when I first arrived in Taiwan), another Hess teacher. She was with two guys. I hadn't seen her for awhile, so it was really nice to catch up with her. They invited me to explore the area with them and I gladly said yes. There was a nice trail at the other end of the bridge. Even though I should be taking it easy, I decided to join them on a hike. Initially, we didn't know where it was going to lead us or how intense it was going to be. We ended up climbing up many stairs to a summit in which you could see the whole city even Taipei 101. It was stellar!
Later that night, we were walking through the market and stopped to grab something to eat at a middle eastern vendor. A few people in back of the line called my name, it was the CS! They had finished their bike trip and were also getting something to eat at the same vendor. I had told them I stayed around the area and ended up going on a hike. They were really scared for me, I tried to tell them I felt okay. Once we got our food, we all took it back by the waterside and sat and chatted for awhile. It was relaxing.
That night I took a nice shower and went to bed early to recover from my day. I woke up on Monday feeling well. But, later that afternoon I began to get dizzy and had to take it easy. I spoke with my co-teachers and they said I could sit down and teach my classes. I decided to go to the hospital right after school to find out what the deal was. It's better to be safe than sorry especially because I fainted and that never happened before. So, immediately when I got back, I took the MRT to Far Eastern Hospital. It was unfortunate that the clinic wasn't open that evening so I had to go to the ER if I wanted to be seen today. I wanted to take care of the issue that day, so I just decided to pay the extra money (basically triple in price since I still didn't have my medical card) and go to the ER. After speaking with a doctor, we agreed I would take a blood test and have an EKG test. I waited for over a hour for the doctor to give me my results. He said everything was good, my blood test and my EKG. He gave me some medicine for dizziness and said I had motion sickness. I kept telling him I don't think it's motion sickness... But, that's what he think it is. He said he's seen many people like me before.
I'm thinking it might of been a combination of heat exhaustion (it was a really hot day on Sunday) and altitude sickness. The next few days I wasn't feeling the greatest. In the morning, I would be fine and towards the afternoon and evening, I just become dizzy : ) I took some of the medicine he gave me for two days and by Thursday I felt a lot better. I'm not sure what it was, but I hope that doesn't happen again!
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