Episode I: First day in Kaohsiung

(26/09/2006)

My name is Adam. I come from Inowroclaw. It's a small city in the center of Poland with 80,000 inhabitants. Located 200 kilometers west from Polish capitol - Warsaw. Inowroclaw used to be well-known from salt mines which had been closed some time ago. Now there are many sanatoriums, spas and big glass factory. Inowroclaw is my hometown but I have spent last 5 years in city of Torun, where my beloved university is.
Torun is famous for being home to great astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus who provided the first modern formulation of a heliocentric theory of the solar system in 1543.
I have met my best friends in Torun and memories from that place will never fade away and will forever stay in my heart.

I've got graduated from university in July 2006. My field is journalism and media. I'm very passionate about Polish literature, movies from 70's, hard rock music and football, better known here as soccer. After my first 4 weeks in Asia I've already started to follow baseball.
I have spent some time abroad, before coming to Kaohsiung, but never outside of Europe. I have been to Scotland, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Czech, Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and England. My favorite places abroad are Glasgow (in southern Scotland) and Valencia (in eastern Spain). Both cities are ports, exactly like Kaohsiung but not that big and crowded.

Why did I come here? Because I am taking part in the project held between Kaohsiung City Government and international student's organization - AIESEC. I'm a trainee among 3 other young people from Japan, Russia and Italy. My place of work here, is Information Office in City Hall. That also means I'm spending time in Kaohsiung Municipal Film Archive and here, at Kaohsiung Broadcasting Station as branches of my home-department. I'm willing to stay in Taiwan for one year.

My air travel to Taiwan took around 19 hours including visits to 4 different airports. Warsaw, Frankfurt, Hong Kong and finally Kaohsiung in the afternoon of August 29th 2006.

Immediately after I have left the airport I was struck by humidity at the level I've never experienced before. Highway seemed to be a hot pan, with me on it like a piece of tofu. Taxi driver chewing betelnut and smiling at the same time. Everything looked much different at this part of the world. At least for me. Surrounding people, architecture, plants, even sunlight. I felt like I was discovering something absolutely new and mysterious. Like beginning a new life.
Every day here is a blessing. Every day I learn something and gather lifetime experience. It's still just my first month here but I already know I will never forget it. And I hope people here will not forget me.

If you like to read some of my film reviews, which I have written for Kaohsiung Film Archive click here.