Restart

It's been around forever since I last wrote on this thing, so I'm not going to try to remember everything that's happened over the last three or so months, I'm just going to give a few highlights.

Hmmm...on New Years Eve (Not Chinese New Year) all of the exchange students went to Taipei to see Taipei 101 explode with fireworks! It was probably the coolest firework display I have EVER seen. Here's a picture (I didn't take it because I was a little stupid and forgot my camera battery at home):

Alright, other cool things I've done...

Oh! I just got off a month long break, due to Chinese New Year. Chinese New Year is the beginning of the next year according to the Lunar calendar. This year is the year of the Rabbit, so all the night markets had tons of rabbit printed sweatshirts and everything. To celebrate the Chinese New Year, everyone burns this special money (ITS NOT USABLE MONEY I SWEAR) to give to the gods, firecrackers explode EVERYWHERE at ANY TIME (the first time I heard them I thought I was getting shot at) and everyone goes to the temples to burn insense, and also burn at least 2000 lbs of god money.




God money



Last weekend, my Rotary club had a fashion show featuring some of the girl exchange students dressed in their traditional clothes. I was in it, but since America doesn't really have a traditional outfit, I had to choose between either renting a cheerleader outfit, or a Native American head dress. I chose the head dress.

School started back up last week. I can't say that I like school that much, because I'm there 50 hours a week. I got a new Chinese teacher, though, and she's so cool! I'm learning a lot from her, she's a really good teacher. My classes for this semester are pretty much the same thing, just moved around a little. Alright, that's all for now! I PROMISE to update this more!

Elections Will Be the Death of Me

So the elections for mayor and city council are this Saturday, and campaigning is in full swing. The campaigns here include, but are not limited to: Dancing dragons, confetti, people screaming and chanting, sword fighting, dancing, free food, cars that drive around BLARING music and speeches, and, of course, firecrackers. Too bad the cars and firecrackers happen at about midnight, when I'm trying to sleep. I WILL BE SO HAPPY AFTER ELECTIONS.

台中

This past month has been really, really great. I'm so happy because I can finally have decent easy conversations with people. Now when I go to night markets and people randomly talk to me, I can actually talk to them and tell them why I'm here in Taiwan, where I'm from, and what school I go to. I always get really excited when I understand what people say to me because for so long it all sounded like "fjdakfhdjaljfdkhfkdjfaiew".

Two weeks ago all of the exchange students in district 3460 went to a town called Miauli, to go to a rice farm. We learned how the rice was grown, and we walked around in the fields for a while. It was pretttyyyy gross, because there was about a foot of mud, but it was also really fun :)

School's been pretty much the same, easy and fun. Next week the students have exams for three days, so we don't have to go to school. Instead, we're going to go to Tainan, a city south of Taichung. I'm really excited, because it's the first city I'm going to go to for more than one day that's out of my district.

One thing I'm pretty bummed about is that there's school on Christmas :( I haven't been homesick at all, yet, but I'm sure that during Christmas I'm going to be missing everyone SO much. But, in February, we have two weeks off because of Chinese New Year! I'm excited to experience this new holiday, it seems awesome.

Also, I've been really missing snow, but it's also super nice to have a decent "summer". (I say "summer" because it's winter here, but the weather is way nicer than Alaska's summer was). It's actually a lot more sunny now than it was in the summer, and I go outside a lot, even though most people are freezing. I know how to use the bus system now. For the first two months I was so confused by it, and I never took busses. It's ok now, though.

So that's all for now, bye!

Double Tenth Day!

Last weekend was the 99th aniversary of Taiwans national day, which is October 10th (10/10). IT IS DIFFERENT THAN CHINA'S NATIONAL DAY BECAUSE CHINA AND TAIWAN ARE DIFFERENT PLACES. KEENAN. It was sooooooo much fun.

Saturday, the 9th, I went to a town called Nantou to a Rotary members house to make dumplings. All of the American exchange students in Taichung County came, and the Canadian, and Thai people. It was really fun, and the dumplings were delicious. I'm pretty much professional at making them now, because I make them in cooking class a lot, too. The dumplings took about a half hour to make, so the rest of the time we just hung out in the house, and talked. It was really fun.

On Sunday, it was Double Tenth Day. All of the exchange students in Taichung met at the fish market at 8:30 that morning (waaaaay too early). We left at 9 on a bus to Taipei. The bus trip took around two and a half hours, but that was fine, because all of us were just happy to see eachother and talked the entire way. We got to Taipei at around 11:30, and had Subway for lunch. Subway tastes a lot different than in America, they put this weird Korean mayonaise stuff on it...But anyways, when we were done we got out of the bus and went to join the other exchange students from all over Taiwan, because we were all going to be in the National Parade.

It was suuuuper crowded on the street, and it took forever for us to get to the other exchange students because everyone kept getting lost or distracted. Also, people kept wanting to take pictures with us. Some students had put their national costumes or dresses on, so all of the Taiwanese people kept staring, and coming up and asking for pictures. I didn't even have anything special on, just my normal clothes and an American flag, and everone wanted a picture with me. The girl from Russia, Anna, had her traditional dress on, and she had about 100 people come up and take a picture with her. It was craaaazy, but we finally made it to the other exchange students.

THERE WERE SO MANY OF THEM. There are 37 students in district 3460, my district, and around that many in the other two districts who we were joining, so altogether around 110 students. I saw the other girl from Alaska, A'lena! It was awesome to see her again. I hadn't seen her since she left with her host family at the airport.

We hung out for a while, and talked to all of the new people. Then we gathered together so all the Taiwanese people could take pictures of us. That only took about...20 minutes. EVERYONE wanted a picture of us. Then the Rotary people came and gave us this HUGE flag made up of all the country flags sewn together, and we started walking with the parade.

The parade pretty much consisted of everyone screaming their countries name, and singing their countries songs, for 5 kilometers. I'm pretty sure nobody could talk the next day, but it was awesome. I'll put pictures up later, when I'm back at home. Then we had dinner, and went back home, to Taichung.

Alright, so enough about that weekend. So earlier I said that my friend Hebe was going to take me to Fung Jia Night Market on like...I think it was October 1st. That was really, really fun. Hebe is so nice, even if she can't speak English. I'm starting to understand and speak enough Chinese to actually communicate with people, which is nice. We took a bus there right after school, and then met her two friends there. They don't go to my school, but they were awesome. They spoke English, so when I didn't understand, they could translate for me. We pretty much just bought a ton of food, and ate it all. I tried rice fried in pigs blood, and oh my God it was delicious. They dip it in spices or something, and yuuummmmm. We stayed there for like...5 hours. Fung Jia is the biggest night market in Taichung, so there's SOOO much to see.

The next day (October 2nd) I went to Tiger City (This huuuuuge mall) with Kristian, from Denmark, Benjamin, from Germany, and Hugo, who's Kristian's Taiwanese classmate. We walked around the mall for a little bit, but then they wanted to go to the arcade. So we went there, and that was fun, until I tried this RIDICULOUSLY HARD dog walking game and ended up killing the dog. Then we walked to Fung Jia Night Market and hung out there for a while, and went home.

Sorry the days are so mixed up here. I'm just writing things down as I remember them. So right now, my host mom is in Shanghai, China, and my host dad is in Taipei, so I'm staying with my host mom's friend. She owns a really nice Japanese restaurant, and since I don't have school this week (everyone is taking exams, hahahahhaha :D) I'm working at the restaurant. AT ROTARY PEOPLE: Don't worry, I'm not getting paid. Hahahaha. So at the restaurant I cook bread, make iced coffee, salad, and serve drinks. It's really, really fun and I like it a lot.

The people I'm staying with at the moment have a son, Max, who's 12, and a daughter, Emma, who's 10. Max is really into computer games, so I don't see him a lot. I talk a lot with Emma though. She is SO cute. I call her Mei Mei, which means little sister. Her English is amazing, but she always tries to speak in Chinese first, so I learn a lot from her. She is seriously the cutest 10 year old I have ever seen.

Tomorrow I'm going to go to a waterpark with Jenny, from Mexico. I'm really excited because I love waterparks. And it's waaaaay to hot here. Apparently, it's "getting colder" though. I don't notice a difference. My host mom always tells me to wear a jacket when I go to school, but I never do, because if I put one on, I'd get heat stroke or something.

Oh and hey, if you want me to send you a letter or something, just comment on this blog thing, and I'll send you one for sure! Leave my your address if you haven't already given it to me.

That's all I'm going to write for now, sorry about the mixed up dates. Oh, and here's a conversation I had with my friend, Drew, back in Alaska:

Drew 2:57pm

like talk about being amazing!!! i bought $150 rock revival jeans for $43.

Me 2:57pm

i love you.

2:57pm

lol there like waist size 28 so there skinnys on me!! they look illin

2:58pm

iiiiilove you hahaa


this is an amazing conversation with a straight guy

2:58pm

but my best outfit is probably my zipper pants my black creative rec shoes a low v neck some suspenders a leather jacket and gelled hair

haha i know right you wont find it anywhere else.
 
2:59pm
 
this is fantastic
 
2:59pm
 
im like fredmeyers you will find it here.
 
2:59pm
 
i'm putting this conversation on my blog

So...

I haven't done an actual post here yet. Well I have, but they haven't really said anything about what I've been doing or anything. So, I'll write a really long one about my first 5 and a half weeks on the island of Taiwan.

When I first got off the plane with A'lena, another girl from Alaska, the first thing I noticed was that the airport didn't look foreign. I mean, I don't know, I guess I expected it to look WAY different than Alaska's airport, I have no idea why. But yeah. Then, we went through customs just fine, even though I was terrified something would go wrong and I would have to live in the airport all of my life. We walked through the gate, and A'lena was immediatley surrounded my tons of family, all screaming and cheering, with a huge banner for her. I stood there, really confused, until a group of three people walked up with a sign in Spanish that had my picture on it, and they said "you look different than your picture." The group of people was my host mom, Serena, my host dad, Eddie, and Serena's dad...I call him Agong (Grandpa. He's so cool. I watch baseball with him).

We took all my stuff, which included a longboard that everyone kept staring at, outside. I thought, wow, the temperature isn't that bad. I was only outside for around 3 seconds, though, before I got into a nice, air conditioned van, so I had no idea what 10 minutes outside could do.

I slept the entire car ride home, and when we got home we went to a nice dinner. The next week we just went around Taichung, and I got to know my family. They are soooo cool. I love them so much. But, more about them later. The second weekend I was there I went to a kid named Johno's house. He's American too. Then some Brazillians came over, and we went bowling with them and one of their host brothers, and the brothers friends. It was super fun! I started school the second week I was here. My first week of school was just a huge waste of time. I sat in the library four hours a day, because the rest of the students were taking back to school exams (OH MY GOD). Then that weekend I went out with my host parents. Then next wek school was a little better, I actually had some classes, but I was still spending a lot of time in the library. That weekend I went to my host mom's sisters house for a barbeque. She had two kids, and they were so cute. We got back on Sunday, and then I went to an indie festival with Jordan, from Canada. That was really fun, and the music was awesome!

The next couple of weeks I just got adjusted to school, and the routine of things. Some things are the same, and some things are VERY different. Like the mopeds. There are about 45728579234895723489 mopeds on every street, and they are completely crazy when they drive. Also, the food is really different. And, the night markets are amazing. Someone bought me a dress at one for NT$100, which is around US$3.

Last week, it was the Moon Festival, or the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was on a Wednesday, so we didn't have school. That week I was staying at my mom's friends house with a girl from Mexico, Jenny, because Jenny's parents had to go to America, and she didn't want to stay at some strangers house alone. But, anyways, my mom picked us up from their house, took us to a resort for the day, and then that night we went to my host dad's Rotary club (not my sponsoring Rotary) and had a barbeque with everyone. Barbeques here are not hot dogs, hamburgers, and chicken, but instead squid, chicken neck, and shellfish. I kind of prefer American barbeques better...but it was really fun. That night we went back to my mom's friends house, and I stayed there the rest of the week. On Sunday, it was fall orientation! We were supposed to have it the weekend before, for two days, and with a TON of exchange students, but because of the typhoon, it was delayed, and only the exchange students from Taichung and the surrounding areas came. It was still SUPER fun. I met so many new people. There were 37 exchange students, from soooo many different countries, like: America, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Equador, Colombia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Korea, and Russia. There are probably more, but I don't rememeber. Everyone is really nice! I love exchange students!

So this week I've been playing basketball after school with 4 kids from my homeroom class. I'm finally starting to become friends with them. The first month of school I was kind of just a zoo animal to them. They would say hi, and talk to me, but only because I looked different. I would try and talk to them, and they would just be baffled and stare. Now, some of them are actually trying to be friends with me, which is nice. I'm glad to have some local friends. Tonight, I'm going to the biggest night market in Taichung (it's called Fung Jiao) with one of my school friends, Hebe. I hope it will be fun!

So more about my host parents: My mom, Serena, works for my sponsoring Rotary club, I think. At least, she spends her work day in an office with the Rotary logo on the door, and she's always doing things for Rotary. My dad, Eddie, works for a company that makes power tools, I think. Or maybe I'm just getting that confused with Harry Potter. But, it doesn't really matter. They have on son, named Johnson, but he's in New Mexico right now, so I'm an only child. I don't mind it though, Serena and Eddie are great company. I don't spend a lot of time at home with them, but that's because we're hardly ever at home. We go out to dinner almost every night, and they are always taking me random places. I love it! Being busy all the time doesn't give me a lot of time to get homesick.

Now, a little more about school. My classes are awesome, and easy. It's really nice. I'm taking sewing, Chinese, art, swimming, PE, desert cooking, Chinese cooking, felting (?), caligraphy, and piano. I understand very little of what the teachers are saying, but these classes are kind of easy to understand if you watch what everybody else is doing. I'm actually learning a lot. My Chinese gets better everyday, and I'm starting to be able to form sentances, like "Can I go to (blank)" and "I want (blank)" and "where is the (blank)". It's pretty cool!

So, that's all for now! I hope I'll actually keep this up, but I don't know. Bye!