My New Year's was a bit different from what I'm used to this year... of course. For one, again, I had to go to school, but that wasn't so bad because I only had 4 classes, one of which was spent in the library, one in actual class and two in a yoga class. That was pretty interesting apart from the teacher yelling at me, Julie and Imme in Chinese. My legs hurt from that. One of the last moves she made us do was laying on our backs and placing our feet above our heads. She said if we couldn't do all the way to our heads, it was okay, but we were doing it and we weren't hurting, so we ended up surprising everyone with doing it the whole way! I had no idea I was so good at yoga.
After school I had Chinese class, which ws weird because we had already taken our exam and we were back in our old classes yesterday. Turns out Rotary thinks we cheated so we had to retake the exam. Well, I can say honestly that I didn't cheat, but there were some languages going around the classroom that could have been sharing answers. Unfortunately, we didn't get to redo the speaking part. But this exam was a lot better than the first one, I actually knew most of the answers.
After that, I went to Taipei 101 to get a good seat to watch the fireworks with my friends Alyssa (USA), Josette (USA), Boyce (USA), Miguel (Mexico), Corinna (Germany), Rebekka (USA) and Aurelia (France). the MRTs were already packed and it was only about 5:30! We managed to find a good space and kill 6 1/2 hours of time until the fireworks started at midnight. I think someone told me it was the biggest fireworks display in the world, they used 22 000 fireworks, it was pretty impressive! I have a video that isn't on my computer yet, but hopefully I'll get my facebook videos and pictures updated this weekend. We have today off school which is great because I didn't get home until 3:00 this morning. Miguel took us to the bus stop, but the streets were so packed that no busses were coming so me and Rebekka took a map and tried to walk to an MRT station closer to our homes. Ugh! It was like arguing with Chelsea! We found one on the brown line which is like an hour ride from where we live and we didn't want to experience Zhongxiao Fuxing and Taipei Main Station, which are the busiest stations anyway, on the most crowded night of the year! So we found a bus stop where our bus stops, but the bus never came and after some arguging, I told her we ahd 3 options: 1) We wait for the bus 2) We go back to the MRT station and brave the transfer stops or 3) We find a taxi to take us home. After about 5 minutes, she finally decided to try to find a taxi, but most of them were full and even when we found empty ones, greedy Asians jumped into them before we could reach for the door.
In the end, we decided to go to the MRT, by then it was almost 2:00. In the end, it was a bit later after the fireworks so it wasn't as busy, but Zhongxiao Fuxing was pretty bad. We ended up meeting Dan (USA) at Taipei Main, he lives at the same stop that I live at, so he made sur we got on the train and off at our stop. Like I said, It was about 3:00 by the time I came home. My host mom left a little nightlight plugged in at the door because all the lights were turned off so I could see my way to my room. My host dad came out of his room to make sure it was me and that I had a good time. I have to say, I only have 1 year in Taiwan, I don't regret going to 101 at all. I think I would have regretted it if I didn't! My first New Year's in a big city! Haha, when it's midnight back home they might show the other New Year's celebrations in different countries, look out for Taiwan!
Thursday, December 31, 2009
Monday, December 28, 2009
Christmas/School Birthday/Exam
Hello again. So, I promised I'd write a little about Christmas, so here it is: Christmas Eve was pretty uneventful. I went to school, as usual, then went to Chinese class after. We only spent half the time actually learning Chinese and we had a party for the other half complete with bubble tea and secret Santa. We drew names about a month ago and I got Chris, from Germany. I had absolutely no idea what to get him, so the day before, I ended up going to Carrefour and getting him a nightlight, erasers shaped like peanuts with smiley faces, candy and a bar of soap. Oh, and he said he wanted a bracelet, so I got him one of those too. I used what German still remains in my brain to write him a card. He actually liked it, so that was a nice surprise. My secret Santa was a USer named Dan. He got me a notebook and a pen. As if I don't have 8 other notebooks. Oh well. He explained later that he had no idea what to get me, so he asked another American, Cory, for ideas and Cory said I was the only person in the class harder to buy something for than Myles, who is the Hawaiian. Enough said. Then he suggested he get me a notebook because I like to write. Sheesh. I write them one play and all of a sudden I can't stop writing. So I lied and said I loved it. But let this be a lesson to you all. I don't need anymore notebooks!! I also got to talk to my real parents, sisters and Taiwanese girl, Lisa, that my family's hosting back home.
Again, I had school on Christmas Day. We were supposed to have a sports competition, but it was raining, so that was cancelled. I was allowed to hang out in the library with Julie and Imme, then we all brought chocolate from our countries to bribe the head librarian to let us go home early. It worked and we were allowed to leave at 3:00. I watched Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials until my host dad came home. It's kind of funny. I always know when my host mom's away when I see what's for breakfast. For instance, Christmas morning there was cake on the breakfast table when I woke up. When I got home from school, I ate some chocolate, then got full and my host dad came and told me it was time to eat and I told him I was full, but he said that he made hot dogs especially for me. Which is so cool because back home when my dad's in charge of dinner, it's hot dogs or KD. So I ate one to humour him. That was my Christmas dinner.
The next day was my school birthday. My class was selling waffles, chow mein, dongwa tea and pop. They also had a game which was a big piece of cardboard covered in big hole and supported by some desks that my classmates went under and stuck their heads through and the person had a whack them with an inflatable baseball bat. Kind of like mole whacker, but with people. It was kind of funny, I got a video that I still have to put up on facebook. I helped make the chow mein and sell waffles. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time I got home at 3:00 (I had been there since 7:30am) I was so tired and I fell asleep. I woke up at 6:00 because my phone was ringing, I felt bad because it was my friend Yuen who wanted me to come to the church for their Christmas service that started at 6:00 and it takes me about an hour to get to the church, so I had to say no. I ended up staying at home and watching Hairspray with my host mom.
Monday was the Chinese exam. This determines which class we'll be in for the second semester. But what bugged me was that the exam wasn't written by our teachers, it was written by the university. So I assumed they would stick with the first 6 units, like they said they would. They didn't. There was a comprehension part and a writing part and they both had words I had never seen before. So that was hard. Then there was a listening part that went completely over my head and an oral part. The teacher I was talking to obviously didn't like me. She kept telling me to say more. We had to read a sentence in Chinese, then say what we like and why and she kept telling me to say more and then we had to describe a picture and I must of told her my life story in Chinese and she still wasn't satisfied. She said my pronounciation was very good than gave me 7 points. Out of 15. Not even a pass. We don't find out the results until Thursday. I was talking to other exchange students and they all thought it was ridiculous too. So maybe there's hope I won't be in the dumb class yet. Ugh, I'm freaking out a bit. I'll be glad when I know which class I'm in. The first exam we took, we knew the results by 8:00 that same night.
Oh a happier note, I'm really bonding with my classmates. There was a situation with some Japanese students that visited and they were paired with everyone in our class except me and this other girl, Se-Ming. She was upset because she wouldn't get to know any of the Japanese students and I said it was okay because I'm from 10 times as far as the Japanese and I'd hang out with her and we had a lot of fun! She sits next to me in class and she's one of the only ones who talks to me in Chinese which I like because I'm tired of being treated like a baby and being spoken to in English all the time by my classmates. Also, when I leave the class to go to the library for my free classes, they all say 'Bye, Mo-Li!' and today one of the guys said 'Don't miss me too much!' I just smiled and waved. And also today during naptime, one guy started belching and then someone else did and we were all laughing, it was so much fun! Because they wouldn't stop until the teacher came in to start class!
Anyway, that's about all I have to report. I'll let you know of my test scores when they arrive. Fingers crossed!
Again, I had school on Christmas Day. We were supposed to have a sports competition, but it was raining, so that was cancelled. I was allowed to hang out in the library with Julie and Imme, then we all brought chocolate from our countries to bribe the head librarian to let us go home early. It worked and we were allowed to leave at 3:00. I watched Vicar of Dibley Christmas specials until my host dad came home. It's kind of funny. I always know when my host mom's away when I see what's for breakfast. For instance, Christmas morning there was cake on the breakfast table when I woke up. When I got home from school, I ate some chocolate, then got full and my host dad came and told me it was time to eat and I told him I was full, but he said that he made hot dogs especially for me. Which is so cool because back home when my dad's in charge of dinner, it's hot dogs or KD. So I ate one to humour him. That was my Christmas dinner.
The next day was my school birthday. My class was selling waffles, chow mein, dongwa tea and pop. They also had a game which was a big piece of cardboard covered in big hole and supported by some desks that my classmates went under and stuck their heads through and the person had a whack them with an inflatable baseball bat. Kind of like mole whacker, but with people. It was kind of funny, I got a video that I still have to put up on facebook. I helped make the chow mein and sell waffles. It was a lot of fun, but I was so tired by the time I got home at 3:00 (I had been there since 7:30am) I was so tired and I fell asleep. I woke up at 6:00 because my phone was ringing, I felt bad because it was my friend Yuen who wanted me to come to the church for their Christmas service that started at 6:00 and it takes me about an hour to get to the church, so I had to say no. I ended up staying at home and watching Hairspray with my host mom.
Monday was the Chinese exam. This determines which class we'll be in for the second semester. But what bugged me was that the exam wasn't written by our teachers, it was written by the university. So I assumed they would stick with the first 6 units, like they said they would. They didn't. There was a comprehension part and a writing part and they both had words I had never seen before. So that was hard. Then there was a listening part that went completely over my head and an oral part. The teacher I was talking to obviously didn't like me. She kept telling me to say more. We had to read a sentence in Chinese, then say what we like and why and she kept telling me to say more and then we had to describe a picture and I must of told her my life story in Chinese and she still wasn't satisfied. She said my pronounciation was very good than gave me 7 points. Out of 15. Not even a pass. We don't find out the results until Thursday. I was talking to other exchange students and they all thought it was ridiculous too. So maybe there's hope I won't be in the dumb class yet. Ugh, I'm freaking out a bit. I'll be glad when I know which class I'm in. The first exam we took, we knew the results by 8:00 that same night.
Oh a happier note, I'm really bonding with my classmates. There was a situation with some Japanese students that visited and they were paired with everyone in our class except me and this other girl, Se-Ming. She was upset because she wouldn't get to know any of the Japanese students and I said it was okay because I'm from 10 times as far as the Japanese and I'd hang out with her and we had a lot of fun! She sits next to me in class and she's one of the only ones who talks to me in Chinese which I like because I'm tired of being treated like a baby and being spoken to in English all the time by my classmates. Also, when I leave the class to go to the library for my free classes, they all say 'Bye, Mo-Li!' and today one of the guys said 'Don't miss me too much!' I just smiled and waved. And also today during naptime, one guy started belching and then someone else did and we were all laughing, it was so much fun! Because they wouldn't stop until the teacher came in to start class!
Anyway, that's about all I have to report. I'll let you know of my test scores when they arrive. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Chinese Talent Contest
Hello, it's been a while! but I've been super busy. Life as an exchange student, it's kind of ridiculous. So, as some of you might know, this past Saturday was the Mandarin Speech Contest and I wrote and helped translate a play abou a Taiwanese exchange student at Hogwarts. I have to admit, I was glad when Satuday finally came! I was tired of bribing everyone to come to practice and having them treat me like I was pulling their fingernails out. I got to the theatre and found out that, against their promise, there was not a projector to project the English version so the exchange students could understand what we were saying. So that was frustrating.
So, imagine my... shock when 9:00, starting time, comes and my Dumbledore, who has the first lines in the entire play isn't there. The first act was the girls from, my class, we were singing the Chinese alphabet and dancing. Luckily, we managed to switch with Imme, the Dutch girl, and ended up going later. Harry Potter: Act 1 was the 5th act and the dance was now the 7th. By the time we had to get ready to go, Mari (Dumbledore) was still not there! So I ended up being Dumbledore. Luckily, she showed up in time for the alphabet and I restrained myself from strangling her. I mean, c'mon! That was the only scene she was in and she blew it! You know what her excuse was? She slept in!
The second act went okay, until we the scene with bubble tea where Ron tries to puncture it and it explodes, but we couldn't do that because it would make a mess. So we changed it and he ended up stabbing his arm. But the guy, Andrew, who played Ron has acted before so he got all into it and fell on the floor and dropped the tea and it ended up exploding anyway. Me and Dan ended up cleaning it all up while they kept acting.
The third act went better. Beforehand, I covered Chris's, the German playing Voldemort, face with talcum powder so he looked a little like Voldemort. It actually worked better than I thought, he looked really scary! I was in this act as a Super Junior guy. It went pretty well. I ran out of memory on both memory cards, so I couldn't film the whole thing. But other people did, so I'll try to get it from them and put it up on facebook.
At the end of the show, they gave out awards, which was pretty disappointing. Instead of giving awards out to entire acts, they gave them to individual people. We all had to wear numbers and they picked who was best. Malfoy and Ron from Harry Potter got an award each. They gave 5 of them out. And awards to the 2 best acts. The boys from our class did a song and dance and they won first place for best act. The other awards went to the people from the top class. Still, it was a little disappointing. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I put a LOT of work into that play, and the only mention of me was when an American girl was introducing our play and said it was written by a Canadian and sort of gestured to the Canadian girl standing next to her, which was not me. Another American girl, Josette, did a dance to a Chinese song by Super Junior and sang along with 3 of her classmates. They put a lot of work into memorizing the lyrics and doing the dance and they didn't win anything. Rotary told us there would be an award for fluency, best costume and creativity plus best 5 acts would get awards. Josette mentioned to me yesterday that they top 5 awards went out to the best looking people. I don't really agree with that, but it's true that the Taiwanese people are pretty shallow and all the judges were girls. Oh well, I did my best and it obviously wasn't good enough. I'm over it. Until next Speech Contest!
We have to take out Mandarin exam next week. This will determine if we stay in our current class or get either promoted or demoted to another class. I'm in the middle level class. I like it, but there are an excess of Americans. Christmas is also this week. I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like Christmas, but I have to say that the temperature has dropped considerably. Yesterday was really cold and I had to go mountain climbing with my Rotary club. Then I went out with Josette, Aurelia and Quentin, both from France and Miguel from Mexico for dinner. It was a lot of fun! I'm actually wearing a scarf and jacket now and my hands are freezing! I should have brought gloves. And I'm inside! The thing with schools in Taiwan is that they're practically outdoors. There are windows surrounding the class and the halls are a floor, a roof and open space. I'll have to take more pictures I don't really know how to describe it. My fingers are so cold, I'm sure I've made a typo somewhere in here. Also, the apartments here have tons of AC, but no heat! So I'm pretty cold at night and it's hard to get out of bed in the morning. Aurelia said last night that you know it's cold when the Canadians are feeling cold. Surprisingly, I'm the last Canadian to feel cold, and I'm from the most southern part of the country!
When I meet Taiwanese people, they always ask either one of 2 questions: 1) Where do you come from? and 2) Did it hurt? (pointing at my nose) I've also had, Is it real? (also about my nose) then they scream when I pull it out and show them. But when I tell them I'm from Canada, they answer with 'Vancouver? I've been to Vancouver before!' or 'My (insert relative here) lives in Vancouver!' and then I say no, I'm from the other side of the country, I've actually never been to Vancouver. I actually had one lady that asked where I came from, I answered Canada and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's closer to Toronto and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's sort of close to Montreal, kind of close to Ottawa. And she said 'Montreal?' and I said yeah, I'm from Montreal.
So, going back to Christmas, I'll be at school for Christmas. Christmas Day is my school's sports competition because Boxing Day is the school's birthday. So I need to be at school early on Saturday. I haven't had a proper sleep in so long. Since over a week ago, I've been going to bed at 11:00ish and waking up at 6:00. I couldn't sleep in this weekend either because of the Speech Contest and mountain climbing. And next weekend is my school's birthday. I'm not sure what my class if doing. I think we're selling food and they want me to help them out, which I'm happy to do. Thankfully, I don't start until 11:00. I'm also making them cards that say Merry Christmas in both Chinese and English and taping some hershey's kisses and hugs that my parents sent me to them and some candy canes whichI found here for really cheap. I'll distribute those on Friday.
Well, it's almost time to head back to class. Sorry this took so long. I'll write again to tell about Christmas and my school birthday. Happy first day of winter!
So, imagine my... shock when 9:00, starting time, comes and my Dumbledore, who has the first lines in the entire play isn't there. The first act was the girls from, my class, we were singing the Chinese alphabet and dancing. Luckily, we managed to switch with Imme, the Dutch girl, and ended up going later. Harry Potter: Act 1 was the 5th act and the dance was now the 7th. By the time we had to get ready to go, Mari (Dumbledore) was still not there! So I ended up being Dumbledore. Luckily, she showed up in time for the alphabet and I restrained myself from strangling her. I mean, c'mon! That was the only scene she was in and she blew it! You know what her excuse was? She slept in!
The second act went okay, until we the scene with bubble tea where Ron tries to puncture it and it explodes, but we couldn't do that because it would make a mess. So we changed it and he ended up stabbing his arm. But the guy, Andrew, who played Ron has acted before so he got all into it and fell on the floor and dropped the tea and it ended up exploding anyway. Me and Dan ended up cleaning it all up while they kept acting.
The third act went better. Beforehand, I covered Chris's, the German playing Voldemort, face with talcum powder so he looked a little like Voldemort. It actually worked better than I thought, he looked really scary! I was in this act as a Super Junior guy. It went pretty well. I ran out of memory on both memory cards, so I couldn't film the whole thing. But other people did, so I'll try to get it from them and put it up on facebook.
At the end of the show, they gave out awards, which was pretty disappointing. Instead of giving awards out to entire acts, they gave them to individual people. We all had to wear numbers and they picked who was best. Malfoy and Ron from Harry Potter got an award each. They gave 5 of them out. And awards to the 2 best acts. The boys from our class did a song and dance and they won first place for best act. The other awards went to the people from the top class. Still, it was a little disappointing. I don't mean to sound selfish, but I put a LOT of work into that play, and the only mention of me was when an American girl was introducing our play and said it was written by a Canadian and sort of gestured to the Canadian girl standing next to her, which was not me. Another American girl, Josette, did a dance to a Chinese song by Super Junior and sang along with 3 of her classmates. They put a lot of work into memorizing the lyrics and doing the dance and they didn't win anything. Rotary told us there would be an award for fluency, best costume and creativity plus best 5 acts would get awards. Josette mentioned to me yesterday that they top 5 awards went out to the best looking people. I don't really agree with that, but it's true that the Taiwanese people are pretty shallow and all the judges were girls. Oh well, I did my best and it obviously wasn't good enough. I'm over it. Until next Speech Contest!
We have to take out Mandarin exam next week. This will determine if we stay in our current class or get either promoted or demoted to another class. I'm in the middle level class. I like it, but there are an excess of Americans. Christmas is also this week. I can't believe it. It doesn't feel like Christmas, but I have to say that the temperature has dropped considerably. Yesterday was really cold and I had to go mountain climbing with my Rotary club. Then I went out with Josette, Aurelia and Quentin, both from France and Miguel from Mexico for dinner. It was a lot of fun! I'm actually wearing a scarf and jacket now and my hands are freezing! I should have brought gloves. And I'm inside! The thing with schools in Taiwan is that they're practically outdoors. There are windows surrounding the class and the halls are a floor, a roof and open space. I'll have to take more pictures I don't really know how to describe it. My fingers are so cold, I'm sure I've made a typo somewhere in here. Also, the apartments here have tons of AC, but no heat! So I'm pretty cold at night and it's hard to get out of bed in the morning. Aurelia said last night that you know it's cold when the Canadians are feeling cold. Surprisingly, I'm the last Canadian to feel cold, and I'm from the most southern part of the country!
When I meet Taiwanese people, they always ask either one of 2 questions: 1) Where do you come from? and 2) Did it hurt? (pointing at my nose) I've also had, Is it real? (also about my nose) then they scream when I pull it out and show them. But when I tell them I'm from Canada, they answer with 'Vancouver? I've been to Vancouver before!' or 'My (insert relative here) lives in Vancouver!' and then I say no, I'm from the other side of the country, I've actually never been to Vancouver. I actually had one lady that asked where I came from, I answered Canada and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's closer to Toronto and she said 'Montreal?' and I said no, it's sort of close to Montreal, kind of close to Ottawa. And she said 'Montreal?' and I said yeah, I'm from Montreal.
So, going back to Christmas, I'll be at school for Christmas. Christmas Day is my school's sports competition because Boxing Day is the school's birthday. So I need to be at school early on Saturday. I haven't had a proper sleep in so long. Since over a week ago, I've been going to bed at 11:00ish and waking up at 6:00. I couldn't sleep in this weekend either because of the Speech Contest and mountain climbing. And next weekend is my school's birthday. I'm not sure what my class if doing. I think we're selling food and they want me to help them out, which I'm happy to do. Thankfully, I don't start until 11:00. I'm also making them cards that say Merry Christmas in both Chinese and English and taping some hershey's kisses and hugs that my parents sent me to them and some candy canes whichI found here for really cheap. I'll distribute those on Friday.
Well, it's almost time to head back to class. Sorry this took so long. I'll write again to tell about Christmas and my school birthday. Happy first day of winter!
Monday, December 7, 2009
Going's On
Hello again, it's been a while. Well, just over a week. I'll give you a little update on my life here.
On Saturday, I went to my friend Aurelia's school birthday party. She's from France. It was a lot of fun, but I got there late because I wanted to sleep in. It started at 7:30 and if I wanted to be there on time, I'd have to leave at 6:00 which is what I have to do everyday during the week! And I really needed sleep. So I got there at about 11:00. By then, it was mostly done, so we only stayed a while then me and Aurelia went to Xi-Men for the afternoon.
Sunday I went to Reuifang with Imme, the girl at my school from Holland, her host brother, Bob (not Bobby, Bob, he told me many times), and our host parents. It was pretty fun! We had to take an actual train to get there, not just an MRT, a real train! When we got there, we went to Gold Ecological Park which used to be a mining town, but not anymore. And as soon as we got off the bus that we took from the train station, we heard this high pitched whining. It was awful! We kept walking and found the source- a musical saw. That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. He had CDs and everything. He even had a microphone as if the natural noise wasn't enough!
We climbed Teapot Mountain (called teapot because there's a rock that looks like a teapot at the top) and when we got to the top, we could still hear him! I made a video, I'll upload it to facebook later. Then we got back down and went to market. It was a good day! But I never have free time anymore! I'm just going all the time! My weekends are officially booked until the new year.
This morning, our school hosted 300 Japanese students. I kid you not, 300 Japanese students!! We had a welcoming ceremony at 8:30, then our class hosted 41 of them. We made cookies with them. Every Japanese student was paired with a Taiwanese student. Seeing as there are 44 students in my class, 3 people were left without a Japanese partner. One girl was so upset, she was crying! but I told her she could hang out with me because I didn't have a partner either, and I'm much cooler then the Japanese because I'm from much further. She laughed and we had a good time. I helped teach some Japanese students how to do the Sorry Sorry dance, they were so surprised I could do it! And I was also needed to help decipher their accents. Between the Taiwanese couldn't understand Japanese and the Japanese couldn't understand Chinese, so everyone spoke English. Mostly, people wrote notes to each other.
We had to use very dangerous looking knives in cooking class, and my classmate, Dicky (not kidding, that's the English name he picked for himself) , was washing one, then he brought it to the counter and started drying it with a paper towel. I said 'xiao xing!' which means be careful and he said 'Ah!' I jumped and he went to tell my other classmates that Mo-Li had just spoken Chinese. It's so funny, I felt like a baby saying my first word. I told them (in Chinese) that I've been here over 3 months now, it's inevitable that I'm picking up on the language.
Then we had a dance party while we waited for the cookies to bake. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese students didn't really talk to me, and I now I know why: they thought I was American! I'm sure most of you remember from Grade 10 History that the USA bombed Japan at the end of World War 2 and I'm sure they're not too pleased with the USA. Come to think of it, I only told 2 people I was from Canada, and when I did, they burst into a smile and said oh! So cool!
Our Chinese play. Oh, you do not want to know. But I'll tell you anyway, I need advice. So, about 2 weeks ago, 老師 or laoshi (teacher) finished translating my play into Chinese. Actually, I helped her so we could speed it up and start practicing as soon as possible. Let me remind you that when I first read the script , everyone loved it and was so enthusiastic about it! Before I handed them the translated, Chinese version, I asked them if they were willing to put the effort into working on this play and I warned them that they would have to stay after Chinese class and Culture class to get it ready on time because we only have 3 weeks to get it done. They said yes, they were willing and I asked if they were sure and they said yes. Then I asked if anyone wanted to switch parts because they had too many lines or not enough and everyone said they were okay with the way it was and elected me dirctor. I made the biggest mistake every when I said yes. Then I asked them to at least look at their lines before the next class.
So we started the next Chinese class. I brought snacks to thank my classmates for putting time into this play. Already, Myles, from Hawaii who's playing Goyle, decided he didn't want to go because it was American Thanksgiving. I let it go because he recited his lines to me right before he left. Then I had a hard time getting everyone together for practice. But I did after about 20 minutes and we ran through scene 1 out of 6. The next class went a little better, everyone stayed and we went through scenes 1 and 2. Then things started getting difficult. People weren't looking over their lines and Alyssa, who's Harry Potter, was putting up the biggest fuss about practice. I bought snacks every practice, which I should remind you was coming out of my own allowance, and that was the only reason people were staying instead of going to Dongwa or bellydancing or kickboxing.
Last Thursday, 老師 wanted us to read through the script so she could time it at the end of class. Right after we finished, everyone got up and started to leave and I had to fight to get them to stay because we hadn't actually acted it out, we just read. And everyone was complaining and interrupting me and being stupid. Instead of running through all of Scene 4, which is the longest, I gave up and let them go halfway through. Mia, from USA, Ju, from Brazil, and I went into Xi-Men afterwards and I cracked. I just burst into tears and then, once I had calmed down, explained to Ju and Mia that I had put all this effort into writing the play, translating it and now directing it and everyone hated me for it and was taking advantage of it. They assured me that they loved the play and they ran through their lines between practices, and it's true, but most people weren't. We wanted to find scarves with the Slytherin and Gryffindor colours for the play, but we couldn't. Instead we found a lady that made ties for NT$100, which is about $3 Canadian. We told the class about it on Thursday and 4/6 people gave me money, so we ordered them and found out that the lady had lied to us, the ties were actually NT$150. Which is no big deal. We payed her what we had and promised to get the rest to her on Monday.
Yesterday, practice was just for the dancers because we needed to get their dance worked out, and that turned out okay. But when I told the class I needed NT$50 extra for the ties, everyone started moaning like I was asking for their life's savings and tried to pressure me into bargaining with the lady to lower the price. I almost snapped at them then, but I didn't. I bit my tongue and told them it's not the end of the world, NT$150 for a tie is actually really good. They're just a bunch of babies. And it's the beginning of the month, so I know they all just got their NT$4000 allowance.
Now I just found out that the Australian guy, Breff, is having a goodbye party during Culture class tomorrow and that's when I wanted to have our next practice. I just know taht people are going to try to sneak away and I don't know if I'll be able to take anymore of Myles and Bailey's whining. I'm worried I'll break down and get mad at them. Any advice? Should I give them a piece of my mind or should I just say forget it, they're obviously not interested in this play anymore so why should I make them do something they don't want to? Anyway, email me with any answers, plus I'd love to hear from whoever's reading this!
Other than that, things are going okay. Christmas is coming! I'm so excited even if no one here celebrates it.
On Saturday, I went to my friend Aurelia's school birthday party. She's from France. It was a lot of fun, but I got there late because I wanted to sleep in. It started at 7:30 and if I wanted to be there on time, I'd have to leave at 6:00 which is what I have to do everyday during the week! And I really needed sleep. So I got there at about 11:00. By then, it was mostly done, so we only stayed a while then me and Aurelia went to Xi-Men for the afternoon.
Sunday I went to Reuifang with Imme, the girl at my school from Holland, her host brother, Bob (not Bobby, Bob, he told me many times), and our host parents. It was pretty fun! We had to take an actual train to get there, not just an MRT, a real train! When we got there, we went to Gold Ecological Park which used to be a mining town, but not anymore. And as soon as we got off the bus that we took from the train station, we heard this high pitched whining. It was awful! We kept walking and found the source- a musical saw. That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. He had CDs and everything. He even had a microphone as if the natural noise wasn't enough!
We climbed Teapot Mountain (called teapot because there's a rock that looks like a teapot at the top) and when we got to the top, we could still hear him! I made a video, I'll upload it to facebook later. Then we got back down and went to market. It was a good day! But I never have free time anymore! I'm just going all the time! My weekends are officially booked until the new year.
This morning, our school hosted 300 Japanese students. I kid you not, 300 Japanese students!! We had a welcoming ceremony at 8:30, then our class hosted 41 of them. We made cookies with them. Every Japanese student was paired with a Taiwanese student. Seeing as there are 44 students in my class, 3 people were left without a Japanese partner. One girl was so upset, she was crying! but I told her she could hang out with me because I didn't have a partner either, and I'm much cooler then the Japanese because I'm from much further. She laughed and we had a good time. I helped teach some Japanese students how to do the Sorry Sorry dance, they were so surprised I could do it! And I was also needed to help decipher their accents. Between the Taiwanese couldn't understand Japanese and the Japanese couldn't understand Chinese, so everyone spoke English. Mostly, people wrote notes to each other.
We had to use very dangerous looking knives in cooking class, and my classmate, Dicky (not kidding, that's the English name he picked for himself) , was washing one, then he brought it to the counter and started drying it with a paper towel. I said 'xiao xing!' which means be careful and he said 'Ah!' I jumped and he went to tell my other classmates that Mo-Li had just spoken Chinese. It's so funny, I felt like a baby saying my first word. I told them (in Chinese) that I've been here over 3 months now, it's inevitable that I'm picking up on the language.
Then we had a dance party while we waited for the cookies to bake. It was a lot of fun! The Japanese students didn't really talk to me, and I now I know why: they thought I was American! I'm sure most of you remember from Grade 10 History that the USA bombed Japan at the end of World War 2 and I'm sure they're not too pleased with the USA. Come to think of it, I only told 2 people I was from Canada, and when I did, they burst into a smile and said oh! So cool!
Our Chinese play. Oh, you do not want to know. But I'll tell you anyway, I need advice. So, about 2 weeks ago, 老師 or laoshi (teacher) finished translating my play into Chinese. Actually, I helped her so we could speed it up and start practicing as soon as possible. Let me remind you that when I first read the script , everyone loved it and was so enthusiastic about it! Before I handed them the translated, Chinese version, I asked them if they were willing to put the effort into working on this play and I warned them that they would have to stay after Chinese class and Culture class to get it ready on time because we only have 3 weeks to get it done. They said yes, they were willing and I asked if they were sure and they said yes. Then I asked if anyone wanted to switch parts because they had too many lines or not enough and everyone said they were okay with the way it was and elected me dirctor. I made the biggest mistake every when I said yes. Then I asked them to at least look at their lines before the next class.
So we started the next Chinese class. I brought snacks to thank my classmates for putting time into this play. Already, Myles, from Hawaii who's playing Goyle, decided he didn't want to go because it was American Thanksgiving. I let it go because he recited his lines to me right before he left. Then I had a hard time getting everyone together for practice. But I did after about 20 minutes and we ran through scene 1 out of 6. The next class went a little better, everyone stayed and we went through scenes 1 and 2. Then things started getting difficult. People weren't looking over their lines and Alyssa, who's Harry Potter, was putting up the biggest fuss about practice. I bought snacks every practice, which I should remind you was coming out of my own allowance, and that was the only reason people were staying instead of going to Dongwa or bellydancing or kickboxing.
Last Thursday, 老師 wanted us to read through the script so she could time it at the end of class. Right after we finished, everyone got up and started to leave and I had to fight to get them to stay because we hadn't actually acted it out, we just read. And everyone was complaining and interrupting me and being stupid. Instead of running through all of Scene 4, which is the longest, I gave up and let them go halfway through. Mia, from USA, Ju, from Brazil, and I went into Xi-Men afterwards and I cracked. I just burst into tears and then, once I had calmed down, explained to Ju and Mia that I had put all this effort into writing the play, translating it and now directing it and everyone hated me for it and was taking advantage of it. They assured me that they loved the play and they ran through their lines between practices, and it's true, but most people weren't. We wanted to find scarves with the Slytherin and Gryffindor colours for the play, but we couldn't. Instead we found a lady that made ties for NT$100, which is about $3 Canadian. We told the class about it on Thursday and 4/6 people gave me money, so we ordered them and found out that the lady had lied to us, the ties were actually NT$150. Which is no big deal. We payed her what we had and promised to get the rest to her on Monday.
Yesterday, practice was just for the dancers because we needed to get their dance worked out, and that turned out okay. But when I told the class I needed NT$50 extra for the ties, everyone started moaning like I was asking for their life's savings and tried to pressure me into bargaining with the lady to lower the price. I almost snapped at them then, but I didn't. I bit my tongue and told them it's not the end of the world, NT$150 for a tie is actually really good. They're just a bunch of babies. And it's the beginning of the month, so I know they all just got their NT$4000 allowance.
Now I just found out that the Australian guy, Breff, is having a goodbye party during Culture class tomorrow and that's when I wanted to have our next practice. I just know taht people are going to try to sneak away and I don't know if I'll be able to take anymore of Myles and Bailey's whining. I'm worried I'll break down and get mad at them. Any advice? Should I give them a piece of my mind or should I just say forget it, they're obviously not interested in this play anymore so why should I make them do something they don't want to? Anyway, email me with any answers, plus I'd love to hear from whoever's reading this!
Other than that, things are going okay. Christmas is coming! I'm so excited even if no one here celebrates it.
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Country Fair
Hey again. It's really been a while since I've written anything here. Things are starting to get busy again. But people have been asking me about the Country Fair, so I decided I'd tell everyone at once instead of repeating it way too many times.
So, I had to get up at 5:00 last Sunday to get ready and pack all my Canadian stuff, then my host dad gave me a ride to the MRT station so I'd be on time. I met Mariah (from Alberta) and we waited for the train, figuring out that the MRT doesn't start until 6:00. We got to Zhonglun High Schoo at 6:45 ish, we weresupposed to be there by 7:00, but most people were already there. We called Kevin and Chris (both from BC) ahead of time to get them to check our igloo because they live closer to Zhonglun than we do. They hadn't by the time we got there because all the doors to the basement were locked.
While Mariah, Kevin and Chris pounded on a door, I walked around and found an open door. The igloo was fine, so I found the door they were pounding on and told them to take the elevator down. We managed to get the igloo up with minimal damage. We set it up and the Americans promptly sprinkled it with red, white and blue balloons that said USA on them. We popped them all and I stealthily stuck a Canada sticker to their table.
The actual fair started at 9:00. But people were there before then. It was hard figuring out what to say about Canada, yeah, we have snow and hockey, but I couldn't really think of anything else, let alone say it in Chinese. But Mariah helped me out and started talking about Inuits and Canadian culture. The people at the fair were the outbounds for district 3480 and they were deciding which country to go to. I actually spent about 20 minutes talking to a guy whose first choice was Canada. But most people just came by to ask us to stamp their paper (they all had these papers they had to get stamped by evry country) then left for the American table which was right beside ours. But don't worry, we had a bench as a border and the Americans needed a passport to get through. My host parents and sister came by and checked out the Canadian table to be polite then spent about 1/2 an hour at the American table. My host dad told all the inbounds he was Jasmine's host dad, which they told me later on. I'm not sure, but I think my host sister is interested in going on exchange, but she's not too crazy about Canada. She laughs when I walk outside in a t-shirt and she wears a winter jacket. One of the Americans made a weirdness scale. Low is weird, then crazy is above that then over crazy is Canadian. She thinks I'm even over Canadian.
Anyway, by 1:00, everyone was exhausted. But we still had 3 hours to go. So we satisfied ourselved by playing Uno and other card games. I tried to teach them President, but they thought I was cheating with all the rules I kept throwing at them. Also, the French guy and German girl that live on the Kinmen islands came to the mainland for the Fair. We haven't seen them since August, so it was good seeing them again. Most people think they shouldn't live on the island and have their own list of inbounds they'd rather lived on the islands. I won't repeat it here unless some inbounds find it. Still, the people on the islands learn a lot more Chinese because not a lot of people there speak English.
Anyway, my friend Yu-En from church came around the end while everyone as practically asleep because of the early morning and long day. Still, it was nice to see her and she got to meet some of the other exchange students.
At 4:30, we were finally allowed to go home. Some people wanted to see a movie, but I just wanted to go home, shower and sleep. I actually ended up staying awake for a lot longer then went to bed. It was a fun day, but very long! They assured us the next country fair in April will be a lot smaller. It's supposed to be at Taipei Grand Hotel, which is apparently the fanciest hotel in Taiwan. So I'm thinking the styrofoam igloo woud be out of the question. We also had a cardboard inukshuk covered with tinfoil named Inukshuk Hank. But the Americans squished him at the end of the day.
On Wednesday at Culture class the rotarians announced the winners. We didn't know we were competing. Canada got second place. Germany got first and USA got 3rd. I don't know if that was the number of people interested in going to our countries or how our tables looked. Anyway, we all got shirts with a map of Taiwan on them and the Germans got water bottles in addition to that.
I'm also kind of frustrated because last week at Culture class I was wearing my hoodie and I put my MRT card into the kangaroo pocket because I didn't feel like digging my wallet out of my backpack. Despite the number of times my real Mom and Dad have told me that cards should go into my wallet or I'll lose them. After some Taekwondo, then rolling around on the ground building an igloo, I realized my card was gone. Mariah asked what I was looking for then told me Joe (the guy in charge of YEP inbounds) had my card. On Sunday, I expected he'd have it because he normally carried stuff we leave behind with him. But when I asked him, he told me he left it in his other bag. I thought only girls had more than one bag. He promised he'd bring it on Wednesday. In the meantime, I had to use change to get around on the busses and MRT. I used most of my NT$4000 allowance on Christmas gifts and NT$1000 of it went to my MRT card. My host mom gives me NT$700 a week for lunches and dinner when I can't come home for dinner. Most of that went to the bus, so I was really glad when Wednesday came because I was pretty much out of change and money. But Joe forgot to bring it! I was so mad, but I guess this is my own fault for being foolish with my card. I'll always do whatever Mom and Dad tell me. So, I've resorted to using Canadian change I found in my suitcases for the bus. It's NT$12 to ride the bus and the $10 coin looks a lot like a quarter, but a bit bigger and the $1 coin looks like a penny, except in Chinese. So I have to be sneaky when I put my change in the box for the bus, so far no one's noticed. The MRT is trickier. I have to use actual Taiwanese currency for that. I'm down to NT$60, which is enough to get me to church and back on Sunday. I guess I won't be going anywhere this weekend.
I got my first Christmas package from home yesterday! It was from Miranda and itwas kind of shock. It feels nothing like Christmas here. It was sort of cold last week, meaning below 20 degrees. This week it's been rising again slowly. It was 25 today. Still, I can't believe it's almost Christmas. It's still summer to me, despite everyone telling me I'm crazy for still wearing shorts and t-shirts. I was listening to some Christmas music this afternoon (Arrogant Worms and Christmas X, classics!) and for a moment, it felt like Christmas, but then I look outside and it's gone. I guess Christmas will be easier for me than some of the other outbounds from 7010 (my sponser district in Canada) because Taiwan is one of the few countries that doesn't celebrate Chritsmas. I was talking to some of them and they're having a tough time dealing with it, even though it's still a month off.
Anyway, I'm doing fine! Believe it or not, I'm actualy losing weight, which makes no sense. But I guess I've been laying off the bubble tea which is so bad for you! Still, then I can eat some Christmas treats when they arrive!
Hope it snows soon back home!
So, I had to get up at 5:00 last Sunday to get ready and pack all my Canadian stuff, then my host dad gave me a ride to the MRT station so I'd be on time. I met Mariah (from Alberta) and we waited for the train, figuring out that the MRT doesn't start until 6:00. We got to Zhonglun High Schoo at 6:45 ish, we weresupposed to be there by 7:00, but most people were already there. We called Kevin and Chris (both from BC) ahead of time to get them to check our igloo because they live closer to Zhonglun than we do. They hadn't by the time we got there because all the doors to the basement were locked.
While Mariah, Kevin and Chris pounded on a door, I walked around and found an open door. The igloo was fine, so I found the door they were pounding on and told them to take the elevator down. We managed to get the igloo up with minimal damage. We set it up and the Americans promptly sprinkled it with red, white and blue balloons that said USA on them. We popped them all and I stealthily stuck a Canada sticker to their table.
The actual fair started at 9:00. But people were there before then. It was hard figuring out what to say about Canada, yeah, we have snow and hockey, but I couldn't really think of anything else, let alone say it in Chinese. But Mariah helped me out and started talking about Inuits and Canadian culture. The people at the fair were the outbounds for district 3480 and they were deciding which country to go to. I actually spent about 20 minutes talking to a guy whose first choice was Canada. But most people just came by to ask us to stamp their paper (they all had these papers they had to get stamped by evry country) then left for the American table which was right beside ours. But don't worry, we had a bench as a border and the Americans needed a passport to get through. My host parents and sister came by and checked out the Canadian table to be polite then spent about 1/2 an hour at the American table. My host dad told all the inbounds he was Jasmine's host dad, which they told me later on. I'm not sure, but I think my host sister is interested in going on exchange, but she's not too crazy about Canada. She laughs when I walk outside in a t-shirt and she wears a winter jacket. One of the Americans made a weirdness scale. Low is weird, then crazy is above that then over crazy is Canadian. She thinks I'm even over Canadian.
Anyway, by 1:00, everyone was exhausted. But we still had 3 hours to go. So we satisfied ourselved by playing Uno and other card games. I tried to teach them President, but they thought I was cheating with all the rules I kept throwing at them. Also, the French guy and German girl that live on the Kinmen islands came to the mainland for the Fair. We haven't seen them since August, so it was good seeing them again. Most people think they shouldn't live on the island and have their own list of inbounds they'd rather lived on the islands. I won't repeat it here unless some inbounds find it. Still, the people on the islands learn a lot more Chinese because not a lot of people there speak English.
Anyway, my friend Yu-En from church came around the end while everyone as practically asleep because of the early morning and long day. Still, it was nice to see her and she got to meet some of the other exchange students.
At 4:30, we were finally allowed to go home. Some people wanted to see a movie, but I just wanted to go home, shower and sleep. I actually ended up staying awake for a lot longer then went to bed. It was a fun day, but very long! They assured us the next country fair in April will be a lot smaller. It's supposed to be at Taipei Grand Hotel, which is apparently the fanciest hotel in Taiwan. So I'm thinking the styrofoam igloo woud be out of the question. We also had a cardboard inukshuk covered with tinfoil named Inukshuk Hank. But the Americans squished him at the end of the day.
On Wednesday at Culture class the rotarians announced the winners. We didn't know we were competing. Canada got second place. Germany got first and USA got 3rd. I don't know if that was the number of people interested in going to our countries or how our tables looked. Anyway, we all got shirts with a map of Taiwan on them and the Germans got water bottles in addition to that.
I'm also kind of frustrated because last week at Culture class I was wearing my hoodie and I put my MRT card into the kangaroo pocket because I didn't feel like digging my wallet out of my backpack. Despite the number of times my real Mom and Dad have told me that cards should go into my wallet or I'll lose them. After some Taekwondo, then rolling around on the ground building an igloo, I realized my card was gone. Mariah asked what I was looking for then told me Joe (the guy in charge of YEP inbounds) had my card. On Sunday, I expected he'd have it because he normally carried stuff we leave behind with him. But when I asked him, he told me he left it in his other bag. I thought only girls had more than one bag. He promised he'd bring it on Wednesday. In the meantime, I had to use change to get around on the busses and MRT. I used most of my NT$4000 allowance on Christmas gifts and NT$1000 of it went to my MRT card. My host mom gives me NT$700 a week for lunches and dinner when I can't come home for dinner. Most of that went to the bus, so I was really glad when Wednesday came because I was pretty much out of change and money. But Joe forgot to bring it! I was so mad, but I guess this is my own fault for being foolish with my card. I'll always do whatever Mom and Dad tell me. So, I've resorted to using Canadian change I found in my suitcases for the bus. It's NT$12 to ride the bus and the $10 coin looks a lot like a quarter, but a bit bigger and the $1 coin looks like a penny, except in Chinese. So I have to be sneaky when I put my change in the box for the bus, so far no one's noticed. The MRT is trickier. I have to use actual Taiwanese currency for that. I'm down to NT$60, which is enough to get me to church and back on Sunday. I guess I won't be going anywhere this weekend.
I got my first Christmas package from home yesterday! It was from Miranda and itwas kind of shock. It feels nothing like Christmas here. It was sort of cold last week, meaning below 20 degrees. This week it's been rising again slowly. It was 25 today. Still, I can't believe it's almost Christmas. It's still summer to me, despite everyone telling me I'm crazy for still wearing shorts and t-shirts. I was listening to some Christmas music this afternoon (Arrogant Worms and Christmas X, classics!) and for a moment, it felt like Christmas, but then I look outside and it's gone. I guess Christmas will be easier for me than some of the other outbounds from 7010 (my sponser district in Canada) because Taiwan is one of the few countries that doesn't celebrate Chritsmas. I was talking to some of them and they're having a tough time dealing with it, even though it's still a month off.
Anyway, I'm doing fine! Believe it or not, I'm actualy losing weight, which makes no sense. But I guess I've been laying off the bubble tea which is so bad for you! Still, then I can eat some Christmas treats when they arrive!
Hope it snows soon back home!
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Styrofoam Igloo Construction
So, as I mentioned before, me and the other Canadians here in Taiwan (Mariah from Alberta and Kevin and Chris from BC) are planning our table for the Inbound Country Fair this Sunday. We orginally wanted to hijack the zamboni from Taipei Arena and build an igloo, but we only decided to do one: the igloo. Since we can't make one out of ice because it'll melt, we decided to go with styrofoam. I was put in charge of gathering styrofoam.
At first, it was really hard because I had no idea where the heck I was supposed to find styrofoam in Taiwan. I asked my teachers at school and they directed me to this totally bogus place. I was about to ask my host mom last Saturday when my cell phone rang. It was Ju, from Brazil. She wanted me to come to her school's aniversary party. SO I ended up asking my host mom if I could go there instead. I was allowed, so I went. It took about an hour by MRT to get there. Anyway, it was kind of like a Fun Fair. There were activities and entertainment and classes were selling food and stuff. Ju's class was selling ice cream and soft drinks with dry ice cubes, it was so cool! It looked like the drink was billowing steam, but it was so cold! But they had the ice cream in styrofoam containers! I asked if I could have them and they kind of looked at me strange then asked me why I wanted it. I explained and they laughed and let me have it only if I promised to send them pictures.
You wouldn't believe some of the looks I got on the MRT as I was going home with my arms piled high with styrofoam. My host mom's face was priceless when I walked in the door. But, like Ju's classmates, she laughed once I'd explained myself.
Yesterday, i brought it back on the bus and MRT to Culture Class. Mariah, Kevin and I stayed after class to build the igloo. Chris went ice skating with his host brother, so we were all jealous. But we bought all kinds of junk food and had a great time anyway. I also purchased an exacto knife at 711 to cut up the styrofoam boxes. I knew I was going to get injured sometime duing the evening. It went well while I cut up all 5 boxes. Then I started making them a little more straighter and Kevin told me to cut towards my friend and not my thumb, but I didn't hear him, so I looked up and the knife slipped and now I have this huge gash on my finger. The same one with the scar from camping last year. It hasn't stopped bleeding yet, so I'm a little freaked out. Mariah had a complete 'Dad' moment and was all, 'the igloo! The igloo! Don't get any blood on the igloo!' Luckily, I had some Spiderman band-aids in my bag, so I was able to clean it out and put one on once the bleeding had slowed down. If yoou look at my profile picture on facebook, you can see it.
After that, we were fine. But Kevin did all the cutting from then on. My host mom still hasn't said anything about my hand. I think she's used to me coming home with band-aids on.
It's still not quite finished. We're ging to be at Zhonglun High School early on Sunday so we can put the last touched on it. It's going to be so cool! I'll be sure to take lots of pictures. I can't wait!
Monday, November 16, 2009
What people REALLY think of Canada
So, I was in Chinese class yesterday and this guy named Cory from Oregon comes up to me and starts talking. Now, Cory's cool, so we talked for a while, then he brought up Canada and how no one has any idea what Canadians do. I guess it's true that no one every hears anything about Canada. Now terrorists bomb Canada and nobody has a grudge against us. I told him we build igloos and ice fish.
Then he started telling em about this Japanese TV show where all the countries are represented in manga by a single person. So each country is summed up by one person. Like Italy eats pasta and plays soccer all day, England has these bushy eyebrows, Germany has blonde hair, blue eyes and is extremely ripped and US always puts himself in charge and makes all the other countries work hard so he can be the hero. I asked about Canada, and he showed me this video:
http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/hetalia-axis-powers-episode-19-online
The first thing I said was 'Wait, if you want English subtitles, you have to click the USA flag?' I would rather have watched it in French. I mean, doesn't ENGLish come from ENGLand? Anyway, Canada only made a brief appearence, I'll let you watch for yourself. And Cory testified that No one in the States really pays attention to Canada. We're just kind of... there. I could have punched him, but he's just an American, he doesn't know any better.
Anyway, sorry I can't really remember all that's happened this past week. It's all a blur. It's ridiculous how fast time's going. I'm slowly wearing the Americans down. They make fun of Canada a lot, but there's so much more dumb things to say about the USA, so I'm covered for a while.
Then he started telling em about this Japanese TV show where all the countries are represented in manga by a single person. So each country is summed up by one person. Like Italy eats pasta and plays soccer all day, England has these bushy eyebrows, Germany has blonde hair, blue eyes and is extremely ripped and US always puts himself in charge and makes all the other countries work hard so he can be the hero. I asked about Canada, and he showed me this video:
http://www.animefreak.tv/watch/hetalia-axis-powers-episode-19-online
The first thing I said was 'Wait, if you want English subtitles, you have to click the USA flag?' I would rather have watched it in French. I mean, doesn't ENGLish come from ENGLand? Anyway, Canada only made a brief appearence, I'll let you watch for yourself. And Cory testified that No one in the States really pays attention to Canada. We're just kind of... there. I could have punched him, but he's just an American, he doesn't know any better.
Anyway, sorry I can't really remember all that's happened this past week. It's all a blur. It's ridiculous how fast time's going. I'm slowly wearing the Americans down. They make fun of Canada a lot, but there's so much more dumb things to say about the USA, so I'm covered for a while.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Garbage and Recycling and Stalkers
There’s also a very different system here for waste disposal and recycling. Both are very interesting. The garbage trucks here are much smaller and more abundant than the ones back home. Unlike the lone huge one in Peterborough. There can’t be more then one of them at the rate it takes them to everyone’s garbages. Anyway the ones here sing. Very loudly. It’s a different tune wherever you go. In my city, it’s Fur Elise. Which, you know, kind of cool when I first got here. Then it drove me dangerously close to insanity. Because there are a lot of them and sometimes you get a fugue going, which likewise is pretty cool at first, but then five minutes later when it’s still going, all you want to do is jump out the window. The first time I actually saw one of these babies, I was shocked at how small it was. Then I was scared for two reasons: one, it was way too loud up close and I was scared I’d lose my hearing and two, it wouldn’t stop and almost ran me over. They do stop though. Well, more like slow down. Then people have to bring their garbage to it if they want to get rid of it. It’s more like a bus for garbage. If you miss it, you have to wait for the next one. I also had a near death experience with one of these again when I was walking home from the MRT (Mass Rapid Transportation) and I have to walk through a labyrinth of alleys to get home. One fo the Americans decided to stalk me on my way home because we both get off at the same MRT station and I just read my play to the class and then he wanted to know where I lived. Which is kind of creepy, considering he’s from Pennsylvania. But everything turned out okay because I made a lot of confusing tuns and lost him. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow if he ever made it home. So I entered the first alley and heard a garbage truck. Whatever, it’s probably on one of the main roads. No. I was almost out when I saw the flashing lights nd it appeared out of nowhere like Jareth or the Pit of Eternal Stench, more accurately. And it cut me off and then, of course, this time it decides to stop and when I tried to go around, it started moving again and almost ran me over. The person driving it must have gone blind with the excessive noise. I eventually got away and arrived home with my life.
Recycling’s a lot more fun! Once a week, my host mom asks me to help her bring the recycling down to the basement of the apartment building where we sort it. The basement is also the underground parking lot so whenever a car comes in, red lights start flashing and sirens go. I have no idea why. I think it’s to warn anyone that might be walking around that there’s a car coming, or worse, a scooter. Because, in the words of Elf, ‘The yellow ones don’t stop.’ Well, in this case it’s the little ones that don’t stop. But the yellow ones don’t stop either. People actually cross the street if scooters are coming but no cars are because the scooters can swerve around you. And you have to watch out when you’re getting off a bus because there’s a whole 1 ½ feet of space between the bus and the sidewalk and scooters will take advantage of it. That was pretty scary the first time that happened to me.
Anyway, so it’s always fun when the alarms go off because it makes me feel like a secret agent sneaking into a top secret basement and I have to leave evidence that I was never there, someone else was and I have to sort the recycling quick, then get out of there before someone sees me. I think I creep my host mom out a bit when I started ducking around corners and inching myself along the walls. She was probably wondering what the heck she thought she was getting into when she allowed her son to go to Florida for the year. I also have to walk behind her when we walk through the market because there’s so many people and scooters and cars and trucks. It makes me feel like a duckling like I did when I used to go shopping with my real mom and sisters. And Kara, the small one’s always at the back, not the front! Oh well, I guess you only have to move back one spot because you’re taller then Chelsea now. Anyway, I felt like quacking one day, so I did. We were walking past the chickens at the time, so I don’t think my host mom noticed it was me. If she did, the thoughts going through her mind were probably something like, ‘only three months until I get to host the nice, normal Hungarian girl.’ Sure, they named a very vicious dragon after her country, but she can’t be much weirder than this crazy Canadian.
There’s also these really tiny ant-like things in my house. They’re everywhere! In my room, the kitchen, the bathroom. At first, I didn’t mind because they weren’t hurting anybody. But then I realize they bite. And the bite is about 100 times the size of their bodies and itch so bad! So now I don’t take food into my room. I thought they left with the first ‘frost’ which was last week when the temperature went below 20 degrees, but no, it’s above 20 again and they’re still here. And it’s not supposed to go below 20 again for a while.
The plans for the country fair are going okay. It’s on November 22 and every country gets their own table and NT$500 to spend. Except the Americans who get 2 tables and NT$1000 because there’s so many of them. But there’s only 4 Canadians, we’re the 4th most represented country here, Americans being first, then the French then the Germans. Then there’s 1 person from every other country. Anyway, the last time we met, it was just me and the 2 guys, both from BC, who suggested we hijack the zamboni from Taipei Arena and build an igloo out of styrofoam. Now, I’m all for that, they’d let us have the zamboni because we’re Canadian, but where would be find enough styrofoam for an igloo? And even if we did, would we stay in budget? There’s a Costco in Neihu, we’ll have to make a field trip. I have yet to see the Costco, but I guess I don’t have a membership.
Anyway, I think I’ve ranted enough. I’m just killing time until it’s late enough to go to bed. If you guys have any suggestions for the country fair, let me know! Also, the peanut butter here is really expensive and it’s too sweet, like the peanut butter in Reese’s Pieces. Yet, the label says it’s from Canada. I miss Skippy. I actually said this out loud and the Americans started laughing at me. Also, let me know if you know of anywhere in Taiwan where I can find excessive amounts of styrofoam. This could be fun!
Recycling’s a lot more fun! Once a week, my host mom asks me to help her bring the recycling down to the basement of the apartment building where we sort it. The basement is also the underground parking lot so whenever a car comes in, red lights start flashing and sirens go. I have no idea why. I think it’s to warn anyone that might be walking around that there’s a car coming, or worse, a scooter. Because, in the words of Elf, ‘The yellow ones don’t stop.’ Well, in this case it’s the little ones that don’t stop. But the yellow ones don’t stop either. People actually cross the street if scooters are coming but no cars are because the scooters can swerve around you. And you have to watch out when you’re getting off a bus because there’s a whole 1 ½ feet of space between the bus and the sidewalk and scooters will take advantage of it. That was pretty scary the first time that happened to me.
Anyway, so it’s always fun when the alarms go off because it makes me feel like a secret agent sneaking into a top secret basement and I have to leave evidence that I was never there, someone else was and I have to sort the recycling quick, then get out of there before someone sees me. I think I creep my host mom out a bit when I started ducking around corners and inching myself along the walls. She was probably wondering what the heck she thought she was getting into when she allowed her son to go to Florida for the year. I also have to walk behind her when we walk through the market because there’s so many people and scooters and cars and trucks. It makes me feel like a duckling like I did when I used to go shopping with my real mom and sisters. And Kara, the small one’s always at the back, not the front! Oh well, I guess you only have to move back one spot because you’re taller then Chelsea now. Anyway, I felt like quacking one day, so I did. We were walking past the chickens at the time, so I don’t think my host mom noticed it was me. If she did, the thoughts going through her mind were probably something like, ‘only three months until I get to host the nice, normal Hungarian girl.’ Sure, they named a very vicious dragon after her country, but she can’t be much weirder than this crazy Canadian.
There’s also these really tiny ant-like things in my house. They’re everywhere! In my room, the kitchen, the bathroom. At first, I didn’t mind because they weren’t hurting anybody. But then I realize they bite. And the bite is about 100 times the size of their bodies and itch so bad! So now I don’t take food into my room. I thought they left with the first ‘frost’ which was last week when the temperature went below 20 degrees, but no, it’s above 20 again and they’re still here. And it’s not supposed to go below 20 again for a while.
The plans for the country fair are going okay. It’s on November 22 and every country gets their own table and NT$500 to spend. Except the Americans who get 2 tables and NT$1000 because there’s so many of them. But there’s only 4 Canadians, we’re the 4th most represented country here, Americans being first, then the French then the Germans. Then there’s 1 person from every other country. Anyway, the last time we met, it was just me and the 2 guys, both from BC, who suggested we hijack the zamboni from Taipei Arena and build an igloo out of styrofoam. Now, I’m all for that, they’d let us have the zamboni because we’re Canadian, but where would be find enough styrofoam for an igloo? And even if we did, would we stay in budget? There’s a Costco in Neihu, we’ll have to make a field trip. I have yet to see the Costco, but I guess I don’t have a membership.
Anyway, I think I’ve ranted enough. I’m just killing time until it’s late enough to go to bed. If you guys have any suggestions for the country fair, let me know! Also, the peanut butter here is really expensive and it’s too sweet, like the peanut butter in Reese’s Pieces. Yet, the label says it’s from Canada. I miss Skippy. I actually said this out loud and the Americans started laughing at me. Also, let me know if you know of anywhere in Taiwan where I can find excessive amounts of styrofoam. This could be fun!
Friday, November 6, 2009
Band
I just realized I haven’t given you my rant about band yet. Actually, I just came back from one of the worst practices. So it’ll be worse than it actually is. Band is on Fridays after school at 6:00. I have volleyball from 5:00-6:00, so I have about 0 minutes to quickly grab dinner, eat it and get down to band. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because we never start on time. Tonight we started at 6:30. The first thing we always do is tune. This should only take about 5 minutes to tune each instrument because there are so few of us, then maybe another 3 minutes to do a chorale or something. But no. It took 45 minutes to tune tonight. It’s usually half an hour on normal nights. We tune each instrument, then spend like 15 minutes playing concert B flat in the various different ways that you can play a concert B flat. Section by section, tubas start, then add baritone, trombone, trumpets, saxes, clarinets and flutes. And then we add person by person, so the tubas are usually very lightheaded by the time the teacher is satisfied by the way we sound.
Our band consists of 2 tubas, 1 baritone, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 2 tenor saxes, 2 clarinets, 4 flutes and 7 drummers. So we’re pretty small. Tonight, I had someone sitting behind me who was just learning to play the tenor sax. For those who aren’t in band, that basically means it sounded like the devil was sitting behind me. During those 45 minutes we spent tuning, she could not get her instrument to pitch properly, and in the words of Mr Bailey, it was exactly like the sound you expect to hear at the gates of hell. And it was loud and she was directly behind me, so it was torture. Eventually, the director just told her to stop and go outside to practice on her own.
By the time we were ready to actually play a song, it was 7:15. Band goes for 3 hours straight and we don’t get a break unless the teacher’s cell phone rings and considering he’s a Biology teacher, that does not happen often. About as often as Mr Heyes’s cell phone rang in class. Never. I leave at 8:00 because I’m dead by then. Tonight we played Titanic for almost an hour. The teacher kept asking me if I understood what he was saying, and I did. I know my numbers and my musical terminology in Chinese. It was the other musicians I was worried about. I thought I was the foreigner who has a hard time understanding Chinese. I wondered if they knew how to count and if they knew the difference between a quarter note and an eighth note. At the beginning of the song, the tenor sax has a solo type thing which is 2 eighth notes followed by 3 quarter notes and a whole note. Not very hard if you ask me. We spent almost 20 minutes on those 6 notes alone because she could just not get it. NEEDLES IN MY EYES!!
At 8:00, we had 10 bars to go. I figured it wouldn’t take very long because people either had whole notes or a part we already went over about a million times just 10 minutes before, so I figured we should be done in no time. Ten minutes later, I was still sitting there. This time, the trumpets could not figure out how to play the part we played now 20 minutes ago. I think I hate band here. I want to quit, but I also want a t-shirt. Everyone else has a t-shirt. Whatever, I’m just the exchange student. I don’t need a cool t-shirt.
On a brighter note, on Tuesday we watched a movie during Home Economics class. We had a choice between 17 Again, What Happens in Vegas and Yes Man. We were allowed to vote twice. I voted for Yes Man and What Happens in Vegas. 17 Again won. I guess some thing just don’t change even if you’re on the other end of the planet. These Asians. They have this thing for Zack Efron. In Music class, they wanted to watch High School Musical 3. I don’t know what the other choices were, but when we voted, almost everyone had their hand up for HSM3.
This Monday will be the day that marks I’m 1/4 of the way through my exchange. Some of my friends back home figured that one out. They must have a lot of time on their hands. I can’t believe I’m already 1/4 through. Where is the time going? I hear it’s a different story back home with Grade 12 and all. Sorry. Well, at least I’ll be home before I know it. The Australian goes back home December 12. Hard to believe he’s already almost done, doesn’t that mean we’ll be halfway done by then? No, wait, I just checked. I’m not half done until January 23, and by then I’ll still be at my first host family. Strange.
Our band consists of 2 tubas, 1 baritone, 2 trumpets, 1 trombone, 2 tenor saxes, 2 clarinets, 4 flutes and 7 drummers. So we’re pretty small. Tonight, I had someone sitting behind me who was just learning to play the tenor sax. For those who aren’t in band, that basically means it sounded like the devil was sitting behind me. During those 45 minutes we spent tuning, she could not get her instrument to pitch properly, and in the words of Mr Bailey, it was exactly like the sound you expect to hear at the gates of hell. And it was loud and she was directly behind me, so it was torture. Eventually, the director just told her to stop and go outside to practice on her own.
By the time we were ready to actually play a song, it was 7:15. Band goes for 3 hours straight and we don’t get a break unless the teacher’s cell phone rings and considering he’s a Biology teacher, that does not happen often. About as often as Mr Heyes’s cell phone rang in class. Never. I leave at 8:00 because I’m dead by then. Tonight we played Titanic for almost an hour. The teacher kept asking me if I understood what he was saying, and I did. I know my numbers and my musical terminology in Chinese. It was the other musicians I was worried about. I thought I was the foreigner who has a hard time understanding Chinese. I wondered if they knew how to count and if they knew the difference between a quarter note and an eighth note. At the beginning of the song, the tenor sax has a solo type thing which is 2 eighth notes followed by 3 quarter notes and a whole note. Not very hard if you ask me. We spent almost 20 minutes on those 6 notes alone because she could just not get it. NEEDLES IN MY EYES!!
At 8:00, we had 10 bars to go. I figured it wouldn’t take very long because people either had whole notes or a part we already went over about a million times just 10 minutes before, so I figured we should be done in no time. Ten minutes later, I was still sitting there. This time, the trumpets could not figure out how to play the part we played now 20 minutes ago. I think I hate band here. I want to quit, but I also want a t-shirt. Everyone else has a t-shirt. Whatever, I’m just the exchange student. I don’t need a cool t-shirt.
On a brighter note, on Tuesday we watched a movie during Home Economics class. We had a choice between 17 Again, What Happens in Vegas and Yes Man. We were allowed to vote twice. I voted for Yes Man and What Happens in Vegas. 17 Again won. I guess some thing just don’t change even if you’re on the other end of the planet. These Asians. They have this thing for Zack Efron. In Music class, they wanted to watch High School Musical 3. I don’t know what the other choices were, but when we voted, almost everyone had their hand up for HSM3.
This Monday will be the day that marks I’m 1/4 of the way through my exchange. Some of my friends back home figured that one out. They must have a lot of time on their hands. I can’t believe I’m already 1/4 through. Where is the time going? I hear it’s a different story back home with Grade 12 and all. Sorry. Well, at least I’ll be home before I know it. The Australian goes back home December 12. Hard to believe he’s already almost done, doesn’t that mean we’ll be halfway done by then? No, wait, I just checked. I’m not half done until January 23, and by then I’ll still be at my first host family. Strange.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
the Situation Over Here
So, you remember in my last post I was upset because my chinese class cast me as Hagrid in our Harry Potter play? Well, instead of pounding them, as I orginally planned, I decided to take the high road and write an original script that does not include Hagrid. I threw this idea by my class and they liked it. I came up with a few ideas and they picked the one they liked best and today during school, I wrote my first ever fan-fiction play. It's about a Taiwanese exchange student who comes to Hogwarts. They wanted it to be funny, so I tried my best. But then I read it back to myself and I was like, ar! This is so lame! But I was out of time, so I took it to chinese class and hoped no one asked about it .
But Laoshi (teacher) asked how our play was coming and everyone wanted to know. So I wrote a list of characters on the board and gave them the general plot line and they loved it! Still, I was a little worried about the actual script. My sense of humour is not that great, as you all know. But then they wanted me to read it to them, so I had no choice.
You have no idea how relieved I was to hear them laughing at the parts I intended to be funny and clapping when I finished. They loved it, and they told me so later. In no time at all, I had everyone volunteering for parts. Now we just need to translate it to Chinese. They were a little upset that it had to be in Chinese because the other exchange students wouldn't get it. But, seeing as it's only about 20 minutes long, we're going to type up a program with the English translation so they can follow along. I stayed after class with most of the class as volunteers to help me edit out the script, but they didnt want to change anything. They wanted to keep it the way it was. Ah! It was so cool! Ihave to type it up tonight to send to Laoshi so she can translate it. But then I'll post it here so you guys can see it. There are a couple inside jokes, I'll try my best to explain.
Anyway, thanks for listening! Until next time!
P.S. So, the play's typed up. I'm not exactly sure how to post it, seeing as it's 7 pages long. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to live with it.
But Laoshi (teacher) asked how our play was coming and everyone wanted to know. So I wrote a list of characters on the board and gave them the general plot line and they loved it! Still, I was a little worried about the actual script. My sense of humour is not that great, as you all know. But then they wanted me to read it to them, so I had no choice.
You have no idea how relieved I was to hear them laughing at the parts I intended to be funny and clapping when I finished. They loved it, and they told me so later. In no time at all, I had everyone volunteering for parts. Now we just need to translate it to Chinese. They were a little upset that it had to be in Chinese because the other exchange students wouldn't get it. But, seeing as it's only about 20 minutes long, we're going to type up a program with the English translation so they can follow along. I stayed after class with most of the class as volunteers to help me edit out the script, but they didnt want to change anything. They wanted to keep it the way it was. Ah! It was so cool! Ihave to type it up tonight to send to Laoshi so she can translate it. But then I'll post it here so you guys can see it. There are a couple inside jokes, I'll try my best to explain.
Anyway, thanks for listening! Until next time!
P.S. So, the play's typed up. I'm not exactly sure how to post it, seeing as it's 7 pages long. Oh well, I guess you'll just have to live with it.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sick
As sone of you know, I'm pretty sick right now. It started on Wednesday when 2 kids in my class went home and found out they have H1N1 and then they called the school and now our entire class isn't allowed to go to school until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, I started coughing on Wednesday night, had a fever Thursday morning and now my throat, stomach and head are killing me. I went to the doctor on Thursday night and he tought it was H1N1, but he decided not to test unless my fever went up. A fever here being 37.4 degrees. I told them that wasn't a fever. In Canada, we call that body heat. So now I havve to take 4 different pills 4 times a day and if my host mom thinks I'm coughing too much, she'll give me a glass that looks innocently like water. So I'm really thirsty and I'll take a big drink then I'll find out it's salt water. It's pretty gross and isn't doing much for my cough.
Anyway, I had to miss Chinese class on Thursday. They started planning our culminating task, a play in Chinese. Being the original people Americans are (as the vast majority of my class are American) they decided to do Harry Potter. And since i wasn't there to defend myself, they cast me as Hagrid. I reminded them that I'm Canadian and I can wrestle polar bears, so they'd better watch it. I haven't heard back from them. I guess I could also just cough on them and put them all in the hospital. Still, it bugs me. This one girl in our class who thinks she's all that because she's American. I'll bet she cast me as Hagrid instead of waiting for me to come back to class and ask me about it. I'll pound them, I swear. And I'm usually not a violent person. But I guess the combination of H1N1 and Americans isn't so great for me. They're lucky I won't be in class on Monday either.
So far, I don't have to wear a surgical mask. But I haven't left the appartment in 2 days now. Ugh. I smell like death and I can barely talk. I have too much time on my hands, so you'll probably be hearing from me a lot.
Meanwhile, I started coughing on Wednesday night, had a fever Thursday morning and now my throat, stomach and head are killing me. I went to the doctor on Thursday night and he tought it was H1N1, but he decided not to test unless my fever went up. A fever here being 37.4 degrees. I told them that wasn't a fever. In Canada, we call that body heat. So now I havve to take 4 different pills 4 times a day and if my host mom thinks I'm coughing too much, she'll give me a glass that looks innocently like water. So I'm really thirsty and I'll take a big drink then I'll find out it's salt water. It's pretty gross and isn't doing much for my cough.
Anyway, I had to miss Chinese class on Thursday. They started planning our culminating task, a play in Chinese. Being the original people Americans are (as the vast majority of my class are American) they decided to do Harry Potter. And since i wasn't there to defend myself, they cast me as Hagrid. I reminded them that I'm Canadian and I can wrestle polar bears, so they'd better watch it. I haven't heard back from them. I guess I could also just cough on them and put them all in the hospital. Still, it bugs me. This one girl in our class who thinks she's all that because she's American. I'll bet she cast me as Hagrid instead of waiting for me to come back to class and ask me about it. I'll pound them, I swear. And I'm usually not a violent person. But I guess the combination of H1N1 and Americans isn't so great for me. They're lucky I won't be in class on Monday either.
So far, I don't have to wear a surgical mask. But I haven't left the appartment in 2 days now. Ugh. I smell like death and I can barely talk. I have too much time on my hands, so you'll probably be hearing from me a lot.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Public transportation
I don’t know if I’ve given you my rant on the public transportation yet, but I need to, again, if I already have. Ugh! The MRT is fine, but the thing that really bugs me about it is that you have to wait in line for the MRT to come and sometimes, it can take 12 minutes for it to arrive (that’s actually only the one from Xi-Men to Chiang Kai Chek Memorial Hall that I only take twice a week). Anyway, it doesn’t matter if you’re at the front of the line and have been waiting ever since you missed the previous one, when the train arrives, people will push and shove to get a space. And if there’s seats available, forget it. There’s always a stampede of old people fighting their way in.
In the busses and MRTs, there are priority seats near the entrances/exits reserved for the old people, injured, pregnant and mothers with small children. I never got to use these seats even when I limped onto the MRT with that bandage around my knee last week. An old lady tapped my shoulder and motioned for me to get off the seat and surrender it to her. The rest of the ride was brutal because my knee kept shifting in its socket every time the bus moved. And no one gets off the bus until 2 stops before I get off, so even if I do get a seat, it’s not for long. Instead, people just keep on getting on! Every time we stop and more people want to get on, I can’t believe they think they can get on, but they do and things keep on getting more and more uncomfortable. Dun, dun, dun... another one rides the bus AHH!
Anyway, back to the old people. They are vicious! They look so old and helpless, but it’s all just an act! You can’t be fooled by them! And if you are sitting in a seat, priority or not, they will make you get out of it. Even at the MRT station when a train arrives, as soon as the doors open, it’s unbelievable how fast they’ll actually move to get a seat. Anyway, I hate the bus. I’ll come home with these gigantic muscles from gripping the handles that hang down from the roof of MRTs and busses. My skin is already starting to peel off for the same reason. Plus, public transport really eats up all your money. I go through about NT$500 every 3 weeks, but I know some people who go through 3 times that much. Everyone hates it.
Actually, there was one time when I got a seat, it was after band on a Friday night, and my stop is the first one for the bus that I take home. Then all these old ladies got on and started yelling across the aisles at each other in Chinese. It was so irritating! Ugh, old Chinese/Taiwanese ladies. They think they’re invincible. I’m sure I’d be having a lot more fun if I was about 60 years older and Asian. I miss the nice old people of Canada. Oh well. I’ll just turn my iPod up in the meantime.
On the brighter side, today at school I was hanging out in the library with Imme, she was on her laptop and I wasn’t really paying attention to anything. I was watching the OC on a school computer. Then, all of a sudden, I hear this crazy sound. Chelsea would describe it as a mini choke. So with that hint, you can all guess what it actually was. It was Imme speaking Dutch to her family on Skype. I walked over and just sat there and listened and enjoyed myself. Imme found it funny that I was so mesmerized by her language. My German is very poor, but I could make out some of the stuff she was saying because Dutch is pretty close to German.
Anyway, I think I’ll sign out for now. Hopefully tomorrow there will be less old ladies crossing my path. Oh! Just got to add something. So every morning, I have to walk through this market to get to my bus stop. It’s really annoying because there are so many people shopping and a lot of stalls and people selling stuff. Then scooters will try to make their way through all the people. I almost died a couple times. And if that’s not enough, cars will try to try to squeeze through the 5 feet of space and people and scooters. Why can’t they just respect that there are some places where vehicles are not welcome. Then there’s these mini-trucks that bring stuff for the vendors to sell that try to squeeze through. And cars will actually honk if you’re in their way! I hate it. People here are so selfish. Anyway, then there’s this old lady who rides this bicycle with a flatbed attached and steals cardboard from people so she can recycle it and make money. And she has a bell on her handle bars. She’ll bike through the market and she will NOT stop ringing that stupid bell! I see her very often and I’m very very tempted each time to rip her bell off and throw it in her face, but not near her eyes so I can make her watch that stupid bell shatter when I throw it on the ground.
I’ll never take Canada for granted. Ever. Sleeping in until 7:30 (here, I’m at my bus stop by 7:30), the natural cold (it’s about 25 degrees here, I can’t believe it’s almost November. It feels like July) and school starting at 8:30 and ending at 2:30.
I’m not going to say knives and forks. I can honestly say that I prefer chopsticks.
In the busses and MRTs, there are priority seats near the entrances/exits reserved for the old people, injured, pregnant and mothers with small children. I never got to use these seats even when I limped onto the MRT with that bandage around my knee last week. An old lady tapped my shoulder and motioned for me to get off the seat and surrender it to her. The rest of the ride was brutal because my knee kept shifting in its socket every time the bus moved. And no one gets off the bus until 2 stops before I get off, so even if I do get a seat, it’s not for long. Instead, people just keep on getting on! Every time we stop and more people want to get on, I can’t believe they think they can get on, but they do and things keep on getting more and more uncomfortable. Dun, dun, dun... another one rides the bus AHH!
Anyway, back to the old people. They are vicious! They look so old and helpless, but it’s all just an act! You can’t be fooled by them! And if you are sitting in a seat, priority or not, they will make you get out of it. Even at the MRT station when a train arrives, as soon as the doors open, it’s unbelievable how fast they’ll actually move to get a seat. Anyway, I hate the bus. I’ll come home with these gigantic muscles from gripping the handles that hang down from the roof of MRTs and busses. My skin is already starting to peel off for the same reason. Plus, public transport really eats up all your money. I go through about NT$500 every 3 weeks, but I know some people who go through 3 times that much. Everyone hates it.
Actually, there was one time when I got a seat, it was after band on a Friday night, and my stop is the first one for the bus that I take home. Then all these old ladies got on and started yelling across the aisles at each other in Chinese. It was so irritating! Ugh, old Chinese/Taiwanese ladies. They think they’re invincible. I’m sure I’d be having a lot more fun if I was about 60 years older and Asian. I miss the nice old people of Canada. Oh well. I’ll just turn my iPod up in the meantime.
On the brighter side, today at school I was hanging out in the library with Imme, she was on her laptop and I wasn’t really paying attention to anything. I was watching the OC on a school computer. Then, all of a sudden, I hear this crazy sound. Chelsea would describe it as a mini choke. So with that hint, you can all guess what it actually was. It was Imme speaking Dutch to her family on Skype. I walked over and just sat there and listened and enjoyed myself. Imme found it funny that I was so mesmerized by her language. My German is very poor, but I could make out some of the stuff she was saying because Dutch is pretty close to German.
Anyway, I think I’ll sign out for now. Hopefully tomorrow there will be less old ladies crossing my path. Oh! Just got to add something. So every morning, I have to walk through this market to get to my bus stop. It’s really annoying because there are so many people shopping and a lot of stalls and people selling stuff. Then scooters will try to make their way through all the people. I almost died a couple times. And if that’s not enough, cars will try to try to squeeze through the 5 feet of space and people and scooters. Why can’t they just respect that there are some places where vehicles are not welcome. Then there’s these mini-trucks that bring stuff for the vendors to sell that try to squeeze through. And cars will actually honk if you’re in their way! I hate it. People here are so selfish. Anyway, then there’s this old lady who rides this bicycle with a flatbed attached and steals cardboard from people so she can recycle it and make money. And she has a bell on her handle bars. She’ll bike through the market and she will NOT stop ringing that stupid bell! I see her very often and I’m very very tempted each time to rip her bell off and throw it in her face, but not near her eyes so I can make her watch that stupid bell shatter when I throw it on the ground.
I’ll never take Canada for granted. Ever. Sleeping in until 7:30 (here, I’m at my bus stop by 7:30), the natural cold (it’s about 25 degrees here, I can’t believe it’s almost November. It feels like July) and school starting at 8:30 and ending at 2:30.
I’m not going to say knives and forks. I can honestly say that I prefer chopsticks.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday was a pretty crazy day. For one, I didn't want to get out of bed, but that's not unsual. I'm so glad I can sleep in tomorrow! Anyway, school was pretty normal. We had PE and played basketball and badminton again for like the 17th time! Then I had to go to Chinese class. I took the bus. I get off at an MRT station, so a lot of other people get off the bus when I do. I was near the front of the line, waiting for the bus to stop and when it did, I scanned my Easy Card and was about to step off the bus when an impatient lady pushed her way through the line, bumped into me as she leaned over to scan her card and I went tumbling down the stairs and onto the pavement. I landed on my left knee, which as some of you know, has caused me some problems in the past. The lady got off the bus, said 'xiao xing!' which means 'be careful' and ran away. I'm learning that people here are either in a hurry, or they're at their destination.
Anyway. I tried to get up, but my knee had dislocated. So I pushed my kneecap back into place and tried to get up again, succeeded and limped away. I got some crazy looks from other people, but I guess when your knee is bloody and gross, it's nice when the crowd parts and lets you pass. I got to a bench, sat down and texted Mari, from the US who was meeting me for lunch along with Bailey, also from US, to hurry up. They arrived a few minutes later and we bought some bandaids and a tenser bandage from 711 and we wrapped my knee. Then we bought lunch and slowly made our way to Chinese class.
You should have seen my host mom's face when I walked in the door to the apartment! She wanted to take me to the hospital, but I told her I was going to be fine in a couple days. It is doing better now, I'm going without the bandage today. Still, at Culture Class on Wednesday, we had Taikwando and the Rotarians didn't want me to do it and it was fun when the other students asked what happened and I would say 'I fell off a bus.' Then they would look at me weird and ask how that happened and I would say 'someone pushed me.' One of the other Americans made up this story about how this crazy woman pushed me off a bus then I picked the bus up and hurled it at her and she got crushed, then I ran away. Which, highly unrealistic. I couldn't have run away with my knee all screwed up.
Another typhoon has arrived in Taiwan. On rainy days, I just like to curl up in a blanket or sleeping bag and watch movies with friends or family or something. But no. I'm at school. Nothing here changes if there's a typhoon, just people bring umbrellas.
Also, there was apparently an earthquake at 4:30 this morning. But I was too exhausted last night, so I slept well and didn't feel anything. We went to visit the office of the president a few weeks ago and they gave us these pens that stood up straight in their holders. I didn't know what ti was at first. Because the pens move around in their holders, I thought it was an earthquake detector. That's what I use it for. But, obviously, it only works if I'm watching it.
Anyway. I tried to get up, but my knee had dislocated. So I pushed my kneecap back into place and tried to get up again, succeeded and limped away. I got some crazy looks from other people, but I guess when your knee is bloody and gross, it's nice when the crowd parts and lets you pass. I got to a bench, sat down and texted Mari, from the US who was meeting me for lunch along with Bailey, also from US, to hurry up. They arrived a few minutes later and we bought some bandaids and a tenser bandage from 711 and we wrapped my knee. Then we bought lunch and slowly made our way to Chinese class.
You should have seen my host mom's face when I walked in the door to the apartment! She wanted to take me to the hospital, but I told her I was going to be fine in a couple days. It is doing better now, I'm going without the bandage today. Still, at Culture Class on Wednesday, we had Taikwando and the Rotarians didn't want me to do it and it was fun when the other students asked what happened and I would say 'I fell off a bus.' Then they would look at me weird and ask how that happened and I would say 'someone pushed me.' One of the other Americans made up this story about how this crazy woman pushed me off a bus then I picked the bus up and hurled it at her and she got crushed, then I ran away. Which, highly unrealistic. I couldn't have run away with my knee all screwed up.
Another typhoon has arrived in Taiwan. On rainy days, I just like to curl up in a blanket or sleeping bag and watch movies with friends or family or something. But no. I'm at school. Nothing here changes if there's a typhoon, just people bring umbrellas.
Also, there was apparently an earthquake at 4:30 this morning. But I was too exhausted last night, so I slept well and didn't feel anything. We went to visit the office of the president a few weeks ago and they gave us these pens that stood up straight in their holders. I didn't know what ti was at first. Because the pens move around in their holders, I thought it was an earthquake detector. That's what I use it for. But, obviously, it only works if I'm watching it.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Japanese
Today, our school had a visit from 47 Japanese students. Apparently, they’re here for a week. From what I understand, it’s kind of like what St Pete’s does with the school in France. They come here in the fall and then in February, our school sends students to Japan for a week. They were only at our school for the day though, and I had to go to the welcoming ceremony with Julie (from France) and Imme (from Holland). They definitely got more presents and a cooler welcome than we got! And they’re only here for the week! I hope it’s just because the presents are in a higher concentration because they’re here for a way shorter time than we are.
Anyway, then we had to go to an English class taught by Jasper with 20 of the Japanese students. They made me feel a little better about my Chinese, because all they knew was ni hao (hello) and xie xie (thank you). But, like the Taiwanese, they wanted to take pictures with us. They were really nice though!
The gum here comes in bags. It’s kind of weird. And it also disintegrates really quickly in my mouth. I was talking to some other exchange students about that, and it’s only me that happens to. I must have acid spit. Watch out. Don’t make me mad.
I didn’t spend very much time in class today with all the Japanese stuff going on. But I did learn to play the ocarina in Music class! That was fun! It’s kind of like how in Canada, we learn to play the recorder and here it’s the ocarina. I got my own plastic one. It’s red. I hope I get to keep it, they didn’t make me pay for it. I thought I was doing okay, but everyone else learned the different notes really quickly and the teacher taught so fast! There will be owl sounds coming from my room this week. I’ve seen kids walking around the school with their ocarinas around their necks. They come with a string through them for that specific purpose. Bling takes a new meaning over here.
In culture class on Wednesday, we learned how to make a ‘dough figure.’ We made elephant stickits. Well, apparently just elephants, but they were actually stickits. Mine is a wrinkly fat guy. He doesn’t have a name yet, I’m waiting for just the right one. Like Todd or something. Suggestions welcome. I’ll post some pictures on facebook because I'm not sure how/if I can do that here.
Anyway, then we had to go to an English class taught by Jasper with 20 of the Japanese students. They made me feel a little better about my Chinese, because all they knew was ni hao (hello) and xie xie (thank you). But, like the Taiwanese, they wanted to take pictures with us. They were really nice though!
The gum here comes in bags. It’s kind of weird. And it also disintegrates really quickly in my mouth. I was talking to some other exchange students about that, and it’s only me that happens to. I must have acid spit. Watch out. Don’t make me mad.
I didn’t spend very much time in class today with all the Japanese stuff going on. But I did learn to play the ocarina in Music class! That was fun! It’s kind of like how in Canada, we learn to play the recorder and here it’s the ocarina. I got my own plastic one. It’s red. I hope I get to keep it, they didn’t make me pay for it. I thought I was doing okay, but everyone else learned the different notes really quickly and the teacher taught so fast! There will be owl sounds coming from my room this week. I’ve seen kids walking around the school with their ocarinas around their necks. They come with a string through them for that specific purpose. Bling takes a new meaning over here.
In culture class on Wednesday, we learned how to make a ‘dough figure.’ We made elephant stickits. Well, apparently just elephants, but they were actually stickits. Mine is a wrinkly fat guy. He doesn’t have a name yet, I’m waiting for just the right one. Like Todd or something. Suggestions welcome. I’ll post some pictures on facebook because I'm not sure how/if I can do that here.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Double Tenth Day
Apparently, today was Taiwan’s anniversary of being independant from China. Or something like that. Called Double Tenth Day because it's the tenth day of the tenth month, therefore, two 10s, double 10. But I wouldn’t have known if one of the other exchange students hadn’t texted me to wish me a happy Double Tenth Day.
My host parents took me to a market which is right outside our apartment building, and bought me dong hua, which is kind of like soup, but cold and sweet and it has this custard stuff and peanuts and fruit inside, I love it! Actually, yesterday, my classmates took me to the school pool where they sell bubble tea and got some for me. I didn’t explode this time, and everyone was telling me ‘xiao xing!’ which means ‘be careful’ as I had the straw poised above the cup. I think I also love bubble tea! Good thing there’s a bubble tea place in Peterborough.
Anyway, then we went mountain climbing. Instead of hiking, they climb mountains. Which is basically just climbing stairs until you get to the top or until someone passes out, whichever comes first. In this case, it was until Brenda was too tired to keep climbing, but I made it to the top. I counted 662 steps. It reminded me of the time we climbed Brock Monument. I think that was around 200 steps. It also reminded me of Mr Clarke’s lesson on gravitational potential energy. I mean, I had done all this Work to get to the top, and when I got to the top, I had all this Gravitational Potential Energy, which I used to get back to the bottom. Wow, I can’t believe I remembered that.
To top off the day celebrating the anniversary of Taiwan’s birth, we had Japanese food for dinner.
I also heard that this weekend is Thanksgiving. So I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
My host parents took me to a market which is right outside our apartment building, and bought me dong hua, which is kind of like soup, but cold and sweet and it has this custard stuff and peanuts and fruit inside, I love it! Actually, yesterday, my classmates took me to the school pool where they sell bubble tea and got some for me. I didn’t explode this time, and everyone was telling me ‘xiao xing!’ which means ‘be careful’ as I had the straw poised above the cup. I think I also love bubble tea! Good thing there’s a bubble tea place in Peterborough.
Anyway, then we went mountain climbing. Instead of hiking, they climb mountains. Which is basically just climbing stairs until you get to the top or until someone passes out, whichever comes first. In this case, it was until Brenda was too tired to keep climbing, but I made it to the top. I counted 662 steps. It reminded me of the time we climbed Brock Monument. I think that was around 200 steps. It also reminded me of Mr Clarke’s lesson on gravitational potential energy. I mean, I had done all this Work to get to the top, and when I got to the top, I had all this Gravitational Potential Energy, which I used to get back to the bottom. Wow, I can’t believe I remembered that.
To top off the day celebrating the anniversary of Taiwan’s birth, we had Japanese food for dinner.
I also heard that this weekend is Thanksgiving. So I hope everyone has a good Thanksgiving!
Sunday, October 4, 2009
1:00AM
Very early this morning, I got to experience yet another Taiwanese... custom, which made the Moon Festival a little more interesting. But I guess it was at 1:00am, so it’s technically the day after the Moon Festival. Anyway, I woke up to a small ringing noise coming from outside my room. Once I had woken up a bit more, I realized that my bed was shaking. I thought it was a little unsteady at first, but then I was still and it kept rocking at a normal pace! It took me a moment to realize that this could be an earthquake! So I did the only thing that seemed sensible: I crawled into the fetal position and squeezed my eyes tight shut and waited for it to be over, which wasn’t for another few minutes. You have to remember, this was at 1:00am and I wasn’t in my normal state of mind, if I was, I would have probably walked around a bit to see if I could keep my balance.
Anyway, it finished in a couple minutes and I was really freaked out. I was too scared to move because I thought that if I moved, my bed would shake and the whole thing would start over again. But I really had to go to the washroom and I didn’t want to get up out of fear of triggering another earthquake. So I carefully reached for my iPod, turned on some FM Static until I calmed down (Which was about halfway through their second album) then I got up to use the washroom, came back, finished the album and managed to get back to sleep.
I asked my host dad about it this morning when I woke up still alive. He said it was indeed an earthquake and it was about half an hour long (so I must have woken up near the end of it) and the core was in Hualien, where it was a 6.3 earthquake! He said it was 3.2 here. Then he asked if we get earthquakes in Canada, and I said that was my very first earthquake. Sure, throw a blizzard at me and I’ll be fine, but an earthquake at 1:00am and I freak out. For the first time, I was a little worried about living on the 13th floor where the vibrations were more intense. Still, I survived. Maybe I’ll be a little more prepared next time.
Anyway, it finished in a couple minutes and I was really freaked out. I was too scared to move because I thought that if I moved, my bed would shake and the whole thing would start over again. But I really had to go to the washroom and I didn’t want to get up out of fear of triggering another earthquake. So I carefully reached for my iPod, turned on some FM Static until I calmed down (Which was about halfway through their second album) then I got up to use the washroom, came back, finished the album and managed to get back to sleep.
I asked my host dad about it this morning when I woke up still alive. He said it was indeed an earthquake and it was about half an hour long (so I must have woken up near the end of it) and the core was in Hualien, where it was a 6.3 earthquake! He said it was 3.2 here. Then he asked if we get earthquakes in Canada, and I said that was my very first earthquake. Sure, throw a blizzard at me and I’ll be fine, but an earthquake at 1:00am and I freak out. For the first time, I was a little worried about living on the 13th floor where the vibrations were more intense. Still, I survived. Maybe I’ll be a little more prepared next time.
Moon Festival
For a week prior to this second most important festival in the Chinese Lunar Calendar, my host parents reminded me daily about the Rotary party on the night of October 3rd and there would be karaoke. So, naturally, I was excited. The karaoke was questionable, I mean, I like to sing, though I’m not very good, but I’d be singing in front of Rotarians and they love to party. Karaoke, I’m learning, is very popular here. At every party I’ve been to, there’s been a TV and a book of songs to choose from.
So, today finally arrived. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe lots of red, red being a lucky colour here, some lanterns, moon cakes, grapefruits and pineapple cake. I certainly wasn’t expecting what actually happened. I woke up as if it was any other day, had the same breakfast, where my host mom reminded me that today was the Moon Festival. Then she took me to Blockbuster and we rented some movies. When we got back, we watched Inkheart (it was really good, but I couldn’t take the bad guy seriously because he was the gay, editor-in-chief dude from 13 Going On 30!) Then my host dad came home and took us out to lunch (my host sister was at cram school). I was actually a little cooler today. Still hot, but tolerable. Lunch was probably the hottest noodle soup I’ve ever had! It was pretty bad, as soon as I’m comfortable, they have to heat things up again. I wonder what would happen if everyone in Taipei had a dehumidifier and had it on full blast all day.
On the way home, I saw some white people! The woman ignored me, but the man smiled at me. We’re like family here. Then we had moon cakes. They looked different from the ones I’ve had before. They were chocolate, but once I got to the middle, there was that stupid egg yoke! Why ruin such a good cake with something so completely random and gross? I’ll have to look that one up.
Now, at Rotary parties here, like in Canada, everyone dresses up. So I wore a skirt. When my host parents said it was time to go, they were wearing jeans and t-shirts. So I was a little confused. Even more confused when, instead of heading to the underground parking lot, we walked around the apartment building and right back into it via a little warehouse-like room. The party was there. My host parents had lied. It wasn’t a Rotary party! It was a party for everyone in the apartment building! I was overdressed, and I was very self-conscious about it. However, as promised, there was karaoke. They showed me the English selections. I had to laugh. There was Dancing Queen, 500 Miles, Twist and Shout, Spice Up Your Life, You are my Sunshine and My Sharona. Plus a lot more, but I can’t remember all the names. I definitely didn’t want to sing in front of a group of total strangers in a skirt while they were all in jeans! At least with the Rotarians, I know them and I wouldn’t feel overdressed. I told my host parents that I might next time. Still I couldn’t help picturing me singing Dancing Queen like in Mamma Mia or Twist and Shout like in Ferris Bueler’s Day Off.
We stayed for about an hour, then we went back upstairs. It funny what people will do when you put a microphone in their hands. I saw one boy who looked about 9 singing with his 4-year-old brother, but the little brother didn’t have a mic and was pulling on his brother’s hand to get one. He ended up throwing a fit and his mom had to intervene and the security guards gave him his own mic, which he promptly screeched into, then, scared by his own magnified voice, dropped it and started crying.
Anyway, it wasn’t anything special. I think I heard fire crackers a few minutes ago. I can’t see the moon, which apparently is orange tonight. There are too many clouds. Two typhoons are passing over Taiwan at the same time right now and have formed what my classmates call a ‘super typhoon.’ We haven’t had much rain, but it has been pretty windy.
My Chinese class in all Americans. We used to have a Russian guy and a French girl, but they left because it was too easy and now they’re in the highest class. Now it’s me, 9 Americans, a Brazillian girl and a German guy, but the German has joined the Americans. They can be mean! They told Ju They were better and smarter than she was because she made one mistake in her pronounciation. Then they proceeded to call Canada ‘America’s hat’ and Canadians ‘So cute, they’re like our little purse dogs!’ Of course, this is only most of the Americans. There are a couple that are nice. But still, I thought Matt would be wrong about the Americans, but he was right! There is one names Rebekka from Florida who has the same birthday as me! But she’s a year younger. Still, we’re friends. But the Hawaiian guy thinks he’s cooler than the rest of us because he’s from Hawaii. I played I’m Not American for Ju, and we both laughed at the part where it says Hawaiians shouldn’t be Americans because they’re nowhere near America. Ju and I enjoy our non-American time.
The French (and Belgian guy) are also pretty cocky. They think they’re better than everyone and always talk in French. I don’t think they know this, but I can understand every word they say. Most of the time, it’s stupid French people stuff, but sometimes, they say something mean about someone else. If I ever hear them say something about me, I’ll yell at them in their native tongue, they watch their faces. In culture class last week, we were learning how to tie a Chinese knot (which, incidentally, is exactly like hemp, so I’m pro at it) and we were divided into 3 groups and the Belgian guy was in charge of translating for us, but the dirtbag translated into French, so only me and the 3 other French people in our group could understand. I finished first though. I hope he noticed.
Anyway, I did have something else I wanted to share, but I can’t remember. Oh! This isn’t it, but Monsters Vs. Aliens! Watched it on the plane, I could not stop laughing! When Brenda and I were in Blockbuster today, they were playing the scene where the President is doing his crazy piano thing for the alien, but it was in Chinese! I don’t think my host mom knew why I was laughing all of a sudden. Anyway, great movie, I very much suggest you watch it!
So, today finally arrived. I don’t know what I was expecting. Maybe lots of red, red being a lucky colour here, some lanterns, moon cakes, grapefruits and pineapple cake. I certainly wasn’t expecting what actually happened. I woke up as if it was any other day, had the same breakfast, where my host mom reminded me that today was the Moon Festival. Then she took me to Blockbuster and we rented some movies. When we got back, we watched Inkheart (it was really good, but I couldn’t take the bad guy seriously because he was the gay, editor-in-chief dude from 13 Going On 30!) Then my host dad came home and took us out to lunch (my host sister was at cram school). I was actually a little cooler today. Still hot, but tolerable. Lunch was probably the hottest noodle soup I’ve ever had! It was pretty bad, as soon as I’m comfortable, they have to heat things up again. I wonder what would happen if everyone in Taipei had a dehumidifier and had it on full blast all day.
On the way home, I saw some white people! The woman ignored me, but the man smiled at me. We’re like family here. Then we had moon cakes. They looked different from the ones I’ve had before. They were chocolate, but once I got to the middle, there was that stupid egg yoke! Why ruin such a good cake with something so completely random and gross? I’ll have to look that one up.
Now, at Rotary parties here, like in Canada, everyone dresses up. So I wore a skirt. When my host parents said it was time to go, they were wearing jeans and t-shirts. So I was a little confused. Even more confused when, instead of heading to the underground parking lot, we walked around the apartment building and right back into it via a little warehouse-like room. The party was there. My host parents had lied. It wasn’t a Rotary party! It was a party for everyone in the apartment building! I was overdressed, and I was very self-conscious about it. However, as promised, there was karaoke. They showed me the English selections. I had to laugh. There was Dancing Queen, 500 Miles, Twist and Shout, Spice Up Your Life, You are my Sunshine and My Sharona. Plus a lot more, but I can’t remember all the names. I definitely didn’t want to sing in front of a group of total strangers in a skirt while they were all in jeans! At least with the Rotarians, I know them and I wouldn’t feel overdressed. I told my host parents that I might next time. Still I couldn’t help picturing me singing Dancing Queen like in Mamma Mia or Twist and Shout like in Ferris Bueler’s Day Off.
We stayed for about an hour, then we went back upstairs. It funny what people will do when you put a microphone in their hands. I saw one boy who looked about 9 singing with his 4-year-old brother, but the little brother didn’t have a mic and was pulling on his brother’s hand to get one. He ended up throwing a fit and his mom had to intervene and the security guards gave him his own mic, which he promptly screeched into, then, scared by his own magnified voice, dropped it and started crying.
Anyway, it wasn’t anything special. I think I heard fire crackers a few minutes ago. I can’t see the moon, which apparently is orange tonight. There are too many clouds. Two typhoons are passing over Taiwan at the same time right now and have formed what my classmates call a ‘super typhoon.’ We haven’t had much rain, but it has been pretty windy.
My Chinese class in all Americans. We used to have a Russian guy and a French girl, but they left because it was too easy and now they’re in the highest class. Now it’s me, 9 Americans, a Brazillian girl and a German guy, but the German has joined the Americans. They can be mean! They told Ju They were better and smarter than she was because she made one mistake in her pronounciation. Then they proceeded to call Canada ‘America’s hat’ and Canadians ‘So cute, they’re like our little purse dogs!’ Of course, this is only most of the Americans. There are a couple that are nice. But still, I thought Matt would be wrong about the Americans, but he was right! There is one names Rebekka from Florida who has the same birthday as me! But she’s a year younger. Still, we’re friends. But the Hawaiian guy thinks he’s cooler than the rest of us because he’s from Hawaii. I played I’m Not American for Ju, and we both laughed at the part where it says Hawaiians shouldn’t be Americans because they’re nowhere near America. Ju and I enjoy our non-American time.
The French (and Belgian guy) are also pretty cocky. They think they’re better than everyone and always talk in French. I don’t think they know this, but I can understand every word they say. Most of the time, it’s stupid French people stuff, but sometimes, they say something mean about someone else. If I ever hear them say something about me, I’ll yell at them in their native tongue, they watch their faces. In culture class last week, we were learning how to tie a Chinese knot (which, incidentally, is exactly like hemp, so I’m pro at it) and we were divided into 3 groups and the Belgian guy was in charge of translating for us, but the dirtbag translated into French, so only me and the 3 other French people in our group could understand. I finished first though. I hope he noticed.
Anyway, I did have something else I wanted to share, but I can’t remember. Oh! This isn’t it, but Monsters Vs. Aliens! Watched it on the plane, I could not stop laughing! When Brenda and I were in Blockbuster today, they were playing the scene where the President is doing his crazy piano thing for the alien, but it was in Chinese! I don’t think my host mom knew why I was laughing all of a sudden. Anyway, great movie, I very much suggest you watch it!
Monday, September 28, 2009
Dinner
At the orientation weekend in Hualien, Rotex made a movie about how dinner here is different from dinner everywhere else. I didn't believe them until a few weeks later.
At home, we all have a plate with food already on it and we're expected to eat it all, or we don't get dessert, if there is dessert that is. Here, the tables are round and they all have a huge Lazy Susan in the middle. Everyone gets an empty plate and a set of chopsticks and the food is placed on the Lazy Susan, so you can pick what you want and not pick what you don't want. In a way, I like this arrangement. But the food doesn't all come at once. One dish is brought out at a time and the next doesn't usuallycome until the first is almost gone. So if you don't like what the food is, you'll be waiting a while until something new comes. This is usually at restaurants and Rotary dinners.
One thing I've learned is that the first course if usually sashimi. I'm getting used to that. If I use soy sauce and wasabi, I don't really notice the rubbery texture as much. A girl from the States actually told me she thought I was really brave because I'm not afraid to try all the food that's offered to me! Wow, Mom would be proud. I'm such a good exchange student.
Anyway, I've yet to see a traditional Taiwanese meal served without a fish course. I posted a picture on facebook of my dinner on my third night here. It is actually an entire fish that looks like someone just pulled out of the ocean and stuck in the oven. The eyes are still there and everything! It still scares me when the fish comes to the table. And everyone just picks at it with their chopsticks! Another thing that bugs me is that at dinners like this, the chopsticks are always plastic. Plastic and metal chopsticks are really hard to use. I'm just getting used to wooden ones, but I think I'm almost ready to graduate to plastic. People know that I'm not from here, so when they see me struggling to pull a hunk of fish away from the rest of it, they ask if I want a fork. But I answer in Chinese that no, I would not like I fork. I can do this. I don't know if people are more surprised at the fact that I can actually use chopsticks or that I can speak Chinese. Or, working on my Chinese.
Foods that I never thought I'd try that I have tried:
-Duck
-Squid
-Squid jerky (I'm not even kidding, it's like beef jerky, but squid)
-Squid crackers (like shrimp crackers)
-Moon cake (the weird thing being that it has a boiled egg yoke in the middle)
-Sashimi
-Sushi
-Entire shrimps (with their faces still on, you have to break it behind the head and on top of the stomach, otherwise all it's guts come squirting out at you, I know this from experience)
-Wasabi
-Candied beef (also not kidding, apparently it's a delicacy here)
-Octopus
-Octopus puffs (they told me they were cookies. Wrong, wrong, wrong)
-Cupcakes... for breakfast. Also on the breakfast menu is cake, Moon cake, hamburgers and meat.
Another thing: (last one, I promise) you can't trust the break here. If it's thin, then yeah, knock yourself out, but if it's round, watch out. There's probably something in the middle which can range from meat to custard to this weird sweetish purple goo to mushrooms. The custard ones are good, and the meat ones if you're expecting meat. But the purple stuff looks kind of unappetizing, so if I bite into bread and find that in the middle, I tend to leave it alone.
At home, we all have a plate with food already on it and we're expected to eat it all, or we don't get dessert, if there is dessert that is. Here, the tables are round and they all have a huge Lazy Susan in the middle. Everyone gets an empty plate and a set of chopsticks and the food is placed on the Lazy Susan, so you can pick what you want and not pick what you don't want. In a way, I like this arrangement. But the food doesn't all come at once. One dish is brought out at a time and the next doesn't usuallycome until the first is almost gone. So if you don't like what the food is, you'll be waiting a while until something new comes. This is usually at restaurants and Rotary dinners.
One thing I've learned is that the first course if usually sashimi. I'm getting used to that. If I use soy sauce and wasabi, I don't really notice the rubbery texture as much. A girl from the States actually told me she thought I was really brave because I'm not afraid to try all the food that's offered to me! Wow, Mom would be proud. I'm such a good exchange student.
Anyway, I've yet to see a traditional Taiwanese meal served without a fish course. I posted a picture on facebook of my dinner on my third night here. It is actually an entire fish that looks like someone just pulled out of the ocean and stuck in the oven. The eyes are still there and everything! It still scares me when the fish comes to the table. And everyone just picks at it with their chopsticks! Another thing that bugs me is that at dinners like this, the chopsticks are always plastic. Plastic and metal chopsticks are really hard to use. I'm just getting used to wooden ones, but I think I'm almost ready to graduate to plastic. People know that I'm not from here, so when they see me struggling to pull a hunk of fish away from the rest of it, they ask if I want a fork. But I answer in Chinese that no, I would not like I fork. I can do this. I don't know if people are more surprised at the fact that I can actually use chopsticks or that I can speak Chinese. Or, working on my Chinese.
Foods that I never thought I'd try that I have tried:
-Duck
-Squid
-Squid jerky (I'm not even kidding, it's like beef jerky, but squid)
-Squid crackers (like shrimp crackers)
-Moon cake (the weird thing being that it has a boiled egg yoke in the middle)
-Sashimi
-Sushi
-Entire shrimps (with their faces still on, you have to break it behind the head and on top of the stomach, otherwise all it's guts come squirting out at you, I know this from experience)
-Wasabi
-Candied beef (also not kidding, apparently it's a delicacy here)
-Octopus
-Octopus puffs (they told me they were cookies. Wrong, wrong, wrong)
-Cupcakes... for breakfast. Also on the breakfast menu is cake, Moon cake, hamburgers and meat.
Another thing: (last one, I promise) you can't trust the break here. If it's thin, then yeah, knock yourself out, but if it's round, watch out. There's probably something in the middle which can range from meat to custard to this weird sweetish purple goo to mushrooms. The custard ones are good, and the meat ones if you're expecting meat. But the purple stuff looks kind of unappetizing, so if I bite into bread and find that in the middle, I tend to leave it alone.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
School
I haven’t mentioned nearly enough about my new school to give you a good picture of how it compares to school in Canada. So, I’ll describe a normal day at school for me.
I wake up at 6:00, get dressed, clean up and eat breakfast. I leave at 7:00 to catch the 311 bus to my school, Zhonghe Gao Zhong (The National Chung Ho Senior High School). Busses here are like a game is Bonanza. The 311 bus is like a Red Bean, there aren’t very many of them and when you’re looking for them, you keep getting Stink Beans or Green Beans, like the 262 and 241 busses. I’m supposed to take the 214 bus, but those are like Garden Beans, you very rarely see them.
Anyway, I arrive just before 8:00, which is when I’m supposed to. The security guards take my temperature and spray hand sanitizer on me, then I sign in, recording my name (莊茉莉 or Chuang Mo-Li, my host parents ave adpoted me and given me their last name) the date, my number (10544, the 105 is my class and the 44 is my seat number), the time and my current body temperature. I’m surprised it’s stayed normal so far, it’s way ridiculously hot here! Then I go to the Media Center where I check in with Ting, my ‘teacher’ and Jasper, my student advisor. Then they dismiss me to my class.
School starts at 7:30, but classes don’t actually start until 8:00, I don’t know what they do in that half hour, I guess I’ll never know. The classes also change every day, not like at St Pete’s where you have the same 4 classes every day. Plus, the teacher comes to us and we don’t have to move except for Art, PE and Music. The seats are assigned according to number. There are 44 students in my class, so I’m at the very back corner, but close to the AC, so that’s nice!
Classes last 50 minutes (which seems like a long time when you don't understand the language), then there’s a 10 minute break, which make no sense because back home, we have 5 minutes to run to our locker, unload and load books, then run to our next class. All there people do here is sit around and talk. Lunch break is at 12:00, then at 12:30, we get nap time until 1:00. Then 4 more classes and we get to go home at 5:00.
As for the classes themselves, they ALL have assigned seating according to our numbers. It took me a while to figure out why everyone was kicking me out of my seat. The classes that aren’t in our homeroom don’t have a seat with me, so I have to find a chair and sit away from the normal people for the entire class. PE was weird too. We did warm up, and I had no idea that we had to stay in numerical order for PE! So, I just kind of wandered around, doing the exercises until people were escorting me to my proper place. Also, numbers 1-25 are boys and 26-44 are girls. So whenever we do stuff like fitness testing, the boys are always done first and have more time to play than the girls. I don’t really think the gym teacher knows what she’s doing. She’s assigned one of the boys to record fitness scores and lead warm up. Then she tells us which sport we’re playing and we divide into groups and fool around until class is over.
Music class is also a disappointment. It’s a vocal class, which I would be okay with, except all the music is in Chinese! I would have preferred instrumental music, I’m just glad I joined the band!
Yesterday, I was allowed to eliminate 8 hours of class, which isn’t much. But I guess I’m already missing Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, 8 extra hours is reasonable, even if I don’t understand what’s being taught. Today, the Health teacher started talking to me in Chinese, and I told her, in Chinese, that my Chinese isn’t very good, but she kept talking to me and smiling as if I understood what she was saying. The rest of the class started laughing at the look on my face, I don’t think the teacher noticed.
It’s really funny, whenever I leave the class at the end of the day, people make sure I know which bus to take and which stop to get off at. I’ve been here for almost 4 weeks, I know how to get around! But it’s cool that they’re concerned.
I have a few more subjects to write about, so stayed tuned!
I wake up at 6:00, get dressed, clean up and eat breakfast. I leave at 7:00 to catch the 311 bus to my school, Zhonghe Gao Zhong (The National Chung Ho Senior High School). Busses here are like a game is Bonanza. The 311 bus is like a Red Bean, there aren’t very many of them and when you’re looking for them, you keep getting Stink Beans or Green Beans, like the 262 and 241 busses. I’m supposed to take the 214 bus, but those are like Garden Beans, you very rarely see them.
Anyway, I arrive just before 8:00, which is when I’m supposed to. The security guards take my temperature and spray hand sanitizer on me, then I sign in, recording my name (莊茉莉 or Chuang Mo-Li, my host parents ave adpoted me and given me their last name) the date, my number (10544, the 105 is my class and the 44 is my seat number), the time and my current body temperature. I’m surprised it’s stayed normal so far, it’s way ridiculously hot here! Then I go to the Media Center where I check in with Ting, my ‘teacher’ and Jasper, my student advisor. Then they dismiss me to my class.
School starts at 7:30, but classes don’t actually start until 8:00, I don’t know what they do in that half hour, I guess I’ll never know. The classes also change every day, not like at St Pete’s where you have the same 4 classes every day. Plus, the teacher comes to us and we don’t have to move except for Art, PE and Music. The seats are assigned according to number. There are 44 students in my class, so I’m at the very back corner, but close to the AC, so that’s nice!
Classes last 50 minutes (which seems like a long time when you don't understand the language), then there’s a 10 minute break, which make no sense because back home, we have 5 minutes to run to our locker, unload and load books, then run to our next class. All there people do here is sit around and talk. Lunch break is at 12:00, then at 12:30, we get nap time until 1:00. Then 4 more classes and we get to go home at 5:00.
As for the classes themselves, they ALL have assigned seating according to our numbers. It took me a while to figure out why everyone was kicking me out of my seat. The classes that aren’t in our homeroom don’t have a seat with me, so I have to find a chair and sit away from the normal people for the entire class. PE was weird too. We did warm up, and I had no idea that we had to stay in numerical order for PE! So, I just kind of wandered around, doing the exercises until people were escorting me to my proper place. Also, numbers 1-25 are boys and 26-44 are girls. So whenever we do stuff like fitness testing, the boys are always done first and have more time to play than the girls. I don’t really think the gym teacher knows what she’s doing. She’s assigned one of the boys to record fitness scores and lead warm up. Then she tells us which sport we’re playing and we divide into groups and fool around until class is over.
Music class is also a disappointment. It’s a vocal class, which I would be okay with, except all the music is in Chinese! I would have preferred instrumental music, I’m just glad I joined the band!
Yesterday, I was allowed to eliminate 8 hours of class, which isn’t much. But I guess I’m already missing Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons, 8 extra hours is reasonable, even if I don’t understand what’s being taught. Today, the Health teacher started talking to me in Chinese, and I told her, in Chinese, that my Chinese isn’t very good, but she kept talking to me and smiling as if I understood what she was saying. The rest of the class started laughing at the look on my face, I don’t think the teacher noticed.
It’s really funny, whenever I leave the class at the end of the day, people make sure I know which bus to take and which stop to get off at. I’ve been here for almost 4 weeks, I know how to get around! But it’s cool that they’re concerned.
I have a few more subjects to write about, so stayed tuned!
Deaflympics
September 16, 2009
As very few of you know, the Deaflympics was hosted by Taipei this year. This is exactly like the Olympics, but for deaf people. I didn’t know about it until I got here and everyone was talking about it. I meant to go, btu I never had the time. Then last night, Ju (from Brazil) and I were at Taipei 101 with Reid (from the States) and Ju mentioned that the ending ceremony for the Deaflympics was in a couple hours. I wanted to go, but Reid didn’t. He wanted to check out a book store where, he told us, there were probably only 2 or 3 English books. So Ju and I went without him.
When we got there, the security guards wouldn’t let us in because we had no tickets. But they politely pointed out the scalpers, mentioning that it was illegal. But we bought the tickets anyway, 2 for NT$ 500, which is about $15 Canadian. We thought that was a pretty good deal and the security guards showed us which way to go. We had to pass through a metal detector, we didn’t set it off. Once we got inside, the volunteers handed us each a light-up tambourine and a box kind of like the ones 45 Timbits come in. We didn’t open them until we found our seats, there was fresh bread inside! Apparently, Taipei Culinary Institute not only catered the meal they served the athletes during the ceremony, but also made bread for everyone else who attended! I saved it for my breakfast this morning and shared the rest with my host family.
When we got there, there were drummers on the stage and people chanting with people doing the sign language for the Olympians. Then they introduced all the countries represented at the Deaflympics, Ju and I screamed really loudly when Brazil and Canada came by our section (we were about 3 rows from the ground where the athletes were!) and waved really hard when we remembered they couldn’t hear us. I wished I knew we were going before I left the apartment, I would have brought a flag with me! Then there was a lion dance and people dressed as cutlery came out and danced while volunteers served the athletes dinner. After that, dragons came out and danced, I took some videos, and people inside inflatable people came out and danced. Then there was more fireworks. Some of the Olympians came by our sections and threw things into the crowd. I almost caught a shirt a German guy threw at me, but the guy in front of me caught it first.
We left at 8:45 because Ju had to be home by 9:00, we ran to the MRT station. I got home at 9:30, to my host mom’s delight.
It almost makes up for the fact that I’m missing the real Olympics in Canada. Almost. But even if I was back home, I doubt I’d be going. Plus, how many of you can say you’ve been to the Deaflympics?
As very few of you know, the Deaflympics was hosted by Taipei this year. This is exactly like the Olympics, but for deaf people. I didn’t know about it until I got here and everyone was talking about it. I meant to go, btu I never had the time. Then last night, Ju (from Brazil) and I were at Taipei 101 with Reid (from the States) and Ju mentioned that the ending ceremony for the Deaflympics was in a couple hours. I wanted to go, but Reid didn’t. He wanted to check out a book store where, he told us, there were probably only 2 or 3 English books. So Ju and I went without him.
When we got there, the security guards wouldn’t let us in because we had no tickets. But they politely pointed out the scalpers, mentioning that it was illegal. But we bought the tickets anyway, 2 for NT$ 500, which is about $15 Canadian. We thought that was a pretty good deal and the security guards showed us which way to go. We had to pass through a metal detector, we didn’t set it off. Once we got inside, the volunteers handed us each a light-up tambourine and a box kind of like the ones 45 Timbits come in. We didn’t open them until we found our seats, there was fresh bread inside! Apparently, Taipei Culinary Institute not only catered the meal they served the athletes during the ceremony, but also made bread for everyone else who attended! I saved it for my breakfast this morning and shared the rest with my host family.
When we got there, there were drummers on the stage and people chanting with people doing the sign language for the Olympians. Then they introduced all the countries represented at the Deaflympics, Ju and I screamed really loudly when Brazil and Canada came by our section (we were about 3 rows from the ground where the athletes were!) and waved really hard when we remembered they couldn’t hear us. I wished I knew we were going before I left the apartment, I would have brought a flag with me! Then there was a lion dance and people dressed as cutlery came out and danced while volunteers served the athletes dinner. After that, dragons came out and danced, I took some videos, and people inside inflatable people came out and danced. Then there was more fireworks. Some of the Olympians came by our sections and threw things into the crowd. I almost caught a shirt a German guy threw at me, but the guy in front of me caught it first.
We left at 8:45 because Ju had to be home by 9:00, we ran to the MRT station. I got home at 9:30, to my host mom’s delight.
It almost makes up for the fact that I’m missing the real Olympics in Canada. Almost. But even if I was back home, I doubt I’d be going. Plus, how many of you can say you’ve been to the Deaflympics?
Monday, September 14, 2009
Past 2 weeks
So, school started three weeks ago, I can't believe I don't have time to update, but I'll try my best! Two weekends ago, my host parents took me to a hot spring. There were a bunch of different pools, each had a different temperature. The highest ones were really hot, my host parents spent a lot of time in those, I stuck my foot in and climbed right back out again. There were others that were more bath water temperature after Kara's turned the tap off. We met of with Peter's best friend and his family there, they had a daughter who was 6 and she called me Jiejie, which means big sister. She was so sweet! I had a lot of fun with her. But she wouldn't tell me her name. Though she was fascinated by my nose ring, as most people are. I took it out to show my classmates when they asked about it and they screamed. I love it! The other girl from Canada also has a nose ring, but it's actually a ring! People probably think all Canadian girls have nose rings.
But back to the hot springs, my host dad, Peter, went into the lowest and coldest one and came out after a couple minutes because it was too cold for him. I wanted to go in, but he thought it would be too cold for me too. I reminded him that I am Canadian and he let me go in. It was warmer than our pool! I spent probably 45 minutes in there and Brenda, my host mom, was worried I'd get sick! So she made me go into the steam huts, which are exactly what they sound like: huts full of steam.
School is very different. I have to be there by 8:00 every morning and before I go on campus, a security guard takes my temperature and I have to write it down on a sheet. We're also in the same class all day, until 5:00, the teachers come to us. Except Art and Music. I'm in grade 1 here, which is the same as grade 11 in Canada. But this is a senior high school, so it's only 'grade 1-2' so grade 11 and 12. There are 8 classes in a day. 4 in the morning, then lunch, then nap time (I kid you not) then 4 more classes and then we go home. For the first 2 weeks, I had to be there all the time except Monday and Thursday afternoons when I have Chinese class. Today I got to eliminate 8 more classes. Mostly Geography, History, Chinese and Math. We have different classes every day, so it gets confusing. I joined the school band! The Music class here is singing, so that's weird. A girl has an extra flute, so she's lending it to me for the year. The band kids are so cool! They passed around a list of songs to pick, and I couldn't believe some of the songs! Fate of the Gods, Tsunami, Les Miserables, the Titanic, In The Mood and Aladdin! It made me miss home, but make home not seem so far away at the same time. I hope they pick some of those songs. I put stars and circles around the songs I knew. They reherse Thursday and Fridays after school, but since I have Chinese class on Thursdays, I'll only go on Fridays. The director is also my Biology teacher. He was wearing a shirt that have a big 12 on it and it and had a Bible verse on the back, I can't remember what it was. But he asked if I was Christian and I said yeah, so it was good meeting him! I even recognize some of the stuff he draws on the board in Biology! But it's in Chinese.
Last weekend, I went back to Hualien with my Rotary club. They had a retreat sort of thing for all the rotarians and their families. I met the other exchange student they're sponsering, a girl named Renata (Or Re-Mi in Chinese, like the mouse from Ratatouille) from Hungary. She's really nice. We roomed together and I met her host siblings, 2 younger girls and a boy, they'll be my host family in a couple months, they seem nice, but they don't give her much freedom. But they bought her and I tiramisu and mo-chi, which was really good! I really like the mo-chi, but you can only get it in Hualien. One of the activities the Rotary club organized was a hike through the mountains on Sunday morning, but it was raining. I still wanted to go, so I went with a few other people. I was soaked through, but I didn't care. I don't think I felt completely dry again until later that afternoon. But it was fun! We went through a few caves, which were dry, and didn't see the bats until there was proper light again!
The other exchange students are cool, but I have so many languages running through my head, that I speak in a mixture of everything. I can talk to the German students a bit, so I hope I don't lose my German. I can also speak to the French students, so that's pretty good too, I was scared of losing my French.
My host dad took me to a sushi bar last week. It was like in Johnny English, where all the food is going around in circles and you have to grab something you like when you see it or you have to wait 10 minutes for it to come around again. It was fun!
We also went to Northern Taiwan and had sashimi, which is basically raw fish cut into slices and you have to dip it in wasabi to be able to swallow it without gagging. I've heard that wasabi was very spicy, and it was! My host family mixed it with soy sauce to make it tolerable!
Anyway, I have free time now and the bell's about to ring. I think I said everything. If I think of more, I'll write it down so I won't forget and post next time.
Oh! I got an email from Lisa today, she finally arrived in Peterborough! She said she saw Dad at a Rotary meeting, what on earth was Dad doing at a Rotary meeting?
But back to the hot springs, my host dad, Peter, went into the lowest and coldest one and came out after a couple minutes because it was too cold for him. I wanted to go in, but he thought it would be too cold for me too. I reminded him that I am Canadian and he let me go in. It was warmer than our pool! I spent probably 45 minutes in there and Brenda, my host mom, was worried I'd get sick! So she made me go into the steam huts, which are exactly what they sound like: huts full of steam.
School is very different. I have to be there by 8:00 every morning and before I go on campus, a security guard takes my temperature and I have to write it down on a sheet. We're also in the same class all day, until 5:00, the teachers come to us. Except Art and Music. I'm in grade 1 here, which is the same as grade 11 in Canada. But this is a senior high school, so it's only 'grade 1-2' so grade 11 and 12. There are 8 classes in a day. 4 in the morning, then lunch, then nap time (I kid you not) then 4 more classes and then we go home. For the first 2 weeks, I had to be there all the time except Monday and Thursday afternoons when I have Chinese class. Today I got to eliminate 8 more classes. Mostly Geography, History, Chinese and Math. We have different classes every day, so it gets confusing. I joined the school band! The Music class here is singing, so that's weird. A girl has an extra flute, so she's lending it to me for the year. The band kids are so cool! They passed around a list of songs to pick, and I couldn't believe some of the songs! Fate of the Gods, Tsunami, Les Miserables, the Titanic, In The Mood and Aladdin! It made me miss home, but make home not seem so far away at the same time. I hope they pick some of those songs. I put stars and circles around the songs I knew. They reherse Thursday and Fridays after school, but since I have Chinese class on Thursdays, I'll only go on Fridays. The director is also my Biology teacher. He was wearing a shirt that have a big 12 on it and it and had a Bible verse on the back, I can't remember what it was. But he asked if I was Christian and I said yeah, so it was good meeting him! I even recognize some of the stuff he draws on the board in Biology! But it's in Chinese.
Last weekend, I went back to Hualien with my Rotary club. They had a retreat sort of thing for all the rotarians and their families. I met the other exchange student they're sponsering, a girl named Renata (Or Re-Mi in Chinese, like the mouse from Ratatouille) from Hungary. She's really nice. We roomed together and I met her host siblings, 2 younger girls and a boy, they'll be my host family in a couple months, they seem nice, but they don't give her much freedom. But they bought her and I tiramisu and mo-chi, which was really good! I really like the mo-chi, but you can only get it in Hualien. One of the activities the Rotary club organized was a hike through the mountains on Sunday morning, but it was raining. I still wanted to go, so I went with a few other people. I was soaked through, but I didn't care. I don't think I felt completely dry again until later that afternoon. But it was fun! We went through a few caves, which were dry, and didn't see the bats until there was proper light again!
The other exchange students are cool, but I have so many languages running through my head, that I speak in a mixture of everything. I can talk to the German students a bit, so I hope I don't lose my German. I can also speak to the French students, so that's pretty good too, I was scared of losing my French.
My host dad took me to a sushi bar last week. It was like in Johnny English, where all the food is going around in circles and you have to grab something you like when you see it or you have to wait 10 minutes for it to come around again. It was fun!
We also went to Northern Taiwan and had sashimi, which is basically raw fish cut into slices and you have to dip it in wasabi to be able to swallow it without gagging. I've heard that wasabi was very spicy, and it was! My host family mixed it with soy sauce to make it tolerable!
Anyway, I have free time now and the bell's about to ring. I think I said everything. If I think of more, I'll write it down so I won't forget and post next time.
Oh! I got an email from Lisa today, she finally arrived in Peterborough! She said she saw Dad at a Rotary meeting, what on earth was Dad doing at a Rotary meeting?
Friday, August 28, 2009
First Day in Taiwan
August 23, 2009
This morning, Brenda, my host mom, took me to the grocery store. Actually, it was more of a mini version of Costco, except stuff was normal sized. But they had more than just food, they had clothes and electronics and appliances. They even had biking jerseys, so I’ll have to go back and pick a bright orange one up for Dad. And you had to have a membership to buy stuff. Brenda kept telling me that if I liked something, I could buy it, but that was before I knew you had to have a membership. She bought me chicken and milk! Now I know we’re going to get long just fine.
We had sandwiches for breakfast. Triple-decker sandwiches wrapped in plastic. I had a bit before I started to feel sick again. But she cut apples up for me and I felt they agreed with me more than the sandwich.
Then Peter came home and Maggie woke up and we went to Dan Shui, which is a town by a lake. I thought it was sort of like a mix between New York City and the Farmer’s Market. New York because there was so many people! It was hard to move around! I stayed as close as I could to Brenda, but even then, we had to pull over a few times to wait for Peter and Maggie to catch up. Thy kept wanting to buy me food, like this weird egg on a stick thing. There were about 3 small eggs on a stick that had been roasted over a fire, but they looked like chocolate to me. So when Brenda bought some for everyone and told me they were a world famous delicacy, I bit the first one off and almost chocked myself. It was actually an egg. I can’t say it was the best tasting thing I’ve ever had, yet everyone we passed seemed to be carrying these eggs on sticks. Speaking of sticks, all the food there seemed to be served on a stick. It reminded me of Stick-it from 6teen. There were even mini squids on a stick, which some man was trying to get people to buy. I wanted to take a picture, but I was scared that if I did, he’d make me buy one. Then we got iced tea and ice cream. Okay, the ice cream was so weird there, the cone was normal sized, but there was about a foot, maybe more, or soft serve towering on top of it! Lucky for me, Maggie got me a small one. She just said, ‘man guo?’ which I know is ‘mango’ and I said sure.
We got back and Peter, Brenda and I went over the rules and questions that I have to ask my host parents. There don’t seem to be any unreasonable rules. Just no calling after 10:00, no sleepovers, which is reasonable because there isn’t much room in the apartment. I can’t rearrange my room, which is fine with me because all the furniture is bolted to the floor. No piercings or tattoos, which is too bad because I wanted a tattoo, maybe I’ll talk to another host family about that ;) They asked me ‘why no eat?’ and I tried to explain that I lose my appetite when I travel and it’ll go away in a few days, which took some effort, but I think they understood. They asked what my goals were and all I could think of was to learn enough Chinese to communicate with them. Then they asked how they could help and I told them to be patient with me. They’ve been helpful, like they point things out and tell me the Chinese word for it, which is okay, but I’m forgetting everything they tell me because I don’t write it down!
I seem to have settled into a pattern of waking up at 5:00 every morning. Then I can’t get back to sleep. Hopefully I’ll adjust, it’s only the second day and 12 hours is a lot. Mackenzie at the airport told me that I should allow one day for every hour.
I showed my host family the slideshow and they were dumbstruck when the picture of me in the snow came up, they had no idea we got so much snow. In that picture, that was nothing, I told them that we can get a lot more snow and the temperature can got down to -35 degrees. They laughed and said that Taiwan was going to be a lot different. I have no doubt. It smells funny here.
This morning, Brenda, my host mom, took me to the grocery store. Actually, it was more of a mini version of Costco, except stuff was normal sized. But they had more than just food, they had clothes and electronics and appliances. They even had biking jerseys, so I’ll have to go back and pick a bright orange one up for Dad. And you had to have a membership to buy stuff. Brenda kept telling me that if I liked something, I could buy it, but that was before I knew you had to have a membership. She bought me chicken and milk! Now I know we’re going to get long just fine.
We had sandwiches for breakfast. Triple-decker sandwiches wrapped in plastic. I had a bit before I started to feel sick again. But she cut apples up for me and I felt they agreed with me more than the sandwich.
Then Peter came home and Maggie woke up and we went to Dan Shui, which is a town by a lake. I thought it was sort of like a mix between New York City and the Farmer’s Market. New York because there was so many people! It was hard to move around! I stayed as close as I could to Brenda, but even then, we had to pull over a few times to wait for Peter and Maggie to catch up. Thy kept wanting to buy me food, like this weird egg on a stick thing. There were about 3 small eggs on a stick that had been roasted over a fire, but they looked like chocolate to me. So when Brenda bought some for everyone and told me they were a world famous delicacy, I bit the first one off and almost chocked myself. It was actually an egg. I can’t say it was the best tasting thing I’ve ever had, yet everyone we passed seemed to be carrying these eggs on sticks. Speaking of sticks, all the food there seemed to be served on a stick. It reminded me of Stick-it from 6teen. There were even mini squids on a stick, which some man was trying to get people to buy. I wanted to take a picture, but I was scared that if I did, he’d make me buy one. Then we got iced tea and ice cream. Okay, the ice cream was so weird there, the cone was normal sized, but there was about a foot, maybe more, or soft serve towering on top of it! Lucky for me, Maggie got me a small one. She just said, ‘man guo?’ which I know is ‘mango’ and I said sure.
We got back and Peter, Brenda and I went over the rules and questions that I have to ask my host parents. There don’t seem to be any unreasonable rules. Just no calling after 10:00, no sleepovers, which is reasonable because there isn’t much room in the apartment. I can’t rearrange my room, which is fine with me because all the furniture is bolted to the floor. No piercings or tattoos, which is too bad because I wanted a tattoo, maybe I’ll talk to another host family about that ;) They asked me ‘why no eat?’ and I tried to explain that I lose my appetite when I travel and it’ll go away in a few days, which took some effort, but I think they understood. They asked what my goals were and all I could think of was to learn enough Chinese to communicate with them. Then they asked how they could help and I told them to be patient with me. They’ve been helpful, like they point things out and tell me the Chinese word for it, which is okay, but I’m forgetting everything they tell me because I don’t write it down!
I seem to have settled into a pattern of waking up at 5:00 every morning. Then I can’t get back to sleep. Hopefully I’ll adjust, it’s only the second day and 12 hours is a lot. Mackenzie at the airport told me that I should allow one day for every hour.
I showed my host family the slideshow and they were dumbstruck when the picture of me in the snow came up, they had no idea we got so much snow. In that picture, that was nothing, I told them that we can get a lot more snow and the temperature can got down to -35 degrees. They laughed and said that Taiwan was going to be a lot different. I have no doubt. It smells funny here.
First dinner in Taiwan
Wow, no internet. But I guess it helps me concentrate on my exchange. Anyway, I have Internet now, so I'll update!
August 22, 2009
After an 18-hour flight filled with film classics such as I Love You, Man, Monsters vs. Aliens and New In Town, my plan finally landed in Taipei airport. Then there was struggle with the immigrations officer, but that was cleared up after half an hour. Finally, I tried to retrieve my luggage from one of the carousels, but my luggage wasn’t on it. I frowned, then looked around the airport. Of course, I wasn’t at the right carousel. Once I had my luggage (and no luggage cart, I might add) I made my way into Arrivals where The District Governor, a Rotex from Canada, my counselor and my first host parents were waiting.
I felt bad because my Chinese isn’t very good and it was difficult trying to communicate to my host parents. This is where it all started. So, anyone who went to Austria in April will remember that my stomach doesn’t do too well after flights. I lose my appetite completely. I told this to my host mom as she placed a bowl of sliced apples and apricot milk in front of me, but I don’t think she really understood until dinner.
So, I take a shower because I’m pretty wiped from the plane and hot and sweaty (Taiwan is like Animalia, hot, humid and smelly, plus there are way too many scooters, which doesn’t really have anything to do with Animalia) and I wanted to get clean. As soon as I step out of the shower, my host dad announces that we’re going out for dinner. I can’t say I was surprised, it doesn’t look like there’s a stove in their tiny kitchen and it’s my first night in Taiwan. I told him, again, that I really wasn’t hungry, but he just smiled and we all went out anyway.
I was looking at the menu, which, by the way, was all in Chinese, when the waitress came to take our orders. I told her I wasn’t hungry, but she didn’t understand me. (It wasn’t until later when I remembered ‘wo bu e le’, which means ‘I’m not hungry.) Instead my host parents started making suggestions to me and I decided on a soup that would look like I had eaten what I really hadn’t. They smiled and pushed the menu up my nose again and told me to choose something else. I decided on fish, to humour them. No sooner had our orders been taken, a waiter was headed towards our table with what looked like an entire shrimp, face still intact, covered with peppers, string beans and this weird sauce. I ate most of it, not the peppers, and then the waiter took our plates away. I assumed now we would be having the main course. Wrong. The waitress returned with a plate of fruit for each of us. By then, I was starting to feel sick to my stomach, so I told my host parents, but they just smiled. I ate some raisins and watermelon, then they encouraged me to try the pineapple and starfruit, so I did, I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Our plates were taken away once again. Surely, now it was time for the main course. I felt like I was going to throw up. But no, wrong again. A small souffle-like thing was placed in front of each of us. I stared at it until my host mom peeled it off the edges and dunked it into the bowl, which was filled with soup. The soup I had ordered. Of course this was the main course! I just had to eat some and I was home free! I got up from the tables as the waitress took our plates away, but a waiter stopped me and placed a steaming hot metal plate in front of me. It was the fish. Okay, now I knew for sure that this was the main course. It came with a side of noodles. I ate about two noodles and told my host parents I felt sick. They took pity on me this time and my host mom took me home.
I feel so terrible for not eating anything. My body is so weird. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.
August 22, 2009
After an 18-hour flight filled with film classics such as I Love You, Man, Monsters vs. Aliens and New In Town, my plan finally landed in Taipei airport. Then there was struggle with the immigrations officer, but that was cleared up after half an hour. Finally, I tried to retrieve my luggage from one of the carousels, but my luggage wasn’t on it. I frowned, then looked around the airport. Of course, I wasn’t at the right carousel. Once I had my luggage (and no luggage cart, I might add) I made my way into Arrivals where The District Governor, a Rotex from Canada, my counselor and my first host parents were waiting.
I felt bad because my Chinese isn’t very good and it was difficult trying to communicate to my host parents. This is where it all started. So, anyone who went to Austria in April will remember that my stomach doesn’t do too well after flights. I lose my appetite completely. I told this to my host mom as she placed a bowl of sliced apples and apricot milk in front of me, but I don’t think she really understood until dinner.
So, I take a shower because I’m pretty wiped from the plane and hot and sweaty (Taiwan is like Animalia, hot, humid and smelly, plus there are way too many scooters, which doesn’t really have anything to do with Animalia) and I wanted to get clean. As soon as I step out of the shower, my host dad announces that we’re going out for dinner. I can’t say I was surprised, it doesn’t look like there’s a stove in their tiny kitchen and it’s my first night in Taiwan. I told him, again, that I really wasn’t hungry, but he just smiled and we all went out anyway.
I was looking at the menu, which, by the way, was all in Chinese, when the waitress came to take our orders. I told her I wasn’t hungry, but she didn’t understand me. (It wasn’t until later when I remembered ‘wo bu e le’, which means ‘I’m not hungry.) Instead my host parents started making suggestions to me and I decided on a soup that would look like I had eaten what I really hadn’t. They smiled and pushed the menu up my nose again and told me to choose something else. I decided on fish, to humour them. No sooner had our orders been taken, a waiter was headed towards our table with what looked like an entire shrimp, face still intact, covered with peppers, string beans and this weird sauce. I ate most of it, not the peppers, and then the waiter took our plates away. I assumed now we would be having the main course. Wrong. The waitress returned with a plate of fruit for each of us. By then, I was starting to feel sick to my stomach, so I told my host parents, but they just smiled. I ate some raisins and watermelon, then they encouraged me to try the pineapple and starfruit, so I did, I didn’t want to hurt their feelings. Our plates were taken away once again. Surely, now it was time for the main course. I felt like I was going to throw up. But no, wrong again. A small souffle-like thing was placed in front of each of us. I stared at it until my host mom peeled it off the edges and dunked it into the bowl, which was filled with soup. The soup I had ordered. Of course this was the main course! I just had to eat some and I was home free! I got up from the tables as the waitress took our plates away, but a waiter stopped me and placed a steaming hot metal plate in front of me. It was the fish. Okay, now I knew for sure that this was the main course. It came with a side of noodles. I ate about two noodles and told my host parents I felt sick. They took pity on me this time and my host mom took me home.
I feel so terrible for not eating anything. My body is so weird. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a better day.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Poor?
Okay, just want Andrew Arnold and anyone else who listened to him this morning, that Taiwan is NOT a poor, third world country!! I almost died when he said that.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
testing, testing...
Okay, just testing this thing out for the first time to see if it works.... now what?
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