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.

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.