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?