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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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!