3480 District Conference

This weekend was the district conference for my host Rotary district, 3480. The exchange students had to be there the entire time, which was a bit of a waste. We had to be at the Taipei Grand Hotel at 9:00 on Saturday morning, so I, once again, did not get the chance to sleep in. We had to set up another country fair, so Joe, the guy in charge of the inbounds, told us to bring everything we brought from our countries to give away, so I filled my backpack with stuff and when I got there realized that we had 2 tables that were supposed to be enough for every country represented here. Once we had set up, we sat around for 3 hours until lunch, then the outbounds arrived and we talked with them for a bit. There's one boy, out of 40, going to Canada, and he's going to my sponser district! I'm so excited!

After that, we waited around some more until 6:00 when we changed into our Taekwondo uniforms and warmed up for our presentation. Again, another miscalculation by Rotary, there was already a band on the stage, so we didn't have enough room to do the routine we had planned, so we had to change it around a bit. Long story short, the person holding the wood I was supposed to break accidently broke it before I had the chance. One of the French boys fell when he swung his leg forward to kick his piece of wood and another French girl broke her wood with her head. I didn't take a video because something is wrong with my camera at the moment, but I'm waiting for someone else to, so many people took videos! After the demonstration, we all had to pose in the fighting pose and wait for people to finish taking pictures, then the district governor and his wife came onto the stage and they took some more pictures! My legs were sore after that.

For the Kung-Fu, all the exchange students did that. Only the people who were willing to put the time and effort into Taekwondo did the first performance. There wasn't enough room on the stage for all the exchange students, so people ended up falling over and it didn't go well. But, of course, the district governor and his wife came up afterwards to take more pictures.

After Kung-Fu, the people who did Taekwondo had to change back into our uniforms (they have our chinese names on the from and say Taiwan in Chinese and English on the back!) and pose for more pictures with our coach and in groups. Then we could go home.

This morning, I actually ended up skyping my parents and sister and cat before going to the second part. Actually, no, that's a lie, after I skyped my family, my host dad took notice o my coughing and dragged me to the doctor's office where I got mediation for a cold. I told him that a cold is no big deal, every Canadian gets at least one cold per winter, but he was freaking out!Justgive me kleenex, and I'm pretty sure I'll make it. On the plus side, I got weighed and realized I lost 5 kilos since December!

District conference wasn't so bad, we didn't have to be there until 1:30 and I went with my host sister this time. Then we just had to listen to rotarians talk for about 2 hours, clean up and then it was over.

My host family took me out for dinner because I switch to my 3rd and final host family on Saturday. I gave them their gifts and they gave me money to buy clothes, because apparently, I don't buy enough Taiwanese clothes! Then they signed my memory book. I'm going to miss this family. A lot. Then we watched the National Geographic channel and now I think I'm going to take a shower. The bathroom is free, which is rare!

Stay in touch, I'll let you know my new address as soon as I do!