Step 1- The first step to making any cookies is to mix the ingredients. In most Taiwanese high school, the students will have to do this by hand. They will start, but get tired after approx. 8 seconds and ask if you would like to try. Once you, the foreigner and obvious reason why they even agreed to bake in the first place, start stirring, they will think this is cute and start taking pictures with their cell phones, then take turns posing around you and taking more pictures. The best way to endure this is to let them take one or two pictures then say, 'Hao le.' which means, okay, that's enough. You may have to say this a few times to get them to stop.
Step 2- Because the students know they are making cookies, they will bring a variety of different things to try to sneak in to the mix. This could include anything from chocolate cereal to almonds to fructose syrup (I wish I was kidding). The inportant thing in this case is to always keep your eye on the mixing bowl, which shouldn't be too hard because the Taiwanese people will be too busy taking pictures anyway.
Step 3- Pictures are a big part of Taiwanese culture. So don't be surprised if during the whole time you are baking, they have their cell phone pointed at themselves and are constantly checking their reflections in pocket mirrors. But you do have to be on the look-out for their combs, which they carry with them everywhere. About once ever half hour, every Taiwanese student, both male and female, get the urge to comb their hair out. When you see the comb appear, you must politely remind them to go outside and do it, otherwise they will get hair in the cookie dough. But they don't always listen. You will occasionally see tumbleweeds of hair rolling across the floor.
Step 4- When it is time to roll the cookies into balls, you can choose 1 from out of 2 tasks. You can either roll the dough into balls, or you can press them onto the cookie sheet. I'm sure you or I could do any of these tasks quickly and efficiently. So you really have to choose which task you want to assign the Taiwanese. If you decide to roll then they will spend about 5 minutes on each ball to arrange it into a cute shape. If you decide to press then they will spend five minutes on every ball to make sure they are all exactly the same size. It's up to you.
So if you ever feel the desire to bake cookies with Taiwanese people, you'd better set aside a rather large portion of your day as this could take a very long time.
Based on a true story.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Earthquakes and Landslides
Well, I have officially switched to my last host family. They are so sweet! I have 2 younger host sisters, one is 16, she's going to Hungary next year, and one is 15. The dad is super nice and always asks for certain words in English and the mom has offered to teach me to cook Taiwanese food if I'll teach her to cook Canadian food. My room is so big! It's got foam on the floor, so it's really comfortable and a big window so I can see all of Taipei outside. I now live on a mountain, it's really beautiful, but a little inconvenient because the bus down the mountain only comes once an hour, so I'm eaither really early to school, or really late.
On Sunday, there was an earthquake, which is no big deal, I'm pretty used to earthquakes, they're really fun! But there was another one yesterday which was big enough that a mountain actually moved, I didn't see the before and after pictures on the news, but my friends were telling me about it. And it also triggered a landslide that lasted 52 hours and they believe that 4 people have been buried underneath. I saw people digging through it on the news. It covered a highway, so now there's lots of traffic.
Other than that, I'm okay. It's a cold and rainy day, ah! I miss hearing Dad say that! It's cold and rainy here pretty often. Tomorrow it's supposed to be warm and rainy and the inbounds are going to the zoo for culture class. It's weird. On Monday, the morning was cold, the it warmed up around noon, like warm enough that I thought I was going to melt then a few hours later, it got really cold again. The weather here is stupid, why can't it just stay the same?
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now! Still don't know my address, I keep forgetting to ask, sorry!
On Sunday, there was an earthquake, which is no big deal, I'm pretty used to earthquakes, they're really fun! But there was another one yesterday which was big enough that a mountain actually moved, I didn't see the before and after pictures on the news, but my friends were telling me about it. And it also triggered a landslide that lasted 52 hours and they believe that 4 people have been buried underneath. I saw people digging through it on the news. It covered a highway, so now there's lots of traffic.
Other than that, I'm okay. It's a cold and rainy day, ah! I miss hearing Dad say that! It's cold and rainy here pretty often. Tomorrow it's supposed to be warm and rainy and the inbounds are going to the zoo for culture class. It's weird. On Monday, the morning was cold, the it warmed up around noon, like warm enough that I thought I was going to melt then a few hours later, it got really cold again. The weather here is stupid, why can't it just stay the same?
Anyway, that's all I have to say for now! Still don't know my address, I keep forgetting to ask, sorry!
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Sky is Falling!!
Hey, I just have to tell you about this! So I was reading Holes today in school, and you know how Stanley ends up at Camp Green Lake because some shoes fell from the sky and he got blamed for stealing them? Well, walking back to the appartment from the bus stop, almost home from school and all of a sudden, this sandal lands right in front of me. I looked up and the other one was falling towards me, so I moved and it didn't hit me. I had to laugh. It was someone from the same building as me. But the sad thing is that this isn't uncommon here. I remember on some my first few weeks here how I'd be waiting at the bus stop with other people and they'd be eating or drinking something and when they were finished, they'd just throw their garbage on the gound! It's discusting! Just this morning when I was waiting for the bus there was a girl there drinking milk and eventually she decided she'd had enough and poured the rest of the carton out then threw the empty carton on the ground! These people are like animals, it's sad how I'm getting used to this. I've never done anything like this, either in Canada or Taiwan, I know better than that.
This is why we aren't allowed to eat or drink on the subway, because people will just throw their garbage on the floor. Betel nut is also really gross. It's basically this red gunk that people chew and store in their cheeks when they're not chewing it, then when they're done, they just spit it out on the sidewalk. It's amazing how much of this people can fit into their mouths. I've seen people spit their entire load out and it truly is discusting. This is why you'll see red smears all over the sidewalks and roads here. You're also not allowed to chew betel nut on the subway because it's discusting enough when you're not on the subway. It also stains people's teeth red, so you can always tell who's been at it.
I thought, Taiwan being an advanced country, that they'd have a little more manners than this. I can't wait to get back to human civilization in Canada!!
This is why we aren't allowed to eat or drink on the subway, because people will just throw their garbage on the floor. Betel nut is also really gross. It's basically this red gunk that people chew and store in their cheeks when they're not chewing it, then when they're done, they just spit it out on the sidewalk. It's amazing how much of this people can fit into their mouths. I've seen people spit their entire load out and it truly is discusting. This is why you'll see red smears all over the sidewalks and roads here. You're also not allowed to chew betel nut on the subway because it's discusting enough when you're not on the subway. It also stains people's teeth red, so you can always tell who's been at it.
I thought, Taiwan being an advanced country, that they'd have a little more manners than this. I can't wait to get back to human civilization in Canada!!
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Biking in Danshui
Since Taekwondo is over (see movies on YouTube! 1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-CIFyS0IW4 2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyV-ZknR9jY) we only have a few more culture classes left before the semester is officially over, even though no one actually leaves until June. So today we went to Danshui, or a few MRT stops away from it, rented some bikes and rode to Danshui.
It was so much fun! We should have been doing this a long time ago. I mean, pedalling down narrow street, trying to avoid the scooters and the lanterns hanging above us. It was so beautiful! Then we got to the ocean and for the majority of the ride, we were riding parallel to the ocean and had a nice breeze to cool us down. Most people got sunburned, but it was worth it! I'm not as bad as some people, but I still used quite a bit of aloe vera when I got back. Now I'm so tired!
One of the Rotarians owns a restaurant in Danshui, so we ate lunch there. He's so nice! He keeps telling us to go to his restaurant and he'll give us free food, and he doesn't lie! I think everyone ate for free and people were saying that they've been there before and have eaten for free. I wish all Taiwanese Rotarians were like this. But I only have 2 months left to survive. Tomorrow is my 8 month anniversary! Ahh! It's all going to quickly! I still have quite a few gifts to buy, so if you have any suggestions, email me: jazz_bond123@hotmail.com
See you in approx. 2 months!
It was so much fun! We should have been doing this a long time ago. I mean, pedalling down narrow street, trying to avoid the scooters and the lanterns hanging above us. It was so beautiful! Then we got to the ocean and for the majority of the ride, we were riding parallel to the ocean and had a nice breeze to cool us down. Most people got sunburned, but it was worth it! I'm not as bad as some people, but I still used quite a bit of aloe vera when I got back. Now I'm so tired!
One of the Rotarians owns a restaurant in Danshui, so we ate lunch there. He's so nice! He keeps telling us to go to his restaurant and he'll give us free food, and he doesn't lie! I think everyone ate for free and people were saying that they've been there before and have eaten for free. I wish all Taiwanese Rotarians were like this. But I only have 2 months left to survive. Tomorrow is my 8 month anniversary! Ahh! It's all going to quickly! I still have quite a few gifts to buy, so if you have any suggestions, email me: jazz_bond123@hotmail.com
See you in approx. 2 months!
Sunday, April 18, 2010
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!
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!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Whoa, how time flies!
Okay, so I just typed up this ridiculously long post then for some reason that I cannot fathom, I think I can preview my post then be able to go back and edit and it will still be there. No such luck. So I'm going to start all over again.
So, it's been about a month since my ode to sushi a few weeks ago. Actually, Sushi Express is apparently having a NT$10/plate day on Wednesday, which is like a third of what we usually pay, so we're going to have to check that out!
Two weeks ago was the second Inbound Culture Tour. We went to Eastern Taiwan which included Hualien and Yilan. We had to be, not awake, not getting ready to leave our homes, but at Taipei Main Station at 6:30 am. In the morning!! We were all dead when we met up and everyone fell asleep as soon as we got on the buses. Of course, travelling with the Taiwanese, we had to stop every hour to buy more food and use the washrooms. So it took us a lot longer than it should have to arrive in Hualien on the first day. We visited Taroko National Park, which is actually huge and so pretty! But specifically, we went to a gorge. That's the first picture up there. I've been blogging here for 7 months, no, more then 7 months! and I'm only just figuring out how to upload pictures here! Isn't that sad? Hopefully I can make up for lost time in the next 3 months.
The second day, we were supposed to go to a cliff, but, due to the small bladders of some of the natives on this trip, we didn't have enough time to make it. So we went paddle-boating instead. That's the second picture up there. It was pretty fun, but Mariah (Canada) and Rebekka (Florida) took it a little too seriously and I was surprised no one ended up in the water. This picture is amazing, they actually look insane!
The last day we went to a beach where Rotary make a mistake: they forgot to mention before everyone got off the buses that we aren't allowed to swim because it's nor swimming season yet. Can you believe that? It's actually illegal to swim before May here. Well, in the ocean that is. But as soon as the doors opened, almost everyone was in the water. We were supposed to be learning how to fish, and we did get to that eventually.
Fishing, in this case, meant pulling on a net for half an hour. there were 2 sides, so we had 2 teams pulling this huge net out of the ocean, it was pretty hard work! We thought we had a whale or something. So you can imagine out disappointment when we finally saw our catch and it couldn't have been more than 30 small fish. Oh well, it was kind of fun. I had fun at least. The picture for this actually isn't mine, I took it from Lisa (Texas). Hopefully she won't mind. She takes so many pictures, maybe she won't even recognize it. I'm in the top right hand corner in the orange shirt. I actually bought that shirt the night before at a night market for NT$100! Which is like $3 Canadian! I could take Dad on, I'd end up spending less money on clothing, probably much to his delight. Which reminds me, if you're reading this Dad, check out the latest Vinyl Cafe Podcast! I was listening to it at the gym and I could not stop laughing!
In other news, for the first time in 7 months, I'm allowed to stay home from school while my classmates write tests all day! They write exams every month and it lasts 3 days. All the other exchange students get to stay home, but not me, Imme and Julie. They started on Friday, so tomorrow's the last day. We were supposed to go to the cooking classroom and make food from our countries. We had permission from the library director and the principal, we just had to ask the cooking teacher for the key. But she wouldn't give it to us because it's too dangerous for us in there with all those ovens and frying pans. Um, okay. We are 17 (and 18) years old, we're not taiwanese so we don't spend out time studying and buying all our food from street vendors, so we do know how these machines work. Imme said that it wasn't as if we were going to stuff Julie in the oven to see what happened, one of the librarians was going t accompany us, but no! She didn't have any experience. No worries. I can sleep in tomorrow! But I am very disappointed with this. I miss being able to come home and say, I feel like making cookies, and actually being able to do it.
My host dad and I enjoy watching the Discovery Channel together. I like it because it's pretty much the only channel in English (with Chinese subtitles) and my host dad and I can bond with this. Sometimes more people join if it's interesting. Tonight was warriors around the world. It was a little weird, a little blood, but it was pretty interesting. Better then the Japanese cartoons and Taiwanese soap operas that my host siblings normally watch!
At the gym, there are 2 people that are usually there around the same time as us. 1) Tiny-Shorts-Guy (yes, I stole that from Made of Honour, but it fits) Pretty self-explanatory. He always uses the treadmill, he gets on and off during his hour there, always the same one. And he goes on an incline! He's hardcore. 2) Sweater-Girl: She's always wearing the same long-sleeved, green wool sweater whenever we see her. And she carried her huge white bag around with her. I wonder if she sweats, she must be dying inside that sweater. But she's always walking on the treadmill, never running. She's what I'd call a typical Taiwanese girl.
Well, that's pretty much it for now. I want to get a head start on sleeping in tomorrow!!
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Sushi!!
Hey, so I think I'm falling in love with sushi! Well, maybe not faling in love, but I'm definitely addicted! Which in a way is good because it's healthy, but it's also really expensive. Well, 30 cents Canadian each, but it adds up because t's so good! I hope I can find some good sushi in Canada, I have to limit myself here, but when the home parents are buying, that's a dofferent story! Sushi Express is the best, and probably only, sushi place in Taiwan, there's so many of them, so I can get my fix whenever I have money.
How it works: (restaurant) The sushi comes in pairs and it revolves around the restaurant on a conveyor belt so when you see something you like, you'd better grab it or you'll be waiting about 10 minutes for it to come back unless someone else takes it. You can sit at a counter if you're alone or you can sit in a booth if you're in a group. I'm usually in a group. Each table (and a regular intervals on the counter) has a tap where hot water comes out and tea bags next to it plus a box of chopsticks, soy sauce and little bowls to pour soy sauce into. Plus wasabi. I can't eat rice now without soy sauce and wasabi! I hope I'll be able to find wasabi in Canada! At the end, someone comesto count how many plates you have (which means how much sushi you ate) and multiply it by NT$30 then you pay.
MRT station: At a lot of MRT stations, there are sushi take-out places where you can pick individual sushi which is either NT$10 or NT$15 depending on what you want. Then you put it in a box you get packs of soy sauce and wasabi and chopsticks. It's okay, but I like sitting down and scrambling to grab sushi off the conveyor belt before someone else does or it passes.
My favorite sushis: Well, at first, I was kind of hesitant to try sushi. But now, as you can tel l, I love it! My favorites are fish eggs (big fish eggs, rice and seaweed), corn (corn, rice and seaweed), cucumber (small sushis, you get 6, with cucumber rice and seaweed) and the salmon sashimi. It's weird. I can't stand cooked salmon, but I love salmon sashimi and sushi!
On another note, today there were 2 pretty serious earthquakes in Tainan, which is pretty far from Taipei, but we could still feel them here. One was at about 8:00am so I was at school and everyone started screaming. Weird, I would have thought they would be used to it. The second was at about 3:30ish, so I was at Chinese class. It's strange to have 2 in one day! Apparently people died in Tainan. I hope Taiwan isn't the next Haiti or Chile. But I'm okay. I'm just not allowed to go hiking for a few days because some rocks could have come loose during the earthquakes and we don't want any rockslides.
Well, 118 days until I'm back in beautiful Canada! Miss you all!
How it works: (restaurant) The sushi comes in pairs and it revolves around the restaurant on a conveyor belt so when you see something you like, you'd better grab it or you'll be waiting about 10 minutes for it to come back unless someone else takes it. You can sit at a counter if you're alone or you can sit in a booth if you're in a group. I'm usually in a group. Each table (and a regular intervals on the counter) has a tap where hot water comes out and tea bags next to it plus a box of chopsticks, soy sauce and little bowls to pour soy sauce into. Plus wasabi. I can't eat rice now without soy sauce and wasabi! I hope I'll be able to find wasabi in Canada! At the end, someone comesto count how many plates you have (which means how much sushi you ate) and multiply it by NT$30 then you pay.
MRT station: At a lot of MRT stations, there are sushi take-out places where you can pick individual sushi which is either NT$10 or NT$15 depending on what you want. Then you put it in a box you get packs of soy sauce and wasabi and chopsticks. It's okay, but I like sitting down and scrambling to grab sushi off the conveyor belt before someone else does or it passes.
My favorite sushis: Well, at first, I was kind of hesitant to try sushi. But now, as you can tel l, I love it! My favorites are fish eggs (big fish eggs, rice and seaweed), corn (corn, rice and seaweed), cucumber (small sushis, you get 6, with cucumber rice and seaweed) and the salmon sashimi. It's weird. I can't stand cooked salmon, but I love salmon sashimi and sushi!
On another note, today there were 2 pretty serious earthquakes in Tainan, which is pretty far from Taipei, but we could still feel them here. One was at about 8:00am so I was at school and everyone started screaming. Weird, I would have thought they would be used to it. The second was at about 3:30ish, so I was at Chinese class. It's strange to have 2 in one day! Apparently people died in Tainan. I hope Taiwan isn't the next Haiti or Chile. But I'm okay. I'm just not allowed to go hiking for a few days because some rocks could have come loose during the earthquakes and we don't want any rockslides.
Well, 118 days until I'm back in beautiful Canada! Miss you all!
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