Visitors from Japan

Yesterday many students from a school in Japan came to visit us. We had been preparing for them to come for a while. We each had a partner that we were supposed to look after while they visited. they day started with our school showing some of our most impressive stage talents. Then we got to meet our partners. We played a trivia game about Taiwan (mostly about food) where I learned quite a few things. We also exchanged gifts, we gave them "Welcome to Beida" teacups and saucers while each of them gave us a personal gift. My partner gave me tiny, Japanese cookies, a beautiful little mirror, and cute pocket tissues. It was difficult to communicate at first but we got there. After trivia, we watched their dance and cheerleading performances. Both of which were very good. Then William, David and I got to go to Sanxia Old street with some of our classmates and our guests. I had so much fun! The girls were so friendly and excited. It reminded me of being in Taiwan for the first time. I wish they could have stayed longer but I did have a very fun day with them.

Music Clubs Unite!

I woke up on Sunday, ready for a day of chill. I was watching Avatar the Last Airbender at like 9 in the morning when I got a call from one of my dance captains. She asked me where I was and told me that I should be at school for the activity today, already. (I'm in the group chat but my Chinese isn't so good so...) I got dressed as fast as I could and ate breakfast on the way. All of the music-related clubs were there. We played many different games. I was confused most of the day, but it was still fun. I immediately met and became friends with this lovely girl named Helen, with whom I spent the whole day. My favorite game was one where each player had a balloon strapped to each foot and one taped to their back. Each balloon had a piece of paper inside, some were blank, others had pieces of a sentence. We played in teams to pop each other's balloons and get the papers inside. There was also some pretty amazing talents displayed that I have pictures of below.

I went out for dinner afterward with my dance team :) 

It's Mario Time!

My favorite female classmate, Sandy, picked me up from dance practice at 2:20 on Saturday. She said we were going to go play games with the youth from her church. Although I am not Christian, being a Unitarian Universalist, I never turn down an opportunity to learn about other religions. Also, I miss my church back in South Bend (1st UU) So I went expecting to meet cool new people and play board games. Boy, was I wrong! We arrived at a park that was full of teens. Sandy quickly found our other team members, who were all very friendly and cool, and we sat down in front of a stage that looked like a castle, on seats that looked like pianos. The event opened with a quick play in which "Peach" gets captured by "Bowzer" and "Mario" and "Luigi" start to fight him. And we were off. I played many different games. One of my favorites was where one member of each team stands on a box, each with one end of a rope in the hands. The goal was to pull the other player off of their box. I won, of course. After that, we went to the most exciting Christian music concert I have ever heard of, let alone, been to! I was standing at the front of the stage with Sandy and my new friends. When the tempo was fast we would all jump up and down to the beat. When the tempo was slow we would hold up our hands and sing along. The energy was amazing, it was peaceful and caring but passionate and joyful. When I was in Catholic school, growing up, I was that kid who would ask things like "what about the people who never hear about Jesus or the ones who came before him? They have to spend eternity in hell because of their bad luck?" or " if Jesus died to wash away our sins, why do we still have to get baptized?" But, as I was listening to a song where the only words I could understand was "Jesus, I love you" and "Yes I am" I realized that religion isn't about finding the flaws, it's about finding the truths. I hope to go to church with Sandy sometime. Something tells me there's a lot I will learn.

A day of Sports

This morning I woke up at 5:45 so I could go to volleyball practice. When school started our first class was gym. We practiced serves and then eventually played a game of volleyball. Our teacher wasn't there in Biology Cooking so David and I headed outside to play frisbee. We were playing catch when we were invited to play, you guessed it, volleyball. After our Chinese lesson, David, Elena, and I headed back outside to the track. We watched the most fun relay race I have ever seen. Each class in Senior high had 20 racers, 10 girls and 10 boys, who would run 200 meters before passing the baton. The warm-up was a student-led dance! The half of the school that wasn't running watched and cheered. I was one of them. My friends said I sounded like a soccer mom because I knew all of my classmates' names and cheered when they got close to us. At the end, David and I got pulled into running a relay that was just for fun, and with the teachers. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I ran. After that, I headed to dance practice for another good hour of exercise.

American Me

I did a presentation on my life in America and a few holidays, in two English classes. Both went very well. The class didn't completely understand all of it but they got the gist. One of the classes was my class so they were a bit less interested than the other class, who's teacher actually gave me a coffee as a thank you for presenting in her class! I would happily do the same about my experience in Taiwan when I get back to the states!

 

 

Hello World

Sunday we were taken to a fair where team North America (even though all three of us were Americans) did a presentation about Canada and the US about 15times to groups of about 25 children. Our team was Malaya (from California) Chloe (from Florida) and me (from Indiana *bleh*) We talked about Holidays, major cities, attractions, and food. My favorite part was when we had the kids say "Trick or Treat" to get candy. At the end, I won a miny steam cooker as a door prize. The only other exchange student that won was William and he got a mop! After the bus ride, we got on the train when we heard that there was a terrible accident with one of the trains in front of us. 17 people had been killed when one of the high powered trains got derailed! That has never happened in Taiwan before. We were all very surprised and very stuck. We ended up going to school very late. Our coordinator canceled school for us for Monday so we could rest. 

Halloween in Hualien

Monday morning I woke up around six, grabbed my bag and headed to breakfast. That's where I ran into Elena. We met William at the bus stop and headed to Banqiao. We were running a bit late so we literally ran to find the rest of the exchange students. After the bus, we got on a train and then the bus again to finally arrive in Hualien around ten. We made posters for presentations we would be giving Sunday and ate lunch. By the time we got back to the hotel we only had half an hour to change into our Halloween costumes. I was Katniss. I had made her pin and learned how to do the braid. That plus my trusty rain jacket and everyone knew who I was. Everyone put in a good effort for the amount of time we had, and everyone had fun. The party was at a bar that obviously had regular live music, and we had the place to ourselves. There was more food than we could eat (which is amazing because we are exchange students) and the music was good for the most part. It was a good party and it was good to be celebrating Halloween even though they don't celebrate it here. One of the things that I was impressed with is that a Halloween party was not scheduled for this year. Some of the exchange students kept asking our inbound coordinator for a party. Finally, she said she'd need 300 NT from each person and she'd make it work.

 

Love you Taiwan

I was in a bad mood because I could not get the steps for dance and I had to cancel my plans for tomorrow to go to a Rotary event instead. I was walking home when I realized a little boy was trying to get by me on his bike. As I moved out of the way he said, in the sweetest voice, "thank you." In English! Clear as a bell. He was gone before I could stop smiling and say you're welcome or 別客氣. I can never stay in a bad mood for long here. Love you Taiwan!! <3

Exams

   It's been a while since I last posted. Usually, I try to catch up my posts but I'm not going to do that. Of course, lots has happened since then, but things will always happen. So instead, I'm just going to try to get back in the habit of three posts a week. I hope you can excuse my absence.
  Anyway, my classmates have been taking their midterms. This means two days solely of exams. They get very stressed and some of them become a bit difficult to be around. But it's all good because for these two days the exchangers didn't have to go to school! So yesterday morning I got in the car of William's host mother with William and David. We met Heloisa and her mother at the movie theater. It was very strange to be at the movies at 10am on a Tuesday. Suprise! No one was there! So my future host mothers* ordered us two giant Taiwanese churros, Coke, and popcorn. We walked into the empty theater and watched House with a Clock in The Walls, which was the strangest movie I have seen in a very long time. We had soup dumplings for lunch (yum) and then wandered around the mall for a while. After lunch, the mothers headed home and the four of us headed to Ximending. We met with friends, window shopped, and tried food. It was lots of fun. Today, I worked on my Halloween costume for the party this weekend, went shopping, and watched iZombie. At about 5:50 I headed over to practice for the coming of age ceremony. It's actually a lot of fun to learn traditional dances with friends. Plus they feed us ;)

*The four of us (me, Heloisa, David, and William) are just rotating families. I'm not sure of the order but I will live with each of their current families at some point and vice versa.

First coming of age practice

Hell yes, I made a Mockingjay pin out of candy wrappers and tape!! 

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall

I spent yesterday with my host family. We visited the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. It was incredibly beautiful. We got there just in time to watch the changing of the guard. We walked through the gardens and took lots of pictures. Although it was the first time I met my Nai Nai (dad's mom) we instantly got along. As we looked through the gift shop Nai Nai say a wallet with the Taiwan flag on it and decided to buy it for me as a late birthday gift. The lunch we had afterward was amazing. soup dumplings did not disappoint. There wasn't anything that I didn't like. On our way home we stopped to admire a public sunflower field. As the sunset reflected on the river, the lights of Taipei 101 began to light up purple and blue. It was a very good day.  

Chiang Kai-Shek was a military and political leader of Taiwan between 1928 and 1975  

                 我，我的媽媽，還有我的奶奶

An elderly couple enjoys a picnic lunch with the main gate behind them

The hall had an impressive variety of wild flora and fauna living among the tourists

A very tasty meal at which I tried my first soup dumplings!

Beautiful sunflower field that is overlooked by Taipei 101

我，我的父親，還有我的奶奶

Sanxia

Today we had amazing weather, and I had nowhere to be, so I decided to do some exploring. There is something incredibly freeing about leaving the house with no plans and not having to do anything except eat lunch at some point. I really enjoyed walking around in the sunshine with the pleasant wind keeping my hair in a constant state of unrest. I also discovered a lot about Sanxia. I found a tiny health food store that was decorated with Canadian flags but owned by Taiwanese people. I learned that milk tea is considerably cheaper at Carrefour than it is at 711. I found a bookstore that sells adorable postcards. I also found an amazing place to read by the lake at Bei Da University. I really enjoyed my wandering, it was a lot of fun. Afterward, I went to Fuzhong night market with Elena and some of her classmates who, of course, were very friendly and fun. We played an arcade game for which the prize was sausage! We ate the best corndogs I have ever had. Not only were tomatoes fried into the batter, but it was also covered in a sweet mustard that absolutely completed it. We played a game that involved attempting to catch small fish with a paper net (we lost but it was fun) We ate shaved ice covered in mango juice and fresh mango. Elena and I each won a deck of cards by shooting balloons with fake handguns. We ate more food and overall had an amazing time!😉