聖誕快樂？還不知道。

Been a while, haha. hao jiu bu jian, duibudui? :P I think I just won't apologize for my infrequent blogging anymore because all of my posts start like this. Gonna have to deal with it. ^^ Well, I'm settled in my new host family. I'm really happy here, too. It's me, host parents, two host brothers, and their maid. The host father is a Chinese herbal medicine doctor and the mother apparently teaches flower arranging as well as helps her husband with his job. I don't really know how it all works, but they're rich. The house is a three story apartment in Guting, (I'll post pics soon) which is a very convenient part of Taipei because it's pretty much in the middle of everything. My host brothers are both nice. One is 18 and attending high school, the other is 22 and goes to university but comes home on the weekends. They have a maid who's from Indonesia but has been working with them for 10 years. Her Mandarin is very good, but she does have an Indonesian accent so it's a bit more difficult to understand her sometimes. One thing that confuses me about the maid situation is that she only gets to visit her family one day a week and her bedroom is about the size of a large closet. It doesn't even have a proper bed. Maybe this is okay for a maid? I'm not sure. Not gonna question my host parents.

Like I said, I'm happy here. I'd probably cry if I had to go back to my first host family and I probably will when I have to leave this one as well. Although, because of my first host family I'm really paranoid they secretly have beef with me. I doubt this is the case, because I think I'm being better now, but still. I talk with the maid a lot and the host dad and younger host brother some, so I think I'm okay. They're all really nice. :] My host mom is too but she's somewhat odd. She just returned from California today, she spent the last week there for business, so I haven't spoken with her much yet. Shouldn't judge so quickly, Isabel! We were just eating dinner and she told me my nail polish is too red for my age and that I ought to use pink instead. She also insulted American food.. how dare she? :o

Tomorrow is Christmas eve and I have to go to school. The only reason I have Christmas off is because it's a Saturday. :/ Oh, well. My plans for tomorrow are to bring my laptop to school and goodies for watching Christmas movies. First period we'll have origami, then mahjiang, then class, library, then lunch. After lunch we have several little Christmas parties to attend around school. For dinner after school I have a Rotary Christmas party! Ooh, sounds like fun, right? Hopefully I get money and good food. x) Christmas day I'll wake up and skype my family and open Christmas gifts. Eat breakfast and give the gifts I bought for my family and maid to them, then pack on up and head over to Savanna's house. She's grounded because she's naughty and I'm saving her from a lonely Christmas, ohh, I'm such a good friend. That night I'm not sure yet. Maybe dinner with the host family or going out, I dunno. Sunday I'm gonna go shopping with Arantxa and dye my hair! I've decided it! It's going to be a cross between dark purple and red. :D I've gone cray cray. It'll be pretty.

I wish everybody a feichang hao Christmas!! :D I'm learning how to sing jingle bells in Chinese! :D

Merry Christmas!

換家庭。

Soo, I'm changing host families the day after tomorrow! I'm really excited because I know they're really rich (:D) and live in a good part of Taipei, but I'm also nervous. I had some drama with my host family that I won't go into, but I'm really settled where I am now. It's a bit scary to shake that up. I know it'll be fine, though.

I realize I've had a bit of an odd exchange experience. Like, I didn't get any culture shock at all the first few months here, I guess it was more of a honeymoon stage. Everything was fun and all. That's all over now, however. Culture shock has hit me full force. Hah, it's nothing I can't deal with, though. It's mainly just me getting sick of how things work for Taiwanese people when dealing with problems or official things. There are so many secrets and nothing is clearly stated, you're supposed to just know. Whether you made a mistake or anything.. I knew it was this way beforehand but it just hasn't affected me until now. :/ Just gotta stay strong.

Hm. It's Christmas time! D; It's okay, though. I realize that this time would be a lot harder if I was in a country where they actually celebrated Christmas. Hardly anybody does here so there aren't many things up to remind me. Even the stuff that is, it's all just for show so it doesn't feel Christmasy. The closest thing is Starbucks. Hmm, I'm also working on a package to send home to my family for Christmas.. So they should appreciate it! It's hard work! :P

Well, tomorrow is gonna consist of a lot of packing and working on my family's xmas box as well as writing thank yous for my host family. Busy busy so I should sleep! Wish me luck with my next family. :)

韓國的音樂。:D

Okay, okay. I think this is the longest time I've gone without blogging. I'm terribly sorry but if this doesn't make up for it I don't know what will.

Latest song from SHINee and it's all over MTV right now. They are soo adorable. :D At least 100 of the views on this video are from me. Heeh, the most popular music here tends to be Taiwanese, S Korean, Japanese and American. The boys above are Korean, of course, the best ones are. xP

Ooh! I got an idea! I'll show the difference between the Eastern Asian languages, because I know quite a few probably can't differentiate.

Chinese: 我是美國人

Korean: 난 미국인이다

Japanese: 私はアメリカ人だ

They all mean the same thing but they all look really different, right? Once you compare them, they do. Yay~! You learned something today. xD

Okay, well, what have I been up to lately? Nothing really significant has happened in the last couple of weeks. Yesterday we had a culture fair with Rotary. All of the exchange students from my district got together at a school and each country got their own booth to show our culture. It was awfully boring. We had to be at the place by seven so I had to be up by five in order to get there. There were a lot of Americans so I mainly stayed at other countries and pretended to be from there. I was Spanish for a couple hours and Brazilian for a while too. Hahah, it went so long. We had it so that Taiwanese out bounds could determine which countries they wanted to go to. It was supposed to be over at five but us exchange students being rebels left at four, oooh, we so bad.

This week I have Wednesday and Thursday off because my tongxue have exams, which is perfect because of Thanksgiving! Should be fun, celebrating the day with the family that is my fellow exchange students.

I also just found out that I will be changing host families on either the 11th or 18th of December. It's supposed to be 11th but there's a Rotary meeting that day so it might not be. I'm excited but I'm nervous to change! I'm settled here. Hopefully they'll be an at least okay host family. Eep, wish me luck.

萬聖節。。不太快樂。

So, Friday I got up early to give me enough time to put in the red contacts and eye makeup because I knew it would take forever to do properly. I got them in, cried for a little while, then did my makeup. I looked pretty dang ridiculous, judging by the strange looks I got from the Taiwanese on my way to and on the MRT. I just stare back when they stare at me, it's funny to see them get nervous and finally look away. x]

At school I was the only one dressed up, even the other two exchange

students didn't do anything. And one is American.. can't believe him. xP They don't celebrate halloween here so a lot of them were confused by my choice in dress which led me to have to explain that it's halloween coming up. In English chat room class we discussed the Taiwanese Ghost Month, which is in September, and Halloween. This English chat room is a bit pointless now for me, at least, I just end up speaking Chinese with them. Unless they're in English major these kids don't really care about learning English, and theirs is quite bad, so I steal this as a learning opportunity for me. :D

Later that night after school I went out with the exchange students for dinner and to hang out. I was quite happy that Friday. :]

Then Saturday! Saturday was the day of our Rotary Halloween party as well as the gay pride parade for Taipei. We went to Ximen first to buy some last minute things for our costumes and also the watch the parade. I was so proud of myself when crowds of gay boys would walk by screaming "wo men shi tong xing lian!" and I understood that it meant "we are gay!". Hah, tongxinglian is a big word for gay.

look how cute. ♥

Awww. I got angry when walking through Ximen, looking around and seeing an odd amount of attractive men walking around, momentary happiness, then depression when I realized that they're from the gay parade. Oh, woe is me.

Then we headed to the Rotary party. Started off pretty boring. We did an hour's worth of a fashion show where everybody showed their costumes, then had a break to eat almost cold pizza, then went back to our fashion show. When it was over we were all so bored we wanted to dance, because that's the fun thing to do at parties. We started a rebellious congo line and ended up being able to dance for five minutes, then rotary was all you have to stop now. We were then told to split up in groups with Rotex (young taiwanese who went on exchanges before) where we were asked to talk about our problems in Taiwan or our host families. I just pretty much blew up. This was my friend, Sammy's, last night in Taiwan, and this didn't end up being even a party, is was a meeting therapy session. Not only was it therefore boring, but it's ridiculous to have Sammy's last night here be talking about his problems when he's going home anyway. If we had known before hand what this was going to be, nobody would have come. Ugh, I was angry. So we pretty much just ended up leaving.

Sunday, I got up at 5 in the morning to go see Sammy off at the airport. I had to be at Taipei main by 6:30. I got there and called Derrick and Arantxa and they were looking for the buss stop and they got there before me and bought their tickets so they had to leave then. So I ended up walking around Taipei main, Derrick on the phone with me the whole time, trying to find this bus station. I eventually found it and made it to the airport. I'm not gonna go into detail about why Sammy's going home, he didn't do anything bad, he just didn't really like it here and his Rotary clubs were bad. So yeah, he went home. At the airport all the exchange students started crying and hugging him and talking while his host family just stood there, practically emotionless. I don't understand some people.

Later that day I went to a concert my school was participating in and saw some of the bands. It was a legit screamo concert and a lot of the boys were wearing makeup and metal type stuff. It was either one of the coolest or funniest things that I've seen from my classmates. Oh, and practically all the Taiwanese students smoke here. I think it's just because they think it's cool and it's the easiest way for them to rebel in Taiwan. After this I met up with exchange students and just had an emotional and fun day, trying not to be sad about one of my good friends leaving. :[

Week at school was pretty typical, except that I'm really trying to stop spending a lot of my money, so I was pretty broke until Friday when I got my Rotary moneys. :D Today I'm going out to Taipei City hall for some strictly window shopping. I'd like to save some more money.. ughh, so hard. D; Wish me luck!

萬聖節!

Halloween is coming up! How fun! They don't really celebrate it here but we're having a rotary party this Saturday. Ooh, fun fun. I'm going as some creepy person thing with fun fun makeup. I've got red eye contacts and loads of makeup. Add some fake blood and you have total awesomeness. I'm gonna dress up Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Should be interesting to be dressed up like that at school.. Ooh, fun weekend coming up. :D

The last few days have been your typical fun stuff. Lemme see if I can remember what I did. Ice skating! So fun! There's a small skating rink in Ximen and I went twice in the same week with exchange students. It's hilarious because when you get there you discover that most Taiwanese don't know how to ice skate at all.. They're all clinging to the sides for dear life. I'm okay at ice skating, but it definitely doesn't compare to the magic that happens when the Europeans hit the ice. Them and the Canadians.

Kenese and I have gotten into the hobby of walking around campus during our "self study in library" periods. It's mainly because we crave attention and think it's funny when all of the students freak out when they see us pass the classroom. Well, not all freak out.. Some just stare. I wonder if they'll ever catch on that we mess with their minds for fun. Hope not.

Just this Sunday I went with the Danish girl in my Rotary club to KTV along with a bunch older Rotex (previous outbounds from Taiwan). It was a lot of fun. Julia, the Danish pastry, is excellent at English so we sang a bunch of songs together. It was a lot of older music and it inspired me to download my beloved Backstreet Boys again. Oh, the memories. It was a girl's birthday so we had traditional Taiwanese cake. It was so good. It had like pudding and taro in it. Mmmmm. Hao chi.

Today I went on a shopping spree for all of my halloween stuff! So excited! Tomorrow I think I'm going to go out and get my hair done again. I can't take it much longer. Ugh. I'll let you know how it goes!

Daddy, 祝你生日快樂！

Daddyyyyy! I love you and I hope you have an awesome birthday! :D

I think I will send a package home soon with some stuffs in it for the family. :]

什麼？！

Check this outttttttttttt! To the left is a picture of a bunch of exchange students during the parade on double ten which was Taiwan's independence day. We were told to be as crazy patriotic as possible. I'm on the far right, can you see me? :D This picture made it on the front page of a bunch of newspapers! So cool! We realized during that this is pretty much the only country where something like this would happen for exchange students, and I'm not complaining. x] To decorate myself I had an Irish flag on my forehead, USA on my cheek, CA and two Australian flags on my chest.. Don't ask why. I was made an honorary Australian by the Aussies. Oh, I also tied an American flag around my neck like a cape. Pretty cool, I know. We walked for five miles, screaming and waving at people that lined up. Even after all of this, we went out after and partied hard. (Not really, but we did go out afterwards x)

Here's a video an exchange student posted of the parade! I'm hardly in it, (I know, sad) but you get to experience what we experienced!

That was Sunday, but on Saturday us exchange students went to Danshui for biking then we had an Ocarina class. I can now play God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on the ocarina.. Go me. Skip back over to Monday, Chinese class, then I went to my school to watch the English Singing competition! They were all so cute! My class didn't do so well (neither group placed) they were too nervous and shy! I felt so bad because I knew how angry my teacher would be with them afterwards.. When I went home my host family informed me that we were having a meeting with some Rotary members to go over some issues that came up recently, so we ate dinner then left to meet up at a coffee place. (the meetings are normal, so don't freak out on me, Mom) They discussed my only being home once for dinner last week and how I talked more with my host family when I first got here, and that most exchange students are home more. I then explained to them that most exchange students have more than just their host parents at home. I'm like an only child here, it is so boring in this house. They never take me anywhere either, so why would I wanna go home and just laze around when I could be out exploring Taipei? They didn't really care and said I should try to be home four nights a week. I'll try, but it will be difficult. Oh, and guess what came up in the discussion? Yup, the floss issue. My host mom knows how to hold a grudge.

Today was good. School was fun as always, but I didn't want to hui jia. Came home.. had dinner.. Now I'm doing this. Yeah, it's boring. I think tomorrow I'll have dinner with them then go to Starbucks to study for Chinese class. Something. Maybe go walking. Oh, the possibilities are endless. Until xia yi ci.

牙線。

So, a few days ago my host mom told me not to flush my floss along with my tissues down the toilet because she's scared it will stop it up. Don't exactly understand that logic, but I went with it and stopped. This morning, almost out the door on my way to school, she gets up and stops me. She told me she heard me flush the toilet after I brushed my teeth this morning. This is creepy already because I thought she was sleeping. She then proceeded to ask if I put my floss in there. I explained that I hadn't and that I threw it in my trash bin in my room. She made me show her to be sure even when I explained I flushed it because I used a tissue to blow my nose.. Holy hell, I'm in a mad house. I don't even really know how to comment on this event. She's simply starting to get on my nerves in how she doesn't drop anything and sometimes she just drones on and on. Oh, well. I'll put up with it and be a sweetie until I switch families. ^^

Another discovery of a not-so-nice person: my homeroom teacher. Oh, it's awful. I'm glad I don't have to see her that much. The stress she puts these kids through is amazing and the way she talks to them I easily concluded she would either get a stern talking to or would simply be fired were she a teacher in the states. She told them they were selfish, shouted out who had the worst lianluobu to the whole class, wrote down all of their english mistakes on the board and crossed them out screaming "Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!".. I mean, I thought this only happened in the movies. It's not always like this in Taiwan either, all of the students dislike her and she's the meanest in their opinion of all their teachers. It's just more put up with (if not encouraged) here for a teacher to act like a kid-soul-sucking monster. There are kids in my class with grey hairs.. I mean grey hairs. Stressed out much?

Speaking of stress, one thing I really don't feel I've stressed enough is the amount of cute boys in Taiwan. One of my favourite parts of the day is after school when I take the bus to Muzha MRT station and see the boys from Muzha Vocational School. The school is basically all boys and so many of them are cute. So many. Throw in all of the hugging and groping these boys partake in here in Taiwan, and I'm the happiest little girl in the world. :D

These last few days have been fun. Since Sunday when I did basically nothing, I've been going out nonstop. Monday I went to Ximen with some friends and saw Eat, Pray, Love. Tuesday it was Derrick's bday so we had a birthday bash for him. Then today I went to a night market with the Frenchies. My goal is to only be home tomorrow this week. I know, I shouldn't be avoiding my family but this week I find I just really don't wanna be home. When I'm home I do nothing. My host mom plays solitaire on the computer, host dad watches sports, and I go on the internet. Boring. Only thing good about it is how good of a cook my host mom is.

Tomorrow should be fun despite my lack of plans. I've got Chinese class, then friends, then drawing class at school with some fun people. Until next time. :D

對不起。

I've been bad at updating my blogs lately. I'll try to be better. It's difficult because I'm so busy, but then if I don't blog often I have so many things to talk about!

Well, on Sunday what did I do? Oh! I went to Miramar! It's a big mall in Taipei (didn't buy anything there, of course.. too expensive) and it has a gigantic ferris wheel. Except, it moves so slowly it doesn't even look like it's moving. I went with Faith from Canada and we just took it easy, went on the ferris wheel and a merry go round, then hit up a starbucks and flirted with the cute barista boy behind the counter. xD After this we got together with more exchange students and hung out until about 7:30. By this time it felt so much later than it was and we just decided to go home and relax. It was a good lazy Sunday.

School was pretty much the same as it usually is. More interesting, funny, and awkward moments with my classmates. Except more and more of them know our names now, which leads them to think we're best friends and they scream at us from great distances. High school buildings are really tall here, and they have balcony-like things where the kids go during breaks. It's a bit scary to have random Asian kids you don't know screaming your name from five floors up.

They rescheduled our speech again. Third time now. I'm beginning to think we'll never do it.. I sort of hope so too. This apparently has happened for quite a few exchange students so I won't let it bother me too much.

On Friday I had a Rotary meeting so I got to leave school early. The main benefit of these Rotary meetings is the free food. The thing is 90% held in Taiwanese, not Mandarin, so I wouldn't be able to understand anything if I tried. I'm supposed to go at least once a month, though, and I'm fine with that. Julia and I just talk, collect our allowances, and eat whatever is put in front of us. All I can say is thank god I haven't gained weight since I got here. When this was over I went out to Ximen and got my hair did! It's not that different but I got my bands chemically straightened so they're not insane anymore. So happy. I got layers too. :] After my hairdresser was done cutting it and everything she curled my hair and I swear afterwards I looked so Asian. All I needed to complete the job was fake eyelashes and a ton of eyeliner. After this I went to a little night market with some classmates. They're so cute. :D

Then today I left the house at 8 to go to a Rotary gathering where we sewed flags onto a big banner for Taiwan's 100th birthday parade. Met a couple more people from a different district. :] Later me and a couple others went to Zhongxiao Fuxing, then went to Taipei main station and hopped on the MRT to Danshui. Upon arriving we then decided after the hour long ride we didn't want to be there so we went back to Taipei main then to Ximen. Here we just walked around, went to a starbucks, and got sushi. When we were sure we'd stuffed ourselves silly we went to Taipei main again and went shopping with a classmate of mine. We went to a shop that was going out of business so everything was on sale! It was really cool, too. Everything was hand made and really pretty. I got a pair of hand painted vans for only 15 US dollars because I got the store clerk to like me and she lowered the price. She even gave me a pair of hand made earrings for free. Oh, it's good being me. :D

Hahh, tomorrow I'm getting up early to spend another morning with Rotary. Going hiking! Excited to get some exercise, that's for sure. It's with a bunch of old Rotarians so I'm sure it won't be too hardcore. Until next time! Hopefully it'll be sooner.

Tommy, if you're reading this, what kind of cheesecake did you get on your birthday? Love you and I hope you had fun!

豬血糕很好吃。

Okay, so I haven't updated since Tuesday but I've been busy! Lots of stuff going down and I will share that all now. :D

However, first things first, I will speak of the gloriousness that is zhuxuegao. Directly translated, pig's blood cake. It's not really a cake.. What it is is glutinous rice boiled with pig's blood, hardened 'till the have a somewhat pudding like consistency, then cut into rectangles.

Now, this is delicious by itself, and you can buy it just like this or grilled with some different sorts of barbecue sauce on it. The best way to get it, in my opinion, is at the vendors who only sell this and nothing else. Here, they dip it in a sauce that I believe is a pork's broth of some kind, then they dip it in peanut powder. So, you bite in, tastes like peanuts.. awesome, then it tastes like zhuxuegao which is awesome as well.

Don't even go, 'ewwww, but Isabel, it's made out of blood!' because if you eat pig's meat, that's technically the same as eating it's blood. The meat marinates in that. x) It's seriously so good and my friend Tina tells me you can get it in San Diego so I'm really happy!

Okay, what next. Oh, yeah, the Thai horror movie. That was weird. I went and saw it with some classmates and another exchange student, Sammy. He's better at reading characters than I am so we just sort of sat there and tried to understand it. I think we got maybe half. Afterwards Sammy and I raided some grocery stores and then went home.

English subs trailer:

Thursday was nothing special. The only thing worth pointing out is that we went to a Mexican restaurant! Well, as Mexican as you can get in Taiwan. It was pretty good, a little piece of home. :D

Friday I went to school where they told me they rescheduled our speech again and made it on Thursday instead of Monday. Meh. At this point I just wanna get it over with. After school I went with Kenese and some classmates to see a movie. We ended up splitting and going to see two different movies, I saw Devil. It was pretty good! Not horrifying or amazingly done, though. I still enjoyed it. :] Afterwards I thought it was 9:45 so I dashed home to make it in time for 10:30 but it turned out that it had only been 8:45 and I got home an hour early. Not cool.

Yesterday was amazing. I left the house at 10:30 and didn't get back until exactly 10:30 that night. I started the day off with Sammy, we went to Taipei main station to meet up with some exchange students who were going to the beach, then we walked around and toured through a really nice department store. Then headed back to Taipei main station where we got like five pounds of sushi for 4 US dollars. Amazing. Sammy told me about the mall underneath the station so we headed there next to do some shopping. It was sweet, like an underground night market. On our way out we noticed a group of teenagers-young adults were getting ready to perform a little concert so we stayed. They mainly sang English songs and so many of them were oldies! I was telling Sammy that if my Mom'd been there she'd be able to sing along with every one of them. They were good and Sammy and I met some of them afterwards and told them we'd sing with them if they wanted us to. xD Now we're friends on facebook and Sammy is discussing arrangements.

After this amazing event we went to Shilin night market where we met up with more exchange students and some Taiwanese Rotex. I did so much shopping. Of course, I got zhuxuegao and almost died it was so good. I kept on trying to get Sammy to eat it but he wouldn't. First I bought some stockings for school.. I like them better than the to the thigh socks. Then I bought some belly button rings because I like how they look as earrings. Oh, and then amazingness. Earlier at the mall I saw CSI: New York for the cheapest I've seen it in it's actual case and everything going for a little over $20. At the Night Market I bought it for 10 and I am satisfied, don't care if it's so pirated it's not even funny. xD I bought a huge leather purse for $6 and a bunch of other stuff. I am satisfied. Afterwards on the way home my knees were like buckling beneath me and my feet were so sore, but it was a happy sore.

I'll update sooner next time, promise!

一個月在台灣。

I've been here for a month. Holy poo. It's gone by so fast and it makes me really depressed to think that means the 10 months I have left will go by just as fast and I'll be back in boring ol' America. x]

Don't get offended, people back home, I do miss you. I imagine I'll miss you even more as time goes on, but these people that I'm here with now are probably people I'll never see again. Hate to be pessimistic, but it's true. I've got friends from France and Germany and Brazil now and unless we're super dedicated I doubt I'll be getting together with them much after this. Even the people from the US on the east coast.. I dunno. I'm making myself sad! xD Hahah, I think it's funny.. I've got ten months left and I'm already thinking about the things I'll miss; the MRT, the 7/11s, all the adorable asian boys, the exchange students.. the list goes on.

Just wanted to post a short blog celebrate my one month anniversary. :D Tomorrow is the moon festival! Yay! I'm gonna go see this movie:

It's in Thai and it has Chinese subtitles.. Gonna have to practice my reading skills! I most likely won't understand anything, but that's all right. x) I'll enjoy it.

中秋節快樂！

颱風。

Today I'm locked up in the house because of a typhoon that's hitting Taiwan today and tomorrow. Lots of rain and lots of wind. It's good because I get a chance to relax but I'd much rather be out doing something.

Friday was my birthday! I turned 16. :D It's been brought to my attention by the other exchange students that I'm among the babies of the group. There are only two other girls that are still 15.. but it's all good! That day at school I went about my normal schedule. In the morning I started making my first origami ribbon cricket, which I was surprisingly good at. ;] We didn't have time to finish it though, so I have half a cricket on my desk right now. x) In balloon class I learned how to make a dog! I'll make sure to take pictures of that as soon as I make another one. At lunch time I went to my main classroom where I was presented with a couple gifts and some separate cards and also a book filled with pictures and a little letter from everybody in class wishing me a happy birthday. It was insanely sweet reading through all of their notes with all of their cute English mistakes. Some of the letters:

"Hello!! Isabel~~ Is me Yaris. :)

Do you remember we go to Taipei zoo? We are happy! This is our first time to go out. It's so sweet, and you are so cute. Our time is sweet & happy & funny!! You always talking with we! It's really good, you are a friendly foreigner, I'm so love you! You have big blue eyes, and beautiful face and sweet voice, you are really really so cute!! Happy birthday to you, be happy :) I love you."

"You are very kind. I won't be nervous to talk to you. If you go back to America, we'll very sad. So don't go!! Stay here until we graduate!! by Allen"

"Hey~Isabel :) Welcome to Taiwan and come to our class. You're such a lovely and pretty girl. We guys like you so much, we learned many things from you. I wish that we can teach you some Chinese, too. We'd love to help you anything. And it's glad that you always say that I'm a cute boy. I've very happy to heard that! ^v^ And in this important day, I just wa

nt to tell you: Happy birthday.

Cute boy, Albert.

I'll miss you, don't forget us, okay?"

It's all so sweet. I like died when they gave it to me.. and despite all this they still want to have more of a celebration. It would have been today, but because of the typhoon I dunno anymore. I'll let them decided and let me know. xD Hahah, I realize I've become totally unrestricted when telling boys that they're handsome or cute. I make sure to let them know if I think so. xD So many of them are absolutely adorable I just wanna take them home and keep 'em as a stuffed animal. :D

After school I got home and quickly headed out to go out to dinner. Other than talking with Isabel (other exchange student, her mother is from Beijing so she is already basically fluent) and Babette it was totally boring. It was more of a let's use Isabel's birthday as an excuse to get the host families together and have the adults discuss arrangements. It's all good, though. Figure I'm gonna have to put up with that on occasion.

Yesterday was insanely fun, though! We went to a water park and it wasn't that crowded because a typhoon was on its way. Apart from the rides, which were all crazy fun, the lifeguards were pretty good too. Although I'm pretty sure most of them were gay (pink speedos and just that attitude) it doesn't mean I couldn't appreciate them! xD

I didn't get any pictures of them but I'll steal some of the other students':

Hahahah, love ittt. xD Afterwards a group of us exchange students headed over to Ximen and did some shopping a got up to some mischief before heading home for the night. Today the typhoon is officially here so I can't go out, but this morning I skyped with my family for the first time since I left! It was nice to see them, but I still haven't seen Laurel! :o Next week, I shall. Tomorrow I'm not sure if we have school or not because of the typhoon, but I hope we do! I don't wanna be in the house all day. D;

Until I write again.. :]

明天是我的生日！

Okay, well, the first topic I'm gonna cover is that I never mentioned my Chinese name! I got help from my host family in choosing it when I got here. My surname is Wang (second tone, voice rises) because that's my first host family's surname. Then my given name starts with yi (fourth tone, voice drops) because their children's names start with yi, then mei (third tone, voice falls then rises. Do it right! :P) because of mei guo (america, mei also means beautiful). So, it's 王奕美 or Wang Yi-Mei. Wang means king, yi means elegant and mei means beautiful. I like it. They call me yimei or amei or at school a lot of people call me ishabeir. xD It's cute.

Next topic! Sorry, have to do this.. it's gay boys! I'm in a sea of them here! These exchange students are letting me know left and right that they're gay and I'm like o.o. Many of them are obvious, but some aren't so much.. Makes me think a lot of boys back home at guajome need to come out of the closet already because they're everywhereeee. Not only this, but I'm dreading the day I return to America because of the adorableness that is the boys here in Taiwan. You know how in America, pretty much the only touchy contact teenage boys to men can have with each other is that man hug thing. Don't know what to call it, you know, they grasp each other's hand and pat the other's back. They can't do much else or they're accused of being gay. It's definitely not the same here. I walk into class and boys are hanging over each other, sitting in each other's laps, using another boy's lap or shoulder for a nap. I'm in heaven, you have no idea. I mentioned this to them because I'm in such a happy state of shock and they immediately blush and separate (dammit) and then I tell them I think it's adorable and they just blush even more. xD

I'm nearing the end of reading an online novel and it's one of those lose-track-of-time, pissed-off-when-I'm-not-reading-it quality stories. I put up with it, though. I can't be reading all the time here, I must explore! :D

Yesterday school was fun! A bit boring at times, of course, but fun. Then I bumped into some exchange students on the way home and ended up tagging along for Shilin night market! Met some more French exchange students from a different district (Jesus, there are a ton of French people here.. o.o) and kinda just wandered. Got awkward at times. x] Pretty fun, though.

Then, today, I had Chinese class. Kind of upset with that right now. There's nothing I hate more than relearning stuff I've already learned several times before and not being presented with anything new. Right now we're just reviewing and helping some others 'catch up' by starting from the beginning of the book.. Quite a few of us (including me) have learned more than half of it already. D; Hopefully it will get better. After Chinese class we got together at Ximen and I had a red bean bun. Num num. Then school! Jing Wen Gao Zhong! I had drawing class. :] I drew four apples and shaded them differently, mmm, I do such hard work. Some kids invited me to go to another night market with them and, of course, my response was hells yes. I hate to say it, but I enjoyed this much better than the night before. Maybe it's because they were all sweet as hell and despite the language barriers weren't as awkward as the random exchange students I got plopped with before. It was fun. We got lots of good food and they insisted I eat stinky tofu again. I don't like stinky tofu particularly, and apart from the smell it's definitely not disgusting. They said I'll just get used to it and eventually love it as much as they do. I wouldn't be surprised at this point. x)

Speaking of food, tomorrow's my birthday! Which means food! Hahah, I'm gonna eat whatever I want and not worry about the kilo (woah, went metric) I'll have gained until after. My class is having a party for me (D;) and I'm pretty sure it's gonna be cake and pizza.. Unless the pizza is topped with squid I really don't care for it, but I'll be nice, of course. Then dinner afterwards with host family and other people. Don't know how that's gonna be, yet.. I'll let you know how it goes. :) Toodleooo.

在圖書館。

I'm in the library right now at my school! I'm so happy with my school you have no idea. Even with all its disorganization and chaos, it's absolutely awesome. They set up a schedule for us that is amazing and I still get to be around a bunch of the kids at school all the time. I really like them, too! Only some of them bug me.. Like that girl I mentioned in the last post. Ugggh. So creepy. I wonder if she'll catch on.. I hope so.

Some of the kids got put into really good schools in Taipei. That sounds just spiffy at first, but think about how the Asian education symstem centers around hardcore memorization of everything.. This equals insane studying and cram school.. which equals everybody at these good schools ignoring the exchange students. I want them to get a transfer to my cute ghetto school so badly. D;

Yesterday I just sort of chilled. I slept in, read, then I got invited to a birthday party by one of the exchange students so I decided to go just because I'd be doing nothing else that day. Said exchange student's Father is friends with a couple who live here in Taipei and it was their twins' birthday. He was a white guy who married to an Asian woman so we joked about that saying he was one of "thooose guys". We get to the party and it's filled with a bunch of "thooose guys". Just a bunch of white dudes and their wives. Plus, they were all from Canada so I was still an outsider. xD They were nice though and it was an excuse to get some well cooked Chinese food. :D

Today I had Chinese class.. Then had lunch with some exchange students sort of. We went to subway and I was appalled by the prices (same as in the US x]) so I just split a cookie and a drink with a friend. Now I'm here! Just thought I'd add a quick blog while I'm in the library doing nothing.. I'm joining my main class next period because I have no idea where this supposed music class is. Meh. I'm an exchange student I can do what I want! :o Now I have to pee but the bathrooms here are soooo gross. Eww, squatty potties are from Satan. Speaking of Satan, have you seen the preview for that Devil movie? That looks so scary! I wanna see it! o.o

My birthday is this Friday! I'm excited! And worried.. I really hope my night doesn't just consist of going out to dinner with the families I'm going to be staying with and their current exchange students.. I'd rather be with my current host family or my friends. Whatever. I don't really get to choose, I suppose. :/ I'll make it fun either way! :O

Until next time... ;)

好甜。

I went to Taipei 101 today! I'm uploading the photos to facebook as we speak.. or as I write. I dunno. It was really fun! :D My feet hurt so bad, afterwards a couple of friends and I went shopping, saw Resident Evil and then went on a quest for a night market, which we eventually found. :]

Goodness, this girl from my school is like stalking me and it's getting really annoying. She just has a creepy :) face and is always talking at me. D; The only reason she's doing it is because I'm a foreigner, and she makes it so obvious I wanna slap her. x]

Yesterday at school we had class debate (I think that's what it was) time to just discuss what we'd do as a class, and my teacher wanted me to tell everybody how I felt about school and blah blah. She said I could do it in English because it's the English major class but I wanted to do it in Chinese but I realized there was no way I could. xD I didn't learn how to say I feel very overwhelmed by all you crazy Asians and the staring and the pictures. I don't think they understood even half of it but they got that I'm happy and that I think they're very sweet. I was really happy in class that day for some reason. Hm, it was just a good day. :) They're planning a birthday party for me next week (it's on Friday) which is insanely sweet.. A bit overboard, but sweet. ^^;

Then afterwards I met up with some other exchange students at Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall and we just had to choose the hottest place in the park near it to stay at. D; It was fun, though.

Then today was the Taipei 101! I swear, I went to the top of Taipei 101, saw Resident Evil, and did some shopping at a night market and I didn't spend much more than 1000 NT, which is like 30 bucks. Awesomeness. At Taipei 101 we went like crazy over the samples in the mall area but we walked a lot today so I think it evens out.. At least I hope so. x] I'll be careful tomorrow. I'm really worried but excited for the Moon Festival. The moon cakes that they make are like 3 inches in diameter and some of them pack about 1000 calories. Eep.

Yup, that's how I remembered 9/11. I'm so patriotic... x] Okay, well, my feet hurt like crazy and I'm coated in sweat so I'm gonna take a shower! I swear, I have never sweat droplets without doing anything until I got here. It's like my face is crying.. Okay, that's a bit gross. It's not that bad, but it's bad. Heehe, zai gen! (That's taiwanese, not Mandarin. Oooh, freaked you out there didn't I? You were probably like, whaaaa? It's zai jian, Isabel. But no, I'm right and you're wrong. It's Taiwanese so it's different. o.O)

幹！

So, I got up at 5:10 this morning to leave the house at 6 and get to school by just past 7 so that I could give a short 30 second long speech in front of the whole school. (about 2,000 kids) I get there, and they tell me because it rained for one minute they weren't going to have the ceremony this morning. So all that trouble was just a waist of time and I was still late to Chinese class. The best part about this is I still haven't done my speech and it has to be on a day that I have Chinese class, so I'm gonna be late again. Juuuuust spiffy. D; Well, that's life.

I've found that for my schedule about half the classes are just the exchange students and I and the other half are with other classes. Plus, the classes that I have with the exchange students are mainly Chinese language classes. It's been really fun and all the other exchange students are so jealous because they have physics and math. Heeeheh.

Next week I'm gonna bring my camera to school and just take pictures of everything, so you'll be able to see me in the sea of Asians next week. Including my beautiful uniform.

My Chinese teacher is harsh! I'm really happy about that, though, because she corrects us when we get our tones wrong which is really important. Plus, we're the 'best' class so we should try to live up to that. x] It's been fun so far! All of the exchange students are awesome. It's really difficult to blow them off for my actual school mates, which is what you're supposed to do.. But I believe I've reached a happy medium. :] It's not difficult to make friends here, that's for sure. I've pretty much discovered that if I don't have plans for the weekend I could easily walk into any classroom and ask if they wanna take me somewhere and immediately have a bunch of requests. I'm not conceited or anything, but these people get a bit ridiculous. We had a drawing class after lunch today, and the class that we went to was clapping and cheering when we walked in. It was insanity. It's all good natured, though. They're all very sweet. The boys are shy and the girls can get really loud... Like really loud. In that class we were called to the front and were asked several questions by the students. Like if we were boyfriend and girlfriend, who I thought the cutest boy in class was, how old we are, for Heitor to show his muscles.. xD You know, just very mature, well thought out questions.

One of the funny things I found today was that I had my uniform shirt unbuttoned slightly (like not all the way to my neck) with a tank top underneath and about an inch of cleavage would show if I bent over or something. I got sooo many comments on that today. From boys and girls. xD Girls telling me that it's so sexy and some insisting I button it up (which I eventually did D;) and boys telling me others were nervous or shy because of it. I think it's because not only have they not seen many foreigners in the flesh, but they also haven't seen many girls with enough boob to get natural cleavage. (I know this is going to spur a rant from my Mom but I wanted to mention it anyway. x])

One of the things that's gotten really annoying is when I'm on my way home from school and I'm walking through the city to my apartment there's this line of shops where a bunch of tourists gather. They're all from mainland China and they're all just really noisy and rude. I have to like dodge and duck to get through all of them. D; One of the things I don't mind about going home is the MRT! Especially when it stops and an all-boys school and about 50 boys come piling in. How fun! x]

I've gotten really stingy. Today a huge group of exchange students and I (swarm/army of foreigners) went out to lunch at a Japanese place in Ximen. I found myself when ordering thinking that one of the meals for 105 NT was expensive (about 3 US dollars) just because I can get a meal like that from a street stand for about 30 NT (1 US dollar. I realized that I was being ridiculous and ordered it anyway. xD I can't imagine how bad it's gonna be when I get back. Here, everything is cheap for foreigners, but for the general population it's just normal. So, if I carried around 2,000 NT (60 US dollars) this could be seen in value as anywhere between 100-150 dollars. It's just different and I'm not really used to it yet. Stuff is so cheap here I haven't even broken into my allowance from my parents or Rotary despite my buying a bunch of things already. Pretty sweeeet. :D

Tomorrow I'm going out with some exchange students to Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall to chill and Saturday I'm going to Taipei 101! Woot! I'm gonna try to make some plans with my classmates soon, too. :] I need to buy an electronic Chinese-English dictionary so that's a good reason! They can help me choose! :D

Okies, well, this is all I can think of for now. Until next time!

胃灼熱。

weizhuore. I didn't think it would come to this but I am now memorizing how to say heartburn in Chinese. I just suffered a brutal attack and thankfully it's over now. I swear to God I wouldn't even wish that pain on my worst enemy. D; I'm upset that I worried my host family somewhat but I'm so happy it didn't happen at school. With the language barrier they would have thought I was dying. Goodness.

Lemme seee. What have I done over the past few days? Well, Saturday I went to a welcome party con mis amigos where they had a bunch of food that I've never seen before. Needless to say I tried everything I had never eaten before. Despite this massive eating the scale here reads that I've actually lost weight. Awesome, much? It was a lot of fun. Something I've discovered here is that many Asian men look much younger than they actually are. Me and some exchange students were talking with a group of young adults at the party and I thought they were all in there young twenties. Most of them were, but some were 32 or 33 and I was like (:O). You look so young! I had a green bean (not the green bean-green beans but like beans that are green) popsicle. That was intense.

We can get away with saying any bad word here in front of the Taiwanese. They all know the words and that they're slang, but they don't know how bad they are. x]

Then on Sunday I went with some people from school to the Taipei zoo! That was fun but it was especially hot on Sunday. And it rained. A lovely combination. D; It was still fun, though! I was with a group of girls and two boys for the day. Holy poo, one of them was so outrageously gay it's not even funny. I'll be the first to say my gaydar is awful but when it's obvious it's obvious. He wasn't hiding it or anything, we discussed how cute our math teacher is, but he's just so gay it's adorable! xD

Today I went to Chinese class which was just more bopomofo and tone practice. Then I got to school where I went to the library, worked on my speech, and played ping pong with Kenese. Just a pretty chill day. I had this weird ass sandwich that I picked up from a 7/11.. Haha, I love how the process of eating here is for us exchange students, it's always "Oh my god, yesterday, I ate this thing.. I have noooo idea what it was but it was so good!" xD It's kinda fun for it to be a mystery. o.O I got home, had dinner, then went with my host parents to costco to compare with the one back home. I'm not sure if it being two floors and with basement parking a difference for Taiwan-US or big city-small city. Pretty sure it's the city one. They had basically all the same products as they do back home, but more a Asian foods too. :]

Then I got home, was about to take a shower, then you know. Evilness took over me and an alien tore out from inside my chest and once it was free proceeded to beat my already injured body. D; Don't be jealous. >.<

我不可以喝啤酒。

My school schedule:

Monday: Chinese Class, Study in the Library, Fine Arts then PE.

Tuesday: Practical Chinese, Traveling Taiwan, Calligraphy, Music, Intro to Culture Shock, and Chinese conversation.

Wednesday: Cross Culture Interaction, PE, Chinese Food, Chinese Origami, Night Market Culture, and Houscraft. (wtf is that?)

Thursday: Chinese Class, then Drawing for the rest of the day.

Friday: Mahjong, Chinese Tounge Twisters and Balloon making, PE, Chinese Pop Songs, English Class (to help others to learn), and Nail decorating.

How freaking awesome is this? Other than learning Chinese absolutely none of it is academic. This year is going to be so fun. :D Balloon making? Mahjong? Chinese food? You can't say you're not jealous. :D I was scared this school year would be stressful with math and science but this way I'm really just learning Chinese, Taiwan culture, and random fun stuff! Sweet!

I'm about to leave to go to a barbecue for one of the exchange student's birthday. Gonna spend the night there and explore Taipei tomorrow. :] My goodness, it's gonna be hard to leave this place.

Oh! And I gave my speech for the Rotary! They all were very pleased with my Chinese even though it wasn't very good. xD They're all very nice. Now time to prepare for the speech at school. Heh. ^^;

所以。。

Well, I totally forgot to mention the fact that we get nap time at school. As well as school being over at 5:10. x] Two very odd things!

Well, Wednesday was boring. We had like three English classes once again. I feel so awkward when the English teacher who doesn't know English natively says something incorrectly or gets their grammar wrong. I want to correct them so they can learn from that along with the students but I don't want to embarrass them in front of their class. I swear, one of my teachers had us do a spelling test where the words were something like: billiards, earnings, punch, branch.. Just weird words. When she said billiards and earnings I had no idea what she was saying! I had to guess from what we had gone over from the day before. D; Then we had business. Ew. I really don't like this teacher. She's like five feet tall and built like a rectangle and is just rather unpleasant looking. She wears these ridiculously unflattering feminine clothes and mulitcoloured leather shoes. She comes into the class and we all stand up to bow and say "laoshi hao" and she's all "zaici" so we do it again and she's all "zaici" and I'm all wtf and she's all "zaici". She just couldn't be satisfied with our already immense respect. It just wasn't good enough. I swear, if I wanted to show 'em how this would play out in America I'd sit my ass down and glare at her for even suggesting that I get up and bow in acknowledgement of her supposedly glorious presence. Maybe even spit at her. Hahah, after business it was time for PE. We went to the gym, did some intense stretches, a couple jumping jacks and then we played.. ping pong. You can't say you're not jealous. :D I just love how they consider it enough of a physical sport that it requires stretching beforehand. x]

Today I had my first Chinese class here. We started learning bopomofo which is what they use in Taiwan to write the pronunciation of characters where as what I learned, pinyin, is what they use in China. It's difficult because it's an entirely different alphabet but I'll get it down. jiayou! After class some other exchange students and I got McDonald's. I was so disappointed, it tasted just like how it does back home! D; Meh, I'll just go with Mos Burger. Hmf. After this I head back to school where my first class was typing. Obviously I couldn't quite do it so I just surfed the web, ohh, the life on an exchange student. x]

People in my class/school/whatever:
Don't brush their teeth! In one of my fellow YEP's words, some of them look like they chew on bricks for fun.
Are very shy with the opposite sex. It's quite unheard of for a girl and a boy to be friends so they all think either Heitor or Kenese (other exchange students at my school) is my boyfriend.
Don't quite know how to be secretive. I swear, when they see us they just openly stare or whisper about us to each other. I dunno, we'll get used to it. I hope.
Oh! There's this boy in my class who is absolutely gorgeous. I'm not attracted to him because he's too young right now and he seems to be aware of and shows off his beauty. But I'm serious. His features are very striking and perfect. He's like a piece of artwork! I'll give him a couple years and then I'll come back to Taiwan to kidnap him. :D

Math class! I read Lord of the Rings the whole time. xD Then they had science but I was pulled out to look over the clubs to join at my school. A lady that works their was going through the list and translating it for us and when she said "balloon shaping" I was like, holy poo I wanna do that. Balloon animals club? How awesome is that. xD We didn't want to disturb our classes because they were in the middle of a lesson so we went and talked with one of the teachers that wasn't busy. She's so nice! She told us when the bell rang that Doremi (school teacher administrator guy) said us exchange students could leave school at 4:10, so we did. I went straight home (except for stopping at 7/11 and picking up a random drink and food item, so fun!) and when I got there my host mom told me how my homeroom teacher called to tell her I wasn't in my last class. Madness! I really think that lady doesn't like me. She's all nice and :D but just some things about the way she acts put me off.. I dunno. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I think I bug her. Maybe it's because I speak better English than she does and my teeth are prettier. (ooh, I'm mean x]) But, whatever, tomorrow I'll deal with that and tell her how a teacher (teacher!) said we could leave and I wasn't ditching. Gah, this is madness. I'm not even gonna be in her class all day for the rest of the year.

Tomorrow I'm leaving school early to go to a rotary meeting where I will introduce myself to a bunch of old Asian dudes who hardly speak any English. I'm going to try to do as much as I can in Mandarin, of course. Oh, and today I found out for sure that I have to give a speech in front of my school (3 freaking thousand kids :O) and I have to do my best to do it all in Mandarin. Writing it in Mandarin isn't the hard part it's the saying it in front of 3 freaking thousand students. D; dah. At least I have a week to prepare. Wish me luck!

上學。

Today was my first day of school! I got up at six, showered, dawned my gorgeous uniform, and ate breakfast before starting my hour long journey to school. Luckily it wasn't raining this morning (it probably will tomorrow D;) when I walked to the MRT station.

EVERYBODY STARED AT ME. It gets pretty bad in everyday life here, the staring I mean, but today it was intense. Everybody was like O.O, especially when I met up with Kenese (other American exchange student) everybody crowded around us and peered into the classroom to watch us talk. I feel especially bad for Kenese because of his awesome poofy afro hair. Everybody asked to touch it. xD Hopefully the staring and my Mandarin will get better!

The day started with English class. The teacher was from Britain and was very awkward and a not very good teacher. He asked me to say some things for the class and that's about it. Then came math (oh, and you know in Asia you don't go to teachers, teachers come to you ;D). Math was odd. The teacher, who looked about 25, came into the classroom and did a double take when he saw me sitting in the front. Laugher ensued. I guess nobody knew about the exchange students. xD He was very nice, though. During the lesson I could recognize half of it and the other half I was like wtf. I'm sure I would've gotten it better if it was in English. xD After the note-taking he came over and sat next to me and laughed at how I wrote down all the math and numbers but didn't even attempt really at the characters.

After this we had another English class. I got put in the English major class, so they take 15 hours of English a week. I would have been upset except that besides the British guy, hardly any English is spoken in the other English classes. It's just like back home where not much Spanish is spoken in Spanish class. x] Also, it is helpful for my vocab when they go through it because it's English for them and Chinese for me. After this class, we had Business, which I didn't even know until the end of class when I asked somebody. xD This woman spoke so fast and was quite intimidating. >.<>

Tomorrow the Brazilian boy is joining Kenese and I at school! Hopefully the staring won't be so bad for him. I swear, all day it was "Ooh! Your eyes! Your hair! Is it natural? Do you have boyfriend?" Hahah, excited for tomorrow? x]

Oh! Time for my to show off a bit, I got third place in the Mandarin placement test and I'm in the best class! Woot! :D I'm happy that I wasn't just put in a beginner's class and have to learn everything over again.

Okay, sorry, I just have to add this in. 7/11s here are awesome! They're on just about every corner, have atms, a little restaurant/eating area, and the most awesome asian foodies. I'm gonna miss them so much when I come home, that and the bamboo shoot. So nummy.

對呀 對呀 對呀

Just got back from the inbound student orientation!

Holy poo, Taiwan is not the exchange country I was expecting. While the ability to learn the culture and Mandarin still stands true, the rules of my exchange and the exceptions made for exchange students are way different. I thought it would be really strict (maybe that's me stereotyping on Asia, I dunno) and that if you even dared to break the rules a bit you'd be sent home no questions asked. This, along with having to follow school rules exactly, like going to the same classes as any ordinary exchange student and having to take on the same work load. Not even close.

There were rumors since I got here from other exchange students about previous inbounds "misbehaving", and they were pretty much all confirmed at this orientation. Before I get into detail, don't worry about me breaking any of the rules. I don't want to even risk being sent home (this place is awesome) and it's just not worth it. I won't unveil who or what did the confirming of the rumors, I don't want anybody I met being sent home despite their being naughty. I already love them all. xD Well, first off, apparently the only places you get carded at are night clubs. Exchange students have picked up cigarettes and whiskey from the 7/11 and weren't even asked for an ID. Not only this avid drinking, but also doing the nasty quite often and uninhibitedly. Despite all of this, nobody (even the ones that have occasionally been caught) haven't been sent home. I simply wasn't expecting Taiwan to be the go-to-this-country-on-your-exchange-if-you-want-to-party-for-a-year country.

Well, the first night of the orientation we met everybody. You wouldn't believe how weird it is to be hanging out with Taiwanese, French, Germans, and Swiss and be the only one that natively speaks English.. Oh, language barriers are magnificent. It seems like many of the Europeans who came here were looking to learn English and then saw that in Taiwan you can learn both English and Mandarin so they went with that. Hahah, it was a lot of fun, though. Not many people were too awful. x] The majority of the people at the orientation were native Taiwanese and members of Rotary. About a quarter were exchange students.. I was a bit surprised by that. Well, we were all assigned groups mixed with the Taiwanese and students and we had dinner. Now, this is where it gets interesting. xD After dinner we went the the gym of the resort and did some uhh.. team building games? During these we noticed a dj was setting up and music was playing so me and the others in my group thought it would be fun if we were to have a dance party, but we assumed it wasn't so because they don't have dances at schools in Taiwan. However, not late after this the lights dimmed and on came the loud hip hop! All of us Americans wanted to dance to way we do back home (you know xD), but were worried it would offend people. Nobody was doing ANYTHING. Eventually, one thing led to another and most of the exchange students were dancing and the Taiwanese were just standing b

y shyly and curiously. Then.. out came the STRIPPERS. Okay, well, maybe not as far as strippers.. but I mean, look at this..

All of the exchange students were like (:O).. Are you sure this is a Rotary event? It was odd.. But we went with it, eventually half the people were dancing and the rest of the Taiwanese there just sat down in the dark. Lame poos. After this we were all exhausted and sweaty, but it was time to go back to the hotel anyway. xD Such a fun night. I roomed with two girls from the US. One was Mormon, she told me after she pulled out a big fat bible and started writing in her journal. I forgot for a minute and told her I was going to make tea and she immediately said "Mormons don't drink tea." And I thought, oh, yes! I remember! But can you imagine being in an Asian country and not be able to drink any tea? My God, tea and fruit is what is offered to guests here.. She has to refuse it every time it's offered.

The next morning we put on our hideous baby girl t-shirts that were so see-through you could see the color and pattern on our bras. Nothing much exciting happened that day apart from more YEP bonding, awful organization, being lectured and or yelled at in broken English and Mandarin and food. xD This morning started off about the same. I was about ready to die when the last Rotary guy was talking about rules and how to be a competent exchange student. Not only had we heard the same thing BEFORE we left, but also an additional four times during the orientation. Finally! It was over, we had lunch, then each group (there were ten) presented the skit having to do with leadership or communication that we had about an hour the day before to get ready. They were all pretty awful, and some of them the exchange students couldn't understand because it was all Mandarin. One group's skit had the roles of a wife and husband where the husband was lazy and watched tv all the time. The wife asks for his help and the Taiwanese guy playing the father yells (for his role) "I'm watching fucking tv!" he also shouted shit a few times as well. Once again the exchange students were like (:O) and it stills remains unknown as to whether he didn't know they were bad words and just thought they were cool or he did know and said them anyway. It's just odd to hear it from someone up on stage, at a "professional" club meeting, with several Rotarian leaders there... Yeah. o.o

Well, that's over and I'm back home! About to go to sleep because I have a Mandarin placement test in the morning and then off to school to get my uniform and classes! Supah fun! x]

Awh，好可愛。

Heyyylo. I once again waited three days to post a blog, but I don't think this one will be quite as long.. Or maybe it will be. Who knows. o.O

So, where did I leave off? Uhhh.. Oh, yeah! The day before Juliette left. We all got up in the morning and my host mother told me to put on some long pants because we were going to temple up in the mountains and there are lots of mosquitoes there. (that's an understatement) We brought some fruit with us and my host mother added the American tootsie rolls that I brought to the bunch to offer to the Gods. When we arrived they first introduced me to si jie, who can be compared to a priest and or fortune teller. We then took our offerings and placed them on the table before the shrines, then lit some incense before doing a lot of bowing and praying. They didn't make me take part because they thought I might be offended with my family being Catholic and all, but of course I don't mind. After the bowing and the praying we sat down for fruit and tea (this is like half of my diet now x]) with si jie. She spoke no English, but my host sister translated some of what she said for me. She could tell I was well taught (but who can't tell, really?) and she had nothing bad to say about my future so I am pleased with that.

After temple my host parents dropped me and Juliette off at a bookstore in Taipei so we could find a French-Chinese dictionary for Juliette. There I ran into another exchange student (easy to spot because he was the only other white person in the store) and we discussed all of the madness that has occurred these last few days. I looked around at the Chinese learning books because I didn't bring any textbooks with me. I know, once again I'm a genius, but something told me being in Taiwan would be the only textbook I'd need. While this is basically true, a textbook always helps. :'D Juliette didn't think any of them were good enough so I trusted her judgment and didn't get any right then. We returned home and then rested a bit before going out and picking Jessica up at the MRT station before once again returning home. I pulled out my Dirty Chinese book for them to look over and tell me what applied to Taiwan because of it being Mainland China Chinese. They were shocked and amused by the book and were very helpful. xD

Jessica left but returned the following morning (the day Juliette would be leaving) and brought Mos Burger! A fast food chain that I've never seen in the US.. I'm pretty sure it's just Asian. Lemme check.. Yup, just in Asia. Jealous, much? Well, I haven't eaten fast food in like a year, but I had to try the breakfast burger thing she got for me. It had a bun, ham, egg, lettuce, mayo, and peanut butter. Maybe it's just me, but peanut butter is somewhat of an odd choice to add to this combo. It was surprisingly good, though. ^^ Then their friend Ariel arrived and we hung out for a few hours before we visited Juliette's Grandma and brought Juliette to the airport. D; It was sad, she helped me a lot and brought me around Taipei while she was here and I got really worried I'd be lonely without her. While I wish she was still here because she's just awesome, I'm not lonely! So that's good! :D However, when she left I got sad, and it didn't help that wo duzi teng, but we then went over to my third host family's house for a little get together. I met three other exchange students, one from France, one from Belgium and one from Mexico (probably the only Mexican in Taiwan, but yayyy!). We ate food and sang karaoke. x]

Today!! The exchange students I met, as well as my third host sister, some of her friends, and another family went to an amusement park in Taipei county. Yeah, you guessed it, it was kind of a rip off of Disneyland. A lot more roller coasters, though. Going to the park today really cheered me up because it made me feel less alone here. I'm still in the stage where when I zone out and suddenly come too I freak out when I find that I'm not in America. I just sort of miss the normalcy of being in my house and eating cereal and crap. x] While there were many language barriers between the exchange students and the uhhh, what's a good word to call the people from Taiwan? Natives? Citizens? Not foreigners? Ugh, I can't find a word for it right now. My brain is dead. I'm doing this late because I'm going to a three day long inbound orientation tomorrow and I cannot blog! :o Despite the language barriers (the inbounds spoke very good English, though.) it was a lot of fun! Another fun thing, not to sound creepy, but the family we went with had three kids, two girls and a boy. The boy was about 11 and the girls both looked about 14 maybe, but they were all so adorable. o.o One of the girls was dressed like a boy (A LOT of girls do that here in Taiwan.. According to Juliette it's really just to be cool but some of them are lesbians.) but this girl was so adorable. When she smiled her eyes went all ^^ and I was like AWWWH. >D Oh! Oh! When we were in line for a roller coaster I saw a gay couple! At first I just saw two boys that were hugging and hanging all over each other and thought, well, I'm not in America so this may be normal here. I asked my third host sister and she said it wasn't and that they might be gay. Knowing me, I conclude that they are gay. Don't argue me on that. xD

Hm! Well, it's late, and I have to make an all about Isabel poster for the orientation for my orientation tomorrow in the morning so I should probably go to bed. I'm excited to meet the boys I'm going to school with. :D Yayy, more friends. Okies, until next time!

很好吃。

So, today is my third official day here. Late start at blogging, I know. But better late than never, right? I would have photos to go along with this but my brilliant self forgot my camera cord at home! So I either have to buy a new one or have it sent here... D;

Well, the flight was insane. I got to the San Diego airport at about 6:30 in the morning where I checked in and was separated from my sobbing (not really) parents. My flight was delayed for an hour, and in the process I dropped my passport. Can you believe that? How stupid can a person be to drop one of the most important things to have with you when leaving the country? Thankfully, a generous man flying first class picked it up and gave it back to me, silently awarding me 'idiot of the day.' The flight from San Diego to San Francisco went quickly, and in San Francisco I met most of the other American exchange students! So happy I had them for the flight to Japan. Wow, it was long. I sat with another exchange student named Michelle and during the last four hours we sort of went crazy and made goals for the plane to get to while watching the map of its progress. Somehow we felt in control of how fast it got to Narita by doing that. From Japan we boarded the plane to Taipei, where I fell asleep. So tired. Then we were there! Magic! Needless to say I was freaking out. We all got our luggage, then proceeded to the entrance area to meet our host families. I couldn't find mine at first, but when we finally got together I found out that was because they were looking for a girl that was 6'4. Something apparently got mixed up and the information they received about me read that I was an abnormally tall 15 year old. x) I can't imagine their surprise to find I'm more than a foot shorter.

When we got to their apartment I suddenly wasn't tired anymore and I hung around, took a shower, unpacked for a bit and watched tv in Mandarin. Eventually I passed out. x)

The next morning I woke up early and I went with my host mother to the market. So many people stared at me. o.o A bit intimidating. We got grapes and pineapple. :] Later I went with my host parents to a flower shop where I saw two white people! :o We bought flowers and then we drove and dropped them off at the temple. We picked up Juliette (host sister who's ditching me for France in two days. D;) and went to lunch where I had soup dumplings. :D So nummy. Mmm, hen hao chi. After we ate Juliette took me on the MRT and the bus to show me how to get to my school, it's about as long as it took me to get to Guajome so that shouldn't be too rough. Apart from the whole process being located in a foreign country and in a different language.

Ooh! Night market, night market! So much food and and so many shopsss! Stuff is so cheap here. Shirts and other pieces of clothing were going for around 100 NT which is about 3 US dollars. I refuse to shop in the US after seeing how cheap stuff is here.

I already knew that Asians didn't like how their eyes can be small but I didn't quite understand the depth of their dislike for it. I saw a poster of Jay Chou and I pointed him out to Juliette and Jessica, telling them I like his music, and they asked me if I thought he was handsome. I said yes, because, well, he is. They were totally surprised, saying that the Taiwanese don't think so because he has small eyes. Later on the television we watched a talk show where a bunch of Asian girls were told by a surgeon that he could make them more beautiful through eye surgery. The eye surgery initially makes the eyes bigger and less Asian-y. I personally adore the small eyes and how they disappear when people smile. :D Why would people wanna change that? D; They have circle lenses, eye tape, eye glue, fake eye lashes. It's madness. Women also carry around umbrellas so that they don't come in contact with the sun, tans being unattractive. Nor do many of them shave. Cultural beauty differences, is all.

On my second day we drove south to about the center of Taiwan where we went to a hot springs resort. It was very relaxing and I'm glad it wasn't one that smelled like farts or in Mandarin pi. We had dinner, which was an assortment of meat and vegetables, then we went out to the shopping areas. They had me try grilled chicken sausage, green peppers, and these pancakes that were like a mixture of dough and potato. So nummy. When we went back to the hotel I watched some tv with Juliette, including a dubbed over Harry Potter. (Ha li Bo te) xD Interesting, to say the least. Then I died.

When we woke the next morning, or this morning, we had breakfast. Food was awesome, once again. Then we went to Qingjing Longchang, which was a very hilly place with sheep and food. It is so green, you wouldn't believe it. Just wait till I get the pictures on my computer. Then they took me out to lunch at one of their favorite places and we had mushrooms, cabbage, this odd jelly like stuff made from beans and spicy chicken. They got into a extensive conversation with a man who worked there, and they discussed my being an exchange student and I think I said something was delicious when I shouldn't have. Looking like an idiot is just part of being an exchange student I'll have to get used to, though. It's rude not to finish a meal here, so we ate so much and the cuisine is so different I have a really bad stomach ache currently. D; I'm gonna go without nummy dinner tonight because of it, but there's always tomorrow morning's breakfast! Heeh! I wonder what we're gonna do tomorrow... :D

Until next time! Hopefully sooner so the next blog won't be as ridiculously long as this one!