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. :)