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！