So the last post I wrote was concluded with a cliffhanger. So here's what happened that Friday. We did have the first round of our tug o'war competition, which sadly we lost. However the boys in our class won so we weren't total losers as a class. That Friday was a club day, and instead of going to dance club I snuck into the singing club. I was supposed to sing, but that has been postponed until further notice thank goodness. There wasn't too much singing and I just chatted with some of the students.
Saturday I had been invited to go to a nightmarket with a classmate and her parents. I tried some new things like winter melon tea and fried swee potato, or at least I think that's what is was. There's always lots of good food to try at the nightmarket.
Wednesday the 7th I went to a banquet with a lot of Rotary Clubs in the Taipei area to honor the Rotary International President for the 2014-2015 year because he's Taiwanese. However right before the dinner as I was racing down the stairs I tripped and temporarily dislocated my kneecap. Whoops. It popped right back into place though and I still went to the dinner. It appears to be fine now still just a little sore. Friday the 9th was not the end of my week sadly, as I had to be at school on Saturday. However my math/homeroom teacher bought my entire class bubble milk tea because overall we placed third in the tug-of-war contest.
The reason I had to be at school on Saturday was it was my school's birthday! I arrived bright and early, alas in school uniform, but the first hour or so of school we just listened to a bunch of people talk about things. I'm not sure exactly what all the speeches were about but I'm sure they were lovely. The majority of the day was spent outside in the heat. Each class had a table set up and they were selling mostly food. My class (205) was selling chocolate dipped marshmallows and sodas that had dry ice incorporated in them so the drink looked like it was emitting fog. Other classes were selling: tea, ice cream, noodles, milk tea, sausages, fried chicken, etc. Around 12 we started cleaning up so that we could be finished by 2. The day concluded with some more talking, but my class won the relay race so we got a nice little certificate! After school I was able to finally go to the top of 101. Finally. We went at a super great time because we were able to see the city right before sunset and when it got dark and all the lights came on. It was gorgeous. After 101 we went out for some hot pot, yum.
This past Saturday (17th) I had culture class with all the inbounds from my district. We took the train to Pingxi, the town that's known for the floating sky lanterns. After about an hour or so on the train, we arrived in the pouring rain. We all walked, it was too short of a distance to say hiked, over to Shifen falls and took tons of pictures. While there we had some traditional soup which was perfect on such a rainy day. After the falls we walked to what I think may have been a musuem? But we watched a film on Pingxi...but it was all in Chinese. After that we finally got to make lanterns of our own!! It was suprisingly easy to make, just gluing together some tissue paper and attaching a small frame, but those things get some serious height. The question all of us had was where the lanterns actually end up. Which remains unknown. Dinner then we took the train back home.
Sunday and Monday I hung out with some of the other exchange students which was a lot of fun. These past few weeks my class had been extremely focues on practicing for the English Singing competition. I've had to come to school early and stay late. I'm hoping we win with all this extra work because I've heard from people in other classes that their classes haven't even started practicing yet. Later on this week I think I'm going to shopping in Ximen with some classmates. Sunday I'm going to the country fair, basically all the inbounds set up information about their countries to help current Taiwanese outbounds decide where they want to go.
I hope everyone who celebreates Thanksgiving has a good one, eat some turky for me because no such holiday here.
-Abbie
Monday, November 19, 2012
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Happy Belated Halloween!
So while Halloween isn't really celebrated in Taiwan, I still got to dress up last Saturday. Rotex held a Halloween party for us inbounds Saturday night. Lacking the will to spend my shrinking allowance on a Halloween costume, I used a make up kit my family sent me from the U.S. to douse myself in fake blood and become a zombie. The real fun though, was riding the MRT alllll the way across town, needless to say I got more stares than I usually do. The party itself was good, there was pizza(!), lots of good costumes and dancing.
Sunday my mom and I hung out and watched movies. We watched an American movie but one of the characters was a Chinese girl and she occasionally spoke in Chinese, and I could understand! Sort of, there were subtitles when she spoke Chinese but had they not been there I think I could have figured it out.
Monday was a typical day for me. University from 8-11, then off to my high school with only 3 classes left, which are music, art, and math. After school I went to my grandma's and ate a lot. I got to try a traditional wedding cake though! When people get married in Taiwan, the bride gives out cakes to her family and friends. The cake I tried was more traditional and it had a filling of pork and red bean which was really good, whereas three months ago to my American palate it would have tasted a bit odd.
Tuesday was a productive day. Last Friday I got my winter uniform, but not everything fit. So after swimming our counselor, Ms. Wu who is the go to for the exchange students here, took me and Oceannee to grab new uniforms that fit better. On the way back from picking up uniforms, we had the chance to crash the yearbook. I think that the yearbook at my school only has individual pictures of the graduating class, but being exchange students we got asked if we wanted to have our pictures taken. And so I will appear in the yearbook with my hair half-wet and in a messy bun, red faced from swimming. After pictures it was just a few minutes until class ended and lunch began. So Ms. Wu let the two of us go and buy lunch before the rush hit. We sucessfully bought our food and drink. Oceanee has a friend from a different class who asked if we could help in the short film her class is making. So during lunch the two of us were interviewed about our lives here and such.
Wednesday, Halloween! I brought my classmates some candy from the US, but that's about as festive as my day was. For my Home Ec. class though we in a way made costumes. We had an assignment in which our groups had to make an outfit out of newspaper for one of our group members. Thankfully I escaped being the model, as my group kind of made our outfit rather horse-like with hooves and a tail. Other groups were kinder to their models and somehow managed some impressive newspaper crafting feats, I'm talking about braided straps and newspaper rosettes. After school I had been invited to a lifeguard training class at my school . Please no one drown in a scenario which would involve me throwing you a rope. I cannot throw a rope to save anyone, but I'm fairly adept at swimming with a dummy and bringing them to safety.
Thursday we had yet another test in Chinese class, but I'm glad we get to move on to some new material. I went back to the high school a little bit earlier than usual. We've finally started practicing for the English Singing Competition, though I believe I missed the first practice. Whoops. But I wanted to find out what group I'm in and when we practice so I don't miss anything else. And I only see my classmates for lunch on Thursday, hence the earlier return time. But I learned I'm in a group with one of my friends and we practice on Friday (today)! I also somehow found myself in a tug o'war compeition with some of my class. We went and practiced during nap time and I believe our compeition is today.
So it's still early here and I have singing practice and tug o'war left so I'll update you later on how that goes.
-Abbie
Sunday my mom and I hung out and watched movies. We watched an American movie but one of the characters was a Chinese girl and she occasionally spoke in Chinese, and I could understand! Sort of, there were subtitles when she spoke Chinese but had they not been there I think I could have figured it out.
Monday was a typical day for me. University from 8-11, then off to my high school with only 3 classes left, which are music, art, and math. After school I went to my grandma's and ate a lot. I got to try a traditional wedding cake though! When people get married in Taiwan, the bride gives out cakes to her family and friends. The cake I tried was more traditional and it had a filling of pork and red bean which was really good, whereas three months ago to my American palate it would have tasted a bit odd.
Tuesday was a productive day. Last Friday I got my winter uniform, but not everything fit. So after swimming our counselor, Ms. Wu who is the go to for the exchange students here, took me and Oceannee to grab new uniforms that fit better. On the way back from picking up uniforms, we had the chance to crash the yearbook. I think that the yearbook at my school only has individual pictures of the graduating class, but being exchange students we got asked if we wanted to have our pictures taken. And so I will appear in the yearbook with my hair half-wet and in a messy bun, red faced from swimming. After pictures it was just a few minutes until class ended and lunch began. So Ms. Wu let the two of us go and buy lunch before the rush hit. We sucessfully bought our food and drink. Oceanee has a friend from a different class who asked if we could help in the short film her class is making. So during lunch the two of us were interviewed about our lives here and such.
Wednesday, Halloween! I brought my classmates some candy from the US, but that's about as festive as my day was. For my Home Ec. class though we in a way made costumes. We had an assignment in which our groups had to make an outfit out of newspaper for one of our group members. Thankfully I escaped being the model, as my group kind of made our outfit rather horse-like with hooves and a tail. Other groups were kinder to their models and somehow managed some impressive newspaper crafting feats, I'm talking about braided straps and newspaper rosettes. After school I had been invited to a lifeguard training class at my school . Please no one drown in a scenario which would involve me throwing you a rope. I cannot throw a rope to save anyone, but I'm fairly adept at swimming with a dummy and bringing them to safety.
Thursday we had yet another test in Chinese class, but I'm glad we get to move on to some new material. I went back to the high school a little bit earlier than usual. We've finally started practicing for the English Singing Competition, though I believe I missed the first practice. Whoops. But I wanted to find out what group I'm in and when we practice so I don't miss anything else. And I only see my classmates for lunch on Thursday, hence the earlier return time. But I learned I'm in a group with one of my friends and we practice on Friday (today)! I also somehow found myself in a tug o'war compeition with some of my class. We went and practiced during nap time and I believe our compeition is today.
So it's still early here and I have singing practice and tug o'war left so I'll update you later on how that goes.
-Abbie
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