好久不見

       Whoops, it's been awhile. I'm on my monthlong winter vacation so I'll have more time to update, I think.

       So Christmas was awhile ago, and it was different... I elected to go to school on Christmas because it's something I don't think I'll ever do again and it was fun being there with my class. Although when my English teacher saw me she asked me why I was at school on Christmas. But had I not gone I would have missed out on all the excitement- there was a car explosion right outside the front of the school. Needless to say I was more confused than usual. My class also did a present swap and I got some cute little cards from people so overall it was a memorable day. 

       

       The English Singing Competition was fun! Hosting was more nervewracking to me because only a few hours prior to the contest did we practice, and I had to sing a little solo without music. As a host I had to dress up like a famous person so I chose Taylor Swift and then of course I had to sing a T-swift song. There were some mic problems so everything didn't go as smooth as it could have but overall I think it went well. When I finally performed with my class I thought we did a good job, but the judges seemed to have thought otherwise, we did not get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd. Oh well, the rest of the grade told us that we should have at least placed. 

      For new years we actually got two days off! Which was good because it was my last weekend with my first host family. We went to Yingge, Sanxia (where I live now), and Tamsui. We kind of just checked out the towns, went into shops, walked around, and ate. so. much. My family jokes that their vacation stops are dictated by what food they can get at a stop. For example we went to a temple, but right next to that temple there was a little food market known for these salty eggs which of course we bought. 

      So on January 2nd, I switched to my second host family. I now live in Sanxia, which makes my commute to school quite a while, about an hour and a half. But I'm lucky because I really like this family. They have more free time to spend with me and as a result I'm learning a lot more. I've already learned how to make some traditional Chinese dishes, like dumplings, and I know I'll be learning more! I have two older sisters, Wendy (29) and Nina (26). Wendy lives in China with her husband but she's been over here twice since I moved in. Nina lives at the house but she's been pretty busy with work so she gets home late, but I think when she gets some free time she's mentioned plans for hanging out. 

      As I mentioned earlier I'm on winter break! For a whole month! I'm a little worried about my break being a whole month because that's a looooong stretch of time to go without my Chinese class. Hopefully my mom will be able to be my teache for awhile. The break is for Chinese New Years, which I think starts February 8th this year. I'm pretty sure for New Years I'll be going down south to Kaoshiang. My moms dad lives in Kaoshiang and we have a second apartment down there. I also have a three day East Taiwan Trip with all the other inbounds at the beginning of February.

      That's it for now!

        Abbie

English Singing Competition

Wow so it's been awhile and I apologize. I don't want this post becoming an unbearably long block of text so I'll just quickly write about what I've been up to for the last week and a half.

Monday (the 3rd) I went into Ximending with my friend Poya, who is a classmate at my school and she went on an exchange to Canada last year. She's been so helpful and I love spending time with her! We went to a tailor shop recommended by my other classmates so I could get measured/fitted for a pair of winter pants that would be okay to wear under the uniform guidelines. After finding the shop walking through some sketchy alleys I got measured in under 10 minutes and was told to come back next week to pick them up. We then went to have sushi for dinner. It was a chain that they have here and the sushi comes around on a little conveyor belt and you just pick what you want. Each plate is $30 NTD (about $1 USD).

On Tuesday, unbkownst to me, my class had started practicing for the english singing competition in a nearby MRT/train station. So after school we all loaded up on a bus and headed over there. This has become a daily thing now.

Wednesday I had my Rotary meeting which means I get to leave during lunch. I feel so lucky to have been placed with my club, everyone's so friendly and relaxed. After the meeting I went home and had the rest of the day off from school.

Thursday I went into Ximending (again) but this time for another American's birthday. We went and had dinner, which ended up actually being ice cream. After that we just wandered around and watched some of the street performers and popped into some of the shops.

Friday was more practice. We dance and sing and dance and sing and dance and sing. You get the idea.

Saturday and Sunday were spent...at practice. I spent 8 hours practicing on Saturday and 6 on Sunday, and I got there later/left eariler than some people. Even though I'm spending pretty much all of my free time going to practice, I'm having a lot of fun. It's also been super helpful for my Chinese because I'm listening to it for hours on end, save for the actual english songs. I'm at a point where I can now ususally say at the very mimimum, half of what I want to say in Chinese.

Monday I went into Ximending to go and pick up the pants with Poya, and even though we were only there a week ago we still had difficulty finding it. Oh well. After I picked up my pants we headed out to dinner again, this time Italian food the first I've had since I've been here. While waiting for seats at the restaraunt we looked around in the nearby shopping area and I'll be heading back there for sure. We finally got seated...and it felt so weird to not be using chopsticks and an "asian" spoon (I don't know what to call it for lack of a better term). I wanted to pick up my soup bowl but I couldn't. It seems so much easier to eat like the Taiwanese do, I'll have difficulty adjusting when I get back.

Tuesday and everyday up until today has been pretty routine, school and practice. I get out of school at 4pm while my classmates get out at 5pm so I spend an hour waiting around in the library for them. At a bit after 5 we start heading out of the school and grab dinner on the way. I never know what to order so I just ask my friends what's good, and they haven't led me astray so far. We then practice for the next few hours, usually we're done by 8 or 8:30. My friend and I take the same bus home so we chat and I get to learn more Chinese. I'm going to be a bit sad when this is over with.

This weekend I have practice again. The compeition is on the 21st and I'm also helping to host. I've got a Chinese final/proficency test on the 24th (yes that's right Christmas Eve). And I'll probably be attending school on Christmas. Winter break in Taiwan falls whenever Chinese New Years is, which I believe will be at the end of January/Early February this year. So no break for me until then. January 3rd I'm switching families and moving faaaaar away, I think my commute to school wil be at least an hour. I've been here over 100 days and it's freaking me out than I'm about a third of the way done with my year here. Needless to say I'm still loving it here and having the best time.

-Abbie

       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
      

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

First Vlog

Preemptive apology for rambling on so long and the awkward fidgeting, but I'm sure I'll get better at this.

Moon Festival and Tainan

       The Saturday before the Moon Festival I embarked on a trip with my Rotary Club, my dad, and my brother to a Rotary Moon Festival Party. The party was out on a farm (now I know that sounds odd but the place was commercialzed and had a small cafe and they had areas set up for events/parties/etc.) The party was great! Before we went down to the barbeque area I was able to chat with my next host dad for a bit who seems awesome. He said his wife loves to cook and would be happy to teach me how to cook some Taiwanese/Chinese dishes so I'm looking forward to that come early January. We eventually walked down to where the real party was happening. There were many fire pits with benches around them for barbeque and a stage set up that was later host to karoke. Taiwanese babrbeque is slightly different than American barbecue. The menu that night included bamboo, cow tongue, red bean soup, and roasted squid among other delicacies. My Rotary Club somehow convinced me to go up on stage with them multiple times throughout the night to sing karoke with them, but all of the lyrics were in Chinese...so the only time I actually sang was when I recognized one or two words. Which I made sure to practically scream to try and convince everyone that I was in fact singing along.

       Sunday was the actual Moon Festival. For most of the morning I didn't do too much as I was still in recovery from my late night party. In the afternoon though my mom, sister, and I took a walk around our neighborhood. My family just moved into this house a few months ago so things are new for them too. My neighborhood is kind of set up in "tiers". The first tier, where we live is made up of houses/villas, homes that are not apartments. The second tier is about 8 blocks away and is made up of apartments. I have no idea what lies beyond that because that's as far as we went. The neighborhood is really nice, our area is super quiet compared to all the bustling that is happening where the apartments are. But the downside is the apartment area gets a 7-11. After our walk we went over to my grandma's for dinner. My dad's side of the family was all there and we enjoyed a more tradional meal together.


       Last Wednesday, as it was the first Wednesday of the month, I would have gone to my Rotary meeting during lunch. But instead it was a dinner meeting! We had some guest from Rotary International which called for a dinner meeting instead of a lunch meeting. Unfortunatley for me that meant more karoke, and this time by myself. But I am happily living in my world of self-delusion thinking that I killed it during a solo rendtion of Mama Mia. Karoke aside, it was a nice dinner.

       Last weekend I went on a trip to the south of Taiwan with my Rotary Club and my family. We woke up what I would consider early beack at home in the US but 6:15 isn't bad at all here. We took a taxi to the MRT Station, where we took the MRT to the High Speed Rail Station, where we rode the train to Chiya, where we embarked on a bus to the sea. When we reached the ocean we then boarded a boat. We were heading out past a ton of oyster fields to an island that is only visible when the tide is low. It was about an hour ride out to said island. We landed and got to spend some time walking around the island. We then headed back to land. Upon returning from the dock we set out from, we headed over to the small fish market that was in fullswing. Sharks, octopi, crabs, shrimp, and fish larger than my head were all up for sale. We headed back on the bus to go hang out with a 1,200lb crocodile at a nearby zoo.  I originally thought that the crocodile was a fake because it was so still, so I jumped a little when it snapped it's jaws shut. We then headed out to the beach to watch the sun set while wading in the waves. We spent the night in Tainan. The next moring we drove out to a park where we boarded a boat and took an ecological tour of the area, sadly I couldn't understand a thing. We also went to this absolutey stunning temple that may have been the largest place of worship I have ever seen. It was beautiful. My dad and I ducked into the temples devoted to the major gods and godesses and I was happy to learn more about religion in Taiwan. I also learned how to say "God bless you" and "Amen" in Chinese, so I'm set for more temple visits. We then returned to the park where we had the ecological tour and this time we boarded a different boat and went down a small river that had an overarching tunnel of mangrove trees above us. Once again I did not understand a thing, but just enjoyed the scenery. Next up was a tour of these old warehouse ruins that had been completely overtaken by an enormous banyan tree. This was the last stop on our trip and after we drove back to the train. All in all it was an amazing trip.

       Last Wednesday was Double 10, Taiwan's birthday so I had the day off of school. Around 11AM my dad took my brother and I up into the surrounding moutains. We had a short walk up to a small lake and walked around there for a bit. Then we drove up to Wuzhishan, Five Finger Mountain, to look at the view. We rested at the house for a bit, ate lunch, then around 2pm we went to pick up my grandma and then we set off to the Yehliu Geopark. The park is right on the coast and features strangely rocks that have odd shapes due to the constant assault from the sea. We stayed there and wandered around, but a storm seemed to be approaching so we left after a bit.

       On Saturday my parents had eight guests come over for dinner, so I spent the day at home as they prepped for the evening. I ducked downstairs a couple times for food but remained largely out of sight. Sunday, as it was my understanding, my brother, mom, sister, my sister's friend and I would go to the top of 101. But first my mom was dropping us off at Eslite, the huge bookstore chain in Taiwan, while she went with my brother to go get his hair cut. And as is usually the case, my understanding is a far deviation from what actually happens. We ended up spending four hours at the bookstore, which for me is some degree torturous when I could only read a small small fraction of the books. Then my mom showed up with my Aunt and we ended up eating in the food court at the bookstore. Then we went home. This is the second time I thought I'd be going up to that top floor, but for now it still remains inevitably out of reach. Until next time 101.

       Today is currently Tuesday and today and yesterday my classmates have their midterms. Which of course we exchange students are incapable of doing. So Monday morning I had my Chinese class at university like always, then made it back to the school at one. The school had arranged a little trip in the afternoon for us exchange students. When I got to the school we (the two other excchange students and one of our teachers) set out to a hiking trail via bus. At the trail we met up with another teacher of ours and two students who graduated from the high school. Then we climbed. It wasn't that long of a distance but at times I swear the steps were more akin to a ladder. But we made it to the top eventually and took tons of pictures. The descent was somehow more vertical than the climb up. For me it became the anatomical version of the movie Speed, in which if I had stopped midway at all I probably would have fallen to my death due to the pace I was walking and the steepness of the trail. Thankfully that did not happen and I survived. We headed to Taipei 101 after the climb and enjoyed Starbucks and the accompanying gorgeous view that was the 35th floor. So much better than tests.

       Today, once again due to midterms, we had another mini-trip. But we didn't have to meet our teacher until 8:30 at the MRT Station. I got to sleep in until 6:45, hold back the "oohs" and "ahhs" but for me it was glorious. So we met up at 8:30 and went to Taipei's City Hall, which in addition to playing host to various government offices, also has a Discovery Center. The Discovery Center was a small museum about Taipei, the history, the architecture, the people, you get the point. After a thorough look, we had an early lunch at a Korean place in the lower floor of a department store. I'm not 100% sure what my lunch was, but it was delicious. After lunch we quickly looked around the store, then headed back to school. Where I am now, sitting in the library while my poor classmates test some more. But at 2:30 we exchange students are supposed to head back to class because we have some sort of guest speaker? I'm not sure what the speaker will be speaking about so you'll have to wait for that riverting information, so until next time!

Abbie

Rahoe Night Market

       I know I say this every time I post, but I'm still so. busy. But I don't mind in the least. Last Tuesday my classmates took me out to Rahoe Night Market after school. Unbeknownst to me, the slacker American who gets out of school at 4 everyday, my classmates have class until 5 most days. So I awkwardly waited in class and tried not to draw any attention to myself. After their class was finished, we hung out at school for a while and waited for it to get cooler before venturing out. We all survived the us trip and made it there in one piece.

The best thing about the night market is the cheap and awesome food.

Red Bean Filled Cake

Fish and Egg Dish

Indian Milk Tea

Some sort of cake

Spicy Beef Kabob

Watermelon Juice

Oyster Omelette

Stinky Tofu

Annnd the closest translation I could get to what this dessert was is "pudding"

       Friday at school we celebrated three of my classmates birthdays and suprised them with tiramisu at lunch. Then on Saturday Rotex held a "tea party" for us inbounds. But there was not that much tea involved. We got split up into groups and competed against each other in a series of games that involved our knowledge of Chinese. For example, we were given the name of certain objects in Chinese and the first team to grab all the correct items got a point. Unfortunatley there were reprecussions for the losing team, the winners were given pens and got to draw on the losing team. Thankfully my team won a majority of our games. After the Rotex event I quickly ducked into one of the bookstore chains here that sells English books, somehow I was able to refrain from buying any books. But I did end up purchasing some envelopes and this weekend if I have time I'll attempt mailing off some letters.

       I spent Sunday in Taipei with my brother and parents. We went to the Sun Yet-Sen Memorial Hall and arrived just in time to see the changing of the guards. We also hung out around Taipei 101 because there are a lot of street performers there that are interesting to watch. That night we had dinner with my dad's side of the family as an early celebration for my dad's and aunt's birthday. We had barbecue, which is becoming a rapid favorite of mine here. Seafood is great for two reasons here 1) it's really fresh and tastes amazing and 2) you definitively know what you're eating. When it comes to the other meat, you have no idea. And that's how I tried cow tongue for the first time Sunday night. 

       This Sunday is the Moon Festival here! Saturday, my dad, brother, and I are going down to (I think) Tainan for a Moon Festival party with Rotary. Also my school is having an English singing competition in which the entire class has to participate in. Today my class is voting on which songs we'll sing. I've been asked to help act as a pronounciation teacher when we start practicing, so I'll be even busier. But busy is good! 

       My Chinese is coming along I think. Everyone usually talks to me in English which makes it super easy for me to slip into speaking English instead of Chinese, but from now on I'm trying to forego the English. So here's to me accidentally butchering the Chinese Language!

Abbie