The Last Three Weeks

These last three weeks me and my friends have done quite a few things. The first week all the exchange students went with together to a vocational school to learn two things. How to plant rice and how to make something called Tangyuan. We spent the morning with bare feet and up to our knees in mud. We were in groups of two and we supposed to plant a full square of rice. Some of us were very fast and I was almost finished my long line of rice but then some of the other students decided it was a good idea to start a mud fight. I got out of there as sson as I could even though it does take a while to get through all the mud and back to solid land again. Some people were absolutely covered in mud before they got out of the area. Luckily the school had showers to wash the mud off. Many people had to use the showers inside in and change into different clothes. We then ate a reallt delicious lunch, we had a lot pasta and many kinds of fruit. In the afternoon we were taught how to cook Tangyuan, a very common Taiwanese dessert. It has sticky balls inside, similar to the ones in bubble tea but different sizes and colour. There are different kinds and we made my least favourite with red bean soup. I don't like red beans or grean beans if they are used in a dessert. Taiwanese people think of then as sweet, which to me they are not and the tecture in a dessert is just awful. Although, there is a peanut tangyuan which is much better in my opinion. I would suggest that over all of the ones I've tried. Later that night, an amazing rotarian invited us to his restaurant for dinner and for their rotary meeting. We went as a big group to Jhongli, a city just south of Taoyuan. We enjoyed a small tour around the area and saw a cute old Japanese home/tea house that had been there for a very long time. We went back to the restaurant and enjoyed a delicious dinner with dishes specially made for us. They made fried chicken, fried pork and my absolute favourite, a delicious cheesy mashed potato dish. I ate so much mashed potatoes. I loved them. There was also the restaurants most famous dishes, such as bull penis soup. Many of the students tried it and were pleasantly surprised. In Taiwan people believe that eating a certain part of the animall will help your same part work more efficiently, so there are many interesting soups, like chicken testical soup. We stayed late at the meeting and many students were out past cerfew but as long as we're with rotary its okay.
That same weekend I got a cold that gave me massive headaches. The weather here changes very drastically, just like in Canada, so many people get a cold when the seasons change. Many friends and I got colds. Bad timing for me though as I had a busy upcoming couple weeks.
The Thursday after, still stuck with an awful cold, I was to head out with my rotary club and our sister club from Korea. We went to a gorgeous site on the north east side o fhte island on a peak of land which is surrounded by the ocean. It was beautiful and there were famous rock formtions as well. I was more impressed by the ocean though. As always we took many group photos and selfies. I video called my parents from that site and showed them what I was doing for that morning. Many rotarians love saying hello to my parent when they are on the phone with me. They often try to speak Chinese to them even though they don't understand any. They would always do that to me at the beggining of exhcange also, they think that if they speak louder it will somehow make you understand. Not true, I promise. We headed to the next location which I was most excited about. Jiufen, a town that the movie Spirited away was particially based off. There was only an hour for us to be there so it was a very short visit but I will be taking my sister there when she comes to Taiwan and we will spend more time then. Our next spot was a location I'm very farmiliar with, Shifen, the town where I stayed and volunteered for five days. We ate dinner and they all enjoyed karaoke for hours. At the end of the night everyone wrote on sky lanterns and released them into the sky. They are one of the most beautiful things. Just mesmerizing to watch them disappear into the night sky. We drove a couple hours to get back to Taoyuan and parted ways on our routes home. The next morning my current host parents and my first host dad came with the group and joined for the day. Driving for a long time led us more south and to a glass factory where we ate lunch and were able to keep all the plates and cups after we washed them. I only kept the cups because they are super cute and easier to get back to Canada than giant plates. There was a gorgeous temple made of glass, obviously named, The Glass Temple, where my awesome first host dad got me a charm which helps to pass all the tests I take. I chose that one because I am very nervous for the test I have in June. A Chinese proficiency test. I hope to do the best I possibly can. From there we drove to our hotel for the night, is was at a golf resort that reminded me a lot of West Kelowna because of all the golf courses we have. The hotel was very pretty and had a gorgeous pool that sadly I didn't have the chance to swim in. That night a fellow exchange student from Mexico joined me for a huge rotary dinner and birthday celebration of my club. It was a very long crazy night filled with alcohol and dancing. More boring for us exchange students though. I finally got back to our hotel room and was sharing it with my host mom and a new rotarian that was shocked that I knew any Chinese. She was also very drunk that night. Saturday morning came around and s always, there was a gorgeous breakfast buffet and I was craving bacon and peanut butter so I got exactly what I wanted, although there were much fancier foods, you crave weird stuff you know? We had one last day with the Koreans and a wonderful dinner buffet that night where my adorable first host sister and friends joined and I got to catch up with them which was super fun. While eating and drinking as much as we want of course. I drank so much hot chocolate and ate so much dessert that night. A lot of different types of cake and ice cream, and of course the ice cream was Haagen Dazs. Their cheesecake flavour is my all time favourite ice cream.
The next day I decided to stay home because I was still very sick and didn't feel well. Monday and Tuesday I went to school even though I probably shouldn't have. Tuesday all the exchange students in my district were to get together and do DIY activities for a charity event we will be at this month, we all painted posters and made cool key chains and bracelets. It's always a fun time when we get together. CJ and I by the end of the day we were just sitting there gossiping about the food we miss from North America and discovering foods that we do and don't have in common. Food is just a huge part of both of our lives so we often talk about it. Recently we have both been missing our food from home very much. While we were scrolling through foods on the internet I realized that I had forgotten that butter tarts existed! I love them and I just completely forgot they existed. Now I can't stop thinking about them and how amazing they are. Along with enchaladas, which have been on my ming for atleast a month, my mom makes the best ones. Oh I can't wait.
Wednesday I didn't have school so I just rested and tried to get better for the huge hike we had on Thursday, it didn't work. On the hike I was very unwell and ended up getting heat stroke and barely got to the top. I felt defeated because I love hiking but I haven't in a long time and it was three hours to get to the top of the very tall mountain. It was such a hot day and I was not prepared for the heat. It made me feel very ill. The elevation was 1500m so it was a good size hike, I got about a two minute walk from the top and turned around with friends that were on their way down. They helped me a lot to get down the mountain and back to the spot where we could get drinking water. On the way down we stopped at a pond and soaked our feet in the cold water. We saw these creepy little shrimp creatures that were niblbing on my friends dead skin. My friend from the states told me that they were crawfish, 'crawdaddies' he called them. I like that name better actually. When we got to the area where we could get clean drinking water we rested there and waited for the others that were still on the way down the mountain. All of us got peanut ice cream rolls when we got to the bus. A very refreshing treat but it is difficult to bite into ice cream, no matter how hot you feel. Our teachers that brought us on the hike then treated us to an early dinner/late lunch. After another two hour drive back to Taoyuan, group of us all went to the night market together. I wanted my favourite potato dish but they weren't there for some reason so we bought potatos from another stand. Not as good but potatoes are still potatoes. I then walked home with Bia and Sigurd, two of my best friends here.
The next two days were spent in bed recovering from heat stroke and the last of my cold. Now I am almost all better.
Two more things that I absolutely love about Taiwan, rice feilds and tombs. Rice feilds are so cute because if its just a small farm then you can see the footprints left in the mud from the farmers working so hard to plant the rice all day, the footsteps just stay there in the feilds and when you're driving on the highways over top of the towns you can see every step that the farmer took to finish his planting, I think that is suoer cute. Tombs, they are gorgeous small buildings scattered in the mountains. They are all different colours, shapes, sizes and meant for an individual, a tiny little castle where their body will rest forever. They are beautiful to see as you are driving through the mountains and they are just scattered around everywhere. In my opinion they are one of the most beautiful things in Taiwan and traditional as well.

New Host Family

The last month I've around moved a lot. I was in a home for three weeks sharing a room with a friend that spends week days on her university campus. Within those three weeks I also went to Shifen, a town in the mountains of Taipei district (the story is in my last blog post) then back to their house. Then moved again to a more permanent home. I stole my host brothers room for the time I am here but he also tays on campus at his university the majority of the time. I believe he will not come back for the time I am here. Ten minutes into being in the house, one of their dogs already liked me and the other not very much. I ended up being bitten by the meaner dog, his name is Cocoa, and have a nasty looking bite mark on my knee surrounded by small bruises. Thankfully he is a small dog so he isn't able to do much damage. If he were a large dog and still that mean I would maybe have a chunk out of me right now. They locked him in the bathroom for the rest of that day with his water and food. The next day I came downstairs to see he had a duck looking mussle on. He continued to try to attack me even though he wasn't able to bite me and his nails are too short to scratch. As I've been trying to get used to a new family and not being able to speak any enlgish with them, only chinese and a new neighborhood, the dog being this way was not helping but the other dog is so sweet, his name is Happy, and loves everyone so I enjoy his company a lot. Everyday I walk to school, about a half an hour walk and bus home. Yestaerday, I came back and had bought some curry dumplings from my favourite dumpling house. The dog was barking and attacking the door until I opened it and he smelt the curry dumplings. He then began to rub and jump on my leg trying to be cute in hopes of getting food. I didn't share my dumplings with him but I did give him and Happy treats. Later on we took his mussle off and he was fine for the rest of the night to be without it. This morning I woke up to his barking and after I was ready, went down stairs to see he was trapped in the bathroom again. Even though he was barking I thought it would be fine to let him out and give him a treat to keep him more calm towards me. So as I ate breakfast I fed them their treats as well. He is now more used to me and I can stop worrying about making everyone stress about it and stressing him out. I really do miss living with a dog and now I live with two so I am happy that they both like me now. Although I cannot wait to get back to my big chubby puppy in Canada.
This morning I skyped my friend Keyle for a few hours and we caught up on everything thats been happening in eachothers lives. She is now back in Brazil because she finished her year in December. We talked about everything and how she is doing back there with her final year of school and how the rest of my exchange is going. We also talked about my trip to Brazil in early 2019 and if my school in Canada will help me to graduate on time for that. I am currently waiting on a reply to my email of the courses I need. I was very blunt in the email though, I specifically said that I need these courses because I will leave the country again right after January. Hopefully it didn't sound too demanding but thats what I need. If they think its not possible then I will have to call the principal to explain furhtr in depth and make it more clear what needs to happen. I am very tired of all the years struggling with the public school system to get what I need. It's the last time I will deal with this, I cannot wait until university when I get to choose what I am studying, which will be translation and linguistics.
Also, I have a new favourite bakery where I get my favourite brownies with cheesecake on the inside. Lantern festival was last weekend and I saw it in the daytime and night time, although I kind of wished is was sky lanterns and not these ones but they are prtty too and there were way too many people there at night. There are beautiful flowers and cherry blossoms everywhere since it is now spring. Last but not least my Chinese culture class is teaching us how to paint like a traditional Chinese artist, although we will never be THAT good.

Chinese New Year

Last week was the beginning of Chinese New Year. I started the week by going on a shopping spree for my birthday with a few of my friends, half way through the day I kind of wished I had only brought one of them because the other two were being pretty lame. Ghabriel and I though, had a great time wandering Taipei and shopping around many stores. Incuding an area that we had found together on another adventure in Taipei months ago. I bought a lot of stuff for my birthday and so did he. We went to a delicious Brazilian restaurant for lunch where we ate the best foods, coxinha (chicken balls) and bolinha de queijo (cheese balls.) They are so good I cant wait to go back to that restaurant again, let alone when I go to Brazil for my birthday in 2019. We also bought very sweet cake from a bakery near by where you are able to choose the precetage of sweetnes you want. We chose the second level and it was already very sweet but there were two more levels up. Its one of the only places I've found with actual sweet dessert in Taiwan. For the day of my birthday and the last day in my first host family, my wonderful host dad and friends surprised me by them all coming over and having lunch and cake. It was such a nice surprise. They all sung me birthday songs in their languages. Later in the day me and my sister cooked tacos and matcha cheese cake. We had it for dinner although I think I'm the only one who really enjoyed the tacos. Taiwanese people seem to only like Taiwanese food.
The next day I was off to my temporary home stay. I'm currently sharing a room with a very nice girl who is one year older than me and currently in one of the universities that I will apply to. Its National Taipei Normal University. Its my second choice for schools here in Taiwan. My first choice is National Taipei University. I do think NTNU will be easier to get accepted though. Her bed is the comfiest bed I've seen in Taiwan so far. Gosh I miss my soft bed in Canada. Most beds here are super hard because "its good for your back" which I think is a myth because my back an hips hurt everyday I sleep on a hard bed. The day after I moved my stuff Jerry, my current host dad (I call him uncle) brought us to his work, a bio-tech company, where I learnt about new ways they are testing for allergies. That was when I got my first red envelopes. That night I went to another rotarians house and learnt how to play majong. Its very fun. I have a small set but I want to buy a big set back in Canada, small ones are harder to see. The next morning I went to lunch with my first host family at my grandparents house. We ate lots of food and talked for a while. I then met my current host brother and he took me home from there to show me the buses. That night we had dinner with a lot of their family and then headed to another family members house to see the other side of the family. We played cards and majong until two in the morning and went home. I got many red envelopes that day. I remember as a kid my grandma used to give me red envelopes and it was always so exciting.
On Friday I was off to volenteer at a restaurant in a town called Shifen. I mostly made a some drinks, did dishes and when foreigners came in I would help them order. Shifen is famous for sky lanterns. Theres an old street that most people send their lanterns from while standing on the train tracks that go through the town. Train tracks to me are very scary because many people are injured by walking on them in Canada but in this town there are many warning when a train is passing by, there is also a stop for the train for people to get to and from the town. After being there for five days I got to know the staff and got used to being there. I agreed that if they wanted I would go back and help again sometime. I bought very cute lantern lamp shades on the old street and was able to get a bargain from a store by speaking with them in Chinese and surprising them that I could speak any and even try to nagotiate prices. I love lanterns lamp shades, I might go back and buy a bigger one. The night before I was coming back to Taoyuan I went to sleep early and I woke up at around eleven. I sat in bed for a minute until an earthquake began, at first it was small, then a little bigger, and then it got huge, I was so scared when it got very big because I was then in the east of the island closer to where they had gotten bad only one week prior. When it was very strong I hopped out of my bed not knowing what to do, so scared and then what felt like a while, was probably only seconds and then it stopped suddenly.
Over the last week I have seen more fireworks than I have in probably my whole life, also saw and got to release many lanterns in to the sky. They are so beautiful. I love lanterns so much. They are just unexplainably gorgeous. They are also huge and you are supposed to write your wishes on all four sides to release your wishes into the sky so a god can help them come true. I wrote about my hopeful career and my dreams to open a dog sanctuary somewhere in a country in which there are many strays. We released it into the sky and watched as is quickly floated high into the air, higher and higher until the gas papers on the inside finally burnt out and it disappeared into the darkness and fell somewhere near by.