Chinese Wedding

This weekend I went to my first Chinese wedding. To say the least, is was extravagant. It was like a dream wedding but with completely different traditions. The bride was the most beautiful woman in a room full of at least a few hundred people. She had two outfit changes and wore three gorgeous dresses. Her original wedding dress is the dress of every girls dream. I loved it. It was white lace on the top and at the waist it puffed out like a princess dress and followed a few feet behind her trailing the ground. Her next dress was more like a prom dress but it was also similar to a princesses' dress. It was a gorgeous dark blue with sparkles all over and also followed behind her on the ground. She wore her final red dress for photos with guests in an area where the professional photographers had set up a background and lighting. They also had made a newsletter of their marriage and with pictures of their previous photo shoot. During dinner there was a slideshow of photos playing from there photo shoot and she had worn at least five different outfits for that as well. All of them just as pretty. Not to mention they were the most adorable couple I have ever seen. The food was also the best it vould get. Lobster, my favourite, crab, abalone and shark fin soup. Along with many other dishes of course like shrimp, different soups and many others that I don't quite remember. I'd imagine it was everything the young lady ever dreamt.

The next day I needed to wake up at five thirty to head to Taichung for a hike with a few other exchange students, 爸爸, our chairman ET (English teacher, not extra terrestrial) her adorable daughter Mickey and Stanley another rotarian. We drove for around two hours to get to 大雪山. We hiked to the top of a trail where there was a very tall structure with a tiny cabin on the top so you could see out above the mountains. It was a very tall structure. I realized that its strange because I'm not scared of heights when I'm on the edge of a cliff, but on a very tall man made structure I am not all that comfortable. Natural places have always been more comfortable to me I guess. Still strange though. It was a gorgeous view to see how high up we were and to see over all the gorgeous mountains. On the way down the mountain we played "hike and seek" where two people would seek and continue to walk down the trail and the others would need to run ahead and hide somewhere. If the seekers passed them without finding them then they won and got to choose if they wanted to seek or hide in the next round. When we got to the bottom we drove to another building on the mountain to sit and eat out lunch. We all had instant noodles, bread and chips. We took many photos and were very tired so we then headed home. Two and a half hours later we arrived back home.
On Sunday we went to Agong and Amas' house for dinner, as usual. We always have very good meals at their house. Especially because they make my favourite. Potatoes and pork chops. The pork chops here are very small and breaded, very good. They also sometimes have eggplant which I've actually grown to love. After dinner we always sit around, talk and watch TV. Our dessert is always fruit. I tried fresh dates and kumquats for the first time. I really like dates. Much better fresh than dry. To be honest I knew of the word kumquat but I had no idea it was a fruit. They are kind of like very miniature oranges and you are supposed to eat what looks like the peel. They have a lot of vitamin C and are tasty also but I prefer dates. I just really want mango season back. 

Happy New Years

Last weekend, my district had another trip for all the exchange students. My family joined as well, I made my sister hangout with me and my friends a lot. We started our trip in Yilan on Saturday and went to a couple different farms to learn how they do things here. We got to learn how to plant and pick green onions and make Taiwanese green onion pancakes with them. I often have eaten these for breakfast before this but I didn't really know how they were made. It was interesting to learn and now if I crave one back in Canada, I can make them. Although, I'm not sure I like them THAT much. Dumplings on the other hand though, I need to know how to make. For picking the onions we needed to dress up in the proper farm wear. Giant rain boots, rain coats and bamboo hats. We were stepping in almost half a foot of mud, I was sure someone would fall in, but luckily no one did. It would've been very funny though. After we finished cooking and eating our pancakes we headed to the next location. We went to another farm to learn how to cook chicken, corn and sweet potato in a kiln in the ground. We built the kilns ourselves and lit the clay and even put the food in ourselves. It took a while for everything to cook so while we waited we had tea, popcorn and roamed around the area looking at all the animals. I met a very nice family with an adorable puppy which they let me pet and hold for as long as I wanted. They asked me many questions and the older lady even asked me for a photo with her and the pup. Which her daughter then informed me it was to send to her son. Things like this happen often actually. As we roamed more we noticed many animals, including chickens which we had just put in the kiln to eat in a while, those were probably alive that same morning. We also painted piggy banks and mine was awful. My friends tried to fix it and one ended up taking it home. I got to start over and made a prettier one and took that home but I think I have too many glass adn ceramic things to take back to Canada already. I might have to leave a few behind. Which is fine because I'd rather take the pretty professional ceramics back with me. We eventually got to eat our meal and it was surprisingly good. My favourite was the sweet potato and corn, as usual. After a while longer there we headed to dinner which was a little while on the bus before we got there. We went to an interesting little restaurant where we got to try lobster and a lot of sea food, as always. The dishes looked very fancy and were very good but not much food was actually on them. In many of the students opinions, we'd rather have ugly good tasting food, but a lot of it. Although, its never our choice where we eat. Even for lunches when we're given Mcdonalds, which I hate having to eat that crap food while there are so many better things on the island. Many are just as fast also, so I don't know why they always choose Mcdonalds. At the restaurant all the kids were done and wanting to leave cause we had been there for a while already, so we asked the tour guide to rush the adults so we would actually have time in the hot springs that were at the hotel where we stayed. We still didn't have very long in them and had no time in the morning, but it was still a cool experience. Some people, not myself though, even went in the naked hot springs. For some people that's normal, for example a friend of mine from Finland. In Finland they often go into saunas naked. Most people have them at home to do so with their friends and family. Brazilians of course, are just crazy and confident so they didn't mind either. I think I would be more comfortable in Canada doing so because here, I'm already stared at just for being a foreigner. Let alone a naked foreigner. Although, I did think hot springs would feel more natural, but they looked just like a normal pool at a hotel in the middle of a city. The water as noticeably different but I just thought the setting would look more natural. That night I shared a room with my friend from Finland. We each had a nice sized, very comfortable, bed to ourselves. We were up early in the morning, like every day on a rotary trip. We had brealfast at the hotel and all wished we could go back in the hot springs, I wish we had just stayed there for the morning. Instead we went to a cake factory and I bought some delicious icecream that was decorated with pancakes to make adorable bunnies. We were there very breifly then headed to a rice factory where I bought some very good rice popcorn. Still not that healthy but I'm trying to replace my sweets with slightly more healthy options. We quickly headed to yet another location and it was a bubble tea museum where we got to learn how to make it ourselves. Which is basically just making tea and adding the pearls. It tasted better than most I've had though because I got to choose the amount of everything I wanted. They told us to make it cold with ice but I hate cold bubble tea, so I left mine hot by adding almost no ice. Then we were off to the hotel to drop off our things and get ready for new years eve in Taipei. It took a couple hours on the bus and we weren't sure whether to hotel was ready for us or not but luckily by the time we got there, they were. Some people from the district below us also joined because part of their district wasn't allowed to be out all night. So, their district is split into three groups of what city they live in. Two of the groups were allowed to be out all night without super vision, just like almost every other district on the island, but the third part wasn't, so they joined our final night and the next day of our trip. Our district would never let us go out all night. Not sure I'd even want to anyway Taipei stresses me out because there are so many people, especially on New Years. What would they even do out all night? I would've just stayed home. Our district was free for a couple hours at a time then we had to meet and see if we could have more time. We met three times and because we are angels and were all on time, we were allowed more free time until the last meeting at ten thirty. Then we all stayed with eachother and the rotarians to watch the fire works and head back to the bus as a group. The fireworks were very gorgeous and coming from all parts of Taipei 101, but they only lasted maybe ten minutes. Even fireworks and how you act for them here is so different, everyone other then the exchange students were just silently watching them. All the students talked about how it was so weird and then a couple days later my dad commented on how it was rude for us to be talking, but why do you need to be quiet to watch fireworks? For us thats weird. All from my district successfully made it back to the bus. The people from the other district that joined us just were free to do what they want all night, and were even late for the bus so our chairman had to wait for them after we already headed back to the hotel. I think thats quite disrespectful since she agreed to let them join us. Our district was told we needed to share our rooms with them, so we decided we would switch up the rooms and stay with eachother instead of sharing with them. We didn't was to be woken at whatever time they finally got back to the hotel. I was in a room next to the one we gave them and they were up all night making tons of noise. Glad they were in our rooms, I would not have been happy with them. In the morning most of us woke up for breakfast even though we weren't required to and headed back to sleep until eleven, when we headed to the Taipei Zoo. We only had a few hours there so Ghabriel and I went through many parts of it as fast as we could. We saw tons of animals, including a gorgeous leapord. There was even a section for "temperate animals" which were mostly animals from Canada. Ghabriel really liked that section and I did only because I miss seeing so many of them around, there are only birds here in the city. I liked the section of animals from Brazil mostly. Such beautfil creatures. I can't wait to go see them in the wild one day. I still plan on heading there for a few weeks next January. We had lunch in the Zoo where they have many options for food, I had mashed potatoes and meat pie, which I have been craving for so long. I don't think I ever stop craving mashed potatoes though. By three twenty, when we were supposed to be back at the front, Ghabriel and I were still at the very top of the Zoo at the bird sanctuary (its a big zoo on a big hill.) We realized the time and raced as fast as we could through all the people to the front. That was the end of our trip and we headed back to Taoyuan. I also bought an adorable alligator stuffy at the zoo, after we saw alligators of course.

I should've written this last week but I was just so unmotivated to do much. It was quite a stressful first week of 2018. Many things have been on my mind. We also had to say goodbye to our Australian friends becasue their exchage is now over. This Saturday many of us woke up at three thirty to go see them off at the airport because they needed to be inside the gates at six. Because of all the hugs and pictures, and the huge line, they almost missed their flight. But they just made it and are now back in Australia. I miss them already. Our district has been getting smaller and smaller until now. There are now only thirteen exchange students in this district. I also miss the Brazilians that have already left, very much. I honestly don't hangout with most of my district that much now. I usually hangout with my family but if I switch families I'm not so sure what I'll be doing all the time. Either wayI will figure it out. I have my Brazilians that are still here and I might need to make them hangout with me more.

Yesterday, my family joined a large group of more family, cousins, aunts, uncles and great aunts and uncles for a house warming party for my auntie. She has bought a gorgeous (big) new apartment and we all headed there after lunch to hangout and eat some delicious snacks. With some people I haven't met being there, I got lots of questions. It helps me practice my Chinese as well as getting to know everyone in the family. We had these delicious brownies and I asked my auntie where she had bought them because I want to buy them one day. They were actually very sweet unlike most cakes or brownies here. I need that once in while. Overall it was a good day with lots of food, but quite tiring.

On another note, I am already writing lists of things I need to do before my return. I feel like I have no time but in another sense I feel like it'll be forever. It's a strange feeling but I just know I need to start doing everything for my return. I know I will need to send atleast a couple boxes home and I need to buy many more things for myself. Like replacing my clothes. Which I absolutely need to do. But I also need to start learning so much more Chinese because I need to be ready for the test this spring! Especially if I want to be coming back for university. Speaking of, I'm gonna get to studying.