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.