First Real Meeting

Tonight, I went to my first official Rotary meeting with my club, Taoyuan Fortune. At first I was very nervous because I needed to introduce myself in front of the entire club and there are around 40 people in my club I believe, plus the family members they brought with them. I had a little eight sentence introduction memorized in Mandarin but when I get nervous I tend to forget things.. so I was in front of everyone and only said about half of what I intended but everyone was just so happy to have me there that it didn't seem to matter! My hosting Rotary club here in Taiwan is a group of the most welcoming and friendly people I have ever met. Everyone in my host rotary club is willing to help me with any problems or feelings I may face over the year and that makes me feel so much better just in itself. Knowing that I have genuine people who can understand many things that could cause problems or stress and are ALWAYS open to talk is such a relief. Even many of the Rotary kids have come to me and told me that they are there for me and there to talk if I ever need anything.

Although many of the Rotarians couldn't speak English, or spoke very little, we did our best to communicate with the help of Jerry and Christine, the son and daughter of the wonderful couple who drove me there and home tonight. Christine is also good friends with Jasmine, my sister. Their mother, apparently forty eight, looks maybe thirty years old! Jerry will be flying out on Sunday to The United States to attend college, and I'm sure will miss the food here, especially the dumplings.
For the fourth time recently we sung Happy Birthday to one of the members and had yummy cake, but trust me its not as sweet as the cake I eat in Canada. Sweet is not really a prominent flavour in Taiwan, but it is my usual diet... so I often walk to Seven Eleven to buy sweet treats. Which will have to stop pretty quickly considering there aren't as many ways of exercise as I do in Canada. Hopefully my metabolism keeps up with all the carbs too.
Yesterday was my first time at the Taoyuan night market. Jasmine and I had fun shooting beebee guns at balloons, we have pretty good aim, by the way. Dad also bought us matching skirts that I'm super excited to go out in and will definitely make her take photos with me! I also was bought a very nice pair of pants. I am so spoiled.
Anyway, its late and I am starting to get a head ache for some reason, I'll write again soon.😄

University Campus

I met with my Rotary Counsellor today, and he and his family are very lovely. Baby boy  in the family celebrated his first birthday today. Family brought different items for him to choose from to see what he might end up doing as a future career. There were books, fake gold, food and other items that all meaned different things. The book meant he might be a teacher, gold meaning he will make a lot of money and be rich in the future, and a chicken thigh, meant he will never need to worry about having food, he will be well fed forever. He was a little overwhelmed with all the people and just kept going back to his mother. We enjoyed cake and Mcdonalds for lunch. I then went with Jerry, and his family, to Taiwan National Normal University, where Laura needed to wait in a huge line to get school things in order, and I was shown their Language and foreigners area of one of three of the schools campus'. Sadly, the language information building was closed, due to it being a Sunday. Laura said she will get more information for me though. University in Taiwan is significantly cheaper than anywhere in North America, and also have a very large language department with benefits no where in Canada could offer. I won't say this for a fact, but I might also have a very good refference. I am strongly considering applying for university here. My top choice is still Gallaudet, in Washington DC, but it is extremely expensive and hard to get into. There is only one course for hearing students and seems like it'd be a competition to get accepted, but I still want to apply, as well as applying here and possibly Germany, where they have free tuition under certain circumstances. Germany along with other countries in Europe offer free tuition but I need to do more research into the courses and circumstances. I know that for however long you stay for school, you must equal that time living there after finishing your degree. Of course, we will see how I feel after a year here, but I don't see anything ruining Taiwan for me. It is quite wonderful here. Although, I am not used to everything yet, I will say I love it. I also know that I want to travel a lot though, and I would love Germany or other parts of Europe too, but lets not even get started about the general cost of living.

Back to current time, tomorrow I wake up at six again for school, so I should get some rest tonight. Hopefully I will actually recieve some work or something to do from the teachers tomorrow. If not, I will continue trying to teach myself whatever I can throughout the day or week. I guess we'll see. Laura also gave me this really awesome see through umbrella that I absolutely love!

Ghost Festival

Last night, I attened a Roteract meeting and even though it was mostly in Mandarin, I learnt a lot about it, thanks to my host dad quietly translating the speaker for me. My dad is the Rotary representative for the group and they all call him "Uncle Jamie" which I thought was pretty cool and funny. After, we went to a barbeque with the Roteract club and here, barbequing is a lot different than in Canada, even with a big barbeque. They used torches to light the coals and it takes a lot longer to start up than the ones in Canada. It took two tries to get it going properly and then they showed me what they cook on a barbeque. They have toast with BBQ sauce, very thin and small pieces of pork, wrapped in the toast. As well as scewered vegiables wih sauce also. It tasted delicious, and I really want it again. Comparing to Canada though, the pieces of meat were very tiny. Canadian barbeques are huge pieces of meat and probably less drinking involved. Although, here it seems to be for an event or group, whereas in Canada its a very frequent activity just in our backyard. Oh, Roteract also gave me a cake. Along with the other one I recieved earlier in the day, for caring for a dog, that makes it two free cakes in one day! How does that even happen? People here are insanely generous. I was also really craving cake too.
This coming Tuesday is the actual day of Ghost Festival, but since most people are busy working and going to school, its celebrated a few days early so everyone is able to celebrate it. In this festival, we had a box of food and beverages to offer to the ghosts and Gods. We wrote our names on special flags and placed them in our box. Then there are three rotations, where you will light incense and place them first in your offerings, one for each person and all three times to the head of the tables, where there were two jars that hold them srtaight up. One incense for each person in both of the jars. The first jar is for the sky God, the second is for a local God. The incense guide the ghosts and Gods from the water bowls at the front, where they clean before the feast, and all the way down the rows of tables where their are many different typs of consumable offerings for them to enjoy in their after life. A lot of fake money is also burnt to ensure they are fortunate and well off in their after life. Before placing the insence in the jars you must bow your head and the incense three times, after places them you put your hands together and quickly pray before the next cycle begins. When the cycles are over you burn the rest of the money together. When all is done the food and drinks are all taken home to not be wasted. Waste is very frowned upon here.
In the afternoon my sister, father and I walked to a couple pet stores and saw very cool creatures. Eguinas, chameleons, tons of fish, nemos, dorys, puffer fish, even rainbow trout! So many cool types of lizards and snakes, wish I could see them in the wild too though. There were tarantulas, which I had just been trying to explain to them an hour before, and hedgehogs, bunnies, and a dog that I really fell inlove with. She really just wanted attention and love, this pet store took her in when someone found her on the street and have gotten rid of all bugs and have rehabilitated her to almost full health. I really hope, and don't doubt she will find a home once she is completely healthy. We then headed to Ama and Agongs house for dinner with a lot of the family. We feasted with ten different dishes, including one that my dad told me was his grandmothers favourite. I see why, it was very good. Another event that occurs this Tuesday, is Agongs birthday, so tonight was also a little celebration for him, where we sung happy birthday in English and Chinese, and had some cake of course. Sister and I also made him take a selfie with us.
It was also very rainy today and I love rain, it makes everything more pretty and way less hot. I can't take heat very well, but I do notice I'm getting used to it. Everyone wears full plastic rain suites to stay dry, mostly only when on a scooter, there are some pretty cool looking ones. Now, I am gonna study some Mandarin and head to bed. Long, productive and fun day.

School

The last two days of school, honestly have been really stressful and hard to get used to, but today was a little bit of an improvement. Yesterday, frustrated with being ignored, I asked our home room teacher to give us something to do, even if it was all in Mandarin, or just random papers because I can try to teach myself from them. Today, he came to us with papers, translated to english, asking about ourselves, our host families, our interests, and what teachers can do to help with our exchange year. Plesently surprised, I wrote a lot on that paper. Hopefully, I will get to interact and learn more in my actual class, rather than studied on my own, or in the library with the other two exchange students. I have been taking extra sheets of paper from random courses and trying to see which characters I already know or have seen before and figure out what they mean and how they are pronounced. This is difficult but atleast I am finding some way to learn more rather than doing nothing all day. Eight hour days at school would be brutal with literally nothing to do.

I also would really like to meet more people and actually become friends with some of my classmates. They are so focussed on studying though, that it seems thats their focus, not friends, especially ones who can't study with them. I want to help with english or something like that though because then that could be a way to get closer with them. It has only been three days though, I will keep trying to gain closer relationships next week, and through the whole year. I am just exciting to start Mandarin classes. Eight hours on every Tuesday and Thursday starting on September twelfth. That will be a huge help.