Yesterday was my districts and our formerly joint districts country fair. We had to prepare presentations and items from and about our countries to promote them and convince future exchange students that our country is where they should go. For the first time I met another Canadian exchange student and collaborated on a slideshow and convinced many kids that Canada is a good option. I was surprised how many of them already had Canada as their number one choice on their lists. Most people only know where Vancouver or Toronto is and would like to end up in a bigger city, but that is actually quite unlikely. We showed them pictures of our areas and told them a little about Canada. We emphasized about our multiculturalism and how cold winters can get. Many of the parents asked us if we even have a summer time. I think they need to do some more research. We also got asked what could be difficult as a part of life in Canada, I honestly couldn't think of much. Other than the weather adjustments of course. For lunch we had pizza and all played some music to dance and relax together. I really enjoyed meeting all of the other districts students. There was also one boy from my class at school who was accepted into exchange. He is hoping to go to Canada and I really hope he does. I think he'd be an awesome student to go to Canada. Not many people were so excited for winter but he seemed pretty interested in it. I remember finding out that I got in and when I found out where I was going. It was a rollercoaster of emotions but mostly on the up side. I do know that going anywhere is a little bit of a break from current life but also is a start of a completely new one. After a long day at the country fair, me and a group of friends celebrated a day early for Sigurds' (a boy from Denmark) birthday. We had a lot of fun, a few people bought him a soccer ball and we all had cake together as well. He is only turning sixteen today. He is one of the few young exchange students in our district. Some of us, including myself, will be turning eighteen during our exchange year.
Today was probably the first time where I really felt how much I miss Canada. Of course there are a lot of things that I don't really miss but so many things that I do. I video called with my parents for around like three hours and it was lovely and I love talking to them. They told me some sad news and some news that they are unsure the result of yet. I was upset but not in tears or anything. That was until I tried to send them their christmas box and wasn't able to because the post office was absolutely sure the ceramics I bought would be broken on the way there. This, I guess just set me off. I started crying in the middle of post office and walked home instead of taking the motorbike with 爸爸。 On the walk home I realized that the box wasn't the only reason I was upset. It was many things. I had an okay day considering I got to talk to my parents for so long and have been messaging some people I miss a lot. But I never really get my emotions out and I guess today I just overloaded a bit and couldn't deal with it. I don't think 爸爸 was all that impressed but when I'm upset its hard for me to talk about things. I'm not too sure what to do other than listen to music and try to calm myself down. In Canada I would go on a walk or a hike or cuddle with my dog or something, there I have many ways of making myself feel better but here in Taiwan I have no idea what to do. I didn't think I'd miss Canada so much but once you find out things that are happening back home you realize what you're missing or what you might miss. Either way I love it here in Taiwan and I love travelling and seeing new things and experiencing everything it has to offer but it being my first time away from home its just hard to accept what an amazing opportunity can actually cost. And I don't mean all the money I spent on this either. If anything that was the easiest thing to give up for this year.
Yesterday was Rotary districts activity day, a lot of clubs joined and I let many of the exchange students know and many were already attending. Our activity was a 5km walk as a giant group at a place called Ximen Reservoir. It wasn't the most beautiful day, lots of clouds and wind, even a little rain. I still ended up getting a sunburn though. The other exchange students and I had a big speaker that my friend brought and we sang and danced to very loud music the whole time. Many people with the group that we've never met before started dancing with us. We had breakfast and lunch at the site, although the breakfasts and lunches at Rotary events are not my favourite. I went to my friend Bias' house after and hung out there for a few hours. We were both so tired from waking up at 5am that she ended up having a nap for a little bit while I tried to get her dog to love me, that dog doesn't like anyone but her mother. It still barks at Bia everyday. She hates it. We decided to go meet up with all the exchange students again that night for dinner and to just hangout. We ended up playing games in a park and blasting music to dance yet again. We danced for probably 3 hours straight. It was really fun. We were all very tired afterwards.
Today I slept in and then had lunch with the family. 媽媽，爸爸 and I all went to Ing Ge Old Street to shop for ceramic items. I ended up almost finishing my Christmas shopping for the family in Canada. I soon need to send the big box back for them. It might cost a bit to send that much stuff... I have no clue though, I've never sent anything back to Canada. I hope its not too much but either way I hope they love the gifts I got. I know my sister will for sure. My parents were also a littlebspecific with what they wanted but I threw in a few extra things. I wish I could say, butbthey read my blog too. We had a long day of walking and looking around. We came home and Ama and Agong came over for dinner. We had pigs liver, fish, fish eggs fried together into weird shapes, pork, veggies, soup and one other dish that I can't remember. We then drove Ama and Agong home and went to the night market. I tried strawberries and tomato covered in a hard candy shell which was delicious. I had my favourite Taiwanese sausage and mango juice. 妹妹 had octopus balls, peices of octopus deep fried with toppings, seaweed, sauce and other toppings. Then we were about to leave, even walked in the direction of the car, but 妹妹 and I were still hungry so we went back for a delicious potato dish. It was baked potato, almost a mashed style with lots of toppings. It had cheese sauce, bacon, cantonese pepper sausage, brocolli, tuna and corn. It was so good. I am excited for next time to get more. My least favourite topping would be tuna but it was still good. We then left and just got home, already 10pm. I have school in the morning and need to wake up at 6am, I am not very excited for that.
Last Saturday 爸爸 and I went to my schools fair to enjoy some interesting foods. We first spoke with my English teacher and had a long conversation about how me and the other exchange students feel quite separate from our classes. Which a lot of the time we have to literally be separate from them in order to learn and we do not understand most classes so we often are separated by that as well. We first bought sandwiches from the stand my class was running and they were very delicious. Hash browns and chicken nuggets from another stand were also good. We bought a lot of deserts as well. Cheese cake, brownie, ice cream and deep fried Oreos which were surprisingly nice. Having school on a weekend means that my school has Monday off, yayyy me!! After we went and looked at the high school 爸爸 went to and checked out their sports day. Close to the high school was Confusion temple. The great Chinese ancient teacher. I learn a lot of him and what he did and how people pray at those specific temples. They usually pray for good grades. On his scooter we went to the top of a little peak where a temple is and looked at the inside of that as well as all the stands on the way up the hill. There were also many stray dogs.
As well as Sunday, stray dogs everywhere. We went to the same mountain, Tiger Head Mountain 虎頭山 (hu tou shan) but this time we went on a hike. We ended up hiking the opposite direction from where we had planned but it was a cool adventure. We hiked to a look out over Taoyuan 桃園 where we had gone previously to see the night view of 桃園. It was a long hike but more sideways than uphill. The forests here are so much different than Canada. In Canada everything is so spiky and going directly up where as here everything has more of a round windy look to it. Alike to vines but could be any kind of plant. Not so tall also. There are stray dogs even up in the trails and signs saying don't feed them but I did see a couple spots with bowls and dog food. I would for sure be one of those people sneaking it up there to feed them. I saw a very large dog at the look out we went to and it wasn't the nicest of dogs but I felt very sorry for him because everyone was scared of him and mean to him, telling him to go away and trying to get their dogs away from him. Poor thing, every time I see a stray I just wish so much that I could help them and I would but I have no idea how.
On Monday friends and I went into Taipei 台北 and wandered around Taipei 101, the third tallest building in the world and one of the most gorgeous I have ever seen. I am not sure how many times we all got the chance to blast music on a speaker (on display) and dance while everyone would stop and stare. There was even a dancing video game in one of the hallways that we stopped and played and crowds of people would watch then eventually keep walking then another crowd would cone around. It was super fun. All the stores inside the building are only for people willing to spend a lot of cash. Michael Korrs, Tiffany&Co, Gucci, Versace, Dior, and sooo many more. My favourite though, was Jadegia. A store that sold only authentic jade items. It was beautiful. I love jade and I wish I could afford to buy so many things from that store but sadly I can't even afford one. After we left two people from the group had to go home. The other two and I stayed in Taipei and actually walked forty five minutes to a store my friend insisted on going to. We saw so many cool stores and cafes along the way. I got a really good cookies and cream donut for so cheap. We also stopped in a clothing store that we all loved and agreed that we have to go back there again to actually shop instead of just window shop. I saw Taiwans version of a snow man, a giant statue of a snowman that looked exactly like one... but made of metal of course. We finally got to the building with the many stores in it and in the first store we walked into I encountered some genuinely rude people. I think that's the first time since being in Taiwan. I mean, there are things people do here often that in Canada we would consider rude but here is normal so its not. But they were just genuinely rude people. I was kind of surprised and a little put off by it. We left that store quite quickly. We wandered the building for a while and it gave me some ideas for new headphones. I found really nice wireless ones that weren't too expensive and am considering getting them later in the year. Of course we had to end up walking back forty five minutes and were quite tired by the end of it. Both my friends were complaining their legs hurt but for me it was my back. My body is used to walking, just not in the city on flat ground. I'm used to hills. Many hills. I don't think my back likes flats all that much. We bussed home and all got home on time for curfew. That's super important here. Especially on a rotary exchange.
Then the next day I woke with an awful cold. I pushed through school but got home with a fever. I rested all last night and didn't attend school today. Well actually, I went for lunch because they had my favourite spaghetti but went home right after because I wasn't feeling well again. I rested tonight and was brought my favourite food from my favourite place by 爸爸. I now need to rest again so I hopefully will be better for school tomorrow.
