Tidbits from Taiwan

The last days are counting themselves down. The minutes are ticking...slowly...but deafening like lead balls dropped in a silent hall.

Marianna had her 19th birthday at a Friday's, so we all splurged and bought burgers that cost more than a month's allowance. Afterwards, Chris, Gunnar, Gaston, and myself headed to a fancy pool hall and kicked it. The Aleman Team, against the Dream Team, Gaston and I...so of course we won.

So after a Snow-Free 9 months, we finally hit-up Taipei Ice Skate rink and made some Figure-Eights. We skated for two hours, got some Hot Chocolate and I got back my old-skate feet. Phillip and I passed time by getting up at top-speed and then jumping down to our knees and sliding as far as we could.

For maybe the last time, a group, against the largest since we started, of us headed up the MaoKong mountain to relax on the weekend. We had 2 Germans, 1 Mexican, 1 Colombian, 3 Taiwanese, 1 Japanese, and 2 Americans including myself. After the noodles and tea to go along with our mini-United Nations meeting, Gaston, Leo, Frank, Elisa, Phillip, and I played pool for a couple hours, and then split for dinner. I headed up to TianMu to have dinner with Vivian and her friend Ruby, and while on a Student's "Salary" like mine I can't eat so fancy normally, we had a nice Japanese dinner in a Restaurant atop a department store, leaving me with the contentment of true Asian food followed by Tea and a Toothpick that I will most dearly miss in the US.

Had a great day with my Calligraphy Teacher and Elisa last Sunday. I got on the MRT at around 7:20 in the morning at ZhiShan and laid across three seats to sleep (not many people), only to look across to see some crazy foreigner across from me doing the same. Looking closer, what are teh odds, I realized it was Elisa, completely unconscious. Arriving at the Calligraphy Studio, we practicing for several hours, and then headed to lunch across the street. Bellies full from curry and noodles, and minds at ease from calligraphy, we took a bus west to the arty district. There we checked out lots of expensive paintings and appreciated the couple thousand of years old art of calligraphy. We stopped by one of our teacher's friend's shops who engraves seals and brushes to perfection, and for $15 US, I got three personally engraved gorgeous bamboo calligraphy brushes. Having drinken some good High Mountain Tea and chewed on some Sugar Cane with the Engraver, we headed to the Flower and Jade market to finish up some last minute shopping. Elisa got a bouquet of flower's costing appoximately a fourth of our monthly allowance, and I got a teapot suggested by our teacher. Later I saw a movie with Liz and after headed home to make some dreams.

News news, Rotary sprung one on us and made one of us move out of the house as Perry, one of the two children of my Host Parents, will be returning to Taiwan this Friday after his exchange year in Texas. So Tonia moved out last weekend, and Perry will be here shortly.

Yeah, so there was this spider on the wall the other day missing two of its legs...yet still about, half the size of my hand. By my standards, thats sickeningly huge especially in the house unnervingly close to my room, but turns out here they don't seem to think it as creepy. Anyways, I decided to leave it untouched as my host mom seemed flip saying, "Aww! Beautiful! It'll get bigger too", so a day later it dissappeared, leaving me rather regretful of my decision. Two days afterwards in the night, I found a cute little baby spider wandering across my floor which I did something mean to. The next morning in the same place, another little baby spider scuttled from underneath my bed. At this point I was thinking, there has to be a Mommy. Sure enough, the same two-leg-short very-well-fed spider popped up in my room the next night, which the maid came in to see and promptly squished beneath her feet. While I cringed, she laughed, assuring me of the insignifance, "why, one night your Host Parents' son in the next room couldn't sleep a wink because he found a spider IN his room larger than my outstretched-hand here! so don't worry, besides they don't bite people"...I'm thinking, no, they don't bite people, they swallow them WHOLE. But seriously, it reminded me of when Liz and Elisa's stuff got stolen out of a locker at a concert. The thief took everything (IDs, Cameras, important stuff, etc) but left their umbrella, as it was raining that night. Yes Taiwan...where the Radioactive Enhanced Spider's don't bite and the Thieves are Thoughtful.

I guess the biggest news would be, surprise surprise, I just got back from Japan. After lots of permissions, phone calls, paper and running around straightening things out, Liz and I headed to Japan with the WenLin Rotary Club for five days. While the original plan with to go to China as four people, being the exchangers at ShiouFong, it changed to Japan because of Rotary rules, and left us with only two people because of various reasons. So, Liz and I had, let me say, a fantastic five days touring the beautiful country of Japan, seeing the Temples, and eating incredibly detailed, delicate, and delicious food. We got to see Osaka, Kobe, lots of little places I'm not quite sure the whereabouts of, discover how unbelievably expensive a "Hot-Ah Ko-Hi" can be, and stayed in top-notch Hotels reserved by Rotary. Seriously a great time. To top off the visit, after taking several hundred photos I went and left my camera on the bus in the hurry of entering the airport. Not to fear quite yet, it will most likely be taken back to Taiwan in nine days time where I will once again reunite with my gadget.

How to start with this one.

I've had a lot of good times since last you heard a word from me, been trying to enjoy my last days here. Really, it's not last days, but last few months, but it feels like I'm leaving too soon.

We checked out this great eating place in Ximen the other day (thanks to Gaston finding it). Great small place with a view from the deck on top of the rain falling. Also has great noodles, though a tad expensive. On a not so on topic note, it's hard to describe how much Taiwanese seem to...like?, not sure if thats the right word...be curious about foreigners. While all the exchangers are not only constantly stared at and asked for pictures on the street for random passer-bys, other things like this, hold on, sometime happen. Story goes, Phillip and I walk out of a corner store, and this guy stops his bike while riding along. He turns to us, asks if we are teaching English in Taipei, then offers us a job modeling some clothes. Thought I'd throw out one of the countless slightly strange stuff that goes on here.

Two weekends ago, the exchangers in my district and I all headed to HuaLian, supposed the most beautiful area in Taiwan, on an organized Rotary event. While some of the day trips might have been a bit "dry", we had a great time white water rafting down a river (no photos might I add, as no one had a waterproof camera), Go-Karting in the rain on an extremely slick track (insanely fun), and some night activities that extended long after the witching hour. We also visited a school to see a dance and music performance for the second time. Upon meeting some slightly merry Taiwanese in the street, we got another more casual dance performance. They tried to teach us too, but it didn't go so splendid. During the weekend we also became more personally acquianted with the Outgoing Exchangers from Taiwan, about to head off to their respective countries after we leave.

This past weekend myself along with six others headed to the MaoKong mountain for the first time in a while. This time we had me (American), Elisa (German), Liz (Colombian), Gaston (Mexican), Leandro (Brazilian), and LB and Vivian (Taiwanese). No place better to get a little taste of the world. We chowed down noodles, rice, all the while sipping the famous High Mountain MaoKong Oo-Long Tea. Like each time, we played cards, chatted, hit up the Chinese chess and listened to music from...everywhere. This time however, we found a second level to the restaurant not previously explored. On this level, instead of just a roofed patio, there were also rooms with three walls, and the four looking out on the misty valley with tiers of tea plants from which we were drinking. We sat in a room with a low table, got some pillows, closed the curtains and watched a movie for a couple hours. After we headed down the mountain, Gaston and I played some pool in Ximen (I kicked some 屁股). We chanced upon some other exchange students who told us about a thing that night for the other Rotary district saying good-bye to one of their own. That took up the rest of our day.

Getting more specific here as the time gets more recent. Last night went our with Leo, played some pool, and headed home to arrive at 6:30. Got their just in time as my family was leaving (already left), to go with them for dinner. We headed to the "Flower Market" restaurant (good food), and sat down with a BMW company owner, the personal assisant of LiAn (director of BrokeBack Mountain), and the rest of the Fam to have dinner.

Going to a Rotary Meeting tonight, have a nice day ya'll.

My Parents came last Monday to Taiwan to visit me. It was wonderful seeing them. The first morning we headed out to MaoKong to visit the mountain and drink some tea. We stayed there for several hours catching up for the last many months, eating some noodles, and drinking tea. That night we went to the Rotary Meeting to introduce my parents to my receiving District. My dad gave a short speech in Chinese, we had some dinner, and then headed home. Wednesday we visited my school and met my teachers, my classmates and the other exchange students at my school.

We crammed in as much as we could during the short time that my parents were here. We visited TaiZhong(台中) and saw the University(海邊大學) that my Dad taught English at 35 years ago. We had dinner with my current host family an the top floor of a big department store.

Friday was packed as was most of these days. Morning came a little to early at 8:00am (getting used to waking up a little later with my parents) and we headed back to my school to meet my Calligraphy Teacher. We gave him a sweet hopefully antique Ink Stone. Afterwards we headed to 101 to eat lunch and meet Rita (Taiwanese). Heading to the top of 101 and admiring the view was followed by rushing back to Tianmu to have dinner with my previous host family at their house. After that dinner, we, along with Henry (the 2nd host little bro) and Phillip (from Germany) headed to ShiLin(士林) MRT Station to watch the Orange Cafe Fire Performance on the roof of the Coffee House. Gorgeous.

Saturday we explored the National Museum, really sweet let me say, and then, as it was Gaston's 18th birthday party (Ur ma Boy BLUE!), after some discussion I headed over with my parents as they wanted to meet all the exchange students. They stayed talking a while and then headed out to explore the Markets. Sunday, my parents last day in Taiwan, we visited the Jade Market to pick up some souvenirs. I ended up with a really old looking sword for about ten bucks.

My parents left way to early on Monday morning. I saw them to a Taxi, we said our goodbye's, and like plunging back into ice water, headed to school again at 7am.

My week has been another relaxing lazy river. Saw some movies, went out with friends, talked some chinese, and of course, studied like mad. Gaston found a wonderful place in Ximen to buy cheap Chinese movies so whenever I don't have to get up late the next day I stay up watching movies practicing reading and listening Chinese (nice way of studying, huh).

We had a sweet Rotary Conference for our District just yesterday. We got to meet all the outbounds, who are the Taiwanese kids who are going to go on an exchange next year to a different country. Loads of fun.

Here are just some...interesting...things I've realized about Taiwan.

1.For the guy's urinals, the automatic flushers flush when you draw near, not when you move away. (Meaning liquid might sit a while being smelly before the next person comes and washes it away)

2.Most Taiwanese assume Americans(USA) are rich, therefore, they charge you more (most people know this　already though).

3.Most of my classmates assume(d) I own a gun, because, of course, every American has one.

4.You can't assume that people know their own age (this is just stunning). My classmates usually base how long they have lived by their level in school. They have to take a little time to calculate their age (it's not that important). Heh.

5.Don't throw the used toilet paper in the toilet, drop it in the trash can. (That edged me out at first. This coupled with the backwards automatic flushers makes bathrooms all the more natural smelling)

6.Grades for you classes and exam are made public to the whole class, along with the verbal scorn about them.

7.Their grading is a little harsher here. The class average for my class is 54.40% (which is not too bad)

8.Pale white is considered beautiful. Many women don't go out in the sun without an umbrella for fear of getting tan (ha!).

9.Specific to Taibei, neither should you go out into the rain without an umbrella. Not just to avoid getting wet, but to avoid losing your hair from all the acid chemicals within the droplets.

10.While sitting, don't shake or wiggly you foot, if you do, you'll become poor. (???)

11.While most people have studied English for several years (some adults having studied more than 10), basic listening and speaking skills are almostly always lacking completely because of the classroom standard: don't discuss or talk about material. Listen and memorize. Their reading is good, but when it comes to oral conversation, the teaching technique here just doesn't pull through more than to say "Good morning".

12.While the majority of high school students get five hours of sleep or less each night, they have an unbelievable ability to not let it show (until nap time when they're all out like lights).

13.Yes, High Schoolers get Nap Time.

As my Grandpa Mentioned, its been like...a month since my last post, the longest gap so far. Explanation is, its what I predicted would happen at the beginning. As I got busier and busier (yes, its possible, I am busier) posts would lag a little. But I am still here and kicking. So, been building up a post for you all, and pictures too as soon I buy some more memory space in one form or another.

I had a great time two Saturdays ago with my previous Host Family. We had some Tailand Lunch, and then the little bro and I headed to the local A1 Pool Hall and played some games. Let me...forgot the word...yes, emphasize how extravagantly incredible the Taiwanese play pool. So Henry (about 12...I think) beat my a couple times, but it was well worth seeing a kid that age able to play so good. We rented StarWars and watched it in their home, and afterwards headed out to a Korean restaurant, mmm-mmm tasty (remind me to get wheat grain tea).

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day, just got some work done, returned the movie ("Perhaps Love" [如果愛 - Poor Translation on Someone's Part]) and chilled with the amigos watching Schindler's List.

Now Monday, Monday was cool. At 1:00, after a ridiculous amount of paperwork and signatures Elisa, Liz, and I left school 3 hours "early" at 1:00 to head with the Calligraphy Teacher (he now teaches both me and Elisa for 2 1/2 hours on Fridays) to the only left existing Hand made Ink Stick Shop in Taiwan. A dying art, ink stick making is a grulling process of running gobs of scolding hot gooey black through a press several times under the heat and a smell of chinese ingredients then shaping the sticks which then sit for a month to dry naturally. We spent several hours learning the art, and at the end had several beautifully decorated sticks made by ourselves to take home.

Surprise Surpise, Tuesday we didn't have school. So again, I set to work cleaning up some work, studying Chinese (endless), then at dinner time met with Phillip and Paola (half German, half Mexican girl who has lived in Taiwan all her life) to have a German dinner at Tina's 5-story house...its rather roomy. Dinner was scrumptuous and I also had a good taste of German language as out of the 7 people at the table I was the only one with the inability of speaking the tongue. While a had no idea what went on during that conversation for an Hour...Sixty Minutes...Three Thousand and Six Hundred seconds...hem, it was relaxing all the same.

So, I had a sweet weekend trip with Phillip, Paola, and Tina going down to GaoXiong to see Paola's father who lives there. So Friday I headed to Paola and Tina's High School up on YangMingSan Mountain, a mountain renowned for its beauty, and spent the day...in high school. Even though it was a European school, it seemed to be modelled architectually after the norm of a Chinese School, with the hallways outside the buildings and a center hole making it a donut. This European building however, had a roof over the center hole, made of metal that as the day grew warmer began to crack very loudly while it expanded. Small Tidbits, as I said.

After class broke, we grabbed our stuff at the house of Paola and headed to the airport where the four of us hoped on a plane and road the mere hour to southern Taiwan (small country). There we met Paola's dad, a jolly guy with a great German smile on his face.

Over the next several days Philip and I enjoyed free expenses at one of the best Hotels in GaoXiong, must be a fiver, and as a group we explored the river (I found GaoXiong to be prettier than Taipei, sadly) and some of the foreigner night life. But let me tell you, I barely understood a word that weekend...thats what happens when you put four Germans together. Fun though.

Upon our return from GaoXiong Paola's mom met us at the airport and we headed to the American Club, gaurenteed full of foreigners from all over the world and had some nosh. That night Tonia, the exchanger in my district from Texas moved into my current host house, making, for one house, the exchange student count...two. I think they are running short on houses. No fights about the shower luckily, as she gets up 1 hour before I do in the more (ahh sleep).

Wednesday we had a Rotary event where we all learned how to use those Chinese YoYos, I went for the free Chinese YoYo. Afterwards several of us (Me, Mason, Gaston, Frodo, and the new exchanger from South Africa - Clinton) headed toward TianMu to chill at a park or play pool. On the way we lost Clinton to a curfew, and when we finally arrived in TianMu Gaston and Frodo also had to head off because of the lateness. The survivors, Mason and I, headed to the local poolery, and knocked up some balls for an hour or so, chatting and the like. Good night.

Heh, Friday was funny. Paola gave us a call, Phillip and I, and so we headed to the park where they planned to be. As we approached we began to laugh at a group of people all dancing to seemingly no music. The dancing park is normal as old people do it all the time in parks at night and mornings, but these people were dancing hiphop style. What a sight...four Germans and a Chilean gathered around a single boombox dancing exuberantly to German techno in the middle of a soccer field for all to see. So, crazy as we were, Phily and I joined in. We chilled/danced/laughed at ourselves, for sometime and then split up the makeshift-club and crashed in our respective homes.

Saturday, another Rotary event. We made some Rice Triangles, headed to a sweet Aboriginal Museum, watched a wonderfully strange educational movie (...and then Tacaroo the hunter kept running and ran through the 500 years too present Taiwan and became a baseball player...). What the nice thing about that day was we met alot of people, including teachers in Taiwan, ex-exchangers from Taiwan and the like. Later that night after all the Rice-Triangles had been digested, Gaston, Mason, Clinton, Rita (ex-exchanger from Taiwan), and I went to the Tianmu park again to veg-out joined later by Paola, Tina, Lindsey and Lindsey's little sister visiting from the States. We had quick a little party going.

Sunday...suprise suprise, Rotary event. Elisa, Tonia, and my Rotary Club climbed up a mountain in BeiTou picking up trash seeing the scenery. At hikes end, we were disappointed by a lotto drawing and headed to catch some dinner. Great tea, great noodles, and out in the middle of a gorgeous garden with lots of lillies. The Taiwanese worker there gave us a tour after eating of the local plants and the endangered species and not quite sure why as I didn't pick up the reason, sang us several Taiwanese songs.

This week has been pretty chill too. I saw several movies (movie theaters eat my wallet) played some pool and studied Chinese, hip hip! Oh and Friday, got up an hour earlier than I have in a while (5:30AM) and headed to my school to meet my Calligrapher teacher. Elisa, Mr. Lin, and I climbed up the tallest mountain in XiZhi, took some photos, enjoyed the scenery, and hiked down to the school making it back by 11:00 AM for me to start my classes (short trip, short mountain).

Check it! The Mom and Pop (American brand) are coming this Monday for 6 days. I WILL be showing them the country here, travelling around, seeing my friends, skipping school, and all sorts of fun stuff. Can't wait for my new guests. I'll also hopefully have my brother Michael coming this July if that works out for several days as he travels the world on Semester at Sea this summer. While it would be hard to do, I might go over to Hong Kong to see my other brother Nicholas, who is also doing the travel the world thing on the Semester at Sea thing (he is currently on-board working it).

We'll see where life takes me.

As some things do, my vacation came to an abrupt halt one fine day in February, leaving me to fend for myself in the world of school. Though I never fell out of the habit of studying during the break due to me watching chinese tv, the shift back waking up at those unnatural hours of the morn is hard to face. I bought the second chinese book in the series, a whopping $500 NT, nuts, and have slowly started working my way through it in the many hours of free time during the school day. While the pace at which I read through my chinese/japanese comic book I bought a while ago is still rather slow, I am also making progress on that as well.

My English, however, has taken a major drop in quality. Forgetting word after word feels like I am trying to learn two languages. I finally ended up asking the Taiwanese School English Teacher to help me out when trying to find a word. Really...

The last three days of the vacation were spent with my family and my Rotary Club down in Kenting, the southern most part of Taiwan. We enjoyed the beach, a "5-star" hotel, and personally the most wonderful mattress and pillow I have ever slept on...memorable. We hit up the southern-most point of Taiwan and took some pictures. On the way back to the bus, some sensitive plants caught our eyes. Colorado sure as heck doesn't have these, but its little plants, grass-height, that will fold all its leaving together upon being touched. Truely incredible, wish I had a video.

On our way back from Kenting the group stopped by one of the world's few spa's (I might have this wrong) that has a mud hot spring. Nothing is quite like gooping mud on yourself and sitting in a steaming spring. It's like....just look at the pictures.

The Lantern festival was just gorgeous. Hundreds of different lanterns in the shapes of animals, building, art work, and all kinds of imaginative creations filled the vast landscape of the Chang-Kai Shek Memorial Hall. Live Music echoed across the park, and booths full of tea, food, souvenirs, and precious stones were setup by the bushel.

On Thursday, I discovered, there would be no class for we four exchange students at Shiou Fong High School. I decided to use the day to get up early, hop a ride to the nearby Confucious Temple, and sit down to read for a while before doing other things. Upon the discovery of a park beside the temple, full of trees, ponds, and tables teaming with old men playing chinese chess, I decided to stay a while and enjoy it. While I originally sat down under a vacated hut to read, it soon became full as some more older men began a game of AnQi, a type of Chinese Chess ("Dark Chess"). Now, I don't speak a lot of Taiwanese, but let me just say, these guys had some fowl fowl mouths for 70 year olds. Great fun though.

Saturday was spent with the Rotary Exchange group in a district down south, not quite sure the name. I finally bought a good teapot and cups, and also happened to fulfill a life long dream - that being to use a potter's wheel. It wasn't as easy as I imagined, but with the help of the teacher I ended up making some classy tea cups.

I decided to go back with Phillip to the Old-Man Park on Sunday, this time bringing our own chess set, some tea, and a book. One of the old men taught us the other more popular version of Chess (AnQi) for about an hour in a quiet hard to understand taiwanese accent, though we got used to it after a little. We met up a little later with Barbara next to DaAn park to visit the weekend market under the highway to explore many many Chinese goodies.

So, be contented...I am buying souvenirs for you all like mad.

Well Ladies and Gentlemen, I'd like to wish you all a very merrily happy Chinese New Year, as it was indeed Chinese New Year not more than a week past. I know I have had a nasty habit of not keeping up with my blog entries in the weekly time schedule I had previously aspired. AND as it has been nearly a month since last word of myself, fear not, that habit remains...intact.

For the usual defense (I like the way this sounds more like a court hearing than a blog entry), I'd like to present the facts. I have been...sick. Yes, the more I got sick, the more I compelled my body to fight against the germs which might keep me in the bonds of my house, which might keep me away from the mountains, the festivals, the markets, and the fun fun fun -ness of Taiwan. So, since last I spoke of an exciting night at the movies, I developed a nasty soar throat, an overly annoying stuffy nose, and an unending hack of a cough.

That being said, that being about me being sick, being the coughing and the sickness...what I'd like to bring you all is, instead, a bunch of New Year's pictures and tales of what I have been doing instead of the travelling I so fantasized about.

I was able to hobble up the Muzha mountain once with some buds, which was nice and cozy. Same story there, more tea, more chess and a lot more rain. Many of my friends disappeared to Southern Taiwan where most people go during the Chinese New Year. So, I found out Taipei was...quite...not as exciting as I thought during this festival.

The night before New Years Day my family and I had a fantastic feast with all kinds of food, all presented at the shrine beforehand, and I received three miraculous Red Envelopes. Oh how deliciously wonderful. I won't tell you how much, but, more rice for me, I'll tell ya.

On New Years, I found myself, besides sick, swept up in a rush of very Asian looking people all holding burning incense to the sky and slowing moving in a circular pattern within the temple, visiting each deity and making with silent lips prayers for family, friends, security and shelter, and (perhaps the most popular) a good grade on the test of a son or daughter.

That day, with the rest of my family, we visited five temples, some with free incense to burn for prayer, the last two temples having free food...to eat for hunger. Interesting enough, among one specially thick throng of peoples, I laid eyes upon an aspiring mayor with his wife, passing out chocolate coins. You might come to think people really like chocolate in Taiwan if you saw the way they attacked the Mayor-to-Be, but its in fact the luck that comes with it. (Yes, Mayor Chocolate is Lucky...heh) Check the Photos.

I finally visited the Doctor after two and a half weeks being sick. You know those cartoon versions of Doctors with the strap around their head, the circular thing sticking up in the front of it, and the mask? Well, the cartoonists must have been from Taiwan. Very funny, really. So, I got some medicine (3 pills, 4 times a day...goodie) The amount of medicine I received is normal to few in Taiwan. I woke up the next morning at 5 am shivering from head to toe uncontrollably through three layers of jackets and bed covers, so I woke my parents (yes, 5am) and we went to the hospital again where they checked me again. Outcome, more sleep, more hot water, and take pills. So, I am still getting better.

Till next time, and remember, keep watching the skies.

I have been sick for the past week or more, getting better at a painstakingly slow pace. Though its my fault because I just really don't want to lie in bed all day and get better. I have loads of things on my mind and many things to do, though I still haven't been able to travel around that much of Taiwan.

My Host Parents were wonderful enough to invite me to the Premier of BrokeBack Mountain here in Taiwan (later than in the USA) which would be attended by the director, a native to Taiwan, Ang Lee (see side picture), the same director that made "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". It was good fun, a very quiet peaceful movie out on the plains with many controversial scenes.

A sad day came upon us Oh-so-Suddenly when Zach announced he would be leaving to return to the States in the next week. We tried to do one more mountain trip to Muzha before he left but although he didn't get to make it do to packing and preparing, the Fantastic Four (臺北師) were together for hopefully not the last time before Zach left us on Thursday. May the Four be reunited one day not far away.

Wow, its already been 5 months. You all know what the means? Its the half-way mark and I only got about 5 more months to cram in some serious Chinese.

So I haven't spoken much since New Year's, so lets start there.

After two months, I have changed home family's again, though my new host family is not really new since it was also my first one. Things are going well for the most part, still studying Chinese, finished with College Essays (goodness...gracious).

Our little group has gone on a serious pool playing craze. This week we must have totalled about 12 hours of pool playing. Its pretty popular here, and we are getting better. We are frequenting the 7th floor pool hall enough so that we just got a "VIP" card from the employees, handed over with a smile. Actually probably just a discount card, but ya know, Chinese - English. Give or take.

I had coffee the other day with an interesting girl from Boston. She, just like us exchangers, is here in Taipei, Taiwan for one year to study Chinese. She gets about all the same benefits except doesn't go to a local high school and instead just gets two hours of classes a day at a college. Pretty nifty, other than that she is completely independent and free with no rules or curfews...nice setup, nuts. Heh, but I still like Rotary.

I also happened to be in Ximen with a particular craving for Fried Dumplings while on our path to the Pool Hall, so when one of the "California Fitness Center" employees approached me with a brochure, I asked where I might get some Fried Dumplings. He of course had no clue, but then asked, "Can I get your number? Maybe we could do something sometime." I guess I am used to this friendly forwardness by now, but, never a dull moment. Turns out he and his friends are pretty cool, we played some serious pool with them then next day.

Yes yes, calligraphy. My teacher is now teaching me about the Chinese Name Stamps and how to copy an engraving or sculpture. Very fantastic, and next time (after vacation I requested he teach me how to draw those really cool Chinese paintings with the bamboo, trees, mountains, water and stuff).

Sunday, we were a little more lazy than normal and met around 1:00 in the afternoon to go up the Muzha mountain. Gaston couldn't be reached, him not having a cell phone (though he just got one, after five months), and Zach came six hours later. So, me a Phillip headed up the mountain and sat down a different tea hut this time. This one though, unlike the other one, has fantasticly prepared noodles and rice. The water for tea is brought to a boil over private warm embers. Chinese mountain music (straight out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon...not quite) played softy in the background. We played some Chinese Chess, chatted, and watched a good movie on (check this...) Phillip's brand-spanking-new laptop, with built in bluetooth-wifi, 80GB, Computer Case, slim design and just wonderful features, for the cheaper price of around $1,200. He has all the sweet gadgets, seriously, the nice cell phone, sleek iPod, and now this. Garg.

Winter Vacation approached a little quicker than expected, meaning I don't have school for the next three or so weeks. I am planning on taking some long and extensively tiring trips to everywhere. More temples, more mountains, more teapots, and more fun. We did have a small Chinese Test in which we had to read several chinese songs aloud to a video camera. Wasn't too hard though as we had the sheets with Characters and BoPoMoFo in front of us. After the break I plan hopefully to do something different, spending some time somewhere and experiencing more of Taiwan.

Today, very busy, started at 8:30 at YuanShanZhan (Circular Mountain [MRT] Station). Rotary organized a trip to two temples and a night market. It would have been really cool if we weren't in a large tourist looking group and the tour group leader didn't have a micrphone thereby disturbing the worshipers in the temple. Lots of interesting facts though, mostly about how to pray and fortunes.

A Vacation kind of sprung up on me from no where, normally that doesn't happen, but this was special. Starting today is four week vacation (...four weeks...heh) which will be quite relaxing, though I am not sure if I can find enough activities to fill that much free time, but I'll figure something out (more mountain time).

More later. Adios! Zai Jian!

January 2, 2006 (95年1月2日, 9:55pm)

Apologies...apologies, you know how it goes, busy with all that Christmas, New Year's Eve...kehm...applying to colleges...kehm. I spelled "cough" (kehm).

First on the Blog Agenda .::. A MERRY Christmas GOes out to everyone AROUND the world. Happy New Years also, as that happened to just have occured. I tell you, what a riot here seriously, we got Fireworks completely spewing out of the world tallest building, illegal firecrackers popping off in every corner. Just fantasticalific, gotta say.

But lets start with Christmas.

Okay, so, Christmas Eve we head over to Elsa's [Mexicana/Texas....Texicana] place for a relaxing Christmas Dinner, complete with turkey and decorations [though Jingle Bells replaced with Reggaeton]. We spent a short while there, relaxing, chatting, and semi-watching "Moulin Rouge". At about 10:30 we headed toward a club by the name of Luxy. Now I know what you are thinking, and I was thinking it too. I would much rather be snuggled up with a body-blanket, sipping hot cider, watching the Grinch and his Whoos, and awaiting the morn for presents, but as my adoptive family for this year, besides my wonderful host families, are my fellow exchangers, I wanted to stick with them for Christmas Eve. We danced for several hours, listened to some crazy Chinese Rap, oh yea, and got a little bit of techno in. Luxy, let me say, is just a great place, now even more so after seeing the "famous" MoS. Its got two different large rooms packed with persons. One room, the main room, is for rap type music and a nice video display, while the other has got techno going most of the time, sometimes with a singer. Entertaining place in general. Not much else besides some body jiggling.

Me, Zach, Phillip an I met at the MTV the other day to watch a movie, which was the plan until we realized we didn't want to watch a movie. After hanging out at the movie place for almost an hour deciding what movie to see, we headed out in search of a pool table, rather confusing the MTV employees. We travelled by taxi to an unknown destination, I am still not quite sure where we went, but we got home okay, and found a nice restaurant/pub where we played pool until late. Now, I have a duty here, to tell of my phenomenon of a pool game. Phillip, Zach, and I played pool for about an hour or two, and after came a guy that absolutely whomped us. He was seriously good, so of course he beat me. His friend walks over, who is pronounced by guy #1 as the master [of pool]. Phillip and Zach have to leave, which is a pity as there is no witness besides me and the two pool sharks who are long gone by now, but I stay to play with this "Master" dude, just to see how masterful he is. Indeed, as I watch the two men play at first, he is indeed "Masterful", pulling off 4, 5 balls in a row, with utter accuracy and precision. This all just to explain to you all the utter....no other word for it....masterful-ness with which this man played. Check it...I beat him, I crazy beat him. I know, I know. This truly was an act of thaumaturgy, truly a combination of random luck, some skill, or perhaps the good karma of a scrum-diddlyum-tious Quesadilla filling my innards. Whatever it was, I was, with ease and a smirk, popping the most gracefully perfect shots I have popped in a while. The final ball before the 8-ball, that I had to knock in, was dropped by banking the qeue-ball off TWO walls, before hitting the remaining ball in question at an angle to be set in the far corner pocket. Mind you the qeue ball was originally at the opposite end. That shot, though partly luck as I was only meaning to bank off one wall, was splendid enough that the guy #1 (not as pro as guy #2, the hotshot) began...believe it...bowing down to me...heh. I finished off the eight ball with repose; the "Master" of old, having 2, 3 balls left on the table. Pure Finesse. I bid the gentlemen good night, and like a smooth shark, strolled out of the bar at the top of my game.
My "I'm-all-that" high lasted several minutes before, upon arriving at the MRT station, ramming my uncovered toe into an escalator, thereafter prompting squimish looks from onlookers, from the amount of blood covering my sandals. That certainly balanced off my feeling of unstoppablility.

Ah, New Year's Eve. I used some extra smooth skills and got a 7 o'clock curfew for the Eve of the Year that is New. 7 o'clock of course being AM. Phillip and I hit up the Japanese Noodle Place...known for their noodles...and there we met Gaston [Mexico] along with his friend Sha-nnon/ron, one of those. Without success we tried to get a free meal by singing Chinese Songs to the Restaurant, though the lady with the check was kind enough to take off about 60 cents, though probably more out of impatience and exhasperation. We then headed toward 101 [again, the building's name], and along the way I fell into spasms of exhilaration at the amount of extremely giganticine glowsticks being sold for overly ridiculously cheapiest prices [Note: badly english to emphasize very-largness and non-expensivement of the glowing sticks]. Yes, it was a glowstickers haven that night. Our enthusiasm, however, was not properly taken advantage of, and prematurely disposed of in the account of a poor count down (the crowd group-think here needs training) and the firework display that merely lasted 3 minutes. Thats okay though! For those three minutes, it was freekin' awesome, besides, we, again, saw plenty of street fireworks.

We spent the next 30 to 60 minutes getting to know complete strangers a little more personally than desired, squished barely enough room to elbow the person trying to get in front of you. No need for that though, as the crowd waiting line for the MRT was motionless. Yae, we doth be waiting thar, but we passed the time wonderfully by entertaining the people surrounding us with belted songs and jolly laughter...ah, crazy foreigners [referring to us]. We also watched some short snowboarding clips on Phillip's iPod Video [Come One, Come All! Witness the evolution of the revolution. In lighter, thinner 30GB and 60GB models starting at $299, the new iPod is music to your eyes!]
Hope was lost for boarding the MRT station in our then present location, so we gave into peer-pressure, and followed the crowd to walk the distance of another two stations (quite a ways, mind ya'll). As the cell-phone networks finally became unbound by New Year's Greeting Calls, we managed to contact our fellow outgoers and meet up inside a club by the name of MoS. As previously hinted at, the club was not as swell as it was previously cracked up to be. The Music, while supposed to be deafeningly loud, was deafeningly loud plus some. The people were few, the DJ displayed an annoying propensity for changing songs right before the bass climax. Disgruntled, many people left early and the place was half clear by 3am. We left by five in the morning and, failing to convince any one of the five or so taxi drivers outside to take five people in one car, arrived ourselves in two at the nearest cafe that was open at that giddy hour of the morn. There, we talked for an hour or so, clinked some frozen coffee glasses amongst ourselves to a good start to a good year, and each retired to our perspective house host.

We all tried to get some rest. As for me, myself, I worked on college essays for the next 7 hours, finally nodding off for a couple at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and then going to bed at midnight that night.
What a weekend.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two wonderful big bros! They are both 22 now!

and Merry Christmas!

Hmmm....so I went ahead and deleted my entire blog....yup.

You may be wondering why thats possible as you are reading it right now...well check this.

So I was trying to edit it but since I was at school and it was a smart webpage, everything was in Chinese. I did the unfathomable and clicked a button that could delete my entire blog, without the possibility of recovery. Yes, those buttons do exist, and yes...I clicked it. I also confirmed it when the confirmation box (in chinese) popped up, thinking it was confirming saving the changes I was making...which it did, just bad changes.

Point being, still working on my chinese character comprehension...

Luckily, I am kinda a nut about backup security, so its mostly fixed. I did you all a favor and reposted all the comments, though I think I need some more...hint hint. However, if any of you notice something I didn't put back in place (especially missing blog entries, as I know a couple were lost...oh dear), please, please show your Christmas spirit let me know.

This week I was working to finish up the essays and recommendations for a couple colleges. It all got finished smoothly I think, but I still have a lot of work to do.

On Friday, Philip and I headed to Jiantan station to watch the Fire Performance on the open roof of Orange Cafe. It was wonderfully beautiful with several performers. Some of them used balls of Fire, several used staffs with fire on the ends, and the last performer used no balls, but instead the entire length of the ropes were set aflame. Fantastic, just fantastic.

Saturday was my school's 50th anniversary so I had to get up slightly earlier to be at school by 9:30 in the morning. There were all kinds of performances like KongFu type stuff, gun twirling (really sweet), dancing, and others. Gaston and I performed the extremely famous (I hear it everywhere) love song called "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo de Xin" with him singing and me playing the piano. After, Liz and Elisa sang Avril Lavigne's "Complicated" while Frodo (exchanger student but at a different school) played the guitar for it.
After the performance there were loads and loads of foods stands for each class and more mini-plays and some performances by students who had bands. We stayed there till around 2 o'clock in the afternoon, doing kind of a photo shoot as wierd as that sounds. Every one wanted pictures of us after our performances on stage.

Rotary had a party that night at a private KTV. We sang songs, ate dinner and got presents. Afterwards, a bunch of exchangers (say 20) happened to meet in the MRT station (that happens alot actually) and we all went and had some fun. Afterwards, me and Zach headed toward my house in a cab (cause I was a wee bit late). I found my door locked from the inside (later found out my little brother locked it) and my mom's cell phone didn't pick up which meant I would have to spend the night outside the apartment. I left my bag outside the apartment to tell her I was home and headed downstairs to the lounge room. Zach stayed to talk a little, but we somehow ended up talking, eating rice, and watching Ocean's 11 till 7:00 AM in the downstairs lounge room. At about that time I fell asleep on the couch while Zach talked with friends and family back home, on my phone. I was woken about 8:00 by the smiling face of an elf. Upon coming to more consciousness I realized it was the security guard who had been watching us all night long, wearing an elf hat (you should see the bus drivers in Santa Suits). He asked me why we were there and upon telling him my house was locked from the inside, he said, "Ok, I give you this place to sleep". That proved my Chinese has sunk in some since I was half awake on 30 minutes of sleep and was able to communicate. At 9:00 Zach and I went up to the apartment where my host mom just leaving. She had been wondering where I was obviously, and she let Zach sleep in our apartment. We slept till about 2:00PM, and then Zach headed home (in a spot of trouble with his hosts). All in all an interesting an fun night/morning.

Today, Monday, I got up late, bought some breakfast at the 7-11 a block away (I couldn't find the noodles in our place) and watched some TV. I headed out to see King Kong with Elisa and Liz (not too good I think) and just got home.

Not much else. I haven't had time to prepare for Christmas, but I think I will have time this week. Have a good night.

Yes yes, another two weeks have gone by, its true. Lets just expect that from now on so when a post comes out on time (every week like I should), then we will allll be very pleasantly suprised. Yip yip. Let me just begin by rejoicing for the long past college tests I have been lovingly prodded into taking. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I took the SAT, not once but twice this year, the SATII, not one of them but three, and oh yes oh yes, I did take the option ACT three times, thats two more than required. Its been jolly good fun. Good news is I am not getting that gagging sensation anymore, like the one when know you only have 5 minutes left for 15 questions. The impossible is possible. These questions do have answers. Enough...

My Host Mom was wonderful and got us tickets for Riverdance! Yehaw! It was cool, some nifty tap dancing always makes life more enjoyable. I missed my monthly rotary meeting because of it though, too bad. Next month...

Phillip and I have a new sport outside of lifting weights: meeting people. It gets a little more complicated than that, and we threw in some rules to spice it up, but the general jist is its fun.

Lets see...I went bowling with my classmates on the hill near my school. Good fun. Playing still more chess at school with the buds. Classes are fantastic now, learning about Chinese History and Chinese Characters [different parts, where they came from, etc]. Talked with some Mormons in the MRT station...not any other small news.

We had the big Chinese test that we were all "preparing" for. All but three of us passed. It was pretty simple, sitting in a room talking about who we are to some Rotary Members, but I have some serious suggestions how they might improve the way in which we are tested. Thats okay.

Ah yes, Felix, one of the Germans...lets start a new paragraph just for this exchange-memorial. He broke our heart, left us for another country. He has gone away and may his plane be aerodynamically sound to arrive at his destination. He was a happy camper, but not happy enough to want to stay a whole year. Felix, whatever crazy German Partei you may be at, party hard alter, party hard, have a good life.

On to a lighter scale, after the test this weekend my host family and I, along with two other families, went to WuLai Hot Springs in some gorgeous mountains, nice trip. Seriously great view. It also rains at the perfect moments, looking out at the pond and fog from indoors where its nice and warm. I walked around the main street while my host family settled in their rooms (I shared a room with Henry, my 11yr Host Brother) and found a great wood carving shop. Now, tell me, I got three nice painted [pottery like, not sure if its real] tea cup for NT$45, thats $0.50 each. Thats a deal right there. Then I passed by a stand by the side of the road while it was pouring rain by this time, and they were selling what looked to be roots being steamed in a metal pan. They were friendly so we chatted for like 20 minutes while they gave me some free roots to munch on (a LITTLE similar to Sweet Potatoes) and they suggested a great mountain in HuaLiang with not too many cars and a beautiful view. I might just have to go there now. Interesting guys, they asked me lots of questions about being an exchange student. [Small note: my chinese is getting good enough now that that entire conversation was in Chinese - Yip YIP!] Afterwards, a great Japanese dinner with like 5 courses and tea. We headed back to our rooms, and everyone wanted to go take a bath in their personal hot springs (one in each room, though there was a larger public one). I however wanted to play chinese chess and drink some tea (I know, getting addicted, but its everywhere here, hard to resist). So Steven Lin and I played some chess (he beat me) and then headed to bed.

Next morning (Sunday, 12-11) in WuLai we got up late (my plans to head to the other mountain again for the Buddhist holiday were cancelled due too many people cancelling because of partying late or activities with families, plus WuLai would be about 2 hours away from the mountain for me) and after breakfast headed down the mountain. On the way I spotted a nice looking temple, with an easily noticable massive golden goddess standing ontop. I headed inside for 15 minutes and talked to some friendly female nuns who gave me free incense to go with an incense holder I bought.

At 4:30 I met with Mr. Dwight Clark, a happy and very amiable semi-retired Quaker who founded VIA [Volunteers in Asia] in 1963. He was in Taiwan for just a few days for among other things, a ALC Program reunion. He was wonderfully interesting, and he told me about his life, beliefs, and how his work started. He also talked with me about my Dad, Grandfather, and how my dad had a great laugh (still does, cept now its a jolly chuckle). My Dad was, through Dwight Clark's Program, teaching English in Taiwan, around 40 years ago, while studying Chinese. We discussed life and the future for about an hour then departed.

I had dinner with my host family and the same two families with us in WuLai. We had some seriously fresh and tasty Sushi and lots of transparent noodles. At one point a very large, very sharp, and very much alive crab was wheeled in to be presented before us, after which it would be eaten by the same...heh. See pictures for that one. Anyways, scrumptuous dinner.

Still working on applications and staying awake. Hope every one's well. Till next week's blog (cross your fingers).

I haven't written since mid November, it now being the Midnight between the 3rd and 4th of December, so I am going to use extra proper english this time. The only excuse I offer is testing, my birthday, and other distractions. Christmas seems to be everywhere here, a fact slightly hypocritical as there is no day off to celebrate it. Jingles are always playing in stores or perhaps snow flake paste on's stuck to cafe windows. Cafes are everywhere, a starbucks every couple blocks next to a seven eleven, or their take-off counterparts, "Coffee Cafe" [written in the same Starbucks Font and Color] and QuanJia [also utilizing similar 7-Eleven visual appearances though in Chinese].

I must say without hestitation that I had one fantastic birthday weekend. Though my birthday was on a Saturday we had fun all three weekend days, counting Friday, partly because another exchange also had a birthday that weekend (not to fear, I am the older one by a day). Previous plans were slightly butchered by the fact that I had been contaged (deviation of contagious - a word Americans shouldn't be familiar with as it was recently masterfully created by a German) by other sick exchangers. On Wednesday I was soar with a runny nose. By Friday, I could barely speak without raspy pain subduing my esophagus. All the same, good times were had amidst singing songs and the aroma of a good pool game. After about 9:45, early I know, people started heading home, compliant with the rotary curfew of 10:30. Phillip, a German, and I, having haggled out with out hosts a later time of regression to our homes, headed to Jiantan station to watch the club of fire-twirling get raving. Upon arrival to the 3-story coffee house, we discovered I had been slightly misinformed. The fire-twirling deal was actually a performance that went one for 30 minutes in the third floor, requiring NT$200 tickets and the purchase of which to be at least 30 minutes in advance. So being 11:15 at the time, we were too late. With the sounds of apology escorting us out, we resigned to planning on going the coming week. Having been kindly booted from the cafe, we headed to a tea house. Drinking to our hearts content, we awaited the witching-hour, at which moment we exclaimed to ourselves and some interested onlookers a quiet "Hip Hip Horray", as I turned 18.

The next night, it being my real birthday, instead of the original plan of a club (again, foiled by my sickly indisposal and raspy voice), a group of us watched my close to favorite movie, "Gone in 60 Seconds" at the ZhongXiao DunHua MTV. After two hours of grand-theft packed action and Low Rider, we had some coffee and headed home. I also might mention I received some top quality gifts, those being sunglasses, candy, a tea pot, and a few unmentionables.

The next day at 5:30 am, we roused the biggest group yet to make the pilgrimage to the mountain of tea. Seven people in all arrived at the tea hut at around 8:00 in the morn and started guzzling down some cha. Sadly, we were not able to stay for too long as a couple hours later, a rather large and noisy group started singing some praises and hymns. Though they kindly offered a place for us to come also and worship, we instead headed down the road toward a restaurant. About an hour later, after some confusion swept our little gathering, we sat down for a very fancy and scrumptous meal of noodles, rice, and meat overlooking the mountain valley. Stomachs being filled, thirst being quenched, a slightly smaller pack hiked down the side of the range of hills. This time we took more advantage of the river, jumping on rocks and avoiding green slimy patches, prone to send you flying. We also visited the mysterious statue guard we had spotted from afar on our last journey down the mountain. It turned out to be a very old and spider infested statue of we-still-don't-know-who.

Upon descending and riding the MRT (subway) to ZhongXiao FuXing, we noticed [we couldn't have ignored] a curiously gigantic parade of colorfully decked out protesters. Through the noise of chants and the roar of the air being sliced by a helicopter circling above, we gazed upon an apparently very long group of people, as we could not see the end of this event in either direction. Supposedly, people had come out in anger after a political party had tried to shut down a TV channel for critizing the party. Or I could have completely lost the explanation to translation.

That night a barage of food and gifts fell upon me in a feast with my and Elisa and Tonia's host families. An array of pizza (mostly seafood) and desserts were laid out, some homemade. My quite awesome host family gave me a book in chinese (with characters and chinese phoentic symbols to learn how to read the characters), a very old, very valuable (in sentimental measure) teapot, and the new Jay Chou (probably the most famous Taiwanese artist, yet no foreigner [non Taiwanese] should know who that is) CD which included a VCD of his concert. Also presented was a wooden bread mold, some very pretty chinese style pictures, a calligraphy brush, and chinese pillow cases. Wonderful. Thanks!

This wednesday we (all central states exchangers) had a very nice dinner with some Rotary Members and the United Central States Chairman, John Weting (pronounced 'Weeting') from Michigan. He turned out to be a very enthusiastic man and experienced traveller, whose favorite food and country was the "one he hadn't yet experienced". The dinner consisted of, now just listen to this, lobster, mushroom soup, steak done to your preference, tea, and several more equisitely prepared dishes, all cooked right in front of you. To top of the free dinner for kings and the good company, each of the three exchangers present, received a generous financial gift in a red envelope. Lets just say enough to buy a lot of rice. Noooice.

With Thursday came an awesome party from my class for my birthday. They bought two massive cakes, a bunch of sodas and doritos. They gave me nifty handy-dandy magnetic chinese chess set and a couple bookmarks. If I could add, here in Taiwan, they don't just give you one wish when you blow the candles out, but three. Two of which must be spoken out loud and one kept to yourself. It also, I can only come to conclude, is a traditional to smear the birthday-person's face with frosting...yuuuum. That led to a larger frosting-on-face fight.

Today, being Saturday, I took the SAT-II (Literature, Math II, and Physics) all being nasty hard and each one hour long. I got through at 12:30 with the test and all required forms, headed home and slept till 5:30. Then I went out, played some pool with Zach and then walked around Ximen and got some coffee. So, now here I am typing in the pitch blackness of 2 AM with a nasty headache. I hope you all have a good afternoon where you people mostly are.

Moving Host Families went very smoothly, not much change in rules other than some new chores. I now have an 11 year old brother named Henry, a 13 year old sister named Angel, and new host mom named Shirley. They are all fantastic and of course very friendly. I spent my first night in the host home, which is located on the 7th floor of an apartment building about 5 minutes drive from my first host house, playing basketball in doors with Henry then playing Playstation. He and I have started a habit of playing Xiang Qi (Chinese Chess), every night...he has started a habit of his one, that of beating me almost every time. I have also been playing it at school everyday during lunch with classmates.

We visited the Shiou Fong "Orchestra"/Music group last thursday for two hours, listening to traditional Chinese music played on traditional Chinese instruments. It was not quite as good as the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" soundtrack, but still fantastic.

Tea is now my companion throughout my school days since...this week. I bought a nice package of lipton tea bags, a collection which I have been slowing erroding away. Drinking tea during the day has been extra nice now that, after a brief spell of heat, the weather has turned a tad bitter again. It makes the 'cha' all the more yummy. Once in a while I bring in Yerba Mate (de Argentina) to Chinese class where me and Los Latinos sip from the gourd throughout the 3-hour lesson.

Speaking of all this tea, we succesfully pulled off another group trip to Muzha Mountain for some tea and relaxation. This time however, the group got out of bed at around 5:30 and met at Muzha Station at 7:00 where we ate breakfast (these fanstastic tortillas with egg and a special sweet sauce, oh so good, that are very popular here - "Dan Bing"). As expected though, because of the earlier hours, we lost two of our number to the seduction of sleep. That left three people, Phillip (German), Zach (USA), and myself (Guess). We sat at the top of the mountain (sadly not as cold this time around) for about 6 hours before heading down. This time I had in mind eating lunch at a restaurant that I had spotted on the previously trip, that overlooks a rather large valley of lush forest and clouds. We never made it to that scenic eatery since I was distracted by a giant buddha sitting in a temple. After exiting the bus rather spontaneously and entering the wide open temple three stories tall (on top of the mountain, oh so cool) we talked with the temple people and over a nice cup of, heh, tea (which we were full to bursting of after 6 hours) they invited us and the rest of the exchange students to come back on December 11 for a Buddhist holiday, though I have yet to fully understand which Buddhist holiday that is. We did catch some noodles after the temple at another cool restaurant overlooking a different valley. We then, instead of do the logical action of walking on the road and catching a bus home, veered off onto a mountain trail that we had no idea of its destination, and had a great time running, jumping and climbing through the mountain to find our we down to the city. We trudged through some farms (getting some funny looks from farmers) and got slightly lost before crossing a stream and finding road again. I haven't figured out how to take a good quality close-up yet, but these mountains contain some very humungous [4-7'' spiny leg span] and very scary looking spiders lying in silent wait on very hard to see webs stretched across very narrow paths. Great fun. That night I saw a movie with a classmate named Anita. The movie was completely in Japanese with Chinese subtitles, which left me at a loss of understanding.

We saw very interesting dancing next to 101 (yes, the number is the name of the world's tallest BUILDING [1,670ft, there are two TOWERS taller than it in Russia and Canada]) and there was this guy doing flips and the craziest dance moves. I asked him afterward if he could do fire twirling (Poi, Glowsticking, Glowstringing) and, get this, he said it was to hard. Ha! We also ran in to some new exchange students from the only other district in Taipei. I later (Monday) went to one of the student's birthday party near Taipei Power Building Station. It was a fanstastic time, I beat a couple people at pool, played others games, talked and celebrated the girl's (Elsa) 18th.

I know this is early by two days but, Happy Birthday Dad!

Nuthin' like a good ol' Amerycane test ta get yer brains thumping agane...
Yet again, I took the SAT at 7:45 in the morning at the Taipei American school to see if I could bump up the score a little higher. I got there 30 minutes early just in case, and as there was a case it was good that I was there. The case was that they started 30 minutes early at 7:15. However, the case didn't really matter because they started 30 minutes late. Follow?

I completely missed Halloween. Wow, I mean, Wow. Me forgetting about the gobs of candy on doorsteps up-for-grabs...that doesn't happen very often. I am going to have to be careful that I don't forget about my birthday this month, as it has happened before. [Note to anyone who would like to send me wads of cash or perhaps a new Lamborghini, my parents have my new address...heh] I was finally clued in to Halloween for several minutes when a group of European looking kids in funny outfits, their parents, and some people with cameras were walking down the street. I am not sure where they were going to trick-or-treat to as it was the city, but hey, it looked like fun all the same. I WOULD like to know what city kids do for Halloween.

The day has come upon me when I must move my belonging to my new host stay. Today is that day so I am scambling to gather up all my stuff and write this before I leave. Wish me luck. I won't be able to walk past that cool Buddhist and Taoist shrine anymore. Speaking of temples, I don't know why I didn't mention this in the first couple weeks as its so stunning, but all the temples here are just blazened with swastikas. Well, no, thats wrong obviously. Its a swastika going clockwise. The old Hitler one I think is counterclockwise, correct me if I am wrong. Its hard to tell the difference really. But anyways, that symbol doesn't really strike any funny feeling in the hearts of the Taiwanese as it represents more peace and Buddhism than war and pain. Its on all the religious stuff and its odd to see it so much as the counterclockwise version is...bad.

My endless supply of shampoo ran out several days ago. Egads. I put buying a new supply off for a couple days much to the dismay of the ever-growing army of hair follicles on my head. I need a haircut. But I finally got the guts and time to buy some shampoo and conditioner. I mention this because the store was just packed with different bottles that seemed to be the only items in Taipei without English words minisculy written underneath the Chinese characters. So I had the problem of not being able to tell which bottle of goo was for my hair, let alone whether its for men. I am half expecting to find out in the morning that I just poured a bottle of lemon-scented Nair on my head.

I am trying to get together more with my classmates and not just with the other Rotary Exchange students. This is hard though as the Taiwanese kids are hard workers, won't go out on weekdays, and won't go out at all if they have a test, which are very often, within the next 10 or so days. Nuuuuts. However, last night I did see Chicken Little (anybody notice how short that movie was?) with Gaston (Mexico) and three of his female classmates.

Homesick season has been setting in with some of the exchanger group. I just hope their ideas of returning will be quelled by a good hot pot of Dumplings. I haven't caught the symptoms and I don't really plan to as I love being here quite a bit, but college applications are still biting at my conscience.

Heh..heh...have you ever seen a couple of stern-looking, 30 year old male military officers...giggle? Heh...just to throw that out there. It was rather funny. They are very nice though and always go slightly blind when I wear a non-school uniform sweatshirt ("illegal").

We, the exchangers and I at my school, have started to go with, instead of our normal Friday clubs, to the pool club. I know this isn't quite as much a Chinese experience as ping-pong, but I think its okay. Its loads fun and relaxing to play pool with several hours. Last week this guy in a nice suit and the look of a pro taught us a lesson or two when we played him. Yet another activity to improve at.

Small news, I finished "Angels and Demons" (by Dan Brown, fantastic book), and will now, on suggestion from my Pop, be reading a Chinese History book about as thick as the 5th Harry Potter Novel.

First and most importantly, Happy Birthday Mum!

So, after a month of failed attempts (due to sleeping in), I finally got myself up earlier enough to get to the Muzha mountain [suggested by the German girl I met at MRT Station] to drink tea with some friends. It was a 2 hour journey, but somehow, using a business card with sketchy directions in chinese, I got our group of five up on the mountain around 11:30 AM, and we stayed till 3:45 PM. You might ask how we managed to drink tea for around 4 hours and 15 minutes, but we just took our time. We sat there chatting and passing around the yerba mate' gourd (S. American Tea) and filling our glasses with hot chinese tea. Aside from looking out from our roofed patio on the rain and fog settling on the lush mountainous view, we sat and listened to countless chill songs on my iPod with portable speakers, watched a Chris Rock comedy show on Zach's computer...yes, he brought his computer...and played some cards. The entire trip including drink, 2 hour transportation for everyone, and some delicious noddle cups, cost around $15 for five people.

Afterward we headed to Taipei 101 to the bookstore (largest English bookstore in....Taiwan I guess) and then headed to the Warner Brother Movie theater to watch Zorro...kinda good movie, but...neh. Point being is that one movie for all of us cost about the same as the many hour trip to the tea mountain place.

Today, thats when all this happened, was kind of my reward for finishing the chinese exam; that being a short (2~3 minutes) speech, in Chinese, to the class about a topic of your choice. I chose Calligraphy as I have been learning some recently as I have said before. It went reasonably well, though ten minutes before we were to start the instructor told me that my BabelFish-Translation (online translator) of my speech was completely devoid of coherent logic and flow. So I spent that ten minutes redoing the whole thing with her help. The magic of computers...

Speaking of Calligraphy, I had Calligraphy class again this week, and this time we started writing. After slooowly churning the ink stick in the water held in the ink basin 200 times (No joke. After finishing 200 times, he looked at it and said, "3 more times"), Mr Grand Master had me practice an old chinese poem. The rough translation of the poem is..."When you understand a good book, it is midnight". Stunning Genius. Heh, but the calligraphy is sweet.

The BreakDance Battle flopped, and no one knew why, or at least they couldn't muster up enough english to tell us. So, sorry, no cool dancing battle videos.

I just finished Watership Down. Great book, I don't know why I stopped reading it half way through a year or two ago. But, business finished, I am now on to "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown, as I have been told countless times of its underrated superiority to Dan Brown's more well-know book, "Da-Vinci Code".

SAT is coming up yet again in...next week I think. Yes, I am taking it yet another time...I like it that much...but seriously, whehf, I am already starting to memorize the Proctors' little "fill in the bubbles completely. Any stray marks will..." speeches.

The school had a basketball tournament this week between all the classes. It got seriously intense. Lots of injuries, falls, and shouts of "Zou! Zou! Zou!" by the crazed supporters. For a low key bunch, they would do wonders as Football Super-Fans.

This thursday instead of school, all the Rotary exchange students will be viewing presentations put on by younger students at another school in Taipei and then heading off to some hot springs to enjoy some heat.

Happy Halloween and coming November!

10:58 in the Morning
Living Room :: Host House [01]
Zhong Shan N Rd :: Taipei :: Taiwan

Subject relaxing on couch; typing.
No mysterious actions reported other than
eating an above average number of yogurts.

Hello again.
I'd just like to say on my defense, those yogurts are fantastic. They are not just any yogurts, but chinese mini-cup yogurts popular throughout Asia (and unknown to the US). They come in a tini plastic cup, and are actually liquid. I really don't think they are even yogurts, but thats what all the chinese people like to call them, so I do too. But they are great. They can but finished in one gulp. But enough of my lactose fascinations. Here's your weekly report.

Right after I wrote last week I went out with my classmates to watch Deuce Bigalow, the male...person. Instead, due to the fact we were late, we ended up watching Flight Plan. Turns out all the movies here (unless they are made in Asia: few and far) are in English with Chinese subtitles. Since my classmates didn't speak much english and I didn't speak much Chinese, the evening was full of mistranslations and pointing wildly at things. I also noticed I am starting to over exaggerate my verbal responses in order to make things more clear. It would look strange back in the US I am sure, so I better no how to stop.

I met some kids in the park near my house the other day while walking home from Liz's birthday "outing". I happened on them because I heard one of them playing guitar (in english) and singing some Red Hot Chilli Peppers song or something. Most of them go to the Taipei American School but a few go to a British school. It was interesting cause there were so many different ethnicities played up. There was a girl part Taiwanese and Scandinavian?. Though she lived in Taiwan all her life and spoke English and the other language from Europe, she didn't speak much Chinese. There was a Mexican boy that spoke perfect english, and kids that were half Taiwanese and half British. They were all pretty friendly and I talked with them awhile before realizing I was 30 minutes or so late, so I headed home.

I also met, a couple nights later, two Americans in the same park. One of them, the guy named Reed, was doing Poi (almost exactly like glowstringing). The girl named Lauren was hoolahooping. But they told me about a group of people that get together every Friday night at 11pm at a Coffee Shop (prolly outside it) and spin balls of fire round their bodies. It looks fantastic. I might just have to put a video of it up. I won't however be able to see the fire-twirlers as the time is after my curfew. Nuts. Coincidentally I came across a street performer doing fire-poi the other night in Ximen as I was going home. He was from New Jersey (but with chinese parents) living here for about a year and learned fire poi and the body ball thing (rolling a ball around your body, really cool) both offline and from friends. I think I shall have to learn the ball thing now. For anyone interested... [ http://www.homeofpoi.com | http://www.glowsticking.com | http://www.contactjuggling.com ]

I had my first lesson with the Grand Master of Calligrahy (Mr. Lin), heh. He drove me to his house 5 minutes away by motorscooter (Yeya) and my homeroom teacher arrived a little later. He owns stories of an apartment, the top one full of tables laid out with calligraphy brushes and and ink stones. The whole place looked awesome, like an ancient chinese palace or something.

This past Friday, instead of going to Ping-Pong club I went with Liz and Elisa to the Pool club which took place at place full of pool tables five minutes away from school. I was whomped, I tell you, whomped. I had no chance. Another activity I have to practice. To satisfy our pool sharks' sweet toothes we headed to the candy store two shops over. We filled up a couple bags of sweets and sat munching for a while, while watching more pool. Afterwards I headed out to dinner with my classmates at a Barbeque type restaurant. You sit at a table with four holes, one in front of each person. They put a metal pot of water in the whole and it starts boiling. You boil the vegetables and meats you picked out from the All-You-Can-Eat type section and eat. The food was fantastic. After eating almost all of my food save for some noodles and lettuce I was full. Everyone else had finished all of their food and were looking at me. They told me that the restaurant had a rule that if you don't finish your food you are charged 100NT for adults and $50NT for children. This rule is to teach people a lesson about finishing their food they said. Wow. Well I finished my food.

Yesterday Liz, Elisa and I headed to Danshui with some students from the 501 class. {{HA! No way. Let me interrupt this to just say this famous singer guy singing a really romantic taiwanese song, that I am now watching on TV, is sporting the mole and hair thing on his chin. Those hairs (no joke) are about 3~4 inches long.}} Anways, we went to dinner at a three story restaurant were they were only about 8 different kinds of bowls you could order. It was fantastic food though. Then we headed across the large lake in a boat and got on some of those (what they call in the US) crouch rockets and rode around the park for an hour.

My next host host is coming up. I move on the 6th of November to an apartment maybe 10~15 minutes away, I forget. The family has a daughter a couple years younger than me and a younger son (don't know his age). I visited their house previously and on that occasion I had loads of fun with the brother playing PlayStation and shooting his BeeBee gun in the kitchen. They are nice people, so, looking forward though I will miss my current host house. Its so relaxing here.

Have a nice day.

Hello again...

The two month marker for my stay in Taiwan is coming up in a couple days here. The longest I have been away from home was I think a month. As my brother pointed out, by the time this year comes to an end, I will have been gone away from my family longer than any other family member has. This is because, I think most of you know, I will not be returning home for any Holiday (including Christmas) until around...July? Mmmmm, the sensation of indepence is gushing through my veins.

I don't know how many people get to go to a KTV (is that the word in the US? It means Karaoke rooms) in the United States, but I finally got to go to one last week I think. Nothing less than a great time and a scratchy throat can come from a couple hours with 12 friends spent in a small dark room with a TV with a knack for getting people to embarass themselves. It got even more roudy as it turned out the employees (that were constantly coming in and out of our cell, due to the excessive Help Button requests) had barely enough English to utter a word of exasperated impatience. All the same, we had a great time yodeling songs to our throat's content, though they only really had corney songs like the Backstreet Boys and oldies (Hey Jude!) which made the potential for the situation all the more dangerous.

Check this out, okay, so I am doing my Calligraphy with my homeroom teacher right, and this guy walks in. My teacher points at him excitedly and brings him over. Turns out he is a specialized calligraphy teacher. The Grand Master Calligrapher guy writes a couple chinese words for me, showing me how its done. My teacher talks with the Master Calligrapher guy for a minute or two, and now, thanks to her, I will be having studio lessons with him an hour a week (maybe two if he can) for free. A side note; ONE chinese character written by this man is worth $2,000 NT (thats about $66.66 US for a couple seconds work). This guy is good.

Studying the SAT has taken up much of my precious time last week, as the test was the coming Saturday morning. It was a last minute decision to take it, but I think I did pretty well. I took it at the (now listen closely) Taipei AMERICAN School, right near my house. You would think this is the school where all the American/European business people's sons and daughters attend. In reality (as I came to ponder while noticing I was the very small minority in the room), the majority of the kids going there turned out to be Chinese, Taiwanese, or of Asian decent (and all with really great American sounding names like, Vincent Chen and John Lee). The difference between them and the other Chinese kids going to normal public schools is that the kids going to the American school have (in one way or another) American passports. Anyways, glad that that SAT is over for now. I am taking another one in November.

I still haven't gotten to go on my planned visit to the top of that mountain near Muzha. Hopefully I will go this Saturday and me, Zach and Gaston will get to relax, drink some tea for several hours while enjoying some cool weather and either listening to music or reading a nice book (Angels and Demons, Dan Brown). But who knows, that has been the plan for the last several weekends and I end up sleeping to late and getting lazy at the last minute. Also coming up next weekend is a Break-Dancing competition which I am looking forward to. I'll put a video up after we go. These guys are good (asian people always seem to be good at those G[K]ong-Fu kinds of things).

This past Sunday we checked out Danshui, (45 minutes from my house). It was better than we expected; a fantastic narrow alley spilling over with shops and people. Food and games were everywhere, and it was located right on the edge of a large lake (I think thats what it was). This was a great place to buy souvenir and chinese things like fat buddhas or a big roasted squid on a stick (really bland but extremely chewy). Also along the alley we happened upon a museum full of strange mutant animals and freaky Ripley's-Believe-It-or-Not type things. They had a yellow ~7 foot snake sitting out on a stand in the open (alive) which people came up and petted (though I think it was drugged as it barely moved). There was all sorts of startling things like ancient contraceptives (this happened to be next to a shop devoted entirely to this - strange place to have one) and many two headed animals on display.

Monday there was no school (10th October, like US's 4th July) and though we did not get to see any festival stuff, we all went to the Zoo. It was strange that the bulk of the exhibits were dead animals stuffed and on display and not so many live animals. Probably a lost in translation thing when they called it a Zoo. That night I went my first Taiwanese wedding. I am not even sure if it was a wedding or an after wedding celebration actually, but at one time the Bride was in the big European Bride dress and the couple kissed up in front after a minute of words. So...maybe, maybe not. The food was brought out in a great manner. The big chef in his classic 'leaning-tower-of-Pisa' Hat stood up front holding a huge platter of food and while traditional chinese music rang through the room. He stood there while his waiter people (with the food in their arms) did a kind of line dance amidst the tables, running in patterns, and finally gave us our food. You had to see it (alas, no camera).

Yesterday had a rather exhausting beginning. My alarm clock went off and I dreamed it was set to an earlier time than needed. SO I hit it and slept 30 more minutes at which time I actually did wake up and realize I was late. Frantically, I got ready and ran out of my house to the bus stop 5 minutes away, only to find I didn't have any money nor my bus card because I had forgotten my wallet (meaning I couldn't go anywhere). As I ran back to the house, I remembered that because I had forgotten my wallet I did not have the keys to the gate outside my house (I keep my keys in my wallet). I also found out that my cell phone was dead (I forgot to charge it the night before and I didn't have the number for the house elsewhere let alone another phone) and the caller system at the gate to the house just happened to be broken...a bit of a predicament if you ask me. As I thought about the state of affairs I was in...it began to rain the acid rain which is supposed to make you loose your hair. Guess who forgot their umbrella. So I couldn't go home, I couldn't go to school or anywhere, I had no money and I had no communication. HA! A strange thing happened 30 minutes later. A motorcyclist drove up and instead of continuing straight on the road he parked in front of the gate and unlocked the door. I hadn't a clue who he was but he let me in. I ran out of the house again 5 minutes later to find him still sitting there on his motorcycle inside the gate. Haven't seen him since, but thanks to him I got to school.
Lo, there do I bathe in the River of Lethe...

For all you poor souls who haven't discovered the magic of Podcasts and E-books...you should take a look, thats all I gotta say. I tell you, it is so much more wonderful in the morning to use my hour and a half of transportation to school to listen to a book or Presidential Weekly Update (just found out that existed) instead of staring at the mole hair of the person sitting directly across me, on the train. (Quick fact: Mole hair seems to be a very trendy style here even with some younger guys. In fact, as I was previously told by my Asian friend back in the US, it brings the person, you guessed it, luck)

'Nuf said 'bout Lucky Mole Hair...
I started getting food at this breakfast place along with other students before school each day. They have this great meal; a tortilla look-alike and milk tea. I used to eat it while walking to school from the store until one day, while eating and walking, I flipped the box accidently. I ignored it as I had to get to school on time and the street dogs could get it. I heard someone uttering sharp words behind me and drew my breath. The head military officer at school had been walking directly behind me, and was now scolding me in chinese, as I had just sloshed my saucy squishy egg and tortilla practically on his feet. It would have been a good breakfast.

Last night we headed out to an MTV (not the show) where we rented a large room with very comfy couches and a huge screen and choose a movie to watch. We saw one of my personal favorites, "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels", a British type action (with a spice of comedy). We then headed to a Pizza Hut. Yup.

In other news...I had another Rotary meeting, got a little sick again, bought a new belt, beat Gaston in Basketball, and found out the existence of a great new computer program. Conceeerning the program...there is a new computer program out (created at the University of California, Berkeley) that can actually discern what you type by LISTENING TO THE SOUND OF YOU TYPING ON THE KEYBOARD. No lie. Check out the research paper at http://keyboard-emanations.org/ This is a real thing.

Anyways, till next week. Sorry for the long lapse between the last post and now. I am going to blame it on the SAT to make me feel better.

Thursday, Sep 29, 2005
3rd Floor, Host House

Wow, looks like its been 9 days since the last post. Whoops. I hope you all like the new blog layout, pictures will be updated on the right hand side with new ones at the top. Thanks to...Anonymous. Heh.

Friday of last week started the first Rotary Youth Exchange outing of the year. I got up a little later than for school and was picked up by Spencer, Tonia and Elisa, and brought to the airport. There we met up with all the other exchange students from the entire district (about 25). The group comprises up several Mexicans, Germans, Americans (+Canada), Japanese, Brazilians, along with the Colombian girl, Liz. Its a great group really, fanastic fun.

We all piled on the small plane and flew for an hour to the popular island of Penghu. The water appeared fantastic and green coming in on the plane, and later we were able to swim in it. After dropping our luggage off in our rooms (four people in rooms with two beds) we had a good dinner made up of thin noodles, shrimp, bottled tea, and oranges for desert. Little did we know that we would have almost that exact same meal about 3 more times in three days. It was good though.

By day we participated in several activities including exploring the region and local attractions (temples, food, shops and this really old well), and looking at fish. We went on a boat out to a floating restaurant where we were taken on another short trip to catch some of our food to eat. They hoisted out their oyster/clam catches, still "alive" and popped them open for us to eat. I don't know the next time I am going to be able to have that fresh of oysters, seriously. We headed back to the floating restaurant where they gave us fishing poles baited and ready to stick in a pool full of very large shark looking fish. It was not easy to get those guys to bite, let alone stay on the line. We, the exchangers, ended up getting so frustrated that we eventually ditched the poles and tried to catch them with our hands (luring them in with bread which they liked) when they passed by the edge of the water. No one was successful though. You would think with 2 hours, fishing poles, bait, and 25 exchangers gathered around an inclosed pool, we could have caught something, but no.
We also went to an aquarium, home of many cool looking fishiiies. There were humongous stingray, crab guys, fish that looked like they were singers, and glowsticking fish (see pictures).

At night we all got together and went out to the beach or stayed in one person's room, talked, listened to music and had fun. It was some serious fun and very relaxing. The last day we travelled by bus and boat to get to a great beach where we snorkled, and rode a ski-doo and this giant hot dog inflated looking raft (seats 8 people). Great fun.

This week at school, I arranged with the school so I can practice piano in the music room every Tuesday and Thursday (I don't have much time for it at home) for 30-45 minutes (depending on how fast I eat my lunch) while every else has nap time, which they need since they go to bed at 12:00 or later, and wake up at 5~6 EVERY week day. I am thinking about making it every day, I am beginning to enjoy it more again, its nice. Today as I was practicing, some girls not taking a nap were outside, and when they heard me they piled in and sat on the seats in front of me listening. And they clapped and laughed and stuff when I finished. That was cool. Goodness they are nice.

Oh yea, my teacher, after I told her I wanted to learn "Shu- Fa\", calligraphy, is now teaching me two hours every day during school how to write calligraphy (ya know, brush and ink and stuff). Its fantastic, I love it. She said its supposed to put your heart at peace and give you patience. Seriously, it takes like 5 seconds to make one stroke of a character (even for her).

So I was walking to school in the rain and my classmates ran up to me insisting I get under the umbrella but I really didn't want to as I like the rain and walking in it. After some questions as to WHY they wanted me under the umbrella so badly, I got back a rough answer, "If you walk in rain, you no hair"... That got me curious (and got my under the umbrella). As it turns out, since Taipei is one of the most polluted cities in the world, the rain is so...acidic or poisonous or something, that if it gets in your hair alot, your hair falls out and you go bald. Yup! (Which puts a damper on the possibility of romantic love scenes in the rain, from the movies in taipei)

I am practicing basketball now almost everyday instead of baseball since I don't do much in baseball besides throw and catch with Gaston. I really have to work on my shot.

My Chinese, I think, is always improving. I am definitely able to converse more with students. I know many characters now also. I read everything I can on the MRT, bus, train and walking around Taipei.

Till next week.

Saturday. Sept.19, 2005
9:23 PM

The administrators at the school decided that since we are probably bored in class all day (as we don't understand the classes), instead of the last two hours of the school day, we will play sports. Gaston and I play Baseball and Elisa and Liz play softball, and we do this now this whole month from 2:00 - 4:00 in the afternoon.
The guys on the team are crazy good, and of course very friendly. I am not sure I would be able to join a top-notch baseball team (or really any sport) back in the US without getting a *hard time* from the players on the team, since I have never played baseball (kinda). Here, though, they are completely friendly and accepting, which is awesome. I seriously have to work on my throwing aim. There have been several near misses between the ball and people's head because of it.

School is mostly the same everyday now, so I won't go on describing it much more, but basically I listen sometimes and sleep at other times. Most of the time, however, I sit listening to whatever music or audio book while studying either my chinese book all day (mon, wed, fri) or studying for taking yet another SAT test for college (tues, thur).

I was pretty sick on Thursday, really soar, weak and tired. My stomach felt a little strange at times also, so I figure its something I ate. I stayed home friday sleeping and watching tv all day.

Saturday night was nice, me and a couple other guys, along with the Canadian girl, went to Ximen again and just hung out and went to the arcade. They have all kinds of crazy games there, I mean, wow. They have a game where you fight fires, a game where you ride a horse, punching contest thing, drumming set, dance revolution (also using your hands in the air, something Microsoft still has in testing, and here is already old), and other cool stuff.

Sunday was the Moon festival, not quite sure what that is, other than celebrating the moon. All month everyone has been eating moon cakes (really sweet ~2'' diameter round cakes with dried egg yoke in the middle, sometimes with nuts). Elisa, Tonia and I went with some of Tonia's friends from Dong Fang down near Ximen, underneath a highway and had a fantastic barbeque. For around, say 4 hours we all sat around a mini-grill and continuously grilled things like squid, pork, other meats, and shrimp-like-things that had been alive just 2 minutes earlier. There was Karaoke, games, some gambling looking stuff, and fireworks all underneath this small stretch of raised highway. The shrimp game was cool (though I never did catch one). You get a wood stick with a string and metal hooked tied to it, then you put it in the tub of water and shrimp, and try to hook one without it cutting the line (very very hard, believe me). If you hooked one and successfully put it in another bucket of water, then the lady grabbed the shrimp stuck a stake through it right there and then, and handed it over like a lollipop, ready to roast.

Oh yea, this was great. We were coming back from the barbeque in the MRT station when this girl (Lillian, from Germany but with perfect english) ran up to me and excitedly (after having seen my Westtown Boarding School shirt, my brother's) if I had gone to Westtown school. We talked with her and her two friends for a couple minutes before having to rush home almost late, but she told me about a Temple/hut (or something) atop a mountain about an hour away that people climb up to, to have tea...its my destiny. I think I'll go in like two weeks, and have a weekend of visiting big temples, preferably in the mountains...and drinkin' tea.

I went swimming today, not much else. Happy moon festival.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Its 11:00 in the morning on a Saturday and I just woke up...that felt good. School has started for me and all the exchange students. I visited the Dong Fang orientation. They have fantastic classes and interesting pictures. There is one promotional picture with a classroom full of students just like normal and the teacher up front at the desk teaching. But instead of the usual stacks of books on the front desk there is laid out a variety of wine, spirits, vodka and stuff. Its the strangest and funniest thing thing. Buts thats Dong Fang, on to my school, Shiou Fong.

First day at our school we had a small orientation they we understood non of (all in chinese). While we were sitting there we had our first little earthquake. It was barely noticable, it felt like I was being rocked gently to sleep in my chair. Pretty cool. Our school uniforms are a light blue button down shirt and dark navy blue pants. However, we have been having to wear the sports uniforms which are baby blue long pants and white/baby blue long sleeve shirt. Really hot uniform, in both ways. All the exchange students at Shiou Fong High School are in different classes but the same grade, and the school is about a thousand students. I chose Ping Pong as my club yesterday which I am not quite sure is the right choice as there is also Tae Kwon Do, Pool (as in Billiards), and a gun twirling club (yea, I know). Basketball is also extremely very popular, but I didn't choose that either.

The welcome from the students was very unexpected. I did expect to get some funny looks as a 6'1~6'2 American in chinese school uniform but not so many. All four of us (and from what I have heard those at the other schools too) were bombarded with "Can I take your picture?", "Please, may I touch your hair? It is so cool!" "Why are your eyes blue? ooooo" I got this before in China, but I thought this wouldn't happen in the far more westernized Taiwan and still ten years later. Kids of all ages were lining up to meet the "Wei guo ren", the foreigners. It hasn't really stopped either since I have been there for a week. I keep getting this looks of stunned disbelief and picture requests. Its like instant celebrity.

They are all incredibly friendly, always available for a question and they all know at least "hello" and "My name is ___, what is yours?" in english. Have you ever seen a kid twirl a pen in class around his fingers? Yea, they are all over here. Like, all of them can do it, and not just one trick that they can barely pull off, but like they have a whole closet of tricks they can do while the teacher is talking. Its crazy. They were suprised that Americans did not do the same. (I have started learning their tricks and have gotten better.) But yea, they all rock the house. Very friendly. No one I have seen has cut each other down and its like Utopia in a strict classroom.
(Link to pen twirling video: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=pen-tricks&pl=1)

Strict...heh, yea. Military officers are everywhere, and they teach some of the classes, though we stay in our homeroom most of the day, even for lunch (the cafeteria is full of an array of cool and tasty bread and water, and some juice) and the required "nap time" after lunch for 30 minutes. They inforce the rules like tardiness and uniforms. So far we have had two mass school speeches from the military officers about wearing uniforms (since a couple kids didn't). Also, in my class of 38, there were four kids that didn't wear the right uniform (they didn't wear the sports one) and so the teacher took 15 minutes to lecture them. It was different though, the kids, though they had to stand up and listen, didn't actually have to pay attention to the lecture. They had a book in their hands or were looking outside, or were studying a paper on their desk. The teacher didn't seem to mind. By the way, punishment for late homework and other stuff like swearing is to stand up from your seat (in class) and just stand for 15 minutes. It gets tiring, really. I had to do it, not for punishment, but for a class, we all had to stand at attention to the military officer (the teacher) while he told as how to stand at attention and where to put the various body parts while doing so. He was funny though and friendly. Its a wierd combination, every one is very strict (not to the exchange students though), but very very friendly and funny.

Hey, small note, I had pig stomach, ear, and tongue for the first time for dinner two nights ago. It was not bad, though it won't go to my favorites list. Also, I had a another small speech to my Rotary club, half of it in chinese. Fantastic.

So I have a schedule worked out...
I get up at 5:30 in the morning, walk 10 minutes (past a mini-shrine and incense, always nice) to the bus stop, take that for like 15 minutes to the MRT rail station which I take for like 20~25 minutes and then hop on a train that takes about another 30 minutes. I get to school at a couple minutes before 7:30, which is when it starts. So it takes about an hour and a half every day to get to school and the same to get back. Nasty, but I have time to relax some and listen to music or read or study chinese. Then I sit in class listening for lets say, 9 hours, till 4:00 PM, trying to pick up as much chinese as possible. I then head home, if not doing anything else, where I have great food (I always love dinner) and then sit down to watch the same good chinese soap opera (I almost have the opening tune memorized) with Acgong (my host-grandpa) and my host-parents while first slurping down a small frozen yogurt/milk bottle (they are soo good, and so familiar, I think I used to have them in China) and then, to tell again, having hot tea in really small cups. For some reason, now that I am here I have more willpower and can get into a schedule easier. I have been working out slightly, as much I can without equipment too handy, and I even got to run 5k a couple nights ago (I did it in about 20 minutes with not much practice recently, I guess thats were the low altitude comes in).

The exchangers get shinese lessons 3 times a week for two hours each time, during and at school (good). I just found out that there will be a chinese test after 3 months. If were don't pass it, we get sent home. I am told not to worry about it though. Hmpf. I am learning alot of chinese though. I understand alot of really basic sentences. I am also getting to practice my spanish now with the two exchange students, also at Shiou Fong, from Colombia and Mexico. I had a great time listening to some spanish music.

So Elisa and Tonia got the exchangers together to go to Ximen last night (very popular teenage destination with tons of stuff to do). We went to some stores, an arcade, and then to a multi-level bar type thing. Don't worry, we had some hot Japanese green tea, mm, so good. There we all talked for like, and hour or so. I got to meet one of the other American dudes, Sac, and we talked alot of Taiwan and stuff. Nice dude. So that was relaxing. Afterwards the girls wanted to go to the Japanese Picture booths, so we did and got lots of litte mini sticker-pictures to stick to things. Yip Yip! Oh yea, also when we first got there, there was a tv crew running around spot lighting people (all of them running away). Then they spotted our group and came up to me "Oh, you speak English? Here here, the girl would like to sing a song for you! Would you like that?" I said that would be cool, so under glaring spotlight on tv, this small chinese girl in some tv show outfit or something for a game show I guess sang me a bit of a song by Avril Lavigne. Then they asked me whether I wanted to give here a coster with a O on it. A point for the girl I guess. I did, and they ran off looking for another person. Sweet. Random stuff like things seems to like happening.

Anyways, so thats about it. This place feels very familiar. I mix between Japan and China. It seriously feels like I always lived here, just like another home. Sorry to mum and pop for not writing this for 10 days, as you can see a lot going on. But there is alot I have written here, so enjoy you two. Over and out.