Tidbits from Taiwan

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.