Tidbits from Taiwan

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.