Camp, test and school

Friday at noon I once again was placed together with a lot of people that I did not know. This time though English was widely understood and spoke, and the unknown people did not only come from Taiwan but from all over the world. All in all we were about 100 people gathered to participate in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards workshop/Intro Camp.  50% of the young people came from Taiwan and participated in the camp to improve their leadership skills. The other 50% came as mentioned from all over the world and had just arrived to Taiwan. In front of us we all had three days of experiences we yet didn’t know, but when we returned home Sunday we had all made friends and done thing, that we will never forget.

    After an hour of bus driving to a resort outside Taipei the activities were about to begin. To be earnest most of Friday consisted of saying hello to a lot of people and listening to some presentations held by Taiwanese Rotarians. In the evening though it got interesting as the Rotarians (and remember the 4 D’s: no drinking, dating, drugs and driving) actually threw a party for us with a DJ and everything. It was really fun and great to do something together without having to tell about your country.

    Later I figured out that throwing a party was actually a great idea as it made the Rotarians sure that their students would sleep at night and not run around at the hotel making trouble! :) And even though it worked we did not get much sleep, as we had to get up 6:30 the next morning. This day offered one of the most frightening but fun experiences I have ever had.

    In the afternoon we were separated into teams consisting of 10 persons (mixed together Taiwanese and foreigners). We started up doing exercises to improve hour confidence in one another, because soon one of use would be dangling 12 meters over the earth only held by this group which members you had just met 24 hours ago.  We were going to do sky walking, and my first trip to the sky went to a tree trunk 10 meters up in the air. Luckily I had some nice and strong friends holding my line on the earth but anyway my legs were shaking and my heart was pounding as never before. But the adrenalin and the feeling of actually to be walking 10 meters over the earth made the experience extremely great, and when my team had lowered me safely down on the ground, I just wanted to go up again.

    And up I went. This time on a thin, thin line 12 meters over the earth. As I was crawling up towards the line I suddenly realised that I had an ant walking cheerfully on my hand – and that is NOT what you want to focus on when you are 9 meters up in the air! Anyway my second trip was even greater than the first one, and it is so great being able to say that: I DID IT! :D

    Sunday was hardly as frightening as Saturday, but this day was great as well as my group won the price of being the best group (we had received points for everything like the cooperation during the sky walking, some games we had done, a drama we had done etc.)! Great! :D That meant that I Sunday afternoon went home with two diplomas in my hands: one for participating in this camp, and one for winning the price of best group. In addition I also brought home a lot of pins and visit cards not to speak of all the information!

Therefore it is not strange that I was really exhausted as I Sunday evening went to bed. I went to bed very early as I had to be ready for the mandarin test that I did this morning. So unfortunately I can’t excuse my bad achievement in the test with a lack of sleep – no the test was just really difficult as it did not use Bopomofo but traditional Taiwanese characters which I cannot read. Luckily everybody found the test hard, so it is not because I’m extremely dumb (or…. that is what I keep telling myself :p ). Anyway the test did not really leave me with a feeling of success… But that did my first school day!

Because after on I took the bus to school, and here I have an extremely sweet counsellor (even though her English is limited). She helped me finding my new school uniform (I can’t wait to wear it!), choosing subjects, finding my classroom and so on. My first class was geography (and I understood like… NOTHING), but people were really friendly and kept on smiling to me! This was the only class I had, as I had to do a lot of practical stuff, but tomorrow I will have an entire day at school.

I hope you have a great time in Denmark!

Julia :)

P.s. I forgot to tell that I experienced my first earthquake ever today! It was actually pretty big but short – and really fun! But don’t worry because nothing happened to anyone :D 

Water, water, water

Though a little nervous about the swimming pool trip, because of the Taiwanese’s shyness of showing their body, we had a really great time in the pool. I definitely was the only one to wear a bikini, but nobody seemed to care so it did not cause me any problems.

    When entering the swimming pool my two youngest host sisters (18 and 23) told me to go to the lane 4, 5 or 6 if I wanted to swim for exercise. As I have been really lazy since I came here, I decided to swim some hundred meters. After having swum about 50 m I realized that I was subject for admiring glances from my host sisters – and that because they cannot swim. They just kind of walked back and forth with a yellow foam rubber board in a very slow tempo. After swimming a little more I decided to join them, and we went to the playground area where I showed them how to do a handstand under water. They were very impressed and tried to learn it – without success, but though very fun!

    Finally my host sister Ya-Kuang (23) asked me, if I could possibly teach her how to swim like a frog (and with that she meant breaststroke) – and of course I could (or at least I could do my best)! We began with the legs, then the arms and so on, and suddenly not just the two of my host sisters but a lot of Taiwanese swimming guests where watching me do the legs in an educational tempo! Ha ha :) I don’t know if the other Taiwanese persons learned anything, but when my host sister and I went home, they were actually able to swim 12 m without touching the bottom! Well done!

And concerning water I have had some funny seafood experiences! Yesterday evening one of the many dishes my ma-ma served were small octopuses – not cut into pieces or anything, just octopuses. As I didn’t know how to eat them I had to ask my one of my host sisters and she showed me how to pull out the inner parts and eat the rest in small rings. It was actually delicious!

    And right now I am watching my ma-ma and my youngest host sister much some dried fish in strips (I only thought they did that in Norway and Island?). When I first saw it, I thought it was noodles but I can ensure you that it is not! Yuck – not my favourite! :)

Tomorrow I am going on the inbound camp for three days so I am not going to be active on my blog – I am going to have a lot of fun instead! :)

Julia 

Getting used to, well... some of it!

How can a trip to the zoo possibly be so exhausting? Ahhhh: because of the heat of course. I am sweating all day long as if I had just had a very hard gym class in school. Unfortunately that is not the case, and I wonder how much I am going to sweat, when I start having gym classes at school...

    But apart from the sweat I’m having a really good time here in Taipei. Yesterday my youngest host sister and a lot of her friends took me to Taipei zoo. Before we entered, we made a stop at McDonald’s, and it was a relief to see Taiwanese people eat without chopsticks although my skills are improving. After consuming a Sunday Ice-cream (which is really funny to hear pronounced in Chinese) a cake suddenly appeared from one of the girl’s bag because another girl had had birthday during the summer holyday. It was really great fun in the cosy way as we sang “Happy Birthday to You” and shared the impressive cake – at McDonald’s! :D 

    Afterwards we finally went to the zoo, and after some hours in the exhausting sun we made it to the panda’s house. As the panda is my favourite animal I had really been looking forward to this, and it was such a lovely experience to see two big, lazy pandas laying sleeping behind the glass. Unfortunately they did not look at me, so the pictures I took (without flash not to disturb them), are not impressive, but just to see them from behind was a great experience for me!

So apart from the warm and humid weather I find everything really great here in Taipei, and yesterday I realized that I was actually drinking from my rice bowl without hesitating – I guess that means, that I’m getting used to everything here :) Concerning eating I have the honour of eating dinner together with ba-ba (father in Chinese) every evening, and that is definitely an experience! He has an impressive “snap-slope-suck” technique, which I have to practice a lot to be able to copy!

    Right now I just stick to improving my chopstick- and Chinese skills, and the amazing thing is, that I am actually able to read children’s books in ㄅㄆㄇㄈ (a Taiwanese alphabet used to learn Chinese called Bopomofo – the sounds of the first four letters written before this parenthesis). Hopefully Bopomofo will help me getting better, although it is not very likely that my schoolbooks will be in Bopomofo. By the way school starts at Monday but before that I have to go to the inbound camp, and to a Chinese test, and right now I am about to go to an indoor swimming pool with two of my host sisters. That is going to be interesting, as they are very impressed that I have a bikini and not a swimsuit (they are not very fond of showing their body)!

I hope everything is good in Denmark – because everything is great in Taipei!

Julia :)

A fantastic day in Taipei!

My positive surprise of getting my own bed was maybe a bit too much, as it is hard as a rock (healthy I guess?) – though a bed. Anyway the jetlag and my cold did not make my sleep better, but as I had been awake for a while in the night I managed to sleep until 11 o’clock local time – and that is good :)

    I woke up to a bit of a Taiwanese brunch: a bowl of rich for each person, and a lot of small dishes such as fish, seaweed, chicken, tofu noodles and a lot of things I couldn’t recognise. Later, when we went to a small supermarket, my host mom asked me, what I would like to eat for breakfast, and I used the opportunity to show her some rolled oats, so hopefully my next brunch will not consist of fish – delicious, but not in the morning :)

At the supermarket we bought a lot of candy, and I kind of figured out, that Sunday was my families candy-day. But as soon as we got home I found out, that everything we had bought had to be sacrificed to the ancestors. As I hadn’t bought anything I decided to give the ancestors some of my lakrids! I wonder if they like it… (well, if they like the cola and M&M that my family gave to them, then why not lakrids…) :D

At half past five my oldest host sister, her boyfriend and a friend took me to Shihlin Night Market. It consists of a lot of narrow passages covered with cheap shops. One passage migt be with food, another one with clothing, and a third one with dogs. We went and oat some Taiwanese specialities: Oyster omelette, prawn omelette, some fried fish and stinky tofu (I’ve been warned about the last dish because of its smell, but it wasn’t so bad, and I actually liked the taste) :)

    After walking through a lot of passages and visiting some shops we found a box, where we could take photos of ourselves and have them made as stickers! And here my prejudices about Asian people doing the “peace-sign” every time a picture is taken was confirmed! Now I have six stickers with me, two girls and even a boy posing very… funny :)

    The last “provocative” experience was a drink called frog eggs! It consisted of some liquid and a lot of jelly pieces called frog eggs. Of course it wasn’t frog eggs, but the fact that I wouldn’t consider this a drink but a dish (every time I took a swallow it consisted of more “frog eggs” than liquid) made me dislike it… :)

Anyway I really love Taipei!

Julia

   

2 in 1

A long trip, a 1. floor apartment and blood of a duck. I don’t know where to begin! I have a feeling that the past two days have been a 2 in 1. Both because of my lack of sleep, and because of my mixture of feeling – the feeling of saying goodbye to the known and the ones you love in Denmark, and the feeling of been indescribably excited about this new life in Taiwan!

    I flew together with 4 fellow students from Copenhagen and all the way to Taipei, where we all were picked up. We had heard rumours that our airline company Thai Air was really good, and we were looking forward to a long but comfortable trip. Unfortunately Thai Air wasn’t as good as expected (For instance we did not have our own television screen but just a big one as in the old planes), but as long as we had each other, everything was good. We really had a great time practicing mandarin and reading in guidebooks and (not to forget) eat our last pieces of lakrids for a long time!

    But the flight was no challenge compared to what we were heading for – and we new. I think that all our stomachs were about to explode because of butterflies when we said goodbye to each other and went out the entrance to meet our new host families!

Bankok where we met an exchangestudent from Thailand who also went to Taiwan

Of course I felt I was the last one to find my, but that doesn’t matter, because they all were so glad to see me! Our flight had been a little delayed because of some technical problems, and I felt a little sorry for my host family, who had been waiting for me – but luckily the waiting time did not seem to bother them.

    After lots of pictures with the family and some Rotary member we headed towards a big old car with space for my three host sisters my host parents and me. After a little driving we arrived at my new home – a 1. floor department in the middle of Taipei County. It is all very small, but the kindness of my family compensates for the lack of space. At first I though was a little surprised as one of my host sister showed me to my room and said:

“Not so much space, so we have to share”.

In the room I saw one and only one double bed, and my head at once began trying to figure out how to be four girls in that bed. Later I though found out, that what she meant was, that my host sister had to have some of their stuff in my room, but that the bed was mine  - so now I suddenly have a double bed all by myself, and as I am just about to fall asleep I will just briefly tell about the rest of the day.

After some paperwork we went out dining at a local place. We of course had lots of small dishes to share, and the first thing placed on my plate was blood of a duck mashed together as a cube! That was definitely not my favourite, but I swallowed it as there were 9 Taiwanese people looking friendly at me (my family, two friends, and two children). When I had swallowed it people though became busy eating their own food (and it really does look… special), and it oat a lot of shrimps and beef instead of the duck blood.

    When people were suddenly done we went to a huge supermarket and here I experienced something interesting. People were standing in 5-6 meter long lines to get samples! So at this point the Taiwanese people can absolutely not be compared to the Chinese, who had probably done everything to be the first to get the biggest sample.

Dining with my family, two friends and two children

When we got home I gave my family some presents from Denmark, and the ones creating most happiness was probably the LEGO given to the two children that my host mom babysits. Suddenly a big part of the family was sitting on the floor (not that it is strange to sit on the floor here) gathering the small pieces :)

I can’t wait to experience some more of this fantastic city, and tomorrow there will be a parade in connecting with the Ghost month (a moth where the Taiwanese believe that the deaths are returning to the earth as ghosts). It is going to be very interesting though I have already seen people burning ghost moneys (fake money) in front of their houses in honour of the deaths.

Love you

Julia :)

Afsked

Det hele var lidt symbolsk da vi denne torsdag morgen, dagen før jeg tager af sted, pillede festteltet ned. Siden min afrejsefest fredag havde det fået lov til at stå på plænen – godt nok var mine venner og al deres alkohol blevet måvet ud, og tilbage var kun de kulørte lamper som mindede mig om en fortræffelig afsked med fortræffelige venner til en fortræffelig fest. 

    Nu er også lamperne pillet ned. Selv teltdugens efterhånden rest snaskede vægge er igen gjort rene. Den sidste tids voldsomme regn sørgede ellers for at dække dem godt til med blade og andre plantedele, men på denne dag, hvor det hele ellers kunne synes lidt melankolsk, skinnede solen, og skidtet kunne nemt børstes af de tørre vægge. Ja, det var, som om solen selv ville hjælpe mig videre, så jeg ikke skulle bøvle med overståede scenarier men blot se frem mod det, som kommer. 

    Kun en mere eller mindre bar plet på græsplænen, hvor dansegulvet har været, afslører nu, at der nogensinde har været en fest. En fest som måske nok har sat sit mærke i plænen, men ikke mindst i mig. Ikke et mærke som gør, at jeg bliver hjemme. Tværtimod et mærke som gør, at jeg tør at tage af sted – fordi jeg ved, at mine venner og min familie også vil være der, når jeg om et lille års tid kommer tilbage.

Julia :)     

11. time...

I dag var store forberedelsesdag på flere måder: Jeg mødtes med en udvekslingsstudent fra Taiwan og fik lidt staldtips i 11. time, og jeg er nået rigtig langt med mit ”pakke-kuffert-projekt”.

Pigen fra Taiwan hedder Sherry og er netop begyndt i min forhenværende klasse på gymnasiet – pudsigt. Jeg prøvede lidt kinesisk af, og til min lettelse forstod hun, hvad jeg sagde! Nu kan jeg altså altid bestille et stykke kage på kinesisk, hvis jeg er ved at sulte… :)

Angående pakningen har jeg lille midtvejskrise… Der er nemlig lige præcis 1 kilo for meget! Havde der nu bare været 10 for meget, så var jeg blevet nødt til at grovsortere, men nu hvor der bare er et enkelt for meget, så er det altså svært at finde ud af, hvad jeg skal vælge fra. Måske jeg kan få plads til lidt ekstra i håndbagagen… :)

I hvert fald skal der være plads til en masse LEGO sponsorgaver. I dag hentede jeg nemlig de gaver, som LEGO har været så søde at give mig - og der var 3 bæreposefulde (+ mere til, for jeg skulle bare sende en mail, hvis jeg manglede noget!). Jeg skylder LEGO en kæmpe tak!

Julia :)

Så er det på fredag!

Nu er der altså meget få dage til, at jeg tager afsted, og jeg er i fuld gang med at pakke. Jeg har valgt at dele alt pakkeriet op i tre dele:

1.    Pak alt hvad du vil have med (dette vejer sandsynligvis for meget)
2.    Sorter ALT hvad du kan undvære fra (det vejer sandsynligvis stadigvæk for meget...)
3.    Luk øjnene og få mor til at fjerne nogle få ting, så jeg omsider kommer ned på de 20 (!!!) kg

P.t. er jeg stadigvæk i gang med fase 1, men i morgen regner jeg med at nå til fase 2.

Derudover er det netop gået op for min mor, at hun faktisk ikke kender min kommende adresse! Det er selvfølgelig lidt morsomt, men det viser også bare, at hun er tryk ved at sende mig af sted. Alligevel synes jeg dog, at både hun og jer andre skal kende min adresse (i tilfælde af at I nu fx fik lyst til at sende noget lakrids), og her kommer den i en kinesisk og en engelsk version:

台北縣中和市南山路127巷18弄26號 , Taiwan



eller

IF., No26, Aly. 18, Ln 127, Nanshan Rd., Zhoughe City, Taipei City, 23560, Taiwan

Jeg foreslår, at I burger den øverste (brug copy-paste funktionen på computeren og print så adressen ud).

Til dem, som har lyst til at udspionere mig yderligere, er mit skypenavn juliabratland93 – så kan vi jo få en lille samtale der!

Julia :)

Afrejse-party-warty

Så blev det den sidste fredag jeg har herhjemme, hvilket selvfølgelig betød, at der skulle afholdes afrejsefest – og det med blandede følelser… På den ene side var  det selvfølgelig en lidt vemodig begivenhed, eftersom jeg ikke skal se disse skønherlige mennesker i et år (!!!), på den anden side var det helt og aldeles fantastisk at feste sammen med alle de mennesker, jeg holder allermest af! Heldigvis var det den sidste følelse, som fyldte mest, og jeg tror at billederne taler for sig selv – det var en fantastisk fest! Jeg skylder mine dejlige venner at sige mange, mange, MANGE tak for både de mange fine og rørende gaver og deres festlige tilstedeværelse, men ikke mindst for deres enestående venskaber :) På en aften som denne bliver alting sat lidt i perspektiv, og man mindes om, hvor meget man holder af sine venner. Men nok sørgelige ord… Vi havde et BRAG af en fest :D

Og kulørte lamper... xD

Per og Randi Nygaard var så søde og dejlige at hjælpe til, nu hvor min far ikke er hjemme :)

De færreste ved det, men Mads og jeg ER Lady Gaga :)

Mine dejlige venner skriver hilsner til mig i en fantastisk vennebog!

Op igen Kevin :P

Endnu en gang: TAK :D


Julia :) 

Farvel Rosborg (PÅ GENSYN!)

I dag har jeg officielt sagt farvel til min klasse på Rosborg gymnasium. Det var ret underligt at se dem begynde i 2. g og forberede sig på mængder af store afleveringer og et stopfuldt skema! På den ene side tror jeg, at jeg kommer til at savne dem og i det hele taget skolen forfærdelig meget. På den anden side vil jeg aldrig skippe mit udvekslingsår får et år på gymnasiet! Jeg tror, det bliver værst, når jeg kommer hjem, og min forhenværende klasse går i 3. g og bliver studenter, mens jeg blot er en snollet 2. g’er.

    Men ud over den her lidt sørgelige side af sagen, så glæder jeg mig bare HELT VILDT meget til at komme af sted. Jeg har netop fået sat kulørte pærer på lyskæde, så forberedelserne til min afrejsefest er i fuld gang. Når den først er afholdt er der blot tilbage at pakke. Eller blot og blot. Problemet er, at jeg kun må medbringe 20 kg i min kuffert – til et HELT ÅR vel at mærke! Det kræver vist lidt nedpakning og ompakning og udpakning og nedpakning… :)

Luisi, Mathilde og jeg bager pandekager - hyggeligt!

Til pandekagerne skulle selvfølgelig også den argentinske specialitet Dulche de Leche (mælk og sukker som har kogt i 4 timer og derfor nærmest bliver karamel) 

9 dage tilbage!

Julia :)

Uhh ha –tiden går SÅ hurtigt!

Siden sidst, jeg skrev, har jeg modtaget nogle promotion CD’er fra Michael learns to Rock. Jeg skrev en mail til deres nationale bookingselskab KAIKA music og spurgte, om de ville sponsorere mig og min tur gennem nogle CD’er, som jeg så vil give som gaver i Taiwan, med beskeden om, at Michael learns to Rock er et dansk band. Det ville de gerne (Michael learns to Rock er faktisk ret store i Asien), og vupti lå der 10 stk i min postkasse! Derudover har jeg også fået sponsorgaver fra LEGO, og de var rigtig søde og sagde, at hvis jeg fx havde brug for flere til jul eller kom til en ny familie med børn, så skulle jeg bare kontakte dem, og så ville de sende gaverne til Taiwan! Se dét er god service!

    Desværre har jeg så ikke haft held med Georg Jensen. Jeg spurgte også, og de ville sponsorere nogle gaver (Georg Jensen har også afdelinger i Taiwan), men de har faktisk slet ikke svaret på min mail… øv.

Noget, som til gengæld IKKE er øv, er, at vores argentinske udvekslingsstudent Luisi er ankommet! Vi hentede hende i Billund lufthavn søndag aften, og hun er bare skide sød! Hun bor på mit værelse, og jeg er så flyttet ind på gæsteværelset – jeg skal jo alligevel snart rejse :)

Den sidste ting, som er YES, er, at jeg har modtaget mine billetter! Hvis man rejser til en af de ”store” destinationer, har udvekslingsstudenterne rejseleder på fra Rotary, og man får derfor billeterne i lufthavnen. Men da vi kun er fem, som skal til Taiwan, rejser vi alene, og derfor har vi fået vores billetter tilsendt :) Nu begynder det for alvor at krille i maven!

Julia :)