Fall

Even though Taiwan is much closer to Equator than Denmark is, it still gets cold here. Last Saturday it was more than 30 degrees C and the sun was burning, but this Thursday the temperature got down to 17,5 degrees C, and people wear thick jackets, boots and scarves.

The sudden change in weather is partly caused by the typhoons passing Taiwan now and then bringing a lot of rain and colder weather, and the sudden change in clothing is caused by the very humid weather here.

    Because of the high humidity it feels super hot and sauna-like when the temperature is high, and kind of sticky cold and damp (what we would call “klamt” in danish) when the temperature is low. The cold feeling is increased by the fact that no buildings here have heating systems and a stove is an unknown thing. So are you first freezing it can be hard to become warm again.

    So I’d better try to find time to buy myself a jacket and some sweaters, cause from now on we will probably have fewer of the hot days :)

Well I don’t have the time today, because soon I will take the MRT wearing a spider costume, as Rotary throws a Halloween party for the Exchange Students. They don’t celebrate Halloween in Taiwan (well some shops try to make a stunt out of it just as I Denmark), but here are a lot of Exchange Students from USA and Canada, so I guess that is the reason why, we are going to have a party. Well, I look forward :)

Julia

Ps. The leaves here are still green though        

10 things about Taiwan

Now I’ve been in Taiwan for 2 months and 4 days – it is unbelievable how time flies! I decided that it is time to tell you some truth about Taiwan, so here are 10 facts about Taiwan and Taiwanese people:

1.     I knew that Asian people studied a lot before I came here, but I had absolutely no idea HOW much they actually study! There are a few kids at my school with flecks of grey hair. Especially in Senior High, they study incredibly much – school is their lives.

2.     Asian people don’t sleep especially much. Especially the young people are so busy studying, that they have to cut down on their sleeping hours.

3.     On the other hand we sleep in school. Every school has a sleeping lesson, and mine is from 12:30-1:00. If the students still feel sleepy they might just pass out on their table during class.

4.     In Taiwan you eat with chopsticks (if anyone should be in doubt about that)

5.     You eat rice all the time! You have rice for dinner almost every night (which is made in a special “rice-boiler-machine”) combined with a lot of small dishes wherefrom you pick and eat. You also have rice for lunch as well (often leftovers from the day before that you heat in a steam box in your class room). Even when you finally think, that you are not eating rice, you might still be eating it. Like that you can have rice-milk as a breakfast drink, or you can eat rice-noodles for lunch or dinner.

6.     You eat fish “with everything”. The fish is just fried on the pan with skin, bones and eyes and then served as it is. So you definitely eat the skin, and if you are hard-core you might also eat the eyes.

7.     You eat shrimps with the shell if they are served with some kind of sauce.

8.     People might have a “real” bed but it is often made of wood. Not just the frame, but the madras as well (mine is not – thank god).

9.     “Uo yau shuo ying uen” actually means something. With the correct use of tones it says: “I want to speak English”.

10. Young people do the “peace-pose” every time they see a camera! It is unbelievable how fast their hands can rise and their index and middle finger split.

Yeah everything above is true – it is not good, it is not bad, it is just different!

Underneath are some pictures from another fantastic weekend, where a taiwanese freind to me on an "all-day-trip" around Taipei!

A concerthall built to commemorate Chang Kai-Shek

Students practising a traditional instrument with only one string

A dessert consisting of ice, beans, a root crop and some jelly balls. Sounds weird? It is good!

Julia :)

Happy, happier, happiest!

Wauw – so much has happened these past four days, and I am indescribable happy! Where to begin… Well:

Friday I really got to speak Danish for the first time since I came here. Well I’ve been skyping my family twice and my Rotary counsellor once, but this time I got visits from Denmark. A guy from my Rotary Club in Denmark and his wife were here because of business, so we decided to meet and do something together. We went and ate dumplings and steamed buns, took a look and Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, and went to the beautiful part of Taipei called Danshui. Finally we made it to a Rotary meeting, and I think my Danish guests found it interesting to participate in a Taiwanese Rotary meeting!

Saturday I went shopping with one of my host sisters. I bought a lot of stuff, which makes me feel a little bit bad, but I actually need it, as it is getting colder here, and I only brought summer clothing (yeah I know, that you probably wouldn’t find 28°C cold, but here people are were jeans and jackets now…). We also went to Taipei 101 (once the tallest building in the world), but here we only did window shopping, as the stuff here was way to expensive for my monthly allowance :D It was interesting to go there though, partly because we found a Georg Jensen (danish design) in there – I am so proud that Denmark has a shop at such a place!

    When we returned home my host mom was making dumplings, so I decided to join her. My first one was really ugly, but after folding a few, I finally got it! I can ensure you that I am going to cook dumplings when I go back to Denmark, cause they are sooooooooo delicious!

Sunday I went to see a dance performance together with a bunch of Rotary Exchange Students at Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall performance theatre. The theatre was beautiful as well as the performance made by an Arabic dance team. It included a lot of improvisation, which was really interesting!

And now to the best part: Monday. Today at language school my teacher gave me a diploma saying: CERTIFICATE OF OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE. I am so proud, and the fact, that the diploma came with a little ugly dish mat, made it worth the hard work! Furthermore my Rotary Club here in Taiwan today said “go” for a Japan trip with my senior High School, which means that I in January 2011 am going 6 days to Tokio, Japan! How amazing is that? I am so happy to be here in Taiwan, but getting the opportunity of seeing even more of Asia is fantastic! But don’t misunderstand me: Taiwan is still my first choise!

Love it here!

Julia

Double ten day

As foreseen, a video from the parade is now on Youtube. It shows us exchange students from Taipei and the neighbour district in the parade! Click here to see it!

Julia :)

10-10-10

Taiwanese people have something with numbers. The 23^rd of January (123 day) is a vacation day, and so is the 10^th of October – Double Ten Day. The day is used to celebrate Taiwan’s independence and is considered Taiwan’s national day. As we now happen to be in year 2010, this year’s national day was celebrated more than normally. The other Rotary exchange students and I were a part of the celebration too, joining a 4.8 km long parade with big balloon figures, music, lot of costumes, 35 floats and about 20 troupes. Incredibly many people watched this huge parade – attendance estimates ranged from 100,000 to 500,000! Everybody were happy, both participants and audience, and the other exchange students and I totally ruined our voices by screaming 我們愛臺灣(Wo men ai Taiwan = We love Taiwan) to the applauding audience. My camera unfortunately ran out of battery, but here is an article about the parade. In some days I will probably be able to find something about it on Youtube as well, as the parade was followed by all of Taiwan on the television!

Love it!

Julia :)

School and hiking

My High School is not big compared to other High Schools here in Taipei, cause it has only got 2000 students disturbed over three years. On other High Schools you might find 3000 or 4000 students. Anyway, I find 2000 students a lot as there is only about the half on my school in Denmark, and last Monday I actually held a speech in front of all of them – in Chinese! A bit of an experience as the circumstances where very formal: it was Teacher’s Day (se my article below) so the school choir sang some songs in honour of the teachers, the school’s big band was playing as the two other exchange students and I got on the stage, and some of the boys where doing military gestures! Well I did my speech as good as possible and I guess that the students understood about 70-80% - which is GOOD :p

    Underneath are some pictures from a sunny day at school. The temperature is falling but it is still about 30°C at day, which I find very hot!

This building is only 5 stores. Another one is 7 stores - and we have to walk the stairs...

My class and classroom

Even though it is hot, I actually went hiking with my rotary club. We met at 9 o’clock Sunday morning to avoid the worst heat – ready for going to the top of one of Taiwan’s many mountains. The way up was steep but led us through a multitude of beautiful forest – as made for my camera.

I love Taiwan!

Julia