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 :)
