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 :)
