The successful exchange

First of all: sorry that I have not been updating my Blog for years… My excuses are many. Basically I have just been busy…

I wonder if any of you saw the article about me in Horsens Folkeblad last Tuesday (I think). It tells about how my Christmas here in Taiwan is going to be different from the one in Denmark. The thing is that it is going to be very different as Christmas not really is a big deal here, but that does not mean that it is going to be bad. Actually I am having my best time in Taiwan so far. And my time here in Taiwan has always been good, so now it is just brilliant!

I think the reason, why I am having such a good time, is that I am doing stuff I like to do. One of my really good friends from America has had a hard time recently. She has been working unnecessarily hard on improving her Chinese (which was already really good), because she thought mastering the language would make her stay here more successful. And of course being able to communicate with people is necessary for making friends, but being able to communicate is not useful if you have nothing to communicate about. And that is what happens if you spend too much time by your self or with foreigners studying the language.

    A lot of the exchange students want extra lessons at our language school, and most of them are willing to pay a big amount of money to get them. I don’t want more lessons. I don’t want them, because that it not why I am here. If I was here to study Chinese I should have tried to get into some kind of university instead. I shouldn’t have gone to a High School where I have more cooking than Chinese classes, I shouldn’t have stayed at host families and I shouldn’t have spend energy taking dance classes twice a week. But that is what I do – because I am here on cultural exchange. And of course the language is important to get close to the culture, and some of the exchange students definitely should work harder on improving it, but the important thing is, that you do stuff whit the Taiwanese people, and best of all stuff that you enjoy doing yourself, because that it what makes you happy. And it is when you are happy, that you are having a successful exchange year.

So back to the Christmas issue I just want you to know, that I have all I could possibly whish for this Christmas, because I am doing stuff I enjoy with people I like.

Last weekend my dance club had a performance, and it was great, because I actually was a part of it. And when I use the word actually it is because I was not just a foreigner who danced along at the corner of the stage, but a person equal to the other dancers. The other dancers would ask me questions about the choreography and I had some very good positions (like whether you are center front or corner back), so I definitely was a part of this as much as everyone else, which was just great!

    On Saturday (and yes, I am talking about the 25. of December), my school has its anniversary, so we all have to go to school, but that really doesn’t bother me as I am going to play a little concert with my school band. I play the keyboard and sing the second voice (yap yap: in Chinese!), so here I am really a part of something as well. Furthermore my classmates and I are going to sell some food together, and it is just going to be very cosy!

    Even on Christmas Eve I am going to really be a part of something. And yeah, you might think that I have “bing” as they say here (which means that you are crazy), but on the very 24^th of December I am going to run a stafett whith my classmates agingst the other classes! I know it is crazy, but don’t worry: afterwards I will go to my Rotary Clubs Christmas Party which will probably be more or less about food, so I am not going to miss anything.

And remember: it is not bad, it is not good – it is just different!

Merry Christmas!

Julia