To be or not to be busy

Ok so, I know it has been really long since I last updated my blog – sorry! But remember: no news are good news, and I’ve just been so busy ever since classes began at UGA (University of Georgia). As a GRSP student I am non-degree seeking which means I can basically take whatever classes I want to as long as I fulfill the requirements of having between 12 and 18 credit hours (a measurement for how many classes you take and how big the workload is). Being who I am my schedule is a mixture of classes that has nothing to do with each other but that I really enjoy. The classes I take are: Calculus II (math), classical ballet, contemporary dance, astronomy, advanced Chinese and music business. The classes are all super interesting but require a lot of work too. Some of the classes (like math, Chinese and astronomy) have a lot of homework and others (like contemporary dance) require a lot of effort when attending class – but as long as it is interesting it doesn’t bother me :) In addition to my classes I’ve joined a break-dance club and the university radio station (WUOG) which leaves me with about 10 hours of dancing a week!

    During the weekends I’ve been kept busy too. One weekend I went to Jekyll Island (at the cost of Georgia close to Florida) to meet with all the other 46 GRSP students who study at different universities within the state of Georgia. Last weekend I went to a small festival here in Athens (the university city) where Wiz Khalifa was the headliner. AND then we had our first home game (football game)!!!!! There are some things you have to know in order to understand what a football weekend is like: everyone lives for the university football here. Not just the students at the university but all the citizens of Georgia follow the university football games and most of them cheer for the UGA team! Now that you know that you might believe me when I say that the population of Athens almost doubles on game days. People arrive here early in the morning and set up tents and barbeques to tailgate before the game, and some even bring televisions to watch the game outside the stadium if they don’t have tickets. And also: people dress up for game days. Campus is filled with boys in suit and tie and girls wearing pretty dresses and lip stick – all in black, white and red which are the UGA colors. By the time of kickoff about 92.000 people have entered the Sanford Stadium and most of them (the UGA fans) are singing/screaming along to the UGA football chants. The school we played was University of South Carolina whom we have lost to the last couple of years but that fact didn’t make the loyalty to the UGA team faint – the atmosphere was absolutely amazing. By half time the score was 24-24 and the game was super nerve-wrecking which really just made the feeling of victory even better when we won the game! GO DAWGS! I can’t wait till the next game :D

For those of you who don’t really know what GRSP is you might want to watch this little video I’ve made in which I explain what the scholarship is about and what I’m doing here. I apologize for the fact that I’m speaking in Danish, but I originally made the video for my Rotary Club back in Denmark. Anyway, you might still want to watch it even though you might not understand what I’m saying, cause it also shows some video clips from the football game and my break dance club etc.  Enjoy :D

C ya’ll!

International Orientation at UGA

Hi there!


300 other foreigners: that’s how many international students we’ve been at UGA (University of Georgia) during this orientation week! People come from all over the world to spend a semester, a year or even four years studying everything from English and business to physics here in the town of the bulldogs: Athens.

    And when I write the town of the bulldogs, I really mean it! UGA’s mascot is a special bred bulldog, the UGA students call themselves “dawgs”, almost every restaurant in town is decorated with pictures of the famous bulldog and slogans as “let the big dawg eat”.  Almost all shops (including the local Walmart!!!!) sell a variety of bulldog merchandise which includes everything from clothes, underwear and baby clothing to mats for your car, bedding and plates. The town lives for this university and the whole university spirit is much stronger than anything I’ve ever heard of. What can really gather all the dawgs is when the university’s (American) football team plays home games at the university’s stadium, Sanford Stadium, that has seats for 92.000 people and that hosted some of the soccer games when the Olympics where held in Atlanta in 1996. I can’t emphasize enough how excited I am to become a part of this “dawg spirit” and how excited I am to feel the rush of about 35.000 other students wandering around on campus.

So far, however, I’ve “only” met the about 300 other international students who’ve decided to come to UGA. During this past week we’ve been introduced to life on campus, activities on campus, the American health insurance system, downtown Atlanta, the local Walmart, the local cinema, the best restaurants and cafés in town (including Ben and Jerry’s which is located disturbingly close to campus), Sandy Creek Park, the rules of American football and a lot of other stuff relevant to our life at UGA. The (silly) video below shows some of what I've been doing this week (sorry for the bad quality!). 

    

The thing I’m most excited about is the very active musical scene in Atlanta. The town has several music venues for upcoming bands and artist and walking around downtown this Saturday evening I heard live music coming from not just one place but several bars, clubs and restaurants on the same street! Unfortunately, this week has been more about getting practical things done than enjoying the creative environment.

    Getting ready for classes to begin on the 12^th of august isn’t as easy as I could have wished for. I’ve been doing a lot of paperwork concerning my immigration status and my legal presence and waiting for me are things like: opening an American bank account, getting my last immunizations, signing up for and taking several placement tests, signing up for classes and making my schedule fit, signing up for health insurance, signing up for meal plan, applying for parking permit, moving into my dorm room… And probably 100 other things that I haven’t even been thinking of yet! Even so, I’m still SO happy to be here and to have met the other international students and the lovely International Student Life staff that has taken care of us during this week.

Tomorrow I’m going back to my host family in Griffin for a few days before I go back to Athens to actually move in together with my roommate at UGA! I CAN’T WAIT!

Looove

P.S. This week I’ve been sharing a room with a really nice girl from Japan named Ayaka, and we’ve had the greatest time listening to Tokyo Incidents (one of my favorite Japanese bands) and eating Japanese snacks :D

Studying abroad again

I’ve decided to reopen my blog as I have once again left Denmark to study abroad. This time I’ve headed to Georgia, USA, where I am to attend University of Georgia (UGA). Once again it is Rotary whom I can thank for the opportunity to study in a foreign country. The program I’m attending is called Georgia Rotary Student Program (GRSP) and is a program where students from all over the world can achieve a scholarship from a Rotary Club in Georgia that covers a year of university, housing, food, books and a host family for holidays in the state of Georgia. As you can see, GRSP is not an exchange program but a scholarship offered solely in Georgia but to people from all over the world. If you are interested, you can read more about the program at www.grsp.org .

    I left my family and friends in Denmark on the 26^th of July (this Wednesday) to fly to NYC where I’ve spent two nights on a YMCA (hostel). It is not very often I get to visit NYC so I decided to spend some days there even though my final destination was Atlanta, Georgia.

    It all started out really well with my flight to Keflavik, Iceland, but once I got on my connecting flight to JFK, New York, I faced my first challenge: I got the seat next to a baby… Luckily for me there was a man, who was eager to change his own seat for an aisle seat (which mine was). And believe me: he didn’t have to ask twice! So, my flight to NYC went fine as well, and the only embarrassing thing was, that I cried when watching Les Miserable which the passengers next to me might have found weird (they did not watch the same movie) :D

I had some really great days in New York City and everyone was so nice to me. Two kind men helped me carry my stuff to the Harlmen YMCA where I stayed, and although my room was very small it was good enough for me (I didn’t spend much time in my room anyway).

    Thursday I started off by going to a strech and placement class in lower Manhatten on Broadway. The teacher was really nice and the technique she taught was a special technique called Klein Technique™ which has been developed by a dancer from NYC called Susan Klein. After class I hurried to Bryant Park where musical performers from Broadway held a free concert/show to promote some of the (upcoming) musicals. My favorite was the teaser for Avenue Q – especially the song “Everyone’s a little bit racist” was really funny. I found it on YouTube if anyone wants to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RovF1zsDoeM

In the afternoon I went shopping in SoHo shopping district which I REALLY enjoyed. I’m glad I don’t live there though – that would definitely ruin me! The only really cheap thing I got was when I got a manicure for just 9$!!! I’ve never gotten a manicure before, but if it is that cheap all over America I’m gonna do it again for sure. Another highlight was when what turned out to be a stylist for Rag & Bone complimented my buffalo shoes (and they got a lot of comments in the streets of NYC) :D At the end of the day I was so exhausted from shopping that I didn’t have the energy to go to the city, so I just returned to YMCA and got some sleep which I also needed, as I had to wake up at 5 am the following morning.

    The reason why I had to get up that early was because I wanted to go to Central Park to see Selena Gomez perform live at Good Morning America. I’m not a big Selena fan but she actually did pretty well, and even though it was very obvious that I was not at a concert but at a television show it was still worth waking up early for. The last thing I got to do before leaving NYC was to go to the High Line in the Meatpacking District which is a walking path that goes above the streets and that is planted up with trees and pretty flowers.

Now, I’m sitting at a veranda in front of my new host parents’ house (which is really American!) trying to get used to the humid weather. When Yvonne and Robert picked me up Saturday before noon I had had a horrible flight from La Guardia Airport in New York to Atlanta. Originally I was to arrive in Atlanta Friday evening but the aircraft had some technical issues that caused an 8 hours delay! No wonder I missed my connecting flight in Cleveland… Anyway, the Airline paid for a room at a very nice hotel in Cleveland that I got to sleep at for 3 hours (only!) during Friday night.

Robert and Yvonne are both VERY nice and the first thing they did was to take me to a really American restaurant to get some lunch :) They really do show the southern hospitality that the southern states are known for! This afternoon I’m going to their daughter’s house (that has a swimming pool!) where we are going to barbeque tonight :)

Below is a little (silly) video showing some of the stuff i did in NYC :) 

   

Out of Taipei

Time has gone by, and so has experiences. During the last month I’ve been doing a lot of stuff out of Taipei – a city I really love.

It began with a big Chinese test I chose to take. I originally just wanted to do the test in Taipei, but apparently a lot of foreigners had been thinking the same thought as I, because when I wanted to sign up for the test there were no more seats in Taipei. It ended up with that only one other exchange student and I signed up for the test, as we had to go to another city about 3 hours out of Taipei to take it.

    But not only getting to the test was a challenge – so was the test itself, as we were crazy enough not to take the beginner but the learner level. It took a lot of studying by myself before I felt prepared for the test that is designed for test takers who have acquired a vocabulary base of 1500 words – a lot when it comes to remembering the strokes in traditional Chinese characters. Finally feeling okay prepared for the test I promised myself that I would not get disappointed if I failed, but that I would just give the test a shot.

    And I’m glad I did. Not only because I passed and now have a paper that proves my Chinese abilities (yay!), but also because I had a really nice trip to another part of Taiwan, with the other inbound exchange student, an upcoming Taiwanese outbound student, and his family.

    The test took place in Taichung (literally Central Taiwan), which is the third biggest city in Taiwan with a population of about 2.6 million people. The friendly family brought us to a science museum as well as a big night marked, and I really had a great time experiencing a place, that without being as crowded as Taipei still was a big city.

Video taken at a night marked in Taichung

The next time I went out of Taipei I did not head for another million city but for my teacher (in practice)’s hometown on the countryside. I went together with the two other exchange students from my school and going to the countryside definitely was a big change for the three of us who after about 8 moths in Taipei had become real “city ladies”. This was obvious to tell when we nervous informed our teacher that she was walking in the middle of the road, where after she laughing said, that it was okay here, as cars seldom were seen.

Jane, Chelsea and me having fun at a the famous "flying cow farm"

Me, Chelsea, Jane and our "teacher" Fiona in her home town

The last time out of Taipei for me so far was last weekend when I went on a bus trip arranged by my Rotary district. It took us to southern Taiwan where we got to see beautiful nature as well as we got to go swimming at the beach – something we all enjoyed as there are no beaches and almost no swimming pools in Taipei.

 In the beautiful mountain forests of Taiwan  

Finally playing on the beach! (covered in a nice factor 40!!!)

Even though I’ve enjoyed every minute of my many trips I still have to admit, that I would not prefer those places for Taipei. Taipei is the city I love.

Julia 

My performance

Here is the video of my performance :) It is not perfect, but I'm still really glad. For example there are (huge) problems with the guitar when it has to go like "wuaw-wauw" :) But never mind - enjoy!

I was right - life was and would be wonderful

Before I left Denmark I knew that I was going to learn a lot in Taiwan, and I had a feeling that a lot of awesome things were going to happen, but never had I thought, that my exchange would be so wonderful as it is.

Before I left Denmark I had a small dream, that if I got the opportunity, I would like to learn something cultural in Taiwan. Not like in just learning about the culture, but like in learning to do traditional art, dance or music etc… So when I found a place where I could learn to play the Chinese instrument Guzheng I grabbed the opportunity.

    Now that I’ve been playing the instrument for about two months I’ve already gotten callous skin on my fingers fingers, and Saturday I had my first little performance at my Districts yearly conference. Nothing big, but for me it was a special thing to be playing a Chinese instrument in front of other people.

Before I left Denmark I desperately tried to “google” my Taiwanese Senior High School. I eventually found a homepage where everything was written in Chinese, so I nothing understood, but with some luck I found the place on the homepage, where I could see pictures from my school.

    I remember my entire family gathering around my laptop studying every little detail on the pictures. The pictures I found most interesting were pictures of what seemed like students performing dance and music on a big stage. The stage was hit by different coloured light and surrounded by a crowd of happy people. I remember seeing it, and wishing I would get the opportunity to participate in something as cool as that – even just as a happy person in the crowd.

    I now know, that what I saw pictures of was my schools yearly prom/dance party which in Taiwan is held like a concert. Saturday this event was held once again. And I participated. Not just in the crowd – on the stage with my music club. And not just was I performing on the stage – I was in the front, singing. And not just was I in the front singing – I was in the front singing in Chinese.

    It was an amazing feeling standing on the stage with screaming people around me who all sang along on the famous lines, and true friends behind me who helped me making my dream come true. I am so happy as I never thought I could be.

Before I left Denmark, I had an intention that I wanted this to be good – but I had no idea that it could turn out as wonderful as it is.

I love Taiwan

Julia

P.s. as soon as I get it, I’ll upload a video of me singing at hour prom :)

Life is and will be wonderfull

Last weekend I moved for the second time. I now live at my last host family. I now have started my last semester at language school. I now have less than 100 days left in Taiwan. It is indescribably sad – but I am not allowing myself to be sad. I am going to make my last days the best of my days in Taiwan. And so far everything seems like wanting to give me the best days too.

As I said, I just moved to my third host family, and even though I have only stayed at their house for a week now, I already like them a lot. I have three sisters where of one of them now lives in England. The two others live at home with my host mom, my host dad, and me: one together with her husband (Lucy), and another (Ellie), age 18, who was an exchange student to Germany last year.

    At my first weekend at their house Ellie, some of her classmates and I had lots of fun making food. I was really happy, as I finally got to use an oven and therefore had the opportunity to make cake (most houses in Taiwan do not have ovens – only a microwave, if you are lucky). So I made apple-pie for everybody to eat, as Ellie already new this cake from her exchange in Germany.

My sister Ellie (the far left) and her classmates

This weekend I went with Jane and Chelsea (the two other exchange students at my school) to my host sister Ellie’s school festival. We got some talented kids there two draw a picture of us together, and they did a really good job!

    Later that day we went to the Global Chinese Golden Chart, which is a music award event that was held in Taipei Arena. Chelsea, Jane and I had the time of our lives watching one hot, famous, talented Taiwanese performer followed by another. Below is a link to a part of what was sent on television.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuIH6mhVcFo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s4G-7vBWaU

I have planned to keep this stream of good moments keep flowing over me, and with my lovely new family and my lovely friends I think there is a good chance, that the stream will keep flowing.

I love Taiwan

Julia :)

Birthday!

First of all I just want to tell everyone that Taiwan so far have not felt the earthquake in Japan at all. No aftershocks, no tsunami. And if a tsunami should hit Taiwan it will not mean any danger to me, as I live to far from the coast. So save your prayers for people in Japan.

Now, what I was actually going to post about was the indescribably wonderful birthday I had yesterday. I birthday I will never forget – most of all thanks to my friends here in Taiwan.

    That does not mean that friends and family from Denmark were not involved though. Actually the first thing that made my birthday so memorable was the fact that, even though I am living on the other side of the world, the first persons I saw on the morning of my 18 years old birthday were my mom and sister back in Denmark. They sang the Danish birthday song for me via Skype with candles and Danish flags – just as if they really had be able to walk into my room and wake me up with song in Denmark. I even got a few words from a rather confused grandma, whom my mom called on the phone.

    So starting my birthday out perfectly I rushed out the door for language school. And I guess I was flying a little too high on happiness when I headed towards the MRT (Taiwan’s subway), cause as I passed the doormen at the front of hour apartment building giving them an energetic “zao an” (goodmorning), my green little school skirt slid down and was just about to reveal my “stocking-ass” as I grabbed it! The second thing, on my birthday, that will be hard to forget.

Continuing the day with my clothes fully on I finished language school and went to my Senior High School together with Jane (Canada) and Chelsea (America). On hour way we bought a nice cake to share with the people who works in the schools library. It has become kind of a tradition to eat cake with those people hour birthdays, as they are people we see and talk to every day.

    With the first piece of cake down I went to my actual class. Here I was met by: “Wait, wait, wait! Okay, you can come in now”. With the light turned off four lighted cakes were carried into the classroom while a guy was playing the guitar and my 43 classmates were singing Happy Birthday for me followed by a song in Chinese I have not heard before. It was so touching to experience people from another country, with another culture and another language having prepared all this for me. Not for anyone else. Just for me. On my 18 year old birthday. The third thing I will never forget. Thank you friends. Afterwards a steam of people came up to me with cards and presents, the one on the picture saying my name and 116 being a chocolate-present from my entire class.

    I guess that only one person in the classroom was not really into this – that being the teacher – but as she had 44 students all focused on song, presents and cake, she just kind of gave up for a while, and let us have hour celebration. I owe her a “thank you” as well.

Cakes from my classmates in class 116

Presents and cards from my classmates in class 116

Just as I finally had managed to gather all my cards and presents and were ready to catch a bus, a girl from my music club calls me and asks me to come to her classroom. And as I reach the classroom I am once again met with a cake and birthday song. This time by my beloved friends from the music club. And as they revealed a huge teddy bear formed card with regards from all of them, it was the second time that I was touched to something very close to tears that day. But just as I was about to shed a tear I was attacked from behind with shaving cream. A trick Taiwanese classmates might very well play on you on your birthday. And which fully was played on me! Well that did not make this last birthday surprise less memorable!

The huge card from my music club and some more presents!

Cause that was the last salute I got before I (very happily) left the school. And from there I went to Guzheng class, and from there I went to dance class, in between allowing myself to eat one of my favourite “snack” dinners from Taiwan. So I think my birthday was pretty perfect and complete. But though not complete yet, cause as I get home, tired from an unforgettable day, I for the second time got skyped from my family back home. This time my mom, dad, sister, grandma and granddad were all gathered in front of the camera together with a real dad-and-sister cooperation birthday cake, and I once again got a birthday song from the other side of the world. Thank you very much.

So this was my unforgettable birthday. Made unforgettable by family in Denmark as well as friends in Taiwan. The only thing I missed was my lovely friends back in Denmark, but then it is a luck, that I am a part of the network wonder “Facebook” which made me able to get a lot of sweet greetings from Denmark. Thanks a lot for all of them (and especially thanks to my former roomie Bille whom I actually received a present from on my birthday!)!

I love Taiwan

Julia :)

      

One of Us makes me one of them

Last Sunday my music club and I were active on the stage again. This time because our High school was celebrating their friendship with two other High Schools in Taipei. So the concert was way smaller than last time but not less fun.

    My friend Chelsea (America) videotaped a part of our performance, and I want you to see it, because maybe that will make it easier to understand, how important my music club is to me. They make me a part of Taiwan, because to them, I am not just ”the foreigner girl”. I am a person equal to them, because I am just as important.

This time, I sang One of Us by Joan Osborne. One of our guitars dropped out, and that’s why there are a lot of people running around on the stage, but don’t worry – they got it fixed before his solo!

Enjoy!

Julia :)

Crazy life

I have been here in Taiwan for more than a half year now. Former exchange students have told me, that at this time of my exchange, my life is going to go crazy. I guess they were right.

Recently I have been very busy in my school’s music club, as we had a big performance together with three other high schools last Monday (a national holiday in Taiwan). The concert was held in a real concert hall that could house 1,400 people. Which just says something about how many people watched the concert, as there weren’t seats enough!

    So the concert was a big deal for all of us members of the music club, and we had all been preparing for a long time. That has meant, that my host family for a period didn’t see me a lot, as I had to practise every day after school. And when I am saying after school, it is after five o’clock.

    But all the time spent on practising was totally worth it. Not only because we did a good job good at the concert, but also because all this practising made me much closer to people in my club, and made me meet new awesome people from the other school’s music clubs. So maybe my family hasn’t seen me a lot, but I’ve not just be hanging around with other exchange students – I’ve been involved with the local people here. Actually so much that I last Tuesday was in the newspaper, as I was the only foreigner participating in the concert.

Me in the newspaper to the left

A really good friend (Si-Min) and I ready to rock out on the stage

Another really good friend (Shia-Tong) who is also leader of our music club

The two craziest and most lovable persons I know. Translated their names are Dog-dog and Goofy

I was on the stage four times. Two times keyboard, one time piano and one time singing.

During the concert!

 So my life definitely has been crazy, rocking, stressing but good because of my music club and my crazy friends there. And if it wasn’t because of them, I probably would have found my life crazy in another way at this time. In a sad way.

    Because Thursday morning, one of my really good friends from America took a flight home – and he is not coming back to Taiwan. He was not sent home by Rotary. He was not a bad exchange student. Things just didn’t work out for him here. He wasn’t happy. And when you aren’t happy you get sick. And then it is just not worth it.

    It is hard to say, what went wrong. I guess some of us are just luckier than others. Not fair but true. And then I am just so happy, that I have my dance club, my Guzheng classes, my music club and my crazy friends there. These things might totally stress me out sometimes, but these things are also, what makes my exchange totally worth the hard times that you as exchange student sometimes have to fight yourself through. So trust me – if you just have SOMETHING to fight for, you’ll get true it, and your life will be all good and crazy!

I love Taiwan!

Julia

Chinese New Year

First of all: Happy New Year Everybody!

And it is not because I have forgotten to say it – it is because it is time to say it again. Cause in Taiwan we have just finished celebrating the Chinese New Year. This New Year takes place some day in January and February and follows the Chinese Lunar Calendar, which is based on the cycles of the moon.

This year it fell on February 3^rd, but actually it can be hard for a foreigner to tell, which day it falls on. Not only because we do not know the Lunar Calendar, but also because the New Year’s celebrations take place the entire week around the actual New Years Day.

    Because first you have to say goodbye to the old year, and then you have to welcome the new year.

Mostly this celebration contains bringing tons of food for offering to some of the numerous temples in Taiwan, but my family were exceptionally passive when it came to that part. The reason is probably that we went to their (huge) house in Taoyen (countryside about 1 and a half hour from Taipei), which does not have any temples nearby.

    Instead we just enjoyed some of the other aspects of the New Year’s celebration. And with other aspects I mostly mean food and money and food and friends and FOOD!

On the actual New Years Eve my family and I (which means: granddad, grandmother, dad, mom, sister, brother, brothers wife and their two children, my housekeeper and I) just had a nice “hot-pot” dinner together. Everything reminded me a bit of Christmas Eve, as the house was decorated with red luck bringing symbols, flowers and golden rabbits (according to the Chinese Calender, we have just entered the year of the rabbit), as we had a nice and special dinner together, and as gifts where given.

    The gifts are different from regular Christmas gifts though, as you only give money, only in red (lucky colour) envelopes, only to people younger than you. Which basically means that I received a nice amount of money without giving away any myself, as I am considered too young (and therefore without income) to give away money. Yap – that is much less stressful than the Danish gift marathon (pakkeræs)!

This was actually the only evening during New Years that we ate by ourselves. On the other days our house was packed with friends and family coming from all over the country. Cause it is a fact that most people travel a lot during New Years, to visit both their own family, their spouse’s family and their friends. If following the rules those visits take place on specific days during the New Years celebration, and can easily cause a lot of transportation and a creepily empty Taipei City, as a lot of people have parents living on the countryside.

(Picture taken in our lobby when everything is ready set up for a portion of guests to come over. In the front you se my host-mom hugging my handicapped sister, with back turned to us you se my host-brother, and behind the table in front you se my grandfather - and year, this is just our lobby!)

And I guess my family helped emptying Taipei, as we didn’t go anywhere but just had a lot of people coming to our house instead. On the most intense day it was the brothers and sister of my now dead great-grandfather and his descendants who came over (which would be my granddad’s uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers plus kids). And as you probably can tell, this meant more than fifty people coming over for lunch and dinner.

    In the breaks in between eating the elderly people went to our 4^th floor to play a Chinese game including a lot of money changing hands. And as the night came more and more gambling took place. I decided to participate as well (because it did seem to be an important culture-lesson right?), but did not have much luck. Some of the games can easily continue the entire night, which they do in many cases.

But as I did not win a lot I decided to stop, and instead I just stuck to wishing people a happy New Year with lot of money, food and love.

And so, I will whish you “HAPPY NEW (rabbit’s) YEAR” as well!

Take care!

Julia :)

    

Japan

Six days in Japan with some Taiwanese students from my Senior High School was a fantastic experience. Almost like a short version of my current exchange year. Especially because I can say, that I’ve now come home again. Home to the familiar. Home to the safe. Home to Taipei.

I have realized how little I knew about Asia in general before I cam to Taiwan. I found people kind of stupid when they believed that Asians always where sitting on the floor eating their rice when not wandering around with an umbrella as protection for the sun.

    Well I guess I was the stupid one. Not only because these things actually are true, but also because the reason, I thought they were not, was something like: no civilized people live like that today – maybe once, but not today. The thing is, that just because you grew up learning a certain set of norms and rules it does not mean that this set is the only one existing. Nor that it is the only right one to use. But that can be very hard to realized if you have never seen or used another set.

    Now I’ve been using chopsticks instead of knife and fork for almost half a year, and just as I thought that I had found out what was true and not about Asian culture, I came to Japan and found out, that this is the place, where they are sleeping and eating on the floor.

    So just because I know Taiwanese culture does not mean that I know all about Asian culture. But one thing is for sure – I will never again judge people who tell about foreign cultures or the culture they tell about, before I’ve spend a serious amount of time experiencing the culture myself.

I can not say that I’ve spend that serious amount of time in Japan yet, but here are some hotspots, showing what I’ve learned and experienced so far.

In Taiwan they have unbelievably many 7 elevens. In Japan they have these drink machines.

  

In Japan you eat and sleep on this soft kind of floor.

It is hard to see on my pictures, but being with students in a Japanese high school was just like being in an anime movie. Even tough this school did not use uniforms.

In Japan you are asked to take of your shoes everywhere: in schools, at museums, in restaurants. Sometimes you have to put on this kind of slippers instead.

There is a difference between Japanese and Taiwanese food, even though I still find it hard to distinguish… J

There is a difference between Taiwanese and Japanese traditional dresses as well. This picture shows my friend from Canada Jane, who also goes to my Senior High School and therefore attended the trip, and the one of our two “host-grandmoms” that we stayed at for one night. We lived five students (here Jane, three Taiwanese students and I) at each host family.

Disney Land seems to fit better in Tokyo than in California. Japanese girls with freezing bare legs (it was only just above zero degree Celsius) simply look better with Minnie Mouse ears. 

I want to give my Senior High School a big “THANK YOU” for giving me the opportunity to go to Japan with the schools other students. It has been an eye opener. Not only to Japanese culture (which I still only have seen a little of) but also to how much I love Taipei. It was so nice coming home drinking the black tea from my breakfast shop, taking the MRT without having to study the map and most of all being able to communicate with people.

    Cause Japanese seldom understand Chinese. A fact that Jane from Canada and I had to remind each other several times during the trip, if we wanted to avoid getting a: “Oh, sorry. Do you speak English?” and Canadian Jane would have to answer: “Oh, yeah… I guess I do”.   

Julia

Winter Holiday

I’ve now started my one month long winter holiday, and it is not going to be boring! Though I’ve not even had holiday for one week yet, I’ve already done a lot of fun things, and there is a lot more to come!

I couldn’t help but smiling to myself when I the other day was practicing with my music club. Here I was, in some soundproof room with Asian rock-music-lovers playing a Japanese rock song. How often does that happen? Well it actually happens to me all the time, and I love it! It is super nice to see those kids taking a break from their hardcore test-studies and do what they like, which in their case is playing rock.

Also I couldn’t help smiling when my two very good friends Jane (Canada) and Chelsea (USA) and I obviously were being checked out by basically everyone around when we Wednesday went to one of Taiwan’s Hot Springs. Here we came wearing bikini (which is very exotic here) on our in Danish “blegfede” in English just choppy and pale exchange student bodies (which luckily also happens to very exotic here). Yes – that brought some attention.

Now I’m smiling as well as I very soon am on my way to Tokyo Japan with a bunch of Taiwanese students from my Senior High School. I don’t now a lot about Tokyo, but I promise you I’ll make an update, when I get home, cause I am not going to be able to update my blog during the trip.

Take care!

Julia J      

Music, sport and art

Hey everybody!

Time for some Breaking News!

So yesterday I had my first Guzheng Class. A Guzheng is a traditional Chinese string instrument in the Zither family and kind of looks like a small harp that lies down. It has 21 tones all in all, but if you compare the tones to the pianos do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti, the fa and ti are missing (til dem, som ved lid tom musik, vil det sige, at Guzhengen benytter en pentation durskala – atlså en skala uden halvtonetrin og dermed uden ledetoner).  But if necessary, you can make the missing tones by pressing on the string you play so the sound changes – kind of like on a guitar.

    To play it you have to tape something similar to fake nails or plectra onto your thumb, index finger, middle finger and ring finger on your right hand. Left hand can have several functions. You can use it for plucking the strings or for changing the tones made by your right hand.

So… The absolute Breaking News are, that I’ve bought a Guzheng that was brought to my house today. A Guzheng can cost everything from 8.000-150.000 TWD (ca. 1.500-30.000DKK) so I did definitely not have enough money to buy the most expensive one, but I am very satisfied with the one I got. Here it is:

The nails

The green(ish) strings indicate g/sol/5

In addition I can tell, that I Monday afternoon did a Kong Fu and following calligraphy performance at my school with the two other exchange students Jane (Canada) and Chelsea (USA). It is our beloved school counsellors who now are about to leave us, who have taught us these skills. We’ve had a great time practising as well as performing, cause a lot (a lot!!!) of our Taiwanese friends from all classes showed up at our performance to support us, although they are busy with important tests right now. Here are some photos from a photo shoot we did with the schools live technology teacher before the performance J

From the left: Jane (Canada), Chelsea (USA), me

HUA!

I LOVE TAIWAN!

Julia