Changing families

So changing host family is weird – like really weird. Cause after three months in your host country you feel like you know a lot. You know your school, you know the busses, you know your Rotary club and you might even have gotten some new habits or routines that you did not have back in your own country. But just as everything feels familiar: BAM, you are put into a new family. A family you might have met, but definitely haven not lived with before.

I am not saying that changing host family is a bad thing. Even though I got really close to my former family, I might get even closer to this one. Only time can tell. But when I said goodbye to my family I realized how much they mean to me. They ARE Taiwan for me. Cause they were the ones that introduced this foreign country and culture to me: went with me on my first busride, took me to Taiwan’s nightmarkets for the first time, gave me my first bowl of rice and taught me the first word (which to your information was 山 shan, meaning mountain, because the first thing a saw when I got out of the airport were Taiwan’s majestic mountains in the panorama of the crowded city). Now it has been time to let go of my teachers – my family.
    It does not mean that I am on my own though. I have gotten a new family, who will definitely show me new sites of Taiwan. But it is always difficult in the beginning when everything is new. Well, actually it is even harder than in the beginning, cause when I came to Taiwan I was totally prepared for something new to happen: Taiwan! Here I come! Now I feel like I now Taiwan – and yet I don’t.

My last host family pretty much lived in the ghetto of Taipei. The streets were broken and dirty, the stores were unorganized and wild dogs constantly passed me at my way home from school. But I loved it anyway. Because my family cared about me and wanted the best for me.

    Now I live in a penthouse apartment on the 15th floor in the pretty part of Taipei. When I walk out my door I get to a nice breakfast store with clean plates, and if I turn a corner I reach a little park with benches, a playground and gym facilities. This is where I’ll live from Monday to Friday, cause in the weekend my family and I will go to their 4 stories house in another part of the city. A house with garden (everything in Taipei are small apartments) is a big change from a first floor apartment without windows.

So in many ways I really look forward to the upcoming months, and my new family definitely seems lovely. But on the other hand I really miss my former family. You know just coming home after school, drop your bag and then surch for some cookies in the candy drawer. But hopefully, after some time, I’ll know how to find the candy in my new house as well.

New address

The time flies here in Taiwan, and Wednesday I was told, that I have to change hostfamily this weekend. I don't have time to write a lot about it right now, as I am on my was to dance-class, but I want to give all of you my new address. The address goes to my new hostparents office, which they visit every day:

Cheng Mei Machine Co., LTD.
No. 1619, Daying Road, Dasi Township, Taoyuan County 33553, Taiwan


or
承美機械有限公司
33553桃園縣大溪鎮大鶯路1619號
Taiwan


I promise to write you soon!


Julia :)

Danish-taiwanese-week

Sorry for the gap in my updates, but I have been really busy recently (in a positive way). Especially, the past week has been packed with experiences, that I normally experience in Danish surroundings… but not this time!

First of all I went to see the new Harry Potter movie (!!!) together with a Taiwanese classmate. She had been so kind to book tickets to a version where the actors spoke English and not Chinese (Try to imagine professor McGonagall speaking Chinese!), but the subtitles where though still in Chinese, and the audience acted in a very Asian way ass well. I guess humour is different all over the world!

Saturday my family took me to a city named Keelung about 1 and a half hours drive from Taipei. The city has a very big harbour (and I’m pretty sure my father has been there), but we didn’t spend time at the sea. Instead we went to an old Japanese-style mine town that now was one big tourist attraction. My oldest sister and I got to go into the actual former used mine, which was interesting but a bit claustrophobic!

    When we returned home in the evening I had to cook some Danish food for an event I was going to on Sunday. My choice had fallen on frikadeller as my family does not have an oven (almost no one in Taiwan has). It had taken some effort to find all the ingredients, but I turned out that the ingredients weren’t the only problem I would get. Cause I asked my family where to find something to whip the forcemeat with, they told me, that they always used chopsticks! So now I can earnestly tell that I’ve been cooking frikadeller with help from chopsticks!

Me and my oldest host sister in the mine!

As I’ve told, the Danish food was cooked because of an event on last Sunday. It was a Culture Fair set up by Rotary to give the upcoming Taiwanese exchange students an impression of the different countries. Each country (represented by inbound exchange students) got one table where they had to “exhibit” their country, and then the Taiwanese students and their parents walked around listening, looking, tasting and asking questions.

    To represent Denmark I had made two posters: one with a map of Denmark and some facts about size, inhabitants, weather and welfare- and school system, and another poster with explanations and examples of the Danish language. Further more I had brought some LEGO for the visitors to play with (who could finish their figure in the shortest time), and on my computer I showed some promotion videos about Denmark. But the favourite attraction among my guests was definitely frikadellerne!

In addition to the many events then I’ve been busy dancing as we are training hardcore for our performance in December. And just to put even more dance into my life, one of my classmates took me to se the famous Taiwanese Cloud Gate Dance group (a modern ballet group) performing “Water Stains on the Wall”. They were indescribably skilful as they were dancing on a tilted stage! And still all the difficult steps looked so easy when they did them! And what made it even more beautiful was the use of modern classic music and constantly changing black shadows on the white stage. It made me think of a Chinese painting.

So this week has been pretty busy, and very special as it has contained some very familiar things but in new surroundings. Also we will enter December in a few days, but as they do not celebrate Christmas here it is not going to be anything special. A journalist from Horsens Folkeblad contacted me for an interview about, how my Christmas is going to be here, and I promise to post the article, when it is brought!

Julia :)

Fun, fun, fun

First of all: Thank you very much for all the greetings I get from everyone. I am having a great time here and just hoping you are having a “hyggelig” time in Denmark as well! I would like to send a greeting back to all of you, but I am simply too busy. I do though really appreciate that you send me messages: “Det varmer mit hjerte”!

So… Here are some funny updates from the past week J

• Monday I got another certificate saying ”Certificate of Outstanding Performance”, given to me by my language school.
• The other morning I saw a man bicycling with a dog standing on his shoulder! (Even bicycling without a dog on your shoulder is pretty difficult and scarring in Taiwan’s traffic)
• The word “rich” in Chinese is literarily “have much money”.
• Wednesday evening I ended up singing with a street musician in front of a very excited Taiwanese audience! The street musician wanted me to come back and perform with him but… I guess I’m too busy J
• My head is to find overall in my school on posters advertising for my schools music club.
• I get to do a performance with my dance team in December J
• My next host family has two houses – one of them brand new with four floors and an elevator (!!!). I am though going to miss my present family when I move, as I love them so much!
• I have to learn a little Japanese, as I am going to Japan for a week in January!
• My classmates (whom I love more and more) gave me the nick name iau iau, which means shake it shake it :p
• Bird eggs with small fish are super delicious!
• This evening my family and I though ate pizza and drank juice, which is the most western-style meal I’ve had since I came here!

Yes.. It is my head :D

I LOVE Taiwan!

Julia J