My Big Adventure

Coming Home!!

2008-11-28T23:36:00.002+08:00

This last week here with Austin has been very busy but so much fun!!! We have done so much in just a few short days! I was very happy that I saved some things for us to explore together! We head out to the airport in the morning at 8. Our plane leaves Taipei at 11am on the 29th and we arrive in Portland at 12pm on the 29th! Only one hour later! Even though our trip is much longer than that, about 23 hours!! I will be able to see you all soon! And I will post about my last week when I get home! I need to get some sleep before my big day!!

Austin is here!!

2008-11-22T12:01:00.004+08:00

The last week went by so fast! I had such a great time with the girls doing the last few things that they wanted to do. Monday we had out last Family School Community Collaboration class. We took a test, ate some snacks and took lots of pictures with our new friends. Monday night we all went out to the Shilin Night Market for the last time(not mine but the other girls' last time). Carly and I had the best shaved ice ever!!Tuesday was our special dinner just for the OSU students. We went to a crazy restaurant! The designer hand made everything with in the building. There was so much art and designs all over the building. The walls and chairs and tables were all designed by the one artist as well as the dishes!! It was so much fun!! The food was great too. It was just down the road from a special mall in Taiwan called Mirmar. The mall is famous for its gigantic Ferris wheel! We didn't go on it, but it was fun to see!

Wednesday night was our last culture class. We had a farewell party that was thrown by the Taiwanese students. I really enjoyed it because it was Christmas themed!! There were a lot of tears and a lot of pictures. It was weird to watch all of the other students say goodbye since I will still have one more week here with Austin. I did tear up when the FJU students told us all how thankful and happy they were that we came because many of them cried. It was very nice to see how much they enjoyed us being here! That night Carly and Dee both slept in my room!
Thursday the girls and I ate our favorite Taiwanese breakfast. And hung out all day packing and laughing. We went to Ximen for a sushi dinner, and it was good as always!!! Then we invited 3 FJU students (Irene, Ariel & Annabelle) to come and sleep over. We brought 3 mattresses in my room and we all slept together. We played charades and it was so funny. Other students came and hung out with us, but they did not stay over night. We, of course, were told to be quiet numerous times but could never quite be able to control how loud we were laughing. It was such a great last night! I also got to say a last goodbye to Austin on skype as he headed out to catch his plane to come here!!!
Friday morning we woke up at 5:30-ish to start getting ready to head out for the airport at 7:30. I helped to make sure that all of the girls were all packed up and then got my stuff ready since I was going to the airport with the girls to see them off, and then waiting the 12 hours in the airport for Austin to get in!! It is expensive to travel to and from the airport if I want to do it quickly ($30 USD) and really slow if I want to do it for a small price (2 hours!) So I just decided to stay all day and then I would be able to see off all of the OSU students because many were leaving at different times. Irene, Ariel & Annabelle hung out with me for a little while. We had some good talks and just kind of walked around the airport. They left around 9pm. Austin's plane landed a little before 9:45... about 20 minutes early! I was so excited to see him. It took forever for him to come out of the arrival gate. I just waited there with my little sign!!! I was so excited to finally see him!! We took a taxi back to the hostel, it was fun to hear Austin comment on the crazy driving that I am now very used to. He claimed to not be very tired... until his head hit the pillow then he was out like I knew he would be.
We woke up early this morning (The time change does that to you) and got up and walked out to breakfast and I gave Austin a little tour of the campus. Then we came back and let our food settle then went on a run. We went back around campus and then to the track. There was a lot of people around and it was fun to see everyone playing baseball. Austin is taking a nap now and then we will have a small lunch before his test! We are going to a dinner at the BBQ that I went to in the first week that I was here. It will be a lot of fun. Some of the Taiwanese students are going to come too! They are all excited to meet Austin! We have a lot planned for this week! I hope that the weather stays as nice as it is today!!

See everyone soon!!

Only a few days left...

2008-11-16T21:55:00.004+08:00

This past week has been very relaxed but a lot of fun! I went running everyday! I was very proud of myself for being so dedicated... if only I can stay that way when I get home! :) Monday and Tuesday not much happened. I hung out with a couple of FJU students on Tuesday night so that we could work on our group project and then we went out to dinner which was fun! Wednesday night Hayley's mom was due to land in the international airport at 10pm. We went out to dinner on the way to the airport at Hooters! It was actually good food... I had a nice big salad... I have been missing a nice big plate of veggies!! After dinner just Hayley and I headed to the airport to pick up her mom. It was a long trip but it was very exciting!

Thursday we went to coffee with Ariel and Annabelle. I am going to miss these two girls so much! They have been so amazing since I have been here and befriended me right at the beginning. They are so wonderful to hang out with! I really hope that they will one day be able to come to the States!! We always have such a great time together! Friday was another great day! For lunch one of the girls in my Monday class wanted to make me and some of the other girls a late lunch early dinner! Nonoy was such a great hostess! Her and her boyfriend Bruce worked on so much food for us! She even made sure to have more than enough vegetarian stuff for me to eat. I am going to get recipes from her on Monday in our class. After we ate we sat and talked and played a couple rounds of MahJong! It was such a great time. It was nice to feel like we were at home and spending time with our friends like we normally would. And we didn't have to be forced to do it in the hostel. We stayed at Nonoy's apartment for a while.
On Saturday we decided to make and outing to go to Ximen and to Taipei 101. It was such a nice day, the sun was out and it was warm. I am sure that I got a few more freckles!! I think that they have almost doubled on this trip! We walked around Ximen and shopped... I was excited because I finally found mom's Christmas present!!! YAY!! We had a great time just walking around the street eating ice cream... having sushi for lunch.. then heading out to 101.

I am still waiting to go up to the very tip top until Austin get s here! But it would have been a beautiful day to do it! Hopefully the weather will stay nice. It is pretty unpredictable. I shopped around the bookstore that I found out was actually named the #1 bookstore in Asia. It is called Page One. I bought the first book to a new series that I want to start called Twilight. I am excited to start it, but I think that I am going to save it for the Friday Austin flies in to distract myself from waiting. We got some Starbucks and I was so excited to see that they started using their winter cups! It always makes me more excited for Christmas when they do that! I really truly can not believe that in 5 days all of the girls that I have lived with for the last ten weeks will be gone. It is going to go by so fast. I have finished all of the work that I will need to have done for the rest of my term. All I have to do now is attend class... and most of that will probably just be fun stuff. It is going to be so hard to have to say goodbye to the people here. I feel very lucky that I get one extra week to stay here and still be able to see my new friends! As for the girls on the trip... we all ready have a few plans for when we get home... I am so excited that we are planning on staying in touch! They are amazing ladies and they have made my experience here so much better! I am so thankful for that!!!

I will be home in 2 weeks! Just in time to sit and watch the civil war game... on the couch.. probably very jet lagged and only half conscious, but I will love being home!!

Weekend trip to Hua Lien

2008-11-10T20:48:00.005+08:00

This last weekend we went on a group trip to the Eastern part of the island to a county & city called Hua Lien. It is probably my favorite place in Taiwan. Everywhere we went was so beautiful with breathtaking views of the sky, a lake, the mountains, a river, or the ocean. It was amazing that there was so much to see in such a small area! On our way down the island we stopped at a few places to see some beautiful views of the ocean. We then went to a place called Carp Lake. This is where I took the picture below!!

We really enjoyed walking around the lake and looking at everything, even though it was a very hot day! After Carp Lake we went to see a n old logging camp and and old sugar refinery. These were both small sights with not a lot to see. The logging camp was in a pretty wooded area, but the sugar refinery was now just a bunch of little shops. The hotel that we stayed the night at was in the city of Hua Lien and was very nice. We were all able to get a bunch of rest for the next day. I woke up early to go on a run. It was so beautiful. I ran in to the West which gave me a beautiful view of the mountains! It was a good way to distract myself! I went back to the hotel and got ready and ate breakfast and we all headed out to the beach!! It was such a beautiful beach with many rocks and lots of sunshine! We were so happy to have some since our time at the beach in Kenting was full of rain.

We walked around the beach collecting rocks and taking pictures. I found a dead/dried puffer fish that was really cool to look at.... but kinda sad. We were right next to an air base so we were able to see 4 fighter jets take off over the mountains ! Next we went to the Headquarters for the Taroko Gorge. We had a lunch (that was really yummy!) and then set off to explore the Gorge. It was one of the most beautiful things that I have ever seen. There were parts of it that were deeper than the Grand Canyon!!! I guess that it is listed in the book 1000 Places to See Before You Die! And I have been there, so that was neat! I could not believe how beautiful it was. The base of the gorge was made out of marble! The water was a dark milky clay color from running over the marble and from an earthquake that had happened not long before. I feel like I should have been a little more worried on our walk/hike through the gorge because there was signs everywhere saying to be careful of rock falls, and there were rocks that had obviously fallen from somewhere above all over the pathways. But I was too involved in looking around at all of the natural beauty to think about it until we were back on the bus!
These are pictures of me by a shrine that was built around a natural waterfall . It was built in memory of all of the 200+ people who died and 700+ people who were injured in building the road through Taroko Gorge. I guess that the road and all of the tunnels were built by hand with pick axes. I could not believe it!! (I am sure that they had a lot more modern work done on them eventually.)
That night we stayed at a youth hostel in the gorge. Our view from our room was pretty but the food at the hostel was not good! I counted 5 small ants crawl over my tray at dinner time. I tried my best to eat , but I ended up eating just a bunch of white rice. Breakfast was much better, I love warm soymilk now, so anytime I can get it I am content! At 8 in the morning after breakfast we all headed out for a 2 hour hike through more of the gorge. We saw so many beautiful views and walked through a lot of caves. Davey, our tour guide even put me in charge of carrying one of the "torches" (flashlight). He designated me to the rear of the group.... I am always slow because I like to look at everything and appreciate it , and also take a lot of pictures (I ended up with 307 from this trip!)
Seeing these waterfalls reminded me of all of the hiking that I did as a child! We had to cross a very wobbly suspension bridge to get a good view of the waterfalls! (Don't worry mom, I walked very carefully!!!)
Coming back to Taipei was almost sad because I loved being in Hua Lien so much. I had an absolutely amazing time! I wish that I could go back. But I would have to somehow rent a car and what not. I can't believe that in just about 10 days Austin will be here and all of the other students will be gone. I am excited to come home, but can not believe that this adventure is almost over.

There are many more pictures on some online albums on my facebook. Here are the links to look at them. I will be posting the 3rd link soon when I get the album uploaded!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156460&l=a84b1&id=19712929

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156474&l=dbd7d&id=19712929

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2156870&l=1ef54&id=19712929

Birthdays, Election Days, 15 Days until Austin is here!

2008-11-05T14:46:00.003+08:00

Here is a picture of me mailing some letters home!!
Eating at the Hot Pot restaurant with Ariel!

Sunday was Hayley's birthday. We told her that all day we were going to do what she wanted to do! We left the hostel around 4 to head off to the Ximen area to do a little bit of shopping around before we headed to dinner at the Skylark at 6. The dinner was a lot of fun. Many of our Taiwanese friends showed up through out the night! A lot of them brought gifts for Hayley, and so many of them were crafty! There were some beautiful and fun handmade cards, and Jean and Daisy compiled a book of pictures with notes to Hayley in it from the Taiwanese and OSU students. Hayley really liked it! At dinner I was so excited to be able to have salad! I also had the yummiest mushroom soup with a puffy pastry on top of it. I loved it. I could definitely eat there again. Hayley got a special birthday dessert for free, but since she had already ordered herself one she gave hers to me!! It was really yummy!

Since it was Hayley's 21st birthday we had a drink. I had a sangria that was pretty good... she had something with Kaluha in it... yuck.
After dinner at the Skylark Hayley wanted to walk around and shop a little bit more, then we headed to TGI Fridays. I had never been there before, which I thought was weird. I went to an American restaurant for my first time in Taiwan. Ha. Hayley had a couple more drinks ( I didn't have any) and another free dessert, which I did help her eat a little of! :) It was a good Sunday!

I still have not slept in my own room since the spider incident. I am thinking that I might get brave enough soon. Monday Carly and I went on a run in the morning and then we all headed to class. We had our group meeting after that. All in all the day was pretty uneventful.

Tuesday we had our second test in our families and poverty class. We got our scores back today and I got 100%. I am trying to decide whether or not I should worry about doing the extra credit book report. We will see. After class on Tuesday I went on a nice long run with Carly, I am pretty sure that it was about 4 miles, we just kept running behind campus and out to a hill/mountain behind the university and up it a tiny but and then back. We talked the whole way, it is a great time for us to talk about anything and everything together! Then we met up with 3 Taiwanese students and went to Starbucks together and to Shilin night market. I bought a couple of scarves for so cheap, but did not spend much because I did not bring much cash with me, on purpose! We had such a great time walking around drinking juice and laughing together. I am really going to miss these girls when I am gone.

Today I woke up and turned on CNN to watch the election information! I watched as much as I could before class. In class I gave my second book report which I thought went pretty well. Our professor let us out of class 30 minutes early so that we could finish watching the election coverage. I must say that all of us here (including the Taiwanese students) are very happy with the results. We thought that it was funny that all of us on this trip voted the same way! I have another class tonight and then I need to pack for our weekend trip to Hua lien. We finally get to go, this was the trip that was cancelled because of our first typhoon! It should be so beautiful and we should have nice weather. It has been very hot and sunny! I will fill you all in with come pictures and stories when I come back!!

I miss you all and love you all! I will be home in about 3 weeks! Austin will be here in 15 days! I can't believe that I have been gone for so long!!

Halloween and Buddhism

2008-11-01T23:27:00.004+08:00

Halloween here in Taiwan was so much fun! We really had a great time! We started preparing for the party around 1030 or 11 in the morning on Friday. After we set up the lounge I went upstairs to take a shower. When I got out of the shower I walked to my closet, like usual, to find and it was right by the door so I did not want to go open it. When Hayley hit the door the scary spider ran into a huge crack in my wall. I finally let Hayley in, and I almost started to cry! Worst my clothes, I then went to my desk to check my email, still in my towel... then I saw it..... A HUGE SPIDER ON MY WALL! Now when I say huge I do not mean huge in America. I mean HUGE!!! It was the biggest spider that I have seen in the wild, or maybe even in a cage. It was the size of my palm, at least. I called for Hayley to come into my room but my door was locked way to start Halloween. But then Hayley, Carly , and I all took a nap together in Carly's spider free bedroom and when we woke up we were refreshed and ready for our Halloween party. We got all dressed up and then went to the preschool on campus and played with the little children. Even with the language barrier we had a great time! I was dressed up like the Head Elf from Santa's workshop. But most people here don't know about elves. After the preschool we came home and finished preparing the tons of snacks we had. So many people ended up coming. It was a great success and worth all of the time that we put into it. Dee did such a great job of planning it all!!

walked out to my closet, turned around and there he was AGAIN!! And even BIGGER than I incident. We woke up early on Saturday morning to go on our field trip. I took my shower, thought he was the first time! He was GIGANTIC and he was standing on my wall right over my bathroom door that I walked out of from my shower! He could have jumped on me! I screamed for Hayley, again, and she came in. I stood on my bed and almost passed out. Hayley went at him and started trying to kill him. He ran into my bathroom. She risked herself and followed him in and finally killed him. Then we flushed him down my toilet. One of his legs would not go down! It was so gross. I was flushing the toilet all day! After that I could finally get ready, but I have still been checking every corner of my room when I come in. For our field trip we went to Dharma Drum Mountain which is a Buddhist Temple. The public can go there to pray and learn about Buddhism. It was a really pretty place, it was too bad that we could not take any pictures except for by the pond outside of the small temple and outside where we were waiting for the bus. We were supposed to stay quiet through out the tripFriday night after the Halloween party I slept in Hayley's room with her because of the spider and create peace and a calmness inside of ourselves. As you all know I am not very good at being quiet. But I succeeded through this trip! :) I actually really enjoyed hearing about the religion and seeing some of the history of the Temple there.

This is a view of the northern coast that I took while we were on the bus headed to Juming Museum. It really reminded me of home!

After the Dharma Drum we went to Juming Museum on Jinshan (Jin Mountain). It was so neat. Ju Ming is the artist that organized the building of a huge outdoor museum where his work could be displayed. He made huge sculptures out of iron and bronze and they were spread out through out the 14 hectacres. It was fun to walk around. We had a great time!!

A gigantic zipper that creates a pond!This was one of my favorite pieces of art! It was part of Ju Ming's living world series. They are men made of bronze! It was really neat!

At midnight tonight we celebrated Hayley's birthday! We surprised her with a birthday cake and each ate a piece and laughed for a long time!! Yay for turning 21! Too bad alcohol is not allowed in the hostel!

Here we go caroling along the Taipei streets....

2008-10-29T21:55:00.005+08:00

The holiday season is upon us in the hostel. We are all beginning to watch Christmas movies, listen to Christmas music, and sing it everywhere we go! It makes me happy!

We have been busy this past week (as always!). Last Friday we went to Pingsi which is about 2 hours away. We basically walked around a small market area of the town and then went to a neat restaurant on the hillside. We sat on a covered patio to have dinner which was nice, it rained but it was beautiful (and we didn't get wet). The dinner was all right. I did not eat much, the vegetarians were once again seated at our own table. We got some yummy dessert though - soybean ice cream!! Soymilk really enjoyed the treat! After dinner we all went down in front of the hotel and signed a paper lantern that we sent up into the night sky! It was a very neat experience, it could have been neater if it would have worked the first 4 times we tried to let it up in the sky. But that was all has become one of my favorite things since I have been here, so I right because we distracted ourselves by playing with a little lizard that was crawling all over everyone. It was a beautiful place but it was a very long ride for such a short experience. Everyone was still very tired from the week long trip because we did not have any time off to rest.Saturday we had a field trip to go and visit two centers for preschool children. They were supposedly welfare centers, but the parents had to pay a lot of money for their children to go there, so I was very confused. They were fun though. Carly, Dee, and I had a great time playing in one of the ball pits at the first center (later we were referenced in an unhappy email from our professor as acting like children instead of honored visitors - which was weird because everyone else was playing - but I wouldn't take it back because it was a great time!) The day was hard to get through because we were all even more tired! Plus we had the Taiwanese students to walk around with, and it takes a lot of effort to make conversation with people you don't know all day long. But they were tired too, so it did not seem to be a huge deal (except to our professor - who claimed that we all should have been more attentive and respectful - but she fell asleep during the presentation at the second center when she was sitting in the front row - weird!)

Sunday was the most amazing day! I did not shower, I stayed in my pajamas, I read and I laughed with my friends. Finally a day of rest, all topped of with a taste of home - pizza!

Monday was back to class and being busy! Carly and I have continued to run in the morning before class, I am really happy that I have her as a running partner! She is so consistent so I always know that I will have someone to go with! And we talk a lot and entertain ourselves so we always have a good time! We had our group dinner and Dee was in charge of cooking this time. I played the part of co-chef and learned how to make homemade chicken noodle soup! I loved making the noodles and the dumplings (my favorite part) and it tasted yummy too! (I, of course, did not eat the chicken) We also had a big wonderful fruit salad! I love the fruit here!

Tuesday after class we headed off to a museum called Taiwan story land. It is an interactive model of what Taiwan was like in the 1960s it was very neat to see. Being in the museum was just like walking around the old streets of Taiwan. We were even able to buy food from vendors and had shaved ice in an old style place that reminded me of a burger, fries, and shakes place from the 50s. We had fun. Afterward we went to an area in Eastern Taipei that is known for its market with cheap clothes. The alleyways were so narrow and there were so many mopeds trying to squeeze through them that I could not concentrate on shopping. I got a new dress and a new shirt set and belt all for only $250 (NT, about $8 USD). So it was exciting. But Hayley and I had to stop early because of my claustrophobia. After we finished shopping we all headed to Ximen station for some sushi! I love the sushi restaurant and Ximen! I guess that I always love sushi!Today (Wednesday) I volunteered to be a part of a panel (3 of us from OSU) for a class on campus. It was such a neat experience. The class is called the cross cultural something or other about medicine so I thought that the questions were going to be about differences in medical treatment etc. but they were all about our experiences in Taiwan and what to expect from America and Americans. It was really neat and fun. The students seemed to enjoy it all. After we were done with our small presentation the students had one for us (which we did not know). They were split into 4 groups and each was supposed to bring us something that represented Taiwan to them. We got 2 breakfast and 2 dessert samples! I was really happy because both of the breakfasts had soymilk! The 3 of us (Shauna, Carly, and I) pretended like we had not had the treats before, even though we had. It makes the students and faculty here more excited if they think that we are trying something for the very first time from them! We also got more gifts from the students and faculty in the class. After the food and candy was packed away we were each given an FJU t shirt (sized XL :( ) and a little coin pouch. The students also wrote out Chinese names out in beautiful calligraphy! I love mine! They even fixed it up so that I can hang it up! I have been wanting on very badly. For dinner we went out to hot pots with some more of our Taiwanese friends! It was a lot of fun! I spent the rest of the night reading my textbook and laughing with the girls. It was a good day!Tomorrow I am going to watch Dee get a tattoo! That I got to help design! I feel so artsy! Friday we are throwing a Halloween party, Saturday we have a field trip, then Sunday is Hayley's 21st birthday!! We are going to have a great weekend!

Next week I have my written book report, my oral book report, and my second exam in my poverty class! A lot to do and get ready for with such a big weekend ahead!

Pictures!!!

2008-10-25T17:27:00.008+08:00

On our hike through the Alishan Forest!

Waiting for the sun to rise over Yushan

Beautiful sky right before the sun rise!

On the Black Sand beach in Gaohsiung

Ready to go to our special dinner on the Gaohsiung harbor

Before our boat ride on the Love River

Sunset in Kenting

Me and the sunset in Kenting

Hayley and I at the southernmost point of Taiwan

In all of our gear for the water activities - We are so cool!

At a Pet shop in Tainan - I want him, he is soo cute!!

Adding my wish to the wall in the Confuscious Temple in Tainan
On the beach in Tainan - On our way back to Taipei

Island Trip!!!

2008-10-20T21:37:00.003+08:00

Be prepared for a novel! We went on a one week long trip to the southern part of the island. It was an amazing, but long adventure!!!

Day 1: 10-13-08 Alishan

We started off the group trip by being picked up by a tour bus at 7:30 am. Our tour guide's name is David.. I thought that he said Davey, so that is what I called him all week. He was funny, in his own weird way, which made him very entertaining. We headed south along the West side of the island. (Davey would have told you East, his East & West and left & rights were very mixed up!) The scenery was really pretty, but I used up a lot of my motion sickness pills. (Thank you mom for the supply!) We stopped for lunch, this would be the beginning of a week of meal segregation. All traditional Taiwanese meals are family style, you get a bunch of different plates and everyone shares them. Well, since Shauna, Carly (she eats meat but rarely) and I are vegetarians, we had to sit at a separate table than the rest of the group. It was kind of sad, but we got over it. Almost every meal that we ate was like this. The meal at this first restaurant was very big for the three of us, but it was yummy! After lunch we got back on the bus and continued on to Alishan. Shan means mountain in Chinese so we were heading to Ali mountain. We got to our hotel that was close to the top of Alishan around 4pm. Dee, Hayley, Carly, and I checked into our room together and then we got ready for a 2 hour walk/hike through the wooded areas of the mountain. It was so beautiful. It felt so nice to have clean air going into my lungs! And it was great to not hear any cars or buses, only silence and birds along with the occasional train. We really enjoyed the hike! Then we went back to our room and all took warm showers and read our books together. It was so nice to relax and not have to think about school for an entire week! Our room was neat because there were 4 single beds, and 2 of them were in a loft! It was like being at camp! We all fell asleep early because we had to wake up at 4am the next morning!

(*I started to develop a cough :( and I was on medicine from the doctor on campus to help me with some of my bathroom issues... it was definitely working!!)

Day 2: Alishan Sunrise - Travel to Goahsiung

We all woke up at 4am to hop on an old school train to the top of Alishan. From here we watched the sunrise up over Yushan (Jade Mountain). It was such an amazing and beautiful site. You can only see this happen 120 days out of the year! It was a little interrupted by 2 guys speaking super loud through bull horns in Chinese, but they stopped before the sun actual came up over the mountain. The train ride was fun, I felt like I was living sometime in the past! After we the sunrise we ate some breakfast (which had many things that you would also eat at lunch or dinner. but there was toast... and my new favorite thing soymilk... warm soymilk!) and headed back to the bus to get on our way to Goahsiung. On our way off of the mountain we stopped at a tea plantation to take a look and take some pictures. It was so neat to see! The tea trees look like low bushes along the ground and were growing up and down the side of the mountain. It was so pretty. Again on the bus ride I needed another dose of Dramamine, I was also able to distract myself from the jumbling ride by listening to my Christmas music! We got to Gaohsiung (which depending on who you are in Taiwan could be Kaohsiung, it is spelled both ways on maps and stuff... weird) and checked into our super nice hotel. The beds were so soft, which is nice because everywhere in Northern Taiwan has very hard beds!! Carly and I roomed together and the first thing that we did was jump on our beds!! After that we started getting ready to go out to our fancy (& expensive) dinner. We went to a buffet called the Splendor, it was on the 39th floor of a tall building on the harbor, we had a gorgeous view. The dinner cost us about $825 each (about $25 USD). We all ate a lot because the food was great! And we took so many pictures! I ate my fill of amazing sushi and delicious green salad (which you can not really get in Taiwan because they don't have many vegetables, mostly just cabbage and corn). We got fresh fruit and fruit and fruit juices, choices of so many different breads and rolls, and tons of dessert. Luckily I didn't like half of the desserts that were on my plate otherwise I might have gained 10 pounds! After dinner we went on a boat ride down the love river! It was so nice... the four of us girls held hands since we had no boyfriends with us!
We went back to the hotel with our bellies full and tucked into bed.

Day 3: Goahsiung - Travel to Kenting

Carly and I woke up at 6am to head to the hotel gym to work out. It was a small but nice facility and nice and warm at like 80 degrees. We were sweating like crazy! But it felt nice after the big dinner at the Splendor. We ate another nice and health breakfast of toast with an egg, fruit, and soymilk (!!) before jumping back onto the bus to tour a little more around Gaohsiung. We went to the old British Consulate which is now sort of a museum with shops and snacks. It was right on the harbor and very beautiful. We took a lot of pictures and then spent some time by the water. We then rode a ferry across the harbor to play on the beach! It was interesting because the sand was black! I picked up a lot of shells and packed them away with me before we went to lunch! The sun was really out and I got a nice tan (and tan lines). We ate another traditional Taiwanese family style lunch but I stole some fish from the meat eater table. It was great because it was nice and fresh! We hopped on the bus and headed to Kenting. We made our first stop at one point in the Kenting National Park. It was so pretty. The beach here was different. It was more like the Oregon Coast with high cliffs and rocks. It was very windy but absolutely gorgeous. It was also soo crowded, it turned out that there was at least 1000 high school and junior high students there too, and so many of them wanted to take pictures of us. Turns out we were practically celebrities here! We went to another spot to watch the sun set... and all of the high school students were there too! But they were much more brave about taking pictures this time. The 4 of us girls walked down the pathway and they just started flashing their cameras. I felt like some movie star on the red carpet. We all laughed so hard, we thought it was so funny so soon we started playing along! We really could not believe how many people were taking pictures of us. But the sunset was wonderful! Then we headed to our hotel that was not too far from the beach. The four of us girls were able to room together again (we were so lucky on the trip!) and pushed our 2 huge beds together to make one gigantic bed! It was a lot of fun!! We all fell into bed laughing about our paparazzi moment, 45 minutes of fame, and fell asleep. (I had a lot of problems falling asleep because my cough was pretty bad at this point, I tried to just get through it all so that I could have as much fun as I could)

Day 4: Kenting

This day was supposed to be full of sunshine and tanning, but we all woke up and it was raining! We went downstairs to breakfast hoping that the rain would stop but as we boarded the bus for more adventure it only got harder. We first went to visit a lighthouse in Taiwan, it was cool, but we got entirely soaked and could not take many pictures because we didn't want to stand in the rain. Our guide and bus driver were such good sports about it all and still wanted us to be able to see everything. We next went to the southernmost point of the Island. It was a trek to get there, and not all of the girls on the trip wanted to go, but I was for sure going too, (even if I was hacking up my lungs, I could not believe that they would have rather sat on the bus!!! This chance does not come around very often in someones life!!!) It was so beautiful despite the rain. We still got some great pics and I loved looking out on the ocean. We got back to the hotel a little earlier than planned but we didn't mind. We dried off and got ready for some lunch. At lunch we got a small cake and celebrated one of the girls on the trip, Nancy's, 23rd birthday it was pretty nice. By now I was getting a little bit tired of the vegetarian food, it was pretty much all the same! For some reason vegetarians in Taiwan also skip out on eating garlic, so they season every dish with ginger, and I am not a fan of ginger, but through the trip I have come to tolerate it. After lunch the rain was not as hard and we headed out on a "van" to go partake in some water activities. The "van" turned out to be a small pick up with benches in the back, no tailgate, and a netted canopy over the top. It was a freezing, but entertaining, ride to the part of the beach we were going. I almost thought about not going because of my cold, but I knew that I would be missing out, and I really really would have been. We got to the beach and were made to put on wetsuits (my first time) life jackets, and little helmet things. All of which were too big for me. I looked so funny, we all did. Then we went on banana boat rides and I got to ride on a jetski! The jetski was by far my favorite. Carly and I wanted a fast, fun, and intense ride so we agreed to go together. We were the last pair to go and the driver really gave us a good ride. I think that he felt like he had to try harder because we were laughing the entire time!! We loved it. We would go over so many waves and we would fly up off of the jetski! After the ride I thought that we were very lucky that the driver weighed so much cause I was holding onto him tight to try to stay on! Then we did a little snorkeling and more seashell hunting! The fish were pretty and there were so many, but I was nervous because I kept thinking about seeing the barracuda when I was snorkeling in Mexico! The fish, in general, did not seem as colorful as the ones in Mexico, but they were still very pretty and fun to see! We went back to the hotel and showered and went to grab some food. A restaurant done the road was supposed to have Mexican food and I wanted something spicy to eat so we all went. I ordered nachos because they did not have any bean burritos or anything, and we all laughed when my food came. It was nacho cheese doritos with mozzarella melted all over it! It was fun to eat because I haven't had real cheese in forever, but it was hilarious what their idea of nachos was!! We walked around the small night market for a while, got some fresh juice and then headed to bed.

Day 5: Travel to Tainan

We woke up in the morning to the wonderful blue skies we wanted the day before and boarded the bus for our 3 hour journey to Tainan. I tried to sleep as much as I could because I was not getting good sleep because of how much I was coughing at night. We arrived to the Tainan campus early so we sat in on a lecture made by a guest speaker on plastic surgery, there were some pretty graphic pictures so we were all pretty entertained! We had boxed lunches (there were more veggies in the meat ones than in the vegetarian ones... weird) and met our "guardian angels." Our angels were the students from TUT that we were paired up with for the weekends activities. My angel was Lisa. She was so nice, and shy at first, but she really opened up! We had a great time and it was nice that Hayley's angel, Candy, was friends with Lisa, so the 4 of us were able to hang out all weekend!We took a tour of the campus, which I think is much prettier than FJU in Taipei. There is more space (even though it is smaller) and more grass and trees. It reminded me of a mini OSU (which is probably why I liked it so much!) We ate dinner together (more Mexican food that Candy really liked, that was not really Mexican food :)! ) We then went to a little lesson on how to do some traditional folk dancing. It turned into aerobics class somehow, but I did not mind because I have felt like I really needed the work out! Then the night was over and we all went to separate places to sleep 6 were in a hotel, 6 in the on campus hostel, 3 of us had the opportunity to do a homestay. I of course volunteered for the homestay. I felt bad that I was sick but I really wanted to go, it turned out that Hayley and Carly (who also volunteered) and I were all able to stay with the same host family so it made it much less nervous! We stayed with Professor Wong who we called Ma Ma Wong (Ma Ma means mother in Chinese) her husband Ba Ba (father) Kou (pronounced Koo- they have different last names because the women in the Taiwanese culture do not take their husbands last names, it only becomes hyphenated) and then their 2 children Kevin and Toby (Toby is a girl). They were such a great family to stay with! The first night the two kids took us to a night market and we were able to try so many traditional Taiwanese treats! It was great. We went back to their gigantic house and got a tour. We have always been told that homes here in Taiwan are smaller compared to American standards. Which is true, but the Wong-Kou family must have been very wealthy because they lived in a 5 story house. Kevin had his own floor!! They had 2 cars, an older BMW and a new fully loaded Kia suv/van, 3 nice mopeds, 2 french bulldogs, 4 pretty birds and 1 gigantic crazy looking fish. I asked Kevin what Ba Ba did and he said that he owned a business that made fish food. It sure must have been doing well. The first floor was for Ba Ba's business (where his sisters worked) the second was Kevins floor which was basically and apartment without a kitchen, then Toby & Grandpa's rooms on the 3rd floor, Ba Ba and Ma Ma with the kitchen (that they didn't use) on floor 4, and Toby's baby grand piano in her music room on the 5th floor. She is amazing on the piano, she played for us and we were practically drooling. She has her own CDs and has down background music for famous artists on the piano, chinese flute, and one other instrument. We were so impressed. All 3 of us girls chose to stay in the same room since the bed was a california king (Kevin's study room with all his school books and desk, for some reason needed a big bed) and we all slept together.

Day 6: Tainan

We woke up and got ready to head back to the school. Toby drove us to pick up breakfast and then we all met our angels intime for our cooking lesson at 9am. We spent the next 3 hours making vegetarian dumplings (just our group which Shauna joined) and soup! It was yummy, but weird/creepy because the vegetarian substitute looked, smelled, and tasted a lot like ham, but we were assured so so so many times that it was not ham! But now I can make dumplings, and will definitely make them when I get home for everyone!! We toured the cosmetology department and got a lesson on traditional Chinese facial massage, which was interesting, and would have felt a lot better if someone else was practicing on me, not me practicing on myself. We went with our angels to rent a movie and watch it in the media section of their library which was neat and then we headed out to another night market where we were going to have our dinner. I got some juice and we all went around and sampled food until we were full. I bought a couple of things, but time seemed to run out so fast. Ba Ba picked us up and we headed back to our weekend home. On the way all 3 of us girls were oohing and aahing and the cute puppies in a pet shop, so Ba Ba, being the great weekend Dad that he is, drove us to a pet shop that his friend owns and took us inside. There were so many cute puppies and I found the one that I want!! (After I move out of DG of course!) We made it home and then went to sleep.

Day 7: Tainan - The last day of the trip!

We woke up and got all of our stuff packed up. The girls tried to let me sleep in as late as possible because I was still sick and none of us were getting as much sleep as we needed. We packed up all of our stuff and sadly said goodbye to Ma Ma and Toby. Ba Ba and Kevin took us out to breakfast before we headed back to the school. It was cute because Kevin would translate a lot for Ba Ba, even though I could understand and communicate somethings, I only know so much. But Ba Ba turned out to be impressed by the fact that I can use chopsticks and I use them the correct way. (It was funny because it turned out that Kevin uses them incorrectly!) I seem to get that comment a lot, I didn't think that I would. We said our goodbyes to Ba Ba and met up with our angels and began a little tour around the Confusious Temple in Tainan which was very pretty and then to the Taiwanese literary museum. We then went to a market to walk around and eat lunch at. I didn't eat lunch because the group of students that I was with kept having me sample foods! But I can't complain about that. After the time there we took a brief stop at the beach, that had tan sand, collected some more shells took more pictures and then headed off to the fast train station. It was sad to say good bye because we felt like we knew our angels so well. And my angel must have known me well because she got me a planner as a goodbye gift!! It is even plain so that I can craft it up however I want! It is so nice. And it is not dated so I can wait to use it until my planner for this year is over.

It was crazy how quickly we made it home on the fast train. It seemed weird that it took us 3 days to get to the southern part of Taiwan, and then only an hour and a half to get home. It was so weird. Jean met us at the train station and it was so great to see a familiar face! We all felt to glad to be able to be "home." We got back into our rooms and unpacked while telling Jean of our adventures.

I tried to rest as much as possible today because I felt awful when I woke up! I took a hot steamy shower and then went back to sleep before class at 12:40. I was only in class for an hour and then I came back to my room to go to sleep, I slept from 1:30 until our group meeting at 4. I felt better afterward, and feel better now too. I really needed the rest. I think that my cold is on its last leg because I am coughing a lot of stuff out and blowing my nose a bunch. I am hoping to be better by tomorrow evening!! Because more fun is going to begin!! The half way point of my trip with the group has passed, we are going to try to make sure we see and do everything on our lists!!

*Side note* I cut my hair the Sunday before we left on the group trip... it was a little shorter than I had asked for, but it still looks all right.

Field Trips, Nature & Animals!

2008-10-11T22:04:00.004+08:00

This week has been such a busy one. We have been up to something everyday!

Tuesday we went on a field trip to a disability center here in Taipei. It was very interesting to see. The center was open to children from 3-6 years and to adults over 15. The gap in ages is the time that people should be in the public school system (only 9 years is required here in Taiwan, not 12 like in the States). It was hard to learn to much about the center because we had to have a translator, and I feel that a lot got lost in the translating.

Wednesday we went on field trip to a junior high and high school! This was truly a neat experience. I feel like I have heard so much about how important school is here, and how seriously it is taken, so it was nice to hear it from the actual source and know that it is true. I got the chance to interview a student one on one. His name was Steve and he was 16. He was so nervous about his English and the interview did go pretty slow, but I was still able to learn a lot from him. Here many of the students go to "cram" schools after their day at public school to study for these college placement tests that they have to take. How well they score on these tests determines which type of higher ed they will move onto. The higher the score the better the school. (Fu Jen is supposedly on the higher end of the schools in Taiwan!) I felt bad because Steve (the student I was interviewing) really wanted to be a doctor, he was so excited about it, but his parents could not afford to put him through cram school. I know that his parents had to pay for him going to Heng Yee (the high school I was at) and that they also planned to pay for his college tuition, I just hope that he will be able to get where he wants without the extra studying and help. The majority of students in Taiwan do not ever work until they are almost done with college or completely done. It is amazing how surprised they are when I say I have worked for so long. There is so much pressure on their education that parents don't want them to think about anything else! There isn't even school sports! Schools don't even encourage children to do organized sports because they don't want it to interfere with studying! (they just do more PE) It was so neat to listen to him!

Thursday we had a luncheon with the Department of Child and Family Studies (my department while I am here). It was fun and there was a lot of good food and tea! We just mingled with the students and faculty mostly. After the luncheon was my very last Chinese language class. I am excited to have the extra time to work on other homework or do new things, but I am also going to miss learning more of the language. And our teacher was very funny and so nice. We made sure to make her a card and give her a gift! (giving gifts is a huge thing here!) That evening I decided to go to the clinic on campus. I have been having some of my stomach issues again and Hayley had a mondo mosquito bite on her ankle that needed some help so we went and got fixed up. It was a very unique experience. The room that we went into was so much different than home. You walk in and sit at the end of a table with a doctor in front of a computer on one side and a nurse on the other. The doctor asks you a bunch of questions and types up your answers on the computer, where you can read it and then tells you what he is going to do for you or give you then sends you on your way. It was so much less personal and private. There was only one worker manning the pharmacy and anyone could have seen the medicine that he was giving me. It was an interesting experience. Overall it cost me $420. (Taiwanese) So it was not bad, and it will all get reimbursed through OSU with insurance that we all bought for the trip.

Friday we went to Beitou! I loved it here! If I lived in Taiwan, this is where I would have a home. It is nestled on the side of Yanminshan Mountain. When we got there we went walked up to the hot springs. The walk alone was beautiful. There was green grass and trees and rivers (things you don't always see in Taipei)! The hot springs were so much fun. I had never been in any before. We were not allowed to take pictures so I don't have any from being there. There were 5 tiered pools. The one on the top was the hottest, the second was in the middle and the third was the lowest heat. The other 2 were on the side and they had cold water in them. What you are supposed to do is go into the warm pool, then the cool pool, then the warmer pool, then the cool pool, then the hottest pool, and back and forth to improve your circulation. We did this for a little while, but I could only go into the hot pool once, it was sooo hot! It was amazing to me that all of the water was naturally that hot and natural to that area! After the hot springs one of the Chinese students who was from Beitou had her Ba Ba (dad) pick us up (in an actual car which we had not been in for such a long time!!! It was so nice to not have to take a bus!) and he drove us up the mountain! He took us to this great place to eat lunch. We ate a family style meal of 10 plates!! I was so happy because there was warm soup (it has started to rain) and so much vegetarian food. It was delicious, and the vegetables had all been grown on Yanminshan! Ba Ba paid for all of us to eat which was so nice, he told us that we were all his kids that night! The plan was to take us to a view point on the mountain but the fog and rain were so thick that we could not see. He took us back into town and we sat and had a coffee, he then drove us up to a restaurant on the mountain to meet the other Chinese and OSU students who did not come out with us for the day. The restaurant here was beautiful. It had a few of all of Taipei city and its lights! None of our half of the group ate because we were all still full from our wonderful traditional Taiwanese lunch, but we really enjoyed being there and taking in the view. It had stopped raining and we could see so much! The presentation with the food and drinks were amazing! We then headed home which ended up being a trek. It took about an hour and a half through taxi, MRT (subway), and the bus. I slept so well last night!

Today (Saturday) Hayley and I went with Clark (a young staff member at FJU that knows Sharon) and a Chinese student and her younger sister went to the Taipei Zoo! It was incredible. You were much closer to the animals and there were many more animals here than in the Portland Zoo. We walked around for about 4 hours and saw so much, but still missed some spots. It was very funny when we came around the corner and saw that there was a section for many animals we have at home. Like beavers.... and raccoons. Hayley and I explained that raccoons are not an animal that we necessarily like in America, so that we thought it was funny they were in the zoo! It rained for a little bit at the zoo but it was not too bad at all. There was just one thing..... I saw the biggest spider in my life! It was not on display it was just cruising around on the walkway. I am sure that you can all imagine my reaction, trying to stay calm, but failing. It was, with NO exaggeration at least 2-3 inches in diameter. I have tinglies all over me just thinking about it. I watched it run across the walkway and crawl on someones shoe!!! I told Clark that he had to go and let the lady know that it was there, and of course they all screamed. I could not believe what I saw!!!YUCK!!!!! I am so glad that we do not have spiders like that at home!

After the Zoo the two Chinese students left and we went to this restaurant that Clark wanted to take us called the Modern Toilet. It was very interesting. Each table was made out of either a sink or bath tub with glass over the top and all of the chairs were toilets. The napkins at the table were hanging from a toilet paper roll on the wall and all of our food was served from a toilet. It was the most interesting fun place to go. We really had a great time! It was not outrageously priced either. All of the meals come in combos with drinks and desserts, and we decided to upgrade our dessert to more than just one scoop of ice cream. So for a little bit more we all ordered shaved ice. But when we got them we laughed so hard because they were absolutely gigantic (and were also served in toilets)! We had a great time. After the restaurant we went into a used book store and browsed. It was nice that both Hayley and Clark were nerds like me so we could look through all of the books for around an hour! I ended up buying The Devil Wears Prada and The People's Republic of Desire, which I am really excited about because it is supposed to be like Sex in the City, but in China. It will be interesting to read about all of the culture differences!

Now we are home and I need to be getting to bed! We leave for the group trip on Monday morning and I need to pack and get everything ready tomorrow!

<3

First Test!

2008-10-06T16:38:00.001+08:00

I finally got the scores back from my first test.... the rumor was that the grades that we got would be lower than expected so I feared a C or something.... But I ended up with a 45/50! A 90%! It seems all right for a first test to me! :)

Fruit, Fruit, Fruit!

2008-10-06T10:13:00.012+08:00

Thursday our whole group went to Danshui. It is a town along the Danshui river that leads to the Northern Coast of Taiwan. It was so beautiful! We had such a great time! Along the river are a bunch of little shops (which had many different types of jewelry, clothes, souvenirs, and toys)and games to play. There was also a lot of people on the walkways that were playing instruments and ready to draw your picture! It was such a wonderful place to spend the evening and have dinner. The weather was perfect, it was finally cool enough to wear jeans! The sky was beautiful when the sun was setting. Our group met up with a guy who works on campus named Clark. He can speak English really well so it was nice to have his company. He was so interested in sororities and fraternities. He said that the had heard the words before, but knew nothing about it. He thought that it was the neatest thing when I told him that there was a lot of secret things that I was not able to tell him! Especially that we have secret handshakes! haha! It was kind of funny. He was so full of questions about everything! We all went to a restaurant that served their food family style. It was so neat. It was more traditional Taiwanese so there were a bunch of new things to try!

Friday was a great day off. Carly, Dee, Hayley and I walked to a little grocery store nearby to kind of look around and get whatever we say that was interesting. We spent a lot of the day reading and talking. It was nice.

Saturday we planned to help Dee get to the airport to pick up her mom who was coming here for business (and to hang out with us!) She will be here a little more than a week! We took the long loop to the airport stop on the MRT (subway) and stopped by our new friend Abby's work (Starbucks). We felt so accomplished on getting somewhere without a teacher or Chinese speaker! It was fun and ended up being very easy to follow the directions to get there! Abby (pronounced with a strong A) showed us a nice little Japanese style restaurant to eat at and we all went on her dinner break. It was fun. Then we were off to the airport. After we split with Dee we got off the MRT at Ximen station to walk around the mall area since we had time to kill. We found a small craft fair and the stuff was so much fun to look at! I bought 2 pairs of earrings and 2 rings. They are so much fun, one pair of my earrings is a set of Chinese characters that means cool, and the others are mismatching (which is very popular here) and one of them is a character for wine, and the other is zebra print. I was so excited to have some jewelry that could not be replicated and would really remind me of being in Taiwan! The vendors here were so nice and a couple of them spoke English and were so excited when I would use my Chinese to talk to them!

Sunday we ventured not to far away to a little neighborhood that had a couple of fruit stands. It was a lot of fun to look at all of the different fruit that Taiwan has. I always forget that Taiwan is considered a tropical island, but when I see the fruit you have to know that it is. There were piles of coconuts (one that we got the "milk" from - but I didn't like it much... it was more like water with a hint of coconut... almost like someone slipped something into your drink :( ...)

DragonFruit

Durian

Dragon's Eye Fruit

Pineapple

Passionfruit

Lien-oo I don't know the English name but they are yummy!

Coconuts

Buddha Heads

We also stopped into a pet shop that was in a mall there. They had a baby pig for sell, which is pretty common here turns out. It was the most adorable thing ever. I wish that I could have one. This type was not supposed to get very big either!

When we got home we tried the infamous stinky fruit durian. It is supposed to have such an awful smell that it is not allowed on a lot of buses, in a lot of buildings, and is strictly prohibited from airports and planes. Some say that is smells like dirty diapers and rotting flesh. But people eat it. We found it at the little fruit market and figured that we would try it (you only live once right?). It turned out to not be as bad as we thought, I think that I might even choose another bite of that over stinky tofu, (cause that tastes and smells a lot like goat butt!) I didn't even think that it tasted that bad, kind of like a banana pepper pudding. But the smell was yucky. We each took one bite then tossed it!

National Palace Museum & Shilin Night Market

2008-10-02T08:46:00.004+08:00

It was nice on Monday to not have class again because of the typhoon. But I did get t staying inside, so Monday morning I went on a run. It was so interesting. It was not raining but the wind was still very strong, every once in a while as I lifted one of my legs to take the next step forward it would get blown into my other leg and I would almost trip my self. It was the weirdest sensation to be out running in a typhoon. (And no one needs to worry because I only went running because I saw other people were out and about and because I knew the storm was leaving!) Monday evening the storm was pretty much gone and I went a did a little groceryired of shopping, basically Hayley and I just wanted to do something. I got a bag of my favorite snacks that I have had, they are little round rice cakes that are a little bit salty tasting and have a tiny little bit of frosting sprinkled on the top. They are so yummy. We also had our group meeting that night and the Dean of the College of Human Ecology (my college here within Fu Jen) bought all of us pizza for dinner. It was very nice of her, but I are way too much of it. I think that I was just excited. The vegetarian one had pineapple (which I picked off... yuck) mushrooms, peas, and corn! It was interesting but I just really was happy to have some cheese!

Yesterday was a great day! We went to the National Palace Museum! I had never been to such a large museum. They have the largest collection of artifacts from the different Chinese dynasties going back 7000 years! It was so neat to be there! We had a guided tour (which I have always wanted to do!) with a grandpa like guy named Hugo from Belgium. He was funny and entertaining, but he kinda smelled funny. It was a great time. After we toured the museum we went through the gardens there. It was so beautiful. We walked around through sunset and looked at all of the huge coy fish! There was one that was at least 3 feet long! But it was hard to see because it was a black one, it looked like a huge underwater monster! We had a great time!

After the museum a group of us went to the Shilin night market. It was so much fun. We entered it from the other side that I had gone in last time, so I was able to see different stuff. I tried some different foods. I got a papaya salad that was yummy, it was sour and spicy (I guess that it was a Thai appetizer). I also tried fried shrimp and pineapple, with some sauce, but it was very good. And then I finally got to try a dessert that I have been wanting to try! It was shaved ice milk, and I got sweet red bean as a topping. It was so good. It was not as sweet as ice cream, but it was still wonderful. It was fun to go with a group to the night market because we could all try each other's food and not have to have a whole bunch, it was kind of like taste testing! I bought myself another pair of earrings and a vest! It was fun to walk around with Ariel, Annabelle, and Sabrina. They are a great group of girls and I am so lucky to have been able to meet them here in Taiwan!

This morning I have to give a presentation on a book that I read for class and then we are heading out to discover another area of Taipei and grab some dinner!

Day #19

2008-09-28T23:08:00.005+08:00

I have been here for 2 1/2 weeks already! I can't believe it. It seems like I have been here for so long, but that I still have so much time to go.

Wednesday for out culture class we did some hands on cultural cooking! We made a dessert called a moon cake that is made in the harvest time to celebrate the moon festival. They are made of red beans that are covered in a sweet dough. They are kind of sweet and very good! We also made meatballs that were covered in rice and then steamed. I of course could not eat this since I am a vegetarian, so they made me and Shauna (our graduate student/TA who is also a vegetarian) ones that were made from tofu and vegetables. It was very nice of them! I had my first test of the term on Thursday, we do not have grades back yet, but I am pretty sure that I did well. On Thursday I also did something very exciting, I joined a club on campus! I bet you can all guess what kind of club... dance! It was so much fun. It was more of an aerobics class, but I still enjoyed it. I am not sure if I have ever sweat so much in my life though, it was 90 degrees in the room to start with, then 100 people started dancing around in it! But it was such a great time. It was weird walking into the group and sitting down because everyone looked at me (more like stared) and smiled. They were all so excited that I was part of the group. Another thing that is interesting, is that when I see people here working out, they are wearing their regular clothes. I am pretty sure that I am the only person aside of the instructors that was dressed down for the dance class. I can't imagine doing anything like that in everyday clothes! I don't get to perform with them because they do not do that until December when I am gone, but it will still be great to hang out!
Friday night was so much fun! I finally got to eat sushi! I have been waiting to eat sushi ever since I have arrived here. The place that some of the Taiwanese students took us was great! There was a little conveyor belt that went all around past the tables and you just picked what you wanted off of it. It is so inexpensive compared to at home. I paid a little less than half for just as much sushi as I would get at home! I am going to go there, (or another place some of the girls found that is close by) at least once a week! After dinner we went to see the movie "Burn After Reading." I was not exactly what I thought it was going to be.... but the movie theatres are so much different here! They are about 1/10 of the size! There is so much less seating and the screens are so much smaller. The street that had the movie theatre that we went to was called "Movie Street" by the students here. It had many different movie theaters that each played 2 or 3 movies. It was so different.

Some of the girls and I were going to head out to Maokong on Saturday. There is a zoo, hiking trails, gondola ride, and beautiful tea houses on the side of a hill. But because of the stinkin typhoon we are stuck inside again. It is more serious this time, it is equal in strength to a category 5 hurricane. There are parts of Taipei that are flooded, but we are safe here. Just lots of wind and rain, like last time. But I don't mind that class is cancelled tomorrow, I just don't want to have to sit inside again all day long. I am getting hay fever!

My NEW address

2008-09-23T16:05:00.003+08:00

So the first address that I was given was incomplete, and I have the new one for anyone who needs to send me anything! If you have already sent me something, it should still get here fine, it just might take an extra day.

Kayla Whittington
Fu Jen Catholic University
Department of Child and Family Studies
510 Chung Cheng Road
Hsinchuang, Taipei County 24205
Taiwan, ROC

Kind frustrating that the first time I got it it was not right. :(

But it is ok! Today has been a good Tuesday! I am ahead in my school work now so it feels less stressful!

Another typhoon is supposed to be coming in, but we have not seen many signs of it yet, just a little wind. But this one should not be bad at all.

Getting Busy

2008-09-21T21:14:00.005+08:00

This week things really started to pick up. It feels like I have been here much longer than I really have. We do so much that each day feels like 3 days!

Wednesday night I went to my very first club in downtown Taipei! It was such a long journey to get there! First we went to a hair salon where they washed out hair and styled it! It was so much fun! We then went to a 4 story McDonalds to change into our dresses and then had a little photo shoot there. It was a lot of fun. We then walked all of the way to the club, where we got to sit in a VIP booth. It was a lot of fun there. I recognized most every song that they played because they were all mostly the same as in the States. The DJ was great too, and even sang to some of the songs and has perfect English. I only had a couple of drinks, but it seemed that the alcohol was not as strong, I could not taste it at all. We did not get home that night until 4 in the morning! The clubs here don't even close until 5am! So maybe next time we can stay later. I slept the whole taxi ride home because we had class at 9:30 the next day!

Thursday night Nancy, a student here that I met at OSU on her exchange, took us out to the Shilin night market. My Lonely Planet book on Taiwan calls this the "king of all night markets." It was such a cool experience. The street was filled with vendors that sold almost anything that you would want to find. Most of the things there were priced very low. I spent probably about $35 American and got 2 pairs of shoes and 3 shirts! It was a lot of fun and there was so much to see. It was fun because you can barter about the prices as well. It was nice that Nancy was there with us, because even though I know my numbers in Chinese, it is hard to hear and concentrate with all of the noise and people around. We were there for a couple of hours, but would need at least a couple more to look at everything.

Saturday we went to a small town South East of Taipei called Yingge. I call it ceramic city because it is famous for its pottery. It was a fun trip because there was a lot to look at and the town was so cute! The streets were made of stone instead of pavement and the roads were lined with palm trees and little stores. A lot of the stores had the same thing but it was fun. I had a popular dessert there, shaved ice. You can get it with all different sorts of toppings. It was surprisingly good. After we shopped around the cute part of town we walked to the Ceramics Museum in downtown Yingge. It was neat to go there and see all of the art. I was able to paint a ceramic bowl with an artist who had art on exhibit in the museum! I will be able to pick it up in a month after they glaze it and fire it. I tried to make it look good, but it was hard when a real pottery artist was sitting next to me painting his own bowl. We were gone on this trip for a total of 12 hours, but I was still smiling by the end. We had a great time, the way home on the train Carly and I sang Christmas songs, of course I was in a good mood!! Here is a link to my photo album on facebook with the pictures from this trip! http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2147459&l=fc1f5&id=19712929

Today has been a homework day. I have gotten a lot of things done on my to do list today! I feel so accomplished, I think that I might finally be getting into the hang of school here. It is so hard to try to make myself do homework when there is so many other fun things that I can do!

First Day of School!

2008-09-16T16:24:00.006+08:00

Today was my first day of class. We were supposed to start yesterday but because of the Typhoon that hit Taiwan this last weekend the majority of our Taiwanese classmates were stranded in Thailand. We began the day with Families and Poverty which is a great class. I find the text and discussion very interesting, but there is going to be sooo much to read. Be the end of our 9 weeks of class I will have read 2 textbooks and 3 books for reports. It will be a lot of work.

We also had out first Chinese language class. I really enjoy learning the language but it is very difficult. I have already been learning a lot and picking up quickly from the students that are here. I have been able to for the most part order my own drinks and some food, ( I can say that I am vegetarian). Because of this I got put into the "fast" group. It is still a beginner class, but we moved through a lot of vocabulary and practiced a lot. I have to listen so hard to the instructor to understand what she is saying, process it, then figure out my reply, and then try to say it with the right tones. But hopefully by the end of November I will be able to get around the city pretty well.

We were finally able to get into our own rooms on Sunday night. We were sharing rooms because a group from Japan had to stay longer in the hostel (in our rooms) because of the Typhoon. It is nice to have my own space, but living with Hayley was fun! It took me a little while to get used to the open shower, but now I think I have got the hang of it!

Going back a little ways when the Typhoon was here.... It was crazy! The wind was blowing so hard and the rain would come down in huge drops. Even in Oregon I have never been out in so much rain! Jean, a student here who is helping us all get the ropes, took us to dinner the other night. By the time that we walked to the restaurant that was only a block away we were all soaked from the waist down. And some of us were even wet above that. It was incredible how full of water the streets and sidewalks were. But, now the Typhoon is gone and the warm weather is returning. Today has been beautiful outside!

The restaurant that we went to the other night was a lot of fun! It was a BBQ Buffet. You were able to choose whatever you wanted from the buffet line and then took it back to your table and cooked it there. Each table had a grill with hot coals under it! It was so much fun! Not to mention all the beer that you can drink for $3 American! :) I also ate octopus! It was very very chewy!

Tonight we have a group dinner and then a meeting. We will be eating somewhere very nice where you get to create your own soup at your table, it is called a hot pot. I am excited to try it out, Sharon (our lead instructor) said that it was a traditional Chinese restaurant so it will be a very fun place to go to!

<3 Love <3

Day Two

2008-09-12T20:03:00.004+08:00

Today was another long day. We decided to go to one of the largest temples in Taipei called Lungshan and also to Taipei 101 the tallest building in the world.

Lungshan was absolutely beautiful! It was such a peaceful experience. Outside the entrance I bought a gorgeous little flower arrangement that was made on a plate and is used to honor the ancestors. At the temple many people came to pay their respects to those that had pasted away by bringing food and small gifts. So I wanted to add one in too. When we first walked into the temple gates there was a great waterfall on the right hand side with many gigantic coy swimming in the pond at the bottom of it. The left hand side had another pond with a much smaller waterfall and some pretty fountains as well as more fish. When you walk in further through the next entrance there is a small barrier that is about 3 inches off of the ground and a foot long which you have to step over because it is disrespectful to stop on it. The temple was so ornate and decorated with many beautiful flowers and gold writing and artwork. It was amazing at how quiet it was inside the temple even though it was on a loud busy street.

Taipei 101 was in a different part of town. It is a beautiful part of town! I almost wish that our hostel was in that area instead. It is not so crowded. The streets and sidewalks are more open and have many more trees. The buildings are also newer and the are looks much cleaner. We did not go to the top of Taipei 101 because of the Typhoon that is coming. I am not sure if it is because the wind would be too strong 101 stories up, or if it would not be worth it to pay and go up because we would not get a very good view through all of the wind and rain. We are going to go back soon and then also go to the Grand Hotel. In 101 we walked around the shopping mall (7 stories of it). Carly and I saw so many designer stores, we pretended that we could afford to shop at Dolce and Dior, it was great! We also ate in the basement. Most of the restaurants/eateries here have pictures of all of their food which is very helpful. I have also learned to say that I am vegetarian. It is helpful that Shauna and I can always go together to find food, that way I don't have to search alone, and she knows much more Chinese than I do because her mom is from Taiwan.

Here are some more pictures:

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146037&l=02bf4&id=19712929

There is so much construction going on around the city. It is neat to see the buildings going up around us, especially because they use scaffolding made out of bamboo because it is so sturdy! Around the construction zones there are red flashing lights everywhere, I am assuming so that people are careful.

Another thing that I have realized and found very interesting is that since I have been here and around the city (which is a lot) I have only seen 2 gas stations! It almost doesn't make sense for how many cars and motor scooters are out on the road to not have very many gas stations around. I did see a Shell store, which had containers of gas and oil.

Something that we all noticed while we were out walking around and looking into stores is that Playboy is HUGE here! They carry around luggage that has bunnies on it, and purses, everything. People here love it. I asked Sam, one of the students here, about it. I said that in America it meant sex and asked if it was the same here and he said yep. It is crazy to me that they would want to promote that. It is also interesting that Playboy is very popular and the other popular thing is cartoons. They are everywhere and used for everything. It is weird that two such separate things are the most popular things here!

It is starting to Typhoon outside! We are staying in all day tomorrow because it is not safe to go out! It is too windy, we are only allowed to walk to get food and back. It will be nice to have time to settle ourselves in and maybe practice some more Chinese. I am already learning a lot! :) I am going to try to learn to upload pictures on here soon!

Thanks for reading!!

Love!

Finally Arrived

2008-09-11T20:40:00.002+08:00

I can't believe that I am actually here. The journey here was long. I stayed up for 26 hours straight through out all 3 of my plane rides (PDX to San Fran, San Fran to Tokyo, Tokyo to Taipei) and then the bus ride to the campus here. This morning when I woke up I took a shower in my bathroom, which does not have a stall around it. The shower is open to the rest of the bathroom, I was afraid that I was going to get everything wet, but it was not too bad. Then I met some of the other girls and we ventured to the 7-11 for our breakfast. The 7-11s here are different than in America, they have everything. They are more like a rite-aid or Walgreens, people go there for many different things. I was able to have plain yogurt and fruit for breakfast.

After breakfast we went on a tour around campus and then through the city. The city is so big (2 million people I think) that it is divided into districts. We went to the post office and the bank and then out to lunch. I paid less than $2 American for my lunch today. It was great. Shauna (the graduate student who will be teaching us on the trip) and I are the only vegetarians so we had to go to a different restaurant than everyone else because the one we were at had meat in every meal choice. Here the culture is to eat out for every meal, but I bought eggs and bread from the store today so that I can make breakfast for myself in the morning. While I was in the store I dropped my first carton of eggs and one broke and splattered! I was so embarrassed and did not know what to do, but the lady who worked there just gave me a new carton and said it was all right. Oh man!

The weather here is very different. It is very muggy, the air is so thick. It is going to be really hard for me to get used to the air that is down town. My throat hurt when we got back to the Fu Jen campus because of all the exhaust and pollution. There are motor scooters EVERYWHERE! So many people ride them. And the driving here is crazy, literally. I don't think that there are rules. Some intersections don't have a yellow light, it just goes from green to red. But everyone runs red lights anyways. I would never want to drive here, so today we did a lot of walking.

We are no longer going on our weekend trip to Hua-Lien because there is a typhoon that is supposed to be arriving here. We are going to try to reschedule our trip so that we will still be able to go. This weekend will be full of rain. We got a little taste of it today when we were out shopping in the town. It just started coming down, and practically sideways from the wind. Everyone just went about their lives too. The people are neat to watch.

I haven't had any real problem with the time transition, which is nice. Right now it is 9pm here and 6am back home in Oregon. and I am tired and ready for bed. Such a crazy concept, especially when I look at the clock on my computer because it is still on the Pacific time zone. I am ready for a good night of sleep and for more adventure tomorrow.

Here is a link to my online photo album with more pictures!
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2146009&l=b2ff6&id=19712929

I miss everyone a lot!