1/23/2024 2 Comments A Much Needed UpdateFirstly, sorry for the delay but its been so busy and exciting lately, it's difficult to find time to write. I've been in Taiwan for almost 5 months now and its just keeps getting better. Regardless there is a lot to cover from the last few months so here is a quick speed run, with little to no context or explanation.
Oct 7. My rotary district (3490) planned a day trip in Yilan, about an hour bus ride from New Taipei City, we hiked mountains, saw giant spiders, saw bats, made potato glutenous rice balls, made giant lanterns, and had fun hanging out with the other exchange students and rotex. Oct 8. went to a baking shop with a classmate from school, we made cute frankenstein bear cookies. Throughout the past months, the other exchange students and I often go out shopping in places like Ximenting (a local outdoor shopping complex) or night markets like Shilin Night Market. Oct 14 went with my family to The Lin Family Mansion and Garden because it was a place I had seen on Instagram and thought it was cute, which it was. We also went to Daan Park, a cute flower market, and ShinKong Mitsukoshi (a shopping mall with many luxury brands). Oct 16 my iphone started categorizing photos taken from my bedroom window as "home" so that's interesting Still going to school and doing/making things in hand making class, watercolor class, and mandarin class. Oct 22 went bowling with half of my rotary district, apparently it was a competition but I did not sign up to wake up at 7:30 in the morning just to go bowling. just kidding! but I won the competition so that's nice Oct 27 our class was preparing for our school anniversary celebration, where they wanted to sell hot pot, so we had a test run cooking session in the classroom Oct 27 I had join an afterschool activity that many of my other classmates are also a part of, but it involves video chatting with German highschool students, so that Taiwanese students can practice their English and German students can practice their Mandarin. We share about holidays, food, or just daily life. But we had our very first conference, where we quickly realized that the German students didn't speak any Mandarin and I was part of the group to help the Taiwanese students understand the German accent. Oct 29 my family took me to Taoyuan Martyrs' Shrine, another place I saw on Instagram, which it was very pretty. and we also went to the aquarium which was very cute. Nov 1-3 my district went on a trip to Kinmen Island, but I'll dedicate a full (more indepth) post to this trip. (In addition to the hundreds of photos I have from those 3 days) . Also very sad, but our school had the dance competition on the 1st, so sadly I didn't get to participate *cries, but our class won first place yay! so that's fun. Nov 11 HsinChuang Senior High Schools anniversary! it was a Saturday, but we went to school anyways and had fun. the other exchange students at my school and I worked with the culinary club to cook some food from our country that we could share and sell at school. spoiler; we didn't make anything from the US (because there's really nothing that unique about American food) but we still had fun cooking and hanging out with everyone. Nov 14 we started dance classes paid for and required by our rotary district, they continued every Tuesday for about two months and apparently we will perform in April (so I guess we're looking forward to that). Nov 26 Rotary had a marathon! I'm not entirely sure what for but there were Rotarians from all over Taiwan, so that was cool. but also is was 5:30 in the morning and raining, so... yeah fun. But later that day I went with my classmates to my homeroom teachers wedding. she had told me a few weeks ago about it and invited me but I hadn't thought it was a serious invitation. but anyways, it was sweet and super cute. Could I understand anything? no, did I still cry? yes. but it was super cute and they actually live streamed it because Teacher Lily has lots of international friends. Dec 2 me and my German friend that goes to my high school but is part of Taipei Rotary district, not New Taipei district, we went to the Gloria Mall Outlets in Taoyuan with her mom. it has lots of nice stores, especially luxury stores, but its an outlet mall, which means everything is a little cheaper. it also means my credit card hurt that day. There is nothing like getting your Rotary allowance and spending it all in the same day. just kidding! kind of Dec 8 our grade at school had a tug-of-war competition, which was very interesting to watch but our class came in 3rd so yay! Also during this month there was going to be a Christmas/Winter formal dance, hosted by our rotary district so everyone was preparing dresses and shoes etc. which means we went to many malls this month, and very often. Dec 18 I went to the Banqiao Christmas market it was super cute and very pretty with all the lights. Here in the city people dont decorate the outside of their houses so it was fun to see the market all decorated for the holiday, also it was beginning to get colder. Dec 22 i went on my first field trip with my 205 class. it was too a financial museum so that, was, interesting, I guess. I don't know but my classmates have been so busy with their clubs, extra curricular activities, cram school classes, and preparing for mid terms or finals, that is was nice to be able to hangout with them (not on school campus). Dec 22 my family went to SOGO mall which isn't that crazy but there was a food shop there that had the biggest fruits Ive ever seen. and for good price considering the prices that I see for fruit in the grocery stores near to my house. Dec 23 our rotary district took us out to Yilan where we did some volunteer work and had out Christmas party. Dec 24 I went to my friends house and baked Christmas cookies and made "gingerbread" houses with my friends. Dec 25 it was a Monday and a school day so yay! I went to school but it was quite uneventful, but I bought a cute cake for my host family and discovered the cutest little bakery near my house. its open from 6am to 9pm and sells doughnuts for $30NTD (0.95USD) so I love it. Dec 27 one of my close friends from this exchange had decided to go home. i wont share personal details but she was from Japan and were all sad to see her go, unfortunately I was the only one whose parents allowed me to skip school and go see her in the airport but we all miss her still Dec 31 we celebrated new years at Taipei 101 it was with our rotary district and Taipei district, but we were chaperoned by our rotex. there was a firework show, but I missed it while babysitting someone... *hint hint *cough cough ...anyways Jan 6 went to the aquarium again but with friends this time and i bought a pin for my rotary blazer, i think it's funny Jan 8 had a holiday gift exchange with my club at school and I got a cute little mirror and nightlight Jan 13 went with some friends on a ferris wheel in the middle of the city, it was a pretty short ride and not too high up but the view was still nice. Jan 19 I went to the beach with some friends, it was kind of far away but it was still nice and warm. quite windy but not too crazy and the weather was nice. it was fun to jump in the waves and I realized how much I miss the beach. and seeing stars omg, the city is always bright and sometimes it's hard to notice when the sun goes down because the city lights are always on and are so bright. but the beach is far away from the city and we were actually able to see stars, which I had missed since leaving Windsor. but anyways the whole day was so nice Jan 20 our rotary district had a speech competition, that involved everyone giving a 5 minute speech in Mandarin about their lives so far in Taiwan. terrifying and nerve wrecking but I did it and my parents said they liked it so that's good. In conclusion, that's about it! Talk more soon -Natalie 許美英 <3 PS any photos not already featured here will be in their respective albums, under the "Photos" page.
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10/8/2023 3 Comments Mid AutumnI started a new schedule at school last week, that involves more fun classes like music, theater, film studies/fun english, home ec., hand making, painting, and more. This new schedule also requires me to often move classes and even grades. I have music, home ec., and theater with 3rd years, film studies/fun english, PE, and art with 1st years, and painting and another art class with 2nd years (but not my 205 class). My other classes are super fun, but I miss spending all day with my 205 classmates. I love my homeroom class very much and wish I could hangout with them all the time.
Also, I am 18 now!! Yay! We didn't have class on the 29th because it was a holiday, but my classmates surprised me with a cake and gifts the day before. Then later, I hung out at a park and went bowling with some of the other exchange students. Speaking of which, there are a lot of Rotary Exchange students in Taiwan. My district (3490), by itself, has about 24 inbounds. Living in New Taipei City, I also happen to be very near the Taipei Rotary district, which means I often get to meet up and hang out with inbounds from the Taipei district. But they go out a lot and sometimes I prefer to stay home or spend time with my classmates. As previously mentioned, September 29th was also a holiday here in Taiwan. It was the Mid-Autumn Festival, during which the moon looks very large and bright, you eat mooncakes 月餅, BBQ 烤肉, and pomelo 柚子. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned it already but, mooncakes are quite different from the ones you find in the states. The mooncakes I've had in Taiwan, are all made by Ama, and have a flaky crust outside and are filled with either red bean or taro. They're less rich than the lotus paste ones I am used to and are much tastier, if I'm being honest. We also had another holiday not long after, October 10th was National Day in Taiwan. But because we had the Monday and Tuesday off from school for the holiday, we attended school on Saturday two weeks ago to make up for the missed day. 9/30/2023 4 Comments Update. . .It's crazy to see how much can happen in a week. ( I wrote this last week, but forgot to post it. Sorry!)
Firstly, I wanted to answer some of the questions from last week's post; I do have a uniform that I wear everyday to school, but there are two versions; athletic wear and formal wear. I, personally, have two sets of short sleeve athletic shirts, one long sleeve athletic shirt, two pairs of athletic shorts, two pairs of athletic pants, a school jacket with a removable liner (for when it gets cold), two sets of short sleeve formal shirts, and one formal skirt. Most students don't like to wear the formal wear, but I don't mind it. My class, in particular, voted to always wear our formal wear every Tuesday so that's what I do. The school is pretty strict about the uniforms, you're not allowed on campus if you aren't wearing a uniform. But once you are inside the school you can change your clothes to whatever you want. Which I usually change after PE on Mondays and Wednesdays because it gets really hot outside and we always run during PE class. Secondly, the cough syrup is horrible. It's a thin brown liquid that tastes like old fruit and leaves a weird after taste in your mouth. I'm not sure if that constitutes it as a "special Chinese flavor" but it is what it is. But also, I've been feeling a lot better. I went to school this whole week, but with a mask on because I still have a runny nose and occasional cough. My prescription from the clinic was only supposed to last for three days, so now I only take an over the counter pill once a day and swallow some orangey powder to help with my cough. My host Dad says I'm supposed to mix the powder with water, but my host Mom says swallowing it straight makes it taste better, so I do the latter. Third, we do have nap time at school. It's roughly 40 minutes, and happens after cleaning. If you're wondering, the students do clean the school here practically everyday. There are various jobs like wiping the windows, sweeping the floor, clearing the chalk boards, cleaning the erasers, clearing the lunch meals, working outside to clean the school campus, etc. I get to take care of the trash, which involves sorting through the garbage bags and bringing it downstairs to the dumpster when it's full. But our class is pretty good about sorting their trash by themselves, so my job is pretty easy. Fourth, my name ends up on the board in Civics class a lot. My teacher is very funny and writes my name multiple times as a form of apology. I lost track of what he is apologizing for, especially since I am often in other classrooms during his class and am not present during a lot of his lessons, but it's sweet anyways. Five, my school is having a cheer-leading dance performance and my class is participating. "Bitch Better Have my Money" is the song my class voted to have as our opening song, so that's why it's on the board. Our classmates worked very hard to make our choreography and I think it looks pretty cool. Can't wait to show you the performance! Love, Natalie <3 9/21/2023 6 Comments 1 month inIt has been a while since I’ve posted, but I’ve officially spent 1 whole month in Taiwan. Yay! I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but there's just so much to share.
I started school at the end of August and have been loving every moment. I attend 2nd grade classes at 新莊高中 (XinZhuang Senior High School) in class 205. School here runs a little bit different, in which the students mostly remain in the same classroom and the teachers change rooms every 1 or 2 periods. Class periods also last fifty minutes each with a ten minute break in between. Lunch is about half an hour and most students eat school lunch, which is served in large bins brought to the classroom for students to serve themselves using utensils and bowls brought from home. However, some of the students in my class prefer to bring instant noodles or buy something from the shop at school. The "shop" is a little snack store inside the school that sells an assortment of chilled drinks, warm snacks (like meatballs or fishcake skewers), warm meals (like soups, noodles, or rice bowls), packaged snacks (like chips, crackers, or cookies), packaged breads or cakes, and an assortment of candies, all for a very cheap price. My group's classes include Math, History, English, Chinese (which is essentially studying ancient poems and texts), Civics, Physics, Art, Music, and PE. However, because my Mandarin is so bad it is difficult for me to understand most of the classes so I usually end up using those class times as study hours. I've also been able to try out a few other elective classes like Spanish, Japanese, and I even joined a K-pop dance club. But, in terms of electives, I think it's best if I focus on my Mandarin and don't try to learn two languages at once. Also, I have Mandarin classes at my high school for 1-2 hours every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning with the other exchange students in my high school, which has been very helpful and enjoyable. I also have additional ~3 hours classes every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon with the other exchange students in my area of our Rotary district. My school has many other language classes but my class group, in particular, is an advanced English class, so many of my classmates speak English very well. I've become quite close with a lot of my classmates and they are constantly helping me to improve my Mandarin. I am incredibly grateful for my class group, especially my two angels (Mina and Yuan), who are two students that have helped to show me around school and navigate my classes. I often get to go out with my friends after school for dinner or shopping, which has been really fun. And I am very grateful to have a host family that lives near my school and allows me to go out on my own till late at night. About a week ago, my host parents and I went to the National Palace Museum in Taipei, which was very large but quite interesting to see. We also went to the cemetery to honor their ancestors, but I don't have any photos from there because that just felt wrong. But it felt pretty similar to what we do at the cemeteries at home, except here we brought a lot more food and alcohol, and there are no egg shells or orange peel tails. Also, here in Taiwan we have to ask our ancestors for permission to leave by flipping two coins and if one is heads and the other is tails, then we can leave, if not we have to stay and wait a while before flipping coins again. Recently, I went on a overnight camping trip to 宜蘭 (Yilan) with my Rotary club, where we river rafted, partied, and made various stops at stores and restaurants along the bus ride back home. I have never seen so many young adults and families at a Rotary event before, it was kind of shocking. Talking about Rotary, we also had our Inbound District 歡迎會 Welcome Party in 宜蘭. It was a super fun weekend where I got to meet all the other inbound students and previous Rotex. They set up various language games, cultural activities, expectation classes, and even a party. They even got us hotel rooms with showers! hint hint cough cough* However, in the past few days I've seem to come down with a bit of a cold. I have a sore throat, runny nose, slight fever, and have been coughing a lot. I also seem to have lost my voice because every time I try to say something, I sound like an ill frog. I was surprised that my host parents brought me to the local clinic right away, but my classmates told me that that is common in Taiwan. I now take 7 large pills three times a day after every meal, 3 pills right before sleeping, and a small shot of cough syrup after every round of pills. But I have already started to feel better and the whole appointment and prescription only cost me $200NTD (~$6USD), which may have been the most surprising part. Speaking of cheap prices, everything in Taiwan is cheaper than America. My meals usually cost about ~$50NTD which is roughly $1.50USD. Clothes are still pretty pricey with items costing about $1000NTD (~$30USD), but I can't complain. I haven't needed to go to the bank at all since I've been here. Regardless, I have been having so much fun and can't wait to see what is in store for next month! Bye for now! - 許美英 natalie <3 8/24/2023 5 Comments Week 1It has officially been a full week in Taiwan and I love it here. School doesn't start till next week so it has been a bit uneventful, but enjoyable nonetheless. I went to see the movie Oppenheimer with my host sister and her cousin, surprisingly they showed it in English with Mandarin subtitles. My host sister said they do that with most Hollywood films because people don't really like the dubbed versions. We took the bus and the train to get to the theater, located in the Taipei 101 shopping mall, and lucky for me neither form of transportation made me motion sick. We did have to wait about 30 minutes for a bus home, because the first two that arrived were too full of people. I suppose 6:00pm is around the time when most people get off work and go home.
Recently, we went to Costco and it's huge. There are two different floors that require a long, escalator-like, ramp to transfer you and your shopping cart between floors. I think I know a few people who would enjoy this Costco a lot because they give out free samples of beer and whiskey. Everything seems to be cheaper than it is in the US, except for those weird frozen French macarons are still about $15USD (~$500NTD). That day we also went to the local grocery mart, which was quite small and only about a 5 minute walk from home. Although, we live in an apartment building in the city so almost everything you need is within walking distance. Regardless, the grocery mart was cute, lots of chips, instant noodles, and various drinks. I debated buying some fruits because they were cheaper than what I'm used to, but just got some peach and mango flavored yogurt instead. We don't go out a lot, but manage to go to 7/11 for lunch every day. 7/11 is totally different here and I like it more than the one at home. You can pick up package deliveries there, pay your water or electrical bills, they have tables for you to eat and hangout at, it's amazing. However, I seem to have lost my appetite for pretty much all food, everything tastes really good but I'm just never hungry. My host mom thinks I'm crazy but we'll see how it goes. Anyway, that's all. Bye bye! -natalie <3 7/31/2023 12 Comments Hopes and DreamsDuring my time abroad I hope to become immersed in Taiwanese culture. My interest in East Asian culture and language was one of the main reasons I chose to go to Taiwan. I am excited to live like a local and experience the casual day to day life of a student. I also look forward to celebrating Taiwanese holidays and traditions, both in my city and in other regions.
I also wish to become fluent in Mandarin, in both conversation and writing. I feel pretty confident in my Mandarin basics, but I would like to become more comfortable with holding conversations. I also wish to become more familiar with the written characters and eventually be able to read and write letters. Also I hope one day I’ll be able to learn more about calligraphy art. Lastly, I’m most excited to meet new people and make friends. I hope to make connections within my school, my city, and even my Rotary host club. I can’t wait to share cultures and traditions with my host families and friends. And, I’m excited to spend time with my friends and experience all their favorite things to do. I’m nervous to live away from my friends and family, but could not be more excited to begin this year abroad. I can’t wait to begin making memories abroad. - natalie <3 |
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