Hi Everybody! (Hi Dr.Nick!! - the result of Simpson's withdrawl)

Hello everyone! I am sorry for the sever lack of updates but as some of you already know, I do not have regular access to the internet. The little bits of time I do get are during school hours and I never have much time. I am writing this from my home in Toucheng with the hopes of being able to post it on Monday when I get to school. I am sure you all have so many questions for me so I'll think of as many as I can and answer them and if you have any additional questions (which I'm sure someone will) leave them in the comments or e-mail me. So here goes!

- What language do they speak in Taiwan?
Yes, I have actually had people ask me this so apparently it is not as silly as I think. The main dialect is Mandarin Chinese, basically everyone knows it. The other major dialect (although not nearly as common I find) is Taiwanese.

- What is the currency exchange?
It is about $1 Canadian for $30 New Taiwan Dollars. A lot of things, like clothes and food for example, are much cheaper over here then in most places. I paid about the equivalent of $18 for a really nice dress that would have been a minimum of $40 in Canada.

- How is my host family?
They are very nice to me but their English is extremely limited (I found out that they pretend to understand more then they actually do). This has led to many problems but my aunt is an English teacher so she came over today and helped settle some of them.

- How many people are their in my family?
There is my host mother, father, two brothers and one sister. One of my host brothers left the day after I got here to go on an exchange to Belgium (his name is Mark). My sister, Rose, is 16 and is in year one at the same school as me. My youngest sibling is Willie, he’s 13 and goes to Junior High School in the same town as me. Currently, my father’s parents (known as ako and ama (grandfather and grandmother in Taiwanese) are staying here. They live further down the island but are up here for a while.

- Where exactly do I live?
I actually don’t really know. They told me I would live in a town called Toucheng (pronounced Tow chen) but I’ve come to realize we don’t actually live there (It’s like a 10 minute drive to get there). So I’m not exactly sure the name of the place I live….anyway… Oh, my house is four stories and is absolutely huge. The first two floors are a kindergarten though.

- How is school?
My school is called Lan Yang Senior Girl’s High School. It is (obviously) an all girl’s school that is located in Yilan City which is about a 15-30 minute drive (depending on who is driving) from my home. It was a population of about 1500 (so I’ve been told) and the whole place is like a big square. I think it is really big but it is apparently one of he smallest schools in Yilan!
Since the school only started getting exchange student last year, I think I am the only blonde haired person who has ever been there. Everyone looks at me and wants to talk to me but they are to nervous. It has gotten better because I have been there for about a week and a half but if I go somewhere new in the school it is guaranteed that people will stare. I have made some friends in my class and they are all very nice. Separately their English isn’t very good but when they talk amongst themselves they can usually find the right words to say what they want to.
School starts at 7:20am and ends at 5:20pm – 10 hours! Crazy, I know. Now factor in 30 minutes for driving each way.
I have about 12 courses but for every Chinese and Math class I have I go down to the guidance office and learn either Chinese or Calculus. My favourite class is PE because I can understand what is going on by just looking.

- How are the teachers?
Not very understanding. Well, they weren’t until my guidance counsellor talked to them. They got upset that I don’t speak Chinese and I don’t do the class work. During class time (expect history because my teacher gives me English print-outs) I either sit and read, work on Chinese, work on English or write a letter. My guidance counsellor said that was fine because I am not sleeping and I am not disturbing anyone else.

- What is the weather like?
Since it is now fall the weather has turned to rain. I learnt the hard way to never leave anywhere (not even the class room) without an umbrella. It comes on suddenly starting off lightly then quickly turning into a downpour. I don’t mind the rain much because it reminds me a lot of when I lived on Vancouver Island.
When it is not raining the days are very hot and very humid. It is hard to sit in class all day when it is so hot and not fall asleep! The average temperature in the summer is about 38˚C but I felt it go even hotter then that! I have an air conditioner in my room but I am only supposed to turn it on during the night.

- How is the food?
Very different! I knew it would be though. For breakfast I eat either a cake or pastry (which is eaten on the drive to school). My school has a large selection of food and drinks but I usually have a pastry and a drink with a snack later in the afternoon during Chinese class. (My whole lunch is about $1 Canadian – seriously!) My family eats dinner anywhere from 7:00 – 9:00 pm and consists of either rice or pasta, a meat dish and usually a couple of vegetable dishes. Everyone is automatically given a bowl of rice or pasta and then you take things out of the other dishes as you eat. Most of the time the vegetable dish is something that I have never seen before but doesn’t taste too bad. The meat dish is usually very fatty and has not been cut from the bone and the skin has not been taken off – they eat almost everything on it. After dinner there is almost always soup to be had and you are required to have some. Taiwanese people eat a lot at every meal, it baffles me how they stay so skinny! My host mother worries because I don’t (more like physically can’t) eat as much as they do and thinks I am starving myself. In reality it is the exact opposite. I’m not used to eating as much as they do so even though I don’t eat quite as much as they do (it’s only a fraction less) I am still overstuffed. (…My jeans are now at least one or two sizes to small…. I am not impressed)

- In general, how are things in Taiwan different from how they are in Canada?
Other then the obvious things, like food and culture, there are still so many differences! One thing that really gets to me is that public bathrooms do not have actual toilettes; they consist of porcelain holes in the ground. As well, public toilette paper does not exist so you are required to carry around a package of tissues with you at all times…just in case.
The bathrooms in the house are very different as well. They do not us toilette paper, they use kleenex (there isn’t even a holder for toilette paper). There is no sanctioned area for a shower, there is just a shower head attached to the wall, not even a shower curtain, no bathtubs, etc.
People study like crazy. I was put into the second year at school (instead of the third which would be equivalent to the 12th grade) because all they do in the third year is study. After listening to 10 hours of lectures in school most people will then go to a cram school to study more. I think it is absolutely nuts but considering there is not much time in one school day for any one class (each block is 50 minutes long) it is understandable.


There are so many things that are different that it take me waaay to long to type them all up and I don’t think anyone would want to read it! I hope this isn’t to long but I had so many people asking me questions that I wasn’t able to answer very well. Like I said above, if there are still questions that you want to ask, e-mail me and I will get back to you as soon as possible. Hopefully soon I will have so regularity to my internet time and more than a couple of minutes once a week! And ass soon as I get my laptop connected to the internet then I will post some pictures because I have taken so many!

Lots of Love:Karly
P.S. The garbage trucks play Green Sleeves, I thought that was rather amusing