I'm not dead

Last Week at a Glance:
2006/11/03 禮拜天 (Sunday) : Moved to 2nd family.
2006/11/04 禮拜一 (Monday) : School as usual
2006/11/05 禮拜二 (Tuesday) : Presentation at 宜蘭大.
2006/11/06 禮拜三 (Wednesday) : Badminton
2006/11/07 禮拜四 (Thursday) : Outside Class, CCC class, Chinese class at Ilan High School, 書法 (calligraphy class)
2006/12/08 禮拜五 (Friday) : Going to 1st house to spend the night
2006/12/09 禮拜六 (Saturday) : Going to Hualien with 1st family

Week at a Glance:
2006/12/10 禮拜天 (Sunday) : Come back from Hualien
2006/12/11 禮拜一 (Monday) : Going shopping in Loudong.
2006/12/12 禮拜二 (Tuesday) : English Drama practice and presentation. Flower Arranging Class
2006/12/13 禮拜三 (Wednesday) : Belly Dancing Class, Badminton
2006/12/14 禮拜四 (Thursday) : Outside Class, CCC class, Chinese class at Ilan High School, 書法 (calligraphy class)
2006/12/15 禮拜五 (Friday) : Going to Taipei to spend the day/night with a friend
2006/12/16 禮拜六 (Saturday) : Taipei – Mandarin speech competition I

I honestly meant to have an update posted last week, unfortunately, I really was busy and you should feel privileged to get this one! Last Sunday I had to finish cramming everything I own here into suitcases because I moved to my second host family. I was extremely nervous about the move but realize now I was just being silly! My new host family is great. I have to extremely shy younger host brother’s ages 12 and 14. When I first got there I had tea with my parents and they wouldn’t even come to sit at the table! I wasn’t offended by this behavior, nor was I surprised by it (not many people here are used to seeing foreigners). I now live in a town called Loudong which is in the exact opposite direction of my first home Toucheng. Toucheng (where my first family lives) is north of Yilan, Loudong is to the south. It takes me about an hour to get to school now, 20 min walk to the bus station then a bus ride and another short walk to get to school, but I don’t mind and the teachers said it’s ok if I’m late so instead of showing up for 7:20 I now get there closer 9:00.
Last Tuesday I did a presentation and Yilan University (where I take Cross Culture Communication) with another exchange student. We did it on the clothing of North American teens and what that clothing signifies (e.g. geek, prep, jock, etc.). It was a nice reason to get the morning off of school and the presentation was interesting to give (although I think I only got about five words in because the other student wouldn’t stop talking).
Last Wednesday evening, I went and played badminton with my host family and some people from the community. A group of adults get together every week to play while a bunch of boys come to play basketball. Unfortunately my badminton skills (or lack thereof) are rather pathetic and as a result my entire right arm is extremely sore.
Last Thursday was a usual Thursday. I left school around 11:45 to go out to lunch before going to Cross Culture Communication (aka C.C.C). After that I went back to Yilan High School for two hours of Chinese class and later that evening I went to calligraphy class. In C.C.C. we watched a movie called Crash which I highly recommend you see if you haven’t already. In calligraphy class I did my first somewhat decent piece which I will post a picture of! (Side note: (with regard to my calligraphy) the teacher gives every student an individual piece of which to practice from (according to their skill level) and the students are required to show the progress that they have made by the end of the class or during the following class. When I took my piece up to be critiqued apparently people though that I was giving the teacher back his because they though it looked that good! Right now I’m going on the theory that westerners are good at calligraphy because the other student, whom I take the class with, is very good as well [better than me but I just think it’s because he’s been doing it longer!])
On Friday I went back to my first host family’s house because I will be going down a little further south of Yilan to Hualien for some sightseeing and what not. I say will be going because it is currently Saturday morning and we have not left yet. When I come back I will write more about it and put up some pictures but that may not be until next week because I am busy this week preparing for the speech competition and other things.
I promise to have a good lot of pictures when I do my next post and I apologize to all of the people who were looking forward to this update that was supposed to be up a while ago. You all know how to send an e-mail and I know that you all know how to complain (some of you do exceptionally well in that area in fact) so just send me a friendly reminder for me to get my act together.
Miss you all! Until next time...

Much Love:
Karly
xoxoxoxoxo