Karlys Adventures In Asia

Four Months Left

2007-03-21T19:58:00.000+07:00

I have been here for almost seven months now; I can’t believe how fast the time has went! It seems only yesterday I was going to the first orientation and meeting all of the other exchange students…

February was a thoroughly uneventful month for me. The Chinese New Year was on February 18^th (the same day as my birthday) but my then current host family didn’t celebrate it because they are Christian. I was a little disappointed because I had been really looking forward to experiencing it. On the 19^th we went down a little south of the island (to Haulien) to visit my host mothers family. We stayed there for three days in which time we visited Toroko George and saw the movie Ghost rider. Unfortunately, I have been having some problems with my external hard drive and am not able to get any pictures off of it to post!

The week of February 18^th school was not in session, it began again the following week. I enjoyed have a little bit of time off and even got to sleep in a couple days!

On March third I moved to my third host family. Here I have two host brothers and my host parents. My younger brother is 16 and lives at his school from Monday through Friday so I only get to see him on weekends. My older host brother is 23 and he is currently doing mandatory military service so I get to see him once every couple of weeks. I am liking my current host family a lot and they seem to like me as well. They speak Chinese with me all the time (something I have a problem getting people to do because they all want to practice their English or refuse to accept that a white girl can speak Chinese) so it has been improving exponentially!

School has been pretty regular, I usually have the morning to practice Chinese and to get unfinished things finished. In the afternoons I go to class with the other exchange student in my school. We take art, PE, home economics, computer class, living technology and… I think that’s it. I have also asked for calligraphy class so hopefully I will be doing that again soon!

Thursday nights I take a water colour class with another exchange student where I am learning how to paint. I will have my second class tomorrow night where we will start painting so you can expect to see a masterpiece soon! (Please don't hold me to this though)

I have no other news for you but when I do I will be sure to post it! I’ll try to find a couple pictures to put up with this post but since I am having problems with my external drive I’m not sure how many I can find. I miss you all lots and I’ll be seeing you before you can say 我愛台灣!

Much Love;
Karly
xoxoxoxo

P.S. My internet connection at home (where I am right now) is very slow so I'm not sure if I'll be able to get any of the pictures up, I'll try my best but I think they may have to wait until the next day that I bring my laptop to school.

A Long Time Coming!

2007-02-15T10:48:00.000+07:00

Contrary to popular belief, I most certainly have not fallen of the face of the Earth. However, I do offer my sincerest apologies as this would have made for a much better explanation for my recent absences from western civilization. As a token of my appreciation (and as an apology), please accept this incredibly boring entry about my current situation in life.

I last left you with a raging battle between me and the giant dragon Peaches on Christmas day(you’ll be happy to know I survived with only minor scratches to show). Christmas here wasn’t anything special. I went to Taipei with Jenny the American from my district and we met up with some of the Taipei YEPs. New Years, I stayed a couple days in Taipei with my friend Cecilia (she’s Taiwanese) and Kyle (he’s American from another district). We spent a couple of days just going around Taipei. On New Years eve we met up with other YEPs and went to watch the fireworks at 101. It was really interesting to see the building lit up and be there with at least half a million other people. The streets were so packed that we could barely move.

In other news, sometime in the middle of December I moved to my second host family. I happy to be leaving my first family but nervous because it always nerve wracking to move in with strangers! At this house there is my host mother Rora, my host father whom I call Uncle (it’s common to refer to people over the age of 30 as aunt or unlce), two younger brothers Ryan and Timmy as well as a housekeeper named Alyen. They are all very nice but of course are nervous about having a foreigner living in their house.

Sometime in the mix of January I managed to work up the courage to go get my hair cut. Not only did I get it cut but I also got it curled, there will be pictures.

Since the Chinese New Year is very soon the students have been on holiday for the past two weeks and still have one more! (The middle week, the current week, they do have to go to school in the morning). I go to school during the day though because my host parents work.

The new year is quickly approaching (Sunday, the same day as my birthday) and I will be sure to do a good report on it and take lots of pictures! I’m not sure where I will be next week but I am taking my notebook home and I will write lots about it, no more waiting months, I promise!

Finishing off on a good note, I got my camera back! (For those of you who don’t know, I broke it last month and it has been in the repair shop for quite some time now) so I have a couple pictures to post. I have more then what will be appearing in the post but I don’t want it to take to long to load so I will put the rest of them up tomorrow or when I get back from vacation. Thank you all for being so patient with me and I am now open to any questions that you may have about my life in Taiwan, either send me an e-mail or post them up in the comments box and I will get to them in my next post! Until then, I hope you are well and keep checking back!

Much Love
Karly
xoxoxo

New Years!

Cecilia, my friend in Taipei, eating.

Snow in Taiwan? It's bubbles!

Valentine's Day - All of the Ilan exchange students went to a kindergarten and made these. The picture below is of Chase (USA) and Struan (Canada). We're all a little crazy here...

My pig I made (it's going to be the year of the pig)

Taiwanese English!

Valentines Day Dinner (delicious!)

Giant pigs in honour of the New Year!

Valentine's Day - It was at least 25 out!

So this is the end, I'm sorry it was so random and unsatisfying but I should have quite a bit of spare time over the next week and I'll do something better up!

P.S. Sorry for any errors or anything being out of place, I"m trying to fix it but so far, no luck!

Quick Note

2007-01-19T15:19:00.000+07:00

I know this isn't what your looking for but I will have a proper update with pictures very soon. Vaction here will be starting in a week and since I don't have any problems or anything like that to deal with, I will have a on of time for a really good update! I don't want to spoil anything now so you'll have to wait a little while longer. Sorry for the delay but expect a good long update in about a week! I love and miss you lots and hope you are all in good health!
Much Love:
Karly
xoxoxoxox

I'm not dead

2006-12-12T08:57:00.000+07:00

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

Insert Witty Title Here - Part II

2006-11-27T09:53:00.000+07:00

My first creation! Im not quite finished in this picture.

The finished product!!

Some 同學 (classmates) that we spent the day with.

Struan (the other Canadian)

Me being my crazy self.

The next set of pictures are from last weekend (I'm pretty sure) when I went on a hike with my host family to a gorgeous waterfall.

Me sitting by the entrance sign
-sorry, I didn't like this one so I'm going to put up a new one in it's place...sometime

The waterfall

My father

Dinner! When you eat out here, soup is always the first course and it usually has the puffy pastry on top.

My sister

Chase, Jenny and I at a calligraphy exhibition type of thing.... Chase had to do a peice of calligraphy with everyone watching and was fetured in the local news that night. (Mine isn't that good yet because he started much earlier than I did)

Hard core calligraphy

Armed robber? No, it's just Jenny.

很好吃!!!!

My second flower arrangment (I'll pretend it looks better than the first)

A puppet theater in a museum.

Some puppets

Christine

Me and some school mates

Insert Witty Title Here

2006-11-27T09:14:00.000+07:00

Week at a Glance:
2006/11/26 禮拜天 (Sunday) : Going To Taipei with host fam.
2006/11/27 禮拜一 (Monday) : School as usual
2006/11/28 禮拜二 (Tuesday) : No school! Hanging out in Ilan for the day & CCC class at Ilan University. No flower arranging class.
2006/11/29 禮拜三 (Wednesday) : No school. (Maybe) going to Taipei
2006/11/30 禮拜四 (Thursday) : No school. CCC class, Chinese class at Ilan High School, 書法 (calligraphy class)
2006/12/01 禮拜五 (Friday) : School as usual

2006/12/02 禮拜六 (Saturday) : Packing like mad

As you may have noticed (and I gather everyone has from the e-mails and IMs I’ve been receiving) there has been a temporary lapse in my updates. I could sit here and tell you that I’ve been busy or any number of other excuses but I wont waste my time and yours (and you’ll know they truth anyway).
Not much has been going on here lately. The past couple weeks have been rather uneventful. This past Saturday a Thanksgiving party was held for us only there was no thanks… or turkey… or anything to even remotely to do with Thanksgiving but it was a nice excuse for us to get together. On Sunday I went to Taipei with my family because my sister had an oral English test (it is required of all students wishing to become exchange students). I spent the next couple hours there picking at a giant rice box and talking to another exchange student from a different part of the island.
As you can see in the above schedule, I have no school on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The reasoning for this is because my school has some testing and the exchange students aren’t required to go. Unfortunately, on two of my days off, I have class at Ilan University so I won’t be able to sleep in!
For the past couple of Thursdays I have been taking a course called Cross Culture Communication at Ilan University. The course is taught in English and Chinese so I can understand everything that’s going on. Thursday evenings I take a calligraphy course with two other exchange students, and to be honest, it’s really hard and I’m terrible at it! (Pictures to come)
I have taken the final step in becoming Martha Stuart, every Tuesday night I take a flower arranging class… I’m serious, I have photographic evidence. This was in no way my idea and needless to say I get extremely frustrated with the whole ordeal but I refuse to quit.
I don’t really have much else to say, I’m just trying to kill a bit of time now while my pictures upload…… -insert elevator music here-
*Some time later* I have a lot of pictures to upload and I figure it’s only fair since I didn’t update in such a long time! I hope you enjoy them and if you have any questions/comments feel free to drop them off at the bottom of the page where it says “comments”. Anyway, I love and miss you all and hope you enjoy all of the pictures!!

Much Love:
Karly
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
Xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

P.S. If your tired of checking back to see if I’ve finally updated, send an e-mail to cherry.leaves@gmail.com with Blog Mailing List as the title and your e-mail address in the description box and I will send you an e-mail when I update!

Turtle Island. I havn't actually been there yet but a lot of people in Ilan talk about it. This photo was taken when I went out with my host family a couple of weekends ago.

From the same day as mentioned above.

My 中文老師 (Chinese teacher's) shoes.

My 中文老師 eating chips with chopsticks (something that I've since picked up - you're fingers dont get covered in crumbs)

My desk on a REALLY REALLY messy day (it never gets that bad anymore)

Funny story goes with this one: I annoy Christine (my Chinese teacher) to teach me games or do something with me when I'm bored. She finally came up with something and her and another one of the teachers in my guidance room demonstrated it. We ended up attracting other students to come play and it was rather amusing to watch. I guess it wasn't that funny of a story. Sorry.

To play the game you had to jump over the rope made of elastic bands... sounds thrilling?

My other Chinese teacher (Ellen). Unfortuantly I only get to see her once a week because she teaches at Ilan High School.

Ellen practicing with some students for their upcoming sports day.

Out for lunch

很好吃! - hen hao chi. hen(很)= very, hao (好)= good, chi(吃) = to eat. You can sum it up as "Yummy".

Chinese chocolate Frosted Flakes

I took this photo when I was in Taipei with my host parents. The cheerleader in me has to criticize there broken wrists though.

I'm ashamed to say that Jenny and I ate a pint of Haagen Daz each... oh it was so good though...

Jenny and her favorite past time - sleeping.

Jenny and I on our way to first band trip!! We were rated and we got the second best.

At the competition. If you look to the right of the photo you can see a blonde head sticking up.

I'm actually going to stop this post here and continue the pictures in another. I feel like it's getting to long so just click on over to see the rest!

Tea Farm Tour

2006-11-06T09:24:00.000+07:00

If anyone had actually read my last post (and didn’t just skip to the pictures) then they would have realized that I had the next update set for November 3rd and if they would have checked back on November 3rd you would have also that I was lying. Since I received no nagging e-mails or comments then I take this to be that you’re all lazy and aren’t reading anything and that I spend a lot of time writing and that I just called myself a liar. But now onto more important things, like the update.

On the weekend of October 27-29, Rotary held a tea farm tour for all of the exchange students in district 3480, 3490 and the other little district that no one really knows it exists (j/k). In total there was about 60 students and a number of chaperones (I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to them so I’m not sure of a number – not even a guess). The weekend started out with us (students from Yilan) heading up to Taipei at about 4:30am on Friday morning in order for us to make it there for the 6am check in time.
Side note: I started getting sick Thursday night – if that honestly surprises any of you, please kindly take the nearest hard object and inflict some sort of bodily pain upon yourself.
We boarded the buses (2) and sat back for a 2/3 hour drive to Nan-To County where we would be spending the weekend. On the way there the buses stopped at a historical museum that we toured and ate lunch at. I could recollect ever little detail of the museum to you but my intention is to get you to read what I write and not bore you to death. If you want to learn more about Taiwan’s history then by all means look it up on Google.

We stopped by beautiful Sun-Moon Lake (the biggest lake in Taiwan) and took pictures of it and traipsed along the beach and successfully covered ourselves in prickles that were very hard to get off. (There was also the throwing of a dead fish but that’s a story for another time).

When we finally arrived in Nan-To everyone had received their second-wind and dinner and traditional dancing were offered. After I had dinner (a buffet of food) I went for a walk with a couple of other exchange students and I ended up being dragged kicking and screaming along a rope bridge (literally). After that escapade we were all ushered away to our host families whom we would be staying with during the evenings. I shared a room with three other 18 year old girls (it was really REALLY nice to have girls of my own age to gossip… I mean chat with). My host family were really nice but didn’t speak a lot of English.

The next morning the members of my host family took us out to their grape fields and we indulged ourselves in wine making grapes. These things were delicious! They had a thick skin (which is spit out) but the inside was like drinking the best grape juice on Earth! After the grapes all of the exchange students met up and made these little paper twirly things which we would later throw of the above mentioned bridge. Luckily (you can look at it that way) one of the chaperone’s saw that I was really sick so they took me to the local pharmacy where they gave me some drugs and nose spray. You could be wondering why I just referred to that as being lucky – I got to miss crossing the bridge!!! Anyway, after that we ‘carved’ some pencils (which as you may have guessed I failed miserably at and even managed to cut myself) and then we went to a “tea factory” for about a total of a half hour where we tasted tea.

Nothing else to exciting happened after that. We went back to Taipei on Sunday and since Rotary made the time that we were to get there earlier then what was in the e-mail that they sent us, the Yilaners hung around for a while until or train arrived.

Now, if you’ve made it this far your about to be rewarded with the pictures! Unfortunatly they were all taken on another students camera (I gave up with mine) so there are only a couple but oh well, enjoy them anyway (or at least pretend to)

Thank you for joining me once again in Karly’s Adventures In Asia. Until next time-

Much Love
Karly
xoxoxo

Side Note: I dont feel like making the pictures smaller, my apologies for any viewing inconvenicences this may cause

Oh crazy Taiwanese uniforms

Some of the tea we tried

I saw an angel

The Life of a Taiwanese Student (a true story):

Random booth

A squirrel that did flips

The bridge at night

People shaking it during the day (I wasn't there)

Side view (I was actually that high up and lived to tell about it)

Kiln at a pottery place

Inside said kiln

A picture of the inside of our bus at night time... what an eye sore

Guess which arm is mine?!

Group photo...yay.

Halloween Party

2006-10-30T07:05:00.000+07:00

I have been so busy this past while that I unfortunatly didn't have any time to post anything that required any amount of time longer than five minutes for me to put up. I have been busy studying chinese, going to class, carving pumpkins, buying contacts and of course - being sick!
Last last weekend (October 21st to be precise) Rotex held a Halloween party in Taipei for all of the exchange students! For those of you who don't know about Rotex (which I think I'm correct in assuming nobody does, or almost nobody), it is a group of people made up of former exchange students that are there to help out the current inbounders of Taiwan.
Since Taipei is an hour and a half away from Yilan and the party didn't start until six, we (all of the students from Yilan who went) decided to go up a little earlier and spend the day shopping and getting familiar with the MRT. We spent most of the day at a cosplay convention and McDonalds because it was really hot out. When it came close to the party time we hit the MRT and headed to meet the other exchange students.
The party was held in the basement of a nice American-style restaurant that served delicious food! There were quite a few exchange students as well as Rotex there - a lot of people even dressed up!
After the party was over I took the MRT to meet my friend Cecilia whom I stayed the night with. On Sunday I went shopping with her and took some of those cute little Japanese sticker photo's - I'll try to scan them and post them later. I took the train home myself from Taipei around five and actually managed to get off at the right stop at the right time! (a big accomplishment for me - thank you to everyone who helped though...)
The weekend was a lot of fun and the next week at school wasn't bad either. I carved pumpkins with my teachers and even got to go out and eat pizza for lunch! Enough chat now and time for the pictures which I"m sure you've already skipped ahead to anyway!

Chase and I on the train ride up to Taipei

At the cosplay convention

At the convention

Some of the exchange students at the Halloween party

C'est moi! I am so gangster you don't even know... (grasping at anything for a costume...)

We dressed Taka up as a girl.... he wasn't to impressed but he won a free t-shirt!

Cecilia eating ice cream at McDonalds at around 8 am

NY in Taipei

This was a long line that went the length of a sidewalk where people lined up to get into stores for special promotions

Me... somewhere....

Much Love:
Karly
xoxo

Next Update: Nov. 3rd

2006-10-26T07:01:00.000+07:00

This is the second half to the pictures that I put up last week. Yes, it did take a long time and no, please don't complain...

The ceiling of a building

Statue in above mentioned building

A nice looking bridge

Taipei 101

Some of the beautiful secenery from the hike

A flower that smells really f=good and apparently tastes just a good

A really REALLY big spider (my brother took the picture) - put your middle fingers together and your thumbs...

The big things in the trees are ants nests built of mud... I don't like ants...

Mum and Stanley

My father and cousin dipping their feet in the river

My cousin being really cute (she tends to do this a lot)

Host father

And mother

This fish are biting

Yummy seaweed!

The one in pink is my mother's mother... she doesn't really like me I don't think...

Willie

Eating lunch (Chinese Italian food) after Cosco. My 老師 (teacher) Russell, his wife and their son.

Jenny and I

Mayumi

At Barista Coffee (like starbucks but not as good) Taka and I laughing after he hit his head

A little to the left...

Taka won this round

I'm not bad at the driving games - shh... don't tell anyonr I have my license!

This was their idea of a joke...

Taka - your so gangster!

Hit it with a stick! (or a mallet...)

And so ends another episode of Karlys Adventures In Asia. Stayed tuned for more.

Much Love:
Karly
x0x0

A really long weekend...

2006-10-17T09:52:00.000+07:00

Until recently I had started to post fairly regular updates but that was shut down when I had a five day weekend followed by another five day weekend and a spastic camera.

The afternoon of Thursday, October 5th began my long stretch of time off. I went with my counsellor from school, Russell, as well as my Chinese teacher, Christine, and Jenny to a museum in Yilan. I took a lot of pictures so I’ll put up explanations with the pictures (instead of boring you because you’re obligated to read everything I write... which by the way you are, and if you think otherwise, time to smarten up).

My first ‘official’ day off was the next Friday which was the official Moon Festival (my family celebrated the weekend before because they are very busy). I went to the Royal Palace Museum in Taipei with my host family and we spent a bit of time looking around in it. It was very interesting to see all of the ancient Chinese relics but I don’t know a lot of details about Chinese history so when I listened to the history about the items (my mum rented an audio tour for me) it was a little boring and I found myself wandering off more than once. After the museum we went to “ Mall ‘x’ “ (I decided to dub it that because I have no idea what the actual name of it was) and ate dinner at a curry restaurant. I have never seen so many types of curried food but needless to say it was delicious and my mouth was burning when I was done.

On Saturday my host mother took me to the Dingpu train station where I met with Christine, my Chinese teacher for my “train test”. I live quite a ways out of town so knowing how to take the train is an essential asset and my host family is extremely busy so I asked Christine to assist me. We took the train to Yilan and then we took it back to Dingpu just to make sure I know all of the right stops and how to buy tickets from both locations.

Sunday was to be a day of rest, or so I thought. My host mum woke me around 7:45 telling me to get ready because we were to go hiking in… 15 minutes. (Feel free to imagine one of me annoyed face here). I was half ready when she came and told me I didn’t have to go because my host sister was staying home to study. I was told later that day that we would be going around noon but when twelve o’clock came and past I had little faith that we would be going anywhere. Of course, once I think something isn’t going to happen it does and yes, we did end up going on a hike and I had about five minutes notice before we went out the door. The wildlife and fauna were interesting to see… blah blah blah, there are pictures below.

Finally, glorious Tuesday rolled around. Now you may be wondering why Tuesday, of all seven days of the week, is being referred to as glorious – one word… Costco. Anyone who knows me will know that I am a Costco fanatic and as soon as I can I’ll most likely own a card and own many things that I don’t need… in bulk form. I went with Russell, his wife and son and Jenny. There was the initial problem that no one can find myself but luckily my host brother was up so he was kind enough to explain how to get here (I really do live in the middle of no where). The drive seemed unusually short but that could be because I talked non-stop the whole way there (I have limited people that I can have a proper English conversation with so when the opportunity arises, I don’t just jump at it, I tackle it down and beat it with a stick… but anyway) I only bought three things there because my funds at the time were limited. Among those three things was my pride and joy, a giant box of Honey Bunches of Oats cereal (well worth every cent I spent on it). I would have taken pictures in Costco but it seemed that there was an employee around every corner and seeing as how I get in trouble on a daily basis for taking pictures when I shouldn’t, I decided not to push my luck that day.

After Costco we did some shopping around and ate dinner at a delicious restaurant called Café Grazie. I think it has been the best food that I’ve eaten since I’ve got here.

Wednesday and Thursday held nothing special in store; I was just waiting for my upcoming four day weekend. I didn’t have to go to school on Friday, Saturday and Monday because mid term exams were being written. Oh, you did read right, Saturday, since Monday was given off for no good reason (Tuesday was Taiwan’s Birthday), they punish the students and make them go on Saturday!

On Friday I went to Loudong with Chase, Mayumi and Jenny where we met up with Taka (if you have no idea as to whom I’m referring to, there are pictures of them in a previous post). We spent the day shopping and wandering around town.

On Saturday we (Taka, Jenny, Chase and I) spent the day in Yilan (were I go to school and most of the exchange students live) shopping and eating. Again, there are pictures below so no more torture or words.

Sunday was a “stay at home day” (for the main part anyway) which was good because I had another allergic reaction to… something. On the brighter side it had nothing to do with my eye but was basically everywhere else on me. Don’t worry, I have no pictures to accompany this. I did however go out around seven for coffee with Luis (Brazilian exchange student) and his current and second host families. They were very nice and gave me some Chinese books that I had requested from Taipei. It was nice to talk to all of them and I was even able to cover up my reaction with a long sleeved t-shirt and pants.

I took Monday to be my Sunday, I decided to stay home and do all of my usual Sunday chores like cleaning my room and laundry. It was a nice day but unfortunately I woke up at 7:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep L . Oh well though, I was at lest able to get everything done.

Now, enough of the boring and time for the exciting! I have a lot of pictures so I hope I’ll be able to get them all up in one day but if I don’t then I should have them all up by Wednesday! Take care.

Much Love;
Karly

Russell's crazy driving

In front of the museum (a.k.a Traditional Art Center or 傳統藝術中心 but that's only if you
know Chinese.)

Entrance to the theater

A little scale model of the whole museum (sorry, I couldn't get the whole thing because I had to hold the camera above me)

Christine (my chinese teacher)

It looked cool...

Jenny and I playing (p.s. It still looked like I had black eyes because it was not long after my allergic reaction #1 and yes... my hair is poofy)

Shh... I'm in deep thought

STARBUCKS!!!!!! (I was a little excited)

Christine

Jenny

Russell

- In Taipei with my host family -

My host mother and I

A shot of the museum

The coolest garbage can I've ever seen

People really do park on the sidewalk

Me with the RPM in the background (my sunglasses are broken but it was so bright had to wear something)

Willie and Rose eating curry

This was a big picture on the wall of the curry place

My grandparents and father

大中至正門. (That's it's Chinese name) I don't know the English name of this place

中正紀念堂. Or this one...

A nice looking tree

Police marking to take down the flag in the courtyard between unknown builing's one and two

A Punch in the gut…or rather the eye

2006-10-04T08:03:00.000+07:00

I'm very sorry, I had this ready to post on Monday but I didn't make it to school. Then on Tuesday the funniest thing happened - I was held captive by the race of giant ants and I cried and begged telling them that I simply had to update my blog, people are counting on me! but, as you can see, they absolutely refused my request. So here today (Wednesday) whith out further lame excuses, you have the update that would have been up yesterday.

Well, not really, it only looks that way. On Saturday morning I woke up with what cleverly appeared to be a black eye but (thankfully or not) it isn't. I have been here for a little over one month now and on Saturday I made my second (yes second) trip to see a doctor. He was puzzled as to what is going on with my eye but gave me some cream and drugs to try and help it. Who would have guessed though, it got worse. I went and saw a doctor yesterday though, he thinks it's an allergic reaction to a bug or something and says that it should all be cleared up soon.
In other news; on Saturday night, in honour of the upcoming Moon Festival (which doesn't actually happen until this weekend), my family had a barbeque! Oh wow, was it ever different. There version of a BBQ is like the stone age of Western ones but it was definitely a lot more fun. In attendance were my host mother, father, grandparents, brother, sister, aunt, uncle and their two kids. We sat around the little BBQ and cooked things like chicken, beef, pork, chicken hearts (I thought of you mum!), fish, squid, sausages and a whole bunch of vegetables. I actually liked everything I tried (couldn't bring myself to do the chicken hearts though) and to top it off, everything is eaten on a stick! We drank sour juice and "Supau" - a type of sports drink- and I taught my grandfather a couple new English words and he returned the favour by teaching me some Chinese words. In all, it was a lot of fun and the eating off sticks just made it better.
On Sunday morning I awoke at the early hour of 9:00 am (I only have two days a week that I can sleep in past 6:30) and started preparing to go hiking with my aunt and uncle. I noticed that my eye felt funny so I checked it out in a mirror and almost screamed in shock - it was worse then the day before and the whole thing was desperately swollen and sore - I wasn't going anywhere. I ended up just staying at home all day and watched movies.
On Monday I didn't have to get up until 7:30! I was so happy to have an extra day to sleep in (a couple months ago I would have considered getting up that early torture!). I didn't end up going to the doctors until 9:00 and there was still a bit of a wait when we got there (nothing like the waits in Canada though). The doctor was nice and unlike the one I went to see on Saturday he didn't sit there and poke my eye with a tongue depressor despite my screams of pain. There was no poking at all. He prescribed a different type of cream for my eye and then I went home. Since I was supposed to have school today, my goal was to sleep all day, which I successfully accomplished.
So in all, nothing to exciting, hopefully I'll have something more to say next time.

Happy Moon Festival! (yes, it does look suspiciously like the Easter Bunny - I thought so myself)

See the peace sign? That cancels out my white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes and makes me Asian! P.S. I think you can notice the 'black eye' if you look hard enough.

My sister rose tending the BBQ.

All hail the mighty food on a stick!

That was the amount of food after half of it had been cooked. Recognize anything?

My aunt and uncle's "stab" at the BBQ now. (Haha - get the pun? ...sorry...)

My cousin doing the classic "picture of a picture"

The Clan (stripped shirt = my host mother)

Eating, drinking, and being merry!

"Poke it with a stick!"

Unfortunatly my pictures have come to an abrubt halt - my guidance councellor has decided to watch the baseball game on digital television on his computer so none of the other computers can't function at the moment. I'll get them up a little later so check back.

Much Love;
Karly

PICTURES! (The first dose)

2006-09-29T07:48:00.000+07:00

Hello everyone! I'm so sorry about the gap between updates but I have been busy with school and trying to get some pictures up. I know you've all been very patient and I thank you for that.
Things here are starting to get better which is really good. The only problem I have now is with the ants that are currently sharing my room with me - I bought some traps but they're smarter than I thought they were, we're currently at war with eachother - I'll keep you posted.
So, you've all waited long enough for some pictures so I wont say anymore today. Without further ado;

Shaved Ice - I had this not long after I arrived with my host fmaily, there were a few types but this one was my favorite (the white fruit with seeds is cactus fruit... or so I'm told.)

Some friends I made in Taipei when I first got here (this is was at the Rotary orientaion in Taipei)

All of the exchange students from Taipei, Yilan and one other district not to far from here.

My Rotary Club's Pesident and I

A Picture of my Rotary Club - there's only about 20 members

My host brother Willie wearing his sister's new hat

Jenny - The American who goes to my school with me

Mayumi - From Japan

Taka - Also from Japan

Chase - from the US - and his adorable little host sister

Struan -from Victoria Canada - Jenny and Taka

The seven Yilan exchange students (The seventh person is Lois from Brasil, I didn't have any other pictures of him)

Cocoa - Jenny's 4th host sister (she was very relucatant to give me this picture)

I do have more pictures but it takes a very long time to get them up. I will put up some more on Monday becasue I have another off class then.

Lots Of Love:
Karly

I should be in class...

2006-09-19T12:42:00.000+07:00

I'm currently supposed to be in Earth Science right now (a branch of our physics) but when I went to my classroom there was no one there and all of the doors were locked! I came down to the guidance office and asked if maybe I had Chinese class, no such luck. They told me stay down here anyway though.
So, the weather has finally cooled down and to boot it has stopped raining! The temperature is still comfortably above 20 so I don't get cold (although I have seen many classmates wear their jackets and complain that it is getting to cold). There's no winning!
Anyway, my chinese lessons at school have been going good. I think maybe I'm a little slow in learning but I don't expect to be able to just wake up one day and be able to speak fluent Chinese. I know some basic words and will be starting to learn sentences today which is really good because everyone expects me to speak Chinese.
School in general has been going good. I have a lot of friends and they are all really nice. They help me out whenever I need it and are always more then willing. Since my school is all girls they have a 'school sisters' programme. Lan Yang has three years in it, so the girls in year one have 2 'older sisters', one in year two and one in year three, the girls in year 2 have one younger and one older sister and the girls in year three have two younger sisters. I have one younger and two older sisters (because there are so many of them) but the funny thing is that I'm older than my older sisters! They are very nice and one of my older sisters is the same age as me because she missed her third year in school and spent it in America so she has to take it now. Her English is really good too!
I have to cut it off here because class is starting, I will have a good update by the end of the week (I hope) .

Lots of Love
Karly

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

2006-09-13T18:43:00.000+07:00

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

Yay!

2006-09-12T12:16:00.000+07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry for the sever lack of updating but I havn't had access to the internet! I did up a nice long update but have been unable to post it! Hopefully very soon though! If you want to drop me an e-mail feel free to and I'll try to get back to you! I'll let you all know whats going on soon! Miss you all!

Lots of Love:
Karly

I'm alive!

2006-08-30T09:41:00.000+07:00

As the title states, I made it here alive! I'm currently at my first host families house and this is the first time that I've used the computer (if your wondering why the lack of updating). I did write some posts but they are on my laptop and I can't get it hooked up to the internet unfortunatly.
I have been for about 10 days not and so far, I'm having a really good time. The average temperature is over 30 and doesn't seem to be going down anytime soon (there is airconditioning but I can only turn it on in the night), so I'm boiling to death from the inside out! Just kidding, the heat is becoming more bearable then when I first got off the plane.

It's Crunch Time

2006-08-14T02:51:00.000+07:00

I always thought that was a weird saying, but now I completly understand it. It August 13 and I have about six days to go before I leave for Taiwan. Now, with such a short period of time left you think I would have soemthing done but for those of you who know we well, know that I have abosolutly nothing (said for a pile of random stuff in the spare room). Well, since I am leaving so soon I figured I need to learn how to post pictures so here goes!

Trying on prom dresses

Grad Photo

The Countdown is on..

2006-07-16T09:41:00.000+07:00

Wow, am I ever getting excited! I leave for Taiwan in 34 days! I can't beleive it! One minute it's February and I'm not even sure if I'm going on an exchange or going to university! Anyway, I'm busy getting ready to go (lots of immunizations for my sickly self) as well as packing up my room so mum and Randy will have an easier time moving my stuff into a smaller room (in all fairness, I wont be living at home for too much longer). So, this is my first post and I hope you all keep up when I'm in Taiwan, I promise to take lots of pictures and write at least a some-what satsifying-in-length-post!