Taiwan!

Adjusting and Enjoying Life!

So I have officially been in Taiwan for eighteen days now! (Which is absolutely crazy) I love it here. Kinmen has proven to be an excellent home now that I am beginning to adjust and try new things. My chinese is still not so good. But everyday I improve a little bit more. As an exchange student I am learning to be more willing. I'm not going to learn chinese if I am not willing to go out and try to speak to people. I am not going to enjoy school if I am not willing to make mistakes and just laugh them off. I'm not going to survive this year if I don't adjust to the fact that I am no longer in America. These past eighteen days have been unbelievable, eye opening, and wonderful. Loving life in Taiwan! <3>

Cooking and Chinese Classes!

This week I had my second week of school at the National Kinmen Senior High School and some new classes at National Kinmen Vocational School. At Kinmen High School I started my Chinese lessons with Naima. The first two periods on Mondays and Wednesdays we go to the library instead of class and meet with our teacher. Chinese is really hard, and can be very frustrating to try and learn at times. But I find myself saying, "We have got to learn Chinese" to Naima quite a bit when I don't understand what people are saying. I also started Chinese cooking classes at the Vocational school. The kids there are completely different the the students at Kinmen High School. They are definetly not as shy. As soon as we arrived many of them came up to greet us. At the high school people mostly smile and wave. The first couple days we didn't actually do any cooking, we just cleaned the kitchen and sat in class. It was a very layed back class, many of the students would be texting or on facebook while the teacher was talking. It greatly differed from the attentive students at the high school. I have gotten to know many of the kids at both schools, and they are all so friendly. But i can't wait for the weekend. :D

First week in Kinmen

It has now been a week since I arrived in Kinmen and so far my adventure has been amazing. I can now somewhat navigate around town, walk home from school without getting lost, AND order bubble tea correctly. This week I had school for only two days and nothing too exciting occurred. I basically sat there, and sat there, and sat there some more. It was hard not understanding a word the teachers said. As for my classmates, they are all very friendly and welcoming, but barely anyone speaks english. In the long run, this will turn out to be a good thing because I can practice my Chinese more. However, right now its creating a barrier and that barrier makes it really hard to make friends. I am trying to learn a few words a day until my Chinese class starts. This feeling of isolation is a good motivation to try an learn as fast as possible. Turns out "Ni hao" doesn't get you all that far. This week I have also met the english teachers that live here on the island. Its really nice to have them there, and they gave me many ideas on how to fill my time. This will certainly be an interesting year. :)

I'm in Taiwan!

For 6 days now I have been in Taipei, Taiwan and Kinmen, Taiwan. Both beautiful places have tremendously exceeded my expectations. When I first got to Taipei I met my host sister in the airport and we took the bus and the MRT to the downtown area. Walking around was unbelievable. I thought I would be completely jet lagged but I think the shock of actually being in Taipei kept me going all day. After meeting up with another exchange student from Germany, Naima, we made are way to the night market. The night market was hectic, noisy, but fun. There were scooters coming through the streets really quickly. They would just come up behind you and beep the horn for you to move. We tried tofu and bubble tea which was delicious. It was a very good first day in Taiwan. After waking up at the hotel I attempted to eat my first meal.... with chop sticks. I don't think I truly understood the importance of learning to eat with chop sticks while I was in America. I thought I could get by with stabbing food or subtly eating with my hands when no one was looking. I was wrong, so wrong. What I didn't understand was that when trying to fake your way with chopsticks it takes a long, long time. So long that when everyone else has finished eating, you are still attempting to cram noodles in your mouth before they drop off onto the floor. The food here is very good, different, but amazing. The next day Naima and I went to inbound orientation where we met all the other inbounds in our district. Everyone was so friendly, it was nice to have people to talk to that can relate to the situation I am in. We listened to rules, exchanged pins and contact information, introduced ourselves, then said, "See you in a month." The next day Naima and I left for Kinmen Island. The plane ride was extremely short, about 30 minutes and as we got closer we could see the entire island out the plane window. It is the most beautiful place. Kinmen is very green with clear water and blue skies.When we got to the airport we were welcomed by Rotary Club members, and my first host family and second host family. They were all so friendly and welcoming. We went out to lunch and than my host sister and I went to get my school uniform...... on a motor scooter. Even though I wasn't driving, I was terrified. Just for a few minutes, than it became so much fun! School Orientation was today so I woke up at 7:00am and walked to the school with my host sister. It was so weird being the one that stood out. Everyone was very friendly there, and after a while I could see myself going to school there. I tried to speak Chinese with them, and they tried to speak English with me. It was very hard. It was a bit discouraging when I was listening to the teacher's presentations because I could only understand a few words. Mostly for the first day we just sat there but getting to know my new classmates was a lot of fun. After school orientation was over at 5:00pm we went out to dinner with the Rotary Club of Kinmen and my first, second, and third host families. Tomorrow will be a new day in Kinmen!

Guarantee Form!

Finally Finally Finally Finally Finally! I simply cannot explain the excitement I felt when I received that oh so important envelope in the mail yesterday. After waiting for months, and watching anxiously as others received theirs, mine has arrived! I now have confirmation of my host family and can finally contact the travel agent about my Visa to Taiwan, and China! After I get my Visa, I can set a date for when I leave. Odds are it will be sometime between August 19th and August 23rd because inbound orientation is the 25th.In addition to talking with some members of my first host family over the past month I have also talked with the other exchange student that will be living on the island of Kinmen. The more information I acquire the more real this whole thing seems. I will literally be living in Taiwan in about 70 days, the idea is absolutely incomprehensible! I have also found out what school I will be attending, National Kinmen Senior High School. I will have one host brother and a host sister. A few weeks ago when I was told by my host sister that I would be living on a small island less than two miles from China instead of mainland Taiwan, I was absolutely terrified. I had spend months researching Taipei and knew nothing about the island of Kinmen. Let's just say it was an enormous shock. Now, I can hardly wait for my adventure to begin!  I love Taiwan already. <3

Where I will be living during my exchange year!

Goodbye Beloved Foreigners

Today was the end of our last Rotary weekend and I have to say I did not expect the sad and emotional goodbye. I will be able to see the Outbounds again but today are time with all the Inbounds came to a sorrowful end. When I first started my Rotary Youth Exchange preparation I did not realize how attached I would become to my new friends. Even worse I never thought of the day I would see them leave the United States and return to their home countries. Now all I take with me are my memories, which I will cherish for the rest of my life. I have made life long friends in the past year and will never forget them.

District Assembly, Rotary Blazer, and Waiting

So far, no word from Taiwan. Past Rotary exchange students have told me the waiting is the hard part. I can with out a doubt confirm, this is true. Today was the District Assembly for my Rotary district. It took place at a high school and basically what we did was hold flags up in a hallway, listen to a presentation about some youth oriented Rotary groups, and had an opportunity to talk with the president of our sponsoring district. It was a lot of fun, and great seeing everyone. We also received our Rotary Blazers!!! I am so excited to start collecting pins. Many of the inbound already have tons of pins and key chains on their Blazers. We started our collections with to Rotary pins presented to us by the Westerville Rotary Club. It was an excellent day! ..... Now to keep waiting.

Arizona ~ Phoenix and Sedona

For spring break, my family went to Arizona to visit our cousins, aunt, and uncle. We had such an amazing time. First we went to Phoenix to spend three days hanging out with our cousins. It was boiling hot there, I felt fried after sitting in the sun for just one minute. While we were there we saw my cousin, Christine, run in a track meet, and my little cousin, Maggie, play in a soccer game. I was impressed, I have no idea how they run for more than ten seconds in that heat! They both did wonderful, and it was so great spending to with them on our trip. One of the days we were visiting them we had a pool day in their backyard. It was so much fun and we were all sad to leave the next day. The second portion of our trip we spent in Sedona, Arizona north of Phoenix. The beauty of Sedona is hard to describe. There were ginormous red rocks every where, we decided within five minutes of driving through the town that we wanted to live there! We spent a large portion of the week hiking and climbing up the rocks. There were some fairly steep parts, which were a lot of fun to try to scramble up. The views from the tops of the red rocks were spectacular! Another day we were there we drove up to the Grand Canyon, which was about 2 and a half hours away from Sedona. We had been to the Grand Canyon before than, but all I remember of that visit was freezing to death. I appreciated it's beauty much more now and I am glad we made the second trip. We walked along the rim for about two miles before taking the bus back. Following the Grand Canyon we went to Flagstaff a town about forty five minutes from Sedona. There we met up with Candice, Trenton, Ethan, and Austin, some of our friends from Granville who recently moved to Arizona. We met them at the Lowell Observatory where we went on a tour into the dome that houses the telescope that discovered Pluto. It was very neat. I was truly amazed that a device that appeared so out of date compared to modern telescopes, could discover a celestial object so far away. After eating dinner in Flagstaff, we returned to the observatory to look through some of the telescopes. We must have waited about and hour so look through the telescope at Mars. All of us were expecting to see a detailed image until we got to the telescope and saw........ a red tinted blob. It was a bit of a disappointment, but I still found it interesting that that blob was a neighboring planet. It was a wonderful visit to the observatory and it was good to see our friends again. The last day we did another hike, which was a lot of fun than Isabel, Gabe, my dad, and I had to head home. My mom stayed for another two days to visit with Candice some more. I had an amazing time in Arizona and will never forget it!

Spring term, Mandarin, and Rotary

Since my last post, I have come a long way. I had a great time in Composition one and absolutely loved my teacher. Now it is spring term at COTC and I have started Composition two. So far it has been good, except for having to learn APA format. I was getting very familiar with MLA but now I have to learn a brand new format. On top of my class I am also learning Mandarin Chinese in preparation for my year abroad in Taiwan. Taking lessons from a native speaker is lets just say, HARD. My tutor is a student at Denison and is very particular when it comes to Chinese. It is difficult but I am glad it is, I know I will be grateful when I get to Taiwan. Time has gone by so fast! It seems like my first Rotary weekend was just last month. Well, I leave in about four to five months. Many people in my district are already beginning to find out what city they will be in. That's the hard part, the waiting and waiting to hear where you will be living for a year. It truly is nerve racking. I am so excited, yet so nervous. Five more months, let the terrifyingly wonderful countdown begin!

Arizona ~ Sedona

Arizona ~ Family