3 Month Report 我愛台灣!

So I have officially completed three months in Taiwan! This past month has been absolutely crazy. For the most part it has consisted of school and well, more school. However at school I participated in a class cheerleading competition! It was fantastic, and a little bit weird. Being the only tall, blonde girl out there made me stick out quite a bit. I'm also in the interact club here at school. On Kinmen Sports Day we danced Gangnam style in front of half the island! It certainly has been an interesting month for me! This month was also the second culture class in Taipei with all the other exchange students. I was really happy to see everyone again. They're all so nice, and always include us exchange students from Kinmen. It was really nice to get off the island for a few days. We had to set up a table at a culture fair where we would present our country to the 2012/2013 outbounds. We had a great time with it, and I made some friends! (I got to present Australia a couple times!) In addition to the culture fair with the other exchange students, I also went on a trip with the other exchange student living on Kinmen with me. We travelled with her host family for a day trip in Neiwan, a Hakka Village about and hour and a half outside of Taipei. It was beautiful! We were about to eat traditional Hakka food and see a famous cartoonists' old house. It had been turned into a museum. This town is actually up in the mountains so we had an amazing view! Mainland Taiwan was awesome, and I am really glad we were able to go after Thanksgiving when everyone is a bit homesick. Being around so many other foreigners was really comforting. For me Thanksgiving on Kinmen was actually very nice. The American teachers here invited me to celebrate with them and all the other foreigners on the island. We ended up having an actual Thanksgiving. It was wonderful but I still greatly missed my family. I haven't actually had much homesickness during my exchange, but the holidays really brought it out. Overall this month has been awesome. Chinese is still hard, but I actually feel like i'm understanding more and more. The real trouble is with the tones, I have really hard time identifying them when others are speaking to me. When I incorrectly use them it can change the entire meaning of the sentence! However, I have learned a lot since i've been here and the more I listen to the language around me the more familiar it becomes. I'm also changing my host family this week! I have mixed feeling about this. Right when I really feel comfortable in a place, it's time to move. But it's another exciting adventure! I'm loving my time here in Taiwan. I have learned so much about myself in the past three months and I hope to continue growing. Heres to seven or eight more wonderful months!

Neiwan, Traditional Hakka Village

We took a bus and two trains up into the mountains to spend a day in the beautiful town of Neiwan.

Back to Taipei!

This month we had a culture fair with all the other exchange students in district 3480! I <3 exchange students!

美麗的世界 So Beautiful!

Sledding in Taiwan!

我愛台灣

Kinmen Sunsets <3

2 Month Report!

My second month has officially come to an end and I have to say, that makes me a little sad. These first two months have gone by so fast, I actually hope time starts to slow down for me. But this last month has been wonderful. With school I have put together a system to get through my classes. Because I do not participate in the majority of them I will alternate studying Chinese, reading my book, writing Chinese characters, and occasionally some SAT studying. Keeping busy really makes the time go by quicker. My class is also participating in a cheer leading competition this Friday. We have been practicing for about 2 weeks now. It is a lot of fun and really nice to be able to hangout with my classmates. They do not usually have very much time due to cram school and studying so the cheer leading has been a really good opportunity for us to bond. The interact club also had another activity this month, bowling! We left school early and took a bus to furniture store that happened to have a bowling alley above it. It was so much fun. It felt very familiar, which was nice. I love Kinmen very much but the highlight of this month was my trip to Taipei. I had a great time seeing the other exchange students. I think because we are all in the same situation we form friendships very fast. After one day I have already made many close friends that I will be able to see each month. This month is also Halloween in the United States, so my teacher asked me to introduce the holiday to my classmates on Monday! I'm very excited! Another amazing month in my new home!

Taipei!

This past weekend I finally got to go to Taipei again! The flight from Kinmen is only about thirty minutes and Naima and I were able to leave school early so we would have more time in the city. We went with my host mom and after we arrived at the hotel we decided to visit an outdoor mall at the Ximen Station. I have to admit the first day was a bit overwhelming. I have become so used to living in tiny Jincheng, where you can safely walk in the streets. Going from that to the insane traffic in Taipei was terrifying. But it was amazing! It was nothing like I have ever experienced before. The next day we went to meet up with all the other inbounds in District 3480 at the train station. We took a train about and hour and a half to the east coast of Taiwan. I was worried at first about not being able to connect with the other exchange students because I am living on Kinmen and not in Taipei. It worked out great though and I met some awesome people. For the first culture class we biked on the coast. It was spectacular with the most unbelievable views! I was sad when I had to say goodbye to my new friends at the end of the day. But I will return in a month! After we arrived back in Taipei, Naima and I decided we would try to find the Shilin Night Market. It was surprisingly easy to find our way there on the MRT, but navigating around the market was a different story. There was a crazy amount of people in the market (it was a Saturday night) and it was difficult to push our way through the crowd. It was worth it! We ate some amazing food, and were able to find really cheap things. We could only make it through a small part of the market, it was huge! On our last day in Taipei we visited Taipei 101. After we exited the MRT station we could see it over the trees.We really wanted to go up to the top, but it was only open up to the 89th floor. It was still quite a view! We were able to see over the city and mountains. It was so beautiful. After a trip to Mc Donald's (how I missed it) we headed back to Kinmen. It's good to be home. <3