We Meet Again

I really, really hate spiders.

That brown huntsman is back in my shower. This time I ran and got my camera, and it obligingly let me take some pictures....

They're a little shaky because my camera's shutter speed is a full one second, but I think you get the idea. I also took a couple of videos, but it startled me by running away while I was filming so I'm not going to embarrass myself  by uploading it. :S

And, since it ran away, I now have no idea where it is. Am I showering today? What do you think?

The good news is that this spider has a tendency to sit still so long as I don't make any loud noises or big movements, so next time I see it I'm going to run for a big textbook instead of my camera. My Rotary binder should do the trick. XD I will upload pictures of the mess I make for your cruel amusement.

On a side note, I FOUND ROLLS!!!! :D The buffet my friends and I visited yesterday had them, and I ate at least four! I swear it made my day.

Now I am going to take this opportunity to go to bed early for once, so good night and good bye.

Creepy Crawlies

Who's staying up late to update her blog?

I am.

Who's going to regret it in the morning?

I am.

Who doesn't care because she knows she can just get coffee?

Me! Besides, there's plenty of time to sleep when you're dead.

That's right - I, the queen of going to bed early and getting up late, just said that. Prepare for the Apocalypse, everyone.

Anyway...

If you have been reading all my blog entries (and I salute you if you managed to get through all the books I wrote) you may remember the little fiasco with the ants that happened a couple weeks back.  But the truth is that ants, while being the most annoying little @#%$&*$%^*#&@!*$%^@#&&#*$s on the planet, are neither the creepiest nor the most vile critters I have had the misfortune to encounter.

Firstly, there are the mosquitoes. To put it mildly, I would like them to all please just drop dead. I AM NOT FOOD! Stop hovering suspiciously by my leg! Happily, it is starting to get colder here, and they are all dying off. Muahahahahahaha...

Next... I have lizards in my house. They're really little - about five inches long or so - and sometimes they make loud and shrill chirping noises that you can hear across the house. But they're not annoying, because I named them and that automatically makes them adorable. :D The one who lives in my room is Haixiu (Hai-shoo), which in Chinese means shy. Every time he sees me or anyone else he disappears in a split second. Neither he nor any of the other lizards bother anyone simply because they are so shy (aka terrified) of people.

Bats, however, are a different story. There are a couple of rooms in the house where the wall doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling (I think it's for ventilation, because it gets so hot here in the summer), so bats can just fly in whenever they want. Of course, having incredibly bad memories, they often cannot figure out how to get back out. Every once and a while I will walk in the door and have a random "brown scary" whiz past my head. The first time it happened I couldn't figure out what it was because it was flying so fast.

Okay, so there's a bat flying up by the ceiling. He can be dumb all by himself; he's not bothering me. No big deal, right?

Right....

The other night I was in the big room my family uses for showers, and I had just finished washing my hair. I go to get my towel, happen to look up, and see that there is a confused looking bat flying in frantic circles up by the ceiling. Great, there's a bat in my shower. That's the second worst place in the house a bat could be.

But still, no big deal, right? They're more scared of us than we are of them.

Wrong.

As soon as I had reassured myself with the though that bats are afraid of the big bad humans, the thing freaking nosedived at me. I instinctively threw my towel up to block it, but it still managed to fly around the towel and come at me from the other side. I flailed around until it flew back up to the ceiling... and of course, I had a few choice words to say. Luckily I was the only one home so no one was around to hear me. And the first swear out of my mouth was a Chinese one, so I guess that means the language is starting to become automatic. But that bat owes me money for watching me shower.

Bats aren't the only nasty thing I've found in the shower room though. One evening I walked in to find the biggest spider I have ever seen just calmly sitting on the floor next to the water bucket. It was maybe three quarters as big as your average tarantula. I'm not even kidding. I wanted to take a picture, but for some odd reason I didn't have my camera in the shower that day (you know, I usually bring it, but this time I forgot). Besides, I was slightly more focused on getting rid of this giant thing than preserving the memory of it. But instead of doing the smart thing and spraying it with water from the showerhead, which was completely within reach, I grabbed a stool and tried to hit it with that. The spider was wicked fast and it disappeared before I could kill it, which was utterly fantastic because then I knew there was a huge spider in the room but I had no idea where. Luckily, spiders are apparently more scared of me than bats are, so it didn't show itself again. But it's still somewhere in the house... O.O

I did some research, and the brown huntsman spider fits the description - it's common in Taiwan, it likes to come indoors, it's incredibly fast, and it's the right size and color. According to the all-knowing Internet, it will bite if provoked, and it can actually jump out at people. The bites aren't fatal to humans, but that's still enough to make me seriously consider skipping showers. Or at least taking a firearm with me when I do take them.

This is a picture of a brown huntsman from the Internet, and it looks very much like the one I saw:


Gahhhh. :S On the bright side, huntsman spiders are expert cockroach killers, and despite the presence of so many other critters I haven't seen any roaches in my house since I got here.... And they must be doing some fighting, because I saw a smaller one in my shower just today that only had five legs.

I'm literally getting chills right now, so let's talk about something else. I haven't made a list in a while, so it's about time I do one.

Things I Discovered Recently, Mostly By Accident

1. Two wrongs may not make a right, but two stupids apparently make a smart. I had a little adventure after school last Friday. I won't go into details though, because I'm pretty sure my mom reads my blog and I don't want to give her a heart attack.

2. I'm starting to get cravings for American food. Don't get me wrong - Taiwanese food is delicious. But I would kill for some macaroni and cheese... or a taco... or even just a roll. That's all I want - a dinner roll. But try as hard as I might, I cannot find one in any store or supermarket in town. They just don't do rolls here, I guess. Luckily, Taiwan has pizza, fried chicken, and waffles... so there's that. But I still want a roll, and I am determined to find one somewhere on the island before I leave. And if I ever see a bag of Tostitos in the supermarket, they are MINE.

3. The world is so much brighter when I've had my coffee. There is a 7-11 across from my school that sells really cheap cafe mochas, and they are freaking delicious. I never drink coffee back home, but now for some reason I can't seem to stay awake in my morning classes without it. It's probably because I mostly have no idea what's going on, so there's nothing to pay attention to. And I don't get enough sleep during the week anyway because of my schedule. Regardless of the reason, at least there is coffee.

4. I go to a B.Y.O.T.P. college. Once you figure out what that means, you can understand my feelings of chagrin and surprise at a critical moment on the first day of class. :S

5. Ghost photos are very easily faked. Here's mine:

Tell me, how many people do you think I could get to believe this is a ghost? If I (theoretically) posted it on some Internet forum site, and said it was a picture of one, how many people would be that gullible? I'm halfway tempted to do it just to find out.... Social experiment, anyone? :D

6. Time flies. Not like a bird - more like an F-14. I just realized yesterday that I've already been here for a month. My exchange is about 10% over, and that's blowing my mind. Of course, it also means that I still have 90% left to enjoy!

7. Taiwanese boys are really, really shy. Here's what happens at school on a daily basis: I'm walking to class, or maybe to lunch, and I see a group of anywhere from three to ten guys all looking at me and giggling (giggling). One of them will get brave and yell "Hello!" after a couple seconds of staring. I smile, say "Hi!", and wave. They then collapse into more fits of laughter and giggling, and every time I catch one of them looking at me he will turn his face away and get really red. It's kind of cute, actually, but I still don't understand why they are so shy!

8. Taiwanese girls are not nearly as shy. Almost overnight, I've become part of a great group of friends. <3 They're all English majors, so they can practice their English on me and I can practice my Chinese on them. Plus they can teach me more vocabulary, because my Chinese is way worse than their English! They're so eager to help me out, and I feel like school is already starting to be very comfortable because of them. We went to the beach the other day, and the night market the day after that, and I haven't had that great of a time in a while. We took lots of pictures (correction: we passed around Winnie's camera, because she's the one who's good about that sort of thing) and they're all over Facebook because I'm too lazy to upload them here. Trust me though, it was fun!

In conclusion, enjoy this photo of Lisa's latest escape attempt. My host sister and I both have minor injuries from having to catch him today. This cat is vicious when he smells freedom.

Psychology, Tartarus, and Peanuts

I am proud and rather relieved to announce that I have survived my first (half) week of school.

This weekend all I really want to do is sleep. I get up at 6:30 on weekday mornings, and somehow I managed to end up going to bed late every night this week. Being that tired is like self-sabotage for me, but I think I did okay in spite of it... and there is a 7-11 across from my school that sells lots of cheap coffee, in case of emergency.

This week I learned that whether or not I have a good time at school almost always depends on me. I think I already knew that, but theoretically knowing and actually realizing something are completely different things.

So let me just walk you through my first three days of school... forgive me if this is really long.

On the first day, I rode the bus (as I will do every day) and was pleasantly surprised to see that my school bus is, in fact, awesome. It's nothing like the standard yellow school buses they have in America. This bus has seats like first class airline seats: they're big enough to fit two of me, really cushy, and very, very easy to fall asleep in. As if that weren't enough, there is a big flat screen TV in the front, as well as several smaller TVs throughout the rest of the bus. In the morning they usually show the news, and in the afternoon it's soap operas (or at least I think it is - I can't always tell because they're in Chinese). So yeah, I basically take a charter bus to school. That's right American school children - be jealous. >:)

Once I got to school, a really sweet and helpful teacher named Tiffany was waiting to show me to my first class. My school has never had exchange students before, so everyone is really eager to make everything go smoothly for me and the other exchange student (he's from Germany; his name is Felix). Tiffany showed me to my Chinese class, which is basically just me and Felix in the Anglo-American Culture Room with a private tutor name Sophie. It's called the Anglo-American Culture Room because it's set up to look like a typical European or American living room. There's even a Christmas tree in there all year round (and there are Christmas decorations in the main office all the time... I don't get what it is with Christmas here). Chinese is going to be one of my favorite classes I think, because it's something I can apply right away. I'm always trying to learn more, more, more. My host sister tells me I'm a good student... but I think I'm just an obsessive one. :P

After Chinese class was over, a bunch of other students came into the room and said hello to us. They are all our classmates, and they were very friendly and happy to talk to us (and to try and understand our broken Chinese). It was great to be welcomed to school that way on the first day; it really made me feel a lot more comfortable. Thank you Sophie for arranging that. :)

Tiffany came to find us again at lunch time, and was nice enough to show us the cafeteria and let us eat lunch in her fancy office. After once again being stuffed like a dead animal at the taxidermist, I went to business psychology with Felix. It's called business psychology, but it's more like stare-blankly-at-the-Chinese-on-the-board class. We had no idea what the teacher was talking about for the second half of class. For the first half, though, it was basically about us. Our teacher asked us a bunch of questions, and some of the students got brave about half an hour into it and started asking us things too.

Speaking of being asked questions, here are some of the more common ones I get:

Question: Why aren't you fat? And why is America fat? (I get this a LOT)
Answer: I am a mythical creature known as the American who doesn't like McDonald's. And two-thirds of America is fat because two-thirds of America is simultaneously hungry and sedentary.

Question: Why didn't you go to China if you wanted to learn Chinese?
Answer: I wanted to learn Chinese without being arrested or asked for money because I'm American. Just kidding.

Question: Why don't you eat more?
Answer: You want me to eat more? O.O

Anyway, on to my second day of school. Wake up, feed the fish, go to the bus, watch the news, sleepwalk to 7-11, decide it's too early for breakfast, go find Tiffany... Oh, cool. Cosmetics class. In Chinese. For four hours.

In all honesty, my cosmetics teacher is pretty legit. He doesn't speak very much English, but he's really nice and he dresses pretty bad ass for a teacher. I think he must be really laid back, because he let someone bring their dog to class. Yeah, you read that right - this guy walked in with a little white dog and the teacher didn't give him a second glance. I wish I could bring pets to class in the States, because I totally would bring my attack cat and set her on someone I didn't like. All I would have to do is throw catnip at them... >:)

Ahem. Anyway. We took a break halfway through the class, and I got to meet some of my classmates. About four girls came over to me to say hi and see what I was doing in my little notebook I pulled out partway through class because I wasn't understanding anything the teacher was saying. When they saw that I was practicing Chinese writing, they started laughing and telling me I was "hǎo kě'ài" (very cute). I was writing random sentences like "The white cat is noisy" and "I really love waffles," so it must have looked really funny. Plus, it was probably all wrong - I'm surprised and encouraged that they could actually read any of it in the first place! Before you get all impressed, though, I wasn't using actual Chinese characters. I was using Chinese phonetic writing, which is basically like an alphabet for Westerners who are trying to learn to speak Chinese. Baby steps, baby steps.

After the break, I sat through another hour and a half of Chinese speech that I didn't understand. I can pick out words and phrases, but that gets old after four hours of sitting and doing nothing else. Luckily, I am an incredibly skilled daydreamer so I was able to pass the time in Imaginationland.

When class was over I went to have lunch with Tiffany again - but not before losing my phone. I think that was the low point of my day. I was already feeling like I failed myself a little bit because of the fact that I didn't take very much initiative to meet people in class; I was being shy until they came to me. I was thinking about why I was behaving that way (and how to fix it) when I realized I didn't have my phone and felt doubly incompetent. Tiffany helped me look for it, and I got it back eventually (it had fallen out of my pocket in class), but the little things can really get you down sometimes. I felt like a loser because I wasn't eating lunch with my peers, and I was frustrated because I don't know why I am so nervous about taking the initiative with people. But as I will explain in a moment, when I get introspective (which is very frequently) I don't stop until I reach a solid conclusion.

After lunch I went to English Communications class, which has got to be the single easiest class I will have. I'm in there because my American school requires me to take an English class (everyone here agrees that is dumb) but I'm actually glad they require it now because I think it's where I will make a lot of my friends. Since the class is about English, and taken by people who can already speak pretty good English, it's actually taught in English by a really funny Australian guy named Peter. Felix and I are in this class together too, and both the teacher and the students made us feel really welcome. I have been trying to choose my seats strategically when first coming to class so that I will end up sitting by Taiwanese people instead of empty chairs, and this is one of the few classes in which it has worked. I'm in the middle of the class in the second row, surrounded by a bunch of very friendly girls (plus Felix). One of them gave me a wasabi cracker without telling me what it was... so we got some laughs out of that, as well as some pain. XD I think English class will be really good for me because it's one of the few classes I'm actually somewhat comfortable with. I felt myself automatically becoming more outgoing and breaking free from the little spell of depression I had at lunch.

I had time to kill after class was over, since the bus didn't leave for another two hours, so Felix and I went out to explore Toucheng (the town our school is in). We wanted to find the train station for future reference, and to my surprise we were actually successful. On the way, we decided we wanted to go to the Luodong night market that night, so I called my host dad to make sure it was okay and off we went.

Actually, the story is more complicated than that. I really could have been a lot smarter about this and wasted a lot less time. What we did was go back to school, get on my bus (he usually takes a different one), walk from the bus station to my aunt's house to ask her if I could go to the night market, find out that no one was home, then call my host dad and walk a long way to the train station in my town to go to Luodong. We probably wasted a grand total of two hours, but we did get to go to the night market for a while and I think it was worth it.

Once we actually found the night market (which was easier than I thought it would be) I felt like a kid in a candy store - both literally and figuratively. Night markets have everything, including candy. I've been being very frugal with money because I'm paranoid about running out, but I can already tell that night markets are going to make my wallet suffer massive internal injuries.

Firstly, there is the food. I figured out long ago that Taiwanese people are in love with food even more than Americans are (and they're still thinner by a gargantuan margin, because they're just awesome like that). I couldn't name everything I saw there if I tried. They sell a million different kinds of fruit, tons of chicken (all parts of the chicken), fried food (including pig's blood), various kinds of tea, etc. etc. etc. One vendor gave us free samples of this strawberry fruit juice he was selling, which turned out to be a great marketing strategy because we immediately bought some.

Secondly, there are the clothes.

You do not understand until you've seen them.

Picture the types of clothes you like to wear - the clothes that you just have to have the moment you spy them in the store.

Then imagine that you see them everywhere.

Then imagine that they are half the price they are in America.

By now you may have some understanding of what I was going through. I wanted to buy all of them. But we were short on time, and I told Felix I wasn't going to take him clothes shopping with me because I would be trying on everything and he would probably start to hate me. He kept telling me to just keep looking forward, ignore the clothes, ignore the clothes....

Not possible. I think I know what Tantalus feels like now - seeing, but not being able to buy, buy, buy.... Buy all the things, buy all the things, BUY ALL THE THINGS!!!!!!

I really need to calm down, and then get some girlfriends that I can go shopping with or I'm going to go (even more) crazy. Or maybe I could just fly my bestest shopping buddy ever over here... Kaitlin, come visit me! :D

Anyway...

Besides food and clothes (*sniff*), there are night market vendors who sell all sorts of little trinkets made of glass, beads, and everything else under the Sun. They are exactly like the kinds of things I decorate my American bedroom with, so it's not just the clothes that are going to suck all of my money away. I already have a little glass penguin that my aunt bought for me when we went to a night market in Jaoxi (and I just discovered that it GLOWS IN THE DARK!!!) and I will probably come home with a hell of a lot more than that. Everything is so skillfully handmade and so damn beautiful. Seriously - buy all the things, that's what I want to do. This is what I save my money for.

After we finished at the night market, we took the train home and I slept like a (dead) baby. Taking the train is a little hectic without someone who can speak and read Chinese because only the most basic information is written in Western characters (basic information does not include which train you get on for which destination), but thankfully we happened to meet one of our classmates at the train station and she helped us get home. And of course, by the time I actually got to sleep, it was really late again.

Okay, two thirds done! Next morning - wake up, lay there, try to bargain with the powers that be for more sleep, realize it's not going to work, sleepwalk to the bus, sleepwalk to 7-11, sleepwalk to school... And now it's time to sleep-kick.

I have a classmate named Joyce who has very graciously agreed to teach me and Felix some martial arts before school on Fridays. I think she said she was teaching us Shaolin Kung Fu, but I could be wrong about that. :S Anyway, we met her on the basketball court and she taught us some of the basic kicking styles and a little bit of one of the forms. Maybe I'm still technically a tae kwon do black belt, but having not practiced in over three years, I'm a little out of it. I can't kick quite as high as I could when I was fourteen, but we have all year to improve so maybe I can get some of my flexibility back. Unfortunately for us, the air did not seem to appreciate how much it was being kicked. It got really, really hot while we were practicing - it is so warm and humid here; there is nothing like it in the US as far as I know.

After getting our butts kicked by the heat, Felix and I headed for digital photography. We seem to have ended up in a lot of each other's classes, which is cool because we have a way of encouraging each other to be more social. Digital photography was (no surprise here) all in Chinese, and since we were the first people in the room we weren't able to just walk in and go sit by our classmates. I've noticed that we seem to have this opposite magnet effect on the people in our classes; they don't know how to talk to us so they tend to sit at different tables or at least several seats away. We're used to getting to class five minutes early, but here everyone walks in at the last minute after we've already sat down so we have the pleasure (not) of observing how they react to foreigners. Like I think I've said before, everyone is really shy.

We took a break halfway through class, however, and Felix suggested that we roll our wheelie chairs over to the table where everyone else was sitting and say hi. I swallowed my nerves and just did it - and it turned out great. I introduced myself in Chinese, and everyone warmed up pretty quickly (although it was soon discovered that my Chinese is, in fact, deplorable at best). We all added each other on Facebook, and I felt a lot more optimistic about school after those two minutes of positive social interaction. It just takes one or two nice people to make the new kid feel more welcome, I am discovering. I swear on all that is holy that if I ever see a struggling foreigner at school again, I will not hesitate to go over and say hello.

Class ended, we had lunch with Joyce at this Korean restaurant across the street, and then we went to... dun dun dun... gym class. Insert high-pitched string music here.

How did I end up taking gym class, of all things? Good question. I'm not entirely sure. But the bright side is that it's perfectly acceptable to just sit out and talk, especially when you're the foreigners and there are kids in the class who want to practice their English. Our gym teacher introduced me and Felix to two Taiwanese girls and told us to practice our second languages on each other. "Taiwanese are very shy about speaking English," he said. "You just have to take the initiative." Something about that one little statement really made me feel a lot better. It was like he was telling me, "They're not ignoring you, they're not indifferent, they're not mean - they're just a little shy. When you just go up to them and say hello, they will talk to you, and you will find they are very friendly." So far, that has universally been the case. Once we started talking to these girls, they were really, really nice and it wasn't awkward at all. I just kept smiling and laughing (mostly at myself and my Chinese mistakes) to dispel the nerves. Once some of the other students saw that we were friendly, they came over and said hello as well. One guy told us that his English is really bad because (and I quote) "I only know how to say 'fuck you' and 'fuck your mother.'" And then, of course, it turned into let's-teach-the-exchange-students-how-to-swear-in-Chinese class. XD As Felix put it, people come and talk to us once they realize that "We don't bite... yet." I had to hit him for that one, but since I was laughing so hard it probably wasn't very effective. :P

One hour and several Catholic jokes later, I took the bus home and went to sleep. Finally!

So what did I learn this week?

I have a huge tendency to intensely psychoanalyze people's behavior, especially my own, and while I was sitting in class not understanding anything that was being said I got to thinking about what makes me so shy around my peers.

When I was a little kid, there was no sign of this behavior. Everyone was a potential friend, and I didn't hesitate to go up to anyone my age and say hello. And yet now, I have to push past a barrier of nerves and actually work up some courage just to go introduce myself. So what happened in between?

I can remember countless times in elementary school, and even more in junior high, when I would find myself in a situation where I didn't know anyone. I would try to approach someone or maybe a group of people, say hello, and just be totally ignored - or worse, rudely asked why I had approached in the first place. Maybe there was the occasional friendly classmate, but for the most part everyone already had a comfortable group of friends and they were reluctant - or even actively opposed - to letting anyone else join them, regardless of who they were. Several years of getting the same negative results, and I am now conditioned to fear social rejection when I try to get to know people.

The good part about this is that I'm not actually very shy at all. Not naturally, anyway - I only act shy because enough of the kids who went to the same schools as I did are jerks.

This realization made me feel a lot better, because once that fear of social rejection is realized and dismissed, I become very outgoing and eager to meet people. And there's no reason for fear here, because once I start talking to people they are as friendly as they can be. They're like peanuts: I just have to give their shells a tiny pinch to crack them open, then they're delicious (and by delicious I mean friendly). Consider my conditioned habit extinct- and thank you, psychology class.

Eating and Being Eaten

Okay, this is going to be a really random and all over the place post because most of the things I've been doing lately aren't really related in any way.

First of all, more exotic food. There's one kind of meat that's apparently really popular here, and it's only found in Jaoxi. It's tender, it's juicy, it's very rare, it's eaten raw, and it is very hazardous to snack on because it's actually alive enough to fight back. Yeah, you guessed it - it's me. Apparently the mosquitos here like exotic food as much as I do. But they don't know what they're in for - I've become a pro at smashing them in midflight. Beware, hungry mosquitoes: I can destroy you, and it won't be hard.

Speaking of wayward animals, I've had some chaotic adventures in cat-catching lately. My host sister's cat, Lisa (he's a boy), is not supposed to go outside, but he is very good at escaping through windows and doors that haven't been bolted shut, booby-trapped, and lined with barbed wire. Since there aren't any windows or doors like that in the house, Lisa escapes on a daily basis. I haven't really explained this yet, but I basically have two host families (although they're both part of the same extended family) for the first few months of my exchange, and I bounce back and forth between their houses. I've been at Lisa's house for the past two days, and he has escaped once each day so far. The first day, I looked up from my game of Zombies vs. Plants just in time to see him expertly pushing a window screen aside and climbing out of an open window. I climbed out after him and grabbed him before he could jump over the fence. Today, I was watching TV when I happened to glance outside and see Lisa nonchalantly strolling across the porch. I don't know how he got out (I'm starting to think he can teleport or something), but I had to run and get him again. Thankfully, although Lisa is smart enough to escape the house, he does not quite understand the concept of leaving the scene of the crime.

I feel bad for having to keep Lisa inside, but really it's for his own good. Last time he escaped and no one noticed he got into a fight with another cat and was injured rather badly. From what I'm told, he can't seem to go outside without getting into a fight, so he has to stay in. Last night he seemed more depressed about this than usual, because he kept yowling outside my door. This cat is insanely loud when he wants to be. But I wasn't annoyed, actually; he reminded me of my kitty at home when she meows outside my door at night because she's lonely. It was cute.

Okay, let's backtrack a little bit. Two nights ago, I actually went to a Rotary meeting with my host dad and sister. It was held under a bridge at night. I'm not kidding; they literally had portable chairs and tables set up under the highway at night. Not weird at all, right? Anyway, I finally introduced myself to everyone in Chinese, and then we left. Everyone was really friendly, and the food was very good (especially the fruit!). I still haven't gotten this month's allowance, but I've decided I'll bug them about it when we're not under a bridge at night. O.O

Yesterday morning, I went to hear my host dad give a speech about this architectural tour of Yilan City. Or at least I think that's what it was about - as usual, it was in Chinese, so I could only guess. The event was held on the very beautiful grounds of the Yilan County government building - and I actually did take pictures, but I don't have them with me so I'll add them later. After my host dad spoke, we all went on an architectural tour of Yilan City, but not before someone from the news came up to me with a big black camera and a microphone and asked why I was at the event. Thankfully I had one of my two host moms there to translate for me, so I got to do a little on the spot interview - mostly in Chinese!

This evening was a very important Chinese Festival called the Moon Festival, and my family (ALL two hundred or so of them) had a big party for it. As usual, I tagged along. I kind of had it in the back of my mind that today is not a very festive day for Americans, but I didn't mention it because sulking wasn't going to do anyone any good. And I had a great time. I performed line dancing with a group of people who all knew the dance better than I did, mostly because I had just learned it that morning and just found out we were performing an hour before we got on stage. Someone took a video of it, which I am reluctant to upload because I look silly. :P But I kept smiling and had fun, even during the third dance which I had never actually been taught how to do. People must have liked watching the American make a fool of herself though, because I kept getting pulled up on the stage without warning. My host mom put me on the spot and turned me into a spontaneous backup dancer while one of the bands was performing. Someone broke out a karaoke machine which happened to have English songs - so guess who got to sing? I didn't exactly hit all of the right notes, but I had a fun time and that's what matters!

I start school in two more days (FINALLY). I can't wait to make some friends my own age!

Victory is Mine!

After a long and desperate struggle, the ants are finally gone. I haven't seen any sign of another invasion for two entire days, and I sincerely hope they learned their lesson at the hands of my toxic vanilla body spray. Or the removal of the bamboo mat, or the shutting of the windows, or the cessation of eating in my bedroom. I don't know what I did, and I don't really care - they left, and that's all that matters. I still see a few stragglers now and then, but they don't stand a chance against me and whatever blunt object happens to be nearby.

Here is a picture of my ant-free bedroom:

And before I forget, here's the temple I visited the other day:

Two days ago I went to the beach with my family, and my host dad took a bunch of pictures so I'll post them when I get them from him. He's way better about pictures than me! This time I actually did take my camera, but it died before I could take any photos so I was glad my host dad had his. We also went to Su-ao cold springs, which is one of only two cold springs in the world (the other is in Italy). Basically, you just soak in the water sans clothes and let these little bubbles form on your skin until you start feeling hot instead of cold. They say it's very healthy for you, which I can believe because I felt great afterward. And Su-ao itself is a beautiful little town; I plan to go back sometime.

After the beach and the cold spring, we all went out to a fresh seafood restaurant. It was... an experience. Remember how there is no part of the chicken that can't be eaten, except the bones? That goes for seafood too, only instead of spitting out bones you remove shells. When you eat squid, you eat the whole freaking squid, including all the internal organs and the defensive ink that they use to escape predators (it must not be a very good defense though, because I was eating it). I did try everything, but I just don't think I have a taste for the internal organs of marine creatures. Chicken heart? Fine. Chicken liver? Okay. Pig intestines? No problem. But shrimp brains, squid gills, and whatever that yellow stuff inside the crab was are just not for me. I'm actually surprised, because seafood organs are the only food here I've tried so far that I really don't like. And according to rule number 5, I am now authorized to avoid it in the future if I want to.

What's rule number 5, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. Most people who know me pretty well know that I have a fairly irreverent attitude towards other peoples' rules. That's because I have my own that work very well for me. Here is a list of the rules I made for this exchange:

1. No complaining,

2. Stay positive (it sounds cliche, but I'm really serious about this one),

3. If you can say it in Chinese, don't say it in English,

4. Say yes as much as possible, and

5. Try everything once, BUT

6. Use common sense. 

Number three has really helped me to practice my Chinese. But I still have a long way to go, as demonstrated by the fact that on my birthday my host family was planning a surprise party right in front of me and I had no idea what was going on. I was pretty clueless until about 10 minutes beforehand when everyone disappeared into the living room and told me to stay out. I've never had a surprise party before, and it was really very special. Complete with presents, cake, STRAWBERRIES, and distinctly American hip hop music, it was a great end to a great day. And it was my 18th birthday, so you can infer what some of the presents were. My second host mom says she is very happy that she can now legally teach me bad things. She was joking, of course....

I feel like I have been here for ages already. I no longer freak out when I see my host dad's speedometer at 100 (it's in kilometers per hour), and seeing a $1000 bill isn't that exciting anymore because I know it's only about 30 bucks in the US. I'm not really surprised by new things anymore; I pretty much just go with it even if it seems weird at first (although I would like to know why "All I Want for Christmas Is You" was playing at a breakfast cafe this morning, because it's September and Christmas isn't even an official holiday here). For once, I actually WANT to start school, because I want to hang out with more people my own age. I picked out my classes the other day, and I tried to choose ones where I can just copy people and not really have to understand what the teacher is saying. It has occurred to me that this might be a disastrous strategy for cooking class, but at least I have art and photography and they are the same in every language. Oh, and I get to learn Tai-Chi, so everyone had better be nice to me when I get back to the States! >:)

It's the middle of the afternoon, but I'm sleepy because I got up early this morning to go feed my addiction. My waffle addiction, that is - the breakfast cafe I mentioned earlier has great waffles and my host family and I go there all the time. My host sister says I'm a crazy waffle addict, and she's probably right. Anyway, I'm taking a nap. Gooooood night.

Happy birthday to me!

Because of the time difference, I get to have my birthday around half a day earlier than usual (I'm not sure about the exact time difference, and I'm too lazy to look it up).

I've been up to some fun stuff since I last posted, and not all of it is going on the Internet. If perchance you want the good stories, you're going to have to ask me yourself!

Anyway, here are some of the more remarkable foods I've had lately.

1. Remember when I was a shrimp-brain-eating zombie? Well now I am a pig's-blood-eating vampire. People get very creative with fried food here!

2. The other day my host sister and I were walking in the night market when she turns to me and says, and I quote: "Do you want some chicken ass?" As usual, I said yes with an expression of mock trepidation. I ate some, and it tasted pretty much like the rest of a chicken except a little more... tender. O.O As I am discovering, there is NO part of the chicken that cannot be eaten, except maybe the bones.

3. Shark. I felt superior, like I was defying the food chain.

4. Subway. At the Inbound Orientation I was surprised to discover that they opted to feed us normal food (normal for Westerners, anyway).

5. Pig intestines. My host sister very wisely did not tell me what they were until after I had eaten them and said they were tasty.

Besides new foods, I have also been discovering a lot of new words. Chinese is coming along rather nicely, if I do say so myself. I know I'm being assimilated because even when someone addresses me in English I respond in Chinese (then they excitedly start talking to me in Chinese, and I stare blankly, and that little voice in my head is like Nice job confusing people, moron). I also catch myself giving other Westerners the funny stares that Taiwanese people give me on the street. Caucasian people are rare, especially in Jaoxi where I live. I've probably seen less than ten other Caucasians since I got here, and I think all but two of those were in Taipei where it's not as unusual. And I haven't seen anyone who looks Mexican, Arabian, or African at all.

The other day I visited a Taoist temple with my host sister. It was very peaceful and very, very beautiful inside. I took a picture (just one, out of respect) but I'm too lazy to upload it right now. I have some pictures of other things too, and I guess I'll post them eventually....

I feel like a hobbit. Seriously, I am always eating because I am always being offered food. And usually it's something new, so I just can't say no. I am a female Bilbo Baggins: on an adventure, and constantly snacking. And there will even be dragons involved when the Dragonboat Festival comes around. Lucky me!

As my little birthday present to myself, I learned to ride a bike today. I kind of have to, since I ride it to the train station and back every day once I start school in another week. I'm not going to ride in heavy traffic just yet, because I still can't quite go in a straight line, but I'm getting there. My body is a plethora of bike-related injuries, including scratches and bruises from the bike pedals and everything I ran into, raw skin from gripping the handlebars for dear life, and mosquito bites from being outside practicing for so long. At one point, the bike was pretty much riding me. But I had a talk with it, and told it that this is in fact Taiwan and not Soviet Russia like it seemed to think. My bike has never even been to Soviet Russia, so I don't know where it got the idea that riding people was acceptable. But we had a little conversation, and we seem to have reached an understanding: the bike obeys me, and I don't accidentally leave it on the train tracks without a rider.

I may have conquered the bike, but I'm still fighting for dominance over a much more persistent enemy. For the past few mornings, I have woken up to find tiny little ants crawling on my bed. There are few things I hate more in this world than ant drones, so with my host family's help I got to work trying to exterminate them. Cleaning the room didn't work, because even though we did it twice they came right back. They seem to like the bamboo mat I sleep on, so I removed it from the bed today in hopes that they will at least leave the mattress alone. I was a little desperate this afternoon so I decided to see if my body spray would kill them (it very effectively smothers them), and now my bed is a vanilla-scented ant graveyard. The ants seemed to get the message and have vacated the area for now. Time will tell if they return....

I know ants in the bed sounds really icky, but as my host sister explained to me, it's not that bad. They don't bite, they don't really crawl on me, and there's no food in my room for them to steal (meaning I have no idea what they come inside for in the first place). My sister even thinks they're kind of cute. But this isn't about what the ants do anymore. It's about pride. The ants have made this personal. It's like a smaller, somewhat more pathetic version of Moby Dick, except there are lots of little brown ants instead of a big white whale.

On the bright side, I am eighteen today, and attitude conquers all. Nothing is really that bad if you look at it from the right perspective. In fact, everything is fantastic with the right perspective. People have more power than they give themselves credit for. I know my power, and I am using it to the best of my ability to make this experience wonderful - ants, bruises, confusion and all. People who know me well know what I mean when I say I don't need any outside forces to help me have a beautiful and valuable experience here. It's a special day, and I miss so many of my friends (you know who you are!) but I am happy to say that I am living in the here and now and having a blast.

Catch you later!