Claire
Tulsa to Taiwan

School is going well.  I get to go to different classes when they have their interesting classes.  I've been going to painting, photography, pottery, and swimming, plus a few regular high schoolish classes.  Every Wednesday the exchange students meet for Taiwanese culture class.  Last week and this week we are learning kung fu, which is actually pretty fun. 

This weekend I went to the beach for the first time.  Now it really feels like I"m living on an island!  Instead of granular sand the beach was pulvarized seashells so it was really soft and really stuck to your skin.  The waves were pretty big so we messed around body surfing for awhile.  It was really pretty.

Exchange student life is good.  When my classmates had their midterms, two student teachers took the other exchange student and I to the zoo on the school's dime.  We had a school assembly about tap dancing and I had to go up on stage and recieve a short tap dancing lesson.  People who don't know English are hesitant to try to speak to you, even if they happen to be soldiers or guards.  On Taiwan's national day I was walking to a parade and most of the streets in the area were blocked off at each end of the presidential building.  I wanted to cross the street at the end, after the blockade mind you, but the walking signal was red.  Since the street was blocked off and obviously there were no cars I thought I could walk across.  There were supposed to be soldiers lined up in front of the blockade but they were in little clumps talking.  As I began across the street I noticed them looking at me, but that's nothing new because everyon e stares at us here.  By the time I got to the middle of the street the soldiers there were pointing some and talking nervously.  At the end of the street the soldiers were pointing at me and shouting like "Come on, someone at least try to do their job" at the guys behind , who were laughing and putting their hands in the air like "whoops."  I wish I had a picture, it was so funny.  Also, everyone is just nice to exchange students.  People on the street are friendly, and everyone in the school wants to talk to us.  As a group we have fun together as well.  I have friends from the US, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, England, Australia, Belgium, Canada, etc.  We will go on a 3 day trip in about two weeks to the middle of Taiwan.  Our main focus is life on the tea farms, but we will also visit and take part in famous hot springs and pottery making places.  It should be really fun. 

I think exchange student life is great for more than all that, though.  Sometimes I get frustrated with the language difficulties, but then I remember that my exchange is more than just learning Chinese.  I am able to do so much here that I never made time for in high school and probably wont make time for in college.  I know that my time here is limited so I am forced to experience each day to its fullest.  I feel like I'm learning to enjoy life more.  I am so thankful that I've been able to step back from the constant struggle of test scores and achievements to experience another way of living.  Life is good.

Zai jian,

Claire

Hi!  I'm getting used to life in Taipei.  I'm constantly busy.  Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have Chinese lessons in the afternoon.  Wednesday morning I have Culture Class.  So I go to my regular school Monday and Friday mornings, and all day Tuesday and Thursday.  I go to a vocational school here, and I am in the advertising design department. 

  Here the classes I can participate in the most are painting, photography, and the clubs which actually work more like an elective in the US.  I will find out this week which club I will enroll in, but I think probably pottery. 

Everyone at school is really nice and helpful.  There are about a dozen student teachers here this year.  The other exchange studen t at my school (Germany) and I will pick out some places in this area that we would like to go see and each of the student teachers will take us somewhere for a day. 

Around this time is the Moon Festival, so it seems like all I have been eating are mooncakes.  I dislike the traditional mooncakes, which are filled with red bean paste and a salted duck egg yolk, but sometimes we have something sweeter like an orange cake. 

Tomorrow is Teacher's Day, celebrated on Confucious's birthday.  At 5:30 am we will go to the Confucian Temple for a celebration, then to a picnic, and then I will go to a BBQ for my host club. 

My host family had a BBQ on Satruday.  There are many festivities.  The celebrations are a little different though.  At the BBQ on Saturday I ate a whole squid grilled on a stick.  Also, I can see the differences in Western vs Eastern gatherings.  After the BBQ we sat down and had traditional Chinese tea.  Everyone sat quietly as the patriarch spoke of his life experiences related to Chinese tea. 

The national pasttimes of Taiwan are shopping and eating.  Those two things occupy the majority of my time outside of class. 

Lately I have been to a Buddhist temple, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, a park to clean it w/my host club, the wharf, department stores (they have these instead of malls, they're at least 9 floors each), and some other places.

Everything is "80s" style here.  They say it's modeled after Japanese fashion.  The school girls wear ponytails on the side, fastened with those rubberbands with two big plastic balls on the ends.  Probably about 35% of the girls have 'mullets,'  although some of them are a little longer on the top then a traditional mullet.  There's a lot of 'flashdance' style loose, unseamed,  sometimes in tunic length.  Some people wear scrunch socks.  All in all, I feel like I"m in some sort of time warp.  

It rains here all the time right now.  It seems like there always 'might be a typhoon soon.'  Living in a semitropical environment is very new to me.  Some things I am still not used to.  For example, I was still surprised when I found a 3" turantula in my bedroom yesterday.  Since it rains all the time there is a lot of standing water, and thus there are more misquitos then I have ever seen in my life. 

However, I feel like I'm learning a lot and I'm having fun exploring a new city and country, bugs and all.

Zaijian,

Claire 

Hey!  I¡¦m finally in Taipei.  It¡¦s the middle of Monday here, and I got here Saturday morning.  The flight went pretty well.  The flight attendants on China Airlines wear bright putple outfits with fairly tight pencil skirts and black pumps.  I don¡¦t think they¡¦ve had the ¡¥quality of worklife¡¦ or comfortable work casual movement like in the US.  Each seat on the plane had its own screen with movies, tv shows, games, and flight information options.  You could also watch the feed from a camera mounted on the front of the plane, but of my 18 hour flight, about 17 hours was in darkness.  The food was kind-of weird, but not too bad.  The toilette on the plane made the most horrible sound, as if it was an open rip in the side of the plane.  It¡¦s a good thing that you have just relieved yourself when it flushes or else most people would pee their pants.  My host family has a ¡¥normal¡¦ toilet, except for that it is completely silent.  The man sitting next to me on the plan confirmed what the books said about business cards in Taiwan.  He studied mine in detail and asked questions.  He also called me independent, but not like someone in the US would say.  It wasn¡¦t a clear complement, and he said it while shaking his head as if in disbelief.  Earlier, he wanted to make sure someone was meeting me at the airport.  Later, he asked if I was flying alone, and if not then why were the others not sitting with me.  I think this is rather indicative of one of the cultural differences.  We also had stereotypical language difficulties.  As an aerospace engineer he pointed out the ¡§fraps.¡¨  I¡¦m thinking ¡§A frappuccino?  Sure, I¡¦d love one.¡¨  Turns out we were about to land and the ¡§flaps¡¨ on the winds had gone up. 

        So finally I arrived in Taipei.  Any reservations I might have had were immediately disproven.  My host parents were jumping up and down and cheering when I walked through customs.  My host mother kept holding my hand in he car.  I met my 2^nd host dad and he gave me his card; he seemed a bit more reserved.  They all speak a little English; I think my host dad¡¦s is the best.  My host mom teaches Chinese, Math and English at Kumon an d peoples homes.  We live in a house, but I guess it¡¦s like a duplex, or rather triplex, in the US.  An aunt and uncle live in the first floor or two.  We live in the top 3 floors, and we have another neighbor.  All of the houses I¡¦ve seen so far are like this, except for the condos and apartments we passed on the way home from the airport.  I think it¡¦s just a bit cooler here than in OK but much more humid.  Also, my host family¡¦s air conditioner is broken so I spend most of the time very very hot.  I share a room with my 13 year old host sister, Marta.  The two other sisters were here for my first day or two but not any more.  Last night Mandy, 18, left for her exchange in Germany.  Betty is in med school, but I think she is at the undergraduate level.  My bed is very stiff and has a bamboo mat on top of the bottom sheet.  There are pillows for both the head and the feet and a sheet for covers. 

        My first afternoon, Mandy and I went to a small festival for Ghost Month.  The ancestors are allowed to walk among us for about a month so we had to feed them and give them money.  We brought food and spirit/ghost/paper money.  We lit incense, sorta prayed, stuck the incense in a bowl, threw the bundles money (instead of taking it apart first, like apparently we were supposed to) in a fire in what looked like a mesh trash can, and took the food back home with us. 

        On a side note, it just started pouring and I didn¡¦t notice so my host mom ran in because I hadn¡¦t closed the windows.

        People really do have the red paper with calligraphy on their doors.

        Yesterday I decided that I am absolutely delighted with my host family.  I am already apprehensive about switching families because I don¡¦t think it could be this good.  Rotary gave us  list of questions to ask each family but I was really nervous about it.  I asked what I needed to, like ¡§What should I call you?¡¨ and figured that I would clarify the rest later.  Yesterday morning my host parents brought out their version of the questions and we went over it.  The rules they set out are perfectly fine.  They keep emphasizing that I am a part of their family now and they will treat me like the rest of their daughters.  I really fee like I know what¡¦s going on now.  Also, they gave me an extra cell phone to use for the year so I just have to find a 7-11 and buy a SIM card before I can use it.  I don¡¦t understand what a SIM card is, but that¡¦s how cell phones work here. 

        Sunday we went to a traditional Chinese market.  It was like I saw Cabo, Mexico, but nicer.  People actually buy their things there, not just tourist souvenirs.  They had meat, raw and cooked, other food, cloths, shoes.  Lots of veggies.  There were so many people and they just jostle around.  Traffic is that way too.  Motorcycles, more like mopeds, will zip around the cars and drive in packs.  At an intersection all the motorbikes skip to the front.  If there¡¦s more than 3-4¡¦ between your car in the one in front of you then everyone honks, especially right after a stop light.  People park motorbikes on the sidewalks; there are sooo many of these bikes.  Cars park on one or both sides of narrow streets.  People walk along side them, and then cards drive through going about 20 mph, maybe more. Enough about cars though, there was a lot of food to try at the market, but I never decided to buy anything.;  my host mom kept telling me she would buy whatever I wanted to try, except for tomatoes because they¡¦re very expensive he re, but if I asked for something then I felt like I would have to finish something there about a 75% chance I wouldn¡¦t like.  Some booths handed out samples.  One time my host sister and mom were obviously discussing whether or not they should buy some ¡§meat x¡¨ for me.  I figured that if they decided to buy it then I would have to eat a lot of it, so I voluntarily took a sample from the vendor.  After I said I didn¡¦t like it, my host sister was like ¡§yeah, that¡¦s pigs foot.¡¨  Later, for some reason, I exercised some reckless abandon and sampled a black egg.  I think they¡¦re called ¡§1000 year old egg,¡¨ and they¡¦re a delicacy here. I consider myself a champion for not puking, twice, on my oldest host sister whom I only met that morning.  Oh, and at dinner on Saturdy I at a piece of plastic.  It was on a piece of sushi I picked out at the grocery store.  I was trying to bite a piece of the sushi in half, and I though it was just really tough seaweed.  I didn¡¦t want to be rude and take it out of my mouth so I just bit it really hard.  Later, I noticed that the other half of that piece had a semicircle of plastic wrap around it.  Whoops. 

        Yesterday afternoon I went out with Mandy and two of her friends.  I had a coffee jelly frap (think boba/bubble tea) and tasted a green tea frap at Starbucks.  We walked around Taipei¡¦s biggest department store, which seemed like a whole mall.  There were about 9 floors.  I also did my first Japanese photo stickers.  It was really fun to go out and see the town with people close to my own age.

        At the airport, waiting for Mandy¡¦s plane, I learned that in Taiwan our Presidents name has been translated to ¡§Bushy.¡¨  I had great difficulty explaining why I couldn¡¦t help but laugh.  They didn¡¦t understand my verbal definition of the adjective bushy, and the only other thing I could think of was a squirrel¡¦s tail.  I don¡¦t know how familiar they are with squirrels; the only one I¡¦ve seen here was in a pet shop.  I had to draw a squirrel.  I¡¦ll let you im agine just how well I can, or cannot, draw a squirrel.  Also, I had to (attempt) to explain Election 2000 and the electoral college.  This may have been even more difficult than drawing a squirrel.  I felt really inept and like a poor ambassador.  Three of the five family members think they understood.  Of course I have no way of knowing if they were correct in how they explained the system to the other two.  It felt really good to laugh at the Bushy thing, though.  I spend a lot of time smiling and nodding but nothing had really tickled me.  I did hear a Taiwanese joke, though.  It goes like this: ¡§There were these two Taiwanese people, and they spoke very good English.  But there was this person in America who did not speak very good English.  They got in a car wreck but didn¡¦t know how to call the police.  So they called and said ¡§One car come, one car go BANG BANG BANG.  Weeeoooo Weeeoooo Weeeoooo come!!!¡¨  hahahhhahhahh.¡¨  Right.

Claire