The first half of my winter in Taipei, complete with holidays, beatiful hikes, close friends, new experiences, and so much more

This post has taken weeks to catch up on, but I have finally given a likely much too detailed account of my last few months here in Taipei. As I’ve written, I’ve realized how routine a lot of my days have become. Now that I’m about a week from the halfway point of my exchange, those of you still reading probably have a pretty good idea of my day to day life. I’ll try to continue to include the new, interesting, and important events in my life here, but from now on I’m planning to focus more on individual topics of interest and less on everyday details. There were several points in this blog post where I realized I was writing much of the same thing over and over, but I decided to finish this post off, then work on some changes from here on out. I’m also aware that my writing style has gotten very repetitive and more focused on the facts of every single day than on highlighting and exploring specific topics, so feel free to skim through some parts of this especially long post.

It was a Wednesday when I finished my last blog post in the school library, and finished school at 4. Then Hayden I left school together and walked to a nearby park where we'd been once before with our culture class. While we do get to spend some time talking together during school, we decided it would be fun to get to know each other better and also explore the area of our school a bit more. We walked around the lake, talking and watching the fishermen sitting along the dock. We found a building along the lake, and, curious about its purpose, decided to investigate. Through some questions and translation we found out it was the taipei office of native flora and fauna. We kept walking around the lake, and eventually found some stairs leading off into the woods. These we followed up a few hundred meters, and eventually came to a "lookout point". We couldn't see much, because it was really just an open space at the top of a hill, which would have had a nice view if it hadn't been surrounded by trees. We watched some squirrels run around in the trees, and tried to hoolahoop with the random hoolahoops we found up there, looked at the small covered structure in the center of the space, and eventually headed back down the trail. We followed it towards something called the 7th village, unsure of what we would find. It ultimately turned out to be another area full of apartments behind the hill we had climbed. We walked through this neighborhood back towards the park, and then went to the elephant cafe across the street from the lake. They served mostly American food which, as usual, was fairly expensive, but was ultimately well worth the price. I got french toast with honey and a chocolate banana milkshake, while Hayden got strawberry waffles in the shape of elephants which came with strawberry ice cream, and his own chocolate banana milkshake. It was a nice meal, and a nice opportunity to learn a bit more about each other. We walked back to the mrt station next to our school.

I had forgotten my bag with all my money, mrt cards, and keys in my desk, so I tried to go back in to get them, assuming the school would be open because classes had only finished an hour before (Hayden and I get out early on Wednesdays). However, all the staircases were gated and locked, so I ended up walking home and having to take the stairs up to my apartment. Because it was a Wednesday, I was expecting my host mom to be home, however she was still out, so I sat down outside my door to work on some Chinese homework. My phone was dead, but luckily I happened to have my computer with me. I put together my slideshow which I would have to present at my Rotary meeting the next day. This took about half an hour, and by the time I was done, my computer had died. I had finished all my Chinese homework for the day, so I tried to study some Japanese because it was the only other book I had. Eventually I decided to go back downstairs and ask the security guard to help me call my host mom. My neighbors helped me use they're fob to use the elevator. I talked to them for a while, and it turns out the mother went to university in Seattle, and the father went to the University of Chicago, which actually wasn't very surprising. A good number of the adults I meet with my host mom have gone to university in the US, and over half of these individuals have studied in Seattle, and probably a quarter have studied in Chicago.

After the security guard helped me call my mom, I found out she had stayed at work late for the day, and would be on her way back soon. She came home, and I finally got inside my apartment and went straight to bed around 10:30. I still had to finish preparing my presentation for Rotary, so I got up early in the morning. I thought out what I would say as I presented, and translated some words I thought would be useful to know. Then I rushed to Chinese class, ready for our vocabulary test. After the test, a Rotarian came to present our awards to everyone who had full attendance and wasn't late to class. We each got a 100 nt coupon to hi life, a convenience store just like 7-eleven or Family Mart, but a bit less common. Four individuals from our class also received awards, and I was very proud to be named the most hardworking student, which is a title selected by our class teacher. There was also an award for the best grade overall, and the most student with the most class spirit.

After Chinese class, I met Mati at Taipei Main Station, and together we rushed to our Rotary meeting at the Palace Hotel. We didn't really need to rush, as we were still some of the first people there, and we ended up having a while to talk to the Rotarians from our club. Another club was also attending our meeting, and the schedule was packed, so we were informed we would only have a few minutes for our presentations. As we started eating and the meeting got underway, we were called up to talk for a few minutes. We weren't able to use our slideshows because our time was so short, so I ended up improvising, and was ultimately very happy with my speech because it was all in Chinese, and the Rotarians were all able to understand it very well. Our club President even told both Mati and I that we had done a very good job and had both improved significantly since our last speeches. The rest of the meeting was a presentation by a Rotarian from the other club, which was mostly in Taiwanese. I'm not totally sure how much Taiwanese most people in Taipei speak, but I think there's a pretty wide range. Many older people speak it fluently, and might only speak Taiwanese, some younger people can understand it perfectly, and almost everyone knows a few words at least. Mati and I were completely lost, but what was presented on the screen was in Chinese, so we were at least able to follow along a bit.

After the meeting, we headed back to school very late, and I ended up only making it to my last class of the day, English. After school I biked home, changed and when my host mom got home a couple of hours later, we went outside to wait for her friend. He pulled up in his car after a few minutes, and we hopped in. We drove for about an hour and a half, and finally stopped at a rest area overlooking the ocean. There was a sidewalk path extending from the area along the ocean, and they told me I could run for about 20 minutes along the path and then turn around and come back while they walked. There were lots of other people along the path, and a few others jogging. It was around 7 at night, and already very dark out (the sun sets around 5 here). The path trailed along the ocean, next to a road about 5-10 meters above the sea, which broke and lapped along the rocks beneath. At one point a ramp led down to a beach where I ran for 50 meters or so. I watched the light s along the shore as I ran, and saw a lighthouse blinking among the rocks, and a few fishing boats just coming in from an evening on the open water. I listened to Spanish music recommended to me by Lucia while I ran, which was energizing. Overall it was such a beautiful run, and next to seeing the sunset from yangmingshan was probably one of my most beautiful nights in Taiwan. The 40 minutes went quickly, and I passed my host mom and her friend walking on the way. When I got back I sat and waited for them for a while, enjoying the beautiful view of the lights above the barely visible ocean, and the sound of the waves slapping the shore. Afterwards, we drove to a small seafood restaurant nearby, and had the best shellfish - crabs, oysters, shrimp, little tempuraed sardines - that I've had since I've been here.  Later we went to the beach nearby, where we tried to dig up and catch tiny crabs in the sand, and waded into the slightly cold, but very comfortable water. It was such an incredible night, and I was very grateful that I got to spend it with my host mom, getting to know each other better.

On Saturday morning I had to wake up especially early and head to school as if it was a weekday. I arrived on time at 7:30, and my classmates and I immediately got to work preparing for our school's birthday festival. We pulled out buckets of mushrooms, bags of uncooked boba, and boxes of tea bags. While some of my friends started making bubble tea, I chopped up hundreds of mushrooms, which were then rolled in rice flour and fried in oil, producing a delicious snack, salty and crispy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. After an hour and a half of food prep, we brought out dishes outside and set them under our tent. 50-60 tents, one for each class at my school, were lined up along the entryway to our school. Each class was selling their own selection of foods and drinks, available to the other students, parents, siblings and spectators for purchase. Our class sold fried mushrooms, a variety of bubble tea flavors, sprite ice cream floats, and tiny pancakes with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I had bought 100 nt worth of tickets beforehand, so after an hour of selling foods at my stand, I headed out and wandered the stands in search of a solid brunch. I bought a fried ice cream ball, some fried mushrooms from my class's stand, and a piece of toast covered with melted marshmallows, sprinkles and chocolate sauce. The festival lasted a few hours, with performances from many school clubs on a large stage set up on our volleyball courts. Hayden and I wandered around our school for a while, then headed back to our respective stands. While I technically had the rest of the afternoon to wander around, I was bored after a couple hours, and instead helped fry mushrooms at my stand for an hour or two. As the fair came to an end, the demand for our fried mushrooms reached a point we could hardly keep up with, and we quickly fried up the rest of the mushrooms as the rest of our class started to clean up. After standing over the frying pan for hours on end, I was very thirsty, and there was still plenty of bubble tea left over, so I had a couple of glasses before heading back to our classroom to finish cleaning. We had some activities  in our classroom for a couple hours, and we're finally allowed to leave at 3:30.

Hayden and I left together and hopped on the MRT. There had been a Rotary meeting about hiking Jade Mountain in May which we were both signed up to attend. Because our school had insisted we stay for the whole day, the Rotarians had told us it would be ok if we came late. However, as we were heading over on the MRT, Mati called to tell me the event had ended early. Instead, we met up with some of the other students who had been there. I spent the afternoon with Mati and another Italian girl named Irene, exploring Ximen. After a while, Mati and I headed to the supermarket where we bought pasta and tomato sauce. These we took back to her house, where we made pasta with tomato sauce and tuna, which is apparently a true Italian pasta dish. It was very interesting to me how specific making pasta is. While we were debating what kind of dish to make, Mati told me which types of pasta we should use with each topping, because this is a very important detail. After our dinner, we played uno for a while, and I learned a very interesting cultural difference surrounding cards. Mati told me that in Italy people shuffle cards by simply mixing them together in their hands, and that to shuffle as we would in America was considered unnecessary, harmful to the cards, and showing off. After a great meal and some laughing over card games, I headed home and went to sleep.

The next morning I went to a traditional market with my host mom, where we bought breakfast and walked around shopping for a while. After purchasing some toilet cleaner, vegetables, and some fruit to eat later, we headed back home, after which my host mom headed to a meeting. I spent most of the day at home studying and catching up on other things I needed to get done. In the evening I met up with Lucia from Spain, and we tried to find a concert my host mom had suggested we check go to. It was in Da’an park, which is fairly big, but after walking around for a while we eventually found it. We stayed for a little while, but were getting hungry so we left to buy dinner after a little while, and then headed back home.

On Monday I didn’t have school because we had had to come on Saturday. I worked on some homework in the morning, and then went on a run after lunch. Afterwards I decided to walk around my neighborhood for a little while. It was raining lightly, but was still pretty nice out, so I walked a few blocks, and found a small park nearby. There was a very colorful wooden play structure, as well as some exercise equipment. I explored a bit, and then headed back home. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful: I studied some more, ate dinner, and went to bed.

Tuesday was a fairly uneventful day: after Chinese class and school I went home to study. On Wednesday I played volleyball at school, and afterwards went to Mati's house where we studied together for a while, and ate dinner, before I headed home. Thursday was similarly relaxed; after school I went to Mati's where we tried and failed to make french toast with bread she made at school, and instead ate some noodles and dumplings while playing UNO.

On Friday, when I arrived home from school I ran for an hour on the treadmill downstairs. When I finished and went back upstairs my host mom was home, but was in a hurry to get to her tv shooting. I quickly showered changed, and headed out the door with her. I sat and did some homework in the fake kitchen of the set where they film. Afterwards, my host mom took me to Raohe night market where we drank a hot, somewhat bitter lemon drink and ate stinky tofu and an egg and oyster omelette.

I woke up early on Saturday, put on athletic clothes, and my host mom drove me to the Expo center, where I met other exchange students for a 7k run, that turned out to be a walk, and turned out to be only 3k, after they closed the rest of the route due to some light rain. Mati, Arnaud, and I talked while we walked, and afterwards got lunch together at the food carts nearby. They were all international foods from other countries; I got Arepas from a South American cart and naan with peanut butter from an Indian cart, while Arnaud and Mati got tacos from a Mexican cart.

In the afternoon, the three of us went to Ximen together. Mati and I bought ukuleles, and we all walked to a park to practice playing them. The park was in a small area of Ximen where all the walls are spray painting with huge, colorful murals, and everyday new artists can be seen painting over different parts so that the backdrop is always changing. There was some kind of a fair happening in the park with music and stands with foods from different countries, and we actually ran into some of the Brazilian exchange students while we were there. It's kind of surprising how easy it is to run into other exchange students in Taipei, especially in areas like Ximen, but also frequently on the Mrt or walking near Taipei Main Station or Taipei 101. The city is so crowded and dense that it often feels huge, but area-wise, it's not actually such a big city, and there are over a hundred exchange students who live, go to school, or commute through the city every day.

After playing ukulele for an hour or so, we walked around the city for a while, exploring some arcades and shops. We had almost decided to leave, but at that point a man came ip to us and asked to interview us for the foreigners in Taiwan YouTube channel, and the interview was very fun, so afterwards we decided to stay out for dinner instead of going home. Dinner consisted of sharing a shaved ice from a nearby shop. The store was small, but a tiny staircase led to a big room underground, equipped with tables, chairs, and signature covered walls. We had a fun time trying to make out the names while we ate, and noticed that a lot of people had signed from different countries, especially Japan and sometimes Korea. After eating, we finally headed back home, but it was an absolutely incredible day, probably one of the best I've shared with exchange students in Taiwan.

The next morning I woke up in time for badminton. I played for a few hours with the Rotarian from my club, and he told me I was improving a lot. During the breaks we ate traditional Taiwanese fried rice and soup, as well as some cake for the birthday of one of the other players. After playing, I took the MRT back to my station, then ran the rest of the way home. As soon as I got home, my host mom and I left for IKEA. We at a delicious lunch of Swedish meatballs, mashed potatoes, gravy, French fries, yogurt, and fried chicken. After our very satisfying meal, my host mom and I went on a full tour of the rest of the maze of a store. As we explored the made up bedrooms and inspected kitchen supplies, I felt almost like I was back in Portland at the IKEA next to the airport. It was a fun experience to share with my host mom, and we laughed a lot while taking funny photos all over the store. When we reached the end of the maze having only purchased one small mirror, I bought an ice cream cone from the IKEA ice cream machine, which probably exists in IKEAs all over the world, but I had never seen before, and was very impressed and entertained by.

By the time my host mom and I got off the bus at our apartment, it was raining heavily and we were both exhausted, so I showered, practiced some ukulele, and went to bed.

On Monday morning I woke up exhausted and with an upset stomach, and by the time I finished my first two classes, I also had a headache and felt achy and a bit feverish. I texted my host mom to ask if I could go home, and was planning to take the bus, but instead she came to pick me up. I felt bad that she had to leave work, especially because immediately afterwards we went to a clinic. I assured that I was sure I could sleep it off, and maybe we could go to the doctor if it persisted after a few days, but she insisted that if I had the flu, it was better to catch it as soon as possible. Getting sick was probably one of the more revealing cultural experiences I’ve had since I was here. My host mom told me how easy it is to get sick here because the air is so humid, making it a perfect environment for bacteria. Taiwanese people take lots of precautions to avoid getting sick, including washing their hands constantly, eating all foods including sandwiches or hamburgers with chopsticks, or at least a bag, and always being very careful to have separate communal chopsticks for every dish. We waited almost an hour for the doctor, and when we finally saw me he spent about 5 minutes listening to my symptoms, checking my ears, throat, heart lungs, etc., and then diagnosing me with an upper respiratory infection (which confused me a bit because I didn't think it really fit my symptoms, maybe it was a problem with translation?). He prescribed me some medicine to take for a week, and to drink lots of water and sleep a lot. After we finished, my host mom bought be a very sour, warm lemon drink with no sugar and some soup, gave me a mask to wear to avoid infecting other people, then took me home.

I slept most of the day, and felt a bit better the next morning, but my host mom though it was better if I stayed home another day to avoid infecting anyone else, or getting reinfected. I slept for part of the day, then got some work done and did some exercise in the afternoon. Later I took the MRT to Ximen, and walked from there to a Rotary office for our makeup Jade Mountain meeting. There will be about 15 of us going, and at our meeting we talked about the itinerary, what we’ll need to bring, and the preparation we should do before hand. I'm very excited for the trip, and thankful that Rotary is organizing it as an event open to all the exchange students this year.

I went home and went to bed early, trying to get a good night’s sleep before having to go back to school the next day. Wednesday was fairly uneventful; I went to school as usual, played volleyball during PE class, practiced CPR during health class, and learned about discs during computer class. When I got home from school, I ran 15k, then ate dinner with my host mom and got to sleep early because I still felt a bit sick.

On Thursday morning I went to Chinese class, and had to make up our test from Tuesday. While I do still find our classes very interesting and enjoyable, it's certainly noticeable that we’ve slowed down the pace of our progress quite a bit. While we used to skip quickly through the textbook, covering new vocabulary and grammar structures, and learning plenty of extra words as we went, now we take our time with each lesson, spending at least a couple days on every unit. I understand that this is the result of my teacher adjusting to the pace that best suits the entire class, but because there is such a diverse range of knowledge and ability levels, it can be frustrating.

After Chinese class, Maria and I ate fruit for lunch at the supermarket, then headed back to school. After school, I met up with Natalie and Maria at Zhongxiao Fuxing stop, and set out in search of Thanksgiving dinner. We decided to try to find Western food for the holiday, and settled on one of the most American meals we could find: grilled cheese and French fries. After 3 months without real cheese, the meal was very exciting. While I don't think I will ever get tired of eating dumplings for lunch every day, and while I do enjoy my rice and noodles every evening for dinner, indulging in carb filled American comfort food with my exchange student friends was the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving.

Later, after returning home and getting ready for bed, my host mom returned from her class, and I wished her a happy thanksgiving, and also spent some time talking to her about American thanksgiving traditions. Because it is such and important and unique holiday within American (and Canadian) culture, I really wanted to share it with her, and she was interested in hearing about my family and how we would spend this important holiday.

I woke up especially early on Friday morning in order to FaceTime with my family back home. Thanksgiving marked the exact day of my being in Taiwan for three months, and I had yet to FaceTime anyone back home. Overall, I'm very glad I waited the full three months, because I think it helped me stay more fully engaged in my life in Taipei, and Thanksgiving made for the perfect occasion to talk to my family while no one was at school or work and see them preparing thanksgiving dinner. I didn't have much time to talk because I woke up late, and had to get ready for school.

During school I had Music class, where we were still practicing the ukulele, and preparing for a talent show that would happen in a couple of weeks. That evening I had dinner with my host mom, and then practiced reading Chinese with her, which is very helpful in improving my pronunciation and fluency.

When I woke up on Saturday, I had to rush to get ready and make it to the high speed rail where I was supposed to meet Rotary for a trip to Tainan. I made it to Taipei Main Station where our train would leave from, with time to spare, but it took forever to find the area where the high speed rails left from, and when I finally made it to our car, there was less than a minute until the train was set to leave. Mati and I slept for much of the train ride, after eating some red bean cakes a Rotarian gave us for breakfast. The train ride only lasted about 2 hours, during which we passed between fields, countryside, and a few small towns.

When we arrived in Tainan, we immediately took a bus for about half an
hour to a small town nearby. We arrived at a school, and were led upstairs to a classroom. The school director gave a presentation about the many programs the school offers to its students, who all come from families in the generally poor community nearby. He spoke about recent developments in their art classes, and the strong english language curriculum. While he spoke, a computer screen was projected at the front of the classroom, and one of the students, a boy who was probably ten years old, was playing an English translation game, I guess to show the proficiency of their students in English. After the presentation, another teacher and some students taught us all how to make small goats out of strips of bamboo. Finally, the president of our Rotary club got up to present a donation to the school, many photos were taken with the director and the students, and we left.

We were driven to a building nearby. A table was set out in the yard in front, and about a dozen people in all white were sitting around it talking. Instead of joining them, we went into the building and sat down at a table already covered in platters of food. There was chicken feet soup, corn, noodles with vegetables, which were delicious, sweet potatoes, tiny bananas, and much more. The water they served us was electric blue, but tasted just like regular water, if a bit mineral flavored. Later, they brought out bright blue and purple flowers, from a plant called butterfly pea, which we were told were responsible for the water’s color.

After lunch, we drove back to the school, then boarded our bus again, and drove to a huge concert hall. It appeared to be still under construction, although it seemed mostly finished. The chairs were all covered in plastic, and huge hooks hang from the ceiling. The main point of interest in the hall were three huge organs, whose pipes stretched up the multistory building, covering the walls. We eventually got to inside the organs, and see how the strings inside would strike the pipes in certain ways. It was fun and interesting, but we were exhausted and happy to get back on the bus after an hour or two of exploring the inner workings of the building.

Our next stop was a dock, where we all boarded a boat. Mati and I sat on the top deck, outside, where we could look out at the other ships and lights we passed. The ride lasted 30 minutes or so, and by the time we arrived back at the dock, the sun had completely set, and the streetlights lit our way back to the bus. We stopped one last time to pick up our dinner boxes, then finally arrived at the station. On the way back, Mati and I ate our dinners, beef and curry over rice, played some cards, and then tried to sleep for the rest of the trip. There was a boy, about 10 years old, who had come on he trip with us, and all day we had been talking to him in Chinese. While this was very fun for most of the day, he was still wide awake and ready to joke with us and listen to music with us at 9 and 10 at night on the bus, while Mati and I were ready for bed, and wanted nothing more than to fall asleep. We managed to get some rest, but we didn't get back to the station until around 10:30, and had to take the MRT home. When I finally arrived home I was exhausted, and fell asleep immediately.

It was another early morning, and after I got ready and prepared a poster about the US, Janus drove me to Mati’s school for the Rotary country fair. It was a day full of talking to Taiwanese students trying to decide where to spend a year of their lives, playing games with other exchange student, and eating incredible food from all over the world, including pumpkin cookies, beef jerky, and candy from the American table. I won't go much into the details of the day, especially because we had to stay there for over 5 hours without much to do, but it was very interesting to really hear about the cultures of so many of my friends from other countries. Usually our interactions involve exploring the unique details of Taiwanese culture, and sometime learning little pieces about one's home country, but to be able to ask for the more expansive history and details was educational, if, at the same time, not the most revealing. I certainly feel that the other things I’ve learned from my friends about their cultures were more nuanced, specific, and ultimately give the most idea of life in their countries, while what I learned at the country fair while they spoke to the future Outbounds, was more fact related, with broader explanations of some of the important culture aspects. Still, both areas of knowledge are important in truly beginning to understanding the backgrounds and identities of people who I’ve grown close to over the past few months.

After the fair I was exhausted, so Mati and I went back to her house to make pasta, eat some more dinner with her host mom, and watch a movie, before I headed back home.

Monday was a typical school day; I attended all of my normal classes, drew Taiwanese food during art class, and started our swimming unit during PE. After school I took the Mrt to the Miramar department store, and took the escalators to the basement, where there is a huge supermarket behind the food court. After purchasing a huge grocery bag’s worth of ingredients, I bought some ice cream for myself from cold stone, and took the mrt, and then the bike, back home. I spent the evening making sweet potatoes and a huge bowl of mac and cheese. It was hard to resist not eating all of the mac and cheese right there, especially because I knew it wouldn't be nearly as delicious the next morning, but I wanted to be sure to save plants for our Thanksgiving party the next night.

When I woke up on Tuesday, I packed the pot of mac and cheese and the potatoes into a bag, and headed to Chinese class. After class, Maria and I met up with Natalie. We headed to her house and started preparing more food for Thanksgiving. Because it was a school testing day, Natalie and I didn't have to go to school, but Maria did, and left after a little while. Natalie and I spent the afternoon making tiny apple pies and deviled eggs. When we finished around 3, we brought all of our food onto the Mrt, and headed to the party. Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention when we got on the MRT, and it turned out Natalie thought we were supposed to go to the opposite end of the line, so we were almost 40 minutes away before we realized our mistake. Luckily we made it to the party before the meal started, and were greeted by most of the other Americans from our district, and a few of the Canadians who hadn't had a chance to celebrate their Thanksgiving, in October. All of the host parents had been invited, but most, including my host mom were busy, so just a few parents and some rebound students were there to celebrate with us. It was a great night, full of singing, talking, and laughing about all the cultural differences making our Thanksgiving special, and about how nice it was to have an evening to get together and share the holiday and our own distinct traditions with each other.

Unfortunately, as I was rushing to get off the bus, holding my bags of pots and leftovers, I didn't notice my phone fall onto the seat of the bus. Almost immediately after getting off, I realized I couldn't find it, but by that point the bus was long gone, and so began a trying, but ultimately rewarding, week without my phone.

On Wednesday morning, I slept in, and didn't have to be at school until 12:00. When I arrived, Hayden, my student teachers, and I, headed to a nearby cafe for lunch. Later our school director and another administrator came to eat with us. I had a delicious meal of lux, scrambled eggs, French fries, and salad. After eating, Hayden, two of ours student teachers, and I took the MRT, a bus, and finally arrived at the National Museum. We joined an English tour, which was somewhat disappointing as I would certainly have liked to practice my Chinese while exploring the Museum, but it was still very interesting. We saw old artifacts shipped from China, brass and copper pots and jars from various past eras, written documents dating from thousands of years ago up to today, and more recent artwork such as the famous jade cabbage.

Our visit ended a bit late, and I was supposed to meet my classmates after school to go ice skating, but had no method of contacting them. Unfortunately when I got back to school, everyone had already left, so I biked home instead.

Without a phone, it was difficult to make plans, but on Thursday I managed to arrange to meet up with Anna, the exchange student to Taiwan from my US district two years ago, after school. We talked while walking around the city for hours, stopped for coffee, and then talked a while longer while going up and down the escalators of the Sogo department store. We mostly discussed all of the incredible things about being on exchange, about her study scholarship for a year here, and what it is like the live in the city on her own, and about the many observations we’ve made about Taiwanese culture, but we also spent a while talking about bigger issues, things that affect our lives both here and at home, about international relations and local social issues. It was a great conversation that never seemed to slow down, and it was nice to have someone who could understand where I was coming from, both as an exchange student here, and as someone from my district and state in the US.

Friday was an unexceptional school day, and afterwards my host mom and I had an early dinner at home, then she had to do work for the rest of the evening, so I decided to meet a few of my friends. Without my phone, it was difficult to find them, and I ultimately wasn’t able to. As it happened, instead a found a children’s concert in a park nearby. It was open seating, andI decided I didn’t have anything better to do with my night, so I decided to sit and watch for a while. Some of the best experiences I’ve had in Taiwan have come when I was not expecting them, when I looked around and decided to make the best of an otherwise frustrating situation. At first I was upset that I had traveled so far and hadn’t been able to find my friends because of my lack of communication capabilities, but I decided to smile, slow down, and take a minute to look around the city while I happened to be there, and ended up having an interesting experience that I otherwise would not have.

On Saturday, I got up a bit late, and had to rush to make it to the far end of the yellow MRT line, in order to meet Anna at the station. We walked together to Erica (my country officer’s) apartment. I’ve had a few brief conversations with Erica since I’ve been here, at the airport and at orientation, but havent had a chance to really talk to her since she visited my house in Portland before I left. She and her husband made breakfast for Anna and I, and we sat eating, drinking coffee and tea, and talking through the morning and well into the afternoon. At first I was hesitant to join in with Chinese, especially because they were speaking about half English and half Chinese, so it would be easy to avoid embarrassment and speak mostly English, but I quickly decided to speak Chinese as much as possible, and it was rewarding to have not only a full conversation in Chinese, but a full half day long discourse in a language I’ve been working hard to learn this whole year. After Anna and I finally left and walked back to the MRT station, I realized I was pretty close to Mati’s apartment. We had been planning to meet at some point during the day, but had no way of communicating a time, so I decided to impulsively walk to her apartment and try to find her. I ultimately got completely lost during the five minute walk to her apartment, because I was walking from a different station than I usually do, with no general idea of how to get there. Getting lost was something I was getting quite used to during that week without my phone, so I took it in stride, and over an hour later, finally found her apartment. She wasn’t at home, but her family and lots of relatives were in the apartment across from hers, so I used her host mom’s phone to call her, find out that she was in Ximen practicing for the upcoming Rotary talent show, and make plans to meet her. Forty minutes later, I finally found met up with Mati, Natalie, and Melissa from Brazil, and we shopped around Ximen for a while before Mel and Natalie, had to leave. Mati and I were both tired, so we ultimately went back to her apartment for another relaxed night of pasta and card games, before I headed home.

When I did get home, I ate some more dinner with my host mom, and then talked to her about my phone problem. While I recognized that it would be inconvenient to function without a working phone for much longer, I was adamant that I make absolutely certain that I couldn’t find my phone before buying a new one. My host mom was insistent that if the bus company found the phone, they would call her back (she had helped my call the first night I lost it), and that there was therefore no point in trying again. She finally agreed to help me again, although she seemed to think it strange that I would push the issue when it didn’t make much sense that they wouldn’t call if they found the phone. Not pushing issues, and leaving things at formalities, is certainly a trait of Taiwanese culture. While I did want to respect that, and tried to be gentle with and polite in my insistence, it was a very important situation, I really wanted to make absolute certain that I could not find my phone before purchasing a whole new one that would not only cost money, but also would not have the significant amount of information and photos stored on my phone. While I think it is usually very important to adapt to and adopt the cultural ideologies in situations around me, I’m ultimately very glad I pushed back a little bit this time, because when we called the bus company again, they had a phone that matched the description at the depot, and we arranged to go check if it was mine the next morning.

My host mom and I both woke up late on Sunday, and rushed to get ready to go. As we were leaving, my host mom mentioned that there was an event with our Rotary club in the afternoon that she would take me to immediately after visiting the bus depot. I had no idea what kind of event it would be, and I wouldn't have had any time to change anyways, so I rushed out the door with her. The drive to the depot was long and confusing, but we finally made it to a small parking lot under a bride and entered a tiny office. As soon as my host mom explained that she had called the night before and was looking for a phone, they pulled one out from the desk. A quick press on the home button assured me it was mine, and after showing I could open it with my thumbprint, my host mom and I left. I spent about twenty minutes frantically texting everyone I had messages from, logging my expenses from the last week, and taking care of all the other tasks I had skipped out on over the previous week. I admit it was quite to relief to have my phone back, as well as to not have lost my photos and information. Srill, living for a week without a phone taught me a lot about independence, social interactions, and free time, and made me realize how much time we all spend on our phones, and how annoying it can be to be the only one in a social interaction without media and my own activities to turn to on my phone as soon as conversation isn't interesting enough.

As we drove, my host mom called Mati and told her to meet us at the Rotary event later in the day. My host mom and I stopped for lunch at a restaurant, and ate an abundance of food as usual, including eggplant, pork, a giant block of tofu, noodle soup, and many other small dishes. I was stuffed when we finally finished, and promised myself I wouldn't eat any of the abundance of food sure to be present at the still mysterious Rotary event.

However, when we arrived and, after some speeches, ribbon cutting, and photo taking, went inside, I immediately took back that promise. Inside were the first cakes, pastries, and generally incredible looking desserts I’d seen in months. Furthermore there was a coffee and tea bar with all kinds of exotic teas and frothy lattes. The event turned out to be the opening of an interior design company started by a young member of our Rotary club and some of his friends. The event was very nice, and, along with the food, there was a live string trio. After about an hour of walking around and socializing, Mati finally showed up with her host mom, we talked for another hour or two, and then at five o’clock, the two of us left with Mati’s host mom to go to yet another Rotary event.

This time we found ourselves in some kind of event center, possibly a hotel, with big carpeted hallways. Across the hall from our event was a wedding with a huge, dripping ice sculpture of some Chinese characters. We entered a cavernous room, with at least 30 tables and a few hundred people inside. The event turned out to be some kind of welcoming of international Rotarians, and about 30 or 40 individual Rotarians from around the world were introduced and welcomed to Taiwan. We arrived at the event around 5:30, and didn't leave until 9:30, so it was four long hours of trying to politely turn down helping after helping of food (we were both already very full), and conversing with Rotarians at the table. When we did finally head home, Mati’s mom drive us back to her house, and later my host mom came to pick me up, so by the time I got to sleep it was almost 1:00 in the morning.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday passed quickly, made up mostly of attending school, studying for the upcoming midterm, and spending evenings with my host mom. On Thursday morning we took our midterm test in Chinese class. Everyone in my class was very stressed and constantly studying all week, but when it came to the actual test, it was relatively easy, much easier than the test we had taken that Tuesday. There were several parts to the test, including listening, reading, writing, and oral segments. Overall I felt that it went fairly well, and was confident in my performance.

After school that day, I took the MRT, and met up with Mati at her station. From there we traveled a few more stops, and then walked to a basketball stadium. The building was pretty small, and not too many spectators showed up, but watching the game with some other exchange students was fun and interesting. The players weren’t the most skilled, but they looked like they were trying very hard and also having fun, so it was still an entertaining match. Mati and I wanted to talk to one of the players, which was possible because the players who were not playing were sitting right near the spectators. We were nervous, but decided we would only have a chance to talk to professional basketball players in Taiwan once, so finally got up our courage and went to talk to a few players sitting in the bleachers nearby. They were surprisingly happy to talk to us, so we asked them about playing basketball in Taiwan, and took some photos with them, before the game finished and we headed home.

On Friday I had PE class, in which we had started our swimming unit, and then an hour later I had swimming club. I was very excited that we would be swimming for the next month during PE, because it meant I would have many opportunities to train throughout the week, and could finally get some real practice in. After swimming, I went to a new classroom for music class because we would have a talent show that day. Hayden and I were supposed to perform something together, but we hadn't had a chance to prepare. We went to the usual music room to find our ukuleles, and then went to work trying to figure out what to do. We finally settled on me playing Riptide on the ukulele and Hayden singing. We practiced several times, and when we felt confident in our playing, we returned to the show. I was very impressed by many of the acts, and was somewhat intimidated by the time we were called to be the last act. Students had danced, sung, and played instruments, including one girl who played a large instrument that seemed to be something in between a xylophone and harp, and is a traditional Taiwanese instrument, however I don't know what it is called. We went up in front of the class and performed our song, which they liked a lot, but I don't think we quite lived up to some of the other particularly impressive performances.

After school Iwent out for xiao long bao with my host mom. I had been craving the delicate soup dumplings for weeks, and was excited to finally eat them again. It turned out that the restaurant we ate at was right next to my school, so if I ever particularly want them again, now I can walk over right after school.

Saturday was a fairly slow day. In the morning I did some homework, and then practiced my song for the Rotary talent show. I had lunch with my host mom, hung around studying at home for the rest of the afternoon, and then went out to see a movie with my host mom. We were planning on seeing a Chinese movie, but when we got to the theater, a women at the end of the line was trying to get rid of two tickets to Wonder, so we bought them from her, bought some popcorn and hotdogs, then headed into the theatre. The movie was just starting when we entered, and overall it was a very funny and sweet movie. Afterwards we went to Burger King for dinner, and had some burgers that I can’t say put a good face on the essential American cuisine, but the french fries and fried chicken I shared with my host mom were fine.

Rotary had arranged a talent show on Sunday, for which we were each expected to prepare an act. Irene, from Italy, and I had decided to do something together, but as we were both fairly busy, we hadn't had a chance to practice together. We met up in the morning, and we're able to practice in a nearby park for a couple of hours. We sang a song called 台灣的心跳聲, meaning Taiwan’s beating heart, and I played the ukulele along with it. The song describes many of the incredible places you can visit, views you can see, and experiences you can have in Taiwan. Later we bought a quick lunch, and then headed to the show. Our performance went well, and we were easily in the upper half of the performances, especially considering we used the kareoke version for background music, so we were singing on our own, as opposed to over the singer. Part of the song was a rap, which was pretty hard to do in Chinese, but after a lot of practice we were able to do an okay job of it. My friends Mati, Natalie, and Melissa from Brazil, did a dance and sang to traditional music with traditional outfits, so they naturally won the competition, but I felt that, with our limited time, and because we didn't rent costumes, we did a relatively good job. They also announced the Chinese class awards for the month at the show, and I was very excited to be the best in my class for the month of November.

After the talent show, several of my friends and I walked together to the Taipei 101 area, where we looked around a Christmas market that had been set up there, and then each headed home.

On Monday during art class we worked on our stamps of foods. I think mine look pretty nice, I made them of my favorite foods here and some of the foods I like in the US. We stamped them on some pieces of paper and I was able by carefully applying the ink, to make the finished products multi colored. After school, I went to class with my host mom after school. I spent the first hour eating vegetarian noodles at the restaurant, which were delicious. After dinner, I joined the class, and found that I could understand almost everything said. It was a great feeling because it was finally some evidence that I had improved a pretty significant amount since arriving here.

Tuesday was similarly normal; I got my two tests back in Chinese and found that, while I didn’t do quite as well as I had expected on my midterm, I did much better than I could have imagined possible on the test from the previous Tuesday, which had been particularly difficult. After lunch, I returned to school, only to find that none of our student teachers were around for culture class. Hayden and I talked for a while in their office instead, then went back to class when it was time to. During English class, which was my last two periods of the day, we watched Pride and Prejudice. After school my classmates told me we would have to stay late to practice singing our school song. I didn’t have it memorized yet, so I had to sing with the paper, but we only ran through it a few times before being dismissed to go home. After I got back home, I quickly changed my clothes, and then took the MRT to meet up with some other exchange students back at the Christmas market near Taipei 101. I bought french fries with an egg and chorizo at a Spanish food cart, then my friend Marina and I split off from the rest of the group, and instead walked around the area for a while. We went in a few stores, bought some donuts and bubble tea, and eventually headed home. It was the first time that it truly felt like it was almost Christmas because downtown Taipei was very decorated with Christmas music playing in some of the stores, but at the same time the weather was very comfortable which made the whole situation somewhat confusing. It was nice to be reminded that it’s the holiday season back home, but I think in general it’s been better to stay away from the area and it’s decorations, and instead stay engaged in life here and act as though it’s not the holidays, because here it’s truly not. In a month it will be Chinese New Year, but for now we still have school, Chinese class, and Rotary activities to focus on.

On Wednesday during literature class at school my teacher asked me to read a segment from our textbook in front of the class. They laughed at me a bit, but it otherwise went fairly well. We swam during PE class and worked on designing a 3D landscape during computer class. After school, I ate dinner at home with my host mom, and then went downstairs and ran for an hour and a half on the treadmill.

On Thursday after Chinese class, I met Mati at Taipei Main Station, and we walked together to our Rotary meeting. Almost immediately after we started eating, we were called up to give our presentations. I talked about my past few months here in Taipei, about the many activities I’ve participated in with Rotary, with my exchange friends, and with my host mom. We finished our lunches, and then Mati and I headed back to school for the afternoon. During culture class, Hayden and worked on the Christmas presentation we were preparing to give a couple of weeks later. After school I went to Mati’s house, and we worked on homework and ate dinner together.

During school on Friday, we went to an assembly, and a group of Japanese students introduced themselves to us, and did several performances. They were visiting Taiwan for a school trip, and are from the same school the second graders here will visit when they go to Japan. Some of the Japanese students came back to class with us, and stayed throughout the morning.

After I got back from school on Friday, my host mom drove me to Xizhi, an area just outside Taipei, to meet my second host family. It took us a while, but we finally found the building and my second host dad out front. He took us upstairs to meet the rest of the family. I will have a 15 year old host brother, a 12 year old host sister, a host mom and dad, a host grandmother, and a lady from Indonesia who takes care of the grandmother and cooks meals for the family. There were all very nice, and excited to have me live with them in about a month. It was late and I was exhausted by the time we got back home, so I went immediately to sleep.

The next morning I slept in, but then had to rush get to our Rotary sports day activity. We joined a group of highschool boys to play handball and basketball in the morning. Afterwards we ate an exciting spaghetti lunch with them, exciting because many of us hadn’t had spaghetti in months, and then did a few different group performances. This is something that happens at almost every Rotary event; at the last minute they ask us in individual groups or as a whole to put together a performance, so there has been a lot of macarena-ing and last minute dance choreography. After our performances, the boys, who are all members of the high school racquetball team, did their own dance to a series of Chinese, Japanese and English songs. The event finished around three thirty, so my friend Paula and I went to Ximen together to shop for Christmas presents and split a chocolate bubble waffle. Later I met up with Natalie and Anneke from Germany at Raohe night market, and we did some further Christmas shopping together there. I found a lot more at Raohe than in Ximen because night markets are perfect for buying small gifts like socks, t-shirt, headphones, bags, and more for relatively reasonable prices. We left the night market pretty early, but through some miscommunication, I ended up on a bus going in the wrong direction, and had to take an MRT back to the stop, and then from there get back home, all of which took over an hour, so I made it back home just barely in time for my curfew.

On Sunday, after some breakfast xiaolongbao, my host mom dropped me off at another Rotary event. This time it was a question and answer session with Rotary. Most of the time was spent discussing Christmas, which many students were upset would be school day. We went back and forth on the issue for a long time, which got somewhat frustrating. All of the arguments were fair, namely that it’s a cultural difference that we have to get used to versus the argument that it’s an important day for the cultures of each of the exchmage students, but ultimately it will only one day and there’s no reason we can’t celebrate on the weekend. It will also be an opportunity to talk to our classmates about our christmas traditions, and have a unique experience we won’t ever have in our own countries.

After the discussion, Rotary had former exchange students speak to us about their experiences, and why they are back in Taiwan to study.

That evening, Mati and I took the red MRT line all the way to Banqiao, where, after nearly an hour of searching theough the throngs of people, we found her friend from school. There was a huge public concert with hundreds of people gathered watching performances by a variety of artists, mostly from Korea, Taiwan, China, and Japan. The music was loud, and the kind of thing that would have had crowds jumping and singing along, but no one looked very excited, and was instead standing and watching quietly. Because the concert was open to the public, the audience had a wide variety of ages and people. Still, a good majority was relatively young, which made this calmness a bit more surprising. In general, Taiwanese people are more inclined to observe and enjoy performaces respectfully, but the recent influx of K-pop and similarly loud, exciting music, has started to change that especially within the younger generation.

After about an hour of the concert, we left to buy some garlic for dinner, and then took the MRT home. After her friend got off, Mati and I sat at the station and talked and ate our bread together for a while, and then we also took our respective busses home.

Overall, the next week was mostly routine. On Monday we started a “secret angel” activity in our class which is kid of like secret santa, in that you buy several gifts for your selected classmate over the two weeks of the holidays. I decided to find a Chinese poem about winter, and then write a few lines at a time on small notecards. Then I decorated the notecards, and left one in my buddy’s locker everyday, sometime with candy or a cookie. On Tuesday after school I made brownsugar cookies with the leftover flour and brown sugar from cooking for Thanksgiving. Every day during the school week, I stayed at least an hour late to practice our school song with my class. I memeorized it fairly easily, but later found out we had to do a second song, specific to the class, that was a significantly embellished, longer, and faster version of the first. We also had to do some dancing and coreographed marching throughout, but by Thursday, after our hours of practice, our class had finally mastered the complicated routine. I was surprised by how seriously everyone took the competition, especially the teachers. We practiced marching over and over outside well after the sun set, and every step and movement had to be perfect. On Thursday after practicing for an hour and a half, I went back to Banqiao to meet up with Mati and Maria. Because I didn’t finish practicing until after six, when I arrived we didn’t have much time, only a few minutes to look around at the lights that have been set up all around the area for Christmas, before we headed downstairs to buy dinner at the underground market. We ate baozi and talked on the steps, before eventually heading home.

On Friday, we finally partcipated in the singing competition. We spent the morning decorating our uniforms with colored, metallic tape, everyone excited to show off their hard work, and hopefully beat out the other classes in our grade for the most creative, put together performance. We had PE class, and swam for an hour, before rushing to change and prepare for the performance. All of grade 1 was gathered in the auditorium, more excited and nervous than I had ever seen my classmates before. After a few speeches by the director of our grade, the principal, and my music teacher, who were judging the competition, we finally began.

The first class to perform was Hayden’s. Their second, adapted, version of the song was to the tune of Under the Sea, and involved lots of dancing and choreography. There are 20 classes in the first grade, and our class performed about halfway through, so we had to wait quite a while for our turn. When it finally arrived, everyone was very nervous and stressed, but it went well, and we got a big applause afterwards. Every class had a different version that they performed after the original. Most of them just some had some added dancing, but a few also included instruments and more elaborate performances. A few classes had particularly involved costumes, including a class that all dressed like santa and sang christmas carols, and one who wore suspenders, bow ties, bows, and braids sticking out from the sides of their heads, and skipped in circles and had someone playing bagpipes. There were a few classes that were not very put together, and clearly hadn't practiced nearly as much as the rest of us. In the end my class was one of the top eight, who were announced as the best overall, without specific places. Of course, everyone was very excited, our teacher was happy with the class, and the excitement made the rest of the day at least a bit more interesting.

After I got back from school, I quickly showered and dressed up, then headed to a Christmas party with my host mom. The party was organized by a different Rotary club, in fact the club that my second host father is a part of. The only difference I noticed between the Christmas party and other Rotary dinners I’ve been to was that a few of the Rotarians were dressed up in Christmasy costumes, and throughout the night different Rotarians went up on stage to dance to Christmas carols. The Rotary club hosting the event had a lot of members, several in their twenties who were all sitting at a table together. They invited me to sit with them, as well as a girl from Germany who is also a rotary exchange student, but with a different, short term, internship program. The other girl I sat next to had been on exchange to Vancouver BC a few years before, and I had a really nice time talking to everyone at the table.

I slept in on Saturday, and had a quiet morning at home. Later I met up with Natalie, and we spent a few hours shopping through the small shops and streets near Zhongxiao Dunhua station for last minute Christmas presents. Then we took the MRT up the top of the red line, where we met with Mati and Maria. We exchanged Christmas presents, before heading to a middle school for our Rotary Christmas party. The party was more of an assembly with a few hundred other students from other programs. There were a group of students from Japan, and Taiwanese students in Interact clubs at dozens and dozens of high schools across Taipei. After a dinner of spaghetti, we were asked to put together a performance. All the exchange students sang Let it Go from frozen together, after which we were allowed to leave the event early. We walked around as a group for a while, taking the opportunity to celebrate the holidays together, with the people who are the most important in our lives right now. While our district is particularly big, all of the exchange students are still very close, and it was perfect to have an evening to spend together.

On Christmas Eve, Sunday, Natalie, Mati and I got together to do some Christmas food shopping. While Natalie bought ingredients to make Christmas dinner with her host family, Mati and I prepared to make pizza dough. At the supermarket, we ran into our counselor, Wendy. Neither Mati nor I had seen her for a while, so it was nice to catch up, and she invited us to go to lunch with her on New Years Eve. We finished up our shopping, and then Mati and I headed back to her house for some pizza dough making. Despite the fact that I was with an Italian, I ended up making most of the dough, while we talked and laughed about our Christmas traditions in our home countries.

I spent the evening with my host mom, watching an english movie. Afterwards, I showed her the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie, and pulled up the Santa Tracker website. We watched as the simulation showed Santa heading over Taipei. Sharing different parts of the holiday with her was also a great way to learn about Taiwanese traditions. I think she appreciated learning about customs in the US directly from me, and she in turn explained some of the similarities and differences of Chinese New Year.

Spending Christmas at school was certainly different, but overall not particularly difficult. It was hard to believe that it was actually Christmas, and that made going on with the school day as usual a lot easier. Most of our teachers handed out chocolate during class, and all of the students wished each other Merry Christmas, but otherwise it was a typical Monday.

After school, I rushed home to pick up Christmas presents, then ran back out to catch the bus to a concert hall in Ximen. The concert started at 7, and I was almost late, but made it just in time to find Wendy and Mati. After some quick photos, and exchanging gifts, Wendy left, and Mati and I headed in to the concert hall. There were several performances, including dances, a choir, and solo singing performances by two men in our club. While it wasn't particularly Christmas, it was still a nice way to spend the holiday, and I appreciated our club procuring the tickets for us.

Instead of waking up and heading straight to Chinese class on Tuesday, I took the bus to school. I met with Hayden in the auditorium, and we prepared to give our Christmas presentation. We had to give the whole thing in Chinese to all of grade 1, which was relatively daunting, but we improvised well, and made it through the presentation. Hopefully, despite our bad tones, with the help of our pictures and context, the students were able to understand what we were trying to say. After we finished the presentation, Hayden and I headed to our respective Chinese classes. After class, Jackson, an American, handed out cookies he had made, and then we exchanged secret santa gifts. I had bought some interesting socks for an American girl in my class, which she seemed to like a lot. Irene, an Italian girl who will be climbing Jade mountain with me, bought be a big plastic water bottle, which will be helpful for the hike.

In the afternoon, at culture class, we started learning calligraphy, which my teacher told us we would be practicing for the next month. It was actually a lot of fun, and I was looking forward to the next time we would get to learn.

I met Mati after school, and gave her her Christmas presents, then ate dinner with her.

On Wednesday, we gave the same Christmas presentation to the second grade, and overall our Chinese sentences improved a lot from the day before, and hopefully the second grade was able to understand us at least a bit better. After school I finally used the brownie mix that I was very excited to to receive from my family in Portland. I wanted to share them with my friends in my Chinese class, and my secret angel at school. I had to get creative with the oil, and how to cook them. I only had a tiny bit of olive oil, avocado oil, and some butter, and a tiny toaster oven. I settled on a mixture of the oils and butter, which made the batter taste weird, but i couldn't find vegetable oil at any supermarkets. The pan for the little oven was very shallow, so I built taller side out of tinfoil. In the end, the top was a bit black because it had to be cooked so close to the top of the oven, but the inside was perfect, and luckily the avocado oil did not change the flavor. I shared some with my host mom, then saved the rest for Chinese class.

Thursday and Friday were fairly routine, and I spent Friday evening in Ximen with friends, drinking bubble tea and wandering around.

On Saturday, I slept in, then rushed to the MRT to meet up with some friends. Hayden, Irene, Ali from America, and I hopped on a bus together which took us halfway up Yang Ming Shan, the tallest mountain in the Taipei area. We were lucky that the weather was dry and warm when we reached the trailhead, but as we trecked upwards, the air filled with a fog that soaked through our many layers. The trail the whole way up was made of stone steps, getting increasingly steep, treacherous, and slippery the further we went. We held a very fast pace with only a few stops, so by the time we reached the top of the mountain we were exhausted, wet, and suddenly very cold. As soon as we emerged from the behind the rocks and the other side of the mountain shielding us from the wind, the temperature seemed to drop to somewhere near 0 degrees (Celsius), and we started shivering and reapplying the layers we had taken off earlier. We took a few photos and ate lunch, but with the intense fog it was impossible to see more than a few feet off the mountain top. It wasn't raining as much as we were inside a cloud, so there was no escaping the wetness in the air. Before long, we started our descent back down. We passed a few students who told us they were also exchange students, but in University. There were in their first year of Chinese classes, following which they would join university courses for four years, before heading back to their home countries, all of which were in South America. We talked to them a bit before continuing our trek down the slippery stone staircase. We also saw several hot springs. The water was not too hot, so we were able to warm our hands in it for a little while, before heading down again. As we walked, the weather didn't get much drier. We finally emerged from the trail to find ourselves on a main road. We walked down it for several minutes, before deciding we didn't know exactly where it would lead us, and it would therefore be better to head back up and take a bus. When the tiny tin can of a bus finally pulled up, the waiting area was full of freezing, wet, and in a few instances whining young tourists, who all had to cram together on the bus. It was quite the exciting, miserable ride down the mountain, but 45 minutes later, when we reached the bus stop we’d originally been dropped off at, the weather had improved significantly. We unloaded, waited another 10 minutes, then took a much more comfortable bus ride of similar length to the MRT station. When we arrived, we went in search of lunch, and ended up in the underground section of the Shilin night market. Almost all the stands there sold the exact same things; xiaolongbao, noodles, shrimp, stinky tofu, fried rice, and assorted other soups and dumplings. We sat down to eat near one of the carts, and split orders of xiaolongbao, fried rice with “double double champion” shrimp, and wonton noodle soup. It was the perfect warm meal to fill our empty stomachs, and we followed it up with fresh fruit juices - strawberry, papaya, kiwi, and carrot - from a shop nearby.

Later Hayden and I met up with Adri from Canada and Marina from Spain at the supermarket and bought pizza. Afterwards, we found a girl names Mirja from Germany,who I hadn't met before, and bought nai you bing, the small dough pockets stuffed with cream, red bean, or various other assorted fillings. I got one with Mochi and peanut which was kind of strange. From there we walked to the park, where we spent a quiet evening talking on some benches, and watching the rats that scurry through the park at night, before heading home.

On Sunday I woke up early to shower and pack my backpack to stay at Mati’s house for New Years. After a quick breakfast, Janus drove me to a movie theater where I met with Mati and Wendy, our counselor. We reserved seats for the movie we had tickets for in the afternoon, then headed to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The restaurant was mostly American food, with steaks, burgers, pasta, salads, and much more. Mati and I each ordered a dish of pasta, cheese, and vegetables, which was delicious. Several other dishes such as salad, fruit, and soup also came with our order, and by the time our creme brulee/pudding dessert came, we were both stuffed and could hardly finish. We walked back to the theater to watch the movie my host mom had given us tickets to. It was an independent film in French, which was interesting, if a bit strange.

Later, Mati and I walked back to her apartment. I dropped off my bags, and a short while later we headed to Ximen on the MRT. We bought some new clothes there, and then headed back to her apartment to change and get ready for New Years. Every year a huge firework show takes places around Taipei 101 at midnight, so Rotary had granted the exchange students permission to stay out past curfew until after the show on this one night. When the two of us were ready, we took the MRT to SYS memorial hall, where we met a few other at 7. From there we walked to the park inside the hall, where hundreds and hundreds of exchange students from all over Taiwan were gathered on a tiny island with a gazebo and some adjoining bridges. Several Taiwanese people were also there with camera setup to photograph the show later in the night. The evening was spent catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a long time and meeting other exchange students from districts around the island. The fireworks were incredible, and encircled Taipei 101, wrapping around and shooting from the huge building for six minutes after New Years. When the fireworks had finally gone off, Mati and I were exhausted and decided to head home. The streets were empty of cars, for once, but full of people, trying to find a way home. The MRT exits I passed had lines of exhausted people standing in front, who were not being allowed in, so Mati and I walked away from the area until we were finally able to find an empty taxi. By the time we made it home, it was just about 2, the curfew we were given by Mati’s host family. We fell asleep immediately, and slept until the morning. We had been planning to get up to see the sunrise, but we were so exhausted we slept right through it, and didn't get up until around 8. Around 11, I met up with Mirja and a girl named Charlotte, from France, to try to find lunch. We were hoping to eat falafel for lunch, but like many others, the store was closed, so we instead ate pasta and pizza at an international restaurant. Afterwards we went to a trampoline sports center, but the place was expensive and full of little kids, so we decided to instead shop through some of the handmade shops in the area, and then head home early.

I slept in on Tuesday morning because our Chinese class for the day had been cancelled. After lunch, my host mom dropped me off at school, where I worked on calligraphy for a few hours, then went to English class. During our last class of the day, my class had a party for the holidays. We drank cactus flavored bubble tea with bright pink bubbles, and ate some strange flavors of pizza and star-shaped tater tots. At the end we all went to the front of the class to talk about what our secret angel had given us. Then we turned around and our angel came up behind us. I didn't know about the party, or that we were supposed to bring a gift for our angel, so I felt bad when I found out who had been giving me candy and chocolate all week, and resolved to bring chocolate to give her another day. My secret angel told me she had really liked the poem, cookies, and brownie, and gave me some cookies and a very sweet note with a drawing on it. She was surprised to see who I was, which meant I didn't do too bad of a job writing the Chinese poem. I spent the evening at home, and went to sleep early.

At school on Wednesday, we spent the afternoon at a special assembly with just a few other classes from other grades. A group of kids from Swaziland were already in the auditorium when we walked in. The leaders from their group went up in front of all is students to speak about the program they run, which is some kind of kids group for dancing and martial arts in Swaziland, where they also learn Chinese. The kids ranged in age from 8 to 16 or so, and a few of them came up to introduce themselves in Chinese. They did several very impressive performances which included flips and gymnastics, dancing, sword fighting, and singing. The final act was a girl who sang Baby by Justin Bieber in front of everybody. This was very exciting for everyone, and she came up into the bleachers to where my class was sitting and asked me to sing with her. Afterwards, each of the students from Swaziland came up to ask a question to the audience. Their Chinese wasn't great, and with my own unsteady understanding skills I couldn't totally understand them. But when the girl who had sung before came up, my classmates really wanted me to answer, so they told me the answer and to raise my hand. The girl came to where i was sitting, and gave me a knitted doll for my correct answer. Next, the class in second grade who was hosting the kids from Swaziland came down to do a dance with them. The girl from before invited me to come down and dance with them, so while I tried to learn the dance on the spot, we introduced ourselves in English and talked. Overall, the assembly was very fun and exciting, especially because I now have a friend about my age from Swaziland.

Thursday and Friday weren’t particularly eventful; I gave a speech at my Rotary meeting on Thursday, which was long, detailed, and entirely in Chinese. My speaking has improved considerably over the past few months, and while my tones could still use some work, I feel like people can understand me more and more every month when I speak at my Rotary meetings. After school, I went to Buddhist class and met the other students while eating guava, cake, and interesting candied gummy fruits. The breaks are always the best part about class because all of my host mom’s classmates are very excited when I can speak Chinese with them. While all of our conversations are very similar - what am I doing here, where do I go to school, how long will I be here, and where did I learn Chinese - it’s a great way to practice the language and meet new people.

At school on Friday we started a table tennis unit during PE class. We walked all the way down the staircase, past the cleaning supplies we use during cleaning time, and through a small door in the wall. I don't know about my classmates, but I was certainly surprised when we entered a long room with over a dozen ping pong tables. My school is huge, and full of surprises. With over 2,000 students 4 main buildings, a pool, fully equipped martial arts gym, and many sports courts, it’s hard to believe this is a public school just like hundreds of other schools in the city.

That night, my host mom and I ate noodles, chicken, tofu, a thousand year egg, and corn soup at the restaurant a block from our apartment, before she headed to a meeting and I went back home and to bed early.

I spent Saturday walking around Tamsui with Mirja, Charlotte, and another girl from France, Eglantine. When we arrived it was drizzling outside, and as we walked around the rain continued to pick up, eventually drenching us. We explored the shops and street food carts, which I hadn’t seen since only a few weeks after arriving in Taiwan. I remembered the day towards the beginning of our exchange when a dozen other exchange students and I all took the MRT out to a sunny Tamsui, took a boat to Bali, the nearby island, ate tiny snails, ice cream, and several cool bubble teas while the unrepenting sun beat down on us.

We decided to head back to the city after some lunch, so we found a small indian restaurant near the station where we could sit down and eat. I had a lamb wrap which, while not the best I’ve had, was incredible, considering it was the first Indian food I’d had since arriving in Taiwan. We crowded inside the small restaurant, taking refuge from the wetness outside, talking, until the owners finally asked us to leave. Something I’ve definitely noticed in Taiwan is that, even if you buy something, restaurant owners have no qualms about asking you to leave only a few minutes after you finish eating. The same is true in shops of all sizes; owners of small trinket shops and employees of big designer brands alike will ask you to leave if you don’t buy something within a few minutes of shopping, or even if you look like you probably won’t buy anything.

After lunch, we took the MRT a few stops back down the red line to the Shilin night market. We walked around, bought strawberry milk juice from the same shop where I had bought it last week, and then walked back to the station. While Charlotte and Eglantine went home, Mirja and I stopped again in Ximen, where we walked around for a few hours, and then headed home ourselves.

When I woke up on Sunday, I rushed to a small cafe where I was supposed to meet the owner of the cafe, the Rotarian in charge of our Jade Mountain trip, along with two other exchange students for a meeting of the Jade Mountain student leaders. The other students were both boys, Stijn from Belgium, and William from the States. We discussed the fine details of the trip, made plans for meals, and put together groups of exchange students. The Rotarian turned out to be the former host dad of Alberte, a girl from Denmark, and the new host dad of Anneke from Germany, who were both also eating at the cafe. After the meeting he invited me to go to the supermarket with them, and then later back to their house to help make German cake. I ended up spending the afternoon with Anneke and Alberte baking a cake made up of an outside layer of chocolate dough, filled with a mixture of yogurt, pudding, flour, and meringue, cooked together. The process was a bit messy, but the end result was delicious, and spending time with the other exchange students was also a lot of fun. Later, I met up with Mati for a quiet evening at her apartment, and then headed home, and quickly fell asleep.

On Wednesday afternoon, about 7 other exchange students and I met to climb Elephant Mountain. I’ve never been up it before, but it’s a popular hike among exchange students, because it’s very close to Taipei 101, and offers a breathtaking view of the city from above. The hike wasn’t too long, so afterwards we walked to Taipei 101 for a Japanese udon noodle dinner. I had my noodles in Chicken curry and, while expensive like everything bought inside Taipei 101, it was a delicious, flavorful meal.

After school on Thursday, I met up with Mirja again for dinner at the Modern Toilet. It’s a relatively famous restaurant in Ximen, and while expensive, and not necessarily the best food, it’s an experience you have to have at least once while in Taipei. All of the interior decorating is of poop and toilets, diners sit on toilets to eat, and all of the meals are served to look like poop and other excrement. My curry was served in the bowl of a small blue toilet, and the mozzarella sticks and chocolate ice cream where both made to look like poop, one in small sticks, the other a swirl of creamy brown, served in small porcelain squatty potty dishes. The meal was certainly exciting, pretty tasty as well, and now something I can check off my Taiwan bucket list.

At school on Friday, my classmates had tests throughout the day, so I missed class meeting, clubs, and music class to sit at my desk while my classmates frantically scribbled answers. Finals are coming up next week, so I didn't totally understand why they had so many tests on Friday. I talked to my friend during lunch, and she told me they were mostly tests for the classes they only have once a week. They’ve also had a lot of homework recently, which has kept my best friend in the class, who is a pretty good student, busy throughout all of our breaks.

After school, I met Mati at her station and we walked to a small taco shop for dinner. We talked over delicious burritos, tacos, and chips with salsa. Earlier in the day, an Australian girl named Sasha had left Taiwan to go back home. Because of the way the school year works in Australia, all of the Australians are heading back around now, and Sasha was the last to go. A lot of exchange students including Mati, were very close friends with her, and so a large group students were given permission to skip school in order to see her off at the airport. Seeing her exchange come to an end after an incredible year was hard for all of us because it made us realize we’re already halfway through this life altering experience. Almost all of the exchange students I know have grown so much as people and as international citizens since arriving here, and in a few short months I’ve made some of the best friends I’ve ever had. It’s hard to imagine that we all come from completely different backgrounds and countries, and that after we say goodbye in June, we’ll have to travel halfway across the world by plane to see each other.

Saturday was another one of the best days of my exchange. The weather was beautiful, if chilly, perfect for a hike in the mountains surrounding Taipei. At least a dozen exchange students and I met, bought lunch at a 7 eleven, and headed up 大尖山. About halfway up, we found ourselves outside a beautiful temple. We explored the inside of the particularly large temple, and took several pictures. What really impressed me was the detail in every tiny piece of the temple, and how much thought had clearly been put into it’s construction up this mountain past the edge of the city. After a while, we started walking again, and made it to the top of the mountain. We ate lunch, took several photos, listened to music, and then headed back down the opposite side. We took a detour on the trail, and found ourselves in front of incredible wall of fragmented lines of rocks, water cascading over the cracks, and into a pool below. The water was chilly, but comfortable enough to walk in, and we climbed among the rocks for several minutes, before putting our shoes back on and heading up the trail.

After our hike, Hayden, Natalie, Alberte and I took the MRT to Daan park, where we ate lunch at subway, met up with Anneke and Mati, and then rented u-bikes and went biking in the park. Natalie didn’t know how to ride a bike, and I had tried to teach her once before with only some success, but we tried again, and after half an hour she could ride without stopping about 50 meters down the sidewalk.

As much as I love spending time with my host family or my classmates, days spent adventuring and laughing with exchange students are easily the most exciting, relaxed, and interesting of my exchange so far.

I woke up early on Sunday, showered, and started cleaning my room and packing my clothes. I will be changing host families next Friday, and I know that packing will be quite the task, so I thought I should start as soon as possible. Later, my host mom took me out for lunch at a restaurant near our house that we’ve eaten at a few times before. It was the same place I ate with her in the first week of my exchange, before my host sister left for France. This time, I had dumplings, spicy noodles, radish soup, mashed pumpkin, broccoli, and tea.

When we finished lunch, my host mom and I drove up the base of a nearby mountain. We got out of the car, and hiked up some stairs to a temple a few hundred yards away. The temple was smaller than the one I saw on Saturday, but with the same intricate designs, and a few dozen more people praying, lighting incense, and enjoying the spectacular view of Neihu, the neighborhood where I live, Xizhi, the district where my next family will be, and the rest of Taipei. My host mom showed me how to light incense sticks, and then place them in the big pots of sand placed around the temple. We took pictures in front of the view, and then left the temple and headed further up the stairs. We hiked for about 10 minutes, to a small gazebo, before heading back down. This time, we headed in the opposite direction, and crossed a huge purple suspension bridge. After another short walk, we found a small bean soup restaurant, and I ate a bowl of peanut soup with big soft, white, gelatinous pieces made out of beans, kind of like tofu.

Afterwards, we headed up a road and found ourselves at “heart pond” a man made pool in the shape of a heart with a center heart of flowers. We passed this, and found ourselves walking along rows of greenhouses filled with strawberry plants. We eventually turned around, and headed back down a different way, passing by a restaurant, more strawberries, and several families with small children playing on little rolling cart/bike contraptions. The day was one of the sunniest in over a month, and the air was clear and free of much of the pollution from the city below. On our way back down, my host mom bought be a warm sweet potato, which I enjoyed thoroughly as we drove back down to the city.

When we arrived home, I was exhausted, and had had a headache all day, so I finished the rest of my sweet potato, read for a little while, and was asleep by 6.

Thank you all for reading, and if you have any specific questions you would like me to answer next time I post please comment! I will update with photos soon.