Hotpot and fancy shrimp restaurants (among other things)

Before you start reading, go watch my 4th Month in Taiwan video, and check out the bonus video of our trip to see the Christmas lights in Taipei. All my videos are available on my Youtube channel – click on the blue text to be taken to these videos. You can also look under the Media Archives heading to find my presentation slideshows, videos, and an image gallery.

Today was the first rainy day of winter, which gave me a chance to appreciate the hardships of life in Taiwan: one, the humidity, winter wind and rain, which combined work together to freeze you down to your core. Second, the sidewalks: almost all the sidewalks are made out of a smooth tile that, when wet, could be an ice rink. It’s so slippery that if you took a running jump you could slide right across it. And third, the open concept design of all schools, where the only part of the school that’s inside is the classroom; hallways don’t exist, and you must go outside every time you switch classes.

              However, as I was walking home from Chinese class, a stranger offered to give me his umbrella when he saw I didn’t have one. “Then you won’t have one,” I protested. “Meiguanshi, meiguanshi (no worries),” he insisted. I refused to take his umbrella, so he walked halfway home with me and shared his umbrella. If this happened Canada, I would have been suspicious of the stranger’s intentions, but here I knew he wasn’t just helping me because I’m a foreigner, he was helping me because he’s a Taiwanese person and that’s what they do.

              Two weeks ago, all the exchange students gathered for the Rotary Culture Fair, where Inbounds present their countries to help Outbounds decide where they want to go. I made butter tarts, which turned out well (I made them before, for my classmates, and they did not turn out as well). A Rotarian sent me to a music school to practice piano, and one of the piano teachers went to Canada the week before, so she gave me Tim Hortons hot chocolate!!! I didn’t know I missed Tim Hortons until then. When she saw how much I enjoyed the hot chocolate, she gave me five more packages (another example of Taiwanese generosity). I shared the rest of the hot chocolate at the Culture Fair. Instead of wasting my precious Tim Hortons chocolate on my Taiwanese friends and family, knowing that most Taiwanese tasters would think it too sweet, I shared it with the other exchange students. They definitely appreciated it!! To see my Culture Fair Slideshow, click the blue text.

              Last week in Chinese class, we had midterms – I did alright (in Taiwan, class rankings are openly available for all students to see. That has the potential to cause tension).

I also took an English exam in school, which I didn’t do too well on, because there was a lot of questions matching English words to Chinese words that I didn’t know. There were also a few sentences that just… didn’t make sense. I felt bad for the Taiwanese students, because if a native English speaker couldn’t understand the questions, how could they?

The Taiwanese exams are much different than Canadian ones – much easier, though that’s probably because I go to a vocational school. The english exam was only two pages, with just multiple choice, matching, and a few fill-in-the-blanks. My friends informed me all their tests are like that – solely memorization. In France, most of the tests I observed asked for long, written answers, with no multiple choice. In Canada, there’s a mix of both, and in Taiwan, there’s no written answers.

              I also found out last week that my school is a private school. Students must pass an entrance exam to get into any and all public schools in Taiwan, but no exams are needed for private schools – just money. Which is why most private schools aren’t as competitive or academic as the public schools – since most students who go to them don’t need to study as much.

              However, it’s still a great school for me! On the anniversary of my third month in Taiwan, we made Passionfruit bubble tea in cooking class– my favourite.  I was surprised at how little passion fruit is actually in the tea.

              I switched classes again, since my Western cooking class usually has theory instead of practical class, and I found myself stuck in the library most Monday mornings. Now I have another baking class – and my classmates there are so nice!! They are the best classmates to practice Chinese with, because they explain everything their doing as they do it and repeat themselves many times so I will remember the words. They also treat me like a classmate, not an exchange student – they drag me along by my sleeves sometimes, and are really touchy, which is a Taiwanese thing a lot of students do with their friends. A lot of times when they’re talking to me, one classmate will say, “Practice your English!!” and they’ll say one word in English. (Last week: “Chicken,” my classmate said with a straight face, pointing at the eggs. I give him credit for word association there.) My homeroom classmates, the ones I spend the most time with, are also beginning to treat me like a classmate – although last week, for the first time, one of them spoke a full sentence of English to me (one I think she used Google translate for), and it felt so weird since I had never heard them speak any English.

              Next week, I switch to my second host family, which is bittersweet, since I’m excited for the new experiences and I know my second family is very nice, but I’ll miss my first family. This also confuses a lot of people at my school, since my last name will change, and since my second family lives in a different city, many of them were worried I wouldn’t go to the same school anymore. I assured them that I would still go to Chong Hsing, but just take a different bus to get there, which made my bus friends a little sad. (Whenever I have a class with my homeroom class, my classmates get excited; even after 3 months. It’s very heartwarming). I feel like a celebrity, though – everyone wants to spend time with the foreigner!!

               I’ve been trying to learn more words in Chinese, since my inventory of vocabulary is what needs the most work right now. My English teacher suggested I watch children’s shows in Chinese, which was great advice – watching Peppa Pig in Chinese, with Chinese subtitles, at 0.75x speed, has helped immensely.

              Last weekend, I climbed another mountain – in Xuejian Recreation Area in Shei Pa National Park. We were very lucky – though it was a clear day when when started climbing, giving us a beautifully unobstructed view of the surrounding mountains, when we began our descent, clouds settled in, and we watched the sun set on an ocean of white, with small islands of mountaintop just peaking through. We also saw Swinhoe’s pheasant, a beautiful blue pheasant endemic to Taiwan and an endangered species. We witnessed monkeys running along the treetops, another thing I’d never seen before. It was an incredible day.

              Last week, the exchange students also had another Culture Tour, our second one. We went to Hsinchu and learned about the history of the city. We also saw a lot of rats, which was surprising for such a developed city – I’ve never seen rats anywhere in Miaoli, which is much more of a countryside place. However, nothing fazes me anymore –even if I saw a polar bear in Taiwan, I think I would just think, “Well, that’s new.”

              After exploring Hsinchu, we went to a restaurant for lunch – they gave us “Western food” which we all know now is a Taiwanese version of western food, just as North American Asian food is not the same as Asian food in Asia. One of the dishes was spaghetti, and the Italians insisted that it was not anything close to real Italian spaghetti.

              Halfway through the meal, I went to the washroom, where I saw four kids vigorously shaking a coke bottle to make it explode. When they saw me, they gasped, “Wàiguó rén!! Hěn piàoliang!! (A foreigner!! So pretty!!). “Do you want to see more foreigners? There’s a bunch over here,” I said to them, in Chinese, which I could see gave them all a bit of a shock. They nodded with excitement and followed me back to the banquet hall where all of the exchange students were eating. When they saw so many ‘Wàiguó rén’’s in one place, their jaws dropped. They asked where we were from, and I listed more than a dozen of our countries. My friend Cyan from America noticed them and me, and came over to us, very confused as to where I had picked up these kids. “This is Xiǎo qīng,” I said, using her Chinese name. Later, we went back to the washroom, and the kids were still there, shaking their Coke bottle (kids are so easily entertained. Us teenagers have to travel across the world to find excitement, but for kids one coke bottle and no parents is all they need). When they saw us, they said, “Xiǎo qīng!!” in unison. When we left the hall, they showed up again at the entrance, and gave me a hug.

              After lunch, we went to an archery range and learned the basics of archery!! Though it was very fun, archery is definitely a lot harder than it looks – I think I hit the target two out of ten times (not even the inner circle of the target – the entire target, I hit twice, and the rest of the time my arrow went into the hay). Once, though, I (entirely intentionally) hit the pin holding up the target, and the target fall down!!

              We went out for dinner at the fanciest restaurant I have been to yet, an all-you-can-eat hot pot restaurant. There was endless options, and I tried to take something of everything, which worked well for the first two rounds and not too well for the third and fourth rounds, when there was still so much I hadn’t tried but I was already fit to burst. Still, when dessert came around, I managed to try 4 different types of ice cream and a piece of cake. After that, I practically had to roll myself home (you can see videos of the restaurant in my 4th month video, linked above).

              On Sunday, I spent the day with my friend Luiza from Brazil working on our joint presentation for my Rotary club. In the evening, we went to Taipei with my counsellor to see the Christmas lights. It was my first time in Taipei!!!!!!! I kept chanting, ‘Taipei, Taipei!” on the train ride there, which made Luiza laugh. She explained that Taipei is called Taipei because 台 (tái), for 台灣 (Táiwān), and 北(běi), which means north, since Taipei is in the north. There are also regions in Taiwan called 台中(Táizhōng), in the middle area of Taiwan since 中 (zhōng) means centre, 台南 (Táinán) since 南 (nán) means south, and 台東 (Táidōng) since 東 (dōng) means east.

              I like living in a smaller town, since it makes the cities so much more magical. In Hsinchu, I couldn’t stop marveling at how tall the buildings were. In Taipei, that awe multiplied tenfold: everywhere I looked, everything was so big and busy and fancy!! In Canada, going to Toronto was old news, and just being in the city was never something I enjoyed. But here, I’ve gotten used to Miaoli, so a trip to the city is special. I like it that way, and it makes me even more thankful I get to live in Miaoli. You can see the video of our Taipei trip that my friend Luiza made here.

              After three months in Taiwan, I am beginning to integrate more, slowly transitioning from an observer of the culture to a part of it. One thing that’s becoming easier is accepting compliments: in Taiwan, you just don’t accept them. Often when people compliment me, I just say, “No, not true”, which might baffle Canadians. Another thing you would never do in Canada is make fun of someone’s weight, but here that teasing shows you care. The other day my classmates commented how I’m getting fatter (like all exchange students, in Taiwan there’s no avoiding it haha) and I felt really happy because that shows they’re comfortable with me.

              I’m also becoming more comfortable with sitting back and letting other people do the work, like when we go hiking and my dad carries all our things. I’m not sure how to explain this cultural difference, but a lot of times it’s not polite or necessary to offer to help – it’s actually insulting. At this point I just kind of… know when I should help and when I shouldn’t, but I can’t explain how or why I know.

              When we went to Taipei, my friend Luiza and I explained to my dad how in our cultures you have to wait for the host or the person in charge to eat before you can start eating. “Why?” he asked. “Respect,” we said. We told him how you can’t leave the table until everyone is finished eating, and again he asked, “Why?”. “Respect,” we repeated. He thought for a moment. Then, “Too much respect,” he said. “Taiwan doesn’t need all that.”

Last week I also went to a shrimp catching restaurant with my host family, where you could catch the shrimp yourself and then cook them alive and eat as many as you could catch. It was quite an experience. The shrimp were fast and lively and hard to catch, but I got a few!! However, I’m not too keen to go back there anytime soon, as I usually prefer my food properly dead before it arrives at the table, not after.

              And that’s all for today!! If you want to see the latest presentation to my Rotary Club, featuring the one and only Luiza giving a great talk about Brazil, click here. That’s all for this week, thanks for reading!!! See you (hopefully) next week, with more updates!!!

~ Serena 葉栗娜 (Soon to be 林栗娜，since I’m switching host families?)