After 36 hours of traveling, we were finally in Taipei, Taiwan. We were greeted by all our host students holding up the signs they made for us and screaming when each one of us walked through the door. I finally met Jady, and the rest of the host students. After taking pictures and hugging each other, we got on the bus to Hsin-Chu. As soon as I walked out of the air port doors, my skin instantly became sticky because of how high the humidity percentage was.
On the bus ride there, we learned that Tiffany's host student, Vicky was very good at singing and I had just found out she was also in love with Robert. So cute. Jady and I just talked about life in Hsin-Chu and my life back home. There are some similarities between our school and home lives, but also tons of differences. For instance, she gets 2 weeks of summer vacation and goes to school every day of the week. I get 3 months of summer vacation and only go to school 5 days out of the week. I was blown away by how much school they have. I don't think I would be able to survive.
We made a pit stop so everyone could change into their lovely v-neck tye dye shirts (the boys totally rocked it) and put on blue jeans and their Plano hats to go meet the mayor. When we arrived at City Hall, we found out the mayor was actually in Korea doing some business so we met his replacement for he time being. Thank the Lord we didn't have to do the Hannah Montana hoe-down trow-down and sing. Instead, we gave him the mayor's gifts then got a little tour of Hsin- Chu.
We went to a Temple and learned about Buddhism and how they practice it. We saw the police station and an old fire station. We made a stop at a meatball factory where we learned how to make meatballs and some history of the store. We were given meatball paste and we had to wear gloves and squeeze meatballs out of our hands into a circular shape. I personally thought the feeling of gooey pig paste in my hands was really gross, but it was still kind of fun.
After the meatball making, we walked back to city hall where Jady's mom picked us up and took to her house. When we arrived, I also met Ido - Jady's 10 year old brother- and her dad. I got a tour of their very nice house and got settled in my room. I turned the air conditioning to 20 degrees Celsius and passed out. Later Ido woke me up for dinner. I honestly don't know what exactly we were eating, but it was good. Her family just asked me questions and tried to teach me Chinese but I was so out of it that I forgot everything they said. After dinner I gave them their gifts then took a well deserved shower. I called my parents after my shower and told them what my schedule is then headed upstairs and went to bed.
The next day I woke up bright and early and went to our first school where we performed our dance and songs and then watched 7 or 8 performances by some of the students. I honestly didn't believe Mrs. Williams when she said we'd be rock stars but shortly after I got to the school, I realized she was completely right. Students were screaming and asking to shake our hands and take pictures of us, it was crazy.
Later, we went to go make a candy cane key chain in another part of the school then went to an amusement park. Their amusement parks don't have any roller coasters like ours do, but they do have these huge mechanical animals that go 5 mph that you can ride around the park! We went paint balling and had pretty much no protection. I got shot twice in the leg by Ben and Wil and got 2 welts from them. Noting beats Ci Ci's bruise on her arm though. That thing was HUGE! After we were pelted to death, we ate lunch then explored the rest of the park where we found these strange fun houses and fun mirrors. Only in Taiwan.
The last thing we did that day was go on a very long bike ride along the coast. It was so beautiful. It was a sunny day and it wasn't as humid since we were on the coast. Amanda and I rode a 2 seater bike with a shade thing on it. There were parts of the ride that made my legs feel like they were on fire, but for the most part it was very relaxing. We got ice cream at the end of the trail. I'm not sure what flavor it was. I think it was dragon fruit, and some kind of nut or something. We took pictures and then rode to the shore where we wrote our name in the sand and dipped our toes in the water. We rode back to the bus and headed to the school where Jady's mom picked me up.
That night I went to a 3 hour art class with Jady and learned some still life techniques and shading. The teacher was very nice and I helped him with his English and he helped me with my Chinese. After the class we went home and I took a long shower and got all the sand out of my shoes. I watched Ido play the piano and then slept like a baby.
The next morning I woke up and went to a Chinese character drawing class with Ido where I learned how to draw big, small, and king. It is done with a pen that has a fur tip and you dip it in some special ink. The teacher taught me what to do with my hands and how to hold the pen and then he taught me how to draw some different characters. Ido said I did very good for an American. :)
Jady's mom picked us up and we went to Ido's performance at one of the colleges. He was in an orchestra with a bunch of other kids his age. He did very well. Later, Jady's mom dropped me off with Jady and her friends and we walked around for a little bit. I don't know what exactly happened but all of a sudden I began to feel really weak and dizzy and I got a terrible head ache. Jady's mom had to come get us and I had to rest and take some medicine. I started to feel better after I rested, but I just stayed home the rest of the day just in case. When Mrs. Clark found out I had gotten sick, her interpretation was a but different. The translation of what happened got a little twinked. Mrs. Clark thought I hadn't gotten out of bed all day and that when they tried to wake me up I didn't wake up meaning I had loss consciousness. As you probably can guess, that worried her and she didn't sleep at all that night. I didn't know that's what she thought so I didn't talk to her until the next day where everything was cleared up. That was very stressful.
On Sunday, the whole group went to Jesse's church. The church was very small, but very nice and peaceful. They were all fascinated by us Americans and asked us a lot of questions. Everything but the songs were translated into English. After the service we took pictures with the band and preacher and exchanged contact information. They were all such sweet people.
We went to lunch after. It was this really tight Japanese place where you take your shoes off and sit on the ground and the lighting is dimmed. Amanda, Robert and I shared a plate of sushi that was just amazing. We took a bunch of pictures and started acting goofy. I put the chop sticks in my mouth to look like a walrus then one of the chopsticks decided to fall out of my mouth and down my dress. It was really funny, but awkward at the same time. It was a fun and interesting lunch.
We left the restaurant and went to this college and played at their park for a little while. It was very random but fun. We just posed for pictures at first then played a weird tag game that we all failed at then played big booty. Don't ask questions. We left the college and took a bus to the zoo. It smelled terrible but it was fun. They don't really cage their animals. There were a couple of random deers that were just out in the open and then the snake pit that had these monsorous snakes that scared Amanda and I so bad that we nearly had a heart attach.
After seeing every animal, we went to the flower market and got some weird food and drinks and shopped for a little bit. We then took a bus to the train station where we took a train to Jubei (sp) night market. It wasn't too big but it was a lot of fun. We ate a bunch of random food and walked around for hours just looking at all the stuff they sell there. We started to head back to the train station and someone thought we were going to be late so we started to run. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. We all pulled out our Sham Wow and wiped off our sweaty faces. Then the bus came and we headed back to Hsin-Chu. Jady's mom picked us up from the train station and we headed home.
That concludes my first few days in Taiwan. I'll write more later.