Night Club+Rotary=This?

This is the "night club" thing that has to do with rotary that I keep talking about but never explain. I think this video explains it. Talk about mix signals from my program. XD

Anyway, I'm not going to complain, because it was REALLY fun.

This wasn't really a night club. They took us somewhere in the countryside of Taiwan.

At one point the video shows me dancing on a stage. Great...

REALLY STUPID UPDATE

Some stuff I wrote is no longer true and also, I just want to share some non-picture stuff.

Anyway, so my Swiss exchange friend from my school read my blog yesterday and complained to me about how I wrote about him being mean. That's not fully true, he's nice when he feels like it.

So if you guys want to say anything to him, just leave it in the comments. He'll be delighted, I'm sure. (ZACK, I expect to see something amusing from you)

Oh, and just want to add that this creepy rapist guy tried to 'massage' me yesterday. Or maybe the day before. I was really freaked out. But nothing bad came of it so it's whatever now.

Yesterday I got something for all of you!

Pictures!

I bought some candy to show you guys and took a bunch of pictures of 7/11s and OKmarts. I got a lot of looks.

This one is Japanese. The packaging is amazing.

This one looked cool.

It releases energy? Or something?

Now for stuff I didn't buy.

Dear mom, look at this.

Wine and beer

Chips ad stuff

Food

Drinks

Cute/ popular

Candy

God, I hate M&Ms. I can't even run from them in Taiwan.

Did you enjoy? Good! I'm happy!

...BUT WHY AREN'T YOU COMMENTING? I miss comments. ;_; Please tell me what you're thinking.

This Chocolate is really popular in ALL of Asia.

But we have it in America.

It's expensive for Taiwan. Just four of these are a little over a USD dollor. As a result of how popular and expensive these are, Taiwan has made a knockoff!

I bought both and compared.

Popular

Cheap knockoff

Compare. The brand one has better packaging.

The darker one is the cheaper one.

For taste, they were pretty much the same. But the cheaper one left a cheap aftertaste. But really, it's pretty much the same.

How do you say kanji in chinese?!?! If you know, tell me!

So I've been practicing languages sooo much lately. I'm on a roll with Chinese and Japanese. My Japanese is getting really good.

This is a picture of this book I bought for writing Chinese kanji.

I wrote each character an average of 50 times. Sigh. Good times.

I'm going to add something to this post. I mainly did this post to show off my notebook. I always wanted one of these in America.

I'm going to add something else in. Maybe the Isseikun fans are sad I never talk about him anymore. So today I asked him (In Japanese) if I could take another picture of him.

Meet my Japanese friend!

Half Japanese, half Taiwanese.


His name is Shohei.

I kind of forced these pictures upon him. Sorry, Shoheikun. But the people need to see your face.

Mid-Autumn Festival

So september 22 is the Taiwanese holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival. Basically we get the day off school and families come together to eat and every gives each other mooncakes. Some moon cakes I really love, some really suck. Just like snacks in America. I do have pictures.

"The Mid-Autumn Festival is held on the 15th day of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar." ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

There are a LOT of stories to this. So you can check out wikipedia and read them if you want.


For my Mid-Autumn Festival, I made spring rolls with family and they taught me how! It was really exciting. I want to make them again. Because that day I was sick, so I had to stop helping. I really REALLY like Taiwanese fried spring rolls. REALLY. I hope I can make them in America for my mom, brother, Zack, and my boyfriend. I think I'll be able to. It'll be fun.


Then we went to Peggy's house. There was soo much food. It was fun. But I spent the whole night with David on Google chat trying to get my money problems fixed. We think it's fixed. But we're still waiting for an email. So I will keep you updated.

Snack food

All my posts have bee about food. I'm sorry. It's the easiest thing to write about and you all seem to enjoy it.

This isn't going to be a long post. Yesterday I got home and noticed this on the table. Another win.

Taiwanese people are so smart. I have never seen any American put chips into a container.

Picture later! (UPDATE: NOW)

First Rotary Meeting

So a couple days ago, I had my first rotary meeting. I left school and went to this really high class hotel.

First, I want to point out it was just me. I got there on my own. I took two MRT lines. And then walked to the place. I feel really proud. This trip I did without a hitch.

So Peggy couldn't come with me because she's this really important business person. So she asked a few of her english speaking rotary friends to look after me. Peggy is really one of the nicest people I've ever met.

I had to give a speech. It's funny. My Kai Ping Japanese teacher helped me write my Chinese speech. XD Leave it to me to find all the Japanese speaking people and build a relationship with them. XD I swear I don't plan it like that! Not really. But I feel really grateful to her. Her name is Jojakusen. She's Taiwanese. But she majored in Japanese. That name is her Japanese/english name. If you can't read it, you should have taken Japanese classes. XD

Anyway,  I was actually there early. So I sat alone for like ten minutes. It was a really fancy place. The ten minutes wasn't too bad. Then all these people started talking to me. But even when they spoke english it was hard for me to understand them sometimes. Also, everyone thought I could speak Chinese. One month is nothing. It's enough for me to learn bopomofo and how to introduce myself. Nothing more. Sorry, but give me another five months to speak chinese.

So a few nice people sat with me to save me from being alone. And then the meeting begun. I read my speech. I think I did okay because afterwards, everyone keep trying to talk Chinese to me. But I know I didn't do it perfectly.

Then the food started coming. It was REALLY good. Except for this one thing. But the other things were pretty much five star. I was in food heaven.

There was also fruit and this cake thing, but I forgot to take a picture

I do have pictures. But you have to wait a bit, sorry. (UPDATE: YOU GET IT TODAY!)

Afterwards, they invited me to go learn Chinese dancing with them, but I had to go to school. Also, they're all going to Japan soon! I really want to go with them. ;_; It would make me so happy to just see Japan for a week or two.

They gave me my 8,000 NT. Because they didn't give me money the month before. And I was on my way.

It wasn't bad. Parts of it were even really fun. Just a little was awkward, but that can't really be helped.

BREAKFAST HOTDOG!

Today I woke up really tired. Then a bug crawled on my arm, and I kind of freaked out. Not my favorite way of waking up. This is the first time that's ever happened.

So I grudgingly got ready... And then... I went to the breakfast table and there it was... This giant hot dog. It was covered in relish and mustard was on the table.  The bread wasn't sweet! I like Taiwanese bread. Actually, I love Taiwanese bread. But I get tired of sandwiches tasting like dessert all the time. So the bread was perfect, it was pretty perfect. At first I was shocked, to see a giant hot dog in Taiwan is shocking enough. But to see it being served at 7:00 am for breakfast... Some may be really put off by having a hot dog for breakfast. But it was a pretty win moment for me. I do have a picture, but you have to wait because I'm just at a library right now. I can't upload pictures here.

(UPDATE: PICTURES NOW!)

I was pretty excited. I ate half for breakfast and half five minutes ago.

This post really tells you how much I miss American food. But to be honest, I think the Taiwanese food is just as good as my American food.

Are you happy?! I've been getting back to posting!

Taiwanese beach with rotary and host family!

Hi Everyone! It's been awhile. I haven't been on the computer in two to three days! Those of you who know me, know how painful that is. ANYWAY, yesterday was an amazing day. BUT BEFORE I TELL YOU ABOUT IT: I put pictures on an old post about snacks here!!! Please take a look! Click here to see the post with pictures! Whaa, I even linked you. Lucky day for you, isn't it?! (I know that you don't understand my humor. It's okay. You don't want to.)

So like two weeks ago this guy (Swiss) from my school and I started planning a group trip to Ximending (hot spot) to go see a 3D movie. I causally told this to the people who need to know. But then rotary decided to invite me to their beach party. Now, I was in charge of this movie event. So it looks really bad for me to not be even going. So before I understood how amazing my beach trip was going to be, I felt a mix of bummed out and also really excited that I was getting to go to a Taiwanese beach. I had seen how cool going to the beach is in Taiwanese drama. Going to the beach was on my list of must do's.

Then on the way to the beach Peggy told me rotary said I wasn't allowed to take my SAT test. This is the test, which if I don't take it I wont get into college. This is the test I already paid $100USD to take. Well, that put a bummer on everything. But I tried not to let it put down my spirits.  (Later I talked to my rotary club's leader and she said she would help me out. So I feel about 77% sure I'm going to be able to take the test. I'll keep you updated, because if I can't take this test, I'm pretty much going to have to leave. I love Taiwan, but I can't trade Taiwan for college. But like I said, 77% sure. My Taiwanese rotary club seems to be doing everything they can to help me take this test.)

From where we live in Taipei, the beach we went to was an hour away. On the way we ate MCD. And when we got there we had cake at a little shop.

Then we had fruit and snacks with Rotary in their hotel room they rented for this trip. It was a really nice room. Rotary must have paid sooo much money for this trip. I feel so lucky to have gone. It BLEW my movie plan out of the water.

They gave my host family these green bands to wear so we could go anywhere at the beach and these map things, which had tickets for stuff you could do.

Then we went exploring. There was a concert with famous people. It was REALLY REALLY cool.

There were so many food stands.

This one I tried. It was good. Not as good as the other pancake I showed you guys. But it was still good.

I also tried this amazing popcorn. If we had this in America, I would buy soooo much of it. It was seaweed flavor!

 You

wish

you had this.

We can't all be that lucky though.

I'm getting sick of writing. I think it must be boring.

They had a huge bath party with just bubbles. The children loved it. Honestly, I would also love to try this.

Isn't it pretty?

This was a good picture.

SO BEAUTIFUL

I went on a paddle boat! Cheers for excercise.

The center of the table spun. Great for eating, not so great for picture taking. The food was good.

We ended the night with fireworks!

I'm out of time, so I can't upload all the pictures or finish this post. I will add a LOT to this next time. (UPDATE: This is all you're getting. I did add some.)

I just wanted to check in on you guys and let you know I'm still alive, still blogging. And things were kind of not going well for a while, but they seem to be under control now. But that's a post for another day! I'm happy, I'm well. I will keep you updated!