Hello people of Earth! Has it been over a month since we last talked? Geez, it feels like just two weeks ago. It's kind of a strange phenomenon here, it feels like the days are creeping by, but yet every time I look at the date it seems to have jumped 5 or 6 days into the future. Three months have came and went in the blink of an eye, thankfully I don't think the memories will fade that fast.
Speaking of thankfully, it was Thanksgiving recently! Despite 98% of people here not having a clue as to what that holiday is (Europeans included), I had a great time. My English teacher and YEP chairman took me out for turkey where I met her American friend and we chatted for hours about important American stuff like history, politics, and how many licks it would actually take to get to the center of a tootsiepop.
Anyway, I had a lot to be thankful for this year. I am very thankful to all of the people who made this experience possible: Rotary for being crazy enough to allow me in their program, sponsors for being crazy enough to fund a 16 year old's year-long excursion, and of course for my parents who were crazy enough to let me go halfway across the world on my own for almost an entire year while I live with complete strangers. I'm also very thankful to my amazing host family who really made me feel like a true Lee, and the other exchange students who I've met on this trip, they have been there for me through the ups and downs of the past three months and have become like family to me. Enough sappiness! Let's move on to some updates, shall we?
School Update: I switched into normal classes in order to become more of a regular student instead of just an Asian Eye Magnet. It worked. In the past two weeks or so, I've made more friends than in the entire two and a half months before, which is nice. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten on the good side of any teachers since my switch because I just sit in the back and read or sleep, but, eh, c'est la vie. They don't get mad at me as long as I make an effort to listen, which I do, until I get a headache, at which point I put my head on my desk and try not to snore too loud.
Chinese Update: My Chinese is not as far as I had expected it to be at this point, but then again I had no experience with this sort of thing before so my guess was just a shot in the dark. My host family and my Taiwanese friends say they are impressed with my progress so that's a good sign. What has surprised me the most about my Chinese is that I find it much easier to read the language to write it, speak it, or even understand other people speaking it. In the beginning, I anticipated that I wouldn't be able to read at all but it has turned out to be the easiest aspect of the language. It's the easiest because each word has a character and in Taiwan that character will always look the same. On the other hand, however, when people speak, almost everyone has their own little way of saying it. There are three main ways to say almost every Chinese word here: the way they say it in Beijing, China, the young Taiwanese way, and the grunt. For example Ch is how you would pronounce the word for Eat in Chinese in China, but here some people say Ts and most old Taiwanese people just mumble something aggressively. A lot of people mix and match which method they like per word so that everybody has his or her own style. I think this might have resulted from not having a set alphabet. Luckily, I am getting really good at understanding the first two methods, but the third still throws me. As for writing, I haven't given it much effort because there aren't many circumstances that I've needed it, and every time I try, I forget how the character looks. It's like what happens when you misspell a word: if you read it, you would understand it, but you just can't seem to picture the word in your mind. Speaking is coming to me, but with difficulty. In Chinese everything is based on tones. If you speak without the tones, absolutely no one will understand you except-and this is strange but true-for another foreigners.
After school update. Everyday after school I go to a gym with my good German friend Julian, then I go home and eat dinner and go back to the same area to do karate. It's pretty taxing considering that I have to ride my bike for 90 minutes everyday, but it's better than sitting around being bored. I can't really hang out with my Taiwanese friends because they don't get out of school until 9:30.
Family update. They are the best family I could hope for, very nice and very cool. I will switch in February and only have two host families this year because unfortunately my Danish friend Jonas got sent home :(.
Stuff I have to do update. I have to give two speeches within three weeks, the first is next weekend and it's three minutes about whatever I want to talk about, and the second one is about my family, friends, my country and culture: it's thirty minutes long. Both are in Chinese.
Overal exchange update: I'm having a great time with the exchange kids, I'm learning a lot about the language and culture, I'm making Taiwanese friends, and I'm loving the experience. I've got a lot to do, most of which is stressful but hopefully it will help me in the future.
I Have a Homework Assignment for You! I need lots of pictures for my 30 minute speech Powerpoint so if you think you have any good pictures to send me don't hesitate! It could be of you and your family (if I know you), pictures of you and me, of my family, of great places in the country, you eating at McDonalds (for the stereotype), you refusing to eat at McDonald's (to go against the stereotype), anything that you think would be helpful! The deadline for the speech is January 4th. My email is Taiwantom33@gmail.com. The more pictures the merrier, thank you!
That's all for now everybody! I'm Tom Richter and this is my blog. Miss you all!
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Happy Halloween!
Happy Halloween everybody! Or as my English teacher pronounces it: Happy Heroin! I hope you guys enjoyed celebrating Halloween this year, and if you "celebrated" the second pronunciation of it, I hope you enjoy jail. Anyway, my Halloween was uneventful with not a piece of candy in sight. I bought myself a stick of extra-sugary Mentos in order to celebrate, but other then that the day passed just like any other.
In other Big Dong news, my Chinese has been improving and I am now able to read a decent amount of Chinese symbols and I am understanding a lot more of what people are saying to me and about me now, which is nice. I am also diligently practicing piano everyday with pretty good results. I am now able to play three songs! Soo impressive. But I am improving and three songs is better than just knowing how to play the Flintstones which has been my song of choice for the past 8 years or so.
This past month has flown by, it seems like just yesterday that I posted even though it was over three weeks ago. Everything here is good except for how hard it is to fit in around here. Even though last time I said I was used to people staring at me, I am constantly getting more and more agitated with the fact that anywhere I go, except for my house, there are people staring at me. Knowing I am always being viewed as an outsider is frustrating especially now that my Chinese is improving and I am beginning to feel at home in this country.
But to leave you on a happy note, starting three weeks ago I have been taking Karate lessons for two hours every night. The class is located on the roof of a little run-down motel about 20 minutes away from my house by bike. ( I'll put some pictures up of it next time). My teacher says that I am improving very quickly and I have already become an orange belt! If I keep up at this pace I will return home as a brown belt. Now, I know that traditionally it takes a few years to obtain the brown belt and some of you are probably thinking that this place is bogus. Well it is and it isn't. Every two months there is a test that everyone can take to get the next belt. The last test was last Friday and I must say that the sight was pathetic. In a perfect world, one would have to master each kick, punch, maneuver, and dance required to receive the next belt. However my teacher-in an interest to maintain his clientele- decided to pass anyone who bothered to show up, and for those of us who actually put forth real effort, we are rewarded by jumping one belt in advance (instead of getting yellow, I got orange.)
Side Note: Happy 19th birthday Jessie!!
Well that's all for this brog, seeya next time!
Thomas George Richter the First
In other Big Dong news, my Chinese has been improving and I am now able to read a decent amount of Chinese symbols and I am understanding a lot more of what people are saying to me and about me now, which is nice. I am also diligently practicing piano everyday with pretty good results. I am now able to play three songs! Soo impressive. But I am improving and three songs is better than just knowing how to play the Flintstones which has been my song of choice for the past 8 years or so.
This past month has flown by, it seems like just yesterday that I posted even though it was over three weeks ago. Everything here is good except for how hard it is to fit in around here. Even though last time I said I was used to people staring at me, I am constantly getting more and more agitated with the fact that anywhere I go, except for my house, there are people staring at me. Knowing I am always being viewed as an outsider is frustrating especially now that my Chinese is improving and I am beginning to feel at home in this country.
But to leave you on a happy note, starting three weeks ago I have been taking Karate lessons for two hours every night. The class is located on the roof of a little run-down motel about 20 minutes away from my house by bike. ( I'll put some pictures up of it next time). My teacher says that I am improving very quickly and I have already become an orange belt! If I keep up at this pace I will return home as a brown belt. Now, I know that traditionally it takes a few years to obtain the brown belt and some of you are probably thinking that this place is bogus. Well it is and it isn't. Every two months there is a test that everyone can take to get the next belt. The last test was last Friday and I must say that the sight was pathetic. In a perfect world, one would have to master each kick, punch, maneuver, and dance required to receive the next belt. However my teacher-in an interest to maintain his clientele- decided to pass anyone who bothered to show up, and for those of us who actually put forth real effort, we are rewarded by jumping one belt in advance (instead of getting yellow, I got orange.)
Side Note: Happy 19th birthday Jessie!!
Well that's all for this brog, seeya next time!
Thomas George Richter the First
Friday, October 7, 2011
One Month!
Hello my followers! (that sounds creepy). If you are not already aware, I have officially been in Taiwan for over a month! I arrived here hot, sweaty and confused, and here I am 31 days later and now I'm hotter, sweatier, and more confused than ever before! Isn't it great! Ha all kidding aside it was a great month with few if any hiccups, and it appears that the future is just as bright. A special shout out to all of my sponsors who made this amazing trip possible, you guys are truly the best! I don't know how I could ever thank all of you enough!
The reason that I have not posted a blog in a while is that I have been extremely busy integrating myself into an entirely different culture while simultaneously learning Chinese, learning Japanese being a full-time student, watching hilarious youtube videos, reading lots of intense novels, and of course fighting crime by night (all true).
In other news I have decided to create lists of advice for people who are interested in visiting or residing here in Taiwan. Today's list is aptly named Things You Must Not Fear if You Ever Visit Taiwan. Here it is:
3 Things you Must not be afraid of:
Sweating: People hear are sweating here 24/7 due to the heat and 80%-and-up humidity. No matter what activity I participate in it is accompanied with sweating, be it sitting, eating, sleeping, or even running a mile. If you fear this: STAY AWAY you will not survive!!!
Being Different: Especially in the Southwest where I live, there are extremely few foreign people and seeing one is rare. What this means is that when you go anywhere in public people will constantly be staring at you. Fortunately I got use to this fairly quickly, and soon I was staring at foreign people too!
Finally, Misunderstandings: These occurrences happen almost as much as sweating and are twice as frustrating. After a while I became numb to being misunderstood when I speak English, but there's nothing quite as frustrating as trying as hard as you can, searching your entire knowledge base, and finally saying something in Chinese and then getting laughed at for saying it wrong or worse not being understood at all. In the beginning I was discouraged from speaking Chinese due to these misunderstandings, but I finally got over it and now i am totally kicking this language's ass! Pardon my Chinese.
So there you have it! I will attempt to post more often, but until next time this has been Big Dong's blog!
Zai Jian! Soyonara!
The reason that I have not posted a blog in a while is that I have been extremely busy integrating myself into an entirely different culture while simultaneously learning Chinese, learning Japanese being a full-time student, watching hilarious youtube videos, reading lots of intense novels, and of course fighting crime by night (all true).
In other news I have decided to create lists of advice for people who are interested in visiting or residing here in Taiwan. Today's list is aptly named Things You Must Not Fear if You Ever Visit Taiwan. Here it is:
3 Things you Must not be afraid of:
Sweating: People hear are sweating here 24/7 due to the heat and 80%-and-up humidity. No matter what activity I participate in it is accompanied with sweating, be it sitting, eating, sleeping, or even running a mile. If you fear this: STAY AWAY you will not survive!!!
Being Different: Especially in the Southwest where I live, there are extremely few foreign people and seeing one is rare. What this means is that when you go anywhere in public people will constantly be staring at you. Fortunately I got use to this fairly quickly, and soon I was staring at foreign people too!
Finally, Misunderstandings: These occurrences happen almost as much as sweating and are twice as frustrating. After a while I became numb to being misunderstood when I speak English, but there's nothing quite as frustrating as trying as hard as you can, searching your entire knowledge base, and finally saying something in Chinese and then getting laughed at for saying it wrong or worse not being understood at all. In the beginning I was discouraged from speaking Chinese due to these misunderstandings, but I finally got over it and now i am totally kicking this language's ass! Pardon my Chinese.
So there you have it! I will attempt to post more often, but until next time this has been Big Dong's blog!
Zai Jian! Soyonara!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
3 Weeks!
I can't believe it's already been three weeks! It feels like such a short time since I arrived here in Taiwan until I think about how many things I've done and then it feels like I've been here for months! As most of you probably don't know, this past weekend was the Moon Festival which is the second biggest holiday in Taiwan(first is Chinese New Year).
So in celebration my family and three other families went down to Kenting for two days. Kenting is known for it's beaches, warm weather, and great national park. Our first day there we went to the national park where we saw some incredible scenery. After that, we went to a huge night market right outside our hotel, and the other two exchange students walked around for hours playing games and trying really weird food. I got to try stinky tofu which is notoriously the worst food Taiwan has to offer..... I really liked it! While my fellow exchangers were trying not to throw it up, I was thoroughly enjoying that smelly snack.
We spent the entire next day at the beach just chillin in the ocean and looking at the beautiful scenery as they walked by. I also attempted to teach the others how to body surf. I failed.
In all it was another great week here in this scorching hot country! I swear it's always 100 degrees F here. If you want to see pictures of my Kenting excursion and of my trip overall check out my Facebook photos. They are just under my photos.
再見!,
Tom/李東誠
So in celebration my family and three other families went down to Kenting for two days. Kenting is known for it's beaches, warm weather, and great national park. Our first day there we went to the national park where we saw some incredible scenery. After that, we went to a huge night market right outside our hotel, and the other two exchange students walked around for hours playing games and trying really weird food. I got to try stinky tofu which is notoriously the worst food Taiwan has to offer..... I really liked it! While my fellow exchangers were trying not to throw it up, I was thoroughly enjoying that smelly snack.
We spent the entire next day at the beach just chillin in the ocean and looking at the beautiful scenery as they walked by. I also attempted to teach the others how to body surf. I failed.
In all it was another great week here in this scorching hot country! I swear it's always 100 degrees F here. If you want to see pictures of my Kenting excursion and of my trip overall check out my Facebook photos. They are just under my photos.
再見!,
Tom/李東誠
Saturday, September 10, 2011
Oops! I ment to post this last week, my apologies
It's official! I'm here to stay. I have completed the first week of the exchange, I've unpack, and my room is organized and clean for now. So as some of you may know I started school on Tuesday. Technically it was supposed to start Monday but it was cancelled. I was curious as to why it was cancelled so I asked my host sister. This was her response: "oh just cause of typhoon." Pshh just a typhoon? Please, in Illinois we only cancel school because of serious things like snow. Anyway the typhoon wasn't that bad it was just a hard rain that lasted for two days.
The first day of school was okay. It started by Julian (German), Johanna (German), Margaux (French), Cosette (American), and I (American) introducing ourselves to thirty very nice but shy Taiwanese kids. Of course we had to say our introductions in Chinese which all-in-all I think we were fairly successful at. Then Cosette and I went to our home room class while the Europeans went to the one next door, and we sat and listened for four hours while the teacher gave a speech. Of course I didn't understand any of it but she sounded very enthusiastic. I left later that day feeling confused and challenged by how hard of a journey learning Chinese is going to be.
The next day, however, was amazing. It started out with a very easy English class. Afterwards Julian and I made some new friends while kicking ass in a competitive basketball game during gym. Then we went upstairs for lunch and the customary hour nap which I think I can get used to. I ended the day with three hours of rigorous, but rewarding, Chinese lessons. Thursday and Friday were also very rewarding in that my Chinese has gotten exponentially better and my English is thus getting progressively worse (as you might be able to tell from the very short and simple sentences in this blog).
My school schedule is arguably the coolest schedule anyone has ever had it is as follows:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8:10- Creative Taekwondo English Cake Making Chinese Writing
9:00 Painting
9:10- "" "" "" "" Chinese
10:00
10:10- English Acupressure PE "" ""
11:00
11:10- "" "" PE "" ""
12:00
Lunch/nap
13:20- Group Japanese Chinese Fine Arts Calligraphy
14:10 Activity Cooking
14:15- "" "" "" Basic Design Calligraphy
15:05
15:10- Chinese "" "" Basic Design Chinese
16:00 Writing writing
Cool Right!? This is clearly not an academic exchange.
In other news I met my host father! I think he is very nice but it's very hard to communicate with him because he don't know any English. Also he is away on business most of the time.
The first day of school was okay. It started by Julian (German), Johanna (German), Margaux (French), Cosette (American), and I (American) introducing ourselves to thirty very nice but shy Taiwanese kids. Of course we had to say our introductions in Chinese which all-in-all I think we were fairly successful at. Then Cosette and I went to our home room class while the Europeans went to the one next door, and we sat and listened for four hours while the teacher gave a speech. Of course I didn't understand any of it but she sounded very enthusiastic. I left later that day feeling confused and challenged by how hard of a journey learning Chinese is going to be.
The next day, however, was amazing. It started out with a very easy English class. Afterwards Julian and I made some new friends while kicking ass in a competitive basketball game during gym. Then we went upstairs for lunch and the customary hour nap which I think I can get used to. I ended the day with three hours of rigorous, but rewarding, Chinese lessons. Thursday and Friday were also very rewarding in that my Chinese has gotten exponentially better and my English is thus getting progressively worse (as you might be able to tell from the very short and simple sentences in this blog).
My school schedule is arguably the coolest schedule anyone has ever had it is as follows:
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
8:10- Creative Taekwondo English Cake Making Chinese Writing
9:00 Painting
9:10- "" "" "" "" Chinese
10:00
10:10- English Acupressure PE "" ""
11:00
11:10- "" "" PE "" ""
12:00
Lunch/nap
13:20- Group Japanese Chinese Fine Arts Calligraphy
14:10 Activity Cooking
14:15- "" "" "" Basic Design Calligraphy
15:05
15:10- Chinese "" "" Basic Design Chinese
16:00 Writing writing
Cool Right!? This is clearly not an academic exchange.
In other news I met my host father! I think he is very nice but it's very hard to communicate with him because he don't know any English. Also he is away on business most of the time.
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| (right to left) sister, brother, mom, weird guy, grandpa, counselor |
 |
| My House! |
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| My New Room |
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| Reina and Tahcoon! |
Friday, August 26, 2011
I Made It!!!
Hello Americans! I have made it safely to Taiwan, and I am having a blast. My host family, the Lees, are very kind and welcoming. I'm already picking up on some Chinese! My host Sister, Reina, speaks very good English and is 17. My 12 year old brother only speaks a little English, but we communicate and connect really well when I beat him at video games. My host father is in Mongolia and I have yet to meet him, but my host mom is very nice even though she hardly speaks any English at all. Today I went and got my Resident visa meaning I can stay in Taiwan for a year, I met four other exchange students, two of which I spent the day with, and I went to a night market! It was a very unique and fun environment with carnival games and street vendors. All-in-all it has been a fantastic first day but now it is time for me to go to bed. I will probably post again within the next week. Till then, Zai jian!(goodbye).
P.S. I found out that my Chinese name is Lee Dong Chen. I guess that means when I go to school I'm gonna be the big Dong on campus!
P.S. I found out that my Chinese name is Lee Dong Chen. I guess that means when I go to school I'm gonna be the big Dong on campus!
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Shipping Out
My bags are packed and i'm ready to go, nothing left but to say my final goodbyes and hop on an airplane! I will miss all my friends and family members here in the States, but I look forward to seeing you all again as a new man! My next blog will be within a day or two after my arrival and after that I think it will be every other week. Facebook me and if I like you enough I'll arrange a time for us to skype(username:taiwantom33). See you on the other side!
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