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!
Friday, October 7, 2011
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 |
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| 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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