Holidays

       Hey everybody! Hope your holidays were as great as mine! I am actually in the midst of the most important holiday in Taiwan. It is currently the 2nd day of Chinese New Years, but I'll talk about that later. I was debating on which Holiday to start with because they were all.. unique. Let's start with Christmas which makes sense because it's the first in the chronological order, and I suppose I had every intention of starting with it from the beginning I guess I just said that I debated which one to start with because it was an almost creative way to introduce to you that my Holidays were a little strange. Anyway... I digress.

      The entire week leading up to Christmas felt weird. I was still in school, I had to finish writing a speech, and there was no festive mood among the masses. The only real decoration was a big sign on the Department store entrance that said, "Marry Chrismas." They either misspelled it a little or maybe they were advertising to people the chance to join Mr. and Mrs. Chrismas' hands in marriage. Who knows? Anyway, Christmas came in the blink of an eye without any of the usual excitement on my part. Christmas day was.. different. I got up at the usual time: 12:30 P.M, and went to the department store with my friends. The high point of the entire day was that I bought my German friend and I ridiculous hats that gave the already oogly-eyed Taiwanese people a reason to oogle at us. (Fun fact: Oogle is not a word.) While I wouldn't say that I particularly enjoyed Christmas this year, it was very unique.

   I realize that I said my holidays were great. I did not lie. This year's New Years was by far the coolest New Years I have, or probably will have in my life. My rotary district took all of the inbound exchange students up to Taipei to celebrate. We arrived at 4:30 P.M on New Year's Eve and much to my surprise, we were let loose upon the city with just the promise that we would be at the bus at 2:30 A.M and no supervision. I went along with 30 or so of my fellow exchange students and we explored the great city of Taipei for a few hours then we went to a park near a little pond. At this pond, we met up with an enormous group of Rotary exchange kids from all around Taiwan. There were kids living in Taichung, Taoyen, Taipei, and Kaoshiung: about 150 of us in all. For the rest of the night, I partied, mingled, danced, and even sang (a little) with kids from all over the world. Cool? Hell yeah. Then at 12 was the grand finale. It would be easier to show you than tell you: Here's the link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHNP-bYOrjw.
So that was my New Years.

     Next up is Tom's birthday! Woohoo! It was a rather quiet day, and nothing happened until about 6 P.M when my host father took the family to one of his restaurants to celebrate Chinese New Year's Eve, but we'll talk about that later. During dinner there was a nice magic show and some traditional Taiwanese and Chinese drums and magic shows. After dinner we retired to my house and had a nice little party with my two host families. Not a big, flashy day but I enjoyed it.

   As I have previously stated, today is the second/third day of Chinese New Years which lasts 7 days here.  The evening of the New Year's Eve is considered the first day which makes sense if you don't think about it. This first day is reserved for immediate family, and it is traditional for family members to give each other a little red envelope full of money. I racked up a whopping $3,000. Ok so it was Taiwanese dollars so about $100 US dollars. Still not bad though right? Yesterday's focus was the female side of the family, and I would have spent the day with my host mother's family but they live in Japan so I hung  so out with my host Grandmother's side of the family and went to a few buddhist temples. Today was the father's side of the family and I spent the day playing cards with his family and made a lot of money with poker, and then lost it all with a few new "games" they taught me. I didn't really understand it because it was in rapid Chinese, but I could have sworn that one of the games was called "Take the foreign guy's money." Oh well, it was a good time. I have yet to learn the focus of the last few days seeing as I just go with the flow here and the internets machine isn't giving me any useful results, but I will be sure to inform you in my next blog. So that was my holiday season in a But Shell, (Blog Nut Shell, maybe that shouldn't become a saying) and as you can see it was awesome at times, and boring at times, but it was certainly unique.

In other news, I gave two speeches in the last two months and I'm pretty proud of myself, here are the links:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=339779346047577&set=t.100000767275609&type=2&theater

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=355429007815944&set=t.100000767275609&type=2&theater
   
       The first speech was for an exchange student competition for whose Chinese was the best. I got 4th out of 28! Secret: Everyone who didn't get 1st, 2nd, or 3rd got a certificate saying that they got 4th, but don't tell anyone that. The second speech was to all of the next-year-outbound students explaining my American life and America in general. I actually gave that one twice, once to my Rotary club and then to the Outbounds.

Thanks again to my sponsors for giving me this opportunity! Thanks everyone for reading Big Dong's blog. I miss all of you guys!

Fun Facts:

In Japan, a black cat crossing your path is good luck.

In Chinese the phrase "Next week" is translated directly as "Down week" This is simply because on a calendar, the following week is the one located below the current week.  "Last week" is likewise translated directly as "Up week."

Ok this one is a little complicated. I noticed that when someone from Europe or America emphasizes parts in a story, they will use their right hand to gesture the beginning of the story and their left to depict the end. It is the opposite for Asians. When I was discussing a movie with my host mom recently, I noticed that she kept saying the word for "end" but was shaking her left hand. Not even thinking about it, I was confused and unconsciously assumed I had misunderstood, but it turns out I didn't. My host sister did the same and she was speaking English. I puzzled over this until I came up with the slap-yourself-in-the-face-that-was-so-obvious answer: they read right-to-left. When you look at a book in Chinese from the middle, the beginning is on the right and the end is on the left.

Taipei 101 from the park with the lake:

Three Months in a foreigner country and horrid grammar to prove it!

      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!

        

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

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!

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

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.

(right to left)
sister, brother, mom, weird guy, grandpa,
 counselor

My House!

My New Room

Reina and Tahcoon!

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!