Food in Taiwan is quite different, to say the least. To paint a picture for you, my food palate so far consists of rice, various vegetables, passion fruit, spicy dishes, stinky tofu, duck blood, pig blood cake, fried chicken, steamed dumplings, friend dumplings, beef noodle soup, iced mango juice, and red bean ice-cream. I’ve eaten various other foods, but I think I’ve listed enough for you to figure out that I am most certainly not eating a typical American meal in Taiwan. My stomach is a little confused and has not quite yet adjusted to Taiwan’s cuisine. Strange as some foods taste, I have a feeling that in a few months time, I am going to crave certain Taiwanese foods. The most difficult food that I’ve eaten so far has been stinky tofu and duck blood. Stinky tofu, as you can tell by its name, is quite smelly and truly has no comparison to any American food. The same goes for duck blood, though I will admit that it does not taste as bad as you might imagine. The duck blood is congealed and cooked so that it has sort of like a chewy jelly texture. Passion fruit so far has been my favorite dessert. It is a mixture of sweet and sour and is quite refreshing after eating any meal. My host mother gives me the passion fruit and a spoon to scoop all the fruit out of passion fruit shell.
This past Monday, we took our first Chinese proficiency test. Gaping at the test below me, I realize now why students in America who never studied or stressed finished their test first. If you truly don’t know the material…then you only have the ability to guess and guessing doesn’t take that long. So for the first time in my life, I guessed on 80 questions except for two. It was an odd feeling. However, the teacher calmed all of us worried test-takers that this test was only to separate us into different levels of classes. After the test, Uncle Nick (a Rotarian and also the father of Tommy who is now in exchange to Klein Oak HS) invited me along with his host son Braden, Carolin from Germany, Andrea from Texas, and three other Taiwanese students to go to Taipei 101. We met up with Michael, Tommy’s brother, who then took us around the Taipei 101 department store so that we could eat lunch. All that stressful testing sure did make me hungry :P. It was a lot of fun being able to meet new people and hearing their stories of their exchange or learning more vocabulary from the Taiwanese. We spent about 5 hours walking around to and from department stores until around 6:00 pm. At that time, we rode up the 45 second elevator ride up to the 89th floor observatory. Surprisingly, the ride was very smooth and my ears barely popped. As the elevator door opened, the light from the sunset was beaming straight at me. Rushing to the windows, I could see the sunset slowing dropping below the clouds and lighting up the city of Taipei from above. It was truly breathtaking. There’s truly no way to describe the 360ยบ aerial view of Taipei. Each side illuminated a different part of Taipei. One side was more mountainous and green whereas the other side was industrialized and lit up with signs. From above you could see all the cars and the motor scooters speeding away at the size of an ant. The sky’s colors battled with each other so that the result turned into a mesh of baby blue, burnt orange, a soft pink, and a few other colors in between. It’s really hard to describe such a magnificent creation of God. We stayed until the sun set and until the moon emerged. The view completely changed as the whole city of Taipei seemed to light up with neon lights in the dark. I truly didn’t want to leave, but you can only go so long before one of eight students get hungry, or as the boys claimed…”were starving”:D.
August 30, 2012 was my first day of school. With butterflies in my stomach, my mother and I left for school via bus and MRT (Taiwan’s subway system). It’s hard to describe how I felt because I’ve never faced a situation in which I truly didn’t understand what all was being said around me. However, once Joshua (exchange student from Canada who is also attending my school) and I stood outside on the stage and introduced ourselves in Chinese to all the students, all my nervousness disappeared. All the students cheered as we introduced ourselves and were very interactive. Taiwanese school is very different. You are placed into a class, a homeroom, as you would call it in America, but the classmates in this homeroom are always the same students for the whole day. You have the same homeroom teacher and your class is your constant companion for the year. The rooms have windows that can be opened to let the breeze in or keep the rain out, and rather than air conditioning, they have a single fan that is on the whole class period. It’s quite a different experience as you are sweating a whole bunch. It’s a different experience, but all the classmates are truly willing to help. And speaking of help….in Taiwan each student has a cleaning responsibility. My job is to mop the right side of the classroom everyday at 4:00 pm. This job was sought out for by many students and we had to play rock, paper, and scissors to see who could win the spot. I won one of the spots and for the first time in a long time, I mopped the floor. It’s an odd experience but I truly believe that the fact that we have to clean up after ourselves makes us more mindful about the trash we leave. I’m not a fan of cleaning, but this is a great learning experience and I’m glad Taiwan enforces it. :D After cleaning, school was pretty much dismissed and I headed home ALONE in the rain. I’m quite proud of myself because I walked all the way to the MRT, rode the crowded bus to a close stop to my house, and walked all the way home without having to call my host mom. If you could see what a maze Taiwan is, you’d be pretty proud of me as well. :D.
10 days have passed and already I have done so much. I hope that by the end of next month, I can tell you more about Taiwanese school life, my real designated first host family, my improvement of Chinese, and anything else that is blown my way. Taiwan is a mixture of old and new and it is so exciting to be a part of such a traditional yet modernized country.
