So I didn't blog yesterday (we got home really late) so I'm afraid I forgot a ton of details. Oh, and just FYI, I know there are typos. I generally don't have time to proofread at all before bedtime. Sorry.
Yesterday was the first day that it didn't rain, and we could feel the temperature difference. It was hot, but not unbearable IF you wore light clothes. We went to a school, and they informed us that they had uniforms to give us to wear. We were all extremely excited. We wanted the cute little skirts that they had, but it turned out they were giving us the more casual sports uniforms. That was still okay until we pulled the uniforms out of the bags and realized that they were long sleeves and long pants. And I'm not talking light weight cotton long sleeve shirts and breezy work out pants. They wew thick and hot. On top of that, they gave me a small. I am NOT an American small much less an Asian small. The bottom of the pants were half way up mugh calf (more like capris) and the waist dug into my sides. Most of the group just wore the size they were given, but I asked for a different size because they were so short. The shirt was tight, but I could live with it. I was honestly really upset that they made us wear a uniform meant for winter during the summer. I just didn't understand why they would think those clothes were appropriate. Thjey didn't have bigger pants on hand, so I got to keep my shorts for a little while.
Next the students put on a play (in english) for us. I was really cute. It was about Taiwanese legends, including the one about the origin of the dragon boat festival (which was today). They incorporated modern phrases and songs into the skit, which made it hilarious. Then they put us into groups to learn some Chinese lines for the same play. After that they showed up with my pants in a bigger size. Oh joy! But the pants really were'nt that bad. We did our dances (which they loved) and they performed the play, this time in Chinese with each of us having a small part. That was genuinely fun. My line was "I'm in a Hurry (in Chines of course)
Then we made rice dumplings. To make them you basically make a pocket with two banana leaves, put rice in it, fold the leaves up so it becomes a trangular piramid, and tie them together so they don't unfold while boiling. The thing was, when I would go to fold mine, the teacher helping kept taking it from me because I was doing it wrong, do it herself, unfold it, then give it back to me. It was okay the first time, but I just wished they would teach me how to do it instead of doing it for me (without showing me) then giving it to me to try. But now I can sort of make rice dumplings!
Next we made these Chinese good luck charms. I'm a really independent person, so after you show me how to do something, I want to do it myself. They told all of the students how to make the charms in Chinese, but my students (we each had a group that was in charge of us) didn't translate for me, so I was left guessing what to do. I looked at one of the finished good luck charms and figured it out. But everytime I started a new step, the teacher kept taking it out of my hands to do it for me. It was frustrating because I wanted to do it myself. Not to mention it was pretty easy in the first place. I was also frustrated because she explained it to all of the Taiwanese kids, but they still seemed cluelesss when I asked them questions. When It came time for the sewing part, I threaded my needle, tied the two ends of the thread todether and started sewing. It was a really easy sewing job, just stiching the opening of a pouch closed. After I had done about four stitches, the teacher came over and took it because she said I was doing it wrong. She cut out the stiched I had already done, cut the knot at the end of my thread, and started sewing with a single thread instead of the thread doubled. Then she basically tried to teach me how to sew. I was getting sort of upset because they were treating me like a little kid. This wasn't rocket science, it was just sewing. In the end, a doubled thread really wouldn't have made a difference, it just would have been easier.
At on point the boy who was in charge of helping me asked if people did this in the US, and he made a sewing motion. I was like "Do people sew in the US?" And he said that was what he was asking. I was sort of amused by the question. I'm pretty sure every country on the planet has sewing. I'm really glad that we have this program because the kids here truly have never been exposed to other cultures. Then he asked me if I knew how to sew before today and if I had ever done it, and I assured him that I had. Halfway through sewing, the tread came out of the needle (because it didn't have a knot because it wasn't double). For some reson that really upset me. I tried to be open to their way of doing each thing, but I just didn't understand why they cared so much that we did things a certain way. If you get to the same place, what does it matter which road you take? I guess I might be making a big deal out of nothing, but it wasn't necessarily their actions that upset me. It was their attitude about my ability. Of coarse, I completely hid my frustration and was very courteous.
Next we had lunch, which was really good. They had ordered pizza, but they told us we could have the pizza after we ate the dumplings. Those dumplings dissapeared pretty fast. And when I say disapeared, they weren't necessarily eaten (we aren't big fans of rice dumplings, but students keep giving them to us). Most of us have gotten really good at making food look eaten, but only taking a few bites. The pizza was excellent. It was dominoes, but it was way better than dominoes in the US. They put shrimp and peas on their pizza here, which is sort of odd, but they had other toppings too, so it was okay. The pizza here has less tomato sause, but other than those two changes, its pretty much like in America. I think they were a little surprised how much we ate. I think we left them with a really important cultural fact: American teenagers will eat a lot of pizza (especially ones who haven't had American food in the last week).
The next activity was art class. We got to silk screen shirts. I really liked the art teacher. He let us be creative, and just corrected us when we were really going to mess up. The design that we silk screened was the American and Taiwanese flag together with the words "when the Eastt meets the West" in both English and Chinese. We all got to pick where we put the sesign. I pit mine going sideways on both the front and the back. We're going to wear them on the plane home.
Next was martial arts class. We were all very restricted in our uniforms and couldn't imagine doing martial arts in them. We talked to the students about it, who said we could change. we still wanted to be respectful of their uniform wishes, so we compromises and only wore half the uniform. I wore the pants with my UT shirt. We got to choose swords or bamboo sticks. Gena and I chose bamboo sticks (like in Mulan!). Everyone else choose swords. We learned a short routine, and at the end of the lesson, presented our routine. (think its on Facebook, but I think Gena might be the only one you can see)
After we left, Gena and I went straight from school to the night market with our hosts. We rode the bus to Tai Pei. the Nightmarket was AMAZING. I wanted to buy cheap clothes, but I'm not exactly petite and all of the stuff in the night market looked like it would be too small for most Asian girls. Alot of the stuff was more expensive than I thought it would be. Winnie explained that halp of the stuff comes from Japan, and half from China. The stuff from Japan is much more expensive, but its cooler. I bought headbands, a gift for Darbianna (yes, Yona, you have to wait til I get home to know what it is), and a tiny gift for my family members in the states. I also ate a lot. Okay, why hasn't this food been introduced to the US??? All of the food was super reasonably priced. We first had this thing that tasted like a Beignet (french dougnut). Next we had mango-sweet potato swirl ice cream. I wasn't a fan of the sweet potato part, but mixed with the mango, it tasted like candy. Gena loved the sweet-potato ice cream. Then they took us to a soup shop where we had a Taiwanese soup which was amazing. We didn't like the meat that was in the soup, but their was only a little, so we picked it out. But, we can at least say we tried it. when we were trying to determine what the meat was, I told Gena not to ask because I wanted to pass judgement on it without preconcieved notions. I'm glad we tried it before we knew what it was because it turned out to be pig intestine. The people here seem to be much less sensitive to hot food. Our hosts were already done with their soup before ours was cool enough for me and Gena to eat it. Afterward, we had Pomagranite juice, which was delicious. While we were standing in like for burritos, I saw a Buddist temple. I really needed to go to the bathroom, and their aren't bathrooms in the night market. I asked if their were bathrooms in the temple, and there were. So, we got to go inside the temple. It was really ornate. It was interesting that they don't have pews or anything. They just stand or kneel on cushions. The burrito was like Chipoltle, but Asianafied. I don't know how to describe it. Just thing Chines and Mexican food mixed together. It was also good. After that, we went to an ice cream parlor where we has ice cream snow. It was like milky shaved ice. It was SOOOOOO good. Gena and I split mango flavored (with REAL mangos) I also had some of Carol's green tea snow ice which was the best green tea ice cream ever. On the way back to the bus stop, we passed a fruit stand. Gena samples a strawberry and said it was the best strawberry she had ever tasted. I didn't believe her until I tried one. We split a cup of strawberries. At first we thought they had a ton of sugar on them, but Winnie assured us that they were unsweetened. We didn't believe her for a long tome, but she was so persistant with the fact that there was no sugar added that we finally did. The fruit here is amazing. I want to know what they do to it to make it so sweet. It tastes like candy. My host mom puts salt on apples, which I thought was gross until I realized they are too sweet without it.
We got home at 11:50, so I skipped my blog and went straight to the shower. I was going to skip blow drying my hair, but my host mom was adiment that I would get sick if I didn't. They don't quite understand that I almost never blow dry my hair. If I walk around with it wet, they hand me a blow dryer. I appreciate their concern, I really do, but I don't think wet hair will make me sick in this heat. But don't get me wrong, I really love my host family. The mom and dad are extremely cute with their little hand signs. Winnie and Carol are really great to talk to. I'm really glad I have a host family who I can really relate to.
This morning, Carol decided she needed to study, so she didn't come with me to the Dragon Boat Festival. (It is a holiday so she didn't have school) I'm really glad she decided to do that because I've been worried that my stay here had been effecting her grades, although her English grades should improve with all of the talking we do.
We went to the Dragon boat races with the sponsoring high school. It was really crowded and hotwith lots of cigarette smoke. It was cool, but I was relieved when we left.
After that, we went to a bar-b-q at a park. At first, this was an extremely amusing experience. The group of Taiwanese kids Ryan and I were assigned to had never bar-b-qued in their life. That would have been okay except they thought they knew how to do it. Ryan and I kept trying to help, but they would say we were doing it wrong. They couldn't get the charcoal lit, but wouldn't take our advice. We were't quite sure what to do in that situation. Ryan and I definately know how to bar-b-q (I do it all the time while RVing), but we couldn't just push the Taiwanes kids out of the way and do it ourselves. Finally they used a flame thrower to light the coals. But then the fire was way to hot. They though that in order to cook on it, flames needed to be coming up when really the coals just need to be red. After about 5 minutes of cooking, I
was served a sausage that was black on one end and still raw on the other, and the students told me it was ready to eat. I tried to be a polite guest, but I draw the line at eating raw sausage. Their lack of barb-b-q skills didn't really upset me and their tendency to not listen to us didn't either. I was perfectly fine with letting them do the cooking, even if it wasn't quite done the right way. I knewI could eat a nutrition bar if it didn't go well. After about an hour of trying to find a balance between politeness and showing them the right way, Mrs. Francis suggested that we forget the sausage chicken and fish and jsut let the students eat those. We ate the corn, mushrooms, and peppers (all of which can be eaten even if they're half raw). We also managed to get the pork chops fully cooked because they were thin. Overall it was a good experience once we gave up on cooked meat. It was still fun and we bonded with the students, which is what it was supposed to be about. I also sang in public for the first time since sixth grade. They had us each sing songs (they got lots of enjoyment out of this). If you don't know, I'm tome deaf and really can't sing to save my life. But what was I supposed to do with 20 Taiwanese kids teling me to sing. I warned them that I was bad at it before hand. I sung "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I actually love singing, I'm just awful at it.
The next stop was this bridge which is really famous, but I didn't catch the name. It was the picture oppurtinity of the trip. I took 100 photos. Not to mention, this random man had never seen a true redhead before, so he asked if he could take a picture with me. At first I thought he wanted me to take a picture of him and his wife, but whe I realized he wanted me in the picture, I felt really important. It made my day! After crossing the bridge, we walked down a side street and bought this mango iced smoothie for under $1 US. Again, why can't we get this in America? It was excellent.
After that, we went home. Tonight, the entire family except Carol is busy, so we are having a night in. We ate pizza for dinner. It is sort of nice to take a breather because we have done something every night since I have been here.
We have started a "quote book" of all the funny things the ambassadors say on the trip. So far, I have the most quotes in the book, which I don't think is a good thing. I will admit they have caught me saying some really funny stuff.
I swear my english is getting worse. Yesterday, I said colonaited instead of colonized and I keep making sentence structure mistakes. I can completely understand how someone can lose a language if they don't use it enough.
