Dana: Kareoke, Make Up, and McDonalds, Oh My!

This morning I woke up, and both Winnie and Carol were still asleep. They wanted to sleep in because they stayed up really late the previous nights. Neither of the parents speaks English at all, and my Mom was going to drive me to school. I managed wo have the following conversations with only facial expressions and hand gestures:

Mom: 'Can I use the vanity in your Room for make up?"
Me:"Yeah, its fine"
Mom: "you need to be ready by 8:00"
Me: 'okay"

Dad: "Oh I'm sorry for smoking near you."
Me: "No, don't worry about it because it is on the balcony, not inside. Can I use the phone to call my parents?"
Dad: "Yes"

Mom: "Its time to leave. This is your breakfast."

I was really surprised how well we understood each other. I believe I am now fluent in hand gestures. I'm very glad that nods, smiles, and thumbs ups are universal.
I told my family what I normally had for breakfast the night before, so they bought me soy milk. Appearently soy bean milk and soy milk are two different thinks (according to some of the other youth ambassadors) and I had soy bean milk. It is most definately not like soy milk in America, but I appreciated my family's consideration.

When we got to school, they gave us really cute pink athletic t-shirts, and we got on the bus. It didn't take us long to notice the Kareoke mics hanging from the ceiling. They had a kareoke machine on the bus! So of coarse we sang Kareoke all the wat to Taipei (there was a section oof the Kareoke tracks with American songs in english.

We arrived at the national palace museum. It was enormous and absolutely beautiful. We had our own personal tour guide, who was really nice and very entertaining.
We saw lots of very interesting artifacts. For example, there was a water basin water bowl, which had a peace treaty carved into it. It is the oldest known boundry treaty in the world. I learned how to read two words in Chinese: King and Jade. The king simbol looks like an abstract ax because it is derived from the word ruler, and the rulers always had axes because axes gave them power. The word jade looks like the word king but with a small oval on the right side
tour guide. We saw the most intricate Ivory carvings that you could ever imagine. they were jewelery boxes about the size of a finger nail with ivory chain liks between them. The chain was thinner than earbud wires. and they were carved out of one single piece of ivory! There was also a picnic basket made of ivory mesh. Yes, they carved it into mesh. Learning about Chinese history in the museum was a million times more interesting than in school. In WHAP, I hated Asian history, but here, I loved it.

Afterward, we ate lunch and spent half an hour trying to get a jump picture of all the girls. we sort of failed.
Then we headed to 101. Someone asked how many stories it was. Here's a hint: It is called the 101 tower. The pictures don't do it justice. I'm not even going to try to describe how breathtaking it was, because you can't comprhend looking up at a building that goes throgh the clouds until you see it. When we were on the observatory deck, there were clouds below us! Also, when you go up in reunion tower in dallas, you can see for a hundred miles in every direction. Here there are mountains in the way, so you don't actually see all of the city, which surprised me. As we were getting ready to leave, we got separated, and spent about 30 minutes to an hour looking for everyone. Because that took so long, we didn't have time to go to the zoo.

Instead we went to the Memorial garden, which honors Taiwan's first president. It is an enormous gardern with a statue just like th Lincolm Memorial. Only instead of the statue being in a Roman style building, its chinese of course. When we first got there, pade and I saw the gaurds and thought they were statues. then Olivia told us they were aboult to do a changing og the gaurd, and I was like "what gaurd?" They stand completely still, and here is the part that flabbergasted us- they don't blink while on duty. Their shift is 2 hours! I didn't think that was humanly possible. The changing of the gaurd was a wildly cultural thing to see. It was VERY formal and more like a ceremonial dance than a march. The garden outside was also beautiful.

I went shopping with my mom, Winnie and Carol. We walke through the makeup section of a department store and I let out an audible squeel. I was sort of embarassing. I had spotted the Shu Uemura counter. Shu Uemura is my absolute favorite makeup brand, but they quit exporting it to the states. It was not cheap, but about 20-30% less expensive than it was in the US. I needed moisterizer really badly, and this was a perfect oppurtunity to buy some. I was interested in the moisture sets (they are a better deal) but all of them had "white recovery lotion" included. People actually buy products here to lighten their skin! the lady offered me the set, but I told Winnie that getting whiter was the LAST cosmetic change I would want. The moisterizer works really well. I wonder, since it it Japanese, if the product is designed more for the climate on this side of the world. The make up lady gave me a makeover with electric blue eyeshadow and ultra glittery gold eyeshadow. If I didn't stand out enough before, this garenteed attention as I was walking around as a tall white red head with sparkly blue eyelids.

For dinner, I got to pick what I wanted. I was very tired, so I wanted it to be fast. also I wanted it to be a "safe" choice (to be sure I would like to food). So I chose the only place Iwas sure I would like the food: McDonalds. Yes, I voluntarily chose to eat McDonalds when I had other options. I never thought I would do that. I had the best Big Mac ever. I think it tasted so good because I just wante farmiliar food, not because the McDonalds prepared it better. The food seemed to be the same as in America, bu the buildin.g was way nicer. They have 2 places to order: downstairs (to go) and upstairs (sit down).

Overall I'm getting used to taiwan, and I'm having great experiences.
I can already tell that Winnie and Carol are getting better at English from talking with me, which makes me happy that I am able to give something back to them after they have given me this oppurtunity.