8.25.2008

DAY 1

Well here I go, after a heart breaking good bye at the airport to my friends and family who turned up in record numbers, I was off weeping and trying to find consolement in a couple snikers bars I bought after security. Now I’m going to say not sleeping for like 3 days definitely amplified my anxiousness, I truly did feel bad for the guy who was in the stall next to me in Vancouver international’s washrooms. Luckily I was able to snag a whole row to myself on the plane and practically slept like a baby all the way to Taipei. As I was passing through customs I was like “hey, that girls bright red blazer is absolutely stupendous.” So we started talking and apparently she’s a rotary exchange student from Saskatoon (who’d a thunk it, eh?). So we helped each other cross the border, and collect our bags. As soon as we stepped out my counselor, host mother, sister, brother and a exchange student that had just came back from Canada were there holding a huge banner with my sexy face all over it, so we introduced and swapped business cards.

I ended up driving with my counselor to her house because my host family had to still wait to see my brother off because he’s off to Thailand on a rotary exchange as well. So as we drive for about an hour trying to converse as best we can in a 1 to 9 mix of English and Chinese, we end up stopping for groceries at a Morning market which was an absolute overload (still only a taste of what a night market was supposed to be like). Chickens getting awped by the meat cleaver, yelling, scooters amazingly weaving through lanes as wide as a grocery isle but packed with people, my eyes wildly wondering over new territory as half the stuff I saw I was wondering “WTF is that?!” Oh and if you want fresh fish this is definitely the place to be, nearly all the fish lying there were still breathing as people stared at them trying to find something for dinner tonight.

The streets in Taiwan are clean, and surprisingly Modern which was a nice feel like I was still kind of connected to home. After we arrived at her sparkling apartment, I cleaned up and we both had a nap after watching some animal planet. I wake up and soon after my host mother and sister arrive, they say we’re all going for lunch. It turned out to be literally right next to the apartment building. Inside it’s very modern, with all the employees wearing earpieces and microphones. We start eating and the menu is exactly like the Silver dragon lunch special with 1-4 options in tier’s of service. The only difference……THERE IS A LOT MORE! I started off with seafood salad, then a plate of giant mushrooms, some soup, salmon rice balls, some beef then finally a vanilla flan dessert cake. Even the drinks came in tiers, first you had tea, then a small shot glass of some sweet slushy juice around the time that the salmon arrived then near the end of your main course they bring out your drink of choice (iced coffee for me). Needless to say I was stuffed but before I could dig in to the delicious looking cake infront of me, my host mother looks at her watch and starts yelling at the waitress to get the bill. So we run out of there, me and my sister go to the apartment to grab my stuff (btw running with 100 pounds of stuff isn’t the greatest). We run outside hail a taxi and me and my mother are off to what I’m assuming is the train station, she throws some money at the cab driver and we take off running, myself amazed that I can actually move with all this stuff on me. We fly down the escalator, me knocking some people into the railing with my large duffle bag. When we get to the terminal I see Hana (mother) frantically talking to the train attendant and I notice there’s no train L. The train attendant shows me to a bench and Hana runs off up the stairs, I pop in the ipod to try to avoid thinking of home but it kinda made it worse because I decided to play David Bowe –Just Dance (listened to it right before I left). Thankfully she arrived back relatively quickly and instructed me to run up the stairs (I’m sweating profusely by this time), she’s trying to say something about a plane as we get to the main floor where I wait by the escalator in the middle of the entrance with everyone starring at me either wondering what I’m doing or wtf is a white teenager doing there with all those bags. My host mother comes to rescue my again saying I’m very, very lucky and we go back down to the original terminal. We sit down and the train attendant brings us some hot tea which really wasn’t helping me after all this running with extra weight in the incredibly hot humid air.

Once the train arrives, we pile my bags on board and find a seat. We spend the next two hours of the train ride trying to have a conversation with what little English and Chinese we know and try to figure out all the rules and stuff I have to do, I also get the number of a girl who lives in Hualien (my host mother did all the talking and I guess her name is Linda). Once we arrive I am greeted by all the rotary exchange students in Hualien country which made me feel awesome, they all seemed super awesome and helped me with all my bags. We talked for a bit as my host mother and here sister figured stuff out and took pictures with each other (this really took care of my dreadful home sickness, I was pretty darn good at hiding it though). We said good bye and I was off in my Families Mercedes-Benz!!! with my Mother and Aunt, we converse again and I find out that my mothers music of choice is classic Disney movie songs :D. We arrive to a stunning ocean view and I meet some more people, who work at my Families restaurant. I find my room (my host brothers room which is vacant because he is now on exchange in Thailand) which is perfect, I can make it a meat locker with the air conditioning, there is a TV, dvd player and a very stiff bed which I actually like. It seems like my brother liked camera because part of his wall is covered in Magazine camera ads and it looks like he’s learning to play guitar, the only thing that threw me off was the hordes of cosmo and fashion design books. After unpacking I go into the restaurant with Hana and meet some of her Rotarian friends who are eating there. We eat ice cream and I go back to the room to figure out why the internet’s not working which proved unsuccessful. Later Hana and I walk down the bike path along the ocean talking some more, along the way I see an old man playing the flute at what I assumed is a platform for meditation and yoga. When we get home we sit down outside and Jenny makes us another massive plate of seafood lasagna (I’m going to be Buda when I come back I swear).

Ok now I’m back here in my room, there’s a rather large spider creaping in the corner and I’m exhausted. Ima sleep and you guys are just getting up wtf is this.

posted by Ben @ 3:02 AM Comments: 1