Here I am!

I made it, I'm in Taiwan! After a long 17h flight, a few hours in Hong Kong airport, and 1h30min flight to Taipei, I was greeted by my first host family and a whole bunch of other people at the airport. It was exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. I was so relieved that there were people there to greet me! I was scared no one would show up or something and I'd be stranded at the airport. But everything went as planned and so my little welcome entourage took me out for dinner. Even though it wasabout 7pm and dark out it was still about 30'C! Sooo hot. We drove to the restaurant, called Joyful, and I ate my first Chinese meal. It was exhausting trying to eat new food (with chopsticks!) and talk to everyone but it was a lot of fun. I ate more seafood in one meal than I've ever eaten in my life. We even had a fish, complete with head and tail! That was a little alarming at first, but it tasted really good. After dinner we went to my new home, a really big apartment. My luggage was already in my room. I think my room here is bigger than my room at home! It even has it's own little bathroom, just a sink and toilet, which is great. Anyway, I took a shower and went to bed, exhausted from my long trip.

The next few days have sort of been a blur of meeting new people, eating new foods, going to new places. On my first day in Jhongli my brother, Anson, took me around the streets and park near the apartment. My host mother, who I call Mama, had me take an umbrella with me to keep off the sun. I felt silly carrying an umbrella in bright sunshine, but I've been doing it every time I go out since then. I had about 3 naps that first day because I was still so tired. The second day Anson and the twins, Wynn and Tanya, took me down to the local swimming pool (I know right? Them: Elyse, lets go swimming! Me: Oh, dear Lord...). It's actually like 2 lane pools, a kid's water park/playground, a sort of relaxing pool with jet chairs and such, a room with hot and cold pools each about the size of hottubs, and saunas. We spent a few hours there and I had a lot of fun. It's funny though, everyone has to wear a swim cap to go in the pools and everyone has goggles. So I also had to get goggles and a swim cap haha. Not that I ever get my head wet though...Anyway. We also went to the night market that night, which is a lot of fun. It's right around the corner from the apartment. So many things to see and do eat, it's sensory overload haha. I've been...twice now, I think. I've sort of lost track of the days, so don't quote me on them haha. The next evening I learned how to make and pour tea. It's very different from how we do it in North America. The teapot is very small and so are the cups. You only steep the tea leaves for 30sec before pouring and the leaves can be used a couple of times before new leaves are needed. I really enjoyed the whole tea thing, it was interesting. Plus the tea is good. :) The next day (maybe? seriously, I've lost count) the oldest sister in my family, Stella, came to visit with her daughter, who is adorable! She took myself, Anson, the twins, and another sister with her baby boy out shopping in Taoyuan. Them all was huge and I almost died from shopping excitement. No, I didn't buy anything haha, just a water bottle as I've been drinking water like a fish. Oh, and Stella bought me a drink at Starbucks. :D Last night was my first Rotary meeting with my host club. It went well. I made a little introduction speech, which my counsellor's wife, Shirley, translated for the club. Many of the members speak decent English, which is cool. Afterwards we went out for a 'second meeting' which is just a casual gathering of some of the members at a local Taiwanese restaurant. It was a lot of fun getting to talk to everyone. Oh, and I noticed they really like to drink Heineken here haha. Yeah, I know, odd thing to pick up on. Oh, and somewhere in this week I also went to my school and picked up my uniform. My school is huge, I'm so going to get lost hahah. I start school on Monday, I'm nervous! Anyway, I gotta go and get some lunch. More later!

Elyse

Here are some pictures from last night's Rotary meeting (one of the members took these, I don't have my pictures uploaded to the computer yet so this is all I have to show as of now):