A normal Thursday

The results of mid-term test came yesterday. I'm quite disappointed, but now I've learned to be more thorough with the strokes. Anyways, people have told me that my Chinese speaking has improved which made my happy!

It was really hot today and the culture class in Chinese yo-you (which takes place outdoor) was exhausting. The only time that I honestly freeze is in the classroom where the super AC blows in my back.

In Chinese class today we learned how to say "I'm a stupid student!" in Chinese (directly from the textbook). However, I do like the classes. It's not only about vocabulary and correct pronuncitation, the Taiwanese culture has a big part as well. The teacher tell us about food dishes that we have to try (like stinky tofu and paigufan) and googles food pictures. We also listen to Taiwanese music on youtube and watch movies with Jay Chow (a very popular Taiwanese actor). We often discuss social issues In Taiwan which I find interesting enhance our understanding for the people here.

In the kungfu class we learned self defense, that is basically how to break a wrist or punch the balls (which someone expressed so perfectly). It was quite unpleasant to have a chokehold on my throat (even though I for sure know it's just practice). We'll have a performance with the kungfu moves at the end of the programme!

The dessert of the day: Belgian waffle with oreo cookie, banana and chocolate sauce!

Taipei City Zoo

Today we went to the zoo in Taipei and I was excited like a kid! Among all amazing and fascinating animals there were some that was extra fun to see. I liked the nocturnal house (a building with artifical light for night active animals) with porcupines ans loris (they moved so slow!) and sloths.

I also liked turtles, black ghost knifefish, penguins and the panda. There aren't many pandas left in China due to humans that have shrinked the habitat area enormously, which is very sad. It was a cool and surreal experience to have a look at the two pandas Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan eating bamboo, knowing that they shouldn't be there. Too bad the penguins didn't slide on the cliff but they looked truly wacky when they walked around.

Me and Yuan Yuan. Hen ke´ aí a!

Recap of the third week

OMG. It's already been three weeks. During the third week we've been practice (I've been practice song and dance more than study) for a karaoke performance with the class. The karaoke contest was on Friday. It was fun, both to see the other classes and to stand on the stage. We also had field trip on Wednesday where we went to Jinshan which is by the coast. I thought we were going to swim in the ocean but we just spent the whole day at a BBQ place (a bit from the beach). Each class got a BBQ kit and we grilled meat, tofu, mushrooms and some other stuff (most things got burned). After that we had a tremendous water battle!

Soaked wet!!! (How do you win a water battle?)

On Friday night we went to Shilin night market. There was a shelter where children sat and fishing shrimps and small fish. The whole thing seemed fun and sweet till spotted a white-hot BBQ grill and a poor shrimp on the grid... Anyways, it was fun to go somewhere out of the school area because during weekdays we seldom go far away.

At the Japanese place (my favorite restaurant) eating noodles.

Chinese yo-yo in the Chinese culture class.

The karaoke performance singing a song about bad our Chinese (as we are in the first class).

At Taipei City Hall having the most delicious freshmade passion fruit ever!

Culture lecture about sky lanterns. Here is my group and the lantern. We're gonna light the lantern on the graduation evening.

Norway

I've read the news about the terror attack in Norway. The information seemed to be unbelievable. I read the article again. So sad.

Steak and Chinese practice at the night market!

In the OCAC programme we get food coupons that can be used in some restaurants . It's great that we don't need to pay for the food... but one get tired after a while as we often go to the bread store just around the corner (or the Japanese place where we are "stammisar" and even the staff recognize us! :P). So, yesterday (on Saturday) me and my sister went to the night market to have dinner. It was so much people and it took forever to go one single step. We ended up at a street food place and had delicious steak with noodles and egg (eggs seems to be included in 99% of all Taiwanese food- in sandwiches, fried dumplings, with rice...). The plate was super warm and fried the egg that chief hatched just a few seconds before we got our plates.

The steak. Note the steam and the half fried egg.

I really like the street food and the many choices of food here. 1-0 to Taiwan in this category. In my opinion, Sweden doesn't have any equivalence except for hot dog (I don't know if I should laugh or cry). It may be because of some law concerning hygiene. However, since I came here I haven't got sick or food poisoned. Another reason may be culture differences. Taiwanese (almost) never cook at home, they go out and eat because it's good, cheap and it saves time.

I found a pair of jeans shorts that I really liked at the market. It's been a small project to find a pair of plain jeans shorts as Asians fancy paints, bling bling and ripped design. I accomplished to bargain. IN CHINESE. (Not very much but still!). Woho! The useful is:

可以便宜一點？

keyi pianyi i dian? (in pinyin)

Shopping

I have to admit that Taipei has fantastic shopping when it comes to clothes and electronics (although I dislike the word "shopping" as I associate it with overconsumption and impulsive purchases). There are many markets and malls (you can buy a shirt from 100 NT dollar or 10000 NT dollar).

Today was a really hot day, about 32 C. I bought an umbrella that was broken after two minutes. Yay quality...not) so we went to some malls where we for sure have AC. We also went to a place to have dessert. I had shaved ice with mango, not very complicated but lovely in the heat.

However, places that I've been to so far are:

• Shi da night market by He Ping Road. Very good street food! Fancy stores.
• Ximen- there is everything here from street tattoo to fruit drinks.
• Wufenpo by Houshanpi station. A place completely drowned in clothes. Very cheap- if one know how to bargain.
• Shilin night market. The fried chicken here is sooo good!
• Taipei main station.
• eslite mall.
• Taipei 101. Very exclusive shops. I mean it.

At Ximen. So crowded with people and shops.

Food Heaven

I'm in food heaven. Here in Taipei you can find anything you like. There are Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Korean, American restaurants and many more. You can walk for maximum 5 minutes and find something to eat. And the best thing is that it's so cheap. You can get a good meal (for example soup, seafood pasta and beverage) for 100 NT dollar which is about 25 SEK. The best thing I've tested so far is beef noodles (níroumien).

Jumbo crêpes with mango ice cream at Shi Da night market.

Frozen yogurt at Ximen.

Pastry bakery near the university.

Fried taiwanese dumplings!

Haha...

• There's a counselor here named Cake. And guess what? Her brother's name is Donut.
• It took me one week (note: one week only) before I began to use an umbrella to protect myself from the sun. I feel so silly.
• The word for apple and ass sounds almost the same In Chinese.

2nd week

This week has gone so rapidly. I've learned a lot during classes so in comparison to the first day I can understand almost half of what people say (instead of nearly nothing). Also, I know the basics in typing Chinese on computer using pin-yin (the pronouciation system).

We listened an hour on the first lesson to different bopomofo-songs. This helps us to figure out how to pronounce character we've never seen before. Well, they really stick into your head...

It's been raining quite much the last few days which makes the temperature slightly cooler. But, tomorrow there'll be no electricity in the entire university building due to electrical maintenance. That is- no AC!

Let me introduce AC, my new best friend.

Pics from Reunion

At the italian restaurant with H, Hs and G. Cute puddings for dessert. Almost too cute to eat. ^^

Hair cut!

A bored Sutina + a scissor + long hair = hair cut. And long hair means that I haven't seen my mum for a long time 'cause everytime I go home my mum cuts my hair. I'm not home sick in that sense whether I miss Sweden or not, but I miss mum and dad...

Before. What a hair-curtain!

After. I can see again! (these ego pics make me feel like a "fjortis", haha :P).

OCAC festival in Danshui

Sorry for the unfrequent updates... I'll do my best to tell what we've been up to these days. Last Saturday we went to Danshui, a city situated by the coast. It was a beautiful place with sea, restaurants and a bridge. The main reason we went there was to participate in the OCAC (Oversea Compatriot Affairs Commision) festival. OCAC is a commision where Oversea Taiwanese people donate financial resources to a fund, which is used to scholarship for learning chinese and chinese culture. So all the programmes in OCAC gathered during this festival to watch and perform dance and music. The television was there and also the vice president of Taiwan. It was a great day with free time to explore the area and then I represented Sweden on stage and after that we performed the three-days-of-practice-dance. We rocked!

Standing on the bridge with some friends and counselors.

There are students from many countries in OCAC.

The dance performance! (I'm the one with white shirt.)

Achromia

I saw an albino person at the airport in Beijing and two days ago another person with albanism walked on the street near the university. This made me interested in the gene mutation. People with albanism have less or no pigment in the skin and this is caused by lack of an enzyme. The disease is inherited from both parents. Albanism does also occur in animals.

Reunion

I met up with my Taiwanese friends this evening that I haven't seen for a year. It was so nice to see them all again! We went to an italian restaurant in Shi Da.

At Chiang-Kai Shek Memorial hall.

Taipei 101. The building is huge and it's quite amazing that it still standing there as typhons are very common in Taipei.

Having dessert (fika!) with Hank and sister. Delicious ice cream shake!

Culture class & Modern Toilets

Several times a week we have culture classes and yesterday I learned some Chinese Yo-Yo and Kung Fu. It was so fun! At first the yo-yo seemed simple but when I hold the sticks myself the spinning thing doesn't act as I wish. We get to learn som tricks and we'll have a test next week. I'm gonna be as good as the teachers's children who were there and performed:

The kungfu class was quite simple and we learned the ten basic steps. It was like the first time that I exercised since I came here as training that I normally enjoy so much is not really the first thing I think of when it's 36 degrees outside. One cannot really take a walk as in Sweden as the air is so full of pollution and it's terrible traffic.

Last night we went to Modern toilet in Shihlin to have dinner. Odd place for sure. The food is served in toilets and the dessert is poo-like chocolate ice cream.

The dessert.

Wall decorations.

There were about 100 different toilet seats.

Have I mentioned that I'll have a dance performance with a group from school for the vice Taiwan president tomorrow? Oh my...

First Lesson

When I woke up this morning they hade put up the list of the classes on the notice bord. I'm in the beginner class (well, of course). So, the first lesson was great as I understood what the teacher said and he was so funny. We got lots of text books and will also perform karaoke and drama together.

Ooops...

Taiwan is different from Sweden in many aspects. One of them is how the toilets work. They informed yesterday that one cannot flush down anything in the toilet. Including the toilet paper. If doing so the paper will get stuck. Thanks for the information. But it came a bit too late as me and my roommates (that are from Austria and Canada) already used the toilet as we normally do. The counselors here weren't that happy when we reported this. Well, you learn something new everyday.

Placement test

Today we have the placement test to see which class we should be in. The test includes listening, reading, writing and oral parts. I could've just skipped this as my answer sheets were practically blank. It was totally awful! But that also reminded me why I'm, to learn Chinese.

I also got good news. We got our bagage today and I've bought a voltage converter so now I may use my computer.

The First Day

Now me and my sister are in Taiwan. Finally! I haven't figured out how to use the internet in the dorms yet so I use the school's computer now. To sum up my experiences till now: it's complicated to not have your luggage, Taiwanese are very nice but not very good at English, and it's SO FREAKING WARM here. The air is humid which makes you completely soaked wet. Kind of wrong order on the pics, but here you go:

Some bakery at the Shi Da night market near the universty.

Sight from the air somewhere between Moscow and Beijing.

Me at Cityterminalen in Stockholm on our way to Arlanda.

The First Day

Now me and my sister are in Taiwan. Finally! I haven't figured out how to use the internet in the dorms yet so I use the school's computer now. To sum up my experiences till now: it's complicated to not have your luggage, Taiwanese are very nice but not very good at English, and it's SO FREAKING WARM here. The air is humid which makes you completely soaked wet. Kind of wrong order on the pics, but here you go:

Some bakery at the Shi Da night market near the universty.

Sight from the air somewhere between Moscow and Beijing.

Me at Cityterminalen in Stockholm on our way to Arlanda.

Taiwan-here we come!

I didn't sleep so well, but what do one expect before such a journey? The first phase was passed without problem- to catch the bus to Stockholm. Me and my sister took a taxi that smelled weird and we calculated the price is ridiculous (especially for a student like me). 32 SEK/min or 1920 SEK/h. Oh dear.

Sangfroid

Yesterday was my last day at work. Time has really passed so fast and I've made my best to use this limited time at home. I've barbequed, played ultimate, read in the hammock, had fika with friends, baked a lot and been with the family.

People have asked me if I'm nervous about going to Taiwan and it's quite strange but I'm not nervous at all. I should be a little frightened (it would be the most normal state I guess). After all, I've never been abroad for such long time period and I don't know the language. It might be that I'm cool with this whole thing because I feel mentally prepared and I have my sister with me.

However, the only mission I had today was to have a kebab pizza. I dare say the best kebab pizza are made in my hometown Jönköping. (I know, this pic is not very impressive).