流星 (Liúxīng)...

... means meteor or shooting star. I learned this and other fancy words today at the "Let's Sing in Chinese" class. It was the first time I went there (since the supplementary classes are not mandatory for me). I was just curious and it turned out to be really fun. The lyrics have another level than the everyday language (for example, "How do I get from school to the MRT station?" or "Which dish do you recommend?") we practice in the classroom and we learn to appreciate the songs. Chinese, like English, is a beautiful language with many phrases that are hard to translate to other languages because some things are tightly connected to Chinese culture and traditions. I'll definitely go to this class again!

1st December

Ok, I cannot deny that the last week I have become more and more homesick. Suddenly it feels like it's super long until 1st of December, the day I'll return home. The skype date yesterday with my family was the highlight of the week. Just to hear all the familiar voices, see everybody on the other side of earth through the webcam, the chat in itself does not really matter. I hope and think this is just something temporarily. Now I'll take the MRT to house dance and try to think of something else.

Solid&Liquid Phase

The beverages here do not only contain liquid, you can choose jelly, fruit pieces and pearls. The pearls are made of tapioca flavor and the texture is chewy. It's an odd sensation to suck up the pearls through the big straw along with the juice or tea.

Passion fruit drink with black pearls and coconut.

I Miss...

I have been in Taiwan for 84 days in this very moment I write this entry . Never in my life have I been away from Sweden and my family so long. In the beginning, everything was new and different from what I was used to.

This week the weather has change, it's below 30 degrees now, not humid at all and a little windy. Autumn is here. It's very comfortable (I can actually go out without sweating like a pig). It took a while to get used to the Taiwanese weather but as with everything else here I learn to adapt. Or to some extent. I do miss some things at home (apart from my dear family and friends):

1. A normal Swedish breakfast with "havregrynsgröt" or yoghurt and WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. (How can something so simple taste so good?) Whole wheat bread is not a hit here. Taiwanese bread often APPEARS tasty but is whiter than the color white and has no substance.
2. Swedish music and concerts. I saw a poster that Westlife will play in Taipei (my favourite band in the teenage, I even have one of their CDs. Haha.)
3. "Skogspromenader".
4. To have a kitchen and to bake (I wanna make an apple pie with lots of crumbles!).
5. To be able to drink pure water from the tap.

So tonight I have Håkan Hellström singing in background.

Zabu Café

Friday. Finally. (Or the clock just passed 12 so it's actually Saturday now). I spent the Friday afternoon with a Taiwanese friend C and we had a fika at Zabu (no pics, unfortunately). It's a chill café near where I live with two or three cats strolling around, delicious brownies and music in the background. It's kind of fun how we get to know each other. We met at the hostel where my parents stayed at. Just a few days before I met C for the first time she planned to study in Linköping, so the whole thing it's a real coincidence (or fate?!). Anyways, it was nice to chat and just hang somewhere outside school.

Taiwanese Gym

I go to the campus gym 2-3 times a week to run and weight training. I miss the Body Pump classes at Campushallen, therefore I do my own version here. However, I have no music device so it's not the same thing. And only at Taiwanese gym do they play cheesy power ballads. Only. That makes my energy drop. I don't want to do body building (just imagine me with super muscles... I would look so weird, haha!) just to be healthy.

Sometimes when I look around I really get scared. Some people just have the most awful technique when lifting weights. I'm absolutely not a PT but the many Body Pump classes with skilled instructors have helped me. I think it's very important to have a good position so you get the best out of the training and don't get injured.

In the same building as the gym are also dance studios, martial arts room, pingpong room and gymnastics room. The gymnastic athletes look so cool and I think some of them are in the national team.

8,400 000 000 Paper Cups

As I've mentioned before there are so many restaurants and beverage shops here and people very often take-out. Of course, this results in tremendous amounts of garbage and honestly I don't know how the Taiwanese government solves this problem. If, in average, a person take-away once per day it'll be one paper cup, one paper box and a plastic bag times the number of inhabitants in Taiwan which is about 23000000 paper cups/plastic cups and equally many paperboxes for only one day. Simple maths gives 8,395,000,000 plastic cups (8,4 billion) a year. What a waste! Another problem is that there are few public garbage tins. Far from all items are recycled so I can imagine that the take-outs are a very big expense for the society and the environment.

I've seen some people use thermobottles when they buy coffee in cafés and use their own chopsticks (instead of single-time-use bamboo sticks, mostly because of hygience reasons) but it's rare. There are signs that encourage people to "save the environment" and "please recycle", to what extent do they help? In my opinion, the problem can only decrease by less use of throwaway items.

Illustration of my calculations.

To throw home garbage is quite different from (at least where I live now). We have buy blue plastic bags from 7-eleven to put the garbage in. Every night (except at Wednesdays and Sundays) at 10.30 pm the garbage car comes and it plays a squeaky melody to notify its arrival (just like "Hemglassbilen"). So by this time people come from every direction with blue bags and queue to throw away garbage. Really nice gathering.

The garbage truck with high-pitched melody. (I have to confess that it was embarrasing when I picked out my camera to snap a picture. People must think that I'm insane that find the garbage truck so interesting.)

Notes

I've just finished a delicious pecantoffee pie with a cup of tea, mums! A great reward after many hours of study. Now we're in our third week of classes and pace faster than the first week. We usually go through one chapter every third day and round up with a test including listening, grammar and sentence pattern.

In class, our teacher writes SUPER FAST and I write SUPER SLOW so I have no chance to take notes (and in addition, it looks so crappy and I just want to cry when I review). My mum jokes with me that I'm suppose to write the characters, not draw them. Anyways, I've started to take pics of the whiteboard instead and I think this really help me out. Otherwise, I just focus on writing and forget to listen. And yeah, it has happen that when it's my turn to answer a question I'm just completely lost (multi-tasking? Not, when it comes to learning Chinese).

Question-and-answer-time!

Giant Papaya

My parents always tell me that I should take the oppurtunity to eat things that one cannot buy in Sweden. So I bought a huge papaya. It took forever to peel it! It had fire-ish colour and tasted so good, not too sweet and perfectly juicy. I've never liked papaya before because of the slimy texture, but this one was actually not slimy at all.

Good or Bad Sign?

I'm actually nervous for the third "big" test that'll take place in 20 minutes. I usually never think so much, but this time is different. Is this a sign that I begin to take things serious (not that I ever doubted my studies) or just that I don't know my grammar?

Hsinchu

Yesterday I went to Hsinchu for a daytrip where my taiwanese friend H lives. Hsinchu is located in the northwest part of Taiwan and is a rendezvous for hightech. (Taiwan is remarkably good at elctronical devices for example asus, acer, msi and HTC are all taiwanese brands. Very impressing for such a small country.)

Hsinchu is also famous for its glass production so we went to the glass museum. There were mostly glass art in the exhibition, but also the history of glass. This made me realize that glass is used in so many ways like lightening, laboratory equipments (which I found interesting), technological equipments and optielectronics.

We went to the beach in the afternoon. And at the first sight it seemed like something was wrong but I couldn't put me finger on what. However, when I looked around it struck me everybody had their clothes on (some even had long jeans and long sleeves), and not swimmingsuit. Not a single girl had bikini. Conclusion: Taiwanese people are super shy (and conservative). Therefor I followed the dress code and kept my top. It was so nice to run into the water and strike the waves. Some people were kite surfing and it looked so cool (I want to try that!).

H was a great guide and we went by scooter to these different places (and I felt so much like a taiwanese when I sat on the scooter with the big helmet on. Haha).

At the glass museum (looks like the glass production in Gränna).

At the beach.

Kite surfing!

On the "moppe". (Haha, I look like an astronout with the helmet.)

Why did I choose to study Chinese?

I've always have a strong will in what I do and what I want to do. And I know, it sometimes drives my parents crazy when I promptly want to jump bungee jump or whatever that make them worried. And this time I decided to study Chinese in Taiwan.

So, why did I choose to study Chinese?

When I was about 7 years old I started to take Chinese Mandarin classes once a week after school. I think I wanted to learn but it was so hard and confusing together with Swedish, English and Chinese Teochew (the dialect we talk at home). So I quit Chinese classes and later in 6th grade I started to take French. In my teenage I saw no point of learning Chinese, I mean, when will I ever use that in Sweden where everybody speak Swedish and have English as second language?

At home my family often watch Chinese movies or listen to Chinese music, but I preferred Westlife, The Ark and Harry Potter. Perhaps, partly because I was kind of annoyed that I didn't understand a word of the Chinese movies.

But people change with time and so did I. It slowly came up to me that it's not ok that I, with a Chinese background, cannot read or write Chinese. I wanted to take Chinese classes during high school, but it was quite impossible as I my brain was already overloaded of International Baccaleurate (IB) stuff. And so it went on. After I graduated from high school, I studied complementary courses in physics and chemistry to be able to get into Engineering in Biology which I later did. At Linköping university I was an international fadder and met some exchange students from China and Taiwan and that made me interested to go there. So, in the third year I decided to take one year off the university studies after I finished the school year, to get away from all the maths, technical courses and all the abstract things we did and just study language instead. (Read more here from my old blog). (And it's kind of fun that during this "free time" I chose to STUDY! Haha). (Love brackets).

So, now I sit here in Taipei, far far away from my family. I understand that they're worried, I would have been that too if it was my child (I guess it's the biological instincts). I've explained it over and over that this a well-reasoned choice, I can take care of myself and I won't be abroad forever. Everytime we talk on skype they always ask me: "Have you eaten enough?" (It's so Chinese). Yes mum, I eat and I EAT A LOT. I love my family and my friends and I miss very much.

Nevertheless, I haven't regret one single second that I decided to come here. I learn a lot in school and I find it meaningful. I may need Chinese in futures jobs, who knows. In addition, I learn how to live by myself, to be independent and to deal with different problems, which I personally think is a very good experience. And it sounds so freaking clicheé but being abroad also make me appreciate more what I at home. It's impossible to not compare with Sweden and Taiwan. I'm happy that Sweden has very very very fresh air, drinkable tap water and no school fee (and a functional sewage system!).

Smoothie In The Park

Saturday. Time for strolling around, grab a delicious peach smoothie, find a bench in the park and just sit for a while.

I cannot come up with another word than "läskande".

Feet freedom.

And have a look at the glossary when I not look at the squirrels...

Clear blue sky. Wonderful.

Japanese Restrooms

On Friday we were five from the class that met up and we went to a nice Japanese BBQ restaurant. But the thing I found the most amusing was the lady restroom because in there was

a whole lot of make-up things like cotton tops, hair pins, spray deo, nailpolish... almost as in my own bathroom. Two girls in the class are from Japan and they laughed so much at me when I wanted to take a picture in the well-equipped restroom. They said that in Japan and Korea it's nothing strange as make up is unbearable for girls. I'm really not that kind of girl, I guess I'm too lazy.

Do You Have A...

... Boyfriend?

I got the question from someone I met for the first time. And it occured not only once, and not only twice but thrice by now. I get shocked every time because in Europe we usually don't ask personal questions (at least not when it's the first time you meet someone). Asians in general are not very shy to ask about private life matters. Culture shock, indeed.

Step Up!

We have already finished the first textbook (we just read the two last ones). So today I bought the second textbook for the fall term. The books are good because they explain in English and cover grammar as well as vocabulary and I think I want to keep them after the course... although I will have so much trouble when I pack my travel bag to go back to Sweden. But that is a later problem.

我的中國書! My Chinese books!

My Room

Before I came to Taiwan I was a little bit worried how to find an accomodation. It turned out to be quite easy, I just went to school and had a look at the bulletin board and saw phone numbers to people that rent out rooms. I decided to rent the first and only room I looked at. My room is about 16 square metres, with furnitures, AC, TV, fridge and own bathroom. It's near to school, like 7 minutes walk and even closer to the Shi da nightmarket.

The price for room rent seemed to be relatively fair, about 2750 SEK per month (electricity not included). But guess if I was shocked when I heard that students at some Taiwan universities only pay 1000NT/SEMESTER(!) for a dorm room. That is about 250 SEK for 5 months which is 50 SEK per month. OMG.

POTÄTER!

It's been weeks, no months since I ate potato. Finally, I found a small restaurant at Shi Da night market with american baked potato with various topping. I had one with tuna and cheese. :)

The baked potato is totally drenched in a creamy cheese sauce.

At Shool....

Everyday I have class from 10.20-13.10 (don't ask me why we don't start and end at so random times). We have a test (almost) every day, we speak a lot and when we're not speaking the teacher bomb us with information. I like the lessons and it feels like I learn a lot. We even learn how to ask "Last time you went out on a night club, how many beers did you drink?" just to practice grammar and pronounciation. Another favourite is "If someone calls you at three in the morning and doesn't talk, what would you do?".

After lunch I often go to the library to do homework. It's inspiring to sit in the library. There're so many different kind of people there from all continents. The students have different purposes for Chinese studies, however, the nice thing is that people seems to study hard and there is a positive atmosphere.

A roll of mentos to keep the blood glucose level steady. Mentos is nostalgy for me because when I was a small child my grandpa always gave me Mentos.

Wakeboarding

My taiwanese friend H asked me if I wanted to go wakeboarding and showed gave me a link with crazy wakeboard-tricks pictures. The answer was YES, of course. I love trying new things. Wakeboard is like snowboard on water with a handle fastened on a boat.

The sun was shining and a little windy when we got to the canal. Perfect. The most critical moment in wakeboarding is to get up from the water to a standing position. In the first round fell all the time and I (unintentionally) drank so much of the greenish-not-looking-too-healthy water (I just have to make an input that it doesn't taste as bad as it appears to be). Anyways, I didn't manage to get up out of three attempts and I was kind of bitter.

But after the warm up it got better. I got inspired by another girl in the group (we were all beginners) who surfed like a pro. It was an amazing feeling to stand on the board (with somewhat shaky knees), to see the white waves from the boat and I couldn't help myself to let out a big "WOOOH!".

We also ride a float-like thing that flew over the water. The boat driver made some mad u-turns and maxed the centripetal force just to see how long we were able to clang on the float. We also had the oppurtunity to sit on the boat and it was so fun to watch friends fly off. I want to thank Hank for a great day. Now three days after I still have "träningsvärk" (according to tyda.se the english word for träningsvärk is "charleyhorse". Haha) that reminds me of the speedy wakeboard rides.

Waiting excitingly for my turn. (Why, why always the victory sign?).

The boat pulls with a great force, no wonder I got so much charleyhorse.

WOOOH!!!

This was totally hilarious. :D

Taiwanese Traffic- Part 4

It's probably the first thing you notice when you come to Taiwan and step out on the streets. There are so many SCOOTERS. Everywhere. This is the most convenient vehicle to transport with as some streets are very narrow, it's relatively cheap (in comparison to a car) and faster than bicycle. And there're not only the stereotypical young boys that ride scooters like in Sweden. All kinds of people have scooters from skinny cute girls (with what seems to be oversized helmets), old people, business men and women in nice suits. In the beginning I was so surprised over the range of people that have scooters, but as I mentioned it's very convenient. Now I think I've getting used to the huge number of scooters when I go outside and just pretend them to be buzzling bees.

By the red lights. There old men, young men and to the right a business man on scooters.

Pre-Moon Festival

The Moon festival is on Monday the 12th Sep. It is a big Chinese festival and people eat moon cakes and spend time with the family. Taiwanese like barbeque too on this day. Since it is a holiday we're off class on Monday. Today, in class we pre-celebrated and each person got a moon cake. So sweet!

Moon cake with thin layer paste with green bean filling.

How To Make An Intensive Course Intensive

There are mainly two kinds of Chinese classes here, Regular classes or Intensive classes. I take the Intensive class because I'll only stay here for one term. In the intensive class we study three hours per day Monday-Friday. So, how do the teacher manage to keep up the pace? Besides lots of struggling with pronounciation, grammar, billions of examples and homework we got some rules to stick to (we have even signed a contract!). The rules are as follow:

• Hand in the homework IN TIME that is no begging to postpone the deadline.
• We MUST ask if we have questions.
• Speak Chinese ONLY during lesson, not even Chinglish is allowed.
• DON'T EAT during class.
• No use of cell phone.

Very simple but efficient rules. No distractions, just let the brain ingests Chinese.

The best thing is that everybody in the class are motivated to learn (in contrast to how it is in Sweden).

-

I've just experienced the worst dance lesson in my life. Way too loud music, arrogant instructor that started class late and ended late (with no obvious reason), chat on Facebook during class and played the same song over and over and over... gah, that is NOT what I paid for.

Job's Tear

In Taiwan there are not only lots of different food but also a vide variety of different drinks from coffee to jelly drink or milk tea. Most things are very tasty. However, the worst thing I've tried so far is Job's Tear drink which is seeds from the plant Coix lacryma-jobi. It tasted rice-like, greyish color, slimy and simply very difficult to swallow. It's suppose to smoothen your skin, but I don't know how much you have to drink before any results show up. So no, I don't recommend it.

MTC...

... or I should call it my second home. I've finally found a class that is appropriate. The classmates are nice and the teacher very professional. The lessons are indeed intense and emphasize mostly on speaking and grammar and not so much on writing. We are only scheduled three hour of class everyday but it is required to put at least four hour of self study to keep up the pace. Also, we have a small test every day.

And the environment is optimal for learning Chinese, small classes (only 8 students in my class), computer room with audio-and visual software as complementary tools. There are supplementary classes like watching Taiwanese drama, pronounciation or culture.

First Day of Fall Term

Today was my first day at MTC. The Mandarin Training Center is a branch of National Taiwan Normal University and is known as one of the best schools if one want to learn Chinese. There are people from all over the world here. But I felt more frustrated than excited when I went to my class in the afternoon as I, for some reason, was placed in a very beginner class (again like in OCAC). After a quick look in the textbook I could draw the conclusion that I need to change to a higher class. In my opinion, the class change procedure seems tricky because nobody can help me to find a suitable class level. First I have to sign out from my current class and then attend to other classes within a week. In the meantime the classes proceed in a quite intense pace as they're intensive courses which will probably be hard to catch up when I find a class that suits. But it would work out, somehow. Although, I'm happy that I have to change class, it actually means that I've learned some Chinese.

Orientation Day

Yesterday was orientation day and information about the formal matters like visa and how the classes work. I I didn't have to deal with anything with my visa after I got it in Sweden for several months ago. Luckily, I took a closer look at my passport after the lecture and realized that I need to extend it which basically means some paper work and running to the Immigration Office to get a stamp.

So the first thing I did today was to print and copy all papers needed and then go the Immigration office just to be told that: "You're here too early, come back the 17th of Sep" because one cannot extent the visa until it's 15 days left to the expiration date. Sigh. Visa is such a thing that is not super fun but necessary to deal with (well, you don't want to be kicked out of the country) and the number of rules may sometimes seem endless. Nevertheless, the girl that helped me in the office was really nice and helpful so there's no need to worry.

Now I'll grab some lunch and then go to my first class for this fall term at Mandarin Training Center!

House Dance

Today me and L went to Lumi Dance School in Zhongxiao Dunha to try house dance. I was very excited about this because I miss dance so much. It turned out to be so different from the classes I took this spring. First of all, there were only two of us there (another girl showed up later). The the leader spoke in Chinese so I didn't get all the stuff she said. We had half an hour of warm up and stretching which is way to long in my opinion. And lastly, some of the steps were completely new for me so at least I learned something new. So I'm not very impressed of this first class, but I liked the fresh dance studio. I'll take other house classes and try other dance styles.

In tiny but cool dance studio. Yeah, it's an incredibly lame pose.

The Food Issue

Even a simple thing as walking on the streetmarket or supermarket I find it very amusing and interesting. I've seen so many weird products that require a whole lot of fantasy to come up with (I save this for another day). When it comes to food I think most things like meat, vegetables, dairy products as well as imported products are relatively expensive. Well, except for instant noodles that is cheap and seems to be a big industry here. It's natural that there are so many restaurants here because most people don't cook at home.

Normal sausages to the left and GIANT sized to the right at Shilin Food Market.

Noodles, noodles, noodles. Several shelves with just noodles with different lenght, width and texture. At SOGO Fresh Market.

Jelly in plastic tubes.

Ox tongue. I try to find a word but I'm speechless (so are the the oxes).

A fish head. Nothing more, nothing less.

Since I don't have a kitchen or even a microwave I cannot cook here. My family jokes with me that when I'm back in Sweden I may have forgotten have to cook (haha!). But there is a water machine (because the tap water is to filthy to drink. Thumbs up for a glass of fresh and cold Swedish tap water!). From the machine one can get hot water, room temperature water and cold water. I've tried instant grain porridge but... I kind of prefer real "havregrynsgröt".

The unbearable water machine!

A pack of instant grain porridge. It tastes sweet and milky.

Gongguan Riverside

I like these free days where I can do whatever I want and time is the last thing I need to consider. After breakfast today I went to the river by Gongguan (about 30 min walk). There's a bridge and nice roads for running or bicycle. One can rent a bike rental center.

Biking roads along the river that leads to nearby parks. Reminds me of Stångån in Linköping.

The bridge over the totally turbid greenish water.

Just have to share this song (a true pre-party song).

Daan Forest Park

Something I often did in Sweden was to take long walks, often in the forest. But here in Taipei taking a walk I cannot even imagine to do. As I've described before the air pollution is massive as well as the traffic. And not to mention the weather (here I go again. Don't misunderstand me, I like Taiwan but the weather... Oh dear... Heavy acidic rain, 36 C and humidity and sometimes typhoons).

Anyways, today I went to Daan Forest park (about 20 min walk from where I live). It was early and not too hot outside. I think I've found a place for nice walks. An oasis, a breathing hole, the nature lovers' ghetto in the middle of all sky skrapers. And it's lovely. There are many different exotic trees (palm trees, woho!), an outdoor amphi theater, running track, playground, black squirrels and lots of benches where one can sit and think of anything or nothing.

Maybe the best thing is that the park wasn't crowded. You can find your own spot and just chill. However, there were people here that trained kungfu, people that sat in a circle and meditated loudly(!), children playing, old folks chatting, romantic couples, atleths in the running track and I even saw someone with binoculars looking for birds.

Small branches that look like roots grow from the bigger branches and just hang in the air. So cool!

Palm trees. This sight made me associate to an exotic sunny beach with blue water.

Running track. I definitely will come back some day with my running shoes.

Foot massage path. It's suppose to benefit your health if you have a foot massage as the feet are connected to different organ and parts of the body.

A black squirrel with an huge furry tail.

Fredagsmys

Here people seldom eat potato (the carbohydrate source are mostly from noodles, rice and bread) and the closest I've come to potato for months is potato chips (with nothing less than sparerib barbeque flavor). Oh I miss som plain boiled potato with fish.

But I'm happy that I can find soymilk in the supermarket, it's so good!

Taiwanese Traffic- Part 3

There are many narrow streets here in Taipei and it's not very convinient to drive car. However. people here are insanely good at parking. And there are scooters everywhere.

Acclimatization

Yesterday, we saw Final Destination 5 at the movie theater (I don't think I've screamed so much ever during a movie. So embarrising). The weather was so chill and comfortable on the way back from the movie theater and when I looked at the thermometer it showed (only) 27 C.

Who I am

Post- OCAC and time to reflect. Participating in the summer term of OCAC 2011 was indeed a good experience. Not only to learn Chinese with good teachers, go on many field trips and meet interesting and fun people, but also to discuss the minor and major culture differences between Asian and Western culture. For example, asians often use a herbal oil against mosquito bites while most Western people would just scratch the bite. When I was younger I often found it hard to answer the simple question: "Where are you from?" Well I was born and raised in Sweden so I can speak Swedish fluently (this may surprise people that don't know me in Sweden but I guess it's the same thing as when I see an obvious non-Chinese speak Chinese) but with Asian background (apparently, just look at me). At home-home we eat all kinds of food from spicy vietnamese food, noodles to "köttbullar" and pasta. Also, we celebrate Chinese New year as well as Christmas and New Year (we seem to seize every chance to eat and have a good time... :P )

Things aren't always black and white and with time (as the minor identity crisis from the young teenage faded) I'm glad to have on foot in Westerna culture and the other one in the Asian culture because it has enriched me in many ways.

In my opinion, this song is sort of the soundtrack for in the OCAC programme: