My name is Kathryn and I am the authoress of this blog. I am going to be an exchange student to Yilan, Taiwan. Mandarin Chinese is my chosen form of communication followed by the dialect of Taiwanese. At the moment, I know little to no Mandarin. Anything that I 'know' is carryover from eight years worth of Japanese and that's still not much. Side note, my brother thinks it's funny to take the names of countries and add -ese or -ish to the end and say that his new word is the official language of that country. Austriaish, Americaese, Canadaish... you get the picture. Imagine his surprise when I told him that yes, Taiwanese is an actual language. 
Taiwan is an island off the southeastern coast of China. It lies on the Tropic of Cancer and, according to Wikipedia, is roughly 10 miles north of Oahu, Hawaii. The northern part of the island has a rainy season that lasts from January through late March during the northeast monsoon. The entire island experiences hot, humid weather from June through September. My hair is curly and by curly, I mean that it has a mind of it's own. Somehow, my hair and I have come to an agreement over who's boss. I'm not sure how that agreement is going to hold up in the humidity. The only thing I know for sure is that there is no way I'm going to be able to straighten it. That's a disaster waiting to happen. Taiwan was first 'discovered' by the Portuguese in 1544. They were so enchanted by the landscape that they named the island Ilha Formosa or the Beautiful Island.
My new hometown of Yilan (宜蘭市) is located in a northeastern part of Taiwan and in a county of the same name. I honestly don't know much about it. I tried looking on Wikipedia but there wasn't much information. When I find out more, I will definitely share. Haha, that's the point of this blog isn't it? To share my experiences.
I'm so much better than Wikipedia.
K
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