Crisis Month

Hey

I need to take a moment and rage. Bear with me.

Public transportation hates me this week. I missed my train home yesterday by milliseconds and spent a hour sitting on the platform waiting for the next one. Which wouldn't have been that big of a deal except I hadn't had lunch yet and my sleep schedule is all messed up and I only got six hours of sleep the night before... I was not in a very good mood at all.

Not mention, I'm normally super lucky with this kind of thing. I have yet to get on the wrong train (knock on wood) or missed my bus or anything like that.. Although, there was this one time I had a total blond moment and thought I did. That was an interesting day... I managed to sunburn my entire body, but that's a story for later.

Oh, and then this morning I was ready to leave a little earlier than usual so I went on Facebook and then somehow I managed to miss my bus. I saw the bus pulling away from the curb and said "don't let it be my bus, don't let it be my bus.." and it was.. I still don't know how it happened.
The sucky thing is that I take the very last bus because I'm too lazy to get up before 6 and they're all before seven am so I was kinda stuck... But it wasn't as bad as yesterday because I just went home and slept for a couple more hours and then took a train to school (which is where I am now)

Oh the joys of being an exchange student....

*******

Charlie McDonnell
aka charlieissocoollike

About a week ago, I was watching some videos by a YouTuber by the (screen)name of charlieissocoollike. He's British (his #1 coolness factor) and make for some interesting videos.

Last week-ish Charlie had a 'Youtube Mid-Life Crisis Week' in which he posted every day for one week to prove to himself that he could do it... He is a Quaility vs Quantity sort of person and thus he doesn't post all the time.

His second video during Crisis Week was called 'Don't Break the Chain'.

In this video Charlie introduces one of his anti-procrastination techniques (which shares a name with the video) Basically, you create a goal (Charlie's example- working on a screen play) and set a minimum amount of time you must work on it in one day (CEx- half an hour) and then buy/print out a little calendar and X out every day you meet the requirements.

I have a slight problem with procrastination (if you haven't noticed) and I REALLY want to tell you about every thing thats happened since I posted back in December so I'm going to 'not break the chain' for the month of May.

I have an idea of how I'm going to do this and hopefully you won't get sick of me. My story telling skills will be put to the test haha.

You know.. If you think about it, it's kinda like Im having a Mid/Late-Exchange-Life Crisis Week.. Except it will be a month. Ahh. This seems like a daunting task, but if I can not see my family or friends for 8 months (!!!!!!!!!) then I can most certainly do this.

Ready.. set...

May 1- Check
May 2- Check

Two days down.. Twenty-nine to go...

Wish me luck.

Kat



PS~
I actually had to set a schedule for this post because if I posted it now (1:01pm May 2), it would still be May 1st for most of you, where as if I set it to post at 12:01am Pacific Daylight Time then it will be 3:01pm May 2 here... Wins all around. :D

PPS~
Oh and if there's anything you are curious about please comment or facebook me and let me know! I would be more than happy to answer any questions you may have (Not to mention I will probably need some help in the topics department...) :)

Okay, I'm done now
Xoxox

Spring has Sprung!

Hey all!

Sorry about how long its been since I've posted! I have been trying to write something for a while now.... I have so many stories I want to share but the OCD part of me won't let me tell without catching you up on everything since Christmas... I've realized that this is not going to happen and I really want to post something soooo I'm just going to start from today, May 1st. :)

*******

Once when I was little, I spent the night at my cousin's house and happened to be with her for the first of May. We were outside in her garden and noticed all of the beautiful flowers growing in the garden. We thought they were so beautiful that we decided to pick all of the flowers we could carry and leave them on her neighbors doorsteps so they could see how beautiful the flowers were too.

X amount of years later and now I'm half way around the world and it is May first. Since Spring really looks different in Taiwan, I thought I could continue this little childhood ritual and share the love.

So here you go, Spring in Taiwan

*******

 

 

Following the leader.. the leader..  the leader
following the leader where ever he may go 

*******

More later!

Xoxo
Kat

Thanksgiving in January

This is horribly late... But better late than never.. Right?

As you all know, one of the major holidays in the US is Thanksgiving. Considering the fact that there are no Indians or Pilgrims in Taiwan, they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here. I wasn't really planning on doing anything to celebrate.. Well, I was planning on getting a little bit homesick and then skyping my dad's side of the family and wishing I was there so I could eat all of the yummy food (I miss mashed potatoes sooo much), do a puzzle with my cousin and try my hardest to kick my extended family's butts at cards. Alas, it was not to be...

I told one of my Chinese teachers about this wonderful holiday and everything I was missing in a "Look at what we do in America!" sort of way. She must've seen my homesickness because she came by during one of my other Chinese classes (Don't forget, I have three Chinese teachers), and asked if I wanted to do something during lunch for Thanksgiving.

Heck to the yes!

She and two other teachers went and got two pizza, two roasted chickens and two huge bottles of Coke. They brought it back to the school and we had quite the feast! The pizzas were interesting. One was American style- I think it had pepperoni on it- and the other was a shrimp pizza. Believe it or not, I liked that shrimp one better. :3 The chicken was super yummy. We ate them with plastic gloves.. Which was interesting..

There were six of us. Me, two of my Chinese teachers, (Katy and Lizzie) a two student teachers, (I know one's name is Pobby) and one of the PE teachers (I don't know her Chinese name.. It sounds really close to Ron-Ron so that's what I call her in my head)

While we worked our way though all of the food, we talked about the differences between life in the USA and Taiwan and a variety of other things.. They even tried to teach me a bit of Taiwanese but I don't remember any of it. After we finished our food, Katy, Pobby and I borrowed some guitars from the music classroom and Pobby taught me a Taiwanese song about friendship. (I think...) It was pretty nifty :) After that, I joined Ron-Ron's PE class for a little bit. We played kickball. It was super duper fun :)

All in all, my Thanksgiving was pretty freaking amazing. I wouldn't have it any other way :)

Yes, I am still alive

Hello! It's been too long since I last wrote. More than a month. Bad Kathryn. I would've written sooner but I changed families and blogspot decided to be a butthead and not work unless I have Google Chrome. The school computers don't have Google Chrome and I haven't figured out how to get on the internet on the computer at home... :( I will remedy that ASAP. I also didn't know where to start since so much has happened since I posted... I've decided to dedicate today to getting everything written down. I'm pretty sure it's going to take alllll day. Uhg... Where to start...    

Lovely Language

So.. I went to speak Japanese the other day and it came out this awkward mix of Chinese and Japanese... wo daisuki ni... (I'm pretty sure my Japanese isn't even correct.) It took my Chinese teacher looking at me like I had grown a second head for me to realize my mistake. It was embarrassing.

Maybe this means my brain is finally switching over to Chinese.. One can only hope.

Speaking of switching to Chinese...

So.. This is a close up of the sheet music for the Taiwanese song.
I didn't have it completely translated until about a week ago so I had to
mumble through the last half of the song. I felt really special.

There is going to be this big choir competition at school tomorrow. I have no idea what's going on other than
1) My class is going first
2) I have to wear my skirt and short sleeved shirt
3)Each class is singing two songs: Alleluia (Canon?) and a song of their choosing. My class chose a song called, wait for it...


母親的名叫台灣 

Yah. Imagine my reaction when I got the sheet music. It was something along the lines of.. You expect me to sing this? haha I can totally read Chinese. I don't know what your talking abo-It's Taiwanese?! Great. Never mind. I take that back. HELP!!

I now know it's pronounced Mu Chin E Mia Gyo Daiwan and a rough English translation is Mother's Name is Taiwan.  It's actually a really pretty song. (I found a video of the Kaohsiung Chamber performing this song here. The only difference is that we don't have guys to sing it with us.)

I'll let you know how things go tomorrow. I'll even bring my camera and see if I can rope someone into taking pictures so you can play Where's The Foreigner :)

You have Mail :)

One of my best friends, Aubrey, is on exchange in Bolivia. According to her, internet in Bolivia is not as... available.. as it is in the US or Taiwan. Because of that, we have to resort to snail mail. :)

To be honest, I've never corresponded with someone via airmail. I've never really had a reason to. Emails have always been more convenient so this is a welcome change.

(Granted, I totally cramped up my hand writing my three page response but whatever)

Getting this letter was really exciting. I talked a little bit with Aubrey this morning on FB and she asked if I had received her letter yet. (To which I replied 'No.. :(' ) Our conversation continued and eventually came to a close.

My day went on as usual.. PE, Chinese, lunch, naptime... It literally flew by. Soon it was time for dinner. When I went downstairs for dinner, my host mom had a little surprise for me.....

Mail from Bolivia <3

Mail! From Aubrey!! Super duper exciting! Today's been a really good day but tearing open this little white envelope was certainly the best part! :D

I read the letter while I quickly ate dinner and then I booked upstairs to write my return letter. It looks something like this......

Don't ask me why it's sideways. I blame the camera. :)

********

On to other things...


Yilan has the weirdest weather. It can be overcast when I go to school, sunny after about 9am and raining when I go home. I'm too lazy to check the weather in the morning so it's always a surprise.

It rained a whole bunch on Tuesday (my host mom got mad at me for riding my bike home in the rain..) But these last few days have been really really nice. So nice, I was motivated to take my camera with me to school. :)

These top two pictures are from Wednesday morning. I'm really happy with how the colors turned out. They were taken on the road that I take to get to school. I've been meaning to take pictures of this area but never had my camera with me.

The bottom three were taken around 5pm. Same road as before but from the opposite direction. 

One thing I love about the scenery here is that the mountains look like they belong in an ancient Chinese scroll painting. (With good reason considering the artists based their images off their surroundings..) 

Funny little tidbit about me...

When I was little, whenever the sunset was particularly breathtaking, my mom would always say something about how god painted the sky. I don't really remember her saying that (she told me the stories) but I've always seen the sky as a huge canvas and my surrounding are a picture to be taken.

There are more pictures in Worth a Thousand Words :)

***********
I feel like that last part didn't make sense.... But I can't think of how to make it make sense... Ahh... I'm losing my English and I really can't speak Chinese at all.. HELP!

I'm gonna stop before I confuse you even more...

Byeee

K

2 Months??

The girls of Yilan <3

As of today, October 25th, I've been in Taiwan for two whole months. I really don't know how this happened. I feel like my sense of time is all twisted.. (Or broken. It's most likely broken.)  It seems like yesterday that I was getting ready to leave and at the same time it feels like I've been here for an eternity. School is painfully long and yet the days fly by.

Watch, all a sudden it will be Thanksgiving... and then Christmas... and then New Years.. Then my birthday... Chinese New Years.. Valentine's day... Easter.. Dragon boat festival... the year end trip...

It's rather mind blowing when you put it in perspective with holidays and events, eh?

I vacillate between wanting it to be the end (because then I will finally be able to speak Chinese and my Taiwanese friends and family can start planning their trips to see me in the US) and wanting Hermione Granger's time-turner so I never have to reapply for a visa and can stay here forever. :D

Anywho... I have nothing else to say except time flies and I wouldn't trade these last two months for the world. :)

~K