Adventure Time

I have quite the story for you. I'm almost positive that every traveler worth their salt has had an experience like this so it should make it all the more laughable. (I meant to post it last night but I was so tired, I started to not make sense. Soo you get it a day later. :) I'm too lazy to change the tenses so pretend you're reading this at 11 o'clock pm on Saturday night.I think it actually makes more sense that way...)

******

Ana and I... Aren't we pretty? ;)

This morning, Ana (my Brazilian friend) invited me and Leanne (who was MIA for all of Saturday) to go to the Luodong night market. I said yes and, typical me, put off asking my host mom until just under an hour before I was planning on meeting Ana.

Can you see where this is going? I'd like to call it the Path of Laughingly Epic Failure. It's really pretty this time of year. The trees have just started to turn purple in preparation for the coming fall. Nights (and days for that matter) are steadily getting cooler and despite the weather, there are actually quite a few people around... Sorry. I couldn't resist. Back to the story.

For the last several nighttime outings, my host mom has given off the vibe that she's getting irritated with driving me places. She's been an absolute doll about it don't get me wrong, but I could just tell that she was getting close to her breaking point. It was only a matter of time before she decided that something needed to change.

Tonight was the night. It was time to learn how to use public transportation.

Gulp.

I've never used public transportation by myself. In Austria, Ines (my Austrian twin-sister) took care of all that. My only responsibility was to make sure that my tush got on/off the train when Ines' did. Any other encounters with public transportation were handled by my parents as I was too young to work it myself.

Granted, my hometown isn't big enough to have an underground or anything nifty like that, so transportation is limited to cars, bikes, walking and buses. There are some pretty... interesting... people that take the bus so that was never really encouraged. Eugene is a total hippy town too. A lot of people are super eco-friendly and ride their bikes everywhere. That and (I swear to god) it's pretty much a cultural thing to have a car and drive yourself around. All of these factors added up to me not ever needing to learn how to use public transportation.

Anyway.

Here's what was supposed to happen.

1. Ride my bike to the train station
2. Catch a bus to Luodong
3. Hang out with Ana
4. Take the bus back to Yilan
5. Bike home.

Theoretically, problem isn't.

Reality. Problem is...

1. My host mom drove me to the train station because we mutually decided that I don't know how to get there.

2. We couldn't figure out where I should get on the bus. We spend a good ten minutes driving in circles before we asked someone where I should wait. I ended up sitting on the curb about a block away from the train station.

3. I watched two buses pass me on their way to places unknown before I got up to ask the driver of the next bus if that bus goes to Luodong. (Think about how much easier this would be if I was with someone who spoke Chinese.)

4. The bus driver wasn't too terribly helpful (stupid language barrier). The only thing I got from that conversation was "No. Seven." and he pointed back towards the train station and the 7-11 on the corner.  I decided to try the 7-11. All I got from them was "Train Station" Okayyy. Back to where I started then.

5. I went to the train station and found the time table. You'd think that would make things easier. Not so. I wasn't able to decipher any of it. (Chinese...) So I went to the visitor's center and asked the guy there about the Luodong bus.

His answer: "uh sorry. There isn't a bus to Luodong. You're gonna have to take the train."

You're kidding me. My mom spent a good twenty minutes trying to figure out where I need to go all for nothing!

6. I went back into the train station and bought a ticket to Luodong. That wasn't very helpful either. No boarding time or platform number. I decided to wing it and went to the guy manning the gate into the platforms. He gave me the most helpful piece of advice.

"Platform 2"

Xie xie!

I made my way over to platform two and see a train waiting. I double check my not-so-helpful ticket. Naturally, it lived up to it's name so I decide to wing it again. I go on the train and quickly found a seat.

7. To pass the time, I came up with nearly all of the worst case scenarios.

What if I'm on the wrong train? What if I end up somewhere so far away that I can't get back? Oh god. Oh god..
No. You're fine. You know where to sto- 
!%$^ I don't know how to get to the night market from the train station. Im doooommmmmmmeeeeedddddddddddddddddd.
Kathryn. Stop it. You figured out how to get to Luodong. Don't even pretend that you don't know how to ask people how to get there. You know that these people are nice and that they want to help you. Knock. It. Off. 
But what if they're a rapist and give me the wrong directions and stalk me and and and... hionsdfgb saerahiganergtlkaergdosdfhstnnnnxffffyj..........
You done?
...Yes.
Good cause we're here.
Gulp.


8. It took me forever to figure out how to get to the night market. It was ridiculous. First I tried to find a info desk or tourist center. (No luck there.) Then I went to the ticket counter and asked the person working how to get to the night market.

"...bu do (I don't understand)." He handed me a pen and paper so I could write the question. "Night market? bu do."

Really?! Gahhhhh.... xie xie.

Then I tried calling my mom. No dice. She told me to ask people. (Lovely. Thanks. I'll plan on see you later then. No promises though) I tried the little convenience store in the train station next. Just my luck, the guy didn't speak English. I went outside and called Ana in hopes that she would be able to hand the phone over to our friend Nina who is fluent in English AND knows the area.

Nope. No help there.

Super easy right? 

Then I saw the map. Could it be? Did I just find the X that marks the spot? I rushed over and found that, yes, I had in fact struck gold. Here was the train station and there was the night market only some five blocks away! Hurray!

I quickly snapped a picture on my phone for future reference, asked someone if I was on the right street and I was on my way.

I found the McDonald's where I was supposed to meet Ana at with relative ease and from there the night was an absolute blast! We ate good food, did some shopping, and talked about all the things that were new, different, and exciting in our lives.

****

Please tell me you laughed at this. I know I'd be laughing my butt off if this happened to one of my friends, so you don't need to feel bad. I'd be a failure as a person and writer if you didn't even smile a little bit. I know I can't wait to tell this story in person. (Mostly for the gestures, facial expressions, and vocal changes. ;D)

Does anybody think they can top this? Comments/emails are welcome!

****

There will be another post soon. Probably tomorrow. :)
~K





PS- I'd just like to say that I don't know if "bu do" is the correct pinyin translation. All I know is that "bu do" is what it sounds like to my untrained ear. Anybody who speaks Chinese is free to correct me. 

Pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures pictures....

Eureka!

I've done it!

I finally got the computer in my room to go on the internet (Thanks Jerry!) and now I can post pictures!! Whoopie!! :D

I'd post them all in one folder titled "Taiwan" and leave you to figure out what's going on but that goes against my inner perfectionist. (She does exist...She just doesn't come out to play as often as she should ;D)

Soooooo... here's how it works. So far there are three folders. (To those of you who are my friends on FB, this is all old news. Skip this next part)

August/September

Host Family Pics

Luodong Night Market

I hope you enjoy this glimpse into my life as a foreigner in Taiwan. To those of you living vicariously through me, I hope my writings and pictures are enough! It's been amazing so far and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world!

Now. Enough with the sappiness. You have pictures to browse. SCOOT!

XOXO
~K

Dearest Auntie Tam

At a beach in/near Su-ao

Is the suspence killing you yet? Have I delayed writing long enough? Or should I wait longer next time I post?

I have no suitable excuse as to why I havent written. I could say it was because I was frightfully busy, or that I fell of the face of the planet, but that would be a lie. Nor can I say that I had nothing to write about because truthfully, I have more than enough writing material and a plethora of stories to share.

I guess its just a matter of sitting myself down and forcing whats in my head out through my fingers and into this computer. Haha

Ready?
Set!
Go!

*****

So...

This last weekend was the Moon Festival. It's one of the three most important festivals in the Chinese calendar. The Chinese New Year and the Dragon Boat Festival hold the other two postitions as most noteable.

Me and my Baba

From my understanding, this festival is basically an excuse to have BBQs with friends and family. The family part is important, so important that my host dad came over from Mainland China to be with us for this festival. Up until this weekend, I'd never met him. It was really cool because his presence added a certain livelyness to the family. You could tell that they missed him. He went back to China yesterday and I can't wait until he comes back.

Even though we spend the entire weekend "partying", Monday was the actual festival. My family went to Leanne's house. (Apparently my mom and her mom are cousins.) It was a fun gathering. I tried my hand at BBQing and I failed miserably the first time around. It wasnt meat, it was charcoal on a stick, no joke. Everybody there was making fun of me. Hell, I was making fun of me it was so bad. I had to bully Leanne's brother into teaching me how to do it so I didnt further shame myself as an American. I mean, Leanne and I were competing for goodness sake.

Honestly, I didnt care that much about shaming myself. I just wanted to know how to do it without charcoaling everything on the grill. Haha

Anyway...

BBQ at Gustavo's house

Taiwanese BBQs arent anything like American or Canadian BBQs. They don't have big grills like we do in the US. They use little portable BBQs. They're acutally kinda cool because you can only do a small amount of food at one time so multiple people can cook throughout the night rather than just having one cook. They also cook very different things. (Big suprise there). Chicken heart and pigs blood are the most...exotic.. of all the choices. There was also corn on the cob, fish, pork and shrimp. The main differences were that the shrimp still had their heads and it was the full fish rather than just a fillet.

Im going to another BBQ this weekend in Luotong for one of the exchange student's birthdays. I'm super excited for that. I went to a BBQ at his place last friday night and it was falling down funny.

Drunk Uni students + Kareoke = The best night of my life. Just sayin.

****

Hope that satisfies your curiosity Auntie. :D

Until next time!!

Kathryn

A Chinese Alphabet??

Did you know that Chinese has an alphabet?

Neither did I. 

I heard about it my first full day here. I was at Leanne's house and one of the Brazilian kids was showing off his skills at Bopomofo, which is the common name of the alphabet. The characters system is called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols (MPS).

Here's how it works. There are initial sounds -- which I've written below along with their pinyin translation -- and the final sounds... Essentially consonants and vowels. 

We looked at the initials in my first Chinese class. I'll explain it to the best of my ability. 

The first eleven are pretty easy. Just read them like there's a "uh" after the letter. Buh, puh, muh, fuh....... 

ㄅ b 
ㄆ p 
ㄇ m
ㄈ f

ㄉ d
ㄊ t
ㄋ n
ㄌ l

ㄍ g
ㄎ k
ㄏ h

These three are said with a big smile :) 
ㄐ j       "jee"
ㄑ q    "chee"
ㄒ x     "shee"

Curl your tongue back in your mouth for these. 
ㄓ zh 
ㄔ ch
ㄕ sh
ㄖ r      

"r"  is the hardest to pronounce because it sounds like a mix between a j and an r. Your tongue gets pulled back the farthest for this one. 

These are like a hissing sound. 
ㄗ z 
ㄘ c
ㄙ s


Fun fact: Chinese keyboards have both English and MPS. I separated the characters above the same way that they're separated on the MPS keyboard. It goes from left to right. The initials dominate the left side of they keyboard while the finals reside on the right. The four tone buttons are above the groups of three. If you're having a hard time visualizing this and have a iTouch/iPad/iPhone, the MPS keyboard is called "Chinese - Traditional - Zhuyin." Check it out. That's your homework. :D

Knock knock!!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Interrupting cow.

Interrupting cow--MOO!!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Hatch.
Hatch who?
Bless you!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Repeat
Repeat who?
Who! Who! Who! *sounds like laughter*

Knock knock
Who's there?
Mary
Mary who?
Merry Christmas!

Knock knock
Who's there?
Koni
Koni who?
Konichiwa!

These girls are so clever :)

*******

You know, I've never had problems with math. More often than not, the classes were so easy that I could read something like through the notes and still manage to ace the tests.

Not so in Taiwan.

The language barrier is putting me at a distinct disadvantage here (No need to point out the obvious Kathryn)

My class is learning geometry at the moment. Sine, cosine, tangents, the works. I learned all this freshman year... And to be honest, I barely remember any of it. Maybe it was because I hated my teacher or maybe its just the long summers and lack of use have effectively erased all but basic recognition from my brain.

For example, I took three pages of notes and still don't remember how to get from the "cartesian coordinate" to the "polar coordinate" (I swear to god, they use different terminology over here... Or maybe it's just been THAT long.) At least they use the same mathematical formats otherwise I would be completely lost.

Luckily for me, our teacher Peter is falling down funny. He frequently stops the class and asks me questions or writes the English words on the board.

"What is this called in English?"
"Uh.. Arrow? Equal sign? Something in the middle? I don't know. I don't think we have a word for that..."

"You know the Basic Theory of Algebra right? 1199 Gauss. Gauss. You know Gauss"
"Um no. I feel like it goes by a different name in English but it's been like two years since I've studied this so I'm really not the person to ask. Hehe sorry."

He told me at one point that if I'm gonna be taking his class that I need to have the textbook... I think he was kidding. *crosses fingers*

*******

I talked with the woman who's giving me Chinese lessons today.

Guess what she told me!!

The window into my classroom.. You can see the class rep
Camel through the window

I get to spend half of the day at the university learning to cook!! How freaking cool is that?!

To those of you that didn't know, I spent my last two weeks at my (biological) mom's baking something different everyday and then I made an array of sweets for my going away party. I don't know why, but I've been on a cooking kick lately and spending half of my day learning to cook is probably going to be one of the highlights of this experience. I mean, this ability will be hard to lose and honesty, how many people in the US can say they can cook traditional Taiwanese/Chinese food?

Don't give me any smart alecky remarks about people who grew up here and immigrated. I'd say they aren't included in the group of people we'd be polling for this statistic. Not to downplay their ability or anything but they simply don't count.

*******

I finally went to go get my alien residency card today. (haha I'm an alien. OooOooohhhhhh) I left school right after lunch to do so. It's still kinda awkward to be in the car with my host mum as neither of us speak much of the other's language. Although this is mostly pretty annoying, it does allow for me to observe my surroundings.

The stairs up to my classroom..

Today I saw a woman texting and driving her scooter one handed. Just think, they just passed a law about texting and driving in the US!

Bike+cell phone
Scooter+cell phone
Car+cell phone
Which is worse?

Its the funniest when you see a person on their bike and texting because, really, you can't get going that fast and you end up moving in a funny swervey line... It's a marvelous visual. The scooter combination looks plain dangerous and a car combo gets too much publicity. But that's just my humble opinion ;)

Driving here is insane. (and that opinion is NOT humble by the way.. Lol) People pull u-turns wherever they want and it's an awkward dance to get to school. There's this one s-curve on my way to school that's murder. I'm so not excited to be biking that one later. I'll post a picture as soon as I figure out how exactly I'm going to upload them (it hurts me to write that... I pride myself on being quite the techie... Or at least in comparison to my mother ;) )

*******

Wednesday is no AC day. I want to cry. I feel so sweaty and gross. I don't think I've ever wanted a shower this bad. At least we get to have the fans on and I wore my skirt today. Soooo much better than pants! :)

********

I got my schedule today! :D
For the most part I have class with the girls... Pretty much I get to hang out and read (hope you don't mind Dad :) ) I'm gonna write out my schedule (don't creep on me, I will use Kung Fu AND Taekwondo on you!!!!). Class with the girls will from now on be known as... 212! Lol

(English is with the girls... It's just labeled specially on my schedule.)

Monday- Chinese, PE, English (2hr), lunch, cooking lessons at the university for the rest of the day

Another picture from outside my classroom.
The striped building is where all the teacher's offices are.

Tuesday- 212, Chinese (3hrs), lunch, 212, music with class 108, English, hang time in the counseling office with Leanne (known as Leanne lol)
Wednesday- English, Chinese (3hrs), lunch, Kung Fu (2hr), 212, Leanne
Thurs- 212, PE, Chinese, 212, lunch, 212, English, 212, Leanne
Friday- 212, Art with 104, English, art with 205, lunch, english, music, 212, Leanne.

Exciting huh??

Here's the mind boggling part. I get to school by 7:20 and get out at 5:10. Yah. I thought my day was long in the US (a humble 3:22). Yah, I've been proven wrong on so many levels!! So no complaining!! You Americans get out earlier and understand everything. Double whammy right there. Buuuuuuuttt it could be worse. I could have to go to cram school after class is out. :)

********

I must say, it was wonderful to read everybody's comments and see all the 'likes' on Facebook. It's nice to know you all are having fun living vicariously through me. (Notice how that wasn't sentimental? :P)

Drop me a line. Hit the Like button. Join my fanclub. Whatever floats your boat. :D

Till next time!

K

School!!

As promised, here's the second post. Hopefully this is easier to write than the last one. Lol

***********

Uniform shirt and pants...

School. Freaking scary on its own. Teachers, fellow students, projects, homework... You know the vibe. Or at least you think you do until you add in that extra element of not understanding a WORD your teacher is saying.... Unless it's my English teacher, Allen (I hope I got his name right lol) He goes back and forth between English and Chinese, seemingly at the drop of a hat. Its pretty nifty :)

Anyway,  I was a tangled mess of nerves when I went to school this morning. I felt self-conscious in my uniform (you're SURE it's not too big?) and like I stood out like a sore thumb (well duh you did Kathryn. You're tall and blond. Not much you can do there) My steps were quick as I made my way to the councilors office. He lead me to my class and that sickening feeling in my stomach deepened.

What if they don't like me?

Shirt, skirt and socks. Perfect for hot weather

What if they can't speak English?
What if I totally bomb my speech in front of the entire school?
OH MY GOD, WHAT IF?!

I told you I was a mess.

"This is the new exchange student. She's from the US" said Mr Chen.

Or at least that's what I thought he said. I don't quite speak Chinese.

The girls in the room looked at me. I looked at them, you know, that awkward expectant look that near decides it all. Then they were all surrounding me.

Whats your name?
Where are you from?
Do you speak Chinese?
Are you a rotary student?

All a sudden I wasn't feeling so ill. The more questions I answered, the better I felt. I met Winnie ("like Winnie the Pooh" she was quick to assure me) who was a fellow rotary kid. She was one of the potential outbound students. She was the girl who, for all intents and purposes*, held my hand for that first hour or so.

Now that's not to say the rest of the class wasn't interested. I had quite the crowd around my desk, each girl a well of questions and information both.we all chatted until it was time to go to the opening ceremonies.

The only good thing about
this is my hair...

Now that was interesting. Leanne and I sat on stage with the staff and watched as the girls quite literally filled the auditorium. I'm pretty sure the amount of people in that room broke several fire safety laws. Maybe they're different here. Lol
As an overview, the ceremony consisted of the national anthem, the school song, select students taking photos with the principal (who is freaking adorable) wile holding awards of some sort, an introduction of the teachers and of the resident exchange students, aka me and Leanne.

Now for the details.

During the teacher introductions, the students would scream and cheer for their favorite teachers (read: crushes) It was freaking hilarious. I feel like a lot of American parents would get their knickers in a twist over such blatant adoration for the attractive male staff. Either way, They have good taste ;)

Now, Leanne and I had to give a one to two minute speech about ourselves. That was a riot. Leanne wrote hers out and I completely winged it. Mine went something along the lines of;

Principal: *handing me the mic* English or Chinese
Me: English.
*laughter*
Me: 你好! My name is Kathryn. I'm 16
*collective gasp/murmuring*
Me: *thinking* Okaaayyyy. What did I say wrong? *keeps talking* I'm from the US, Oregon to be specific. Now I dont speak a lot of Chinese but I hope to learn. You all seem super fun and I'm excited to be going to school here.... Thank you..?

Not bad right?? I'm hoping not. I got a lot of cheers afterwards. That has to be a good sign. :)

After that we went back to our class and I started talking with two girls from my class. (I feel really bad for not remembering their names :( )

Guess what we talked about. Yah. That's right. Boys.

This is my default flirting face. Bwahahah kidding.  

Do you like Serbian boys?
Uh. Sure? I don't know if I've ever seen a Serbian boy.
Oh. What kind of boy do you like?
Ummm...Europeans? Africans. Yah definantly Africans.
*Squealing laughter*
What do you think of the last guy on stage?
The one with the long hair? He's hottt.
*more squealing*
We like you a lot.

I was pretty much on cloud nine after that. These girls are amazing. They helped me get lunch, taught me some Chinese phrases, and even went as far as to have someone sitting next to me and translating parts of our history and ethics(?) classes so I could get the gist of it all. <3 <3

I'm so excited for tomorrow!!

Till next time!
K





*Notice how I used the phrase right Mom? ;)

Beginnings...

This is probably the fourth time I've rewritten this stupid post. There's so much to tell and I feel like I'm behind on it all. Ive put waaay too much effort into something that should be simpler than breathing. So here's what I'm gonna do, I'm just gonna post this and then write a whole new post about my first day of school. Luck you. Two posts in one day.

Sorry about any awkwardness... Im going to try and make it as logical as possible :)

********

Wednesday- August 24, 2011

4:00- #%$&!!! I was supposed to be up an a hour ago!! Mom! Wake up!
4:20- I think that's the fastest I have ever gotten ready for anything. *closes the car door* Whew!
4:30- The airport doesn't look that busy... Double Whew!
4:33- Auntie Carla!! Hi!! I can't believe you made it!! *hugs*
4:40- Wait a second, you're telling me that I have to go find this magical thing you call "United counter" in the San Fran airport to get my last ticket and I might have to re-check my luggage?! *chokes*
4:42- You can check my luggage straight through?? *jumps over the counter* *hugs the woman* thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou
4:45- *inline for security* *slightly worried* hurry up.. My flight is boarding in ten minutes...
4:50- *front of security* ohhhh group hug!! Bye mom! Bye dad! See you next year! .... Oh my god I just said that out loud... Weird. *goes through security before the sobbing starts*
4:53- that shirt looks familiar... Graham? Oh hi it is you! Where are you going? LA? Cool. Oh me? I'm going to San Fran....

********

And thus I started the greatest adventure of my life. (that statement is so cliche lol)
16+ hours in the air, customs, one airplane dinner, security, five airports, one book, numerous naps, one rotary blazer, another two rotary blazers, security again, six rotary blazers, a rousing game of Fruit Ninja, and conversations with fellow exchange students. All these things filled the hours between Oregon and Taipei. It all lead to the moment when I stepped off the plane into the muggy airport in search of a bed, food and a brand new family.

I so far, I've found everything I wanted and stumbled upon a whole lot more.

For starters, Humidity isn't as bad as one would think. They have the system down to the T. There's at least one air-conditioning unit in every room and in outdoor performance areas there are misters. Not that the misters are that important because it's always pretty moist. I think one of the coolest things is that the rain is warm. Yah, thats right. Warm. In Oregon, the rain is that miserable combination of cold and wet. Here it's warm. I'm pretty sure that people think we exchange students are crazy because we just walk around sans umbrella. But then again, they have their umbrellas out when there is barely a drizzle so the feeling goes both ways. ;)

*****

PF Changs has nothing on real Chinese food. It's so Americanized it isn't even funny. I have yet to see anything that looks remotely like lettus wraps or 'Shanghi Cucumbers'. The flavors are nothing I have ever tasted. Its rare that you find something as sweet or carb infested as doughnuts or a PB&J sandwich.... But then again, I couldnt tell you half the things I've eaten since I got here so that last statement should probably taken with a bag of salt. All that I can tell you is that it always comes with rice and chopsticks and more often than not you actually eat most things out of your rice bowl. No plates necessary. It all takes some getting used to but I'm hoping that by Thanksgiving I'll be good.

*****

I found it surprising how quickly I became friends with the other exchange students in the area. Call me crazy but I thought it would take a whole lot longer. We are quite the group that's for sure. Leanne from Canada, Ana from Brazil, Carlos from Mexico and me. There are more exchange students but the four of just got back from a two day trip to central (?) Taiwan. That was loads of fun and deserves it's own post.. Anybody interested?? ;)



Till next time,
K

Better than Wikipedia

您好! Nin Hao!

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