Diving straight into food, today's breakfast was just a nummy blueberry muffin. Scarfing was involved as we headed out to the Rotary orientation. Thank goodness I set my alarm early, otherwise we would've been late.
So I'm sure you don't want to know all the details of the orientation because it's basically just the rules and expectations of us being exchange students. Nonetheless a blast, there were some fascinating parts to the day. Such as being told some Chinese superstitions. Would you like to know a few?
-Never pick up money on the street: The original owner of the money may have thrown it away to get rid of its bad luck, so by picking it up you then get that bad luck.
-Never write someones name in red: Red symbolizes the color of blood and death so writing someones name will give them an earlier death. I particularly remember writing several peoples name in red when grading papers in Mrs. Marek's English class. I'm sorry to those people. I didn't know!
-Never pat a pregnant woman's back: Patting a pregnant's woman back will cause birthing problems/ miscarriage
-The number four: The Chinese word for "four" sounds an awful a lot like "die" so it is very unlucky and people avoid it. My apartment building floors go like this: Floor 1, floor 2, floor 3, floor 5, floor 6... I bet you're wondering what happened to floor 4? Some buildings don't have a fourth floor because of it being such an unlucky number that encompasses death. So hospitals especially will not have a fourth floor in thought of their patients.
So the country that dominates the 50 exchange students in my district seems to be Canada. There's a lot of USA and a good amount of Germany also, but I kept hearing "Hi. I'm from Canada." XD Two Australian students there said they've been in Taiwan for 8 months already. Wow! (It's because Australia's Rotary time slot is different)
After the lessons and good byes, my family went to Taipei 101. We stopped at a toy store for my brother but came across the same animal machine game that we played the other day. This was the game that spit out the awesome owl card with America's flag and "Taiwan" on it that I liked so much. Luckily I brought the card and was able to scan it in to play the owl character. See the pretty screenshot to the right? That's my baby! Fly baby fly! My brother Larry (see pic below) won the first game that we played several days ago but today I was the victor! We are at a tie! Our battle shall continue at a later date...
For dinner we went to the food court in Taipei 101. We could get whatever food we wanted since my family goes separate places but I didn't know where to go or what to get. I told my mother I would like something a bit healthier (because breakfast was a muffin and lunch was pizza, soda and sugar. Mmm nutritious). She directed me to a place and laughed a wee bit. Wonder why she chuckled? It's because the food she ordered was very healthy and nutritious buuuuuuut it was for women that just gave birth. So not prego food, but post-prego food. It was yummy, don't get me wrong, I just have to laugh at that. The meal was a green, leafy vegetable with an unknown sauce drizzled on top accompanied by noodles and a rice bean soup. Haha, I ate post-prego food. Don't judge me, it was healthy.
My new Australian friend said that she was told exchange students in Taiwan will gain a minimum of 10 kg. So 22 pounds... NO! I REFUSE! I'm not saying I won't gain anything, but 22 pounds? Heck no! I ain't going back there after all the work I've done to get here! I understand why someone would say that though. It's because Taiwanese people are known to eat so often and so much. My host father said that here people just shop and eat, shop and eat, shop and eat. Rinse. And repeat. That's totally cool as long as meals are proportioned correctly. So here's to hoping I don't come back chubby. :P I'm watching you bubble tea and your devious goodness that is oh so tempting. XD
The typhoons have almost passed. Apparently they should be gone in a couple more days. Hopefully, because Southern Taiwan is getting hit so badly.
The only other news I can think of is this coming up Monday which is my first test in Taiwan. (Oh gosh) It's a Chinese test to determine where I am in my knowledge of Mandarin. Harmless of course, it's just a test to split the exchange students up in groups to be on the same level. On Mondays and Thursdays Rotary provides Mandarin lessons at National Taipei University. That's what the groups are for. I believe that is it. Am I done? I think so... Goodnight my peeps. ^_^
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