Hello! Look at this: a somewhat timely update!
Tuesday we had our first calligraphy class (書法). We legitimately spent more than two hours writing the numbers one, two, and three (一，二，三). We have to start with the basics and as Bai Laoshi says, this character is the most important because all other characters have it in them. I showed some of the sheets I practiced on while we were chatting on skype and what she said pretty much explains it: They just look like lines to me. :-) We have class again on Monday and I am determined to take more pictures on a regular day basis instead of just on trips and such. So I'll see how that actually goes. (I do have some from today which I will attempt to upload here shortly).
Wednesday nothing really extraordinary happened. We (girls) ate delicious dinner because the boys continually fail to be cool and go out and do things when we ask. :-) Oh, we've had really delicious lunches this week because we go out to eat with other students from the language center who have been here longer. Wednesday I think we had cheesy noodles that are baked in the oven. They were actually extra cheesy. Today (Friday) we had saucy rice (燴飯) - Caralee you had better read this one because you'll appreciate that the most.
Thursday I went met up with my first host family!! It was relatively spontaneous because they emailed me Wednesday night and we arranged it. I woke up super early to take the bus to the train station in Taichung, then I took the train to Dalin (大林 - where I lived the first time I was here). Fun fact or two: The price of a train ticket from Taichung to Dalin has not changed in four years (NT$123) and Dalin has a new fancy train station. That kind of threw me off a bit. Anyway, I called my host father to say that I had arrived and a few minutes later they pulled up in the van I remember and it was wonderful. I pretty much love the whole family. It was nice to spend some more time with my host sister because she was in the US when I was at her house. And my little brother was all grown up. Crazy. But my mother and father were very much as I remember them.
We then drove for another hour or so north to the mountains. Quick recap: 30+ minutes on the bus, 30+ minutes waiting for the train, 90 minutes on the train, 60+ minutes driving. It was worth it though. We stopped in Puli (I think?) where they make some famous alcohol (Shaoshing? that's what one of the boxes of candy they bought me says). We toured the little museum explaining how it's made and it's history and such. Then walked around the little shopping area. Everything they had to sell there was prepared with the special alcohol. Also, I ate a duck's foot.
Then we went further up the mountain to Qingjing nongchang (情境農場) which is a farm with sheep. We went to watch the sheep show but it was ridiculously foggy that afternoon. So it was a little hard to see at times.
After walking around some more we headed back down the mountain toward Taichung because they were going to drop me off the Tunghai before going back south. The farm was basically east of Taichung up in the mountains. So another car ride, I got a painful headache, we ate dinner and a relatively fancy restaurant with knives and forks, and they dropped me off with a bunch of things they bought throughout the day because they're too wonderful and nice. Then I took a nap to try and get rid of my headache and let the medicine kick. That didn't really work so when I started studying at 10 I only lasted a little bit and then went to bed.
I studied in the morning before class and my tests today were fine. This afternoon we watched another movie with Liu Laoshi. It was really rather good but also intense at points. It was about Grandmaster Ip Man, who is master of a type kungfu . It was the story of the guy Bruce Lee studied under, if that rings a bell for anybody. There was some pretty bad ass kungfu scenes. Seriously. But a few were stressful to watch because of the violent pain. Also, we watched it in the computer lab because somebody was in the room we used before. The projector was too low and the wall was too close so we stacked all of our text books up to raise the machine a bit.
Later tonight we're planning to go check out another night market in the city. And tomorrow we have another trip with Liu Laoshi that the school scheduled. We're going to another farm oddly enough, but I'm pretty sure this is a farm that grows things organically.
P.S. My next plan is to go add some pictures to the last blog now that I've successfully put these pictures up here.
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