Kalie's First Report

August 28, 2005

Da jia Hao ! Hello everyone.
 
Well I have been in Taiwan for 11 days now , but it feels like I have been here for months! Every single day has been an adventure. I would start my report with my plane ride , but I dont think it would be that interesting. Basically , I was in the air for 20 hours .I watched Hitch  , ate alot of teddy grams , slept a little , cryed a little ( i'll admit it )  and looked outside my small window. My arrival was interesting though ! I flew with 9 other RYE students , so after we went through immigration and got our luggage , we were off to meet our host families. When we turned this corner there was probably a 100 people waiting with signs , and they all started shouting our names . It was very loud and crazy. Alot of random people came up to me and shook my hand , and took my picture.
Everything happened so fast and before I knew it I was home. I passed out once I got there. When I woke up , I felt like I just  had a really strange dream last nite, but once I looked outside my window reality set in. I live in Taipei city and I have an awesome view. I can see the tallest building in the world from my window. My room is small and my bed is a bamboo mat on the wood floor , which Im already used to.
My first day in Taiwan , my host family took me to a fancy resturant ,and then to Tatun Mountain , which is an active volcano , so it was very interesting.
My host mom is awesome. She takes me everywere , and we dont have a car so I have the choice of a crazy bike ride through the busy streets of Taipei or the subway. Normally we ride bikes. Were I live is the perfect location , 10 minuets away from everything.  My host sister is really nice , and she speaks english , so thats great.  My host dad's cool too , he always tries to teach me Taiwan history in english. I havent understood any of it , but the effort is appreaciated.
 My english grammer is slowy but surely slipping , all I am hearing is broken english , so now my english is messed up. But I am catching on to Mandarin faster than I thought.
My school is an all girls private catholic school called Blessed Imelda's . I think its the only catholic school in Taipei. Its a really beautiful school , the building is huge, and everyone wants to help me and show me around. My uniform is awesome , i love it.
There is so much to tell , and I have only been here a little over a week! I would have to say my favorite place so far , is the night market. Really awesome , CHEAP clothes. I am rich here!!
Also , last weekend I attended the Inbound Orientation at Danshuai ( I think thats what it was called ) . We were very lucky because , the Asia pacific rotary conference was the weekend of our orientation , so we got to see shows put on by people all over asia. My favortie was the aborigany dancing !
Ok , thats it for now.
You will be hearing more from me soon  :)
 
THANK YOU ROTARY !
 
Wo Ai Da Jia ! Love you all !