So, my thoughts are racing...

I am an exchange student:

How do you know what a dream is, if you never accomplished one? 

How do you know what an adventure is, if you never took part in one? 

How do you know what anguish is, if you never said goodbye to your family and friends with your eyes full of tears? 

How do you know what being desperate is, if you never arrived in a place alone and could not understand a word of what everyone else was saying? 

How do you know what diversity is, if you never lived with people from all over the world? 

How do you know what tolerance is, if you never had to get used to something no matter how different it was and you didn't like it?

How do you know what autonomy is, if you never had the chance to decide something by yourself? 
How do you know what it means to grow up, if you never stopped being a child to start something new without someone constantly holding your hand? 

How do you know what is to be helpless, if you really wanted to hug someone and had a computer screen to prevent you from doing it? 

How do you know what distance is, if you never, looking at a map, said “I am so far away”? 

How do you know what a language is, if you never had to learn one to make friends? 

How do you know what patriotism is, if you never shouted “I love my country!” while holding the flag in your hands? 

How do you know what true reality is, if you never had the chance to see someone figure theirs out and you begin to make yours. 

How do you know what an opportunity is, if you never caught one? 

How do you know what pride is, if you never experienced it for yourself and realized how much you have accomplished? 

How do you know what it means to seize the day, if you never saw your time running so fast and slipping through your fingers? 

How do you know what a friend is, if circumstances never showed you the true ones?

How do you know what family is, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally when you first met? 

How do you know what borders are, if you never crossed your own to see what there was on the other side? 

How do you know what imagination is, if you never thought about the moment you will go back home? 

How do you experience the world, if you have never been an exchange student?

朋友

Here are some pictures of me and my closest Chinese friends. They are all awesome, funny, loving, and very helpful. It is going to be so hard to leave them; but it just gives me another reason why I have to come back to Taiwan. <3

Bruce.

Sandra. 

Cindy.

I love every one in my class, don't get me wrong, but these are my closest. 

月數二。

I have been in Taiwan for two months. Time is flying. Right now, I am watching Rambo...in Chinese, and drinking Pearl Milk Tea. (Aka. The best drink in the universe.) <3

In two months I have:
Made countless friends; Chinese, American, Mexican, Hungarian, Canadian, Brazilian, more and more.

a better understanding of a different culture and way of life. (I take my shoes off before I enter a room. I think it is bad for your digestion to drink a cold drink during and after you have just eaten. I meditate everyday.)

Built confidence and respect for myself. (I say thank you when some one says I am beautiful. Something that was really hard for me to do when I was in America. I know I am good at things; not in a cocky way.)

Truly realized what respect really is.

Fallen in love with Taiwan. (Rotary was right, your exchange country does become your second home country.)

Directed my energy towards the future.

Really understood how it really feels to miss someone or something. (If you don't miss something from your home country then you haven't fully understood your exchange. You should be grateful and have a better understanding of your home country, and your second home country.)

Stopped taking things for granted. (People and things that are important in my life now, may not be there tomorrow. My youth exchange is not going to last forever, so I need to start spending time wisely; taking too many pictures, asking too many questions, going with friends to too many places.)

Felt old. (I was just walking to the bus to go home and the feeling just hit me like a sack of bricks. I felt like I had been living in Taiwan for years, that I was years older. Totally dreading going back to high school when I return.)

Realized how to properly respect parents, siblings, and grandparents.

Not used a microwave or fork. (I just realized this last night. All the food I eat is fresh, and usually grown locally. It taste amazing. I use chopsticks for everything. When I have soup, I drink from the bowl. So, really, I haven't used a spoon that much either.)

Began to learn how to make awesome food; bread, noodles, rice. Mmm.

Realized why Rotary makes you switch families every three months; I love this family. I can only imagine how hard it would be if I had to leave them after a year..three months is already going to be hard.

Hit the ground running on trying to learn Chinese. Me- 0 Chinese- 1. It. Is. Hard. (I was very naive, hope I spelled that correctly, before I left. "Yeah, yeah...I'll catch on when I get there." No, I have spent countless days and nights studying and studying.)

Not been disrespectful or sarcastic to any adult figure. (It feels good to respect your elders. They do, actually, know what they are talking about and yes, indeed, they are smarter than us teenagers. They aren't thirty, or forty  or fifty years of stupid. Teachers and elders are here to teach us and it is your choice to actually pay attention and learn from them or not.)

Learned how to drink tea out of a bag. (It was so odd. Vivian, my host sister, handed me my breakfast bag to take up to my classroom like she always does. When I opened the bag to see what I had I pulled out a bag with two bread rolls and then a bag of tea. I held it up and I guess he could tell I was confused, so, Bruce, a close friend of mine, took the bag and my straw and got it situated for me. Weirdest thing I have ever done; drink from a plastic bag.)

I can't wait to have more adventures. I am loving every minute here and I love all the people. I am afraid it is my bed time. I hope you enjoyed!

I just have one thing I wish to complain about. I think America needs to jump on the bandwagon with THE REST OF THE WORLD, and use the same measurements as THE REST OF THE WORLD. You have no idea how many times I want to know exactly how hot it is outside. I look at the thermometer and I literally say "Oh, that's right, I learned an equation to convert this...because I learned fahrenheit." I'm really sorry, all the science teachers I have had, but I am not going to sit here and do an equation each time I want to know the temperature. So, once I get use to measuring everything in cm, kilometers, liters, milliliters, kilograms, ect. I have to go back to America where everything is different. Oh, well. Roll with the punches, right?
Any who, Taiwan is great.
Close your eyes (after you read the description). Imagine a place where you don't have to chain your bike up. A place where you can leave shopping bags unattended on your scooter to go into another store, and come back out, and they have been untouched. A place where I haven't heard one bad thing said about another person. A place, where there is an abundant amount of trust in people (strangers or not). You, my friend, would be imagining Taiwan.
Can you imagine high school without drama? I know I certainly can't, and that's a sad truth. Or, I couldn't, until I attended school here. Girls here, they actually like and get along with each other. People sit with each other, regardless of who you are. You know if there are three seats and one was occupied by a complete stranger, you would skip a seat and then sit? Well, here, if there are three seats and one was occupied by a complete stranger, you'd find yourself talking and meeting a stranger. In Taiwan, there is so much respect and trust. Sometimes, I even question my host sister. I will be like "Um, shouldn't they be watching the money box?" or "Aren't they going to put those pineapples up for the night?" and she'll just say "What's the point in that? Too much work!"
As far as culture shock goes, I haven't experienced any. That just means when I get back to America, I will have what's called reverse culture shock. So, we will see how that goes. Wish me luck; good thing I still have nine months.
Basically, I am in love with this amazing island. I am going to some lake next week with my host sister. (Sorry for such a sentence "some lake" but I forgot the name) So, you should expect a picture or two and a good post about it. Hopefully, it will make up for this short and sweet one. For now, I am off to bed.

学校.

I started my first day of school on August 31st 2011. It. Is. Awesome. Everyone is so nice and understanding. I like the way school functions in Taiwan. The students stay in the same classroom all day, and different teachers come throughout the day. If I am correct, Mexico does the same thing, right Mrs. Triplett? Any way, we get to school around 7:30 in the morning and everyone has their breakfast that they have purchased or made from home, and we sit around and eat breakfast together. I like it a lot. It's different than buying your breakfast at school in America, then sitting in a crowded cafeteria that's loud with people tossing their cereal everywhere. We buy our food from a cafe, then bring it to school, and sit with our calm classmates, talk and eat. After we are finished, it's 8:15 by now, we, the students, clean the classroom. So, you can already see where this is going. So, since the students clean the classroom, nobody spits spit balls, throws balls of paper, ect. I have mop duty. So, after we clean the classroom, we all sit in our assign seats and study. Like, I never thought it was possible for a bunch of teenagers to sit, be quiet, and actually work with no teacher in the classroom. That's right, I forgot to mention, there usually isn't a teacher in the classroom until 10:00 when classes start. And, yes, all my classmates do sit in their seat the whole time, and the only time I have ever heard any talking at all was if someone needed a piece of paper. It's amazing, because they actually have the desire to want to learn and be taught, I definitely see that American teenagers take education for granted. Then we have eight classes. (I haven't got my schedule yet, so I am sitting in with the kids that are studying mainly foreign language, English. So, I have a little group that can speak English enough where I can understand them, and they teach me the ways of the Chinese mastery of Chinese Characters...Until I get my new schedule, which will include things like cooking, braiding, ect.) We have PE every Monday and Thursday and somehow I got signed up for the volleyball club today? We played volleyball and when my team was up, they made me serve first, so I did, and as soon as I hit the ball everyone in my class said as plain as day, in English, "Oh, my God." I started laughing. So, after PE was over and we were walking back to class the Coach came up to me and informed me that I was now in the volleyball club...so, yay? I am very proud of myself, actually, because I am starting to piece together words that my teachers say in Chinese that I know and I can put a sentence together, then they keep talking faster and faster then they lose me. But, what matters is that I am catching on. So, *Clap* *Clap* for me! Also, I love my town. I ride my bike with my host sister and every time we go out all the little shop owners or miscellaneous people will wave at me and shout "Ni hoa!" (the way you say hello in Chinese) and I shout back and wave for as long as I can, because it's hard to ride a bike with one hand. They have all been very kind and amazing people. I <3 Asia! But, for now I have caught you up to an extent on what's new in Yunlin, and I must be on my way.