Three days of Evynation (part 3)

Previously on 'Three days of Evynation'... Evy came to Taiwan to visit me, our plan was to spend the weekend in Hualien and get there by train. We missed it. We were a bit desperate but at the same time so cheerful. A man called 'Angelo' came to rescue us and took it a little bit too far. Eventually we will never know what his intentions really were. We got on the next train: slept and changed places times three and arrived in that part of Taiwan, the most formosa of the Formosa Island..

As promised part three in a picture story....

So the first thing we did when we arrived was sleeping because it was 3 o'clock at night! Waking up at 9 was hell and even more hell for Evy since she did not sleep the night before (she is such a smarty pants!). We went down and apparently we needed to go and get our breakfast at the McDo...ok no problem. We ate a breakfast burger and drank awful coffee. It was time to meet Gabriel for the first time... (and his friend Moshi who was our driver for day one, how sweet!)

Did I mentioned that it was raining? 

Afterwards we went together to a temple where we found this weird Chinese game and a sweet little Taiwanese boy. I think his mother was looking a bit strange at me, but hey! At least I think he's cute! She should be happy.

We went up in the mountains and took some pictures of the view..in the rain.

Well, this is the dog that we met at a huge beautiful lake. From the moment he saw us walking there, he became our friend. He was limping a bit because his right paw is missing. We gave him some of our Papaya milk and the result of that? Well I guess you all know..we couldn't get rid of him anymore haha. But we liked him so we decided to take the dog for a walk along the lake, the more the merrier! 

The thing with the leg, it is something that you see a lot with these dogs in Taiwan. I do not know if it is because of the traffic that is so dangerous or is it a disease, I have no idea...

Here you can see Evy and I, at one of the most beautiful sea sides of Taiwan. It was pouring but we were brave and took some pretty amazing shots anyway! <3 you Evy!

After all the visiting in the rain, we both just needed a nice hot coffee with some homemade cookies! We needed to recharge our batteries for....

a night out in Hualien! We went to a cosy small bar where a rock band was playing some Taiwanese and English songs...and It got a little bit out of hand...

We started to use some Brazilian offensive gestures and used them like they meant 'I Love You' of 'Well done!'. We were also constantly yelling between two songs 'Wo ai niiiii!' which means 'I love you'!!! I think he loved us back! Hmm not really sure in fact!

Unfortunately I cannot post the uncensored pictures at the request of the participants.... Our day one ended at 2h30 but for the Brazilians.....well, I could ask them but I really do not care. Why? You will read it right away..

The next day we woke up early because we were going to meet the Brazilians to take the 9 o'clock bus to the Taroko park. We were waiting and waiting and then we received a call .. the Brazilians... they could not make it on time so we just woke up that early for nothing! We were pissed as hell because we were so tired but still kept our promise to wake up and meet each other at our hotel.

When we saw them eventually an hour later, the tension was certainly there. They even did not apologize, nothing! I was disgusted! I wanted to punch them in the face and learn them some manners (See the paradox in that?). Eventually Gabriel apologized because he is in fact a good guy. But his two other friends...they just simply aren't. 

Taroko was amazing but again so wet, up to the point where we were walking through a cave wherein the water was pouring from the rocks above our heads so that it felt like taking a shower. We did not care anymore! We survived the Taroko park and maybe we will go back some day, when the sun shines bright and the sky is blue and the Brazilians...well.. are in Brazil! ;)

Kanbeeeeeee my friends! This was the Evy-story. XOXO

Three days of Evynation (part 2)

Previously on Evynation... Evy came to Taiwan, I showed her the good stuff in Taipei, we took the wrong train to Hualien, we needed information but we don't speak Chinese so a kind man 'Angel...o' (I am going to call him Angelo from now on) helped us out, we needed to wait an hour for the next train without tickets for a seat...

While we were laughing with our stupidity, we were walking to the platform where we could sit and wait for our train. We found a bench, sat down, and before we could take a breath and let the event settle, Angelo was standing there in front of us with two bottles of Coke Zero.

Angelo: "Hi, this is for you."

Evy and I, we were looking at each other and we were thinking exactly the same things like ‘What’s the meaning of that move?’, 'Why is he buying us a drink?', 'Will he follow us to Hualien and rape us there?', 'Is he trying to seduce us with a Coke?' and we were trying to keep our laughter!

Evy and I: "Oh you shouldn't have bought that for us! That is so kind of you!

Me: "OMG, you even bought the one that I always drink!"

Evy and I: "Thank you so much!"

Aaaaaand yes of course, there it happened! He was looking at us with these strange eyes and he just wanted to sit next to us. Evy and I began to drink our Coke Zero, looked at each other and again I almost did not manage to swallow the Coke because I couldn’t hold my laughter, this was the weirdest situation ever!

So we were sitting there, three in a row. And since he was awfully quiet and staring at us without glancing. We started to ask him some questions: where do you come from? (I don't remember), where are you going? (Don't remember either), Where do you work? (That I remember! It had something to do with water recycling, he was an environmental engineer or so..). The diesel finally warmed up and started asking about our lives too, why we are in Taiwan, what we think of Taiwan, but still.. he could not stop staring at us! There were not a lot of emotions visible on his face, we really did not know what he was thinking. It was kinda creepy!

The conversation was over and I was thinking how fun it would be to share our train-event with the world! So I was trying wifi to share the train-event but there was none. I said that out loud and Angelo told me that I could use his notebook. Carolyn: "But there is no wifi here.." Angelo: "Not here on the platform, but there is wifi downstairs.... OK we went down (we had plenty of time!) and of course Angelo followed us like a duck. Angelo opened his notebook and start watching porn! ........... Ok the story isn't THAT exciting! I didn't know what he was doing on his notebook, but I noticed on my shitty BB that the wifi wasn’t free.  So we did not have free wifi, no train, no seats on the next train BUT HEY we had Angelo and a Coke ZERO. The hell with all the rest right!

We went all back to the platform and just talked a little bit more before our train arrived, finally. We said goodbye to Angelo after he was explaining to us that we needed to get off in Hualien after the stop before Hualian..... Ooow DO WE??? HAD NO IDEA. We took our train and changed places 3 times or so - always funny when you see people walking towards you in the aisle and thinking 'No you are not sitting here, NOT here, OOOOH DAMN is this really your seat?' Eventually we arrived in rainyrainy Hualien. 

Hey you know what! I am going to tell you the end of the story with pictures and comments, that will do! But before I do that, I am wondering. What was Angelo's intention exactly? Was he just overfriendly and did he had a staring-disease of was he just so fascinated by us, Western people, that he just couldn't take his eyes of us. But the thing is, he did not have any expression on his face whatsoever so you never knew how he was feeling or what he was thinking... Well, I guess we will never know but If you ever take the wrong train in Taiwan, let the people that want to help you just help you and take that into gratitude because eventually he bought us a Coke, a Zero one. 

Cheers! X

Three days of Evynation (part 1)

Don't you all just love coincidence or do you call it fate?? Well, a good friend of mine, called Evy, decided during our last year of Commercial Engineering to participate in a one-year-master program where she would study at three different locations: Prague, Belgium and yes indeed China...and more specifically at the University of Xiamen and she would start her program there in September.

When she got the news that she was accepted we interrogated here about China (because that was the most interesting thing about the program of course) and she told us it would be in Xiamen. We were like X-i-a-men?? Where is that place? WELL NOW I KNOW, it's the closest Chinese city to Taiwan. Evy could have swim to Taipei to meet me in a manner of speaking!!

Anyway, by the time we received her good news, I was still nowhere with my internship. So eventually when I got accepted for the internship in Taiwan in August, I started to wonder...How far would Evy be located from me because we were there around the same period of the year!?

I looked it up on google maps and there it was: two points A and B indicated on the map and the solution from google: "Sorry my dear, but I am afraid I don't have a route for you, you will have to swim!" So I talked to Evy about it and we were already dreaming about watching the sunset together on a bridge with a bottle of wine. Well, it happened SLIGHTLY different...

In the beginning we were both so occupied! We did not hear from each other much. I was busy with having the time of my life, she was busy with...well a bit the same only with more (and free! grrrrr) boose! But eventually we found a weekend to see each other, my last weekend she would come over.

I told Evy that we would go to Hualien (the most beautiful place of Taiwan..they said all the time) and after a short hesitation she was OK with it. Blablabla a lot of arranging stuff and we were ready to go!

The plan was to go by train, sitting (because we had sitting tickets, thank god!) and we were meeting there three Brazilian guys, one of them I knew ("I knew" in the meaning of: he was also an AIESECer and he worked in Hualien but we never met before and the two others were his friends).

On Friday I met Evy in the early evening in the Taipei main station. It was so great to see here AND SO STRANGE to talk Dutch after 6 weeks! We had three hours to kill so I decided to let her have a taste of the Taiwanese gastronomy....food from the night market! We took a train to Shongshan and we killed that time like a pro. It was in the Shongshan station that we could take our train so we were waiting, on time, on the right platform.

Then it all went really fast E: "Our train is there, see?!" C: "Are you sure it's this one?" E: "Yes it is written there in English" C: "OK, I guess you are right, let's take it'. We sat down in our seats and I had a bad feeling in my stomach.. C: "Evy, are you sure about the train, I don't know, is it the right one?" E: "I hope so!" C:" You know, maybe I just ask the two Taiwanese guys that are sitting behind us?" E: "Yes do that!" C: "Hi, excuse me, are we sitting on the right train (I showed my ticket to them)" The guys: " Yes it's OK! (While pointing at the label of the seat)" C: "NO! I MEAN are. we. on. the. right. TRAAAAIN? (I know I am sitting on the right seat you idiot!)" E: (giggling) The guys: "Oh, yes it is the good one!" C: "Thank you!" E: "Carolyn, you haven't changed a bit, that's how I know you!" C&E: (LOLOL) "Well hello! What an answer was that HAHAHAHA!"

15 minutes later: Train-lady-voice: "Ladies and Gentlemen, may we kindly request you to leave the train in a few moments, we are approaching our end station." E&C: HUH WAH? (Looking at each other with confused faces) E&C: Oeeee??? (Looking at the Taiwanese guys behind us) The guys: "Yeeees, we took the wrong train too!" C: "OH MY GOD, are you kiddin' me!?" E: "It's OK, I am used to it" C: " Evy, I managed well for 6 weeks to find my way around Taipei and one evening you join me AND WE TAKE THE WRONG TRAIN?" Evy was laughing and me too because I wasn't angry of course, it was another adventure to add to my list!

We got off the train and searched asap for a person in a uniform. Ok! We found one! We explained our situation but he understood nothing really but then suddenly a man came interrupting our "conversation" and asked us "What is the problem?" We explained it again and he translated and asked the man in the uniform. The man that translated (I will call him Angel from now on because he was kind off our angel in distress), told us that we could not catch up with our train, so we needed to wait till the next one arrived in about...one hour. E&C: "Ohneeeee, Ok sniks, alles komt goed! (and we were laughing with our own misery) C:" Evy, you know we lost our seats now right?" E: "I guess" C: "Thank you Evy, you suddenly made my stay in Taiwan a lot more fun! (Sarcasticly laughing)"

Do you like the story already? 'Cause it's just about to really begin!!! Let's divided into peaces like Twilight, only my second (and maybe third) part will not s*ck.

See you later for the sequellll! Byebye!!!

Ps: Almost forgot, Owwww Yeaaah It's my birthday, we gonna party like it's my Birthday...NOT. Reality check: my thesis, right! Well I guess writing a bit on my blog was kinda the peaks of my day :) ! (I'm 23 now, btw) OK..

BYEEE foriell.

Tears and their reasons for leaving my eyes.

I woke up from my nap and I was wondering why Irene wasn't sleeping next to me...After a few seconds, It came to me. I am back. In my own bed, my own room that in some way or another looks new but at the same time somewhat familiar. I feel a sadness coming over me but I will try to push it away. I have to finish my studies and that is why I came back. Otherwise, coming back would probably have been one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

For more than two weeks I left you all in the dark. I wasn't writing anymore. Not because I lacked in time but because I wanted to use every minute of it to be present. There are many things that have happened during those last days. When I wrote the first words on my blog, I swore to myself that I would tell the truth and nothing but the truth but I must admit that I kept some things from you. I have been thinking a lot about these events and I think it would make a great addition to my whole adventure so eventually I will tell you all these missing parts. But this will take some time, time that I do not have right now because I need to focus on writing some more urgent stuff than this. (I say 'urgent' because 'serious' would not be exactly true since I see my writing pretty serious too. I try to tell the truth at all times and that is something serious no?

So after this message, I will work with flashbacks to be able to tell the whole story. So what you thought you had been missing on, will eventually be accessible for your eyes.

6.30 AM my alarm went off and I knew, this is it. It's for real, I am going back, see my family and my friends and finish what I started more than five years ago in Belgium and that is, choosing the subject Commercial Engineer. Something that I am still not sure of if it was the right choice, since I am interested is some many thing beyond science and economy. But then again, a degree of Commercial Engineer, I like to believe, opens many doors, doors you would never think of at the beginning of your road to that degree in your hands...

So I took a shower, rearranged some clothes and books in my luggage and left some more things for Irene (If it come to body and facial care, I think she's good now for a few months). I did not had breakfast because I wasn't hungry. I was quiet and sad and wanted to stop the time but it was quickly 7.50 AM, the time I needed to stand downstairs in the Lobby of the apartment block where I was staying to what for John (my first family) who would take me to the airport. I hugged Gabriel and Irene goodbye and promised them to be back and I am keeping that one, I know.

John asked me if I had breakfast, as he did every day after I had changed from his family to another host family (I stayed at three families but more about them later in my flashbacks). I knew he would have café latte without sugar for me because I knew him already, he was like that. The most carrying person I have ever met in my entire life. It made me so happy on that dark, rainy morning. He even took a steamed sweet potato for me because it is healthy and nice to eat in the mornings. Damn, he knew me well. It was pretty quiet in the car, we talked a bit casually but I did not want to start with memories or goodbyes because I knew my tears would appear and would not stop anymore. So I kept the conversation 'cool'.

I thought he would just drop me off at the entrance but then again I hoped he would not and I was right. He actually stayed with me until the security check! I checked in and I had overweight and this time, I wasn't lucky. The 3 kg overweight needed to be taken out so we did! John went back to his car for a plastic bag. The books in my luggage made the 3 kg so It was quickly fixed. I could finally check in. We walked to the security check and I knew this would be the last goodbye. I did not say much except 'I want a hug' and 'Byebyeee'. So I put my bags down, gave him a quick hug. As I took my bags again to stand in the waiting line, I felt tears coming but I tried to stop them by not looking back. But when I was standing still, I turned to look at John a last time, wave my hand at him and say the last 'Byebye'. After he left my tears were there, they had waited for so long. Now it was time to let them go.

I sat there alone, my tears kept on coming. I thought about all the moments and people that had moved me in some way. I felt such a pain inside my heart. Is that something cheesy to say now? Someone a long time ago said it for the first time and knew why. Because it happens, it is a true feeling. I guess the only people that can find it cheesy are the ones who have never felt it before or...have not heart ;).

When I arrived in Hong Kong, I knew this day was going to be a challenge because I needed to wait there for 10 hours before my next flight. I had entertainment enough. I took a carrier for my bags and wondered/got lost in the airport of Hong Kong. I visited many stores....twice. After I had cried, I looked so terrible. But when I am crying at an airport I always manage to look presentable afterwards. Why? Well I did get a bit of help from Chanel, Lancôme and Dior. I read some books and a magazine. I charged my cell phone. I had a chat with John, Irene, Gabriel Homie, Gabriel and Alan where I was getting emotional again. Luckily, Dior and Chanel were again waiting for me. I went to Starbucks for some coffee and cake. The time passed by and before I knew, I was on the plane to Germany. Almost home. (now I skip the part of the trip from Germany to Belgium)

8.25 AM. The arrival in Brussels. It was cold. There were Christmas trees with lights in it! People looked pale and spoke my mother language. I smelled croissants. When I went to the restroom, the cleaning lady was rude and I could throw my toilet paper IN the toilet. Yep, I was in Belgium. My mother was waiting for me at the ...departure hall because it was easier so I went there and I was happy to see her. I did not cry, I was too tired to feel another thing. I was thinking about sleep and getting used to being home again. I gave the presents I got for them, unpacked and took a nap...*see above.

Ow yes, I almost forgot.....

I. am. Totally. Taiwanated.

Unconsciously Chosen

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Animal Behaviour

There are a few things that I wanted to tell you all for a pretty long time, but to be sure I would not be saying something untrue, I decided to observed a little bit longer.

During my weeks here, I came across some animal behaviour...of all kinds. In a few seconds it will be all clear to you what I am talking about. I would like to mention first that I do not follow the chronology of my observations.

When I say 'Taxi drivers in Istanbul', 'animal behaviour' should immediately pop into your mind! Why? Because they drive too fast, incorrect, aggressive, charge you too much and toot every two seconds. (True story) In comparison to the taxi drivers in Istanbul, I must say the taxi drivers in Taiwan have less animal behaviour like described above but still... To make it easy for myself, I will tar everyone with the same brush. You are all smart enough to know that the word 'everyone' has many meanings.

First of all, driving in Taipei is a skill in itself. You have to be able to not hit the scooters, pedestrians, stray dogs, stalls at the side of the road and the other cars of course. Besides that, you need to be able to understand the traffic rules and most importantly apply them like in almost every other country. I can tell you that some Taiwanese drivers are better than others in acquiring the skill and knowledge... 

When we took a taxi home one night after partying in club LUXY, we just randomly picked one because..well they all look kind of the same and I am not the mentalist. Of course, we chose the wrong one. He was chewing the betel nut* while he was driving, was passing all cars from left, from right, then from left again, his favourite thing to do was drive over full white lines and that all at a speed that was three times the allowed. Alan (the Mexican guy) and me, we asked Ann (the Taiwanese girl) to tell him that he needed to slow down. We did not understand the conversation but we felt the tension rising inside the fusty taxi. Apparently he thought that he was driving well, like all the other taxi drivers. We decided to let him kiss our asses and changed to another taxi that was much better. I mean, taxi's enough..

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Areca_nut (for more information about the betel nut)

Taiwanese have their own customs and habits, that is a fact but after a few weeks here in Taiwan I realized that adapting to another culture has its limits, at least when you are only experiencing the culture for two months. It is NOT impolite to slurp, smack and burp at the table. I call it animal behaviour. Something that would take years for me to get used to because if there is something I cannot handle, it is slurping and smacking and burping :/ :/ the ceremony of terror! It is also very normal to take a whole piece of meat with bones in your mouth and to lay the bones on the table with your mouth because if there is something they try to avoid it is touching the food with your hands. I say 'lay down' but some really spit it out with sound...:/ the ceremony of terror (part II). 

There was also some animal behaviour of...well me and my friend...in the club..s. If you are going out in a club in a place you have never been before, where nobody knows you except your 3 other friends...animal behaviour is unstoppable! YOU ARE FREE! You do not care about the opinions of the locals, you just party till you drop, the sky is the limit! Dirty Dancing is nothing in comparison with what I saw these nights. I will not go into further detail on that. I prefer to keep some things between the Taipei club walls :). Oh I almost forgot: the animal behaviour of the local girls/women. What they are wearing when they go out.....unbelievable! Do you know the top that is a little longer than the normal top length but still way too short to wear it as a dress? Well, in Taiwan, some women do not get the picture. One girl was wearing that kind of "dress" where you were able to see here butt cheeks, imagine what you would see when she would rock the dance floor!

When someone tells you that you are behaving like an animal, it is most of the time not a good thing! Well, I went to the Taipei Zoo and I must say that a lot of animals do not behaving like these women in the clubs in Taipei...Their behaviour was pretty good and sometimes really funny. Ok, the slutty girls were also funny, but that  aside for a moment. I saw the whole Zoo in 5 hours, can you imagine how big it must be? I saw he famous two panda's and the big penguins. But all the animals were a-ma-zing, especially the monkeys! 

So animal behaviour, as you can see. I experienced some on my trip until now: 

sometimes it makes you mad, 

sometimes it is irritating 

but sometimes it is to be taken literally and then it is just amazing to look at, 

liberating when you behave yourself that way 

and sometimes just funny

and if there is something that really makes you laugh,

just let it out because thát is good behaviour!

XieXie amigos. <3 you!

A sunset behind coulds, but still an amazing view of the Keelung island in the North of Taiwan

Mashed event potatoes and sliced story tomatoes

Let's throw chronology into the blender and create a smoothie of funny, weird, exciting and boring events. We go back in time, but at the same time predict the future and talk about the presence. There are no rules anymore. Everything that pops in the mind, will be written down. Welcome in the mind of a traveller and not just an ordinary one but an 'AB-' blood type one! There is no logic anymore, be prepared...

The purpose of going to the north side of  Taiwan with my family and their 'teacher' friends in the weekend was to go eat seafood. You cannot find fish that is more fresh than in that tiny harbour because everything was still crawling around in the water basins, screaming 'Help don't eat me! I'm so pretty!', trying to find their way back to the ocean. I must say, they were pretty; the snails, lobsters, crabs,.. but it made them look even more delicious. So I said a little prayer for crab n°7 and the blue-spotted lobster and there they were thrown...in the bag. 

So we had bags with alive and kicking seafood? What now? Well easy, we walked 15m and we entered a restaurant (a kind of centuries old metal barn with large round tables and stools) where we handed over the bags with screaming seafood to the sweaty chubby cook (the kind that doesn't realizes that he has sweat on his forehead, stinks and wears a T-shirt without sleeves, indeed, that kind!). He threw them all into the boiling water, no mercy, how does he sleep at night? And there was our food! Before I go further: it was prepared quickly, everything in a different manner and it was delicious. 

Occasionally, I make myself ridiculous in front of people (I know, you nodding friends behind your NBs!). In order to continue being the way I am, I took my first shrimp in my hands, broke the head off, and there it happened...the explosion of brown shrimp juice in my face, hair and on my clothes. 

Another explosion took place at home when I was trying to open a passion fruit. Oh by the way, passion fruit is so cheap here and so delicious, that I eat them often. So I was - well I thought I was - using the right technique to open it but unfortunately! John was on the telephone and saw the explosion happening from 1.45m distance. All the passion fruit seeds flew around in the living room, on my legs, on the white floor, on the leather seat and on my clothes. I just keep on attracting explosions...what is wrong with me?

After eating seafood, I learned that when Taiwanese are talking about ugly girls, they call them dinosaurs (I revealed them that we call them dragons of course!). I also learned that I am a spice girl? So I was thinking about the blond one but do I look like here? Not really! But then it came to light that they wanted to say that I am a spicy girl, HAHA those naughty friends of my family, a little bit embarrassiiiiing!!

I am learning some Chinese words and sentences like: shut up, I (want to) kill you, stupid, and some other useful words. Learning to say 'I want to kill you' began with the story of the large orange (a fruit you cannot find in Europe) that you need to kill before you can eat it (cutting of the top of the skin, they call it: killing it in Chinese). 

At school, John (my family) is always jealous when the students come into the office to talk to me or to give me gifts because he is a teacher too at the school and I am sitting right next to him at his desk, poor thing but so funny! The teaching keeps getting more and more funny. One time, a student wanted to sing a song for me. I thought ‘he wants to sing alone. He is really confident about himself so he must be a good singer?’ Mmm not really, hij zong zo vals als een kat! And I was trying to hold back my laughter but damn that was difficult. (To be clear, I am always amazed by students that spontaneously want to perform something, I think they are great and it makes me every time so happy to see them become more and more open). Other classes played the flute for me or sang their country's song, A-MA-ZING! 

Today I thought a class for the second time and there was a boy sitting in front always wanting to participate in the presentation: when I was talking about food in general: "Oh yes, I am so hungry!", about Belgian chocolate: "Oh it is so good, are you going to buy for me?", about French fries: "FRIEEEEEEEEEEESSSS I want to eat them now!", about Belgian beer: "It is so goood (while he never even tasted it:))!!". And during the presentation he asked my cell phone number for 5 times AGAIN (like in the first session). I decided to give it to the whole class! As they were all eagerly taking pen and paper to write it down, I took my BB and wrote down on the black board 09…000 00 000. Even the teacher fell for it! Haha, they were so disappointed! 

Stinky tofu, by the way, is a kind of tofu that really stinks (really?), the smell is so sharp! Do you know the product ‘Veet’, you lubricate it on your legs and then after a while your hair dyes? Well, I think stinky tofu has the same effect on the little hairs in my nose but then quicker. It is mostly sold at the night markets, so I guess that is the only negative point I can find about these markets. They fry the tofu and just eat it like that and it is so popular among the Taiwanese. Some say, It can be compared to the stinky Belgian cheese, but no way I could accept that statement! 

Also, at school I have my private normal toilet! So nice! Why? Well, apparently the Taiwanese at my school prefer the urinals in the ground and there is only one normal toilet...indeed. For me! One disadvantage? My knees hit the door! 

And like my knees hit the door of the toilet cabin, my whriting hits the warning wall for nonsense writing.. so I guess I will end here.. FOR NOW.

Byebye my followers in the deep sea of madness! XieXie.

The time of my life...

I never really really REALLY felt the feeling of 'the time of my life' until my 3-week holiday in Greece. It was August 2011 and during that month I must admit I never felt this way before..

It is the feeling of happiness, all day long, every day. Even the few quarrels I had during that holiday did not feel like real fights. It feels like never being bored and you appreciate all the little things that cross your path and you are able to be yourself all the time, not wondering what people around you are thinking.

Now in Taiwan, I feel just the same, even the thought of going back to my country, makes me sad inside. Not that I don't want to see my friends again or my family, it is more about feeling happy in a place where the unknown feels so familiar. It is not about the people you love (you naturally always want them around), it is about the feeling that the people, you don't know, give you!

As many people have said in the past.. 'Wisdom comes with age'. I don't think the inventor of that line was talking about knowledge about the world. I think he was talking about knowing yourself. I know now two things for sure: I still figure out myself every day and I know now that discovery is one of my highest virtues.

I can tell you about all the places I have visited, about all the things I have experienced here but damn it's a lot :) I am so behind on my writing schedule!! So next time, I will be writing when I have some time and I feel like it, no pressure...

One more thing, who would think that there was a teacher hiding in me? Damn, I love it. I swear, it's the truth and I owe it all to my students.

Big love X.

I dreamed a dream?

I cannot say that I am missing my family because I have no time to feel such feelings, but I can tell you one thing.. being so far away from home makes you dream a lot of strange things ABOUT them! I tried to remember... to be able to tell you now.

The following took place between 1 am and 7 am (Taipei time) in Wonderland. The events took place over several nights:

• My mother was pragnant and she loved it. I could not understand because when you have a daughter like me, why would she want to have yet another child!!?? ^^ 

My mother is 55 years old, so I guess she will never be pragnant again :)...

• My dad painted his car white!

If there is one thing my dad does not care about, it's appearance! So this too would never happen in real life!

• My brother Sebastian was being sentimental about me going away and he was hugging me goodbye.....

If there is one feeling my brother can never relate to then it would be a sentimental feeling. He never feels sad nor shows any kind of affection. So I was about 200% sure that I was dreaming that!

• And last but not least, this is totally messed up! It turned out that my dad, who is Polish, was not my dad! I found out that my dad was a Greek. I was soo mad with my mother that she had hidden the truth for me for so long...

To be totally honest, I do not really know what is true about that ;). But I hope it is not! One dad is enough, certainly one like mine! Haha.

So I guess my mind is trying to tell me at night that I miss my family in a certain way. But since my mind is full with other thoughts during the day, the feelings creep up on me at night, through my dreams. And my dreams, I cannot control...

Ps: Someone just offered me a dried prune with soy sauce on it...or some other oil.. :/ EW not gooood!

Byebye!

A wise man once said.

"For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move." - Robert Louis Stevenson.

...I could not agree with him more.

My first two weeks @ the YuLin Junior High School

2/10/2012: After a short sleep @ Lilly's dormitory, we went to the 7-11 (a convenience store that you find at every corner of a street in Taiwan - it's always open and they sell almost everything) to have breakfast with the director of the school. We (Lilly, the director and me) had a discussion about what I needed to do at the school etc. Actually I had more the feeling that I was watching a Chinese soap without English subtitles, waiting for the commercial break to come that was slightly intelligible...

First I thought I would have a class or two that I needed to teach many different courses during 6 weeks, but  at the end of the Soap or maybe after watching it two times, I understood that I would have to teach three different sessions to 25 different classes of the 7th and 8th grade (in total 800 students) during those 6 weeks! 

This included the following: 

1. The chocolate mignonettes that I brought to Taiwan to give to my "2 classes" NOW needed to be divided each into..16 pieces. 

2. I needed to teach 1 course 25 TIMES, uhu, like over and over again!

3. I could not really bond with my students since I had 800 of them?

The positive thing about it is that I only needed to prepare 3 sessions :)...

At first sight, it all seemed a bit overwhelming but as I started to prepare my first lesson and teached my first classes, it showed that more variation could be brought in the same presentation than thought ... (this is where creativity began to bubble).

At the school I was warmly welcomed with 148 Chinese cups of tea and a lot of fruits and pinapple cake (very popular in Taiwan and not so bad at all If you try one from a good brand!). John and I visited office after office to meet each time 15 new employees with Chinese names and maybe two of them with an English one too. Since I am a person who cannot even remember names in her own language, my nightmare was a-wai-ting! Luckily John had the great idea to call all the men without an English name 'John n°x' and all the women with no English name 'Mary n°x' which would totally work out because to differentiate John 7 from John 16 and John 24 was certainly a no-brainer. (John and Mary is something very funny in Taiwan, John n°1, the only person that I call John, my director, tried to explain why but failed. So I googled it and apparently the names come from a really old movie that I did not know).

The students (age between 12 and 15 years old) are so so lovely. They always say hello, goodbye, wave at me everytime they see me. I love them already! After my sessions, it is always picture time! They all try to struggle their way to the middle where I am standing just to get close to me! By the way, they call me 'teacher' = so cute!

Before I really start my session, they have the opportunity to ask me anything they want (most of the time, they prepared their questions very carefully..). The most popular of them are "Do you have a husband?" or "Do you have a boyfriend?" or "Can I have your phone number? (the boys..12 years old :) ) or "Do you have FB?" (the girls).

Everyday I go with a smile to school and I return back home with an even bigger smile...What more do you need in life?

Big Kiss to my Belgian family and friends. X 

Next: the weekend with John's family and friends!

 ~ <3 ~

Full Moon Festival @ Lilly's

So about my first experience in Taiwan...The full moon festival!

What do you think about now? A full moon? Vampires? Twilight? Edward? Or music? Rock Werchter? Well, to be clear, it's nothing like a Belgian festival and there are no vampires included. Actually, I need to check google to see what it's all about ...!? Now that I'm allowed to do it... let's copy-paste!!

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Chinese Lantern Festival or Mooncake 
Festival or Zhongqiu Festival, is a popular lunar harvest festival celebrated by Chinese and Vietnamese 
people. The celebration became popular during the early Tang Dynasty. The festival is held on the 15th day 
of the eighth month in the Chinese calendar, which is in September or early October in the Gregorian calendar, 
close to the autumnal equinox. In 2006, it was made a Chinese public holiday in 2008. It is also a 

public holiday in Taiwan.

Lilly (My AIESEC correspondent when I was applying for the internship) told me that during the full moon festival, 
everybody goes back to their family to celebrate (just spending time) together. So don't think about booking 
a flight in Asia during that weekend! Following, a few traditions: Let's see what I experienced...

• Eating mooncakes, traditionally consisting primarily of lotus bean paste. CHECK but not really my favourite cake!
• Drinking tea. CHECK, I <3 Chinese tea!
• Matchmaking. In some parts of China, dances are held for young men and women to find partners.
  "One by one, young women are encouraged to throw their handkerchiefs to the crowd. The young man
  who catches and returns the handkerchief has a chance of romance." Mmm didn't think so!
• Carrying brightly lit lanterns, lighting lanterns on towers, floating sky lanterns. Sounds great, but didn't
  do that!
• Burning incense in reverence to deities including Chang'e. No.
• Fire Dragon Dances. Not really. I did however saw some dragons during that weekend..
• Solving riddles, usually written on slips of paper and pasted on the lanterns. Solving riddles, on a
  holiday? 
• Moon rabbit is a traditional icon. Gettin' smarter with the second!

So the conclusion is that I only ate and drank....well, it's not the first time I make this conclusion! 

What were my first impressions during those first days in Taiwan: a lot of scooters, why did I bring sweaters?, 

food is sooooo cheap!, why is everyone staring at me?, Why is it raining that hard on my first evening in 

Taiwan?, Everybody is so friendly!, Lilly's family is so hospitable!, I love night markets! and stinky tofu really 

stinks!

When you type in 'stinky' in google, you find in the following order: stinky little gods (?), stinky feet, stinky tofu, 

stinky cheese,... A little comparison: we have cheese and stinky cheese, Taiwan has tofu and stinky tofu 

BUT our cheese actually doesn't really stink and stinky tofu really does, google agrees! 

Moon cake

The familly tried its best to entertain me at every moment of the weekend! We went to two night markets, 

to the most famous book store of Taiwan, to crazy shops, to a restaurant where you sit on toilets and 

eat out of toilets and to a nice park.

 

On Monday, Lilly and I went back to Sansia (Taipei) from Tai Chung. She dropped me off at an elementary 

school where two other EP's (like me) were teaching. It was great to see all those little Taiwanese children, 

they were all so excited that there was a new 'teacher' in their school. By the way, those little children 

brush their teeth after lunch and clean the school.. talking about education!

Tuesday morning I was going to meet the director of the students affairs department of MY school 
(a junior high school) and he would also provide me a place to sleep, I was so nervous...

See u next time! X

Welcome to Frankfurt ---> to HongKong ---> to Taipei!!

大家好！

你怎么样？我好了！的那一刻起，我们起飞...

YEAAAH I WISH ! ;)

Jah! Die foto draait zich terug e, deze keer ben IK het NI!

So there I was alone, so alone at Brussels airport, wondering around and then SUDDENLY I noticed a familiar face................................Laana ow beautiful Laana :) Hihi, so sweet that you were there for me!

So after taking a boring flight with boring people and no window next to me, I arrived in Frankfurt. How to entertain yourself for two hours in Frankfurt?

1. Standing in the way of little children to look at this cool stuff!

2. Staring at hot businessmen, M-M-M!

3. ...

That was actually all I had to do because I had a non-trolley handbag! NEVER AGAIN, it was soooo heavy! After a while, it was time to take my first long haul flight that took 10 hours...downwind. I was not afraid, I was just hoping that I had no stinky tofu next to me! (Stinky tofu will be explained later) I was lucky! I was sitting next to the aisle, in the back of the plane but not too far in the back (toilet alert!), I had a personal TV witch chakka makka movies, 'the lucky one' and also a few good ones. Next to me sat a nice Taiwanese mother and her little Taiwanese girl of three. My god, she was SO sweet and brave! I almost crushed her little little finger with that nasty tablet in front of me but she still loved me and smiled at me so I was happy :). After a few movies and in the end a nice talk with the Taiwanese lady, we landed effortless. 

So the lady was Taiwanese but her husband was Italian and she was not going to Taipei (Hm no free guide for me :/) but Hong Kong was her end destination. She actually lives in Hong Kong because her husband works there and she came from her holiday in Italy. But there was more, an unexpected event forced her to stay the night in Frankfurt because she was half an hour late for her flight to Hong Kong. That explained the fact that her other daughter was sitting 15 rows in front of us with her nanny and THAT explained the nodding and waving to the woman every time she came down the aisle to bring the toddler to the restroom! 

Everything fell into place and I was happy with the most interesting - and the only - story I had in 14 hours...

Also, I thought that the bigger the plane the bumpier the landing but it was the opposite! There was more turbulence, but I always think 'Dying in an airplane must be a pretty exciting thing and then I eventually can pull that cord on the life jacket!!!!' 

Almost there, almost there.. that was the only thing that went through my head when I was in Hong Kong, I was so tired that I wanted to sleep everywhere where I sat down! I was walked from gate 76 to gate 1 (seriously??) to take my final flight, when suddenly they changed the gate for Taipei 604 (I will NEVER forget the flight number) to 68......Oh I wanted to kill those Chinese sneaky bastards! WAIT not finished yet,   I arrived at gate 68 to be informed that there was a technical problem and that we had to wait for 2 hours before boarding.. :'/  ............the crushed little finger...Karma's a bitch!

After 4 more hours, hi Taipei, where you expecting me? I was smiling and nobody or nothing could take that smile from my face.

           

             .Xie Xie (Thank you).

Damn..you were de-li-cious! (Miss you so much it hurts my stomach literally (^^) )

Is there never a right time to say goodbye?

Jetlag + qwerty = not the ideal situation to write but here I am!

So where did we left off? Right, my goodbye party. Ooow I liked it! I liked it like a facebook-like times 10! I had a wonderful time and I hope the invited ones felt the same way. I went home with a great but pretty wasted feeling. Around 4.30 o'clock I lay in my bed with only one thought 'I love my friends and that is why I am going to miss them so much..'

But I guess that knowing that there are people caring about you and vise versa is the reason why leaving is such a wonderful experience. If you do not have a home to come back too, than what does leaving means? I define 'home' not literally as the place where your house is situated but the place where you are surrounded by the people that you love and love you back. How meaningful and challenging is leaving when there is no home to come back to? I am lucky to be able to miss home and be missed by the ones that are part of it.

I woke up with a huge headache –‘one from here to Taiwan I would say in Dutch’ ;) – realizing that I still had to finish packing my bags with only one kg left to reach the weight limit. I could not think straight so I just filled my bags with the things I really needed (probably not) and hoped that they would have mercy at the airport! Eventually, I left with a bag of 26 kg (3kg overweight) and a handbag of 10 kg (2kg overweight)..Talking about taking a risk and winning the battle against weight!

 I said goodbye to my mother and cried off course, typically me! And then, after the crying and sniveling, Stephanie, my best friend from the hood, came to the airport to say a last goodbye <3! Finally, there I was, walking through security, looking one more time over my shoulder and waving my hand to my mother and best friend. My journey began, on my own.

 Chris Brown sings that there is never a right time to say goodbye but I do not agree. At my goodbye party everybody was surprised that I already left the day after but admit…How awkward is it to have your party two weeks before you leave and to still see your friends after you already said goodbye??? So Chriske, I do not agree and I know you are not singing about travelling but seriously dude! When you feel like braking up and saying goodbye? Just be a man and say it ASAP. ASAP IS THE RIGHT TIME, trust me...

Upcoming: a picture of my last Belgian meal and a third person that was there with me at the airport + the fly story and the weekend at Lilly's family.

Goodbye everybody! X

2, 1, Ready to take off?

The moment I lay my underwear in my traveling bag is always that moment when I start to realize that I will be away from home for a while. Honestly? IT FREAKS ME OUT! Why? You will understand immediately!

There are some qualities that come in handy when you are travelling alone:

1. Having a sense of Orientation                            (Remember the time when I missed my snowboard course because I took the wrong skirun (after 5 days)? Karen will never forget:))
2. Being well informed                                          (I am never "the one with all the gossip")
3. Being on time                                                   (I think, almost never?)
4. Taking care of your stuff                                   (If I sum up all the things I have lost until now, then those  Hugo Boss boots (<3) suddenly do not seem so expensive anymore.)

I suppose you all get the picture! It will be exhausting for me trying to obtain those qualities but HEY, challenge accepted!

Back to my traveling bag story! Something that I really need to take with me is a present for my host family. What would be better than a box of Belgian specialities??! CHOCOLATE AND BEER!

What is in this delicious box of heaven? Côte D'Or bars of all kinds, Cuberdons, Chokotoffs, Napoleons, Nougat, Waffles from Liege! Hope they like it!

For Beer I chose Grimbergen Blond (of course), Leffe Brown and Maes Zero (I read somewhere that some Taiwanese families do not drink alcohol). "Oh no, did you really bought cans instead of bottles?" Yes I did, I mean 23 kg? I have nightmares about that number!

Tomorrow evening, my last evening in Belgium for a long time, I wanted to have a real Belgian supper: A nice saignant backed Steak with pepper sauce and homemade fries! (Mmmmm) And to celebrate my last night, I organized a small goodbye party for my close friends.

This was my last message from Grimbergen, Still a lot to pack and puzzle!

(Belgian) Greetz. X

Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly awaaaaay ...

I am now 5 days away from my departure and I am starting to feel a little bit nervous from time to time. I must say, there were a lot of things I needed AND STILL NEED to take care of before I leave...

First, to book a flight, it's a tricky thing because if you book too soon, you risk to miss an opportunity to book a flight last minute at a low price but when you wait too long, the chance of finding a relatively cheap flight decreases. It is the first time I am doing a long haul flight so I wanted to be sure that I had my ticket on time. I booked it in the first week of August and paid approximately EUR 950. I booked it online at fluege.de (a German website). 

I must say, the fact that it is a German one and that there was no possibility included to translate it, did not make it easy. So when I really did not understand the steps of the booking process I just copy-pasted the text into Google translate. I know a lot of people that are against Google translate. But seriously? For translations like that? It works pretty damn good and fast. ;)

EUR 950 is not that expensive for this distance but there are a few reasons that explain why it is cheap.. I have 2 stops on my way to Taiwan (one in Frankfurt and one in Hong Kong) and also 2 when I come back (one in Hong Kong and one in Munich). I fly 6 time economy class, 4 times with Lufthansa and 2 times with another airline (these are the two flights between Taipei and Hong Kong). The total travel time is 17 hours. At least, that is how I booked it. Unfortunately, I got an email a few weeks after my booking date to inform me that there were some flight changes in my schedule. What was the result? When I come back, I need to wait 10 hours in the Hong Kong airport instead of 1,5 hours what was pretty bad news. But you cannot do much about that. So I hope it now stays that way. 

I got some interesting information from a professor that I needed to check out the seat quality of my plane on the website seatguru.com. It is amazing. You can find all technical information of the specific plan in which you are going to fly. Good seats are green, bad seats are red. Basically it comes down to that. For more details check it out! 

I also downloaded the application TripCase on my BB so that I can check flight hour changes in my schedule at all times!

Another drawback besides the flight change is the fact that I can only take one piece of luggage with me of 23 kg + 8kg carry-on baggage...... 31kg for 2 months....................... ARE YOU KIDDIN ME? I think this will be one of the biggest challenges of my life. :) But still, I am so happy and excited that I will be singing this beautiful old song in my shower the day I will leave this little piece of the earth, called Belgium, behind.


Come fly with me, let's fly let's fly away.

Byebyeee.

The exhausting struggle...

Who, what, where, when and how ?????


Five primordial questions, so basic but yet so needed to be answered before reaching your goal.


Who: How easy was that question? Me of course! Did I need someone by my side? Of course not. Remember that I told you that I like to throw myself in the unknown and find my way without help from the people I know? Well I guess I knew the answer to that question very quickly.

What: This one is more tricky.. What was it that I wanted to do? This experience...oh yes, going abroad! But what will I do there? What are the options? There are a lot of things you can do abroad like working, volunteering, visiting family, study, taking a holiday etc. I wanted to mean something and learn from my experience so a holiday was out of the question. Visiting family - that would be in Poland or Canada - wasn't my goal either. I went already many times to Poland but I still need to visit my aunt and her family in Canada, one day...no worries! I didn't want to work in a company totally non-related to my study and future carrier so working in a bar or zoo was also out of the question. Studying was also not my intention, in fact I think I have studied enough, after those five years, I really felt the impulse of starting my career. I chose to do a volunteering internship, not a professional one - that's for later on! - and so I started to think about my next question...

How: I chose for the organization AIESEC, present in 160 countries all over the world with many MANY years of experience. It is an organization that give student access to a database with all there internship offers (volunteering as well as professional ones) in exchange for a certain fee. They help you make up a profile and apply for the internships of your interest. The local offices of the AIESEC organization are run by students from the surrounding universities. This certainly has its advantages and disadvantages. It is fun to collaborate with students around the same age but when the board chooses the wrong people for the job, it can quickly cause a tedious and inefficient arrangement between yourself and the LC. I experienced that in the beginning when the LC NEVER returned my emails. NEVER answered the telephone...which led to signing my contract long after I decided to join AIESEC. Fortunately the president that took over in June was much more responsible and a great communicator.

When: Also not that difficult.. I decided to go in October/November - min of 6, max of 8 weeks - since I first needed to work in the holiday months and I still need to finish my thesis with deadline at the 15th of December so in between these crucial points lay my opportunity!

Where: I seriously had no idea where I wanted to go! At least one thing I knew for sure: I wanted to go out of Europe and not to Africa or North America. But Asia and Latin America is still big! Eventually, I only applied for the Asian countries since for internships in Latin America, you needed to master the language Spanish or Portuguese (I really did not have the time to take lessons before the internship because of my thesis). After I made my geographical demarcation, I concentrated on the profile of the internship.

Think I wrote enough for the day! It is 29°C in my home town Grimbergen, something that is very rare in Belgium so I am going to enjoy! See you next time!!!

Greetzz.