From Taitung to Kaohsiung - Meeting the ambassador

To spare my phone battery, I wrote the following on the back of a map of Kenting I printed out before my departure. A place I would eventually not go to. You start with a travel plan in mind but after all the advice and suggestions from locals, also taking in consideration the weather and your travel buddies, the plan can change a few times before and even during your trip. You will need to make choices between destinations, skip attractions and end up in places and see things you did not plan to. If you cannot handle this kind of changes; you better book the Chinese 14-days around Taiwan bus tour.

I skipped Kenting and went straight to Kaohsiung, a city that wasn't part of my initial travel plan. I ended up going there because I just visited Orchid Island which is very similar to Kenting in the following way: A lot of beaches, so great sunsets and sunrises and both great places to dive. Since I experienced all of that during my 2.5 days stay on Orchid Island, I happily exchanged Kenting for Kaohsiung, the 2^nd biggest city of Taiwan. When comparing Kaohsiung to Taipei, I would say it is clearly less populated/busy and a couple degrees warmer than Taipei. Kaohsiung is the place where you take a boat on the love river and enjoy the city view at night, also the place where the national park is just a walk away from the river where you are literally walking with apes and of course a place where you can enjoy great and cheap seafood dishes. I was on my way there, so this was the introduction I got from my local friends.

I said John’s family goodbye and see you soon at the train station where our ways would separate. They would head back to Taipei whereas I would take the train to Kaohsiung. Well on time, I relaxed a bit in the station main area which wasn't big at all but cosy enough and headed to the platform 10 minutes before the train would arrive. While standing there with my huge back pack, waiting for the train to arrive, a man approached me...

He started talking to me, asking me where I come from and what I am doing in Taiwan. His English was very good so it was easy to communicate. I told him about my travel plans while he explained that he was working for the Taiwanese embassy in the Netherlands. He’s Taiwanese from origin but after living 6 years in the Netherlands, his Dutch was perfect. We continued our conversation in Dutch (I think). He told me that his recent move to Taiwan has been a hard time for him adjusting to the heat and humidity again but he was also happy to be back ‘home’. He was on his way to a city close enough to Kaohsiung where he was going to visit a military base. He was on a mission that involved guiding a few Dutch journalists who were working on an article that involved much research into the different military bases of Taiwan. He took the train alone because the journalists were fine driving there by car. He told me that he has always been amazed by the independence and courage of young Dutch women backpacking on their own, finding their way and all. Even though I am not Dutch, I understood his compliment and thanked him for it. Eventually, he ended up sitting in front of me but he was so tired that he fell asleep when the train started moving.  

It's these kind of encounters that make travelling alone so worth it. The fact is, wherever you go, you always have the choice to be as alone as you want to be. When you are feeling alone, open yourself up, dare to approach strangers, and turn them into your travel companions. Even if it's just for 5 minutes, it's another chat, another story to tell, another moment to share...  

During my trip, travelling by train and bus often gave me the opportunity to catch up on my writing and so I did.

A top reunion on ground floor Taipei 101

Before we took off; I made a quick phone call to my mother. I wanted her to pass on the message to John that I was on the plane but my back pack wasn’t. There was nothing he could do about it, but sharing the situation, made me feel better. I guess that makes me selfish. I involved my mother in the process since I could not connect with him directly. See, I have this network on my phone, called 48, that shuts you off the entire world outside of Europe.

If everything would have gone smoothly, the first thing I would be stressing about while setting foot on the plane is the person who I will be sitting next to for the next 11 hours. I imaged myself in that scenario finding my seat thinking to myself pleaseeee not a smelly or too-big-for-one-seat person, please no babies in a diameter of 3 meters around me. This time, I only started observing him after take-off. My neighbour was a Dutch speaking, not-too-big-for-one-seat kinda guy, around my age. I wanted to connect with him but he fell asleep from the moment we took off. I also didn’t get the feeling he wanted to have a chat with me!? Besides me being the one delaying the flight, crushing his dream of having two seats for himself and the fact that my video screen was working while his wasn’t, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t like me! At least he was quiet and odourless the entire flight. Perfect!

From the moment dinner was being served, I couldn’t stop thinking about drinking wine for free. Last time, I didn’t bother drinking alcohol on the flight but this time, I needed it!

“Wat wil je graag drinken?” asked the Dutch blond male flight attendant with a big smile. 
“Een glaasje wijn?” 
“Jazeker; welke had je graag gehad?” 
“Welke heb je?” 
“We hebben wit en rood!”

I did not ask him what kind of wine he had to show off. My wine knowledge is rather poor. I asked him the question because I already knew the answer and I knew it was going to cheer me up. So when he replied, we both started laughing out loud and so he poured me a cup of red wine. Since we both enjoyed this moment of laughter, I did not consider myself selfish at that moment.

I envied my neighbour because I so badly wanted to fall asleep. I even brought that weird U-shaped thing you need to put around your neck. I still don’t get it, it just makes it worse! Instead, I watched the Dutch and definitely worse version of ‘Zot van A’, some episodes of a show I don’t recall and read some pages out of my book ‘Travels in Taiwan’.

Finally, after approximately 12 hours, I arrived in Taipei. Hello heat! After exchanging some Euro in NTD and reporting my back pack ‘missing’, I walked all the way to the exit where Jerry welcomed me literally with open arms. Even though he did not have a car, he was willing to take the bus to the airport so that I would not be alone taking it into the city. I remember John having to do something with that little arrangement.

While seated on the air-conditioned bus we brought up some memories from two years ago. They funny thing was that we didn’t even share that many, to be precise only two. To be totally honest, we didn’t even remember how we met each other! After a bit of investigating by us both, putting the bits and pieces of our memories together, we understood that Mary, the German girl that decided to do a similar AIESEC internship around the same time as me, was the link. Jerry met her in Germany during his language course. And so one evening, two years ago, Mary decided to invite him along to an AIESEC night out in Taipei city.

When the bus arrived at Taipei main station, we decided to go straight to Taipei 101 by MRT and hang around in the shopping mall before meeting John for dinner. Jerry was surprised when I pulled out my Easy card to enter the MRT. “Where did you get the Easy card from??” “I kept it for two years, I thought it might come in handy some day!” Arrived at Taipei 101, Jerry mentioned that we drank a coffee on the 35^th floor last time.

While window shopping in the luxurious Taipei 101 shopping mall, we were wondering if there would ever come a time when we could take the window out of the sentence. And if so, when that would be!?

Jerry’s phone rang. It was John asking him if he already took a ticket for the restaurant. A ticket?! Why? Apparently we were going to have dinner in Din Tai Fung. Not just an ordinary restaurant, on the contrary, one of which the Hong Kong branch was awarded a Michelin star. Jerry came of the phone telling me that we need to get a ticket for a table of 7 which meant a waiting time of 1 hour and a half. It wasn’t the waiting time that shocked me but the fact that we were going to be 7?? I was wondering who he invited? 

Seven ok… so he invited his family along, so his wife Mary, his son Jay, so that’s 5. Who else?? Once everyone arrived at the entrance of the restaurant. I knew.. I forgot about John’s mother who moved into his house two years ago and the real surprise was Lilly, my Aiesec recruiter!! I could not be happier having them all present at my first evening. I inappropriately hugged everyone on arrival. In public places, especially in south Taiwan, physical contact of any sorts should be avoided. 

The plan was to go to the top of Taipei 101 after our lovely dinner but we were 10 minutes too late to get our second ticket of the night. It closed at 9pm. Instead, we decided to have a drink in Xinmending and eventually finishing the night in a MacDonalds with fries, Coke and spilled Coke Zero. On my pants. The one that I was going to need to wear for at least two more days. #clumpsycaro #delayedbackpack. Taking into account the few hours I did not sleep on the plane, I can say that after being awake for 36 hours I looked forward to going back home, John’s home. 

Again, I didn’t manage to reach the top of Taipei 101, but hey I just arrived..Third time is the charm? ;)

Carolyn.

Hell and Back in Caro style..

Two years ago, when I left Taiwan and told everyone I would come back, I never thought I actually would.. It's a thing you often say, leaving a holiday destination, an Erasmus location..but do you eventually go back? 

Taiwan, two years ago, was the first time I was away from home for a longer period of time, 1 month and 8 weeks to be precise. While it seems long enough to explore the entire island, slightly bigger than Belgium .. It's not. During the week, I taught English on irregular hours and days and the weekends were easily filled with day trips and exploring the city, Taipei. 

I did went on a 3-day school trip where everything was tightly scheduled. For Taiwanese and Chinese people, exactly how it should be. Besides that, I organised  one weekend trip together with Evy, my dear college friend who was studying - figuratively speaking - next to me in Xiamen, China. Together we explored the coastline and the Taroko gorge in Hualien. 

Conclusion: There was more that I wanted to explore and with a maximum of two weeks I was allowed to take off at once, it just seemed the perfect decision. You could say that there is always more to see, which is true and you could think I am silly to spend my money on this long flight to the same location while I had many other choices like Thailand or Malaysia. I think I just love Taiwan :) let's leave it to that. 

I booked my flights sometime in May. The dates were decided: 19 September to 6 October. It wasn't until one month before my departure that I seriously started planning the trip with some help from my host family from two years ago.  

The last week before departure was the busiest, at work as well as after. Toughest challenge: backpack packing.

Friday the 19th was there, I worked that day until 1pm, picked up my backpack at home and took a cab to the airport. The holidays began but I did not feel it yet..

I would only feel relaxed once I got on the plane to Taipei. I only had 55 minutes of overlay time but when I checked in my backpack, the check-in agent was confident in a smooth flight and luggage transfer in Amsterdam. 

When I arrived at the gate for my flight to Amsterdam, I noticed the delay on the screen of 25 minutes. This was the moment I got really stressed! How could it be possible to take out my backpack from one plane and get it on the next one in 30 minutes?? Next worrying fact, the flight to Taipei was not delayed... 

We landed in Amsterdam at 7.55pm and the flight to Taipei took off at 8.40pm. When the plane was finding its way to the right gate, I saw us passing by the gate I needed to be for my next flight and it. was. far, almost too far for this overlay time + delay. I got off the plane at 8.20pm, actually the gate closing time for my next flight but something just triggered me to run as fast as I could and try to get that flight! What did I had to lose? I could at least give it a try! During the run, I was thinking about the hell and back challenge that I missed. Well, let's say I saw Satan as well that day! People were looking at me because 1. the wheels of my hand luggage made a lot of noise on the fast tracks, 2. I was screaming desperately, 'excuse me' for maybe more that 50 times, 3. I was the only one running!? After a few minutes I arrived at the check-in. I saw a few still going through security so there was hope! Entirely out of breath, I asked the young security guy 'Is this the flight to Taipei?' 'No it's not! Naa just kiddin! Haha' 'SERIOUSLY?' 

My ticket was not valid anymore because they never thought I would be able to make it to the gate on time. They gave my seat away already. But since I was there, they tried to get me on the flight and there were two seats left so they gave me another one. Thank god! Unfortunately, my backpack wasn't as fast of a runner as me. It needed to come with a next flight. Not the ideal outcome but given the current circumstances, I think I did pretty well to get on that flight! At least I was going to be in Taipei on time. 

Sitting in the plane, I was finally starting to get my breathing under control. My hands stopped shaking and I looked at my wrist. I saw I was wearing the bracelet I bought two years ago outside a Buddhist temple in the Taipei mountains...I did not know which one to thank but I figured, I couldn't do much wrong by just saying 'thank god!'.

Carolyn.

Real time is overrated.

Hi there! 

Totally taiwanated is back! I will write about my 16-day tour in Taiwan during and after my trip. Nothing will be written in real time because of the lack of time.

So real stories, real emotions, the good and the bad, just a bit delayed. 

The essence will be put in writing..

Carolyn. 

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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).