Trip to Yilan

Hoy y mañana tengo vacaciones en el colegio porque mis compañeros tienen los exámenes semestrales y no hace falta que los estudiantes de intercambio vayan al colegio. Mi segunda familia me invitó a Yilan con Kierstin. Visitamos un parque forestal donde había un pequeño lago para avistar aves, y también había vías de tren porque hace unos años había una estación de tren en ese lugar.

 El siguiente lugar que visitamos fueron las cold springs. En Taiwan hay muchas hot springs a las que la gente va sobretodo en invierno. En Yilan hay unas cold springs que al parecer son especiales porque solo hay unas pocas en el mundo (3/4 si no me equivoco) Se puede comprar la entrada para la piscina común o para la individual. Como era miercoles y no habia nadie fuimos a las comunes pero no lleve bañador asi que solo pude meter los pies.

(Kierstin, Mama, Papa)

La madre nos llevo a comer a un restaurante en la costa, pero cuando vimos la playa fuimos directamente ahi. Acaba de pasar un tifón y dicen que el clima después del tifón es muy bueno. Hoy el dia estaba espectacular El agua del mar en Taiwan es muy muy azul y por lo que todos los taiwaneses dicen son muy peligrosas, puede ser porque no todos saben nadar muy bien y siempre están muy atentos con la seguridad pero también es verdad que las playas son muy peligrosas y en muchas de ellas no se puede nadar porque el terreno es irregular y la playa es muy profunda a veces y también porque hay corrientes muy fuertes.

                          (Comimos en la terraza del restaurante que estaba en el segundo piso)

Trip to Hualien

February 27th was a national holiday so my host family decided to go on a trip to Hualien for 3 days. Hualien is in the east cost of Taiwan has the largest area of all counties in Taiwan,
is one of thenine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the Taroko Gorge, the landmark gorge of the park. The park spans Taichung, Taitung and Hualien.
We also went to the beach, swimming is not allowed because the sea is really deep but the view was amazing. The weather is hotter compared to Taipei and the air is fresher.
We also stopped at a place full of flowers and  took some pictures (most of the pictures in the post are from meimei's camera)

This one is a bit weird I know, the thing is that when we were at Taroko a woman came to me and say: look up and tell me what you see. So I looked up and I was like: erm... I don't see anything. Then she was like: don't you see Taiwan's shape? So yeah, it looks pretty similar, it was sooo hard to take a proper picture but it doesn't look bad

Winter break and back to school

haojiubujian!

Today the winter vacation is over and all the students have to go back to the hard school life. We had almost a month of holiday when all the exchanges students got to relax, enjoy some time together and sleep a lot. And for me, I wanted to do sightseeing and visit as many places as I could during this break, so I did.

Beitou Thermal Valley:

I had already been there, but my first host family and Kewei (sorry jiejie I still don't know how to write your English name) invited me to have lunch together in a Japanese restaurant famous for their Japanese noodles, the restaurant was near Xinbeitou so we went to visit the Hot Springs Museum and the Thermal Valley

Chinese Test:

Rotary did a chinese test to compare our levels after 5 months having class and to divide us into 5 different new classes. The test was alright, as good as I expected. After the test my third host mum invited me and my other 2 host sisters to have lunch and enjoy the afternoon together. We went to Miramar a shopping center in Neihu District, we watched Taken 3 which I surprisingly liked and then we took a ride in the (noria? how's in english?)

Hiking in Jingmei Mountain with jiejie:

I found a hiking trail next to the place i live now and I invited Kewei to do it together, it was alright even if we aren't in the condition of hiking and at the end we found out we hate stairs more than we thought haha!

Fine Arts Museum:

Lola host mum invited me and Sara to have lunch with them, after that we went to Fine Arts Museum, is kind of contemporary arts museum, is not really big but it was free

Lukang:

Is a town located in the western of Taiwam, close to Changhua and Taichung. Is a important place for taiwanese because there you can find some temples which were built long time ago. There're also some old streets with some shops who sells traditional objects from the zone. There's also a street called "Breast Street" because if a woman and a man walk in together, he will touch the woman's breast because the street is very thin. So 3 friends and I took a bus from Taipei Main station in the early morning to spend 4 hours until we got to Lukang, it was really good, I loved being away from Taipei, the big city and the traffic for a day.

Elephant Mountain:
It was a rainy day but I had wanted to go to elephant mountain on a rainy day since long time ago, so I invited Kewei to come with me, the view was totally different, you could see some random buildings and 101 (I have to say that I regret every time I suggest going hiking). After that my first host mum took us to the Chinese New Year Fair at 101 where we tried lot of food.

CKS and Raohe Night Market with my Mexican friend:
About a month ago I met a Mexican girl who was doing a voluntary job in a school here in Taipei, before she left we hung out. We went to CKS to take some photos and after we went to a night market, ending the night at 101.

KTV with my host mums:
My frist and third mum invited us to go together for lunch and after we went to a karaoke in Ximen (was one of the most expensive) had fun and laugh at ourselves, we were lucky that only the host mums were there haha!

Wulai National Park:
In the early morning, my first family, Kewei and I went to Wulai with our host parents friends, the weather wasn't really good so it was a bit dangerous to walk in there, but it was really pretty, after that we went back to Taipei to have dinner with my actual host family because of the birthday of one of my host sisters, we went to Fridays and I could eat real meat!

Maokong:
Kewei and I planned to go to the zoo and to the gondola and spend the day there, at the end we only went to Maokong Gondola because we took the wrong bus, and the wrong direction, basically we got lost...again...after 6 months in Taipei...yes...I know... Maokong was okay, I expected more, the thing I liked the most was the ride in the gondola, there was a glass on the floor so you could see what we has under us.

Dihua Street:
After Maokong we went to Dihua Street, close to Shuanglian, and Xiaonanmen. This street is really crowed in Chinese New Year because they sell traditional food, decorations, and everything you want to buy for the festivities. We went there and we tried lots of food, some where good, some I won´t try again... we experienced the Chinese New Year spirit!

JJ concert:
My host sister invited me to go to JJ concert in Taipei Arena, we went there at 7, the concert started at 7:30 and it finished around 11:30. It was the longest concert I've ever been too. Even though I didn´t know the songs, I could read the lyrics in the screens, and try to sing some parts haha but it was fun. After the concert was raining a looooot

H&M||101 with la chica:
Recently H&M was opened here in Taiwan, as shopping lovers la chica and me went to Taipei 101 to look around and see how it was, it was a really good day, the weather was great it seemed like it was spring instead of winter. After that we had dinner together.

Yilan:
My host mum and I went to Yilan to spend the day at the Taiwan Traditional Arts Centre where you can see how was the life of ancient taiwanese people, houses, temples, etc. Then we took a boat across the Riverside Park and ride a bike for two people (is not as funny as it looks like) After that we took a bus to a famous night market in Yilan, and I ate fried stinky tofu! which wasn`t really bad.

Chinese New Year:
During Chinese New Year, all the exchange students spend some days with their host families. Families get together and go to temples to pray, they also eat together A LOT OF FOOD, during the week after new year you hear fireworks all the time -_-. The best part for us is that they give money in red envelopes. I got 6000nt

Nantou and Taichung:
On chinese new year my first host family invited me to go with them to the center of Taiwan, Nantou and Taichung. We spent two days in the mountains and we went hiking. i got the chance to see Yushan mountain, is the tallest one in Taiwan and the last day we went to Taichung. We visit Taiwan Fine Arts Museum which is pretty much the same as the one in Taipei and then we went to Rainbow Village. Some time ago this village was used for soildiers who were injured to take care of them. The goverment wanted to overthrow it but one of the soldiers painted the walls with his memories from the war and nowadays is an attraction for tourist also for taiwanese people.

Pingxi Latern Festival:
The day after I arrived from the trip with my first, my second took me to the Pingxi Latern Festival. Pingxi is in New Taipei City and it´s famous for the Latern Festival. People go there to write their wishes for the year on a latern that they'll throw it into the air.