Haňule z Kyjova

We arrived home late yesterday, so I didn’t have time to write something. In the morning we went to a nearby district called Miaoli, which is famous for fruit growing. The ride took us about one and a hlaf hour, and then we got to a city, that is known for strawberries and oranges. First we visted local market, where we had lunch. I’m getting pretty used to chopsticks, I had rice noodles in a soup, which are very difficult to eat with chopsticks, but I made it! I definitely started to like bamboo. It’s different from what you can get in CZE, it’s more soft and tasty.

There were several small strawberry farms in the town. The hills and mountains envelop this region, so I was really surprised that such sweet fruits are grown here. On the farm you get your basket, scissors and go pickipng up the most beautiful and the biggest strawberries. It is definitely a different way from what we do in CZE The scenery was beautiful around, but it was a bit cloudy, so my camera didn’t take the rigth picture

After we had enough, we went by car to a park near, where building in old chinese style is built. We ate a lot of food on the way up the small hill again The traditional buildings had a big entry and courtyard and were decorated with traditional paintings. In some rooms there were expositions about tradtional chinese wedding.

the groom¨s dress

the bride’s dress

gifts given by the groom to the bride

the main building

the first chinese dragon that I have seen

After this stop, we headed off for home. The dinner was arrenged at the brother’s family, and I went there earlier to watch a bit how the food is cooked. Because there was also other uncle coming this evening there was a lot of food to be preapared. What I liked the most was some pork boiled with garlic and special herbs and spices, that you can buy in a shop. That was really good. Than some warm lettuce, bamboo with ginger and some green leaves, sausages, chicken legs, and ofcourse soup this time with meat balls. It was a real feast! After dinner we had some talk with the uncles about CZE and Taiwan. The uncle, who I will call Nick :), is very interested in tea, and he made us a few very delicate cups of tea. The first was oolong, the second also oolong but the leaves were baked, so the taste was more piquant, the last is called the oriental beauty, and I found this one very good. It’s taste was a little sweet and honey-like. I have to buy this one!

We got home nearly at 11pm, so today I slept till 9:30. In the evening I might go for a dinner with AIESEC people and other EPs that are here, so I wan’t probably have time to write. So see u tomorrow.

I was a bit sore all over the body today, after the kung-fu class, but I went to school at 9 today, although I didn’t have any classes at the morning. But yesterday I asked the arts teacher if I can come to the class and learn caligraphy went I have free time, and he said yes, so I wanted to take the opportunity. There were no children in the class from 10 o’clock so I had the class all for myself. The teacher showed me first how to make the strokes rightly and in which order. He also tried to explain the meaning of the words, but his English isn’t so good so it took a little longer. Then he left me for myself and so for 2 hours I tried hard to copy his work. And there are the results:

When I showed these to Irene she started running through the office and showing it to all the people, letting them guess which is mine and which is my teachers But everone could guess that I’m still not that good

At 12:00 I had a my first meeting with 4 students. I took my lunch from Irene and went to the 5th floor to a studyroom, where we could talk. Normally we would sit outside but it was very cold today (17 C) and windy. When I looked at my lunchbox I was a bit unsure, because there were little fish, with their heads and internals and I was a bit afraid of them. But it was just a bit crunchy and salty and good with the peanuts and rice.

The students were very nice. They brought me some chicken nuggets and potatoes rings. They really like to eat! They also prepared a few questions and they were very interested in Czech republic. They said that our country is very famous for their couples to go for a honeymoon.

At 2pm I had a class with [Pany], a very active and as she says a bit childish, teacher It was in a class that concentrates on arts, so they have more arts classes than the others. They listened really carefully. I could see that they react a bit differently when they saw the pictures of our sights. Like the artist’s mind was really in them. They were so sweet that some of them gave me their own drawing. They are very beautiful. I think the children are really talented and I’m looking forward to meeting them again!

After this lesson we talked a bit with Pany. We talked about dogs in Taiwan, because she has a dog too. I thought that everyone in Taiwan has got a dog, because I see them a lot around the houses. But she said that many people here don’t like dogs and that they often call the police when they see them on the street. The police also can after 12 days, when nobody wants to adopt the dog, put him to death. And also if you want to have a dog in a flat, it often happens that the neighbours call the police on you…

Claire asked me if I can meet with 2 of her later students, that study nowadays at a university. so we had a little chat after that. They are studetns of English and French language. So a we chatted that I totally lost track of time and suddenly it was past 5pm. I wanted to collect my things and go home, but I met Claire in the corridor and she asked me if I can go with her to her English speaking lesson that she has with some students after school, to say them hello. So I went. And form saying hello there was suddenly asking many questions, learning a bit chinese and teaching a bit czech! and I spend there an hour! SO when I got home it was past 6pm! And I was sooooooo exhausted after so much talking.

When I turned on my computer I had a skype call from Martin and Tomáš from CZE, so I didn’t take any rest at all! (thank you guys :)) And in the evening we went for the night market to the centre of the city. That was really something! SO much food everywhere. We tasted a lot of them. Finally I got to taste the so called “stinky tofu”. And it was yummy! with all the garlic and salad. Then we tried some fried noodles, and I don’t know what, but was probably made of pig’s blood. But all was very good and I am stuffed again. And the drink made of sugar cane with ginger din’t help at all. I have to go to bed to digest and regain my strength for tomorrow! Because tomorrow ……. I’ll tell later nighty night!

stinky tofu

something made of pig’s blood

the fruit is so delicious here!!!

maybe next time!

I wanted to wake up early this morning, but I couldn’t fall asleep yesterday. Every information that I gained was “running” through my brains. And I overslept a bit. I wanted to start being a bit active and to go for a swim in the morning but the weather wasn’t good, it was raining a little, for the first time here, and the temperatures were around 18 grades. But I got to school early enough to attend the chinese dancing lesson with the other exchange students. We tried some movemnets from the traditional ribbon dance. The moves look easy but my hands are sore and the ribbons got entangled all the time. I think it looked something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCJZYskdoiw (played from 2:30)

After that we had a lesson of chinese kung-fu with teacher Mike. First we did some warm-up to get more flexible (thanks to that I probably won’t walk tomorrow). Then we started with some easy moves, but after that it started – we took swords and tried a “choreographylike” moves. That was really horrible, because it was so quick I couldn’t follow very much and I was also a bit dangerous with the sword in my hand When the teacher did it he looked really graceful and powerful.

After lunch I had 2 classes with children. Also the people from AIESEC came to the school to meet me. So I got to know Winnie, Joe and Edward. We had a talk with the principal of the school. I didn’t understand a word But they were talking about me and the organisation and also their studies because some of them had studied at the NeiLi.

Tomorrow I will add here some information about traffic and dustmen – but I have to go to bed, I’m all sore today….

Ok, the weather here is so humid that my hair won’t dry. And when I try to dry it with the hairdryer it takes a lot of time and in the end it has no effect, the hair gets all messy after a while because of the wet climate. grrrrrrr

I wanted to add some information about the dustmen car – one day I heard a music like FamilyFrost so I asked what it is. And yeah that’s it, the dustmen car has it’s own melody. So they go around the streets every day and play the tune to let people know they’re close.

Then the traffic. That’s definitely something dangerous. There are no pavements along the streets and there are a lots of cars parked on both sides of streets. So you have to be very careful. Taiwanese also like to drive a motorcycle or a scooter. And when I go home after 5pm there are really lots of cars and scooters that endanger my life :))

…And more scooters parked in front of every shop or restaurant

Today I had the first classes with the wonderful teacher Sarah. In the morning I woke a bit earlier to get ready for the presentations. We had a fried egg for breakfast and I ate it with chopsticks! That was really fun Than I went to school (alone) where Irene told me that the principal wants to talk to me in the afternoon.

The first class started at 9:10 and it was class 110. I was a bit nervous because it was the very first presentation! But the children were very nice and they listened carefully and silently. After the presentation they could ask me questions. A girl asked me if I like their sweets and candies and when I said yes, she gave me her own sweet small cake with a panda and other gave me a pinneple cake (which was really yummy).

Sarah warned me that they like to ask personal questions, and that’s true, in every class they asked me if I have a boyfriend, and usually it was one of the first questions After this lesson I had another class in 114, and again I was given a bottle of green tea! They are so generous! In this class Sarah and the children made me to sing our national anthem, so I was truly nervous and Sarah took a short video:D I haven’t mentioned that, but because of  their classes being so big, they use a microphone during the classes. So it was like a real performance for me

After this lesson we went for a lunch with Sarah. She is like me, she likes to talk a lot. So all the time we just chat, discussing the differencies between Taiwan and CZE, sometimes learning some chinese words and so. She took me to a traditional restaurant and ordered traditional food. I think I didn’t write about their eating habbits. In a restaurant and also at home they make more courses, give them on several plates, than you get your small bowl, where is rise and you just pick with your chopsticks a peace of anything you like from the plates and – I would say they are sharing the food, or plates.

When 3 full bowls of food appeared in front of us I was again shocked. First Sarah told me to try a bowl with transparent soup some rice and some tube looking pale things. She said I have to guess what it is. So I boldly took my chopsticks and picked one of these and ate it. It was a bit crunchy a bit chewy, very difficult to desribe, but the taste was not very distinctive. I thought that it is some part of entrails of an animal, and after I swallowed Sarah laughed and said it was pig’s intestine!!! aaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

But it was ok:) It is called the four-god soup, and it is very healthy The next bowl is noodles with intestine, oyster, garlic and chinese parsley. This one was a lot better, tastier, maybe because I love garlic. and the last bowl was some rice with verygreasy meat, egg and taiwanese pickles. I was so full again!! Sarah wrote me down also the characters for these courses so I can order it myself sometime!

I think, I’m getting you bored with all the food I write here about But it is always an experience!! SO to short, it for dinner I had my first hotpot. It is something we would call “eintopf” – everything is boiled in one bowl – lettuce, egg, meat, clams, crab meat, sausages, and a think that looked like a black block (and it was rice with, I’m not sure, but was probably a minced chicken bladder :D).

In the evening, after a lesson of chinese with my homepa (when I leraned how to properly pronounce the numbers), I showed him a video of czech republic and the Unesco heritage sites, and he really liked it.

Oh and I really made a mistake, giving the children at school my name. Now they all want to add me on facebook, so I will be really flooded by the taiwanese also “online”!

Today I woke up with a start. I was full of energy and feeling well. I went to school with homepa, and we stoped for a breakfast at a traditonal chinese breakfast shop (don’t know how to call it). I got some hot food, something between a pastry and a dumpling and a filled dough, very difficult to describe, and a cup of soya milk. It was all very different, form what you get in CZE but I think I can get used to it, and the soya milk was very good.

When I got to school, I went to english teachers’ cabinet looking for Claire, but because she wasn’t here I started talking with other teachers and one of them took me immediately to her class. It was 1st grade 6th class, children around 16 and 17 years old. First I wanted just to watch how they study and how the teahcer is teaching, just to know the school system here. The teacher went with them through a text in textbook, they have done the vocabulary before. And then she explained all the sentences and grammar in chinese. For you to know, it is not easy to teach in the classrooms. There is always more then 40 students in one class, and they are quite noisy. Some just lie down on the desk and fall asleep during the lesson. Some go walking around the classroom just like that They are often shouting on the teacher and discusing with her… Sometimes a mess a bit!

After the first lesson I wanted to leave, but the children wanted me to join them and go downstairs for a lunch with them, so I agreed. They took me 5 stairs lower where is the canteen, chose me a meal in a box and payed for me!! They are so nice! Then we got back to the classroom. There is one thing, we had to use the stairs because children are not allowed to use the lifts. But it is good for me, because I’ll definitely put up some weight beacuse of the food I am always given. So I continued with them in the english lesson, and after that I stayed to eat the lunch with them in the classroom. They surrounded me and had so many questions that I couldn’t eat at all! They were really sweet, but Claire nearly must had come to save me. She wanted to have lunch with me but couldn’t find me. But I got a lemon drink with jelly (they put jelly everywhere) from the other teachers.

After that I met with Sarah, another eng. teacher and another kiond person. We talked a lot, she told me more about Taiwan, for example that there are 4 main groups of people – the taiwanese, the Hakka, the aboriginals and immigrants (a lot of them from China). Also they have different dialects, but nowadays you can rarely tell by there speech if they are Hakka or taiwanese. The dialects are dissapearing. She also told me to be careful to discuss the politics, because of the history. There are people that support the democracy and separated Taiwan, and some that want to join China. This is more difficult theme, so I will certainly try to know more later…

Then I was invited to watch an english speech contest between the students. There was about 20 students form 1st and 2nd grade. They had to make a speech or some story about a picture that they were given only 6 minutes before, and they had only 1.30 minutes for the speech. Some of the children made really good perfomance, very interesting and fluent.

The last thing today at school was a lesson with Daisy. She is a teacher in special english class, so the children are a bit better in english. They had 10 minutes to ask me some questions. In the start they were very shy, but then they started asking a lot After school i went home with homepa and Jamie and after that we went to Bani’s brother’s house for dinner. This was really something delicios, so I took pictures for you. It is a fish and than a hard tofu with meat and we had also bamboo and califlower. Really good! Auntie is a very good cook.

Oh it’s really late! I have to go to bed, because in the morning I have to wake early and get ready for the lessons!

The first day and already so many things to write! After really good sleep I woke up at 8 to get ready for the first time at the Nei-Li Senior High School, where I will help to learn children English and give the students and teachers some “culture lessons” about Czech republic. The family was gone to work so but they left me a breakfast – thank you so much:) Oh yeah! I haven’t introduced my family yet!! So my homepa or uncle is called Wen-Yuan Chang and he is a chemistry teacher at the school, his wife is called Bani (don’t know how to write it properly in pinyin but you read it [pany], and she is a public servant. Their sweet daughter’s name is Jamie, she is 10 years old, but her English is very good.

The first meeting with the family at the airport

Their house is really big, not only for Taiwanese conditions. I have my own bedroom, which is bigger then the one at home. The first thing that struck me was, that they do not have heating and also they leave the door out opened even in the evening. The winters here are not very cold, it is around 10 degrees, today was very warm and it was 22 degrees. Funny is, they are so used to hot weather, that in this temperatures they wear jackets and sweaters. Me being home I would take my summer dress! There are some photos of the house:

I wanted to take a picture of the dogs, but the small one Chocho is hiding in her blankets and the big one wants to snuggle all the time so I can’t get him.

Now something about the school. When someone says something is small in Taiwan, you have to know it is bigger than most things in CZE. So the “small” Nei-Li Senior High School has ONLY 3000 students! The building is so huge I couldn’t get a full photo of it so there are some pieces…

The school has it’s own playground, swimming pool, something like cafeteria and so on. Children are not allowed to walk outside the school and the lessons are from 7:30 till 17:00! The first half an hour is for preparing to school or sometimes writing tests, and then the lessons begin. After 50 minutes there is always a brake and they have time from 12:00-13:00 for lunch. The students wear uniforms, but the teachers dress casually.

I was introduced to Irene, who works at study affairs department and will take care of me at the school. Then we went to the English teacher’s office. There are only women teaching English in this school and all of them are very friendly. Some also said that they’ve been to Czech republic! I’m looking forward to cooperating with them. I went with one of them, Claire, today for a lunch. We had some seaweed with eggs and hard tofu, and then noodles with beef in soup. Imagine eating with the chopsticks the slippery noodles! It took me nearly an hour to eat it But I’m getting better. Claire said I’m very good at it. And the food again mňamííííí

After lunch Claire took me to taste one taiwanese speciality and that’s the bubble tea. It’s cold tea with milk and small jelly pearls or bubbles in it. It is served with ice and sugar and tastes very good. You drink it with straw, so you can see the bubbles coming up to your mouth

I met with 3 intern students from different international organisation. They were very kind and told me some other things about the school. There names are Janek (from Germany), Mary (from France) and Moe (from Japan). They are here from September till the end of June. They visit all the lessons with other students and study Chinese. I tried a lesson of Chinese with them today, but they are way ahead of me. Also the Taiwanese Chinese is a bit different, so I have to study hard!

One other interesting thing at school is their punishment system. They have something like a military department, where they monitor all the cameras that are at school and also the people here are in charge of punishing students. I have to find out more about the punishment, but I think it takes some form of service to the school. For example you can get punished for coming late to your lesson. Also there is no special staff for cleaning the school, but each class has it’s peace of school that they have to clean. Interesting…

I’ve learned a very useful sentence today – Wǒ chibǎole. Meaning: I’ve had enough to eat.

I finally got a shower! I couldn’t sleep much in the plane, so it is 3 o’clock in the CZE and I’m going to bed. Of course there is nearly 10 pm at Taiwan

The flight was great, my new family is very nice and caring, the first chinese food was delicious! I will write more about everything tomorrow, today I’m really tired so just a few photos…. Good night.

beautiful Dubai airport… and essencial prayer rooms

a flight from night

above clouds…..and some mountains around Nepal (couldn’t get the Himalaya, it was on the other side of plane )

delicious food! or what was left sorry I was hungry so I forgot to take picture before eating it all

After friday dancing training, saying many goodbyes to my friends, last czech beer, sleeping about 3 hours and oversleeping, very quick packing the last things, going to Brno, getting on “yellow bus”, going to Vienn and having already a half hour delay, I checked in!!! Some would say the airport in Vienn is dumb-person-proof and really it is! So now I’m sitting, watching planes land, eating viennerschnitzel made by my mum and finaly writing something on this blog.

For start I would like to write about how I got the idea of going to Taiwan. The truth is, I always wanted to travel, but never had the guts to do so. I had too many things holding me back at home and I couldn’t leave them. But many things have changed and finally the time came. And why Taiwan? The story is very poetic – I needed 2 more credits at school and because I like foreign languages I chose to study chinese for begginers at the university. I’m really fascinated by asian culture and my brother studies japanese, so why not try something else?!

My thanks go to AIESEC organisation, and espessially Michal Matoušek – without them my dreams would never go true!

SO see ya and next post maybe from Dubai