不知不觉 - all change is gradual

Another breakthrough of sorts:
I had a really long conversation with my parents last night, all in Chinese, using some of the vocab words that I've learned. And I was able to read the exercise book that comes with my text, something that I never would have dreamed of doing just one short month ago.
It's really great to be able to detect my own progress, because I talk about this with my single class teacher and he tells me that I'm improving, but I couldn't tell. Until yesterday, that is. And I think that for me, confidence is really important because I do still have those moments with people on the street where I have nothing to say except "...huh?" It's really nice to know that I can communicate in Chinese.
Yay!
I have also decided that I should probably take better advantage of the cultural opportunities while I'm here.
And I've had 2 bowls of beef noodle soup, total. Sad. I'll have to defs change that before I go. But really, each bowl tastes like it has an entire cow in it. So that was 2 cows. I dunno if a human should eat many more than that in the span of 2 months.
Last night, we went to eat in the Shida night market, which is super awesome and probably has the cutest clothes of any night market I've seen. I had one of those bao wans (I have no clue what they're called, actually) which is like a glutinous outside around meat. Basically a steamed bun with glutinous outside instead of a yeasty bread outside. SO GOOD!
And I also went to this great vegetarian buffet. Mmm vegetables.
I love eggplant here, and today I figured out it's because they use basil to make it. And I love basil, especially in drunken noodles. Which are impossible to find here. Alas.
But I've also been eating a lot of zhua bing, which is scallion pancake but with this egg/cornstarch thing in the middle and it's SO GOOD.
OMG.
And cua bing, which is snow cones, basically except we get the xue hua bing which is snow ice. And it just looks like a shaggy dog. And tastes MUCH better than a shaggy dog.
Yup.
Also, things for next year's students, which I've been thinking about, but want to write down before I forget:
Live near ICLP - this means along Heping Dong Lu Section 2, if you can. But more towards section 1, if you can, because that's the Shida night market, which is much more interesting than section 3, where I live. It's sorta hard to get to school from the MRT - Gongguan or Technology Building but both are about a 10-15 min walk from class. And really, 8 AM class demands an easy way to get to it.
Make Taiwanese friends - or else you end up speaking a lot of English - fun but not so good for learning Chinese.
Eat lots of things - but make sure that none of them are stinky tofu. Mostly, you'll smell that one coming.
Sweet. Until the next.

hot pot!

I just had my first hot pot experience in Taiwan. It was delicious! There were so many choices and odd things. I accidentally ate pigs blood rice congealed mess and liked it a lot. And then was a little disturbed by myself.
And I also got a hair cut, which came with this awesome head massage, styling, and the most detailed hair cut ever. Sweet.
I went to Shida night market last night (me and G had wandered into it accidentally last Wednesday while avoiding Sizzler, and discovered Snowberry, the wonderful Pinkberry knockoff).
We ate more Snowberry and a really gelatinous thing filled with meat - delicious even though it sounds weird.
This blog entry doesn't make that much sense. Sorry.

ohh we're halfway there...

It's really weird that it's almost the weekend again. I am once again just shocked by how quickly the week has gone.
Best thing to happen to me lately: my dan1ban1ke4 (one on one) teacher told me today that my reading skills were improving. I did not believe him at all. I was like yea, I guess I can read if I'm reading the same paragraphs that I've memorized, but not otherwise.
But I'd been planning to buy a book, like a young adult novel, for a while now. And today I did. It's called "The Door Near Here" and it's a young adult book in English that has been translated into Chinese.
And I started reading from the introduction of the book and the author and found that it used almost half of the vocabulary that I learned in my Newspaper reading class. YAY!
Also, I find myself wanting to use certain terms only in Chinese - like vocabulary words = sheng1 ci2 instead. This is odd, but kind of exciting because I can feel my Chinese improving.
I do wish that I were going to be here for a year, though, because I know that I would improve so much more.
But I miss Yale, and I think that it was a great boon to have had the opportunity to come here for the summer.

omg. another weekend gone?!

I'm almost halfway through this trip - actually in about 2 days I will be exactly at the halfway point.
I feel like the things that I'm getting out of being here in Taiwan extend far beyond the classroom - I am getting to witness my culture in action and the pieces of my past are falling into place.

I also discovered why I hate pork, milk and eggs in America.
That's all anyone can ask for.
That, and sleep.

oh...

I've had a lot of those moments in the last few days. Having settled into a routine here, I now find myself with more idle time for...introspection, as toolish as that sounds.
A few things that I've learned:
1. I miss home. How did that happen? Everyone else was homesick like last week, and I was like OMG TAIWAN!!!!!!!! But I really miss my dog. Sad.
2. I think that family is what I've been missing all those years in America. Of course I had my parents, but I had grown up with extended family always around, a constant source of love, attention, and delicious food. All of that was gone once I immigrated, and even my parents were busy (working to support me). I've been much more lonely than I had ever thought myself. I only realized this because I see parents walking their kids to school, and they seem so happy and cared for. Not that I'm not cared for. I just miss those simple childhood moments that young kids are too small to appreciate.
3. I saw a grandfather sitting with his grandson feeding pigeons (and ducks and possibly an egret - there's so much wildlife in Taipei, oddly). They looked so happy, and I could tell that this would one day become one of the grandson's favorite memories, which makes me both happy and sad. Happy that he could share such a nice moment with someone who loves him so much, but also sad because he has no clue that this would be probably one of his favorite moments in the future.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic because I miss my dog.
OMG I MISS MY DOG.
Sorry. I'll stop.
4. The week has gone by so fast, again. The program's going to be over before we know it. That's both exciting and sad. Exciting - I'll get to see my dog. Sad because I'll have to leave this new home that I've found. Thus is life.


And on a NOT sappy note, mango ice is so good. My friend describes it as a shaggy dog. It kind of looks like that. And its like shaved ice, but the ice is flavored with mango. And then you can get mango on top. And its delicious.
Mmm.

Oh yea, and today I realized that I've been trying to read this sign that says in English "Please don't feed the toilet" since I arrived at ICLP. I can now read all the Chinese characters except for 2. It's taken me 3 weeks to read one sentence, but man I earned that sentence.
Sweet.