We spent the morning closer to downtown by the NCU campus - another popular university in Taiwan known for their law and medical schools. Frances really wanted to bring me there because she thinks the campus is much more beautiful than ours - I think I have to agree.
Here is a picture of one of the older buildings on campus - the school was built 100 years ago and is much larger than NCCU.
This is a picture of a bell that the founder of the university put up. The legend is that students who skip classes to hang around this bell will fail their classes. They really are so superstitious here.
This flower that grows all around campus is Taipei's National flower. Frances explained to me that many couples will sit amongst the flowers and draw their names using the petals. If a boy really loves a girl, he will come in the middle of the night (when none of his friends are around) and write his lovers name in flowers in hopes that she will walk by and see it in the morning.
Frances suggested that I try it out :)
She helped me gather the flowers and I made the arrangement.
Frances kept gushing about how romantic it was and that she wished her boyfriend would make one for her. When I asked why he hadn't already she replied that since he is in the faculty of engineering there are always too many guys around to make one. Aww.
After that she took me to lunch and we had an interesting conversation about Chinese birth years. As some of you may know there are 12 Chinese birth years with 12 different animals - one for each year (I was born in the year of the rabbit). Apparently long ago the 12 animals participated in a race. First place became the first year, second place became the second year and so on. Frances couldn't remember the entire order but she knew the mouse was first and the pig was last. The dragon was somewhere in the middle, but all Chinese people have fallen in love with it. The Tiger - which is the year we are in right now - is considered VERY bad luck, so bad in fact that many couples avoid having their weddings in the year of the tiger and many couples also try to avoid having children. For this reason, many anticipate that this year the birth rate will drop dramatically. In the year of the dragon however, it will go way up. I found all this very interesting.
Now before I head to Mandarin class I want to give you an update of some of the funny/interesting things that have gone on over the past week that haven't yet made it into my blog.
!Important notice!
First off, if anyone has seen or heard from my parents or knows anything about their whereabouts, anything at all, could you kindly let me know? It has been over a week since I've heard anything and that is very unlike them.
GO CANADA!
I am slightly ashamed to admit that I had to hear about Canada's win from Davin - really, there are very few English papers around here and no one watches the Olympics. I am sad that I missed the celebration and festivities but I will represent all of the proud Canadians overseas here in Taiwan.
Dorm life
Remember my awful sleep the first night I was here? Well since then I bought a second mattress and up until a few days ago I was sleeping like a baby - a very big baby mind you. Yes, I was sleeping like a big baby up until Saturday night when someone in the apartments right outside my window decided to get a dog - a very small, obnoxious, yappy dog. This dog likes to get up bright and early and go outside and bark like I've seen no small dog bark before and it is driving me absolutely bonkers. My floor mates I'm sure can hear me ever so often yell bad things to this dog from my bed, but I've yet to take any serious action. I'm telling you though, if it doesn't stop soon...I'll let you know how it goes.
Waste disposal
Remember when you were a kid playing outside in the sun with your friends and all of a sudden you heard the pleasant sound of carnival music slowly approaching from the distance? Do you remember how excited you got when you realized it was the, "ICE CREAM TRUCK!" All the kids would rush to the street, grab their ice cream and walk off happily eating their treats.
Recently I had that same feeling. I was sitting in this very seat in my room when I heard that same music, felt that same excitement and rushed to the street in that same way...but I didn't find any ice cream. No, here in Taiwan that jolly carnival music that used to bring so much excitement is actually the sound of a very big, very ugly and very smelly garbage truck telling the NCCU students that they have 10 minutes to get outside and dispose of the waste that has been accumulating in their dorm rooms for days. I was actually so shocked when I saw it that I took a picture:
Literally the entire dorm gathers outside for this event, hustling like bees to throw out their waste..........."what a waste..."
The language of...love?
Recently I got an email from a Taiwanese student here at NCCU asking me, as a native English speaker, if I would please participate in a language exchange with his Mandarin speaking friend Aaron. Immediately I took an interest as one of the main reasons I am here is to learn the language. It seemed very innocent. He explained in his e-mail certain benefits of the exchange - that I would get to practice my Mandarin through participating in different activities etc. etc. It seemed really great, so I wrote back with tremendous enthusiasm that I would love to meet Aaron and participate in the exchange.
Later that evening I was promoting the program to some of the other exchange students when one of them spoke up and asked if I had actually agreed to go through with it. I said..."well, yes. It sounds like a great opportunity." He began to laugh and told me that this "language exchange" is actually some sort of dating service for the NCCU students and that many Taiwanese girls post their pictures on the site in hopes of finding a mate. He asked why I hadn't noticed the guys walking around campus with the shirts that say, "You practice your language and I'll practice my sex..." Oh boy. Later that evening I got a message back saying that I wouldn't regret meeting Aaron and that he was very excited for our meeting which he scheduled for this Friday at noon in front of the big library (how sweet). So I still have a meeting with this boy and I am still interested in practicing Mandarin. I don't know what he expects but I will be sure to make myself quite clear...I'll let you know how it goes.
?Nihao?
"Nihao. Wo Shi Song Xiang Nong. Wo shi jia na da ren. Wo bu shi han lan. Wo shi nusheng. Wo shi xueshang. Wo de jia you baba, mama, meimei hai you wo. Wo xihuan shuijiao. Wo de shengri shi si yue shier ri."
Translation:
"Hello. My name is Shannon Soules. I am from Canada. I am not from Holland. I am a girl. I am a student. I have a father, mother, and sister (...I hope - would one of you PLEASE contact me!?) and me. I like dumplings. My birthday is April 12th."
Not bad eh? These are some of the things that we've learned over the past few days in class. It's quite intense - 3 hours of class for two days a week. The teacher only speaks to us in Mandarin and she calls each one of us out to speak and answer questions each day.
It's so funny because we all look like tiny first graders trying to follow the teacher - each one of us is bobbing our heads to the different tones and moving our mouths in ways we have never done before. Some words are easier for the German speaking students and some are easier for the French, but we all try and work together to try and get the sounds right.
Mandarin is such a hard language to learn for reasons I wasn't even aware of before. For example, the same word can have multiple meanings depending on the tone you use to say it in. For example, the word, "shuijio" said like a question means "dumpling;" however, when you say it like a statement it means "sleep." And let me tell you, the difference in sounds is very minimal. We were all laughing today because the word, "mai" is used to express both "buy" and "sell" depending on how they are said. Can you imagine a room full of Chinese people at a stock exchange? "MAI, MAI, MAI, MAI!" I have a video of us all trying to make out the sounds today in class - I will post it right after. We all have such a great time - so far it's definitely my favourite class.
So that's about all for now. It's Wednesday which means Ladies Night downtown so we are all heading out to a club called "Lava." Have a great day and I'll talk to you soon.
language exchange lol <3
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