My new home

I've been getting a lot of questions about my new home, so I figured I should devote an entire post to it. Hopefully this will answer all of your questions, and give you some interesting information you may not have thought of.
First off, the first floor (we have two. Almost everyone here does - because the island is so small, people build up instead of out). We do not wear our outdoor shoes into the house. There is a shoe rack outside the front door for regular shoes. Inside, just past the front door, we keep our house shoes (flip flops or similar; mine are green foam sandals). Because these never go outside, they are very clean. The living room has a couch, a love seat, a coffee table, and a TV. We have a desktop computer, some bookcases, and a piano. Then we get into the kitchen. It's a pretty standard kitchen/dining-room combo. We have to wash all dishes right away. Continuing through the kitchen, we come to the laundry room. We wash our clothes every night in the washing machine (everything gets washed together - delicate clothing goes into zippered cloth bags to protect it from stronger materials), then hang them to dry. We have to hang them inside, because they would never get dry in the humid air outside.
Next, there are the bedrooms (all on the second floor). The floor in these rooms is raised a couple of inches from that in the hall, and we leave our house shoes outside the door. (This is true for the bathrooms as well, but there are more shoes inside the bathroom specifically for bathroom use.) The bedrooms are the only rooms with air conditioning; however, to keep costs down, we all sleep in one room (the master bedroom) during the summer. Nicole and I share the bed, while Maggie and Mr. Lee sleep on the floor. However, when I first got here I was sleeping in my own room. My bed (and Nicole's) lacks a mattress. Instead, I have a wooden frame with some thin padding over it (about 1-2 inches thick). It is actually more comfortable than it sounds, but it can be difficult to adjust to.
Finally, the bathrooms (we have one on each floor). Yes, we have a toilet. And a shower. And a sink. And toothbrushes and toothpaste. But there are some differences. Instead of a roll of toilet paper, they use tissues (like thick Kleenex) and throw them in the trash instead of flushing them. The shower doesn't have a door. Basically, there's a shower head in the wall, a drain in the floor, and that's it. Everything gets wet when we shower, and the last person to shower is responsible for cleaning everything up.
That's all I can think of to tell you about right now. I miss you all, and I'll have another post next week :) thanks for reading! And of course, feel free to comment if there's anything you want to know!

I have arrived in Taiwan!

First off, thanks to everyone for the good wishes! ^_^

Second, my apologies. I forgot to bring my camera cords, so my pictures are stuck on my camera -_- and Maggie's camera and computer are not playing nice, so her pictures are also unavailable. I am sorry.

Third, my words. After flying in, I met my host family. Maggie is my host mama, Mr. Lee  (he doesn't have an American name, so this is my attempt to give him one you can understand) is my host papa, and Nicole is my little host sister. We went to the night market last night, and loved it. I tried lots of new foods, and enjoyed them all. Then, this morning, we went to the National Center of Traditional Arts, which was a wonderful place full of, you guessed it, traditional arts. These included glassblowing, wooden-shoe-making, and bamboo crafts. We enjoyed looking at this art while munching on cotton candy and candied fruits (I found out that candied tomato still tastes like tomato when you bite into it...) I got a glitter-painting done on my arm. It is a blue, green, and purple eye design. After the Center, we continued on our way to Hualien City. We stopped at a beach along the way. Instead of sand, it was entirely rock, smooth stones of various sizes, from pebbles to about 3 inches in diameter. It was beautiful, but I had some trouble taking pictures because the humid air kept condensing on my camera lens. Finally, we made it to Hualien. A group of Rotary members greeted me, then we came to the house. I got unpacked, then took a nap. We went out for dinner, since we hadn't had time to go to the market. We went to a Japanese restaurant, and got a table on the 3rd floor. All the buildings here go up instead of out. The mark of a wealthy person here is a wide house, not a tall one.

That should do for today. I'll try to get pictures on here next time!

Getting Ready for Exchange

Welcome to my blog! (My thanks to Connie Blue, for providing me with the title.)
I can hardly believe my exchange begins in 1 week! That's right, just one week! This time next Friday, I will be flying away from everything I know... (cue dramatic music) ... Venturing out into the great unknown...
So, of course, I'm preparing. In case you're wondering, I've compiled a list of what that entails... because I love lists.

• Studying Mandarin
• Making several lists of things I absolutely *must* remember to pack (told you I love 'em)
• Trying to say goodbye to everyone
• Encouraging my friends to get Skype and Facebook accounts so we can stay in contact
• Filling out dozens of forms
• Packing everything in my room into either a suitcase or a box.

Of course, I haven't actually packed ANYTHING yet... But I will soon. Very soon.
I'll keep you updated!