So....Time to Fly

This time tomorrow, I'll be on the flight to Narita Airport (about an hour from Tokyo, Japan).
Woooo! Time for another 14 hour flight. Maybe another Singaporean cutie will sit next to me ;) (wink wink wink)

So, for the next 10 months (more or less) I will be living in Hsinchu county/city, Taiwan. I guess the Taiwanese have a hard time spelling in pinyin (part of their own language)....because in reality it spelled and pronounced "Xīnzhú Shì". It is a city in Northern Taiwan (about an hour away from Taipei). It is also the oldest city in Taiwan and is particularly famous for it's rice noodles (yummeh) and "high tech science park". Actually, I've heard Hsinchu really is not that interesting at all; but, at least it's close to the coast (trying to be optimistic here)

My first family's name is Kuo. My host father, aptly named "Tiger", works for a solar battery company, his wife- "Sophie"- is an interior designer who owns a studio in the city. They have three kids; A daughter, "Jo", who will be in Austria for the year, Taylor, who is 19 years old and going to college, and a son named Peter who.....likes to perform magic tricks >>?..?

There is going to be a Japanese exchange student named "Mika" who will be living with my second (and friends of my first) host family. (Seriously, no exchange experience of mine would ever be complete without some Japanese love hehe. ;D Lucky me!) We will both be going to "Hsin Chu Municiple Cheng Te High School" together.
Check it out (if you're curious they've got a nifty pic slideshow!): http://www.cdjh.hc.edu.tw/2003en/index.htm

So, I guess I shall go back to my daunting task of packing a years worth of stuff in to two suitcases (no more than 50 pounds). phew.
This is the [yet to be named] exchangee signin' out! Goodbye Pittsburgh....

Words of advice from a veteran:

"You know you're a YEP (youth exchange student) in Taiwan when...
You subconsciously hum "the garbage truck song".
When you stick toilet paper in your pockets before you go out -
just in case.
When you're not afraid of regular cockroaches,
only the ones that fly
When your idea of a great night out is going to KTV. ...
When you find can only speak slowly using simple words.
When you have a large collection of Hello Kitty and Snoopy toys (and you think they're cute).
When you start thinking McDonalds is a perfectly acceptable place to meet up
When you get scared about SARS...

When you dont notice how appaling the traffic situation is anymore
When you realise those girls are not saying good morning but saying Welcome in Mandarin.
When everytime you say the number six, your thumb and pinky finger pop up on reflex to clarify.
When tea takes over coffee.

You know every stop on the mrt
When you get stared at everywhere you go...
You immediately make the peace sign whenever someone takes out a camera
When you understand people's chinese better than their english
When you start getting mosquito bites on your knuckles,

When you start thinking a mat is a perfectly normal place to sleep,
When you start answering by "wei gou ren"
When you kill ants for fun,
When rock paper scissors becomes used in any situation
Clothes are cheaper than a meal at mcdonalds.

Girls have more hair on their legs then guys. (:O)
When mullets take over.
When you start drawing characters in the air to explain your meaning better.
When you can recite all the mrt stations in mandarin, taiwanese, hakka, and english
When breakfast sandwiches become your life."

Haha, cockroaches?? mullets?? Hairy women (D:) Awesome....
I'll be trying my best to add on new ones as they come! :D

You know what? I realized something tonight.

Zhongwen isn't that scary.

Fo real.
.....it isn't that bad.

Why do I work myself up about it soooo? Why is Zhongwen such a recurrent nightmare?
So what if I can't express myself fully at the beginning? Isn't learning a language you don't know part of the exchange experience? :)

Tonight I went to say "goodbye" at Lay's dinner she prepared for her French student and I. We ate a delicious hot pot of vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, and spices....some quite spicy and delicious. She was right; I did break a sweat. And that just made the experience all the more worthwhile.
We talked about everything; from Buddhism and the Dalai Lama, to the new Hong Kong cinema which, in her opinion, is utter crap. Haha, I think I am truly going to miss her...but I can't wait to talk to her again once I get back from Taiwan.

I can't wait until I finally uncover my Chinese personality :)

The clock is ticking...

Could there be only two weeks?
Two weeks left until the take off for that tiny island?
15 more days until I will return to Asia. I'll be landing on its leaf! :)
And yet, for some reason, I am feeling unexplainably calm.

The thought of the opportunity ahead-
despite how cliche, this a chance to restart.
I don't want to restart the past, or the people who mean the most. But I want this to be an opportunity to restart myself.
A chance to really change as a person.
Hopefully, I won't fight the changes when they come.

Asia can do that to you, you know; I have seen it before.
Even for that short time, I could see that Japan had changed me. Somehow...it got to me. In ways maybe I couldn't have figured out yet. But now, I feel little older and a little wiser than I did then. And I want to make the most of the time I've been given.
I've been given a second chance in a whole new ocean.

So, looking towards the shore, calmly...I want to dive... :)