Monday December 24th, 2012
Christmas Eve today! And how does this fine Christmas Eve
day being with? A flipping Mandarin final exam…why Taiwan, why?! In actuality
it wasn’t bad, fairly easy in my opinion. We had reading, writing and speaking
portions. The person you spoke to felt like an emotionless stone wall of
strictness to the students. Kinda intimidating. Regardless, the test is
complete, it’s out of my life and I can focus more on Christmas now. When the
results come out is beyond me but I’m not worried since I feel good about the
exam.
Testing room before the exam
With several exchange students, we ate at a dumpling shop,
the same one as always. I got my beloved soup but added on two fried pork
dumplings just to finally try this food in Taiwan. …Well I tried it but nothing
special. Tastes the same as steamed dumplings from Costco just with more oil. A
girl from Colorado brought her viola, which coincidentally a boy from the same
state knew how to play. He brought his viola to Taiwan but the bridge got
damaged on the flight so he can’t play it (repairs are too expensive in Taiwan).
So with her permission, Zach longingly picked up her instrument and satisfied
his musical craving. We all loved how he began with playing LOTR music. ^_^
Yeah it’s totally different but I had a shot at the viola with a Bach cello
suite. Dude I failed so bad. I don’t know where any of the notes are on the
viola and my nails have grown too long for play ability. *sniff sniff* I want
my cello gosh dang it!
In Tatung school world I skipped ‘Spanish class’ to leave
thirty minutes early in order to make the Christmas Eve service meeting up time
with other exchange students. It was best not to attend only ¾ of ‘Spanish
class’ (the apostrophes are for sarcasm) and possibly upset the other girls for
early dismissal. It’s no secret that they’re bored and look forward to school
ending.
I’m so glad I did ask for those thirty minutes because I
left at 3:30, had to get home (70 minutes), get ready (20 minutes), go to the
meeting place (60 minutes) and be there by 6:00. I got there with only 5-10
minutes to spare. Whoo I did it. :D When everyone (about 11 pretty ladies)
came, we went in search of dinner together. Unfortunately there are not many
cheap places in Taiwan that can fit a group that large. So we spilt into two
groups, one that wanted Taiwanese chicken and then my group. Our group was
awesome with healthy American food. Take a stab at where you think we ate. ;)
Got it?
Our Christmas Eve dinner…was a Subway sandwich. XD Say what
you want but I think it was a total win and the best choice out there. Here’s
why: First, it fulfilled my desire of non-greasy, oil-filled food and with a
bottle of water instead of a soda-cookie/chip combo, the healthiness doubled.
Second, I nailed two holiday dinners in one sandwich, a turkey ham sub.
Thanksgiving has finally been dubbed complete with the consuming of turkey (no
there’s not a lot of turkey in Taiwan) and the ham mimicked the closest thing
to the traditional honey ham back in Texas. Isn’t my double-holiday fulfillment
brilliant? XD Oh and having honey mustard was a happy trigger too.
Bask in the deliciousness! XD
I’ve never been to Subway in Taiwan before this because Eric
(from Sweden) told me it’s crazy expensive plus there’s never been a real
opportunity to do so. It turns out Subway is normally priced compared to
America and the best part, you can order all in English! Since all the menu
choices and ingredients are originally named in English and don’t always
translate well, the employees learn the English names. For example, you can’t
translate the catchy 6”/foot long feature because they have the metric system
over here (which I still don’t know XD). I like how I could get exactly what I
wanted without fighting language barrier in both reading and speaking. If
possible, I totally want to go to Subway more often for a dash of healthy
sandwich time! I have an idea for it with high school lunches but that’s still
on the drawing board. ;P
In actuality, all the chicas tonight really enjoyed our
Christmas Eve Subway dinner. A Christmas toast was had with soda, orange juice
and water. XD Then Erin (Canadian) baked sugar cookies shaped like holly leaves
herself and passed them out. Ham and sugar cookies, two winter holiday
traditions that I still had in Taiwan even though in a drastically difficult
form. XD
The Christmas Eve service at church was absolutely lovely
with Christian carols, Christmas passages and two very wonderful testimonies.
Afterwards the multitude of people went up on the roof for candlelight carols,
three in total. While singing, I wondered what local Taiwanese thought about
our voices ringing out into the night. One fantastic thing was singing ‘Silent
Night’ outside when the night actually was silent. The caroling and not noisy
cars were heard, enhancing the song’s meaning, to me at least. Three songs
later it was time to grab a treat I heavily anticipated…APPLE CIDER! There was
some for everyone wit surprising little bits of stuff floating in the liquid. I
figured out later those bits shouldn’t be eaten because it was chunks of spices
for flavoring, such as raw cinnamon sticks. The drink alone warmed the cockles
of my heart with a small but present winter holiday feeling. It was a great
conclusion to my Taiwanese Christmas Eve. ^_^
Jolly exchange students together for Christmas Eve at church!
VIOLA PLAYERS!!!!!!!! :D
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