Extreme Makeover - Home Edition

I forgot to tell you about my room... The old wallpaper was older me, and not really "me", so we decided to change it. Yay! I thought... I wasn't allowed to decide what kind of wallpaper I wanted!! You guys know me... as simpler, as better! I'm very plain when it comes to things like this. So now, I have a baby pink room...!! With big lovely flowers... And my bed and pillow are also dressed in pink (but more Cerise coloured)... Non of furniture match, and I have a giant hole in my wall! Haha, they removed the AC (yeah, I don't have AC..) some years ago, coz they didn't need it. Geez... I've been suffereing the last few days. There was a heat record yesterday... 37.8 Celsius, warmest day so far this year.

I'll definetly take pics when I get a webcam. Yeah, my Sony dig. cam. died a couple of months ago... Oh.. and my iPod is also dead. Hardware problem :( But I'll take it to the Doctor's soon. I hope the Apple Store here is nice.

I feel like going to bed now.. And it's only 10pm. Life's tough here, I get dragged up at 6am everyday, and now I have 8 o'clock classes. With the traffic here, I'll probably use 40 minutes to school. Damn! Can't wait to lie down on my pink bed, surrounded by pink walls. Haha.

Ta ta for now!

Taipei

Woohooo!! I have now officially moved to Taipei - my birthplace!!!! I live with my aunt and her husband, in the middle of the city. The MRT (Mass Rapid Transit/T-bane, Subway) is right outside here, and the bus to my Uni is on the other side of the street.
My bedrooom has an ok size, it's big enough for me. I can really feel that I was totally spoiled when living in Majorstua - the apartment here is only some square meters bigger than my previous bedroom...

Today was the orientation day at the Uni. I was dropped off an hour earlier... So I just walked around and went to the gymnasium and trackfield. And then I heard balls bouncing.. Knowing that ShiDa has women's bball team, I was very curious. I walked in there, and saw a bunch of girls at bball practice at 8am. Haha... They actually started at 7.30, running 6x400m at the trackfield. Yeah, that's kinda hardcore! Anyways.. I asked if i could play with them, and they said Yeah! So I went back for their afternoon practice (yes, since it's summer vacation, they have time to practice twice a day... heh...). We started to warm up at 1.40 pm... started to practice at 2. They were working on different drills and basic technics. A lot varied things... And some was quite hard!! We finally finished at 4.30pm... I was still standing, so I was very happy about that! I'm still just trying out, so we'll see how it goes. But I am soooo happy atm, I was so worried about not being able to play bball in Taiwan. The girls seem great, they have a good team spirit and they goof around all the time, but is very serious when playing ball. They have funny nicknames for each other as well.. I'm the last person in, so I'm #20. They usually split the team into smaller groups, so it's easier to keep track of ppl. And during some excercises we are placed after our numbers. So I was always last today during excercises, having the whole team watching me... Yeah, made me nervous... But they were great, cheering me on and everything. Let's face it, they are better than me.. Haha. But I learned their excercises rather quickly, so I just need to get used to their way of playing. Oh and the biggest problem is actually talking during the game. i've never talked Chinese when playing ball, so all the terms are new to me. I was ?? all the time. But they're sweet, they'll make a mini basketball dictionary for me.. :)
Right now, I'm walking like a duck. I am not kidding! Quack.

Anyways... This is my life atm. I'm a nerd reading my books, and I play basketball. I'll become so smart and fit this year :p

Let me know how things are where you're at, ok?? Miss you guys... much love!!!

This city never stops to amaze me

Yay!! Taipei is world's first large-scale wireless city

Rain

I was running in the rain today. Not the same without you. Savner deg!

Who Is This A-ya??

At Starbuck's

Coffee boy: (Stares at me while giving me my iced soy latte) Has anyone told you that you look like A-Ya?
Mar: Hm?
Coffee boy: Yeah, you really look like A-Ya. Nobody's told you that?
Mar: Um.. No?
Coffee boy: Wha, really??
Mar: I hope it's a good thing.....
Coffee boy: Yeah, she's really famous.
Mar: Oh, okay, thanks!...

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Later, the same day....

In front of Sogo.

Woman: (Runs towards me and invades my comfort zone) Are you A-Ya???
Mar: ??? No, it's not me.
Woman: Yes, it is you!! You're A-Ya!!
Mar: No, no... (Shakes head and tries to smile politely)
Woman: Don't be like this, you just got back from abroad, right? You went to the US to study.
Mar: Okei...
Woman: (Smiles while she walks away) It is you.
Mar: Hm... (Smiles)

So, this lady sat opposite of me, about maybe 4m away... And my cousin called me to say that she was delayed. So I sat there for another 20 mins, having this woman staring and smiling at me, and talking on the phone, and smiles even more.

When Two Worlds Collide

No surprise that life in Taiwan is a bit different than life in quiet, little Norway. This is what I've noticed so far:

The young people

"Handsome" guy here is being pretty. Kinda like a girl. I'm not kidding. The trendy guys here have long hair which covers most of their face. They are thin and they quite pro at being vain. The guys' clothing are nice though. But most them are too preppy for my taste. Dior, Armani, Chanel etc isn't my street. Oh, and most of them look like they're 16 years old. Funny thing... Here, it's the pretty, vain and skinny guys who are straight. The more buff, masculine guys, tend to be gay.

There are a lot more pretty girls than good looking guys here. I have to give it to the girls; they sure know how to take care of themselves - looking smashing at all times. The term here for "hot" is "La", as in spicy-hot.. Haha.. I'm very different than the average girl here. While the girls tend to be skinny, pale and "fragile", I'm ummm... bigger (eventhough I'm only 160cm/5ft3), dark-skinned and not so fragile looking. Like today, I was playing tennis and basketball with my uncle. There were only guys there, and their jaw practically dropped when they saw me playing. Is that good or bad??

In general, people here are really nice and polite, and very very curious when it comes to me. I think it's quite obvious that I grew up somewhere else. I'm slowly adjusting to all the staring...

Fashion

As mentioned earlier, guys may look like girls.... But there are also a lot of girls looking like boys. Notice me using "boys". No further comments on this issue lah.

The strongest influence is the Japanese. Taiwanese ppl simply love everything about Japan. Sometimes, I think some ppl wish they were Japanese.

The American fashion is also visable. I saw lots of youngsters wearing baggy jeans, big t-shirts and Timberland boots!!! It's around 34C here, and they're wearing big-ass Timberland winter shoes. Hehe...

Music

It's all about the Pop. Sentimental pop stands for maybe 90% of the music, catchy, more upbeat pop stands for the rest. I've never heard anything but pop at the two main music channels, V Channel and Chinese MTV. But I guess that's how it is...? No rock, not even pop-rock. No alternative music. Also strongly influenced by the Japanese and Americans, with a Taiwanese twist of course.

Food

I don't need to say much here... It's just fantastic!!!!!!!! I'm definetly here to eat. I try to have different dishes everytime, so much to choose between! And the best thing is that it's cheap. Cheap Cheap Cheap!!! I'm in Paradise.

Language

Mandarin is the main dialect here, but very many, especially the adults like to shout things in Taiwanese, at the night market, the food market etc. I don't understand one single word. Haha. The Chinese language is special. And the young ppl like to add in some puns when they speak. I don't understand that either. I've noticed that some of my Mandarin is outdated. Bear in mind that I've learned Mandarin from my parents. And I also have problem with some pronounciations. There are a couple of words me and my cousins pronounciate in a different way - becoz we are of mixed heritage, our grandparents are from different provinces in mainland China. But I'm learning, and my vocabulary is getting better and better.


Media

a.k.a. the Circus. I'm not kidding. The media here focus a lot on gossip, weird happenings, murders, crazy ppl, and of course the political scandals. I wont talk too much about politics, as I'm ignorant when it comes to the Taiwanese political system. And very biased of course, my family is after all KMTs.
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PS: all this is just me rambling, ok? I see the world through pink glasses.

Family Portrait

Imprisoned!!! Nah, j/k, it's not that bad. But I guess I was too naive to think that I'd be able to live my life the way I wanted to... Instead of finding a place on my own, I'm moving into my Auntie's and her husband. One thing which is positive is the location. They live in the middle of Taipei city, so it's quite convenient...
To quote my Dad: you need to get "unspoiled". Geez, thanks Dad... The standard at my Auntie's isn't all that. But, I'll survive.. I hope.

Let's talk about more happy things!! My cousin(maternal) Winnie is great! She's 6 months younger than me, and we really hit it off when we met. We party in a very similar way (yeah, whatever that means..), but I think she's wilder than me.. haha. But it's a bummer that she studies abroad... We still have some time though.

I'm being such a good girl atm. Going to bed around midnight, and getting up at 7-8 am!! You all know that I love to sleep. But when the household wakens at 6 am, I have to obey and be up for breakfast. Who knows, maybe I'll become Miss Goody-Goody while being here. *laughs*

Registration at Uni

Geez, yeah like I said, the Hsu household is crazy!! Today was registration day at school. I was supposed to take the bus into town early in the morning, so I was up at 6 a.m. But noooo... Grandma was too worried so she ordered my uncle to drive me to school. That wasn't enough. So my aunt and her husband joined us as well. Christ, me going to school involved half of my family tree!! We got there rather early I thought. Well, there were lots of ppl in front of me... I waited in line to get to post 1 for about 30 minutes. Things went like this:

* Post 1: Show your acceptance letter so you can receive new forms to fill out while waiting for post 2.
* Post 2: Show your passport and visa, turn in your forms.
* Post 3: Copy of your passport, turn in 2 passport photos and get student card.
* Post 4: Pay for your tuition. Cash only please.

Now... after like 2 hours... I got in line for the oral interview. I was #70. Weeeee...

Lady: Numbell fifftiiii.... numbell bla bla... numbell sixtyy tliiii... numbell seventiiii... Finally!!

Funny interview (it happened in Chinese of course):

Lady: may I have your papers please.
Mar: yes, of course
Lady: Oh, you are from Norway? Why do you want to study Chinese?
Mar: bla bla bla bla.....
Lady: Oh, your Chinese is very good! So Why do you want to learn Chinese?
Mar: Um, because I'm Taiwanese but I grew up abroad (like it says in my motivation letter which is in front of her...) and I don't know how to read and write.
Lady: Whaaaaaat? You're Taiwanese? (checks papers) and you have never learned Chinese?? You really don't know how to read and write? (now this lady is laughing and shaking her head...)
Mar: No... (kinda embarrassed and upset with the lady coz she's being rude) I've only had Norwegian schooling.
Lady: Na, what do we do with you.... (runs through her schedules of classes... lets out a couple of a-ya in the process...)
Mar: ??? I'm supposed to learn it at this school!
Lady: (mumbles mumbles... writes some stuff in my papers.) Ok lah, here you go, see you at orientation at 31st. Remember you have to be here! Bye bye!! Neeeeeeeeext!!!
Mar: Umm... yeah.. ok thanks... Hmm... Thanks...
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Yeah... I'm very excited about school now... I guess it's true that my situation is kinda special. Most people have the opposite problem; they know how to read and write, but have problem holding conversations... Aww man, I really wanna be good at school. We'll see, let's hope that I won't end up in dumb-ass class.

I just stumbled around in the city after all this... ate lunch at Starbucks (yeah yeah yeah, shoot me :p ) and had a really nice cup of soy latte. The soy milk here is excellent! Went to a tea lounge a lil bit later (all this by my self, yes lah...) and then I met Heather. Heather is from Taipei, and was an exchange student at BI Oslo last fall. She took me all over the place, and to my campus area for shopping and eating. Shi Da has the best places to eat, especially famous for their night market. Can't wait to experience all this!!! And Oh oh, I went by some really great basketball courts on campus. Yay! Now I just need to find people to play with.

I sat in front of Sogo department store waiting for my cousin. Sogo is a huge shopping mall, the most expensive one of course, lots of "high quality merchandise" bla bla bla... Anyway, I sat there for quite a while, just observing people. And my god.. one word: Mullet. Mullet here, and mullet there. Many guys who are trendy look a lot like girls... The girls are of course beautiful. But some of them are too skinny lah... My cousin came, and we went to eat dinner at Shilin night market. The food stalls there are fantastic. We had some oyster rice noodle soup and stinky tofu! Hehe... great great great!

More and more people know that I'm in town now... Yay, now I don't have to be alone! Haha...
See you later lah! It's midnight now, and since I'm a very good girl, I'm going to bed now. Tata!

Ya, I tell you evelyting!

I've been here for two days now. Grandma and Uncle picked me up at the airport. Grandma's first words: "You don't need to gain more weight, more than enough now!!"... Haha, I guess I had it coming.
It's really weird to suddenly sit here, on the other side of the world. It still hasn't hit me quite yet. I'm staying with my Grandma, Uncle and two cousins. It's great to live with my relatives, but Grandma likes to plan my life a lil bit too much... The hierchy stands strong in the Hsu household. I'm not used to that, but what can I do. I am trying to behave as much as possible so that I won't make any trouble. But no worries lah, my cousin and I are looking for an apartment in the city, that would make life a lot easier.

So many things going on here, don't have time to tell it all. But some funny things: there are all kinds of people riding motorbikes. I've seen family of four riding on one little bike, I've seen a couple holding a dog in their arms, I've seen girls riding in mini skirts, spaghetti-strapped tank tops and pink Hello Kitty helmet, business guys in expensive suits, and of course, those rough men in dirty wife-beaters and slippers chewing binlan. And there are lots of Japanese girls all over the place. How do I recognize them? They yell Kawaiiiii every five seconds. And one last thing. The food. I'm in heaven when it comes to food!!! Surely I have gained a couple of kgs already. Ate some dimsum yesterday; 50NT$ per dish. Which is like 10kr. Like my dearest Phillip would say: Jeg bare ler av det!!

Life here is very different. It's foreign in one way, but at the same time, I feel like I'm home.
Cheers my lovely friends, miss you all and please keep me updated, k?? Much love