Host Family: A Biography.

Family photo on Cijin Island.

Like any family, my host family had it's crazy, it's weird and it's wonderful moments. I thought I would share with you some outstanding qualities of each member so that you can better know who they are. My host family was a normal size (by Taiwan standards), consisting of a mom, dad, older son, and younger son.

Tina.

Host Mom
Name: Tina (English), Ms. Chuang (Chinese, not really it's Chuang!).
Hobbies: Organizing play dates for her children (including myself), declaring "No Chinese" days for her children, being bossy, cooking awesome breakfast, making mango-pineapple juice, planning events, and showing off her trophy foreigner to others. 
Most memorable moment: She came with me to Taipei after the homestay was over and at the farewell banquet gave me a giant huge... She didn't let go until we were both in tears.
Likes: She kept me busy with tours, events, food and play dates.
Dislikes: She really did treat me like one of her children! Did I mention I am twenty-three?

Pictured on far left. You can also see his parents who joined us from time to time.

Host Dad
Name: Mr. Ou (He has the same family name as Obama - He mentioned it often)
Hobbies: Driving us around town, speaking gibberish (I could never understand his Chinese), riding around on an awesome orange collapsible bike and shouting.
Most memorable moment: Driving in the car, he finally decides to play some music and he sings aloud to a song sung by a women way out of his range. Instant love.
Likes: He had a car, which meant we could go anywhere.
Dislikes: Could never talk to him because I could never understand his Chinese. Worst Taiwanese accent on the universe and no English.

Alex the silly.

Alex loved food!

Host Brother 1
Name: Alex (English), Ou Su Yi  (Chinese)
Hobbies: Playing UNO, eating six bowls of rice at every meal, speaking English, translating Carlos' awful Chinese or English to Tina, Angry birds, Touching my computer screen, magic tricks, eating and angering his mother.
Most memorable moment: I taught him the joke about the double meaning of sea food/see food. He used it successfully at various moments during dinner that day.
Likes: Ability to speak English, always knew which food I would like, bad at playing uno and he knew magic!
Dislikes: Too clingy, enjoyed making Jimmy mad, obsession with my smart phone.

We are still working on his jumping photos, but his future looks promising.

Jimmy.

Host Brother 2
Name: Jimmy (English), Ou Jia Mi (Chinese)
Hobbies: Angry birds, UNO, being cute, throwing tantrums, playing paper-scissors-rock, eating ice cream, handing my hand, posing for pictures and being a picky eater.
Most memorable moment: High-fiving each other after our team won a game of basketball!
Likes: Great a jumping photos, was respectful, darn cute and I could understand all of his Chinese.
Dislikes: Suffered a little emperor syndrome at times, got angry at times giving him the nickname Mr. Angrybirds Jimmy.

My host family was wonderful!

Our first meeting.

Barbarians Eat Chicken... With gloves.

One of my last days in Kaohsiung and my host family decides to take me to a placed called dream mall for a special treat.

Wow 'Dream Mall,' I think to myself, must be awesome. And it was! Dream Mall is huge and has a ferris wheel on the roof and tons of expensive stuff not worth buying.

Little did I know the 'treat' my host family was talking about was eating at Taiwan's own food sensation, a place call Century 21. They sell rotisserie chicken meals. ROTISSERIE CHICKEN! For about 450 Taiwan Dollars the whole family shared a WHOLE chicken, fries, salad, sweet potato fries and some friend chicken.

Host mom: Do you have this food in the USA?
Me: Bahaha, yes. I think we invented it.
Host mom: (surprised) Really? Is it expensive.
Me: Nope its pretty cheap.
Host mom: And how does the taste compare because this is a Taiwanese company and its famous.
Me: (are you kidding me!) Its about the same.

The most ridiculous part is that they believe it to amazing and a special treat (cute) AND they eat it with their bare hand WHILE WEARING PLASTIC GLOVES!

Do you like?

There seems to be an apparently mis-communication in the Taiwanese education system with the verbs ‘like’ and ‘want.’ This has been evident with my host family in the week that I have lived with them.

Host brother: Carlos, do you like ice cream.

Me: Yes, I like ice cream.

Host brother: Mother, Carlos wants ice cream, he likes it a lot and wants to eat it.

Host mother: Husband, let’s get Carlos some ice cream.

Me: I don’t want any ice cream right now.

Everyone: (confusion ensues)

Another prime example of where the Taiwanese confuse the verb ‘like’ with the verb ‘want.’

Host brother: Carlos, do you like mountain climbing.

Me: (with my inability to express a mild liking for things I say…) Yes, I like it a little.

Host brother: Mother, Carlos loves mountains and climbing them.

Host mother: I will call my sister, she lives near a mountain we can climb. Tomorrow morning we will go, okay?

Me: I don’t want to go mountain climbing today or tomorrow.

Everyone (confusion ensues)

Just keep swimming.

The Taiwanese swimming pool rules are a little extreme. My host brothers both take swimming lessons and I got to accompany them to the pool, along with Lucy one day.

Host Mother: Did you bring swim clothes?

Me: Yes!

Host Mother: Okay, bring them. What about a swim cap? Goggles?

Me: Hahahaa, is that a joke, of course not.

Host Mother: I have some you borrow.

We arrive at the pool, all is good to go. I go into the men’s locker room and discover that everyone must shower before going into the pool. Sure, no problem. I put in my swim gear and head out to the pool.

Host Mother: Where is your swim clothes?

Me: I’m wearing them.

Host Mother: (Really confused) Huh? Okay, I will ask.

She walks over to the pool lifeguard/lord/rules man to ask if it is okay that I wear my ‘swim clothes’ to the pool. All is approved and I get to swim.

Taiwan Swimming Pool Rules:

1. Only Speedos or tight spandex allowed in the pool. NO SWIM TRUNKS! Exception: Carlos the foreigner who looks clueless about everything.

2. All persons must wear protective swim caps.

3. If you are not swimming laps you must get out of the pool or pretend you are swimming laps.

4. Goggles are strongly recommended, so much so that they are mandatory.

5. After you finish swimming you must jump in the zero-degrees-Celsius water followed by the 32-degree-Celsius water. It’s good for the body (Um, NO).

6. No jumping in the pool, no splashing, no laughing, no fun, no talking to others – YOU ARE THERE TO SWIM.

Can I get a Woof Woof.

Dogs! The Taiwanese love their dogs! They are everywhere, but not your typical ASPCA rescue dogs, small fluffy, groomed, with low self-esteem dogs! Everywhere!

In their purse, on their scooters, in their backpacks, at the park, at the restaurant and the store, EVERYWHERE. 

Also, apparently Taiwan has it’s own breed of dog – “it is small and has short hair,!” as it was explained to me by some locals. Wikipedia calls it the Formosan Mountain Dog. Dogs appear to be a fashion trend here. You aren’t up-to-date with the latest fashion if you don’t have a small dog in your bag. I guess the acid-wash jeans, hammer pants, and crazy-as wrinkled skinny jeans weren’t enough.

Shhhh – The Kaohsiung Library.

In typical Carlos-fashion, I had to take a little visit to the public library here in Kaohsiung. I was rather impressed by how modern and awesome it was in comparison to the public libraries I visited in China. 

Notice the book drop!

1. The library is FREE! Yes, you can use a computer and check out books for FREE – just as it should be. Although, here the initial period to check out was 28 days – TWENTY-EIGHT! (Step it up TCCL).
2. People actually go there to read and do research, not just study. The library here does a good job at having events and programming for kids and such. They like making it FUN! It was a little louder than I would have liked, but hey, sometimes having fun is a lively activity.
3. Your books as cleaned when you check them out! Yes, you heard right, cleaned! Once you check out your books they are zapped by a machine to be clean. Some kind of UV rays or something, I dunno.

It was funny because I found myself getting lost inside the Library because it was so cool. I browsed the English children’s book area first and selected a few good books for my host brothers (As requested by my mother Tina). They had some quality kid's titles like “Chicka, Chicka, Boom Boom,” some Earl Carle books, Amber Brown, Because of Winn Dixie, and PC Cast. I was surprised to see the whole School of Night series there, PC Cast (Oklahoma author for those of your who wait for the movie to come out).

I then proceeded to impress my host mom with my knowledge of children’s books, what age levels each were appropriate with and how libraries work in the US. Not to mention that fact that I know P.C. Talked to a few locals about the library (They all love it!) and checked out some books. Good work Taiwan with your public library – approved!

Circulation Desk.

Zapping our books clean. Many people touch books, we must clean.

Look familiar youth librarians?

I asked if I could take a picture. She said yes, but apparently meant no. 

The Goose Who Laid The Sour Egg

Goose eggs. What do you think of when I say “goose egg?” For me, it’s usually Veruca Salt and her golden goose egg, but not in Taiwan. Nope, here they love their goose eggs sour!

Finished product.

I took a visit to Bing Dong and some of the locals had a sour goose egg production line going where you could select your regular goose egg and turn it into the delicious (opinions may vary) sour good egg. Here is how you make a sour goose egg:

1. Acquire a goose to lay a goose egg.
2. Take the goose egg and throw it in a mixture or sour spices and who knows what.
3. Once it is fully covered in mud seal it.
4. Let I t sit for 25 days.
5. Ta-da, you have a sour goose egg.
6. Eat that egg.

Step 2.

Magic assembly line.

Description of  a sour goose egg – Black with a slight tint of green, gelatin-looking albumen with a yellow yolk. Taste like a regular egg plus a pickle with mustard. Yum! 

Taiwanese Mind Readers!

Having contact with my host family has turned out to be quite entertaining! My little Taiwanese brother has been the family representative and has emailed me quite a few times. So far I know that my mom's name is Tina (English names that is), little brother named Johnny (Age 8), emailing master little brother Alex (Age 12) and my farther (intentionally - Yes, he called him my farther) who doesn't have an English name (I will be sure to give him one, I'm thinking Dumbledore).

Alex's English is rather impressive for a young kid of only 12 years, but sometimes weird things happen thanks to the wonderful process of translating. Prime example:

Alex is casually asking me about what I would like to do in Taiwan and where I would like to go, when all of the sudden I read the following sentence - "By the way, my mother wants me to ask you, are you good at performing arts and magic? (WHAT!) May we see your show when we're on the bus."

MAGIC? PERFORMING ARTS? This family must be a family of mind readers because I happen to be great at magic and performing arts. My juggling show will surely impress them, guess I should start practicing. If only I could get my wand to work!

Say what? SayTAIWAN!

Did you miss me?

Well, the adventures of Carlos in China continues... Although this time there is democracy involved! I have been selected to participate in the program called SayTAIWAN, which is a celebration of the 100 years of Taiwan. Check-out the link to the program here! SayTAIWAN. (My name is there! I'm like famous or something!)

Finally have my plane ticket, host family, and city location figured out. All I have to do is prepare for the HOT & HUMID weather of August in Taiwan. I will be hosted for two weeks in Kaohsiung (Actually pronounced Gao1 Xiong2 高雄), Taiwan. Kaohsiung happens to be Tulsa's sister city - that's right, Tulsa has sister cities! This will be my second Asian sister city to visit and I am so excited. Today, I met with Sharon Hwang from the Tulsa Global Alliance and she told me all about Taiwan and gave me lots of travel information and tips - THANKS Sharon. I'm getting more and more excited as I type, I MIGHT EVEN HAVE TO START USING ALL CAPS TO DEMONSTRATE MY EXCITEMENT!!!

After talking to Sharon I realized I know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT TAIWAN! Here is a list of the things I knew about Taiwan:
1. It is an island.
2. Capitol in Taipei
3. Tulsa has a sister city there. That's all.

I am kind of freaking out though because Taiwan is awesome, but they use traditional characters! WHY? WHY! For those of you who don't study Mandarin Chinese, it's kind of like have learned the alphabet (You know, ABC's and such) and then all of the sudden going to a country that only uses hieroglyphics! HIEROGLYPHICS! Can you image that!

Anyway, I am really excited about this opportunity and can't wait to share all my experiences via this wonderful blog. I hope you will read and ride along with me on this roller coaster of excitement, food, people and TAIWAN!

Things I am most excited about:
1. THE FOOD - I hear their fruit is as fresh as it comes! The have awesome sea food (it's an island for goodness shake!)! And the Taiwanese food, oh the food!
2. I might meet the president! Yes, the president of Taiwan!
3. Lucy and Carlos reunion. My friend Lucy from the Gansu Fellowship Program will also be in Taiwan when I am there! Wow!