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)

Say Hello To Your Sister!

Well y'all, I'm all packed and ready to go. In celebration of my departure we had a cookies and milk party.

I shared photos of my host family and I am super excited because they are awesome. Although, I really don't know much about them except that they want me to do magic tricks - what's not to like! Just look at how happy they look and they aren't even smiling!

And in celebration of my younger brother (pictured above) we took a group picture at the party! Look at how Asian we look! Amazing.

Tulsa, I will miss you for two weeks, but excited to meet your sister KAOHSIUNG!

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!