First term finished!

The final exam went fine. We had written test on Thursday, and spoken test on Friday. I don't think it was too hard, even though I didn't remember all the characters. I studied hard the two first days of the week, reviewing the grammar and characters, but wednesday I had a lack of motivation, or maybe just tired of reviewing, so wednesday was more or less a day off. But I passed the test and will advance to next level next week. One part of the spoken test was a speach about our homecountry, and compared to the other speaches we've had during the term (family and home), I felt it was somewhat easier this time. I'm looking forward to find out how next term will be, what we'll learn and how my Chinese will improve.

Outside hte coast of Singapore, with one of it's many cargoships in the backgrond.

After the exam on friday I spent a few hours in Taipei before I went to the airport. I was heading for Singapore. With both the ARC and passport, I left Taiwan without any trouble. Singapore is an interesting place, and I'm still not done exploring it. I have one more day here before I'll return to Taiwan, so the next blog-update will tell more about it ^^

兩個月，三星期

大家好！
現在，我已經學了兩個月又三星期的中文。我還是覺得中文很難，可是現在比九月的時候好。
今天我認識了很好的台灣人，台灣真的有很多好人。下星期五，還有星期六，我有考試。我覺得下星期會很有意思。
星期六晚上，我會到Singapore去看我的朋友。四天以後我回來台灣(^ ^)
好，再見！

So, I've studied Chinese for 2 months and 3 weeks. This weekend I went width my dad and some Norwegians to Taizhong. While they were busy width a bicycle race, I went to a small restaurant to have some lunch and to study a little. I met a Taiwanese guy who didn't speak English, but we still managed to talk for an hour, in Chinese. With the help of a pen, some paper and drawing skills like 3-year olds, we understood most of what we wanted to express. I also met other Taiwanese people, all very helpful. At the bus station, a lot of people where waiting for the bus. They told me I had to wait for nearly two hours to get a seat. You picked a number, and had to wait for your number to be called. After about one hour, one of the bus-men came to me and asked what number I had in the queue, and even though it wasn't my number yet, it told me to bord the bus. I guess he recognized me as a foreigner and knew I was travelling alone, so he gave me the last seat available in the bus. It has advantages to be a foreigner sometimes. The bustrip back to Taipei was wonderful. The tourbuses hear are very comfortable. Only three seats in a row, a more than seven tv-screens showing movie after movie. 210NT, equals approx. 42NOK. Not bad for 3 hour trip.

Recently, I've noticed I know words I've never actually studied. I've heard them repeatedly during my stay in Taiwan, and suddenly I recognize them everywhere and remember them whenever they come in handy. Interesting and inspiring.

I'm now facing the last week of the first term. I'll have exam thursday and friday, and then I'm going to Singapore for a four-day trip. Looking forward to see how I do on the exam, and then go see more of Asia.

Week 10 and 11

Two weeks since last blogpost (!) Last weekend I went to the southern part of Taiwan together with my dad and his wife. We took the HighSpeedRail, and arrived our destination within a few hours. The train reached speeds of 295km/h on our trip, and it is very comfortable. On the way to Kending there was a ghost house along the road. We stopped to have a look. Tickets were 285NTD and we got a small flashlight before we entered the house. Inside was a labyrinth through rooms, with bloody dools, hands and fingers laying around. There was also some people inside to scare us, and they actually did a few times. Although the "quality" of the house wasn't very good, it was a lot of fun.

In Kending we went to the beach and I went swimming. The waves were huge, and sometimes scary. Especially when I shared the water with a few jetskis. We went to a nightmarked, tried different foodstands, and found a nice hotel close to Nixon's head.

The HSR was finished in 2007

Bright outside, dark inside

Before we went back to Taipei, we went to the very southest part of Taiwan. There's a lighthouse there, and they have built a park around it, with small trails along the coustline. We arrived in Taipei late that sunday night, and that's why I didn't post any updates on the blog as I usually do in the end of the week.

I'm starting to get used to all the
customized vehicles here

Taiwanese and japanese friend

Last week have been filled with study, running, slackline, tasty food, movies and more. I tried kebab in Taiwan for the first time, and appart from adding mustard it was more or less just like the kebab you find in Norway. I like eating taiwanese food, but sometimes the hunger for western-style is just too big ;)

Skyfall, another James Bond movie :)