Joshua's Update from Taiwan

Hello! 

I am very sorry that I haven't been doing my blog as often as i had said I was going to and that my reports have been slow to come in. i have been very busy here but have had no time to get any pictures up to let everyone know how it's going here and that I'm still alive!!! I will try to do so tonight but my computer is not letting me access the photos that I have been trying to upload for the past five weeks. I don't know what is wrong with it. I tried to get friends at school to help but they didn't know either.

As far as health wise goes; I got over my cold that I had and am feeling great now. I did hit my head quite hard last week and my host mother was very worried... well she still is but I am fine.

Christmas here in Taiwan just wasn't the same, a mutual thought from most other exchange students. It's not because we aren't with our families and it's not because there is no snow and it's not cold. It just doesn't feel like Christmas, it was just another day. Families don't celebrate Christmas the right way, i know it's not their culture, tradition or religion. To them, it is just about getting candy. The country as a whole, celebrates Christmas with decorations and such, but the people have no idea what it really is.

The language is coming along well. I can read, write, and hear it but my speaking isn't that great. Some of the vocabulary is kind of difficult to remember but most of it is very easy to remember. It's funny now that I can understand enough of the language to notice when people are talking about us in public and to know what they are saying about us. It's not nice all the time, but hey, at least we know what they are saying and then we tell them that understood everything they just said. The look on their faces is priceless! We, on the other hand, noticed quite early that we should be careful when we speak since a lot more Taiwanese can speak English, German, or French than we thought.

Bye for now!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

P.s.  I had written some of this about 2 - 3 weeks ago and instead of hitting the "send" button, I hit the "save draft" button. I thought it was taking a while to get a reply so I checked and noticed it. SORRY!!