COCKROACH ALERT!

Hello everyoneeee!
Well yesterday was the first day of Culture class, so I got to see allt he other 52 exchange students in our district of Rotary! It was really great! This class is every wednesday and we do different Taiwanese activities, like next wednesday its the ZOOOO!! ANyways, we had to elect a class leader and a vice, and the leader like makes sure the acitivites are ready, safe and like prepares stuff for the class, so I decided to go for it , but didnt think i would have a chance, cause i didnt think people remembered me from the Inbound orientation! But i guess they did haha cause I WON!!! WOO! So I am now Class Leader/president! Im really happy! haha Anyways, when i got home i went to brush my hair, no reason haha and I saw this huge cockroach in the bathroom...near my room! So i called (or screamed at) my host brother to come kill the THING, but it disapeared! Somwhere int eh bathroom... so all night i was TERRIFIED to enter the bathroom, and if i did I brought a shoe with me just in case it would appear once more.. hoenstly i hate those things.. so then I was like SEAN! what if it goes in my room??? and hes like they only go where its dirty.. and my friends and my family know thatmy ROOM is NEVER CLEAN!! I did try this time, but it always fails... but now maman et papa, there is a way to make me clean my room! After Sean told me the cockroaches go in dirty places, I spent at least 1 hours cleaning my room.. it is now SPOTLESS!! Ive never had a room this clean for my entire LIFE!!! So I have more chances now that A cockroach will NOT enter my room, btu if it does, Im so commign back to Canada hahahaha! JUst KIDDING! haha
Well that was my story!!
BYEE
bri

Danshui with my two sisters! (Yes, I am going to have sisters, FINALLY haha )

And this is My 'twin' sister, because he is the same age as me, only im older by a month, and she is my 3rd host family! :)


This is me and my little sister Jessica, shes 13 and i will be living with her and her sister and her brother for my last 3-4 months


This is of me eating some good stinky tofu and not making a mess! haha



Hello everyone! Today I went to Danshui, a tourist part of Taipei county )if im not mistaken) and its by the ocean so it was realyl really fun. I went with my 3rd families daughters, so i will have two sisters and Im realyl happy because they are soooo nice! I get along with them soo well! I dont think i laughed that much in one day. It was really great.. I learned that the Chinese have 2 calendars, one solar Calendar and one lunar, so thats why I had a day off today because it was the moon festival, so the biggest and brightest of the lunar year (which i a year) and thats also why they celebrate our New year (on january 1st) because its on the solar calendar and also Chinese new years because its on the lunar calendar.. so its realyl interesting their cultur..and they dont celebrate Christmas as it is, but its alright! Im gonna have Chinese New Years, they also dont get presents, only money which is SUPER OKAY! hahah I think ill be neading some money by then, if i keep spending like crazy!! hahaha I hope my parents arent reading this entry.. Anyways, we browsed there for a couple hours, the shops were really cute and then we ate,... alot! haha And we then went to Ximen to do some more browsing and went to play games in a game store its really funnn! So after that there parents and brother came to pick us up at the train station and we went to their aunts house to eeat some pizza! but i was sooo fulll haha it was still great! And now Im studying (wow what a great student) and watching the moon haha and the occasional jump since theres people lighting firecrackers very near to my home, so im pretty nervous haha .. Tomorrow, Culture class starts so ill get to see allthe other exchnage students! im pretty excited!!!
BYEE!
Bri... Im really getting the hang of adding pictures! haha

Moon Festival BBQ

Hello everyone!
Well tonight was really great because we had a Moon Festival celebration BBQ with my family and my hot dads brothers and sisters family on the roof of your building... It was really great because we ate alll night and everyone was having a realyl really great time.We lit up those sparklers (picture 1) and everyone was waving them areound btu i was so pertified cause those sparks were comming way to close to me.. haha you can see by how far im holding that thing away from me haha .. I got to meet my 3rd host family (picture 2) and there really great. I finally will have the chance to have sisters! I have one sister the exact age as me, only shes born in march, then a younger brother by one year, then a little sister and shes 13.. Im really happy because they are realyl nice and they all have really good english (but hopelly i will be pre tty fluent by that time haha) Though they have one rule that i can only use the computer for one hour, once a week, which will be hard because I wont have the chance to post up my pictures often or talk to you guys or write on my blog, but its okay, i will be gonig out more often and it will be alot of fun!!!
Tomorrow im going with the kids to Danshui, a scenic tourist spot so im pretty excited!! there all really nice and really intersted in me, and I think Im going to have a really great time with them!! Theparents are really nice too..Well tomorrow i have an other day off cause its the actualy moon festival day tomorrow but i have to go to school on saturday to make up for the lost day.. totally sucks hahah Oh there was an other little earthquake but i totally did not feel it.. and i was awake! haha i was wathcing tv with my host brother and then he looks at me all scared hes like...oh my god.. earthquake.. and im liek WHAT? when.. hes like now and i stood up to feel it and hes like its over nwo.. but as if! haha I think im immune to earthquakes or typhoons! hahaha
WEll have a a great week!!!
love,
BRI

The last few days!

Hello everyone!!!!!
Well the last few days have been really erally great! On Friday I went out with one of my teachers with the other exchange students to see a piano player.. it was really great.. the guy was insanely awesome! haha Then on saturday I went swimming with my family ( i love swimming cause i do some exercise AND the life guards are alwasy cute haha) then I went to a bellydancing class with my 2nd host mom and it was sooooo awesome! Like the teacher was so nice and everyone else was really great.. its really hard and alot of exersice like you wouldnt beleive it! I met a friend there and i hope i can go back cause there all really nice! Then today, I went to my classmates house for a BBQ for the moon festival (we have a 4 day weekend cause of the moonfestival) and it was really fun! Her house was in the mountains and so she had a yard and stuff. And it was really great, we arrived at like 3, it took about an hour to get there and we cooked food and ate alot and had a really good time even if i couldnt understand anything! But her family was really really great so nice, ( and there were really cute boys there haha .. her cousins friends haha okay I will stop talking about cute guys!). So after we ate we had this huge ballon water fight. At first i couldnt play cause i didnt bring a change of clothes and I had to take the bus MRt adn train and walk to get back home so i could not be wet haha . But then her mom was like its okay i have clothes for you, so we were about 10
and all of them went for me.. not with balloons but with buckets full of water... it was so bad, i got soaked soooo bad.. like completely soaked like in a shower but with clothes.. but it was really fun cause i got all of them pretty bad too hahah and I really had a great time to get to know them better! there really really great and nice Im so happy to have been put in that class. Monday I have a vacation but its not really supposed to be a day off, but the goverment gave it to us because tuesday is the Moon Festival. Its where the moon is completely round and we eat moon cakes.. theres really great stories about that. Ill simplfy them though cause there long.. the people were under a bad emporors juridiction (when an other kind of people took over CHina) and then someone decided to make mooncakes and he put a message into them that said that tonight we will kill the bad person (mongul i think) and then it worked! so it was delicious and effective! And then for the tuesday, its when the Moon is teh biggest of the whole year and theres many stories but i dont want to like totally say them wrong! so go on the internet!! haha theres pictures posted on facebook...when i get time haha and the waterfight will also be posted on facebook but i dont have the pictures yet!!!
BYE!
Brianne

Typhoon Day!

Hello!
Well today I had a typhoon day! Thats right, exactly like a snow day where everyone is happy cause school is cancelled, but with rain and winds that are super strong and floods! So i couldnt really go play outside like i do when its a snow day or have a mud fight cause of the rain haha .. but it was a fun day, I woke up and slept, then went to see if i could talk to mymom but i woke up to late.. so i went back to bed and then, as I am a GREAT student, i STUDIED almost ALL DAY! I really want to learn chinese because it causes most of my problems here, and it makes me homesick, so im studying harder! I can really get the speaking part, its just the writing part is crazy! I dont know how they remember every character.. its crazy! But the storm wasnt that bad, because when i was studying so hard, i fell asleep, and supposely it was the worst part of the typhoon..wow! This is the second natural that happenns that i slept through! Maybe it will be like this all year (hopefully hahha). So i am well and alive, and the typhoon didnt do much damage i dont think.. P.s Its been exactly like one month and 2 days ive been here.. ALREADY!!!
BYE!
bri

THE BEST MOVIE IN THE WORLD!

Hello! Today i went to the movies with Ares classmates.. they are all sooo nice!! We went to see secret, a taiwanese movie in chinese with english subtitles... omg it is the best movie I have ever seen in my life. Its a love story but not those cheesy ones.. its not all about kissing and making out and then they get married at the end.. its a beautiful love story about love, and its so great, and the ending is a shocker.. but im am sooo not telling you guys what happens because I am being the DVD for sure and well watch it together once I get back to Canada.. so you will have to wait another like 10 months.. sorry! But the name of it is Secret, and this is the first movie that i BALLED my eyes out during and AFTER the movies.. yes thats right just thinking about what happens makes me cry, even right now! (plus the main acter is super cute) haha Like i really like watching movies here, because in Canada i find like the love stories are all similar, but here, it was amazing.. like so great!
i just figured out i can add pictures on this blog i think...wow! this is a pic from the movies, the girls i went with!
Love,
Brianne

Pre-Moon festival!

Hello everyonnnneee!!
Well today, saturday night, I got invited to a moon festival BBQ as well as Are, the other exchnage student form Mexico in my school, by M.Chen, now the chairman in my school on the parents board and he has a son in 3grade in my highschool.. It was so amaznig bnecause it was like a neibourhood BBQ, so everyone had their own spots and their own little BBQ like camping and making there food it was really really great! I met alot fo people!! And his family is the nicest!Like his wife is soo funny and so nice, even if i cant reallty communicate, liek weh nthey dropped me hoem after the party, i gave her like a HUGE hug cause shes like when ever your free come visit! The door is always open for you! aw people here are sooooo nice!! So me and Are competed with children in a peeling fruit competition! Omg is was so funny because, as Christie knows, i cant even peel a mini-orange! So are got second and some kids even beat me.. haha it was great! adn then theres this cutest little girl that comes up and shes like Whats is your name.. in PERFECT englsih i was like omg ur the cutest thing in the world hahah so then we ate.. alot .. im still full hah but it was sooo great.. BBQ here means like ALL OUT! hhaha so much fooooooddddd! the we watched the Breakdancers from a dance school in Tiawan and they were sooo awesome! and the guys also very goodlooking! haahha s othen me and Are sand IMAGINE by elton john i think? hahah and it was so funny.. everyone must hate foreigners now haha (cause we sang really bad in case you didnt get it haah) but the people were so nice!ME are Are had a blast and this doesnt happen lots (like this festival) its only in autumnand it was amazing the atmosphere here.. so great everyone wasjust soo happy adn kids running around ,ppl charing there food.. it wasw so amazing!!!
Anyways, im going to bed! haha
have a goodday!!

Another world

Hello!!! This weekend, I went to somewhere i dont know the name of, of course, haha it was about 2 hours from Taipei to visit my host grandmother.. we left a 6am so i slept pretty much the whole way so when i woke up i was so schoked to see what had happenned, no not another earthquake, but the buildings and people were replaced by fields and fields of grass, vegetables, banana trees, little houses.. it erally looked like VErner, but alot bigger.. it was sooo cool! i saw a place where they have thousansd of chickens in cages an i was so sad, but they dont kill them just for eggs... still sad.. i wanted to open the cages and tell them to run away! haha after that we went to the market and bought some seafood cause we were having a BBQ in my honour..not,... haha its because both host parents grew up in that town ,so they were seeing old friends.. during the day it was soooo cool! i made food! its called duplings, sooo good and its like dough and you put some meat in it, then fold it and i cant explain it haha ./. theres pics on facebook if it works..then i watched a french movie, Taxi 4, wit hchinese subtitles.. it was good hearing french again.. like really good .. hahah then we had the BBQ it was fun, really, and my cousin that lives at the house we stayed in is soo nice too! and i met new people who live about 3 hours from where i live and theyve invited me to stay there for one weekend, and i said yes cause i can experience an other town different from Taipei.. so im proabbly going there nexct weekend or the weekend after..im excited really.. then i slept.. much needed sleep haha , then we left and got back home at about 3 pm sunday.. then I went to my classmate Sabrinas home, for her cousins birthday party.. and it was SO FUN!!! Her family is AMAZing!!! I gave her cousin some Cnady and a Canada shirt i brought from Canada, with Hockey on it and hhe liked it i think! hahah it was soo cool! and i had brought some maple sirup with me, becaue\se my friend hd been so nice to me like all my classmates, so im gonna bring them some too, and i gave ti to their family and they were really happy it was sooooo grea t i was soo happy! and her grandparents are so nice too, the grandmother gave me a beautful necklaces to keep me healthy, and the grandfather wrote me a poem and some words, in Ancient Chinese writing, like with the paintbrush and ink, and its like a special technique that i tried to do at my host grandmothers house. (oh i forgot to tell you :: at her house, my host dad thought me how to do the writing in chinese with a paintbrush, and its hard haha specialy cause im left handed, so usally everyone that is left handed learn hwo to write with there right, but i cant haha , like everyone notices that im left handed here, im probably the only one in my school cause if they are, its not good cause writing chinese character the order and the way is very important, from left to right and top to bottom but being left handed, your more tempted to write from right to left, so it changes the meaning of the word.,, haha )anyways he wrote me a poem and something about Taiwan, so cute.. and beautiful and Sabrina gave me a beautiful ornament, from taiwan.. also shes so nice, like shes my best-friend here i think, i feel like ive known her all my life, so its erally cool because now i have a friend to talk to when im homesick!ANyways it was great.. and i tried my best to talk chinese with them, at super time becaue most of what i know is about food because we eat all the time here ( wihci is good cause the food is too delicious) oh and about the Earthquake, it was 6,6 on the Richter Scale, wel it was really 3 earthquakes, 6,6 then the after shok of 5,4 then an other one of 3,4) and the news erports say that poeple ran out on the streets fearing that their building would collapse... wow... as if i didnt wake up! haha .. and 68 percent of earthquakes happen in taiwan, but most cause litle or no damage but there was one in 1999, 7,3 on richter scale and it killed anout 2,400 people and injured moer than 10,000.. the epicentre was like on the island so it was devastating.. and i told my mom haha and now shes mad because she thinks im doing this on purpose to scare her and make her nervous!! haha
Well im gonig to bed, school tomorrow, i have to wake up EARLYYYY ... URG! haahah
BYEEE!
Bri

Earthquake!!! AHHH!!

hey everyone! well guess what? last night there was a big huge earthquake in Taiwan..the other exchange students were petrified, some cryed! At school the teachers said it was a big one.. my host brother woke up and ran for the door to get out of the building.. without even waiting for me.. how rude ( he would so kill if he read that i wrote this i my blog haha) .. so can someone tell me why i didnt even WAKE UP? haha Everyone was like as if you didnt even feel it.. like .. i didnt wake up at all , my whole family was awake, cause it was suposely big ahha .. Are, the girl from Mexico told me this mkornign about the earthquake and im like , no, you probably just dreaming but the Susy, from USA said the same thign plus the teachers.. i was like OMG! I SLEPT THROUGH AND EARTHQUAKE!!!haha .. and not just the little ones, like we got in NorthBay that one year.. haha .. so that was pretty funny.. then today i made sushi! really easy to make, and its sooo fun! PLus i made so many new friends, like really randomly, its so cool! I got my uniform too, like the gym ione cause the skirts are not in for us yet, adn there so discusting, like the shorts are like capris and not comfortable.. im eager to get my skirt!! haha .. Then today it was the start of Martial Arts...OMG IM TERRIFIED. okay so the teacher is friggen crazy, like hes so pro and so scary and he has apprentices that he shows us the moves on... like he hits them sooo ahrd.. and its martial arts like defence, so ill lern how to beat the crap out of a gyu thats holding a gun to my head!haha , but im not sure im gonna stay in that club cause its so scary, like i dont think im gonna have fun, and im scared to hurt my partner when i do the moves, like its erally scary, i was so petrified when he showed us some exemple moves.. like i didnt know how to feel.. either totally amazed or totally petrified and run away as fast as i could.. maybe ill joni swimming.. I went to Ximen today with my friend Are, and thats where all the teenagers hangout ,, they haev everything there, food, movies, shopping games.. soo ocoooooolllllllll!!! this weekend iom gooing to somwhere abuot 2 hours form where i live to visit my host grandmother, its my host moms mom, so were gonna come back on sunday adn then im gonig to a birthday party, its my friend Sabrina, in schools, cousins birthday.. so excited! haha
byee!bri

Been a while!

Hey, well im writing this for the days that went by.. i have no time anymroe to write here cause im so busy with school that lasts forever, and studyin chinese.. and im so tired when i get home, that i go straight to bed sometimes haha.. im having a really big blast, so fun here, and my host dad bought me some childern book to learn hwo to write chinese characters! so im pretty pumped! haha im starting the martial arts friday and im sooooo excited! I went to a museum yesterday, so beeautiful but i wasnt able to take pics inside.. but funny story is that i didnt know that so i was taking a pic of the staircase cause there beauitful and a security guard like ran after me and was like no! NO [pictures, so i put my camera away, but i had already taken the picture! wooo! so i can sell this on Ebay!! yay!! haha ... but school is so amazing, everyone says hi to me alllll the time and im just like oh hi! , and i dont know who they are but there really great! everyone is soooo nice! I didnt get my uniform yet so thats an other reason why people stare at me, hahah , but im getting it soon!!! okayu so i got my books today,...so algonquin has a bout 4-6 books a semester right? maybe one opr two per class,.... guess how many books here for one year... not,1 not 2...but 40! yes i typed right 40!.. they dont even fit in my desks (cause the teachers change classes adn not us) like i was so mad haha and i cant read caus there in chinese hahah ,, sooo fun! haha how did your first day go?? miss me yet? haha well you can read this blog when your at computer room writing a IRP and you dont want to work! haha
BYE! Love,
BRI!!!xoxox