3 day trip to South Taiwan. SO awesone

Day 1
Its saturday! and Im finally in winter vacation until February 12th!! WOO So we leave Shulin (taipei) at about 1pm and we got To Jia-YI for Wedding number 1!!! Its about 3 hours and a hlaf from Taipei. At a 'wedding' all we do is that we go to the place that they chose and we eat. Because of their religion, the wedding is mostly done at their homes, wit hthe close families,and then they come celebrate with us by eating alot and alot!! It was really fun this wedding cause I saw my 1st host fmaily so i got to talk to them and also i saw my 1st host brother who i get along with very well so it was really fun, After the wedding, we went about 30 minutes from Jia-Yi to a SMALLLLL town called Jiji.! It was in the mountains and its soo cute!! Theres a little citycenter, and its really a farming and small buisness community. its soo cool! We slept at my host moms uncles house. Well im not sure whos house it was because in towns like these, and more south Taiwan and in the mountains, families share houses becuase they work together and live together. So this house, the groom (that was getting married on Monday) lived there with his parents, his grandparents, some uncles, some aunts.. the house was huge, 3 stories but lots and lots of rooms. So we stayed there on Saturday Night, Also, when the groom gets married, the bride and he will also live in that house (the bride with move in with him in his room). This is really traditional, because its rare to see this in Taipei since everyone lives in appartements so theirs no room for family. I really love how family is so important here. It makes me really appreciate their culture.

Day 2
Sunday! I wake up super early to come downstairs and i find about 30 people outside cooking some delicious smelling food. South Taiwan ,weddings are always carried out the traiditional way, and its one tradition for the neihbours to come help to prepare (i think the whole town was there hah) We made this delicous pastry-like food (only in taiwan) and its tradition to eat the the day before the wedding. it was really good. Then we went in Jiji, to go sightseeing and it was SOOO nice, I love the town. It really reminds me of small township in Canada, until i see chinese signs haha But i saw bamboo farms, tomato fields, rivers, etc.. it was soo great. THe mountains were beautiful. Then we came back and ate a good meal (i think it was a thankyou meal for the days work)and i went and listenned to some of my uncles sing karaoke (they were good). I relly liked that house cause everyone was SOOO friendly and trying to speak to me in Chinese (even though most of them speak more Taiwanese because the elders speak it more also more and more south of taiwan you go, more its taiwanese over chinese). The night, the house was to crowded (there were like 8 families staying there) so we went to stay at my aunts (i love her shes soo nice) houses just down the road. I LOVE HER HOME! because it was really different from the other one. 1)its was in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by PALM TREES and with a backround of MOUNTAINS 2) it was like 3 rectangular builsings (ill put a picture up in the blog cause i want to live here haha) that formed rectangle itself :



I love it. I got to sleep in the building on the left, alone, and it was soo cool because i just layed there and listenned to... NOTHING!! since i came to Taipei, everynight i hear, cars, and cars and noises, and it hit me how AWESOME it was to hear NOTHING except the wind, and some animals (okay that kinda freaked me out) but it was just awesome.

Day 3
The most amazing morning of my life. I get waken up by, no not my host family, no not cars.. but BIRDS!! i was so happy (yea i missed hearing birds in the morning)! I got up quickly out of bed (at 7am!! wow!!) and ran outside half expecting to be in Callander, but no, i open the door to be : sweating in January, seeing unknown birds, surrounded by Palm trees and seeing the mountains. Usually when i get these little misconception (wherei think im back in Canada) i get homesick. but this time i was like OMG' I LOVE IT HERE! IM SO HAPPY IM NOT HOME! (excuse-moi maman et papa, mais c'est vrai!) I really wish i could move back to a place like this.. its so beautiful and i was so happy here. Ispent all morning drinking some Chinese tea( that i love, the way they do it is soo cool, im defaintly bringingsome back to Canada) and i was just so happy. Then we went back for the weddings. Iwas really lucky this time because i got ot see what went on in a boudhist wedding since i was already at the grooms house (the celebration was there also). So the groom left at about 9:00 am in a car with red ribbons on it, and followed but many other cars . His mom was in the car with im and it was driven by someone else) THey came back about 3 hours later (so i am pretty sure there was a rituel or traditoin in the brides home) and then when they arrived, there were firecrakers,to announce their arrival. Prior to this, and i think they did it at the brides home, they picked a piece of meat, to give them luck in their lives (which is very important in the weddings) when they cme back, there was a big huge branch attached to the car, and when the bride comes out of the car, the mother in law holds something over her head. In the wedding on saturday, i got to see this also, but the mother in law was holding a biece of wood in shape of a circle over her head. this means that she is not pregnant (but she will have kids).This wedding, the mother in law was holding a black umbrella which means that the bride is acutally pregnant. If the bride already had children, the in the car, she would have to sit on a mattrace of some sort (this is what i understood for a chinese explanation so im not sure if its true the last part). Then bride and groom went to pray and they were followed by the brides stuff (becaus shes moving in) and a rooster, because rooster indicate the way to her new home. When the bride entered the house, she had to step over a bucket of fire and walk on some ceramic and crack it for goodluck. THey then went upstairs (where to boudha is) and they pprayed for a while. After that they sat down togeth (outside of the grooms roon, and the brides new home) to await goodtimes. During this time, we had firecrackers going (to annouce they were married) and we burned this special kind of paper that they burn whenever they want to tahnk the gods for what has come. This culture is SOO amazing, its soo traditional, with the meat and the roosters and the wlaking over the fire, and im so eager to learn more about it . I am so thankfull that i got the chance toreally experience this kinds of wedding since I am sure this opporunity will maybe never come again.. I really love the culture here becuse its soo interesting and just so awesome!!

Ill write more about my vacations and CHINESE NEW YEARS!! Yay!!
P.S : THERES LIKE OVER 600 PICTURES OF MY EXCHANGE ON FACEBOOK, and including pics of this weekend, so if you dont have facebook and you want to see my pictures, maybe oyu can get facebook, its really really easy, just go to facebook.com and create an account and add me as a friend!

Bye!!
brianne