Good-bye for now

It's so odd to know that I'll be back in the U.S. soon. I've already grown accustomed to life in Taipei and now the tables seem to have turned, with the U.S. playing the role of the foreign country. Granted, I'll fall back into my own rhythm when I return, but it's so hard not to think of life with the Taiwan paradigm that my mind has created over the months. I won't be able to wake up and grab breakfast from a street vendor on my way to class. I won't have Chinese classes anymore (!). I won't see the friends that I've grown to cherish. I'll especially miss my "children", a great bunch of ICLP'ers that I've taken under my wing because I think my maternal instincts have kicked in and I feel like mothering everyone. I've never had this feeling of not really wanting to return to my home country until this summer's trip. Already trying to plan my next trip back. Until then, I'll be doing my darnest to keep up the Mandarin I learned this summer.

成語典

I'm in love with 成語, nice compact idioms or proverbs of usually four characters. And I just found a great website to learn all the chéngyŭs I want.

不知不覺得

時間過得太快, 不知不覺得得兩個月就過去了. So today is my penultimate day here. It's been a memorable summer, for sure. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity to come study in Taipei. I'm not sure if my Mandarin has improved that much, though I suppose tomorrow's test will answer that question. I've been busy the past week so my studies have suffered and I always come out of my 單班課 feeling guilty for not preparing. It's fairly obvious (很明顯) to my teacher that I haven't prepared well. >_<

Tonight a mild typhoon is supposed to hit. If there's time, I'll report later on that. This isn't my first summer in Taiwan, but I think this is my first typhoon. Hopefully, it won't affect my departure flight. Not that I wouldn't mind staying longer, but school awaits. Sometimes I wonder if I should have planned to have an easy summer before med school starts, but then I reflect upon my experiences and realize that I wouldn't trade them for the world.

I had a dream last night in which I did speak some Mandarin, so perhaps I've finally met my goal? I told a friend that I would consider this summer's program a success if I have a dream in Mandarin. Granted, the whole thing wasn't in Chinese, but it was my first dream that something other than English was spoken! I also find that sometimes I'll be thinking in Mandarin as well. Tres exciting.

One aspect of Taiwanese culture that I find really fascinating is how the locals seem to place a lot of stock in horoscopes and fortune telling. At least, that is the impression I get from some of the stories I hear and from my own experiences. I've been asked what my sign is a couple times and have had people tell me what my future will be like or what sort of person I should marry based on my sign. A friend of mine has had palmistry done by local Taiwanese. Seems like the local girls want to make sure he has a good future ahead of him before they start chasing him. ^_~ Not only horoscopes are used, but blood type is also frequently used to discern one's personality. That is something we definitely don't have in Western culture (someone correct me if I'm wrong). My cousin has even gone to see the fortune teller a few times to see if it's a good time to change his job. He doesn't believe in it to the extend that he wouldn't go through with his plans (at least, I think that's what he told me), but he likes to go just to see what the fortune teller would say. Interestingly, it seems different fortune tellers have different strengths. The one he visits is known to be fairly accurate at telling one's career fortune but not at telling one's romantic future. I would think it would be an all or nothing deal, either you're completely accurate in all aspects of life or not, but it doesn't seem to be that way.

I also learned an interesting superstition: if a couple that isn't married visits a temple together, they will end up breaking up.

雖然這是我門的最後禮拜，我門還有很多功課。我需要準備明天的演講。