My Taiwanese Christmas

I really didn't have Christmas this year. Or I can also say I didn't have typical Christmas this year but it doesn't mean my Christmas was bad, no way, my Christmas was the best Christmas ever! I didn't have a christmas tree, turkey, macaroni casserole, lot of present, Santa Claus or even Christmas holiday but I had something that not a single of my Finnish friends had. I had the best weekend of my life by playing basketball with my friends, laughing a lot, eating hot pot, studying Chinese, singing KTV and staying up whole night. Can you beat that? I don't think so!

Saturday morning 24th of December I was up at 6am just for prepare our gym and basketball courts ready for our home tournament. We ate hamburgers and drank bubble teas together with the team and our long day was ready to start. Not a typical Christmas eve morning :)
On Saturday we played two official games of basketball and we won both of them. That of course meant that we continued our games in the next day witch was a wonderful Christmas present for me because I definitely didn't want to end my basketball career here yet.
Outside of the basketball courts we also played couple not so official match of table tennis, took too much pictures, play Taiwanese games and laugh a lot.
After basketball I put myself Christmas party ready and head to our own exchange student's Xmas dinner. Everybody had cook something Christmas like from their own country and we had a opportunity to taste many different Christmas foods. My Finnish friends cooked cinnamon rolls and I think they tasted so good after 5 months eating almost only Asian food. Night was super good and even though day was already being long I wasn't in bed before 1.30am.

Sunday, the Christmas day, started almost as early as the day before. I think other girls were at the gym way before I was because everything was already ready when I arrived :D Our first game was horrible, we all were bad, didn't make any shots, missed all the layups and passed the ball out so many times. But what ever, our team was still cheering for us in every situation, we tried our best and at the end we improved our game a little bit. Loss meant that we would had a bronze game just after one hour..
I don't know what happened to us after the morning game but when the bronze game started we were totally different team! We played so good and I was so proud of everybody in my team at that game that I can't even say.. I think that game was one of the best moments in my exchange and I was just hoping that the game would never end. But of course it ended after 40 min of playing like every basketball game and after that 40 min it was clear that we were the third best English department team in Taiwan!!!

After a long day in the gym we change our clothes and head to eat Christmas dinner part 2 with the whole team. We jumped on the scooters and drove one hour to downtown to eat delicious hot pots and to exchange small Christmas gifts. Riding a scooter was so cool because traffic and specially scooter traffic is totally different than in Finland or even in Europe. We where shuttled in the middle of other traffic trying to avoid hitting with the busses and other cars. My friend who was driving our scooter was totally crazy driver and we were all the time a head of others because she was just driving so fast and passing by all cars, busses and bicycles. And I was enjoying every minute because the whole situation was so unbelievable!

When we were finish our hot pots and divided all presents we head to KTV for the whole night. KTV is karaoke and it is super popular here in Taiwan. We started singing at midnight and finish it at the morning just before I had do go back to the university for my morning class. I have never laugh so much that in that night, I have never heard so many Chinese songs than in that night and I have never be happier than I was in that night! I really can't think any better ending for my Christmas than that night. I think the funniest thing with the KTV night was that I had a Chinese final exam next morning at 8am and my friend started to teach me Chinese at 3am because I hadn't study at all before that! But don't worry mom, my test went super good and I am still nerd even tough I am not studying 24/7 ;)

After the last weekend it has been hard to understand that I am really going home after couple of weeks and I am really leaving this place and these awesome people here… I don't want to think about whole thing yet so I will save my tears for later and just say now that I had the best Christmas ever, thank you so much for all the people who was a part of that! :)

6 reasons why you should come to Taiwan immediately

So many of my friends here have been asking what I have been writing in my blog recently and because only one of my friends here can read finnish, but almost everyone of my friends and relatives in Finland can read English I decided to try my best to write some post in English too. I also promise to try to write in Chinese in some point, but I think I still need little bit more time to gather more courage for that. But I can promise that this Chinese post will definitely come someday! :)

Even though I have been speaking and writing English everyday last tree months and my speaking has been improving very much I am still quite bad with writing in English so forgive me my mistakes that I will probably make a lot during this text.

I have now live here in Taiwan almost tree months. I have to say that the relationship between me and Taiwan was almost love at first sight, after the first day. First day here was horrible, my two-person dorm room changed to four-person dorm room, toilets were super weird hole in the floor toilets, I felt like nobody can speak English, I could't find any other exchange student, weather was way too hot and food was also bad. But like I said, after the first good night sleep my whole attitude towards Taiwan changed and now I can honestly say I love almost everything in here. I have not even suffered from homesickness at all, not a single time.
If I would have a choice to stay here longer I would definitely do that because this place is more than incredible!

1. PEOPLE
I can't say I have been traveling super much but I can still say I have never met people friendlier and happier than the Taiwanese. They always offer to help and love talking to foreigners. Taiwanese are incredibly hospitable and genuinely kind. Chances are you won’t ever have to ask for help, if you even look like you are in need someone will already be there to help you.
I think everybody should come to Taiwan to learn how to treat other people, make new friends and just how to enjoy life to the fullest without forgetting other people.

2. WEATHER
Even though my first couple months in here were a constant battle against sweat I can't complain, because for example last weekend, December 3rd and 4th, I was wearing a skirt, t-shirt and flip-flops. I think that would sound quite perfect winter weather for anyone from norther hemisphere, right? And I do not even live in the southern part of Taiwan were the temperature continues to remain the heat readings and the only thing you can do is lay on the beach! You also should not forget typhoons and other special weather conditions which will make your stay in Taiwan even more exciting!

3. NIGHT MARKETS
Night markets are an important part of Taiwanese culture and even though at first they felt a little bit overwhelming they still transform into one of my favorite part of Taiwan.
Streets are lined with food stalls serving up everything from chicken hearts to stinky tofu and shaved ice. You also should be prepared to finagle the crowds and scooters to find what you want and you’ll leave with a full stomach and authentic Taiwanese experience.

4. BUBBLE TEA
If someone is not yet understood my love for bubble tea, they should read my older posts again. Well, actually, it’s the bubbles (tapioca pearls) at the bottom of the drink that are my favorite, but anyhow Taiwan is the bubble tea paradise. Bubble tea was invented here, and tea shops are even more popular than Starbucks or 7-Eleven. From this shops you can find incredible amount of different tea flavors from the classical milk bubble tea even to exotic fruit teas and smoothies.

5. FRUITS

Persimmons, passion fruits, dragon fruits, guavas, watermelons, mangos, apples, grapes, pineapples.. You name it, they have it! For me as a fruit lover this is like a paradise. I can just buy a box of pineapples, guavas and persimmons straight from the campus cafeteria when I am going to the class or wash away my sugar cravings with a fresh piece of watermelon or mango. If you really love fruits as much as I do you should be already booking your flights to Taiwan.

6. CHINESE LANGUAGE

I have been studying Mandarin Chinese almost three months now and I totally love it. I love speaking my bad Chinese, trying to understand at least some words when Taiwanese people are speaking it and guessing what different characters might mean. If you go trough the internet you will find a lot of articles etc. about how hard is it to learn Chinese and even though many of my friends are not agree with me I will say that I think learning Chinese is not that hard that many people think. Okey, I only know maybe 10-20 characters but I think my vocabulary capacity and knowledge about grammar is quite fine after only three months of studying.
So if you have ever even thinking of studying Chinese you should definitely do that, and of course come here to study it because you will learn twice as fast as for example in Finland. Characters will be pain in the ass, but the Chinese language itself is so beautiful to hear and quite easy to speak when you just learn enough words and tones and grammar and ten different s, z, q -sounds and, and, and… Easy like I said!

So what are you waiting for, this beautiful island and these wonderful things are waiting for you here!