Differences between US and TW

It's been 4 days we are in the US, and I've noticed some interesting differences between here and my hometown Taipei.

0.I'm a movie star !
Ting and I feel the same about this ! we feel like movie stars !
What we see here is exactly the same as what the movies taught us, so we feel like a movie star in an american movie:
Americans got big house with big garage, a garden and a back yard~ wonderful house of our dream ! it's really hard to get a house like this in Taiwan !


ps: this is Bruce and Diane's house in Minot, ND(my first host family! I really had a great time at their place, thank you Bruce and Diane !)

1.where is the garbage can ?
while taking my first breakfast in my host's home in Minot, I couldn't eat my banana because I couldn't find a place to dump the garbage. I've searched everywhere in the kitchen, under the sink, under the cupboards, opened every drawer... just couldn't find it. Then luckily, I was on MSN with Kesley (D5580 outbound team member to Taiwan), and eventually, she told me that the "compator" was the one !!! and she found that very funny !



2.because we don't have space to put it !
I've noticed that people here have a lot of equipments that we don't even if we need it more than they do !

a.the climate in Taiwan is very humide, but we don't have a dryer, because we don't have space to put it !
b.we don't have a dish washer in the kitchen, because we don't have space to put it !
c.we got only upright pianos in Taiwan, because we don't have space to put the grand ones. sometimes, it's not unsually to see those two types of piano at the same time in one house in USA!
d.American keep a lot of interesting decorations at home, but we don't, because we don't have space to put them.
e.sometimes, americans store things they buy in a "self-storage" they rent, why? because THEY don't have space to put them anymore !!

3.no chairs in the bedroom !
why ? because the bedroom is supposed to be a place for sleeping. Americans got dedicated rooms for all other purposes, they don't need to use computers in the bedroom !

4.everything's big !
meals are big !

cars are big !
even horses are big !


5.drive through everywhere !
Here, they got drive through for quite a few restaurants/cafes while in TW, we only have it for Mcdonald's and KFC.

Starbucks in Minot, North Dakota, USA
drive through for Starbucks ? that is the first one !!

Actually, I wondered how D5580 Team Taiwan felt while they were staying in Taipei, is it crowded for them at all ?

Fabulous vocation visit

2009.04.23 Fabulous vocation visit

Woke up in the morning, I can’t believe I am really in America right now!! Look out from the windows, everything was so peaceful. All the view that I’ve seen it’s like the traditional America movie where the story’s background is happen in a small town. This kind of country side view is only show up in the east or south of Taiwan. People create this kind of environment for people who wanna to take a rest, have a holiday trip… something like that. But in here, this is life!!! J I can only say: WOW~
George drove six hours to come having lunch with us. It was at a very America style restaurant where provide very America style food such as popcorn, fried food, large salad, large drink. When I say “large”, it’s really large!! Much more than we have in Taiwan, I can’t finish all of that. Sorry for the delicious food. :(

After lunch, my kind host has arranged an appointment for me. So it was very honor for me to visit the Adult Learning Center which is the public school provide education for adult. The class I attend today was for the adult whom speak English as a second language. The teacher is Marsha and she has been teaching for 20 years.

I joined the class and be one of the students. There is big difference teaching way with Taiwan, but it what our school has been working on. Have more activities to let the students do the practice as much as they could. Always asking questions and let the students think of the answer. In old way of teaching in Taiwan, we used to give students answer instead of helping them find the answer by their own. The purpose is different around here. They don’t care about scores very much, but do care about what they really learn from the class. Taiwan is changing right now, but slow changing. It’s a long way to go.

The school provide teacher very good material for teaching. There is an electric white board called “The smart board.” Basically it’s an electric board connect with computer. The function is the same with the computer. You can easy to get any result from the disk, and show it right away. Teacher save lots of time, don’t need to do most of the props for the class. Have more time to prepare lessons or helping student. And there is another machine called “Documentary camera.” You can show any original material under the camera and no need to retype it or copy. We have similar machine like that but not quiet convenience as this. So kind of Marsha to having me in her class and spend her time with me. I found out even the students are adult, they still make mistakes on learning, I guess I am not suppose to push my student so hard. Haha… I’ll try. :)

And you know the local TV station- KXMC sent the reporter here and interviewed me. I will be on the TV news on Saturday!! I think I can get the video from internet. WE’LL SEE!!
At dinner we’ve invited to have dinner with district government at Holiday Inn. We meet a lot of people and they all gave us warm welcome. And we just see our booth and fix it a little bit. It’s a wonderful day to have spent time with these guys. Oh, by the way, I tried the Diet coke with cheer fever today. It’s taste good! I like it! :)

Long flight from Taiwan to Minot, North Dakota, USA

2009.04.22 Leave Taiwan to Minot, North Dakota, USA

Today is the first day of GSE program. We took early plane departed at 9:45 in the morning. I was sleepy but when I got into the hall of the airport and started to check in, I became so excited. I can’t believe this is it! All we’ve been waiting and dreaming for is getting real right now, right this moment!!
But my exciting didn’t last long, guess what, I didn’t know the journey was so long!! We have to change four planes, go to four different airports to get the final destination. So today I’ve been to Tokyo, Los Angeles, St. Paul. During the time we’ve waiting for the next plane. We stayed in the airport for a little window shopping.
I have trouble sleeping on the plane. And I don’t wanna waste my time to sleep when I visit a new plane. If I count the hours by Taiwan’s time, I’m kind of like didn’t sleep for 24 hours. So tired!!!! In the end, I finally got deep sleep on the plane which from Los Angeles to Minot. Louise said I slept like a dead pig, ‘cause there were two kids sitting behind us keep on playing the table on the back of my chair and I still not woke up.
On our last plane to Minot, all I wanna do is sleep. I just wanna get to the home stay and head into the bed right away. But our home stay was so sweet making us a welcome banner. And that woke me up!!! My host is a very kind and graceful lady named Kim. And she has a handsome son named Turner who plays piano. (OK, I’ll try to show you guys the picture. :) )Their house was so beautiful and so America style. I feel like I’m some character from a Hollywood movie!!

It’s a long day, actually should be two days. In Taipei we departed at 4.22 but now here is 4.22. So basically I’ve awake for two days. I guess this is the end of today. But I am very excited what’s going to happen tomorrow. We’ll see. :)

D5580, we are coming !

Early this morning, we met at the airport for the very beginning of our adventure. Our GSE chair PP Paul and P Stanley came to say goodbye to us. We are actually very excited about our trip, and are all ready for any upcoming challenges !

On NW6, we took a 3 hour flight from Taipei to Tokyo first, where we made our first plane transfer. Then, it's the longest 10 hour flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles, which is where we are right now. It's the first time for me(Louise) and Ada to walk on the US territory ! it's like a dream for us ! we will be waiting for our next flight which is 5 hours away. Luckily, we found free wireless connection to update our blog in the meantime !

Oh, by the way, the customs personel was very "interested" in our purpose of coming to the US, and I was very lucky to be "interviewed" for more than 15min... while other team members have already picked up our luggage.

Farewell, my friends !

We can't believe D5580 team Taiwan is leaving tomorrow ! We have just built up our friendship, and they are leaving !! NO TEARS, NO TEARS.... as Paul said...
we will see you very soon !

Today is the farewell party for D5580 team Taiwan. Each of them had the opportunity to share with us their Taiwan experience. We are really happy to hear that they had a great time here and they do LOVE TAIWAN !

By the end of the party, we sang D5580 team Taiwan's song "I'm a Taipei Girl"(adapted from Barbie girl, author : Tasha and Kesley) with them, and it was a really nice song , because they consolidated their Taiwan experiences in the song ! That was awesome !

Later on, to show that D5580 did a great cultural exchange, we danced together with the music of the "flower song"(famous song in TW), and they did a great job !!
That was really fun !








During the dinner, we also had the opportunity to meet the UK team. It was a shame that we didn't have enough time to get to know them better @@~ well, hope they enjoy their stay in TW !

D5580, we are coming !!

RID3480- 22nd District Conference- Day1

一年一度3480地區的扶輪年會，熱鬧滾滾!!!! 很喜歡今年喊的「讓台灣走出去，世界走進來」的口號，就像我們即將走出去的outbound Team的興奮心情一樣。

昨天GSE的攤位上，非常的熱鬧，我們和美加地區來訪的5580團隊融合的很好，也充分感受到我們間情誼的交換，一起顧攤，一起介紹地區和分送小禮物，交換徽章是我們最high的感受，第一次穿著制服團隊亮相的我們，胸前上滿滿的徽章，實在是很特別的感受和經驗，真不敢相信我們團隊下週六就現身在美國和RID5580地區的委員及Mary Anne一起渡週末時光呢！


Today has been a wonderful day for us ! this is our first District Conference, and we were really happy to be assisting D5580 for they amazing booth at the project fair !
We'll be experiencing another District Conference in Minot next week ! we are looking forward to it, we just can't wait !!!

←Malika認真的像YEP的夥伴解說自己的扶輪地區！
Malika, interacting with YEP friends.

←我們和樂融融的合作，覺得我們越來越相像嚕！
WE ARE A TEAM !!!

←Kesley和我中美合作搖旗準備團隊遶境一周！
Kesley and me

←0809GSE TEAM: RID.3480 vs. RID.5580

←0809GSE TEAM: RID.5580 vs. RID.1220

Happy time with Little Red Riding Hood...

Our team work was so fabulous.... Thanks everyone's contribution. Love you..............