by Jonny | Jan 22, 2012 | Updates
Yesterday was Chinese New Year or the Lunar New Year, as my Taiwanese friends would want me to say; as they consider themselves Taiwanese as opposed to Chinese. (Although I guess I think the same way, even though on my Taiwanese passport it says “Republic of China R.O.C”)
I had a great time with my family and an American bloke, we all ate some traditional Chinese food which my mother cooked up. It was delicious as usual, and I had no complaints. I also received some red envelopes. It is traditional to give those who are not married red envelopes and since I’m not married I received a few; which usually contain money.
It’s funny… when I finished my mid-term examination last Friday my teacher gave everyone a red envelope containing $1NT. Which is worth less than a penny in terms of British money, but it is the thought that counts, no? 😀
by Jonny | Jan 15, 2012 | Photography, Travel
These are a few photo’s I took around Tainan which is situated in the Southern region of Taiwan. (Republic of China, ROC) They include pictures of historic and of my own personal nature.
In this region, going back in history, the Dutch settled here and built forts among importing their own culture and style of building.
by Jonny | Jan 15, 2012 | Updates
Ever since my girlfriend left Taiwan to South Korea, I’ve felt lonely. It just doesn’t feel the same, and for me, it feels as if there is something missing.
I talk to my girlfriend for around one hour per day on Skype, and hopefully in the future more often since she is getting a smart-phone and she’ll be able to use Skype on there.
She’ll likely kill me, for posting these pictures, however she doesn’t look at my blog, or doesn’t know too much about blogging, so the likelihood of her seeing these are nil.
However if she did see these photo’s, then she’d have to come to Taiwan to kill me, so I’ll lose but also win.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFkzRNyygfk
I dread of what tomorrow brings. Usually after class she’d wait for me, ring me in the morning, planned what we could do on that day with me and generally was there for me. She’d come round and we would hug & kiss for several hours in my room.
I had someone’s hand to hold, my hands are now feeling the emptiness that was there previous. Hopefully she’ll come visit me as I won’t be able to go abroad as I’ll be doing my military service in Taiwan. Although after I have promised her to go to South Korea next year. I hope it is a promise I can keep by then.
by Jonny | Nov 1, 2011 | Travel
Today I went to Taipei to sort out a few issues that have arisen since I became Taiwanese. I took a few photos here and there. It would not have been right to have gone to Taipei with my camera and not taken any pictures of the famous Taipei 101. So here they are. I went inside however unfortunately there were too many people queuing up to go to the top to observe Taipei from the tallest building in Taiwan.
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I have uploaded many of my shots onto Picasa, since they make it so bloody easy to upload pictures to the internet. The only unfortunate thing is that they don’t offer much webspace! However it only costs $5 per year for extra webspace, which isn’t a great deal of money at-all. Plus their service appears to actually be worth it. Oh and here is the link:
.It was a fun day out and it is the first time I have been to Taipei! 😀
by Jonny | Oct 11, 2011 | Updates
OK so I did the test today, I'm anticipating the results of that test tomorrow.
But I'm scared I'll get a lower mark than I expected and I'll lose all will-power for Chinese. I mean I studied for 14 hours straight in one day on two separate days. Additionally the days previous to that, I studied long hours as well. I have been working my butt off with this Chinese. I kind of can see the improvements in myself and my knowledge of Chinese, but if I don't see that through this freaking test, then there is obviously something wrong with me mentally. XD!
I'm just very nervous. At the moment, I need to study two freaking dialogues, one of which is not so bad however the other is extensive as I explained in the post below this. It is essentially an entire 3 minute conversation. I mean I can read all of it, no problem, the problem comes with memorizing the entire transcript without looking at the book. I don't think I can do that with English let alone Chinese haha.
Kidding aside, I have a bad memory, trying to remember an entire conversation in another language I'm not that astute with is like asking me to remember which order I put my clothes into my bag when I left England for Taiwan. (Yeah it is that bad!) 😛
Shite.
