大家好! Happy holidays from Taiwan!

The following note from a loyal reader in Taiwan is one of many special greetings from expatriate Saultites that SooToday.com will be publishing over the holidays.

If you're a former resident now living 200 or more kilometres away, SooToday.com would be delighted to post your 800-word-or-less message.

It's absolutely free, but the deadline is midnight on New Year's Eve.

For details, click here.

*************************** 大家好! (Hello everyone!)

My name is Jordan Carroll, and I am 16 years old, currently on a Rotary Youth Exchange to Taiwan.

Since I last wrote, things have gotten better (and worse), and my Mandarin has improved a lot!

While studying in high school, I also studied in the National Chung Hsing University Language Center to improve my Chinese.

I passed Level 1, and got my certificate for Level 1 Chinese. 

Christmas away from home is... different.

There is no feeling of Christmas.

It is Christmas Eve, and there is no snow, the weather is 15-25 degrees celcius, and there is no spirit.

The most Christmas spirit I get is going to Starbucks and having them wishing me a Merry Christmas, or going to City Hall in Taichung where I live, and seeing the huge Christmas display they have set up.

I have been here for four months now, and I feel that it is going by so fast. 

All of my friends here are great, my exchange student friends, my university friends, my Taiwanese school friends, and other Taiwanese people I have met.  

It will be hard saying goodbye to them. 

I have no winter vacation, but my host family is amazing, and respects the fact that this holiday is very important for me, and is letting me staying home for Christmas Eve, since they have school!

I will go to Taipei next week for the fireworks on New Years with Rotary and all the exchange students.

Our winter vacation is Chinese New Years, which we get January 14 - February 14 off.

I am really looking forward to March, as this semester I could not go back to the University, but I will in March!

The downside is that it will mean my exchange is coming to an end.

This experience has been so great, and I really want to thank Rotary for this opportunity.

The Rotary Club of Sault North has helped me so much, and I really want to thank them.

One special thanks to Bruce Dewhirst, who has had the most influence on me this last year, and who has always had hope and believed I could make it through anything.

I would like to wish a Merry Christmas to my family in the Soo; Mom, Johnathon, Ethan, Rocky, Gramma, Grampa, Phil and Family, and my aunts and uncles from the Soo who moved out west!

My second family, who I miss so much also, I hope you have a great holiday; Shelby, Tammy, and Peter.

And who can forget all of your animals!

Merry Christmas to my old SBSS family, and my SJD family, and to Haley, Erin, James, my best friends.

I hope you all enjoy your holidays!

PS. The attached picture is of me, and my friend Monika from Mexico at our Rotary meeting!

Kind Regards,

Jordan Carroll Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada

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