Though the activities partially contributed to making the trip unforgettable, the true heart of the trip was the people. I now understand why they emphasized the fact that this was an ambassador program rather than a mere exchange. The purpose exceeded self-betterment and education that often accompanies student exchanges. It was about something bigger than ourselves, linking two worlds through lifelong friendships. It was about helping each gain a better understanding of the other, coming to the realization that when it comes down to it, we're not so different after all. Nothing would have been the same if it hadn't been for all the amazing friends we made not only with our host students, but also with the other people we encountered as well. When all is said and done, it is the people, the relationships that were forged, that I will remember and value the most from this experience, not the attention, the food, or even the cheap shopping. I feel blessed to have been chosen for such a monumental program, doing my small part to remind everyone that while it may seem like we live two worlds apart, we are all really part of one family.
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Two Worlds, One Family
My time in Taiwan was unforgettable. Every moment was a memory in the making: trying pig intestine, learning how to use a "hole in the ground," surviving the crazy driving, always searching for the ever absent trash can, running through the streets of Jhubei trying to catch the train. At times, it was almost like a sensory information overload trying to take in everything about my new surroundings, trying to make myself remember the sights, smells, sounds, tastes. Ten days flew by like a blink of an eye. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of this awesome incredible experience.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
After 36 hours of traveling, we were finally in Taipei, Taiwan. We were greeted by all our host students holding up the signs they made for us and screaming when each one of us walked through the door. I finally met Jady, and the rest of the host students. After taking pictures and hugging each other, we got on the bus to Hsin-Chu. As soon as I walked out of the air port doors, my skin instantly became sticky because of how high the humidity percentage was.
On the bus ride there, we learned that Tiffany's host student, Vicky was very good at singing and I had just found out she was also in love with Robert. So cute. Jady and I just talked about life in Hsin-Chu and my life back home. There are some similarities between our school and home lives, but also tons of differences. For instance, she gets 2 weeks of summer vacation and goes to school every day of the week. I get 3 months of summer vacation and only go to school 5 days out of the week. I was blown away by how much school they have. I don't think I would be able to survive.
We made a pit stop so everyone could change into their lovely v-neck tye dye shirts (the boys totally rocked it) and put on blue jeans and their Plano hats to go meet the mayor. When we arrived at City Hall, we found out the mayor was actually in Korea doing some business so we met his replacement for he time being. Thank the Lord we didn't have to do the Hannah Montana hoe-down trow-down and sing. Instead, we gave him the mayor's gifts then got a little tour of Hsin- Chu.
We went to a Temple and learned about Buddhism and how they practice it. We saw the police station and an old fire station. We made a stop at a meatball factory where we learned how to make meatballs and some history of the store. We were given meatball paste and we had to wear gloves and squeeze meatballs out of our hands into a circular shape. I personally thought the feeling of gooey pig paste in my hands was really gross, but it was still kind of fun.
After the meatball making, we walked back to city hall where Jady's mom picked us up and took to her house. When we arrived, I also met Ido - Jady's 10 year old brother- and her dad. I got a tour of their very nice house and got settled in my room. I turned the air conditioning to 20 degrees Celsius and passed out. Later Ido woke me up for dinner. I honestly don't know what exactly we were eating, but it was good. Her family just asked me questions and tried to teach me Chinese but I was so out of it that I forgot everything they said. After dinner I gave them their gifts then took a well deserved shower. I called my parents after my shower and told them what my schedule is then headed upstairs and went to bed.
The next day I woke up bright and early and went to our first school where we performed our dance and songs and then watched 7 or 8 performances by some of the students. I honestly didn't believe Mrs. Williams when she said we'd be rock stars but shortly after I got to the school, I realized she was completely right. Students were screaming and asking to shake our hands and take pictures of us, it was crazy.
Later, we went to go make a candy cane key chain in another part of the school then went to an amusement park. Their amusement parks don't have any roller coasters like ours do, but they do have these huge mechanical animals that go 5 mph that you can ride around the park! We went paint balling and had pretty much no protection. I got shot twice in the leg by Ben and Wil and got 2 welts from them. Noting beats Ci Ci's bruise on her arm though. That thing was HUGE! After we were pelted to death, we ate lunch then explored the rest of the park where we found these strange fun houses and fun mirrors. Only in Taiwan.
The last thing we did that day was go on a very long bike ride along the coast. It was so beautiful. It was a sunny day and it wasn't as humid since we were on the coast. Amanda and I rode a 2 seater bike with a shade thing on it. There were parts of the ride that made my legs feel like they were on fire, but for the most part it was very relaxing. We got ice cream at the end of the trail. I'm not sure what flavor it was. I think it was dragon fruit, and some kind of nut or something. We took pictures and then rode to the shore where we wrote our name in the sand and dipped our toes in the water. We rode back to the bus and headed to the school where Jady's mom picked me up.
That night I went to a 3 hour art class with Jady and learned some still life techniques and shading. The teacher was very nice and I helped him with his English and he helped me with my Chinese. After the class we went home and I took a long shower and got all the sand out of my shoes. I watched Ido play the piano and then slept like a baby.
The next morning I woke up and went to a Chinese character drawing class with Ido where I learned how to draw big, small, and king. It is done with a pen that has a fur tip and you dip it in some special ink. The teacher taught me what to do with my hands and how to hold the pen and then he taught me how to draw some different characters. Ido said I did very good for an American. :)
Jady's mom picked us up and we went to Ido's performance at one of the colleges. He was in an orchestra with a bunch of other kids his age. He did very well. Later, Jady's mom dropped me off with Jady and her friends and we walked around for a little bit. I don't know what exactly happened but all of a sudden I began to feel really weak and dizzy and I got a terrible head ache. Jady's mom had to come get us and I had to rest and take some medicine. I started to feel better after I rested, but I just stayed home the rest of the day just in case. When Mrs. Clark found out I had gotten sick, her interpretation was a but different. The translation of what happened got a little twinked. Mrs. Clark thought I hadn't gotten out of bed all day and that when they tried to wake me up I didn't wake up meaning I had loss consciousness. As you probably can guess, that worried her and she didn't sleep at all that night. I didn't know that's what she thought so I didn't talk to her until the next day where everything was cleared up. That was very stressful.
On Sunday, the whole group went to Jesse's church. The church was very small, but very nice and peaceful. They were all fascinated by us Americans and asked us a lot of questions. Everything but the songs were translated into English. After the service we took pictures with the band and preacher and exchanged contact information. They were all such sweet people.
We went to lunch after. It was this really tight Japanese place where you take your shoes off and sit on the ground and the lighting is dimmed. Amanda, Robert and I shared a plate of sushi that was just amazing. We took a bunch of pictures and started acting goofy. I put the chop sticks in my mouth to look like a walrus then one of the chopsticks decided to fall out of my mouth and down my dress. It was really funny, but awkward at the same time. It was a fun and interesting lunch.
We left the restaurant and went to this college and played at their park for a little while. It was very random but fun. We just posed for pictures at first then played a weird tag game that we all failed at then played big booty. Don't ask questions. We left the college and took a bus to the zoo. It smelled terrible but it was fun. They don't really cage their animals. There were a couple of random deers that were just out in the open and then the snake pit that had these monsorous snakes that scared Amanda and I so bad that we nearly had a heart attach.
After seeing every animal, we went to the flower market and got some weird food and drinks and shopped for a little bit. We then took a bus to the train station where we took a train to Jubei (sp) night market. It wasn't too big but it was a lot of fun. We ate a bunch of random food and walked around for hours just looking at all the stuff they sell there. We started to head back to the train station and someone thought we were going to be late so we started to run. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. We all pulled out our Sham Wow and wiped off our sweaty faces. Then the bus came and we headed back to Hsin-Chu. Jady's mom picked us up from the train station and we headed home.
That concludes my first few days in Taiwan. I'll write more later.
On the bus ride there, we learned that Tiffany's host student, Vicky was very good at singing and I had just found out she was also in love with Robert. So cute. Jady and I just talked about life in Hsin-Chu and my life back home. There are some similarities between our school and home lives, but also tons of differences. For instance, she gets 2 weeks of summer vacation and goes to school every day of the week. I get 3 months of summer vacation and only go to school 5 days out of the week. I was blown away by how much school they have. I don't think I would be able to survive.
We made a pit stop so everyone could change into their lovely v-neck tye dye shirts (the boys totally rocked it) and put on blue jeans and their Plano hats to go meet the mayor. When we arrived at City Hall, we found out the mayor was actually in Korea doing some business so we met his replacement for he time being. Thank the Lord we didn't have to do the Hannah Montana hoe-down trow-down and sing. Instead, we gave him the mayor's gifts then got a little tour of Hsin- Chu.
We went to a Temple and learned about Buddhism and how they practice it. We saw the police station and an old fire station. We made a stop at a meatball factory where we learned how to make meatballs and some history of the store. We were given meatball paste and we had to wear gloves and squeeze meatballs out of our hands into a circular shape. I personally thought the feeling of gooey pig paste in my hands was really gross, but it was still kind of fun.
After the meatball making, we walked back to city hall where Jady's mom picked us up and took to her house. When we arrived, I also met Ido - Jady's 10 year old brother- and her dad. I got a tour of their very nice house and got settled in my room. I turned the air conditioning to 20 degrees Celsius and passed out. Later Ido woke me up for dinner. I honestly don't know what exactly we were eating, but it was good. Her family just asked me questions and tried to teach me Chinese but I was so out of it that I forgot everything they said. After dinner I gave them their gifts then took a well deserved shower. I called my parents after my shower and told them what my schedule is then headed upstairs and went to bed.
The next day I woke up bright and early and went to our first school where we performed our dance and songs and then watched 7 or 8 performances by some of the students. I honestly didn't believe Mrs. Williams when she said we'd be rock stars but shortly after I got to the school, I realized she was completely right. Students were screaming and asking to shake our hands and take pictures of us, it was crazy.
Later, we went to go make a candy cane key chain in another part of the school then went to an amusement park. Their amusement parks don't have any roller coasters like ours do, but they do have these huge mechanical animals that go 5 mph that you can ride around the park! We went paint balling and had pretty much no protection. I got shot twice in the leg by Ben and Wil and got 2 welts from them. Noting beats Ci Ci's bruise on her arm though. That thing was HUGE! After we were pelted to death, we ate lunch then explored the rest of the park where we found these strange fun houses and fun mirrors. Only in Taiwan.
The last thing we did that day was go on a very long bike ride along the coast. It was so beautiful. It was a sunny day and it wasn't as humid since we were on the coast. Amanda and I rode a 2 seater bike with a shade thing on it. There were parts of the ride that made my legs feel like they were on fire, but for the most part it was very relaxing. We got ice cream at the end of the trail. I'm not sure what flavor it was. I think it was dragon fruit, and some kind of nut or something. We took pictures and then rode to the shore where we wrote our name in the sand and dipped our toes in the water. We rode back to the bus and headed to the school where Jady's mom picked me up.
That night I went to a 3 hour art class with Jady and learned some still life techniques and shading. The teacher was very nice and I helped him with his English and he helped me with my Chinese. After the class we went home and I took a long shower and got all the sand out of my shoes. I watched Ido play the piano and then slept like a baby.
The next morning I woke up and went to a Chinese character drawing class with Ido where I learned how to draw big, small, and king. It is done with a pen that has a fur tip and you dip it in some special ink. The teacher taught me what to do with my hands and how to hold the pen and then he taught me how to draw some different characters. Ido said I did very good for an American. :)
Jady's mom picked us up and we went to Ido's performance at one of the colleges. He was in an orchestra with a bunch of other kids his age. He did very well. Later, Jady's mom dropped me off with Jady and her friends and we walked around for a little bit. I don't know what exactly happened but all of a sudden I began to feel really weak and dizzy and I got a terrible head ache. Jady's mom had to come get us and I had to rest and take some medicine. I started to feel better after I rested, but I just stayed home the rest of the day just in case. When Mrs. Clark found out I had gotten sick, her interpretation was a but different. The translation of what happened got a little twinked. Mrs. Clark thought I hadn't gotten out of bed all day and that when they tried to wake me up I didn't wake up meaning I had loss consciousness. As you probably can guess, that worried her and she didn't sleep at all that night. I didn't know that's what she thought so I didn't talk to her until the next day where everything was cleared up. That was very stressful.
On Sunday, the whole group went to Jesse's church. The church was very small, but very nice and peaceful. They were all fascinated by us Americans and asked us a lot of questions. Everything but the songs were translated into English. After the service we took pictures with the band and preacher and exchanged contact information. They were all such sweet people.
We went to lunch after. It was this really tight Japanese place where you take your shoes off and sit on the ground and the lighting is dimmed. Amanda, Robert and I shared a plate of sushi that was just amazing. We took a bunch of pictures and started acting goofy. I put the chop sticks in my mouth to look like a walrus then one of the chopsticks decided to fall out of my mouth and down my dress. It was really funny, but awkward at the same time. It was a fun and interesting lunch.
We left the restaurant and went to this college and played at their park for a little while. It was very random but fun. We just posed for pictures at first then played a weird tag game that we all failed at then played big booty. Don't ask questions. We left the college and took a bus to the zoo. It smelled terrible but it was fun. They don't really cage their animals. There were a couple of random deers that were just out in the open and then the snake pit that had these monsorous snakes that scared Amanda and I so bad that we nearly had a heart attach.
After seeing every animal, we went to the flower market and got some weird food and drinks and shopped for a little bit. We then took a bus to the train station where we took a train to Jubei (sp) night market. It wasn't too big but it was a lot of fun. We ate a bunch of random food and walked around for hours just looking at all the stuff they sell there. We started to head back to the train station and someone thought we were going to be late so we started to run. We got there with 10 minutes to spare. We all pulled out our Sham Wow and wiped off our sweaty faces. Then the bus came and we headed back to Hsin-Chu. Jady's mom picked us up from the train station and we headed home.
That concludes my first few days in Taiwan. I'll write more later.
Day 8 Thursday June 18th
All girls high school today! I thought that maybe it would be different to be in an environment with all girls, but it felt like any other school. We still received numerous cheers and screams everytime we walked into a room, and we still had a jam packed day. The only difference was the extra attention the guys in the group were getting!
The first activity of the day was making t-shirts. I am not a talented artist, so I didn't set my expectations high for the outcome of my shirt. It was hard to feel badly about my shirt though, because everytime I would draw or write one little thing my partner would say, "Good!" After writing in my chinese name, Kala (there is no character for Kay), my partner wrote her name at the bottom. I added some other little drawings and some more color and was finally finished. We took a quick break from making t-shirts to go and perform for the school. I was relieved when I saw the small group of girls we would be performing for, but then I looked up. That's when I saw the many levels of balconies filled with girls waiting to see us perform. I realized there was no point in gettig nervous, because we had already done the dance so many times and none of the Taiwanese students were judging our performance. In the middle of the dance I turned around to see that one of the teachers had joined in with us! She even pushed me and malcolm out of the ending pose so that she could be seen. After more pictures and more compliments from the girls in the high school we heard someone say: "Come on girls, get to class" with a Texan accent. The man was a teacher from Houston who had moved to Hsinchu to teach. Later on in the day we talked to him, and he told us that after college he moved to China and then later Taiwan. After traveling to France two summers ago, I fell in love with the country and developed the dream to one day move to France and teach English. As stupid as it sounds, meeting this teacher kind of gave me some hope for my dream. Anyways, after our performance we went back to the room to get our shirts. We all changed into our shirts before the next activity. They might have been extremely large, but it was still nice to wear something we had designed and created ourselves.
I never truly knew what kung fu was before today. I just thought it was a euphemism for fighting with exaggerated movements. I soon found out that it takes thirty years of training to be able to call yourself a master at kung fu. We obviously couldn't do the moves perfectly with only an hour of basic training, but it was fun to try it. When he asked us to try doing some moves with the sword everyone took a few steps back as each member of the delegation tried the steps.
We went on to a cooking class where we learned how to make rice dumplings. Even though I was stuffed from the huge lunch they had literally just served us, I tried the dumplings after they had cooked. It had an interesting texture to it, but it was good nonetheless.
Rather than go directly with the group right after school, today Mr. Hou picked me up and took me to Yu-Ting' school. She attends World High School, where we were supposed to go on the first day, but due to flight delays we had to miss. Her school is noticably smaller than all of the other high schools we had gone to so far. It was quaint and also beautiful. By the time I had arrived there school was out for the day, but I wish I could have gone and seen it in action. Although it wasn't the school visit I thought we would get, I'm still glad I was able to see where Yu-Ting goes to school everyday.
The plan was to go out for seafood with the rest of the family, but we made a quick detour to go shopping in downtown. We ran into some of the other students from Plano and Taiwan and decided to just stick around and shop some more with them. I went a little crazy with all of the shopping I did, but I am definitely happy with everything I bought. It was too late to go out to dinner after we were done shopping, but Mr. Hou picked up some dinner and brought it home with us. It was my first dinner with my host family (minus her brother). They laughed at me after many failed attempts at correctly using chopsticks, but I didn't mind it. I felt like I was a part of their family, and we were all laughing around the dinner table. As fun as it has been going out to dinner every night, this was probably my favorite meal.
Favorite food/drink of the day: breakfast pizza
New thing learned about Taiwan: almost all of the clothing is one size fits all
The first activity of the day was making t-shirts. I am not a talented artist, so I didn't set my expectations high for the outcome of my shirt. It was hard to feel badly about my shirt though, because everytime I would draw or write one little thing my partner would say, "Good!" After writing in my chinese name, Kala (there is no character for Kay), my partner wrote her name at the bottom. I added some other little drawings and some more color and was finally finished. We took a quick break from making t-shirts to go and perform for the school. I was relieved when I saw the small group of girls we would be performing for, but then I looked up. That's when I saw the many levels of balconies filled with girls waiting to see us perform. I realized there was no point in gettig nervous, because we had already done the dance so many times and none of the Taiwanese students were judging our performance. In the middle of the dance I turned around to see that one of the teachers had joined in with us! She even pushed me and malcolm out of the ending pose so that she could be seen. After more pictures and more compliments from the girls in the high school we heard someone say: "Come on girls, get to class" with a Texan accent. The man was a teacher from Houston who had moved to Hsinchu to teach. Later on in the day we talked to him, and he told us that after college he moved to China and then later Taiwan. After traveling to France two summers ago, I fell in love with the country and developed the dream to one day move to France and teach English. As stupid as it sounds, meeting this teacher kind of gave me some hope for my dream. Anyways, after our performance we went back to the room to get our shirts. We all changed into our shirts before the next activity. They might have been extremely large, but it was still nice to wear something we had designed and created ourselves.
I never truly knew what kung fu was before today. I just thought it was a euphemism for fighting with exaggerated movements. I soon found out that it takes thirty years of training to be able to call yourself a master at kung fu. We obviously couldn't do the moves perfectly with only an hour of basic training, but it was fun to try it. When he asked us to try doing some moves with the sword everyone took a few steps back as each member of the delegation tried the steps.
We went on to a cooking class where we learned how to make rice dumplings. Even though I was stuffed from the huge lunch they had literally just served us, I tried the dumplings after they had cooked. It had an interesting texture to it, but it was good nonetheless.
Rather than go directly with the group right after school, today Mr. Hou picked me up and took me to Yu-Ting' school. She attends World High School, where we were supposed to go on the first day, but due to flight delays we had to miss. Her school is noticably smaller than all of the other high schools we had gone to so far. It was quaint and also beautiful. By the time I had arrived there school was out for the day, but I wish I could have gone and seen it in action. Although it wasn't the school visit I thought we would get, I'm still glad I was able to see where Yu-Ting goes to school everyday.
The plan was to go out for seafood with the rest of the family, but we made a quick detour to go shopping in downtown. We ran into some of the other students from Plano and Taiwan and decided to just stick around and shop some more with them. I went a little crazy with all of the shopping I did, but I am definitely happy with everything I bought. It was too late to go out to dinner after we were done shopping, but Mr. Hou picked up some dinner and brought it home with us. It was my first dinner with my host family (minus her brother). They laughed at me after many failed attempts at correctly using chopsticks, but I didn't mind it. I felt like I was a part of their family, and we were all laughing around the dinner table. As fun as it has been going out to dinner every night, this was probably my favorite meal.
Favorite food/drink of the day: breakfast pizza
New thing learned about Taiwan: almost all of the clothing is one size fits all
Our Return
We've made it back; every last one of us. I did think we were going to have to fly the "missing man" formation from LAX to DFW, but if a person is insistent enough, they will open the door to the airplane and let someone on.
I have so many memories that I will treasure for years to come. Some of my farvorites that stand out include the bicycle race along the coast and actually survivng Malcolm, Megan, and Robert's driving. The first full day of school when we looked out from the stage at a hundred smiling new friends. Maya having to answer "the question." Kayla blowing glass. Amanda's rugby take down. Wil in the scrum. Tiffany's sweet going away speech. Everyone at the top of the world. Karoake on the bus. Ben's hilarious blogs. Everyone trying to pronounce Eleanor. The all girl's school and having to actually step in and rescue the boys. The boys discovering how fun it can be to cook and to have a facial.
I can't wait to compare pictures!
I have so many memories that I will treasure for years to come. Some of my farvorites that stand out include the bicycle race along the coast and actually survivng Malcolm, Megan, and Robert's driving. The first full day of school when we looked out from the stage at a hundred smiling new friends. Maya having to answer "the question." Kayla blowing glass. Amanda's rugby take down. Wil in the scrum. Tiffany's sweet going away speech. Everyone at the top of the world. Karoake on the bus. Ben's hilarious blogs. Everyone trying to pronounce Eleanor. The all girl's school and having to actually step in and rescue the boys. The boys discovering how fun it can be to cook and to have a facial.
I can't wait to compare pictures!
This is the Good Life
In my opinion, we definitely saved the best school for last. At times, touring Kuang-Fu High School felt more like spending a day at a resort than at a high school. From five star dining, to a spa, and car shop, this place had it all. In fact, it's so large that a small number of students actually lived here.
Before entering the lap of luxury, we first had to sweat it off in a little dance off against some of the students. Though many of them were quite skilled, none could compare to Robert's masterful sprinkler. After that, we performed the Hoedown Throwdown and were joined by the school's principal at the end trying to show off some of his moves. Once done with our performance, we were escorted across the campus to the school's cooking classrooms. We were to make pizza with the school's full-time cooking teacher, Chef Moro. It was such an honor to work with a five star restaurant chef. While we waited for the dough to rise, we were escorted on a brief tour of the nearby school grounds. We didn't get very far once we discovered the cosmetics classroom. The students in there were practicing for their massage test. We knew we had to take a detour for this and help them out. Everyone was more than willing to donate their bodies for the sake of education. It must be so hard for these students to go to school everyday. Now if only the schools back home could implement such a program...
Ten minutes later, we returned to the kitchen refreshed and ready to make some pizza. Chef Moro declined to teach us the fine art of pizza tossing as he was afraid we would create a gigantic mess tossing pizzas haphazardly in the air, so we instead rolled out the dough using our hands, a roller, and our handy dandy national champion student chefs to assist us. Once our pizzas were done, they led us into their tourism training center, which looked more like a fine dining restaurant. The waiters were students who were our age training for their waitstaff license. I felt like royalty when I was politely asked, "May I please?" every time they tried to refill my glass or take my plates away.
A trying, yet hilarious time of beading and balloon animal making followed lunch. Although I had managed to expertly whiz through the first beading session earlier in the week at Cheng Te, it was apparently due to the great help I had had rather than my natural knack for beading because this round I needed three people at once to help me! The comforting words of, "Oh gosh" and "Uh oh" frequently rang in my ears. Balloon time came a bit easier to me, but the sound of the teacher's chuckle at my terrified face as I held my balloon as far away as possible, wary of the potential "pop", yielded little encouragement. Nevertheless, I made it out of the session without any balloon casualties, proudly showing off my Snoopy with lopsided ears.
Next we were whisked away to watch a singing contest held by the school, where we found some very interesting characters. Many of the students were dressed up in costumes for their performances so we saw everything from girls in kimonos, to guys in all out makeup--even some guys in some very flattering dresses. I have to admit that I found the random students running on the stage dancing in the middle of the performances and the bizarre costumes worn by the performers quite entertaining, distracting my attention from the actual singing.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
Our Last Day in Taiwan…
Saturday, June 17, 2009
All good things must one day come to an end, and tomorrow, that day will come for this unforgettable journey. A two-week period that will never leave me; I have made life-long friends of both my fellow delegates and countless students in Taiwan, but we’ll save the sappy stuff for tomorrow.
Today was the first time since last Tuesday that I actually got to sleep in; by sleeping in, I mean 9:00. I woke up four times before finally getting out of bed, feeling relaxed and ready for the day, it was a lovely feeling. After finally rolling out of bed, I began packing all of my clothes and gifts into my suitcases. In less than half an hour, my disaster of a room was utterly and completely spotless, I felt nothing short of accomplished!
At 11 everybody (excluding those whom chose to study for exams next week) met up at SOGO to go shopping. Once the gang arrived, we walked around SOGO to see if there was anything we needed to buy, nothing struck my eye, so we progressed forward into downtown. We hit up a couple of shops to no avail and delegated to find lunch instead; this was the first time I’d actually been starving the entire trip. We all knew exactly where to go, not McDonald’s or Burger King, but Mos Burger, the rice burger shop we all loved and will miss greatly! I downed two Asian Sprites (called Xuebi: White Snow). They have sooo much more flavor than those in America, and therefore are that much better.
After lunch we walked around downtown for another couple of hours; after many failed attempts at finding something to buy, I got what I wanted. We walked into a little shop that sold jeans and t-shirts not expecting all too much, only to see a sign saying (in Chinese of course) “All Jeans – nT300” which converts to about $10, amazing, right? After not finding anything I truly liked; Eleanor asked me to try on a pair that she wanted to get her boyfriend, after putting them on, I knew I had to get them, so I did, what a deal! The rest of the afternoon was somewhat mundane, other than the fact that I met up with one of my new friends, Peggy, Vanessa and Nancy’s friend; she’s pretty cool.
Tonight we went to Lawliet’s house for our true going away party. It was a good time, we played cards, Wii, pool, and various other games to pass the time; just a night to sit back, relax and enjoy the moment, forgetting that it was our last night.
Leaving his house, we headed to Vanessa’s grandfather’s house in Hsinchu (her father’s father) so that I could meet him. We walked into a very pretty house that reminded me greatly of theirs, it looked very similar. Her grandpa is a very nice old man, 75 years old, and speaks a little English. When I got there, he bestowed me with a gift for my father, because he will read this I will not say what it is, but it’s really nice, and exceptionally generous. He also showed me some of his artwork; he has made some magnificent things that I couldn’t begin to explain. Later, her cousins showed up and I had a nice English conversation with the youngest, Lulu, in front of the family where she could show off her skills.
Around 11:00 (twelve hours after we had initially met at SOGO) we arrived home. We finished packing all of my bags (including my new gift) and came downstairs to relax as our last night together dwindles away.
But now, as it is past 1:00am and I must be up at 6:00, I will go to sleep, good night.
Song Description: “Don’t Dream It’s Over” – Crowded House
Last Day
Today was our last full day in Taiwan. We got to sleep in this morning, because we didn't have to get up early to catch the bus for school. It was amazing. So Jessie and I woke up and took a taxi down town for some shopping, but she had to go home and study for her exams next week. When I arrived, most of the group was already there, but we were still waiting on a couple stragglers. So, Eleanor and I went to use the bathroom. Little did I know, the toilet that I used had a bidet. I walked out of the stall soaking wet after I accidentally turned it on instead of flushing.
After I dried off, we started shopping. It wasn't as hot today as usual so that made for a better shopping experience. Don't worry mom. I didn't spend too much money shopping. We shopped for t-shirts and jewelry and then found a great sale on jeans where Eleanor, Ben, and I all bought the same pair. Then for lunch we went to Mos Burger. It was so good, just like the last time that we went there. Then after we filled up on sprite and french fries, we continued shopping. Some girl wearing practically nothing told Eleanor she looked like Barbie. Then the group split up and Eleanor and I went shopping alone and we all decided to meet back at the hat store at 2:20. So we got all of our shopping done and as soon as we got back to the hat store, Eleanor and I found out we had been abandoned by our group. They left us to go shopping almost on the other side of downtown. Ben got a dirty look for that one.
Then Will Eleanor and I rode the escalators for about 20 minutes. Exhilirating. Then we headed for Lawliet's house for a parrrtttaayyy. We played Uno, playstation, pool, and sardines. Sardines is kind of like hide and seek except one person hides and then everyone else goes to look for them. When it was Will's turn, we decided to not look for him. He spent almost 30 minutes cramped in a cabinet thinking he had the best hiding place in the entire house. It was very hot and cramped in that closet. When it was time to leave, everyone went downstairs and took pictures with eachother and finally got in our cars to leave. When Jessie and I got home, her mother gave me tea, biscuits, cards, and a necklace to take home with me. Then Jessie gave me a set of chopsticks, cookies her grandma made, 2 keychains, and a photoalbum of us in Taiwan. I started crying, but I don't think Jessie noticed. Then we watched A Walk to Remember. Jessie had never seen it before so she cried at the end. I was asleep so I didn't notice.
Now I'm packing and reading the note Jessie's friend Ruby wrote. I cried when I realized I'm leaving tomorrow and I won't be able to say goodbye to her or any of Jessie's other friends. I'm and emotional wreck tonight. I can't believe we are going home tomorrow, but if the monsoon hits we might have to stay for another night or two. So we will see what tomorrow holds and in the mean time, I have to continue packing.
Amanda
After I dried off, we started shopping. It wasn't as hot today as usual so that made for a better shopping experience. Don't worry mom. I didn't spend too much money shopping. We shopped for t-shirts and jewelry and then found a great sale on jeans where Eleanor, Ben, and I all bought the same pair. Then for lunch we went to Mos Burger. It was so good, just like the last time that we went there. Then after we filled up on sprite and french fries, we continued shopping. Some girl wearing practically nothing told Eleanor she looked like Barbie. Then the group split up and Eleanor and I went shopping alone and we all decided to meet back at the hat store at 2:20. So we got all of our shopping done and as soon as we got back to the hat store, Eleanor and I found out we had been abandoned by our group. They left us to go shopping almost on the other side of downtown. Ben got a dirty look for that one.
Then Will Eleanor and I rode the escalators for about 20 minutes. Exhilirating. Then we headed for Lawliet's house for a parrrtttaayyy. We played Uno, playstation, pool, and sardines. Sardines is kind of like hide and seek except one person hides and then everyone else goes to look for them. When it was Will's turn, we decided to not look for him. He spent almost 30 minutes cramped in a cabinet thinking he had the best hiding place in the entire house. It was very hot and cramped in that closet. When it was time to leave, everyone went downstairs and took pictures with eachother and finally got in our cars to leave. When Jessie and I got home, her mother gave me tea, biscuits, cards, and a necklace to take home with me. Then Jessie gave me a set of chopsticks, cookies her grandma made, 2 keychains, and a photoalbum of us in Taiwan. I started crying, but I don't think Jessie noticed. Then we watched A Walk to Remember. Jessie had never seen it before so she cried at the end. I was asleep so I didn't notice.
Now I'm packing and reading the note Jessie's friend Ruby wrote. I cried when I realized I'm leaving tomorrow and I won't be able to say goodbye to her or any of Jessie's other friends. I'm and emotional wreck tonight. I can't believe we are going home tomorrow, but if the monsoon hits we might have to stay for another night or two. So we will see what tomorrow holds and in the mean time, I have to continue packing.
Amanda
Friday, June 19, 2009
As They Say, The Best Always Comes Last – Kuang-Fu
Friday, June 17, 2009
Today we visited our last Hsinchu high school, a depressing day. No offense to any other school, but Kuang-Fu literally blew us away. From beginning to end it was interesting and exciting, not a single dull moment! The day began with a smidgen of confusion. I arrived with my host mother and Megan to the school to be greeted by the security guard with skepticism as students watched on in awe. We were then led to a small room next to the entrance to sort things out. After about 10 minutes of sitting and listening to the Chinese banter, two students arrived to lead us to the library where we would wait for the rest of the delegation.
Once everyone arrived, we joined our teachers along with school administrators in a small conference room for tea (which I still haven’t grown accustomed to) and gift exchange. We gave him our customary AVID bag and they out-did us, as usual. They gave us these beautiful apples which glow bright green in the dark, they were amazing. Following the conference, we went into the hall to watch a step team perform and ask us to join. We each did a goofy American giggle before pushing someone else one. Robert blew me away with his moves; they were amazing.
Finally, the dancing was finished, so we headed to the culinary area to bake pizzas. This school fascinated us with not only its pure size, but the diversity of its classes as well. While waiting for them to finish preparing the dough, we walked around the building and guess what we found, a massage therapist class. Here, students learn to master the art of massaging in preparation to get their masseuse license. After walking in, we decided to be their test dummies to prepare for next week’s exam; best decision of the trip. After my facial message I tried to sit up, but fell back down to the table; it was glorious, I was relaxed from that point on.
The dough was finally ready, so we mosied back up to the kitchen to begin cooking. We flattened the dough, spread the sauce, added the toppings, and covered it in cheese all by ourselves, although I did need some help from one of the students in flattening the dough into a semicircular shape. Once cooking was complete, eating began. Next door they had set up what seemed to be a five star restaurant, just for us. Students who were training to get their bartending license served us; they knew their stuff. We had mango juice to drink, it was utterly delicious, best drink I’ve had this trip. We started with a potato salad/tomato concoction that the chef made for us, and then followed with a one-of-a-kind clam chowder; I was almost stuffed before we even got to the pizza! Our main course was our pizza with watermelon for dessert, yes, they eat fruits here as desserts because of their natural sugars. I feel like I should’ve paid a fortune for that meal!
Our afternoon activities included balloon animals and beading. I began with balloon animals where I made a goofy looking Snoopy Dog and a super sweet (pun) lollypop. In beading I made a four-leaf clover key chain thing-a-ma-jig, it’s pretty cool, too. We had extra time, so we decided to head down to the Kuang-Fu singing performances. We walked into the gym in the middle of one of the songs; as soon as we opened the doors, all heads were turned and, as usual, there was a distinct high-pitched scream coming from all of the girls in unison. AS we sat down, no one watched the poor two girls singing, they all looked at ua and giggled. At the end of the show, the boy who won sang a beautiful Whitney Houston style song for us, prompting us to dance for them once again. After we got off stage, the teachers had to drag us away from screaming girls begging for pictures (See: ‘N SYNC Reference Yesterday). To end our school day, we got to ride tiny motorcycles around the parking lot that students had made. They were made during an auto repair class where students learn to get their mechanics license; they were highly entertaining.
Tonight we had our depressing send off dinner. It began with two songs preformed with the use of traditional Chinese instruments; a goofy sounding horn and a guitar-like string. We then went to the front, one by one, and talked about how much we loved Taiwan and how much fun we had had during out stay. During our final performance as a delegation in Taiwan, Mayor Lin (the famous Mayor of Hsinchu) showed up. We each had a short conversation with him, shook hands, received his business card, and took a picture; it was very professional. After, I went to the front to receive a gift from him to the entire delegation, a pennant with coin and stamps; it was pretty cool! We ended the night taking pictures with everyone; it eerily felt similar to the last night of camp, where no one truly wanted to leave.
Our last true delegation day in Taiwan was one to remember, one of the ages.
Song Description: “Turn Back the Clock” – Johnny Hates Jazz
Kuang-Fu High School
The delegation spent Friday at Kuang-Fu high school. It was a busy day for the high school as they were administering many national exams. We ran into some of our friends from Shu Guang Girls' High School from Thursday who had travelled to Kuang-Fu to take a computer exam. Meanwhile students new to the area were at the school taking entrance exams.
Kuang-Fu High School focuses on vocational studies. When your student tells you how tough they had it at times, remind them of their day at Kuang-Fu. We watched a fabulous Hip-Hop performance, exchanged gifts (an incredible ornamental orange), then went to the state-of-the-art air conditioned culinary kitchen for lessons from a 5-star Chef. The Chef had studied in Italy and so we were slated to make Italian cuisine. Unfortunately the dough had not risen and so they decided to take us through the cosmetology school to pass the time. Yes, we "forced" ourselves to lie down and have a mini facial. Moms, your sons now know what they've been missing out on -- you may have to schedule them a full facial when we return!
Back to the kitchen. The Chef showed us an example of the salad he would create for us and then gave us lessons on rolling out our pizza dough. I'll just say I am "the weakest link" and leave it at that. After creating our individual pizzas, we went to the lovely dining room which is set up like a dining room in an international hotel. The wait staff were students who are learning the art of service in a 5-star restaurant. They looked so sophisticated, but they were only 16 years old. All of the girls had their hair pulled into a bun and their uniforms made them look so mature. The principal joined us for lunch wearing his new Plano t-shirt.
We traveled to the library for a session in bead stringing and balloon animals. Either something finally soaked in from last week or the examples were easier, but we all made incredible Snoopy dogs out of balloons. Amanda if very artistic and had created the most amazing face for her dog using a heart shaped balloon and magic marker. Tragically, her balloon popped just as she was finishing. The teacher quickly retied a heart shaped balloon for her and she had to set about creating a second face. Kayla correctly identified one of the bead characters and won it to take home.
I ended up with some of the students souvenirs so we will have to reorganize at DFW. We have had an amazing time, but I think the kiddos are anxious to see their parents and sleep in their own beds!
Kuang-Fu High School focuses on vocational studies. When your student tells you how tough they had it at times, remind them of their day at Kuang-Fu. We watched a fabulous Hip-Hop performance, exchanged gifts (an incredible ornamental orange), then went to the state-of-the-art air conditioned culinary kitchen for lessons from a 5-star Chef. The Chef had studied in Italy and so we were slated to make Italian cuisine. Unfortunately the dough had not risen and so they decided to take us through the cosmetology school to pass the time. Yes, we "forced" ourselves to lie down and have a mini facial. Moms, your sons now know what they've been missing out on -- you may have to schedule them a full facial when we return!
Back to the kitchen. The Chef showed us an example of the salad he would create for us and then gave us lessons on rolling out our pizza dough. I'll just say I am "the weakest link" and leave it at that. After creating our individual pizzas, we went to the lovely dining room which is set up like a dining room in an international hotel. The wait staff were students who are learning the art of service in a 5-star restaurant. They looked so sophisticated, but they were only 16 years old. All of the girls had their hair pulled into a bun and their uniforms made them look so mature. The principal joined us for lunch wearing his new Plano t-shirt.
We traveled to the library for a session in bead stringing and balloon animals. Either something finally soaked in from last week or the examples were easier, but we all made incredible Snoopy dogs out of balloons. Amanda if very artistic and had created the most amazing face for her dog using a heart shaped balloon and magic marker. Tragically, her balloon popped just as she was finishing. The teacher quickly retied a heart shaped balloon for her and she had to set about creating a second face. Kayla correctly identified one of the bead characters and won it to take home.
I ended up with some of the students souvenirs so we will have to reorganize at DFW. We have had an amazing time, but I think the kiddos are anxious to see their parents and sleep in their own beds!
Day 7: Wednesday June 17th
Today was my second time visiting Taipei (Saturday was my first), but it felt like a different city. The first time I went I felt like a Taiwanese student taking a bus to the capital with some friends to hang out. Today I truly felt like a tourist and a foreigner. It was actually some what comforting to go sight seeing because there were many people like us who were not Taiwanese. It might have been a different type of experience today, but it was still an amazing day!
The first stop on our tour was the National Palace Museum. It is one of the biggest museums in the world. We were all handed headsets so we could hear our tour guide as she explained each of the artifacts in the museum. I learned a lot about Taiwanese history and also saw a large amount of interesting and unique items. It was a nice look at Taiwanese culture and it was a good way to start our day. My favorite part of the day was visiting Taipei 101: the world's tallest building. From a distance it does not look so tall, but standing next to it it seems to go on for miles. I was expecting it to take a while to get to the 88th floor, but when we got on the elevator I realized we were going extremely quickly. That is when I saw the sign that said: the world's fastest elevator. That would explain the pain in my ears as we shot up into the air. After one too many pictures from the top floor I went down to the 87th floor to visit some of the shops. I had lost everyone in the delegation, but I soon found Malcolm. We then ran into Ms. Ross who walked around with us. As we were trying to find an exit, Ms. Ross spotted a jade necklace that she wanted to buy. I looked around and found a piece of jewelry that I liked too. They were both reasonably priced, but we couldn't decide if we should buy it there or wait for the night market later that evening. We both decided to go ahead and buy them, and at the end of the day we were glad we did.
The day ended with the notorious Taipei night market. I was dissappointed to hear that we would have only an hour to look around. Eleanor found a stray puppy suffering on the floor at the market. We found him some food and water and then Yu-Ting's family agreed to take him home for the night and take him to the shelter. The rest of the time we looked around. A bunch of us girls were looking for some good purses to take back home. The ones that were out were not good quality, so we asked where we could find the nicer ones. Before I knew it we were in a closet where all the nice purses were hidden. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before any of us could buy a purse. Although I did not get the purse I was looking for, it was still a fun experience to be at the night market.
Favorite food/drink of the day: fried rice
New thing learned about Taiwan: I found a 6 story Starbucks!
The first stop on our tour was the National Palace Museum. It is one of the biggest museums in the world. We were all handed headsets so we could hear our tour guide as she explained each of the artifacts in the museum. I learned a lot about Taiwanese history and also saw a large amount of interesting and unique items. It was a nice look at Taiwanese culture and it was a good way to start our day. My favorite part of the day was visiting Taipei 101: the world's tallest building. From a distance it does not look so tall, but standing next to it it seems to go on for miles. I was expecting it to take a while to get to the 88th floor, but when we got on the elevator I realized we were going extremely quickly. That is when I saw the sign that said: the world's fastest elevator. That would explain the pain in my ears as we shot up into the air. After one too many pictures from the top floor I went down to the 87th floor to visit some of the shops. I had lost everyone in the delegation, but I soon found Malcolm. We then ran into Ms. Ross who walked around with us. As we were trying to find an exit, Ms. Ross spotted a jade necklace that she wanted to buy. I looked around and found a piece of jewelry that I liked too. They were both reasonably priced, but we couldn't decide if we should buy it there or wait for the night market later that evening. We both decided to go ahead and buy them, and at the end of the day we were glad we did.
The day ended with the notorious Taipei night market. I was dissappointed to hear that we would have only an hour to look around. Eleanor found a stray puppy suffering on the floor at the market. We found him some food and water and then Yu-Ting's family agreed to take him home for the night and take him to the shelter. The rest of the time we looked around. A bunch of us girls were looking for some good purses to take back home. The ones that were out were not good quality, so we asked where we could find the nicer ones. Before I knew it we were in a closet where all the nice purses were hidden. Unfortunately, we ran out of time before any of us could buy a purse. Although I did not get the purse I was looking for, it was still a fun experience to be at the night market.
Favorite food/drink of the day: fried rice
New thing learned about Taiwan: I found a 6 story Starbucks!
Day 9: Friday June 19th
Our last high school visit! I am definitely going to miss the cheering and screaming every time I walk by a group of people. The day started off with a quick meeting with the principal of the school who provided us with beautiful gifts to take back home. I am starting to see why everyone told us before we left to leave a good chunk of room on a suitcase for items to bring home. After a dance off and Hoedown Throwdown, it was on to the next activity. I was extremely excited to hear we would be making pizza. Don't get me wrong, I enoyed making the meatballs and dumplings, but it was nice to make something familiar. We also made a quick stop to the cosmotology class room where some members of the delegation participated in some relaxing activities.
Once our pizzas were ready, we sat down for a large lunch. Half way through lunch I was told that the waiters and waitresses serving us were students studying Tourism. I couldn't believe that they were all our age! As soon as we all were finished with lunch we continued on with our schedule. To my luck, we would be beading and making balloon animals again. It's not that I didn't enjoy these activities the first time around; I just was not very successful at either of them. Surprisingly my beading came out beautifully, and I didn't have to start over once! The balloon animals was also not as hard this time around, but that is probably because I had such good helpers. The day ended with a singing competition and one last performance done by the delegation. Some timein the midst of our day we also went to visit the auto class where we tested out some mini motorcycles and an electric scooter.
The farewell dinner was the beginning of my realization of how soon this trip is ending. I can not believe that I only have one day left to spend with Yu-Ting and to see Taiwan. It was fun to talk about the memories of this trip and to watch some final performances. I also enjoyed eating dinner with my host family and all of the other families. It was a nice way to end the day.
On the way home from dinner my host family asked me if there was anything specific I wanted to take back home from Taiwan. I couldn't think of anything, but then I remembered that I wanted to buy a bag of Hi-Chew (a popular candy here). I mentioned it to them, and before I could even finish my sentence we were in front of a grocery store. I tried to explain to them that it wasn't important and I could get it if I saw some at a store tomorrow, but they wouldn't take no for an answer. As we were checking out I watched my Mrs. Hou sign the receipt. It looked like she was drawing a picture where she was supposed to sign. I soon realized that she was just signing her signature.... in Taiwanese characters.
Favorite food/drink of the day: peach juice
New thing learned about Taiwan: some students are tested on giving facials
Thursday, June 18, 2009
disclaimer
Ok, remember we are running on only a few hours of sleep. I just reread my blogs -- I promise I know how to spell cheek. What can I say, I'm not even going back to reread my other blogs because I wrote them in the middle of the night.
Shu Guang Senior High School
My only regret on this trip is that the parents are not here to see their children experience this incredible journey. Shu Guang is a Catholic girls school and we received the royal treatment here (as we do everywhere we go). I will post the pictures of our audience as soon as I can.
As I'm sure you are reading Ben's log I won't repeat our activities, but I will tell you some of the glimpses I had. When we had finished t-shirt making and were ready to go down to the courtyard to perform, Ben needed to change his shirt. Due to the intense heat and humidity the boys are literally going through at least two shirts a day so they have started wearing their own clothing in the a.m. and changing into their group shirts in the afternoon or whenever we are performing as a group. Since we were in the conference room, I told him just to wait until everyone left and to step over to the corner out of sight to change his shirt. Yesterday, we were at a coed school and the rugby boys simply stripped right out of their shirts. However, after being at the Catholic girls school for an hour, Ben and I knew that would not be appropriate here. As we were leaving the room, one of the teachers asked me if Ben was coming and I told her yes but I thought he should wait until the young female Taiwanese students left the room before taking off shirt. She jokingly replied, "Oh thank goodness yes, they might never have recovered." Truly, our kids were rock stars at this school and I would not have been shocked had some of the young ladies actually swooned. That is the type of reaction we are getting.
Chinese students take a short rest after lunch each day and we usually have activities with the staff during this time. Yesterday, we were taken back to the conference room, the blinds were shut, the lights were turned off, the air conditioning was turned on and our students were asked to take a 40 minute rest. It was a welcome respite for students and chaperones alike!
We enjoyed trying Tai Chi and cooking with the students in the afternoon. We were then taken back to the conference room around 3:50 to wait for the next break for students. The delegation was exhausted from the heat, humidity, activities, and just being "on" all the time, but when they found out that there were Taiwanese students standing out in the sun hoping to catch a glimpse of them, they put on their "game faces" and greeted them with enthusiasm. Ryan Dillon who was a delegate last year told the students that their cheeck muscles would be tired from smiling. They did not realize he was speaking literally; they really do have sore muscles in their face.
It is time to get ready to go to Kuang-Fu Senior High School which is Wil's host student's school. Another little side note -- it is fun to see the different variations the school's believe the nickname "Wil" must stand for. I told him I was going to start calling him William Wilson Wilton Wilbur Callison.
As I'm sure you are reading Ben's log I won't repeat our activities, but I will tell you some of the glimpses I had. When we had finished t-shirt making and were ready to go down to the courtyard to perform, Ben needed to change his shirt. Due to the intense heat and humidity the boys are literally going through at least two shirts a day so they have started wearing their own clothing in the a.m. and changing into their group shirts in the afternoon or whenever we are performing as a group. Since we were in the conference room, I told him just to wait until everyone left and to step over to the corner out of sight to change his shirt. Yesterday, we were at a coed school and the rugby boys simply stripped right out of their shirts. However, after being at the Catholic girls school for an hour, Ben and I knew that would not be appropriate here. As we were leaving the room, one of the teachers asked me if Ben was coming and I told her yes but I thought he should wait until the young female Taiwanese students left the room before taking off shirt. She jokingly replied, "Oh thank goodness yes, they might never have recovered." Truly, our kids were rock stars at this school and I would not have been shocked had some of the young ladies actually swooned. That is the type of reaction we are getting.
Chinese students take a short rest after lunch each day and we usually have activities with the staff during this time. Yesterday, we were taken back to the conference room, the blinds were shut, the lights were turned off, the air conditioning was turned on and our students were asked to take a 40 minute rest. It was a welcome respite for students and chaperones alike!
We enjoyed trying Tai Chi and cooking with the students in the afternoon. We were then taken back to the conference room around 3:50 to wait for the next break for students. The delegation was exhausted from the heat, humidity, activities, and just being "on" all the time, but when they found out that there were Taiwanese students standing out in the sun hoping to catch a glimpse of them, they put on their "game faces" and greeted them with enthusiasm. Ryan Dillon who was a delegate last year told the students that their cheeck muscles would be tired from smiling. They did not realize he was speaking literally; they really do have sore muscles in their face.
It is time to get ready to go to Kuang-Fu Senior High School which is Wil's host student's school. Another little side note -- it is fun to see the different variations the school's believe the nickname "Wil" must stand for. I told him I was going to start calling him William Wilson Wilton Wilbur Callison.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Bird Fish!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
As Wil and I walked up the stairs to the meeting room at Shu Guang High School to meet the other Plano Youth Ambassadors, we saw a puzzling sight. We were convinced we had seen two boys headed in the opposite direction. Boys? What are they doing at Shu Guang High School, an all girls' school. Were we in the wrong place? The mystery was solved during the school information session when we discovered that while the senior high grades were strictly girls, the junior high grades permitted boys. With that conundrum behind me, I could now focus on the formidable task of hand-painting a t-shirt to wear to tai chi class.
While working on my shirt, conversation led to learning some of the creative and unusual English nicknames that my new friends at Shu Guang went by. The girl I spent the most time with asked me to call her Bird Fish. Later, I met Bird Fish's friends: Goldfish, Taco, Slowly and Candy. I am not making this up nor was anything being lost in translation! If a student here does not establish their own English name, they often go by a random nickname that their friends call them. Just don't ask the student the reason for their offbeat name; they never seem to know. In addition to the people I met today, over the past week I have also met Fly, Mr. Magic and Kiwi, just to mention a few.
The students here were very friendly, but rather confused by my nationality. I often received puzzled looks followed by statements such as: "Where are you from?" or "You don't look American," or the hesitant, "Are you Asian?" My favorite affirmation came from a girl named Debbie who ran up to me exclaiming, "You look like us! Maybe we're twins!" After this discovery, I just had to get a picture with my long lost twin. Blending in here has been a somewhat pleasant change for me since I am used to being one of a handful of Asians at my predominantly Caucasian school.
Having attended Prestonwood Christian Academy from Kindergarden to the present, I hardly ever notice the fact that I am a different. The student body doesn't treat me as an anomaly; but, I do realize I "stick" out in the sea of blond heads. It has been a different experience here in Taiwan blending in with the crowd. The attention my fellow Plano Youth Ambassadors receive makes me feel blessed to live in a place where I can be different yet not feel out of place or receive inquisitive stares from passersby.
As Wil and I walked up the stairs to the meeting room at Shu Guang High School to meet the other Plano Youth Ambassadors, we saw a puzzling sight. We were convinced we had seen two boys headed in the opposite direction. Boys? What are they doing at Shu Guang High School, an all girls' school. Were we in the wrong place? The mystery was solved during the school information session when we discovered that while the senior high grades were strictly girls, the junior high grades permitted boys. With that conundrum behind me, I could now focus on the formidable task of hand-painting a t-shirt to wear to tai chi class.
While working on my shirt, conversation led to learning some of the creative and unusual English nicknames that my new friends at Shu Guang went by. The girl I spent the most time with asked me to call her Bird Fish. Later, I met Bird Fish's friends: Goldfish, Taco, Slowly and Candy. I am not making this up nor was anything being lost in translation! If a student here does not establish their own English name, they often go by a random nickname that their friends call them. Just don't ask the student the reason for their offbeat name; they never seem to know. In addition to the people I met today, over the past week I have also met Fly, Mr. Magic and Kiwi, just to mention a few.
The students here were very friendly, but rather confused by my nationality. I often received puzzled looks followed by statements such as: "Where are you from?" or "You don't look American," or the hesitant, "Are you Asian?" My favorite affirmation came from a girl named Debbie who ran up to me exclaiming, "You look like us! Maybe we're twins!" After this discovery, I just had to get a picture with my long lost twin. Blending in here has been a somewhat pleasant change for me since I am used to being one of a handful of Asians at my predominantly Caucasian school.
Having attended Prestonwood Christian Academy from Kindergarden to the present, I hardly ever notice the fact that I am a different. The student body doesn't treat me as an anomaly; but, I do realize I "stick" out in the sea of blond heads. It has been a different experience here in Taiwan blending in with the crowd. The attention my fellow Plano Youth Ambassadors receive makes me feel blessed to live in a place where I can be different yet not feel out of place or receive inquisitive stares from passersby.
That night, I had dinner with Vicky's family. Her mom had prepared more kinds of tofu than I ever imagined possible. Tofu is a staple in their diet and she wanted me to try all the variations of the native dish. I felt like a judge for an Iron Chef competition with tofu as the secret ingredient. My favorite was of the cold variety and had some sort of special egg on top. It looked gross and moldy since the egg was green but it actually didn't taste bad, kind of like a hard boiled egg. There was so much food, I felt bad for hardly making a dent in the bountiful cornucopia of food. It was definitely tofu mania and I truly appreciated Vicky's mother's hospitality. I learned there must be 101 different varieties of tofu. Vicky's mom proved that.
All Girls High School – Shu Guang
Thursday, June 17, 2009
I never truly knew how N’SYNC truly felt while going on tour until today. Walking into the high school was one of a kind; there was a tunnel of at least thirty high school girls screaming and giggling through their broken English to welcome us into their school. I was led up a flight of stairs (through more giggling, staring girls) to a conference room where I met up with the rest of my conglomerate, my delegation. After about five minutes of chitchat, a line of girls flowed into the room to assist us with the morning’s activities. We watched a truly thrilling introduction of the school, informing us of the classes, awards, clubs, etc. before we began. Our morning activity was to design our own t-shirt. When the instructor informed the girls (in Chinese) to come pick one of us to help, a young girl named Bonnie rushed up to me. She is in 10th grade at their high school and speaks fairly good English. Being the amazing artist I am…ha, I had no clue what to draw on my shirt, so she told me to write my Chinese name, which was given to me Tuesday at Hsiang Shan High School, it was built around my full name, Ben O’Neill. On the back I attempted to draw a “taiji”, commonly known as a Yin-Yang. To top the shirt off, she wrote her Chinese name, in calligraphy, opposite mine, it made mine look fairly depressing, but it was legit none-the-less. During our creation, we had a nice conversation about many things in both Taiwan and America. One of the highlights, or lowlights, of our conversation was her opinion of America. The first thing she asked was “Do American people eat McDonald’s everyday?” she was dead serious, she was raised to believe America was a fat nation, one thriving off fast-food (an ideal Malcolm held up easily during dinner).
This leads me to a short monologue, so please bear with me. One of the main reasons this delegation was created was to disprove what Mrs. William’s calls the “Brittany Spears” world view on American teenagers, but it also sets out to disprove many more stereotypes, like that of the fat, lazy American that Bonnie ha believed was pervasive in our country. Although we may not be as small as other citizens of the world (The people here are sticks, literally. I tried on a XXL pair of jeans today that were far too small. The girls were shorts so short most Americans would look goofy in while they are still too big! It’s insanity.), but we are not all as large as the world sees us to be. Even though we love our fast food, we need to begin to think about both the world’s perception of Americans and how we act abroad; this is the true meaning of this voyage, to open our eyes to see what other people see us as. We may see ourselves as the sophistication of world ideas, but no one else does, and if we indeed are what we say, we must then prove it.
Alrighty, back to my day, after designing my beautiful t-shirt, we walked to the courtyard to give the school our performance. We get down there to an empty school, relaxing in the scorching summer sun when we hear the bell ring for class to be over. Within a minute then entire courtyard along with every surrounding balcony for 4 floors was filled with girls, jammed in like sardines. We introduced ourselves to N’SYNC-esque, screams, but it’s when the music came on that it got crazy. The minute it began to play all 1,800 girls and maybe a few teachers erupted into high-pitched screams. During the dance, one of the teachers even came out with us and began dancing; it was hilarious! At the end of our performance, we were introduced to an English teacher from Houston, Texas, what a small world! He was pretty cool and we talked to him for a bit later on in the day.
After our performance, we went to the other half of the school to learn Chinese Kung-Fu. We learned that there are three types, slow, fast, and sport; today we learned a little bit of Slow Kung-Fu. It was a very relaxing art form that can also be used as self-defense, pretty nifty. At the end of our lesson we got to play with the freaking sweet ninja-sword, definitely reminded me of Andrew buying the batman switchblade at Willow Bend.
In the afternoon, we joined a girl’s cooking class to cook traditional Hakka (Taiwanese) food, I was stuffed and ate very litte, but the girls were very nice and exceptionally talkative. They even laughed at my pure failure at cooking; it was a grand ole time!
Once school let out, Malcolm, John, and I went back to John’s house while we waited for Vanessa to get out of school. He has a freaking sweet place. He lives in a high-rise apartment complex in Hsinchu that has pool tables, ping-pong tables, a pool, a courtyard, and workout facilities; it’s amazing! During our hour there I whipped both of them in ping-pong, even beating Malcolm one round 21-6, hoorah! We picked Vanessa up and went downtown for the evening. Right after we got out of the car, Malcolm saw what he was craving, McDonald’s. He convinced the group to go in and have dinner, our first American meal since leaving LAX; it was beautiful. I even made some new friends with two girls that were staring at us as if we just landed off of Mars. Our main goal downtown was to pickup the shirts that John and Vanessa had made for Malcolm and I; having Chinese writing on one side and our face on the other, they were legit!
Once this was completed, we walked around for a bit before heading home; it was a successful day.
Song Description (I hope you guessed it…): “Pop” – N’SYNC
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
True Life: I'm a Taiwanese Student
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The itinerary for our day at Hsiang Shan High School, where Nancy (Megan's host student) attends, began with a gift exchange with the school's principal. She visited Plano before as a delegate sponsor and absolutely loved her experience and still sported her Shepton lanyard. After the formalities, we toured the school and immediately questioned how the students kept from daydreaming when they had such amazing scenery outside every classroom window, more beautiful than any Plano campus. Also notable were several students mopping the floors in the hallways because the responsibility of keeping the school clean lies in the hands of the students, not janitors. The discipline and uncomplaining nature of the students amazed me since such a system could never work in America--kids would be screaming abuse and claiming violations of child labor laws! Teachers at my school have a hard enough time getting students to pick up their own trash after lunch. While we often get carried away in self-interest and pride, the Taiwanese students seem have a better grasp of the concept of humbling oneself, acknowledging that no task is beneath them, and looking out for the interests of others first.
The itinerary for our day at Hsiang Shan High School, where Nancy (Megan's host student) attends, began with a gift exchange with the school's principal. She visited Plano before as a delegate sponsor and absolutely loved her experience and still sported her Shepton lanyard. After the formalities, we toured the school and immediately questioned how the students kept from daydreaming when they had such amazing scenery outside every classroom window, more beautiful than any Plano campus. Also notable were several students mopping the floors in the hallways because the responsibility of keeping the school clean lies in the hands of the students, not janitors. The discipline and uncomplaining nature of the students amazed me since such a system could never work in America--kids would be screaming abuse and claiming violations of child labor laws! Teachers at my school have a hard enough time getting students to pick up their own trash after lunch. While we often get carried away in self-interest and pride, the Taiwanese students seem have a better grasp of the concept of humbling oneself, acknowledging that no task is beneath them, and looking out for the interests of others first.
After the tour, students from an English class came to interview us and asked what we liked about Taiwan and about American lifestyle. We broke the ice by first discussing and eating the homemade snacks they brought. My group presented me with dried codfish strips, a green tea yogurt drink (my favorite) and some sort of cookie/chip thing. While the language barrier still presented a problem at times, I learned to compensate by reading body language and communicating through roundabout descriptions to get messages across. Though the exercise was specifically designed for them to get to get acquainted with us and practice their English, I used the opportunity to learn more about Taiwanese school life. One commonality, at least for me since I attend a private school, was the fact all students wore uniforms. Typically two types of uniforms are used: one for PE day and one for regular days and consists of an oxford or polo shirt and solid colored pants, though some schools have skirts that the girls wear.
In huge contrast to Plano schools, students here are given more responsibility and are seemingly trusted more. As mentioned above, students are in charge of cleaning their classrooms, not as a form of punishment or torture as we would consider it in Texas, but more as a practice of respect for their surroundings and others. From a trust standpoint, the students are going through what I call "death week" before finals hit, but teachers regularly leave the students alone in the room while they take their tests. Because of the cultural emphasis on honor, this system surprisingly works well. As we passed classrooms devoid of teachers, we never once saw a student with wandering eyes; they all remained focused on the work in front of them.School is taken very seriously as exemplified by the long school day, from 7:30 AM to 5 PM at most public schools. This doesn't even include "cram school" that many students have after school if they need help in a particular subject. Private schools up the ante even more by extending the day to 8 or 8:30 at night. Eleanor's host, Jaydee, even has regular classes on Saturday because she goes to a private school! Keep in mind also that students stay in the same class while teachers move around. They try to offset the long school day by having a nap period, but can you imagine a 9.5 - 13 hour school day, five to six days a week! In addition, their school year doesn't end until the beginning of July, but starts up again in September. I know that our host students really sacrifice by spending so much time with us and still keep up with their school work. I've grown to respect their diligence and work ethic; they truly demonstrate grace under fire because they are generally upbeat and energetic!
Pictures
It looks like my first group of pictures did not post. I will resend and hope you don't get duplicates!
Some pictures
I'm having trouble getting the photos to upload in a timely manner so will just keep adding photos whenever I have a free minute.
From the Top of the Man Made World to the Bottom of it – Taipei
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wow, I could get used to this. The delegation, along with each student’s respective host, met at a local high school at 8:00 to begin our journey, and a journey it was. A tour bus picked us up from the high school along with a tour guide to lead us around Taipei. On the hour drive to the city, she outlined our schedule and a brief history of the beautiful country. Once we met the city limits, the entire bus was transfixed by not only the “world’s tallest building”, Taipei 101 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taipei_101) But also many other phenomenal structures. I would also like to take this time to point out one thing I love about Taiwan, their architecture. Everything is built amazingly; the department stores here could be a centerpiece of many American cities. The local department store in Hsinchu is Sogo. It is a enormous white and red building in the middle of downtown, American department stores are rarely, if ever, two stories tall, but this one is 13, yes 13 stories filled with nicks and knacks, every floor having it’s specialty from food to clothing, it’s amazing (not to mention that on the bottom floor they have a queue line for the elevators with lovely greeters, ASTOUNDING). But this is just the suburb department stores, and before I get into too much detail, I say just one thing, one of the major Taipei department stores has a full functioning Ferris wheel going inside and out of the top of it, it legitimately took my breathe away.
Anyways, our first stop was to the National Palace Museum, one of the top 10 ranked museums in the world. After the Japanese invaded China in the late nineteenth century, the reigning ruler moved all of the precious artifacts (numbering over 600,000 in total) to Taipei to be safe. Soon after the communist regime took over the mainland, the president of Taiwan created this museum to show the ancient artifacts to the public, jewels once only seen by the royalty now belonged to all classes of Asian and human life. We flew through the museum containing artifacts from the last 8,000 years in less than an hour, which was a good thing because my feet, along with my attention span, was beginning to wane. By far the coolest thing in the museum was a piece of jade sculpted into a vegetable with a spider and a grasshopper on it. It was breathtakingly beautiful.
Following the museum we went to lunch, just another phenomenal and overfilling Asian cuisine to add to my list. What made this one different is during my stay here, it is definitely the first time I’ve had any sort of thing that tastes like orange chicken, it was delicious!
But the true highlight of my day was Taipei 101. Walking up to this monster was intimidating, but I couldn’t help but think the same thought over and over. The building (at least the middle part) looks like a tower of empty Chinese food cartons stacked on top of each other, genius, right?! But no, it was actually based on the shape of bamboo, but too me, it will always be full of empty fried rice cartons! We paid NT400 to go to the observation deck, and it was worth that, and more. To get there we rode the world’s fastest elevators; 84 stories in 37 seconds, you do the math; it was insanity! Getting to the top, I could barely breath…I could see miles! I was so high up that I could almost see over the mountains surrounding the capital. It took my breath away; I was in awe. You could see the core of the city surrounding the building and then how it gently scurried into the hills; by far one of the coolest things my eyes have ever seen. After our decent at over 600 m/s we stopped by the Haagen-Dazs and got some good American ice cream, the first American food I’d had since leaving LAX a week before, it was the best ice cream I’ve ever had.
After Taipei 101 we drove over to Dan-Shuei Fish Warf right alongside the harbor. It was a pretty chill hour, except for the fact that Malcom, John, Vanessa and I each at a 50cm ice cream cone (Normal cone, and the rest ice cream), it was crazy delicious!
To end our day we went to the notorious Night Market in Taipei, a must for any tourist. Looking for cheap goods, we ransacked the shops for bargains. After buying what I needed for my mother (a duty for any teenage boy overseas) I went exploring. Some of my compadres and I went to a photo booth and took some goofy pictures, after which the girls dolled up and now look fairly unrespectable. Then I met up with the majority of the girls in the delegation, all of whom where looking for the really good (almost illegal) fake purses. They got what they wished for in the dark alleyways of inner city Taipei, they instantly regretted their decision, and if you would like to know more, ask one of them, but it was an interesting experience none-the-less.
All is well on the streets of Taipei and it is way past my bedtime, goodnight.
Song Description (take a guess…): “Take My Breath Away” - Berlin
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Later in the wee hours of Wed. morning
I forgot I wanted to mention a couple of other things -- when the kids say every minute is filled with an adventure, they truly mean every single minute.
This was the first school where the students wanted to speak specifically with Tiffany about her background. At our question and answer session they asked Tiffany if she was Asian. It was difficult for them to get their mind wrapped around the idea that she was Asian, but she was American. Even one of the administrators told me that when she arrived his first thought was "where is her uniform." Then, he realized she must be part of our delegation. They were fascinated by her and she answered questions beautifully.
Speaking of uniforms. The host school provided each of the children with a uniform top and school bag from the school. The girls especially talked about the looks they planned to "rock" and "own" in their shirts when they get back to Plano. I'm not sure what the difference between rocking a look and owning a look is, but they both were obviously good.
This was the first school where the students wanted to speak specifically with Tiffany about her background. At our question and answer session they asked Tiffany if she was Asian. It was difficult for them to get their mind wrapped around the idea that she was Asian, but she was American. Even one of the administrators told me that when she arrived his first thought was "where is her uniform." Then, he realized she must be part of our delegation. They were fascinated by her and she answered questions beautifully.
Speaking of uniforms. The host school provided each of the children with a uniform top and school bag from the school. The girls especially talked about the looks they planned to "rock" and "own" in their shirts when they get back to Plano. I'm not sure what the difference between rocking a look and owning a look is, but they both were obviously good.
Wee hours of Wednesday Morning
We have visited two beautiful schools in the past two days. On both days the students began with a couple of sessions of English class. All four teachers devised some sort of game to help the students feel more comfortable speaking English in front of their American friends. Some of the highlights of these classes are always the other children at the school crowding around the windows and doors to see our students. One teacher told them they now know what the animals in the zoo feel like. My favorite part of the speaking activity has been when all the children started asking questions and the questions were Do you have a brother? What is your favorite color? Do you play a sport? and then one girl looked straight at Maya and wiggled her eyebrows and asked "Have you kissed a boy?" Maya sidestepped that question like a pro. However, now the girl says "Maya has a secret" and then makes kissing noises. Today the students played a version of Simon Says and the prize was Malcolm. Whatever group won, they got to have Malcolm in their group. At both schools, the 10 a.m. class prepared snacks for our students.
The students are expert dumpling makers. They became very creative trying to make their dumplings look beautiful. I was just lucky to get mine sealed. Every now and then I would hear a deep bong ring out which unfortunately meant that Wil or Malcolm had banged his head on the overhead vents. Being more than six feet tall poses some special concerns here. After dumplings, the students ate lunch and then were invited to play some basketball. You know how it is when students get together -- there is no such thing as a nice, little, slow easy game of bball. Everyone seems to think he is Dirk, Kobe, and Tony Parker rolled into one. I will say when I played with them no one attempted to take the ball away from me (which any one of them easily could have) and no one blocked my shots (which any one of them easily could have). Maybe that was because they were not worried about my shots going anywhere near the hoop. I do remember during a rebound all of a sudden being eye level with a bunch of knees -- these young men can jump!
Today's physical activity was rugby. I loved the warrior dance the two teams did before the game. We ran drills with them and then the students played a game. I don't know if seeing Malcom and Wil in the middle of a scrum was the best or seeing the students lifted into the air to try to get the ball was best. No, no, no. The absolute best was that in the "heat of the moment" one of the Taiwanese boys saw Amanda running with the ball. Evidently instinct kicked in because he "wrapped her up" (to use an American football term) and threw her to the ground. I do mean threw her as he went down with her. Amanda laughed and laughed and the face of this young man when he realized what he had done would have been the picture of the trip. After that, I think they realized that our girls were willing to play to the best of their ability -- no holds barred. Megan, Amanda, and Eleanor came off of the field drenched in sweat. Wil's hair was completely wet and even Malcolm had wilted. On to table tennis. Tiffany and Kayla put in an hour of heavy duty table tennis with some very good instruction. Robert held his own, for sure. Malcolm plays at 110% but then he was playing one of the national champions. Megan laughed a lot but was able to return some balls. The young lady I played with never stopped smiling. They have so much patience! Meanwhile, poor Ben had to sit on the sidelines, and Ben is definately not a sideline type of kid. Maya was feeling poorly so she rested or as I'm learning to say "took a rest" in the nurse's office.
During the morning at HsiangShan Senior High, the students had learned glass blowing/working. They have already blogged about it. It was an incredible experience.
In the afternoon we watched some performances in the open courtyard. Then we performed. Afterwards, the students answered questions and took pictures. At the end, the handler and assitant principal were trying to move us to the conference room and the girls wanted just one more picture. I let 3 "one more pictures" go by and then stepped next to Robert so he could actually turn and walk away and not look rude but instead just be complying with what "the mean teacher Pam" said. At first I referred to the boys as the Jonas Brothers, but since there are 4 boys with us I now calll them NSYNC. Our young men (and ladies for that matter) have done a beautiful job of standing for hundred of pictures every day. The students at the school are so excited that some times they ask for pictures when our students should really be paying attention to the speaker. Our kids have become adept at finding that 2 second pause in a speaker's presentation to turn and take a quick picture with students.
Your students are fabulous. Some only have limited access to their host family's computer so they are journaling in their notebook. I know you are anxious to hear from them. They are doing the best they can to get to a computer. Also, their screens pop up on Chinese so they have to work around that.
Pam
The students are expert dumpling makers. They became very creative trying to make their dumplings look beautiful. I was just lucky to get mine sealed. Every now and then I would hear a deep bong ring out which unfortunately meant that Wil or Malcolm had banged his head on the overhead vents. Being more than six feet tall poses some special concerns here. After dumplings, the students ate lunch and then were invited to play some basketball. You know how it is when students get together -- there is no such thing as a nice, little, slow easy game of bball. Everyone seems to think he is Dirk, Kobe, and Tony Parker rolled into one. I will say when I played with them no one attempted to take the ball away from me (which any one of them easily could have) and no one blocked my shots (which any one of them easily could have). Maybe that was because they were not worried about my shots going anywhere near the hoop. I do remember during a rebound all of a sudden being eye level with a bunch of knees -- these young men can jump!
Today's physical activity was rugby. I loved the warrior dance the two teams did before the game. We ran drills with them and then the students played a game. I don't know if seeing Malcom and Wil in the middle of a scrum was the best or seeing the students lifted into the air to try to get the ball was best. No, no, no. The absolute best was that in the "heat of the moment" one of the Taiwanese boys saw Amanda running with the ball. Evidently instinct kicked in because he "wrapped her up" (to use an American football term) and threw her to the ground. I do mean threw her as he went down with her. Amanda laughed and laughed and the face of this young man when he realized what he had done would have been the picture of the trip. After that, I think they realized that our girls were willing to play to the best of their ability -- no holds barred. Megan, Amanda, and Eleanor came off of the field drenched in sweat. Wil's hair was completely wet and even Malcolm had wilted. On to table tennis. Tiffany and Kayla put in an hour of heavy duty table tennis with some very good instruction. Robert held his own, for sure. Malcolm plays at 110% but then he was playing one of the national champions. Megan laughed a lot but was able to return some balls. The young lady I played with never stopped smiling. They have so much patience! Meanwhile, poor Ben had to sit on the sidelines, and Ben is definately not a sideline type of kid. Maya was feeling poorly so she rested or as I'm learning to say "took a rest" in the nurse's office.
During the morning at HsiangShan Senior High, the students had learned glass blowing/working. They have already blogged about it. It was an incredible experience.
In the afternoon we watched some performances in the open courtyard. Then we performed. Afterwards, the students answered questions and took pictures. At the end, the handler and assitant principal were trying to move us to the conference room and the girls wanted just one more picture. I let 3 "one more pictures" go by and then stepped next to Robert so he could actually turn and walk away and not look rude but instead just be complying with what "the mean teacher Pam" said. At first I referred to the boys as the Jonas Brothers, but since there are 4 boys with us I now calll them NSYNC. Our young men (and ladies for that matter) have done a beautiful job of standing for hundred of pictures every day. The students at the school are so excited that some times they ask for pictures when our students should really be paying attention to the speaker. Our kids have become adept at finding that 2 second pause in a speaker's presentation to turn and take a quick picture with students.
Your students are fabulous. Some only have limited access to their host family's computer so they are journaling in their notebook. I know you are anxious to hear from them. They are doing the best they can to get to a computer. Also, their screens pop up on Chinese so they have to work around that.
Pam
Day 6: Tuesday June 16th
Another exciting day at another beautiful school! From making glass animals to playing rugby, we did it all. I made some more new friends and created more memories. We have been here for about six days but every little thing we do still surprises me. They really have been planning this trip thoroughly for each of us to make sure that we have the best possible time. Before we came, I had no idea that we would be doing so many unique things each day!
We had another English class today where we got to know a few of the students and help them sharpen up their English speaking skills. It was fun to meet them all and to try the traditional Taiwanese snacks they brought in for us. We were then informed that Hsian Shan High School was one of the only schools in Taiwan to offer a class in glass blowing. They were very proud to have a famous glass artist as the teacher. On our way to the glass factory we walked by a few finished works. That is when we were told that it takes at least two years to learn how to make these animals and other objects. Then we walked into the factory and I witnessed one of the coolest and most interesting things I have ever seen. Words can not do what we all saw justice. The teacher was able to make a glass bird, which takes about ten years to learn how to make, in just fifteen minutees. The way he moved his hands and turned to glass sticks into a beautiful bird and then grasshopper amazed me. When it was our turn I was happy to see that he would be guiding us (more like doing it for us, but nobody needs to know that).
The schedule for the day said that after glass blowing we would be playing football. We couldn't figure out if it would be soccer or American football, but when the coach came in we found out that neither of those were part of the plan. When the word "rugby" came out of his mouth, all of the eyes in the room widened and every jaw dropped. I had never played rugby before, but i knew it involved a lot of physical contact and a lot of pain. Luckily we were involved in only a few drills and a lighter version of the real game. It was definitely fun to play, and my favorite part was when they lifted me in the air so I could catch the ball. We headed inside afterwards to play table tennis, or ping pong against some of the best high school players in Taiwan. I never knew that there was a correct and incorrect form when holding the paddle or hitting the ball. Hopefully I will actually be able to win some games after playing with "the pros" today. After a beautifully done performance by the orchestra and a quick version of our show we were off.
The night ended with karaoke and a buffet. I was expecting karaoke to be done at a restaurant that has an old-school karaoke machine with a small screen and one microphone, but my expectations weren't even close. Instead we had our own private room with marble tables, black leather couches, three microphones, and a giant movie size screen at the front of the room. It was a night to remember.
Favorite food/drink of the day: bamboo chips
New thing learned about Taiwan: there is nap time at school
We had another English class today where we got to know a few of the students and help them sharpen up their English speaking skills. It was fun to meet them all and to try the traditional Taiwanese snacks they brought in for us. We were then informed that Hsian Shan High School was one of the only schools in Taiwan to offer a class in glass blowing. They were very proud to have a famous glass artist as the teacher. On our way to the glass factory we walked by a few finished works. That is when we were told that it takes at least two years to learn how to make these animals and other objects. Then we walked into the factory and I witnessed one of the coolest and most interesting things I have ever seen. Words can not do what we all saw justice. The teacher was able to make a glass bird, which takes about ten years to learn how to make, in just fifteen minutees. The way he moved his hands and turned to glass sticks into a beautiful bird and then grasshopper amazed me. When it was our turn I was happy to see that he would be guiding us (more like doing it for us, but nobody needs to know that).
The schedule for the day said that after glass blowing we would be playing football. We couldn't figure out if it would be soccer or American football, but when the coach came in we found out that neither of those were part of the plan. When the word "rugby" came out of his mouth, all of the eyes in the room widened and every jaw dropped. I had never played rugby before, but i knew it involved a lot of physical contact and a lot of pain. Luckily we were involved in only a few drills and a lighter version of the real game. It was definitely fun to play, and my favorite part was when they lifted me in the air so I could catch the ball. We headed inside afterwards to play table tennis, or ping pong against some of the best high school players in Taiwan. I never knew that there was a correct and incorrect form when holding the paddle or hitting the ball. Hopefully I will actually be able to win some games after playing with "the pros" today. After a beautifully done performance by the orchestra and a quick version of our show we were off.
The night ended with karaoke and a buffet. I was expecting karaoke to be done at a restaurant that has an old-school karaoke machine with a small screen and one microphone, but my expectations weren't even close. Instead we had our own private room with marble tables, black leather couches, three microphones, and a giant movie size screen at the front of the room. It was a night to remember.
Favorite food/drink of the day: bamboo chips
New thing learned about Taiwan: there is nap time at school
Day 5: Monday June 15th
Today was a day of many firsts. Other than playing basketball, everything else we did today was completely new to me. It was my first time making dumplings, beading a flower mouse, making balloon animals, getting my profile cut out of paper, and eating out of a toilet. Believe it or not it was I also used the hole-in-the-ground toilet for the first time today. I had somehow been able to avoid it up until today. Other than that one experience, it was a good day at Cheng-Te High School.
Walking through the hallways of the school I felt like a celebrity. When I would come to a stopping point the Taiwanese students would crowd around, but all be too nervous to talk to me. I kept on trying to remind them that I was still a human and that I wouldn't judge their English or anything they said to me. To me I am just a foreigner trying to fit in and learn the culture, but to them, I am a rock star. Who am I to complain? It might get redundant to stop and pose for millions of pictures, but I would pick this life over a boring one any day.
Walking through the hallways of the school I felt like a celebrity. When I would come to a stopping point the Taiwanese students would crowd around, but all be too nervous to talk to me. I kept on trying to remind them that I was still a human and that I wouldn't judge their English or anything they said to me. To me I am just a foreigner trying to fit in and learn the culture, but to them, I am a rock star. Who am I to complain? It might get redundant to stop and pose for millions of pictures, but I would pick this life over a boring one any day.
We stopped by two different classes today and met some of the students. Two of my favorite students were Mr. Magic and Jumbo who both did magic tricks for us all. I could tell they had fun picking out their "English" names. When they told us we would be makind dumplings I was excited, but then we found out that the dumplings we made would be our lunch. I was confident that the dumplings were good, but i wasn't confident in my dumpling making skills. I soon realized that there isn't much to it and ended up making at least fifty dumplings. We went on to make cell phone charms out of beads. I either don't follow direction well or I am incompetent when it comes to beading, because I had to start over four times and eventually get one of the Taiwanese students to do it for me. After that long process it was on to balloons! It was definitely fun to feel like a clown for an hour.
I thought the day was over after the balloons but I soon found out that the best was yet to come. They had us write our names down on white sheets of paper. I thought they just wanted to know how to spell our names, but I was surprised at what we were told next. A famous man from Taiwan was coming to cut out our profiles. I had no idea what our teacher meant when she said that, but it sounded cool. When Malcolm went up to be the first one to get his done I was shocked. This man has the talent to look at a person's profile and then cut it out of paper! I was blown away when he said that he picked it up in only five minutes. It was a great way to end our time at the school.
For dinner we went to the Modern Toilet. I won't go into much detail about the restaurant because I am sure some of the other Plano students have already blogged about it. Long story short, I thought that Vicky and Jesse were joking when they said we would be eating out of toilets, but they were serious.
Favorite food/drink of the day: fish in a toilet
New thing learned about Taiwan: the school bells sound like door bells
GLASS BLOWING – Hsiang Shan High School
Tuesday, June 14, 2009
I woke up worried, not knowing how my first steps would feel. Getting out of bed, I prayed for the best, expecting the worse. Feet on the ground…it was midground pain, not too bad, but just a little bit. I hobbled around all morning until my host father came down to help treat my feet. He cleaned them up and decided, since there was blood in them, that we should pop the blisters to ease the pain; I was skeptical. He cleaned a needle and I began to wince as it got close to my foot, he stuck it in and I felt nothing, again, the same thing. Blood drained out and it began to shrink. He did this two the two biggest blisters on the balls of my feet. While putting my feet down, I had the same mental reaction as getting out of bed, except this time there was no pain, none at all. They wrapped me up and gave me some nice goofy sock-type thing and I was on my way.
Today we went to Hsiang Shan High School, one of the nicest in Hsinchu. We opened the day with a meeting with the principle who had come to Plano years before. We then played games similar to yesterday’s games with an English class, bar the fact that today we were brought special foods from each kid. One kid brought chicken’s feet, another a sweet candy, and the rest brought other things; it was a delicious brunch! After this class we went to go blow glass. The instructor first made an intricate Siberian bird and a grasshopper to demonstrate the art. These took 10 years to learn, he has been doing it for 37 and made both in less that 30 minutes, amazing! He then aided us in making a dolphin, swan, or seahorse; I of course made a freaking legit dolphin jumping out of the water. It was definitely one of the highlights of this short trip.
After glass blowing we ate lunch, if I knew what it was, I’d tell you, but I haven’t the slightest idea; let’s just say it was very interesting. After lunch I watched the delegation play games of rugby with the high school team and ping pong against the national champion; none of which I was aloud to participate in because of my feet. How depressing; it looked like a lot of fun.
We ended our day at the high school with some chill time and a beautiful performance by the school band. They seriously treat us as if we were the rich and famous here, everywhere we go people stop, wave, and take pictures; as Mrs. Clark said it, “we are like N’SYNC”…haha, sad, but true.
After school, the delegation and some of the hosts went to a downtown karaoke place where you get your own room and just jam out for hours and hours. It was more fun than I could have ever expected. We learned how to do this crazy Chinese dance called the “Party Boy” that I’ll have to teach everyone when I get back, and just straight up jammed!
There is only one way I can end this and that is with this:
Song Description: “It Was a Good Day” – Ice Cube
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