Day 3 June 13

This morning I was very excited because I was going with Bob to his school all day for a carnival. I woke up to find out that Bob had made breakfast which was a sandwich made of eggs, cheese, ham, mustard, and hotdog. Charlie then took us to Kuang Fu, the largest private school in Hsinchu. The school was enormous, it was made of three different buildings at least five stories tall, a gym, and an indoor swimming pool. Maya’s host student Cathy also went to Kuang Fu so we were going to be with them throughout the day too. Bob showed me around the school and then took me to his classroom where I met his twenty-six classmates and his teacher. All of the students were very friendly and even if their English wasn’t very good, we were still able to communicate. Bob explained that each class was going to have a tent where they sold food and drinks as a fundraiser. So we went to the track where the tents were being set up and the students were preparing food. Bob’s class was selling three different kinds of juice and they offered to give Maya and I some. I was given a yellow drink which tasted like mango and was great. Bob and Cathy then decided to show us around the school more while the carnival was still being set up. Their school was completely different than Plano West not only in the way it looked but the way the students are taught because the students stay in one class all day while the teachers move between classes. We were introduced to one of the directors who took us to see the graduation of the Junior High students that would be in the Senior High next year. After, we were taken back to the carnival to see a concert being performed by contestants in “Super Idol”, a Taiwanese version of American Idol. Even though the contestants sang in Chinese, they were all very talented. Next Maya and I were able to sample all the different foods that the classes were selling. The first thing I as offered was octopus cooked into little bread balls covered in wasabi. It was astonishingly good until I only ate half of one and the tentacle and head fell out, however this didn’t stop me from finishing the entire thing. Maya was then given one of the most interesting drinks I have ever seen because it was bubbling and had smoke pouring out of the straw. They told us not to drink it while it was doing this but when it stopped the drink was great. Once the carnival was over and we said goodbye to everybody, Maya, Cathy, Bob, and I went to a Japanese restaurant for one of their classmate’s birthday. The restaurant was awesome because the servers brought out plates of uncooked meat and we were able to cook our food with the grills in the middle of the table. I also got to enjoy some of their friends singing karaoke and surprisingly Bob got up and sang as well. Today was another incredible day and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.