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