Friday, June 12, 2009
Today was hectic from beginning to end, from waking up to falling asleep. This morning I set my alarm for 6:30 to wake up and have time to take a shower. It went off, so I got out of bed and did all I had to do, after becoming curious at why no one else in the house was awake yet, I looked at the time on my computer…my phone (where my alarm is) was still on Tokyo time, so I actually woke up at 5:30 in the morning! Although it made for a long day, it allotted me time to relax, something I hadn’t done since before leaving Dallas, and get on the internet to talk to some people from home.
As I noticed the rest of my host family waking up, I finished all I had to do and went downstairs to say hello. They happily greeted me and led me to the living room for some breakfast. I’m not all too sure what it was, but I think it was some kind of pork dumplings, scrumptious! Once Vanessa woke up, we headed to her high school (St. Peter’s) to begin our day.
When they told me that we would be treated like rock stars, I thought they were exaggerating, they weren’t. As I was waiting for the rest of my delegation to arrive, every person who walked by gave me strange looks or very happy smiles and waves. This persisted throughout the day; one kid at the amusement park we visited even came up and wanted pictures with us and of us. It was a phenomenal feeling! But back to the story…their school was massive, it has four buildings, each no less that five stories, all surrounding a courtyard with basketball hoops and volleyball nets. As we look around in awe, one of the administrators tells us it is a “small school, most schools in Hsinchu are five times as big”, my jaw dropped. We met up with the student body in the courtyard where we introduced ourselves on the stage and then watched their performances. They had everything from pop bands to ancient Chinese instrument players, and even some break-dancers, it was amazing! We followed their dazzling shows with our song and dance; they actually seemed to like it!
After the visit to Vanessa’s high school, we loaded up on a bus to “Little Ding Dong Science Park” to play paintball and get lunch. After burning up in an intense game of paintball (we were required to wear three layers in the 95 degree heat) we headed to the restaurant for lunch. I’m starting to get the hang of chopsticks, but not really. Today I tasted Chinese Sprite, it has so much more flavor than those in America, the lemony-limeness is definitely more prevalent, and it’s noticeable. While waiting for the bus to come pick us up, we went and explored the park. There were so many cool little buildings that are quite difficult to explain without acting out what happens while you’re in them; I’ll explain when I come home.
The last group task of the day was biking on the coastline, very challenging and difficult, but also rewarding! Wil and I took a two-man bike and it wore us out! We would race our fellow Ambassadors along the tiers and take random, cool pictures. Whenever we would pass natives who were going the other way, we would always get strange looks, it was somewhat uncomfortable. It is the moments like these where we learn a little bit about America. Because of the diversity throughout our country, our hosts could walk around and never get a second look, but when we come to their hometowns, we stick out like sore thumbs. Hopefully the commotion will die down a little bit during our stay, but who knows!
Tonight I had a very interesting dinner, a rice burger! Instead of a wheat bun, it was rice, and the patty was shredded pork, it tasted a whole lot better than expected! If you ever get a chance, I highly advise you trying some!
But now I am exhausted, all my energy is drained and I need to recoup some of it, so I am off to bed. Goodnight all!
Song Description: “100 Years” – Five for Fighting
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