Pottery, Painting, Pineapple Cakes and More
As you can probably tell by the lack of blog updates, it’s been a busy week! This is a rather long post, but a lot has happened since I last wrote.
On Tuesday, we were assigned a ten minute presentation to prepare for Thursday. We also learned multiple 成語 (Chéngyǔ), or four word long idioms. We ate at a Korean restaurant for lunch. The food was delicious!
Korean Food
For our afternoon class, we went to a teacher’s house. There were learned about the Chinese zodiac animals and created a book about them. We fittingly passed a wall with all the zodiac animals at a bus stop on our way to her house.
Zodiac Wall
After class, we all went to a bakery we had seen on our way there. The food was expensive but delicious. There were also free samples!
Chocolate Cake
Mario Figures at Bakery
That evening, I worked on my presentation and studied for class the next day.
On Wednesday, I arrived at school early to attend Mass at the Ursuline convent. Scotty came with me as well. After Mass, Scotty and I went to a breakfast place right across from school. The food was great! We then explored Zhengqi Hall on campus and went to the library to study a bit more.
Zhengqi Hall
In class, we played bananagrams in Chinese which was a significant challenge! We then played bingo with the 成語 we had studied. In the afternoon, we had a scavenger hunt in the area right around my house. Our group is very competitive so it was intense but tons of fun! After the scavenger hunt, we received our student ids and Chinese text books. I then went right home because I needed to prepare for my presentation the next day.
On Thursday, I went to Mass in the morning. I then worked on my monthly blog assignment at the library. We gave our presentations during class. It was Brandon’s birthday so my teacher made an apple pie to celebrate! We ate Korean food for lunch and then went to eat shaved ice.
Korean Food
Mango Shaved Ice
In the afternoon, we went to a bakery where we learned to make 凤梨酥 (Fènglí sū), or pineapple cakes. Pineapple cakes are very popular here and super yummy! We were all able to bring a bag home to our host families.
Pineapple Cakes
The Final Product
After cooking, we all went out to KTV (karaoke) to celebrate Brandon’s birthday. Then we went to a park near Brandon’s house where his parents had prepared a picnic. We had Pizza Hut pizza, which, while good, was not like American pizza. It had no sauce! After eating cake, I took a bus home.
On Friday, we took a trip to Meinong. Meinong is a district of Kaohsiung about a half hour south of the city. We first went to a grade school where we painted statues as service.
Our Rhino
For lunch, we ate at a local restaurant. The food was incredible! I especially enjoyed the 炸野蓮 (Zhà yě lián), or fried wild lotus.
Fried Wild Lotus
After eating, we went to an umbrella shop where we each painted our own umbrellas.
Our Umbrellas
Then, we went to a pottery shop where we each made our own bowls or cups.
Making Pottery
Pottery Shop
After walking around a famous lake in Meinong, we headed home.
Lake in Meinong
After dinner on Friday, I skyped my family. My mom and my sisters were able to meet my host family! It was an awesome experience to introduce them. It also certainly helped me practice my Chinese as I translated both ways.
On Saturday morning, I called my family again and caught up on life in Illinois. Then, we went to a very nice restaurant for lunch. I ordered hot pot! In the afternoon, I met up with a few of my classmates at Lotus Lake, a famous tourist spot in Kaohsiung.
Statue by the Lake
Entrances to the Pagodas
The Pagodas
Dragon on the Pagoda
In the evening, I went swimming with my host family. I helped my host sister practice her breast stroke. It certainly did stretch my vocabulary!
On Sunday morning, I went to St. Dominic’s for church with Katie. After Mass, I went to Costco with my host family to go shopping. My host siblings and I all had homework to work on in the afternoon. I have been helping both my host siblings with their math homework which has helped me learn quite a few new vocab words as well as brush up on my mental math abilities.
The Wenzao semester officially starts tomorrow. I am really excited to meet my new classmates and teachers!