Six Days of Class Plus a Trip to Pingtung

Monday started out with morning tutoring and then Chinese class. We had our first 聽寫(Tīngxiě), or dictation. We moved on to a new unit about performing arts. In the afternoon, I attended my reading class.

After class, I went home right away so I could finish my homework quickly. I taught myself how to use the new video software on my computer (thanks Dad for setting it up!). It is pretty powerful which means it also has a somewhat steep learning curve. I decided to learn how to use the green screen effect in the program. The only non-white solid color object in my house is the piano cover. It was hilariously difficult to explain to my host family why I was hoping to use it!

In the evening, we celebrated my host brother’s birthday. We had pizza from Costco, apple juice, and an awesome cake!

Birthday Cake

Tuesday morning was the same as always. At lunch, we all went to see the Wenzao Club Fair. I was of course bombarded with fliers. I’m excited to become involved here on campus.

In the afternoon, I went to the library with Katie to study. Then we went to our 文字學 (Wénzì xué) class. This is a class on the evolution of Chinese characters. As far as I can tell, Katie and I are the only foreigners in the class. I only understood about 25% of the lecture but the class was incredibly interesting. The professor sent Katie and I all the power points as well as all the textbook readings for the year. Jenny printed out all these papers and made them into a book for Katie and me.

In the evening, I continued to work on my monthly vlog.

Wednesday morning was again the same. In the afternoon, I met with my tutors for the first time. They were super helpful!

In the evening on Wednesday, I went to an English Bible Study at St. Dominic’s. The event started with Mass said in English. Bible study followed the Mass. I was the only native English speaker in attendance so I functioned a bit as a translator at some points. I was excited to see that my religious vocabulary has grown a lot this month!

Bible Study

Thursday morning was the same. In the afternoon, I went to the library with Katie and Kate to meet up with Katie’s SOSA buddy and two of her friends. We spent some time studying and laughing at some of the rather obscure example sentences in our text book.

In the afternoon, I went to Drama Appreciation class with Scotty. In class, we were watching a Taiwanese play. However, the teacher had everyone who didn’t know Taiwanese (students from Hong Kong, Italy, Nicaragua, Spain and us Americans) go to the library to choose a movie to watch. I watched part of a movie called Not One Less. It was very good! After class, Scotty and I talked through the syllabus with the teacher. She is incredibly helpful and very friendly! In the evening, I finished my vlog! I’ll post the link once it’s been published on the youtube page.

Friday morning was again the same. In the afternoon, we all went to volunteer at Andrew’s Food bank. We helped sort food by type and expiration date.

At the Food Bank

Afterwards, we took the 轻轨 (Qīngguǐ), the light rail, to the Dream Mall. A new portion of the light rail is just being finished so it is free to ride currently!

Trip to the Mall

From the Dream Mall, we walked to a thrift store that Alisa suggested. The store was incredible! We had a lot of fun trying on vintage dresses and shopping!

The Outside of the Thrift Store

We had school on Saturday to make up for the fact that we have Monday off next week. After class, we had our monthly NSLI-Y Meeting. Then, I went to the stationary store to buy school supplies! Now that I know what classes I am going to be taking this semester, I knew what to buy! I bought some super cute notebooks and, of course, more flashcards!

New Notebooks

On Saturday evening, my host family and I went to a dinner out in 屏東, Pingtung. Pingtung is a town about an hour away from here. My brother’s dentist had invited us. From what I gathered, the event was in celebration of the birthday of a god and was put on by members of a motorcyclist organization.

Pingtung Festival

On Sunday morning, I had the chance to talk to the rest of my family! Then I went to Mass at St. Dominic’s. When I arrived home, my host family and I drove out to Pingtung for the day. We first ate lunch at a restaurant right by a temple. Then, we had 燒冷冰 (Shāo lěng bīng), or hot cold ice (in other words, it doesn’t really translate well) at a very famous shop. Basically, hot taro, peanuts, red bean, glutinous rice porridge, glutinous rice dumplings, and chocolate are placed at the bottom of the bowl and shaved ice is placed on top. It was incredibly great!

Lunch

Next, we went to a very old train station. Trains still run through but a new station has been built. You can tour the old station which is still standing although no longer functioning.

Train Station

After this, we went to a cafe run by friends of my host family. There, I learned how to make coffee and my favorite type of tea. I also ate a lot of great food!

Cafe