A Trip to Tainan
On Monday, I volunteered at the tutoring center. Helping a student with his geometry was a language challenge for sure. Despite not knowing words like circumference, radius, angle and arc length, I was able to walk him through the homework! After this, I taught the kids how to play Set, a matching game I like to play with my family.
On Tuesday, I tried McDonald's for the first time. I was impressed with how similar my chicken sandwich was to America's. It was comforting to have some American-like food for sure!
McDonald’s Lunch
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I didn't have to go to my Chinese Characters class because I didn't have to take the midterm. I wrote a paper about the evolution of characters instead. This paper will be published as my blog in a few weeks on the NSLI-Y Taiwan site! To celebrate successfully completing our midterm assignment, Katie and I bought fried cakes filled with ice cream. They were delicious!
On Wednesday, my tutors helped me practice listening comprehension. On Thursday, I took my drama midterm. The midterm went very well except for the last two questions which I had not known were going to be on the test. I had to answer those in English because I hadn't prepared. However, I was proud of myself for answering the first four in Chinese!
On Friday, we left for Tainan immediately after class. We had Subway on our way there! We spent the majority of the trip with a group of local high school students. They could not have been more friendly and welcoming! We first went to their high school were we did icebreaker activities, learned to cook pumpkin fried rice, had a Chopped-style cooking competition, watched a traditional puppet show and learned how to use puppets.
Afternoon at the High School
After this, we drove to our hotel. In the evening, I went to a night market with the other NSLI-Y kids. It was much cheaper than the Kaohsiung night market! I ate nachos (real nachos!), fried chicken, a cream puff and a Taiwanese pancake with peanut paste. It made for a delicious dinner!
Night Market
Saturday was packed full with activity! First, we went to the Tainan History Museum. The museum is absolutely incredible! I'm still not at a point where I can read enough Chinese to understand a museum exhibit so I really appreciated the very accurate English translations provided. The exhibits were beautiful and interactive. I learned a lot about Taiwanese history. In the museum, we had a scavenger hunt which I also enjoyed. I only had about a half hour to look at the exhibits so I am excited that my host family is taking me back there next weekend!
History Museum
After the museum, we had a picnic for lunch.
Picnic
After this, we went to a old sugar refinery. This refinery has been taken over by a drumming organization. They have done a beautiful job restoring it and turning into a museum of sorts. We had the opportunity to watch an incredible traditional drum performance. Then, we climbed up to the top of the factory which gave us a beautiful view of Tainan. We also had the chance to ride a slide down from the top of the factory. We took a drumming class and rowed a boat. I very much so enjoyed this museum!
Sugar Refinery
After dinner, we went to the train station. There we said goodbye to the Tainan high school students. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to get to know them and spend time with them! We will be seeing them again in March! We took the train back to Kaohsiung. Our train was delayed, but if it hadn't been, the train ride would have been just about as long as my train ride in America to high school! I was surprised to discover Kaohsiung and Tainan were that close together!
On Sunday morning, I went to Mass at St. Dominic's. Afterwards, I skyped home for my sister's birthday celebration! Then, I ate lunch with my host family. After taking a nap, we went to a chocolate festival in downtown Kaohsiung. There, we met up with friends of my host parents who grow chocolate. I had the chance to make chocolate noodles and a chocolate stick. Then, we went out to dinner at one of my favorite places in Kaohsiung: the restaurant that serves fried meat with eggs and noodles combined with all you can eat popcorn! It was delicious!
Chocolate Festival
I am just now starting on my homework, but it certainly was an amazing weekend!