聖誕節快樂！
聖誕節快樂！ Merry Christmas! These past two weeks have been packed full with activities so I haven't had time to update the blog. Here's a brief overview of how I celebrated Christmas in Taiwan.
Two weeks ago, I went to a concert at my host sister’s school with Katie and her host sister. It was very similar to a talent show because most of the performances were done by groups of students from a few different high schools in Taiwan. A very famous Taiwanese singer performed as well!
The Concert
That weekend, we went camping with our host families. We camped right next to a parking lot, across the street from a hotel. The hotel had an awesome pool and the weather was really great so we had a chance to go swimming. For dinner, we had a hodgepodge of different dishes. We cooked American food for breakfast. It tasted amazing to have scrambled eggs, bacon, pancakes and waffles! The camping trip was a ton of fun!
Camping
After camping, I went to Mass at Holy Rosary Cathedral in Kaohisung, the oldest cathedral in Taiwan. The Cathedral was first established in 1860 but the current church there was finished in 1928. The church was absolutely beautiful!
Holy Rosary Cathedral
On Thursday evening, I went over to Kate's house to help bake cookies for the Christmas party. The sugar cookies we made were delicious! Much thanks to Kate for working super hard after we left to finish up the job!
This past Friday, I watched It’s a Wonderful Life with Katie and Brandon after school. It’s a tradition in my family to watch that movie every Christmas eve so I was glad I was able to watch it here!
In the evening, we had the NSLI-Y Christmas Party. All our host families, as well as our tutors and some friends from Wenzao came to celebrate with us. I gave a speech in Chinese about how my family traditionally celebrates Christmas in the States. I was excited to see that my religious vocabulary has expanded. We also sang some Christmas songs and put on a play about Rudolph. Finally, we played a game where our host families decorated us as if we were Christmas trees. The results certainly were comical! The party was very enjoyable!
Christmas Party
On Saturday morning, Brandon, Kate, Katie, Scotty and I went to see Coco with Hueyin, one of our morning tutors. We watched it in Chinese because we wanted to challenge ourselves. We were all able to follow the basic story of the movie, even though some specific lines of dialogue were confusing for us. After the movie, we went out for lunch. We had soup dumplings and then went to KFC for fried chicken.
In the evening, I went over to Alisa’s to make mac and cheese. It was delicious!
Cooking!
That evening I went to Mass at Wenzao to celebrate the fourth (and final!) Sunday of Advent. Wenzao was decorated for Christmas so I took some pictures!
Wenzao's Christmas Decorations
After going to Wenzao for Mass, I came home and worked on homework. In the morning of Christmas Eve, I had a chance to talk to my family back in America. Then, I did some more homework until the afternoon. I walked up to Wenzao to help set up for midnight Mass there. Then, I stopped at 7 to grab dinner. My family tradition is to eat lasagna every Christmas Eve. Since lasagna wasn’t readily available, I bought myself some ramen instead because it was the closest substitute I could find!
Christmas Eve Ramen
I took the bus to St. Dominic’s where I met up with my RD to go to Midnight Mass. Midnight Mass was amazing! It started with firecrackers and a parade. A decorated truck pulled up to the church, delivering the statue of baby Jesus. The priest, who was dressed as Santa, then took the statue into the church. After he changed into vestments, the Mass began. Everyone in the church was incredibly joyful and sang their hearts out. We sung a combination of traditional Christmas songs translated into Chinese and Chinese Christmas songs. After Mass had ended, we all went up to kiss the statue of baby Jesus one by one. After this, one of the parishioners dressed up as Santa came into the church and passed out candy to the children. After Mass, we were all given two buns to take home as a Christmas gift. This certainly was a Mass I will never forget!
Midnight Mass
On Christmas morning, I talked to my family briefly. Then I walked to Wenzao for Christmas lunch with the Ursuline Sisters. When I showed up, they told me they were hoping I would be able to carve the turkey. Since I am American, they figured I would have some experience. I’ve never carved a turkey before, but I’ve watched my mom do it every Thanksgiving so I dived right in! While the results certainly weren’t ideal, the turkey was delicious and I can now say I’ve carved a turkey! There were over twenty people at the lunch, including people from England, Indonesia, India and of course America and Taiwan. I had the chance to meet the superior general of the entire Ursuline order! After lunch, we sang Christmas songs from each country. I am so grateful the sisters thought to invite me over to celebrate with them!
Christmas Lunch
After lunch, I met up with Katie, Kate, Brandon, Alisa and Scotty at the bus stop. We took a bus out to Eda, a large theme park a little ways out of the city. We went ice skating to celebrate and then I treated myself to Starbucks!
Ice skating
I am so grateful for this unique opportunity to celebrate Christmas overseas. Although we only had one day off of school, we certainly did celebrate to the fullest. I am so blessed to have the St. Dominic community, the Ursuline Sisters and of course my NSLI-Y friends to celebrate with! Merry Christmas!