The Boat Show, An Old Bridge, and a Radio Station Interview
On Monday, March 12th, we had our first Monday afternoon class to help us prepare for our final project. We talked through our different ideas for final topics. Then, we had a class on pronunciation. I discovered that, although I have a lot of work still to do, I’ve made a lot of progress in terms of pronunciation since September.
On Tuesday, I was done with classes by noon. In the afternoon, I went home, started watching Astroboy in Chinese, and washed my clothes. Then, I decided to go explore the wetlands park behind the high speed rail station behind my house. I ended up climbing up a very tall hill and discovering a beautiful view of Kaohsiung!
Wetlands Park
That evening, I went to volunteer at the tutoring center in the Aozidi train station. It’s been almost two months since I last volunteered there because of the New Years Break. I was glad to be back! I helped one of the kids prepare for his geography test on Africa.
On Wednesday, I called a school in northern Kaohsiung to see if I could volunteer there. It turns out I won’t be able to fit it into my schedule in these last two months but I was able to get through the entire phone call without any trouble. I’m normally super nervous to talk on the phone in Chinese so this was a huge success for me! In the afternoon, I met with my tutors for the first time since before the New Year Break. We worked on my pronunciation. It was great to see them again!
On Thursday, I had classes literally straight from 9 until 5. After my normal Chinese classes, I went to Bible Study for the first time. It was just the teacher and me. We read through the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke and I learned how to say Moses, David, New Covenant, Old Covenant, Aaron, Zechariah, and Elizabeth. I’m excited to keep participating in this class for the rest of the semester. In the afternoon, I went to Ethics. I’ve already made a few friends in the class! We watched various movie clips and discussed what people place their faith in. I then went to Picture Books were we discussed the relationship between words and the pictures.
On Friday, I went to the NSLI-Y office after class to pick up my books. I ended up not grabbing my books because they were pretty heavy but spent some time catching up with Jenny, the local program coordinator. She drove me to the MRT station and I went to Sanduo District for lunch. I found a Canadian sandwich place called Yale Bistro where I ordered a salad and french fries. The food was amazing!
Yale Bistro Lunch
I then went to a second hand bookstore to search for books. I found a copy of the Bible in Latin and Greek which made me really excited to start studying at Notre Dame in the Fall! I also read quite a few picture books in Chinese as I have to read 100 picture books by the middle of April for my picture books class.
I then met up with Tyler to go to the International Boat Show. We met some local college students who were studying how to build boats. We also saw a lot of cool boats, a Tesla, and had the chance to talk to a member of the Taiwanese Coast Guard. I was mistaken as the person selling the Tesla which was very comical. I enjoyed the event and am glad I went!
The International Boat Show
That evening, I stayed up with my host sister to watch my old high school robotics team compete in their first few matches. I then slept in Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day catching up on homework. We went to one of my favorite restaurants for lunch where you receive unlimited caramel corn!
I went to Mass on Saturday evening, and then my sister and I stayed up working on homework and watching robotics. On Sunday morning, I slept in. Then Katie and I decided to take a trip out to the most eastern part of the Kaohsiung province to see a bridge. The bridge was used during the Japanese colonial period as a part of the sugar industry. When a new bridge was built, they kept the old bridge standing as a historical site. It is the only railway bridge in Taiwan to be classified as a historical site. The middle of the bridge was destroyed in a large typhoon about ten years ago. The bridge was beautiful and I’m grateful for the chance to learn more about it’s history!
Railway Bridge
On Monday, we had our class to prepare for our final presentations in the afternoon. For our pronunciation class, we watched a news article on the successful cloning of a monkey in China. I learned a lot of new vocabulary!
I also received a package from one of my friends on FRC Team 6191. She sent me a bag of Australian chips she bought when her team competed in Australia. The chips are delicious!
Australian Snacks
On Tuesday, I went out to lunch with Kripa, Jenny and Tyler after class. Then, we went to the radio station so Tyler and I could record our interviews. We were asked about everything from why we want to study Chinese, to our daily schedules, to our future plans, to funny language mistakes we’ve made. I also had a chance to explain Easter, something I for sure could not have done a few months ago. Our interview will be aired on Palm Sunday and Easter.
Radio Station Interview
In the evening, I went back to the language cafe with Katie. I met lots of new people and had conversations about politics, the Avengers and basketball.
The Language Cafe
On Wednesday, I met with Sister Fidelis after lunch. We talked about the differences between the American and Taiwanese education systems. Then, I went to a fair where all the graduates from the Chinese Education department presented their final projects. I had the chance to see my tutors’ project as well as lots of other displays! I then went to meet with Jenny about the upcoming NSLI-Y summer program in Kaohsiung. This is the first time there will be a summer program in Taiwan and I am so excited for the students that will have the opportunity to live here! Because I participated in the summer program almost three (wow!) summer ago, I answered some of Jenny’s questions about what the summer program looks like.
In the evening, I went to volunteer at the tutoring center. Each week, I help tutor two middle schoolers. This week, I helped one of my students learn how to find the volume of a cylinder and the length of a diagonal of a cube. I also learned how to say volume, surface area, radius, and cylinder in Chinese!
On Thursday, I had class straight from 9 to 5! During my lunch break, I went to Bible Study again. This time, we read Luke chapter 2. We went around in a circle, reading it two verses at a time. The teacher often had to help me fill in words I didn’t know but I’m starting to be able to at least understand the Bible in Chinese (albeit, this mostly consists of me recognizing a few key words and connecting it to the stories I know in English but I got to start somewhere!).
On Friday, we were off of school at 12. After class, I went to the library to work on my picture books assignment. I read at an average pace of one book every six minutes (you know you are cut out to be an engineer when you time yourself doing mundane tasks and take the average). I'll get to 100 slowly but surely.
Picture Books
I then went home, washed my clothes and ate lunch. After putting the clothes out to dry, I walked to Donutes, a local cafe, to work on homework. I accidently ordered cranberry juice instead of the fruit drink I normally choose but the juice was also good!
I’ve got a super busy weekend coming up followed by Holy Week! It’s hard for me to believe that I only have about nine weeks left here in Taiwan!