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Blog 6

           One day when we were in class we asked our teacher what she recommended for us to do while we were counting down to our last days in Taiwan. She named a few things that we could do but the thing that stood out to the majority of the class was getting a massage. She explained it that Taiwan gave the best massages and they were very cheap, so why not? We all remembered several massage places around the Long Shan Temple. We headed to Long Shan on Monday to find a massage place. There were so many to pick from, it seemed like there was a massage place every other store in the area we went to. After looking around we saw a place that had a foot and shoulder massage for 40 minutes for 300 yuan. Of course we all wanted to negotiate a little bit because we were brining six people into their business. They said that they would do a 30 minute foot and shoulder massage for 200 yuan, so we took that. We sat down next to each other to begin our foot massage. I loved the lady who massaged my feet, she was very considerate making sure that she wasn’t hurting me throughout foot massage. She thought that I was in pain because I’m extremely ticklish on my feet so I could not stop laughing. My annoying bug bites was the only bad thing about the massage because all my bites are by my ankles so every time she massaged my knees down to my feet it irritated my bites. I personally liked the shoulder massage better because it felt better and was more relaxing. I have had several massages when I go to vacations but this is my first foot massage. I usually get a whole body massage which I still prefer, but a foot massage was needed after all of the walking that we have done during this trip. I do agree with our teacher that Taiwan does indeed give great massages at such a low cost, especially because I have probable spent over 100 US dollars each time when I go at home or different vacation spots. We all loved the massages so much that we are trying to fit in one more massage before the dreadful plane ride.

           Josh and I had a friend who is Taiwanese from University of Maryland who is in Taiwan the same time that we are. We planned a day to meet up with her to do the zoo and the gondola. The zoo was alright, I only say that because of the several trips I have made to the National zoo back at home. It was cool to see the differences from our DC zoo compared to the zoo in Taiwan. Both zoos had pandas, but to our surprise our zoo has more pandas than Taiwan’s zoo. The main difference I noticed was that Taiwan’s zoo had deer, and not just one. I felt like they had three exhibits for deer. This was especially weird because we have so many deer throughout Maryland, and zero in our zoo. The animal that stood out to me the most was the Cherng’s Malaysian Tapir. The only animal I really could compare it to would be a panda. It was black and white and bigger in size, except it wasn’t fluffy and had a completely different face. This animal’s face was kind of like an ant eater with two long nostrils. It was just very unique looking but I am happy that I could see a different animal like that. We then headed over to the gondola. I am scared of heights and drops so I was kind of nervous for this. I surprisingly wanted the clear bottom gondola to be able to see what is under us, and of course that cart took longer to arrive. The gondola was gorgeous throughout the whole ride. We went up and back during the perfect times. On the way up it the sun was setting and on the way back we could see all of the city lights. I loved how we could see 101 throughout the ride. When we got to the top we explored the little town of Maokong. There were many stores and restaurants throughout. Of course this area was known for their good tea so we stopped at a local tea shop on the way back to try the tea out. I got a hot raspberry tea and then the whole table got a waffle to share. My tea was unlimited refills which was a nice option. The waffle we got had cinnamon, apple, whipped cream, and fruit syrup. The raspberry lime tea was really flavorful and delicious, and the waffle was the perfect desert. My favorite part of this local restaurant was the view that we had. Our table was right next to a window which overlooked the whole city and showed all of the lights throughout. I am really happy that I took the time to make the zoo and the gondola happen, especially because I have never been on anything similar to a gondola.

           Our class finally came to an end today. We have our final exam tomorrow and it feels as if we just arrived here a few days ago. We have fit so many excursions and things to do throughout our trip and I could not be happier that I decided to study abroad here in Taiwan. Our class surprisingly went by pretty quick. We learned so much throughout the course that has helped us survive our time throughout this trip. Some main things that we have learned are family members, food, drinks, activities, essentials, counting, time, and countries. Each subject was condensed for us to learn but still had several vocabulary terms and sentence structure to complete each day. My favorite part about this course was our teacher. She was beyond helpful throughout each week. She knows that learning Chinese is extremely hard and tried to make it not only easy but enjoyable each day. I know that I got frustrated in class a lot because it sometimes is overwhelming and she never hesitated to always help me. I have learned so much more than I thought I would which is something that I can keep with me, or even improve on when I go home. During the last day we have a lot of reviews to help us better prepare for our final tomorrow. Our teacher even surprised us at the end of class and made us a cake! Although I have so much studying to do tonight for our final, it still interests me and I know it is only helping me learn another language which is really cool. I am certainly not ready to go on this horrible flight in a few days, but for now I am just going to take in every last second that I am in Taiwan!

Response to Jake:

I am also happy that you bought the mahjong set. I have never played a game like this but I would compare it to a mix of matching and go fish. I had a lot of fun playing the game with everyone once I finally figured out all of the rules. I do regret not buying a set for myself now, I just feel like no one at home would really play with me. Hopefully after I explain it to my friends and family and they seem interested I can find a set in the states! I also agree with you on how cheap the food was. It was crazy to think how little each meal was. I feel like when I go back to the states I’ll be in shock spending more on one meal compared to a full day’s meals in Taiwan.

 Response to Daniel:

I liked how you talked about the knot tying experience in culture class. I also enjoyed having class with other international students although I felt like they were probably making fun of our knot tying skills. I did fine tying but comparing to the other international students, they definitely had me beat. I did enjoy having them there too because we are always in smaller classes which sometimes gets lonely. It was cool to see how they reacted with each other and the skills that they knew compared to us. I wish that we could of spent more time interacting with more Taiwanese people or even more international students but it helped our group become closer.

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Blog 5

I’ve been pretty tired since we got back from this past weekend full of visiting different places throughout Taiwan. This is because we were on a bus for 10 plus hours, but at least we got a massive bus for everyone to spread out. We headed out on Friday afternoon and our first spot was probably my favorite part of the trip so far, although it was for a short amount of time. It was only a few hours away (maybe two hours) from our dorm. When we stepped off of the bus it was perfect weather, around 70 degrees Fahrenheit but had a nice breeze. We all walked to a bike shop that allowed people to rent out bikes that was right next to the lake that we were going to bike around. We all got a bike and were on our way, the lake that we biked around was called Sun Moon Lake. This lake was gorgeous around each and every turn. Every time I looked over at the lake it was surrounded with trees and had crystal clear water. We all biked at a good pace to so that we could see the lake but stay at a good speed. It took me a while to get used to the gears on the bike but other than that there were no problems during this time. In the middle of the bike path we stopped at a place to take pictures and be the typical tourists that we all are. It had an infinity pool that looked like it led into the lake. Of course I got a picture and my parents also agreed that it was their favorite view so far. There was no swimming aloud in the pool or the lake, which is one of the main reasons why it remains crystal clear. I have never done anything like this, every time I have biked it has mostly been around a neighborhood and definitely not next to a crystal clear lake. I wish that we could have spent more time at Sun Moon Lake but I am happy that I got the experience to bike around the lake for a few hours.

           After leaving Tainan the next morning, we headed to Kaohsiung. We had to switch from our massive bus onto a smaller bus onto a water trolley to get to the part in Kaosiung we were visiting. We walked around Kaohsiung to Cihou Fort, went to a black sand beach, and visited a little market. We first headed up to Cihou Fort to see the whole city from a higher point. The top view of Kaohsiung was so pretty! We could see houses to churches to temples to a beach to the water surrounding Kaohsiung. I really liked being able to go above everything and get a 360 view. I then noticed when walking around that this city was way dirtier than Taipei. There was trash on the streets and people practically threw out their trash whenever they were done, whether that was on a street or missing a trash can. After seeing the top view of the city, we headed back down to see the beach. This beach was also gorgeous! I have been waiting to be able to go to a black sand beach throughout the trip so I was really happy that we could do this. Comparing this beach to others, the sand was obviously darker and even the water was darker. The water was darker as it mixed with the darker sand that surrounded it. Although it was not the typical clear water and white sand in the front it was still so pretty. If you looked past the beginning shore you could see the clear water beyond that point. Being 79 degrees Fahrenheit it made it the perfect little beach trip. Because the bus took a little longer to pick us up we headed across the bus parking lot to see a little local market. This reminded of all of the night markets that we have been to. It was insanely crowded with people shouting to sell their food/products and everyone scramming around to fit through the crowd. We found one fruit stand throughout the market and got a fruit juice. The fruit juice was fresh with no sugar and was a perfect drink to help the hot day that we had.

           We saw a new style of a Temple this weekend. It was completely different from the past temples that we have been visiting. For a short summary of each Temple I’ll explain some basic décor and/or things that I found interesting within each Temple. The traditional temples that we have seen were all very similar. This was the style of Temples that we have seen the most, I think that we have seen around six traditional style Temples. Each one was the design had a design on the outside with bright colors, unique details (like dragons) throughout the roofs, strong smell of the incense, lanterns, rocks to drop to tell your fortune, and kneeling pads for worshiping. Another style of a Temple was called Tzuchi. This Temple was different from the others by being white on the outside, being more of a museum structure, having to take off your shoes, and having the whole upstairs like a church worshipping room. One last Temple that has been different than the past two was the Fo Guang Shan Temple. The first thing that stood out to me in this Temple was the rule of not showing your shoulders. This has never been a rule for the other Temples that we have visited. This Temple was also different throughout many other aspects. The first building you walked into reminded me of a mall. There were shops and restaurants to go to throughout this building. And by shops and restaurants I mean multiple of each, there was a Starbucks, main vegetarian restaurant, and several shops to buy souvenirs and/or more food. You then walk out to see main attraction, the Buddha that is huge, and of course made of gold. This building that was underneath Buddha was designed phenomenal. Everything inside looked brand new, this was built around six years ago, and is kept in the best shape. It had multiple rooms of worship and unique designs of more modern designs in my opinion. One thing that stood out to me was the statue when you first walked it, it was all wood and of several Buddhas carved throughout. The similarities between the Temples that stood out to me were the kneeling pads for worshiping, and the multiple rooms of worship. The Temple that stood out to me the most was the Fo Guang Shan Temple because of all of the unique features in design, the building structure, the huge Buddha, and all of the shops and restaurants when first walking in. I felt like it was more of a tourist attraction than a Temple, which is why it stood out to me the most.

Response to Jacqueline:

I liked how you brought up some of the rules that we learned in the traditional style Temple. I did not include learning about the bell, the dragon and tiger doors, and the burning of money. I thought that all of these things were interesting because there were rules within the traditional style Temple and even some traditions that people did within the Temple. Our tour guide helped us learn some of these rules so we would not only become more educated but also not disrespect the Temple within anyway. These rules or traditions are also interesting to learn about because sometimes we could see them later during our trip, throughout the Temple that we were currently in, and help us compare this to other Temples that we visit.

Response to Josh:

I liked how you talked a lot about the history of Taiwan. The forts really did help us learn about the history of Taiwan. Including how these forts shaped Taiwan today was a really good point! The Eternal Golden Castle was a lot different than I expected also. I was thinking that we would see a huge castle when it was practically the opposite. I did enjoy the little show that they had, although I could not understand any of it, and how they shot off the canon. It was cool to hear about how powerful these cannons used to be and little details like how they had to run away to take shelter.

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Blog 4

           Although I was pretty tired starting off this week from a weekend full of events from our excursion, I knew I should take advantage of the good weather and make the most of the trip. On Tuesday night we all decided to finally try hot pot. We actually had hot pot twice within a few days, so obviously we all really liked it. The first time we went we had an individual hot pot. So we could pick our own protein while we each got separate pots and vegetables. I was extremely happy with what I ordered. I got fish, shrimp, beef, clams, and squid. I cooked them all myself at my own pace with my own spices and it was delicious. It seemed like everyone enjoyed their own meals. The second time we went to hot pot it was a meal hot pot. This place was completely different compared to the first place we went to. We sat down and got several appetizers before they gave us the hot pot. These appetizers included cucumbers, noodles, peanuts, chicken, beef, dumplings, pancakes, Chinese broccoli, and fish. Each appetizer, or mini meals before the hot pot, were all enjoyable. My favorite was the spicy chicken. So then our hot pot came out. Obviously this hot pot was dramatically bigger compared to the individual ones we got previously. It already had meats and vegetables in it cooking for us. I remember there being noodles, cabbage, meatballs, tofu, and squid. Some of this food may be wrong, but the hot pot was tasty as well. Personally, I liked the individual hot pot place better because I could go at my own pace, add my own spices into the pot, and pick my own meats, but it was a hard choice.

           We finally went to the Chinese Opera. I feel like we’ve been talking about going to this for a while now so I was excited when we were on the way to the show. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem immediately right when we entered our building. Somehow our tickets were scheduled for a different night when we were not even in town, and of course it was a full house. Somehow we got seated, although we weren’t all together, and the show began. A few minutes passed as the show started and a group of people seemed to arrive late and I immediately figured out that we took their seats so I felt bad as they scattered throughout the audience seats. Anyways, back to the show. The opera in my opinion was good. It was definitely weird and interesting to watch but I am glad that I got the opportunity to go. I liked how there was more movement, like gymnastics and fighting, compared to just singing. The tough part was that it was all in Chinese when I know very little Chinese. I did get excited when I recognized some words here and there, but that did not happen that much. The part that I did not like was having to look next to the screen to read the English version so I could go along with what was happening. The part that I did like was how they had a funny character to make the show more enjoyable. I also liked how everyone was dressed. Each costume was so unique and done so dramatic that it made each character have their own personality. I personally liked the golden rooster because his costume was bold and stood out to me the most. I did learn that when someone is dressed in all gold like that he is considered a God. I did not remember learning that from the mask class but it was a cool fact to learn. All in all, it was a good experience, just maybe a better experience if I was fluent in Chinese.

           Because we go to a small branch of Tamking University, we scheduled a day to go see the main campus. We met at the small branch of the school that we normally have class in to head over. We started on the metro and it took forever and a day to get to the main campus. I was dreading this ride because I get motion sick and I felt as if I was on that metro for hours. And if that wasn’t bad enough, we had to get on a bus to take us to the campus from the metro. I am pretty sure that this bus driver just learned how to drive stick because he was horrible at switching gears. We finally got to campus and it was absolutely gorgeous everywhere. Each building, whether a dorm or an academic building was so pretty. The outside of each building was done with great architecture and really pulled the campus together. Comparing it to University of Maryland’s ancient dorms and academic buildings, Tamking won with their presentation. My favorite part of the campus was the Education building. I am an elementary education major, which usually is laughed at in Maryland, and here it is more valued. I wish that it was this way in Maryland because I am in a building that has AC that barely works and it old all-around which Tamking has an Education building with a gorgeous outside and looked like a pretty inside. I was unsure if I was allowed to go in or not but I peaked in and it was 100000x prettier than the Benjamin Building at University of Maryland. After the campus tour we walked down a boardwalk that was close to campus. This boardwalk reminded me of Ocean City’s boardwalk. It had souvenirs everywhere with fried foods and ice-cream. I liked going to this part by the university to see where people hang out or even just go to buy some local food.

 Response to Josh:

           I liked how you talked about the trial that we went on. I also could not really compare it to any other trails that I have personally done because I usually climb through forests or rocks compared to climbing stairs. I also thought that this trail was pretty hard to make it up to the top, and I can’t believe we did not even go through the whole trail with all of the stairs that we climbed. I think that the view was worth all of our work and of course the sushi you mentioned after. I think that the sushi place we went to was also amazing and very cheap. I have never gotten so much sushi for so cheap and sadly I know I never will when I go back to Maryland. I also like how you compared hot pot to melting pot because I thought that too when I was making my own food. I personally did not see the Sakura’s comparison but I think that this was a better version of both Melting Pot and Sakura’s.

 Response to Jacqueline:

           I agree with how my schedule is finally set each day. It was so hard to adjust to a 13-hour time difference but I think I have it down now. I also agree with how it is so hard to wake up in the mornings whenever we stay up late as well. I think it all is worth it though when we fit in trying new food places, having class, and doing an event later in the afternoon. I also liked how you talked about the similarities and differences in our campuses. I saw how each building was arranged like ours in Maryland. I also noticed how Tamking University’s buildings were prettier including a tree inside on building! I forgot about that until you mentioned it. I kind of compared that to Maryland’s mall on campus although they are pretty different, but it was the closest thing that I could compare it to. Of course I liked the turtles in the pond as well!!

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           Before I came on this trip I knew I would be the most excited for New Years and seeing the beaches throughout the country. This past Saturday was New Year’s Eve and it was the moment that I have been waiting for. In the morning we took a bus to Jioufen and went to a Gold Mining museum. It was really cool to see real gold and even be able to touch it. I have seen real gold blocks before in New York City but I have never been able to touch it. I really liked being able to walk around and see the views of the water and mountains that surrounded the museum afterwards. The views were gorgeous everywhere we turned. After the long bus ride back to our rooms, we of course took a nap to prepare ourselves for the long night ahead. We went to meet up with Derek, our college advisor, to go out to dinner and then see the fireworks. We took the metro, which was not too crowded yet, to 101 to go to random places throughout the food court. I got dinner from the rotating sushi bar and really enjoyed it because sushi is one of my favorite meals. Because we had some time to kill we did the first of the four beast mountains. This was actually pretty challenging but if you timed it out and took your time it was not too bad. And of course the view at the top was worth the hiking. Finally, it was time for the fireworks. We went to Derek’s friend’s apartment which was about a 5/10-minute walk from 101. There was a little party on top of their rooftop and they even got us pizza and snacks. All of his friends were really inviting which was very nice and made us all feel welcomed. We also recognized the Domino’s pizza which made us all happy. We were really close to 101 and saw the fireworks perfectly. These fireworks were beautiful and unforgettable! I could write on and on about how gorgeous they were but the pictures I will attach will explain themselves. After the fireworks ended was the tricky part, the metro. This was insanely crowded and I felt like a human hamburger the entire time until we the second we got off the metro. I definitely don’t recommend that to anyone but definitely felt more like America with the no lines and shoving. It probably was better than the long walk back but either way would have been a struggle.

           Learning Chinese this week in class was interesting for me. On Friday we brought up Chinese words for ordering coffee and drinks. This specifically stood out to me because I love coffee and have been getting it every day this trip, like I typically do when I am home. Although I do not know all the words yet I have been looking over them to order to Eah-ting (not sure how to spell her name) which is the barista I talk to everyday when I order my coffee. She knows that I do not know much Chinese and has been helping me learn Chinese whenever I order with her. Our Chinese class teacher said that our next class we could come in class and practice ordering what kind of coffee we get. After we master what we are going to say, or even multiple orders, we can then head to a coffee shop and order in Chinese to the barista. I cannot wait to do this and practice ordering my coffee each day with the correct size, temperature, and exactly what coffee that I want. Everyone in class had been asking the teacher about American food places around and she mentioned a McDonalds. Everyone in class immediately got excited and planned to go there for dinner that night, and of course we did. This McDonalds was two stories and really nice inside. Their menu was mostly the same and had some different items like pork patty and a salmon patty. I did not try these because I just stuck with a hamburger but apparently they were good. The thing in McDonalds that stood out to me the most was the trashcans. This McDonalds had a waste bin, leftovers bin, trays bin, and even a recycling bin. This was something I have never seen before but not too surprising for a clean country like Taiwan. In America all we have is a trashcan and there is nothing more to it.

           Our excursion this weekend was full of more beautiful sites and hiking trails. I got to see one of the other things I had been waiting for, the beaches. The main beach that we saw was breath taking. It was crystal clear water with black sand surrounding it. I have never seen a black sand beach before so I was amazed by the site. I cannot wait to see more beaches during our next excursion because Taiwan’s beaches are 1000000x prettier than the ones I have seen throughout America. We headed to the East side of Taiwan this weekend in Hualien county. We stopped at a Toucheng Leisure farm. This farm was cool to stop by to see all of the mountains and creeks that surrounded it. My favorite part was picking the kumquat oranges in the field. They were mini oranges that were sweet because of eating the skin. My least favorite part was the bug bites. I got torn up on my ankles and it was extremely painful. I felt as if I had an allergic reaction and took a Benadryl to help with the pain. It took a little while to get to the Home Stay afterwards because of the traffic and the tiny roads. Luckily I was passed out because of the Benadryl. This was apparently the best time to fall asleep because of all the sharp turns on the edge of the cliff which definitely would of made me car sick. The next day we got to go on a trail called Shakadang Trail. This trail was not long at all and was along a beautiful creek with huge rocks throughout. My favorite part was how we could go on the rocks at the end and take pictures. The water was of course crystal clear and beautiful. Afterwards we headed back to our dorm after a long week full of events.

 Response to Daniel:

           Before I came to Taiwan I did not think that it would be crowded either due to the low population. I was wrong also. Although the population is low, people know where to crowd. There are so many crowded parts of Taiwan that we have hit and it has been so jam packed throughout. I did not think New Year’s would be horrible because I did not see people lining up that early but I was completely wrong. There is so much overcrowding throughout places we have seen in Taiwan. Jiufen’s market was so packed that it was hard to go into a store without getting 10 dirty looks from random people shoving all around. I also liked how he talked about not only the organic food from the farm but from our Home Stay. Our Home Stay gave the best organic meals. I have been craving scrambled eggs this whole trip and had the biggest smile on my face when I saw that he made some for us, along with organic everything, especially peanut butter which is another one of my favorites. I also noticed how Hualien is a place full of organic delicious food which was so awesome to be able to taste.

Response to Elissa:

           I forgot to mention those four hour long naps... that were an accident. I also thought it was funny how we all planned to go out at night and to just take a little nap so we could wake up. Then hours later we woke up to just go back to sleep. They were intentional but I feel like those were of the point that our jetlag was finally gone. Our sleep schedule has been so messed up so sometimes those long naps are needed, but we have to stop taking such long ones. But I definitely worked out because of how early we had to get up the next morning. I also liked how you mentioned to DIY shirts. I loved being able to use leaves throughout the farm to paint on our shirts. I also liked just going around to see how people used these leaves to make different designs on their shirts. I just really hope that the paint stays on the shirt and does not wash out easily. Hopefully those irons help the paint last forever.

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           My jet lag still has not improved much but it is slowly getting better day by day. I was happy to sleep in until 6 in the morning which is pretty pathetic. The day after Christmas was our first day of class. Our teacher asked us if we wanted her to speak in Chinese or English mainly to us. She said that she thinks speaking Mandarin to us mostly would be more effective. Surprisingly I think that she was right. During our first few days of classes I learned more than I thought I would. Although it seems pretty fast pace, we have learned some basic conversation sentences and have mainly focused on learning numbers 1-100. We played a game with a deck of cards which you have to say the numbers in Chinese and then slap down if your card matches your number that you just previously said. This game definitely brought the competitive side of everyone in the class. This game also helped us learn our numbers better. We then focused on learning other country names, how to begin to write down words, and some basic sounds to start sounding out words. We focused on about 10 countries learning their Chinese name that associates with their flag and then in print. This was a little trickier for me because the words began to get longer and harder for me to pronounce. Lastly, we focused on some sounds that could be used to sound out words. We focused on about one to three letters at a time. We kept going over what letters together made what sound and how this could be used to sound out some words like coke, cat, and dog.

           During lunch each day we tried to become a little more adventurous. We went to random lunch places around the school that stood out to us. I had a grilled chicken bowl with rice, ginger, root, and seaweed. This was one of my favorite dishes and I would go back to this spot. I do not remember the name so I’ll have to walk by it and write this down for future reference. The other lunch spot that we went to was with our buddy. I was unsure if we all would get a buddy or if we had to share one. In this case, we only had one buddy to go to lunch with us. I was unsure if this would change or not. I hope we get more buddies so that everyone does not have to try to share one to talk to and ask about their insight about Taiwan. Anyways, back to the food place. This place was famous for their meatballs, so of course I tried them. I really liked the inside of them, which was a shrimp filling, and it seemed to have spices and cilantro but I am unsure of what else was in it. The outside of these meatballs was a different texture. Instead of the typical hard texture, or even a dumpling texture, it was a slimy thin texture around the filling. I tried it of course and it wasn’t too bad, but the texture just wasn’t my thing. I’m just happy I’m trying new things. Because these meatballs did not really hit the spot for me, I went to 711 and grabbed a sandwich to hold me off until dinner.

           For culture class we are trying Chinese culture crafts so far. The first day we learned how to paint Chinese calligraphy. The second day we painted our own Chinese opera masks. The Chinese calligraphy was a struggle for me out of the two. I usually classify myself as a pretty “Artsy” person and do not usually have struggle when I am painting, drawing, or anything similar. The thing that got me about Chinese calligraphy was that you had to sit in a certain way, hold the brush a certain way, and paint in the directed way. Whenever I am drawing or something in the same sort, I am always sitting comfortably in my own way, along with holding my own materials in my preferred way. I always hold my brushes like a pencil and sit with my legs crossed and I even slouch sometimes. This was the opposite form for Chinese calligraphy. You were required to hold the brush straight, sit up straight, not have your legs crossed, and not have any elbows on the table. Because this was so different for me, this threw me off and I had more difficulty performing this task. I tried the best that I could but mostly learned to pay attention to form and take my time when doing Chinese calligraphy. The next activity that we did was painting a mask to represent Chinese opera. Although it was taught to us that faces were painted versus a mask, we were told to paint a mask. We learned how there were different masks that could represent different characters throughout the opera. There were heroes, middle “goofy” people, and of course the villain. I tried my best with my mask but the brush was harder for me to make straighter lines. I ended up painting a hero that was blue, green, and red.

Commenting on other experiences:

Jacqueline: I really enjoyed the insight of experiencing an upper level course. It is crazy how learning numbers 1-10 is overwhelming for me on the first day when she has to catch up on three weeks of work. I could not believe how much work she has to go through in such a short period of time. I do get that she has previous knowledge on Mandarin but it is still crazy to me how much material she has to cover in one short week. I also do not think that it is fair that students started the class three weeks prior and she has to catch up in a few days. Her previous knowledge in Mandarin does help us get around when some locals cannot speak English and are trying to communicate with us, or even just get the price of something being sold.

Jacob: He also touched up how the class was hard for him. We seem to have the same difficulty in writing the characters of the numbers but can speak them with no problem. I think that I have 1-7 covered and need to focus on 8-10. I agree with him on how class is very tough, but I also see improvement, even if it may be little by little. I also wish that I tried one of the pancakes at the night market so I do regret that, but I know that we will go back to that night market because of how huge it was. Everyone always says how good the oyster pancakes are, so I need to try one as soon as possible.

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12/25/2016

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I got up around 3:00 in the morning to head to the airport to catch my flight at 6:00 in the morning. Dulles was pretty straight forward with directions and I did not have any issues when I was going to my plane that was from Dulles to San Francisco. I called it a little too early because the second I got on my plane, problems would not stop occurring. My flight that was supposed to take off at 6 in the morning had mechanical problems and lead us to take off around 745. After the flight finally took off, the Wi-Fi would not work throughout the duration of the flight. After the six-hour flight came to an end, I got off into San Francisco’s flight to find out that my next flight was delayed. After getting on the plane after a 20-minute delay, we got delayed for another hour or so. When we finally got onto the plane that was heading to Taipei we got announced that there was no Wi-Fi on this flight as well. I could not have been happier after our plane touched down in Taiwan and we got our luggage and saw Doctor Liu.

           I moved into my triple room with the two other girls on our trip, Jacqueline and Elissa. Our jet lag was so bad that we woke up around 4:00 in the morning wide awake and starving. Although we were all exhausted, we could not have been more excited to start our first day in Taiwan. It was my first Christmas away from my family, which was extremely different for me. My mom packed me a stocking to open in the morning and FaceTime me with my family at night time so I could see everyone and make it feel a little more like Christmas. We started off the day getting food and coffee from a local bakery. The cappuccino I had was amazing so I have gotten that a few times since the first trip. I got a ham, egg, and cheese Danish that was really good as well. After we all were fueled up, we headed to one of the public parks of Taiwan. We walked along rocks, barefoot or in socks, to relieve pain from our feet. Although this was a very painful walk, it felt amazing afterwards. We then headed to a shaded spot in the park where Doctor Liu lead us to do some tai chi. We followed along the moves and relaxation techniques she taught us and it was a relaxing experience that I would do again. Our group then headed towards a restaurant that served traditional Taiwan food. Each person in our group picked something from the menu and shared it. I tried an ear for the first time, which was something I never expected to do. Because of the jet lag, we headed back to our rooms to have a nap.

           After our nap time, even though I could not fall asleep, we headed towards 101. While Doctor Liu waited in line to buy us the tickets to go up into 101, we got some mango shaved ice. This honestly did not take like much but was a refreshing desert. We waited in line to then go up 89 floors to see above the city. The elevator was extremely fast and my ears could not stop popping. The view was remarkable and it was incredible to be able to see 360 degrees around the city. We even got to walk two more floors up to the 91st floor to see the outside view of the city. This was cool to see even higher, but unfortunately it was blocked up by some bars so I could not see as much as I thought I could. Lastly, we headed to the night market. This was when there were so many stands of food, clothes, and jewelry that we could walk through. It was so tough picking something. I wanted to try something different and quite honestly I cannot even remember the name of the food that I got. It was a lamb wrap with spices and mustard but it was really good. We ended the night getting some mango smoothies that were so sweet. We even looked up the translation of how to order in Chinese and the cashier successfully understood us. At the end of all of this, we walked over 10 miles and were exhausted to say the least. I could barely stay up until 8:45 at night and I was passed out before I saw the clock hit 9:00 at night.