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Published: August 16th 2015
Hey everyone!
First of all, I can't believe that this coming week is my last week of classes here! WHAT?! It seems like no time at all has passed, and on top of that, this week is definitely going to go fast! Anyways, as I mentioned last week, this week was pretty stressful. We had two tests, calligraphy, and a presentation (which Yu laoshi FILMED. I'm pretty sure she intends to send them to Sun laoshi, the Chinese professor back at UPS that set up this program, but knowing that you will be filmed for a presentation is horrifying!)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Besides the tests, on Tuesday Bai Laoshi (our calligraphy teacher), cooked us dinner. Have I mentioned before that he's good at everything? Using only the few things in the CLC, the same things we used to make our... interesting.... meal towards the beginning of the trip, he made multiple vegetarian dishes, a pork dish, steamed fish, scrambled eggs with scallions, and soup. 很好吃！It was also lots of fun because many of the CLC teachers were there and a few other students. The atmosphere was super chill and it was nice getting to interact with
the teachers in a more laid-back environment. Bai laoshi is also the type to take tons of pictures of his food (as he should; it was beautiful!), but we were all hungry and he was taking lots of time trying to get the perfect angle on everything. While he was in the kitchen getting the last dish put together, Yu laoshi joked that we should lock him in the kitchen and start without him. I really like hearing the teachers joking and laughing like they were, because during class it's harder to get a feel for their personalities (except Molly laoshi, because she's got so much personality that containing it would not be possible). Overall it was an awesome night, and although I didn't talk much, I really enjoyed just absorbing everyone's excitement and joy. Sometimes acting as witness is just as memorable as participating.
Speaking of Bai laoshi, we only have one more calligraphy class left. Our final "assignment" is to write a four-character idiom on nice white paper. I still think writing/painting straight lines are difficult! Now we have to do four characters?! So much pressure! But I chose the idiom 從善如流 (cóng shàn rú líu), meaning
Our group (plus a few) with Bai laoshi
From left to right: Sarah, Makenzie, Trini, Not sure of his name, Hunter, Bai laoshi, Rachel, Not sure of her name, Annastasia, KC, me.
Photo cred. Yu laoshi"People forge ahead in doing what is right." All of the little diagonal lines kill me... they're the most difficult strokes by far. I'm also not looking forward to having to write my Chinese name, 麥兵婷, in a smaller font. Writing small is surprisingly more difficult than writing big characters, because when your hand shakes (as it inevitably does while you are concentrating so hard), the resulting wavers in the lines are much more visible. I have found that calligraphy is very much a practice in patience, and I don't usually have that much patience. And I'm not suer why it is, but it's more difficult for me to write decently and to focus when I am practicing in my room than it is in the classroom. I also get frustrated more easily, and more likely to give up. But hopefully it will all work out on Wednesday! Fingers crossed!
Anyways, on Friday we had our presentations. Yu laoshi had us draw sticks to figure out the order that we would present in, and lucky me got to go first. Yay... The downside was that I had to go first, and nobody likes doing that. The upside was that
nobody would be comparing me to a previous person, and I just got it out of the way. The presentations were to be 10 mins in length, and the general topic was Taiwan, but we could talk about whatever we wanted to within that. Being the sentimental person that I am, I spent the first half of my presentation talking a little bit about each of the girls in our group, and then about Yu laoshi (as it was for her class). After that, I kind of sped through a general, "we also went to all of these cool places, and ate lots and lots of yummy food, etc." We were only allowed notes, which is always scary in foreign-language presentations, because in my case, I usually have lots of new vocabulary. My notes were all vocabulary, actually, and I relied on the new vocab and the pictures to lead me through what I wanted to say. I think I did okay, although as always I completely blanked the second I started, so I don't remember what happened. I find presentations to be pretty terrifying, partially because I hate being in the spotlight. I always get super nervous that I
will screw up, which makes me more nervous, continuing on like that in a vicious cycle. It's over, though, and for our troubles, Yu laoshi bought us all bubble tea! Friday is also the day that we watch movies during tutoring period, so we watched Toy Story 3 in Chinese. It was very... interesting. I hadn't seen Toy Story 3 yet, but it wasn't too bad. Toy Story has never been one of my favorite Pixar movies (and I had been hoping we would get to watch Mulan, but I guess the place she borrowed the movie from didn't have it), but it wasn't bad. Probably at about the same level as all the other Toy Story movies are for me. But considering we only had two hours of class in the morning, and 10 mins worth of presentation time, overall Friday was really chill. Rachel also left on Friday after class, which was sad. She had to return to the US early because she is an RA at UPS, and they wanted her on campus early for training (even though she was also an RA last year and has already had the training). So Rachel has gone and our
group is down to seven again.
Yesterday (it is currently 4am on Sunday), we joined a bunch of other CLC students on a field trip to Nantou. We rode in one of those giant tour buses for about an hour, until we were in Puli, Nantou. Nantou is the only landlocked county in Taiwan, and because it is landlocked (and more or less surrounded by mountains), did not feel the typhoon like the rest of the country. We then walked up 480-some stairs to the geographical center of Taiwan. I have now been to both the center and southernmost points of Taiwan, which I think is pretty cool. We were supposed to get to go paragliding, which would have been both terrifying and fun (because I am seriously afraid of heights, but would not have let that opportunity go), but unfortunately the weather was not cooperating with us and it was raining for most of the day. No paragliding for us... However, after leaving Puli, we visited the National Taiwan Craft Research and Development Institute. This is a giant government-funded complex that teaches the art of crafting. We walked through a museum on the history of crafting in Taiwan,
and then we got to do activities. Yay activities! First, we made these little bamboo pencil people, which was actually much harder than I had expected from a DIY workshop type thing. And really, it should have been simple, but for some reason the struggle was real. It was probably just me though. Meh. After that, we went to a different workshop, where we got to dye with indigo. We each got a handkerchief, and it was a lot like tye-dye, if tye-dye involved dipping the fabric in the dye three times for three minutes each, and letting them air out for a bit in between. One of the things that I learned about indigo today is that when you are dying fabric, the dye initially looks really green on the fabric. It is only when the dye has had the chance to react with the air that it changes color from an ugly greenish-yellow to the beautiful indigo color. My handkerchief ended up much more blue than I was expecting (I wanted a gradient but didn't get much of one), but one of the girls's came out completely blue, even though she had folded it so there would theoretically
Making pencil people
Taken from Facebook, Yu laoshi's original caption was 「每次成品都很完美的兵婷」 which translates to "Bingting's [that's me] every finished product is perfect." While I disagree, it was very nice of Yu laoshi to say so ^^
Photo cred. Yu laoshi be white spots. It was actually kind of funny, because as we were all unfolding ours, we each had at least some white on them, whereas hers was completely blue. At least it's a really pretty blue! On the way back we stopped by a town that is famous for its wine, and basically all of the different foods in the area involve the wine in some way, which is actually really cool. Or it would be, if I actually drank/cared about wine. I don't, really, so it was kind of take it or leave it for me, but it was kind of fun trying some of the various meats.
Anyways, that's all I have for now, so the next time I will see you, the countdown to Beijing will be on! Bye for now!
PS. I was accepted for a job blogging for Alliance (my Beijing program) this coming semester. For the most part, the blogs I post there will likely be the same as the ones here, but for the ones that aren't, I will link you to those in case you're interested!
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Judy
non-member comment
Hey
Hey Katie - Lianne said that you've enjoyed Terry's comments on your blogs. I didn't want you to think that he's our only family member reading them! I especially enjoyed '(except Molly laoshi, because she's got so much personality that containing it would not be possible).' Lianne is jetting across the Atlantic as I'm writing. You damn kids will grow up & move on! Just think of all us poor, old folks holding down the fort back home! Love, Judy