Blogs from Taichung, Taiwan, Asia - page 2

Wow...so it was a long trip getting here! My flight out of Nashville on Friday morning was at 6am so I left the house at 3. My sister, Stacie, came with me to the airport (she should be nominated for angel status for this) because when I got to the airport I had 3 large suitcases, a small carryon suitcase, and my laptop bag...and I had to return the rental car first lol. So I dropped her off at the curb, helped her wheel my bags inside the sliding doors, and she sat with them all inside the airport while I returned the car. Once I got back to her I checked in for my flight. The whole reason I booked Air Canada for this flight is because I knew I would have extra bags and ... read more

Sunday, 23rd October 2016 I spent sometime at the 921 Earthquake Museum today. Getting there was supposed to be very straight forward as the U Bus # 50 would bring me straight to the museum entrance within 45 minutes. However, for some reason, I waited to the point of giving up when the bus failed to appear after 45 minutes. I kept telling myself (and my legs) to persevere for the long wait. When the bus did arrive eventually, it was rather empty despite the long intervals in between the services. Perhaps that explained the low frequency since there was not much of a demand in the first place. The 921 museum was built on the site of a former elementary school in Taichung which was devastated by the powerful earthquake on 21st September 1999. I ... read more

Hey everyone! After a hectic week of tests, presentations, and retaking the crazy difficult placement test we took at the beginning to evaluate our improvement, the Tunghai program has come to an end. On Friday, we retook the placement test. I think it was a different version of the same test, but the listening portion this time felt more difficult, as the topics were less familiar and used more of the newer vocab we learned, and they spoke faster. The recordings were also only played once, with the actual question at the end, which definitely didn't make things any easier! Having the question first would have given more context to the dialogue; for some of them I had no idea what was even happening until they got to the question, by which point the entire dialogue ... read more

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 ... read more

Wow, I think it's been about a month since I've written a blog post. I think it's time for an update. So much has happened since I've last written. Right now I'm experiencing my first natural disaster! It's pretty exciting, but more on that a little later. I think I'm going to start with my most recent adventure, our trip to Kenting. Let me say that I can't believe we went to a vacation spot and got to call it school. It was the greatest thing ever! If you can picture those screen savers or backgrounds of the tropical beaches that come with your computer, that is what Kenting looked like. It was so beautiful. The water was a clear blue and the temperature was luke warm. We were only there for three days, but I ... read more