第三個星期：Exploring Kaohsiung

星期一：Today I learned how to use the post office, which was really cool. Mailing letters here is definitely pretty different than in the U.S. For starters, you actually have to go to the post office because the letters each have to be weighed to determine which stamps must go on them. Once the weight is found, you have to place different stamps on the envelope to add up to that number. Also, the stamps aren't stickers, so you have to use a paintbrush and a bucket of glue to paste the stamps on. I also found it funny that the post office leaves out a set of reading glasses that anyone can use if they need them.

After the post office adventure, we all headed back to the Kindergarten teacher's house where we read a sad picture book about a dog losing its owner and then all had to write picture books about our home states. My book included lots of cowboy drawings and I tried to include the Fort Worth Stockyards as a popular tourist destination, but it turns out that doesn't translate well so now everyone thinks we go visit a slaughterhouse for our fun family vacations (whoops).

(My book about Texas)

星期二：Today we were supposed to see a traditional drumming performance and ride bikes around an old sugar refinery, but that got rained out (tears...) so five of us decided to make our own field trip to Lotus Lake. Lotus Lake is probably the most famous tourist destination in Kaohsiung; it's a large lake surrounded by beautiful temples and the famous Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, but you can also head there to play on a wakeboard course and/or jump on a blob (sadly those are considered risky activities so NSLI-Y kids aren't allowed to participate in those). Though it was pouring rain, we walked around the whole lake and climbed up the pagodas, and, by the end of our excursion, we'd walked over 7 miles. While I'm sad our original field trip was cancelled, I'm glad I got to see Lotus Lake so early on in my trip.

(view from the Tiger Pagoda)

(looking out onto the other temples)

(Dragon and Tiger Pagodas)

(Lotus Lake)

星期三：Today we got to participate in a cooking activity where we successfully made Taiwanese pineapple cakes (really more like cookies) and unsuccessfully tried to make bubble tea. We made a ton of pineapple cakes as we'd be giving them to our host families and all the guests who would attend our opening ceremony on Friday. While it was a lot of fun, it turns out none of us can sift flour and I've decided, while metric units generally make way more sense, cooking with metric units is quite difficult as you have to weigh everything. We then tried to make the boba to go in our bubble tea, but, instead of coming out in nice bubbles, it turned into that science fair goop that's hard with pressure but turns runny when released. Even though our bubble tea failed, I had a great day as I got to eat three and a half pineapple cakes.

(Homemade pineapple cakes!)

(walking home in the rain)

星期四：Today we had international student orientation at Wenzao. While we got to see some cool aboriginal dances from a Wenzap club, the orientation was otherwise super boring. There are about 100 foreign exchange students at Wenzao which is really cool, though it's odd to think that I'm a foreign exchange student now as usually I've been on the other end of that when visiting colleges.

星期五：Though we've been here two weeks, the opening ceremony for the program was today. The Wenzao president, a representative from AIT (essentially our consulate in Taiwan as we can't have a real one because of issues with China), and the iEARN Taiwan team all came and gave little speeches, and then we all had to introduce ourselves in Chinese. After our introductions, we had prepared a performance of the classic song Mo Li Hua; it went interestingly but everyone was nice and still clapped along.

After the ceremony, five of us plus one host sibling headed off to see some of Kaohsiung's cool places. We first went to the 85 tower, the tallest building in the city, to see the view, and then we headed into the Dome of Light, a metro stop that boasts the largest stained glass ceiling in the world. After that, we headed to the Central Library, a modern building with a lovely rooftop garden. From there we grabbed some noodles and then headed to an arcade where we all slightly injured ourselves on a mechanical bull and then went bowling.

(Dome of Light in the metro station)

(85 Tower)

(view from the 85 tower)

(the Central Library)

(the library's rooftop garden)

(a common sight in Taiwan)

星期六：Today I started out the morning by visiting the Kaohsiung Port. It apparently used to be a Dutch colonial town and then some kind of fishery, so now they've preserved some of it in a kind of historical town. It was really cool because my host parents told me that these buildings were like their houses growing up and the artifacts left in the general store building were things they remembered. After that we ate some peanut zongzi (a type of rice dumpling) and then went back to the apartment to nap.

In the evening we went out to Cijin Island, an island right of the coast of Kaohsiung, to eat seafood and watch the sunset. The beach was so lovely as tons of families were out flying kites and dogs were running around. My host parents stopped to let me stick my feet in the ocean as we watched the sun set; it was a really beautiful time.

(remains from the Dutch town)

(old style Taiwanese building)

(park by the beach at Cijin)

(at the beach!)

(gorgeous sunset)

星期天：In the afternoon today we went on a short hike up a mountain to see the view of the city and the ocean. Though it was a short hike, I was completely dying from the insane heat and humidity (I've discovered that if you're not soaking wet from the torrential rains in Kaohsiung, you're soaking wet from sweat, which is gross), also I had a minor allergic reaction to the Taiwanese bug spray which wasn't fun. But, while I may have been slowly dying, the view was great. Also I saw tons of giant snails all over the hiking trail. Once we got down from the mountain, my family took me back to Lotus Lake to see it at night when it was all lit up.

(it's starting to look a little like autumn in the mountains)

(view from the top of the mountain)

(temple at Lotus Lake)

(Lotus Lake at night)