第十四個星期：Thanksgiving in Taiwan

星期一：Today started our week of finals. Technically this was my first round of college finals, though, granted, they weren’t as hard as normal college finals would be since it was all low level Chinese, they were still finals and, therefore, not fun. I had my final for my reading class today, though it was really easy as my reading class was never able to get changed to match the level of my Chinese class, so everything was a level down and therefore really quite easy, which was frankly pretty nice for the final.

That night all the host parents were invited to a Thanksgiving dinner without us (we all thought this was pretty against the theme of Thanksgiving, but oh well), so Heather and I decided to head to a restaurant called Arkansas Diner that Becca recommended.

Walking in to the restaurant was a very weird experience as it was like walking straight into a country diner in the middle of Texas. With country music, signs all over the walls, and an actual guy from Arkansas who owned it, it felt a lot like home. I ordered chicken and waffles and then got a slice of pumpkin pie half off since it was around Thanksgiving, and it was all incredibly delicious. Maybe it’s because I was pretty excited about the whole experience, but the pumpkin pie tasted better than any I’ve ever had. I definitely plan on going back there as, for breakfast, they serve biscuits, and they also have pecan pie.

(incredible pie with Heather)

星期二：After my morning class, I decided to head to the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. The art museum is located in a really nice park with a lake and lots of gorgeous flowers that were all in bloom, so I walked around for a while and then headed in to see the museum.

It was a really nice museum, and they currently have many exhibitions featuring aboriginal artists. This was interesting as there was both traditional and then modern art portraying what life was like in the past versus now for aboriginal people; there was also a lot of art relating to the religious beliefs and culture of certain groups which was cool to learn a little about. The museum also was having a special exhibition about how Ming Dynasty calligraphy in China influenced the cultures of Japan and Korea. This was a really interesting exhibit as it had a lot of history, also, as I’m taking calligraphy as an elective at Wenzao, it put into perspective how difficult it really is to become a master, as this exhibition made my artwork look even worse than I already knew it was.

For dinner that night, my host mom took me out to get Japanese food with her friend. It’s always fun to get to spend a long time talking with new people as it definitely helps me to realize the progress I’m making. While I was not close to understanding the whole conversation, I understood way more than I would have even a month ago. Also her friend was really nice and spent a hilariously long time complimenting my complexion.

(we learned some traditional knot tying in our morning tutoring and made these guys)

(just had to feature this gorgeous bubble tea)

(exhibit in the art museum)

(showcase of an aboriginal groups religion protrayed in sculpture)

(panorama drawing of Kaohsiung)

(calligraphy exhibit)

(art museum park)

(all the flowers were in bloom)

(my feelings for this city portrayed in sculpture form)

星期三：After our weekly afternoon tutoring, we all had to run home and get fancy as we were all invited to a Thanksgiving dinner hosted by the branch head of AIT’s Kaohsiung office. So we were essentially going to dinner at the embassy, which is awesome. Also invited were all the Fulbright Scholars who were placed in Kaohsiung, some English teachers, a few more diplomats, and many Mormons.

The house it was hosted at was sooo nice, and we were all super excited when we realize that we would be eating real Thanksgiving food for dinner. After stuffing ourselves with all the amazing food and multiple pies, we ended up playing a game of Apples to Apples. This was pretty crazy because I ended up playing right beside a fairly important diplomat and I was actually able to ask him questions about his career while simultaneously playing a board game with him

Overall it was the weirdest Thanksgiving of my life, but it was also fun and unique, and I definitely won’t be forgetting it anytime soon.

(last Chinese class with Ms. Hong)

(group picture with the branch chief and his wife)

(thanksgiving dinner!)

(PIE!)

(just eating on the floor with a diplomat...casual day...)

(after a game of Apples to Apples)

星期四：Today we had our speaking final, which was decent I guess, but I'm glad to have finished it. In the evening. I had choir practice as we have a performance on Monday, and it’s pretty funny because they keep giving me all the solos on all the English songs because they don’t want to sing the English. Also we had to learn a little dance today for one of the songs, which is never my favorite thing, but I lived. It’s also nice because they’re getting less shy about talking with me and my Chinese is getting better, so hopefully I’ll end up actually being fiends with some of them soon.

(last class with Ms. Qiiu, I think we were making hearts but who knows)

星期五：Today I had the listening, reading, and writing final, which was also decent. I understood all the Chinese, but a lot of the answers were pretty ambiguous, so that was frustrating. As a celebrations, I went out to lunch with three of my classmates, which was a lot of fun.

In the afternoon we had another group meeting to discuss our trip to Taipei and our Christmas party and got about the same amount of done as the last meeting, which is mostly nothing, because the eight generally have issues being productive when we’re all together, but we were payed a nice visit by Logan, the RD of the groups three and four years ago, who was visiting Taiwan. He works at the Taiwan desk at the state department now, so he talked to us about that and then just gave us some advice for best enjoying our time here.

After our meeting, Mackenzie, Becca, Anthony and I went out for a trip to 9x9, our favorite stationary store, and then dropped by my favorite bakery, Sunny Hills, where they give you a free pineapple cake every time you visit. Anthony went home after our shopping, but Mackenzie, Becca, and I went and got grilled cheese and brownies and then talked until pretty late. Today was also the lottery day, and almost every convenience store puts lottery numbers on all their receipts, so we spent a long time checking all our numbers but, sadly, none of us won anything.

That night (technically 1 in the morning), my friends from home called me and I ended up getting up for a bit to “eat lunch together” with them, which, while I was half asleep the whole time, was pretty nice.

(grilled cheese with Becca and Mackenzie)

星期六：My host mom figured out I like waffles (I somehow ended up eating three waffles on different occasions this week) so my host parents and I went out for brunch together and then took a nice walk around the art museum park I had visited earlier in the week. From there we visited the big library and a shopping center, but we were all worn out by around 3, so we just went home and napped.

In the evening I had convinced my host parents to skype with my real family. While they were nervous about their English abilities (which are honestly quite good), I was able to really convince them as, coincidentally, my sisters had invited their friend from college to spend Thanksgiving with our family, and she’s from Taiwan, so in cases where I couldn’t translate, she’d be able to help out. It ended up being really fun to have everyone meet and I think we were all really glad we did it.

星期天：Today it was dreary and rainy and COLD. Like actually cold to where I had to put on pants and a sweater, which is CRAZY since it hasn’t been below 70 degrees this whole time. Since the weather was pretty bleh, we went out and got some lunch and visited my host dad’s mom and sister for a while and then went to my host mom’s house and visited with her dad and older sister. It turned out today was just a day for grandparents, because in the evening I got to Skype my own grandparents, which w