星期五：Today I ended up going with some of the iEARN staff to Pingtung because everyone else was busy. We first went to a Hakka cultural center where we ate some snacks, visited a museum about Hakka people’s influence on baseball in Taiwan, and went to a painted paper umbrella shop. After finishing at the center, we went to the house of one of the teacher’s old classmates where we ate some more and then went on a hike to a nearby mountain to see three waterfalls. It later turned out that none of the waterfalls had water after we had already hiked for a bit, so we turned back and just went back to the house for a dinner of traditional Hakkanese food. We then explored the back of the house where there was a little pond full of tadpoles, snails, and clams, before heading back to Kaohsiung. It was a pretty weird day because I was the only one of the NSLI-Y kids who ended up going, but it was also still nice to go to somewhere outside of Kaohsiung for a bit.
(at the Hakka cultural center)
(with Doris and two other teachers)
(the hike with no waterfall)
(a pretty flower in the pond at the house)
(traditional Hakka meal)
星期六：Today the weather was nice and my host family had some stuff to do during the afternoon and evening, so I decided to just go out and walk around for a while since it was so nice out. After getting on the subway to head to the beach, I accidentally ran into Joey, Pablo, and Liam and some of their friends in the subway station. Since I was just on my own, they invited me to join them for the day, which was super nice. We first went to get some wonton soup at a little place in a back alley and then went to find a tea shop my parents had found and recommended when they visited. After exploring for a bit, we went to get shave ice at the famous shave ice place. From there we walked around a little street market, the coastline, the university in that part of town, and then an old martial arts police academy that’s now a historical site. It was a really fun day since I never really get to hang out with the guys, and I enjoyed just walking around the older part of town for the afternoon.
They all went home for dinner, but since my host family was still busy, I found a Hungarian restaurant near Wenzao. Not only was the food really delicious, but since I went kind of early, I was the only one in the restaurant, so the owner and his wife talked to me the whole time and fed me a bunch of free desserts that were incredibly good. It was a really unexpectedly nice dinner.
(the tea shop)
(hanging out with guys and their friends)
(boats in Xiziwan)
(at the nearby university)
(looking out over the older part of town)
(the old martial arts school)
(street market at Xiziwan)
(dessert at the Hungarian restaurant)
星期天：Today I spent a good portion of the afternoon with my family at Costco, which was interesting because it was something I would do any day in America, but was an odd experience in Taiwan. My little sister wasn’t too into the shopping part, so I mostly ended up hanging out with her while my host mom shopped, which was fun. In the evening we also all went out to dinner together, which we haven’t done in a while, so that was nice.