Hi guys! I am here to recap one of the best weeks so far. Although this week was very busy, I made so many 忘不了的经验 (unforgettable experiences). One of the highlights of this week was 清华之夜 (Qing Hua Night). This was a night where we would perform for our teachers, host family, and language partners. The requirement was that each class needed to put on a 15-20 minute play, so our class did 十二生肖比赛 (The Zodiac Race). The Zodiac Race essentially explains the origin of the Chinese zodiac, and the story is essentially a race where your position in the race dictates the order in the Chinese zodiac you are in. I was the 老鼠 (rat), and since the Rat is the first animal in the Zodiac, I won the race. It was a fun experience acting out my scene because in the story, every animal has to cross a river, but the rat doesn’t know how to swim, so the rat begs the cow to help him out, so in our play I rode on one of friends back who was playing the cow, and the crowd thought that was funny. I also last minute helped out Sam and Nikhil, to friends from NSLI-Y with their song 飘向北方. Although I learned the song at the very last minute, we put on such a great performance, and had the whole crowd clapping. What was especially awesome about 飘向北方 is that it has a lot of rapping in the song, and Sam was about to rap all of it perfectly. Chinese is already hard, so trying to rap in Chinese is 10 times harder but Sam did it very well. After putting on a spectacular performance, we went to our host family for the weekend. As usual we went to many different places, but some of my favorite places were the science museum. Now when my host family told me we were going to a Science Museum, I thought of my local science museum back home, but I was very surprised to see the museums in Taiwan. The museum was 10 (fact check) floors, and was the nicest museum I think I have ever been into. At the Museum there were a lot of interactive things that you could do there. One of the coolest ones was riding a bike on a rope. Watching someone do it, It looked very scary, but when I did it myself, It was actually very stable because there was a counter weight under the bike. After going to the Science Museum, I was very curious why they had such a huge museum for science. It made me think about 三民主义 (Three People’s Principles) with them being Science, Democracy, and Ethics. It overall made me realize how important science is to Taiwan. Finally, our host family took me to 十分老街 (Shifen Old Street) where we made our own 十分放天燈 (sky lanterns). Me and my host family chose the colors blue, white, pink, and purple. Each color represents what you want to have in your life. Blue represents a good career, white represents a bright future, pink represents bliss and joy, and purple represents doing good in school and studying hard. After getting our lantern you are able to write whatever you want on the lantern. I decided to write about how I was going to miss my host family, and how I wanted a future career using my Mandarin. Making the lantern was a great way to end my time with my host family, and it made me realize that my trip was coming to an end. It was kind of sad doing it because I knew it was going to be the last activity I would do with my host family, but all good things have to come to an end. 

大家好！I am back with my week 4 recap, and this trip has flown by. One of the highlights of my trip was my 口语报告 (Speaking Report), because although it was a little nerve racking to present in front my class, I learned so much about my topic. I talked about 中正纪念堂 (Chiang Kai-shek Memorial). In my presentation, I talked about the architecture of the Memorial, the 卫兵交接 (Changing of the Guards), and comparing the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial. Besides this, I have been eating so much 刨冰 (shaved ice tsua bing is how you pronounce shaved ice in 台语), a desert that Taiwan is known for. It is very different from American shaved ice with Taiwanese shaved using more natural flavors. I have also been having so much fun with my 语伴 (language partner). It is  a requirement to meet with our language partner 4 hours a week, and during these hours, we usually go out to eat or go do an activity. For example, this week I went to play table tennis with my language partner, and I had so much fun! Despite doing a bunch of activities with my language partner, we were of course practicing Mandarin, and this week I asked my language partner Jacky to teach me some slang. He responds by just saying “nie”. At first I was very confused because I wasn’t sure what that even meant, but essentially “nie” is a way to say something is very so-so. After Jacky taught me “nie”, we met up with some other NSLI-Y students, and one of them was talking about how pretty the moon looked today. Seizing the opportunity, I responded with “nie” and after everyone was laughing. Some other Taiwan slang I learned was 真的假的？(Seriously?). 真的 by itself means really, and it was many people say in China when they are surprised by something, but in Taiwan, many people will say “真的假的?”. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my host family this weekend, but the group went to 日月潭 (Sun Moon Lake). Sun Moon Lake was so pretty, and the water looked very clear. I also thought it was very interesting because many people were asking if we could go swimming in Sun Moon Lake, but we weren’t able to because they actually only have a specific time of year that you can swim in Sun Moon Lake (elaborate more). While we were in Sun Moon Lake, we also visited a tea factory which was very cool, because they showed us the process of how they make specific types of tea, and I was able to buy some tea for my mom and grandparents. Overall, I had so much fun traveling to a different part of Taiwan this week, and learning some new slang.

大家好！I am back with my week 3 recap and I have been having so much fun in Taiwan. I started off the week with 卡拉OK (Karaoke) with some friends and we had so much fun! Despite not knowing many Chinese songs, we still had so much fun, and even sang some English songs like Baby by Justin Bieber and We All Live in a Yellow Submarine by the Beatles. This week, I have also really been enjoying classes because I have a great relationship with my teachers, and I am learning so much! I would tell you all the amazing things that we did during class, but what is far more interesting is what I did with my host family. The first time I visited my host family, it was very awkward, but this time it was a lot better, and I was even able to crack jokes in Chinese. One of my favorite conversations I had over the weekend was when my host mom was talking about how my host sibling has a 女朋友 (girlfriend). When his mom told me that he had a girlfriend he replied saying 不是，不是，她是我的BFF (No, No She is my BFF). After hearing this I asked my host sibling if he thought she was pretty, and he merely shrugged. After this I was dying laughing, but what really made me laugh was when my host mom told me that his “BFF” was very rich, and had a lot of money. After hearing an important trait of his BFF I told my host brother that he should continue being “BFF’s” with her and everyone started laughing. Despite having so much fun talking with my host family, we went to many different places as well. 

Some highlights from my host family weekend was when we did DIY 米粉 (Rice Noodles) because we got to make our meal, and it was some of the best noodles I have ever had. Another highlight was going to the 玻璃艺术工作室. You might think that dealing with a blow torch and fragile materials while being instructed in Chinese is a recipe for disaster, but it was amazing, and I was able to make a glass leaf. Although we did go to many places over the weekend, at their home, we also had fun playing Just Dance on the Nintendo Switch. Despite my dancing skills being very 马马虎虎 (so/so), I still had so much fun. Our host family also took us to the 原住民 which was very cool. In the 原住民, we lived like the Hokka tribe, and they taught us tribal dances/songs,  how they would set up traps to catch birds, and they even taught us 射箭 (archery). We also did DIY rice and cooked rice in a shaft of bamboo, which was a very cool experience. Overall I had so much fun this week in Taiwan, but through all of the activities I did this week, I noticed a lot of cultural differences. One that I thought was very interesting was when I was walking to find some dinner and I encountered one road that went both ways. I thought it was very interesting because I watched cars go through this road from both sides for a while, and wondered why this wouldn’t work in the US. Another cultural difference was when I went swimming in Taiwan. For starters my host siblings didn’t know how to swim which was a shock for a Floridian who swims more than he walks. Also before we got into the pool, the lifeguard yelled at us and told me “你需要戴游泳帽子” (You need to wear a swimming cap). In the US it is pretty normal to not wear a swim cap unless you are swimming for competition, but everyone in the pool in Taiwan was wearing a swim cap. Despite this I had so much fun this week, and I am so excited for next week.