一日不见如隔三秋!

            On Wednesday, January 8, 2014, I woke up extremely groggy because I stayed up till 2 AM the previous night, or I guess I would call it “morning.” A few of us walked over to Sunmerry to eat pastries, which is becoming a daily routine. Upon arrival to the university, I walked confidently into my classroom because today was a TEST DAY! I studied really hard, and felt prepared. Little did I know that the teacher would give the test 20 minutes before I had to leave the class to Dan Shui. I hurriedly completed my test, and overall I felt that I did “okay.” After I left the classroom, we all headed to the metro to go to Dan Shui, which is the main campus of the university. At the university we ate lunch with Dean of International Affairs, and then went on a guided tour of the university and various places around the university. We also tried some very delicious foods, one of which was a fish ball soup. We spent a lot of time walking around; by the end of the day, I just crashed in my bed and did a bit of studying and went to sleep. The following morning, we did the same thing – Sunmerry and then class. Something wonderful happened today in class… I fully understood the teacher! Our new topic in class is the stresses of standardized testing in Taiwan. I learned a lot of new phrases, one of which was very cute – it meant “a day spent without you feels like three seasons.” I told Cindy this phrase, and I think she liked it. Then we learned how to make a Satchet, and it was a lot harder than a thought. I realized that sewing is not as easy as it looks, and also the teacher was amazing at sewing – he was very detailed! The rest of the evening was very relaxing because when I came back to our hotel I studied a little bit of Chinese and then took a two hour nap. It was a much-needed nap, because I was definitely exhausted all day.

            When I first arrived in Taiwan, my speaking abilities were very bad and I had no confidence in speaking to Taiwanese people at all. Something that I noticed within the past few days is that my confidence level has gone up tremendously and now I have no problem practicing my Chinese with my classmates. I think that talking to Cindy and Travis has really helped me improve my conversation speaking abilities because they speak very naturally and the conversations we have I can keep up with. Something I noticed about the culture in Taiwan is that whenever I want to practice my Chinese, the locals become very excited and willing to maintain a conversation with me. No one has made me feel uncomfortable and everyone is always curious about where I learn Chinese. I feel that Taiwan is becoming very home-like to me, and I feel that I have molded myself into the Taiwanese culture. I feel that I have a daily routine here, and I am starting to see similar faces every now and then. Overall, I would consider Taipei a very welcoming city. I like that even though Taipei is a big city, there are very many people that speak Chinese, so it always gives me opportunities to practice. I didn’t have this perspective before because before I would not want to take advantage of speaking to locals because I would worry about how my Chinese would sound, but now I just want to speak to everyone!

            This weekend we are going to Ilan and Hualian, which is on the East side of Taiwan. Next time I will discuss my experiences in that part of Taiwan. I hope to continue improving on my Chinese, and hopefully learn more of Taiwan’s history. I will also compare the prices of food in that area in comparison to Taipei. So far though, everything has been really cheap! Sometimes I feel that I spend most of my time trying new foods!

            学如逆水行舟，不进则退。 我的老师教我这个句子。