This Thursday night, our group of four was invited with our host families to Mr. Oba's house, the current branch chief at Kaohsiung's AIT office (American Institute in Taiwan, the equivalent of the embassy for American citizens in Kaohsiung, but not called an embassy due to Taiwan's history/political status) for Thanksgiving dinner. I rode with Ben's host family (he brought Richard, his Taiwanese brother) and Jubbie to dinner, and on the car way there, I was pleasantly surprised when I understood the Chinese conversation that was taking place with three native speakers.
The dinner party consisted of about 20 guest; outside of the NSLI-Y group, there were several members of the United States' foreign service and several of their children. Before dinner, Mr. Oba gave us a moment to silently reflect on the things that we were thankful for in our lives and then dinner commenced. I sat near Jubbie and Mr. Oba at dinner, and he asked if this was my first Thanksgiving away from home. I also talked to an adorable, blond-hairded 9-year old daughter who told me how she had lived in the United States when she was 1 to 4, then lived in Mexico for two years, then moved to Korea, then Taipei, and now lives in Kaohsiung, as of this summer. Her little brother was 4, and his mom said he had picked up some Chinese in his Taiwanese day care. He was also super excited about the "Pancake Cake!" that was available for dessert.
Also at dinner was a man from Beijing's press office and listening to his perspective on working for the government and foreign service was pretty awesome. In some Chinese conversation topics, I think I'm as proficient as our service members, and I learned there are a lot of local hires that the US government employs at their embassies (or AIT offices in the case of Taiwan) worldwide. Chinese is extremely difficult to become proficient in as a native English speaker (especially in regards to things like reading/writing the characters), so in a way it makes more sense to hire native Chinese speakers. Regardless, I got a new perspective on how the US foreign service works on Thursday.
Mrs. Hartman, a tall American woman who works with her husband at AIT and lives here with her two children, worked with the caters to replicate an authentic, American Thanksgiving. We enjoyed turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, rolls, creamed corn, and fruit as well as "pancake cake", apple pie, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a really thoughtful gesture, and I'm thankful that the American Institute invited the NSLI-Y youth! I think the Boulevard Bolt was probably happening around the same time in Nashville.
Friday morning on a usually week, I have a language exchange from 8-9am with a Spanish Wenzao student I met in the library. He's the oldest of eleven siblings that moved to Kaohsiung about 10 years ago when his father decided to quit his job as a doctor and become a Catholic missionary/Spanish teacher in Taiwan. My friend came when he was 12, so today, his Chinese and Spanish are basically fluent and fluent. For me, I'm fluent in English and working on Spanish and Chinese, so our language exchange is a win-win situation. Everyone at Wenzao is studying English, so it's useful to have me as your friend. After Spanish, I then usually meet with my 小老師s (literally, little teachers; actually, tutors from the Applied Chinese department) for an hour of Chinese practice before going to my daily Chinese class from 10-12.
This Friday, however, I just spoke Spanish for a half hour, and then let Spanish dude watch as I switched to English and narrated my attempt to get my family on skype during their Thanksgiving dinner. While we waited for McDad to get online, I showed him my house on Google Earth (technology is amazing), and the he asked if he could see South Park, Colorado. I've met two European guys (one Spanish, one German) who learned how to speak English by watching South Park since I've been here.
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