Fun in 台灣

It's hard to believe we're already over a month into our second semester! Recently, time has flown as I've been living out my new schedule and spending time with new and old friends at Wenzao. I've become friends with my new Chinese classmates, and there also new faces at the Chinese Center to greet me after taking the train to school at 7:15. On my commute in the morning, I run into so many high school students, and it's fascinating to see how many of the them are studying English on the way to school (but will never speak to me). There also a few students at the Kaohsiung America School that often have their noses in English textbooks of "Biology" or "Chemistry". I talked to one students from KAS, a private, much more expensive high school that only teaches in English, and he told me how they recently switched to an IB program, and how difficult it was, especially for his classmates who were working for an IB diploma.

(the group takes self pictures)

I felt myself getting busier and busier these days, especially since my day starts 2 to 3 hours earlier these days than it did last semester. Belly dancing this semester is a hour three times a week (excessive? maybe, maybe not) in preparation for our May performance, and we most recently learned the beginning of a dance to Shakira's Rabiosa. 

(hot pot dinner with friends during the school week)

It's been great to see friends from last semester since we came back, and there's definitely a camaraderie between the internationals students are here for the year. Much like in high school, I spend tons of time at school everyday, and it's nice to grab lunch or dinner with friends after class. It's also getting to be graduation season, and several of my friends (Diego, Alfredo, Ivette) will be heading into a world outside of Wenzao after this May. Recently at 文藻, you can spot various students from the 5-year school and 4 year college taking cap and gown pictures around campus. 

Alfredo! He lived in Spain for three months and will start his mandatory, one-year military service after graduation. My friend is hoping to serve somewhere in Latin or South America, because of his foreign language skills and the fact that's where Taiwan has some diplomatic relations. In Taiwan, every male has a year of required year of military service.

(外國人！！ We're from the US, the UK, and Indonesia.)

On the weekends, there's been a lot of bike riding by the beach since school started. For three US dollars, you can rent a bike for the day, and it's super beautiful to go up and down the coastline or up into the mountains for the day. In the mountains, you sometimes see wild monkeys. Over winter break, I saw one jump Nora and steal a bag of almonds out of her pocket. 

Nora recently figured out I-movie. Check out her new videos on Youtube!

Nora's First Semester Video Wrap Up

Nora's Artsy Taiwan Video

Confession: Over winter break, I found a guitar shop on the way home from the train station in Gangshan. This semester, I'm starting to learn my first stringed instrument (see reference above), and I had my first lesson two weeks ago. It's a great opportunity to practice Chinese, and if I get there earlier, I can casually drink some tea and talk with the employees and shop owner. I was probably worrying out loud about my Chinese abilities, when the owner advised "不想太多” which means "don't think too much".

A bit more on winter break:

Over winter break, our group volunteered at a week long Winter Camp for little kids in Taiwan. Nora did a great job writing about this on her blog: http://noranoranoratheexplorer.tumblr.com/ . One of the highlights of our week was giving informative presentations about "Our Hometown". I just realized IEARN filmed these, so if you're interested, check out Nora's blog or the links below for the recording of our presentations.


Part of my Tennessee Presentation in Chinese!
The end of my presentation

If you're from Nashville, you should recognize some of the special things from Tennessee I highlight in my powerpoint. There are also several pictures of friends and family doing various American things, so look for yourself in my PPT.

~Mack~

Second Semester Senior Part 2?

The last few weeks have been pretty busy as we've been figuring out our second semester schedules. The biggest change for me is that my Chinese class moved from 10-12 every day to 8-10. I live pretty far from school, so it's been an adjustment waking up around 6 every day to get to Wenzao. The 6:56 train has a lot more high school students and a lot less old people than the train around 9. My host family gave me a bike for a Chinese New Year/Birthday gift, so I've also started biking to and from the 岡山 train station rather than walking or waiting for a ride.

This semester, my schedule looks something like this:
Monday-Friday: 中文課， 8-10am. My new class has lots of native French speakers (two from Belgium, one from France, and one from Canada), two Japanese girls, one Spaniard, my Mexican classmate from last semester, and a student from Vietnam. It's also really early.

Monday: 1-3, 成語課/idioms class, 3-4 Spanish history, 4-5, Spanish-English language exchange

Tuesday: 2-4, "Fitting in in Chinese", (This class has gotten really great reviews from other foreign students and is similar to our morning Chinese class.)

Wednesday: 1-3, my year long Spanish writing class, 3-5, year long calculus class

Thursday: 1-3, auditing a Spanish grammer class taught by one of the best Spanish professors at Wenzao. Brandon's also taking this class, and many of my Taiwanese classmates in this class took other Spanish classes with me last semester, so it's cool to already have some friends. The professor has been really engaging in the last two classes, and she's my first female Spanish professor I've had whose from Spain.  Then, from 3-6 on Thursday, I'm taking "International Political Economy" with Nora. This class is my first (and only) 文藻 class taught in English, and the professor seems very good. He's a joint professor at Wenzao and the London School of Economics and has a very British accent. The class has some foreigners, but there are also a lot of Taiwanese students, and I'm amazed that they can follow his lectures on topics like mercantilism, political liberalism, and civil society. My group will eventually do a presentation on BRIC later in the semester, and we'll cover topics like transnational corporations, Sino-US relations in the 21st century and its implications for Taiwan, the rise of the Chinese Middle Classes, and the January 2012 elections in Taiwan during the semester. I'm quite excited to learn more about Taiwan outside of studying the language, and I think this class will be quite interesting (though a bit long). These sorts of classes were my jam in high school, and it will be cool to get a European perspective on United States' and China's political and economic relationship. I'm also excited to be expected to speak English in class.

Friday: 1-3 year long Spanish conversation course

I think it's a great schedule, and I'm especially excited about adding new Chinese classes and a political science class in English. With my new free block from 10-12 every morning, I've been trying to get my ACL physical therapy/work out done early in the morning, and I've been getting it done so far. Public service announcement: morning workouts make you feel great for the rest of the day.

Also,
I'M 19!

Thanks for all FB and real life birthday wishes. Last weekend marked my first beach birthday party, and we ate cupcakes my family sent from America. Delicious and very sweet.

frisbee

Me and Nora

我愛台灣！