We have finally arrived in Taiwan! After a good night's sleep, we woke up to go exploring around our house. We are staying at the Tainan Theological College, one of the oldest colleges in Taiwan. It is beautiful and green outside, and I took a few pictures for you to see. However, you don't want to stay outside long, because it reaches at least 32˚C or 91˚F and is very humid.
We went back inside for a delicious breakfast of bean milk, dim sum, and Taiwanese bread. The bean milk taste a bit like soy milk, but the dim sum (an Asian word for appetizer) was my favorite. We ate pork wrapped in rice noodles and spring rolls. We also had lychee, a fruit about the size of a plum that is wrapped in a hard, prickly coating but is grape-like on the inside. I managed to eat the whole meal with chopsticks!
From there, we headed to the school for a day of meetings with our Taiwanese team. Each classroom has two American teachers, one Taiwanese assistant, and three Taiwanese counselors for fifteen students in our classroom. We have plenty of help! We explored our classrooms, set up our materials, and explained our lessons to our Taiwanese friends. Sometimes, materials would get a little lost in translation. I needed frosting for one of our lessons, and I was told I had 100 grams. Many metric conversions were made during the day as we tried to figure out the ingredients to all of our recipes.
We finished by 6:30 PM and headed out to dinner at a restaurant overlooking the canal in Tainan. After a Japanese-style lunch, this meal was very traditional to Tainan. The meal consisted of more dishes than I could count. We had rice fish soup, noodle soup, fried shrimp, fried squid balls, eel and noodles, coffin bread, and a milk-like desert with red beans. Needless to say, we are well-fed! I'm not a big fan of fish, but it is very popular here since Taiwan is an island. I stuck to seafood, and most of it was quite good. Eating noodle soup with chopsticks was amusing, but after three meals, I'm starting to get the hang of it.
We ended our day with some practice in American games for our lesson the next day. We're teaching them Phase 10, Apples to Apples, Sorry, and a few more. Then, it was time for bed so that we could be ready for a week of school. See you tomorrow!
I learned that you stayed at one of the oldest colleges in Taiwan. Another thing I learned is that the meal you had had lots of dishes.I also learned that it is very hot and humid there in Taiwan.
ReplyDeleteI can use my mom's food scale to measure 100 grams ,which is how much frosting you needed. I can use math to figure out what time it was in Tucson when you had dinner.(It was 3:00am)
Then my question is what was your house like in Taiwan?
Delaney,
ReplyDeleteMy house was more like a college dormitory. It had a kitchen, living area, and 8 bedrooms that we shared. There was also a small backyard and a rooftop balcony.
I didn't know Taiwon was an island. I guess we really do learn something every day.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know Taiwon was an island. I guess we really do learn something every day.
ReplyDeleteAthena