Astri's Exchange Story in TAIWAN

May 22, 2011.

After the 1 hour delay in Hongkong (because of the bad weather), i finally arrived in Taiwan at around 4 pm. At the airport, i was greeted by Wenda and Tina who was holding a paper with “Astri” written on it :D . At first we went by bus to the city, and then with the MRT to Shillin station. I was carrying 3 bags with me: 1 20 kg luggage, 1 duffel bag, and 1 laptop bag. They were SO heavy and dragging them around the mrt station was tiring! Thankfully, Wenda and Tina helped, they carried my laptop bag & duffel bag so i only had to drag the heavy luggage (with the wheels broken!).

I forgot which MRT station we went first, but later we went to shillin station where i was picked up by Xishan elementary principal: ms. Cheng and the dean, Andy. We had a talk, arranging my homestay for 2 days before i move into a dorm. So in the end, they decided i was to stay at the xishan teacher’s house , Joy, for 2 nights.

We went to Joy’s house, and there i was introduced to her family:  children Debra & Daniel and her husband Luke. They were amazing! I became friends with Debra instantly, because we have so much in common and i also learned that she goes to the same university as my friend, in Canada.

For dinner we all went to a restaurant (i dont remember the name) where we ate these 5 course meal. I WAS SO FULL by the end of it. After dinner me and debra went to the night market, and stayed there until 11 o’clock. I LOVE THE NIGHT MARKET!!!! 

I love Taiwan~ the people are just so friendly ^^

May 23

This is the first day of my teaching in Xishan elementary. I was sooo nervous! 

Soon i learned that the school is small: only 1 class each grade, and only around 12 students in each class. The students were so cute! I introduced myself infront of them at the school field, and afterwards they asked me questions. The questions were funny, like “do you have a boyfriend?” “what kind of animal do you like?” and stuff.

My first class was the 2nd grade. They were learning the months in english, so we sang a song.

next was 5th grade, we watched a health drama by the nurse, informing the students they need calcium and healthy food to grow tall. The nurses also wore costumes (mario bros, hobbit) to attract the students which was brilliant!

The last class was the 6th grade. They were REALLY hyperactive, and when we played the name game, they couldnt stay still! I lost the game twice, once cos i forgot Emmy’s name and in the end i had to kiss her on the cheek. And the other time i had to write a mandarin word with my LEFT HAND.

Tiring day but i had fun!

May 25

OKAAAAY~ so i moved into my dorm yesterday. I live at Wesley Girls’ High School’s teacher’s dorm. It’s the single dormitory (with 3 dorms) but no one lives there, so i live alone. No roomate, no tv and no internet connection. FANTASTIC.

At first it was scary, cos i’m not used to living alone, i always have people around me so being alone was somewhat scary and lonely. I was bored and had nothing to do, so i watched The Big Bang theory dvd i brought with me. I watched a couple of videos and then fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night though, and couldnt fall back asleep so i called my friend, Nick (in Indonesia).

Oh yeah! Today Tim, a 6th grade student, came up to my office and gave me cookies! He was soooo sweet~ i kept the cookies in my desk, but my co worker, Jack, ate one of them without me knowing (he didnt know it was mine). He then gave me a mango candy to make up for it. The principal also bought me 2 mugs because i said i needed glasses in my dorm. She’s SO NICE! I was gonna buy myself but she bought it for me instead.

After school today, i went to Carrefour at zhishan (i think?) and bought lots of things. For the first time i went by the bus and MRT by myself! It was FUN!

Everyone’s so friendly at Xishan! The teachers are so nice, and even the student’s parents asked if i wanted to go somewhere with them.

May 27

I dont have any class today, so i just finished my culture powerpoint and drew 2 patterns of batik for next Art class. The dean from Wesley also came to Xishan to discuss the possibility of me coming to Wesley and give them culture studies. I didn’t mind so we fixed a schedule.

JJ, Kyle (3rd grade) mom came to the office today and we talked about the culture ppt. She’s gonna be my translator for the 3rd grade class, so we discussed the ppt and she also invited me to go to a summer festival thing in June, but i already made plans with my friend so i had to decline. That was very nice of her though, and i hope i can go out with her some other time 

ANDD~ we had AIESEC MCLC welcoming party! It was GREAAAAT! I met a lot of people ^^

At first it was awkward because i dont know anyone, but after we introduced ourselves i became more comfortable and just enjoyed the rest of the evening. Befriended so many people like Stan, Ben, Till, Pierre, Rita, Flora, Yoyo, Jamie, Daniel, Chloe, Margo, Cindy and lots more^^ they were so nice! We played games, listened to some stories from the sharing session, etc. Oh, dinner was DELICIOUS!

I had to leave the party early though, cos i had a bus to catch (9.30) so me, Daniel and Pierre left earlier- accompanied by Jamie and Yoyo.  We went to Yuanshan MRT and seperated there. I went with the same MRT as Pierre though, so we talked for the rest of the trip home. He’s hilarious, i asked why his english is unlike the other French people i know, and then he changed his accent into a French one on purpose. Haha. “I can talk like this no problem!”

I can’t wait to meet the MCLC people again! So fun! Now i have more friends! YAAAY~

May 29

Today i had SO MUCH FUN!

I went out the whole day with my xishan co workers, Jack, trina, louis, fina and Jay.  We gathered at shillin MRT station at 9 am, then we went to Chiang Kai Shek’s residential place and took lots of pics! After that we ate lunch : pearl tea & beef noodle. SO YUMMY~

Then  we went to Longshan temple, i observed the place and took lots of pictures, From there we went to Ximen where i bought 2 pair of glasses, and a food bag. After that we went to the presidential palace (Jack knows the place so well because he was a guard or something when he served his time at the military) We also took many pics at the old town.

Around 6 pm or 7 pm we went to Shillin night market. Louis, fina and jack were tired and not interested so only me, trina and jay remained. We shopped and ate a lot! I also bought A LOT of things. Omg i think i spent too much. Oh well, i was happy anyway ^^

We called it a night at 9 or around 10. My legs hurt SO bad! They were really sore from all the walking T____T

June 2

Today i had to teach 2 classes, originally it was 3 but the morning class got cancelled. So i only thought art for the 3rd grader and also sociology (culture studies). 

For the art class we made batik pattern, they could draw anything as long as there’s some dots or swirls covering the page so it’s kind of like a batik pattern. During culture studies, i introduced indonesian culture, they were very enthusiastic! Especially because i put so many videos, they kept asking me to repeat the video. They also asked a lot of questions, and this time they werent “do you eat snake?” “do you like cockroach?” their questions were actually very good. They asked a lot of things about indonesia, like what kind of religion most people believe in? What’s the meaning of the traditional dance? Etc.

At 5 pm, i went to Jiantan MRT station to meet Jo to discuss about the english camp. After i met up with her, we went to ming chuan university where i met new people, like victor, cindy etc. We discussed the schedule, what kind of food i’d make etc. We also went to the computer building where i FINALLY got internet connection (at night) so i chatted with my friend for a while, as well as continue discussing the games and rundown for the english camp.

Around 7.30 i left because i was meeting Adi (also an EP) at NTU MRT. I met with adi and we went to Dingxi where we met his coworkers: Vivienne and Peter. We went through the night market there, we talked, ate, looked around. It was fun! I made new friends again ^^

June 3

Today, i did  a presentation for the whole school, from grade 1 – 6 at the recreation center. Because ive done quite a lot of presentation, i wasnt nervous anymore. The kids were VERY hyperactive, thankfully my co worker Jack  ke[t reminding them to be quiet and throw candies to get their attention once in a while. I also wore my traditional skirt, a batik skirt and the kids liked it very much

I played a lot of videos. Because the kids seem more interested that way, and sure enough they were very happy 

Today’s the last day before the dragon boat festival, so ill be back at school in Tuesday. I think im gonna go to carrefour today to buy some supplies. Haha