Spanish: No; Sports: Yes

Monday October 15, 2012

Goodbye five-day-long weekend! It was incredible and the best five days in a row of my exchange so far! Now it’s onto high school again!

There’s not too much to report over my morning at University. Breakfast was a steamed bun from my family with a milk box. For breakfast part two, I bought a banana and sliced papaya from 7-Eleven. I’m starting to return back to my routine in America of just solely buying fruit for breakfast. XD

Lunch was the same buffet line of healthiness with only getting veggies and tofu. For something new, I got a bowl of brown rice on the side. I read on article that explained why brown rice (not fried) is a lot more nutritious than white rice so I wasn’t as cautious of it. Plus for only $5NT more, a bowl of brown rice can be a very filling addition to the meal. Only…it was a little too filling! XD AND AGAIN! MY SUPER POWERS OF WEIGHT MANIPULATION STRIKE AGAIN! The tofu and veggies once again added up to exactly the same cost of $41NT! That’s three times in a row! BOOYA! :D

Once at Tatung High School, one period of Physics was spent groggily, fighting it and then head bobbing from sleepiness. Thankfully afterwards I didn’t have to stay for the second half of Physics or even P.E. because the rest of the day was to be dedicated to a new addition to my schedule. SPANISH CLASS! The two girls from Mexico and Ecuador were going to teach the exchange students as well as Redy some Spanish. I absolutely love this new class because I know my Spanish is fading and would still like to learn it. After all, I want to take it in college! So Redy got permission for the exchange students to do this.

Unfortunately today wasn’t an ideal day to begin Spanish lessons. Apparently there’s an inspector coming tomorrow and everyone was scrambling to prepare for his arrival. Therefore Redy was not available and the four exchange students (Rike, Mary Lou, Helen and I) just ended up waiting for two hours on the fourth floor of a building. It was a tranquil time just chatting with each other. Redy regrettably couldn’t come at all so Spanish lessons didn’t take place today. Perhaps next week will be freer.

Here’s a view from the balcony we waited at with the ever so popular basketball courts of the school. I feel like a stalker for taking a picture of all these guys. XD

Something that I found really interesting was how the school prepared for their inspection. There were tasks like moping, sweeping, trimming the trees, etc. that needed to be done. Guess who did them? The students! It’s just so strange that the students have to do the work! In Texas at my public high school, we hire employees that do all the up-keeping tasks. At Tatung high school, a private school mind you, they had its students doing most all of the work! Wow! I did not expect that, especially with a private school you have to pay to attend!

The exchange students were not required to stay after and help so we weren’t a part of the cleaning scrambling. But it was entertaining to watch several guys trim the trees with a handsaw. Since the branches were too high and they didn’t have a ladder, it resulted in flying bunny leaps of death! They would just jump up and hack at the branch like an uncoordinated samurai in training. It was so funny and cute! ^_^

Afterschool was continuing the culture exchange conversations. Today’s subject was sports as I mentioned before. It was a trickier discussion to carry out because I researched sports words but neglected to find harder words like ‘scholarship,’ which made the language barrier a bit difficult but not impossible to overcome. The leg on the right belonged to a guy from another class that helped translate a few things. Really, there’s not much difference between cultures regarding sports. I have yet to write my report about it but I can share a few small things with y’all when I do. ;)

Dinner was a delicious Japanese fish that apparently costs $10US. It was very yummy and I’m proud of myself for that looking at a fool while picking out the bones. You should know that I’ve never really eaten fish before (hated the smell as a kid) so I didn’t know what to do, especially with chopsticks! But it was simple enough and I got all the fishy, meaty goodness. If I’m correct, fish is good for one’s health right? Bonus! :D

And that’s really it for today. Nothing much happened other than being filled with anticipation for the future! Andrea out!