Saturday November 10th, 2012
One great thing about weekend mornings at this home is
having time to make breakfast and Yi Na being kind enough to cook something.
She prepared a fried egg while I made PB toast and fetched soymilk and an
apple. Simple but effective stuff.
Today included what was called a Rotaract Olympic event that
I was invited to. The activity was exciting but the transportation not so much.
I had an English address and looked it up in Google maps but still didn’t have
a clear idea of where it was, not even the name of the place. Just screen shots
on my phone of where to turn and how many streets to cross.
The MRT ride resulted in “Iiiiiiiit’s a small world after
alllllll,” the 3rd installment. I came across a Rotaract member that
couldn’t come to the event but instead had to go to work. The sheer fact of
running into her was so surprising! I guess that’s what happens in a condensed
city.
Following my Google map directions I arrived at a college
campus for the hearing impaired. Great! I found the place! Now…where IN this
place is it?! Soon I realized that I was screwed because I didn’t get any sign
of the Rotary/Rotaract or any familiar person. Finally an older man walked up,
entering the campus with the Rotary symbol on his shirt. I immediately fled to
him for help and we walked together. Thank goodness he came because I would’ve
never been able to find the location. It was quite hidden like a needle in a
haystack. But we got there and everything was dandy.
The Olympic event was comprised of small games and a few
bigger activities. The big activities were basketball (3 vs. 3), three-legged
race and dodge ball. The small games ranged from jump rope to throw a ping-pong
ball in a cup. Allow me to use pictures to help explain.
3 versus 3 basketball competition
Jump rope! My favorite activity of the day! With a long rubber string, four team members must enter the spinning rope one at a time and successfully complete at least ten rotations without stopping. Great, great fun! :D
This game begins with doing the spin around on a bat thing to make yourself dizzy (either five or ten times). Then you go over to pick up a bean with chopsticks and must kick a ball down a path, around a bottle and back up the alley, without dropping the bean of course. First try success for me! :D
A throwing ball game at a board with numbers on it. You draw three cards (between 1-9) and must try to hit the assigned squares with some sticky balls.
This was an extremely difficult activity! You have to bounce some ping-pong balls into cups with water. It was super difficult! You have to get at least five balls in but people could barely get three in!
Dodge ball was the activity my Rotaract signed me up for. I
was pretty darn good at it in elementary school and wanted to try again. But
when it was time to play I froze for a second. It was so not the same dodge
ball I played before. I struggled to understand the layout and rules by what
was happening around me. I knew one thing though…dodge. And that’s what I did.
I may have not gotten any of the opposing team’s members but I could at least
make sure myself wasn’t hit by the ball. So there was a small personal triumph
for not getting tagged by the ball but our team lost in the end. All good fun
though!
During the event water and small boxes of assorted bread was
provided for snacks. Because I didn’t have lunch, those breadboxes were
addicting in the way that they became my lunch. Four types of bread in total,
one was garlic based, another garlic with a sausage in the middle, bread with
some sort of filling in the middle and a sweet cake lightly topped with
strawberry flavor. I had three boxes, probably one too many. Whoops. It’s just
there was no other solution for lunch.
After the Olympic event ended with a reward ceremony and
closing thoughts (none of which I understood), all twelve Rotaract clubs
present took a ginormous photo and cleaned up the gym we used. Furthermore we
went out for dinner at a place I struggle to describe. It had Asian food to
share between your table but also had a bar vibe with alcohol readily
available. So maybe it was an Asian style bar? I don’t know. At first I wasn’t
comfortable being in that kind of environment but I didn’t have the option of
leaving and I trusted Rotaract well enough to be responsible. They were indeed
responsible with their drinking. I just find it strange being so closely
exposed to alcohol two days in a row. And no I didn’t drink any. Instead my
table got a barley beverage (non-alcoholic) for people who didn’t want beer.
A whole bunch of dishes were ordered from meat to tofu to
beggies to fish, lots and lots! I went to town on a plate that had peanuts as
one of the things to give the main part (fried oysters I think) some flavor. No
one was wanting the peanuts so I ate my daily protein of nuts with chopsticks.
Intersting feat. ;P
Food and company, a big part of Taiwanese culture, was
filled in the evening with Rotaract. I was kindly driven home by my club’s president
and soon after oozy-snoozed away.
And that’s it! I realized my Taffys are really boring and
poorly written lately. I apologize. Right now it just seems to be a
documentation for my own personal memories and not something entertaining for
others. Hopefully it’ll get better. Until next time, bye. :)
P.S. My history teacher gave me a unique fruit on Friday and I shared it with my family today. The outer, hard green lumpy skin is said to look like the head of Buddha (not the fat one but the one with black lumpy looking hair). It was a very sweet fruit and very tasty. Has anyone seen these in Texas at an Asian market or something? You should try it! Just don't eat the green part. XD
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