Week 5. I cannot believe I am more than halfway done with HTA. The main task of this week has been compiling and editing my video from my social study trip. It is a ton of work, but I’m glad I have all this footage. Being back in class feels good, but also extremely tiring. But it’s nice to be back in the swing of things. I’ve been spending a lot of time this week studying at the cat cafe near our dorm — it’s lovely. The coffee is pleasant and so are the cats. Not much to report from this week; mostly, it was just class, study, eat, repeat. On Friday, though, there was a slight incident. My dear friend Charlotte had an allergic reaction (she didn’t even know she had any allergies), so I took her to the hospital. We were able to communicate her issue and talk with the doctors, etc. I know we definitely would not have been able to do any of that even three weeks ago.
This weekend was also eventful — my dad came to visit! He had a work trip in Singapore, so he decided to come stop by Taipei. I took him to the jade market (he kept touching the jade, so I kept yelling at him to “小心！” and apologizing for my 爸爸 being 太麻烦, which made some people laugh). I also took him to the Chiang Kai Shek memorial, and showed up around the NTU campus. It was a quick trip, but it was nice to see him, and it was nice to feel like I was competent enough in Chinese and knew Taipei enough to show someone else around. I even bargained a bit at the jade market, which I was proud of him. My dad said, “I’m not even sure you would’ve done that in English a month ago.” I think he is right. Growth! Excited for another week.