Week 6
For the week before Tainan and the week after, we had a very easy class schedule. We only had two classes a week, which means that for around three weeks, I was the most relaxed I’d ever been in the program. This week was a full class schedule, and we were also starting the second “semester,” which is probably 202 at Williams, so the content was a lot harder. A lot of the grammar structures were trickier, and we started to learn more nuanced things about Chinese.
On Friday, my friends and I went to Haidilao. After, we explored Ximending.
On Saturday, we went to a baseball game. I thought it was super interesting, the cheerleaders were nothing like the ones in America, and the game ended with a robot fight with a really cool lights show. It was the most unique sports game I’ve been to.
After the baseball game, me and my friends went to eat hot pot for the second time this week. Honestly, this spot was sooo much better than Haidilao! It was a smaller restaurant near the NTU campus, and it included free sauce, rice, beverages, and ice cream. For 300 NTD, I got the best hot pot broth I’ve ever had, and it came with free tofu, dumplings, vegetables, etc. I think hot pot is my favorite thing to eat with friends, so I was super happy I got the chance to go twice.
On Sunday, my host family and I went to Shifen to see the waterfall. It’s the widest waterfall in Taiwan, and it was absolutely gorgeous. The stairs allowed us to get super close to the water, and the mist was super refreshing. After the waterfall, we went to the cat village nearby, and it was so cute! Everything was cat themed, and there were cats everywhere.
The classes this week made me realize something completely unexpected. This week’s classes revolved around Chinese culture and saving face, and Venezuelan culture was extremely similar. Unlike Chinese and Taiwanese culture, though, I don’t think we articulate the fact that we “爱面子“ (love face) as clearly, so it was an aspect of my cultural background I only really realized existed in Taiwan. So, somehow I learned something about Venezuelan culture despite living in a culture disconnected from it? Studying abroad teaches you surprising things.