The (in)famous Taipei Night has finally arrived! Honestly, Taipei Night was such an adorable and fun idea, and one of the few times I felt a genuine connection to the program. It was great seeing everyone’s teamwork and hard work culminate in a performance to their peers, teachers, and to their host families (speaking of my host family, I forgot to mention them in earlier blogs — ack! They are absolutely amazing and invited me to their grandma and aunt’s house one afternoon, and I had the BEST time learning \u53f0\u8a9e, doing karaoke, and staying for dinner with them. I feel grateful to have made new friends for life through HTA’s host family system.) Each grade took their performance very seriously, and even though 99% of my friends were in \u4e8c\u5e74\u7d1a\uff0cI was only able to crack the details of one performance from a single friend — people were taking spoilers very seriously! Following Taipei Night, I was so thrilled to see that a friend I met by interviewing him on my SST at \u6210\u529f\u5927\u5b78 in \u53f0\u5357 had actually taken the \u9ad8\u9435 all the way to \u53f0\u5317 to watch me at Taipei Night! I feel so blessed to have met such great people this summer. I was starting to feel pretty sad at the imminent end of HTA because it meant I wouldn’t be living with my good friends anymore. No more watching animated films (Moana & Zootopia) in Chinese, doing 7\/11 midnight snack runs while in the middle of studying, taking a short frisbee break in the school building … I feel so lucky that all of my friends go to school in the Northeast, and that most of them attend college in Massachusetts like I do, but it’ll be sad to not live with them again!<\/p>\n
I spent the week preparing for our final oral exam, which was a group performance (the 4th-year students were split in two). Although I felt like I had been put through the wringer during Taipei Night because every other student, and all the teachers, voted to dance (and I am absolutely AWFUL at dancing), I was game for anything. Thankfully, by this point, everyone in the class was pretty comfortable with each other and my group was able to create an absolutely hilarious script. Also. in the middle of working in the cafe, my classmate realized her earring was stuck in her earlobe and she couldn’t get it out, so I took her to the emergency room and she was able to get it out the same day. (I felt so proud of myself for being able to translate some of the doctor and administrative assistant’s words for her despite my friend attending Chinese school since kindergarten — the experience definitely boosted my self-esteem that day!) With her earring safely not imprisoned in her earlobe, we finished up the script, practiced a few times, prepared the props, and got ready to perform during the final week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The (in)famous Taipei Night has finally arrived! Honestly, Taipei Night was such an adorable and fun idea, and one of the few times I felt a genuine connection to the program. It was great seeing everyone’s teamwork and hard work … Continue reading