The Greatest Adventure Is What Lies Ahead: Spring Break in Taiwan: Day 5

Hong Wen high school is split into two sections: the International and ‘Taiwanese’ section. The international section is the private school that serves to prepare Taiwanese high schoolers for studying abroad, so all the classes are taught in English (this is where we spent yesterday). The other section is taught in Mandarin and is where we spent today.

It turns out it is much, much harder to follow what is going on in class if you don’t speak the language and can’t read the textbooks. And, Mandarin is much harder to follow when these things are happening at the same time: the teacher is talking, every other student is chatting at their tables, half the students are wearing masks, there’s a video demonstration playing, and then one of the masked kids at your table leans forward to ask you a question and you know you have about two seconds to give an answer before the dreaded attempted English translation beings. So. It’s a lot.

I feel happy with my process but so incredibly frustrated, because I can feel in my ears and tongue how on the cusp of fluency I am–it’s tangible, always squirming around in my hands, in reach, but never quite steady. But I think today was more fulfilling than yesterday, partially because I used a ton more Mandarin, and partially because I simply liked the ‘Taiwanese’ section of the school more. It felt more Park-like, despite the larger classes and (mostly) lack of English. The students in this section seemed less stressed, much more carefree, and yet they seemed to work harder and were more respectful in general. They were also much more friendly and more curious about the exchange trip. I’m actually kind of sad to be leaving this wing of the school tomorrow, despite the eight classes from 8 to 5.

The Park students spent the day bouncing between the eight different classes. Somehow, after every single one of us having no idea where to go and having an awesome time wandering around, a chaperone found us and shepherded us back to our next class. We ate lunch again on the roof, which was a much needed resurfacing from the almost overwhelming amount of language and stares. We then bought matching sweatshirts from the school store (which I later learned were made for the middle school; and therefore, we spent the better part of the day parading around as self proclaimed middle schoolers). We did calligraphy in the Chinese class, math with Sophomores, English with Juniors, and physics where everyone was equally confused, language barrier or not. Last period was entirely dedicated to splitting into groups and talking to the Americans. I ended up having a great conversation about my favorite Taiwanese foods (all of them) and my time living in Gaoxiong. Our final class at Hong Wen ended somehow with gentle karaoke to Baby and Love Yourself by Justin Bieber, featuring yours truly on backup vocals.

The evening with our host family was quiet. We ate a delicious dumpling dinner at home. But seeing as it was only 7:00pm when we finished eating, our host mom gave us a key to the building and texted us a google map location of a local bookstore. This was perfect for me and Simone as we were planning on trying to figure out how to ask if we could jump ship to explore the city for a bit. Our host mom is truly wonderful and very insightful. Simone and I hit the town and walked through the massive streets to the bookstore, stopping inside the National Taichung Theatre to poke around on the way. The bookstore was a wonderful mix of hundreds of new books and stationary; and, as we couldn’t really read any of the books, we spent the better part of our time carefully picking out pens, pencils, and letters to buy and bring home. Simone and I fit perfectly into the bookstore-loving, stationary-hunting mold, and I couldn’t have picked a better roommate for late-night bookstore crashing. I did buy the one book in the shop I could read, a pocket sized collection of work from a Japanese artist who paints watercolor sketches of urban and rural landscapes. They’re super reminiscent of the style I try to emulate when I draw my surroundings in my travel sketchbook. I’m hoping some more inspiration will rub off.

We came back just in time to procrastinate writing this blog and, instead of packing for our trip to Taipei tomorrow, take an amazing shower. I’m in for a fun and hectic morning tomorrow, complete with Violet style frantic packing.

Goodnight and goodmorning all!