Poly GIP Taiwan

  June 15, 2024 While breakfast is usually not a topic of blogging, I wanted to start by appreciating the waitress at the Puli Ease Hotel where we were staying. This incredibly kind and caring lady saw how rushed our breakfast was, and put in the extra effort to ensure we could take our food to-go, and then gave us more food from the buffet to-go. This was a level of helpfulness I had never seen before, and she was truly incredibly kind and helpful. But moving on from breakfast, we left the hotel (to the goodbye waves of the waitstaff) and headed towards a paper-making factory. This factory still made paper the traditional way, and gave us a new perspective on how such a frequently-used daily item is made. We learned how the inner bark of the tree is harvested, soaked, boiled, bleached, and shredded to make pulp, and then we got to actually make the paper from there. Using traditional trays and bamboo mats, we scooped up wood pulp and water, then shook it to distribute evenly. Afte...

  June 14, 2024 For the first half of the day we took a van to Bunun village. During the van ride we saw beautiful views of endless green mountains and rainy skies. The van ride was about 35 minutes and for the whole time I took pictures and enjoyed the view. When we arrived at the Bunun village, it was raining very heavily so we all had to get out our umbrellas. We took a tour around their village and saw their squash, mango, cucumber, and loofah plants. The weather was a nice balance because even though it was raining the temperature was still nice and humid. My personal favorite part of the hike was when we met a boy named Huang Shang, (Noted by Zhong Laoshi: sounds like “emperor” in Mandarin.) who went to Fazhi elementary school. Like my Chinese, his English was not perfect, but we were still able to communicate and become close as he was with us the whole hike. We went to a cafe with him and the whole group, and there we ate ice cream together and I ordered their passion fruit...

  June 13, 2024 Playing Tee-Ball with Fazhi students on their beautiful baseball field! Today Hudson and Emma will be writing the blog. Because Hudson Wrote the second half yesterday, he will write the first half of the blog today. After we departed from the hotel, we took about a thirty minute van ride to Fazhi elementary school. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by a small cohort of students, who graciously offered their umbrellas and walked us to Fazhi’s recently built library. Laying our bags and teaching materials down, a mixed group of fourth to sixth graders performed a traditional Bunun song and dance, which utilized harmony and call and response as a result of a rich hunting culture. To return the kind gesture, some of our Poly students performed a song that we had earlier presented to Fuhsing high school. Following a short preparation break, we were then directed into our teaching pairs in order to teach English songs to the Kindergarten class at Fazhi. My song was ...

        June 12, 2024                       Hi! Chloe and Hudson will be writing the blog today and Chloe will start yet again because she fell asleep for most of the latter half. (Noted by Zhong Laoshi: Was it because you ran with Conner in the hot and humid morning, leaving you so tired afterward?) For the first part of the day,  I agreed to run to the Xiang Shan visitor center, our first stop of the day, with Connor. We are both cross country runners and, honestly, we’ve been taking a bit too much time off from our summer practice. However, it was somewhat a bad idea. It was hot, humid, we were sweating probably more than we’ve ever sweated before, but it was still pretty fun despite getting lost for a few minutes. We made it to the visitor center way before the rest of the group did, even though they were biking. Once the rest of the group arrived, we had a ton of sweet snacks (a great way to reward...