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Day 6 - Farming and Travel

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  Day 6 - Travel, Travel, and More Travel 你们好! Jordan and Keira reporting for duty Today, we woke up early and prepared for a long bus ride to Yilan. Everyone was very tired from the activities we had done the previous day and slowly got on the bus, unsure of what awaited them but still excited. Most people ended up sleeping after a few minutes on the ride, but some of the students who wanted to contact their parents were given the opportunity to sit in the front of the bus and make a short phone call. To pass some of the time, we talked about our highlights of the trip and played bonding games like Wavelength. We took a rest stop where students used the bathroom and stocked up on snacks for the rest of the ride. It was pouring rain, and all of us sprinted back and forth from the store to the bus because many of us had forgotten our umbrellas. Afterwards, Zhong Lao Shi arranged our seating by drawing names. Each person drew whom they would sit with for the next hour of the ride, an...
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Day 5: First Day in Taichung

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  你们好！Cavon and Anara reporting for duty “Bring. Bring. Bring.”  Our classic “Taiwan wake-up call” had arrived. It was time to rise and shine 😎. I (Cavon) got out of what I currently consider to be the comfiest bed of the trip and prepared myself for what would be one of the best days yet. We headed down, and all met up for a breakfast filled with Taichung classics. Pork buns, Taiwanese poached eggs, and the delicious kumquat lemonade were just a few items we enjoyed before heading to the legendary Lin estate garden in the center of the city.  Upon arrival, we were greeted with a beautiful mansion filled with looming arches, carriage rooms, and beautiful plants There, we learned about the tiered structure of ancient Chinese mansions and fascinating traditions and beliefs. Did you know that a three legged frog brings you enormous fortune? Or that bats bring good luck? We didn’t. But Wu老师 taught us. The Lin estate was fascinating, but what made the garden most memorab...
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Day 4 - Fazhi Goodbye

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Day 4 - Fazhi Goodbye 大家好！This is William and Jordan reporting for Day 4 of our Taiwan trip! To start our day off, we woke up to a beautiful breakfast prepared by A Mi Lun’s chefs! Our breakfast consisted of bread with assortments of different spreads, along with Taiwanese cabbage, pork, rice, and many other staples. After we finished our breakfast, we split up into 3 vans and headed to the Zhuoshui River near our hotel. The van ride down to the river was super fun as we went off-road through the river and over rocks. As we arrived at the river, many of us decided to get in for a quick dip. We safely waded in the beautiful river while overlooking the mountains. Many students also decided to make rock  fixtures . We also visited a part of the river that was directly beneath a massive aqueduct that connected the two sides of the mountain.   After our fun adventure to the Zhuoshui River, we had an archery contest. Jack did the best out of all of us with a score of 36/50! As our a...
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Day 3 – Fazhi-mazing!!

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大家好！It's Mia and Alex. :) At 10 am, we were teachers; at 8 pm, we were Bunun princesses.  After getting to bed early the night before and still fighting off some jetlag, we met in the lobby at 8:50 am to depart from the beautiful Sun Moon Lake. Although we were disappointed to let go of such amazing views, those feelings quickly dissipated as we entered a new part of our trip. We drove about 30 minutes to a location where we got into three smaller vans as our large tour bus would not be able to navigate the small, winding roads that we embarked upon to enter the remote Pingshan Village.  We ooh’ed and ah’ed at the beautiful, lush scenery of the Pingshan Village and then we finally arrived at Fazhi Elementary School. We walked past classrooms full of kids gaping at us because, as Ms. Chung told us, we likely were the first Americans they had ever met. A big thanks to Kevin, the Fazhi Elementary School English teacher, who kindly set us up in a rest room full of Taiwanese s...
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Day 2- Cycling, Cha, Crafts and Confucious

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  Ni hao! This is Melanie and Kieran for the second day of the Taiwan 2026 GIP blog! Today, after a night of tossing, turning, and jet lag, we started our day off with a crisp wake-up call at 7:30 before heading down to eat breakfast at the hotel. At breakfast, there was a great variety of food, from traditional Taiwanese steamed buns to American delights like chicken nuggets and french fries! We then kicked off our daily activities by biking around Sun Moon Lake in the steaming hot weather. There, we followed Vincent and biked past beautiful views of the lake and different bridges, stopping very often to take pictures, until we finally reached the Sun Moon Lake Xiangshan Visitor Center. We parked our bikes and took a brief pause to take more photos, refill our water bottles, and enjoy the AC of the souvenir store! We then said farewell to the visitor center and biked back to the hotel; however, we enjoyed some free sample shrimp chips that a local store was passing out by our hote...
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Day 1 - We Are in Taiwan!

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     Hello everyone! This is Ayende and Mira, proud to write the first blog post for the Taiwan 2026 GIP Trip! After a tiresome 14 hour flight filled with sour gummy skittles and the newly released movies you always get to watch on a plane (how do airlines get access to them???), we finally arrived at Taoyuan International Airport located in Taipei, Taiwan. It felt great to finally step into a new country and leave a week of difficult finals behind, literally. We walked through the airport all the way to customs where we needed to fill out a long google form and then wait in a long line for non-citizen entry. We were able to push through these obstacles, but then another road block appeared. We needed to find our luggage. We searched through baggage claim areas, yet somehow our luggage was almost impossible to find. That was when Ms. Chung roared from the crowd and exclaimed that our baggage was in baggage claim number 7, in the back of the airport! Finally we were all ab...
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