A Day of Immersing in Chinese Culture and Building Connections

 June 6, 2024

Hi guys, it's William and Emily today. Today we had a pretty eventful day going to ZhuangJing Vocational school and learning about instruments and martial arts at Fuhsing. We first started the day off by arriving at Fuhsing at 7:30 AM, and then taking a bus to ZhuangJing. It was the first time we took a public bus (it was really bumpy) and the ride to ZhuangJing took around 20 minutes. ZhuangJing School is located in Xindian district outside of Taipei City, and is made up of two campuses just like Poly. The buildings were beautifully decorated because it was their graduation ceremony. After we got to ZhuangJing, we met our host students of the day and exchanged gifts with them, and started our tour of the school. We first walked through their beautiful farm with a variety of animals such as goats, ducks, and chickens. Afterwards, we arrived at their Cosmetic classroom, and we were introduced to their curriculum. We then walked through their campus to the dog grooming area, which is actually a place where they hold the national license exam for dog grooming. Additionally, we went to the performing arts center and they gave us three distinct performances. Each performance was incredibly beautiful and unique from each other that it felt like a completely new experience for each dance. The final performance was a traditional indigenous dance from the Amis tribe, where the students were wearing traditional Amis clothing. Afterwards, we were able to wear the traditional Amis clothes and learn one of their dances. The dance was incredibly fun!

 

After all the dancing, many of us were slightly tired and famished, so we went to the cafeteria. All their food is created by students in the Catering Department, and they have a wide variety of foods such as beef noodle soup, mushroom risotto, and some chicken wings! While we were eating, two students demonstrated bartending skills by performing a showy way of creating drinks which we were able to drink afterwards (it was really good). After filling our stomachs with delicious food, we went to the kitchen and learned how to make Zongzi. Zongzi is a rice ball with pork and mushroom covered in bamboo leaf, and is a traditional food for the Dragon Boat Festival. The Dragon Boat Festival is on the fifth day in the fifth month of the lunar calendar, which will be next Monday!

After successfully making Zongzi, we attended a tea ceremony and were given a presentation on the uniqueness of Taiwanese tea. After the presentation, we were able to create our own boba that used the tea as its base. Once we finished drinking our boba, went out to the courtyard where we got our freshly cooked Zongzi and said our final goodbyes to our hosts of the day. We were running a little late because of how much fun we were having at ZhuangJing, but we eventually got back to Fuhsing using the public bus. Once we were at Fuhsing, we learned how to play a traditional instrument called the Guzheng. The Guzheng teacher played a song about typhoons for us as a demonstration, and it was so beautiful and powerful!

Afterwards, we went to a martial arts class where we learned how to practice martial arts and about different weapons in competition. It was pretty tiring but also very fun! Once we finished the martial class, we met up with our host students from Fuhsing and went our separate ways. I (Emily) went with Chloe and her host student Karen to go eat dinner since my host student, also named Emily, was at a piano lesson. We all ate beef noodle soup and shaved ice. It was so good! Afterwards I went home with Emily and we relaxed, talked, and watched a little TV before we went to sleep. Today was so much fun!

Bye bye!

William and Emily