“Seeing Taiwan’s underrated beauty”
My second week
at school continued with a lot of presentations about my home country, Germany
and the past tense phrase: “Where were you?” In order to support Cathy’s
English class, I showed some pictures of myself discovering other countries the
students had to guess. And because it was the last lesson before the upcoming
holiday each correct answer received a bread stick ^^.
Moreover, I was
offered to take part in the field trip to an agricultural association which
included studying the bee hives and its population and a trip to a stone
temple, situated in “Moon World”. Arriving there we were shown around and got
an explanation about its history being built as an acknowledgement (by “lost”
foreigners that were welcomed by monks) and donations. Finishing off our trip
we were offered a variety of donated local products for a delicious lunch.
Spring break time: Spring break started calm with an afternoon trip to Kaohsiung’s
“Love River” and a dinner in family.
On Thursday we
went to Nantou Country, took a rest at Jiji train station before we went for a
bicycle tour around (a part of) “Sun Moon Lake” –was a little bit disappointed
by its beauty due to the missing sun.
In the evening
we arrived at a friend’s holiday house (we were a travel group of 14), enjoyed
dinner and had an amazing karaoke night which we finished with a night walk to
the local temple.
The next day we
went to the “Dexing Reservoir” with its stunning waterfall and bought some
sweet potatoes in a monster village in the forest at the margin of Yushan
National Park.
Exhausted but
happy I fell into bed: tomorrow’s plan was EDA World!
EDA World: EDA World is a theme park combining fun, shopping and relaxation. We
spent the day riding roller coasters and running from one attraction to another
– there is still the twitchy inner child in me when it comes to action and fun!
On Sunday I was
invited to visit Sandy, a teacher of “Alian Elementary School” in her hometown
Tainan, Taiwan’s oldest city. We did some sightseeing (e.g. Fort Zeelandia,
Mazu Temple and An-Ping Tree House) and I was introduced to the Dutch’s former
colonial time there. We chatted about the differences and similarities in
between our cultures and enjoyed dinner at their parent’s house where I got to
try the mullets (fish) stomach and delicious bamboo.
