國際志工第五週來台心得

First day of the week started off with Class 304 inviting me over to have breakfast with them; we talked and took pictures together. Before leaving, they even gave me more food and snacks – it was a hearty breakfast. Besides that, I had steamboat with Class 205 on Friday as well. They had prepared a few small performances for me and their teacher beforehand. And so, we watched them perform before eating together for around two hours. On Tuesday, three teachers invited me to join them for dinner in Minxiong. Apparently, in Taiwan, they usually have roast chicken to celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas day itself. That explains why one of the teachers took us to a restaurant located near the National Chung Cheng University to have roast chicken; it’s Christmas Eve. We had half a chicken each and it was a delightful meal even though we only had one hour at our table. This is because the restaurant was fully booked and so they put a one hour limit on each patron in order to cater for the large number of guests. After that, we walked to the Chung Cheng night market that opens every night to have fruit juice and chat. On Christmas Day, I had roast chicken again for dinner but this time with another group of teachers including the guy undergoing national service. We had that in a Carrefour building in Douliu and then went window shopping in the building before going back to Dalin. I started my second lesson in Taiwan on Thursday. In this second lesson, I introduced them to Malaysian food, sports and also traditional games. I also taught them one of our favourite games that we used to play in primary (elementary) and high school. It’s a game called ‘ceper’ or ‘tutup botol’ and it is very convenient game as the only thing one would need is five tin bottle caps and a flat surface. The first two classes went well and the students seem to like playing the game even though there are some who are not interested. There would definitely be some who are less interested in the game as this situation is inevitable - everyone to his taste. Saturday was like a Sports Day. Three teachers and I first played 'The Strategy Game' and 'Tiki Topple' in the morning until lunch time. After that, we had Japanese food for lunch in a restaurant near National Chung Cheng University before entering the university. As we are not allowed to drive in, we walked in and towards the gymnasium building of the university where there are lots of sports facilities available. We first played squash. As none of us knew the rules of the game, we read the rules online and roughly played according to what we understood as the rules were not very clear in words. We then found out later that squash is actually very tiring as one needs to stretch and run around a lot. Then, we played table tennis for a while before going down to play three rounds of bowling. I had a great time playing these three sports and as usual, I never had enough of them. After all of that, we went to the Carrefour night market in Chiayi for dinner and also to walk around the place. We played darts while we were there and one of the teachers actually won a prize from that. Besides darts, we also played softball and baseball, once each. That was when I finally got a taste of how playing baseball feels like - awesome. It is not as easy as it looks though. The faster the ball gets, the harder it is to hit as you would need more strength, precision and speed to hit the ball far and high up. Following that, we had tau hua (tofu pudding) and sweet potato balls (one of my favourites). As for Sunday, the guy doing his national service and I followed a teacher to a few places. Her husband and her smallest daughter tagged along too. Her husband first drove us to Pineapple Hill in Minxiong where every visitor would get one free pineapple cake. We had ours and then walked out into the farm to have a look at the pineapple trees. Afterwards, we went to a famous temple in Xingang, Fengtian Temple. Before going in to the temple, we had ya rou geng (thick soup with duck meat and bamboo shoots) which tasted pretty delicious. We entered the temple, prayed and walked all the four floors. As we leave the temple, we had octopus balls which tasted delicious as well before having the famous steamed dumplings and suan la tang (hot and sour soup) for lunch. Next, we went to a joss sticks making place to see the process of making joss sticks and also the different types of materials used to make them. After we had seen everything over there, the teacher dropped the two of us near the intersection of Zhongshan Road and Wenhua Road in Chiayi City and we started walking along the two streets, stopping at stores to see if there is anything we would like to purchase. We walked until about 5 o’clock when another teacher came to join us. At that time, we had seen almost all of the stores on those two streets and so we took a taxi to Nice Plaza which was close by to continue window-shopping until it was time for us to leave.

國際志工第四週來台心得

The weather got colder this week. Luckily, one of the teachers said that winter in January would be around the same as this week so I do not have to worry much about not having clothes warm enough to survive through the winter. On Monday, after I was done with my classes, one of the teachers in the school invited to play kendo (Japanese fencing). I got to learn a bit about the rules of the sport, where you will only earn points if you say a Japanese word that refers to the part of the opponent’s body you hit - 'man' for head, 'tore' for both sides of the waist, 'koteh' for the hand the opponent is using to hold the bamboo sword. Also, this week, class 111 invited me over to their class on Tuesday to eat glutinous rice balls with them whereas class 105 invited me to their class party on Thursday – to celebrate their winnings in the school’s sports day the week before. I had a great time especially seeing their enthusiasm trying to converse with me in English even though they struggle at the language that is almost foreign to them. Apart from that, on Tuesday, after school, I learnt to play two tabletop games, ‘Bang!’ and ‘Tiki Topple’; the former taught by one of the probationary teachers and the latter by one of the teachers in the school. I played both games with them including another teacher and the two guys currently doing their national service in this school i.e. they aid the school in anything they need help with. Both games were amusing – I loved both of them. Friday morning, after my only class for the day, I went to the Dalin train station and I took the 10:05 a.m. train over to Douliu in order to get on the Taisi bus heading towards Junfusan Fancyworld. I reached Junfusan at half past 11, paid a rather expensive entrance fee and started playing the rides as I was afraid that I would not have enough time to play all the rides. However, as it was a weekday, there were not many people around, and hence, I did not have to wait for a long time to go on each ride. Of all the rides that I sat, the relatively more thrilling and breathtaking ones are G5, space shot and the floorless coaster. At 2:00 p.m., I watched a performance held at the Rainbow Theatre. There were clowns, aerial dancers, trampolining and also dancers who incorporated contemporary dancing, ballet, hip hop, tutting and popping. After the performance, I walked around the whole theme park, taking pictures until it closes indicating it was time to leave. The next day, three teachers and I went hiking up Dulishan which is in Zhuqi. We had lunch first in Zhuqi and then started hiking up the mountain at around 2 o’clock. It was pretty slippery as my pair of Vans shoes do not have a good grip and there was a slight rain earlier in the morning. Also, I wore the wrong clothes – the temperature was low but we didn't hike much before I started sweating. We went all the way up to the peak of the mountain – a little over 800 meters – and stopped at the resting place to have a short break before going back down, leaving the mountain. We then went to one of the teachers’ house where I watched her father inspect and separate the different maturity of the areca nuts (pinang), ate glutinous rice balls made by her mother and also played a few rounds of mahjong before having dinner at her house. Sunday's destination was Kaohsiung. It is a two-hour drive from Dalin and so we (myself, three other teachers and one of the guys on national service) left early i.e. at 9 o'clock. We even bought takeaway food for breakfast to save time. When we've reached there, we went to Guoshan and walked along the pathway close to the sea and the ferry terminal. According to one of the teachers, there are many locations in Kaohsiung couples usually go to and one of them is that pathway. We then went up to the entrance of the British Consulate at Takao (a.k.a Kaohsiung) where I saw a fascinating machine that as you insert TWD 10, a woman would walk into a miniature temple to fetch you a scroll and in that scroll would be your fortune paper. I tried and the teachers helped translated the Chinese words for me, telling me that I got a lucky one. I then paid the entrance fee to enter the British Consulate area and walked around the two buildings, looking at the interior and the exterior of what used to be the consulate. After that, all of us took a ferry over to Cijin and each rented the bicycle there as the island is relatively too big to walk – it would require a lot of time. We first rode to a nearby restaurant to have lunch where I ate sea snails for the first time. It tasted a little weird at first, and then it turned out to be really exquisite. After lunch, we rode around the island, stopping by the beach to walk around a little and enjoy the sea breeze. A few hours later, we rode back to the ferry terminal, returning the bicycles before taking the ferry back to the mainland to have dinner. We had a look at Kaohsiung Normal University, watching one quarter of a basketball game before leaving for Dalin. On the way back home, I also got to see the beautiful Love River, a famous dating location at night in Kaohsiung.

國際志工來台第三週心得

This week could be considered as my first week teaching the students about Malaysian culture as the week before was more like a tryout and I only had two days of class then. It turned out pretty good; most of the classes were responsive to my questions and took part in the activity that I had prepared for the class i.e. the group that has the highest score from getting the right answers would get a chance to enter the lucky draw carried out by the school. I had some slight problems initially with the students not comprehending what I say due to their lack of understanding of the English language. However, using my hand movements together with the help of teachers translating what I say into Mandarin, the classes went on smoothly. Also, as usual, on Mondays and Thursdays, I would play badminton with the teachers at 5 o’clock – after school hours – for roughly two hours in the school hall. Sometimes we also play table tennis at the start while waiting for the other teachers to arrive. We will go for dinner afterwards in one of the teachers’ car. He would always take us to different places every time so that I would get to taste a variety of foods in Taiwan. This Saturday, I went to two main places, Aogu and Budai with around 10 other teachers. We went in three separate cars meeting at the front of the Aogu Wetland Forest Park. We were then given a brief introduction of the park through a video that was in Taiwanese. Luckily, one of the teachers translated the words into English for me. Otherwise, I would have just been watching the images flashing. After that, we were unlucky enough to have one of the long-winded workers who explained to us the fishes and evolution of methods used to catch them, the latest one being the most environmental friendly and conserving the ecosystem. He also talked about oysters and how oysters are taken care of to make sure they grow healthily and that they are of better quality to be sold and eaten. He then, introduced the types of birds that can be seen in the park - kites, egrets, gulls, stilts and etc. - especially the black-faced spoonbill where there are only 2000 of them left in the entire world. After one hour, he finally finished and we were able to go see the actual birds instead of just photos of these birds. We drove around the park stopping at a places where there would seem to be more birds. During our first stop, as we only had one normal pair of binoculars, we borrowed one of the telescopes that a tour guide had brought - to allow his group of tourists to watch the birds - to get a clearer view of the birds. After bird watching, we then went to Budai where one of the teachers treated us to a hearty lunch at one of the seafood restaurants. For instance, we had oysters, clams, prawns and fried body parts of octopus. After that, we went to the Budai market to have a look around, trying some of the food there before heading over to the seaside to go fishing. That was my first time fishing, and it wasn't boring at all, it was pretty fun to me. I caught a few fishes although they were all the same common ones; I was hoping I would be able to catch a rare or a big fish but did not manage to do so. As we fished until dinner time, we had dinner at one of the teachers’ house - ginger duck and Thailand prawns. The prawns were really large and delicious. Sunday turned out different from what we had originally planned. The initial plan was to visit Sanmen, get lunch and then play tabletop games with a few other teachers. And so, me and three other teachers went to Sanmen, an old village with antiques like telephones and typewriters. There are several ponds where fishes are bred, acting as a place for fishing, charging those interested at a price per hour. We looked around for about half an hour, and that was when the sudden change of plan happened; we decided to go to Sun Moon Lake. Thus, we first had lunch at La Morning in Minxiong, before going up to Sun Moon Lake which took us around two hours instead of the expected travel time of one hour. We took a few pictures of the area, walked around, tried muachi - which was a little tasteless - and ate ice-cream cones from a Family Mart nearby. After that, we went to a farm - if directly translated from Chinese to English is called basin - where the land is so soft that it shakes and feels a little bouncy if you jump on it; it was intriguing

馬來西亞志工第二週來台心得

This recent weekend I followed the school band to Taoyuan where they would be joining the parade for the Taoyuan Band Festival 2013. On the Saturday morning, I went to get chicken hamburger over at 7-Eleven before we left the school by bus at 8. There was a schedule planned in advance about what we're going to do for these two days. Our first stop was Miaoli Hakka Cultural Park, an exhibition centre which showcases the Hakka culture – houses and their interior, language and festivities. One of the exhibits there that caught my eye was the old telephone which requires one to spin the numbers to call. It made me think of how technology had changed our daily lives. After that, we had lunch at a restaurant nearby. Lunch was good; there were many dishes – about five or six different dishes not including soup. We then reached the parade destination (in Zhangli) at a little past 1 - took us one and a half hour to get there. There were many bands also participating in the parade and I watched quite a number of them from the side. One of the school bands, Chiayi Dong Shi Junior High School caught my attention. Their colour guards were impressive for their age; they did a good job at spinning and throwing the mock rifles. The parade ended at the square of Arts and Cultures District of Taoyuan where there would then be performances by some of the bands. I saw a Caucasian drum corps there too and thought they were just a random band invited to the parade. I was wrong; it was Blue Devils, one of the top drum corps in DCI. I watched the performances by other bands but sadly, did not have a chance to watch the Blue Devils perform as we had to leave for dinner right when they were about to do their routine. Dishes for dinner were surprisingly almost the same as the ones we had for lunch over at the other restaurant. Nevertheless, it was still good. After dinner, we went to our stay for the night, Park Hotel and took a rest. After resting for an hour or so, the two teachers brought me around the shops near the hotel. As this area is very near to the Zhongli train station, it was quite happening. They treat me to glass noodles with oyster and also the famous pearl milk tea. The next day, we had breakfast at the hotel before leaving at 8, heading towards our first destination of the day, the Cihu Mausoleum. It was where the previous late president of Taiwan, Ching Kai-shek's tomb was at. I went in, took a look and did a small bow to show my respect for him. I got really curious when I noticed that the two soldiers on each side of the entrance are able to keep their eyes open without blinking whenever there are any tourists around. I watched them closely but still did not see any of their eyes closing for even just a split second. Second stop of the day was at Dasi. There were lots of people especially since it was a Sunday, making the place even merrier. They also had a procession when we were there which had fireworks, statues of the gods and traditional instruments etc. Throughout the entire street, there were many stores selling different types of food and drinks such as tofu pudding (tau hua), thick sausages, glass noodles with oyster and a variety of ice cream flavours which the school students kept buying at every place we stop. One hour later, we went back onto the bus to have lunch at the same restaurant where we had our dinner the day before. The dishes this time looked different, but there wasn’t much difference essentially. We still had the same fish and vegetables. Then, we had a few more stops before going to a place in Hankou where we get to see people fishing. Walking across a bridge over to a swamp, we saw kids catching small crabs using a bait tied to a string that is attached to fishing nets. It was interesting watching them catch the crabs. As that was the last place to visit in our 2-day itinerary, we then began to head back to school. Some of the kids sang throughout the whole journey back, both Mandarin and Taiwanese songs. And so, that was how I spent my last weekend. I look forward to the upcoming weekends and the places and activities that I would be doing.

國際志工馬來西亞Eson來台第一週的日記

國際志工Eson來台第一週的日記 First week in Taiwan! It went pretty well. The people here in Chiayi or Dalin specifically, are really friendly. Right from the first day in Taiwan, they did a great job in making me feel comfortable. I do not have the slightest feeling of being out by myself in a country that I have never been to. Instead, I have got accustomed to staying here even within the first few days. I am really surprised how fast that happened and I am sure I would have felt otherwise had the teachers not been so friendly. Every dinner they would bring me to try the different cuisines in Taiwan and they even invited me to play badminton with them. I’m really happy I get to play badminton again - haven’t been playing it for almost half a year. I had a really great time spending my first weekend here. I went to Alishan and Douliu’s night market on Saturday following three other teachers. I had a lot of fun seeing being able to see the beautiful scenery at Alishan including the few specks of snow that is barely visible. Night market was fun as well; I got to try the different types of food and play the carnival games that I have not eaten or played before. As for Sunday, I followed the principal to Taipei to have a look at the tourist spots in the capital of Taiwan. We went to Ximending and Tamsui, walking through the lively streets, trying the stinky tofu, the tall ice-cream, the famous bloated quail eggs and many others. All in all, my first week of summer holiday in Taiwan was a week well spent.