國際志工第八週來台心得

It is already my last week in Taiwan. I could not believe two months had gone by so fast. It felt like I had only been here for one month instead of two. On that Monday night, one of the directors brought 6 of us to a restaurant up on Huashan which is on the borders of Yunlin and Chiayi. He treated us to dinner at that restaurant and also brought us to have a look down at the night scenery of Chiayi. The food at the restaurant was really good; every dish is delicious which is not common in almost all other restaurants. We did not get a good view of the night scenery though, as the fog up on the mountains was thick that night. On Tuesday night, another director treated everyone in the office where I sit in everyday to dinner in Minxiong. Two teachers and I reached a little late because we played badminton beforehand but it was all good – dinner that night was palatable as well. The next morning, I woke up earlier than usual to prepare as it was my performance day. I first played clarinet to ‘Libertango’ and another Chinese song with two other teachers played flute and keyboard. Then, I sang two songs – ‘Tong Hua’ by Guang Liang and ‘Ai Pia Chia Ee Ya’ by葉啟田 – before ending my performance with a one minute dance to Jason Chen’s ‘Thank You’. I was unlucky enough to realise that I had accidentally stepped on dog dung right before my performance. Nevertheless, it was a good performance in my opinion. Apart from that, I gave a speech – first in English, then in Hokkien – and also received loads of gifts from the teachers in the school which I had them sent back to Malaysia by post on the following Monday. On the fourth day of the week, I went to Pinyin Elementary School in the morning and gave two lessons to the kids in the school. Some of them were really brilliant; they managed to answer my question at the end of the class without needing the teacher to translate the question into Mandarin. Later in the afternoon, one of the teachers took me to a place called Pan Tao Yao before going back to the school just in time for the dinner feast with all the teachers including a few other parents who were invited. That weekend, I went to Kenting with six other people – four of them were teachers and the other two were on national service working for the school. When we reached, we first checked into our stay for the night before going for lunch in a restaurant serving Thailand cuisine. Then, we went for a thrilling jeep ride full of bumps and ups and downs which lasted for two hours. Near the end of the ride, we were also brought to a lake where we were splashed with water that got me soaking wet because my disposable raincoat tore earlier on. At night, we had a small barbeque behind our stay which turned out really bad as we were not given butter. Besides that, we were also only given a piece of aluminium foil which turned black easily without having the butter. Luckily we managed to borrow aluminium foil from the owner of that place to barbeque the rest of the food. Afterwards, we walked around the night market in Kenting before going back to our stay to play card games. Next morning, we woke up early to go down for breakfast. The weather was not on our side – it was raining and the wind was really strong. And so, we changed our plan from playing the rides available to visiting the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium where we saw many different types of aquatic animals such as jellyfish, catfish, corals, eels and whales. After that, the rain abated completely which we took that opportunity to go go-cart racing and rolling down a slope inside a ball. The latter was a really dizzy game that actually made one of the teachers vomit slightly. Finally, we left Kenting and drove back to Dalin. And that was how I ended my 8 weeks of volunteering in Taiwan. Over this period of time, I have made many friends who had had a large impact in my life. These teachers had taken care of me and kept entertaining me the entire time. They had brought me to various places in Taiwan, so many that the only place that I have not been to yet in Taiwan is Eastern Taiwan. I have tried and eaten almost, if not all the famous food in Taiwan introduced by the teachers. They also treated me to so many meals that I even lost count. Apart from that, the students in this school had also been really welcoming. They listened attentively to what I teach and are also very responsive. Hence, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the people I have met in Taiwan; every single one of you plays a part in making this trip a memorable one. I will not forget this wonderful experience as it has also taught me to better appreciate the culture in every country i.e. the things that differentiate the country itself from the others.

國際志工第七週來台心得

My second last weekend in Taiwan was spent in Taipei. I followed a teacher back to her home in Taipei by bus on Friday. By the time we reached Zhongshan, Taipei, it was already late at night and so we just rested at her house. The next morning, I woke up, had breakfast prepared by the teacher and left the house at 7:30 a.m., taking a bus to Taipei Main Station. At the station, we waited for about half an hour for the MRT train to head to Shifen - our first stop on the Pingxi Line. We reached around 10:00 a.m. which was rather early as there were not many people around. The stalls near the MRT station at Shifen were mostly selling things related to lanterns. I was told that this is because Shifen and Pingxi is known for burning lanterns where one writes their wish on the lantern and then burn the lantern to let it fly up into the sky. The higher the lantern flies, the higher the chance of the wish being fulfilled or come true. We walked along the street and then took around half an hour walk under the hot sun before reaching the famous Shifen Waterfall. I had to pay $80 to enter but it was worth it. That was the first natural waterfall I've seen in my life. It was beautiful watching how something as simple as water could create such an amazing sight. After that, we took the MRT to Pingxi to have lunch - sausage, steamed bun (pao) and glutinous rice balls (tang yuen). We then walked to the next stop which is only 15 minutes away because waiting for the MRT trains takes a long time as they usually reach every one hour. We reached Jingtung to have a look at one of the oldest train stations. Also, this place has lots of bamboo sticks with wishes written on them hanging on various spots throughout the whole area. Afterwards, we went to Keelung to see the famous rubber duck. Taiwan had made a few large rubber ducks that float on the water with the intention to attract more tourists into Taiwan. This idea originated from a Western artist who then sells the idea to other countries. We then had dinner at Miaokou Night Market also in Keelung before taking the bus back to her house in Zhongshan. On Sunday, after getting all washed up, both of us took a bus at the Taipei Main Station to head to Yangmingshan. We strolled around the mountain, also looking at the Flower Clock and Datun Waterfall. After that, we took the shuttle bus further up to Qingtiangang. The ride up was extremely bumpy with the sharp turns only making it worse for those standing up holding the handrails and rubber straps inside the bus. That made the trip felt longer than one hour but finally we reached and started walking the circular trail. We only wanted to have a look at the wide grassland filled with cows initially. However, we ended up walking the whole circular trail because by the time we realise that, we were halfway through and so there was not much of a point in turning back. I had to brace myself to walk up and down the slippery rocks on the ground and my Vans shoes only made it worse. It was like Dulishan all over again. I almost slipped a few times which made me really afraid that I would actually slip. I had to walk really slow and with extreme caution that it was a little torturing and tiring. The fact that it was drizzling made the floor even more slippery. I was really glad when we had finally reached the end of the trail, which was the point where we started. After all that, we took another shuttle bus and went through the bumpy ride again - a shorter one this time - down to Shilin. We had steamboat for lunch in one of the restaurants nearby before going to the famous National Palace Museum to look at the collection of Asian art such as bronze, artifacts, jades and lacquerware. It is really big - there were three floors and each floor is full of these collections. We did not have time to look at all the exhibitions even though we were in there for three hours. Later on, we went back to her house, packed up, had dinner and went back to Dalin.

國際志工第六週來台心得

Class 203 presented and introduced Taiwan to me this Monday; they talked about the aborigines, food, tourist spots, festivals, and a few others. They also bought me breakfast, which was minced turkey rice and duck noodles with thick soup. It was a good presentation even though their English was basic. I got to know Taiwan better through them and I really appreciate the time and effort they had put into this presentation. Tuesday this week was New Year’s Eve. After school, I went to one of the cinemas in Chiayi City to watch American Hustle with the other teachers. Then, we walked to an open place opposite the building where the government of Chiayi is situated. We watched a bit of the concert but did not stay there for the countdown to year 2014 as the place was too crowded. Instead, we walked back to the train station in Chiayi and waited one hour for the train to go back to Dalin. On the first day of New Year, I followed three other teachers to Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village – a theme park. We got there at 10 o'clock and started walking around the whole area, playing all the rides - except the ones meant for kids - and sometimes stopping to take photos. Out of all the rides we or I went on, the relatively exciting ones were the UFO Gyro Drop, Mayan Adventure and Caribbean Splash. We also watched one of the performances by the aborigines showcasing their traditional dances. Apart from that, we sat the cable car for a round trip to Sun Moon Lake since the cost had already been included in our entrance fee. The sun’s reflection on the lake made the water shine and sparkle brightly; it was beautiful. In the afternoon, after lunchtime on Thursday, one of the teachers in the school took me out to Meiling Scenic Area in Yujing, Tainan – just below Chiayi County – to see the national flower of Taiwan i.e. plum blossom or mei hua. It took us one and a half hour to get there – longer than the expected time of one hour. We walked around the place looking at the plum blossom flowers for about one hour before going up to a very curious spot called the Mysterious Aura Square. It is a round spot where if you stand in the middle, you can hear the echo of any sound you make - voices, claps, stomps etc. Also, only you can hear the echo, other people standing anywhere else will not be able to hear it. It is really intriguing and got me interested in knowing how this mysterious event occurs. Saturday started off with a wedding lunch in a restaurant a stone’s throw away from the school. One of the teachers in the school had got married and this lunch is done on a smaller scale in Dalin for the teachers who could not make it to the wedding ceremony a week ago; I was invited to attend as well. We had something like a 10 course meal and it was a hearty and delightful one. Then, I went to Guanziling in Tainan with two other teachers. When we first reached, we had a look at the Fire and Water Spring where, as the name suggests, there is fire and water at the same time. This is because the natural gas far below the ground is able to rise through the holes in the rocks rendering the fire seeming to burn eternally. After that, the teachers brought me to one of the hot springs to let me experience soaking in hot springs. I didn't really like it at first as I would prefer cold over hot anytime. After soaking for a while though, I got pretty used to the heat and started enjoying it. After one hour, time was up and so we left Guanziling to have dinner in the Carrefour night market back in Chiayi city. The next day, we went to Taichung to visit the Gaomei Wetland in the morning. However, as we were planning to go down into the water, we had to wait until the tide is low. We first went to a baseball field in Taiping to watch a local baseball game. It was pretty interesting to watch and to get to know the rules better as it was my first time watching a baseball game through my own eyes. Then, we went to Wuqi which was near the Gaomei Wetland to have seafood lunch. Afterwards, we went to a temple also not far away to have a look and kill some time while waiting for the tide to fall. When it was time, we got to the wetland and noticed that the wind by then was much stronger as compared to earlier in the morning. Nevertheless, we braced ourselves to walk down the walkway, took of our slippers and waded into the water. The water was freezing cold but it was fun altogether; we also managed to get a good view of sunset behind the fast spinning wind turbines. We left at around 6 o’clock and had dinner at the Qingshui Service Area which is one of the most visited rest areas in Taiwan. Since we were already there, we took a little walk around after we have had our dinner. The most attractive part of this service area, in my opinion, would have to be the toilet. It is the biggest toilet I have ever seen in my life which makes me wonder why does it even has to be that big. Then again, that could be the reason that made this place famous.