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Day 33 Presentations, and Certificates

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08.08.23   In contrast to the previous day, our second to last day of the program felt quite packed with events. The day started off quite interesting. The day before I had prepped for my presentation for the Final mandarin presentation, and felt quite confident about it. What I had not prepared for was all of the distractions that would happen during the presentations. Throughout most of our presentations the building we were in was testing their fire alarm systems, so many times presenters were interrupted by a loud noise followed by “testing, testing”. On top of that during my presentation both the professor who accompanied us to Genshi county, and one of the directors of our program came into our classroom to listen in on my presentation. To say that I was a little worried about my pronunciation and grammar would be an understatement. To top of my presentation in the best way possible. At the end of my presentation I had made a joke and related it to Snow White the cartoon movie, a
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Day 32: A Strange Calm

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08.07.23  Today strangely has felt quite calm, in spite of the ever closing deadline for our final projects approaching, and seemingly everyone else racing against time to complete their work. I feel at ease. It feels as if tomorrow's presentations and the impending final research paper deadline should add to the pressure to get everything done, yet I am quite relaxed at this point. Perhaps I am just an optimistic path I've found to reach the end successfully. Amidst the academic chaos, today brought a delightful surprise as I celebrated an early birthday gift. Additionally, the closure of our Mandarin class's classroom economy brought back fond memories and added to the day's unique experiences. As the day winds down, I reflect on the events that transpired and prepare for another productive grind session. Today started off for me in a very lazy way, rolling out of my bed for one of the last times, and rushing to get to class after realizing I slept in again. With pres
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Day 30: Pomodoro Method

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08.06.23 We had a free day today so I was able to sleep in a little. When I woke up it was POURING outside and it really made me not want to leave the dorms. I had a pretty busy day ahead of me so I mustered up the courage to leave and do some work.       I had planned to spend the morning/afternoon at a local coffee shop, but decided to go to the on campus coffee shop, Louisa, instead. Regardless, the walk over was treacherous. I huddled under my yellow poncho and umbrella, but my shoes could not be saved. I walked into the coffee shop with my shoes soaked and socks sopping wet. I ordered my classic Brown sugar latte (1/2 sweet, 1/2 ice- the barista probably gave me a look for this). I settled down and began to work on pulling together information from the survey's for my paper on Mental Health Dispositions in Students from Taiwan. When I study, I like to use the Pomodoro Method: do focused work in increments of 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. The timer helps me to stay
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Day 29: 加油！

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08.04.23        Today is Day 29 of our dialogue and day  16 of Chinese class, which was also the day of our last 小考 (quiz)! I enjoy Chinese class because our teacher uses many engaging examples to help us learn. We are on the chapter called I Just Want to Be Myself . We listened to sad music in Chinese that had some of the terms we just learned (could've cried).  ~attempt at drawing cows~ :'( During our break, Karyna brought us dried plum from the markets (which Sam didn't like too much)                  Meanwhile, This week I've been working on my research project to attempt to understand Taiwanese dispositions towards mental health. I've been collecting responses to my anonymous survey from Taiwanese students. Approaching people to participate in my survey has been intimidating to say the least, especially speaking in Chinese, but I've had some good conversations come out of it. I've had some unsuccessful attempts at asking people to participate in my sur
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Day 28: "Work" by Rihanna

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3-2 class minus 大卫 Another busy day at NTHU! In class, we learned about Wu Baochun, a famous Taiwanese baker that only received a middle school education prior to rising to fame. It was interesting discussing in Chinese whether he deserved to skip right to graduate school so he can earn his EMBA; it reminded me of the United States “affirmative action” case. We incorporated the new vocab words and grammar structures from today into our argument, and everyone had different takes on Wu Baochun’s situation.  During our break, Maria and I sprinted to Seven Eleven to grab our much-needed caffeine, and I also ended up buying a signature rice ball from one of the restaurants as well. After grabbing our breakfast, we were ready to continue learning about Wu Baochun! After class ended, I parted ways with my classmates and went to Café Louisa to do work. I worked on my Chinese final essay for a bit before deciding that I needed a small break from all the writing. I ended up catching up with one
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Day 27: Final Group Discussion

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This morning, I bought two tea eggs and placed them in plastic bags when the cashier encouraged me to be more environmentally friendly. She said, "小哥, let's be a bit more 环保. You know how everybody’s doing their best!"(Loosely remembered and translated) Throughout the conversation, I couldn't help but be inspired by Taiwan's strong environmental consciousness. From compost bins available at every cafeteria to the growing movement for organic agriculture, Taiwan sets a remarkable example for the world in building sustainable societies. Even simple reminders like "please save water" signs near nearly every sink show how the nation values responsible resource usage.       Sign reminding us to turn off the lights when we leave the bathroom In today's class, we delved into the history of traditional Taiwanese cuisine (餐桌上的历史). After the Chinese Civil War, over a million Chinese soldiers arrived in Taiwan with many opening small shops to sell their homesty
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Day 26: More Research

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         Today was a super busy for everyone on the dialogue! We have all been using this week to prepare our research methods and apply them. This has been a challenge because all our interviews and surveys need to be conducted in Chinese, which is nobody on the trip’s first language. To make it even more tedious, in our surveys, the characters need to be in traditional, while we have all been used to learning simplified.      I started my day off with a breakfast from 7/11 (as usual), with Savannah, Sam, and Derrick. We took bets on who would show up next: Ryan, Kevin, or Jack. Kevin was first.        In Chinese class today, we gave our presentations about what our opinions were on getting plastic surgery. After that finished, we engaged in a group activity where we practiced some of the grammar we were learning on Google Jamboard. After that, we played a game where we learned the measure words for different food dishes; the teacher projected the dishes on the board, and we got to th
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