Day 8: Headed Into the Mountains

 

Our second day of classes started after an eventful night of dealing with some various and assorted bugs in the dorms. Most of us made our way over to the cafeteria for some breakfast before Chinese. This day was the first official start to our Chinese language pledge which meant from 8am to 6pm we were only allowed to speak Mandarin. As someone who loves to chat this is a distinctly hard challenge to overcome. Nevertheless, we walked to class with our minds open and our stomachs full.

 

Day two of classes consisted of more vocab, grammar, and sentence structure practice. Cheng Laoshi administered our first quiz (which went fine) and spent the rest of the lesson helping us exercise our reading, listening, and speaking skills.

 

Lunch was once again in the cafeteria where many of us opted for the buffet style restaurant where we pick and choose lunch from a long line of Chinese foods. I personally prefer to load up on white rice, tofu, and bok choy. Unfortunately, lunch ended with me realizing I had misplaced my water bottle. I then stayed behind a bit to look but was unsuccessful (if anyone sees an orange hydroflask please let me know).

 

The day quickly picked up as we all moved all our things to a new dorm just in time to pack a weekend bag and leave for the mountains. The bus ride over was uneventful and provided the perfect hour to get a nap in. Once we arrived, we all split up into various rooms at the homestay. I was able to secure one of the single beds which meant I was going to be happy regardless of what the weekend threw at me.

 

Our dinner was just down the street at a small restaurant that used locally sourced meat and vegetables as well as fish from the river right next door. Additionally, the inside of the building had indigenous artifacts such as paintings and weapons from the peoples that live around the mountain. We all ate together and were joined by some of the other students and a teacher from NTHU who are there to encourage music with the local students. The food was absolutely delicious, and the company was great.

 

Our final act of the night was a “casual stroll” up the mountain to look at fireflies. I grew up in the Midwest which means fireflies were a very normal occurrence, but the thought of viewing some at the top of a mountain seemed pretty great to me. I was initially worried about the hike as I’d struggled through some of our adventures in the past, but ultimately the walk wasn’t bad. Unfortunately, due to either our noise or light, no fireflies were viewable. However, spending time with the other dialoguers made it all worth it (and the fact that we bought some peaches from a small store on the way down).

 

We ended the night with thorough showers and some card games between a few of us. It was a great day, with great food, and great people.