My grad school applications are almost done…YAY! So back to the blog it is. (I’m also quarantined in my room with some kind of flu or sinus infection or something not fun…so lots of blogging to be done!) I’ll start with two weekends ago. Su-Ao Elementary turned 114 years old! We had a celebration on Saturday, though waking up at 5:30am on a Saturday should never happen, the rest of the day was fun. It was gorgeous weather…hot even! Su-Ao is in front of Seven Stars Mountain, so the first thing we did was climb the mountain! The whole school at 8am on a Saturday climbed the mountain…even the Kindergarteners who are the cutest smallest people ever. We took a fairly easy path so everyone could make it and it was really fun! Then, the performances began. The whole school sat on the grass in front of Su-Ao’s big outdoor stage. The stage was filled with important people, from other principals to politicians. There were lots of speeches in Chinese, which of course I didn’t understand. Then, I watched performances by the classical orchestra, the recorder band, the ukulele club, the tai kwon do club…even the belly dancing club! It was really cool!! After that, there was a big fair where students sold different drinks and food. I got free bubble tea and popcorn (perks of being the foreign teacher). And that was it! I got paid to have fun from 8-12…pretty good deal.
Because we had school on Saturday, we had school off on Monday, but the teachers all did something together. I got invited so at 8am on Monday, I went off to Jaoxi. First, we went to an orchid farm. It was pretty cool except all the orchids bloomed in September…so it was a lot of greenery. But, they had an entire room for cactuses and I could still see all the beautiful orchids for sale. We then got to plant our own cactus and take it home! YAY! So now my room has some life in it…he’s a very cute mini cactus.
After the orchids, we went out to brunch at a 5-star hotel. It was SO good. It was really expensive (especially for Taiwan when I normally eat for $1 a meal) but the school paid for it, so it was even better! It was a buffet, which had a great mixture of Taiwanese and Western foods. I ate 3 plates of food plus a plate of dessert and ice cream! I even ate wasabi ice cream…I don’t recommend it but had to try.
Then, the Director of General Affairs took me and the other two teachers he drove to the Jaoxi hot spring. Jaoxi is famous throughout Taiwan for its hot springs and I had never been so it was really cool! Jaoxi is a really cool area, so I definitely want to go back soon.
