Teachers or Students? BOTH!

Yesterday they arranged more classes for us to learn more about Chinese/Taiwanese culture. For 3 hrs Monday afternoon we worked on Chinese knots. It was kind of neat, we got to make these little firecracker-looking things out of string and tied them all together to make a neat souvenior for the Chinese New Year. I will admit I got a little frustrated at times over this 3 hour feat, but after a little help from my friends it all worked out.

Later that night we came back for a 2 hour Chinese calligraphy class. I had learned basic calligraphy in middle school, but it's not quite the same here. You use brushes and inkwells and instead of letters from the alphabet we wrote Chinese characters. I felt a little better about myself when one of the teachers said I was a natural. I may not be the best at knot tying, but I can write gosh darn it! We have to practice our calligraphy more this week because next week during our press conference the newspapers want to take pictures of us writing (in Chinese characters) We love Tainan, Shengli Elementary School, and International Travel. We'll see how that goes!

Speaking of the press, I was interviewed again yesterday, only not for a newspaper. A college student came up and asked if she could ask me some questions. She is an English major and her assignment was to interview a foreigner and record the conversation. As she asked me the questions she was just shaking. She told me she was so nervous. It was very humbling to me that someone would be SO nervous about interviewing little old ME! She told me I had a beautiful smile. At the end of the interview she bought me some type of tea drink. They're so nice here and it's amazing how we're treated like we're so famous.

Well, I'm off to class!