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Sunday, December 19, 2004

Sunday, December 19, 2004

Hi people!! I'm finally back in SIngapore! I miss all the food and people here! I was craving for laksa and carrot cake while I was there cos' everyday, we had those kind of 10-course thingy for lunch and dinner. Kind of got sick of it after a while. There was once where we went for a super nice buffet dinner though.

Anyway, Naruwan!!(Welcome to Taiwan) This trip to Taiwan totally rocks!!I guess I can only give a brief account of the trip here. There's just so much to write about if I really blog about what we did for the past 15 days.

Firstly, let's touch on the accomodation. We stayed at Jian Tan Youth Hostel most of the time. The facilities there were quite good and 4 of us got to sleep together in 1 room. My room mates are Alexis, Mengni and Cui. Hehe, we had a lot of fun "sleeping together" for the past 2 weeks. The Jian Tan hostel was just next to the famous Shilin night market. The teacher-in-charge were really nice. They let us go out to Shilin almost every night. So u guys can imagine how much stuffs I bought and how much food I actually ate. It's a good place to shop for bags, shoes and clothes. I bougth all these plus tons of souvenirs for friends. One bad things about it is the crowd. I dreaded squeezing through the crowd when I was shopping there. When we headed down to Hua Lian and Tai Zhong, we got to stay in hotels. The hotel we staye in at Tai Zhong was sooo posh. There's like, 2 king-sized beds in each room, with ample space at the front for 8 people to play brige.lol. However, the most interesting lodging for us should be the cosy wooden huts in Ri Yue Tan and Xi tou. The experience was quite different from that of staying in a hotel I guess. The places we stayed in at this 2 places are situated on mountains, so the temperature there was much lower than that in Taipei and Tai Zhong. Ha, I think I almost froze to death in my sleep.

As for the learining parts, we listened to some talks regarding literature and chuang zuo, Some talks were helpful while others were totally amusing cos the speaker diden touched on the topic at all. There was once where this woman spent the whole day talking about pigs' trotters instead of hong lou meng..-_- We got to try some hand on activities like using knots to make a X'mas wreath and making potteries by ourselves. We went to attractions like the Taroko Gorge, ri yue tan etc, where we got to see works of nature which we have never seen before in Singapore. Taiwan is really a beautiful island surrounded by mountains and rivers..:)Oh yes, all of us got brainwashed by south park. We watched it every night and I think we are beginning to talk like the chacrters inside.

I think we are very lucky cos the teachers and guides were all so caring towards us and they allowed us to have as much freedom as possible. I guess that's why we got to shop around so many times. I was also very touched by the care and concern the guides and teachers have shown towards us pupils. We felt so attached to the guides that one of them can;t hold back her tears when we were entering the departure gate. Though this is a trip organised by MOE, I think the guides and teachers did a great job by not being too harsh with us and allowing us to go out every night.

14 days seemed long to me at first, but after a while, I realised that time is slipping away very quickly. Before we knew it, it was already the end of the trip. I guess 2 weeks is just nice for a trip like this. We had time to know each other better and also explore the place well. I missed home at the beginning, but after a few days, I gradually got used to the pace of life here and I dreaded going home to face the reality..haix.

That basically sums up our trip. It totally rocks!!! The people in Taiwan, the people in this trip, the food and culture all rocked! *yea*

I'll miss Taiwan. Think I'll go back there again if I have the chance..=) Goodbye Formosa!