Goodbye Taiwan :(

Hey everyone!

I'm so sorry...this post is WAY long overdue. I've been super, super busy these past three weeks in Shanghai. I've never done so much Chinese homework in my entire life....

Anyways here are pictures from my last two days in Taiwan! 

The very last day at school....I pretty much let the kids take pictures themselves. So here's what I found on my camera...

THURSDAY: Last Day of School

4th grade gym class

watching videos on my camera

looking at pictures

kickball!

4th grade class in the principal's office

silly kids :)

after school some of the kids were doing their homework so they could play later in the evening

some of the girls stayed with me to take some pictures!

:D

friends forever

so adorable!

I miss all these kids so much! Everyone should be on summer break now and relaxing :) I hope I see everyone next time I go back to visit!

FRIDAY: Leaving Nantou County

Principal Ma and Principal Hong treated me to a hot pot lunch! It was really good :)

yummm

everyone at lunch

 Nivu's face HAHA

Vox Nativa Family

Vox Nativa Family + Me :)

I had the most incredible month in June, and I owe it all to Principal Ma, Principal Hong, Ali, Nivu, Akuan, Vox Nativa.....and just about everyone I met on this trip. It truly was an experience I will never forget. I learned a lot about myself, a lot about Vox Nativa, a lot about the Bunun people....the most amazing experience of my life! I miss everyone so much. Next time I'm in Taiwan...I'm definitely visiting!

waiting at Taiwan's high speed railway train station

goodbye Nantou County!

Saturday: Last day in Taiwan

the cards Nivu and Ali made me! I displayed them in my dorm room!

last lunch with family in Taiwan

yummy Japanese food lunch!

Jennifer and I got our hair done later that night...we spent 5 hours in the salon highlighting, perming, and cutting our hair...

:)

So what am I up to now? Well I've lept from one amazing adventure to another....for the last three weeks I've been enjoying every moment of my time in Shanghai. It's an insane amount of Chinese work I am doing...but I've met some really amazing people on my study abroad trip already. 

Seriously....thank you for reading my blog everyone! I've had a lot of fun this summer, and I'm glad I got to share a little bit of my experience with everyone. 

Sa vì

p.s. Maybe it's time to start another blog for Shanghai?

A whole day of fun and celebration

note: sorry everything is italicized....for some reason Blogger won't let me un-italicize everything :/




Wait...this is a joke right? It's been a month already, really! That can't be possible...I feel like I just unpacked everything yesterday!


Well to celebrate, Ali and Nivu took me a plum wine distillery, the famous Sun Moon Lake, Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, an old train station, and then a dinner party! I have 111 pictures from Wednesday to put on this blog entry....ready? 


Plum Wine Distillery

one of their logo characters

this is a Bunun knife

this little piggy is relieving itself 

Sun Moon Lake

We had so much fun here!

ahead is the most expensive hotel in Taiwan

the view

engagement pictures being taken

Ali on the boardwalk

lots of jumping in the next few pictures!

Nivu and Ali

n

ow for some glamor shots of Ali

Taiwan's next top  model?

Nivu and I goofing around

Longfeng Temple and the Matchmaker God Shrine

On the way to our destination Ali asked if I wanted to see a temple, and I said why not...I could take a few cool pictures there anyways. I was confused because there were a lot of young people walking around, and usually you see  older people at temples praying. Then Ali told me people were here praying to the  Matchmaker God in hopes of finding a good love match in the future. 

entrance

Longfeng Temple

the entrance from the back

details

young people burning money for the Matchmaker God

stone dragon sculpture

Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village 

This place is like half outdoor museum and half amusement park....it covers the history of aboriginal groups all over the world. You will see that the day goes from sunny to pouring rain...

we're here!

entering the garden first

they shot a Taiwanese drama here

pretending to be a sculpture

Ali running towards us while managing to look cute

paparazzi time begins...now

cartwheeling..what else?

going up!

the view

being cutesy with Ali

silly with Nivu

this rock was tipping over a bit

always understand where your water comes from!

uh oh?

hehe

Ali, Nivu, and I watched people perform all types of dances and ceremonies from different Taiwanese Aboriginal groups.

the person in the middle throws up this wooden woven ball...

....and whoever catches it with their spear will have good luck for that year

swinging

this looks so much like PSIDE's tinikling!

except they use sticks that remind me of raas sticks!

this was insane....there were 8 poles to dodge!

imaginary tea party 

the pattern on the table

Bunun tribe!

they will keep the bones of the animals they kill

it's sort of blurry...but they cooked thin slices of pork on this stone slab

so yummy!

BUNUN!

lots of owls

even owls carved into other owls!

the stools were so cute!

making mochi!!

the mochi is so sticky...so it's really hard to make

after pounding some mochi...we get to eat mochi dipped in chopped up peanuts with sugar

yum :)

eating some rice cooked in bamboo...i've actually had this before!

taro cake...really good!

relaxing

modeling

off to our last stop...

...a water ride!

while we were on the ride...it started pouring! so we were soaked from the ride and the rain...

since it began to pour, we headed inside

this ride was scary!

on the monorail

Nivu in the back

Old Train Station

Around 4 we headed back to the mountains....but we wanted to stop at this pretty old train station...

where people used to wait

pretending to wait for a train

Dinner Party

this is Ali's reenactment of her trip to the doctors on our way back....hilarious! Her voice was hoarse, so she went in to get a shot. They gave her a shot in the butt, but for some odd reason the nurse forgot to close the curtain! Nivu and I could see her from outside! I laughed so hard......it was hilarious

two of the three Sav

ì

's that were at dinner

Principal Ma's two super good friends...they love to joke around with him

the other Savi's mother

giving out chocolates I bagged

his daughter..so cute!

his wife and other daughter

E bu...the one I talked about in an earlier blog entry

this is E bu's cousin...also named E bu...they were both named after their aunt. The Bunun language teacher almost named me E bu!

sad goodbyes :(

I can't believe I'm leaving tomorrow!

Sa vì

p.s. I will be posting another entry hopefully tomorrow with today's pictures! I may not be in the mountains tomorrow, but it's not the very end quite yet!