中山女中 and 立法院

During the past few weeks I have done a couple things that really couldn't make up a whole blog post so this will have a couple updates that don't really follow the order of the blog.

All the girls

On Friday May 4th I went with my buddy to an all girls school in Taiwan (中山女中). I was invited to this school to give my perception on something dealing with American Culture. This probably was the hardest thing I have had to do in Taiwan because I have trouble describing America to other people because I have many perceptions of it, not to mention that I had to make it interesting for seventy-seventeen year old-Taiwanese girls. My buddy told me that they like Lady Gaga, a lot. So I decided to cater my speech to Lady Gaga while spinning it in an American Culture way. Lady Gaga works hard to speak out for those who do not have a voice and creating the American dream though equal rights; this is something that many do not know about her outside of America. The speech went for 45 minutes and then had a question and answer for any other questions. Taiwanese girls are very pensive, especially in a high school English class where they might not feel confident talking in front of their peers in English. The question and answer went well and I was given a great welcoming afterwards with a picture taken with all the girls. After I was done some of the girls came up to learn more about me and where I come from without their peers watching. This was nice because I knew that they were actually interested in me and I felt like I accomplished what I had come for. Eventually we had to leave and we got our overly-generous payment (1000NTD) and we went out to a great, and expensive, dumpling restaurant in Zhongxia Fuxing Station (忠孝復興站).

Giving the speech

Few of the girls who came to talk afterwards

Mario, Gilberto and Emma making
their famous burritos

The next update is something that went on this week that happens every year at NCCU (國立政治大學), the World Festival. I didn't see much of it because my Chinese class conflicts with most of the events but I did participate in two. The first was a photo competition that was held for all exchange students to tell what they feel about Taiwan through a short paragraph and a picture. Sadly I did not win but a lot of people did say they really enjoyed my pictures that I posted. The second was really fun to walk through, even though I had a short time to do so. This was the food festival where all the countries have food from their countries and share the tastes of their countries with everyone else. I had to go for the French crepes and the Mexican burritos. Everything was so interesting and fun to see, if I had more time I could have easily eaten at every place.

So many people and so much food

The last small update happened today. This morning I headed to the Legislative Yuan (立法院) with my class I have on Tuesday's: Democracy and Democratization in Taiwan. The Legislative Yuan is the law making body of Taiwan and is very interesting to me since I am a political science major. The trip began early in the morning, well 9 am (early for me). We all met up and went into the Legislative Yuan. The trip began kind of unfortunate. In the beginning we were brought into the chamber and listened to some talks by the KMT (ruling party) talk about US beef but then we were promptly kicked out because a vote was about to begin. They kick everyone out just so there is no worry of lobbyists attempting to lobby in the chamber. Then we met with our professors uncle, who has worked in the Yuan for over twenty years. He showed us a film about the Yuan and the process of law making in Taiwan. The system is very similar to the US but just unicameral. When we finished the film we were brought to the cafe inside and were given tea and then brought to a small museum where we saw some old documents regarding the Yuan and even saw a chest that held the documents when the KMT brought them from China in 1949. The next stop was our professor's uncle's office where we sat for a little bit and learned more about the Yuan and then his uncle gave each of us a little parting gift, a mug stamped with a picture of the Yuan.