Weekly report | Hello, Tainan (Vol.1)

One sentence to sum up the week, traveling truly is fun and enriching. Especially when you are by yourself. This Spring Break, I am volunteering in a primary school in Tainan, Taiwan. It’s my first visit to the beautiful country and I did not really know what to expect, except that I know there’s a lot of good food to look forward to.

So suddenly, I arrived at Kaohsiung Airport and was welcomed with warm weather. Running away from winter is a smart move. I was picked by the school’s director and directly had dinner with both my homestay family and some school staff. A lot of people to get to know to in one day!

(24/02/2017 First Dinner)

Since it’s holiday here when I arrived, I got to travel around the city with my homestay family before the volunteering started. They don't speak that much English and I don’t speak that much Chinese either, but somehow we still manage. I could not appreciate them enough for trying to make me feel at home all the time.

(Xin Hua Market)

(Zhu Ma Lai Farm)

At first, I thought it’s just the Huang family I’m staying with, but turned out the school staff and students are just as welcoming and sweet. All the kids greeted me with great excitement and gave their best effort to introduce themselves in English. They even looked for me during their recess time and asked me to join their games. I felt more like their classmate rather than their teacher.

In the first week, I taught together along with their English teacher, Miss Kim. Starting next week, I’ll be doing it alone so.. 頑張りまーす！

(It’s been only one week and I don’t know how many liters of milk tea I have drunk.)

Written by Exchange participant, Patricia Budiman