Amelia's Travel Blog : 4 Month Report

Thursday, December 27, 2012

4 Month Report

December is finally coming to an end and as much as I hate to see time fly by so quickly, i'm happy. This month was probably the most difficult for me so far. Being away from my family during Christmas was heartbreaking. This is the first of sixteen years that I have not been with them during the holidays and I knew it would not be the highest point of my exchange. However, the month of December itself was absolutely incredible. Aside from Christmas I have had many exciting adventures in the past thirty days. I was able to go on a class trip to Southern Taiwan, travel to Taipei again with the Kinmen Senior High School Interact Club, sing with my class in an English song competition, and much more. I have also been able to practice my Chinese much more in my new home. My new host family includes a six year old boy who is constantly speaking Chinese with me. We watch little kid television shows in Chinese like Sponge Bob which helps so much. Because I already know the dialogue from watching the shows in America it is a great way to learn new words and phrases. I think my new host family is really motivated to help me learn Chinese which makes it a wonderful environment to be in. Although I am becoming more comfortable in my new home, Christmas was still a very lonely time. I skyped with parents, but that was it. Afterwards it was just a normal day in Taiwan. I went to school, came home, did my homework, and went to bed. What helped the most during Christmas was definitely the Christmas party in Taipei. Being around the other exchange students who were going through the same thing was comforting. We had our own celebration, I was with my second family. It truly is amazing how tightly bonds are between people sharing the same experience. I was so grateful for all the other exchange students this month. We made it through the hard part of exchange. Now that things are back to normal i'm much happier. I still love my island and my classmates and my life as an exchange student. I am so excited to see what new adventures await me this January!

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Notre Dame

Today we visited notre dame. Notre Dame is a gothic cathedral in Paris. Once we got to Notre Dame we had to stand in a large line. it took about 15 minutes until w actually got inside. Right away we started to climb the 400 steps to the top of the church. We climbed and climbed and climbed and pretty soon we got to the first level. it was a pretty good view but the top was much better. Once we got to the top we had a spectacular view. Not as good as the Eiffle tower, which you could see, but still a view of the river and below Notre Dame. Inside the church the priest was preaching and there were candles lit everywhere. We walked around and looked at statues like the sculpture of Joan of arc. Once we left we headed on looking forward to the rest of the day.

The Patisserie

Today after we got back from are big museum walk my brother, sister, and i went to the Patisserie to get dinner and dessert that night. We walked around the corner towards a little shop that was down the street from our apartment. they had decorated treats like pie with the fruit in beautiful designs and they had treats that looked like they were a big glob of whip cream. We ended up getting one tiny pizza and a bunch of little pieces of pizza. For dessert we got to pieces of berry pie and 2 pieces of apircot pie, also an apple pie. The pie looked so pretty you didn't want to eat them to destroy the designs. they tasted just as good as they looked. when we got back we feasted on pie and pizza.