Exchange Student Certificate ! <3

Southern Taiwan Rotary Trip!

Traveling through Taiwan with people from all over the world!
交換學生=家庭
<3

台北市立動物園 Taipei Zoo

City God Parade

9 Month Report

Wow, my last report. It still feels unreal that in just 17 days I will be on a plane going home. It's simply hard to think about! I'm trying to view returning home as the start of a brand new adventure. New challenges, new goals, a new start. I know I will miss Taiwan very much, but I am also excited to re enter "reality". At the beginning of this year living in Kinmen just felt like a dream. I always thought that when I returned to America it would be like waking up to the real world. I now find, after living here for 9 months, that is the complete opposite. I have adapted so completely to life here that my old life now feels like the dream world and here, my reality.
This month went by extremely fast. I went back and forth to Taipei so much and became so busy, that for awhile I actually forgot that June has almost arrived. During the middle of the year I felt that time really went by slowly, but now it's starting to speed up. My parents came early this month, I had my mandarin speech competition, and I had the Southern Taiwan bus trip. For the speech competition we all had to just get up and speak for about 2 minutes. Speaking in front of people is definitely not one of my strengths and speaking mandarin in front of a bunch of Rotarians and Rotex was really scary for me. ( I was also the last one scheduled to go!) so the speech was my big challenge this month. But I'm happy I got through it and I think it really helped me with my public speaking. This month we also had the bus trip. We went to Kenting, Kaohsiung, and Tainan. It was such a fun trip with a bittersweet ending. I had to say goodbye to many of the other exchange students. Although I only saw them once a month, it was still extremely hard to say goodbye. This month I also "graduated" from Chinese cooking school, and my Chinese language class. This was also really sad because it meant more goodbyes would be coming. This is definitely the hardest part of being an exchange student.
Soon I will say goodbye to the ones who I have grown so close to during my exchange year. But I will take with me all the moments and friendships that truly made an impact on my life.

8 month report

8 months. It's crazy to think I will actually be going home soon. The closer I get to my departure date the more real it all feels. It's a very similar feeling to how I felt before leaving. The closer I got to leaving, the greater the excitement and anxiety became. Getting my guarantee form, and receiving my return ticket. But it's also different, because the idea of going home makes me somewhat sad. Having my parents with me has really made me realize a lot. Not only how much I've missed them, and home, and everything "familiar" but also how what was familiar isn't anymore. It also opened my eyes to how familiar I am with life here in kinmen. Showing my family around and introducing my life here to them has made me realize how lucky I am. I will miss this island with all of my heart and the people that have been my second family. Sometimes the thought of not having them with me any longer is really scary. Anyway, this month has been very busy for me. I continued to pack my schedule with more activities. Now on Wednesday's I volunteer at the local orphanage with some of the english teachers. We mostly just play with the little kids. I have only been going for 3 weeks now but I feel like these experiences have already helped me to improve my Chinese immensely. I have also continued to help out in my host family's restaurant. This month was also the district assembly in Taipei. We were able to meet so many Rotarians and exchange students from all over Taiwan. Including outbounds heading to Ohio this fall. It was a really wonderful experience. Two weeks after I returned to kinmen, my parents arrived! It was so amazing to see them after 8 months. My host rotary club was fantastic. They took my family and I all around the island to go sightseeing. I was also able to show them my school, town, favorite places, food, and activities. My school even let me bring my little sister to meet my classmates! We are now in Taipei for another week before they return to America. It has been a wonderful month, now I am just trying to savor my time here. I love Taiwan!

It Seems Like Just Yesterday <3

Taipei, District Conference

我會想念你，臺灣. 我愛這個美麗的國家