Tuesday 7th June

Today we -  Cockermouth, William Howard and Ullswater were going into Guangfu school. This meant an early get up at Ruei Suei

They are usually in school at 7am but we are  not alive at that time in the morning. So we had breakfast at 7 and an 8:30 leave. However the other three schools went to Fuyuan JH.

When we first arrived the Aboriginal students preformed a  welcome dance and taught us part of it.  We all joined in and danced around the quad.  Then we sang amazing grace and Emily did an amazing Solo.

We did a jewellery making class in their hall with their students and made bead bracelets. Then went  to the sports field to play games with their students . Luke had already been whisked away to teach them cricket with a baseball bat– he did too good a job as they beat us despite Mr Kent’s demon bowling.  They then taught us T-ball –a bit like baseball. We had lunch in their hall then had the opportunity to visit their classrooms. We have recruited Alex as our food expert - Alex said the soup was nice, he tried the egg yolk dumplings with cabbage and noodles and pork stew.  Lunch included Guava yellow water melon and water apples which we had not seen before. All really good.

After lunch we went for a wander and  at lunch time they were all having a ‘siesta’ in their class rooms – they had been in school since seven and apparently don’t finish until five perhaps Luke’s cricket training tired them out  We then got back on the coach and went to an Amis fish farm with the Guangfu students. We were taught the traditional method of breeding fish in ponds and catching fish. We were shown how to pound rice to make a sweet peanut flavour ball – how to cook fish in bamboo using hot stones in the water and then add a kind of water chestnut. Alex says this  was really good.

We then went on to at Fenglin Township to a jewellery workshop and made some glass jewellery. After this we saw charcoal being made from bamboo – and were told how it can be used to filter water and how if heated to over 4000 degrees the carbon would become a diamond. The shop here was very interesting – they had clothing made of bamboo fibres and even charcoal coated peanuts – very tasty- Alex recommends these!

The other group went to at Fuyuan JH:-

Caitlin says We made sweet potato dumplings then went to have a go at tie dying.   We had lunch at school then took the pony bus to the charcoal manufacturer, we made glass jewellery then we went to the Amis village and watched them catch and cook fish.

Then we headed back stopping at the seven eleven for extra rations and relaxed in our rooms until dinner - lots of us made of the hot tubs. After dinner we worked on our projects and then played team games in the dining hall – some practice with chopsticks required! Tonight we pack for an early start in the morning.

Luke Lois Caitlin, Alex C and Shaquille

Monday 6th June

6^th june  2011

The weather here is very hot 34 degrees C and very humid - we are all being told to remember to wear a hat , suncream and drink plenty of water. Lots of the girls are carrying umbrellas for shade and we have changed our itinerary a bit to account for the heat.

Last night we had the opportunity to go into Hualien for a meal then shopping in Hualien town centre we split into groups with the students from Hualien school and they helped us haggle to get better prices on the stalls.

This morning we had an early start we had Breakfast at 8.00 and left at 8.30 our first stop was at a high school where we watched a presentation about dragon boat racing and the dragon boat festival which is in honour of a famous poet. There was a prize for the student who could tell the difference between dragon boat racing in the ‘UK and Taiwan. ( see picture of presentation below). We learned about the banana leaf parcels which people still make on this day and one of the teachers had made some for us to try. We also learned about the legend of the noon egg.

We then split into groups with the Hualien students to answer questions about the festival in school  we found it interesting that all the students had a wooden desk in which they keep their books and a recorder. We then departed from the school and took the pony bus to Carp lake at 9.00 and got a very warm welcome from the announcer who asked the crowd to welcome their visitors from the UK. It was 34 degrees at the lake, students took part in the egg balancing competition and we watched the heats of the dragon boat racing. The boats were painted red green yellow and black and the eyes are painted in by the local mayor. Their prizes were really impressive trophies.  

Then we went on to a organic farm at Shoufeng Township for lunch, there we had a bike ride to the fields where we picked carrots, we visited  a Chinese temple, a Japanese `temple, and some students tried walking barefoot down a path made of pebbles which was very hard on the feet!.  We cycled to another area and  went for a walk around a beautiful lake then headed back – Miss Bowe leading the peloton  whilst cycling and taking these photos – although she was the winner of the yellow jersey by the end. From here we took the bus to our hotel  in Ruei Suei where we got settled in and relaxed in our hot tubs which are fed from Yuan Hsiang Hot Springs.

We then had a Taiwanese meal most students tried the duck, prawns banana leaf rice parcels and spicy chicken.

Students then broke into travelling teams for the quiz, Mr Kent had prepared 40 questions on Taiwan which were answered very competitively - the staff team were disqualified for trying to enlist the help of the spa staff.

Early start tomorrow – we are in schools and they start at 7 am!.

Lois, Luke and Heather