Amalia: Day 5

So today was seriously one of the best days we've had so far. The school of the day was Pin Jeng High School which is where our beloved Allen goes (Allen is Ryan's host). We were greeted with a red carpet and claps/cheers. It was the cutest way we have been greetest so far. So right after our amazing greeting we went into the school's conference room and got gifts from the principle. THEY WERE THE SCHOOL'S UNIFORMS!!! They were actually pretty cool looking uniforms, but there were two tiny problems. #1 They had like 6 trillion layers and it was FREAKING HOT today. #2 The pants didn't fit any of us (except for Amanda). But we were all good sports and used them all day long. Ok so after we got our gifts we went to their theater where the students put on a production for us about how rice dumplings came to be. After it was over we were all divided into small groups. Our team mates taught us a couple of sentences from the play and then dropped a big bomb on us - we were going to perform...IN CHINESE! Once we all got our lines down we made rice dummpling necklaces (THE TEACHER TOLD ME THAT I MADE THE BEST ONE!) Then we went to the school's kitchen to learn how to make rice dumplings. Once they were done we went back to the theater room to perform! We all did an amazing job and everyone thought we were hilarious. OH MY GOODNESS, funniest thing happened when we were bowing after we were done with our theatrical performance! This girl had been telling me that in Taiwan there is no physical contact between girls and guys. The most they do is shake hands, nothing more. Ok so this girl stood next to me when we were lining up to bow and then Ryan comes and stands on her other side. When we both grabbed her hands she TOTALLY FREAKED OUT. She was full out screaming and giggling and jumping up and down. Cutest thing E-V-E-R. Anyways after our plays we went to the conference room to eat the rice dumplings we made and pizza. The pizza was DELICIOUS! It had no sauce - it was just cheese and toppings and sea food. SO GOOD. After lunch we went to art class were we got to make t-shirts that combined the U.S and Taiwan. I love our shirts and making them made them even more special. Once we were all finished with our shirts we went to KUNG-FU! We got to pick between a sword and a bamboo stick. OF COURSE I PICKED THE SWORD! In my group we had Kathleen, Joseph, Eve, Ethan, Ryan, and I. We started off pretty bad (Kathleen accidentally cut Ryan's finger...) but by the end we looked like we could all totally kill someone. We were simply B.A. After we all showed each other our mad skills, it was time for us to go. Pin Jeng was most definately one of my favorite schools.

When we all got back to YFHS my crazy family (Page, Kathleen, Ethan, Dustin, Mimi, Demi, Matt, and I) went to the NIGHT MARKET along with other classmates. HOLY COW, I tried so many new things. Chicken heart, chicken feet, stinky tofu, some weird fish, cake, pig blood cake... And I have to say it was all pretty good! We also shopped till we dropped, literally. Today was pretty amazing but the sweetest moment of the night was when we told Matt, Demi, and Mimi that we were going to buy them Coldstone ice cream. They said that it was too expensive, then they said they didn't want any, but finally we convinced them to let us buy them some. I love those three, they are seriously 0ne of the sweetest people I will ever meet. Mimi's mom picked us up from the mall and when she saw all of my shopping bags, she got SUPER excited. As soon as we got home we all went upstairs and I showed her everything I bought, she loved it all. We were all screaming and jumping and just having awesome girl time.

So acting in a Chinese play, making rice dumplings (food and jewelry), making t-shirts, learning how to do Kung-Fu with a sword, going to the Night Market, shopping, and spending time with Mimi and her mom made today one of the best days of the trip.