Amalia: Day 8 and 9

These last two days have been pretty crazy (hints me not blogging last night). Yesterday we went to Shou-Shan High School where we all got to meet the mayor of Taoyuan. IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME. Kathleen and I got to make fried dumpling with him and the principle of the school! The delegation presented him our presents and he gave each of us pineapple cakes (which are incredibly delicious). The mayor left after about half an hour but Page and I followed him outside to ask if we could take a picture with him. He was being interviewed by the press (which was EVERYWHERE) and next thing we know, we are both being pushed to each of his sides by his assistant. It was pretty cool (that would be our second time being in the news) and soon after the press asked some people from the delegation a few questions. After the mayor was truly gone we all went to class. In was pretty interesting (we went to chemistry, physics, Chinese, and art) but the best class of all was P.E. We got to play tug-a-war with the school's team. HOLY COW, they are so intense (so of course we lost). After school was over, my crazy family (Mimi, Demi, Matt, Dustin, Kathleen, Page) and I went to Taiwan's version of Walmart. All I have to say is that Taiwan's Walmart kicks the Walmart back home's butt. First of all it has 5 stories and a food court. The escalators are the coolest things ever (we played with them for a while...) and they have everthing you could imagine. Bottom line, each off us spent about 500-700 Taiwanese dollars. Once we were done eating and shopping Mimi and I went home, got our stuff, and went over to Demi's for a FULL OUT SLEEPOVER! We had gotten so much delicious junk food earlier (chips, chocolate, gummies, candy, soda, etc) and do you know how much of it we ate? About 1/4th. BARELY ANYTHING, but whatever. We now have a tons of food for the 14 hour flight back home. Ok so we didn't really eat anything but we had so much fun. We hung out with Demi's family, watched the World Cup, helped Page and Kathleen pack, and boy/girl talk for THE longest time. Even though we only got about 5 hours of sleep I do not regret it, we all got even closer.

Today was all about pottery and sight seeing. We first went to make pottery and coasters. The coasters were fun, we just kind of sat and colored. But the actual pottery making? Oh my gosh, total disaster. Let me just start off by saying that Ryan was my pottery making buddy and we were both AWFUL pottery makers; mine kept on ripping, his was just this big ball of goo. Anyways, I have no idea why but we decided to high five each other (our hands were completely covered with water and clay of course) and BAM! I as showered in clay, fun... Anyways, we worked SO HARD on our pots and for what? For nothing, we didn't even get to keep them! Ok so once we were done with pottery we had lunch - SUSHI. I know people love sushi, but sadly I do not. I hate seaweed and sushi is COVERED with it. Luckly, I am not the only person who doesn't like sushi, Ryan doesn't either. So we (along with the Shou-Shan sponsor) took a little walk to Seven Eleven to get some food. Point of the story is not about lunch it is about what I learned about Taiwanese culture. Turns out that today the sponsor was suppose to be picking her wedding dress up but the principle of the school told her that it was her duty to show us around so she had no choice but to cancel her appointment and show is around. I felt awful, but what shocked me the most was how seriously people take their jobs here. When their head person asks them to do something, they MUST do it. It is almost like they have no other choice. Alright, so after we all finished lunch we headed off to the Pottery and Clay Museum. The best part of the WHOLE DAY was before we started our tour. Dustin, Ryan, and I went on a super secrey mission to Seven Eleven. It was pretty awesome and of course all of the evidence has been discarded (it is all in our stomachs). Anyways, we all got a quick tour and then we went to meet the pottery master. He was a really funny older man who taught us about accient pottery making/spinnig. After the tour was over we all did a little shopping and then went home. Today was the very first day that I did not hang out with my crazy family after school. Instead we came home and had some really good bonding time with Mimi. We talked a about boys and stuff that goes on at school... We just had REALLY GOOD girl talk. Around five it was dinner time. All of Mimi's family came over, cooked together, and ate dinner together. Tonight helped me create so many new more memories with every amazing member of the Lu family.

Within these past two days I have had to say goodbye to Eunice (new friend), Evelyn (new friend), Grandma, and Mimi's aunt and cousin. Every single time I was super duper close to crying. I have grown to LOVE these people. All I can think of is, "what is going to happen Monday morning?" I will FOR SURE be crying, that's what. Taiwan has become my second home and these people (the Lu family and the delgation) have become my second family. I will for sure miss every single second of this experience once it comes to an end.