2018 SPRING CBPE STUDENT NEWSLETTER VOL. 1

Welcome Back to CIEE Taipei!

As everyone can see, the students are digging into the newly arrived Spring spirit. 

Here are words from one of our ambassadors on the newly arrived students:

"  It had been weeks since all of the students started receiving emails and getting in touch with their buddies. It was finally time that they actually came all the way to Taiwan and met with new friends.

  All the activities seemed like merely procedures yet new experiences with the new faces and places around. With the friends and the cultural ambassadors around to start the semester, everyone was well taken care of. After having settled down in the dorm with nice mattresses and the internet connected, it was also time to get some insights into the city. One of the highlights of the orientation week for everyone must have been the part of Tonghua night market.

Setting sail for the night market means more than just satisfying the stomach, it’s also the first opportunity for the students to try those legendary Taiwanese street foods. Those started with stinky tofu had tasted something far more different than what they had imagined. Stinky tofu received different reviews which included “I can’t handle the smell and the taste at the same time”, ”It is ‘meh’” and “it’s really good, I like it ” with that satisfying smile. Another authentic street food for them was oyster omelette, which was another awe for every student who tried. This time the scores got a lot better, for them rating it either good or really good.

It was at that time when they made their first attempt on getting to know the country; however, it doesn’t mean that those who didn’t try are not willing to know the country. It’s apparently that food is only a very small part of the country and they put focus on other aspects for the adventure which is about to be discovered soon."

More words from an ambassador about student activities:

"三天兩夜旅行的第一個晚上，我們在宜蘭舉辦了歡迎會，用台灣人常玩的遊戲來歡迎遠道而來的美國學生們。在開始歡迎會之前，我們圍坐在一起，品嚐了充滿宜蘭當地特色的風味菜，除了有各式各樣的鴨肉料理、好喝的鮮雞湯，還有美味的甜點-- 炸冰淇淋。大快朵頤之後，每個人都在歡迎會上的遊戲卯足了全力：撿小石頭、摘花朵、拔眼鏡、找零錢，甚至還脫掉了衣服...還記得我們閉上眼睛，用特殊的聲音找尋著彼此，那些叫聲就像是我們的小小約定，也讓我們很快打成一片。歡迎會的尾聲，我們在小天使小主人的遊戲中得知這整個學期要秘密照顧的小主人，心中開始計畫能為小主人做些什麼，同時也期待收到小天使的關心。       

On the first night of excursion trip, we had a welcome party with some Taiwanese games to welcome students and celebrate the beginning of this semester. But first, we enjoyed our first meal together. We had different types of duck dishes, delicious soup, amazing fired buns with ice cream and so on. It’s really impressive.

        On the party, we were all exhausted because we enjoyed games a lot. We had done so many crazy things like searching stones, picking flowers, collecting glasses, taking off T-shirt, and so on. That’s really funny and unforgettable. Besides, I still remembered vividly that we used special sounds to find each other. The sounds we chose were like promise, and this game made us know each other more soon.

        At the end of the party, we knew our own masters of whom we needed to take care. We had some plans in our mind and looked forward to receiving our angels’ attention."

Here are more thoughts on the trip taken to Yehliu, Pingxi, and Jiufen:

"風光明媚的早晨我們前往台灣的北岸，在野柳我們去了地質公園，飽覽各種長相特異的石頭，獨特的地質景觀是因為風化、海浪的侵蝕以及時光的催化下所形成的。接著我們到了九份的老街大啖芋園、魚丸、牛肉麵等的台灣古早味，填飽肚子的同時也被美麗的廟宇及海景所深深吸引。最後我們前往平溪，在鐵道旁伴隨著火車駛過的聲音，我們放開手目送著天燈緩緩的飄向天際，載著我們寫下的祝福與企盼升空，也為一日遊畫下美好的句點。

Today, we headed to the east coast of Taiwan and visited the Yeliu Geopark. At the geopark, there were many special shapes of rocks like the Queen’s head rock and the Tofu rock. The unique landscape was a result of the combination of winds, wave and also time. Then we went to Jiufen’s Old Street and had some taro balls, beef noodles, fish ball soup and other traditional Taiwanese foods. We also saw some beautiful temples and viewed the coast. By the time we went to Pingxi, it was almost evening. We wrote down our wishes on the sky lanterns and lit the flame below them. We released the lanterns with our wishes and watched them fly into the sky."

Some final words about the Excursion Trip mentioned earlier:

"每當想遠離都市生活時...蠻多台北人都會選擇來到宜蘭。不只是因為距離近，融合了山與海風情的宜蘭，還擁有讓人心曠神怡的田園自然景觀。旅行的第一天下午，我們坐車前往宜蘭山裡的民宿，清幽、獨立的環境讓我們從歡迎會開始一路玩到了深夜，不用害怕打擾到附近的鄰居，而關於那天深夜的探險，我想我們一輩子都會記得。

        第二天早晨，我們到星源茶園做美味的綠茶冰淇淋，步驟不難，難的是把材料搖成冰的過程，短短10分鐘內要不停地上下搖動冰淇淋罐，才能順利結冰，雖然很累，但自己動手做的冰淇淋果然是最美味的。中午我們在茶園享用午餐，帶有茶味的麵條、細嫩的鴨肉、清爽的果凍，真的令人好想再嚐一次!

       吃完午餐後，我們踩著腳踏車一路向山裡的瀑布騎去，儘管太陽當頭天氣炎熱，但最後我們都還是成功登頂。看到壯觀的瀑布那一刻，覺得一路上的辛苦都值得了！能和大家一起堅持到最後真是太好了。下午，我們在過去的冬山河舊河道搭船欣賞沿岸風景，偶爾有火車經過高聳的鐵橋，轟隆轟隆，在寧靜的河面上特別好聽。

        緊接著，在前往知名的羅東夜市之前，我們先到傳統藝術中心參觀，古色古香的街道不僅漂亮，還有各式各樣的商家，商家販賣著結合傳統的各色文化創新商品，三三兩兩悠閒地散步在紅燈籠高掛、充滿古老氛圍的街道，同時也讓我們大開了眼界。第二天的最後，是大家最喜歡的夜市觀光行程，我們在人山人海的羅東夜市找尋心裡美食名單上的項目：珍珠奶茶、三星蔥肉串、蔥抓餅、包心粉圓、章魚燒、炒麵等等，吃飽後，大家臉上都掛著滿足的笑臉!

         旅行的第三天，我們在入住的佛寺起床、整理、吃齋飯、參觀佛寺與體驗打坐，能有這樣的機會深入體驗佛教的文化，對我們來說都是相當難忘的經驗，午後我們到基隆和平島戲水，雖然沙灘不大、海水太冰，許多想像和原定計畫的福隆海水浴場有些落差，但在天空作美沒下大雨的情況下，能夠戲戲水、爬爬山都為我們的旅程畫下了美好句點。

When people in Taipei want to escape from the urban life for a while, most of them will choose to stay in Yilan. Yilan is a place combining the view of mountains and sea. On the first afternoon, we drove to the hostel located in mountains in Yilan. It was isolated and surrounded by the mountains so we did not have to worry about bothering our neighbors when we were out of control. The most impressive thing on the first day, I would say, was the adventure at midnight which we will never forget.

On the morning of the second day, we went to the tea garden to make tea ice cream. It’s not difficult but it’s really tiring because we needed to shake our ice cream cans for ten minutes without any stopping. Though it’s hard work, I must say that handmade ice cream was the best. We had lunch in the tea garden, the manager was hospitable and he provided rich dishes for us, including soft duck meat, noodles, and jelly with tea flavor. We will definitely miss this flavor in the future.

After lunch time, we rode bikes to visit an amazing waterfall in the mountain. It was too hot to bear riding under the sunshine, but finally we arrived at our destination together. It’s really worthy to persist in fulfilling our goals. In the afternoon, we took boats on the old river route of Dong Shan River. Sometimes trains rumbled across the iron bridge, and I felt like trains rumbled across my mind as well.

Before bounding for Luo Dong night market, we went to the National Center for Traditional Arts to experience the beauty of tradition. There were lots of shops selling kinds of products combining the modern and traditional. We took pictures on the old street with red bricks and lanterns. What a wonderful experience.

It’s time for dinner. The first impression of Luo Dong night market was that it was too crowded to walk. But that’s the true night market scene in Taiwan. Everyone had a list of must-eats in mind and started to look for them, bubble milk tea, meat skewer with shallot, flaky scallion pancake, Red Bean Boba, fried chicken, takoyaki, stir-fried noodles and so on. Everyone was satisfied with amazing food in Luo Dong night market.

On the morning of the third day, we woke up, cleaned our beds, and experienced Buddhist life, including meditation. We were so lucky to have this chance to experience Buddhist life deeply, and that gave us a much broader horizon. In the afternoon, we went to Heping Island in Keelung to have fun in the beach. Though the water was a little bit cold and it rained for a while in the beginning, we were so lucky that it didn’t rain a lot. Thus, we still could have fun in the water and climb the mountain near the beach. Because Fulong Beach was dangerous recently, we chose Heping Island instead. Though our great expectations for Fulong Beach couldn’t match with Heping Island, having sunshine while swimming and hiking still led to a happy end for our trip."

Clearly, much has already been accomplished by the group. We're all looking forward to more adventures in the rest of this Spring semester! 

再見！