Taiwan Trip By: Alex Girovich 高洋 10 days in Deguang Catholic High School 天主教德光中學 Fall 2012

Temples We went to a lot of different Temples, and they all have different gods inside. The people simply kneel on a little coach and pray to/ talk to the god which is usually sitting 10 feet away, staring at you. The temples are decorated mostly in red, and there are a bunch of different scents everywhere.

What I think I thought that the temples were really interesting and different, usually in the U.S, there are big churches, chapels, cathedrals, etc. and they all have one god. In Taiwan, the temples all have different gods.

School with the locals  Everyday in DeGuang was a little bit different, there were different classes everyday, different teachers, even different schedules. The students at DeGuang take Mandarin, English, and Taiwanese as languages. They also take science, math, history, PE, art, music, class meetings, cooking, and boy scouts/girl scouts, all in Mandarin. The school also gives lunch and give nap time after lunch. School day is from 8:00 A.M- 5:00 P.M.

What I think  Long school day. I like PE, art, and cooking, but the rest of them were really boring, English was very easy here, I think they need a better teacher for English. A lot classes were so boring that I almost fell asleep, the teachers were talking so fast in some classes too. But a lot of the classes, the students had to take tests, so I either hung out in the library, or took a nap in the class.

Dorms Dorms are shared with 6 people in a room, there are bunk beds, desks, fans/A.C, and a garbage can, all the bathrooms and showers are seperated from the rooms. There is a cafeteria in the basement, they are little tables with little chairs, and once you get your food, you are free to go back up to your room if you want. There is a cold and hot water fountain, and of course, there is a front desk at the front. The girls rooms are upstairs while the boys rooms are downstairs. Me with the principal

What I think  Dorms were a great experience, they all spoke mandarin (knew very little english), and they were all very independent. The beds were super uncomfortable, I don’t know how those kids could sleep on a wooden table for that long in a year, its ridiculous! The dorms have a computer lab and a T.V room that I liked to be in, even though there isn’t much on T.V. The students in my dorm were studying all the way until 1-2 in the morning because of there finals, makes me feel a lot better going to school in the U.S.

Going out with the teachers We went to lots of places with the teachers, they took us to temples, restaurants, markets and museums. They taught me a lot about the temples and how every god had its own specialty. I really like the calligrapy museum, the words of these experts were beautiful, I had a lot of fun impressing the teacher how many of the words I’ve learned.

What I think I thought that going out with the teachers was really fun because they know the best of Tainan, they knew good places to eat, and good places to shop. The teachers explained everything to me so that I could understand most of it, and they brought me to the most tasty restaurants in the city. I was happy that whenever I went out with the teachers, I didn’t have to worry about flies getting in my food.

Taiwan Summer School 2012 De Guang Pictures by Teacher Petty Wu