Visiting Shi Pai Elementary School

Hello All! I haven't blogged in a couple of days so I thought I would update you all on what I have been up to... Yesterday I had class of course:) After class it was still raining, but I went to a cute little dumpling place that has delicious and cheap dumplings. After that I went to this great stationary store and bought some notebooks and stationary... I ended up staying in the stationary store for over an hour because there was so much to see. Later in the afternoon I went to a beautiful tea house called the Wistaria tea house; it is supposedly one of the oldest tea houses in Taiwan. It was really relaxing to just relax and enjoy tea with a friend I have met at Shi Da... though the tea was a little more than I would like to spend, but I guess it was the ambiance that I was paying for as well. I went to bed pretty early last night, because I had to wake up at 6:00 a.m this morning to meet Mei's colleague Janet and her daughter; it was well worth it. The only problem was that I woke up at about 2:00 a.m. and was being bitten all over my body by a mosquito... I felt so itchy all over that I had to get up and literally spray bug spray all over my body.. after bathing my body in the bug spray, i felt a little better, but was still uncomfortable. After all that chaos my alarm went off and I got up to take the fast speed rail to a different area of the city. I ended up getting myself an espresso which has lasted me through the day, but today I know I' m going to feel exhausted by the end of the day. Now onto my experience at the elementary school. The elementary school was very bare looking, but it was so interesting to see a school here in Taiwan... the kids were very enthusiastic to learn about me and where I came from. I played some games with them and they asked me questions about where I am from. They were all about 8 years old and had so much energy at 8 in the morning, I wish I still had the same amount of energy that they have. It was so fun to just be around kids that were so excited to meet me, and I got to practice some of my Chinese! Today I also had my first Chinese test, not sure how it went but its just my first test! After Chinese class I met up with a Berkley grad who's been living in Taiwan for three years, so she was very familiar with the area... we went to lunch and she showed me some of the good places to eat around my school. I also found the most delicious Chocolate store ever!! I definitely will be a frequent visitor to this chocolate store... Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying summer.

Sending my love to you in the US.