Last week I, along with most of the other exchange students in District 3490, got to go to the tropical archipelago Penghu. This was a 3-day trip, which was prefaced by a day in Taipei. During this free day in Taipei, the students from Hualien went with Rotex (former exchange students) around the city. We went ice skating for a couple of hours in Taipei Arena, which I thoroughly enjoyed. That night, I stayed in the house of CP Lily, a high-ranking Rotarian in our district. Her house was a penthouse apartment in a very expensive part of time, and it was very spacious. I roomed with Zezi (Mexican girl) and we got up at 5:30. Our host provided breakfast for all the exchange students (sandwiches and tea), then we took the MRT (subway) to Songshan Airport. Here, we were joined by all the other exchange students. After the usual process of checking bags, going through security, and such, we were seated in our plane. The airline's name was Far East Air Travel... which was abbreviated to FAT on the tail, causing a certain amount of hilarity to ensue among the students. We all sat together on the plane, and it was a very noisy flight. I was lucky enough to get my favorite seat: a window seat even with the wing tips where I could see everything happening outside.
When we arrived in Penghu, it was a whirlwind trip. We saw lots of very cool places. The highlight for me was definitely the second day, when we got to do water sports. The very first thing I did was ride on a jet ski (as a passenger), which was thrilling and ended with the driver dumping my friend and me into the shallow water. After this, I did lots of rides where I was pulled along behind the jet ski on inflated rafts of various kinds. (Everyone was required to wear life vests and blue lightly padded helmets.) We took a break for lunch, then returned to the beach. A group of us went to snorkel, which was oddly restricted in that we had to hold on to the boat with both hands and just lay on the water while the boat moved (pulled by a jet ski, of course). After some begging, the guide agreed to take us into deeper water and allow us to jump into the water (still wearing our life vests). Somehow the boys managed to convince the guide to drop us off at the end of the land spit, and even leave our life vests on the boat. This made for the perfect afternoon on the perfect beach. The water, the sky, and the sand were all exactly perfect. We got to swim in the ocean, build sand castles, bury our friends in the sand, and even had the option of playing soccer in the sand. After a couple of blissful hours of laughter and fun in the sun (which resulted in more than a few sunburns) we continued our tour. However, our time on that beach was definitely the best part of that trip for me.
There was drama, caused by the breaking of the no alcohol rule, as well as no leaving your room after bed check. This resulted in everyone having to attend a meeting on the final morning, during which the culprits had to confess before we could continue with our schedule of touring.
In other news... I have finally chosen my college! After lots of careful deliberation, I have decided to attend New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, more commonly known as New Mexico Tech. Now my primary focus is on ensuring the timely completion of all remaining schoolwork before graduation. I can still hardly believe I'm graduating in less than a month...
Thanks to my readers!
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