[Continue...] New Year Trip to Taichung 2 ^^

1/1/2017    合欢山 + 清境 +庐山

Woke up at 4:45 am to catch the bus from 埔里 to 松雪楼. It was pretty cold up there, with a temperature of 6 degree celcius. We waited for the bus at 国民宾馆, and at around 8:30 am, the bus arrived. I was surprised that we were the only passengers to 松雪楼, I think most of the Taiwanese prefer to drive themselves. At 10:30, we arrived at the peak of 合欢山. The crowd was quite a lot as expected, they usually went there early in the morning to watch the sunrise. 

The view was indeed magnificent! Definitely worth to visit! With the clear blue sky and the luscious green mountains, the whole scenery was as perfect as a painting. I love it! 

武嶺: The highest point in the Taiwanese highway system. 

After visiting 合欢山, we went to 青青草原. Unfortunately, when we arrived there, the park was going to close. So we only have a limited time to visit the place. 青青草原is a very huge park with natural landscape, people usually spent around half day there :/ We missed the sheep show, and we did not get to walk through every path...What a waste haiz...

The view in 青青草原. 

Emm...at least I can selfie with the sheep xD 

Our next stop after 清境 was 庐山. After a long day of travelling, both of us were exhausted. It was not easy to travel with public transportation, as our greatest concern was to ensure that we had the transport to travel from one place to another. 

庐山trip.. to be continued...

New Year Trip to Taichung ^^

30/12/2016  - 2/1/2017  Taichung --> He Huan Shan -->                                            Qing Jing --> Lu Shan 

     2016 is finally comes to its end. This year will be definitely different from last year, as I am not in Malaysia but in Taiwan to celebrate the new year.

     On 30/12/2016, I straight away headed to Taichung from Chia Yi after school. It took us 1.5 hour there. Around 7pm, we arrived at Taichung train station. The moment I stepped out from the station, I can feel the comfortable cool breeze blowing. One of the best things in TaiChung is it has a well developed transportation system. Their public transport, buses are very convenient. For every 15 minutes, they will have buses to travel from one point to another. We took a bus to 逢甲 Night market. The journey took one hour to reach.

    Feng Jia Night Market is the largest Night Market in Taiwan and now I am lucky enough to witness it myself. There are many stalls selling different kind of food. And my friend and I did not stop eating from the moment we reached there xD ( The food is just too nice) My favourite street food is the glutinous rice with sausage, really like it! Around 10 pm, we went back to our hotel and rest.

     The next day, we went to our first stop, 台中秋谷道. It is a well decorated park, and it is a perfect place to spend time with your family.

秋谷道

After spending 10 minutes there, we went to 东海大学, Actually this was not our initial plan but we accidentally took the wrong bus xD But it's ok at least we went to somewhere new xD

东海大学 is the most beautiful university in Taiwan. Compared to Monash Malaysia ( My university), it is much bigger! And ya, it is indeed very pretty xD

The signature building in 东海大学. 

We planned to have our lunch at the 第二市场. There are so many popular food over there such as 颜记包子，王记糯米肠

杨妈妈立食...We get to tried all of them ( because we were very hungry xD)

This is very tasty! 

杨妈妈立食

After lunch, we headed to the 草悟道. Well, as we were tired of taking the public transport, we went there by walking instead. It took us 30 minutes to walk there, with a luggage...Therefore, by the time we reached there, we were freaking tired. However, that place is still very nice to walk around and shop. There were many stalls selling snacks and some local food, not to mention their special handmade handcrafts. My friend bought a small wallet to her mum, and I bought a cap for my brother. A very well spent evening at there.

After diner, we went straight to 埔里 and prepared for the new year!
At PULI, we went to a restaurant with good ambience,called the 春花炭烤. Due to the new year celebration, it closed at 1 am, and we were happy enough to at least had a place to sit down and relax. The food there was really good. We ate the barbeque chicken, saba fish, Japanese rice with tea and so on. That was the place we say goodbye to 2016. 2017 will definitely be a better year. 

春花炭烤

That is the end for 2016 schedule. My trip to He Huan Shan and Qing Jing, to be continued... :)

Kuih Keria Keledek

30/12/2017  YUM!YUM! KUIH KERIA KELEDEK 

To be very honest, I am nervous.

I rarely cook at home, and now I have to teach the children to make the Malay traditional dessert: Kuih Keria, and I have to make 100 pieces for the whole school! WOW! xD

Early in the morning, I reached school earlier to peel the sweet potatoes that I bought yesterday. 4.2 kg of sweet potatoes are really a lot xD. Let me briefly list out the ingredients needed:

1. Sweet potatoes 4.2kg 

2. Flour 900 gram

3. Sugar 500 gram

These are 4,2 kg of sweet potatoes.....

　　Yeah no doubt it is as simple as that! First, you have to steam the sweet potatoes until they are very soft and smashed them! Well, it took me one hour to steam all of them =.= too much sweet potatoes! 

　　Luckily I have those Year 5 and Year 6  students to help me. They smashed the potatoes and mixed the flour and smashed sweet potatoes together.  After the dough is well mixed, they rolled them into balls and made a hole at the center, yes just like the doughnut!　
　

Make a doughnut shape and fried them.

I can say those kids are quite good in their soft skills. After they made a "doughnut", they have to fried it immediately until it is gold in colour. Judging by the "style" they fried, I can see that majority of them actually helped their parents in cooking at home. Quite GOOD!

The next part of the kuih Keria is to make the sugar coating outside. This is slightly easier. Put the sugar into a pot of water and boiled it. When the sugar water becomes thicker ( please make sure it is not burnt xD), quickly put in the fried "doughnut" to coat them with a layer of sugar and TADA! It is ready to be served! 

Children are busy frying the kuih.

The final products! Looks delicious!!! 

Richard and teacher Fang. 

Culture sharing and kuih making session with Year 5 and 6 students! ^^

I am glad that I had successfully introduce the Malaysia traditional food for them and they really like it! Besides, it is good to try the Malaysian food oversea :] This is a taste of Malaysia! 

Shopping day with Year 5 kids

29/12/2016  Shopping GO GO GO!

    Once again, I am amazed by the learning style in Taiwan. I just knew that they will have a steamboat party IN THEIR CLASS tomorrow! And they are going to buy the groceries TOGETHER later! 

    Well in Malaysia, this will never happen. Bringing the children out to a supermarket is a great responsibility for the teachers as well as the school. (if something happened they will be the first one to be questioned). Therefore, in Malaysia, it is very hard to get the permission to organised a trip like this. Besides, we are never allowed to have a steamboat party in the class. One of the main reasons is the tendency that the students will buy non-halal food to school and it takes time to clean up the mess after the party. Anyways, this is a brand new experience for me. xD

      At around 1:40 pm, the whole year 5 students gathered at the corridor, and they were divided by their class teacher so that they could car pool with others. We arrived at Quan Lian Supermarket around 2 pm, and they were given 1 hour to shop for their groceries. To be honest, one hour is a bit too much xD. I was there to buy the sweet potatoes and flour for the Malay Cuisine tomorrow. So after 10 minutes, I had finished my task. Feeling bored, I walked around in the supermarket and look for some special snacks. A lot of snacks that I am interested but too bad I do not have enough fund xD. At around 2:50, we departed back to school, and they continued their lesson again. ( A bunch of really dedicated children. xD)





p/s: Sorry I have no photos for this trip :/

Christmas's Event + Dong Zhi

21/12/2016 Christmas's Event!

Christmas is around the corner! Today Beishi elementary school organised a Christmas English Learning Event. This event is aimed to encourage students to use their English knowledge in daily lives. Just a week before the event, we had meetings to plan the activities for the children. It was not easy to plan the games for them, especially when you have no idea about their knowledge level! Luckily, with the help from every teacher, we finally came up with an ideal plan. 

We have five station in total, which are:

1.Maze Runner

2. Cross the River

3. I can use my Body 

4. Daily English 

5. Baseball Squad in Beishi 

Look easy, but actually it is quite challenging for them. I was in-charged for the first game, "The Maze Runner". Students were required to blindfold ( except the team leader), and follow the instruction of the team leader to pass through the maze. This game can train the sense of direction of the kids and at the same time practice their vocabulary for direction ( such as left, right, forward etc.) 

Children are required to be blindfolded. 

I am explaining the rules to the team leader.

Children have to follow the instructions of the team leader to pass through the maze.

The games in other stations were quite interesting too. These are some of the photos:

Daily English station. carried out by Kevin.

Cross the river: Students have to step on the correct words to pass through the "river"

I can use my body: Students use their bodies to act out the words and the others have to guess the words.

Baseball Squad: Use the soft ball to hit the plate, and read out the word loudly.

Our Principal is the secret Santa xD Santa is giving out candies to the kids. 

The whole Beishi students. :) 

The whole event took about 1 hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 am. And after that, everyone go back to their classes and had their lessons. Oh, and today is Dong Zhi as well. I am glad that I can still eat the Tang Yuan although I am not in Malaysia. Happy Winter Solstice!

 

太鼓藝文擺攤

17th December 2016  Day 15 
This morning, Beishi school had an event at下營武承恩公園.
              It was a small fair for the elementary school children to take part and perform. The Beishi school kids were going to perform the " 太鼓". They won the "You Deng Jiang" last time in a competition. My host sister, Trinity took part in it too. At around 9 am, we arrived at 下營 and I could see many people were already there to set up their booths and be ready. 太鼓藝文擺攤

         There was a morning market just beside the venue. So, I walked around to search for any special snacks. The market in Taiwan is quite different with the one in Malaysia. In Malaysia, our markets are mostly food such as vegetables, meats, soy beans, breakfasts and so on. However, in Taiwan, I can see there are many varieties. They also sell clothes, soaps and slippers other than food!

         At around 11:30 am, it was the kids' turn to perform. To be honest, they played very well compared to the other schools. Their hard works were paid off. :) I will definitely try to play the 太鼓if I have the chance.

     After event, I visit the Qi Shui Yan Shan with my host family. I always wanted to visit the place as the salt looks like the snow! But unfortunately, the Typhoon last time was too strong and it destroyed part of the salt mountain. Therefore, it is currently under maintenance and not allowed to climb. :(
After that we went to the Taiwan Salt Museum. Well I think they have do put more efforts in advertising this place as the crowd was quite less although it was Saturday.  In the museum, I had learnt the history and the making process of the salt many years ago. It was really amazing and worth to visit.

  At around 8 pm, we went home. Today was indeed a fruitful day ( and yet a tiring day xD) So currently, one of my things to do in Taiwan had been checked and I am looking forward for my next trip. :)

Busy day oh yeah!

14th  December 2016  Day 12 
      Early in the morning, the students were gathered at the auditorium to have their assembly. It was held on every Wednesday, and the teachers would announce some important matters. Today, "Wang Zhu Ren" introduce a "Carbon Monoxide Poisonous" campaign to raise their awareness about this matter.
After that, the Year 6 students gave a short presentation about their graduation trip around Taiwan. I was very interested on the places they went, as I would take it as an example to plan my trip afterwards. Salute to their teacher who was willing to take the responsibilities of taking care of them during the whole journey.

               Today I joined the Year 2 students to make the rice ball as Dong Zhi is coming soon. This is the first time I celebrated this day with other people without my family. Normally in my home, my mum will prepare a two big rice dough, with pink and white colour, and we will start to roll it in to small ball. Rice ball represent Tuan Yuan, means reunion. Well this year is special as I am not around with my family, but it is indeed a very great experience :)


                                       

                                        



At night, I played basketball with Ryan's friends. Even though I am not good enough, but we still have fun playing together (at least I helped my team scored xD) I feel so great after the intense exercise, and it was a totally different feeling to exercise during winter.