Today was our first full day in the program. After a delicious breakfast at the hotel, we left in taxis (because our tour bus broke down) to visit the OCAC ministers. I was impressed that Minister Wu dedicated so much time in his busy schedule to meet and speak to us. All 37 of us introduced ourselves quite extensively, and he greeted us with geniune enthusiasm, asking us questions about ourselves, and even asking Fang if she was married yet =P. Though he spoke for half an hour to answer just one question, I could tell he was passionate about his job and really hoped we would carry out the mission of OCAC.
Lunch was at the Landis Taipei Hotel. This was by far the best meal I have had in a long long time. We were served small traditional dishes one after another, dishes including shrimp, pork, fish, and a red bean & lotus root dessert soup. I don't even like seafood very much normally, but this meal was incredible and I cleared everything on my plate.
After lunch, we headed over to the Legislative Yuan. We watched a quick introduction video about the government, then got to sit in the actual room where the legislators meet. I kind of wish we could have learned more about the structure of the Taiwan government (well, maybe not if it's explained in Chinese since I've come to realize just how awful my Chinese is =P). I asked Betty about it briefly, and it sounds awfully complicated, with 5 branches and all. Overall, it was pretty cool, we got to stand at the podium and pretend like we were presiding over a meeting.
In the evening, we bonded with our groups. Our group (Even's group!) went to see a temple, tea shop, and chinese medicine shops. We had a great discussion about the differences between “sarcastic”, “ironic”, “cynical”, and other very confusing English words, all while eating ice. Good times =)
No comments:
Post a Comment