2024 Taipei Immersion Trip | Day 5

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Hotel

Today, instead of diving straight into our itinerary, we stayed in our hotels as a holiday was declared in Taipei, anticipating the typhoon to be getting worse. As a result, we stayed in our hotel and done our reflections for the entire journey, as it was almost the end of our 6 day immersion trip.

But before that, it was time for breakfast!

Reflections

After returning back to our rooms for a short break, we returned to the tables and gathered as a group to complete our reflections. It was a good time for us to relax, and although we were feeling a little disappointed, we still made the best of our day together.

Since we had a lot of time, we took our time and did our reflections thoughtfully as we recalled the moments we shared during this trip. This was the reflection I wrote

Short summary in English:

Personally, I came to this trip with 3 goals in mind – being able to meet and interact with the students from Taipei, understanding their culture and heritage, and improving my Chinese proficiency levels. On these 5 days together, I managed to improve. On the first day of the trip, I remember using a lot of English during my conversations with my friends, and even got punished by writing one more reflection. As time went on, I managed to use more Chinese, and shown improvement in my Chinese proficiency levels. I also went to many tourist destinations like 四四南村 where I learnt about the history of Taipei, and understood more about their culture. Having the opportunity to visit one of their schools, I also made international friends whom I have continued to interact with. Overall, this trip was really meaningful as I managed to reach my goals.

It was then lunchtime, and we had Mos Burger, which was kindly delivered by our tour guide. Despite the heavy rain, they helped us get food, and we really appreciate their kindness.

Compared to the Mos Burger back in Singapore, the yakiniku rice burger I had was quite similar, but they had grape flavoured jello as a drink for us.

After lunch, we spent some more time finishing our reflections, and went back our rooms to rest and complete some tasks.

Appreciation

As this trip wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our teachers, bus driver, tour guides and Tian-mu Junior High School, we spent the time writing appreciation cards to them. Every group had 6 cards, and we all managed to write a card (except for me, which I will explain why later)

Unfortunately, while we were working on the final touches of our reflections, I got a fever and did not manage to continue our group discussion. I had to return to my room to rest, and fortunately, my fever subsided.

Dinner + Reflections

We had bento and some snacks prepared for us.

After eating, some of us started to share our reflections, and it was great to learn more about what all of us learnt from this trip.

After the debrief, we went back to our rooms, still unsure whether we could continue with our activities.

Group Reflection

Before we slept, we finished our reflection for the day. Halfway through it, someone told us that it was very windy outside, and we rushed to a room with windows and filmed the situation. However, it doesn’t seem to be that bad as we expected.

Sick, again.

When I went back to my hotel room, I felt really cold and took my temperature, to realise I was sick again. Thankfully, I had supportive teachers and group mates who helped me. I was especially grateful to Jun Zhe, one of my group members, who even volunteered to stay with me and ensure I was well.

Want to read more about my Taipei Immersion Trip Experience? Here are the other posts on it: