Springing into April

This first week of April has sprung us into the final stages of our GSE experience. As you can expect, it has been full of new experiences and great people. Here’s a recap!

DAY 15 - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1

The first day of the month really set the tone for this leg of our journey: it was restful and fun! While Barry, Kyle, and Fabio were on a real estate tour, Nat and I were treated by an adorable Rotarian couple to a “top secret” excursion - a quick ride on the state-of-the-art High Speed Rail to Tainan, a city in southern Taiwan!

DAY 16 - THURSDAY, APRIL 2

We visited our second Taiwanese university, Providence University, which was founded by American nuns at the beginning of the 20th century to educate women and raise their social status. It has been a co-ed institution for less than 20 years.

After lunch at none other than TGI Fridays, the afternoon highlight was a visit to Novatec Wheels US, a company that produces and assembles bicycle parts. We even got to test a few of the electric bikes out, where Fabio was literally wheeling and dealing...

DAY 17 - FRIDAY, APRIL 3

We were all touched by our visit to the Changhua Tz-sh Children's Home, a home for people with special needs and orphans. We met some of the residents and played games with them!

DAY 18 - SATURDAY, APRIL 4

The weekend marked our first experience of “free time” since we arrived on this Asian island. We spent the morning and the early afternoon in the home of a Rotarian before transferring to a hotel in the Fengyuan District. That night was the first night we were truly on our own, and to us, it was a true gift. Natalie, Fabio, Kyle and I went out to central Taichung City and devoured our delicious Italian meal. (We've had a lot of great Chinese food, but by this point in time, we were in serious need of victuals from some other country, because... well, you know, we're Americans.)

DAY 19 - SUNDAY, APRIL 5

We celebrated Easter by enjoying a day to ourselves in the big city of Taichung - after sleeping in for the first time in weeks! Our team went out to lunch and enjoyed some delicious hamburgers, fries and Cokes, because... we're still Americans. Barry, Kyle, Natalie and I attended an Easter service at a small international church - Grace Church - in the afternoon.

DAY 20 - MONDAY, APRIL 6

Our last week in Taiwan began with an exciting adventure - biking along the Dongfeng Bikeway! We were all delighted to get out and enjoy the scenery of the Taiwan countryside, and we had a great time with a fun bunch of Rotarians from Fengyuan!

In the evening, we participated in the most eventful Rotary meeting to date, which ended with an hour of karaoke. While Barry does have the best singing voice of the group, Natalie and I may have stolen the show with our performance of Taylor Swift’s Blank Space. Just sayin’...

Our story isn't over, but we have only a little time left in Taiwan. Stay tuned to learn about the final days of our GSE experience visiting District 3460.

The Highlight Reel

As Natalie hinted at in our last team post, our GSE itinerary has kept us quite busy, making it difficult to find time to write a little bit about our experiences in Taiwan. I (Hailey) have a bit of free time and want to offer to our readers "The Highlight Reel" of the past two weeks - leaving space for more commentary later!

Ready? Here we go!

DAY 7 - TUESDAY, MARCH 24

The highlight of another day in Nantou County had to had to be our afternoon in Xitou Forest.

Xitou Nature Education Area, also known as Xitou Forest Recreation Area, is one of Taiwan’s most noted attractions in Nantou County along with Sun Moon Lake and Cingjing Farm. Located in Nantou Lugu Town, Xitou Nature Education Area (Xitou Forest Recreation Area) has an altitude of 1,150 meters with an area of 2,500 hectares, comprised of an experimental forest of the National Taiwan University (NTU), and diverse varieties of plants include red Chinese cypresses, ginkgo trees and cypress. It is also an excellent place for bird-watching as more than 7,000 bird species have been spotted in the area. With the average temperature about 16.6 degrees Celsius, it is a popular summer resort in Taiwan. 

 Source. 

The day ended with a formal Rotary meeting with the RC of Nan Kang, where we gave our presentation and exchanged banners.

DAY 8 - WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25

At the Taiwan Historical Cultural Museum, we learned more about the folk history of Taiwan and observed every day artifacts from the last 300 years of Taiwan’s history.

Later that afternoon, Barry and Kyle picked up some custom-designed kicks from Dr. Air himself, the man behind the air cushions in your Nikes.

DAY 9 - THURSDAY, MARCH 26

At 1:47am on September 21, 1999, a massive earthquake struck the central region of Taiwan. More than two thousand people lost their lives that night, as many buildings collapsed completely. The following aftershocks continued to ripple through the country for days following the initial blow. It was a horrific disaster that affected much of the country, and especially Nantou County and Taichung County.

We were given a tour of the 9.21 Earthquake Memorial Museum, which was a former high school that the government persevered in its ruined state to showcase the awful damage and to use as an educational center. At one point during our visit, we sat in a mock classroom while a simulator rocked the room so we could feel what it would have been like to experience this catastrophic geological event.

In addition to that memorable tour, our lunch hour was special because we attended our first lunch Rotary meeting since arriving in Taiwan. Also, the Club meets in English, so we could understand all of the meeting! This began the start of our time in different sectors of the enormous and diverse Taichung City.

DAY 10 - FRIDAY, MARCH 27

Unfortunately, due to rain in the forecast, our plans to go hiking in the mountains were canceled. Instead, we visited the family factories of a couple of Rotarians, and we learned a little bit about their businesses.

That evening was the kick off to the District Conference, and we attended a formal banquet honoring the RI Representative Gregg E. Podd and his wife Pam, who were visiting from the USA.

DAY 11 - SATURDAY, MARCH 28

The 37th Annual Conference of Rotary International District 3460 may be the most elaborate and entertaining District Conference on the entire planet! More than 4,000 Rotarians attended the conference and scores of artists and guests performed between ceremonies. Barry is going to share more about the experience in a post-to-come. However, I will go ahead and share with you that we ended up on stage - and on the local news!

DAY 12 - SUNDAY, MARCH 29

Team Leader Barry got up on the big stage to give a presentation on District 6980. He did a great job representing the Rotary Clubs of Central Florida!

After spending over 9 hours in the conference on Saturday, we were grateful to be excused from the auditorium shortly after Barry presented. We then spent the rest of the day with several members of the Taiwan GSE Team - touring local markets of Taichung, eating street food, and even doing some shopping! They are a great bunch, and we can't wait to show them Central Florida!

Barry, Fabio, and Magic

Sharon, Yvonne, Hailey and Natalie

DAY 13 - MONDAY, MARCH 30

One cool thing we did on Monday was visit Easen Hardware Corporation. You can read more about their business on their website.

Another very special part of this day was spent in the home of Lee Ku-Mo, a famous Taiwanese calligraphy and artist. He welcomed our party with Chinese tea and hand-signed books of his artwork.

Finally, I got pretty excited to eat shark fin soup at dinner that night. Would you give it a try?

DAY 14 - TUESDAY, MARCH 31

We enjoyed the day with a club full of Rotarians all in their 30s and visiting some of famous landmarks of "New Taichung City" - like the City Government Building and the National Opera House.

And that's a wrap for March! Stayed tuned for more insights and updates.

We love Nantou County!

Natalie reporting in! Our days continue to be packed full of new experiences, good food and even better people... here's a quick recap of just two incredible days in Nantou County, the only county in all of Taiwan that does not border the ocean.

DAY 5 - SUN MAR 22
Our fifth day in Taiwan started by saying goodbye to our host families in Yuanlin and driving about 45 minutes to a gorgeous hotel in Puli, Pretton Garden Inn, owned by Propeller from the Rotary Club of Taichung. There we were greeted by DG Jim, GSE Coordinator C.S., the Outbound GSE Team, and some other Rotarians. The Taiwanese GSE Team practiced their presentation and we can't wait for them to be able to share it with our District when they come to Orlando next month! 

We dined not once but twice at Jin-Du Restaurant, which features local ingredients and herbs that are known to promote health and healing. The 15+ dishes at each meal were all absolutely delicious!

In the afternoon, we visited Chung Tai Chan Monastery, one of the largest Buddhist temples in the world. We then toured the local chocolate factory to learn about the process and - of course - sample some of their incredible chocolates. Chocolate is not very common in Taiwan, so our visit was a special treat for us and our Taiwanese friends! 

DAY 6 - MON MAR 23
Our day started bright and early at 6:30 AM for a walk to the large Taoist temple up the road from the hotel. Most of us woke up eager to enjoy the beautiful scenery and get some exercise, which is a luxury on GSE Trips.

We then headed to Dong-Feng Black Tea Farm where we learned about tea farming and the process from seed to sipping. As you can imagine, we then tasted some local teas. Coincidentally, two tea farmers from India who have a small organic operation were in our tour group, which made for very interesting discussion - we got to learn from experts in two different parts of the world! 

Later in the day, we visited Sun Moon Lake, the largest lake in Taiwan and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country. It was extremely foggy out but it was beautiful none the less, especially from our view on the 11th floor of The Wen Wan Resort and the cable car that goes over the mountain ride,

We then visited the Formosan Aboriginal Villages, where we learned about the lifestyle of the different Taiwanese aborigines tribes. The day ended with dinner with the Rotary Clubs of Nantou County and Sun Moon Lake, where we met our new host families for the next three days and returned to our new homes to rest for more adventures in Nantou County that were to follow.