Ping Pong!

I just noticed how funny it is that I've lived in Asia for 4 months and today, two days before I leave, is the first time I've played ping pong. But I'll get to that in a little bit.

This morning I woke up and did my workout before going over to Tzu Chi. Actually, as always, I gave myself way more time to get there then I needed, but it was good because it meant that I could go and pick up some supplied for dinner tomorrow. I rode over the Tzu Chi at 10am and was there until 2pm. It was okay though, I had a good time. For the first two hours I met with the delegates. I was supposed to ask them questions about Taiwan's history and geography. I wasn't told to come with questions, so it was a little hard. As I paused to think of questions, the delegates started asking me questions about America, about BYU, and me. So we did kind of a half and half- I asked a few questions about Taiwan, and then we would veer off course and talk about America. In my mind, it's all good because whether they were asking or answering questions, they were practicing their English. After the two hour question and answer section we had lunch. After lunch I went into Director Tsai's office and she had some questions for me too. While I was talking to Director Tsai, Venerable Ying came in and gave me a thank you present. She gave me a nice water bottle/canteen with the Tzu Chi logo on it, a Chinese fan, and a jade charm thingy. It was so sweet. Director Tsai ran out of questions but told me that she would e-mail me if she had any more (she e-mailed me no more then half an hour later, but I haven't had time to get back to her).

I got home around 2:30pm and hung up my clothes to dry and started packing some of my clothes and things that I won't need in the next three days. At 5:00pm the Chous came to pick me up for dinner. They gave me a thank you card and Angelo had made one himself that's actually pretty cool. He folded a paper in such a way that when you put it on a flat surface, it will slowly rise, and then it will pop up. On the part that is face down at first, but then in your face when it pops, he wrote a little message. We went to the China Trust Hotel for dinner. It was a nice buffet and I am way full. I ate a lot, so I won't ramble it all off, but I'll pipe in with some of the more exotic things I tried. I had mutton, octopus, "shells", sushi with cooked egg on the outside instead of seaweed, pig heart, some type of muscle served in a shell with sauce and melted cheese on top, and I learned that Asians don't know how to prepare steak appropriately. For dessert I picked up something that looked like fudge. Hmmmm... if I just would have stopped and thought about where I was, I would have known not to think it was fudge. It turned out to be a red bean dessert. But, guess what, I've lived here long enough to appreciate a red bean dessert. It wasn't my favorite, but I ate it.

This is where the title of the blog comes into play. After dinner we went up to the third floor of the hotel where they have a game center type thing. We played ping pong. I learned how to hold the paddle the proper way (which wasn't as awkward as it looks) and I didn't do too shabby. Granted, we didn't keep score, and I only played the kids, but I had fun and I kept it on the table, and made some good saves.

When I was at Tzu Chi, one of the times that we veered off topic, we started talking about karaoke and I thought it would be fun if we all went out tonight and sang karaoke. Most of them were pretty excited about it. But they had classes today and Patrick said that sometimes their classes go until 7 or 8pm. I told them that I didn't mind staying out and that I had dinner plans at 5pm and didn't know how long they would go anyway. Right after the conversation though, we went to lunch and I sat with the teachers and not the delegates and then I went to talk to Director Tsai, so we didn't have a chance to solidify plans. But Evelyn, who was the most excited about going, ran up to me and gave me her phone number before I left. When I got back from dinner and saw that it was only 7:30pm I put more money on my skype account and gave her a call. She didn't answer the phone, so I left a message and told her to call the school phone. I'm sitting anxiously waiting for 8pm to see if they are out of class and to see if we actually will go karaokeing tonight. I really hope I do. I mean, ping pong and karaoke, that would be the perfect Asian send off!