The Final Countdown

July 24

Today was the last official day of the Wenzao program. It is a bittersweet day for everyone as they realize that it could be the last day they will ever see some of these people, but also celebrate the fun times they shard over the last three weeks.

After breakfast, the morning activity was to break up into the four groups we had been associated with during our time here and prepare for the presentations. Each group was tasked with creating a presentation that included the Chinese that they learned as well as including experiences and culture from Taiwan. Our group decided to create a quick three scene act that included scenes of a wedding, classroom, and restaurant. These locations allowed for everyone to talk at least a little bit of Chinese.

However, while everyone else said things they learned that actually made sense, I decided to use the sentence that had been a running joke throughout the camp. So for the answer for both “What is your name” and “What would you like to eat,” my response was “I am from the United States.” While much of the language in our class was difficult to learn, for whatever reason I was able to pick up “Wo shi mea guo ren” right away.

We performed the presentations in the afternoon. Ours turned out better than I had expected it to. However, we still came short of winning the best presentation award. It’s alright though. I’m just glad that people laughed at ours.

The last organized activity of our time here was the closing ceremony. After a few speeches, we had the opportunity to eat one last meal of fresh seafood. Actually, that may have just been me. I guess everyone else lives much closer to the ocean than I do. After the meal, people from each group got to describe a little bit about their experiences. Being the only native English speaker in our group, that assignment was left to me. In hindsight, I probably should have cried. People from the next two groups after me cried quite a bit.

We also had the opportunity to watch the video that the English people had made. Their school booked all of the travel for them, and booked their return flight for earlier in the day. The staff wanted them to still to be a part of the ceremony so they recorded a short video a couple of days earlier. Somehow I was roped into interviewing them for the video. Luckily, all three of them have a good sense of humor and I was pleased that the final product turned out well.
After the event, we had the opportunity to mingle for the last time and take some pictures. Here are a few of them. Thanks to everybody there for making the event such a fun time!