Ericca Huysmans—Auckland, New Zealand, Music (Japanese Minor), Soprano II

Aloha! Today was the first day that we got to experience Taiwan. We were wearing our aloha shirts and black pants. The outfits we wear really help me identify what we did that day. When we were traveling to [Chung Shan Industrial Commercial] High School I realized that every single person and their cat owns a moped/scooter. Like seriously, I thought were just a lot of moped rental places. There are so many!

Oh, before we went to the high school we went to the Kaohsiung county government and we got to sing for them and that was fun. A photo that was taken made it in the next day's newspapers. And we were on the news! That was fun.

At the high school, the most memorable moment was when the boys played kickball with some of the students. Travis was really good at kicking and made two home runs ... and pushed over the catcher guy. It was funny, don't worry.

The lunch that they put on for us was SOOO good! And the waiters and waitresses were really nice. When we sang for them, one of the girls cried, or got teary eyed. We had surrounded them in a circle so I guess that was a bit overwhelming. As we left the high school we walked by some classrooms and all the students were sleeping...because they got a half hour NAP TIME! I wish we had that at school. It was so hot that day. We got to perform a mini concert there which was crazy. All the kids wanted photos and they were screaming and they thought Sone [Naunau] was the black Michael Jackson. It was a lot of fun.

We got to go to [Chung Shan] University afterward and we performed for their choir and then we sang together. Those girls were so nice.

We were pretty wasted after that but we got to split up and go to FHE with members here. Me and Tialei [Wesley] went with Tony and Ivy and their two-year-old son Wei Wei. It was a real fun experience getting to go to their home and meeting them. We got to see them at our concert the next day so it was cool seeing familiar faces in the auditorium. That was probably one of the longest days of the trip, especially since everyone was real jet lagged but it was so worth it.