NSLI-Y 2025 Taiwan – Week 3
Nǐ hǎo from Maya, Rohan, and Zara! Week 3 has come to a close, and we can hardly believe we’re already halfway through the program! This week brought much excitement as we finally embarked on our cultural activities and field trips. As our daily routines have become second nature to us, we’ve only been exploring Taipei more!
MONDAY
We kicked off the week on Monday with a flavorful cultural activity, a Chinese cooking class! This time, we learned how to make baked jiaozi (dumplings) from scratch. We had a variety of fillings to choose from, including pork, curry beef, and mushrooms. As we wrapped our dumplings, we couldn’t help but compare pleats with each other, admiring the most delicate folds and laughing at the more “creative” ones. It wasn’t a real competition, but there was definitely some friendly pride on the line. In the end, we all enjoyed sharing our handmade dumplings and the experience of learning through food.
Marcela, Stella, Sonam, & Rocio are making the dumplings.
Nat is working hard to finish making the dumplings.
TUESDAY
We continued our streak of new activities on Tuesday with two cultural sessions: song practice and a lesson on Chinese medicine. Our song for the week was a new one, “Baobei”, meaning baby, but with our singing abilities, our cohort handled it with ease. We even had the opportunity to take turns singing solo, which helped us rehearse for our karaoke bus ride on Saturday. After singing class, Dr. Wu came to teach us about Chinese medicine. We learned about its history and how it’s used in modern society alongside Western practices. We also created mosquito repellent pouches to ward off bug bites, and some of us were able to relax our shoulders with guasha and cupping treatments.
Our blog writers, Rohan and Zara, are watching our last blog writer, Maya, get a full check-up. The prescription: an acupuncture session! Do you think the needles know what they’re in for?
Zara, Kelly, Nitya, and Sam engage in dance after the Chinese medicine lesson.
Valor and Chinmay share a delightful, Chinese mugwort scent.
WEDNESDAY & THURSDAY
On Wednesday and Thursday, we had our weekly language partners. On Wednesday, we shared unique sentiments of our hometowns for our language partners to present to the class. We then did the same for them. On Thursday, we played a guessing game with our language partners. Students teamed up and had plenty of fun speaking Chinese to describe hometown pictures for the audience to guess. Every correct guess would earn a point for a team. Spoiler alert: we got super competitive!
Students have fun guessing cities based on descriptions!
Dragon class had lots of fun during Wednesday’s lesson on body parts in Chinese. Special shoutout to Kelly, Rohan, and Mike for drawing this funky creature (外星人)!
Tiger class: Idhaant, Marshall, Preston, and Marcella amidst preparing for the upcoming midterm OPI. Although they are smiling, they are certainly frightened.
FRIDAY
Although nerves were high on Friday as we awaited our midterm OPI, many of us were relieved to find that the exam was far less intimidating than we had imagined! Later in the day, we had our weekly RD meeting. We learned about the rich history of Confucianism and Daoism, specifically their contrasting principles. Next week, we will continue the discussion of this topic by exploring how these ancient philosophies can shape present-day political and global issues.
To kick off the weekend, many students enjoyed exploring the city. The Zhongshan district has been quite a popular attraction for all of us students!
Camila, Nishta, Sonam, Nat, & Stella eating dinner in the Zhongshan district.
Zara, Maya, & Rohan in the Ferris wheel at Miramar Mall in the Zhongshan district.
SATURDAY
On Saturday, we made our way to the National Palace Museum of Taiwan, eager to see and learn about the ancient artifacts from the numerous Chinese dynasties, including the Ming and Qing. We wandered through each exhibit, learning about the craftsmanship and history behind the displays.
Preston and Valor examine an ancient artifact in the museum.
Leah, Narayani, Sonam, Kelly, Nitya, and Tommy share a picture outside the National Palace Museum.
Mike, Valor, Marshall, Sam, and Ben dig into our delish lunch!
After lunch, we went to the beach. Despite the rain and choppy water, our spirits were high and we were looking forward to diving into the waves and playing in the sand. It was a great way to end a week full of adventures and great memories!
Everyone at the beach.
Zaijian, we’ll see you next week!