FIELD TRIP

Last Thursday (December 10^th) was “Field Trip Day” at Yunlin Elementary School. On this day, every student at my school went on a field trip. Each grade went to a different place. I’ve been told there’s one “Field Trip Day” during the first semester and one during the second semester. The places students went during this first semester were all fairly close to the school. I guess the field trips during second semester are all farther away from the school/Douliu.

I went with the fourth graders to the Yunlin County Police Bureau and to the university in Douliu. The most surprising part of this experience was the fact that the students walked to these places from the school. I guess I wasn’t expecting this to happen because of the crazy traffic here, the lack of sidewalks and the distance between the school and these places. It took the students about 45-60 minutes (each way) and many adults stopping traffic at the intersections, but everyone made it there and back safely.

I’ve included some pictures of the day below. The Yunlin County Police Bureau’s facilities are beautiful. I was told they have the biggest police facility in Taiwan...but not the biggest department...I’m not sure why this is! :) A big part of the day for the kids was being able to look at and touch the guns at the police department. All guns are banned in Taiwan for the average person (there’s no hunting here), so the kids were very intrigued by this. Of course, they had me dress up in all the police equipment for the kids before we left. :)