Born in Taiwan lives in Australia volunteers France

Shiao-Ping came from Brisbane in Australia to volunteer at La Giraudière after spending her working life in banking. She has been learning French at the Alliance Française in Brisbane and it was a dream for her to come to France to learn and improve her knowledge of the French language. Shia-Ping volunteered at La Giraudiere for a 5 weeks arriving in August 2018.

Shiao-Ping was born in Taiwan but lives in Australia with her Aussie husband of 32 years. Her mother tongue is Mandarin. She has a bread blog which you can find at www.thefreshloaf.com/blog/shiaoping! She is also a keen photographer and she has used all her own photos on her bread blog and on her Instagram account (shiaopinghu)

Chinese Volunteers in France

Whilst volunteering at La Giraudière, she worked in the office for a few weeks dealing with reservations and the logistics of bookings she also helped with translation and website creation with the Chinese volunteers.

Shiao-Ping is an excellent cook and the group profited with the superb curries and other spicy dishes she would turn out but her specialty as to be baking and she became known for her yummy cakes!

In Shiao-Ping’s exit evaluation she notes,

She found La Giraudiere a welcoming place in the French countryside. She also encourages you to get out there and use your time off to improve your French and immerse yourself. The best part for her was the interaction with the fellow volunteers, the group excursions and communicating with the local villagers. She rated the program 18/20 and feels the program is good value for money. She also wished the volunteers had spoken more French although she realized her own knowledge of French was only basic.

“Thank you Shiao-Ping for choosing La Giraudiere for your volunteering holiday you were a pleasure to live and work with and make a splendid group or team member and I hope some day you return”. – Paul