Wheels down in Taiwan! Let the adventure begin! I spent the first week in Taiwan with Yin Laoshi, a professor/exchange student whom I met at NAU. I am so grateful that she opened her house and embraced me into her world. Being able to stay with her family for the week before classes instead of alone in a hotel helped me quickly immerse myself in the culture. I had Chinese spoken around me 24/7. I was able to get a glimpse of everyday life, whether that be visiting a hospital for a check-up or going grocery shopping. I could observe without the stress of classes. My approach to my new environment came from one of my professors who told me to treat a new place like a refrigerator. The metaphor is when you first go to someone’s house, you do not immediately make a beeline for their fridge, you get to know the person first, and then once you are friends, you are allowed to open their fridge. In class, we were talking about working for a corporation; however, I loosely applied a similar principle to my new environment by spending the first-week observing social norms and so on. My strategy of observing earned me a reputation in the household as being shy. I still chuckle a little to myself because that is the last word most people would describe me as.
My friend had two little girls, so during the day, I would learn and help her around the house, and then at night, I would play with her daughters. I found that children are the best teachers, especially when learning a language. Some of the vocabulary they used I was familiar with, or they would repeat the same words enough times that I was able to pick up a little bit. At the end of the day, I would be mentally drained, and the best thing about children is you do not need language to know how to play.
Yin Laoshi was not the only person I knew in Taiwan. I also was able to meet up with Ginger, another Taiwanese exchange student whom I met at NAU. We got to catch up, and I was able to learn more about a student's perspective of Taiwan before becoming one myself.
The whole first week still felt surreal. I enjoyed all my free time exploring, but I was ready to have a routine for Taiwan to feel more real. I was ready to dive headfirst into my life at National Central University.
