Lost in San Francisco: The In and Out Expedition

It hasn’t hit me that soon I’ll be embarking on a life changing trip: summer immersion in Taiwan through NSLI-Y. I’m sitting in my hotel room waiting for my roommate to finish brushing her teeth and reminiscing about today, the day before, and everything that has led up to our pre-departure orientation in San Francisco.

Me and my cohort members fighting to stay awake

Yesterday, the first day of orientation, started off pretty normal with me (literally) rolling out of my bed in Baltimore and getting dressed. Except at four in the morning. I pulled up to the airport an hour later woozy from no sleep, slowly eating a burrito from the night before, and met up with a few of my immersion cohort members flying through BWI to San Francisco. After an uneventful plane ride with lots of sleeping, we grabbed our bags (in under 30 seconds, thank you SFO) and met two more cohort members, Laura and Jayne. Needing to grab taxis, I stepped outside for the first time into the San Francisco, California air. To be honest, I was expecting more popstars and less wind, but it was still a gorgeous day in a new smog-free city. The buildings remind me of New Mexico’s standards of old fashioned chalky yellow walls and curved tile roofs with modern coffee shops crammed inside (shoutout to Donna!).

We arrived at our hotel having time traveled to 9:30am PST. With nothing on the agenda until 6:30pm and each with a whopping $75 dollar stipend, we decided to go out of America in style by cramming ourselves full of processed foods and shopping. Of course, In and Out was a must-see West coast staple, and of course, we immediately got lost the second cell service died. We happily wandered around the shopping center suburb, completely disoriented and following the flickering beacon that Google maps provided, until hot and ravenous we found the glorious In and Out.

The sought after for burger, finally found

It was the best burger I’ve ever had (minus the french onion soup burger we had at that field hockey tournament, Dad) paired with some seriously mediocre fries (I don’t know how but the fries were lukewarm on the outside and refrigerator cold on the inside). We headed back for boba (needing an American comparison for the famous Taiwanese drink) and ran into two new people, Tyler and Ajahla, who had just arrived from the airport (as our cohort was landing in shifts). It’s at this point I should mention the immediate connection our group had. I’ll admit, I was initially worried about meeting the other members of the cohort. I didn't know who they would be or if I would fit in. But NSLI-Y has handpicked some seriously incredible people for this trip, and not just in terms of stellar academics or impressive resumes. Everyone here is genuinely excited about meeting the cohort and passionate about the program we’re in. There was instant chemistry with the group, and adding people along the way only just built our excitement and sense of childlike fun.

The In and Out Gang (thank you Laura for all the amazing pictures!)

Ian displaying a stellar example of childlike fun at the cards table

Trader Joes travels

With newfound momentum we headed towards Trader Joes, buying snacks, sparkling apple juice, and talking about regional grocery stores. Back at the hotel we spent the next hour relaxing in Laura and Ajahla’s hotel room and talked about our shared excitement for the upcoming months. The excitement never bubbled over. The group is so warm and genuinely kind, and after moving down to the lobby, we met with other cohort members (newly landed) and played cards for over an hour. After an awesome Chipotle dinner (again, cramming in as much Americanized food as possible), we celebrated our first night together with a toast of fancy apple juice. A group of us (now calling ourselves the “lost foreigners” after our In and Out adventure) returned to Laura’s room and ended up watching Family Feud and discussing memories of our own families watching the show. Hailey and I, my hotel room mate, returned to our room and began to get ready for bed. One of us made an offhand comment about the upcoming program that spawned an hour-long conversation about human nature, how culture shapes humanity, varying government models, and good versus evil based on cultural definitions. I went to bed that night with a greater sense of purpose and more excitement about the program we’ll be embarking on.

BS in the lobby with new arrivals

Cooling the fancy apple juice for the toast

Park icebreakers

Through the next day excitement somehow continued to build. We spent most of the day at a beautiful public park, complete with a state of the art jungle gym and community garden. I’ll admit I was jealous of the neighborhood kids. The playset would have been perfect for a daring game of woodchips but alas, we had work to do. It was amazing to get to fully meet the rest of the group. I was able to talk to or at least say hello to all twenty four other people, and I’m grateful to the icebreakers despite the initial awkwardness as I think I know everyone's names (which is impressive by my standards as I always struggle to remember names). After introductions was lunch, followed by cultural fluency exercises. These were incredibly beneficial, as well as self reflective. We compared personal, American, and Taiwanese societal beliefs, dissecting where we individually and where the group lay on a scale between individual vs. collective for each category, as well as discussing culture shock and how to respond to subtle cultural differences. I will carry the advice with me, though I know that responding to fake cultural standards by holding up fingers per cultural norm violation during a controlled exercise will be wildly different from actual cultural misunderstandings.

Program terms of conditions review complete with flaming hot cheeto prizes 

And yet, despite all of the prep work and mutual excitement, it still feels like this experience is a summer camp that I’ll be picked up from in a few days. Even as I’m nodding along to explanations about last minute packing and our international flight information, it all feels theoretical. As much as I may be physically prepared (thank you Grandma and Mom for everything) nothing could perfectly prepare me for living outside the US without the concrete safety net of family and friends. But as much as I am nervous, there’s more buzzing excitement. While I can’t pinpoint exactly what makes me afraid, I can point to exactly what I’m thrilled about: language study, talking to native speakers, meeting my host family, sharing my culture, learning about a new culture, living outside of the US, and cheap amazing Asian food. I have everything to look forward to, I am delighted to share my journey with you (if not just so I don’t have to tell the same stories over and over again, I can just say “check out my blog), and I am honored to be continuing my family's living abroad blog. Hi to everyone in Baltimore and beyond, and I’ll write soon.

Hello from half of the NSLI-Y Kaohsiung cohort! The rest soon arrived after this photo.

Lots of love from San Francisco,

Violet