Spring Break in Taiwan: Blogging Take 2

Last summer when I wrote a blog about my time in Taiwan, it didn’t really end how I wanted it to (or at all, really). The experiences I had in Taiwan were incredible, and I will forever fondly remember the people I met, the places I visited, and all the Chinese I learned, but the blog didn’t come together in a way that captured that meaningfulness.

However, due to my amazing high school (thank you Park), I not only get the chance to revisit one of my most favorite places and experience it in a new light, but also have a chance to continue (and conclude) my high school study abroad journey. So, in the coming ten days, here’s to consistency, and finally, sharing with you a satisfying Taiwan blog ending.

My favorite Taiwanese sign so far

This trip started differently. Instead of a quick goodbye to Mom in BWI and meeting a cohort of unfamiliar faces from across the country, the Park Pack departed from the science wing and crawled through the turnpike up to New York’s JFK. (Fun fact: We are the Park “Bruins.” A group of bears is called a sloth, pack, maul, or sleuth, so I’ll be switching between those.) Thanks to the good company of the Park Sleuth and movie recommendations (Kill Bill–thanks Lucia), the drive went smooth. After checking bags and making it through security (with only a few items lost), the nine students and two teachers boarded the 17 hour flight. Departing the plane, going through Taiwanese customs, and picking up our bags was entirely normal, and also super strange, as it was the same setup as NSLI-Y. The whole situation didn’t even inspire deja vu levels of familiarity; it was just too exactly the same. We even boarded our bus to Taichung in the same parking lot, and listened to our wonderful guide Daphne tell us about Taiwanese culture and history through the bus’s built-in karaoke system.

Baggage claim

The place my NSLI-Y cohort took our first photo

It was jarring how quickly we were out of the US and thrown into Taiwan. In NSLI-Y, it felt like I was anticipating the switch, probably due to the all day two day orientation pre departure. But the switch here was like falling asleep in my home bedroom while packing and waking up at Hong Wen, our exchange school. And yes–we went directly from a full day at school to a 5 hour bus ride to a 17 hour plane ride to a 2 hour drive to our host school.

Drive to school

The first thing I noticed is how excited the Taiwanese students are to show us their school, with about four times as many Taiwanese exchange kids as us showing us around. The second thing was that everyone's English is really, really good. After a quick orientation, we split off into random groups and walked around the school, popping into classrooms, saying hi to students, and generally being the bubbly, walking circus act that teenagers become in new environments. Several members of the Park Maul had super sweet fangirls/boys ask for pictures and instagrams.

I ended up being bribed with a single piece of Toblerone chocolate to hang out with an awesome group of Taiwanese seniors. When the school took us to the local night market (at 1:30 in the afternoon), I hung out with this group. This ended up totally being the right call, as my claw machine skills were rusty at best and embarrassing at worst, and my new friends won me a new keychain for my purse. We celebrated with fried chicken, squid, potato-like starchy vegetables, fresh fruit, and more fresh fruit covered in melted sugar. Back at school, we Park Sleuths said our goodbyes, and Simone and I departed with our host family.

Park and Hong Wen students

Our host family took us to a real (larger and actually at night) night market and bought us a ton more fresh fruit and some local Taiwanese desserts that I hadn’t seen before. As a side note, Simone and I need to look up the word for ‘share’, as somewhere the phrase ‘we’ll share one’ got lost in translation and our host mom generously bought almost double the food we could eat.


It was then on the car ride home that the jetlag really started to take effect. Simone and I spent the better part of twenty minutes elbowing each other out of sleep before our 7th grade host sister, Emma, took us out for late night caffeinated boba. After the caffeine started to set in, we enjoyed some of the best duck I have ever eaten, rolled into rice tortillas with a sweet and sour sauce.


Now, I’m sitting here, finishing off my midnight boba and wax apples, and thinking about how amazing it will be to shower and get out of the clothes that I’ve been wearing for the last 40 hours. I’m excited to say that even early into this trip, I am proud of how much Mandarin I’ve maintained. And I’m super excited to see where the next week will take me and the Park Sleuth’s.


I think I’ll go take that shower now.

Me and Simone in our room