A Summer in Kaohsiung

By Atlas Robalino
(Attended in Summer 2023)

Arrival:

Up until I started college, I hardly went anywhere alone. The moment I landed at the airport, it still hadn't set in that I was in a country across the world from where I was born and raised, and everyone spoke the language I was trying to learn. I had known beforehand that chances were I was going to be noticed right away due to my foreign appearance, but my roommate had pointed it out before I realized it. It didn't faze me much, as we had plans to visit the Teresa Teng Memorial Park a few hours after we landed (I was too excited!) and went around complaining about the heat/humidity. My roommate (who took the plane with me) and I stayed in Taipei for a few days to sightsee until we had to leave for Kaohsiung for the semester. It was in the apartment in Kaohsiung when I realized that I was very far away from home. Oddly enough, besides already desperately missing my culture's cuisine, I felt somewhat calm and ready to start this mini chapter of my life.

Scholarship and stipend:

Presumably after the tuition was paid, we received our stipend from the Huayu office on the 10th of each month. With the stipend, I was able to pay for bills (rent, electricity, and water) and food. I did take out some money from an ATM–the 7-Elevens all had an ATM which allowed you to withdraw money with your American credit/debit card, sometimes with a fee– so that I could buy souvenirs for my family and many, many, many stationery-related items for myself. Due to the vast difference in the worth of the New Taiwan Dollar compared to the United States Dollar, and the low costs in Taiwan, it's easy to spend continuously. My two roommates wrote down each and every one of their expenses, and we downloaded a calculator app to convert NTD to USD, so we could try to be mindful of how much we spent.

Classes:

After taking the placement exam and attending a couple of orientations, classes began. As I imagined, it was overwhelming to suddenly be in class again, but also be only spoken to in Mandarin while being expected to reply in Mandarin. One of my roommates had similar results on her exam, so luckily we got into the same class. Her speaking skills were much better than mine, so it surprised our teacher that I had gotten into the class to begin with. She asked us if we wanted to drop a level, so it'll be easier, but I didn't see a point in that. I knew that the class I was in now was strikingly similar to my flagship class(es), so there was no way I would be able to keep up in the Fall semester if I went to a lower level. For the first two weeks, a big part of me wished I had switched, but after getting used to the dynamic of the classes and teachers (one teacher Monday-Wednesday and another Thursdays and Fridays), it went a bit more smoothly. My roommate and I sat next to each other, helping one another in what we lacked; she was a better speaker and I was a better reader, so we helped each other in class, during breaks, and back at the apartment. All of our classmates were familiar with each other and had been at Wenzao for multiple semesters. They were all from different Asian countries (typically two from the same country), hoping to master Mandarin in order to find work in China or Taiwan. Some learned it because their family wanted them to; many students had their grandparents give them their Chinese name. It was a bit awkward being in class with people who were all friends and awesome at conversational Chinese. After a while, even though I didn't speak to them outside of class, it was easier for us to work together during class discussions.

Every chapter had a dialogue and a short text. My roommate and I had to buy the textbook, which the other students had already started the previous semester. This semester we were working on chapters 9-16, and it was funny every time our teacher asked us about characters, themes, and vocabulary introduced, which we were not at all familiar with. There was a quiz after we studied all the vocabulary of the dialogue and text, then a test after the chapter was completed. The quizzes focused on vocabulary (fill in the blanks) and had questions which we did at home to turn in the next morning. The tests required us to fill in the blanks, make our own sentences using the remaining vocabulary words, answer questions/complete dialogue using given grammar structures, then to write a short essay answering a question relating to the chapter. The midterm was an oral presentation, and the final was an exam testing your oral, listening, reading, and writing skills.

Sightseeing:

Despite not going out as much as I could've, I went sightseeing to some places in both Taipei and Kaohsiung with my roommates. It was mostly tourist places like Taipei 101, Tamsui, Jiufen Old Street, Shifen Old Street, Houston Cat Village, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Lotus Pond, etc. People may say that Kaohsiung doesn't have as much to do as Taiwan, but even though it lacks more tourist attractions, it does have a lot of things to explore and discover. Our teachers and classmates were always willing to recommend restaurants, parks, temples, and food. It's easy to want to stay in because of the heat, but many elderly people go out in spite of it. You'll see then gathered in parks practicing taijiquan and stretching. Sometimes, even the MRT stations have cool things to look at and take pictures of, like at (Kaohsiung's) Central Park.

Weather:

I had known beforehand that Taiwan was hot and humid, but I had dealt with hot and humid weather in the Dominican Republic, where my family is from. However, nothing could've prepared me for Taiwan's weather. In Taipei, the heat was suffocating because it was surrounded by mountains (Taiwan has an abundance of nature, and many mountains) so it was hard for air to circulate. In Kaohsiung, it was more humid than hot, but equally suffocating at times. It rained a lot, so we pretty much always had to carry our umbrellas. There was a typhoon in July, resulting in a four-day (Friday-Monday) weekend off from class. There were times when the weather was nice (or more bearable) in the early morning, and sometimes the rain did manage to cool the heat down even by a bit. The clouds are much more shapely and vivid compared to NYC, and perhaps there were times where I didn't mind that the sun was blinding me, just as long as I could watch the clouds on the bus ride back from school.

Transportation:

We were lucky enough to live right by a bus stop where the bus takes us directly to Wenzao in a quick 30 minutes. Unlike in NYC, you have to wave your hand to the bus driver so they'll stop, but sometimes they drive so fast you miss your chance. I would say the buses and MRT don't come as often as they do in NYC, but they are much faster and cleaner. Despite the annoyances of transportation in Kaohsiung, it felt like something I could get used to quickly. It was more confusing than the MTA, but as long as you had Maps, it was fine. One thing to note is that the EasyCard (almost similar to the Metrocard) has to be tapped twice, when you get on the bus, local train, and MRT and when you get off or leave the station. At train and MRT stations it's much more obvious, since you can't pass through the turnstile to leave without tapping your EasyCard again, but on the bus it's easy to forget and get off the bus. If you do forget, the next time you try to take any mode of transportation, you'll find that your EasyCard has been locked. The driver or employee can help unlock it for you, but it's important to make it a habit so it doesn't cause delay.