Advices to My Past Self

By Selina Zheng
(Attended in Summer 2024)

First Days in Taiwan

No one can prepare you for the initial blast of homesickness you face the second you step out of the bus and onto Kaohsiung streets. “This is real.” The first meal I had at Seven-Eleven was my wake-up call. I was with my friend from Hunter, Atlas, whom I had coordinated to come on the same flight with. As I tried the famous Seven-Eleven’s tea eggs, pairing it with a low-fiber, low-sugar soy milk in a pretense to be healthy, I felt a sinking sensation at the bottom of my stomach, “I am in Taiwan.” For months, weeks, and even days before my flight to Taiwan, I did not process I was going to study abroad for 3 months until I was there. Physically there. What do I do now? Where do I go from here? Those were the questions I asked myself, and the same questions that engulfed me in dread for the coming days. I felt truly alone in this country, away from my friends and family, which is ironic because Atlas was quite literally sitting across from me.

The wonderful thing about the You Huayu Scholarship is that you don’t come to Taiwan alone, in fact, you come with companions who could very much become your closest friends. I like to joke that my travel buddies (aka fellow scholarship recipients) are my built-in friends, but it is true, having this group of people who came from the same college as me was my cure for my homesickness. It is even better if there are people who are experienced with traveling and making plans, which I struck gold with because my friends loved checking out places. If you watch my recap video, I list a few places we decided to check out days before summer classes, including the Dragon Boat Festival by Pier 2 and Love River. Something I did was keep a photo journal and document what I did each day, not only would this serve as an excellent keepsake from Taiwan, but it keeps you grounded especially during the initial days. Bonus points if you write in Mandarin!

Atlas and I came to Taiwan five days before the official starting date of classes, which I highly recommend because you can use these days to explore the city and adjust before starting classes. Use this time to accustom yourself to the cash conversion and figure out your budget.

Practical Answers for Practical Questions

Now, it is time to answer the question about money. When I was applying for the scholarship, I was not able to get a direct answer from anyone about exactly how much money I should expect to spend. I can not answer for everyone, but I will tell you a comprehensive guide on how much I spent and how I achieved my numbers.

I spent approximately $100USD of my own money. Shockers. How did I manage to spend less than $100USD for three months in Taiwan? Surprisingly, this was easy to achieve. What is the actual amount I spent besides my clickbait answer? Approximately $4600.

Huayu Scholarship covers tuition fully for the summer semester at Wenzao University, so that was not recorded in my spendings. I got $3000 reimbursement for plane tickets and other travel expenses and $1500 stipend (~$500 a month) for daily living expenses. I brought over $1500 in cash with me to Taiwan, but at the airport, I only exchanged $450 for budgeting purposes. I would recommend you exchange more at the airport, because Taiwan is a cash society. If you do not have Line Pay (which is hard to set up as a foreigner), exchange extra cash if your budget allows you to at the airport, it is a lot harder anywhere else. I thought $450 was plenty to last me 5 days until my first stipend, but after paying about $50 for the high speed rail ticket to Kaohsiung from Taipei, $200 in deposit, and almost having to pay another $200 for the first month’s rent, I realized just how much more cash I would be needing. Later on, I converted $100 more USD at a mall, and then $200 more at a local bank. Do not exchange money at malls, they will check for every crinkle on the bill and reject your bills if they see the smallest imperfection. Not to mention, the conversion rate at malls isn’t as good, ie I got offered a 30.9 conversion rate when the rate was 31.4. Local banks are a lot simpler and you just need to bring your passport.

Expenses Breakdown

My rent was $6000NT a month, approximately $200 USD, leaving me $9000 ($300 USD) of the stipend money to spend on meals and activities. I realized that is plenty of money after I stopped going to malls to buy dinners. This depends on how much you order per meal, and I generally eat less so people who require more food might have to spend more money. There are so many amazing restaurants everywhere in Kaohsiung where you can get filling meals for under $100NT ($3 USD). $9000 NT /30 days = $300 NT per day. I had a bad habit of skipping lunch, meaning I had $150 to spend per meal a day. This bubble tea shop nearby Wenzao called 茶樓養了牛 sold delicious and creative drinks for $55 NT, which I wisely allocated some of my daily spending money towards. Of course, I did not keep to this limit strictly, but it was nice having a figure in my mind when I spent money.

Group Activities

Did you get to participate in all the group activities? Yes! My friend group went out almost every day—including weekends—and I joined them. Certain activities cost more than others, for example, our weekend trip to Tainan, but my advice is: money comes back. Kidding, my actual advice is everything is cheaper in Taiwan, including experiences! Do not miss out on experiences because you are adhering to your budget, let yourself free to a certain extent. Plan accordingly and everything works out in the end. I tapped into the $3000 reimbursement to fund expenses outside of food. My plane ticket was $1871.28, so I had a little over $1000 from the reimbursement to fund my Taiwan adventures, this number may not be the same for everyone but I am offering my experience to give you an estimate.

Shopping Experience

Find the local spots to shop at! Check out Shopee, Taiwan’s online shopping platform, shopping districts tucked away in the crevices of Kaohsiung, and of course, consult with your Taiwanese friends to find their favorite spots. I made the mistake of going to malls to set my standard pricing for Taiwan goodies, which meant I was overspending on brand names I did not care for. I came out of this trip with 2.5 loaded luggages worth of stuff (a nightmare for packing season), so the budget I established was definitely enough to cover souvenirs, personal items such as lots of clothing, etc. I used my credit card occasionally, spending somewhere between $300-400. Check with your bank to see if your credit card has a foreign transaction fee! I had a Capital One so I did not have to worry about the fees, so I would recommend opening a Capital One card if you still need a credit card.

I know my advice may not be the most coherent, but these are all stuff I would have loved to be able to tell my past self, so I hope you, the reader, will find this helpful.

Video Recap

If you watch my video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=434pmRoGew8), you might be left wondering, what story are you (well I guess, me) trying to tell? I made the video as a mini-documentary of what my friends and I did this summer and honestly, I just packed our fun moments into a short video. It was a video I did for us (summer of 2024 recipients) that you guys (future recipients) can also watch. The video is a visual representative of how I viewed my Taiwan trip, and may not be of any use, but here is a snippet of my life for you guys to watch. My reflection had been, for the most part, informal because I did not want this opportunity to seem scary. I hope my casual way of relaying information will give you a glimpse of what your summer can potentially be.

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