{"id":1238,"date":"2016-11-16T10:50:21","date_gmt":"2016-11-16T15:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/?p=1238"},"modified":"2016-11-16T10:50:21","modified_gmt":"2016-11-16T15:50:21","slug":"yay-taiwan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/2016\/11\/16\/yay-taiwan\/","title":{"rendered":"YAY TAIWAN!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s official: my friend Emily and I are traveling to Taiwan in January! In a matter of weeks, we\u2019ll be interacting with the students at Takau English School, collecting additional observation notes, interviewing teachers and administrators, and taking photographs to contribute to the arts-based component of this much larger \u201cGlobally Elite\u201d project. In addition, while we\u2019re there, I\u2019ll be completing an education practicum. I know I can speak for Emily when I say that <strong>we are both <em>beyond <\/em>excited!!<\/strong> However, I can\u2019t lie\u2026 I\u2019m also incredibly nervous. Without further ado, I present to you:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Why I\u2019m Freaking Out About My Trip to Taiwan<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Neither Emily nor I speak Chinese.<\/strong> While the students and teachers at Takau English School are required to speak English at all times, the rest of the country predominantly speaks Mandarin Chinese. Emily and I plan to spend the grand majority of our time in Taiwan at the school, so hopefully this won\u2019t be a problem. However, if we want to explore at all, we\u2019d better be feeling adventurous, because of this next reason\u2026<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/m.popkey.co\/872a52\/ZpYK7.gif\" width=\"245\" height=\"150\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>We have no idea how to navigate Taiwan.<\/strong> Although Emily has done quite a bit of world traveling herself, neither of us have been anywhere in Asia before. We\u2019re not particularly familiar with the culture and we don\u2019t know what to expect in terms of the city structure. On Google Maps, the streets look as though they are reasonably easy to navigate. In addition, I\u2019ve heard that Taiwan is generally considered a \u201cnice country;\u201d if Emily and I ever get lost, I\u2019m hoping that we might be able to find some friendly people who would be willing to point us in the right direction. During January, I\u2019ll keep you updated on how often we get lost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>We have no idea how to find our hotel, either.<\/strong> We found the bed and breakfast through a travel website; it has excellent reviews, and it looks beautiful in the photographs. Unfortunately, however, the reviews also suggest that the hotel is extremely difficult to find, because its entrance isn\u2019t well marked. Furthermore, the residence owners don\u2019t speak English. But \u2013 fortunately \u2013 Emily and I have heard that their son <em>does<\/em> speak English, and quite well! If this is the case, he will probably be our new best friend and saving grace during the month of January. If we can just find the hotel on day one, I\u2019m hoping we\u2019ll be set for the rest of our stay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/RIECDaCdxqKha\/giphy.gif\" width=\"500\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I\u2019m not sure what the food will be like.<\/strong> I am not a picky eater, and I love to try new things. However, in spite of this, I\u2019m nervous about eating in Taiwan. For one, neither Emily nor I will be able to read the food labels, so we won\u2019t know exactly what we\u2019re eating. For another, foreign food preparation methods can cause illness if your body is unfamiliar with them. When I traveled to Costa Rica for my January term last year, I experienced horrible food poisoning. While it is possible that the food was prepared incorrectly, it is more likely that my body was simply unsure of how to handle the foods it had never been accustomed to. In consequence, I\u2019ll probably tread pretty lightly with regard to eating new things in Taiwan \u2013 the last thing I want is for us to get sick!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Emily and I may be the main attraction while we\u2019re in Asia. <\/strong>On top of the fact that both of us are English-speaking, fair-skinned, pale, and freckled, Emily\u2019s hair is stunningly red while mine is shiny and blonde. I\u2019m sure that any time we get lost, it will be blatantly obvious to the people around us. There\u2019s going to be no way of hiding how foreign we are to the Taiwanese city. Again, we can just hope that Taiwan is as friendly as we\u2019ve heard, and we will try to avoid getting lost too often.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>What if the students at TES don\u2019t like me?<\/strong> I am incredibly excited to meet and interact with them. Over the course of January, the school might allow me to get involved with the students\u2019 academics, co-curriculars, extracurriculars, and athletics. I\u2019m hopeful that the students will become comfortable enough with me that we can speak informally; this will give me the opportunity to get to know them much, much better. I am already confident that I\u2019ll love the students\u2026 I just can\u2019t help but worry that they might not like me!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"http:\/\/i.imgur.com\/ciDoIDz.gif\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" \/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>I hate to say it, but I\u2019m bad luck when I travel.<\/strong> I have a tendency to fall victim to horrible snowstorms and long delays at the airport. In my past two January terms abroad, the countries I traveled to experienced some sort of panic within my first week there. For example, I went to Paris my sophomore year, and the Charlie Hebdo attacks occurred on my second day there. My junior year, the Zika outbreak promptly began after my arrival in Costa Rica. I\u2019m praying for Emily and the country of Taiwan that my \u201cbad luck\u201d is just coincidental!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Stay tuned! There will be more to come about our trip to Taiwan soon!<\/p>\n<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-1238\" data-postid=\"1238\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-1238 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s official: my friend Emily and I are traveling to Taiwan in January! In a matter of weeks, we\u2019ll be interacting with the students at Takau English School, collecting additional observation notes, interviewing teachers and administrators, and taking photographs to contribute to the arts-based component of this much larger \u201cGlobally Elite\u201d project. In addition, while [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5444,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5444"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1238"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1239,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1238\/revisions\/1239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/global-elites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}