‘Sorry, I Can’t Speak Chinese Very Well’

When I first started looking at programs for my semester abroad, I never thought that I would end up in Asia. In fact, I had my heart set on either Spain or Australia for a while. However, when I stumbled across a program at National Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, I just had to look into it.

At the time, Taiwan was quite mysterious to me. I had had layovers in the country, but had never stepped out of the airport. My extent of what I knew about the little island was that there was constant argument over whether Taiwan was a part of China or not, and that the main language spoken there was Mandarin Chinese. I’m not quite sure what it was about the program that won me over, but a little voice inside my head told me that this was the perfect place for me.

So, taking a huge leap of faith, I applied for the university, and started packing my things.

Taiwanese Nasreen

After the Chinese New Year, my cousin and I had planned to travel to Taiwan. It was so cool to know that traveling in Asia, while in Asia, is extremely cheap and is a must if you’re planning to stay for a long period of time. This was the first time I’ve traveled without older adults in a foreign place. At least by now I am a pro at packing.