An enriched life at MCU
From California State University - Long Beach, U.S.A. /by Candace Walsh
I was feeling a little hesitant. The Chair of the Asian and Asian American Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach had assured me multiple times; there will be someone at the airport to pick you up. But as I stepped off the plane, after I adjusted to the humidity and the unfamiliar smells, I wasn’t sure where to look for my alleged designated “Greeters.”
Down the escalator to the baggage claim, those standing idly move off to the right, those in a hurry shuffle down the left hand side. “Aha! There’s a system…” I couldn’t help but be impressed, and although it was my first recognition of it, it surely would not be my last. Bags in hand, I move through immigration, hesitantly show my Visa (terrible picture, even for a Visa, the guy wouldn’t let me take it again), and then off to look for someone who is also looking for me.
Nope. Not to the left hand side. Not over by the soda machines, not by the taxi drivers aggressively beckoning alongside the curb. Hmmm….Ah yes, there they are, two excited and hospitable MCU students, holding the sign “Welcome Candace Angelica Walsh, California State University, Long Beach!!!”
I have encountered this sort of pleasant surprise feeling over and over again in the short one and a half months I have been in Taiwan. From the friendly students at Ming Chuan University, to the bus driver at Sun Moon Lake hooking us up with cheap (not to mention awesome) accommodations, to my new friend Clark Kent (guess who he’s named after?) who called his mom to pick him and I up at the bus stop when the number 15 was a half hour late. Thanks, Superman!
I came to Taiwan to study Chinese; I did not realize I would be getting such a cultural education in conjunction with that. Again, pleasantly surprised, I will press on this year discovering all that this country has to offer me, hopefully becoming a more enriched person for it when my time here is done. Okay, I will never try Stinky Tofu, but can you blame me?
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