One exciting thing I experienced was the trains. Many people use them often. I am surprised by how clean the island is. The first positive experience was that everyone here also seems super nice, warm and welcoming. The next one is the how similar my homestay family was to my own. They were loving, welcoming, and accepting.
My favorite experience so far has been meeting my homestay family. They were all so kind! Another thing I enjoy is all the stores all around. It’s easy to get to where you need without driving for 20 minutes to get there.
My homestay family was amazing. They were all very kind, curious, and gave us lots of gifts and food and experiences. Sophie, the oldest daughter (8th) was a bit shy at first, but as time went on, she opened up more. She was very gentle and sweet. Her parents were curious and very interested in learning about us and Minnesota. They liked to make sure we felt safe and comfortable, and gave us lots of gifts. Her little sister was a lot like my brother. Shy at first but very funny and bright and outgoing.
My overall experience in the past three days has been amazing, a little overwhelming and stressful, but mostly fun and exciting.
-Alice Sabatke
The Taiwanese people have shown us so much hospitality these past days. As we walked into the sister school we were welcomed with big smiles and it felt like we were walking on the red carpet. My host family worked very hard to make sure we were comfortable and well fed.
Their smiles were very contagious and I couldn’t help but feel very happy. It made me feel like we were truly welcomed.
Experiencing the feeling of being a foreigner in a new country has really opened my eyes to the fear and anxiety people feel when in a new place. Knowing this I will try to be as understanding and kind to any foreigner I will run into in America. I will try to be more like the Taiwanese people when welcoming new people into our country.
-Eleanor Metzdorf
An exciting thing I experienced was going to Taipei 101. Also going out and looking around the city. I was super surprised how nice people where. And how un-foreigner I felt being here in a different country.
I think my favorite activity was either adventuring around the city or going home with the host family. This whole trip, I have not had a favorite place or experience, all of it has just been such an amazing adventure.
For my homestay I stayed with a family of four. A mother, father, brother and a sister. They were amazing hosts. We went to the beach, a museum and we also played Mario Party on his Wii. For lunch were some home-made noodles, For dinner we had hot pot. Then for breakfast, I had some noodles again but not home-made. The house was small. The living room was probably the biggest and then it branched into smaller room like bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom.
-Juliun Menasco
I experienced a surprising thing. My host family brother Dave played a lot of video games. We played Nintendo Switch and drank bubble tea. We went to this huge gaming mall and played Roblox for an hour. Then we went around and looked at stuff for sale. I bought an Xbox controller and Aidan bought a Nintendo Switch game. My favorite activity was playing video games with my host brother, Dave. He was very good at it and I didn’t stand a chance against him.
Two positive experiences here in Taiwan are that they are all very nice people. For example, they always compliment you and are never mad. Also they don’t have a lot of crime here.
Elias Parson-Timbo
This is my first journal for the Taiwan trip in 2023. Once we got off the plane, I was very surprised on how humid it was, I knew that it was going to be hot, but I didn’t know I was going to be this hot. So far my favorite activity here has been riding on the subway with my friends. I think it’s so cool, how clean they keep the subways, they’re so comfortable.
My homestay family was really, really nice. What we did was we walked back to the apartment and they let us have an apple soda which was very, very good. Then we took the subway down to an underground mall and we got to use our money and do some little vending machines. We got some little gifts for our parents. Then we went to go get hot pot for dinner and it was super good and there was a cute little robot. Scarlett and I had a lot of fun with our host families.
-Luella Nolte
