Hello, my name is Stella Azam. I am 17 years old and currently in Taiwan for the RYE study abroad program.
I arrived at the Kaohsiung airport at 11:00 PM on the 24th of August to be greeted by a herd of Rotarians and who I assume to be all of their relatives. My 1st host and 2nd host families greeted me kindly as soon as I walked out of the gate. I was handed a beautiful bouquet by my mom and my siblings all timidly gathered around me. Less than ten seconds later I was quickly ushered over to the cameras to take photos with various types of banners and decorations.
Fortunately, I did some Facebook stalking of my district beforehand, so I had been anticipating this type of grand welcoming, but some of the other exchange students were extremely shocked. After two 3-hour flights and a 15-hour flight (not including the multiple layovers) the surprise was a bit overwhelming but a pleasant reminder of the incredible hospitality and love the Taiwanese people share.
Due to it being late at night I was quickly brought home and shown around the house I will reside in for the next several months.
Truth be told, my host family is well situated. Although this may not be the case for my next few families, I was surprised when I was shown the elevator and multiple cars in their house (for the car lovers out there, 1 is a Mercedes-Benz and another is a Tesla.) My host parents own a large Traditional Chinese medicine clinic in Kaohsiung.
I have three younger siblings that I live with. Two younger sisters, Beibei and Leilei, Beibei is very close in age to me, about a year younger, and Leilei is a little bit younger, she is around 13 years old. Lastly is my younger brother, his name is Longlong, he is 11 years old. Their old sister NiNi who is a couple months older than me is currently in Belgium for the RYE program.
I was very worried at first about becoming close with my family as NiNi had only left about a day or two before I arrived. I knew she is very close with her siblings and parents because we communicated frequently several months before our arrival and departure.
My siblings have shown me some of her items and told me stories about her which I really appreciate because that means they feel comfortable enough to share those memories with me. Overall, I think that me and my siblings are really close, in fact, as I type this out my brother is sitting next to me on his phone with my mom…
We play a lot of video games together and whenever they ask me to do anything I always say yes. My little sister invited me to dance class with her which made me feel extremely happy. Before we went to class, I was able to meet her friends, now we all have a group chat together and plan to regularly attend dance class.
My little sister also really wants to practice her makeup and English skills. I did some eyeshadow for her that matched her outfit, and she really enjoyed it. I gave her one of my old rainbow eyeshadow pallets to use since she likes colorful makeup, and her favorite color is yellow. Her English is also incredibly good, even though she is shy, when she does speak, I tell her she sounds like an American.
My other younger sister, Beibei, loves to paint and draw. I brought some coloring books with simple English phrases for her to draw in. I also have Chinese coloring books so we can practice together. She likes to play video games as well. Her English comprehension level is really high so when I struggle to find a word for something or want to ask what an English word is in Chinese then she is typically the one who will help me.
She also has been really open to me about how it is to have an exchange student in their house. We both share feelings of sadness sometimes, so it is nice to have a person to talk to. When she came home from school, she told me that she had to talked to her friends about me and they had described me as a ‘Treasure Girl.’ I almost cried because I was so happy and grateful. A ‘Treasure Girl’ is someone who begins to show more and more talents the longer you get to know them. I expressed how happy I was and told her that maybe she will find more when I am able to speak better Chinese with her..
Truthfully, my Chinese is very poor, I understand very little and can barely read at all. I am someone who is very extroverted and thrives on social environments and conversations, so I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t hard. But at the same time, being that I talk a lot and love to listen to people speak, I am always asking what words mean or how to say them. It’s to the extent that I feel like I might be a bit annoying.. I make sure to get in some study time every night and even if I don’t feel like it, I sit in the dining room to do everything so I can listen to my family members speak.
One phrase that stuck with me throughout orientation is “make sure to not remember what the back of your bedroom door looks like.” I want to remember this throughout my exchange.
Before leaving America, I set myself a couple of mental rules. No matter if I like the activity or not, I will always say yes to whatever my family or friends ask me to do. No, I don’t mean anything bad, but activity wise. This applies to food as well, no matter what I will always try something once. Maybe some Americans are scared to try foreign food, but honestly the food here is amazing. There are only a few things that I wouldn’t eat again but even then, I think I may learn to like them over the course of my exchange.
I do miss ice water and some bread or potatoes now and then, but I know that I can always eat these things when I return to the U.S., I never know when I’ll be able to come back to Taiwan so for now, I’ll stick to the local cuisine. Speaking of food here, no one prepared me for much food Taiwanese people eat. My go to sentence right now “I’m full” or “Bao le.” When you think you are done with the meal there will always be more food and an auntie practically yelling at you to eat more.
I visited my dad’s Rotary club and after the meeting there is a huge buffet for everyone to eat from. My dad and the other Rotarians stacked my plate high with food and even when I told them “I’m full” they asked me to ‘just try’ a couple more dishes. Needless to say, when I left my stomach was aching.
Since I’ve arrived in Taiwan there hasn’t been a single day that I haven’t done an activity. Yacht tours, petting capybaras, visiting the night market, going to a theme park, shopping, gaming, going to school, you name it, and I’ve probably done it or will be doing it. Although it’s tiring, I’m very grateful for these experiences.
If anyone reading this is looking to become a RYE student, my little piece of advice is to always ask questions. For example, during the yacht tour my parents took me on, I saw a really pretty Ferris wheel on the skyline, so I asked them how to say Ferris wheel in Chinese. Mainly just to repeat to myself I said in Chinese that I like Ferris wheels. Next thing I know, I have a ticket to leave for the theme park that the Ferris wheel is in the next day. Situations like these just never fail to shock me.
On the topic of recent experiences I’ve had, two days ago me and all of the RYE students in my district met up in Pingtung for our orientation. I’ve already been very close with multiple of the exchange students, but this was the first time meeting them in person. In my district there are around 25 students. Everyone is so sweet, and I was able to talk to some of my coordinators.
During the day we split into teams, I was on team B with the majority of the Brazilians, some Germans and another American. We began with a water gun fight, basically guns and they loaded them with orbees. I would say it was very akin to paintball since when you were shot there would be bruises or welts left behind. The second activity we took part in was creating the dough for a type of sweet Taiwanese bread bun. My 3rd host family and my 1st host family are extremely close so most places we go, my 3rd host family will join. That being said, my 3rd host family has a son who is about 3 years old. He really wanted to help me make the buns so instead of talking with some of the exchange students I made buns with my little brother while I talked with the coordinators and my parents.
This is one of those times when you have to realize that you are part of the family now and in order to become one with that family unit, you have to act like a proper sibling too. I don’t mind that much though because my little brother is very cute, and he was very happy to spend time with me. In fact, after the activity he timidly came up to me and gave me a carton of milk tea.
To add on to this point, there are certain chores expected of you in the house. Of course, based on the country you are living in the details may differ, but in Taiwan it is extremely uncommon to have a dryer like in America. Because of this, me and my sisters must go to the roof top every day to hang and fold the laundry. It ends up being very fun though because we sing together and practice our vocabulary and pronunciation.
Today was my first day of school but I wasn’t in my normal classes, I just followed these two girls around to their classes to get a feel for the school. Tomorrow I will have my normal schedule to follow. My school, Shu Te is a vocational school known for their language and art programs, so my classes are very hands-on and interesting. My classes include subjects such as cooking, makeup, skin care, pop and folk dance, photography and Chinese.
The Chinese class is part of my schedule, but I will have to travel to another school campus for the courses every Tuesday and Thursday. I am very fortunate because my Rotary district is providing all of the exchange students for 6 months on language courses. This will help me a lot with my fluency level.
There is so much I am looking forward to and I’m so happy to be able to share these details with others. I hope to keep updating and maybe readers will see significant progress in my posts as I adapt to life in Taiwan.
Till next time!!!