When
I first heard we had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan, I thought this is an
opportunity I cannot pass up! Then, Taiwan seemed intimidating and outlandish.
Now Taiwan feels friendly and inspiring. I was pleasantly surprised at how
welcoming, not only the students were, but also the surrounding community. It
made me question how we treat our visitors. Having grown up in a resort town
and then moving to Incline Village for college, it seems that sometimes we look
down upon our visitors. We critique there driving abilities and skills on the
slope. But shouldn’t we commend them for trying something new and leaving their
comfort zones? Is that not a
healthy thing to do? It seems a bit hypocritical that we sit in our comfort
zones and resent our visitors. Personally, that’s why I think traveling is so
important and inspiring. So when the Taiwanese treated us with smiles of
gratitude it made me feel content and more comfortable in the foreign
surroundings. There was a time that I was riding on the back of a student’s
scooter and we took a detour from the group. We went to a juice bar. Everyone
in the small shop turned to look at me.
All the teenage girls, who made the juice, waved excitedly and offered
compliments in their broken English. They said things like “we love you here”
“I so Beautiful!” “you nice”. I
felt so bad I couldn’t meet them half way in their language. Even all the shop owners were ready and
willing to watch our awkward charades and guess eagerly at what we wanted.
 |
| The view from that scooter ride. |
I
noticed that what is perceived beautiful differs between Taiwan
and the United
States. For example they have “face whitening cream”, and all women wear
long
sleeves and pants even though it is so hot out, just to avoid the sun
darkening
their skin. While I make an effort
to get tan because I like how I look when I am. I was very surprised how
similar the fashion was! All of the students were very fashionable.
Another thought I had while we were
traveling was about ecosystems and a higher order. When I was working on the
wood kiln I was constantly watching the wildlife. (sometimes for my own safety). During my shift there was a
fairly large spider with long bright yellow
 |
| Tree House in Tainan. |
legs; he was making his way across
a log, when out of nowhere a small fly bit it and the spider went completely
limp. The fly dragged it away, making a small trail in the dirt. Then I then looked up at the all
the tall green foliage and couldn’t help thinking it looks an awful lot like
where Jurassic Park was filmed. Slowly sipping my water and wiping the sweat
away from my brow, I then imagined a T-Rex snapping the giant Bamboo and it’s
terrible jaws enclosing over my body. It would make a trail in the trees just
like the fly did in the dirt.
 |
| A fuzzy creepy crawly. |
Probably
one of the most memorable experiences I had was snorkeling in Kenting. At first
It was a little bizarre to put on a wet suit and be pulled by a guide through
the warm waters. But a few minutes into it I had forgotten about everything. I
was finally back in my element. We were arranged in a web shape design as were
pulled. We were each having our own separate thoughts and experiences but it
felt like we were one cloud of people floating over the brightly colored fish
we were their sky as the planes and contrails were our’s . It was
completely peaceful. When we had the chance to go explore (with in the prescribed
limits) I put my head down in the water and focused on my breathing and drifted
off, taking mental images of the exotic fish. It has been a reoccurring question
in my mind of how people interact with their surrounding, and how I interact
with mine. I think a lot of how put off I am with urban society, I find myself
wondering about completely natural places, or what it feels like to be
completely alone. Especially in the city of Taipei ( it could have been because
it was at the end of the trip) but I having a hard time being in a completely
man made place, I was very anxious in the public transportation and the
constant steady stream of people set me on edge. Although I did enjoy seeing
the city life, and the hustle and bustle, but me in a city is like a fish in
tree, it doesn’t work out so well. I was so releived when we took a day trip the mountians!
 |
| Not my Image just something I needed in the city |
I
think a lot about how cities are set up and all the road signs that don’t makes
sense or seem to contradict each other. The system cities use are confusing to
me. If I were to layout my own city I would do it much differently, none of
this grid nonsense. When I travel and I see how the transportation system
works, it just seem like there has to be a better way of doing it. I can’t help
but think the rapid transportation is unnatural. I seem to get sick most times
I travel, and I have a theory that it is because humans are not meant to change
environments as quickly as we do.
Our bodies are a combination of delicate systems; to change everything
in your surroundings may throw a wrench in one. We used to just travel where we
could walk and if journeying far away your body has time to adjust to the
changes because it is traveling slowly through the differing environments. Now that is very inconvenient and when
I travel I do appreciate how little time it takes to go half way around the
world. That is an amazing feat, but it just doesn’t always agree with my body.
When
I first heard we had the opportunity to travel to Taiwan, I thought this is an
opportunity I cannot pass up! Then, Taiwan seemed intimidating and outlandish.
Now Taiwan feels friendly and inspiring. I was pleasantly surprised at how
welcoming, not only the students were, but also the surrounding community. It
made me question how we treat our visitors. Having grown up in a resort town
and then moving to Incline Village for college, it seems that sometimes we look
down upon our visitors. We critique there driving abilities and skills on the
slope. But shouldn’t we commend them for trying something new and leaving their
comfort zones? Is that not a
healthy thing to do? It seems a bit hypocritical that we sit in our comfort
zones and resent our visitors. Personally, that’s why I think traveling is so
important and inspiring. So when the Taiwanese treated us with smiles of
gratitude it made me feel content and more comfortable in the foreign
surroundings. There was a time that I was riding on the back of a student’s
scooter and we took a detour from the group. We went to a juice bar. Everyone
in the small shop turned to look at me.
All the teenage girls, who made the juice, waved excitedly and offered
compliments in their broken English. They said things like “we love you here”
“I so Beautiful!” “you nice”. I
felt so bad I couldn’t meet them half way in their language. Even all the shop owners were ready and
willing to watch our awkward charades and guess eagerly at what we wanted. 
I
noticed that what is perceived beautiful differs between Taiwan
and the United
States. For example they have “face whitening cream”, and all women wear
long
sleeves and pants even though it is so hot out, just to avoid the sun
darkening
their skin. While I make an effort
to get tan because I like how I look when I am. I was very surprised how
similar the fashion was! All of the students were very fashionable.
Probably
one of the most memorable experiences I had was snorkeling in Kenting. At first
It was a little bizarre to put on a wet suit and be pulled by a guide through
the warm waters. But a few minutes into it I had forgotten about everything. I
was finally back in my element. We were arranged in a web shape design as were
pulled. We were each having our own separate thoughts and experiences but it
felt like we were one cloud of people floating over the brightly colored fish
we were their sky as the planes and contrails were our’s . It was
completely peaceful. When we had the chance to go explore (with in the prescribed
limits) I put my head down in the water and focused on my breathing and drifted
off, taking mental images of the exotic fish. It has been a reoccurring question
in my mind of how people interact with their surrounding, and how I interact
with mine. I think a lot of how put off I am with urban society, I find myself
wondering about completely natural places, or what it feels like to be
completely alone. Especially in the city of Taipei ( it could have been because
it was at the end of the trip) but I having a hard time being in a completely
man made place, I was very anxious in the public transportation and the
constant steady stream of people set me on edge. Although I did enjoy seeing
the city life, and the hustle and bustle, but me in a city is like a fish in
tree, it doesn’t work out so well. I was so releived when we took a day trip the mountians!
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