Almost three weeks into my exchange year, I guess it's time for yet another update. Since university hasn't properly started until yesterday, I had a lot of free time on my hands, which I mainly used for travelling. Last weekend, three German friends and me rented a car and embarked on a road trip to the South-East of Taiwan. For many, this is the most beautiful part of the island, and I couldn't disagree with them. If you drive down Highway 11, enjoying the lush green mountain scenery on your right and the blue Pacific Ocean on your left, you know why Taiwan was called "Ilha Formosa" by the Portuguese. One of the scenic wonders of Asia, Taroko Gorge, invites you to hike for days next to the steep walls formed by the river underneath.
In two weeks, I will use the National Holiday (October 10) to travel to Kenting, the southernmost tip of Taiwan. There you can swim, surf or just lie on the beach all year (even in January). Although Taiwan is maybe half the size of Austria (thus really small!), transport takes significantly longer if you take the cheaper train. Should you have a lot of money to spend, you can treat yourself to the HSR (High Speed Rail), which brings you the 400 kilometers down to Kaohsiung in only one and a half hours.
However, I guess it's time to stop everyone from creating a wrong picture about me on my exchange year: I actually do go to university on a regular basis. The 10 hour Chinese course, which I am taking in order not to be completely helpless when it comes to communicating, runs Monday to Friday. Wednesdays are packed with an additional two courses which can be fully transferred to my home university. Needless to say, there is a minimum of credits I have to take here in Taiwan, and I am hitting the middle between must-do (20 ECTS credits) and should-do (30 ECTS credits) exactly. As much as I don't want to study infinitely longer because of my exchange, I have no intention whatsoever to be stuck behind my desk all day.
Some more information about university: if you think you study on a big campus, come to NTU. The campus of this university can easily be called a city and is - I'm not exaggerating - 10 times as big as the campus of JKU. The only decent way of getting from A to B is buying a bike, which I recently did. It's not the best version, but it runs smoothly. However, even with a bike, it takes like 10 minutes to get from one end of the campus to the other. Let alone walking.
The university rooms themselves are really modern, sometimes equipped with even two or three LCD projectors. The level of my lectures is continuously high and most professors speak decent English. It's interesting though that a normal lecture runs for 3 hours straight (real hours, not university hours). The assignments are presented in the lecture itself, not in an extra a homework course. All in all, it seems as if the amount of homework will roughly be the same as at my home university. I can't say anything of the Chinese course as of now, due to the fact that I just had one lesson. But I will keep you informed about that as well.
Before I close, I want to quickly talk about going on exchange or living in a foreign country for quite a while. It's definitely a way of getting to know yourself better and discovering sides of yourself you haven't been aware of before. Adapting yourself to a different living environment may seem like an unacceptable task at first, but in reality it's the best way for becoming the person you secretly want to be. Expanding your horizon and opening your mind go hand in hand if you are willing engage in the experience.
Of course, in reality it's often not that easy as described in the last paragraph. I myself had huge troubles getting used to my new environment when I first moved to Linz. It wasn't the first time I was living away from home, but it was the first time I moved out for good. My stay in Toronto was just temporary, and I knew that. But when I went to Linz to start my studies, I knew that from then on, I was returning home as a guest. And that scared the hell out of me at first. The problem in Linz was not that I didn't want to find company. It was that I was too afraid to go out of my room at first. It took quite a while to acknowledge me not living at home any more. I respect and envy others who had the greatest time in their first and second semester. For me, this time only came in the third and fourth. I wouldn't say I have wasted a year. It was inevitable and I couldn't have done it differently. But I have learned a lesson: if you want to have a good semester, go out of your room. It's the secret to a better time. I did that in Taiwan, and it worked out great!
The last thing I wanted to say is something that was bothering me for quite a while also: I have a tendency to regret that I can't have something instead of enjoying what I have. It's awful and I hate this notion, but I can't help. That must be the reason I stopped travelling with guidebooks: if there's a "top pick" list, I have the feeling I have missed out if I don't visit them all. What I am really missing out on is a good time I could have had if I hadn't worried too much. Now that I took up travelling with Lonely Planet guidebooks, I feel the urge coming back again. This time, however, I try to resist. It's hard fighting a battle against yourself. Your enemy is usually as strong as you.
After these more or less depressing lines, let's end on a happy note: I am doing excellent here and I am looking forward to everything that awaits me on my way. If you are willing to have a good time, you will!
Thanks for listening,
Martin
-Taipei
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