This is a student blog post submitted by Leah Emerson C’18. Leah is a Psychology and Advertising double major. Pictures featured in this post were taken by Leah.
For as long as I can remember, a goal of mine has been to visit all seven continents before I die. When it came to Asia, my first thoughts were always things like, “I’d love to see Thailand,” or, “Hong Kong would be amazing.” I knew that Taiwan was a country, but it has never been a country that crossed my mind when I thought of the places I wanted to visit. Not because Taiwan wasn’t interesting or worth my time, but because I just didn’t know enough about it. Yet, here I am writing about my first experience in Asia that took place in—you guessed it—Taiwan! Life is a funny thing.
The context of the trip is a Keystone course offered by North Park University entitled “Culture and Ecology of Asia.” The course is exactly as it sounds. It is two weeks long and focuses on teaching students of all backgrounds about the culture—customs, societal norms, food, etc—and the ecology—living organisms and their surrounding—of Asia, and more specifically of Taiwan. The trip was led by Dr. Timothy Lin and Dr. Linda Vick—Dr. Lin specializes in the more cultural aspect of the trip, as he is a Taiwanese native, and Dr. Vick specializing in the ecological aspect—teaching us about the unique organisms and living things in this unfamiliar part of the world.
This trip was more than just a class where we gained factual knowledge. It was an experience that we got to make our own. Throughout the two weeks we were there, we did more than sight-seeing. We did things that pushed us beyond what we are accustomed to which gave us the opportunity to see and experience the world, and engage with people in a way we didn’t know possible.
my biggest take away from this trip was this: mindset is everything
We spent one day at Tunghai University, North Park’s Taiwanese partner school. During our stay at the University, each of us were paired with a Taiwanese student from the university, and we spent the whole day with them. We talked with them and compared our lives, cultures, experiences, and so much more. It was things like that, having simple conversations, which really opened our minds and created great learning experiences—and many new friendships!
One of my favorite parts of the trip was traveling to the countryside of Taiwan and seeing all the rice fields. While we were there, we had the chance to eat dinner in a Taiwanese family’s home. The father was previously a professional chef in Taipei (the largest city in Taiwan), but due to health reasons, he and his family had to leave and move elsewhere. They decided they wanted to live a simple life, so they moved to the countryside and began farming. While in their home, he prepared somewhere between 8-10 courses for us to enjoy, all of which were grown and farmed locally, and his two little daughters and his wife served us the food. Afterwards, he came out of the kitchen and spoke with us (in Mandarin—Dr. Lin translated). He told us his story and answered questions we had. It was such an incredible and special experience, and the food was even better!
As much as I learned in the two weeks, my biggest take away from this trip was this: mindset is everything. It plays a crucial role when it comes to our outlooks on life. I left on this trip challenging myself to keep an open mind, and a willingness to try new things. I came home two weeks later with an entirely new perspective. That open-mindedness ultimately opened up my world. This hands-on learning experience allowed me to learn things about the world, myself, and others that I wouldn’t have learned otherwise; for that I am thankful.