Just a story before I joining the whole study tour program to Taiwan.
It's funny to think how I used to be so hesitant upon the decision of joining this program, which always brings laughter to myself everytime I think about it. I first heard about this program from my older cousin who joined this program last year, but through a different organization. This year, apparently, that particular organization opened a closed registration only for those whose parents were the alumni from Taiwan's institutes, in which people didn't meet that requirement couldn't join the program through that organization.
Anyway, there was this other organization, almost the same with the previous one, that opened the registration but didn't have that requirement, which is, everyone could sign up for that. Well, my older cousin had a younger sister, Monika (maybe I've mentioned her once in this blog) and she wanted to participate for this year's study tour. She kind of recommended it to me since I had no plans for this June-July holiday. First time she mentioned about this program to me, I was like "Heck, no way, I suck at Mandarin, unlike you."
Fluency in Mandarin isn't a must, but strongly recommended (it wasn't written in any of the requirement papers).
But since it's Taiwan and everyone speaks Chinese there, well, at least you gotta have some guts to talk in Chinese. My Mandarin is poor, since I don't have any formal backgrounds in it. I never attended any Mandarin courses (only a brief one, with my mom) nor my school provided that language as a subject in my department.
I only recognize some of the basic phrases for daily conversations, stuff like "Wo yao ce ke" (I want this), "Si chao." (take a shower/bath), "Sui jiao" (sleep), "To sao" (how much), "Ni jiao shen me ming tze?" (What's your name). At least you need that background to be able to communicate with the natives, especially when it comes to you bargaining in the market. Aha.
My cousins were both raised in pure Chinese culture, meaning they should - no - they CAN speak Chinese fluently with their family.
Anyway, after the recommendation my cousin gave to me, my mom immediately supported me to join the program. In fact, since she was worried I would say another no, she immediately signed me up and paid for the whole trip without even telling me. My mom told me that the organization committee also strongly urged me to participate, telling me (through mom) "Why, do join the trip! We've never had a participant from XYZ school. If you join, then you'll be the first XYZ school student ever to join it."
Not meaning to boast but, XYZ school - the one I once attended and currently have just graduated from it - is one of the most popular schools in Jakarta. I'm sure the students must have joined every single activity out of school, but when I discovered none of XYZ school student has ever joined this program, I was pretty much surprised, but I felt proud at the same time.
The first XYZ school student ever to join this program.
Not big, but just...wow. I love being the first in something at least.
Frankly I was upset due to my mom's sudden decision without even telling me, and prior to the trip days, I kept complaining about how I never wished to join that program. She could've asked me and encouraged me to join this trip, but not to make the decision and paid everything not to my knowledge.
Even, the Lao Shi (teacher) on the trip once asked me how I knew about this whole program and if my school had Mandarin subject. Maybe I looked like the dumbest in the group since my friends all had these guts to approach a stranger and spoke a couple of words in Chinese, to which the stranger happened to understand and responded, while I spoke...quite broken Chinese.
I was like "Yes, I'm from Language Department at my school." and one of my friends asked. "Then you must have at least learned Chinese." Haha, I may have learned Japanese, German, and Arabic writings, but never Chinese. Well, I believe the students at my school weren't that interested to learn it :(.
Felt like a stupid at that moment.
But then, after the amazing three weeks of my journey in Taiwan, everything changed drastically, in fact, it turned out very unexpected. I thought the trip would be boring since I didn't know anyone and the thought of me going to have homesick for several days just kept haunting me, but then, everybody turned out to be really friendly and nice! I did make friends and even we became a very cohesive group, meaning no gangs or whatsoever. As for my group, well, we were a combination of two groups which consisted of participants from Jakarta and a few ones from Makassar.
The activities were fun! I liked the idea that we explored many sides of Taiwan, from the most crowded shopping districts, the downtown, the most posh mall I've ever stepped my foot in, to rural areas and farms.
Kudos to everyone that has been involved in the whole trip. Thanks for making my holiday a blast!!
Coming up...pictures and stories from Taiwan! You won't miss it :)
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