Skating...in Taiwan!
Taipei Medical University (TMU) is my host institute and it is one of the top universities in Taiwan. It’s a very small campus – the gym is very small here with minimal treadmills and equipment meant typically for cardio. However; something really cool is that there are ALOT of international students! We’ve met students from Vietnam, Cambodia, USA, etc. Many of their graduate programs are in English which allow international students to transition into their course loads easier.
TMU kind of reminds me of Western University a little. It’s a welcoming environment, outdoor courts to play sports, the library is filled with great technology and there is always something happening (whether it be drop in basketball or drama club). They also have a teaching university hospital along with many affiliated hospitals. The typical student who attends here work in clinical research, become doctors, pharmacists and more.
There is around approximately 40 other interns at TMU with us and we see them at rare times. From the first day- I learned that everyone is doing something different and most are off-campus as well like us. A few of them are at the hospitals, pharmacies and labs. My roommate is working on a sleep study, another is working with rats and concussions and one is working on case studies for Taiwan in a business-health related environment. I love how the program relates to my major back at home- Health Studies. It’s all about interdisciplinary and inter-collaboration!
Anyways- TMU gave us the day off work- I should explain something first. The internship is paid but it is a set amount which covers accommodation and living costs. They spread it out in 3 payments. However; we have set hours that we have to attend work and we need to get our supervisor’s signature. If we are sick, late or a no-show, our payment is deducted. We are also graded on our performance which would determine at the end whether we receive our full “payment” and certificate of completion or not. The Taiwanese culture is also very different in terms of their definition of “working”. The hours range from 7 am-7 pm every day. In the Western world, it is rare to find people working overtime without compensation- yet in Taiwan, you work overtime regardless. You cannot leave until your boss does- even if it means he leaves at 9 pm. It is respectful that you wait and leave only when he has finished. It also takes me an hour to get to work on the MRT and my work hours are 8am-5 pm because our supervisor felt bad that the site was very far from our dorms. It’s only been a few days but waking up early in a hot environment is difficult for me! So- when TMU gave us the day off for a cultural trip- I was super excited!
They wanted to bring us around Taipei and so we went to SongShan Cultural Park and Taipei Arena Ice Land.
SongShan Cultural Park is a multi-functional park in Xinyi, Taipei.It was actually originally a tobacco factory when Japan took over Taiwan. They stopped producing cigarettes in 1998 over concern of urban planning and the decline in tobacco demand and the government redesigned the area to be a historic site that was also a park. It has five warehouses where traveling events book out for the community to come check out their creativity and cultural industry. When we got there, they had something called the “Cinnamon roll Event” which is a popular cartoon in Taiwan, a hipster rock and roll tradeshow, and a “gundam” tradeshow- which is a famous past time in Asia- to make robot models of an anime show. There was also a pond that was known for its ecological diversity. We went to go check it out and it was really funny because we were staring at this rock and one of us thought it was a turtle. It was too far to tell whether it was a real one or not so we were standing debating for around 10 minutes until one of the local men on a walk around the pond came to chat with us. He laughed because he found it so amusing that these Westerners were staring aggressively at a turtle debating whether it was real or not (it was real by the way). We found out that his son was studying overseas in California (which seems to be a common area for Taiwanese youngsters to go abroad to) and he was excited to practice what English he knew with us. It was a fantastic time!
Later in the afternoon, we headed to the Taipei Arena Ice Land Park. Taipei Arena is actually a large multi-purpose stadium that had just hosted a concert the other week with famous Taiwanese popstars. It was pretty empty when we got there- I guess it was because it was a work day but man- when I found out we were going ice skating- I felt really homesick because Canada is known for skating! All my friends kept teasing me because as a Canadian- I had to make sure I was a superstar at skating. At first- I started getting cold (which is rare in Taiwan) but my Canadian blood got into me when I stepped on the ice. I know it sounds cheesy to say but it felt like home! I really miss the winter. I was having so much fun skating in circles and racing my American friends. In all honesty- I sometimes forget that even though Taiwan is across the world from Canada, it’s not that different. There were kids playing hockey, others practicing figure skating in the middle and parents with their little one to teach them how to skate for the first time. It felt like home ya know? I’m so glad that I got to see how similar we were in this environment.
P.S. I forgot to mention- speaking of home- there was a Taipei Canada Day Celebration at the Aboriginal Hakka Park and me and a bunch of my Canadian friends I met on the internship went. I could have sworn I was in Toronto! It was a cluster of diversity, lots of western music with people singing our national anthem with pride and joy. Talking with the people in attendance, I was surprised that there were so many Canadians that moved to Taiwan to teach English, work in business, etc. They also tried selling poutine and beaver tail but it definitely had an Asian taste to the seasoning. Right
before I left- the MPs in my hometown gave me Ontario pins and Canadian pins that I could give out which were perfect for Canada Day. Everyone was so excited to share the Canadian spirit! Regardless- it was really cool to celebrate Canada Day in another country for the first time in my life!